Peter Island, Roadtown (return Boat) then Trellis Bay - Sailing the BVI's (10 of 10)

Well this was it, it was the last day we would be on the boat.  Our plan today was pretty simple.  We were only about 45 minutes from Roadtown so our plan was to prepare breakfast, clean up and stow all the dishes (With the exception of glasses as we knew we would have some drinks) and then clean the boat and pack our stuff.

We awoke as usual to fresh coffee and juice.  We prepared a great breakfast cooking up any of the breakfast meats we had left (Bacon and Sausage).  We had a good meal, and started the clean up process.  We used the deck brush and buckets of water to clean the boat off.  Mainly the cockpit was the area that needed the most cleaning.    We went inside the boat and straighter up all of the food that we had stored putting it in boxes to be given to local's at the Marina or to other cruisers that may be heading out for the start of their trip.

We gathered everyone's stuff from around the boat and put in down on each persons bunk.  Before we actually packed our clothes and bags, we decided to sit and just chat and have a few drinks and relax. We had brought a lot of music with us, including songs from about every genera and era.  We decided that this boat full of Texans needed some old school country.  The best part of old school country is that most of us knew the words to the songs and Oday can't stand country.  Knowing Oday doesn't like country made us all want to have a sing-a-long.  

We belted out sounds from Tammy Wynette, Roger Miller, Dolly Parton and even Claude Kings 'Wolverton Mountain'.  The funny thing is we were doing this while anchored in this harbor with about 20 other boats.  I don't know if they heard us or not, but it sure was funny to all of us except for Oday.

When we finished our sing-a-long, a peace offering was made to Oday who got to choose the CD he wanted to listen to next for our sail back to Tortola and Roadtown harbor.  We lifted the dinghy on the davits and secured everything for this last leg of the trip.  We dropped our mooring ball and headed almost due north toward Roadtown.

There was only 1 thing left to do on this leg of the trip and that was to drop off our message in a bottle at the place we thought it would likely travel the furthest.  We wrote our note essentially saying that we were a group of people sailing in the British Virgin Islands and that if this were found, to please send an email and photo of the bottle where found to us (and we listed our email addresses).  We put the note in a waterproof zip-lock bag and rolled it so it would fit in the wine bottle.

OBarr tossing out our message in a bottle

The bottle already had all of the labels removed and the cork was pushed back in to keep any water out of the bottle.  We planned our drop at the place where we assumed that the wind and current would carry it West, Southwest down the Sir Francis Drake passage and south of St. John toward the open Carribean Sea.  It could wash up on Puerto Rico, The Dominican or if it starts to head south, any where in Columbia or Venezuela.     It would be really cool to hear back from someone if they find it.  I just hope if it is found we don't get a note from St. John indicating that it would not have traveled more than about 10 miles.

We arrived back at Roadtown and called Conch charters who had us pull over by the fuel dock.  They sent one of their guys out to the boat in a dinghy and he hopped up on board, took the helm and parked it behind another boat at the fuel dock.  Because it was Sunday the fuel dock was closed so they were going to just fill it up on Monday and let us know how much it took.

We found another guy that was heading out for his charter, so we gave him some of our food stores that we hadn't needed.  He was glad to get it and loaded it up into a cart and took it to their boat.  We then set everything else out on the table for the woman who cleans up the boats to take home.

We loaded all of our bags into a cart and went through all of the check out procedures.  It took about 15 minutes or so and they let us know they would dive the boat the next morning and verify that there was no damage to props or rudders and we could be on our way.  We hopped in a van and headed back over to Beef Island, Trellis Bay where we would stay in a 'hotel' for the night to catch our early morning flight back to Puerto Rico.

