It was Xiaoqin's birthday, and what better way to start it off than to do a 10 minute motor to Sandy Spit (which we'd been staring at all evening yesterday) and swim to shore while we had the island all to ourselves. When we set the anchor, Arturo said: "I know you said 10 minutes but I didn't expect it to be this quick."
Boen was determined to the first person on the island, and went into the water first with Massi. Arturo and I followed after checking the anchor. The others took their time, eating a leisurely breakfast. Boen was already playing in the sand when I got to the island and realized that he hadn't had sunscreen on. I checked my watch and it was only 7:30, so I told him he had to get back to the boat to put on sunscreen at 8:30.
Sandy Cay was the island we'd always visited in the past, right down to being able to run around the entire island in 1.5 minutes. Even Bowen deigned to do so, once he realized how small the island was. This time, there was no way for him to disappear or find coconut trees, as there were only 5 trees on the island, none of which were coconut trees. Interestingly enough, there were signs that the park service or some such was trying to plant more trees on the island, as there were baby palm trees in plant supporting containers sitting on the ground, so we might have more trees the next time we visited.
At 8:15, another Catamaran approached the island, drawing in much closer to shore than we had dared. "It must be a professional skipper," I told Arturo. Indeed, the denizens of the catamaran swam to shore but the captain stayed aboard, an indication that he was a paid professional. We had seen signs of it yesterday when they picked up a mooring ball near us, with just one person steering and one person working, while the rest of the boat applauded. I confirmed that when I spoke to some of the folks who'd swam from the boat.
It rained and we got some very nice rainbows from our spots on Sandy Cay, and then swam back to La Badine to raise anchor and sail to Sopher's Hole on Tortola to reprovision and buy a birthday cake for Xiaoqin. With a beam reach we reached as much as 8 knots heading towards Sopher's hole, and took down the sails and motor'd into the harbor, tying up on a mooring ball and then dinghying in ashore for the supermarket. Arturo had scratched his head this morning over how we were running out of water and diet coke much faster than anticipated, but we reminded him that Mingkuan was a last minute addition to the crew, and he was therefore off by 1 in his provisioning. "That makes sense."
Once ashore, we bought more cereal, bread, and I made a suggestion to buy the Rotisserie for lunch, but Arturo thought it would work great for dinner and eliminate the need to eat out for one night. We bought vegetables, and Xiaoqin decided against a cake but instead we got a bunch of fruit tarts instead in various flavors, pineapple, guava, and coconut. The last was a mistake as I thought I was getting more pineapple, but people ate it anyway! We also bought some ice cream and more bags of ice to refresh our supply. With the big reprovision we couldn't all fit on the boat at once, so Arturo made a separate run for groceries (along with the people required to organize the groceries). While he was so occupied I asked Boen if he would like a rash guard so he wouldn't have to wear more sunscreen on his body and he agreed. He even decided to buy one that was bigger than a tight fit so he would be able to wear it longer.
Stone, Massi, and Kathryn went shopping for a birthday present for Xiaoqin. After we returned to La Badine we ate a quick lunch before casting off the moorings and heading out onto the Drake passage. This time, we headed East against the wind on motor for quite a bit so that when we raised sails we wouldn't have to tack back and forth on our way to Soldier Bay, Norman Island.
Arriving at Norman Island, it looked awfully windy, but it was a relatively sheltered bay with several mooring balls so we picked one that looked more sheltered and tied up to it. Once in the water we discovered that there wasn't a current. The snorkeling was quite good but we didn't find the cuttlefish we had found the last time we were here in Soldier Bay.
Done with the snorkeling, we made ready to head to White Bay, which Xiaoqin had fond memories of on one of our last visits. It would also set us up for a dive of the wreck of the Rhone for the next day as well. It was close enough and directly into the wind so we just motor'd. As we motor'd along, however, a wild storm ran up and blew one of the cushions into the cockpit away and out of the boat! "Are we going back for it?" I asked Arturo. "Heck yeah, that's $650!" We immediately went into man overboard operations. As many people as could be spared would point at the cushion. The boat hook was readied. I then turned the boat towards the cushion and then tried to maneuver it so that it was up wind and someone could pick it up.
Well, that was the plan. First, the storm picked up even harder, making it hard for me or the crew to see it. Then the wind tried to pick up another cushion to blow it away. I slammed my body against the cushion to keep it from flying away, and called for someone to come sit on it. It blew away from me anyway (bruising my knee in the process), but fortunately it flipped over and hit Arturo in the back, which prevented it from flying off the boat like its brother. After that, I became thankful for the cockpit being much higher than on other catamarans I had rented, for I could now see the dang cushion flipping over on the waves and made for it.
The recovery wasn't smooth, I ran over the seat cushion once, and then a second swing by happened to quickly for anyone to pick up the cushion, and on the third try the intrepid crew finally snagged it with both hands and boat hook and lifted it back to the boat. Cheers went all around, and I turned the boat back towards White Bay, where we arrived in good weather.
To our surprise there were two super yachts anchored right outside White Bay, but there were plenty of mooring balls available, so we grabbed one. Arturo went for a swim, Mingkuan grabbed a paddleboard and went to shoot more video after the kids got tired of paddleboarding, and I grabbed the other one. I paddled Xiaoqin to the shore of White Bay, where we walked the beach. We asked a couple (the only other people on the beach) to take a picture of us and they asked us about boating. "My kids are too young for the boat," said the man. "My son's been sailing since he was 18 months."
Xiaoqin chose to swim back to the boat, since she'd brought her snorkel gear, but of course while trying to get the paddleboard back to La Badine I slipped and dunked myself into the water. After I returned the paddleboard, Mark took a turn on it and he too, dunked himself in the water. The waves were still a little churned up from the storm.
Arturo noted that one of the super yachts was owned by the CEO of Blackberry and the other by the original tech lead of Microsoft Office. He said that both those boats apparently visit White Bay every Thanksgiving. We setup dinner, hungry from the day's activities, and ate everything, sang "Happy Birthday" to Xiaoqin using a lighter as a candle, and ate all the dessert as well. Star gazing was out of the question as the rains had made the decks wet. But what a day!
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