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Yesterday was one of those days. We left our idyllic anchorage just after 10:00 am, bound for Sopers Hole, a port of entry for the BVIs. Our plan was to simply grab a mooring ball, clear customs and then take off to find a place to spend the night. After an hour of travel to get there, we, along with several other boats, found ourselves circling the bay like sharks in a feeding frenzy, looking for an available ball. Unfortunately, all the sharks were going hungry as none were to be found. While we could have anchored to complete our business, the bay is very deep in the only spots free of balls. In other words, not ideal. Because of this, we opted to move on to Roadtown, only just then realizing that we could have gone there in the first place as that is also a point of entry.

Note: The trip from Sopers Hole to Roadtown is dead east, into the prevailing winds. Yesterday was the 2nd time we have made that journey which is exactly 2 times too many!

Road Harbor is a busy spot, full of commercial traffic, and one we only would visit if we had something specific to do. In this case, we did. We have an appointment scheduled for later this morning so, after clearing in, we decided to spend the night there at anchor. On a good day this harbor is rolly and last night was not a good day! It is seldom that I feel seasick anymore and when it happens at anchor, you know things are not good. Why not leave? Because by the time we realized just how crappy the conditions were, the sun was approaching the horizon. Oh well, it’s only one night, right?

We saw this boat, or what’s left of it, washed up on the shore in St. John. Right now we’re anchored on a lee shore, just off a rock break wall. If our anchor decided to take a break for a moment or two, our boat might end up looking much like this one!

14 Comments

  1. We didn’t feel comfortable there either. We left Jackie at anchor while I checked us in, then spent the night at Brandywine Bay.

  2. Will be in Roadtown Thursday night, and on the water on a Conch Charters Bene 34.5 for a week starting Good Friday.
    We’ll keep an eye (or likely binoculars) out for ZTC.

    JP

    • Sorry, John. We left Roadtown and are in Virgin Gorda now. Thursday evening we’ll be heading south towards Saba / St. Kitts. Enjoy your charter!

      • Mike have a good trip south.
        Hope you left a beer or two at Leverick Bay.
        Nick made reservations for us for the Beans show, slip, rental car, and dinner at the TOP for an April Fools day!
        LB is a great place for mid week.

        you keep writing…I’ll keep reading.

  3. Thanks for turning Spot back on. We can follow your meteoric speed round the Islands now.

    Are you in the Malone Bay, or the unfortunately named Blunder Bay?

    There are some nice areas to climb just ashore from there. 🙂

    Mike

    • Meteoric… I like that. 🙂

      We are in North Sound, Virgin Gorda. I don’t know where those places are that you mentioned.

  4. I imagine that if it was bad for you it must have oh so much worse for monohulls.

  5. Nice photoshop frame- is that done by layers? If so did you make it yourself or did you download it?

  6. You couldn’t take advantage of your shallow draft and tuck up temporarily in the shallows at the head of Sopers?

    As for Roadtown …. go over to the windward side of the harbor, there are some possibilities over there — again, better for shallow drafters,

    t

    • Could have, yes. We could also have anchored in deep water if we chose to. Since we had to go to Roadtown anyway though, it wasn’t worth the effort.

      As for Road Harbor, we anchored where we did for ease of (and dryness) getting to shore. Like I said, we only anchor there for a reason and the windward side, although no doubt more comfortable, wouldn’t have been very convenient to get where we had to go (Village Cay).

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