This was the view from the front steps of where we stayed our last night

The place only had 4 bedrooms and a shared living room and no air conditioning.  But, they did have a nice little beach front bar that we had a few drinks in and lunch.    The hotel was called "The Loose Mongoose"  It was rustic for sure.  They didn't have air, but did have a fan in each room.  They also were to have Wifi and since most of us had been without it most of the time, we all wanted to check in and check out what was going on.  We couldn't get it to connect.   I finally saw the owner and asked if he was ok with me taking a look at it to see if I could get it going.  He was, but he couldn't recall his admin password for his service.  Luckily, routers in the BVI's just like the US tend to have some fairly generic user name from the factory so I was able to hack in within about 10 minutes.     The good news is that I fixed his connection and we were able to get on-line.

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This area is known as Trellis bay and there were quite a few boats anchored or moored just off the beach.  This is also where they throw the other full moon party on the island.  This one is on the East side of Tortola as opposed to BombaShack on the far west side of the island.  Aragorn Art Studio makes the large decorative fire balls used for the full moon party and their studio is right on the beach.  They have some really cool stuff such as smaller fire balls for home, tons of carvings and art made of the wood that drifts up onto the beach.  The owner of the studio came out to our boat on our first night to see if we were interesting in coming by the studio the next day or picking up some t-shirts.  You can check out their site here - Aragorn Art Studio.

We walked down the beach and found this really large starfish on our hike.  It was the largest start fish I have every seen up this close.  It was only in about 8 inches of water just a few feet from the shore.  Deb picked it up so we could show just how large the thing was.  We put him gently back where he was after the photo.  We also found a section of the beach that was just littered with old dinghies.  There must have been at least 8 of them that were flat and tossed up on the beach just beyond the sand line.  It was an odd site, we joked that it was the island where Dinghies went to die.

We went back to the Loose Mongoose and relaxed on the benches that were water side.  It was a great location right on the beach.  What we didn't think about was the fact that the house we were staying in was 20 feet from that great little beach side bar we had lunch in.  The live band setup and people started hanging out in the front yard with us.  It was not too bad, but not something i had planned for. We went to bed at a decent hour since we had a very early morning flight.

Up in the morning, loaded our bags into a van and headed over to the airport less than a mile from where we were.  We boarded our small plan and flew back to Puerto Rico to catch out flights back to the US.  All in all this was one of the best trips I have had.  We spent it doing what we love to do, sailing and cruising, we got to spend it with great friends that are all sailors and easy to get along with.  There were no incidents of someone getting on someone else's nerves, just a great time with friends that I can't wait to do again.  We are already starting to talk about the next trip.  Monohull maybe, and we are thinking a one way sail starting or ending in the Grenadines.

See below for the last video installment from this Blog series.  Remember, if you are looking at this from any site or method that doesn't have an embedded video below, please click the link here to see the video - Sailing BVI's - Last day, Peter Island, Roadtown, Trellis Bay

Cane Garden Bay - Great Harbor Peter Island - Sailing the BVI's (9 of 10)

We woke up late this morning, assisted by the drinks at the BombaShack the night before.  I was looking forward to getting to see the beautiful CT/Formosa that we dropped off some folks to last night.  Sadly they boat had left the anchorage before we got up.  We relaxed and had our morning coffee and fresh fruit and yogurt for breakfast.

This anchorage is really nice and I could see spending a few days for sure in Cane Garden Bay but for us, we knew we were going to head over to Peter Island for tonights stop.  It was not a far sail and we planned it this way so the day we had to return the boat (the next day) we would just be a short 45 minutes from Roadtown on Tortola.

Knowing that we had a short trip the next day, it allows us to hang out for a while where we were and take a little dip.  We decided that it would be good to see if we could hang Oday's hammock from under the boat between the hulls.  There were towing points there and it sure seemed like the hammock might hang just below the surface of the water.

Sure enough it did and it was a great place to relax.  We put some warm beers from storage into a mesh dive bag, tied it to the rail and dropped it in the water to cool them down to the water temperature before we transferred them into the cooler.  I love this picture of Deb chilling in the hammock with a sack of beers floating right next to her.

We had a great swim, and then took our short sail over to Great Harbor on Peter Island.

When we arrived, we really just relaxed, swam and hung out.  We grilled another gourmet meal on the boat and dinghied around the Marina and gave some of our left over beer to people we could tell were cruisers.

