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American Spirit II - Day 464; We Arrive in the BVI, Suffer an Engine Breakdown & Tour the Island with Joe; Wednesday, April 15, 2015



One year ago today:



"Day 102; Trip to Passe de Avatoru, Stephen's Dive in Passe de Avatoru, Beach Party and Getting Ready to Depart; Tuesday, April 15, 2014. Stephen's dive trip to Passe de Avatoru was eventful, as he saw and swam with 4 dolphins, a 6 -7 foot silver tip shark and a school of barracuda. Stephen mentioned to his dive guide that we were planning the other night to do a night snorkel of The Aquarium, and he (the guide) indicated that really big sharks come into the pass and The Aquarium area, even the 'shallow' side of The Aquarium; and that subsequently going into the water there would be dangerous. He also said To Dive didn't do night dives because of the liability involved."



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Relieved Darlene at 6:04 AM. The sun rose at 6:07 AM, but the horizon was cloudy so no green flash. The wind is 17 knots and we're sailing at 6.2 knots thru the water and 7.3 knots over the land.



At 6:30 AM I rolled out more mainsail to the first reef. Our speed increased half a knot.



At 6:34 AM I sighted Virgin Gorda 24 nautical miles away. Land Ho! Joel and Darlene are still asleep so I have no competition in sighting land first.



At 7:10 AM the wind is 12 knots and we're sailing at 7.1 knots thru the water and 7.3 knots over the land. The wind is just forward of the beam, which has been a rare event on this circumnavigation. A rare event we don't like.



At 7:37 AM I sight 'Round Rock,' which my electronic navigation says we must keep to starboard. It is 15.1 miles away. I 'drill down' on my Navionics on my I Pad and read a warning about Round Rock, which says 'Do not attempt to pass to the north of Round RK.' A symbol for a shipwreck is located next to Round Rock on the chart. By 'drill down' I mean that there are dangers on an electronic chart that you can't see unless you zoom in. I think that's what happened to the Volvo race yacht that ran aground in the Mauritius islands last year. They forgot to drill down and see that reef they hit. That's why whenever we're sailing to a waypoint, we always follow our proposed tract line and zoom in the whole way, looking for 'drill down surprises' along the way. Coral and fiberglass don't go well together. Go figure.



I turn the generator off at 8:26 AM.



At 9:52 AM we enter Round Rock passage. Joel and Darlene are up by now. I turn on the motor as we're going to roll up the sails because we have only about 4 miles to our marina. Once the engine is turned on, Joel and I notice that it sounds different. Joel tells me to turn the engine off right away. I do so and we put some sails out to sail again. Joel says that we either have seaweed blocking the water intake or we blew an impeller. After lifting up the steps and sticking his head into the engine compartment, Joel says its probably an impeller. The impeller looks like a paddle wheel with 12 paddles. Its made of hard rubber and is 2-3 inches in diameter. We have to empty out the port lazarette, and then dig into the hidden storage area, to find the white box holding the 2 spare engine impellars. The good news is that this happened in the daytime and when Joel is awake; because he knew what the problem was right away. If we'd kept motoring, we would have been running the engine with no water going thru it and the engine would have overheated. Not good. By 10:20 AM, 28 minutes later, a new impeller is installed and the engine is running again at 10:25 AM. There is a reason that Joel's 'handle' on the boat is 'The Fixer.'



We put all the stuff we'd taken out away, roll up the sails, again, and then blow up our boat fenders which we'll need when we dock in Spanish Town at the Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour. Once in the marina we are directed to a slip by 'Mario.' I back into the slip, which I do poorly the first two tries. Then success. At least the wind isn't blowing a lot in the shelter of the marina. The difficulty in backing a boat into a marina slip or a med-moor, is that you have to do so fast to maintain steerage. That's scary because when you go to stop the boat by putting it into 'forward' again, if the boat doesn't go into forward, then you're in big (expensive) trouble. A concrete dock isn't forgiving to fiberglass. Once we're in the berth we find out that the power is American and not European. Wow!. Impressive. We'll not only be able to charge our boat batteries we'll have AC, also.



On the dock Mike and Annette walk by and we learn that they're on a boat that sailed on the 'Canaries ARC,' from the Canary Islands to St. Lucia in November. They ask if we know Andrew and Jane and Harry from Hebe and Tim and Claire from Ghost, and we say we do. Small world.



Once we're tied up and the power is on, we celebrate our arrival with a Captain Morgan. Then breakfast at 12:30 PM, which consists of bacon, 3 eggs, cut up potato and Cinnamon bread. Darlene has a piece of bacon on brown bread with mayonnaise.



At 2:30 PM I clear in Immigration and Customs. The charge is $11.50 US. The clearing facility is a short walk away, maybe 200 yards. After clearing in I check in to the marina office and am told that the charge per night is $1.33 per foot, or $53.20. That's expensive compared to the marina's we've stayed in around the world; but its normal for the Caribbean.



At 3:35 PM we jump in a taxi driven by 'Joe,' and start an hour long tour of the island. Joe tells us that the island has 6,000 people living on it; and that the season lasts from December thru March; and that once the yachts leave in April, there is really little to do on the island until the next season starts next December. Joe's taxi is unusual in that the steering column is on the wrong side of his van. Its located on the left side like in America; yet we're driving on the left and the steering column should be on the right. As we drive around, and as I found out earlier by walking to Customs and Immigration, there are a lot of chickens, roosters and chicks walking around. Joe says that they are 'wild,' meaning no one owns them. We're amazed that the cats on the island don't eradicate them, but then, we don't see any cats. That might be a first. No cats. Joe also tells us that even though we're in the British Virgin Islands, the currency in usage is the US dollar; and that even ATM's dispense US dollars and not UK pounds. That's a first; being in a country where the currency of primary usage is not the currency of the mother country.



Our tour takes us to Gorda Peak, 1,370 feet above sea level. We don't actually go to the top of the peak but to a viewing stand overlooking the Bitter End anchorage. The anchorage is beautiful, and has 100 sailing and motor vessels anchored in it. Joel says that Darlene and he were there 15 years ago when they chartered a sailboat in the BVI. We also go to the Copperpointe Mine ruins, which a sign tells us is the only location around where the UK Industrial Revolution had a process built.



We're back at the boat by 4:36 PM. The cost of the tour is $65 US. I give Joe $70. We stop by an ice cream parlor and have a taste. At $4.00 a scoop its expensive ice cream.



Dinner at 6:30 PM is blackened chicken cooked on our propane grill by chef Joel; corn-on-the-cob rolled in tin foil and cooked on the grill; home made French fries; and 5 bean mix. We were going to have garlic bread with dinner also, but someone (me) forgot to put the bread in the oven. Oops. Joel has a red wine and I have a white wine with dinner. There is no green flash opportunity tonight as an island is blocking the sunset.



From 7:30 PM to 9:19 PM I type two logs. Joel is reading and Darlene goes to bed at 8:45 PM. Once done with the logs I try to send them out using the marina Wifi, but I'm not successful. I then try to do so using Joel's 'hot spot,' but again I'm not successful. I can't wait to get home where internet and Wifi actually work and work fast.



I go to bed at 9:30 PM, as I've been up since 6:00 AM and haven't had a nap today. Joel is still reading when I go to bed.



Brian Fox


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