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Good view. She's in good shape after her haul out...The boat, that is!

Kay Bay and reef

Kay Bay

Kay Bay from Key Cay, (Cay is pronounced key!).

Discovered Kay Bay, on the south side of Peter Island, BVI. Great anchorage, not too crowded, scenic with lots of beaches to explore, good beachcombing and snorkeling.

Crossed to Normans Island on 28th, overnighted in Money Bay on the south side, then made two dives on Spyglass Wall on the north side on 29th. On 30th we returned to the boatyard at Nanny Cay for some more engine tuning work.

Key Cay at Kay Bay!

Whelk Bay from Key Cay

Kay Bay

Turks Head cactus

It seems our technical troubles are not yet over. All the way down from Florida, we experienced engine mounting bolts working loose. We thought this would be a fairly simple fix on arrival in the BVI. However, we were concerned enough to have a professional surveyor make a report.

It seems the  installers of the new engines in Fort Lauderdale made a "Pig's Ear" of the mountings and have left a real mess. The engine beds now need a complete rebuild, which will require the engines to be removed!!! Looks like we will be here for a while.

The resulting slip in engine alignment has no doubt caused excessive vibration contributing to the port propeller falling off! Twice!!!

The second time the propeller dropped off was over a dive site, so we made an immediate dive and found both the prop and the prop nut. Amazing!

Give way! He's bigger than we are

Haul out!

Old Royal Navy rules. If it moves salute it. If it doesn't, paint it or polish it!

Thought we'd better give way to the guy in photo to left. One of the many cruise liners coming into BVI. This one through The Narrows. We are on our way from Frances Bay St. John to Nanny Cay....

So, back to Nanny Cay for the annual haul out and bottom job, plus many other little jobs which are best done while out of the water. Some reasonably unpleasant and others downright torture. Also had the engines and generator tuned and modified the anchor roller area. Meanwhile we managed to clean, polish and wax both hulls.

Boatyards are a great place to meet people. As experienced in Fort Lauderdale a year ago, when we met up with Graham Lewis who introduced us into the Fort Lauderdale social scene that we enjoyed so much last year.

And while in Nanny Cay boatyard, we met up with Denis and Rene from Houston, Texas on their Leopard 46 catamaran. Hope we will see them around the BVIs or USVIs over the next week or so before they return to the USA.

Here she goes again! Polishing and waxing

All spic and span

David fraternising with the galley staff

Geoff looking after guest relations

I'll swear I told it to go that way!

Soggy Dollar bar on Jost van Dyke

David & Carolann at White Beach

Bath time?

David, Carolann, John, Erika and John Jr.

Left our anchorage in busy Charlotte Amalie harbor in St. Thomas on 19th March with our first stop at nearby Buck Island, about 6 miles offshore. We had heard that turtles were easy to find there and boy was that true. Once we picked up a mooring we could see them popping up for air all over the place and when we snorkeled, we could see six at a time, with no fear of humans.

While at Buck Island, we donned our dive gear to install the new port prop.

After a couple of hours there, we headed off the Francis Bay, on St. John for an overnight mooring. Then on 20th, headed across to the BVI to Jost Van Dyke, where we cleared in at Great Harbour, and met up with John, Erika and John Jr., friends of David and Carolann. Had lunch at the very famous Foxy’s, then all aboard Dreaming On for a trip around to white beach.

It was the weekend and with very restricted anchoring space, boats were really packed in. A beautiful white sand beach and warm blue water awaited us so we all swam ashore and joined the throngs at the equally famous Soggy Dollar Bar, with their renowned drink the Painkiller which is something of a misnomer!

John, Erika and John Jr. left us and returned to Tortola by ferry. We stayed the night at anchor after most of the weekend day boats had left and sanity and sobriety returned.

On 21st we visited the fantastic little island Sandy Spit, on the east end if Jost Van Dyke. This is your typical picture postcard desert island. White sand all around and some good snorkeling. From there we returned to the US Virgins, stopping at Trunk Bay on the north coast of St. John for more snorkeling following the snorkeling trail, then anchored outside Cruz Bay overnight. Dinghied in to Cruz Bay for the evening and caught the end of a crowded Blues Festival during happy hour followed by a wonderful dinner. (Many thanks David & Carolann).

