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Can We Stay In The BVI and Sail Into The Sunset?

By on October 28, 2014

We all woke up a little groggy on Saturday morning even though we were one of the earlier groups to depart the Willy T the night before. We were also one of the earlier groups to arrive at the Willy T. We jumped, we drank, we ate, we did a shot-ski, tried to hook Megan’s sister (who wasn’t even there) up with a date, we drank more, made the most sober person drive our trusty dinghy back to Allison, drank some more, and finally went to bed. Can you tell I’m trying to make myself feel better for being one of the first dinghy’s to depart Willy T?

We had some good fun on Friday night, but we still had some sailing to do before Rory would sign and stamp our log books. Our routine for waking and having coffee and a small breakfast was somewhat routine a that point. When we were finished, we dropped our mooring ball and motored out of The Bight.

We motored out of The Bight far enough to head up into the wind and raise our main sail. Megan was at the helm for the morning and she pointed Allison almost due North. We unfurled the jib, kept Pelican Island to port, Norman and Peter Islands to starboard, and stayed on a beam reach with a direct heading toward Road Harbour.

It was a fairly straight forward sail. When necessary, we adjusted the trim on the sails to make sure that we were at maximum efficiency, and Megan kept us pointed in the correct direction.

When we arrived in Road Harbour Rory took the wheel for two reasons. There was a massive Royal Navy ship being guided out of Road Harbour (yes, we saw them at the Willy T), and we were going to the gas dock to fill up and finish practicing docking.

First, we topped up the tanks of both engines with 21 total gallons of diesel. I was shocked! My Jeep Wrangler holds 16 gallons of fuel and has to be filled up two to three times a week if driven all week. I know that we used wind power to sail most of our miles for 6 days, but we were using diesel to move a 44 ft catamaran. We also liberally used the generator for air conditioning and  a/c power whenever we wanted.

The rest of us then took turns successfully docking the boat. Rory held the wheel like a vice while we used the engines to maneuver Allison onto and off of the fuel dock. Finally, it was time to motor across Road Harbour and back to TMM Yacht Charters to depart Allison.

This is when everything started getting a little depressing. We always hate going back to reality from a vacation, but this one seemed a little different somehow.

We had just learned a lot of the necessary skills to live on and sail a boat, but for some reason we were stuffing damp bathing suits into our bags and starting our journeys back to our monotonous day jobs on land. Going over the Arrival Checklist was not quite as fun as going over the Pre-Departure Checklist. We were happy to be sweating bullets while loading gear onto Allison 6 days before, but rather upset to be unloading the same gear onto the ground at TMM while we waited on a taxi.

The taxi ride back to Nanny Cay was awkwardly silent. I think we all just wanted to be trimming the sails and starting our circumnavigation of the British Virgin Islands over again.

We were certified captains. Yay! When we arrived at Nanny Cay there was just one last order of business to take care of. Rory had to fill out, stamp, and sign our log books.

We grabbed some lunch from the cafe, checked into the hotel, and spent the rest of the afternoon looking out to sea from our beach chairs and wishing we were on one of the boats sailing by.

That was when Megan and I wrote our cruising plan in the sand. Four more years to pay off some student loans (by the way, Duke is expensive), sell our rental property, and downsize our lives. In the meantime we would have to teach Barley the aqua-dog to pee and poop on a turf mat somewhere on a boat. We would also have to find a way to maintain and upgrade our sailing skills even though we live 5 hours from the sea.

Working on our Cruising Plan on Nanny Cay Beach

Working on our Cruising Plan on Nanny Cay Beach

Our Plan:

  1. Get in touch with the sailboat racing clubs on Lake Lanier and crew on somebody else’s sailboat. – Luckily, we already know somebody with a sailboat that races on Lake Lanier.
  2. Buy a small(ish), cheap(ish) boat that floats, sails, and we can sleep (camp?) in, and put it on Lake Lanier for 4 years.
  3. Teach Barley to sail.
  4. Sell the rental property.
  5. Get rid of all of the stuff that we rarely, if ever, use.
  6. Pay off all student loans and become debt free other than our mortgage.
  7. Save as much sailing money as possible.
  8. Maybe even find a way to make money while living on a boat. Does that mean an industry change? Does that mean our own small business? Start investigating this now!
  9. Purchase a new (to us) cruising boat somewhere on the coast.
  10. Sell the house and lake boat and move to our cruising boat.
  11. Shake down along the East coast, ICW, Bahamas, etc. for a cruising season. – I guess this doesn’t have to be the East coast.
  12. Set sail to the Caribbean and wherever else we may roam.

