Day 6 - Thursday November 8 - Trellis Bay to Marina Cay
We wake to winds that continue to howl and grey skies. We haven't decided what to do, but have a faint idea of going to Jost Van Dyke. After several visits, we still haven't paid homage to the great Foxy, and it's time we did. But, first things first: we need to get dinghy fuel. We scoot across to the Marina Cay anchorage and grab a mooring, one vacated moments ago and the only one available, so we can take the dink in for gas. Ashore, Rick talks to people around the docks and they report that sea conditions are expected to continue being rough, and that the Little Camanoe Passage is impassible because of the surge (a 55 footer having tried and turned back). While Rick gathers intelligence, I stop at the Pusser's store to buy rum and spices to bring back to neighbors collecting mail, assistants holding down the fort, etc. (I prefer Sunny Caribbee for stuff like this, and order their teas and spices by the pound online for personal use, but there is no time for a stop there on this trip.)
Rick and I confer, and find that sleep deprivation has convinced us that we needn't go any further: Marina Cay will be home for the day and night. We won't make it to Foxy's this time, but have a reason to return. After that LOOOONG (not!) passage from Trellis Bay, we nap and read intermittently throughout the morning, then have lunch at Pusser's. While not my favorite place in the BVI, it seems that there is a Pusser's to be found when you need it (and my lunch meat has gone funky). We manage to have satisfactory lunches despite a generally unremarkable bill of fare.
After lunch, we decide to explore Little Camanoe by dinghy. First, we attempt to land on the small but pretty-looking south facing beach, but the surge is such that it would be folly even to try to land here. We go around the point and are able to land on the north-facing beach, but it's one of those ugly windward beaches with little to redeem it other than the possibility of interesting flotsam, as it is littered with lots of junk. We hang out here for a little while, but the day is so blustery that we're not tempted to spend too much time.
At 5, we head for the Sunset Bar on Marina Cay for Happy Hour, but there is neither a sunset (too cloudy) nor any action at the bar (newly varnished). Instead, we head back down to Pusser's to grab some 2-for-1 painkillers, sit on one of the lounge chairs on the beach for a while, and return to Cocoon for a dinner of spaghetti bolognese. I manage to stay up tonight until 10 p.m., and though interrupted by gusts of wind from time to time, this is our first decent night of sleep all week, even though the mattress is killing my back.
