Abtnoski Adventure in the BVI: Day 8

Marina Cay to Monkey Point, Guana Island to Cane Garden Bay, Tortola

Same routine. Motored through the Camanoe Passage, a narrow slot between Great Camanoe and Little Camanoe Islands. Just shy of Monkey Point, the next snorkeling spot, we saw a sea turtle. And after breakfast some of us saw either one sea turtle in two places, or two different sea turtles. I swam all over the place but only saw pretty fish and coral and more fish and coral and more coral and fish. Ah well, maybe I’ll see a turtle at the next spot.

We finished up our Monday by tacking downwind to Cane Garden Bay, Tortola. CGB was big enough, reportedly, to have both an ATM AND a grocery store. As we approached the mooring, however, we realized that we had lost the boathook somewhere between Monkey Point and CGB. Ed improvised by using the deck brush. It took us 3 passes to pick up the buoy, but it did work.

CGB is a pretty beach, with lots of tacky beach bars and very few people. Maybe it’s just the time of year…We walked into town, which is a real town, with a police station, the ubiquitous chickens, abandoned cars and even the, yes, ATM.

We had drinks at a…um…pink bar, and while the girls played on the $5 water trampoline, Bob and I went searching for a boat hook store. Of course, we didn’t find one, but we did find MB’s Watersports. It was a small blue shack, with stacks of soda and beer on the floor and snorkels and floats hanging on the walls. But no proprietor.

A man in the water yelled at someone nearby, presumably MB, who walked up to us. Bob told him we had lost our boat hook. Without speaking, he walked behind the store, over to an old runabout sitting in an even older trailer. He rummaged through the garbage inside the boat for a minute, and turned back to us with a broken off West Marine boat hook, about 5 feet long.

How much?

“No charge”. And he turned back to his blue shack.

We made a quick stop at the grocery store for Nilla Wafers, eggs and English muffins. Then back in the dinghy and back to the boat.

Bob, Abby, Allison and I all retreated to the water to find something cool. We used the floaties and tied them up in the shade of the hull. This was the only time we used all 4 floats at once, and next trip I don’t think I’d get quite that many, but I would definitely get one or two. They turned out to be really useful as an ‘island’ to rest on when we snorkeled some distance from the boat.

Dinner was on board, and again, the charcoal defeated us.

Tonight, though, the heat would not defeat ME, and I slept in the cockpit. In a typical male-female comparison, though, where Ed slept in the cockpit with just a pillow; I ‘moved in’. I carefully spread out the cushions on the starboard cockpit seat, and folded and laid one of the fleece blankets over the cushions, tucking it in at the ends. Then a sheet, in case the wind brought a chill (wishful thinking). My ipod, my pillow, and I was ready for bed.

Remember those long-legged chickens? I guess they come along with long-legged roosters. And clearly, all of them lived in Cane Garden Bay. And just as clearly, all of them have broken clocks.

At 4am, they started crowing. And crowing. In a repeating stanza, echoing from one side of the bay to the other, they crowed. Until just before dawn, when they stopped. I guess they are on ‘island time’ too.