Beef Island, BVI
Trellis Bay
18.26.848N
64.31.891W

After a leisurely breakfast, we hoisted our anchor and left Charlotte Amalie Harbor and eased our way out into the ocean. We tried to radio Gate and Darby on Nicolino but no one answered. Dale made a quick check to make sure the dripless seal was still dripless and then off we went.

The winds were light, so we were forced to motor all of the way to Beef Island. Once into the Sir Francis Drake Channel, the wind picked up a bit and we were able to unfurl our jib to add another knot to our speed. At one point, we were making about 9 kts. over the ground in the relatively flat seas. We weren’t really sailing but I enjoyed our transit in the sunshine where we passed two “races”. One with spinnakers (the big colorful sails) and the other was with little day sailers.

We pulled into Trellis Bay about 2 pm and easily found a mooring ball. I was entertained throughout the remainder of the day by a hawksbill turtle who would poke his head out of the water to give us a cross eyed look. I snapped a picture of him during one of his circles around us and wondered which one of us was on display.

Several young boys on the charter boat next to us caught a small shark on their fishing line. They brought it up to the back of their boat, called for a camera, posed with it and then released it back into the harbor.

When dusk fell, we went in for dinner at The Last Resort and met Dave and Joanne who were chartering for the first time in the BVI’s. Though we sat at different tables, we enjoyed a conversation with them throughout the evening.

Tomorrow we’ll make our way to the Bitter End in Virgin Gorda where we’ll wait for a weather window to make an overnight crossing to St. Martin.