Soper's Hole to JVD and Little JVD

Big surf at the Bubbly Pool

Oh no!! Big one!

January 25

St. John to Soper’s Hole, BVI.

We left St. John with thoughts of returning and headed into Soper’s Hole back in the BVI to clear customs and do some re-provisioning. We decided that since the wind was good, we’d continue on to the North West side of Tortola. The swells were too big for a comfortable night at Cane Garden Bay, so we found ourselves once again at Jost Van Dyke, this time in Little Harbour.

The boys and I decided to hike a “little” and found ourselves an hour later at the famed “Bubbly Pool” on the West side of the island. They took a quick dip and we vowed to return the next morning with Caroline and Rich and more daylight.

Dinner was out at Harris’ Place where we enjoyed a break from the usual boat fare.

January 26

Little Jost Van Dyke

Pirate Captain #2

We brought the boat around from Little Harbour to Little Jost Van Dyke and a mooring with closer proximity to the bubbly pool! The swells on the North side of the island were so huge that it made the pool spectacular.  This natural volcanic rock formation provides a sheltered pool where the surf washes through and “bubbles” its way out. We spent the better part of the day washing in and out of the pool!! We decided that it was the similar type of attraction to the rapids at Horseshoe Cove on the coast of Maine- without the tides!

The rough seas led to an aborted attempt to land at Green Cay and  Sandy Cay for more snorkeling, the surf was fierce. We had to be satisfied with a white sandy beach along Little Jost Van Dyke.

St. John, USVI

Kids at V.I. National Park Headquarters, Cruz Bay, St. John.

Idyllic Days in St. John, USVI  January 22-24

We checked into BVI customs in Great Harbour on Jost Van Dyke. Although St. John is so close to Tortola, crossing over without checking into customs carries the risk of a $5,000 fine! We wanted to stay several days and couldn’t take the chance. We had a beautiful sail to Caneel Bay on St. John, from there it was a short dinghy ride around the corner to Cruz Bay and USVI customs.

Cruz Bay is now sporting a lovely new National Park Building headquarters which we visited and kids got their Park Passports Stamped. Almost 2/3 of the island is National Park thanks to Laurance Rockefeller after his experience sailing there in the early 1950’s. It is wonderful that they have strict guidelines protecting the valuable coral reefs. 

National Park Service Moorings are available in the harbors we visited for $15/night. It was a welcome change with very few other charter boats housing big crowds, mostly private boats. Caneel Bay had two large sea turtles swimming around our moorings constantly- it was a treat. The kids had a great time on Honeymoon Beach at Caneel building and playing.

January 23

We left our mooring at Caneel and picked up a day mooring to snorkel at Henley Cay. The coral was spectacular, showcasing the color and growth we had missed in the BVI. Lots of fish and many different coral types. It is a must see spot for any trip we make here in the future.

Our next stop was Trunk Bay and we got another day mooring to visit the beach and the National Park Service underwater snorkel trail. It was a busy beach with tourists on the sand and on the underwater snorkel trail (a little like Rt. 128 at rush hour). We still enjoyed it and saw lots of fish and coral that was healthier than most we had seen in the BVI.

We spent the night a beautiful Maho Bay in about 8 ft. of water. The scene was tranquil beauty and lots more sea turtles!

January 24

We dinghied to a few yards over to the beach at Francis Bay. We beached our dinghy and hiked over to the Annaberg Sugar Mill ruins. This was a NPS site that had been restored. It was a great chance for the kids to see and learn about the early Danish sugar mill plantations (the Danish owned the USVI until the US bought them in 1917).  The mill was constructed in 1797 and processed sugar cane. Columbus had brought sugar cane on his second trip to the Caribbean in the late 1400’s where it flourished. Slave labor ensured that the enterprise was profitable since the islands were difficult to farm because of the terrain and climate.

We also ran into some wild donkeys- descendants of the original animals brought to the island to carry out work at the mills.

Our night time spot was a NPS mooring in Leinster Bay around the point. This bay was the site of a fantastic little island with superb snorkeling called Waterlemon Cay. We spent the afternoon there snorkeling among the colorful coral and fishes.

Holy termite nest!

The WanderLuffs at Annaberg Sugar Mill overlooking Leinster Bay, St. John.

