Wednesday, January 23, 2008

On to St. Maartin!. . . maybe

Tuesday-
Another morning of bashing about in confused seas to make the 6 miles from Road Town to Cooper Island. This should be the last up wind trip for a bit. We picked up a mooring ball and set to work on painting the white topsides (Scott) and a hunk of teak (Sue). Hot work out in the sun but the Deliverance boat came by! The deliverance boat is one of our fondest memories of chartering here 8 years ago. It is a power boat with everything you need inside - ice, beer, snacks, charcoal, pastries, etc. So we rewarded ourselves for our labors with a couple of Red Stripes and a bag of ice. Since we are just taking off again in the morning we decided to not re-launch the dingy but we’re sure that this was the place where we spent new year’s eve in 2000. We took a swim to cool off and then made olives/pasta and pea salad for dinner. A nice night. Full Moon too!



Wednesday-
Yea! We get to sail north instead of east! Another short hop to the north end of Beef Island where lies Trellis Bay and Marina Cay. Trellis bay has fun looking beach stuff so we decide to take a mooring ball there. Very crowded with boats but we found a ball easy enough. The best news of the day is from our weather god, Chirs Parker. This weekend the winds are finally going to moderate and even back a little to come out of the north east or even north-northeast. This gives us a beautiful window for a night sail to St. Maartin. We’re thinking of leaving Friday at sunset to arrive at St. Maartin the next morning. It’s about 80 miles from Virgin Gorda to St. Maartin. We could spend more time in BVI but we hate to pass up such a nice window. Besides, daughter Leah is arriving in St. Maartin on Feb 25. Never know when you're going to get pinned down for 2-3 weeks with high trades this time of year. If it turns out as Chris says this will be a perfect reach all the way to St. Maartin - set ‘em and forget ‘em! We’ll see. Next post could be from St. Maartin! Wheee!

Mismo photo of the day. She's sleeping in our bag of clean laundry. Good place to be when the boat is heeled.











Finally, here's a couple of links to some truly excellent photography by none other than Leah Welty-Rieger. The sample on the left is called Old Hands/New iPod. Enjoy. Link 1 Link 2

5 comments:

LeahC said...

remember when i'm there i would like mismo to stay small..maybe stop feeding her so much.

Thanks for the photo links!

Sally said...

I'm so sad, many of my friends will be in St Maartin while you are, and I won't! I'll send an e-mail with the story. Happy sailing!

Anonymous said...

Hi SCott and Sally,
Alexandra gave us your website. We have Mismo's brother onboard our boat. Please drop us a line. WWW.islandsiren.com
Kim Ron and Cate Mobley

Anonymous said...

Wow, what fun you are having,from calm blue water to rough grey white caps, enjoy, continue to enjoy your photos and reports, now iPod links,Stan&Judy from sunny, its finally going to rain So Cal.

Anonymous said...

IT IS GOOD TO KNOW THAT ALEX HAS FOUND GOOD PEOPLE FOR MISMO AND HER BROTHER. ALEX IS LIKE A NIECE TO ME AND SHE IS DOES LOVE ANIMALS. IT IS IMPORTANT FOR HER TO FIND GOOD HOMES FOR THE KITTENS. THANKS YOU FOR TAKING ON BOARD THESE DARLINGS.

VIV