Scuba on Jost van Dyke
Scuba on Jost van Dyke
Picture of Arnd

Arnd

December 2009 Vacation Trip 2010-12-19

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Today was a much better sail than the clouds and heavy surf off the North Sound presaged. After clearing the North Sound channel I had both sails up and averaged over 7 knots on a single heading. Occasionally really big Atlantic swells would come by from the north, but they were spaced so far apart as to almost not be noticeable. Only when I looked at land and it suddenly disappeared as Zanshin I went into the trough did the size of the waves become apparent.

I stopped at Sandy Cay to take a break but just when I was about to drop the anchor did it become clear to me why only one other boat was there – the heavy swell made staying there uncomfortable and landing a dinghy ashore impossible. So I raised the mainsail and slowly headed to Great Harbour on Jost van Dyke.

They finally installed some mooring balls, but they were almost all taken and I prefer to anchor in any case and spend the $25 mooring ball fee ashore at the bar or restaurant. I put out 100 feet and then settled back to read and await the exciting times after 4pm when the charter boats all arrive and anchoring antics begin. I am sure that more than one marriage has come apart while couples try to anchor here – it would be funny if the people wouldn’t get so angry while doing it. This time a German boat anchored next to me, less then 50 feet away but I’ll put out fenders tonight if it looks like a wind change will bring us too close. Other boats had 2-5 attempts but they are all now safely attached to the sea bottom.

I just came back from a great pizza at Corsair’s with Vinny in residence and even the blocked up nose and headache from my cold don’t seem so bad anymore. All I need to do is plug in the coffee machine for a postprandial espresso and I’ll be absolutely content.

My old hosting company, who will remain unnamed although their name starts with “go” and the end rhymes with “baddy”, changed their software with little notice and the original SV-ZANSHIN.COM site stopped working overnight. 

Every.  Single.  Page. 

 

So I’ve transitioned to another provider. These original pages have been migrated, but all the formatting and other features are gone and the will still contain numerous display issues and formatting anomalies. 

The manual effort of conversion is too much and not worth the effort involved. Over 1000 blog diary pages like this one are going to remain in this condition. The pictures are full-scale, but won’t expand when clicked. But you can can copy them to view them in their original splendour.