Cane Garden Bay, Tortola, BVI

It had been quite swelly in the bay for the last couple of days but we had managed to get a spot in the middle of the bay which due to the shape of the bay was not affected. However, we could see the swell breaking over the reefs on each side of the bay. There was even someone surfing on it this afternoon, rather them than me, I can’t imagine it’s too comfortable when you come off.

Puerto Rican Fishing fleet remain through Easter (spot the group drinking in the water where it is cooler on the left)

Mike arrived this afternoon from Road Town on Jeannius. We’d already arranged that we would go to the barbecue at one of the beach bars that he had recommended for the live music. Having spent holidays in the BVIs for several years as well as chartering here for a season, when we contacted him to say we were arriving he gave us recommendations for all the best spots last week.

We met Mike and headed to the bar at about 6.30pm after being warned by Mike that it got busy. Luckily as Mike is a local we were ushered in to a good table. The barbecue was really good value at 15$USD a head and a choice of two from ribs, fish or chicken (or any two of them). The food was really good and came served with a delicious rice and vegetables.

The live music is from Steve, the bar manager and George making up the ElmTones (the bar is the Elm) and any other regular who wishes to join in. Tonight they were accompanied by quite a good guy on bongos and an utterly dreadful guy on wooden blocks whose rhythm was really out! The atmosphere is great and Steve and George clearly have alot of fun doing it, both are very talented and they play old favourites like Brown Eyed Girl, Diamonds on the Sole of her Shoes and Night Nurse (apparently after a request some weeks ago from Jean). There is much banter with the locals and general amusement from the Elm tones including changing lyrics to include regulars or each other in the songs etc. A really good night out, infact after planning to head off to the Turks and Caicos on Thursday / Friday we are now planning to delay to see Jean and come back again next week!

The Elm tones and accompaniments (note the diamonds in the soles of their shoes on the wall above a present from an artistic local!)

Cane Garden Bay, Tortola, BVI

After a nice day onboard with a bit of snorkelling, reading etc. We went ashore to investigate a bus into Road Town for provisioning before we head to Turks & Caicos which will be about 3 days of sailing. We see a very nice guy who is one of the cruise ship tourist bus drivers who tells us that there are not local buses but that the government have set the taxi fare at 24$, so if we found a taxi heading to Road Town with someone in they can only charge us 6$US each. He said that some of the drivers will try to tell us differently and said he didn’t agree with all of the dual tourist prices that the less reputable charge. We really appreciated his honesty and decided at that rate it would be easier than taking the boat and when we are ready we’ll possibly go that way, depending on how much we decide we need as $24US goes a long way to make up the price difference locally too.

 

 

Cane Garden Bay

We also investigated the price of fuel at the petrol station which is on the waters edge and includes a dock to supply boats. They also supply water. It was more expensive than prior to the BVIs but sounded like it could be good value for here. We decide to wait until we meet Mike, a friend we last met in St. Lucia who has been doing skippered charters on his boat Jeannius – Liverpool (Red one, not blue) this season in the BVIs with his wife Jean (Wonder were the name came from). We had been emailing Mike and were expecting him in Cane Garden on Sunday following his last skipper only charter. Jean had taken the chance to go back to the UK to see family and friends and was due back the following week.

We decide to treat ourselves to a drink and meal ashore this evening and just pick the fullest looking bar. We discover that this is because it is Happy Hour, beers for 2$ each, not only this but on today’s Happy Hour includes 50cents a chicken wing. There are many people enjoying this offer in the bar and some ordering quite unbelievable portions of chicken wings however, I did not see any returning to the kitchen.

Kevin has some chicken wings followed by the house special of curried calamari with dan cakes (local bread product) which he thoroughly enjoys. I opt for the vegetarian eggplant dish which is fairly average but have a pina colada for desert which makes up for it!

Cane Garden Bay, Tortola, BVI

Our first full day in Cane Garden Bay and we decide to have a bit of an explore. We head ashore and find a well stocked minimarket though it is, as everywhere in the BVIs not cheap and prices are not marked on much of the stock. However, they do have a good selection of fruit and vegetables and we stock up on salad and fruit.

We also find that rubbish/garbage disposal here is free and there are two large skips on the edge of town which we make use of.

It is a small but fairly friendly place with a few bars along the lovely fine white sand beach which is filled daily with bus loads of cruise ship tourists arriving in the brand new super trucks with elaborate paint jobs. The cruise ship trade must be good money in the BVIs. Chickens walk down the street and the local hairdressers on the main street does the local hair styles in front of old wooden dressing tables like those you threw out 20 years ago, such that I though it was an antique shop the first couple of times we passed.

