Text Author: John-Frederick Thye

On 10 February Flo and I motor out of Nonsuch Bay, Antigua, to sail the 40 miles north-east to Barbuda. The Ground Swell, caused by winter storms in the Northern Atlantic, is building waves up to 12 feet tall, with white foaming crests. Our catamaran labors up their steep 50 degree faces and we begin to wonder if our engines will have enough power to keep the boat from sliding backwards down the oncoming wave faces. Quick decisions, we turn, take the waves on our quarter and head south-west, round Antigua on its south side, and make for Virgin Gorda, BVI, 170 miles away.

At 1300, 11 February, we sail into Virgin Gorda Sound, not before attempting a new spinnaker maneuver in which spinnaker sheets and arms wrap our catamaran like a Christmas present. The speed of the boat and choppy waves dissuaded the sea from releasing the tension on the lines and partially submerged sail. Even our boat hook proved useless in removing the tightly wound lines from under the hull. After a few tiring minutes Flo was able to move the sail so that I could untie the sheet and arm from the spinnaker tack, relieving the water pressure from the sail. Necker Island, owned by Richard Branson (the English business star who founded Virgin Group), comes into view, and we recuperate from our spinnaker circus act and motor past Richard's massive mansion in style, soaked and tangled spinnaker stored under deck.

As I am writing this log a few days after our arrival in the BVI, we certainly have many stories to tell about this beautiful archipelago, entailing more than 40 individual islands. Columbus discovered the Virgin Islands in 1493 on his second voyage to the New World. I tease Flo that Columbus's discovery surely has been a while back and it's time to rediscover what was found so long ago. And so we dawn some rented SCUBA (Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) and spend a day discovering the BVI's coral reef canyons and historic under water wrecks.

We have also been sorting photos and editing and compressing much of our video footage, so that should be on our web site very soon in our Photo and Video Galleries.