The next day (after my Birthday party), we sailed around the islands again and dropped the anchor where it suited us. We chose to return to Lee Bay (Great Camanoe) for the evening. There were two other boats already there, which crowded the small anchorage a bit. Lucky for us, one of the boats pulled out and we only had to share the bay with a very large Catamaran. We did find relatively good holding for our anchor and I snorkled out to look at it to verify we would be ok. A lot of the sea floor in this bay and others, we have found, have hard flat limestone. Although from the surface looking down it appears as though the sea bed is sand, anchors won't set in the limestone...it feels like you're dragging the anchor across rough concrete! But we did find sand and the hold was great. Anyway, one of the boats was a catamaran...
Mmmmm...the smell of new car. Is there anybody who doesn't like that smell? I asked an F-18 pilot once whether the new aircraft he was flying smelled like a new car...he said that all he could smell was the oxygen mask, but the aircraft was absolutely pristine...everywhere. This is a BRAND NEW Robertson/Caine catamaran. When finished checking our anchor's set, I swam over to the catamaran to thank them for advice on the anchoring. When told the boat was new, I asked what it smelled like and they said "new fiberglass". We were invited aboard in the evening to check it out and it was pristine!! This is Dave and Janice...
And below is Sue and Wally. They flew to Tortola to see their new boat they purchased and to take it out for the weekend, prior to the boat going into the charter fleet.
Purchasing a new boat (sailboat, powerboat, etc) and putting into a charter fleet can, evidentally, have many benefits...it's kind of like owning a timeshare property. An owner may use the boat for a negotiated time frame, receives an income that covers most if not all necessary maintenance and insurance and a residual income that covers most if not all of the principal/interest payments. Hmmm, use of the boat, someone else maintains and pays for it and tax write-offs to "boot"...very interesting.
Spending the evening with Wally, Sue, Dave, and Janice was so much fun. Those folks sure know how to party! Lots of food and drink! Karen told them about the last time we were anchored here....the great score we recieved from a charter boat wanting to give away their leftover provisions. They thought that was great and said they paid $7000.00 for four days provisions (i'm sure that was a slight exageration) and would love to give us their leftovers if we happen to be at the Bite on Monday. It appears they were eating quite well and it would have been great to see them again, but we weren't at the Bite. Hopefully some other well deserving folks got the leftovers!
The next morning "Snow Cat" pulled out and left us alone in Lee Bay. OUR OWN PRIVATE COVE!!!! So we stayed another night! Luckily, no one came to join us. We certainly are not loners.....but sometimes it is fun to be alone!
After taking more pics of the catamaran, we went for a dinghy ride. We always see so much...the dinghy only drafts about 16" so we can get into some neat areas, close to shorelines.
This is some of the shoreline along Great Camanoe Island. There were some fairly large waves coming in.
This is Long Bay Beach on Beef Island (right next to Trellis Bay and the Tortola airport). Heading over to this beach from Great Camanoe, I saw a spout of water shoot into the air about 1/4mi to the East. Karen and I looked for more, but didn't see anything else. I believe it was a whale as this is the time of year that humpbacks start showing up. Maybe if we keep a good watch out, we will be able to get some pics to share.
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