Feeling Festive in the BVI’s

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The Burnetts are back in the British Virgin Islands, where they last were with Greg’s mom and her husband in December 2015.  It was a long overnight from Antigua to here, and Marvin zoomed past a lot of great spots they will have to see some other time: St. Kitt’s, St. Bart’s, St. Martin, Saba…  When they checked into Virgin Gorda at Gun Creek Settlement, tired Mel accidentally entered into the log: “Came into Virgin Gorda at Gunpoint.”  Ohhhhh.  So that’s why they call it Gun Creek….

As soon as we settled into our mooring ball off of Saba Rock, we picked up on the festive mood.  We recalled the amazing trip we had last time.  The BVI’s really are a party town for sailors, and soon Mel was churning out pics of people relaxing on palm-tree strewn beaches, chartered Leopards with unzipped sailbags packed into a mooring field, and smiling, sunburned, sloshed vacationers piled into puttering dinghies with the standard-issue 9.8 hp Tayhatsu engines.  Of course, catching the festive mood, Mel was inspired to take pictures of alcoholic beverages with palm trees and boats in the background.  Because that is what you do here.

As we are now less than two months out from the end of our journey, we are starting to reflect on all of the amazing things we have seen and done over the last two years.  But we only do this on occasion, near the end of a full day.  We are still doing amazing things at the moment, and Mel is doing her best to live in the present.  However, the Burnetts are also getting excited about our future back on land.  So while our boat continues to travel around, our minds do too.

After a single night in Virgin Gorda, we sailed up to Anegada on a beautiful day.  We skipped Anegada the last time we were here.  Anegada is a beautiful, flat, sandy island that resembles the Bahamas.  It’s just a two hour sail north of Virgin Gorda, but it already seems more arid.  As we head north out of the Caribbean and into the Atlantic, the water is becoming clearer and bluer, and the plant life is adapting to having less fresh water around.  And the Burnetts have adapted to being really, really hot.

Speaking of feeling festive, smart and creative Allie had her 11th birthday here in Anegada!  She chose to have a beach day, and so we went snorkeling off of Loblolly beach.  We saw our first nurse shark since the crossing, and Allie was followed around underwater by the cutest little fish, dubbed Penelope, that made laps around her head and shoulders for 15 minutes while we explored the reefs.  Coolest birthday party attendee ever!

We leave early tomorrow morning for a 3.5 day offshore up to Mayaguana, where we will check into our last foreign country on this trip: The Bahamas!  This will be our second-to-last offshore of more than 100 miles.  The overnight watches are dwindling, but Mel assures herself that there is plenty of time to finish watching the last season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer!

For those following Marvin’s fictional adventures, Chapter 8 is here!  Marvin is gathering more suspects!

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