Sailing Ohana

We motored to Marina Cay which is a small Cay off of Scrub Island, and grabbed a mooring ball. There is a “diamond rated” snorkeling spot close by between Marina Cay and Great Camanoe Island, so that was convenient and cool. Scrub Island Marina and Resort is a fancy resort that welcomes cruisers from the Marina Cay anchorage. I read that the restaurant and resort on Marina Cay was destroyed in a hurricane and may redeveloped by the owners of Scrub Cay, so they allow cruisers to use their facilities in the meantime. Scrub Cay Resort and Marina has two beautiful swimming pools, a huge floating trampoline at the beach, restaurants, nice showers (!!!), and a couple shops, including a deli with higher-end provisions. I overheard an American fisherman call it “boujee”. The resort has bountiful, terraced gardens where they grow all the veggies and herbs you can think of. We enjoyed pool time with friends, and the boys ran amok with all the kids. I was prepared for Easter this year, so we had a sweet little celebration on our boat and hung out with friends later in the day. Spencer and his friends swung on the rope swing that Tommy rigged up on our boat, while Jackson hung out with his crew, and Tommy and I ended the night on New World, who we haven’t gotten to see much this season, so that was really nice.

A trip to the BVI’s would not be complete without a trip to The Baths on Virgin Gorda, a unique beach with large rock formations that create caves and passageways through the shallow, crystal clear water. We raced there in the morning, to find that all of the mooring balls nearby were already taken. We moved to a very close anchorage, and took our dinghies to the dinghy mooring area. You can’t land a dinghy on the beach or anchor near it, so we did a lot of swimming back and forth from land to our dinghy and back. From the dinghy moorings we snorkled to the entrance of the baths and the trailhead through the caves and beach. It was beautiful, although our group ran through it pretty quickly… Because of the crowds and unlucky timing, it was hard to take our time and savor it, since folks were pushing though. We gathered our family, along with Malusi and Cosmic and went to the beach off of our anchorage spent the rest of our time there relaxing and watching the boys skimboarding.

We said our final good-byes to our boat friends and got a head start West, staying the night on a mooring ball at Peter Island. It was peaceful spot, prefect for just an overnight, as we had an appointment at Nanny Cay Marina to have the boat hauled out the next morning. Both of our rudder columns had small leaks that were getting worse, and the only way to fix them properly was to haul out the boat and repair it at the boatyard, “on the hard”.

Since we would have the boat out of water for two days, we got a hotel room at the Nanny Cay Marina, which is the only place outside of Puerto Rico that can haul out a boat with our 24′ beam. Most boat lifts are designed for monohulls. Nanny Cay is all about boats, charters, boat sales, and boat supplies and repairs. It ended up being more fun that we expected, and a treat to stay on land, although none of us slept well, surprisingly. We enjoyed their coffee shop and Omar’s Restaurant, the swimming pool and beach front restaurant. Our friends on Gray Jay were there as well, so Spencer had a buddy to play with, and Tommy and I enjoyed getting to know them better. They bought their boat there and know everyone, so it was great to have insider info. Jessie even had use of a car, so he was able to take Tommy on boat store errands. Jackson hung out with the kids from Banana Pancakes the first day, but then came down with a cold and was out of commission.

The people at Nanny Cay are the best… Every time we needed help there was someone there, offering a hand. The first afternoon we were there, a forklift guy just drove over and helped pull down the rudders when he could see we were struggling with them. The guys at the marina shop took the bearings and hardware back to their shop and cleaned and polished them for us, returning them quickly so that we could put things back together and stay on schedule. We even had all of our laundry done by a woman there, for $30. What a service!

Once the work was done and the rudder shafts were sealed up, we checked out at the charming town of West End where we had a fantastic, fresh lunch at Omar’s Cafe…. Wishing we had checked into the BVI’s there! Then off for a quick stop on St. John, and West to Puerto Rico.