Our last day in the BVIs, we took the short sail over to Soper’s Bay. When we arrived, every mooring in the bay was full but luckily, the marina had room so we pulled in for the night. The marina had a small grocery store so we bought some last minute, over-priced supplies before checking out. Customs and Immigration at West End was a complete nightmare compared to the easy check in we had on Virgin Gorda. The ferries from the USVIs land at West End and immigration made private boaters wait until the entire ferry load went through immigration first. After waiting for one ferry, we got in back of the line to wait for our turn. As we walked up to the window, the immigration agent said he could not help us because there were more ferry people. At this point, we were about 90 minutes into these festivities so I lost my cool and yelled at some folks. I usually try not to lose my temper but when we were routed outside to wait some more while charter boats were getting checked in, I had to make a little noise. When we were finally checked out, we headed back to the marina for a much needed drink and dinner. When we got back to the boat, a superyacht had pulled in next to Galt. As the crew tied off all the lines, the families that had chartered the yacht began to disembark. They had several elementary school aged children who began running excitedly up and down the dock. “Look at it!” “It’s like a pirate ship!” “It even has a pirate steering wheel!” “That’s the coolest boat ever!” It took me a minute to realize they were talking about Galt! I am sure their parents were thrilled to know they had spent at least $350,000 a week for their fancy yacht when the kids would have been happier with a 40 year old sailboat!
The next morning, we fired up our pirate ship and headed over to the US Virgin Islands. Our trip was only 3 miles so definitely one of our easier jaunts! We pulled into Waterlemon Bay and grabbed our mooring. Our friends that we met last year in St. Vincent were there so we wanted to be sure to see them before they headed over to the BVIs. We met early the next morning for a short walk over to a national park that was an old sugar plantation. Sugar cane never did very well on St. John because the soil was difficult and St. John is also very mountainous. This particular plantation was built in the early 1800’s and was only in operation for 30 years because once the slaves were freed, no free men wanted to work that hard to get the sugar cane to grow. We spent the afternoon snorkeling in somewhat rough waters but I saw the funniest fish! After searching the internet, I finally located him. He was a Porcupine Fish. He had a huge round head with giant eyes and he kept peeking at me from under a rock. I fell in love with him immediately and I was very glad my daughter (who loves all things cute) was not with me or I would have a Porcupine Fish living in my bathtub! The next day, we moved Galt over to Maho Bay where we spent the rest of the week. It was one of those rare weeks when we had rain and since our mooring was a comfortable spot, we just stayed. We taxied over to Cruz Bay one day for lunch, groceries and ice cream so that was a successful day! Tomorrow, we will sail over to St. Thomas to avoid some odd wind directions expected early in the week. Odd wind directions tend to make some anchorages very rolly and rough so we are going to hide in Magan’s Bay which should be well protected. It is supposed to be one of the world’s top 10 most beautiful beaches so we are looking forward to judging for ourselves!
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The main difference between cruising in the BVIs and USVIs versus the rest of the Caribbean is the majority of people in the BVIs and USVIs are on charter boats. They are on vacation. People who live part time or full time on boats are generally laid back and happy hour consists of meeting other cruisers and discussing your boat projects or boating plans. Charter people are on vacation. Their happy hour consists of getting wild and letting loose. So, this week, surrounded by charter boats in the BVIs, we have felt like we were on vacation from our permanent vacation. We started the week by sailing from Cooper Island over to Norman Island. Norman Island has the best snorkeling in the BVIs and it also has the Willy T. Willy T’s is a large barge that has been converted into a bar/restaurant. Vacationers flock to Willy T’s for three things: to jump off the top deck of the boat, to drink and to get a temporary tattoo slapped on their ass. While we were enjoying watching the mayhem, we were eating lunch and I turned around and there was a woman (about our age) lying on the bar topless. The bartender squirted whip cream on each of her breasts and poured rum in her belly button. Another woman then licked her clean and sucked the rum out of her belly button! Back home, I am sure they were teachers or lawyers or bankers but at Willy T’s, they were reliving Spring Break, 1985! Bill’s thrill of the week was watching the actual 20 somethings line up behind the bar and bend over so that the bartender could slap a Willy T’s tattoo on their butt cheek. It was quite the place! In addition to the nature watching on Willy T’s, we dinghied over to the The Caves to snorkel. The Caves are along the cliffs and one of the caves was quite deep into the cliff. We did not have a waterproof light so we could not go very deep into that cave but we saw lots of fish hiding in the shadows. One thing with which we struggle is getting out of the water and back into the dinghy. I have no upper body strength and Bill has zero flexibility so while we may get back in the dinghy, it is never a graceful event. I usually end up lying face down in the bottom of the dinghy and Bill flops like a fish stuck on the pontoon until we both are just exhausted. So, the next day when we went to snorkel The Indians, we came up with a new plan. The Indians are a series of rocks that protrude out of the ocean. All kinds of fish and coral live on and around the rocks. It was the best snorkel we have had in a long time. After we finished snorkeling, we decided to drag Harry over to the beach that was just across the way so we could climb into the dinghy and have a small bit of dignity remaining. Well, the beach looked a lot closer than it actually was. We began swimming and dragging Harry behind us but we were swimming into the waves and into the current so it was a very slow and arduous slog to the beach. After an exhausting twenty minutes, we made it to the beach and literally flopped into the dinghy. Much too young to feel this old!
