Day 5 Sunday, November 11, 2001

 Rise and shine!  It’s early (6ish) when we head out of Sopers Hole.  Always an early riser, Jim has us moving out and we are going for a long haul today on our last full day of sailing.  We plan on heading towards Cooper Island for a lunch stop.  I manage to use the my cell phone to make a few “I’m still alive he hasn’t killed me yet” calls within the stretch closest to St John before I lose service when we round the West End of Tortola.  We observe rain in the distance but it never reaches us. 

Rain over the Sir Francis Drake Channel

It’s a beat up the south coast of Tortola and the seas are a bit high.  We make way over to Cooper only to arrive sometime around 10AM.  For the first time it feels pretty hot and the air feels somewhat still in the harbor.  After a quick swim we decide it’s much too early for lunch and we have no desire to waste time waiting until we are hungry. 

We decide to head for the Baths instead.  The seas are still a bit rough as we head back into the channel and as we finally make our way to the Baths I can see that many of the moorings are taken. Jim is a bit leary because of the obvious swells.

We cruise around looking for an available one and I direct Jim over to what I think is available.  The swells make it difficult to get into position to grab the mooring and when I finally think I hooked one I find that the line that I hooked was fouled and I cannot extract the damn hook!  I try but it is pulling more overboard than me being able to pull the boat hook back.  I wind up slamming my body into the side of the boat in an effort to retrieve the hook.  I’m a hurtin’ buckaroo and losing the battle when it finally slips through my hand and I lose the hook.  I’m afraid to look back and of course there is a lot of shouting going on.  Embarrassing too since I know that there are a lot of people around and just how well voices travel over water. 

Jim swings the boat around and manages to find someone in a dinghy who is kind enough to retrieve our hook for us.  Even though I was shaking from my experience I managed to snag a good mooring and get us secure.  >whew< 

We dink over to the dinghy area where I grimace with the thought of having to grab yet another mooring line.  We manage to get tied up only to realize we forgot the snorkel gear.  I was also concerned about my ability to swim ashore with the swells.  I’m not really a strong swimmer and when I was 18 I had a wave throw me into the sand where I dislocated my shoulder.  I was being skittish.  Better that I thought then wind up thrashing about in the water scared out of my wits.  We dink back to the boat where Jim grabs the snorkel gear and heads back alone to the Baths. 

My only real view of The Baths

I sit and rock in the swells praying I don’t get seasick, since it’s really rough.  As I’m sitting there I see some kids about 10ish on the boat alongside us and I feel like a bit of an old fool because they didn’t seem to have the problems with swimming in that I do!  Oh well…I guess it’s no different than the kids ice skating that whiz by you while you gingerly make your way around without falling on your butt.

 Jim makes it back to the boat and wonders what all the hype is about.  I wonder if the circumstances surrounding our arrival has had an impact on his impression, or maybe it’s just the swells themselves that have impacted his experience.  Maybe it’s just that we apparently seem to appreciate less populated areas and this is a ‘hot’ ‘must do’ spot for everyone.  I gladly release us from the mooring and we are off again headed somewhere west.  Bitter End will have to wait, it’s too far to make the run back to Road Town in time to return the boat in the morning. 

We swing by the Dogs and almost decide on Marina Cay, but as we approach it we are somewhat not thrilled with the idea and decide to long haul it back to Little Harbor and Sidney’s. The thought gives me warm and fuzzy feelings almost like the thought of ‘going home’.  

I begin to wonder if we are going to make it there in time since it’s fast approaching 4PM when we round the West End of Tortola and we contemplate having to grab a mooring at Sopers Hole.  Noooooo…not THERE again!  The thought leaves me with a heavy heart.  But as we approach Sopers Hole we determine that there is enough light left to allow us to make way to Little Harbor and we continue on. 

Dusk at Little Harbor

We make it to Little Harbor at dusk and wind up snuggly in almost the same spot as before.  The goats greet us and I feel wonderfully content.  As Jim is about to dink over to Harris’s to pay for the mooring and I am about to make yet another splash in the water we spot a mother dolphin and her calf as she blows just before submerging under the bow of our boat.  I watch these two from the water as he gingerly makes it across the harbor to make our dinner reservations this time at Sidney’s.  Once again nap time and pre-dinner clean up before we both go barefoot over to Sidney’s only to be welcomed like old friends.  We sit down to dinner on the dock and indulge.  Jim makes a damn good Rum Punch!  A very good relaxing dinner after a long day was had by all.  Jim had a steak and I had the Lobster salad accompanied by potato salad and rice.  We asked if there was any dessert and were told that there wasn’t any tonight…(can’t you get dessert anywhere around here?) Exhausted we call it a somewhat early night and head back to the boat and sleep.