Just as we were getting ready to leave North Sound on Monday a huge private yacht came in which, apparently, is linked to the Qatar royal family. It was so big it had speedboats the size of Morpheus on the side and dwarfed a Seabourne cruise ship that was anchored nearby. How the other half live eh?
The marine forecast still had a small ship advisory in place because of north swells but we thought we’d poke our nose out and have a look to see if we can sail down to Jost Van Dyke as we really do plan a soggy Christmas day. We leave around 9.30 am and head out past Colquhaun reef and Mosquito rock into the main channel having a quick glimpse at Necker behind – wasn’t able to get a photo but looks like Branson’s big house is being rebuilt but not finished yet…
The swells became evident as we headed out and turned downwind for the run to Jost. We sailed along nicely with just a full gib up although we did get pushed around a bit – dink had the most fun surfing along behind us! The waves bouncing off the north coast of Tortola were really something.
Arrived at Jost and as the swells had turned north east Great Harbour was tenable – hurrah! So we picked up a mooring ball – holding is poor here – and hurried off round to the Soggy Dollar. As we came round the point by dink we were stunned – the surf was running across the reef and we surfed in really quickly. Got the dink up the beach really easily – but the waterline was almost at the tree line so we tied our dinghy anchor to a tree just to make sure!
Had a really nice couple of hours – but really really quiet – and blagged a couple of Christmas hats. No bobbing today – and getting dink back out to sea was like something out of Hawaii Five-O!!!
Back on board for a couple of hours and into Corsairs for dinner…. This is the weirdest Christmas Eve I’ve ever spent. No Christmas songs being played / very few decorations / and everybody just going about their business as usual. When we turned up in our hats you would have thought we had landed from outerspace….even the kids in the street shouted Ho Ho Ho after us! Never mind – a nice evening with Bubo auditioning to be a Christmas decoration – but decided ship’s owl was a better position!
Back on board and to bed. Santa isn’t visiting us this year as we have spent so much cash getting Morphie ready for sea….even though we have been really really good…promise! Bit strange to wake up and realise that I don’t have a pile of sausage rolls to make and felt a bit sad about not seeing Mum… But we opened our cards – thanks everyone – and did our Christmas crew photo shoot.
Around lunchtime we headed off to the Soggy Dollar again….and this time the swells had calmed down quite a bit. Not gone altogether but no longer so dramatic. Much busier today with day trippers. Had a few drinks and then a bob (with beer)… Just heading back to the bar for a couple more and the whole of the Corsairs gang turned up (Vinny, Laurie, Gee and Roger) and they made us drink shots! Wow…what a nice time we had.
They left – as they have to get ready for dinner service – and we headed back to Morphie around 5pm.
Got cleaned up – and decided to have a snooze before heading out for dinner…. Oh no…it’s 9.30 pm…what happened???? Damn…get dressed quickly and head into Corsairs hoping that Roger has saved me some roast lamb…. They were pleased to see us and yes we still got our dinner. Phew…..
After dinner we joined the gang at the bar and, to our surprise, they had bought us a Christmas stocking filled with high energy foods which are going straight into our grab bag for emergencies and lots of other goodies like chocolate, candy and cookies. Yum…. Thanks so much guys – this was a real treat and we were touched as it was totally unexpected.
Now its get spooky… Vinnie has thousands of songs on his play list which he just puts on shuffle. When they were giving us the stocking Forever Young by Bob Dylan started playing – which is very ironic as this was the song that we played at Richard’s brother Christopher’s funeral and his birthday was on Christmas Day. Wow what a coincidence….and made us feel quite emotional.
Vinny decided to close the bar early and we all went over to a local bar where Derek – Jost’s Scottish medic – was hosting a karaoke night. We had a real blast – Richard crucified a few songs although appeared to get more fans as his Jimi Hendrix air guitar (backed up by a blow-up version) went down really well – and partied the night away with the gang. Finally came back about 2.30 am. What a Christmas day!
This morning, Boxing Day, we’re actually feeling quite sprightly – undeservedly – and are heading round to Diamond Key for some snorkelling and, maybe, a visit to the bubbly pool.
Bye for now
Jan