The British Virgin Islands
For months leading up to this trip, we were emailing and texting with our friends. Cooking partners have been chosen and we are anxiously waiting to leave on our trip. We are longing to be in the heat with a warm wind on our faces. February was a brutally cold month and we couldn’t wait for this exciting sailing adventure to begin. Example of text pictures!
March 22
We fly to Toronto for an over night. We meet Reimers at the Sheraton for an evening snack. Hutchinson’s flight was delayed so we didn’t see them until the next morning.
March 23
The Wilsons have now joined us so now the 8 of us are on our Air Canada flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico. From the airport, we grab an Uber and head to the Air BnB. Ummm The Air Bnb is not quite like the pictures but it is close to the airport and to the beach. Oh well, it is clean and there is no bed bugs! It will do for one night. We take a couple of Ubers to old San Juan to have supper at Marmalade Restaurant. Our table was sprinkled with rose petals – nice touch. Dinner is absolutely fabulous. We receive family style plates of each appetizer. Of course, Neil has a wine paired with each dish. Then we have our entrées and dessert. It is a lot of food and wine but so much fun. And we get to celebrate Cathy’s birthday.
We wonder out on the streets to check out the atmosphere on a Saturday night. It is a happening place with street musicians and entertainment. There is even a kiosk to buy a drink! It was a fun night.
And listen to this! The birthday girl has priorities!
March 24
In the morning Neil discovers he left his Surface in the pocket on the plane! Frick!!! We need to get to the airport to see if it was found. We do a quick walk to the beach. You can still see hurricane devastation.
Once we get to the airport, we get in line with bags and Neil goes in search of help. It is frustrating because everyone moves at island speed. Some guy went to the back to look but never returned. Neil gave up after 45 minutes and is absolutely sick! Line ups in the airport are atrocious and it takes a long time to get through security. We get our flight to Beef Island on Tortola. The flight was a quick 45 minutes and then we sat on the Tarmac for 45 minutes. It is pouring rain which they say is rare. They bring us yellow ponchos (aka condoms) to put on.
We finally get through customs and we are picked up by JP and taken to the Riteway grocery store. Cathy and I go to the boat and meet Matt, our Captain and haul in everyone’s luggage. Matt is a super nice young man. He could be our son’s age. We head back to the grocery store to meet up with the others to purchase the groceries and alcohol. $2000 US later…….. Apparently, we should of bought drinking water. Ooops, we need water, so we drink the tank water which is not recommended. I guess we could of boiled it first.
Our catamaran is named Windborne and it is a Voyage 520 (52 foot) with Voyage Charters. Each couple has a bedroom with ensuite. There is a great kitchen and lounge area and we have WiFi!
Example of room with Queen bed and ensuite.
Captain Matt gives us our safety instructions. Once we are loaded up, we take off for Norman Island. This is so cool! Our own boat. The air is hot and the wind feels lovely on our skin. What a life! We are so lucky!!! We moor in a bay with lots of other boats. It is a great first evening with Terry and Ellen cooking spaghetti and meat sauce with Caesar salad. Neil and I hand out our little gifts for everyone. A propeller cap for Paul, a shark that grows in water (sorry not a wooden giraffe!) for Brenda, wipes for Cathy, cocktail umbrellas for Terry, a bubble making gun for Barry, and a regular water gun for Jose just in case she wants to shoot Barry while he is in the dinghy. We couldn’t believe the laughs that were had for such a economical Dollarama run.
March 25
I was going to get up to see the sunrise, but I rolled over. Little did I know that I would have many sunrise mornings in the coming days. It is a leisurely morning. Matt moves the boat over to the other side of the bay which is close to some caves along the water. Legend has it that treasure has been found in caves in the BVIs over the years. It is a beautiful day and we do a little snorkelling in and along the caves. I was going to go in the cave, but Neil stopped me because he thought he saw a floating dead rat! Eeekkk! There is lots to see and the fish are so colourful and plentiful. Teal green fish with lime green tails. Purple with orange tail. Black with yellow tail. There are even black balls with white spikes on the coral.
