We finally left the shelter of Sopers Hole on Thursday. Whilst there, we took the opportunity to visit the Subash laundry again; another 3 loads done including the seat covers this time. This simple routine task means a lot here, the joy of fresh clean bedding and towels is a real luxury onboard. Tuesday afternoon, the wind blew up and the sea was very choppy so we abandoned our plan to visit Omar's for happy hour and brought the dinghy back on board as there was a danger of it flipping over. A thunderstorm hit overnight so all the electronics went in the oven - acts as a Faraday cage that’s supposed to keep them safe if we have a lightning strike on the mast. We are certainly seeing the full range of weather. 

Wednesday was a grey, miserable and wet day, the highlight being collecting rain water from the bimini covers to conserve our supplies, and Sally and I had a shower and hair wash in the rain. To cheer ourselves up we headed ashore to try Omar's again; gloom, it was closed. We made do with the Pussers Bar, a poor second choice it turned out, but we had our cocktails and chicken wings (but not at happy hour prices!). 

By Thursday, the weather had improved sufficiently to move, so we went to Diamond Cay, Jost Van Dyke. It wasn't the best of spots, with the ocean swell sweeping in, so we moved on again on Friday. On the way we passed Sandy Spit (pictured below), which despite the crashing waves around it from the fresh NE wind, looks as you’d expect a deserted tropical island to look like - swaying palm trees and all. Luckily there was some decent wind so we could get the sails up. We checked out White Bay on Jost (very full), then Cane Garden Bay, Tortola (more open to wind and swell than we’d hoped); decided it was not going to be a comfortable night, so headed back to Little Harbour on Jost and picked up a mooring buoy. 

Saturday we have had a good sail from Jost over to Cooper Island. It is still very blowy but hopefully will calm down before bedtime (it didn’t). We managed to spot a boat leaving as we entered the bay, so moored onto the last available white (first-come-first-served) buoy available (all the bookable ones snapped up earlier). Sadly we have failed again with our fishing, come back Durks! 

Cocktails at the Cooper Beach Club (Happy Hour naturally), and a wander down to the Rum Bar. Very busy, huge number of rums (widest stock range in the Caribbean) but we decided to leave til another day. This was one of our most visited anchorages in the times we’ve chartered here, and post hurricane Irma (when it was completely destroyed), it’s been wonderfully restored to former glory by it’s owners. 

Back on Cassini, dinner indoors as strong and gusty winds blowing (still!). 

Catherine