We do a little hand washing on board and amuse ourselves watching the many charter boats which come in and out daily.

Invincible – 1 year on!

Today is the anniversary of the day we took possession of our Fountaine Pajot Mahe 36 catamaran in La Rochelle, France and what a year it has been. Our annual report:

 Mooring

We had hoped to spend most of our time on anchor during our travels, both to keep costs down and for the additional freedom that this gives. Overall we spent 30% of our time anchored in the last year, however, if we exclude the time spent fitting out in La Rochelle and my return to the UK to work my notice the figure was 37% and marina time was 42%. The time on passage was probably more than I expected at 10%, most of which was the Atlantic passage (16 days) and Cape Verdes Passage (5 days).

In the pie charts above, the mooring time is displayed as pre- and post- the Atlantic crossing or roughly our time in the Canaries versus the Caribbean. It can been that the time at anchor increased dramatically from 14% in the Canaries to 59% and time in marinas reduced from 77% in the Canaries to 10% in the Caribbean.

Time on the Hard (lifted out on Boat yard) is possibly higher than expected only due to the need to renew antifouling and then the need to repaint an area following the buckling of a shackle on the anchor bridle causing the chain to drag across the hull. No damage was done but the antifoul was scraped off. We also wanted to spit and polish the boat for all the visitors due for our wedding so we were off the water for much longer than was really necessary.

Budget

We would rather not share all the details of our personal spending, however the following figures will hopefully be of use for those planning a trip of their own. Please note: the figures below represent 44 weeks of spending, as recording was not started until I was on the boat fulltime.

Category	Amount
Mooring Fees	£2,275.15
Diesel	£422.02
Petrol	£92.02
Gas Cylinders	£74.86
Internet Access	£68.75
Laundry	£98.51
Water	£16.59
Customs Fees	£78.77

 

Mileage

Nautical Miles travelled: 6028nM

Longest trip: 2275nM (Mindelo, Cape Verdes – Le Marin, Martinique)

Although, we use the engine for battery charging as well as propulsion so the figures are not exact, this works out as 7p per mile!

Route

Things that worked well:

• Mahe 36 – Overall we would say that we are very happy with our choice of boat. It gives us unparalleled living space in a boat of its size, which is very important when living aboard. She has definitely proven her seaworthiness on the trip so far as well as speed and comfort of passage. We have also been really pleased to have bought a new boat for the reduced repair work required and ease of maintenance. The few warranty issues have been quickly and painlessly resolved by our brokers MI Cats and FP. With special thanks to Karen George at MI Cats for her excellent service and assistance.
• Seagull Water Filter – Without a water maker this meant we could drink local tap water from the tanks without the need to buy and carry expensive and heavy bottled water (we also add chlorine tablets to the tanks as a secondary precaution which is filtered out). Several visitors have all said that the filtered water tastes as good as bottled water.
• Raymarine Autopilot – As a relatively short handed crew, “Auto” has spent the majority of hours at the helm on our trip and never missed a beat
• Furuno GP-32 GPS – We use this extensively on passage for GPS readings, on anchor as an anchor alarm and as a volt meter for the batteries. It draws very little power and does all you need it to.
• Fishing – Lots of fun and regularly fills the freezer. Little effort to troll lines when you are sailing anyway and great sense of achievement to eat your own catch. Please note: Ciguaterra poisoning is a risk in tropical waters and pelagic fish only should be taken.
• Incidences Spifurl – Our furling Spinnaker / gennaker sail. Gave us much need propulsion during the Atlantic crossing. There is a technique to furling but now we have learnt it we will happily use this sail in up to 22 knots.
• Delta Anchor – Sets quickly and stays set, really pleased with this purchase which has been in regular use and saved us a fortune in mooring fees.
• Large fenders – We bought both tear drop and tube shaped large fenders which we can easily store in the large bow lockers of the Mahe. Perhaps there is a bravado in having small fenders which skippers like to parade, but we have never regretted a pound spent on fenders and our top sides have not a scratch. We have also lent them out to more than one boat along the way, on one occasion following a very expensive damage on the previous attempt. The roughness, ill-placement and instability of the pontoons, fuel , lifting and reception berths encountered have to be seen to be believed… not to mention strong winds, rafting, inadequately secured neighbouring boats on stern-to moorings.
• Trojan T105 6V batteries – We have upgraded our battery bank using 4 of these batteries and achieved a 25% increase in capacity. This reduced engine hours for charging and has made life more comfortable to allow us to us laptops, lights etc as we wish without constant monitoring.

