![\"Tortola](\"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/P2010001.jpg\" "\\"Tortola")
<\/a> The ferry and customs entry to BVI took much longer than anticipated.\u00a0 We are now on island time … slow and steady.\u00a0 That\u2019s the way it is.\u00a0 We walked over to the grocery store in the dark on Friday evening to buy a few essentials for dinner and breakfast.\u00a0 Ate and immediately fell into bed.<\/p>\nDay 2 – Saturday was yet another day of island time. We finally dragged ourselves to the grocery store around 10:30 to provision for the week.\u00a0 Grabbed a taxi back to the boat and prepared to leave.\u00a0 Meanwhile we had the BVI Yacht maintenance crew install a new refrigerator (the old one leaked water and had been causing problems for cruisers for the entire season).\u00a0 The BVI Yacht club was grateful for the approval to proceed with a new one and I must say it works great.<\/p>\n
We proceeded to go to the office to get our official instructions about the islands and the rules of the road (sea).\u00a0 It was well after 2pm when we finally set out to destination #1.\u00a0 Norman Island.\u00a0 We had a good sail, reaching 8.8 knots at one point.\u00a0 The boat is a comfortable one, that allows us to cook while underway.\u00a0 No real heeling over.\u00a0 The roominess is difficult to describe after 5 years of sailing on a 38\u2019 Catalina (monohull), which I thought was plenty big. But this will be home, so the added space and storage room will be welcome.<\/p>\n
F Day 3 – \u00a0we\u00a0sailed back towards Tortolla to a place called Scrub Island.\u00a0 We attached to a mooring buoy between the island and a reef.\u00a0 Today was our first swim off the back.\u00a0 The water is cool but inviting.\u00a0 The breeze never stops here so sailing again was fantastic.\u00a0 I enjoyed a sit on the bow through large wave action.\u00a0 Little bit of a joy ride.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n D <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n This island has many small islands near it.\u00a0 The most popular being a small\u00a0spit (Sandy Spit)\u00a0consisting mainly of sand. You can walk around it in about 5 minutes. The water is clear and blue with lots of wave action to play or body surf in.\u00a0 We visited it on day 6, but forgot to throw in the dinghy anchor, so one of us had to stay with the dinghy while the other explored.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n We headed to another sandy beach with an old boat wreck on it where we met a cruising couple from the UK who\u2019ve been on the water for over 5 years now.\u00a0 Their boat is Sheila (noted as a reminder for us to watch for her when we return).\u00a0We may run into them agan.<\/p>\n Today we snorkeled also.\u00a0 We swam from where Blue Sky was anchored about 100 yards\u00a0to the nearest shore, snorkled and swam back.\u00a0 We followed the snorkling with a final happy hour on shore at a\u00a0small beach bar.\u00a0 Here we enjoyed a platter of hummus and pita, some of the best ever.\u00a0 We opted for glasses of wine over the rum or beer since this would be our last night on board.<\/p>\n Day 7 \u2013 returned Blue Sky to BVI Yacht Charters by noon.\u00a0 We headed out from Jost Van Dyke at 7am.\u00a0 An early start for us.\u00a0 Winds were low so we motored the 3 hours around Tortolla island.\u00a0 Had a successful docking at the fuel dock and packed up for our travels home.\u00a0 We caught our taxi to the ferry and\u00a0left at 2:30 for St Thomas where we spent the night and caught our flight out the next morning at 10am.<\/p>\n All in all the trip was fantastic, but obviously too short for two people who take a few days to wind down enough to really take everything in. We look forward to heading back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Carribean \u2013 Day 1 We\u2019ve been aboard Blue Sky since ~7:30 pm on Friday night.\u00a0 The ferry and customs entry to BVI took much longer than anticipated.\u00a0 We are now on island time … slow and steady.\u00a0 That\u2019s the way it is.\u00a0 We walked over to the grocery store in the dark on Friday evening … Continue reading “Caribbean Feb 1-7, 2013”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173,"href":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions\/173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>irst night on Norman Island we were on a mooring buoy very near Willy T\u2019s (aka very popular floating bar).\u00a0 We arrived at 5pm in time for the happy hour start up.\u00a0 While we were not willing to board and join the excitement, we were well within hearing range of it, happy to be in our own space.\u00a0 When we went to bed, it was surprisingly quiet below.\u00a0 We were exhausted still after the travel to get here.\u00a0 Norman Island is known for its pelicans.\u00a0 We saw plenty of them.\u00a0 Just like sea gulls back home, they are seeking free handouts from any cruiser willing.<\/p>\n<\/a>ay 4\u00a0 – we\u00a0sailed to Virgin Gorda Island.\u00a0 We had another perfectly lovely sail, the winds in the Caribbean are very consistent 12-15 knots.\u00a0 This was our first day at anchor.\u00a0 It took two tries to finally take hold.\u00a0 I\u2019ve become the person in charge of the anchor, while P steers the boat to set it.\u00a0 Here we went ashore and tested out the dinghy and enjoyed our first Caribbean happy hour at a bar with the sandy beach as its floor. A Rum Punch for me and a Painkiller for P at $3 each.\u00a0 Very nice.<\/p>\n<\/a>Day 5 & 6\u00a0– we took a longer mainly downwind sail to Jost Van Dyke island where a rainbow pointed the way to our anchorage where we spent two nights at anchor.\u00a0 Winds were higher today, but Blue Sky performed as expected keeping us comfortable.\u00a0 Sailing a multi-hull is definitely more comfortable when compared to a mono-hull.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n