A Tale of Two Chemists: Sopers Hole / Frenchman's Cay

Sunday 26^th Nov 2017

Yesterday I jumped on my folding bike and took a ride to Sopers Hole at the west end of Tortola. It was a pleasant ride, about 6 miles each way, although it felt like 4 mile out (downwind) and 8 miles back (upwind). However, I was in no way prepared for the devastation that I encountered when I got there. Sopers Hole and Frenchman's Cay surround a beautiful protected harbor with lots of colorful buildings – wine and spice shops, attractive bars and restaurants. It’s one of the prime landing spots for cruisers as there is an immigration office for check-in. But the town looks like it took an incredible onslaught from the hurricane. All of the palm trees are either uprooted or only stumps remain. Most of the roofs have been blown off and the insides of the shops are wrecked. There are of course lots of boats strewn around the harbor, but even the docks and the boardwalk have been at least partially destroyed. I was shocked by the number of totally mangled vehicles that seem to strewn everywhere. It’s a salutary reminder that even on a small island like Tortola not all of the areas are equally impacted by hurricanes. Sopers Hole looks a lot worse than Nanny Cay and I’m assuming that a number of associated tornados ripped through the area.

From talking to some locals I gather that repairs to buildings up on the hillside are progressing and the marina itself seems to be getting back to order. One of my goals was to chat to the immigration / customs officers to find out about “temporary importation” of Cotinga so that we can continue to cruise the BVIs beyond the 30 days of initial entry. It turns out the immigration office was destroyed and I met the officers camped out under an awning near the ferry dock. I have to say they were much more helpful than their counterparts in Road Town where I did the initial clearance. Unfortunately I do have to go back to Road Town to complete the “temporary importation”

Down at Sopers Hole I did get some close up views of blue boobies and pelicans, and on my way back, saw some great acrobatic flying from frigate birds fighting over fish remains on the beach.

One bit of bad news – our radar, which was playing up on the way down, is probably toast. I lowered the radar mast and poured out about two pints of water from the radar dome. I was optimistic that I might be able to dry it out and get it working properly, but it only ever starts up about 20% of the times I try. So I need to contact Simrad and see if they will replace it or else buy a new one. This is twice this has happened to our radar - who creates and sells state of the art electronics enclosed in a shitty plastic box that isn’t water proof? Agghh!