May 13
We started our day with a Mother's Day brunch at Molly Molone's. One of their specials was crab cake benedict. It was like eggs benedict, but instead of the ham or Canadian Bacon, it had a crab cake. It was very good. After brunch, we hopped on a maxi-taxi to Charlotte Amalie. There are two taxi options on St. Thomas. The "regular" taxis are all full size vans that will take you wherever you want to go. From Red Hook where we are, on the east end of the island, they charge $15 per person to go downtown. The other option is a maxi-taxi. The maxi-taxi, also known as safaris, are pickup chassis, with a body on the back that has three or four bench seats and a roof. The sides are open, although they have plastic roll-down sides if it rains. The maxi-taxis run continuously in a loop around the island. They don't deviate from their route, but to just get downtown they work fine. And they are $2 per person. Tourists generally ride the real taxis because they don't know better. We were fortunate to have the difference explained to us and used the maxi-taxis exclusively.
In town, we found everything closed. It is Sunday, and more importantly, there are no cruise ships in today. We walked around a little on the waterfront and found one bar called The Happy Buzzard open. There we met Brandon, a young man from Alaska who recently moved here and went to work. He works here in the afternoon, and at a fine dining place in Frenchtown for dinner. One of the drinks the islands are known for is the Bushwhacker. Every bar claims to have the best one, so we had to try them. They are a frozen drink with several liquors including Bailey's Irish Cream, and Hershey's chocolate syrup. They go down like a milk shake, and after several you realize they were not plain milkshakes. We spent a couple hours there and then hopped a maxi-taxi back to "the country". The taxis don't refer to the east end as Red Hook. They call it "the country".
Our friends who live here, Floyd & Jennifer, picked us up in the evening and took us back to their condo for dinner. It was good to see them again and catch up with what they've been up to. It was fun catching up too with news of friends like Jim & Lynda Hall in Texas, whom they are regularly in contact with. In fact, they had spoken with Jim just today. We had a great dinner of tuna steaks and salad, and visited for several hours.
GPS N 18-19.481 W 064-51.03 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 8976.
May 14
For the last couple of days, we have been hearing the Coast Guard repeatedly making an announcement about a missing boat named Flying Colors, which had been underway from St. Thomas to Washington, DC. Once we got here, we learned that the boat was a fifty-six foot sailboat from Red Hook with four people onboard. Apparently several days ago, they set off their emergency locator beacon. It transmitted for four hours and then stopped. The boat was known to have a second emergency locator in it's life raft, but that one never went off. The Coast Guard searched an area the size of Texas for several days, but found no trace of the boat, the people, or any debris. Based on where the emergency beacon signal came from, they figured that the weather there at the time was winds up to sixty knots, and thirty to forty foot seas. Not good. This morning we heard on CNN that the Coast Guard had called off the search for them. Many people around the marina here knew the boat and the people and are understandably down about it.
Terri and Britt from Sea Otter, whom we met in Luperon and Sol Y Mar has known longer, came by the marina late in the morning and offered to take us for a ride around the island. They had the use of a Jeep Cherokee while they are here, so while it was a little tight, it was better than hiring a taxi to take us on a tour. We drove into Charlotte Amalie and went up to the top of the cable car that overlooks the harbor. We had been here back on one of our charters, but Pat & Dori hadn't. We had lunch at the top. Terri is a watercolor artist and has her works displayed in a Charlotte Amalie gallery. She also has lived on and off in St. Thomas for years and knows lots of folks. After we ate, she took us in one of the shops up top where a friend works. They had a lot of neat shipwreck artifacts like china and coins. After listening to some neat stories about some of the stuff, we went back down the mountain.
We next stopped at the Post Office in the hopes of picking up a package I'm expecting. We had shipped our corroded nav lights back to the manufacturer. He is replacing them under warrantee and I had him ship them back to St. Thomas for General Delivery pickup. He used Priority Mail which should take two to three days, and he shipped them Thursday, so I'm hoping they're here. If you're not aware, St. Thomas is part of the US Virgin Islands, and the US Post Office is the mail system here. Well, the Post Office works just like at home. Twenty people in line and two people working. I waited twenty minutes at least to be told that there was no package. Guess I'll try again tomorrow.
