Well, we hit Anegada Island today! It was the trip across the sea from Virgin Gorda that was possibly not going to happen. Originally, at the beginning of the charter the weather forecast was for 24 knot winds and 8-foot swells. It was a trip we would not have taken if not for the good graces of the shift in patterns. Apparently, the storm hit us yesterday, leaving today a delightful One Tack hold for 3 hours until we saw land. Yes, Anegada is so flat you can't see it from your house when 10 miles away. We intestinally set our alarms for 7am so as not to miss the window for the trip. When it went off, we were on a speed mission to brew some coffee, then some more coffee while we prepared to leave the mooring ball.
When we were moving out of the bay, there was a flotilla of boats surrounding us in the channel. They had the same goal for the day. We checked the mooring-ball reservations and they had already been filled. Filled by these a-holes leaving the gates of Virgin Gorda with us. We decided that even if we couldn't reserve a mooring-ball, we would attempt an anchorage somewhere. But the task for the day was to sail over to the island and snack on some lobster.
As I mentioned, the winds were blowing from the east, and the island was near 11 miles away due north. All we had to do was set a direct course and hopefully hit the island in a few hours. For the last couple days, we were at Reef-2 on our sails (for strong winds 18-24 knots). Today it was not as stormy, so we reefed the sails to Reef-1. This would give us more power, and not leave us so far behind the other boats already rushing to get the good anchorage.
It was a solid trip with 17 knot winds, so it was very manageable. The next task, when we arrived, was to navigate the shallow channels to the mooring field. The depth gauge was reading very shallow. Sometimes it would say 0-depth; but that can't be right. We'd be sending an SOS from crashing the reefs if that were so. It was determined our depth-gauge was not at all accurate, so we just had to trust the channel markers.
When we hit the mooring field, as expected, all the reserved balls were taken. But low and behold, there were a lot of "First come, first served" balls ready for the taking. We grabbed on, and then the day started on the island.
We walked around the beach and all the facilities. We made reservations for "The Lobster Trap" for dinner in advance since we did not want to miss out on that. After that, Sandra had the Snorkel bug. There weren't any of these spots around our boat, so we rented a scooter to navigate the island and find the spot where Sandra could snorkel, and I could park my Transylvanian skin in a dark shady spot. The scooter was fun; never road one before. Another first is I've never driven on the left side of the road; except for that time in college, but that was illegal in 4 different ways. But here in the BVI's, everybody's doing it.
We rode down what felt like a very dilapidated concrete driveway for 5 miles or such. And Sandra was able to partake in the dark art of fish snooping. There was a cantina at the beach where I sat and listened to some tunes while watching the ocean and sipping my beer.
When that was over, we rode to the other end of the island to another beach and snorkel spot and repeated the exact same routine. Soon, it was time to turn our scooter back in and ready ourselves for dinner.
We quickly got back to the boat, changed, and motored the dingy to the restaurant. Here! We feasted on lobster and shrimp until we eventually had to get back to the boat (in the dark). Sandra was at the bow, with the phone-flashlight on, while she found our boat in the dark mooring field.
What a day! Tomorrow, we are leaving up in the air as to whether we spend another day here or sail off to another island.