Our plan was set and it was time to clean up a little and grab some dinner. We met Rory, Tom, and a few of Rory’s friends at the sports bar near the roadside entrance to Nanny Cay (yeah, it would help if I could remember the name of the place).

We had never actually been on a monohull cruising sailboat before, and we learned a few things from Tom during dinner. If anybody is wondering, Tom is the extra Rob Swain Sailing School instructor that joined us on Allison for a few days.

We learned:

  • We could check out the monohulls in Swain Sailing School’s fleet before we had to head to the ferry the next morning.
  • Tom would be available in the morning before his student showed up for class and would show us around.
  • If, in the future, we chartered a sailboat from the Swain Sailing School fleet, we would get a 20% discount because we are former students.

When we were done with dinner we walked back over to the marina with Tom. He was using Rob’s condo. He peeled off and went to get some sleep and we continued down the dock to the beach bar for a few more drinks.

We ran into Fred and Cindy at the beach bar. We all shared some sailing stories with a man who had bought his boat from Horizon Yacht Charters, bought the slip that the boat was already in, retired, and moved to Tortola. After a few drinks and a few stories, it was time to catch some shut eye.

We woke on Sunday morning and didn’t have to check out for a little while so we grabbed some breakfast at Genaker Cafe and walked around the docks picking out our future boat. I had to remind Megan how much it would cost to dock the Lagoon 620 a few times.

We couldn’t find Tom so we stopped in the Horizon Yacht Charters sales office. A kind young lady gave us some brochures and pricing information and showed us to their fleet of monohulls. She left us on our own to inspect a few of them at our leisure.

On our way down the dock, back to our hotel room, we ran into Tom. He had a few minutes so he showed us the Swain Sailing School fleet of monohull sailboats and explained the advantages and disadvantages of each. It eventually came time for him to find his student and teach a sailing class. We had to gather our luggage and check out of our hotel room.

Warning: Nobody really knows what the ferry schedule is on Sundays in Tortola.

We asked the hotel receptionist what time the ferry to departed Road Town to Charlotte Amalie. She said, “11am and 1:30pm.” We asked the taxi driver and he said, “I think there’s only one at 11am.” The schedule at the taxi stand said 12:30pm and 2pm.

Okay, so our thought was that if we got to the Road Town ferry dock around 1pm that we should be able to catch the 1:30pm or 2pm ferry. We had talked to the taxi drivers at the taxi stand about getting a ride to the ferry. They would take us on the same trip as some other tourists that were departing at 12:15. That was a little earlier than we were expecting, but hey, we’d take it.

We thought we were going to have some time to grab lunch. Instead of having 45 minutes, we had about 10. We grabbed some lunch to go, and jumped into the taxi.

By the way, there is only a 2:30pm ferry on Sundays from Road Town to Charlotte Amalie. That is not the information  we wanted to find out when we arrived at the Road Town ferry dock. A 2:30pm ferry would get us to Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas at about 3:20pm-3:30pm. We had a cab to take to get from the Charlotte Amalie ferry dock to the St. Thomas airport. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 4:45pm. We usually like to get to the airport about 1.5 hours prior to an international flight. You know, customs can take a minute sometimes. It also meant that we had to wait around the Road Town ferry dock for 2 hours.

Can’t we just stay in the BVI and sail into the sunset?

Colors in the sky during sunset from Banana Keet in Tortola, British Virgin Islands

Colors in the sky during sunset from Banana Keet in Tortola, British Virgin Islands

We had 2 more hours of waiting around and an hour long ferry ride out on the water to lament going home. On top of all of that, we were going to be cutting it close on time for our flight.

We did end up making our flight…barely. We even had to get through the crowds of people going to a music festival on St. Thomas during our taxi ride to the airport.

I kept reminding Megan that our awesome dog, Barley, was at home waiting for our return. It was time to return to our lives as landlubbers for a few more years.

Our vacation was amazing! We were/are now captains! We have our Bareboat Cruising certifications. Our cruising plans are set even if in the sand at low tide. 2018 here we come!

Teddy

 

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About Teddy

I am a 37 year old that just wants to find a way to make a remote income, gather some Sail Loot and cruise the world! I have been sailing for a couple of years now, but mostly on 10 day trips as vacationing crew. I just recently took sailing to the next level by completing my Basic Keelboat, Basic Cruising, and Bareboat Cruising Certifications! I am also Vice President of a Medical Consulting Company, have a Mechanical Engineering degree from Georgia Tech, and have taken several Coding, Computing, and Online Business courses. It's time to share what I have learned!

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