Monica Hasund Solheim

Mar 1, 20237 min read

British Virgin Islands and back again to Puerto Rico, January 7th to February 20th.

February 28th 2023

When we arrived in Road Town, Tortola, (British Virgin Islands) we checked in and here we were told that we also had to check out when we're leaving the BVI 🤷‍♀️, new messages in new places, but then we'll check out when we get that far, but first we'll visit many places and islands in the BVI 👍.

After 3 nights at anchor out in the bay, Monica discovered a boat anchored behind us, on closer inspection we saw that it was "Dulcinea" our German friends 😃👍. They came directly from Curaçao and therefore anchored behind us without knowing that we were right here.

We rented a car for a couple of days and drove e.g. to Sage Mountain National Park and had a great trip.

On our way over the mountain from the north to the south side, we drove on "main roads" that can hardly be called roads, and with zero signs about road conditions or recommended vehicles, we ended up with an obstacle with holes and dumps that could only be passed in an all-terrain vehicle with high ground clearance and 4-wheel drive.

This was at the bottom of a steep hill with "no return" 😮.

Kai built a "bridge" of stones, which he moved as he guided me (Monica) over. It was 40 minutes of hot work as a "bridge builder" 😢, but we got over without damage to either car or people 😃.

But, it was close 😅

The roads here are incredibly bad, narrow, steep and with lots of potholes. England: "fix it or give the islands to the locals - it's a shame"

We were also a walking around Road Town and visited e.g. a botanical garden and also a prison which had been in use until 1996, and where the last death penalty by hanging was carried out as recently as 1974.

The coolest thing about the prison was the old lady who missed the stories about the pirates on the different islands told by her grandparents and great-grandparents. "They had crazy stories," she said with a big smile.

After a week at anchor outside Road Town we motor sailed to Marina Cay. Marina Cay is a small island where there have only been a couple of houses and a restaurant/bar which is now closed after destruction by Hurricane Irma 😏.

Here we were anchored for 3 nights, 2 of which with quite a lot of wind coming from the north - unusual, but a strong low pressure further north pushed air south.

We sailed over to Virgin Gorda and anchored off Spanish Town. "Dulcinea" also came and the next day we went to "The Baths". This is a "must visit" - large rocks that have made small pools, caves and tunnels that we could walk in. Unfortunately, there was a red flag that means no swimming, but we got through and afterwards we took a little dip in "Devil's Bay », the bay next to it. We have never seen the stone formations (very rounded and almost polished) - they look like they have been transported in.

Kai's theory is that Norwegian trolls took a trip south thousands of years ago and brought with them huge stones that have since been sharpened by waves and water. It was also new to him that trolls had large cargo ships🤔😜

We and Ulli and Andres on "Dulcinea" then sailed on to North Sound, a large bay on the north side of the island and here we were given a private tour of a hotel which was now being rebuilt after major damage from the hurricane. The hotel was previously owned by the Bergen shipowner family Mowinckel, who built the wonderfully situated hotel around 1970. Everything was built with Norwegian stones transported by their own ships, and Norwegian building techniques. A technique that has later been used on the islands with great success - beautiful and robust (the stone construction itself was completely intact after the hurricane). The latter was told by the supervisor at the hotel. He could also tell that a visiting Australian liked the hotel so much, that he wrote a purchase agreement on a napkin during breakfast :-)

PS. A lot of land out there now in 2023 costs around NOK 50 million - admittedly a large lot :-)

Afterwards we had a nice evening at "Saba Rock", a cool but expensive restaurant/bar/hotel that was built on its own small island.

The next day we took the dinghies ashore and took a taxi up to Gorda Peak National Park where we took a half-hour walk up to a lookout point that was now overgrown 🤷‍♀️, but on the way back down we still got a nice view of our anchorage 👍.

We sailed back to Road Town and then on to "The Bight" on Norman Island. Here we had an activity-filled day with first a 6 km long walk from The Bight to Money Bay on the east side of the island and back before taking the dinghy to Treasure Point and snorkelling at some caves.

We've probably been quite spoiled with beautiful underwater environments on previous islands, because there are many of the recommended places now that we don't think are so great 😏🤷‍♀️, although here we saw a rather large octopus 👍 - but it wasn't happy with all the attention it got for it looked mad.

