Left Great Harbour and went to Diamond Cay – which is a small island between big Jost and little Jost. The north swells are up again and this is a protected anchorage behind a reef. The swells were rolling in which meant that the water in the anchorage was pretty murky and there was no point snorkelling – shame as this is a turtle ‘hot spot’!   Anyway…. we went ashore and went on a trek to the bubbly pool. Through mangroves, fallen down trees and scrambling over rocks like mountain goats. Great terrain for goats – and we saw a few wild ones wandering around. Wonder if they know that the local delicacy is goat curry???

Arriving at the bubbly pool we were very surprised to see a health and safety billboard and a safety ring for throwing into the water… This was new – but I guess it was the BVI Government trying to absolve themselves from all responsibility for accidents. Last year, sadly, a young mother died after being sucked out through the rocks into the ocean…

Anyway, the bubbly pool was running. The picture really doesn’t do it justice. If you can imagine 15-20 foot waves crashing into the rocks into the air on the other side and then rushing through into the pool creating a bubbly froth of water, then sucking out at speed for it all to be repeated again. Now you get the idea? Anyway…Richard and I went in and played in the surf for a while – fantastic fun….. Up to the gap, relax when the wave hits you, surf up the beach (avoiding the rocks underneath the surface) and then pop up onto your feet to brace against the rip current trying to drag you out. We had a ball…

Back to Foxy’s Taboo (yes another one of the Foxy family) for a diet coke – we got hot and bothered on the way back to the anchorage and bitten to death as a rain shower got all them biting critters really excited. Diet cokes all round – we have declared today another non-alcohol day – but didn’t stay long as the staff were not in the best of moods with some teeth sucking etc…. Don’t stay where we are clearly not welcome. Anyway, back on board for a quiet night reading books and chatting under the amazing starry night. And so to bed.

On Tuesday morning we decided to run across for our last night in the Bight, Norman Island. Did I tell you that this is famous as Treasure Island and it is thought that local pirates buried their treasure here – people, to this day, can be found there with metal detectors! Anyway….had a great sail in relatively light winds….and got almost to the Bight close hauled on 45 degrees to the wind when this idiot – in a nice sailboat but under motor – starting overtaking us and pushing us closer and closer to the wind.

Eventually we had to luff and rather than tack away again we decided to get the sails down – honestly, some people. We did teach him some working class language when he waved!! Anyway…he anchored in the Bight for the night…so we took a photo to warn others about him…. One of the beautiful sailing cruise ships – Star Clipper – was also anchored…. Nice.

Went over to Pirates for an afternoon on their wifi – am trying again to get the new router to work with the Alfa antenna but to no avail. Pirates, usually the laid back beach venue, was a bit like Magaluf – day trippers everywhere from day boats and the cruise ship. Quite amusing to watch them all queuing up to try little pico sail boats etc. Anyway….back to the task in hand….and three hours and every option considered / explored – I gave up again. Life is too short for this! Anyway….during this time Julia, a fellow cruiser, came by. We had a really good time with her and Lyle before at both Virgin Gorda and Soggy Dollar and we agreed to come to the Willy T for happy hour at 4pm and surprise Lyle.

Well…more drunken and naked goings on at the Willy T…but they all cleared off pretty quickly (many of them falling off the dock rather than getting into their dinghies on the first attempt) and we had our own party with Lyle and Julia – who were celebrating their 36th wedding anniversary – and their guests Richard and Janelle. Good time had by all…. We retired back to Morphie around 8pm and we had dinner on board and a relaxing time.

This morning (Wednesday) we left early and sailed hard into the wind up to Cooper Island. Well – the forecasters got it wrong again – 15-20 knots my a**e… We had 20-25 knots most of the way with rain squalls up to 30 knots.. Never mind – we got wet again – but had a fantastic four-hour sail.  Until we met another idiot – this time on a Sunsail boat. These people really should read the rules of the road – motor gives way to sail every time. They had no sails up and were motoring – and heading straight for us. We thought they would run behind us – the usual thing – but, oh no, they decided to gun the engine and pass in front of our bow. They only just made it – and only because we did all we could which was to luff up and stop our boat moving forward.  More choice words – met with shrugged shoulders. Funnily enough on the VHF we later heard Lyle call another boat and ask him to look up the collision regulations – wonder if it was the same one??!!!???

Anyway into Cooper just in time for lunch. Lovely spot this and one of our favourites for a quiet relaxing evening.

Had a really nice meal and then went to the dive shop to fix up some diving – but, unfortunately, they are full until Saturday. Don’t want to hang around until then so we’ll have a quiet night on board and run up to Virgin Gorda tomorrow. Sitting here at Cooper doing the blog and we’ve just realised that the conditions look really good for a run to St Martin on Friday night. Will have to watch this weather pattern with interest….

Off to bob….bye for now

Jan