CHAPTER 6 – BREAKING POINT
A series of unfortunate events that led us in the wrong direction to settle a debt from the past.
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After a brutal passage from America, we finally reached the turquoise waters of the BVIs. But the “honeymoon phase” lasted less than 24 hours. From hitting a reef to a catastrophic break in the middle of a midnight squall, Chapter 6 is the story of one of our lowest points—and the small, silver tribute that finally turned our luck around.
Arrival
I warned you at the start of this book that the first 6 months of boat ownership did not favour us. This next chapter details the last of a series of unfortunate events before our luck turned and we finally got to enjoy the joys of sailing round the world.
We arrived in the BVI’s skeletons of our previous selves -inches gone from our waists, new lines etched into our faces but with a hollow-eyed relief that we were there. JP had spent some of his childhood holidays chartering catamarans round the area and had always dreamt of returning on our boat. Furthermore, just 8 months prior, when working on superyacht Marie we had wistfully gazed at the spattering of tropical of islands from behind our chamois’ excitedly making plans for our own cruising adventure here someday – and that someday was now.
Aptly named for its vast gleaming beach that creates an irresistible shade of turquoise in its shallows, White Beach borders the south side of Virgin Gorda. It is home to the Soggy Dollar Bar –originator of the “Painkiller” cocktail, which, when we were in the depths of the storm a few days prior had jokingly become our shining light – “only 4 more days till a painkiller on White Beach…”. Still slightly delirious, we motored through a gap in the reef, anchored, and jumped into the Caribbean water. We’d made it. 11 days ago we were stuffing hot water bottles down our foulies and now we were swimming in 27degree water – what an incredible feeling. We spent the morning putting the boat back together as there had been considerable damage during the passage. We’d fixed the majors on the fly but the sheer amount of water we’d had onboard meant everything was soaking. Water had leaked down into our steering compartment and the entire bulkhead it was attached to was weak and rotting. On top of that we had a broken autohelm, no check stay, a ripped staysail and a hole in our boat where the galley window had been. But for now, it was a case of drying everything out and making it liveable again. We called our families who (for the sake of their sanity) we had been downplaying the situation we were in up until now. From the safety of the anchorage, we told them what really happened. Then, finally, it was time for that Painkiller.
We swam in and suddenly we ashore, amongst the throngs of happy holiday boaters who sat looking out to their charter boats peacefully anchored and thrilled with the calm Caribbean sailing conditions. It felt weird. We’d just been through the worst sailing experience of our lives; we’d fought mother nature and were so proud about how we had come out the other side. But none of that mattered here it the bustling queue of people anxious to get their next cocktail.
The Reef
At dusk we re-anchored the boat. The reef wasn’t lining up with the charts and seeing as we knew no one would be coming and going during the night we decided to play it safe and plonk ourselves in line with the middle of the channel markers. That night was due to be our first uninterrupted sleep sine we departed. We were excited. Sadly, that was not the case. Around 2am we heard an incredibly jarring sound below us. The whole boat shuddered. Confused and sleep-deprived we didn’t know what was going on. It happened again, but worse – this was the sickening tetonic crunch of fibreglass. This time we sprang into action, we got up on deck and shone a torch into the inky black sea, and there in the spotlight was the reef and sure enough, we were hitting it. Quickly we pulled up on the anchor to get the boat safe and then started the engine.. We had to wait till daylight to see the damage so for the next few hours we entered a broken sleep state anxious to see what further destruction we had done to our boat. Sunrise came and it was time to face reality.
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