Feb 23
Tortola, Nanny Cay Hotel
We’re waking up in Nanny Cay, at the hotel and it’s just starting to sink in that we’re really here. The sun is out, there’s a warm breeze and I’m nursing a coffee on our room’s ground floor patio. It is finally happening. So much work has gone into getting here that it feels surreal; yesterday in Toronto, it was something like -25C. Today in Tortola, it’s 27C. Moss says humans weren’t made to do that kind of temperature change in one day. He’s probably right.
Ps. There is a friendly chicken clucking at my feet. Welcome to the Caribbean!
Feb 24
Tortola, Nanny Cay Hotel
The boat seems okay! At least, she looks and smells okay when we opened her up after 8 months of being closed. Everything was intact and where we left it. Our main concern was the forward head on the starboard side, which had a leak last July.
[…]
Upon closer inspection, we’re thinking that the guy from the Moorings, where we bought Cedar, may not have sent someone over to repair the leak in the forward head after all. While wiping down the berths and the heads with super toxic anti-mildew stuff, I noticed that the floor in the head was covered in this crunchy, sandy stuff. Sea salt! Left over after the water evaporated.
The biggest challenge at this point seems to be just adjusting to the heat, and understanding that you can’t just power through the day like you can do back home. To be effective, you need to get up a little earlier in the morning, work until 11 or 12, and then take a 2-3 hour break. Eat, snooze, swim – out of the sun. Then when the midday heat has passed, go back to the boat and continue your work.
This evening, we got the bimini up. We had a new one made last year in Burlington and it fits. Huzzah!
Feb 25
Tortola, Nanny Cay Hotel
The salon and galley are now wiped down and moss has seen a man about installing our new depth gauge transceiver. Because the water tanks are in the way, we’re putting it way forward, under the forward crew/ storage cabin. This means we need to get an extension for the cable in order to be able to reach the stern cockpit. This way, when we get too shallow, we have a full 10 seconds or so to react. Should be ample time, no?
I think we might be starting to adjust to the heat. This morning we got smart and woke up early enough to get some work done before the big heat of the day started. The kids are having an easier time of it too. This makes everyone happy. Travelling with teenagers is a very new kind of beast for me. But it’s nothing we can’t handle, I’m sure.
Saturday, Feb 28
Tortola, Nanny Cay Marina
Foresails. They seem a straightforward thing. But sometimes appearances can be deceiving. We installed our brand new, made in South Africa, foresail yesterday and managed to make all the newbie mistakes that first time sailors might make. It’s going to happen. The important thing is that by the time the sun was setting, the sail was installed and rolled in correct direction. On the bright side, we gave the rigger from Richardson’s, who says he preaches at a prison every Sunday, a tale to tell about another set of clueless sailors.
Today is mainsail day. If we can get the main up by early afternoon, then we will have time to go into Road Town to do some provisioning. Nanny Cay want us off the dock by Tuesday, and we’ve just started a long weekend where everything will be close Monday. Today is shopping day.
With any luck, the fridge guy will also make an appearance around midday so we can start using the fridge and freezer and not be relying on blocks of ice.
I THINK the kids are starting to adjust to boat life. #travelling with teens.
P.S. Happy Birthday Dad!
Sunday, March 2
Tortola, Nanny Cay Marina
We are still in Nanny Cay. I say still because we had hoped to fit in a quick test sail today when we change slips. The owner of our current slip on the lovely A dock is supposed to be coming in today, so we have to move. However, there’s an issue with the new main mainsail, so sailing is out. We installed the new main yesterday, but since it had no battens, we used the battens from the old main. Another newbie mistake? The battens from the old main are too small and keep popping out when we lower the sail.
Cedar has all these great new accessories, but … we’re still trying to figure of if they actually go together or just clash. (Girl analysis for you).
March 3-5, recap.