We went on into the main downtown area of Charlotte Amalie and Terri took us to the gallery where he paintings are displayed along with the works of a number of other local artists. We spent a hour or so here looking around while Terri tended to some business. From here we went on a ride up the mountain to Drake's Seat where you have an excellent view of Meagan's Bay on the north coast of St. Thomas, and the British Virgin Islands in the not to far distance. We had hoped to go to Mountaintop, home of allegedly the world's best banana daiquiris, but they would have been closed already, so we skipped it. We drove east from here, heading back toward the marina, but on the north side of the island which isn't the road you take on the maxi-taxis. We stopped along the way at Budget Marine, a store similar to West Marina. We didn't find what we were looking for, but we did find a lock for the dinghy motor that we had not been able to find in the States.
Once we got back to the east end, we all decided to take a ferry to St. John for dinner. Pat is also looking for a specific kind of earring, and was told of a shop there that might have it. We didn't know the ferry schedule, so we parked at the marina and walked the block to the ferry dock. Turned out it runs on the hour and it was about eight minutes after. So, we walked back to The Warehouse, a.k.a. The Poor Man's Bar. This place is a second floor dive with a view over the street. It's marketing ploy is that you pour your own drinks. I ordered rum and Coke, and the bartender placed a plastic cup of ice, a can of Coke, and the bottle of rum in front of me. You get to pour as strong as you want. We had no idea how much these drinks cost. It could sound like a good deal until you find out they are $6 each or something. I had two while we waited for the next ferry, and was pleasantly surprised to find they were just $2.50. Since I poured them like I would at home, it was a good deal. We made the 18:00 ferry and were in St. John about 18:20. We found the jewelry store and I recognized it as the place I bought my first ankle bracelet back in 2001 when we first chartered. Pat was disappointed though that they only had one earring like he wanted, and he didn't like that one. So off to dinner we went.
We had been told there is a good sushi bar here. It was a bit of a walk from the main shopping area near the ferry dock, but we found it. The sushi was quite good and we enjoyed it along with some key lime pie martinis. Yes, key lime pie martinis. Coconut rum, lime juice, and something else in a martini glass rimmed with graham crackers crumbs. After dinner we hopped a maxi-taxi back to the ferry dock. We assumed the ferry left here on the half hour, since the one over leaves on the hour and takes twenty minutes. Well you know what happens when you assume. We walked up to the dock about 21:05 just in time to see the ferry leaving. Turns out they use two boats and they leave each way on the hour. They end up sitting for about half an hour in each port. I guess during rush hour it would take more than just ten minutes to unload and reload, so it makes sense. Pat and I had to laugh at our recent ferry experiences. As luck would have it though, there was a bar with a live band playing right next to the ferry dock. We stepped in there for a nightcap while we killed an hour waiting for the next ferry.
GPS N 18-19.481 W 064-51.03 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 8976.
May 15
This morning after an attempt to listen to the morning radio stuff (the reception sucks in a marina), I hopped a maxi-taxi to town to check the Post Office again. The Post Office is just a couple blocks off the maxi-taxi route, so it's very convenient to ride there this way. I waited in a very long line again and once again was told no package. I inquired about tracking it, and all the tracking system says is that it was accepted in Florida on the 10th. The USPS tracking system sucks compared to UPS or FedEx. It basically says we got it, and then we delivered it, with nothing in between. What good is that? I hopped a maxi back to Red Hook a little frustrated.
Barb had been doing laundry while I was gone, and was still working on it when I returned. The laundromat is pretty good sized, and most of the machines work, but it has zero airflow inside and is like being in an oven. She finished a little while later and we walked up to Burrito Deli where we found Pat & Dori already waiting for their lunch. We joined them and had a passable Mexican lunch. Nothing fancy, but ok.
We hit the Marina Market across the street to pick up a few groceries before returning to the boat. We plan to stock up on cheap liquor before we leave and checked out their prices compared to the stores in town who advertise the "lowest prices in the USVI". We found that the grocery store prices were consistently cheaper than the stores who are marketing to the cruise ship passengers. We could probably find even cheaper at the K-Mart at the mall, but then we would have to transport it back to the boat on a maxi. So, we'll stock up here, but not right now.
We relaxed for the afternoon, enjoying our air conditioning and TV on the boat. We were invited to dinner aboard Sol Y Mar and went over about 18:00. Pat is making clam linguini and Dori is banned from the galley while this takes place. The resulting meal was delicious and there was no damage to the boat when Pat flambéed the mushrooms in Gran Marnier.
