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Having completed our tasks in Red Hook, we departed Friday afternoon to spend the night in our much loved Francis Bay on St John where there was less of the northerly swell and a beautiful tranquil bay …. And because Howard has a National Parks card and is over a certain age, moorings are great value at $7.50 per night.  The next day we cleared back into the BVI in Sopers Hole (while a squall passed by) then had a nice gentle sail past Tortola and back to the North Sound on Virgin Gorda.  The photo below was take nearing our approach to the Sound and if you look closely, you can see the new Richard Branson resort on Mosquito Island…

The Salty Dawg Arrival party was on Sunday evening at the Bitter End Yacht Club and proved to be well worth coming back for; it was well attended, food was great (typical West Indian fare, jerk chicken, corn on the cob, salt fish salad, etc) and we found out about a few more stories people had to tell about their trip down.  Since then, I have been taking advantage of the S-D yoga classes most mornings, we have been hiking along some of the BEYC trails, enjoying the numerous butterflies that are fluttering about both on land and around the moorings, pellicans (one of which perched on our pulpit for a while one morning), swimming, having fun with the sub-wing towed behind the dinghy and of course, doing a bit more socializing.IMG_20151123_071617

Another spectacle we are enjoying is of 8 RC44 boats practicing for the one design races that have begun today (see photo of the black-sailed boat above).  Apparently they are shipped around the world in containers to compete in races and this is the final.  They are skippered by the owner but have 3 paid crew and are a joy to watch as they tack without even a flutter in the headsail and raise their gennakers while they are filling.  A different world from our kind of sailing, I’m afraid.

We are looking forward to meeting up with Roger and Gay as well as Sue and Ash and Kim and Mehrnez over the next few days; not sure where or when but hopefully we’ll figure it out once we manage to make direct contact.  We are heading to Trellis Bay today (hopefully) for the Full Moon party, and then will be in Nanny Cay for a couple of nights to have our rigging tightened up. After that our plans are fluid until Dec 2nd when we need to be back in Sopers Hole to collect our new batteries, assuming they make it onto the shipment.
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