Bubbly Pool to Bomba's

Thursday May 31st, Little Harbour to Sandy Spit to Diamond Cay to Cane Garden Bay, Tortola (9.2 miles)

Because we got some decent sleep, we were all up and moving about by 6:30am. We dropped the ball by 7:15am and was anchored off Sandy Spit by 7:55am. It was fairly overcast and even rained a bit while at Sandy Spit.

At about 9:10am we pull up the anchor and motor over to Diamond Cay and pick up one of the 9 mooring balls. We head in to Foxy's Taboo about 9:30.

We are greeted by the mayor who in turn directs us to the bubbly pool. However, every now and then he is distracted by something behind the thick vegetation and disappears for a bit but always comes back.









The "hike" to the Bubbly Pool last about 15 minutes and takes us through some moderate terrain. Along the way we catch up to a group of 8 frat guys. They ask if we know how to get to the Bubbly Pool ( I do), but I say "No, but the dog does".....





We reach the pool but unfortunately the north seas aren't high enough to cause a good constant flow over the rocks.

We head back to Foxy's Taboo. We decide to sit down and grab a bite to eat. We get 2 orders of their chips and salsa, which was fantastic....this was homemade, fresh salsa and fresh pita chips. Damn good. We scarf that down, grab 2 bags of ice and head back to Kokomo. At 12:32pm we drop the ball, raise the rags and head for Cane Garden Bay.

We arrive at CGB at 1:45pm and pick up a ball. We hang out, swim off the boat....dive, flip, ect for about an 30 minutes then head in for some drinks and appetizers.

First place we stop is Quitos. We have a couple of their specialty drinks (all I remember was that they were blue), show the bartender our bar tricks and eat some fried whatever.

We walk around the beach for awhile...hit a few other bars, then had back to Kokomo for another swim.

We eventually get ready for Bomba's Full Moon Party and head to Quito's first for dinner and to hear him play at 8:30.

After dinner we took a crazy taxi ride to Bomb's Shack for his "Full Moon Party". Cindy and I have been down 2 times before but always miss the FMP. We are excited to finally check it out.

We get there and find out you have to buy tickets to get drinks. $1/ticket and 4 tickets for a beer. It's already 9:30 and there are a lot of people here. The party spreads from the original "shack" to across the street to a large band stage and grass/sand area. This is the most people we have seen in one place in many days. We walk around, get spotted by Bill and Lyne(smthsaln) and Laura and Mark (lilmabes) from TTOL.

Unfortunately for me, Bomba's was the start of my "stomach flu". Cin and I left Josh and Pam there at about 12:30am and told them I'd wait for them at the dingy dock.

And there I was at 1:54am..

~Bryan

32.3 Mile Sail and Ricky Bobbie

Wednesday May 30th Anegada to Jost Van Dyke (32.3 miles)

We dropped the ball in Setting Point, Anegada at 9:55 and raise the rags as soon as we exit the channel. We zero the GPS in on Sandy Spit and settle in for a loooong sail. The winds were shifty, sometimes 9 knots, other times 4 knots. We arrived at Sandy Spit at 1:51pm. No speed records there.


We were planning to overnight at Diamond Cay, but when we got there, all the balls were taken and with the overcast, it was tough to tell what was sand on the bottom vs. grass, ect. So we opted for Little Harbour, Jost Van Dyke.

We head to the dinghy dock and check out Sidney's Peace and Love Restaurant and Bar.

There is not much at this stop, just Sydney's and Harris' Place. Abe's is across the mooring field.

We go inside Sydney's and make a few drinks at the "self serve bar". We get a constant hard sell to eat here tonight, and eventually give in.

We hang at Sidney's for a bit...make some more drinks and write them down as we go. The girls window shop the gift store, but other then that...it's a quiet place. With the place not "hopping with activity" we can feel the consequences from the prior 2 nights on Anegada setting in. Therefore, we all decide to just chill on Kokomo after dinner and watch a movie.

Dinner was so-so...wouldn't do it again. After which we pop Talladega Nights into the laptop and wire the sound through the boat speakers. It was a good night to "recharge the batteries".

~Bryan

Less Internet, More Wind

Sunday May 27th, Saba Rock and Leverick Bay (1.9 miles)

Sunday morning we buy 6 bags of ice and grab the free boat shuttle to Levrick Bay for more provisioning (food).

We take the ~10:30am free ferry from Saba Rock to Leverick Bay.

Once we get to Leverick I remembered this was the start and finnish for an organized Poker Run http://www.savezoneinc.net/pokerrun/

We talk to some of the event organizers and realize that this location might be the place to be tonight and decide to go back and get the boat and move it here on a ball.