22nd March and David and Carolann’s time is up, so after some early morning kayaking and snorkeling, we cross over from Cruz Bay on St. John to Red Hook on St. Thomas where D & C took a taxi back to the airport. David was travelling on business to Puerto Rico and Carolann back to Fort Lauderdale.

We really enjoyed their visit and hope they can stay a little longer next time.

Sandy Spit

It's called a winch, David

And that's a rope

Intrepid explorers

Happy hour

More happy hour

And they thought they could hide?

Just a little adjustment

So on to Booby Rock, just around the corner where there was no current and we had a great dive, the first real dive since West Caicos 2006!  Lovely scenic dive with a sleeping nurse shark as highlight to get us back into practice.

Seaplanes taking off in Charlotte Amalie harbour.

Entrance to Coral Bay, St. John

Not very dinghy friendly, but we are fairly self sufficient, so not too many trips ashore required.

Ordered a matching prop through Just Catamarans in Fort Lauderdale and were looking at shipping costs.

Meanwhile friends David and Carolann from Fort Lauderdale are coming out to visit for 4 days next week, so when they offered to bring stuff out for us, little did they expect our list to include a large bronze prop!

It's such hard work sailing! Note the matching ear muffs...

Then set off to do a couple of dives on Flanagan Island, the most easterly island in the US Virgins before going back to Maya Cove to follow up on our order for a rain dodger for the new hardtop.

Coral Bay anchorage

Coral Bay anchorage

Moored in the National Park, Coral Bay

Hiking across to Leinster Bay

Looking over Brown Bay

Trunk Bay

Coral Bay is a real laid back eclectic little community, that has gone from probably a bit of a wandering hippy society to some really expensive real estate developments up the very steep hillsides.

Most of St. John is National Park and was originally settled by the Dutch, as were the other US Virgin Islands. The Dutch planters set up sugar plantations and mills and of course used slaves brought in from Africa.

Many of the ruins of those substantial stone buildings still remain and some have been cleaned up by the Park's service for visitors. Many hiking trails traverse the island, steep tracks leading to secluded coves.

We took what was intended to be a 1.5 mile hike from Coral Bay in the south, over the very steep hills to Leinster Bay on the north coast, thinking we would get a bus from there to Cruz Bay, the "capital" of St. John on the west coast.

We visited the ruins of Annaberg sugar plantation, on the way, then found no buses. So walked a few more miles up and down steep hills on both goat tracks and roads to Cinnamon Bay where we found a shuttle into Cruz Bay. Cruz Bay is full of trendy bars, restaurants, boutiques and art galleries to cater for tourists from St. John and the cruise ship passengers.

Hiking across to Leinster Bay

Annaberg main house overlooking Leinster Bay

Annaberg Sugar Plantation

Annaberg windmill

After we cut the port engine, there was a rattle in the transmission somewhere. Within a few seconds this stopped, so we set off to race. Needless to say the wind was right on our nose and both wind and sea picked up as soon as we were out in exposed water. At least we had plenty of tacking practice.

After about 4 hours, and several small squalls, we were wet, cold and realising that we would not make Anegada before dark, so started the engines ready to withdraw from the race and just motor the remaining distance. Started the port engine, put it in drive......No drive!!!

Could have been the transmission...Brand new. We feared it could be a lost prop. Also brand new. With the focus on starting the race, we didn't think to put a waypoint in when the rattle had stopped, thinking only that something had become caught in the prop and had fallen off.  The PROP itself!!

We were closest to Mosquito Island, (Richard Branson's latest purchase and very close to his other island Necker Island). So in the middle of another very wet, cold squall we pulled into Drakes Anchorage behind Mosquito Island in the North Sound of Virgin Gorda. We were later joined in the anchorage by Branson's 115' luxury catamaran Necker Belle, which can be chartered for $88,000 a week.

We liked the area around Maya Cove. Some great houses around. Really expensive!

Then on to Trellis Bay. Why Trellis Bay. Well, while we were collecting generator spares, we met Phil, a boat broker in BVI who told us of a fun race to Anegada on 6th March. Having not been to Anegada and seeing this as a good way to meet some new folk, we came here and signed up at the local beach hangout, de Loose Mongoose.

Trellis Bay was very, very congested and the anchoring area is restricted due to the approach path to Beef Island airport. The main airport for the BVI.

Under the flight path at Trellis Bay

A few mild squalls on the way with some heavy rain.