The day began with customs and immigration, and I should have remembered that punctuality is seldom a strong suit in the BVI and that today was Sunday. While I waited at the door marked “Closed” some others came in line after me who were somewhat less attuned to Caribbean timing and when the office finally did open they pushed ahead of me (skipper of a megayacht). The order in line didn’t matter anyway, since the local belonger who had just arrived was processed first. It was 10:00 before I’d completed clearing in and I proceeded to get underway towards Cane Garden Bay as quickly as possible.
Although I’d initially thought to participate in the Jeanneau BVI Owner’s Rendezvous alone, I’d recalled that Malcolm rarely gets to go out sailing anymore and had asked if he’d like to join me for a couple of days for the event. He’d agreed and I had arranged to meet him between 13:00 and 14:00 in Cane Garden Bay so that we could then continue to The Bight on Norman Island for the first day’s opening event sometime around 17:00. The downwind sail from the North Sound was nice and the winds picked up, letting me arrive shortly after 13:00 despite the morning’s delay. After I’d picked up a mooring ball a rain shower came over the hills and I spent the next 15 minutes wearing only shorts (and freezing a bit) while scrubbing the decks washing away the salt from the passage. As a live-aboard one learns to make the most of nature’s free washes when they do come.
Once ashore I saw that Malcolm was already awaiting me at Quito’s and soon we had the provisions that he’d brought along aboard. I got the boat sorted out and we headed out of the anchorage and set both sails with a reef in them; somewhat overkill for the downwind leg to Soper’s Hole but I knew that once we’d rounded that corner we’d be beating upwind towards Norman Island. Malcolm took the helm for the whole trip and we’d soon worked out a system for tacking – I’m so used to sailing alone that it took me a while to readjust to someone other than “Otto” (the Otto-pilot) doing the tacking for me.
Ashore at Norman we had a happy hour libation at Pirate’s Bar and Malcolm was unpleasantly surprised to see that when he’d ordered a glass of wine they’d poured him their most expensive wine at $20 glass; that’s not what we would consider acceptable customer service. The Jeanneau owners were already partying and we joined the throng for some talk; but I’d put out a steak to thaw and the buffet dinner didn’t appeal to us so we didn’t join the group for dinner but came back to Zanshin for a tasty Rib-eye steak with potatoes before retiring for the evening.
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