GPS N 18-19.481 W 064-51.03 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 8976.
May 16
We are going to make another tour of Charlotte Amalie while the shops are open, and of course hit the post office again. We hopped a maxi and headed for town. Pat and I got off at the stop near the Post Office and the ladies continued to the waterfront. We walked the couple of blocks to the Post Office where Pat mailed a package, and I was again disappointed at not receiving mine. We walked back to where we could get another maxi and continued to the waterfront. We found the ladies and considered our lunch options. We decided on a place up one of the old downtown alleys called Gladys Cafe. It was supposed to be more of a Caribbean cooking place than a tourist trap. The food was ok, but nothing special, and their rum and cokes made up for the heavy pours I had the other day at the do-it-yourself bar.
Back on the street, we walked past the Harley Davidson store. Although they don't have any bikes in the showroom, this is a legitimate licensed Harley store with all the Harley clothing and other stuff you could want. To our surprise, there were about thirty Harleys parked all around the store on the sidewalks. They all had New Jersey or Pennsylvania plates on them. Turns out the cruise ships do this all the time, where you cruise and bring your bike, and you get to ride around the islands they stop at. A little while later we heard them all fire up and they rode off in a group.
Also while walking along the main waterfront street, we heard a loud bang. The street here is four narrow lanes, two each way. The traffic was typical stop and go, and a maxi-taxi was passing a city bus on the left. The bus was stopped because of the traffic. The body of the maxi-taxi caught the rear-view mirror of the bus and broke it off. The maxi stopped immediately and the bus driver got out and then the yelling started. The maxi driver was contending that the bus was too close to the edge of his lane and didn't leave room for traffic to get by in the other lane. Whether that was true or not, the bus was stopped, so it seems to me it was up to the passing vehicle to miss it. The main problem with this was neither one of them was going to move until the police got there, which effectively closed the street. The horns were blowing within a minute, and we turned up an alley to get away from it all.
We ended up at the Happy Buzzard again to have just one drink with Brandon before heading back to Red Hook. Of course, one led to another, and then it was almost happy hour when the prices dropped, so we had to have another. Four Bushwhacker (for me) later, we were on our way back to the east end. Once there, we decided we needed food again, so we went to Duffy's Love Shack, another bar right across from the marina. We had a couple drinks and Barb & I ate dinner. We met several guys there who were intrigued by our travels and enjoyed chatting with them. About 20:00, the cumulative effects of the rum suddenly started to catch up with me, and we headed back to the boat while I could.
GPS N 18-19.481 W 064-51.03 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 8976.
May 17
It might be predictable what I did first thing this morning. Yes, it was another maxi ride to the Post Office. After another long line, I was told again, no package. Even though I had done this before, I confirmed that this was the right office for General Delivery and the zip that it was sent to, and it was. The lady waiting on me was very helpful, and assured me that when the package arrived in the Post Office, the tracking system would reflect that, so I could stop wasting my time coming if it wasn't there. I took the maxi back to the boat, and just before lunch, I checked my e-mail. I had signed up to be notified by e-mail whenever the status changed, and there was an e-mail. It said the package was waiting for pickup at 08:30 this morning. I was there at 10:00 !! Guess I'll get it tomorrow.
We had lunch at Molly Molone's with Pat & Dori. There are large iguanas who roam near the patio area here, and a couple of them are active today. They never came right up to us, but they walk right under the tables and startled a few other guests a few tables away from us.
A large sportfish boat came and tied up to the t-head at the end of our dock this afternoon. At first glance, I didn't think much about it, but later I realized just how large it was. It was nearly a hundred feet long. That's a lot of boat. And of course it had fishing gear hanging off the back worth more than my whole boat.
Barb made dinner tonight using her pressure cooker. Pressure cookers are very popular on cruising boats, since they allow you to cook something in a short period of time, thus using less propane and putting less heat in the boat. We bought the pressure cooker before we left two years ago, but this is the first time she tried to use it. The meal was ok, but either the meat was too tough from being in the freezer for a year, or the pressure cooker technique needs refining. But, it was a new cruising experience.
GPS N 18-19.481 W 064-51.03 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 8976.