Sailing SouthEast just passing the western end of Tortola (toward Peter Island)

Anchored in Great Harbor on the North Side of Peter Island

We enjoyed the evening with friends and were wishing it was not all coming to an end tomorrow when we had to return the boat.

Another great meal prepared on the grill as the sun was setting

Jost Van Dyke, Sandy Cay, Cane Garden Bay - Sailing the BVI's (4 of 8)

With our last land adventure last night being a good time at Corsairs for a few more drinks than good judgement would have allowed, we slept soundly and late into the next morning.   

"I don't know, can you tell if it is on"

We awoke once again to the smell of coffee, which was a welcome start to this morning. WildMary had woke up early and had it perking in two pots. 

(Editorial note.  I mentioned having some absinthe shots and hanging out at a waterfront beach bar last night, but when looking for photos for this blog post, I ran across a video of Deb and T working very hard to try to take a selfie sometime late last night.  I don't think they realized that the camera was recording video the whole time.  Bonus ! )

Sandy Cay (Photo taken by Oday from bow of boat at anchor)

This trip has been a series of good meals and today was another day of a well cooked breakfast.  The plan for today was to sail from Jost Van Dyke to a small island called Sandy Cay and then on to Cane Garden Bay.  It was going to be a couple of short sails for the day, so we took our time leaving Jost.  We packed up our trash and made one last run to the dock where you could drop trash for free.  

We decided to just motor over to Sandy Cay, a short distance to the East from where we were.  Sandy Cay is an uninhabited island between Jost Van Dyke and Tortola and was owned by the Rockefeller Family and donated in 2008 to the National Park Trust of the Virgin Islands.  The island is very small (just about 13 acres) but has several great attributes.   There is a great sand beach, wooded trails, rocky ledges as well as a large salt pond in the center of the island.  

Oday and T decided to stay on the boat
and relax in a Hammock on the bow.

We moored on the Western side of the island in about 15 feet of water over a gorgeous sandy bottom.  The white sand and crystal clear water form that amazing shade of blue you see in just certain places in the world.  Here the blue was so brilliant that when the seagulls would fly a few feet over the water it reflected up onto their bellies and made them look like they were a light shade of blue instead of white.  We looked through all of our pictures and just couldn't find a great way to show that, but it was truly amazing and not something we saw in any other places we went while on this trip.  

We took the dinghy to shore, beached it and walked up the beach to a small sign with a map of the island and trail entrance.  Most of us didn't bring shoes, so we stayed on the trail for the most part.  We walked about a third of the way around the island and saw many birds and lizards or chameleons.  There was something pretty interesting on many of the trees but we are not 100% sure what it was.  

Walking the trails on Sandy Cay

Our best guess was termites.  There would be these small mud like tubes that would go from the ground up the tree trunks and out most of the major branches.  We were interested to know what it was, but not so interested to knock the mud tubes down to see what may come out.   We continued to walk down the trails and stop and observe all of the amazing sites.  The chameleons where pretty neat, you would typically hear them before seeing them.  They would scurry along the ground and as the leaves would russell we would see them moving along.  

A few of them would perch on a tree branch, but if we got close enough to get a picture they would scurry around to the other side and block the photo.  We saw beautiful cactus in bloom as well which surprised me to see Coconut Palm trees and cactus all sharing the same bit of ground.   We also kept hearing what sounded like doves, but never did see any. I am assuming they were just up in the trees and would fly off as we would get close but they made that very distinctive dove sound.  Robert found a great tree that was growing an an angle and looked like a great place for a picture, or to just relax.     We continued along the path until it came to the edge of the shore again but this time it was all rocky and with our bare feet we decided not to tip toe around them.  As we turned around to head back, we kept looking through the woods to see where we could come out of the woods and onto the beach.  

