British Virgin Islands
Kids First Sailboat Trip, British Virgin Islands, 2020 : Overview
We are either really exciting, adventurous people or really stupid people based on the plan for this trip. While the rest of the travelers are cancelling their vacations to the British Virgin Islands due to all the barriers to get in, we just added four days! This means the first trip ever sailing with our three children- Annika-9, Alex-7, and Rory-2 will be twelve days on a sailboat- five of which we will be under quarantine! We have to take a puddle jumper plane from St. Thomas because the seaports are still closed, take three covid tests, wear a tracking bracelet, and fly the yellow quarantine flag on our boat until we get the third negative covid test. If at any point one of us test positive, we have to go to a “government quarantine” facility for 14 days. Either way it will be an adventure!
COVID test 1.0
There are very specific rules about when you need to have COVID testing before visiting the BVI now. Not before day -5 and not after day -2. We are at day -5 of departure. That means we have to take our first Covid test. It took a while to figure out how to get a rapid RT-PCR test with a short enough turn around time. We found a company in Colorado that allows us to mail the samples today, Saturday, and have results by Monday night at the latest. We have to have the results by day -2 at the latest in order to enter them into the BVI portal, where we need approval to enter the country. Johan and I did our own nasal swabs, but the kids were a little more challenging. It took a team effort with Alex but Annika gave in after a while. Both cried but survived. Rory doesn't have to be tested. Johan delivered the package to FedEx- so, now, we wait. Fingers crossed. All negative, YEH, and OH SH@%, we are doing this!!!!
Travel Day
We made it!! This is a late post, but still a great story. We woke up at 3:30 AM and headed to the airport on a cold morning. Our flights were all on time and we flew to Atlanta, then to St. Thomas. The airport at St. Thomas was crazy! Usually they have 3-4 planes deplaning at the same time but on 12/24, Christmas eve, there were 8, and everyone was going through a COVID screen. You had to have a negative test to get into St.Thomas but there was no social distancing in the line to get in, they didn’t have space for it. It was a bit overwhelming. They had military personnel checking the health screens. We got our bags and went through the masked crowd and made our way over to our tiny puddle jumper. The plane was so small they needed to know our weight as well as the weight of our bags. We got on the plane with two other couples, and were worried that Rory would throw a tantrum like he did on the big plane. But he did not. They all LOVED it, me too! It was a 10 seater plane, including the captain and his co-pilot, a volunteer from the other family. We got to see the islands we would sail to from the sky!! When we landed, we were escorted to a health facility, where our temperature was taken and we got our second COVID tests! Following testing, we were escorted to our taxi and then a 20 min ride to our boat! We arrived to a fully provisioned boat, and spent some time unpacking (always knowing that a positive test could mean we have to unpack everything). We ordered food from the dock restaurant and unloaded everything then headed off to bed!
Sailing Day 1 - Road Town, Tortola to Great Harbor, Peter Island
Well, I guess you could say the kids have been on a sailboat before. For about 2 hours. In Michigan. The big kids anyway. So now we are heading out for a 13 day trip, of which 4 days will be in "boat quarantine". That means that alot was riding on today... and thank goodness, they loved it!! Heading out of Road Town, Tortolla, Rory was throwing a fit because he had to wear a lifejacket, but the big kids were hanging on tight to the net on the front of the boat as we plunged through waves and wind!! They rode there for a long time, until we realized the ride was getting a little too rough. The first time water came over the front of the boat, I made them join us in the back. We motored over to Great Harbor, Peter Island. Once we were moored, the kids were ready for some swimming, jumping off the back of the boat, and playing try-not-to-laugh. Rory learned to push daddy into the water (hours of entertainment). They got their first dinghy ride. We had plenty of fish visitors, including some crazy, freaky fish that had yellow eyes that glowed in the dark when we held the flashlight!! The kids had their first outdoor Caribbean shower. This is something we learned from our captain all those years ago when we took a live aboard sailing class. As one of the many ways to conserve water, we took sea baths, where we would wet our bodies in the Carribean sea, but soap and rinse with fresh water from the spigot at the back of the boat. We learned over the years that most people don’t do this, but we honestly enjoy the activity, so don’t be surprised if you see the Sund family bathing off the back of the boat. Overall, it was a great first day! We had pasta and shrimp with garlic and butter for dinner. We called the grandparents and the great grandparent. We were all pretty exhausted when it was time to go to bed.