May 18
I was eager to get to the Post Office today. I was armed with a print of the e-mail I got, just in case there was any problem finding it. To my amazement, the line was very short, there were several people working the counter, and the package was there! Must be my day. I hopped the maxi back to the marina with a smile on my face. I installed the new nav lights using copious quantities of silicon sealant to hopefully make them watertight this time. I managed to drop a screw driver in the water during the project, so it wasn't without incident, but the lights work.
I ran a few other errands, like hit the ATM across the street for some more cash, and the market to stock up on liquor. Amongst a few single bottles of things, I got a case of rum for $5.40/bottle. That's about a third what it would cost in the States.
We are having dinner with Floyd & Jennifer again tonight. They picked us up at 18:30 and took us back to Frenchtown to a Mexican restaurant called La Brisas. I had seafood enchiladas that were wonderful. They also served margaritas by the pitcher, so we were having a good time. We met other friends of Floyd & Jennifer's there, John & Tammy, and enjoyed their company. John works as a harbor pilot, which means when a large cargo or cruise ship comes into the harbor, he is one of the guys who meets it offshore and actually drives it in to dock. We enjoyed chatting about boating from each other's different points of view.
GPS N 18-19.481 W 064-51.03 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 8976.
May 19
Since we have our package, we are leaving today, so I took the opportunity to hose off the decks and top up the water tanks. For the past month when we were at anchor, we had a rain shower every day or night, even if it was just for a few minutes. Being at anchor with all the hatches open, that meant running around to close everything just in time for the rain to stop usually. Well, this past week, when we have been in the marina with the boat all closed up and the a/c on, it has not rained a single drop. On top of that, it has been very hazy here all week, and that haze has been attributed to dust blowing all the way here from Africa. So we needed a rinse, even if the water does cost $.14/gallon.
We were checked out and ready to go about 09:00. We are going a whopping ten miles to Great Harbor on Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. This is the home of the famous Foxy's Tamarind Bar. We got away from the dock without any trouble and found a nice breeze outside the harbor, in a direction where we could actually sail. But we motorsailed anyway. Usually, the excuse not to sail has to do with wind direction, or required speed, or the need to charge batteries anyway. Today the only excuse was the captain was too lazy to pull out both sails only to have to roll them back up in an hour. So we had only the main out and watched as Sol Y Mar sped past us under full sail.
Once anchored in Great Harbor, we launched the dinghy and went ashore to check in with Customs & Immigration. We didn't check in here when we chartered. We checked in at Soper's Hole on Tortola before. Our friends on Non-Linear checked in at Soper's Hole and reported that it cost them $18 for Customs, and $.20 for Immigration. Yes, $.20. That's to cover the cost of the forms they say. Well here, we were charged $10 by Customs, and $1 for the Immigration forms. Go figure. But the people were friendlier than I remember the Soper's Hole ones being, so all in all it was a good experience.
We walked over to Corsair's and made dinner reservations, and then walked down to Foxy's for lunch. Both of these places are Latitudes & Attitudes Cruiser Club Official Harbor Hangouts, which means as a member of said club, I should get my first beer free. I showed the bartender my id card, and he acted like he never heard of such a thing. Oh well, I figured it wasn't worth fussing over. But, when we paid the bill, he had not charged me for the first beer. We stayed at Foxy's for a couple hours, had lunch, and looked around for the t-shirt we hung here a few years ago. We couldn't find it, although I'm not sure if that's because we forgot where we hung it or it has come down.
We spent a couple hours during the afternoon relaxing and writing, and then went back ashore about 18:00 for dinner at Corsairs. I have heard in years past that Corsairs has better food than Foxy's, and we have eaten dinner at Foxy's both times we chartered here, so it's time for something new. Corsairs is another Lats & Atts Harbor Hangout, so again my first beer was free. Corsairs has a connection with Lats & Atts in that Vinny the owner knew Bob Bitchin, the Lats & Atts publisher in their previous lives when the cruising was done on motorcycles instead of boats. We had made our dinner reservation for 21:00, so we sat at the bar and enjoyed a few drinks before being seated for dinner. We met Vinny and chatted a little about boats and moorings (this is about the only bay in the BVI without mooring balls) and the challenges of running a restaurant in the islands. A little after 21:00, we sat down for dinner. Vinny and his wife Debbie do the table service, and Vinny took care of us. Unlike a lot of the restaurants in the BVI, where you have a few entrees to choose from and have to place your order in the afternoon, Corsairs has a regular menu and a few daily specials to choose from, and you don't have to make up your mind until you get there. Our dinners were very good, and after we were done, Vinny bought us a round of after-dinner drinks. All in all, in was a very nice time.