Deb and I on the beach after coming from trail

We found a spot, walked carefully from the path to the beach watching out we didn't step on any cactus.  As we stepped out onto the beach, it was a really neat site.  Behind us was where the sandy beach started to turn to rock and at the edge of the water you could see the different colors of the water from the contrast between sandy bottom and rock bottom.  The shades of blue were all dependent on how large the rocks were and therefore how much water was on top of them.  Ahead of us was something from a magazine.  

Robert waked behind all of us to catch a quick photo of just how pristine the beach, sand, water and anchorage were.  You can see a few of the boats anchored just off the beach ahead of us.  To our left in this photo is Tortola about 15 miles away.   

We decided to walk along the water all the way back to where we beached the dinghy.  This was the first time we had taken the dinghy ashore and beached it.  Getting off the beach was not too hard, after getting a great hint from Obarr.  I was getting ready to drag it back down the beach (Stern first) and Obarr quickly said, turn it around, it will be a lot easier.  And it was !!!.  Thank you.    We pushed the dinghy into a foot of water and got Mary to load first since she typically sits on the bow seat.  

The rest of us loaded in as Obarr held the dinghy.  As more of us loaded up, we had to push further from shore.  Obarr jumped in last and we headed slowly back to the boat, where Oday was there to take a line as we pulled along side the boat.   We relaxed at this beautiful spot for a while longer.  Sandwiches were made and devoured in the cockpit for lunch while we contemplated our very short trip over to Cane Garden Bay.  With the short trip, we decided to just tow the dinghy rather than hoist it up onto the davits for this short trip.  Below in this picture you can see where we started on the left and worked our way to the right at Cane Garden Bay with our stop at Sandy Cay.   So as we sailed into Cane Garden Bay, we played Jimmy Buffett's Mañana on the radio.  The lyrics were very appropriate for the trip as he sang out:

I hear it gets better, that's what they say

As soon as we sail on to Cane Garden Bay.

Please don't say mañana if you don't mean it

I have heard your lines for so very long

Don't try to describe the scenery if you've never seen it

Don't ever forget that you just may wind up in my song...

Obarr had been here before, on Charters but also when he and Kerri cruised on their boat some 10 years ago, they spent some time here in Cane Garden Bay.  When they did, they got to know the owners of "Myetts" which is a wonderful beach front restaurant, bar, hotel, gift shop, etc.  We walked up to Myetts to see if they were there.  Unfortunately they were not there today.  

We still decided to sit at a beach side table, enjoy some wonderful pain killers and Conch Fritters and Cracked Conch.  The view from this place was just amazing, you could see right out over the beach to the boats anchored right out front.  It was always pretty cool to see our Texas Flag waiving out there on our boat as well.  
After our Conch and Pain Killers, we took a walk through town.  We walked down to the Callwood Distillery but it was closed for a local holiday so we found out what time they opened in the morning so we could come back for a tour.  We found a place where we could drop trash here in town for free as well.  We didn't need to do so on this trip, but we planned on coming back to Cane Garden Bay on Friday when there was a full moon for the "Full Moon Party" at the BombaShack so we planned a trash drop for that day.  

We stopped at a market and picked up a couple of items we wanted.  On the way back to the boat, we stopped at Rhymers Beach Hotel and Store to pick up some ice.  They were one of the cheapest places we found ice on this trip and picked up a 20 lb bag for about $6.50.  When we got back to the boat, we swam for a while in the anchorage and again continued to be completely intrigued with the clarity of the water.  Here is a photo of our anchor chain in 25 feet of water and you can clearly see it go all the way to the bottom and head off in the distance.   We also got a chance to take some photos through our Floor Hatch in the boat.  We figure it is a safety issue if something were to go horribly bad and you happened to have the boat upside down, it allowed a place where you could still get out of the boat.  With that said, it was still very odd to see a hatch in the floor.   Someone captured a cool picture of Oday under the boat, with T taking a picture of him from inside the boat.  

We put our plans together for the next day.  We were going to get up in the morning, have breakfast and then head over to the Callwood Distillery for a tour of an old school distillery still doing things much the same way they did 400 years ago when they started brewing rum there.  

