Sailing for BVI April 26-29,09
We have arrived in BVI.
This is a continuous post so read down for the latest.
Sunday April 26,09
Our watch was on duty today, which was just as well as I suspect that everything ashore was closed if yesterday is any indication.
First thing after breakfast we shifted the ship into the middle of the bay to give us a bit more swing room as the winds have been variable making the ship swing almost 360 degrees!
Last night the on watch had taken in about 10ft of chain because our stern was only 20′ or so from the rocks!
Surprisingly we had a normal Sunday, ie there was no official ships work, which made for a fairly relaxing day.
I was safety lookout for several of the crew who went snorkeling along the cliffs that surround this little bay we are in. The Sun was bright and there was a really strong wind blowing out in the channel between the islands which brought some swell into the bay. The water is incredibly clear and you can see the bottom from the taffrail.
This evening we had another fancy dress dinner which was fun.
My anchor watch is 1:00am to 2:00am tonight and the plan is to hoist anchor as soon as we can tomorrow morning so we can get cleared out and underwa to the British Virgin Isands which is 250 some miles to the North.
The trip should take 2-3 days.
Odd to think that Jost van Dyke in the BVI is the second last port of call before we get back to Lunenberg and the end of my passage. Lots of sailing to come but the end is less than a month way.
Hmmmm….
Thanks for reading.
KJ
Monday April 27,09
Lynsey and Nicki went ashore this morning and caught a ferry over to Terre de Haut to clear out.
I am on galley today so spent the morning doing the dishes and cleaning out the veggie lockers on the Aloha deck.
Since we will soon be heading North where it is cold(er) we also were told to clean the ship inside thoroughly. This is because as we get into colder climes moisture will condense inside the ship and if the surfaces aren’t pretty clean they can begin to mildew and smell. Lovely…
We got our anchor up and began sailing North around 2:00pm. We have a strong force 5 breeze on our Starboard quarter to move us along North. We are currently sailing briskly towards Guadeloupe wit all sails but the Royals and Flying Jib set. I suspect that once in the lee of Guadeloupe we may need to motor but the consensus on the lower deck is that we will only motor if we really have to. This would be just fine with me I prefer to sail 
I went up to loose sail today and helped to loose the Mizzen Staysail as well. My hand is doing much better and it felt good to go aloft again.
My tattoo is doing pretty well, it hasn’t been itchy and the colour hasn’t faded much even though I’ve been in the bright Sun pretty much continuously since I got it. Some of the other people’s tattoos haven’t fared so well. The finer lines have disappeared on some of them and others have faded a bit.
Current guess is that we will reach Jost van Dyke in about 2 days or so.
Thanks for reading.
KJ
Tuesday April 28,09
Our night watch was gusty and damp with a couple of big squalls as we passed the islands of Montserrat, Nevis and St Kitts. The wind was gusting up to Force 6-7.
I had first helm and the ship steered beautifully only a few spokes to a full turn needed to keep her on course. We are heading North by West (and 1/4 west to be exact) with topsails, t’gallants, foresail set plus the outer and inner jibs, fore topmast staysail and main topmast staysail.
I hear a rumour that Jost Van Dyke may not have any Internet connectivity so not sure when you will get to read this as the next stop is Bermuda about halfway back to Lunenberg.
More later…
Just got off the afternoon watch which was relatively uneventful. The wind is steady and the skies basically clear and sunny with some high puffy white clouds.
Earlier this afternoon we changed course towards the high volcanic island of Saba and just as we were getting ready to go on watch we entered the lee of this cliff girdled high island. There followed the alarm and the call of “This is a drill man overboard port side”.
These drills are organized chaos but everybody knows pretty well where to be and what to do. Today’s drill was a bit different because we were; A) under sail and B) the wind and sea conditions were gusty and lumpy respectively. The drill went really well, the overboard object was in the rescue boat in 3 minutes! The rescue boat itself was launched in about 1 minute. The requirement is that the recovery be done in 9 minutes.
Once we got all the equipment stowed we headed back on our course to the north now under a reduced sail plan, no t’gallants, so we don’t arrive in the middle of the night.
We should arrive in the BVI tomorrow sometime, rumour has it we will be stopping for groceries at another island in the BVI before going to Jost Van Dyke.
Thanks for reading
KJ