Annaberg Sugar Mill-windmill site.

Will and his new friends.

White Bay, Jost Van Dyke: Boaters Behaving Badly and Dolphins!

White Bay, Jost Van Dyke

White Bay, Jost Van Dyke

We had a beautiful sail from Prospect Reef Marina, Tortola to White Bay, Jost Van Dyke.  White Bay has the quintessential palm tree lined, white sand, Caribbean beach.  It is truly beautiful, however looks can be deceiving.  Due to its stunning beauty, the bay attracts crowds, and as we found out…lots of crowds!  We nicknamed our two night stay in White Bay as “Boaters Behaving Badly”.  White Bay is protected by 3 coral reefs and there are only 2 not so well marked entries into the bay, however, if you take time to read the chart it’s pretty easy.  Bad boater #1:  As we entered the bay outside the reef another sailboat motoring at 4-5 knots roughly 300 yards in front of us was straying off course when the keel of the struck the reef and the boat violently turned 90 degrees to port.  Apparently, no one was injured and they quickly reset course and raced into the bay to claim one of the last few moorings.  Once we were established on our mooring the kids jumped into the water and I cruised around in the dinghy to check out the sights.  Bad boater #2:  As I was leaving the beach in the dinghy apparently the captain of a 50 foot monohull with a six foot draft thought he was at the wheel of a catamaran with a 2 foot draft and ran aground dangerously close to where the surf broke at the beach.  He was in a bit of a pickle.  Another fellow with a dinghy and I pushed his hull under full throttle with our  two 15 horsepower dinghy outboards while the captain gunned his engine and we were able to get his keel to break free.  Bad boater #3:  A little late night carousing on adjacent boats has to be tolerated to some extent at popular anchorages in the British Virgin Island.  Just as things were getting quiet at 11:30 PM and REM sleep was about to set in the boat on the next mooring over starts his generator up!  At this point I had had it with bad boaters….I quickly jumped through the forward hatch of the V-berth and bellowed to the neighboring boat, “Shut off the damn engine….you’ve got all day to do that!”  I have no idea whether the boat next door heard me, but it sure felt good.  I returned to my bunk satisfied with my outburst only to find Nancy-Jane laughing hysterically…. 

In spite of the bad boaters, White Bay will be one of the more memorable stops, especially for the kids.  The kids were all in the midst of some schoolwork in the morning when a pod of bottlenose dolphins passed just outside the reef protecting White Bay.  The kids quickly ditched the books and we hopped in the dinghy.  Before we knew it we were right in the midst of the dolphins.  They were swimming all around us and suddenly Peter “accidentally” fell into the water with his fins and mask on.  Before you knew it Will “fell” in as well and were swimming with the dolphins…and it wasn’t in a pool.  Caroline and I remained in the dinghy trying to take pictures of this extraordinary sight.  We stayed with the dolphins for 20 minutes with the boys jumping in and out the water when the dolphins were close.  The algebra and long division will have to wait for another day…

Dolphins or schoolwork....

Peter and Will are close behind!

Dinghy Captain and Dinghy First Mate

Rendezvous with the Rochfords

St. Thomas, January 19, 2011

We jumped on the Bomba Charger ferry in Roadtown, Tortola for the trip to St. Thomas to meet up with some friends of ours from North Hampton.  The Bomba Charger is a aged fast ferry that rolls wildly whenever it encounters swells of any size.  We encountered some large swells on the south side of St. Thomas which made for a memorable ride. Dale, Kim, Kyle, Lauren, and Max Rochford were in port for the day from a Disney cruise. It was such a treat to meet up with them and spend a day at Emerald Beach enjoying the kids and catching up on news from home!  The kids had a blast in the water and on the beach.  We returned back to Intrigue on Tortola ready to begin the next part of our cruise.

The Boys at Emerald Beach

The Girls at Emerald Beach

Dale, you'll never get a tan dressed like that!

Marina Cay to Prospect Reef Marina

Marina Cay, January 17, 2011



Sunrise over Marina Cay.



Crazy cabinmates!

We left Cooper and sailed to Marina Cay so we’d be close to the airport for her flight the next day. It’s a lovely small island with gorgeous beach surrounded by coral reef. The island was the setting for a love story in the 1930’s between two young Americans Robb and Rodie White. Their original house still stands atop the small island and the restaurant has a gallery of great black and white photos from that era- there were only 600 total inhabitants of the entire BVI when the White’s lived there.