More in the next chapter of the blog !!  Here is a link for Callwood's Facebook Page, I would encourage you to Check it out. 

Below is a bit of a video capture of the days activities.  If you are reading this in any other way than online, you may not see the video below.  If not, click on this link to play the video.  

Jost Van Dyke, Sandy Cay to Cane Garden Bay

http://youtu.be/GGNpp01mFsg

Norman Island, The Caves/Indians and Jost Van Dyke - Sailing the BVI's (Chapter 3 of 8)

After a few drinks last night at the WillyT and then back at the boat, we slept soundly until we had an awakening from a bit of drizzle.  It was almost a mist, but enough that when coming into the hatches and on me while I slept, it was enough to wake me up.  I removed the breeze booster and closed the hatch, then it stopped.  That was the way it went on this trip, we never really got any "rain" but just a few little misting.  Sadly we were all hoping for a bit of rain to rinse the salt off the boat and we all wanted to experience a fresh and natural shower on the back deck or trampoline up front.  O'Barr affectionately referred to this amount of rain as "Fairy piss" and that was all we got several times on the trip.  To be clear I am not complaining, when you book a charter in week two of hurricane season, this was a really good scenario that played out.

I mentioned a breeze booster above.  I have not seen one of this style but I will be getting some for our boat for sure.  The goal of these is to capture or scoop more air than you would get from just an open hatch.  I have seen these that look like a big upside down V and connect to a halyard and attach inside the hatch like this one that Amazon sells.
This one however was free standing.  It had a v that was stiffened by something like sail battens and two angled legs that go to the hinged side of the hatch.  They sit on the deck and the a string and a stick goes down through the hatch and it makes the upside down V look like a big huge scoop.  Here is a link to them at West Marine for anyone interested.  They would more than triple the amount of air flow coming into a hatch.  When at anchor your bow always points to the wind so these take advantage of a knot or two of breeze and still work wonders to cool you down.  We were in the tropics and most nights I would turn off the fan and sleep comfortably in 85 degrees which shocked me given we keep our thermostat at the dock down at 72.

Another morning of coffee as I got up, relaxing on deck and all discussing what we wanted to do that day and the rough details of the route and plan for the trip.  We decided on some snorkeling stops today pretty close to where we had started our day then a nice sail planned in the afternoon to head to Jost Van Dyke and dinner and drinks ashore at Foxy's.  After a breakfast of pancakes and pineapple we cleaned up the dishes while Mike went to go visit a boat in the anchorage he thought he recognized from his cruising days.  It was an "Oceans 60" (if I have that name right).  He dinghied over and talked to the folks on board.  It turned out not to be the people he met years earlier cruising but they did know of the boat and those people so they visited for a little while.

We dropped our mooring ball and motored out of the anchorage at The Bight and just went around the point to "The Caves" which is on the northwest side of Norman Island. 

The bay on the left is "The Bight", boats are ached in front of the Caves

Norman islands is said to be the inspiration for the book "treasure Island" based on the following history of pirate booty being stored there.  In 1750 a Spanish treasure galleon named Nuestra Seniora de Guadalupe was caught in a storm off the coast of North Carolina.  During that storm while waiting out the storm the crew mutined and the treasure was split up and taken on two different bilanders (smaller European two masted ships).  There was said to have been 55 chests of silver coins on the galleon that was taken by the crews.  One of the ships perished but the other was manned by Owen Lloyd who escaped with the ship to St. Croix.  After disposing of so e of the money, story has it that he went to Norman Island and buried the treasure.  Lloyd and his crew were eventually arrested bit word of the treasure spread to Tortola where people came in search of it.  Interestingly enough part of the treasure was recovered by Gilbert Flemming who was the Luitenant General for the Leeward islands and convinvpced the  Luitenant Governor of the BVI to issue a law where the treasure would be returned and the people that dug it up would retain one third of it.  There are additional interesting stories of a local fisherman taking refuge In The cave from a storm and having found gold doubloons.  There is no official record of this treasure being found but his family all moved off of Tortola at that same time and opened businesses in St. thomas.  Read more online with a search for Norman island and treasure.