Tortola, Brandywine Bay
We finally left Nanny Cay midweek. We were a bit late off the dock and they penalized us with a ½ day charge. Such is life. I think we’ll get better at timing things as we go. Nanny Cay is great marina. It’s “the best on the island”. And they like to remind you of this at every opportunity. But they do have great showers, restaurant, café, grocery store and chandlery. And Kevin from Quantum Sails was kind enough to share ample money-saving advice. But there is a regatta at Nanny Cay this weekend, so all the A-game boats with nice shiny bits were rolling in… and we had to leave.
The closest anchorage we found was Brandywine Bay, just east of Road Town. After trying the foresail, we decided just to motor because of some twisting of the lines. The BVIs have beautiful, protected waters, but it is still rougher in the channel than Lake Ontario.
Brandywine Bay is a beautiful spot with turquoise water and white sand beach. I didn’t think much of the fact that it was empty, but we realized pretty quickly there was a good reason; the wind comes from the North East and the waves come in from the south. This means your boat will roll. We stayed overnight, but only because it was getting late and we hadn’t planned any alternate anchorage. After a rolling, but safe (the anchor held!) night, we left as soon as we were ready. Needless to say, it was impossible to write anything there. I’m impressed no one was sea sick.
After Brandywine, we crossed the Sir Francis Drake Channel with the main sail up and a double reef, as the wind was a bit strong and we were using the old (slightly damaged) main sail. Our first proper sail! I took the helm and it felt good. Our target was Great Harbour on Peter Island, directly across the channel from Road Town.
We arrived safely and then promptly learned our first hard lesson: a lee shore is not always downwind. Great Harbour is known as a tricky anchorage, but we thought it looked do-able. There is a shallow beach with a sudden drop off in a cut between sheltering hills. The cut channels the wind like a wind tunnel on a city street. If you approach it head on, you are fine. But towards the sides, it’s all lee shore.
Normally, when you set anchor, the wind will push you backwards, which helps set the anchor. In this case, because of the cut in the hill and tunneling effect, we found ourselves being pushed sideways against the shore and heard that ominous grinding sound that brings you to a halt. We hit bottom.
We tried to get her free on our own, but she wasn’t able to maneuver in reverse away from the shallows. Fortunately, other boaters came to our aid very quickly, and we managed to get her free within minutes. After donning a snorkeling mask, Moss inspected the damage and found a small nick taken out of the rudder and some paint missing. Luckily there doesn’t seem to be any real damage.
Lesson learned!
We then took the advice of our good Samaritans and went for a mooring ball at the other end of the bay.
March 6
Great Harbour, Peter Island
Today was a much needed and very welcome day of rest. We woke up in our Great Harbour mooring and went nowhere all day. Now it’s true this may be due the fact that Moss was struck with a bad headache and spent the morning in bed, but I welcomed the opportunity to relax and just spend a quiet day aboard Cedar. The kids thankfully survived this with the distraction of homeschooling and iPads. Thank you Steve Jobs.
March 7
Great Harbour, Peter Island
It feels like our first real day in the Caribbean. Wahoo! We are on a boat, the sun is out and the strong wind (and gusts!) of the past couple of days are calming down. We switched to a mooring ball closer to shore, so we could swim to the little beach here at Oceans Beach Club. I would call it a beach bar/ restaurant type of place. It’s not fancy by any means, but I don’t think they appreciated our sporting attire. That said, when you’re swimming in, there is only so much you can stuff into a little zip-lock sandwich bag. The culture in the BVIs is a bit more conservative and traditional than many parts of Canada. You dress up when going out and beach wear is not okay in town. But it is also a very clean and safe place, that is more relaxed and laid back than its U.S. counterpart.
This is our last little day of “paradise” before going back to a marina tomorrow for more repairs. Three of the four heads (toilets) need attention. We also need to swap out the old main sail with the new one (avec battens), repair the fridge/freezer unit, tune the rigging, buy boat stuff, provision, shower, etc.