Date: 05/20/2011 Local Time: 2240 Latitude: Longitude: Weather: Gentle Breeze, Overcast Title: Good-By Virgin Islands This morning Barry went to check us out of immigration and we stowed everything away as best we could. When Barry came back, it started raining so we waited for the squall to pass and went over to the fuel dock to top off the diesel. Then we headed out the channel and headed due north for the open sea. As soon as we cleared the anchorage a...

Date: 05/18/2011 Local time: 2217 Location: Virgin Gorda, BVI Weather: Gentle Breeze, Hot Title: Final Preparations for Sea Today the major task was to take the dingy out of the water and clean it. The first thing I had to do was take this rope out that was forming a sling. It had about 6 knots in it, none of which were proper, and all of which were completely jammed up. If I hadn't had my marlin spike, they would still be there. Even with the spike, it to...

Date: 05/17/2011Local time: 2230Location: Virgin Gorda, BVIWeather: Gentle Breeze, OvercastTitle: Coral Bay to Virgin Gorda We left Coral Bay right after breakfast and were anxious to see how our repairs from yesterday held up with the engine running. Well, it turned out that the "real" leak didn't have anything to do with that little drip from the stern packing gland. The real leak was coming from the engine coolant system. On these marine diesels, the engine ...

Date: 05/16/2011 Local time: 2230 Location: Coral Bay, St. John Weather: Gentle Breeze, Showers Title: Checking Out After breakfast we went ashore and walked to the other side of the Bay where there is a more upscale establishment for tourists. Barry introduced us to a friend of his named Betsy who ran a little consignment shop. Mirko also found a bar called Island Blue with free WiFi. We had lunch and then caught the bus for Cruz Bay. We had to go over to ...

Date: 05/15/2011Local time: 2130Location: Coral Bay, St. JohnWeather: Gentle Breeze, OvercastTitle: St. Thomas to Coral Bay We cast off the private mooring about 8am and headed for Coral Bay. On the way we practiced reefing and un-reefing a couple of times. Barry seemed to be happy with my performance. He said, "You're a fore-deck man!". When we got outside a little, we raised the mainsail and set the sails for a close reach, arriving at Coral Bay about 1130. ...