T.J. Middlebrooks

After our lunch we proceeded on a peaceful, downwind saile to Great Harbour on Jost Van Dyke. We do goes around the corner to Soggy Dollar and then back to Foxy’s for dinner.

Great sail with plenty of wind allowing us to pinch more than usual.

Sunny, downwind sail to Jost Van Dyke. Amazing afternoon in White Bay at Soggy Dollar. Treated to a beautiful sunset.

Because of our delayed start to the day, and our outboard issues, we decided to try and get a slip at the Bitter End Yacht Club, though the chances were slim. I tried to call, but couldn’t get through, so I sent in a request through Dockwa. Bitter End quickly responded that they had no slips, but offer 72 mooring balls in the North Sound. We got off the dock at VGYH and headed that way. We raised sails and headed that way. The wind was pretty strong, making for a spirited sail. Once we were far enough north to turn towards the channel, we started engines , dropped the sails and motored the rest of the way in. There were several available mooring balls, even with our late arrival. We actually moored right next to the Rum Runner boat, which was on my bucket list for this trip. Once we were settled, Jim and Drake (his dog) came right over to offer us drinks! We all put in our order, Jim ran back to get our drinks and returned to deliver them. Although we had paid, he wouldn’t leave until we had tried the drinks and were satisfied. I called Moorings and they got in touch with a technician to check the outboard. He came by and found water in the fuel tank. He was able to clean out the outboard, but couldn’t get fresh fuel until the morning. He arranged the BEYC launch to take us to dinner. The food and service at Bitter End was amazing as usual. We even had Yolanda, the same server from our dinner back in November, which was cool.

We left out somewhat early to try and best the crowds to The Baths. There was a cruise ship in port, so we knew there was a chance it would be pretty full. We motored straight from Cooper and got a very close ball to Devil’s Bay. Due to strong currents, we decided to dinghy to the dinghy line and swim in from there. Shortly after cranking the outboard and starting to head in, the engine died again and we had to pull the paddles back out to fight our way back to the boat. We finally made it, but we weren’t able to get the outboard started, so we resorted to plan B.