The wind continued to howl all night and into the next morning – accompanied by squalls and squalls of torrential rain. We watched a few boats struggling to get somewhere down the Sir Francis Drake channel – no sails up just motoring into big lumpy seas. Although one of the largest privately-owned sailing yachts in the world, the Maltese Falcon, went down the channel under sail at a distance….
You know what, we are not on a schedule, so we decide to stay put and spend another day at Peter Island. The wind continued to blow really strongly while we did boat jobs in the morning – pink job today was to polish all the stainless rails / ports and lights down below, and Richard got on with security-linked blue jobs that we need for later in the trip…
Eventually the sun came out so we hiked through to the Peter Island Resort and, this time, we were determined to explore the beach at the end of Deadman’s Bay. We took Kristine and Doug with us as they had just arrived into Great Harbour – they had never been to the resort so were keen to have a look. We all ended up in the bar where we had a couple of cold ones and then we left to go look at the beach while they had lunch in the restaurant.
Following the dirt road we ended up on our own private beach with fantastic views across to Salt Island – which is where the famous dive site, Wreck of the Rhone, is situated. After lunch Kristine and Doug joined us and we had a lovely afternoon just playing in the surf and chatting. Difficult to believe the weather had changed so much all on the same day. Hopefully this is a sign that it is turning…..
So we settled back on board for another quiet night, having left a couple of beers with Conrad on the way. Oh yes, the night before there was some interesting things going on in the bay. During the evening we spotted a large motor yacht linking up with a small local vessel and transferring some bags of stuff…….looked dodgy to us but could, of course, have been completely innocent like laundry?!?!
Well the wind didn’t die down and the rain came back with a vengeance… Time to rethink our plans. The weather forecast had it clearing up on Friday but very large north swells then make another appearance, which makes some anchorages untenable. We wanted to go up to Cooper and do some scuba diving – but that is a rolly anchorage on a quiet night, so didn’t fancy that in 30+ knot squalls…. So decided to make our life easier and run back downwind to Norman instead of beating up the channel. Had a great downwind sail and with following seas we even did a bit of surfing. Nice.
The weather looked promising while we sailed down and fingers crossed this was the start of the improvement. But no, we just got lucky, with a temporary lull in the yucky stuff and then the heavens opened yet again. The Bight was very very busy with boats…probably people taking shelter from the rotten weather. We went ashore and had a great bob – dodging the rain inside Pirates – and then back on board for dinner.
Later on we didn’t really feel in the mood for a night at Willy T’s but decided to go anyway to see what was going on. Well – it was absolutely manic – and the usual crowd of women (young and old alike) were queuing up to get fake tattoos from the bar staff. Dylan – the Welsh bartender – was enjoying himself a lot! That’s because they are usually placed in intimate places and the bar staff licks them on… Pretty innocent adult fun….but then they all strip off and get silly. What makes these women turn into aspiring porn models after a couple of painkillers??? Jumping off naked into the sea is normal Willy T behaviour – but to dance around and grope each other? For those who are interested, painkillers are rum punch drinks and a local speciality. Well – tonight – there were topless women dancing, squirty cream licking, lots of grinding on the dance floor…well you get the picture and if you think I’m embellishing the story I think the picture below (which Richard took) says it all……. The others were not publishable! Needless to say I don’t get involved in all this…such a prude… If you still don’t believe me guys then google William Thornton in Norman Island on the internet – and you might not want to do this at work!!!! Fun night…although I think Richard had a better time than me….as he used the blog as an excuse to be there amongst all the action with the camera!
Friday morning and it’s my birthday and I get a cup of tea in bed along with some cards… Was a nice way to start the day. I’ve decided that I’d like to go back to the Elm to watch the band and have the BBQ… Always a good evening and, with the swells forecast from Saturday, this will be one of the ‘no-go’ areas so this will be our last night here, maybe forever…. On the sail the forecast was wrong again – lovely blue skies mind – but the 15-20 knots turned into 25 knots on the nose for a while, but we were ready for it with reefed in sails and had an absolutely fantastic time. On the way round, Richard said that he had had a word with Flipper and asked him to pop by to wish me Happy Birthday. Yes, we really did have that daft conversation! But then, within 10 minutes, we had a dolphin appear under the surface just behind Morphie… He came up and showed us his back fin and then dived – only to reappear to play off our bow. But he came and went so quickly we didn’t even attempt to get the camera out. What a fantastic birthday present! On the way to Tortola we also saw a beautiful classic sailing yacht.
Both of us are feeling pretty tired – still not got into a proper sleeping pattern – and wake up every three hours as though we are on watch! Oh well….guess it will work itself out at some point. Anyway…arrived in Cane Garden Bay after a great sail and went ashore for some provisions. Came across this pimped up Chevrolet – check out those wheels! Back on board for a while and then to dinner at The Elm after watching the sun go down.
The band were having so much fun it was infectious and we said our goodbyes to them and all the other staff at the end of the evening.
Great end to a great day…apart from getting a soaked bum when going ashore in the dinghy cos it rained on us again! Bye Cane Garden Bay, been nice knowing you.
Heading into Jost today for our last soggy weekend.
Bye for now
Jan