After a day's short trip to Road Town, we sailed back to The Bight. We caught fish this day too, the 3rd tuna in 4 days 👍 - just the right size.

Both "Nova" (Barbara and Stefan) and "Dulcinea" (Ulli and Andreas) came there too - very nice to see Barbara and Stefan again 😃.

We had several nice days together, with walks, snorkelling and a joint Bacalao dinner that Kai made (not from tuna but Canadian dried and salted cod). Yum

The weather calmed down enough that we headed for Salt Island to dive on The Wreck of the RMS Rhone, which is the most popular dive site in the BVI, as it is an easily accessible wreck dive with a legendary history. Sunk by a hurricane in 1867, the wreck of the Royal Mail Steamer Rhone lies in two main parts at depths between 20 and 80 feet. The vessel was originally 310 feet long and 40 feet wide, weighing 2,738 gross registered tons.

We agreed to meet "Nova" there and dive together with Stefan. Just as Nova had moored to the buoy (we were already) moored, Stefan called us up and said they had lost the propeller !!! 😮

While Kai and I dived on the wreck, Stefan dived under his boat and retrieved the propeller at a depth of 15 meters👍. They were two divers on board so did not need our help.

This was actually our first dive, just the two of us alone 😃. We have about 50 dives down here with others. It was very nice and the highlight was a "reef shark" that stayed there. It showed us what territory it considered its own - swimming in circles and coming towards us before turning away again.

Very fun 🤩

After the dive, we sailed together with "Nova" to Jost Van Dyke where, in cooperation with "Dulcinea", we moored "Nova" without a propeller to a buoy.

2 days later Kai dived with Stefan and they got the folding propeller fitted again - bit by bit and after 1 hour it was good to go👍

Great Harbor is a very nice place and with white beaches and small fishing boats on the beach, small bars/restaurants, cheerful, nice people, we got the "Caribbean" feeling again 😍

Before Kai and Stefan dived and installed the propeller on Friday, we again had a bbq on the beach. Very nice 👍😍

After they installed the propeller, we took a taxi to "The Bubble Pool". It wasn't a big deal that day as it was the wrong wind direction and also low tide when we got there, but we had a nice and very warm walk back to Great Harbour.

On the return trip, a small dog "adopted" us and because of the heat we had to share our water with it 😉.

Due to a lot of wind the next few days we decided to check out and leave the BVI on Saturday to sail west.

Since "Nova" was going to sail with us, it was the last evening with "Dulcinea", so "Nova" invited us all to dinner on board.

En route to Culebra (Puerto Rico), we stopped at Christmas Cove, Great St.James, USVI.

We then had to have pizza from "Pizza-Pi" for dinner, and we invited "Nova" on board to join us.

The next day, one of the Arc boats from last year, CoKeMa, arrived with Fred and Ita, and we had a very pleasant evening together on board their boat.

We snorkeled here now also. There wasn't as much to see this time, but we saw a big, beautiful "eaglespotted ray" 😃.

We, and "Nova", had a nice, but rather rolling, sail to Culebra. Here we checked in to Puerto Rico, US, and this time we got a stamp in our passports.👍

It turned out to be more days than planned here as it started to blow quite a lot (21-23 knots), but we took a few trips around the island, snorkeled a bit and we got to see Flamenco Beach and the famous "The Tank" again. No swimming allowed there that day as there were big waves (1.5-2 m) and strong, dangerous undercurrents.

A few days later we got to swim there too.

After a week on Culebra we sailed our separate ways, we west towards San Juan, Puerto Rico and "Nova" east towards the USVI.

We had a nice sail and anchored inside the harbor of San Juan. On the way in we saw the "Fullriggeren Sørlandet" docked, and the next day we went over and got a tour on board 😃.

The next days we used our kicking scooters around the city. It was, among other things, a whole day in the Old Town, at the fort and in La Perla.

We met several Scandinavians in the harbour, a Finnish and a Danish couple, as well as a nice American, Mac.

The last Saturday we went out with the Scandinavians and had a couple of drinks at the "Distrito T-Mobile" convention centre. A very cool place, techno, music and lots of activity. It was free to be there and you could buy both food and drink, or just watch life 👍😃.