BVI 2007 – Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Reedit of BVI Montage

steve — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:26:57 +0000

9 weeks to go – gotta do something. So I’ve reedited the video montage of our last trip, added a couple of extra clips and put on a soundtrack.

Enjoy

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qokse39-JGY[/youtube]

Another video from BVIs

steve — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 11:48:59 +0000

Been playing around with plugins for WordPress. One makes inserting video into posts a lot simpler. Here is a montage which I don’t think I posted before.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouuyXWM_4i8[/youtube]

I have also categorised each post that contains a video link (with the category Video) to facilitate quick location of all video content.

Google Tracks and Pictures

steve — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 07:40:29 +0000

Here is a Google Earth track of our trip. You may need to zoom in a bit to see it.

And here are our pictures – three albums, one for each week.

June 22^nd to June 29^th
June 30^th to July 6^th
July 7^th to July 14^th

Next trip to BVIs

steve — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 05:00:38 +0000

Dignity is still heading west. She should be in the BVIs by the end of the month. Nothing to stop her now.

We have booked the week of Presidents Day in Feb next year to come down and see Dignity. I have a hunch she’ll have arrived by then.

Day 22 – Going Home

steve — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Our flights aren’t until this afternoon so it’s a slow day of packing and getting rid of unwanted consumables. At the beginning of our trip we were given leftovers from other charterers. We will hand on what we have left. In total, we have cover 320 miles in Gato Chateau this trip. I have all the GPS tracks except for a section day 1 when the GPA switched itself off. I will be posting the tracks when I can get round to processing them (not today I think).

… later …

Home. Back home that usual feeling of never having been away creeps in. Some things feel different. Rooms feel a little bigger. The shower is intense. Time to sleep.

Day 21 – The Indians, Nanny Cay

steve — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 07:34:15 +0000

Our last full day began with Ben and I heading back to Willy T’s to see if we could find his tee-shirt that Ben had lost in the water the previous evening. We both saw the tee-shirt as soon as we jumped in and Ben was able to dive down and get it. There was no rush today as we did not have far to travel. Around 10:30 we motored about half a mile to a less windy mooring so we could grill the last burgers and a few sausages for lunch. Turned out to be not to bad a snorkeling spot as well.

After lunch we motored over to The Indians where we had our last dive. This was our final dip in the water. This was a great finale as the marine life was abundant. The whole area was inundated with bait fish with larger fish and herons having their fill.

The final sail back to Nanny Cay was less than 5 miles and was over very quickly. While we were sad this was the beginning of the end of our trip, we were all very much looking forward to the showers at Nanny Cay which were the best we’ve come across.

Day 20 – Peter Island, Willy T’s

steve — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 07:31:49 +0000

We decided to go to Willy T’s a day early and spend our final night in Marina Cay so there is no rush Saturday morning. We sailed from Cane Garden Bay to the south side of Norman Island. This involved going out into the unprotected seas which we first did back in the USVIs – a long time ago it seems. We didn’t like the look of or the approach to the beach we were heading for so we skipped it and headed to White Bay on Peter Island. This trip blew our previous record out to 30 miles for a single trip. All accomplished in under 4 hours. We ate lunch here, snorkeled and walked the beach. On the way back to the boat there was some interesting sea life to observe. There was a large barracuda skulking beneath the boat – John saw two more nearby. I saw the biggest Eagle Ray I have ever seen. There was also a battalion of squid hanging out nearby. Around 4 we motored round to The Bight in Norman Island. Checking in with Willy T’s we discovered they were only taking cash that evening. We therefore went to Pirates on the other side of the bay for cocktails and appetizers. We then dinghied back to Willy T’s where we had main course, more drinks and dancing. Don’t know how it worked out but we didn’t quite run out of cash.

While aboard Willy T’s we met Bonnie and Brian from Radio Flyer. An interesting couple. Hope to meet them again sometime.

Ben lost $25 over board of which he was able to rescue the $20 by diving in. He also lost a tee-shirt which he could not recover. We have planned a search and recovery mission in the morning for the missing tee-shirt and possibly even the $5.

Day 19 – Cane Garden Bay

steve — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 07:30:52 +0000

This morning we sailed to Cane Garden Bay. This was our longest leg of the trip to date. 21.7 miles which we accomplished in just under 3 hours – mooring to mooring. Cane Garden Bay was packed with escapees from two cruise ships but they inevitably had to leave. We ate ashore at Myatt’s. We were shown the food before it was cooked which was good. We were also told we could have combos which most of us did. What we didn’t realize was that the combos were basically two meals piled on top of each other and cost practically twice as much. We were well fed that night but the wallet wasn’t happy. That evening we had a lot of rain. We had to wait it out to return back to the boat and it meant we had to sleep with the ports shut. A stuffy night for all.

Day 18 – The Baths again

steve — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 07:18:09 +0000

It’s amazing where you can find an internet connection. Here we are off Cooper Island and there’s an unsecure link to the internet. Had a nice chat with Dave and his crew aboard Martha R (another Lagoon 420) this morning. 8 adults aboard and it looked more roomy than our current 3 foot longer cat. We’re still very happy with our choice.

Off to The Baths shortly

… later …

Nice day back on Virgin Gorda. It started with an upwind sail to The Baths where we moored off Devil’s Bay. Leaving John aboard the rest of us walked into Spanish Town. This was a walk we had taken a number of times back in 2002 when we stayed near The Baths on our diving vacation. It was interesting to see how much we had forgotten.

Back at The Baths Ben and Sam went rock climbing and Helen and I went snorkeling. Once we were all back on the boat, we shifted Gato Chateau around the corner where it was less rolly so we could have a late afternoon BBQ of chicken, sausages and burgers.

We then sailed down to Peter Island where we moored in Sprat Bay. We had arrangements with the dive company that they would hail us and pick us up their for a night dive if all was well. Unfortunately we didn’t hear from them so that was off. We spent the evening walking around Peter Island resort where we were mostly under dressed to enter places. Nevertheless it was a beautiful resort.

Day 18 – Rocks

sam — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Today we decided to head back to Virgin Gorda to visit the Baths. We walked to Spanish Town first, and it was then that my knee was really inflamed and painful again. But I didn’t let that stop me from climbing on the rocks for a few hours. Ben and I went back on the rock path that we saw the Ghost of the Rock Lady, but there was no ghost. Instead we saw what seems to be evidence of a caveman. We saw recently burnt campfires, conch shells that were smashed open by a large smooth rock, and rather huge caves that seem like a comfy habitat. But anyway, we did that for a few hours, got boiling hot and our feet sore, and went back to the boat for a BBQ. We were planning on going for a night dive on the Rhone, but we were ditched. We later went to the beach which apparently was too good for us. We needed a collared shirt and shoes to be worthy enough to be a customer. Also the stay was expensive too, but at least they had free showers that came with shampoo and conditioner. Hey, at least this place was good for something.