I had spent a week on Ruyam II in Road Town, BVI at the end of May, 2011 to celebrate my 60th birthday, when we took it out of charter, but had not tried much sailing before. The day after I arrived, we left the marina, to explore the islands around BVI, and get me started on getting my hands dirty with using the helm. It was a great few days of mild weather, which allowed me to get the hang of directing the beast while moving along slowly. I wonder if anyone had tried to tack while the helm was under auto pilot. Well, I did, and panicked that I could not turn it. I hope it was not Alzheimer’s, but just the excitement of a new thing. We shall see in the future. That happened on the first day, and I congratulated myself on the next for not doing anything stupid, but time will tell what I am capable of.
After almost a week, we are now anchored in Road Town harbour, waiting to clear out of BVI, and set sail to the island of St. John, USVI, on December 1st, 2011. This is a real adventure, because Al had not done it either, so we poured over the guides and the map, and made a rough plan about the approach. Tomorrow, I will write down the navigation plan, and see what happens.
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