More Wanderings of Ambition!

Life is great on board Ambition as we spend our pre-Christmas weeks enjoying the delightful British Virgin Islands. As the weather gets chillier and chillier up north, we are blessed with hot days, warm nights and water temps of 84f for swimming and snorkeling.

Sobers Hole - West End

We needed to make an emergency run back to Nanny Cay Marina for parts – I had left the vent open on the fuel tank for the dinghy - apparently Yamaha’s get a tad fussy when you mess with watering down their gasoline! Purchased a new tank of water-free gas and two new fuel filters – installed one and we are back to having a happy Yamaha. A happy Yamaha makes for a happy captain and crew – rowing an inflatable just sucks!

Sopers Hole

On the way from Cooper Island to Jost Van Dyke we passed through the narrow passage that separates the US Virgin Islands from the BVI. Anchored in the middle of the passage was Wind Surf – one of the two ex Club Med sailing cruise ships. They were quite the thing – 20 years ago!

Wind Surf - ex Club Med

While in Jost Van Dyke Kathleen and Matthew from Kinship – a boat that did the rally with us – stopped alongside and invited us to join them and Yolene and Jean from Caffe Latte – in a hike up the to the highest peak on Jost Van Dyke. It may have been the beer – it may have been the afternoon sun but somehow I agreed that we would join in the adventure the next morning. At 10 or so, Kathleen and Matthew skiffed by and said they had brought treats from the local bakery to enjoy once we reached the summit. With that, our little band of six hikers set off up the hills. Well it didn’t take me long to build into a full sweat … encouraged by Jean with his new watch that tells altitude – “we are just less than 1/3 of the way up” – I will not ask that question again! “Merrill the mountain goat“ has and never will be one of my nicknames! As we continued up the seemingly near vertical assent, we were passed by a few guys on the way back down – they confirmed that we were almost at the top …. they lied! The burn in the thigh and calf muscles was to say the least…intense!

Tower where we touch the clouds!

One and half hours later, we did reach the summit and the cell tower. Kathleen and Matthew delivered on their promised bakery treats and they were delicious! Jean’s ultimate watch confirmed that we had reached 350 meters or so – felt more like 3500 meters to me!

All the pictures were taken on the way down as my heart rate on the way up the hills, made holding the camera still long enough for a shot, more than a challenge that I was up to!

Back down we headed – with a quick stop to tighten the laces on my shoes to stop my toes going through the front of them! Kathleen still had enough energy to build an Inukshuk.

Good work Kathleen!

Yup – down is definitely easier than up and identifies a whole new muscle group to the hiking burn! Maryse and I headed up the back of the descent team – this gave us the opportunity to hear the goats laughing at us – apparently they think we are ill equipped to meet the challenge – I would agree!

The laughing goat clan

Two headed goat????? Noooooo

Long way up!

Great Harbour Jost van Dyke

Ambition in the centre - from a LONG WAY AWAY!!

My little hiker!

Path ...... sort of!

To help sooth the muscles we opted to a little snorkeling in the warm salt water at Sandy Spit … oh yes that feels good!

Yup we are anchored!

My fav mermaid!

Sandy Spit Island

Maryse on Sandy Spit Island

Ambitions bottom!

Played around a little with the GoPro camera underwater, with interesting results!

Funky Go Pro pics

Winds were under 5 knots so after the swim, Caffe Latte and Ambition motored to Cane Garden Bay – arguably one of the prettiest beaches in the BVI. Brings back a few memories of the last time I was here 10 years ago – celebrated the wedding of my friends Benoit and Nicole on this beach!

Stopped by Quito’s and Rhymers – not much has changed but there are a few more hotels and the stacks of beach chairs are a sign, that the beach is packed full when there is a cruise ship in Roadtown.