Sailing Day 2- Peter Island to .... Peter Island
Johan woke up before me and went up to the kitchen. Shortly after, Annika came up and Johan said she was smiling ear to ear. Happy to be here. We had breakfast and set out. I forgot one thing about the first night... there were a ton of fish!! Including 3 fish that we fed who were large and had eyes that glowed yellow when we shined the flashlight on them. They were kind of creepy. One of the locals told us they were called boss fish. Anyway, we were expecting about a 2.5 hour ride from Peter Island to a quarantine anchorage just north of Marina Cay on Great Camanoe. We got there and it was beautiful but a little too windy for our taste, especially because we have never anchored over night before. Soooo, there was another quarantine anchorage on the north end of Guana Island (Muskmelon Bay). We went to check that out and it was really deep, so we turned around again and headed back toward Marina Cay. On the way down we saw dolphins and the kids, especially Annika, were ecstatic! On the way through the channel, the second engine overheated again (oh yeah, I forgot to mention that happened on the first day when we were headed over to Peter Island but we thought it was just the waves or a fluke). So, we made our way to the west end of Cooper to Hullover Bay. It was extremely rocky and beautiful with a nearby marine area. The kids were tired after 6 hours of sailing and the rolling waves were a bit much for them so we ultimately ended up back at Peter Island. The beautiful thing was that we were the only boat moored at Peter island and we arrived at fishy feeding time. It sounded like rain as the tiny fish jumped across the water and then the big fish chased them with a plop. It was so cool!! We spent about 6 hours motor sailing around, but we got the sails up!! The kids went for a swim and completely shocked me by jumping off the top of the boat. They both went up with me to look around. I was standing talking to Alex about how to jump when Annika JUMPED!! She told me later that she was starting to get scared so she just had to do it- and she did! You go girl! Once she did it Alex, of course, had to go too. I am so impressed by them!
That night, we decided to grill, something we do often while sailing. I get alot of questions about cooking on a bareboat, so this is as good of an opportunity as any to show a little bit about what that looks like. The kitchen is tiny with a great view!! You have a sink, though it often doubles as storage when you are under way as anything loose is likely to end up on the floor. You also have a small gas-based oven and stove. The most we have ever brought on a boat is 7, and the small cooking appliances worked just fine for that size. For every single trip EXCEPT ONE, we have had a charcoal grill on the back of the boat. On our most recent charter, we bought charcoal, but when we got to the boat we found out it had a gas grill. It is THE ONLY TIME we have ever had a grill that didn’t work and it is something we will definitely ask about on future charters. One small word of advice - hold tight to those grill grates!! We have lost more than one!! As for the family, everyone was exhausted by the end of the day. We told the kids we would boat less and swim more on day 3.
Sailing Day 3- Peter Island to Soldiers Bay, Norman Island
After 6 hours of sailing/boating yesterday, we promised the kids that we would have a shorter ride today and would focus the day on swimming and riding the dinghy. We started the day with a visit from the chase boat. Our second engine had overheated twice in two days so they came out and fixed a broken impeller. We were pretty impressed that the chase boat made it to us in 30 min, but then again there are very few boats out here. The impeller is an important part of the engine cooling system. The engine relies on a closed system of ocean water to keep it from overheating. The impeller is part of the pumping system to pull raw ocean water on board to cool the engine. If it breaks, you cant cool the engine and it overheats. You can learn more about it here.
After they fixed the impeller, we swam a bit at Peter and had lunch on the hour trek over to Norman. We aren’t sure if the 10 mooring balls in Soldiers bay are new or if they are just usually unavailable because it is a popular spot, but we had never noticed them before. This is typically high season for the BVI but bc the borders just opened and the requirements are so strict, we never saw more than 4 boats in a mooring field. A once in a lifetime opportunity for us but sad for the local economy. At this site we saw our first sea turtle and could see “the Indians”, a famous snorkel/dive site, in the distance. We also chose this spot because we had to get up early the next morning and make our way to Nanny Cay for our third COVID test.
Come back soon for Sailing Day 4, when we finally go to Tortola for our third COVID test!!