We move over to Peter Island to check out a beach, but it is too windy. We move to the other side of the bay where it is calmer. This is the bay with the Willy T boat which apparently, gets rocking with lots of partiers. Cathy and Paul make brunch. We do a little swimming and some of us kayak. The women take turns washing their hair off the back of the boat. Neil and Jose make dinner – fennel salad with lime Tostidos crusted mystery fish that was bought at the grocery store. There are lots of Tarpon fish off the back of the boat. They are huge! Looking for compost scraps, perhaps? Matt discovers why the ice maker isn’t working or the air conditioning. A rubber gear needs replacing but he has a replacement so we take turns holding a light so he can see while trying to do the fix. No luck so we have no air conditioning or ice for the night. It is a hot evening but there is a great breeze so we are OK but can’t have our planned G and Ts without ice!
March 26
We are up at 6 am. and set sail for Virgin Gorda island which takes 2 hours. We arrive at the rock formation area but the water is pretty rough so it is not safe to swim in so move to the harbour area. Matt takes Paul, Barry, Jose, Neil and I in the dinghy to the shuttle so we can beat the throngs of tourists.
This was very wise to go early. The Virgin Gorda Baths are incredible. We are the first people there which was a good thing because by the time we left at 9:30 am you had to wait and there were always people in the way when you wanted to take pictures. Here is one example of a dufus that walks right into my video! Totally oblivious! 🙂
We walk all through the rock formations. It is very cool! We head back to the harbour and get water and wait for Matt. We meet a couple at the dock that sailed across the Atlantic from Netherlands. And it wasn’t there first time. I can’t imagine!
Back at the boat, Matt is still working on the gear issue and gets it sort of fixed. Brenda and Barry make a delicious brunch and then we set sail for Anegada (2 hours) This time we anchor and there are a lot of boats. Cathy and Paul cook burgers and fries on the BBQ. Early night – tired from the early morning and all the activity! We get to stay here for 2 nights.
March 27
Today is José’s birthday. We give her a badge and a tiara. Terry and I (Ellen) are on breakfast duty so Terry ( not me ) is up early cooking bacon. I like Chef Terry to feel that he is in charge and the plan is working out well.
We pile into the dinghy with all our snorkelling gear and Matt shuttles us over to the dock. We need two trips because we have so much stuff. We have a truck rented so we pile in the back. There is bench seating so not quite like the childhood days on the ranch with Dad. Matt takes us to a beach at Loblolly Bay for swimming and snorkelling. The sand is like icing sugar. The snorkelling is a little tough because the coral is a ways out and the water is rough. We finish the morning with cocktails in the little bar along the beach.
We move to the Anegada Beach Club for lunch and then have another swim at the beach. The Beach Club is a nice place with a hotel and huts to rent.
On the way back to the dinghy we stop to get a few groceries. Expensive!!!! Back at the boat, we open a bottle of champagne to celebrate José!!
We are heading in shore again for a birthday supper at the Lobster Trap. We dinghy over to the dock and Matt is a master at fitting us between other dinghy’s to right where there is a ladder. It is a little awkward getting in and out of the dingy especially in a dress but whatever. On the way back, the birthday girl loses her sandal over board but it floats and Cathy is able to grab it. Whew! That was close. What a fun day!
March 28
We are up a 5 something. Arghh!!! and set sail at 6 am. The sunrise is fantastic. Neil is cooking breakfast in the kitchen while we are sailing which is a challenge. We are heading for Jost Van Dyke which will be approximately a 6-hour sail. Matt gets the guys organized for fishing. Wow! Was there excitement when a fish was caught. Matt would leave the helm in Terry’s charge and run over to the line and help Neil, Paul or Barry. The rest of us would be videoing or taking pictures. 5 Barracudas were caught and thrown back. Neil caught an Albacore (approximately 8 lb) and Paul and Barry each got a Kingfish. They were huge. Matt did the filleting – one into steaks (20) and one into filets.
