Posted by admin on November 21, 2009 under Skipper | 
After a 7am dip in the pool and breakfast at the Mafolie Hotel in Charlotte Amalie, we taxied down to Yacht Haven in the morning. This is a very nice area and mostly provides to the Cruise Ship crowd. On Sunday mornings they have a small farmers market in the court yard. This gives a great opportunity to try some of the locally grown fruits. YUM.
We had lunch at the Fat Turtle in Yacht Haven which provided decent selection of seafood, pizza, burgers and an amusing selection of tasty frozen drinks. The “Monkey No Climb” banana concoction was my favorite.
The Fat Turtle in Charlotte Amalie USVI
Our last dinner of our sailing vacation was at the Green House down on the water front. This is a good locals hang out type place with a big screen and open air atmosphere. Everyone reported that their dinner was good quality and tasty and the price was right.
Summary of the Sailing Vacation to the British Virgin Islands
Our Sailing Vacation Route in the BVI's
- We elected more out of the way places for serenity.
- Going into the BVI’s through The USVI’s is simple
- The BVI’s are almost deserted this time of the year due to out of season. Consequently we were able to get into any bay we wanted with little or no other boats there.
- The local staff were friendly due to not being rushed by other tourists.
- The weather was absolutely fantastic
- The winds were perfect
- An out of season trip to the BVI’s is recommended.
- Sailing Vacations rock
- Having a little one on the trip was a delight – especially on a catamaran
- Thanks to Sunsail for helping to provide a fantastic yacht charter sailing vacation experience
- Next year? – We’re thinking of The Kingdom of Tonga – no, really!
Fleet Admiral Headifen and Family
Posted by admin on November 11, 2009 under Skipper |
This was the last day of our wonderful yacht charter sailing vacation to the BVI’s. 
Michael scoring a coconut for the coconut rugby game the day before
From beautiful Manchioneel Bay, Cooper Island, we set sail at about 8:30am to Road Town. The wind was again out of the east at about 15 knots and so the eta was approximately 9:30.
However, in calculating eta’s, one should also take into account contingencies. What proceeded to happen was that while raising the sails the reefing lines at the end of the boom were wrapped around the boom and were tangled. This became apparent when the sail was ¾ of the way up. In these conditions, it’s pretty dangerous to try to unravel the reefing lines and so we lowered the sail, tightened the main sheet and proceeded to untangle the reefing lines. We then pulled the reefing lines in tight at the gooseneck so that they would not tangle again on the way up. We then raised the sail. However once again the shape was wrong. We discovered that in releasing the reefing lines, like a bunch of amatures, we’d also released the outhaul allowing the clew of the sail to rise up and flap around. We lowered the sail again, tightened the outhaul, checked everything else then raised the sail again for the third time. As you can imagine this all took awhile. And all this time we were headed into the wind which was int he wrong direction to the Sunsail Base.
This all could have been prevented by tightening the mainsheet the day before. The calm overnight conditions along with the hype from coconut rugby lulled us into a false sense of security. If we’d tightened the main sheet the boom would not have kicked the dangling reefing lines up and over the boom. LESSON: Tighten the mainsheet at night – allow for contingencies.
Once sailing however, we were able to partially surf the waves and made good time to the base at about 7.5 knots to put us into the Sunsail Road Town base about 15 minutes late at 10:15am.
Since we were on a downwind run – I wanted to get the head sail out as far as possible and so did a few tricks to stop it being shadowed from the main so much.
Running downwind
So I took the lazy sheet and pulled it across to the outer leeward cleat.
Lazy sheet on the outer leeward cleat
This had the effect of moving the head sail out farther downwind and allowed it to catch more wind. To remove the lazy sheet from the cleat under tension, just tighten up on the working sheet.
When ever you’re on a sailboat, you should always be watching the loose sheets so that they do not catch on anything right before you tack or jibe. I took this photo of a sheet perfectly aligned for creating a havoc jibe.
Check all your lines before tacking and jibing
Upon reaching RoadTown Harbor we doused and stowed the sails.
