Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Started off pretty lame. We went to this harbor where we had to check in to the USVI’s. The water was dirty, and there was litter everywhere. God bless America. So we went through the whole paper work stuff (well, Dad did). We then went for a quick walk around the area where we then went to get some supplies. It was fun pushing shopping carts packed with food and beer across town to get back to our boat. Later on we sailed to a different bay to snorkel and such. We also saw a magnificent sunset that evening. It had giant beams of red light shining over the horizon under the pink and orange clouds. Best sunset ever.

The morning began with John and I dinghying over to the main dock. John took the trash (rubbish) and I sat down outside the customs office. John joined me briefly before walking round the bay to the ferry terminal. (Don’t get a picture in mind of a seaside town – Great Harbour really is just a bay with a few restaurants and a couple of buildings.) I was dreading the cost of checking out as I’d seen a professional skipper check in and out and it cost him nearly $200. In the end I only had to pay $2 which I still don’t understand as there was a clearly stated exit fee of $5 per person. Even John paid this on the ferry. There was a large form to fill in which I later learned I could have done on the boat had I had the forethought to collect it early.

It was an easy sail over to Cruz Bay, St John from Jost Van Dyke and we were there within 90 minutes. We anchored in a temporary location while we cleared in and checked with the parks office. Clearing in took a bit more form filling but was otherwise smooth. We then went back to the boat to find an anchorage close to town. Our guide stated there were places to anchor but after three attempts, there really wasn’t any room. We anchored just off a reef to kill a little time while we waited for John to arrive. I was able to briefly acquire an internet connection and was able to upload Sam’s and my logs but not all the pictures. At about the time John’s ferry was due to arrive we up anchored and headed back to the temporary anchoring area. We met up easily enough and all went for a walk around town. The town itself was very much the most bustling place we have visited this vacation.





We lunched then went to the supermarket to reprovision. Back on the boat we motored out of town and went round the corner to Trunk Bay where we moored for the evening. The guidebook said this could be a rolly overnight spot but we stayed anyway. There was no one else there so it was great to have the place to ourselves.



Sam, John and I snorkeled for a while. I saw 4 turtles including one which had lost a rear flipper. Sunset was spectacular. After the sun had set we saw rays of red light streaming over the horizon. I reckoned this was the sun being occluded by mountains on Puerto Rico some 60-160 miles away.



As we had very little ambient light an no other boats around us, we finished the night off with stargazing. We managed to catch a few shooting stars and pick out a few orbital debris / satellites. Today marks the halfway point through our vacation. It already feels like an eternity. Looking forward to the second half. By the way – Ben’s poison ivy rash on his ankles has improved substantially. He’s fully fit and will be able to scuba dive with us when we get back to the BVIs.

We sailed around to some islands as usual, but there is this one place called the Soggy Dollar Bar. It gets its name from the fact that you have to swim to get to the shore. We went there, i had some of their “famous painkillers” and it was pretty good. Later on we went to an island where the others walked, but my knee pains started to kick in again so i decided to rest it while i read my book. Later on we went to a place called Foxy’s, which was fun the last time we went there because it had good music and dancing and such. This time it was just like a regular restaurant, but the food was really good. We later made plans to go to the USVI’s, so we were getting prepped for KFC’s and McDonalds on every corner.

We left our mooring fairly early this morning to make our way over to Sandy Cay. We were the first boat there and it was nice to have the island to ourselves. There is a path that leads all the way around the island which was a nice walk. At the end of our walk to attempted but failed to find a geocache. Everytime we got near to where my GPS said the cache was, it would suddenly point to another 30-40 feet away. In the end we gave up. A quick sail got us over to White Bay, the home of the Soggy Dollar Bar which claims to have originated the “Painkiller” – a rather morish cocktail served aplenty around here. We quaffed morning “Painkillers” and the insubstantial pains we had, melted away. Helen and I walked up the beach and bumped into the couple we had met the day before on the way to the “Bubbly Pool.” We chatted and exchanged emails. Around 2 we motored round to Great Harbour where, this evening, we plan to dine and wine at Foxy’s. A fun and usually lively spot.

We’ve kind of worked out our plans for visiting the USVIs. Leah is desperate for US soil so we’d better go. Due to visa reasons, John has to go there by ferry. He’ll catch the ferry from here to West End, Tortola tomorrow morning and from there take a ferry to Cruz Bay, St John. By then, hopefully we’ll have sailed the shorter direct distance and checked in with customs and immigration. We’ll stay a few days then head back to West End Tortola where we’ll stay 2-3 nights basing some scuba diving out of that port.

Yeah don’t drink a hell of a lot right before a day of sailing. Bad idea. I was just flopping around on deck, useless as an appendix. At least I slept a lot, and drank a lot of water. I was more or less sorted. Read a lot of my book “Confessions of a Dope Dealer” which is a fun read. Ate spaghetti bolognaise that night. More chilling and reading afterwards.