Back to Prospect Reef, January 18, 2011

We said our goodbyes to Barbara at the Beef Island Airport – she’s off to Africa next on safari! We sailed out from Marina Cay and back to our charter spot in Prospect Reef Tortola. Our plan was to have the crew clean up the boat and get fresh linens (ahhh) for the next two weeks. We also decided to leave the boat for a visit to St. Thomas.

Goodbyes to Barbara at the Beef Island Airport.



Funny thing...the Norwegian Gem did not give way!



Fat Hog Bay, Tortola to The Bitter End, Virgin Gorda

Fat Hog’s Bay- January 13,2011

We left Cooper Island Thursday to head to Fat Hog’s Bay, Tortola. We pulled up to a dock to re-fuel, water, provision and shower before picking Richard’s Mum, Barbara at the Beef Island Airport on Tortola.

Not the kind of place you wanted to swim, but it was good to clean up both boat and crew. We dined at Redrock restaurant at Penn’s Landing for dinner after Barbara arrived from her 5 min cab ride. We were lucky she escaped the snow in N.England and were glad to have her join us!

The Baths, Virgin Gorda- January 14, 2011

Friday morning we were happy to leave Fat Hog Bay and head to the Baths on Virgin Gorda. It is a natural wonder and Park area with park moorings since anchoring is not allowed. There were big swells so the snorkeling was not as great as the hiking in and amongst the huge rocks and caves along the waterline. The kids were amazed and thrilled at the underwater pools and tunnels! They thought this would be the perfect setting for a pirate movie.

We left the Baths and headed on to the Bitter End Yacht Club one of our old favorites from years ago. The bay was a welcome calm quiet after all the swells and winds of recent nights.

Bitter End YC- January 15, 2011

Saturday was picture perfect. We headed into the BEYC and hiked to the ocean side of Biras Creek.   Back at the boat there was lots of swimming and sunning. The kids and Rich rented a hobie cat for the afternoon and had a blast just zipping around the harbor. They were fun to watch and came home with lots of tales of thrills and almost spills!

Dinner out was a lovely treat from Barbara at the Saba Rock restaurant. There were giant tarpon swimming around the base of the dock and it kept the kids very busy so we could enjoy the amazing sunset.

Great visit with Barbara at The Bitter End!

Cool customer....

Some high speed thrills racing across Gorda Sound!

Cooper Island Beach  Club- Manchoneel Bay, January 16, 2011

We sailed from Virgin Gorda out North of the Dogs  and Great Camanoe . Our hope was to enter a beautiful out of the way anchorage called Lee Bay at Great Camanoe and anchor, but the swells were huge and we decided to continue on through the gap of Great Camanoe and Little Camanoe back over to Cooper for Richard’s Mum to check it out.

Peter Island/ Cooper Island

Monday January 10

We headed out of Norman Island to Peter Island and Great Harbour.  The wind was pretty steady 20 knots and big seas so we motored since it was a windward leg.  We picked up a mooring near the Ocean Beach club and enjoyed the swimming and little beach there.

In the afternoon we hiked over through the Peter Island Resort to Dead Man’s Bay. The kids were fascinated with the coconut trees and determined to harvest one and enjoy it. Meanwhile we tried to dissuade them from destroying the well-manicured landscaping of the resort.

After the return to the boat the kids headed to the Beach club to bounce on their giant water trampoline and seesaw! They were quite a site to see.

Tuesday, January 11

We left Peter Island and picked up a park service  day mooring at the wreck of the RMS Rhone at Salt Island. The seas were really rough with big swells and the winds steady 20 knots.  The Rhone was a masted royal mail ship that was wrecked in a hurricane in 1867. It was fascinating to snorkel over the wreck. It was very easy to see one end of the ship and some of the masts in 30ft. of water. We also spotted our very first sea turtle making his way along the wreck- a hawkbilled sea turtle.

Cooper Island, Manchoneel Bay-

After lunch we continued to Cooper Island and picked up a very calm mooring in Manchoneel Bay. We enjoyed the swimming, snorkeling and the Cooper Island Beach Club! The weather was calm and nicer for the afternoon.

