Things that go Bump in the Night
Saturday 1st - Sunday 2nd February 2025
We think we have used this title chapter once before …!
We picked up Louise and Hugh in Charlotte Amalie on Saturday morning. Having stowed away their bags, we made a beeline for the US customs and immigration office next to the port terminal and checked-out of the USVI. After a quick lunch of Gloria’s homemade butternut squash soup, we “set sail” and headed east to Christmas Cove. The seas were short and steep and it was a salty hour hard motoring before we reached the anchorage. We were able to find a nice open space in flat water and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon snorkeling, eating shrimp scampi and watching the sun go down.
The winds at the moment are consistently 15 - 20 knots from slightly north of east, sometimes gusting a little higher. Along with these typical winter trade winds we are experiencing somewhat frequent showers and squalls. We had a fine sail over to Jost Van Dyke using our stay sail and main sail, arriving shortly after noon. We had gone to great lengths to reserve a mooring and were dismayed to find a catamaran tied up to the ball we had been assigned, with nobody on board. We picked up the adjacent mooring (which we were aware was already booked by another boat) and whilst Gloria stayed on board, the rest of us took the dinghy into shore to clear into the BVI. As we were returning to Cotinga, we saw the occupants of the “offending” catamaran returning to their vessel. We took the dinghy right over and expressed our displeasure, but it turned out Gloria had already given them an earful, so they moved off fairly quickly!
We had a lovely afternoon ashore wandering around and enjoyed a cocktail sitting under a palm tree on a sandy beach overlooking Great Harbor. We returned briefly to Cotinga for a quiet hour of “down time” then went into Foxy’s restaurant for an excellent dinner that included shrimp and squid (appetizers), mahi-mahi, snapper, grouper and scallops. The atmosphere was great and it was a lovely night out. We topped off the evening with a quick night-cap and turned in about half past boaters midnight (9.30 pm).
Bang! At 1.45 am I was awakened by a loud noise and rushed on deck with a flashlight to see what on earth was going on. As I looked forward I could see the stern of a large catamaran nested up against the bow of Cotinga. The other boat, BlueVana, was “anchored” but had dragged into us. I shouted loudly, trying to get them to wake up, and Gloria brought out an air horn, which helped get their attention. Once on deck they sprung into action fairly quickly and motored their boat forward and pulled up their anchor. They can’t have done a very good job anchoring because there was next little wind and no swell during the night. They disappeared off into the night without even saying sorry! Thankfully, there appears to be no damage and in fact, it was probably our anchor on the bow that was making contact with their dinghy on the davits of the catamaran. Of course the incident got all of us out of bed and on deck, and I was the last to retire back inside. To add one final flourish to the adventure, I inadvertently stepped on the air horn as I stepped back into the cockpit, giving everyone a final burst of adrenaline!
There’s nothing like a good nights sleep … and that was nothing like a good nights sleep!
Mike
18 26.612 N, 64 45.078 W
Congratulations to the entertainments officer- great sailing, great cocktails, great food, great friends…. Not so sure about the nighttime dodgers!!!
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