We eventually get to White Bay at Jost Van Dyke and do an anchoring which Matt is not sure about. We have a quick brunch that Neil and Jose handled and then Matt loads us in the dinghy to head to the Soggy Dollar. As he is dropping us off, he says “Now remember, Painkillers are powerful. One OK, Two maybe but don’t do 3!” So funny because he is the age of our kid and he is giving us this little bit of advice! We wander over to the Soggy Dollar. Holy Crap! this is a happening place! I text Lori at work and then wave at Janelle and Lori in the web cam. That was cool!
We purchase T-shirts and a couple of Painkillers and sit on the chairs out front. It is HOT! We go for a swim and a walk and then move to the shade at another bar. Barry entertains us with his dancing technique.
We meet Matt at the dinghy after he had a run up the hill. Crazy in this hot temperature! The anchor is not holding so Matt decides to move to a mooring ball. All the other boats around are a sailing community and for the most part everyone helps each other out. Matt helped one boat when we first got to White Bay with their mooring ball. We saw a gaff hook floating by so we grab it and a few minutes later someone in a dingy was looking for it. When we decided to move to a mooring ball, another boater in his dinghy helped us by securing the ball. People are so friendly. We settle in for the night and Barry and Brenda do steaks on the BBQ and twice baked potatoes. Delicious! Another FUN day!
March 29
We get to have a bit of a sleep in like……… 7:00 am. A small piece of the BBQ has fallen into the water and Paul is in the water trying to retrieve it. He has it and then surfaces right under the dinghy. Oouch! He drops it so Matt goes in and does a perfect surface dive and retrieves it first try. We move to Long Bay and Diamond Cay to do some kayaking, snorkelling and swimming. It really is like Deifenbaker lake in the summer with us floating behind the boat. Only difference is that at Deifenbaker Lake, we would have a Reidel glass of rosé in hand.
We move to Sandy Cay next and decide to swim in to the beach. We use flippers and it really is easy except for right at shore where the waves crash you into the sand. We see the Vancouver people that we met at the airport a week ago. Once back at the boat we make snacks and lounge around sleeping, practicing yoga and visiting. It is a sleepy afternoon.
Later in the afternoon, we head to Soper’s Hole which is home base for the catamaran. Our awesome week is coming to an end. ☹ Matt starts the boat maintenance work once we are tied into dock. His family comes to pick him up so we get to meet his lovely wife and two cute kids. Everyone pitches in for our last night supper. We use the left over orzo and make them into balls and bake them in the oven. The Kingfish is barbequed. Left over garlic white sauce is drizzled over top. As a joke, Barry messages Matt during the evening asking for directions about docking the boat as if we had been over to the Soggy dollar again! We do lots of group photos with the remote and have a fun last night finishing off most of the alcohol.
A slideshow of our goofiness!!!
March 30
Not too early of a morning but we do need to pack up. We are sad. Wish we had a couple of more days. Paul and Brenda are first to leave because they have an earlier flight. All week we have been bugging Matt about our rating as guests. Barry has been the wild card in our rating and probably caused our A rating to drop. Matt did say he had some rude Canadians on previous trips so he was pleasantly surprised by us so that was nice. We have a nice chit chat and say our goodbyes and then it is off to the airport. The airport is very disorganized and our flight is delayed to the point that we are wondering if we will make our Air Canada flight to Toronto.
Eventually, we get our 45 minute flight to San Juan and head to the Air Canada counter. We are checking in and ask about Neil’s Surface laptop. The woman says she does remember and that they have it!! We can’t believe it. It takes a long time to get it in our hands but we got it. Unbelievable!! Neil is so relieved. He has a new spring in his step. We get through customs and catch our flight to Toronto. There is white stuff on the ground in Toronto. Boo hoo! That is a rude awakening. We overnight at the Alt hotel.
March 31
We have a nice sleep in morning and catch our flight home. Well, what can I say……. that was yet another fantastic adventure trip with our good friends. Good times! We are so fortunate to have this opportunity and we hope to return to the BVIs again soon!
Wine and Cheezies Travels 