Back at the boat, I was nervous about our anchor set. After we had gotten here, I dinghied over the anchor with the looky bucket, and was unhappy with the way it was set. It was more just snagged on a rock than really set in the bottom. Since we were in a hurry to get to Customs & Immigration before they closed at noon, I left it for then. When we got back to the boat in the afternoon, there were many more boats anchored near us, so I was reluctant to try and re-anchor then. My thoughts were that the wind direction rarely changes here, so as long as we don't reverse on the anchor it will stay caught where it is. Unfortunately, when we returned from dinner, the wind had died way down and the boats were all pointing the other way. If the wind stays calm, it doesn't much matter if the anchor is set or not - just the weight of it and the chain will keep us in one place. But, I'm worried that if the wind picks back up, we may drag. So, I stayed up most of the night in the cockpit keeping an eye on things. I dozed here and there, but the slightest puff of wind or noise woke me to make sure we weren't moving. In the end, all was well. The wind stayed very light but variable in direction all night, so we kept turning in different directions, but so did all the other boats around us, so it wasn't a problem. By about 08:00, the wind started to pick up again from the normal direction, and we appeared to be still caught on our rock.
GPS N 18-26.551 W 064-45.014 Nautical miles traveled today 10. Total miles 8986.
May 20
The distances between cool places are so short here that today we are going to hit two places. We weighed anchor in Great Harbor on Jost Van Dyke, where Foxy's and Corsairs are, at about 10:00. We went a whopping mile around the point to White Bay, home of the Soggy Dollar Bar. The Soggy Dollar is reputed to be the home of the Painkiller, a very popular BVI drink. A Painkiller is dark rum, pineapple juice, orange juice, and coconut cream, topped with grated nutmeg. The best ones, in my opinion are made at the Pusser's restaurants, and what makes them better is the unique flavor of Pusser's rum. But, since the drink supposedly originated at The Soggy Dollar, we must pay homage to it. Besides, it's one of the coolest beach bars you'll ever find.
White Bay is a narrow bay that lies behind a shallow reef. There are two breaks in the reef where you can enter the shallow bay, and they are both marked clearly although the preferred one is not on my electronic charts at all. Had I not been here before on a charter boat, I would be real nervous entering between the markers that are not on my chart and clearly looks like reef on the chart. We make it in with no less than eleven feet of water and turn east into the bay. At the east end of the bay, there are ten moorings, but they are all full. There is room to anchor west of the moorings, and we pick a spot. Once set, we are kind of close to another boat, and the guy is looking at us like he doesn't like how close we are. This is a charter boat, and you never know if charter boaters have a clue what they are doing or not, so I attempt to holler over to the guy to ask if he's ok with where we are, and explain that we are only staying a couple hours. However, he has his back to me and doesn't acknowledge my holler. So, rather than make somebody unhappy, we hoist anchor and move over another fifty feet. It takes two tries to get the anchor to set again, and it isn't set to my liking, but it will do for a couple hours.
Sol Y Mar came over about an hour later and anchored next to us. By then the charter boat had left, so there was plenty of room. We dinghied ashore and walked up to the open-air bar. We ordered four Painkillers and sat down at a shady table under a large sea grape tree and look out at the beach and the water. This is my idea of a beach bar. There are hammocks to lay in, several Caribbean ring games, which I long ago gave up trying to master, turquoise water, white sand, a gentle cool breeze, young girls in bikinis, and a bar. What more could you ask for? We stayed about and hour and had two rounds of drinks before moving on to our next stop. As nice as White Bay is, I wouldn't want to stay anchored here overnight.