From Norman, we headed over to Yost Van Dyke. Yost is known as the party island of the BVIs. We purposely chose to go midweek hoping it might not be too crowded. On the way, we passed by several sailboats participating in the Spring Regatta which is a race held every March. It was amazing to see the crew hanging off the sides of the boats to counterweight the heel of the boat and at times, the crew were inches off the water! We had no doubt Galt could have easily won the regatta if he had tried but he had to get to the party beach. Yost Van Dyke has two famous bars, Soggy’s and Foxy’s. We spent the first day at Foxy’s and loved the vibe. There were college and professional sports flags hanging from every surface. Our waitress said that prior to Hurricane Irma, the bar was covered with bras and panties. She shared that she much preferred the flags over the “nasty, crusty underwear” and after that description, I most certainly appreciated the flags as well! The next day was a super vacation day as we taxied over the hill to Soggy’s beach bar. The beach was beautiful with crystal clear water and about 50 party boats. Painkillers were flowing freely! While Soggy’s was definitely the more happening of the two bars, we both preferred the vibe at Foxy’s more. For our final nights in the BVIs, we sailed over for a peaceful couple of days in Cane Bay and did final check out at West End. On Monday, we will take the short trip over to St. John’s USVI to meet some friends. Then, we will spend a week in the USVIs on what will probably be another vacation week for us. I think we will definitely need it prior to arriving in Puerto Rico where we will begin prepping Galt and Bill for the crossing over to Bonaire. Until next week, let your hair down a little and party like it’s Spring Break, 1985! ***More pictures on pictures tab I have a new challenge for you this week. As I was sitting here today in a beautiful bay in the BVIs painting my fingernails, I became cognizant of the odd questions I ask myself now that I live on a boat. “Which direction will the wind be blowing tomorrow?” “Where is the multimeter so I can test these triple A batteries?” or “How did this stranger’s glove get into my folded laundry?” However, today, I think I had the oddest question yet and it is one that I can pretty much guarantee you will never need to ask yourself….. “Which nail polish will a barracuda like the least?” Now, for people who do not dive or snorkel, this question may seem odd but given that barracuda love shiny, bright things to bite, wearing hot pink or neon orange nail polish equals a literal finger food lost to a fish. So, I settled on a light lavender….I figure my nails will blend in with the water this week! Prior to these very important Saturday ponderings, we spent several days on Tortola. We pulled into a marina for a night so we could restock supplies and get our laundry done but we were so comfortable, we ended up staying a couple of nights. The marina had a pool which is always a plus! We went to dinner at the marina restaurant the first night and she handed us a single page menu. We are used to limited menus so that was not a problem. She then began to list things on the menu that were not available. “No lobster, no chicken breast….but we have wings.” As we tried to order, we found that no chicken breast meant no chicken related dishes….only wings. Evidently, shredding a chicken wing to add to pasta or on a pizza was not a thing. The next night, we headed back to the restaurant to meet some friends from Grenada that had pulled into the marina earlier that day. The waitress handed us the menu and said, “No chicken breast. No shrimp” though grilled chicken breast was listed as the special of the day. We decided to make it easy on her and just ordered the chicken wings. When the plate arrived, it had wings and sauce. I asked about the celery, carrots and blue cheese that were listed on the menu. She came back with blue cheese. I am guessing celery and carrots were on the no-go list as well!