We watch the 12 noon start of the poker run and then take the ferry back to Saba. We bail on getting provisions since it will be easier to do after we move the boat.

At 12:55 we motor across The North Sound from Saba to Leverick (arrive 1:13) and pick up the ball (N18.30.117 W64.21.823) closest to the docks for anticipation for this nights party and live music. Earlier, I wanted to snorkel Eustatia Sound, behind Saba Rock. I have not done it during any of my previous trips and have read that it's a great snorkel stop. Well, after moving the boat that wasn't going to happen this time either. Instead we decide to dinghy over to Drakes Anchorage and snorkel the coral reef just south of Mosquito Rock called Colquhoun Reef . Josh ops for some r&r time on the boat, so I take Cindy and Pam over. The water is flat calm since there is little to no wind, so the dinghy ride was faster and dryer then expected. We anchor the dinghy just out front of the abandoned Drakes Anchorage Resort. We spot a small shark about 3 feet away and wants nothing to do with us and swims off. Pretty cool to see though. The resort closed in 1997 and the island it sits on, Mosquito Island has been off limits since. Recently however, rumor has it Sir Richard Branson, the owner of Virgin Atlantic Airlines bought the entire island and plans to build a "green" resort. He also owns Necker Island www.necker.com . You too can stay at Necker if you plop down $322,000 for a weeks stay. www.privateislandsonline.com/neckerisland.htm
(Click image to enlarge)

We snorkel for a good hour and then head back across the channel dodging the high speed Poker Run boats showing off on their return

After getting back, we all head in to shore to grab some more provisioning, another case of Bud Light and of course more ice.


While back on the boat we watch the helicopter that was used to video the poker run land, amazingly, on outer dock finger. The pilot had no more then maybe 3 feet on either side of the skedge ( i think that's what they are called) to land the chopper. Pretty wild. Anyhow, on his approach he flew just 20 feet or so above our mast and unbenounced to me, blew one of my bathing suits off the boat. By the way....this is the 2nd pair of swim trunks I've "lost" on the trip so far.

We decide to cook on the boat tonight and end up listening to the live band and awards ceremony from the "tramp". We were thinking of heading in to join the "party" (aka $1.50 beers) but the party ended at 10pm and pretty much cleared out. We decided to chill on the boat.

Monday May 28th, Leverick Bay to Anegada (sshhh, don't tell Conch Charters)

(17.2 miles)

We drop the ball at 8:05 and take Kokomo over to the fuel dock to get our free 200 gallons of water and bag of ice. We get an additional 5 bags of ice and also decide to top off the diesel. With just 3-7 knots of wind in the past 4 days, I was afraid our fuel bill was going to be in the triple digits. Actually I was prepared for it. What was surprising was that we only took on 10 gallons of fuel....amazing!

We pull off the Leverick Bay fuel dock at 9:12am with little wind. We through up the rags and sail through 3 or 4 rain storms, but no squalls. We arrive at Anegada at 11:50am.

We tip-toe through the entrance channel and the mooring field with just 2-3 feet below our keel(s). The Anegada Reef Hotel balls are all taken, so we head over to Neptunes and grab a ball there.

We chill for a bit.

After which, we dink in to Anegada Reef Hotel to pick up our truck rental. Nobody is around at the office so we hit the self serve bar.


We eventually get our truck, a nice new Ford Escape with air, yes good 'ol A/C.
We took off and hit Flash of Beauty (beach) first then Loblolly.....dodging cows along the way.

After hanging at Loblolly bar and chatting with some folks from St Petersburg, Florida, we hit the road and head over to Cow Wreck Beach and Bar. We probably drive a good 20 minutes and don't see another soul the whole way over.

I love the Cow Wreck Beach....it's in my top 3 best spots in all of the BVI's.

View from the bar

View from the ocean

We meet more people from Florida, have drinks with Alex and promise to see him the next day. We leave Cow Wreck and head back to Anegada Reef Hotel (ARH). Once back on Kokomo we chill, cook dinner, clean-up and then head back to ARH for some evening festivities. There's pretty much nobody at ARH so we walk next door to Potters. Again, only 1 table of people at Potters, but decide to start our own party.

Tuesday May 29th Anegada Day 2

After a many libations, we get a later start then normal. Typically we are up and about and off the ball by 8am, but today we are staying at Anegada for an extra day and therefore, sleep in a little. After reminding ourselves what we did yesterday by reviewing the camera pics, we spot some open balls out in front of ARH and decide to move closer. We are having trouble connecting to bvimarinewifi from way in back of the mooring field and hope that by moving closer to ARH we can get the net.


