Glady's Journal of the Sailing Trip with Wayne and Sue DeWitt

Sailing between St. John's & Tortola

Monday - Jost Van Dyke

Wayne named this our first day of "true sailing." Winds were brisk, the surf up a bit, and skies clear. We sailed all around the southwest end of Tortola, between Cane Garden Bay, Sandy Cay and Jost Van Dyke. Moored for lunch in the bay where Foxy's Taboo was, but didn't go there. Enjoyed a nap during a brief rain shower, had a quick swim, and motored the short way to Little Harbor, Garner Bay.

We motored in at 3 PM to make reservations at Sydney's for lobsters that evening. Sydney's place, outdoor as all the restaurants were, has hundreds of T-shirts hanging from the ceiling, signed and left by patrons. Liz Barrow left a signed shirt there several years ago. We looked for it, and not finding it, asked Sydney about it. He said in that tropical weather, shirts disintegrate in about 5 years. So Liz's shirt had been consumed by the tropical winds. Had a rum punch, and headed back for the boat in the dinghy. Sue was more punched than we realized, because she almost couldn't get out of the dinghy and onto the boat, and she kept laughing so much she was additionally weak. Had restorative naps, and went for our lobster dinners. They didn't have any small lobsters, and ours were HUGE... but we managed to eat them all.

Tuesday April 20 - Soper's Hole

Cloudy skies. Left Little Harbor, and as soon as we had sight of St. Thomas' radio tower, Larry tried repeatedly to call Andy and Liz. Kept getting a short busy signal. We later concluded the owners of the local cell phone companies must have blocked 800 numbers. They wanted $360 for a permit to use a cell phone. We hoped we were out of the blocked area, but guess not.

My sister Diane and husband Ben had been really worried about Larry on the small boat, so we tried calling them in California. Left a message (since it was 6:30 AM in California). The message was a thought about sailing that Glady had seen on a T-shirt:

• You can get hit in the head with the boom and die.
• You can fall overboard and die.
• The boat could capsize and you would die.
• Or you can stay home and fall off the couch and die.

Wayne and Larry had been having trouble getting the dinghy motor started. We decided to go back to Soper Hole to get more groceries, and to see about getting a new outboard motor. Wayne called Conch Charters, and they drove across Tortola and we had a new motor within 30 minutes! Great service. A storm was approaching. Decided to stay at Soper's Hole for the night, after picking up the groceries.

Sydney & Larry