The Yachting Year 2018

THE YACHTING YEAR 2018 | 99

M

ost people take a leisurely sail through

the Caribbean islands, stopping o for

days or weeks at any island that takes

their fancy. We, however, were on a

mission. My partner Ben and I were

taking Papagayo, our 40 Choate IOR

one tonner, from Texas to a new life down in St Lucia

where we were setting up a sailing school.

Having nally reached the British Virgin Islands aer

some fun if not challenging sailing from Texas, we were

ready for a little relaxation before heading onwards. We

were about to lose our crew member, as she had to get

back to a job in London, but we had time to kill before she

caught her ight and what better way to kill time than

spend a few days sailing around the BVI’s?

is, I hasten to add, was before the area was ravaged by

hurricanes in 2017. In the wake of those terrible events, as

local people gather themselves and rebuild their lives, the

general message is that the Caribbean is open for business

• and it needs that business more than ever. It’s all we can
  do, as cruising folk, to help support the rebuild of the
  islands we’ve enjoyed for so long.
  As we found out when we visited the BVIs, not only
  does the immigration department in Road Town, Tortola,
  welcome you warmly, they can also give excellent advice as
  to where to go and get a tooth pulled. e tooth, having
  split vertically, was dead and for a quick $US100 the pain
  was all but forgotten.
  e British Virgin Islands consists of four main islands
  and many smaller palm fringed, idyllic white sand islands.
  It was always somewhere I’d dreamed of visiting aer
  seeing it on a television programme in my youth. Our rst

TYY4 Caribbean.indd 99 04/12/2017 17:04