Cindy and I take the dink to Neptunes Treasure to pay our mooring fee and get more ice (what a shocker). I pay the mooring fee ($25) and wait while the 6 bags of ice freeze. 25 minutes later we dink back to Kokomo with the 6 bags of ice and then take Kokomo to a closer ball at ARH.


Soon after, we pack the cooler, load up our snorkel gear and head to ARH to take the "White Rino" (our Ford Escape) for an island tour. When we reach our truck we see the left rear tire is flat.
At 10:50 I find the woman from ARH who I had just rented from yesterday and inform her that our tire is flat. She walks out to it and says she will call () since we didn't rent from ARH. I thought that was odd, because I thought we did. She says she can't reach this woman because her husband usually rents the vehicles and has the cell while out fishing. We have to wait for this woman to return home so that they can call her there. ARH eventually reach her and ask her to come down and take care of her customer who has a flat. 20 minutes or so later she arrives and asks me to point out the "jeep". I say it's the white Ford over there and she in-turn corrects me and says that is not her "jeep" and that it's owned by ARH. So I hunt down my ARH official in the office who then slaps her forehead in disbelief that she had the wrong truck in mind. She apologizes and looks for another vehicle for us. Do we get the red Ford Escape? Nope. We get a Susuki with no a/c, a constent "check engine light" and the suspension of a Radio Flyer Wagon. Don't get me wrong, I know it's just transportation to get around and it's not cheap to get cars to this coral atoll, but it sure was nice to have power windows, a/c, a radio and a nice suspension over the VERY rough roads of Anegada.

At 11:36 We load up the 'zuki with our gear and head over to 'lill bit taz grocery store to get ice for our cooler. After which we hit the road and head to Loblolly for a bit of snorkeling. After parking, we soon realize we left the fins back on a chair at ARH. GRRRR. When not above coral, you can pretty much snorkel in water thats not above your head, but with currents and the ability to move through the water much easier with fins, we decide to elect me to go back to ARH and get our fins. On the way back I notice the gas light comes on....fantastic...the hits just keep on coming. I pull into ARH 15 minutes later and find our fins on the chair still. Next I find an ARH staff person and alert them that the truck they gave us is out of gas. I though for sure after the first debacle of waiting around, they would just point me to another truck. But, nooooo, he says he will go fill 'her up. 10 minutes later, I get the 'zuki back with full petrol. Game on! On my way back to Loblolly I drive upon a older gentleman (mid 70's) sitting on a bridge wall beside the road. I stop and ask if he needs a ride. He says yes and gets in. He said he was watching his son (who was getting married on Anegada in a few days) fish the flats, when he decided to walk back to "some bar on the beach where the rest of my family is" (Loblolly). We have small talk, and when he hears I grew up in Connecticut he tells me he went to Yale. He now lives in Georgia and is in Anegada for his son's wedding. When he hears we are staying on a boat, captained by ourselves for 10 days he is astonished and asks many questions about it. We soon arrive at Loblolly and his family thanks me for stopping and picking him up.

I take our fins to the beach and meet up with Josh, Cin and Pam and we are soon thereafter snorkeling off the beach.

After snorkeling, we head to Cow Wreck Beach by making a right soon after the airport entrance and taking the north "road". This is a rough, unpaved road along the north shore that will rattle the fillings out of your teeth.

We reach Cow Wreck.

Apparently Pam made a bet with Alex or vice versa (Monday was a blur) that he would remember her name if we returned. We think the bet was that if he did remember we would buy him a shot and if he forgot he would buy us a shot. Well, he did remember her name, but somehow Pam and I got roped into doing the shots...terrrrific.

We stay a "bit".....eat..drink...play pool....drink....'limin...

Then we realize we have to get our 'zuki back by 4pm and we still wanted to take a drive through the settlement so we ask to tab out.....at home I'd say ouch!...but down here you can't do anything without taking out a $100 travelers check.

After our drive through The Settlement, we stop at 'lill bit taz store for another 2 bags of ice, drop off the truck and head to Kokomo.

We clean up for our 7pm dinner reservations and head in for a "fancy meal".

We pre-ordered 3 shrimp dinners and a chicken dinner. Food was fantastic, like I remembered in 2005. Cin opted not to order the Lobster...did that in '05, been there, done that.

After dinner, the music turned up and people began to dance....ok, so I began to dance.

Pretty much all the dinner guests seemed to stay and "party" instead of going back to the boat, which was a nice thing to see....it was a top-5 night for us on this trip.

I'm told we went over to Potters at some point but nobody was there, so we went back to ARH and closed out the party.

~Bryan