When we left Tortola, we chugged our way over to Cooper Island for some snorkeling. Good news, we finally found some fish! We parked the dinghy on the beach and swam out to a large outcropping of rocks where we saw schools of small fish and quite a few delicious looking snapper! Swimming back to the dinghy involved going against a stout current so we were definitely fully exercised for the day. For Bill’s birthday, we made our way over to the restaurant that was part of the resort on the island. The restaurant had it’s own brewery so Bill enjoyed his birthday beer very much! We will spend the next week island hopping our way through the remainder of the BVIs and hopefully doing some more snorkeling. The week will end with a trip to the party island of Yost Van Dyke which will finish up Bill’s birthday week and he can mark Yost off his bucket list. Enjoy your week and ponder those daily questions you ask yourself that might seem curious to someone not living your life….it will make you smile! PS: for those of you that have been concerned about Bill’s footwear, he found a pair of sandals on Tortola that should do the job for a while! No more duct tape shoes! You just never know what is going to happen when you live on a boat. This week was one of those weeks where unforeseen things turned into great memories. We began the week by moving Galt over to the North Sound on Virgin Gorda. We anchored just off Prickly Pear Island which was made up of a salt pond that was supposed to have some bird life. The only life we saw was one heron and a family of goats. You all know how much goats freak me out so I made sure Galt did not drift too close to the beach! We dinghied over to Saba Rock Resort which was a really cool resort isolated on a small island near the reefs. We had a delicious, yet overpriced, pizza for lunch and then headed out for a snorkel. Unfortunately, the reefs are still recuperating from Hurricane Irma which demolished the BVIs a few years ago so the only marine life we saw was a huge sea slug. I am guessing he ate all the other marine life but that is just a theory. The next day, we took a rough dinghy ride over to Leverick Marina and Resort to check out Michael Bean’s Pirate Show. We were not sure what to expect but the cool stage set some high expectations. Pirate Michael had lived in the BVIs for fifty years and he fit the mold perfectly. He sang jaunty pirate songs and some trop rock songs (aka Jimmy Buffet type music) and had the crowd engaged immediately. On stage, he had a prize box for the kids and a bottle of rum for the adults. The teenagers were a bit stuck in between both but were certainly eyeing the bottle of rum more than the prize box! The night ended with a conch blowing contest which was really fun to watch. We had such a good time, we were even out past dark! The last day in North Sound, we spent getting a few VERY overpriced supplies including $10 eggs, $8 Philadelphia cream cheese, $7 bagels, $2.50 muffins (each) and some candy. The eggs made Bill’s $22.00 a case (10 oz beers) look like a bargain!
Our next stop in the BVIs was the island of Anegada. Anegada was about a 3 hour trip and well worth it. Anegada was a coral island surrounded by a reef so we had to be very careful to follow the markers when coming into the anchorage. We grabbed a mooring ball while only mildly entertaining the neighbors this time. We are finally getting the hang of the mooring balls! We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging about being bums. I was napping on the deck when a neighboring boat called out to me, “Hey, would you be willing to come over in a few minutes and take pictures of our wedding? Free cocktails!” I did not even bother to ask Bill whether he wanted to go or not because with free cocktails, who would not want to go? The family was from Montana and Mom was getting married again. Both of her college age kids read the vows and they had friends for the maid of honor and the best man. Their charter boat was much smaller than Galt so I had to sit down on the deck in order to take the pictures without falling into the water. After the wedding, we all got to know each other over Dark and Stormys (Ginger Beer mixed with rum) and just enjoyed one of those crazy moments we get to have living this life. Our newfound friends left the next morning to head back to icy Montana but we enjoyed sharing their special time with them. On Friday, we scooted over to explore Anegada. We rented a small vehicle called a Moke which we named Shitty Shitty Bang Bang. Shitty made it about an hour before it started reeking of gasoline and dropping out of gear. We drove Shitty back to the car rental place and told them it was having fuel issues. The guy nodded and said, “Just take that white SUV there. The keys are in it.” Can you imagine switching rental vehicles that easily in the States? It would have taken a thousand pieces of paper! Back on our way, we went in search of the famous Anegada flamingos. We found them but unfortunately, the flamingos hang out on the far side of the salt pond so we could only see them through the viewing telescope. Without the telescope, they just looked like a lovely pink blob. Besides the flamingos, Anegada boasted a museum, a botanical garden and an iguana refuge. Hmmmm. The museum was closed, the botanical garden was a park about the size of an average US front lawn with nothing in it except swings and an Anegada sign and the iguana refuge was some unmanned cages behind a rusty chain link fence. So, we gave up on the manmade attractions of Anegada and headed to the beach for some snorkeling. When we arrived at the beach, the water was so rough we voted snorkeling would not be an enjoyable day so we opted for bar hopping instead. We ate conch fritters at the Flash of Beauty beach bar, had a drink at Tipsy’s which sported a huge UGA flag and ate a late lunch at the Lobster Trap. It was amazing to see the water on the lee side of the island versus the windward side. When we returned to Galt, the seas were completely flat which made for a wonderful night’s sleep. As we leave Anegada tomorrow, we will be heading back to the main islands of the BVIs for another week of exploring and hopefully some excellent snorkeling near Norman Island. Until then, I hope you get a few unexpected good surprises this week! Pirate Michael supports the following charity which makes sure children in Haiti get to go to school. You can send any amount but for only $75.00, a child can attend school for a year with books, supplies and uniforms. Check it out if you are looking for a small but high impact charity: www.goodsamaritanofhaiti.com |
AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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