11/5/2011
When you look forward to returning to a place before you even leave, then you know it possesses a bit of magic! My last blog was from Marina Cay, from where we planned to pop over to Spanish Town, and check out, to start our return trip to Grenada. The pilot book indicated that Customs would be closed on Easter Friday, so we went over on the Thursday, and checked out, indicating that we would be departing early on Saturday from North Sound. 
Once again, books are wrong, and bureaucracy steps in to ruin the best made plans of mice and men! They informed us that we could not do that as it would be more than 12 hours after we checked out! “But you will be closed tomorrow”, we say by way of explanation. No, we will be open, so you must come back tomorrow and pay overtime because it’s a public holiday! “But we were going up to North Sound later today, to leave from there!” No you must come back here to check out first!
There was only really one choice…. to lie! “OK,” we say, “We will still check out now, go on up to North Sound, and leave tonight!” We did not think that there was any chance of the coast guards being active over Easter, and in any case we could always develop a little mechanical or health crisis to explain the 48 hr delay, if necessary!
So we returned to North Sound, and spent 3 more glorious days , enjoying the crystal clear water, and preparing the boat for the return leg. Even our resident giant Barracuda seemed to welcome us back, but he is a bit off putting when it comes to swimming around ones boat!
We had spotted an 18hr window of light NE winds, which would avoid us having to bash into the normal prevailing SE winds for the 80 odd miles to St Martin. We left on Sunday at 8.00h, with two other yachts for company, passing
Richard Branson’s pad (Necker Island) on the way out, and ended up motor sailing in 10 knots at 30-40degs to the wind. All three of us caught a fish along the way, and we were thrilled to boat a decent sized Dorado.
When cleaned and filleted, it made up 16 lovely portions, and we calculated that at the prevailing BVI restaurant prices ($15), that the fish was worth R1680 to us!
We anchored in Marigot Bay at midnight, ending our BVI trip on a high!
Once again, books are wrong, and bureaucracy steps in to ruin the best made plans of mice and men! They informed us that we could not do that as it would be more than 12 hours after we checked out! “But you will be closed tomorrow”, we say by way of explanation. No, we will be open, so you must come back tomorrow and pay overtime because it’s a public holiday! “But we were going up to North Sound later today, to leave from there!” No you must come back here to check out first!
There was only really one choice…. to lie! “OK,” we say, “We will still check out now, go on up to North Sound, and leave tonight!” We did not think that there was any chance of the coast guards being active over Easter, and in any case we could always develop a little mechanical or health crisis to explain the 48 hr delay, if necessary!
So we returned to North Sound, and spent 3 more glorious days , enjoying the crystal clear water, and preparing the boat for the return leg. Even our resident giant Barracuda seemed to welcome us back, but he is a bit off putting when it comes to swimming around ones boat!
We had spotted an 18hr window of light NE winds, which would avoid us having to bash into the normal prevailing SE winds for the 80 odd miles to St Martin. We left on Sunday at 8.00h, with two other yachts for company, passing
Richard Branson’s pad (Necker Island) on the way out, and ended up motor sailing in 10 knots at 30-40degs to the wind. All three of us caught a fish along the way, and we were thrilled to boat a decent sized Dorado.
When cleaned and filleted, it made up 16 lovely portions, and we calculated that at the prevailing BVI restaurant prices ($15), that the fish was worth R1680 to us!We anchored in Marigot Bay at midnight, ending our BVI trip on a high!
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