Monday morning, February 11th, was a frigid 5 degrees below zero in the Twin Cities as we left for the airport. Eight days later, Tuesday evening, the Twin Cities temperatures were way up to 2 degrees above, but with light snow and lots of wind. It was definitely a good time to be basking down in the Caribbean sun of the British Virgin Islands.
Friends Wayne and Cynthia LeBlanc from the Twin Cities, Hans and Ruth Deller from the Denver area, and the two of us did just that, spending a wonderful week together cruising the British Virgin Islands on a 41' Lagoon Catamaran from Pro Valor Charters. http://www.provalorcharters.com/index.php?pageid=29
We picked up our boat at Fat Hogs Bay on Tortola, less than 5 minutes from the BVI's Beef Island Airport. After provisioning on Tuesday we started our circuit with a SSW power reach to Peter Island (the SE trade winds strutted their stuff almost non-stop while we were there, consistently holding in the 20's to give us plenty of wind to go wherever we wanted).
If anyone tries to tell you that cats don’t sail well, or at least don’t sail well to weather, don’t believe them. This may be true of some Catamaran designs, but like Hans and Ruth’s prior Privilege 49’, the Lagoon 41 we chartered this year sailed extremely well. We were able to point as high as most of the monohulls we sailed near, sometimes higher, and always faster unless they were much larger. As we’ve often said in the past, if you’re thinking about chartering with friends in the Caribbean, don’t even think about a monohull. The performance of a good catamaran, coupled with the spacious accommodations and privacy a cat provides, offer a combination that just can't be beat.
On Wednesday we tacked NE up the Sir Francis Drake Channel to Gorda Sound on the north end of Virgin Gorda, picking up a Bitter End Yacht Club mooring ball and dining at Saba Rock that evening. After some make-shift sail repairs Thursday morning, we sailed a close reach in near-perfect conditions up to Anegada for Lobster on at the beach restaurant on Thursday night, followed by a day of beach exploring on Friday. Friday night we celebrated Hans' 66th birthday aboard, complete with a wonderful dinner and birthday cake with a singing candle (see photo).
Saturday we raised anchor and sailed back down to the North end of Tortola for some snorkeling off Monkey Pt., and then proceeded further eastward to Brewers Bay (opposite Jost Van Dyke) to anchor for the evening.
Sunday brought off and on rain showers, so we powered around West End to Soper's Hole and Pusser's for lunch and a few Pain Killers, followed by a comfortable beat up-wind to Norman Island after the skies cleared.
On Monday after a brisk 1 1/2 hour hike up the hills of Norman for some panoramic views of the surrounding channels (sorry, I forgot to bring my camera for the hike), we had another brisk upwind sail up to the Marina Cay area, where we anchored in one of Hans & Ruth's secret spots off Great Camanoe Island. The attached shots show Wayne checking our anchor for the evening, and a sting ray on the bottom near the boat (unfortunately I missed snapping the ray as he swam off a second later).
That evening we dingied in to Marina Cay to catch the Michael Bean "Happy Arrr" show, with dinner at Pusser's after. During the show, both Hans and Bill won shots of rum during the high-energy non-stop one man band performance. Bean's two-hour show was filled with 
sea stories, jokes, sing-a-longs which he led with guitar, harmonica, concertina, and the ever-present "drumming" with his feet on a case of Heineken, all liberally interspersed with audience interaction, musical participation, and his uniquely famous "pirate toasts". Wow, could that man get the crowd going. Amazing!
Unfortunately by Tuesday morning our week had all too quickly drawn to a close. Hans & Ruth dropped us off at nearby Trellis Bay at 10:00am, where we walked the block or so to the airport terminal from the dingy dock (pretty convenient, don't you say?). Hans and Ruth, ever smarter than we are, stayed in the islands for a 2nd week, catching up with the many BVI friends they made while spending nearly 10 years in the skippered charter business here.
It was tough leaving Beef Island for the Twin Cities, but hopefully we'll be back in a couple years with our own boat. At that time we luckily won't have to return to ccccold Minnesota after only week. For this year, however, we were indeed fortunate to be able to enjoy yet another fabulous week in the Caribbean ... warm weather, beautiful waters, and wonderful sailing, all in the company of some of our closest friends. Life is good!
Note: In addition to the pictures contained in this blog entry, check out the 2008 BVI Photo Album link on the main blog page for more shots from the trip.
