So you think going across 60 miles of open sea on a pump up boat is brave….. Then try this!
While on holiday in The British Virgin Islands and Antigua this month, we had some time to kill at Nanny Cay Marina in the BVI. As we sat waiting to return our rental boat, a lady on a body board turned up looking rather like a Japanese soldier who’d just found his way out of the jungle and didn’t know the war was over. She paddled over to say Hi and eat her lunch, having just travelled 4 miles down the coast, in training for a trip later in the year. She apparently has a slightly bigger board with a rudder for longer distances, complete with GPS, VHF and flares. She wanted to know how she looked, as on the way she’d paddled into a bay and on seeing her approach, people had taken their children out of the water and hid behind a bush!
She had several tales to tell, like the cargo ship who spotted her in the shipping lanes and kept following her… She eventually had to shout at the Captain and explain she didn’t need rescuing. She also recalls the time she was arrested travelling to Grenada from a nearby island. It seems she failed to declare her ‘vessel’. When the authorities demanded to see it, they were a little puzzled to be led to the hotel laundry room… where her ‘vessel’ was leaning against a wall! She was fined $500.
Her next venture in the summer is a crossing from the BVI to Puerto Rico, a distance of around 60 miles!
So….. Anyone up for Cowes to Cherbourg on a cricket bat?
