Saturday

John and Sharon's British Virgin Islands Sailing Adventure

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Day 2 - Saturday, Nov 4

Egbert came to the boat at 7:30 to check us out in it’s operation. He asked if we could get checked out with another couple on an identical boat, Benetau 34 footer. Sure! After learning how to raise the anchor, operate the engine, charge the batteries and everything else we got our chart briefing by Andrew, a BVI native. The chart briefing was great. He told us where to go and where not to go. Also best restaurants and anchorages. He encouraged us to anchor rather than pay $25-30 for mooring balls. He also warned that North Swells were expected this week. North swells come from winter storms out in the Atlantic and are common in the BVI during the winter months. However, they were not that bad. We got underway around 12:00 AND OUR ADVENTURE began. We had barely left the channel and I noticed the cover from the barbecue grill had blown off. We made a short two hour run to Trellis Bay for the Full Moon Party.

First off, we were glad to see plenty of mooring balls in Trellis Bay. Our very first attempt at snagging a mooring ball went flawlessly. We brought goggles and snorkel gear but was going to use Sunsail’s swim fins…which we forgot. We went over to the airport next to Trellis Bay and caught a taxi back to Sunsail. Told him we would be back in five minutes, grabbed our fins and returned to the airport. The BVI uses American cars but they drive on the left side. Pretty exciting on narrow roads and you are in the passenger seat.

The full moon party was great. They had a buffet with Caribbean food including curried goat. Ummmm Ummm. Stilt walkers came in at 9:00 and they lit a ball filled with wood which represented a mooring ball. We lucked out by scheduling our trip during the full moon.