Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

A fairly early start had us sailing away from Anegada back to Marina Cay via The Dogs. At the Dogs I dropped Ben, Sam and Leah off on a beach so they could explore for a bit. John and I did some snorkeling. Lunch was sandwiches. We were due to meet our friends at Marina Cay but unfortunately one of them was sick and they were anchored near Road Town with the intention to see a doctor. Perhaps we can meet up later during our trip.

Today kicked off with us dinghying over to the dock, refueling the dinghy, arranging a clinic appointment for Ben and the picking up a pick up truck to drive around Anegada. First stop was the clinic for Ben where he was examined and prescribed 4 separate medications to help relieve his condition and head off possible infection. The total cost of the visit and medication was $56 – a fraction of what it would cost in the US. Once Ben was sorted we drove off to an out of the way spot with a beach restaurant called “Flash of Beauty” at the east end of Loblolly Bay. We had lunch there (mainly cheeseburgers) and snorkeled. We then drove round to the west end of Loblolly Bay where we spent several hours just lazing about and occasionally swimming. Final stop was Cow Wreck Bay where we hunted down and found a geocache. We met some nice people there and had a good chat before heading off back to the boat. Evening meal was on land at the Anegada Reef ‘Hotel’ where three of us (Sam, Ben and I) had delicious lobster and the rest had ribs or fish. Great way to celebrate my birthday. 43 today.

The sail over to Anegada was quite exhilarating. As is usually the case, quite a few boats left around the same time and as we were all heading to the same waypoint at the entrance to the passage through the reef we were in something of a line. At Anegada there are a finite number of mooring balls at various distances from the restaurants / landings. So it was a race for those in the know. Gato Chateau showed her speed. We set off fourth and arrived first. I suspect two of the boats were navigating by chart and did not take into consideration current or leeway as they were heading about 5 degrees off course and had to make the distance at the end. My GPS was able to project true course so we were able to line up on the corrected heading. For most of the passage, wind speeds were in the predicted 15-20 knot range so we sailed around 8-9 knots. At one point during the passage we hit a minor squall which brought us 35 knot winds which propelled us at 14 knots for the duration. We also got very wet. Having picked up a decent mooring, Sam, Leah, John and I went for a walk along the beach while Helen prepared sandwiches and Ben continued to rest. The afternoon was a lazy one with reading and sleeping. I dinghied Sam over to the beach so he could see if his friends were there. They were only on a day trip and had already gone to a different part of the island. Evening meal was on the boat and it was curry. All went to bed fairly early.