Thankfully I had internet access from my anchoring position at Norman island. I e-mailed the surveyors on Tortola regarding getting the last item done for my British registration done, the official tonnage survey, and reached the people at the office and also arranged to get the survey done that afternoon at the marina at Nanny Cay. I then waited a bit until 10:30am so that I could radio the marina and see if they had a slip available for me and after telling them the name of the boat and length/width they said that they would have one slip available for me and that I could come in around noon, so I set sail in very light conditions and headed the couple of miles across the Sir Francis Drake channel to the marina.
It was with some trepidation that I approached the marina as this would be the first time that I’d be docking this new boat alone. I set up my fenders (very low, since the docks at Nanny Cay are floating) and flaked out the bow and stern lines plus a forward and an aft spring line and then slowly backed down the row to my assigned slip number A18 and there were 2 dock masters waiting to assist me in the very slight crosswind. When I saw the size of the slip I realized that I’d only fit in there if I gave some gas and used my weight to wedge me between the finger pier and the other boat and we decided that this wouldn’t be a great idea so they pointed out another slip on “B” dock that I could use and the docking exercise turned out to be easy with the massive bow thruster on Zanshin.
The survey proceeded quickly as they just had to measure certain points on the boat and the surveyor subsequently also drove me downtown as he was heading in that direction; I needed to clear out my storage unit and get my items on board the new boat. I found a taxi-van and arranged that he’d drive me and all the cases back to Nanny Cay and was, for the first time in my dealing with Tortola taxi drivers, pleasantly surprised that the price was reasonable instead of inflated. There were many more cases than I’d remembered and they weighed quite a bit more than I’d remembered as well and by the time I had everything loaded I was drenched; and when I’d dried off in the van it was time to unload them from the van and move them along the dock to the boat. Nevertheless, the cases are now aboard and nothing is holding me back!
I had met a couple from Sheffield two nights before at Corsairs and they were at the dock as well, preparing for a departure back to the wilds of Pennines the next morning and we had a wonderful time at Captain Mullugan’s over drinks and dinner. The menu has expanded beyond burgers and I had a succulent rack of ribs.
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