You can see the caves along the shoreline

Back to our trip.  We picked up a mooring in front of the caves and were really close to shore.  The stern of the boat was only about 50 feet from the rock cliffs.  The wind was light and funky and a few times the boats on moorings swung in different directions.  We never made contact with any boats around us but a few times the crew that stayed on board manned fenders in the event they may.

We hopped off the stern of the boat with fins, snorkels and masks and swam along the shoreline toward the cave entrance. This was really a cool place because near shore it was 5-10 feet deep and then about 30 yards from shore there was a pretty good 10-20 foot drop off.  We snorkeled along the wall and saw great collections of coral and fish.  At the

You can get a sense of the drop off 

bottom of this blog post will be a link to a video of the snorkeling.  Some of the photos contained in this blog post came from those videos.

At first it was really interesting we swam through a hole bunch of little jelly fish.  Theese were not stinging kinds but the little quarter to half dollar sized translucent circular shaped ones.  It took me a few minutes to figure out what it was.
  

We saw schools of dark tangs with light tails.  They swam in groups of fifty or so and were just a few feet below us.  We saw amazing trigger fish, and what looked like either a clown

T and Oday Snorkeling

trigger or some type of spotted grouper.  We saw a lot of these silver fish with yellow tails.

Then as everyone was diving down a bit along the wall to get a closer look at the urchins in all the rock crevices we saw hundreds of zebra damsels swimming all around us.  

The Urchins had some of the longest splines I have ever seen.  We saw quite a bit of coral as well but I did not see any anenomies.  

Hundreds of Zebra Damsels in schools

 We made our way to the cave entrance and only went in the first edge of it and came back out and worked our way back toward the boat.  I wish I would have gone in further.  It got very shallow by the mouth of the cave so we didn't cross it for fear of touching the coral and damaging it.  I later found out that you only have to cross that one shallow spot and it gets deep again in the cave.

We were on a national park mooring which you are only supposed to be on for 90 minutes so got under way and headed a

I attempted to capture just how many there were above

short distance to the north to an area called the pelican and Indians.  For the record I do t know where these islands and Rock Archipalegos get their names, I can only assume that someone thought they looked like a pelican or an Indian.  The wind had picked up quite a bit and we actually struggled for the first time to pick up our mooring.  Wind and waves fought us and made snagging the pendant ( which didn't have a float) difficult.  Third time is a charm and we were moored.

At this location (The Indians), it was a bit

The Indians (just Rocks and a reef)

like The Baths in that you had to dinghy to a dinghy mooring. And jump off to snorkel.  Here the snorkeling may have been a little better than the caves and the water a bit clearer.  While snorkeling there was a lot of fish and coral spotted as well as a decent sized barracuda swimming g just off in the deeper water.  There was a school of blue tangs and several parrot fish.  There was fan coral and leather coral all around.

See the bottom of the Blog post for my photos from Snorkeling at the Indians.

Black and Blue Tang

Upon returning to the Dinghy, they found Oday just relaxing in the bow waiting on folks to finish snorkeling.  Robert and Oday came back in the dinghy but Deb and T decided to swim back to the boat to see what they could see over the deeper water.

Once everyone was on board, salt water rinsed from great and people, we raised the main while still on our mooring and prepared for a sail to Jost.  All of us on this trip have boats that range for 23 to 43 feet, all mono hulls and used to lifting sail.  That said, the sail on the catamaran is so big and fully battened with heavy duty sail car tracks for each batten, this sail is not easy to raise.  On my boat I get the sail about a foot from the top of the mast and use the winch to
raise it the last foot and tighten.  On the Cat, any one of us would get it about 80% of the way up and then have to use the winch to raise it the rest of the way.  The main halyard has a 2 to 1 purchase to make this easier but it means you are pulling twice the height of the mast in line.  So after a bit of panting and catching my breath the sail was raised.

