Friday, June 6, 2014

Destination – Nanny Cay, Tortola

June 2th 2014

Position 18° 27.099’ N
              64° 42.560’ W


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Our journey to get our new generator installed took us to both familiar and unfamiliar anchorages through our route from Fajardo, PR to Nanny Cay, BVI. The first was Culebra, a familiar anchorage. We love Culebra, the anchorage at Dakity, the general environment, people and the town of Dewey with its facilities. After a two night stay, a visit from our cruising friend John and a few beers we were off the next morning to Megan's Bay, St. Thomas USVI. We arrived after a mixed sea condition passage, some rough confused conditions in the Virgin Passage which left both of us feeling a little nauseous and neither of us suffers from sea sickness! As we approached the lee of St. Thomas the conditions gave way to calmer seas, sunshine and the cruising we like. By 11:30 we were anchored in Megans Bay a large bay with one of the 'best' beaches in the world. The bay is spectacular with pristine water and plenty of room to choose an anchoring spot. We are now into May and the cruising season on the northern Caribbean is winding down to its close. There was only one other anchored sailing boat in the bay and we had to use our binoculars to see him, the bay is huge! 
The daily dinghy procession at the Moorings charter company
marina in Road Town, Tortola.

We were anchored amoungst good company at
White Bay, Guana Island


The sunsets never lose their fascination.


Let there be light!

A pretty hillside home


Tusen Takk II with Chuck and Barb Shipley
onboard
Barb with a wave for the camera.

Fourty feet of water and the anchor chain visible to the bottom!

Tomorrow we will explore, there are a few boat chores to do in the early morning, a teak deck plug to replace and the stainless steel to polish. After this we will launch the dinghy (Junior Partner, JP for short) and take a trip into the beach.  
The huge expanse of Magens Bay.
Magens Bay Beach, three quarters of a mile long.
After a hearty 'English' breakfast we launched JP and off we went towards what we thought would be the dinghy beaching area...we were wrong! We pulled the dinghy up on the beach alongside several other local boats, no other inflatable RIB's though. We began walking along the beach and had intended walking to the end and back, we'll over a mile. After a few hundred yards we were met by one of the lifeguards who politely explained that no dinghy's were allowed on the beach and that we would either have to anchor it off or drive it to a small patch of sand along the east side if the bay and wade back in to the main beach. We chose this option. I did ask, with my arm around his shoulder in a friendly manner, what all the other half dozen boats were doing on the beach...he smiled and said "they have special permission"; I retorted "how do we get special permission"? He smiled and we parted company cordially. The beach is run by the Magens Bay Authority and an admission fee of a few dollars is charged to all except boaters.  

 
Once we had the dinghy up on what became our own private beach we waded back to the main beach and walk its whole length, on our return we deserved refreshment so stopped at the really nice bar. We met Jeremy who took very good care of us during this and our several subsequent visits. The following day we hiked the marked trail which was fun, although we could have done without the mosquitoes! 

Our stay in Magens Bay was wonderful, we enjoyed the beach, the water and the spectacular vistas of this massive little used bay (by boaters) as we relaxed on our back porch (deck) at cocktail hour... 

Looking out from The Waterside Bistro
into Cruz Bay...
From Magens we cruised to Caneel Bay on St. John and dinghies in to Cruz Bay where we visited the National Parks building and then proceeded to one of our favourite venues, The Waterside Bistro, for lunch. Sitting at the bar one has a view of the whole bay, we love this spot. 
 
Later in the day we cruised from Caneel to Francis Bay where we spent several days swimming, dinghy exploring and beach walking. From Francis after spending one day in Leinster Bay where we snorkeled around the reef at Waterlemon Cay, we motored across to Jost van Dyke where we cleared in to the British Virgin Islands. The date is now Friday 23rd May and after spending our first night anchored in Great Harbour and sampling again, of course, the Friday night inclusive all you can eat BBQ buffet at Foxy's, we moved around to Manchaneel Bay on Little Jost van Dyke. Here the water is gin clear; we anchored on 12 feet of water 50 yards from a small white sand beach. Before we left to go cruising we dreamt of places like this, the quintessential deserted tropical island. The only habitation on the island is, yes, believe it or not, a beach bar! Jim the owner of B-Line Beach Bar has just, in January, taken over and has made considerable improvements. The have a well stocked bar and serve great food. The Mahi sandwich was one of the best I've ever had. We whiled away our last afternoon (Sunday 30th) on Little Jost van Dyke before cruising to Nanny Cay for the generator install. 

Monday June 2nd. Finally the day we make our way to Nanny Cay Tortola for the installation of our new generator. We upped the anchor at 9:55 and were underway on schedule at 10:00. Tim Dabbs from Marina Maintenance had arranged our slip reservation and all we had to do was arrive by 12 noon call on the VHF announcing our arrival and Tim would take care of everything else. We arrived safely and backed into our slip B17 without ado. I called Tim as requested and he advised he would be onboard within two hours with his team to assess the job…



2 comments:

  1. Awesome pictures, thanks for sharing. Hoping all goes well with the new Genny!

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    1. Hi Tony, Thanks for reading and the good wishes.

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