Day 4- St. Thomas to North Sound, Virgin Gorda including cab from East End of St. Thomas to West End..

Jim and I high tailed it after morning coffee and dinghied in to the St. Thomas Yacht Club (long time members of this beautiful club!) Hailed a cab, the “BIG LOVE” taxi, and took a :45 min ride to the airport. We picked up the part no problem and proceeded upstairs to register the boat but found a note on the door that DPNR had moved to another location for their post storm renovation. They didn’t mention this when we called the previous day to ensure they were open!!! So we hopped back into the cab and found the new location just in time for a medical emergency of someone having a seizure so they would not let us in. We waited outside for about an hour while EMT made sure he was ok and he was, but they still took him via ambulance. Boat is officially registered!
Finally back to the yacht club we said quick hellos and goodbyes and also said hello to some opti sailors we know locally and also from Pensacola, Gill and Claire Hackle. This week is the annual International Dinghy regatta, of which Savannah had sailed consecutive years from 2009-2012. Approaching the boat Savannah was surrounded by opti sailors from Puerto Rico including a little visit from Claire Hackle who jumped off her boat and climbed onto ours to give Savannah a hug. Precious!!!

Quick lunch and we were off racing the sun to the Virgin Gorda Sound. Our hurry was such to arrive in time for long-time friend Jerome Rand’s arrive through the sound on his solo, non-stop circumnavigation around the world!!! Absolutely incredible. (more on this in a bit..).

The thick Sahara dust made for terrible visibility, cramping our views. We hugged the N side of St. John and the post storm emotions were very prevalent in all of us. Not much was said. Total destruction of some our favorite places. The vegetation on St. John will come back however it’s in a sad state post hurricanes even 9 months later that is exacerbated by the drought that we are having in the Caribbean.

We cleared customs in Sopers Hole, West end of Tortola, British Virgin Islands. First day they were open since the hurricanes, working under a big tent. Super smooth and quick.
Sailing up the Sir Francis Drake channel was incredible. Super flat, winds were nuking 25kts solid on the nose and we were smooth as butter making way averaging 7 kts. Jim and I kept talking about how well Huntress sailed! SUPER stoked on the performance of this boat. We tacked over to Peter where we had our first siting of the new and much larger “Willy T” in her new location (floating bar that has been home to “the bite” in Norman Island for years. What happens at the Willy T most certainly stays at the Willy T!!) from Peter we tacked back towards Tortola and then back over to Cooper Island and finally a straight shot to monkey point where we watched the sun go down. We came through the channel of the North Sound after dark which I guess was a good thing as none of us were actually ready to see the devastation first hand to the Bitter End & Saba Rock. This place is very magical and hold so many incredible memories and stories. Not just to us.. but to many that have been fortunate enough to visit.

After 7 hrs of sailing including a quick and only stop in Sopers Hole to clear customs we crashed pretty hard in the North Sound after a chicken and cheese burrito dinner and a cold one! Winds are STILL NUKING.

Wake up Alarms are set for first light to see Jerome.. long day. Still fun.

PS.. I did not take photos of St. Johns, instead I just gaped in disbelief.