Stowing the mainsail halyard
I like to take the halyard lines and pull them down under the winch or a cleat on the mast. In this manner the sail can be pulled down tight and there is no chance of the mainsail being blown out of the sail bag.
After all the maneuvering practice through out the week we perfectly backed the Catamaran into the slip and received a “well done” from the Sunsail dock hands.
The Moorings Base next door to Sunsail
We packed up our gear, got off the boat and had a FANTASTIC lunch at the new Moorings facilty next door. The food, facility and service there is highly recommended. The fast ferry to Charlotte Amalie was at 2:30pm.
Once in Charlotte Amalie we caught a local taxi to Mafolie Hotel were we stayed for two nights to wind down from the trip.
Charlotte Amalie
The Mafolie Hotel is – well – advertised a little better than it really is. However, having said that it has a very stunning view over the Harbor and the restaurant serves great food. The breakfast in the morning is pretty basic. It is not really practical to walk to town due to the distance and steep hill so you must catch a taxi each time. At 10:30am they provide a free taxi service downtown but you must ask for it the night before. The rooms are a bit old. It has a nice pool and a pool bar which closes at 5pm.
We relaxed that evening and told stories about one of the most fantastic trips that we’d taken to the BVI’s.
Posted by Grant Headifen on November 2, 2009 under Bareboat Charter |
Friday 2nd October 2009
Early to rise in Savannah Bay – and a swim to shore. Again, this morning we spent a few hours on the beach at Savannah bay snorkeling, playing beach bats, and strolling along the 750m long beach.
We then set sail for Spanish town again were we picked up more ice. We discovered a free wifi service in Spanish town and so a few or us down loaded emails for the weeks work to come.
Inside Spanish Town harbor, I spent about 10 minutes teaching catamaran maneuvering under power techniques to one of the crew who is going to charter a catamaran on a sailing vacation in Corsica in May next year. Under normal circumstances in Spanish Town Harbor this would be impossible but due to extremely light traffic in the summer months we were able to do this. The biggest difference that he learned was that when maneuvering a Catamaran, you don’t need water flowing over the rudder to gain maneuverability like a monohull. With a catamaran, the slower you go the better. And so the lesson was more about puling the throttles back and using the correct setting of the forward and reverse on the engines and to watch the relative movement of the boat and adjust the throttles to match what you want – always electing to reduce power (if possible) rather than to increase power on the opposing side. For more information on maneuvering a Catamaran under power see the Catamaran Sailing Confidence Clinic.
Additionally – early in November 2009 we’ll be releasing the NauticEd Catamaran Maneuvering Under Power Game. If you’re wanting to learn to sail a catamaran then this is the game for you – it’s fun.
Catamaran Maneuvering Under Power Game
We then exited the marina and set sails for Salt Island, the agreed upon rendezvous point with the other Catamaran Annie K. We had decided to go ashore there and collect some table salt from te salt ponds and enjoy the beach. The wind was cranking perfect at about 15 knots out of the east and so we enjoyed a really nice and fast broad reach to Salt Island.
Unfortunately, upon arrival, Annie K waved us off reporting that the island had been inhabited by absolute pigs with broken glass all over the beach, fire pits everywhere, trash and polluted salt ponds. Almost like people living there did not want others to share in any island beauty and elected instead to spoil it for everyone inclusive of them selves. So – I guess they achieved success in that we did not drop anchor and instead moved over to the easterly neighboring island, Cooper Island.
Cooper Island BVI's
Manchioneel Bay Cooper Island is fantastic. Although in low season the restaurant is only open for lunch. However there are lots of mooring buoys there and a really nice little beach. The wind was out of the east and so the conditions were calm and protected.
coconut rugby
Some of the guys (self inclusive) found a coconut and broke out into a game of modified touch rugby. After about an hour, with a few injuries sustained we all retired back to the boats.
coconut rugby
coconut rugby
coconut rugby
coconut rugby
We elected to spend the night in Manchioneel Bay because of the short 6 nautical mile sail in the morning back to Road Town.