We motored straight into the wind the short six miles across the sound to Cane Garden Bay. Cane Garden Bay is on the northern shore of Tortola, the primary island of the BVI's. Even though it is on the northern shore, it actually faces west. A popular Jimmy Buffett song mentions Cane Garden Bay and "the lights of St. Thomas twenty miles west". Well, it's really not even twenty miles, but at night St. Thomas looks like a metropolis on the horizon. As we were approaching Cane Garden Bay, looking through the binoculars, Barb said there were no boats there. Cane Garden is not a good place to be when there is a northern swell running, but there has been no northern swell for over a week, and nothing I know of forecast, so I am puzzled about why the bay is empty, save one boat, at 14:00 in the afternoon. As we get closer, we confirm that the thirty or more moorings are all empty, and the only boat there is anchored. We take our pick of the moorings and Sol Y Mar take one nearby a few minutes later. A few minutes after we were both secure, we noticed the anchored boat hoisting a Texas flag. They had seen that both us and Sol Y Mar were flying them, so they had to show their colors too. Within half an hour, we dinghy ashore to start our evaluation of the quality of the Painkillers in the half dozen or more bars right along the beach here. We start at Quito Rhymer's, just off the dinghy dock. Quito Rhymer is a reggae singer who lives here. Amazingly, as we were coming between the markers entering the bay, Radio Margaritaville played a Quito Rhymer song. How did they know? Quito's uses Myer's Dark rum in their Painkillers, giving a flavor similar to the Pusser's ones, but and better than Soggy Dollars, but still not the best.
From Quito's we moved down the beach past Rhymer's pink hotel and bar to Elm's Beach Bar. The Painkiller's here were ok, but not in the running for the best. They do however have three cool swings facing the beach that we sat in until the setting sun made it too hot to stay there. Next stop down the beach was Stanley's Welcome Bar. We were joined here by Gene and Cindy from the other Texas boat. They keep their boat down here and spend at least three months on it during the spring. Stanley's Painkillers were also quite nice, but not Pusser's. Of course by now, I may be loosing my tasting accuracy. We moved last to Myett's to close out the afternoon's tasting competition. But here, Painkillers were not included in the happy hour pricing, so we just had rum and Coke. We shared some conch fritters and then headed back to the boats. Barb whipped up some jambalaya for dinner and we crashed pretty early. All that hard work of judging Painkillers wears you out.
GPS N 18-25.703 W 064-39.596 Nautical miles traveled today 6. Total miles 8992.
May 21
We relaxed aboard this morning and had a nice full breakfast. About noon, we joined Sol Y Mar, Non-Linear, and Lone Star ashore to go visit the Callwood Distillery. The Callwood Distillery has been making rum in Cane Garden Bay for over two hundred years, and not much has changed. They still use local sugar cane which is crushed by a small crusher run by an ancient hand-cranked diesel engine. That is one change; the crusher used to be run by donkeys turning a large wheel, but the diesel engine eats less. The still is the same as it has been forever, and each day that they make rum, they make about twenty-five gallons of pure 151 proof rum. That gets diluted to 80 proof and aged in old wooden barrels for four years before bottling. The bottling is all done by hand and usually uses odd reclaimed bottles. Calvin is the young man who has run the place for the past ten years. He is just thirty-one, and is not a member of the Callwood family, but the family still owns it. The "tour" of the place pretty much consists of just standing in the small room where you first enter and looking around at the huge ancient glass jugs that hold the raw undiluted rum until it's bottled, and barrels full of the rum being aged. They sell three types of rum here. The clear white rum is used for mixing, the aged darker rum might be mixed or sipped straight, and they also make a spiced rum, which actually has some spices in each bottle. We bought a bottle of the dark and the spiced. We chatted with Calvin or almost an hour about the rum and about his life. He moved here from Trinidad as a child. He was interested that we were not cruse ship passengers or bareboat charterers, and that we were actually headed to Grenada and Trinidad. He gave Sol Y Mar some tips about foods they have to try in Trinidad.
After the distillery, we headed for a beach bar. We stopped at Myett's first. Painkillers were the order of the day for some while others had less potent beverages. After a couple drinks there, we moved down the beach to Ryhmer's. Ryhmer's is a hot pink building that includes the open-air bar and restaurant, and a two-story building that has several hotel rooms. Our friends John & Pege, who shared our two charter boats here a few years ago, also stayed here at the hotel for a week adjacent to the charters. One of the ladies working today looks familiar to me, so I asked her if she had worked here long. She indicated that she had worked here forever, so I asked if she remembered a lady in pink and a tall bald guy chewing on a big cigar all the time (that would be John & Pege), and she did. John & Pege, you need to come pay them another visit.
