Today we sailed from Marina Cay to Anegada. On the way we learned how to turn the boat around in a space no wider than two boat lengths when motoring. It’s called back and fill and it uses your prop tilt to help push you around. Then we practiced man overboards which was a lot of fun. Poor Bob the life jacket got tossed overboard 6 or 7 times as we learned two ways to quickly turn around (while sailing) to recover someone. Be careful coming in to Anegada. We ended up with less than two feet of water under our keel where we anchored for the night!
Salaway
We are on Salaway, a Beneteau 494. There are four of us, Anne-Marie, our instructor, and Larry and Jeanne, my fellow students. We sailed from the Moorings in road town to Marina Cay where we anchored for the night.
According to Anne-Marie, the Last Resort in Trellis Bay has a comedy show on Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights that is well worth seeing.
Cane Garden Bay, the beach
I’m sitting here on Cane Garden beach on Tortola staring across the cove at blue and turquoise water with islands in the background and puffy white clouds in the sky and wondering what makes it beautiful. I could sit and watch forever.
On my way over the taxi driver, a West Indian, said "There’s Skyview."
"What is it?" I try to see what stands out. The mountain top? The building?
"Skyview."
"Oh. Where?"
"Skyview!" He points at the sign.
"A restaurant?"
Clearly frustrated with me now, he says "Yes, a restaurant."
FYI, the last two weeks of September is the low of the low season and all the beach bars are closed.
P.S. Locals consider Cane Garden one of BVI’s most polluted waters because they don’t think the
waters circulate fast enough to deal with what’s dumped in it. Looked and smelled clean to me, like almost all of the BVI.
Mariner Inn
Mariner Inn is nice. I was a little worried because the reviews on TripAdvisor were pretty iffy. But it’s been remodeled recently and my room has tile floors, tall ceilings, balcony and king size bed. Fridge, coffee maker and hair drier. The bathroom wasn’t remodeled with the rest. My sink squirts water sideways.
They kept the bar open until we got here. Before we even checked in they asked us what we wanted so they could hurry up and close.
On my way to a sailing class in the BVI
I’m on my way to the BVI! I’m on the Denver-Newark part of my DEN-EWR-SJU-EIS trip.
As luck would have it I am sitting next to a woman from Colorado who is reading a Sailing for Kids book so I pulled out my Basic Cruising book and we had quite the conversation. They just bought a 30+ foot Beneteau in the Florida Keys in anticipation of retiring in 18 months when the youngest is done with high school. They plan to keep their house in Colorado so they can live there during the summers. She really liked their wind generator. Said it kept their fridge cold all the time.