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| The Lady Bea |
Earlier in November we headed down to the British
Virgin Islands for an amazing sailing holiday.
The whole adventure began last winter when Julia asked what I
wanted for my upcoming 60th birthday. Last year we skied Tuckerman’s
Ravine in New Hampshire for my
birthday and we were most fortunate in being able to get all our kids together with
us. Hiking up the super steep slopes of the Ravine and seeing them enjoy what I
used to do in my younger years was a dream come true. Doing a sailing holiday
was another dream that I had. Since I was on a roll, I thought why not give a
try?
We threw the idea out to friends to join us. With Jim and
Joan Gordon from Kamloops and Ian
and Beth Haysom from Victoria we
had a perfect mix of sailing experience, stories and conversation, and adventures.
The boat we selected was a 40 foot catamaran named Lady Bea
based out of the capital, Road Town . From Road Town we circumnavigated the island of Tortola
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| Last dinner together at Cooper Island |
The boat performed really well for us. There was a
comfortable amount of room for everyone to move around, she was stable and managed
even the stronger winds without problem. There was one little “blow” and with
the wind at our backs and sizable surfing waves we got her up to just under 11 knots.
That was quite good considering 7 or 8 knots is footing along quite well.
The British Virgin Islands is widely
regarded as a perfect destination for those taking their first sailing trip.
Sailing from one destination to the other is fairly easy, the mooring spots are well laid out. Our cat had two engines and screws (props) which made it easy to manoeuvre and since it was “low season” it never felt crowded.
In the end, I think that we both got a bit of the
boat bug. There we were on our last day in
BVI looking at 42' er's in a marina wondering what it might feel like if we
actually owned one! That’s another dream for another time.
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