Virgin Gorda, BVI's

Our crossing from Anguilla to the BVI's was near idyllic. We left Prickly Pear Cays at 7:00 p.m. under a full moon and calm seas. As it was going to be a night time crossing the girls and I split up the watches (to keep Ron company). Now I said it was near idyllic but the only thing we lacked was wind. Who would have thought that 12 knots of wind is not enough, but 12 knots directly behind us (dead run) didn't make for great sailing. We averaged about 4.5 knots and because we were sailing wing n wing, Ron had to hand steer to keep the sails full as we don't have a head sail pole or a gybe preventer. We arrived in the BVI's at 11:30 a.m. to Spanish Town, Virgin Gorda for clearing customs. As Ron readied himself to go and clear, the girls and I donned snorkels and jumped into the water to be met by a 3' barracuda. This concerned Alex & Jenessa enough to jump back out to wait and see if I survived. After a short period of time and after the barracuda had departed, they rejoined me for our swim. Our treasure finds were some wonderful conch shells that someone had dumped into the bay and were ours for the taking. When we were here in 2001 our favourite spot was a place called the "Baths". These are giant boulders that form lovely sun-filtered caverns filled with water. We left Moon Beam anchored just off of Spanish Town and went over in the dinghy. It was only about a 5 minute run. We are very happy with our bigger outboard motor. Back on Moon Beam while the girls attended some school work, Ron readied himself for scrubbing the hulls. In the water he was met by our resident barracuda. Now he didn't believe us when we told him it was about 3 feet, but when he was jumping back out of the water he tried to tell us it was at least 4 feet. We captured this picture of him on the transom while he was trying to figure out whether it was safe to go back in the water. The barracuda appear to like the shade of the multihull as well as a multitude of other fish. Ron did manage to get one hull scrubbed before his friend came back. Now when you read about barracuda they tell you that barracuda are not dangerous but when you look into that big mouth full of teeth, one doesn't get a sense of being too safe.