Beautiful Deadman's Bay!

Sand castles at Cooper Island

Goofin' on the bow at sunset.

The boys first scuba dive!

Wednesday, January 12

Dive Day at Cooper Island!! We had made arrangements for the guys to do an “exploratory “ scuba dive for Wednesday morning. The learned the basics of scuba, practiced with gear in shallow water, and  went out and did a 40 ft. dive on a coral reef named Thumb Rock off the southern tip of Cooper Island. They loved it and came back tired and starving! They were excited to see a yellow fin tuna feeding on a school of fish, a moray eel, lots of parrot fish, and finally a greater variety of coral with much bettter colors (red, purple, green and blue) than the previous sites we have snorkeled.

The afternoon brought more unsettled weather clouds and wind shifting. We were in for another night of showers and strong gusts.

January 8/9, Norman Island, BVI

Tortola, BVI

1/6/2011

We dropped our camper off in Miami at a “secure “ storage facility. It was tough to re-pack  for the almost month sailing in the islands. Although we didn’t need many clothes, there was food, sunscreen, and snorkel gear.  We arrived in Tortola at about 7pm that eve.

As always a long wait at the Miami airport for bag check and security, then short flight to St. Thomas, ferry to Tortola and our hotel. We had a nice dinner in Road Town a cold shower and bed.

We swam the next morning and provisioned our boat “Intrigue” (fitting for P’s oratorical presentation) at the local Bobby’s market. Intrigue is an old Beneteau. The accomodations are great for us. Three large cabins and three heads.

The guys dropped us at the boat with our gear and food about 4pm 1/7. We settled in our new home and had a quiet dinner then bed. The kids said that after our tiny RV the boat was like a huge house!!

1/8

Headed out from Road Town to Norman Island for our first night! Our day was perfect, breeze blowing about 15kts and flat seas. It was a busy Saturday night and we picked up a mooring. The kids enjoyed their first snorkel experience along the shore. Caroline mastered it quicky.

1/9

Decided to spend a little more time in Norman Island (Treasure Island).  We caught some great snorkeling off the Caves- big caves in the cliffs that you could swim into. The fish were great, many types and colors. The coral was dull and kind of overgrown  with algae…a problem they’ve been having as a result of pollution, global warming, etc. After lunch we enjoyed a short dinghy ride to the Indians! Big swells, but great coral growths.

Greetings from Tortola, BVI!!

Whew!! We made it and are now in sunny Tortola, BVI where temps are in the low 80's!!

The last couple of days were a marathon of laundry and re-packing in a campground called Breezy Hill in Pompano Beach, Fl. Although the kids enjoyed the pool, the asphalt park in the center of the city (definitely no hill), with hundreds of retirees from Quebec  was not our favorite stop.

We had a nice visit with Richard's Aunt in Delray Beach and then headed out to Miami yesterday. We had to leave our camper at a "secure" storage facility(let's hope). We said goodbye to our camper and hit the airport. Lots of delays and security but we made it to St. Thomas with all our bags, and kids snorkel gear/ life vests!

The ferry ride over was pretty choppy- on the Bomba Charger the same ferry I had ridden on when I first went to St. John as a kid!!! That's scary!!

Maria's by the Sea

Today we swim and get our boat and provision our sailboat. The kids are very excited since they are more comfortable on a sailboat than an RV!!!

South Florida!! St. Augustine

Castillo de San Marcos

We left S. Carolina and made a run for St. Augustine Florida on the East Coast. It is a beautiful city and hails to be the oldest settlement in the US. This proved to be the Northernmost outpost of the Spanish holdings in the new world. We visited a beautiful fort, Castillo de San Marcos that was built in 1565 to protect the Spanish interests in the area. It's right on the intracoastal waterway.

It was an amazing structure not only for it's age and number of different forces to occupy it (Spanish, English, Confederate, Union, etc) , but the fact that it was made of blocks of coquino- or limestone with shells in it. It's extremely well preserved and maintained by the National Park Service (great place to use our NPS passes and for the kids get their Passports stamped!!)

Our campground was on Vilano Is., 1mile East of St. Augustine. The sites were lovely sand, under palm trees. The kids had the most fun perfecting their snorkel technique in the heated pool.

