The U.S. is one of the few countries that doesn’t require boats to clear out, but does have strict rules on clearing in. Since most nations require clearance papers from the previous port of call in order to clear in this can cause some issues. But luckily the BVI as a close neighbor of the USVI knows about that and doesn’t require outbound clearance if arriving from the USVI. I motored into Caneel Bay for a mooring while I went ashore and stocked up on some succulent steaks, then I sailed across to Great Harbour on Jost van Dyke in the BVI and did a simultaneous clearing-in and clearing-out as I only intend to stay one night and then continue onward to St. Martin. The clearing in process took quite a bit of time today, as there were two skippers of commercial boats ahead of me who had lots and lots of passengers to clear in. After completing formalities and returning to Zanshin to replace the yellow “Q” flag with the BVI courtesy flag I motors ailed upwind and dropped anchor off the B-Line bar at Diamond Cay off Jost van Dyke. The water was only 30 feet deep, but the holding isn’t great here and I initially dragged a bit, but then with 160 feet of chain I held in place even with 2000 RPM reverse gear so I knew I was good for the night.
I did some cleaning up aboard and dinghied in to the B-Line to say hello and have a happy-hour beer; returning back to the boat in time to season and salt the T-Bone monster I’d bought in St. John. I prepared the potato in the microwave and threw it on the BBQ while it was heating up and once it reached high heat I threw the steak on for 4 minutes one side and 3 minutes on the other. Then an 8 minute resting period to let it settle and reabsorb the cooking juices. It was an excellent steak (albeit somewhat big – but I managed) and it needed nothing apart from the baked potato to round it off.
After the heavy meal I had trouble staying awake and couldn’t concentrate on reading my book, so I turned on the computer and watched an episode of Rowan Atkinson’s “Black Adder” before heading topsides again with my little tablet Android system so that I could use the star chart application to identify some of the objects in tonight’s clear skies.
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