Things that did not work so well:

• CQR Copy anchor – Bought as a bargain, dragged and dragged and dragged. The high freeboard and lightweight design of the Mahe 36 means it needs an much oversized anchor compared to the equivalent monohull. We did buy one grade up it needed more, but the design of this anchor was not good and we would snorkel and see it drag and not dig in.
• Honda Generator – We bought a £300 Honda Generator as a backup to charge the batteries and as an external source of power. It is stored in one of the engine bays and we lift it out to use. Although it still gives piece of mind to have aboard as a secondary power source, it is inconvenient to use for regular charging and is not as efficient as engine charging.

The negatives section may seem very short and perhaps not as open as it should be. However, it is honestly all that we can think of and we attribute this to the very detailed research and amount of time we spent in planning the kitting out of the boat. It also helps that as a new boat we didn’t inherit anybody else’s bad decisions and everything fitted was chosen specifically by ourselves.

Other Statistics:

Countries: 9

Visitors: 12

Weddings: 1

Cane Garden Bay, Tortola, BVI

After a rolly night in Road Harbour we decided we’d seen enough of the big smoke and motorsailed down the coast. We looked in at the protected creek of Soper’s Hole but it was another place where anchoring was prevented by the amount of mooring balls now installed. We decided instead to carry on to Cane Garden Bay a large bay surrounded by lush green hills and lined with a white sand beach shaded by palm trees.

We arrived in the late afternoon and were able to anchor in amongst the well spaced mooring balls. There appeared to be a convention of sports fishing boats and we later learned that these are all from nearby Puerto Rico and they come here to the BVIs for their holidays. They created quite an atmosphere in the bay with families or sometimes all male groups enjoying a party all rafted up alongside each other along the beach front.

Cane Garden Bay

Road Harbour, Tortola, BVI

We departed Manchioneel Bay along with all the other yachts that morning and rounded Salt Island to find the famous local wreck of the RMS Rhone. The British Mail steamer was overwhelmed by a hurricane in October 1867. It has received numerous awards and featured in the 1977 film The Deep.

Green grouper on the RMS Rhone

We were very easily able to identify the site of the wreck by the cluster of about 8 boats on mooring buoys above it. Kevin went in first by snorkel to identify exactly where the wreck was lying and immediately that he was in the water he shouted up he’d found one of the anchors which was under our boat. He swam up to the front of the moored boats and quickly found the prop and prop shaft however reported back that the wreck itself was not as complete as we had thought and has been reduced to piles of plate presumably by the hurricanes passing the islands since. At only 10m depth and being able to see the whole structure by snorkelling we decided to see it that way instead, being frequent UK wreck divers previously this was really a bit too touristy a wreck site for us. When a boat on a closer mooring left we took that and went for a second look. You can see the visibility from the photos I took snorkelling at the surface.

The RMS Rhone propeller – broken blade damaged in the sinking?

The propeller shaft of the RMS Rhone

Collapsed plates of the RMS Rhone

Later in the afternoon we decided to visit the big smoke, Road Harbour, Road Town on its shores being the capital of the BVIs. If nothing else we wanted to go because of the number of yachts that we see around that are registered there presumably because of financial incentives, most of the superyachts we see seem to be registered there. There were three cruise ships in dock in harbour as we approached and we were amused to see a tv screen outside on the top deck of one so large we could easily watch the game of football being broadcast from our boat. There are a number of marinas in the inner harbour, but at an average price locally of £50 per night for us to moor there we opted to anchor for free just outside where quite a number of other catamarans were already anchored.

Road Town overlooking Road Harbour

That evening we decided to treat ourselves to a meal ashore and took the dingy into the dock at Village Cay marina dingy dock. However after walking around the large industrial looking area beyond it we only found two restaurants associated with the marinas. We opted for the Spaghetti Junction / Bat Cave and were very pleased with our choice enjoying New Zealand green lipped mussel (not a local dish but a favourite of Kevin’s) followed by Jambalaya pasta for Kevin and a seafood linguini

New Video – Hummingbird in Dominica

 

I have been meaning to post this video I took of a hummingbird on our Indian River trip in Dominica for some time.