Hello TTOLers,

this is a short trip report that I am assembling here from my
memory. I feel I owe it to this list, you guys have been such a help
to me.

The crew: Me, my wife and our 11 year old son, my brother in law, and
a very old friend (from junior high!) with his wife. This is the same
crew that 'did' the BVI 5 years ago except for my friend's wife; he
felt he really had to show the BVI to her.

The boat: We rented the 43.5 Beneteau Cyclades 'Syros' from BVIYC. We
took advantage of the '10 days for the price of 7'. The boat fulfilled
all our expectations and we were again more than happy with BVIYC.

There were some things, however, that did not work. Before we left, we
found the decklight and steaming light did not turn on. We told BVIYC
and they asked if we wanted to have them fix but they were kind of
busy and I told them it was not necessary (we were not allowed to sail
at night anyways). While sailing, we also found the speedometer did
not work. I dove the sensor at anchor and, indeed, there was a
barnacle lodged into it but even after I removed it and the wheel
turned freely, the speedometer showed 0.0. There was also something
wrong with the wind meter, basically it also showed 0.0 and the
direction showed either nothing or was off a lot. Sometimes it showed
some signs of life but this was the only instrument for which there
was no manual on board so I never figured out whether it was possible
to make it work. The most annoying instrument failure was not even
electronic: it was the windex whose arrow moved freely but,
alas, so did the two markers that show the angle of how high
you can go when beating! I never realized how much I rely on the RELATIVE
angle between arrow and the markers, not only when beating but on all
courses.

All these were minor issues. A bit more annoying was that
at the briefing they forgot to tell us about the breakers for the two
(!) fridges: neither of them worked after we left the dock. We thought
the batteries were too low and we charged the heck out of them but it
was only when we called the base after two days that they told us
about the breakers (under the mattress in the port cabin). <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />

Anyway, on to the trip itself.

Phase I: It turned out that most of the crew could only make it for
the last 16 days of the 20 that we had the boat but my son and I came earlier. I also had
to finish some projects but instead of working in my office, I did it
on the boat. The BVIYC base has pretty good WiFi (at least on the
slips close to the office) so this worked out well. Other than me
working on my laptop and my son reading and playing on his,
we went to dinner in the dinghy to the Village Cay area (the BVIYC
base is now in Port Purcell, which I vastly prefer to the VC area
where the old base was) and him learning to drive the dinghy by
himself (of course under my supervision). Another major task we had
was to do the basic provisioning. We did one major run where we
visited both Cash&Carry and RiteWay (do I have the name rite??) next
door. Both were useful: we got things like 24 gallons of water, a
twelve-pack of coconut water, a six pack of coco-lopez etc from C&C
but some quantities were clearly too big and we had to do get that
from RiteWay.

[A side note: some of the taxis were just annoying. For the literally
5 minute trip from RiteWay to the marina, we were charged $16.-! Even
more annoying was my wife's trip from the ferry dock to the marina:
she was charged $25.-! Not all cab drivers were nasty: for me and my
son, the fare for $10.-, which I considered exactly right for a 5
minute trip.)

Phase II: Saturday, the rest of the crew arrived on three
different flights (via STT, St. Martin, and Miami/San Juan) and,
miraculously, all were roughly on time and even all luggage was
there! We went to dinner at Spaghetti Junction, it was good though on
the pricey side for what it was.

Sunday, we finally started the main part of the trip. We took it easy
(as we did every day, we started with a long, sumptuous breakfast on
board; hey this is vacation <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Groovin.gif" alt="" />) and then took off. Raising the main in
the Road Harbour channel took us 10 minutes or so since we still were
not familiar with the lines and the lazy jack lines turned out to be
very tight (much more than on my own boat, IMHO too tight) so the main
caught easily in them. This sorted out, we took a leisurely trip, only
interrupted by a reefing drill to make sure our skills were still sharp
and to familiarize ourselves more with the boat, to Cooper Island. Got
to Manchioneel Bay at around 4pm where we got the outermost mooring,
to take advantage of the breeze. My brother in law, as bowman, and me
on the wheel had not forgotten our skills and we got this mooring and,
as it turned out, all others on the trip, on the first try. Lovely
dinner at the Cooper Island Beach Club and we all felt that the
cuisine was considerably improved over what we remembered from our
last trip. (And the bill was quite a bit lower than Spaghetti
Junction, too).

Next morning (after the usual lavish breakfast) we snorkeled the
Rhone. Great visibility. After that went over to Deadman's Bay where
we anchored. Crew went to the beach (brother in law enjoyed a $10.-
espresso <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" />, he said it was decent <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" /> ), I stayed on board to rest, read
some manuals etc. Anchor up around 4pm and we considered going to
Cooper but when we peeked into Little Harbor on Peter, there was only
one boat there! So, we scored the nicest anchorage, near the
Northernmost rocks. Very close to the rocks but the anchor held well
in the sand and it was just spectacular. Cooked on board, watched
seagulls bothering pelicans, snorkeled a bit, a perfect night!