We left St. Augustine on Jan. 4 and stopped at the Kennedy Space  Visitors Center. It was an impressive place once you got past the expensive entrance fee. The two big hits were the space shuttle simulation and the IMAX movie Hubble, about the space shuttle and Hubble telescope findings! Truly an amazing feat for humans.  Makes you really wonder if there is anybody else out there!

Charleston, S. Carolina, New Year's Eve/Day!!

Hangin' with the big rigs in Santee, SC.



Visit to Charleston, SC



Visit with Millhouse, Charleston

We had a slow drive from DC into Virginia on Thursday, December 30. We stopped off in Fredricksburg VA to visit a famous Civil War Battlefield. The weather was sunny and warming up to 60 degrees or so. There is a small museum that housed artifacts and information about the battle.

It was a devastating loss for the Union Army led by General Ambrose Burnside (he had whiskers that started the trend called side-burns). His troops had to wait for pontoons to bridge the river and then faced tremendous Confederate opposition when he did finally cross. There is a walk with some original buildings still showing the damage from bullet holes. There is a cemetery where about 15,000 soldiers are buried there overlooking Fredricksburg.

Fredricksburg, VA.

We arrived in the Charleston area (Mt.Pleasant KOA) on New Year's Eve Day, in the morning. The KOA is really quiet, and the kids were excited to bike on the nature trail, play volleyball, basket ball, and tether ball when we arrived. Temps were reaching 70 degrees in the sun!!

Richard's cousin Brett and his wife Colleen and their girls Grace and Margaret picked us up for a barbecue that evening in their Mt. Pleasant neighborhood. We were excited to catch up and celebrate the NewYear. The Southerners were wild with their fireworks to celebrate the New Year- we felt like we were living through the shelling of Fredricksburg.

New Year's Day- we used the Fellow's car to visit Charleston for the day. Grace and Margaret proved to be excellent tour guides! We enjoyed a horsedrawn carriage ride that highlighted some of the most beautiful buildings of the Antebellum era of S. Carolina. Our guide was excellent. We also enjoyed a stop the the girl's favorite candy shop with ice cream and pralines-Yum.

Our last stop was the Fort Sumter Museum and as suspected it was closed on New Year's Day...we'll have to come back again! This was a great way to welcome in 2011!!!

Explorations around the Capitol

D.C. was a fantastic visit. We visited the Air and Space Museum and Spy Museum on 12/27. They were both fun and the kids had a great time.One of the favorite treats was the flight simulator in the Air and Space. The boys had theirs spinning around at a pretty good clip!! Will has been enjoying the handcuffs and shock pen he got at the spy museum. The weather improved and although cold we walked alot more outside.

The following day Tuesday we wanted to cover more ground so hopped on and off the Tourmobile to see the monuments and get some National Park Stamps for the kid's passports. We enjoyed the Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and found the Korean War and Vietnam War Memorials very moving. We also had a chance to glimpse the newly commissioned MLK memorial in the distance (scheduled for 2012).

The White House was closed for tours so we went to the White House Visitor's Center. When we walked up to see the real thing from the outside it was a treat seeing a helicopter take off and land several times from the lawn. We lunched in the Reagan Building which was very modern and busy.

Heading back to the Metro we stopped in at the Old Post Office Building and took the glass elevator to up to the clock tower. We got to travel up past the famous bells that used to ring to call Congress to session. The open air viewing deck at the top of the tower gave us an amazing view of all Washington, DC.

Wednesday 12/29 was our final and best day in DC. We had an early tour of the Library of Congress. None of us had ever visited there and it's lovely. The building and the artwork are stunning as well as the collection of material, film, and music from all over the world. They have one of the rare pristine Guttenberg Bibles, George and Ira Gershwin's piano.

We travelled through the tunnel into the new Capitol Visitor's Center. The visitor's center is all underground and where you start the capitol tour. It has an amazing cafeteria, auditorium, statues of famous Statespeople and the plaster prototype of the statue of Freedom that was used to top the Capitol. We had the tour of the Capitol and also had gotten gallery passes for both the House and Senate chambers. Although they were both on break it was exciting to see where our legislature works.

There was still so much to see- museums and historic buildings. The kids will each enjoy their 8th grade trip I'm sure.