We could see lights as we approached the British Virgin Islands during the night of the 15th and dawn on the Tuesday, November 16th brought the Islands into glorious view. What a beautiful arrival it was! We arrived at Sopers Hole, Island of Tortola, BVI at 0815 on the 16th for a total passage time of 8 days, 15 hours, 15 minutes—a total of 1315 miles. After picking up a mooring ball in Sopers Hole we celebrated with a shot (or two) of rum.

Our passage went very well, all things considered . A straight line downwind for 8 sunny days with fresh fish for dinners! How could it have been better? Other than the communication problem, we had no significant issues. We were very fortunate to have Bob and Wally with us. They were terrific to have aboard and we didn't come close to exercising their collective resourcefulness to its full capabilities. We would love to have them make a passage with us again, but hope Bob & Beckie will join us with their own vessel Our White Magic instead – and hope Wally has gotten the bug to start cruising himself.

By the time we arrived, Bob had been away from his wife and family for quite some time so once he knew our likely departure date from Norfolk he had booked a flight from St. Thomas that would return him to Norfolk shortly after our arrival in the islands. He was able to spend a couple of days relaxing with us, but insisted on going to the local Laundromat near Soper’s Hole so that he wouldn’t have to take his dirty laundry back to Beckie . We took a short walk through town and beyond to arrive at a convenient Laundromat, having stopped first to buy some chilled bottles of beer to accompany the task. With Bob’s laundry done, we were able to truly relax aboard Pas de Deux, swim, and take a transom shower. We went back to town on a couple of separate occasions for Painkillers and Internet access. Wally took advantage of the Internet access to book a return flight to the US on November 30, giving him another two weeks to spend with us touring the BVI and US Virgin Islands.

Bob caught the ferry from Soper’s Hole to St. Thomas on the morning of his flight. That same morning we departed our mooring and headed for Benures Bay on Norman Island where friends Mike and Suzi (and Jib, the Wonder Dog) were hanging out on their Catana 431 S/V Awakening. They had reached us a couple of days earlier by VHF to let us know of their location.

After Norman Island, on the 19th we treated ourselves to a fresh upwind sail in Sir Francis Drake Channel – the center of the BVI - to Manchioneel Bay, Cooper Island . Sailing the trade winds in protected Drake Channel must be one of sailing’s greatest pleasures. Surrounded by the gorgeous tropical islands, cobalt waters, and caressed by the trades makes this a balmy, palmy sensuous sailing treat meant to be swallowed whole - leaving you begging for more. Happy hour on the beach with Mike & Suzi topped off the glorious day.

We motored to The Baths very early the following morning from Cooper Island to spend time hiking through the boulders and snorkeling the shallow waters before too many other tourists arrived. We were onboard preparing to depart a few hours later when Dave glanced up to see a monohull bearing some few feet away from our port hull. The charterers were aboard and seemed to be trying to determine what was happening to their boat. Dave and Wally ran forward imagining they might fend off the bow of this vessel that was perhaps now two feet from hitting Pas de Deux. Donna was about to grab the nearest seat flotation cushion to take forward as a nominal "bumper" . The wind direction could have made anything happen, but it acted in our favor and the monohull continued drifting further away where we could readily see that its mooring ball was still attached (the line had broken). It’s hard to fathom how quickly an incident you have no control over could ruin your entire vacation. The charterers were two men; we yelled to them to start their engine and this seemed to shake them out of their stupor because the one on the bow yelled back to the one at the stern to start the engine. Only then did they regain full control of their boat. They made their way back forward between the moored vessels, inevitably with the intent of picking up another mooring. At that time we had to yell at them to watch for the two swimmers in the water by a nearby vessel, one of which they could have easily run over. What a disaster! At that point, Dave said “Let’s get out of here!” and it was only moments later that we were clear of what had become a very crowded mooring field .

We wanted to continue northward to eventually take Wally to Anegada, but the winds were too strong in the wrong direction for our sensibilities and we bailed out of that plan, opting for more stress free hours in protected anchorages rather than along the exposed western or northern shores of Virgin Gorda on that route. Painkillers at Marina Cay and Foxy's on Jost van Dyke seemed to meet our needs after all. Mike and Suzi were holed up at Trellis Bay (across from Marina Cay) and we first attempted to moor there. However, the Full Moon Party being held that night at the local watering hole meant that the mooring field and anchorage areas were way too crowded for our comfort so we backed out and headed across for a mooring at Marina Cay. We learned later from Mike and Suzi that a boat at Trellis Bay that evening had broken from its mooring and led to damage to a number of other boats in a dominoes effect. We were glad we weren’t there, and recounted to them our own close call at The Baths with the monohull that broke away from its mooring. Donna just wishes we could anchor more frequently as we trust our anchor quite thoroughly. When you are forced to take up a mooring ball, you really have to be confident that it looks like it can do its job, but that doesn’t say anything for what can happen to boats around you. Anchoring will become a more common option the further south we travel.