BVI Sailing Adventure 2026 - Days 2 and 3

Dead Chest Island is in the British Virgin Islands. Legend has it that the pirate Blackbeard (Edward Teach) once punished a mutinous crew by marooning fifteen of them on that small, barren rock that looked like a coffin with nothing but a bottle of rum and a cutlass each.  Since there was no water or food, he figured they’d finish each other off—hence the "dead man's chest" name.  Some of the mutineers tried to swim to Cooper Island.  All the swimmers drowned and washed up in Deadman’s Bay.

Our second day at Nanny Cay Resort started at 9:00 am with a very loud knock on the door from house keeping. I chased her away.  We were not ready to receive any visitors.  I was soon off to the harbor-side coffee shop.  It is a delightful walk along the inner harbor lined with hundreds of charter yachts.  Mostly catamarans. The majority of the yachts are 45 - 60’. That is a lot of inventory sitting at the dock.  

Early afternoon was spent poolside.  We were welcomed by a maintenance worker who engaged each couple around the pool. He was most pleasant with his banter to determine if we were legitimate hotel guests or cruising poachers from the nearby marina.  We passed the test.  It is easy to see that scurvy sailors from the marina would try to sneak in. 

We wandered over to the Navigare office to try and determine how large is the refrigerator on our catamaran?  That will help us with our shopping.  Our boat was on the hard getting the bottom cleaned.  She will be faster with a clean bottom.   However no one is allowed on the docks until the day of the charter.  

We learned that the local supermarket would pick us up so we could shop and they will deliver our groceries to our boat on the morning of our charter. Eddie from Bobby’s market picked us up.  There is another super maker called Rite Way that also caters to cruisers.  There is a difference of opinion among the locals regarding which store has the best prices. Bobby’s agreed to deliver on Sunday so off we went with our new best friend Eddie to shop.  We needed two shopping carts.  One cart was mostly filled with drinking water for five people for seven days.  There are stores on the outer islands in case we run short of provisions.  However there are also many restaurants so we are in no danger of starvation.  

The Navigare office is functional. The girls behind the desk are in charge. No question about that.

We arrived back on Nanny Cay and headed over to Peg Legs for dinner. The one minute walk took one minute.  It was BBQ night and I had the half slab of ribs.  It was delicious.  While we were there I made reservations for five people for the following night when Alison and family will arrive.  

Tomorrow Alison, Oscar and Jackson will arrive.