Day 3: Breakfast (lavish <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Banana.gif" alt="" />), then anchor up and went to the
Indians. Being lazy, no main, just rolled out the jib plus iron genny
(official excuse: we need to charge the batteries for the
fridges). Saw a turtle on the way. Indians were nice as usual.

Honestly, I am not quite sure what we did the rest of the day. But we
ended up at Spanish Town. First we grabbed a ball but when I dove it,
I decided that no way I would trust my ship to it (rode cobbled together from a piece of rope,then a piece of chain, then another piece of rope, all connected to each other by sloppy-looking knots <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" />). We left it and
anchored just outside the mooring field. Dove the anchor: Good!

Got a great show of a catamaran delivering wonderful antics, involving
moorings, anchors, wild dinghy rides etc. At some point, I noticed the
whole anchorage was standing in the cockpit and enjoying the show.

Dinner at Bath and Turtle. Tried to use my 'Two specials for the price
of one' coupon from the Drinking Man's Guide but the waiter said 'you
can have as many of today's special, the Rum Punch, as you want, no
need for a coupon'. T'was good, and he signed the book. Nice
dinner. And again, different from 5 years ago, here and anywhere else,
there was no problem using credit cards, even in the grocery stores.

Day 4: One reason we had anchored at Spanish Town was because this
would give us an early start for the Baths. But the lavish breakfast
got in the way and by the time we were ready, the crowds had arrived
and no ball was to be had. So we continued to Fallen Jerusalem and got
one of the two moorings (nobody claimed the other). We stayed till
3pm on our own private island! Then over to the Baths where at
this time only a few boats were left. Did the usual Baths things (path
to Devil's Bay etc) and went back to Spanish Town quite late (maybe
6pm?). We anchored close to our previous place but when I dove the
anchor, I saw that we should have gone 10 meters or so further into
the channel. There were a lot of rocks where our anchor was now while
it seemed pure sand not far away (though the water was a bit
deeper). But the anchor was perfectly straight, partly dug in, we
had a lot of chain out (7:1 or better), and there was a lot of space
in almost all directions so I was not worried.

We had thought about having dinner at Rock Cafe (not quite sure about
the name) but we wanted to avoid the walk over the dusty and, frankly,
dirty road in Spanish Town that we remembered. A look at the chart
revealed that it might be possible to sneak the dinghy between seawall
and reef and go there by dinghy. We did that very carefully and,
indeed, it works! However, our chosen cafe turned out to have no pier
and since some in the party did not fancy a walk on the beach (sand in
the sandals etc), we continued to the next place which DID have a pier
(I am not sure of the name of this place either). We were the
only non-locals and the menu given to us was a bit
international-touristy fare (chicken tenders and such). However, they
had a chalkboard with specials that were strictly local (roti et al)
and this is what we ordered. It was not the most sophisticated meal I
had in my life but very credible.

However, while we were waiting for the food to arrive,
lightning started, then the first thunder. The food arrived, we
started eating but then the thunder came closer and I could not eat
anymore. In very un-island-like hast, we asked for boxes for our
half-eaten food, paid the (very reasonable) bill, and left in a hurry. We
made it very carefully out between reef and beach/sea wall (it was
dark by now) and then opened the throttle to get to the boat. Not a
minute after we arrived, the first huge gusts and rain arrived. Timing
is everything!

Like every night, I slept in the cockpit (I do that also on my own
boat whenever possible, one of the joys of sailing for me) but this
night in full foul-weather gear! There were some pretty nice squalls
over night but those with the highest winds came from the East so I
knew they were no problem for the anchor.

Day 5: We were ready to move up to North Sound, our jumping-off point
for Anegada. We toyed with the idea of snorkeling the Dogs but given
our usual late departure (breakfast again <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Groovin.gif" alt="" />), we decided to make a run
for it. Wind was more northerly than usual so we had to take a long
tack to the West, well outside the Dogs. And there was quite a bit of
wind so we tucked in two reefs in main and jib. With this, the boat
was perfectly balanced. We tacked once and layed the entrance to North
Sound which we entered under motor. Off to Leverick where the magic
word 'TTOL' gave us a slip for $30.- (although the shore power
connection added 20.- to that).

Unfortunately, this is where the trip took a turn to the seriously
worse. When we had settled down, we turned on the cell phone and
received a message informing us about a death in the immediate
family. To make a long story short, my wife and brother in law took
the North Sound Express the next morning at 7am to Beef Island and
then flights to Germany. I, with the remaining crew, sailed the boat
back to the BVIYC base the next day (GREAT broad reach, wonderful under
any but the circumstances we were in), returned the boat, and then made
our way back, first to STT, then home, then also to Germany. We had
bought insurance but BVIYC told us that the insurance only works
BEFORE you take over the boat, not after. So, we had to forfeit the
remaining 10 days. I have to say, though, that the people at BVIYC
were very nice to us and I cannot really blame them for not taking a
huge financial hit. They promised us a 'really special rate' when we
book again with them.

So, now we have to cope with our grief but I hope we will some day
come back to the islons.