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Don would be leading an 8 am parade through the narrow passage and onto Jost Van Dyke.
After a 7am snorkel, we had a small breakfast, and at 8 am sharp, I checked in with the Gambus (lead boat) on VHF Ch. 12, 'we are ready to go!'. The immediate reply came back, 'Copy that.' By the time I got up on deck, the lead boat went motoring by at a good clip, followed closely by the 5 other Flotilla boats. We quickly fired up the motor, untied from our mooring, and fell into line dead last. But what a spectacular sight we enjoyed from the rear. Our first rainbow sighting and the entire Flotilla, right in front of us.
See the video.
Once we got to open waters, just passed Monkey Point on Guana Island, we headed into the wind to raise our sails along with 3 other boats. We had a light, following wind and eventually furled our jib,but motored pretty much the whole way. To the north (off our starboard) we were exposed to the open Atlantic Ocean. For the first time, we experienced some ocean going swells, along with squalls in the distance, waves crashing along the shore, and another rainbow. I for one was enjoying the experience, seeing the power and beauty of nature. June, not so much. See the video.
At one point, June voiced her fear of a potential rogue wave swamping us. To help calm her fear, I made a point to say, if there were a very large wave, that Steve should turn, bow first into the wave. Only two or so waves later, Steve turns sharply into the wave and June loudly questions the bold maneuver. We had a good laugh, but are still not sure if Steve was experimenting, seriously thinking this wave was a concern, or just trying to get June going again. Probably a little of all three.
When arriving at Great Harbour on Jost Van Dyke, we decided to dingy over to White Beach and check out the snorkeling. This outing proved to be one of our most embarrassing. Earlier, Don told us to drop the small dingy anchor in 4 ft of water, fairly close to shore. We should have tossed it over and hoped that it would take hold. But we were so close to shore, and fearing a capsize, we all hopped out. Steve and I tried to wrestle the dingy beast in the surf, set the anchor, and pull up the motor, all at once. After 10 minutes or so of this, we gave up.
Down the beach, Sherlyn learned that some people had pulled their dingy up on shore. So we hopped back into the dingy and tried to restart the motor. Nothing. So we paddled out a piece and gave 'er another go. Nothing. I figured maybe the motor was flooded, so we paddled another 5 minutes or so and tried again. Nothing. Then, along comes a giant (60 ft or so) catamaran booze cruise hosting 59 kids. A dingy comes around the back of it with one of their crew driving, pulls up to us and asks, "where you going?" We explain our situation, he glances inside our dingy and pulls the wrist band 'kill switch' override from the floor and plugs it into the kill switch. I thought it was just a precaution, but apparently the motor won't even start unless it is on the switch. So on one pull, the motor starts, this kid raises his arms in the air like he had just won Olympic gold, and the booze cruise kids go crazy with cheers. We thanked him and sheepishly raced off to the beach.
Thankfully we landed on the beach semi-gracefully, and with help, pulled the dingy up on shore and tied it up to a fence. I later met the guy who saved us and bought him a beer. Turns out, 5 years ago Levi came to the BVI from the mid-west, having never seen the ocean, to escape a relationship gone bad. Good story and a good kid.
Levi joined the long list of sailors who saved our collective butts.
Steve ordered lunch at the Soggy Dollar beach/bar, and several beers later, it was finally ready. Good time.
Eventually, we launched the dingy without incident, and rode back around the point to Great Harbour. We were just in time to get cleaned up and head for shore to wander the island before the evening skipper's meeting and dinner at Foxy's.
Just before dinner, Don came to our table and asked if I had closed the boat hatches because it was starting to rain. I don't think so. He invited me to join him on a dingy tour around the harbor to close any open hatches on the Flotilla boats. I was treated to a professional boater racing around the boats and mooring balls. He has a technique of pulling up perfectly to the open transom and gassing the motor to press the dingy bow firmly against the transom, making it very easy to step in and out of the dingy. On the way back in the dark, I was stationed on the bow, and a little too slow to call out 'mooring ball'. Within a second, he had shut off and pulled up the motor. Wow! Once in, he showed me an easy and effective way to tie the dingy to a pier. By this time, the drizzle had stopped and we would not have rain again.
When we left the restaurant, once again with a few beers in us, we eventually found our boat. I announced that I wanted to show them this cool trick I had learned from Don. I took careful aim on our transom, and then crashed into it going way too fast. The bow went under the transom and Steve bounced off it. Fortunately unhurt, he turned and gave me his nastiest stink eye. Another disaster averted. From then on, whenever the dingy approached the boat to pull in, they would all warn me not to try the Don maneuver.
Steve always paid the price for my
sloppy dingy driving.
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