By about 17:00, we decided that we didn't need to do as much Painkiller testing as yesterday, so we headed back to the boat. We jumped in the water with our foam noodles and just floated around for a half hour or so enjoying the cool water. The air temp here varies from the mid seventies at night to the mid eighties during the day, year round. The water temp is in the low eighties too, so it is perfect for cooling off in the afternoon. After our swim we relaxed and had dinner aboard, even though there are so many good choices ashore. We have to keep reminding ourselves that we can't spend our money like it's just a one week vacation.
GPS N 18-25.703 W 064-39.596 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 8992.
May 22
Today we are moving to The Bight at Norman's Island. Norman's is on the south side of Tortola, and Cane Garden Bay is on the north side, so we will travel around the west end of Tortola, past Soper's Hole, then turn south to Norman's, which is just off the western end of St. John. It's a whopping eleven mile trip. The wind was light but on the beam as we headed west from Cane Garden Bay, so we had the main up but were motoring. As usual, we also needed to charge batteries, so the motor was required anyway. Once we turned south around the west end of Tortola, the wind was right on the nose and blowing a bit harder. We also had a current against us, so we were slowed to under four knots for a while. Once we got away from the channel running around the west end, the current slacked a little and we made good progress towards Norman's. Sol Y Mar decided to sail all the way, which meant they made a couple of big tacks between the west end and Norman's, taking them a good hour longer to get in, but they enjoyed the sail.
As we passed through the channel at Soper's Hole, there was a large mega yacht anchored out away from the mooring field. On it's stern was a helicopter, that was completely shrink wrapped in the heavy white shrink wrap that they use on boats for winter storage. I guess maybe the boat is being delivered somewhere, and they just wanted to keep the salt air off the helicopter while in transit.
There are at least fifty mooring balls at Norman's and most are empty. We picked one up that is pretty far from shore. Our logic is we don't want to be too close to nighttime music from shore, and we want to keep a nice breeze through the boat. As we were hungry, we headed immediately to the Willie T. Pat & Dori, and Jon and Marcia from Non-Linear joined us a little while later. The Willie T is a boat which has been converted to a bar and restaurant. It is anchored in the corner of the bay. The Willie T is most famous for their promotion of diving naked off the upper deck. Any girl who does this is rewarded with a free t-shirt. We had heard that since we were last here, they had stopped this practice. Given that this was the primary attraction, we wondered why. We arrived and joined about twenty other people there who were all off of several day-trip boats. These groups included several young good looking girls. As we were eating our lunch, in the middle of the boat with no view to the rear, several of the girls doffed their bikinis and jumped. After we had finished eating and moved back to the bar at the stern of the boat, they were being rewarded with t-shirts. The bartender is named Zeus, and he has been here forever. I asked him about the rumor we had heard that the rules were now no jumping. He said that was the rule. He also said they ignored the rule. So, while I am still a bit confused, the practice is still alive and well at the Willie T. Another Willie T tradition is the shot ski. The shot ski is a board that looks roughly like a ski, that has four holes in it to hold shot glasses. Four people then tip the ski up and down the shots simultaneously. We did not partake in this, but some others did. Another Willie T tradition is the application of temporary tattoos, preferably in more risqué places on women. The bartender gets to apply the tattoo and hold the wet towel on it for a minute or so while it transfers. This often results in a lot of fun for the bartender. We witnessed several of these being applied, one to someone in our group who wishes to remain anonymous.
We returned to the boat about 16:00, after enjoying an afternoon aboard the Willie T. We were relaxing in the cockpit scanning the bay with the binoculars, when we spotted friends from Kemah on their charter boat. We knew they were in the BVI this week, but didn't know their exact itinerary as far as what islands they would be at when. We dinghied over to say hi to Kris & Karin, and visited with them for an hour or so. They are headed in the same direction we are for the next day or two, so we may hook up with them again.
Back on our boat about dusk, we had a nice dinner aboard again, even though Pirate's restaurant ashore holds a special place in our memories. It was here that on our first BVI charter six years ago, I knocked Barb out with my elbow to her forehead as I was starting the dinghy. We were moving from happy hour at the Willie T to dinner at Pirate's when this happened. The people at Pirate's were kind enough to give her a bag of ice for the lump on her head when we got there. She still is reluctant to get in the dinghy until the motor is running, even though our dinghy has an electric starter.
GPS N 18-19.011 W 064-37.176 Nautical miles traveled today 11. Total miles 9003.