This day could arguably be considered the last true day of sailing. We have one more night on the water, and then the following day we'll have to motor in by 3pm and spend the night in the charter harbor. This is necessary as we have an early morning ferry to catch on the 26th to bring us back to the states.
But today was to be a BIG day on the water. We left Jost Van Dyke and 9am, and realized we were out of coffee. Opps, someone forgot to pick that up at the last stop. We also were out of beer, pop and beer. So, we sailed out a bit (maybe an hour and a half), then swung into a cool little place called Soper's Hole. We were informed there was a "Transition Dock" where we could pull up and run in for groceries then be on our way.
We navigated a very crowded marina to locate the dock. It wasn't so straight forward, but we found a T-dock and assumed it was the place. The (T) end was completely empty, so it was a good opportunity to "Practice" docking the boat. All lines were prepared, fenders out, and my ears tucked back for the run. We gently came up to it, slowly, steadily. At the last moment, I turn the bow off the dock and BOOM! Nothing. It all went perfectly. We stepped off the gangway all calm and secured the boat. Hope all the future ones go this smooth.
We spent about an hour at this "Transitional" dock, having lunch before we headed out. We didn't feel that guilty, as some guy came out at the start and asked for $10 to park there. He said he'd be back with the receipt, but he never did. We took our time, as we could always say we were waiting for our receipt. Once done, we sauntered out the way we came.
Now out of Sopher's Hole, we set sails. The weather was perfect today, and the wind was a nice 16-knots. We were in between BVI and USVI. We toyed all along the international boundaries while we tacked up wind to where we would spend our last night in bays. We spent 6 hours sailing this day and was probably our best day out.
We found a bay around dead man’s bay (point, cove, ?), and attempted to grab a mooring ball, but they were someone "Out of Order"? We couldn't lift the ring, and the lead ropes were cut. We surmised that they did not want folks hooking up to these balls, so we shifted to the other side of the cove and found one. No one came out to ask for the usual $40, so we had a free night for once.