Friday, March 12, 1999 – Soper’s hole, Tortola, BVI

LAND HO!

At bloody last is all I can say. Yes, we have finally arrived and are tied up along side the Soper’s Hole marina, who, out of the goodness of their heart, have put us up for the night, free of charge! Thanks guys! I guess I should give you some BVI history, but to be extremely honest with you, I’m a little tired and haven’t looked into it yet. So as a few times before in my journals, I’ll put it off to another day.

Today’s last few miles were rather uneventful. The calm weather allowed for me to get stuck into working on the STARSHIP’S cleanliness and beauty. All the while, Cooky as we affectionately call Pius, was busy cleaning up in the galley after a sumptuous lunch. At some point he cast his beady eyes out of the galley window a spied a Humpback whale calf breaching. Before half the word WHALE came out of his mouth, we were all outside looking for remnants of the breach. Sure enough, about ½ a mile away from us was the white wash of the said breach. It wasn’t long before the calf jumped out of the water again while turning her/his body to land on its back. An amazing sight. All the while, Mom was cruising along side judging the breaches.

Excited, all the cameras came out and we gently steered the boat closer to the whales. Luckily for us, the whales were travelling in the same direction as our plotted course. At one point however, Mom reduced speed and let her calf play. What a sight! We didn’t want to get to close, hence the pictures are not quite as good as we would have liked but it should give you an idea of the spectacle we were treated to by these fabulous animals. The crew was particularly happy for Christian and Helmut who sadly have not had much of their brief respite on STARSHIP. Helmut's eyes lit up the rest of the day however as this was the first time he has ever seen these leviathans in the flesh.

So there you go; all things come to those who wait and endure a little. We pulled into Soper’s late this arvo. After checking in with customs and immigration we headed for the marina. Ib, Cooky and I took the opportunity to get the salt off, which has been caked on the boat for the last four days. With the tender in the water and all the talk of water ski-ing over the last few days, Christian wanted to utilize the last half hour of sunlight to get wet. Ib being the martyr that he is took him out for some sunset ski-ing.

As always then, things have turned out well, everyone is happy and the day plods on. Cooky has taken the night off and we are all off to a restaurant tonight. That’s it for today cyber sailors. It’s the weekend again. It seems like I only just wished you a good weekend yesterday. Where do all the days go?