Mayday mayday

After a nice long morning lay-down on Cooper Island beach with coldbrewed ice coffees and some quality reading/free wifi-time, we turned our boats nose toward Virgin Gorda (the fat Virgin, named after the shape of the Island). Nice head winds so we got up both the Genoa and the main sail, and got the feeling of real sailing with the Cat! There is no way to describe the power that you feel when only the sails and wind take you forward- both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time, leaving you quite lightheaded in the beginning before you realise that you will not die, and that the boat is quite stable!(not saying that all aboard this boat had this feeling…)!

We went to the Baths by Spring Bay and hooked onto one of the nathional parks moorings, took the dinghy in to the dinghy rope and all of us jumped into the water and swam the last bit to shore. Beautiful white beach enclosed with palms and limestone formations. Creeping through low cave entrances and swimming through narrow passages just to enter beautiful small «bathtubs» of water with crabs and all sorts aquatic animals. A must-see place. We even found a little bar («poor mans bar»)and shop there!

Its not allowed to stay over night at the Nat. Park moorings at the Baths, so we made our way back up towards Spanish town harbour. On the way up we spotted the most amazing white Sandy white beach (Valley trunk Bay)and decided to try to set anchor for the first time on the trip. We needed a couple of tries, but the second time it went well and the anchor stuck well to the bottom. Though the winds shift fast here and are strong, and so are the currents, so Capt Eriksen stayed aboard to see if the anchor stuck in place and the rest of the «Double Trouble» crew got in the dinghy and went to shore, the feeling of «Pirates of the Caribbean»-style entrance to this remote, dreamy white beach for a little stroll and a game of football before finding another mooring for the night.

With the crew back on the boat after a short trip of bliss, we headed up to the moorings outside of Spanish town, at the Virgin Gorda Yacht harbour. We had noted that something wasnt sounding quite right with our port engine and it kept on sounding a loud alarm every time it was at low tripcount. So when we were all mooringed up, Capt Eriksen headed down in the port engine room with his head lamp and tools. with the hatch open we could se the whole engine Shake and jump, something quite clearly amiss and the dynamo and fan belt were not it the correct placing in relation to eachother so the batteries were not charging. But our fine captain did figure out what was wrong- the big bolt holding the motor together had broken in two, so there was no way of going further out to sea without getting that fixed! Robert the boat guy was informed, and the deal was to Get help at the docks inside the at the Virgin Gorda yacht harbour of Spanish town. Just after 6 am the next day we were up, to beat the morning wind and waves. Knowing we only had the Starboard engine and the dinghy to Get our 41ft catamaran of 1665kg safely through the narrow passage entry path that had a righthanded bend into the port(see the screenshot below)

we all got ready with the ropes and bumpers ready on deck and we tried to notify the Dockmaster on the radio channel 16/74: «Dockmaster, Dockmaster, this is Double trouble, we are approaching Spanish Town Harbor with our portside engine down and need assistance!» but alas, there was only a sound of silence… we tried several times, but up on cloud nine somebody was clearly awake, and so was a couple of all american and all Australian sailors docked right by us om their own moorings, so before we knew it Mr America had his dinghy lodged on our port side back of the boat and Mr Australia had his dinghy tied up to our Starboard front and with these two, our two captains and Double troubles own two ladies, we got DT safely to port after what seemed like nervewrecking endless half hour! Just about more than enough exitement for one day(let alone for the whole trip I would say)! Thank goodness for the unspoken courtesy and genuine wish of strangers to help people in need at sea!

Safely in the Virgin Gorda Yacht harbor of Spanish town, we needed to do some shopping. One birthdayboy aboard(Erik), and therefore a present needed to be sorted out. With this fixed, and still waiting for the repair guy, we headed up on the Island to the supermarket to stock up on food and the works. Erik let a couple of the locals with less items in their baskets jump ahead in line-despite his head about to blow a fuse in the heat of the caribbean sun-and then, you see, you shall be rewarded; packed up with a huge load of shoppingbags, one of the locals from the shop line came by and saw us, and wanted to give us a ride back to the harbour with the words: « you do something good to me- now my turn to do good to you». The town is quite well rebuilt after the roamings of Irma, which we mentioned to him, and he agreed and could tell us that in the aftermath of the storm, they cried, drank, cleaned up and rebuilt, drank some more, they went to bed drunk and woke up drunk and thanked the lord when they found a cold beer in the ruins, and then piece by piece they were able to build up their home and community again. To loose your home and everything must do something to you- but it sure cant break their caribbean spirit- like the man said; nothing can break our spirits! Nothing! Friendly goodhumored caribbeans❤️

With the engine fixed, the watertank refilled and fridge full of tummydelights we headed out of the harbour upwinds to Gorda sound. Just out of the harbour a beautiful seaturtle came to greet us safe travels, just like the ones you see on perfect glossy pictures from promotional magazines, but this time it just swam there, right alongside the boat! Today I got to try to be captain, and wow its fun to be at the wheel. Got to try it both by motorpower and with the genoa up! Sailing into Gorda sound we passed Necker Island (Richard Bransons own Island)portside, wow- boy did we want to swing by there…Todays leg was probably the longest until now, and reaching Gorda sound we mooringed up by the «Bitter end yacht Club» (a newly built place with foods, drinks and lots of beach activities) and jumped into the cooling Caribbean waters after a long day at sea.

Bitter end yacht Club, near prickly pear and Saba rock