The last 24 hours or so of our trip were perhaps the best sailing of the whole passage.  We still had to bank a bit of easting as a small trof north of the islands was forecast to bring a few squalls and winds to head us by about 50 degrees from a little north of east to much more southerly but we were still able to enjoy a comfortable reach.   The squalls turned out to be less severe than we thought they could be so we soon shook out the reefs in the mainsail and we made good speed  towards Virgin Gorda.  In fact, we were hailed on the VHF radio about 10 miles out by another Salty Dawg boat who was about 3 miles ahead of us but we couldn’t see on our AIS system as they had a receive only system so didn’t transmit their position.  It felt good to again be in contact with other rally participants.  We have not made landfall in the Virgin Islands in the dark before so took the wise precaution of having Ed at the bow with a searchlight to spot unlit buoys, mooring balls or other objects.  So we made it through the cut between Mosquito Island and Prickly Pear Island without any difficulty then proceeded to the Bitter End mooring field where we picked up a ball around 9:45 on Sunday evening.  Then the bar opened…..  Something it hadn’t done since leaving Hampton.IMG_20151116_114237

Monday was a bit of a washout; Howard took the dinghy across the sound to officially check into the BVI while Ed and I had a swim and a much appreciated shower off the back of the boat followed by a pancake brunch for all onboard.  We met up with a few other Salty Dawgs ashore but weren’t up to figuring out much else; sleep was more important…..

Today we moved the boat to the dock to take advantage of the one night free dockage that comes with being a Salty Dawg so we are now in the thick of the goings on.  We took the ferry across to Gun Creek and then a taxi to Howard’s favorite restaurant, Hog Heaven which has a fantastic view over the whole Sound and great ribs.  Lynn and Julian, Brits from ‘Domini’, joined us.

The Salty Dawgs will probably have their ‘arrival’ party on Sunday as several boats are still on their way from Hampton.  We’re not sure if we will make it or not because we plan to head to St Thomas on Wednesday to meet up with a friend of Ed’s before he heads back to the US on Thursday.  We need to have a few things on the boat taken care of before we go too much further (autopilot base needs to be sured up and we need to figure out why  the autopilot is not holding a course any longer, also the rigging needs to be tightened) so we may be spending some time in Tortola.

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