I'm back after spending three weeks in the Caribbean.
I spent most of the time in the USVI and about 4 days
in the BVI including an excursion to Anegada.

I did discovered a pristine anchorage on one island that
I'd hope to explore. I'd been studying this anchorage for
a while and a asked a friend of mine who owns property
on the island about it. I've never seen anyone go in there.

There are two dangerous looking reefs at the entrance,
and while I by-passed it once, the winds were light and
favorable my second time past it and I discovered that
it a near perfect anchorage with a sandy bottom around
10 to 15 feet deep. The charts did not show the depth
and I was planning to swim in to see if it was deep enough
but conditions were so ideal that I planned to motor in very
slowly. When I arrived there were two boats anchored, so
I was both surprised and re-assured about going in. One
fellow told me he sailed over to this spot many times. It
appears though that he is one of the rare few that use it.

Wildlife included the biggest Manta Ray I've ever seen
-over 5 feet across and with a tail another 5-6 feet long
-both together gave it a length of 10 feet or more. It was
big and as the water was deep I wonder if I misjudged the
size. I didn't' see any Hawksbill Sea Turtles in the bay
but my friends did, and I saw plenty of those animals
elsewhere. Of the two reefs protecting the bay, one was
fabulous while the other was mediocre. The nicer one
was shallow enough to allow close up snorkeling without
any diving. I probably spent at least three hours swimming
all over the bay. I rated it the best snorkeling I've seen in
the Virgins. If anyone wants to know where it is located,
you will have to give me a call, because this is not a
harbor I want to see exploited and ruined by the masses.

I participated in the St Thomas Rolex Regatta. Our boat
had been dismasted two weeks prior and we missed the
first day's racing, and opted out on flying a spinnaker due
to concerns of the owner, which put us last in the fleet's
two races (mostly downhill) the second day. The third day
was a disappointment, in that we'd dropped out of the
spinnaker class and were doing very well in the
non-spinnaker class but had to drop out of the one 21
mile long race on Sunday because half the crew had
schedule early flights back to the States.

I wanted to try out an IC-24 and even brought my own
spinnaker to use with me. Unfortunately, despite multiple
emails with the Bitter End Yacht Club, the person running
their sailing program failed to provide the balance of the
equipment I'd requested--the spinnaker pole, guys and
sheets, so I didn't get a chance to try out the new deck
layout on this modified J-24.

Fortunately, a sail to Anegada the next day made up for
the disappointment and gave me an interesting navigation
challenge and a fast close reach sail. I managed to avoid
joining the over 300 wrecks dotting it's 8 mile long reef
and now that I now the harbor, I can feel comfortable
sailing in there. We rented a pickup truck and drove all
over the island but spent most of our time at Loblolly Bay.
The snorkeling was great there too. Scuba divers could
spend months in the area and not see it all.

I wanted to try the Lobster but as we came loaded with
tons of food gave up on that idea. I did study how the
locals chopped off the antenna's, legs and eyes with a
machete and then used a pounding iron on the machete
to split them in half for the grill. These bugs don't seem
to have much in the way of guts to clean out either which
was surprising also.

All in all it was a good trip with the most congenial group
I've led through the islands. Best of all, by teaching a
class prior to the race, I got the use of the boat for my
efforts, so the trip cost only air fare. For once I left
without the feeling the trip was too short.

Bart