Below is a video put together from the snorkeling at The Caves and The Indians.  Just click the video below, however if you are reading this blog post from an email subscription or other means, you will have to click on this link to see the video (Snorkeling Video Link)

We dropped the mooring and then headed northwest toward Tortola and unrolled the jib.

Saint John just behind us on the Port Side

The boat sailed nicely and we had the wind just aft of the beam.  When we got close to Tortola we gybed to the east to plan our next lay line to make it thought the cut near the west end of Tortola.  As we were on this tack we were headed directly toward St John in the US Virgin Islands.  There are very heavy penalties for going ashore in the USVI without first checking out of BVI, including a $5,000 fine per person and automatic confiscation of the boat. ( I am not sure our deposit would cover this ).  We had no intention of going to St John on this trip but most people on the boat did take advantage if the fact that we were close enough for US cell service without roaming charges.  A few people checked on pets at home, family members and to provide a quick update that we were all doing fine and having a safe sail through the islands.  We beared northwest again and set up a layline to pass right between the west end of Tortola and Little Thatch island.  We passed beautiful homes that just appeared to be stuck on the sides of the cliffs in the west end rope Tortola.  We passed a few small ferries in this area as they headed into Sopers Hole on the West End.  As we passed Tortola, we had a nice open water sail up into Great Harbor on Jost Van Dyke.

Robert and I setting up our Mooring Bridal

We found a mooring out a ways from land to take advantage of the wind given the height of the island.  Upon anchoring we jumped in for a nice swim, we cleaned up and headed to shore for some ice and some provisions we needed.  We found out we were missing mustard and steaks from our provisioning list.  We tied up to the government dock right in the center of Great Harbor.m when you get off the dock there is a great sign welcoming you to Jost.  The police station and immigration Is the first building up the dock.  Mary, Deb and I went to the store, O'Barr and Oday made a trip to the ferry dock to drop off our trash and went on a hunt for ice.

One of the things you have to really think about on a boat is how much trash you create.  We did find that in some of the anchorages, a boat would come by and offer to take your trash for a fee.  We typically took ours to shore ourselves and most places it is free.  We did find one place on shore that charged $2.50 per bag.  We all met back up after getting what we all needed and headed to the boat.  The market had just about everything we wanted and needed.  Plantains, bananas, steaks (they were not delivered with our provision list and they substituted something else, but we wanted steaks), Propane for the grill and chips.  Obarr and Oday had picked up the ice and met us at the dock closer to the market to save us the walk around the cove.

The Dinghy Dock at Foxy's

Tonight we planned on going to Foxy's.  I thought I would include a few photos of how you actually get somewhere from your anchored boat.  Some places have a "Dinghy Dock" you can tie up to, other places you just beach the dinghy.  Foxy's does have a nice dinghy dock but as you can imagine, all of those dinghy's look a lot alike in the dark after a few too many PainKillers or Dark&Stormy's.

You just can't go to the Jost Van Dyke and not go to Foxy's.

He is an icon in this part of the world and his beach front bar/restaurant is famous in all sailing and boating and vacation magazines.  There is part of the place that has a wooden floor, but no walls.  The largest section of the restaurant has a roof but no floor.  Sit on benches like a picnic table, feet in the sand and just relax to the sounds of music (maybe a live band but not the night we were there).  You can go into the gift shop and purchase items if you want.

The food is pretty good (not great but again, you have to go there and get Conch Fritters for sure).  But, What Foxy is famous for is his PainKillers.  It is a sweet drink made with Cream of Coconut, Rum Pineapple juice, Orange Juice and some fresh ground nutmeg.  (No wonder my blood sugar was high).  They will, as their name implies have you feel no pain.

We were lucky, Foxy himself was there and was doing what Foxy does, walking around talking to guest.  I don't recall this from last time I was there a few years ago, but this time he was drinking straight rum from a glass and it hadn't been his first nip when we got there.

He was telling jokes and making small talk.  He is a nice guy but one thing struck me kind of sad actually.  Some of the jokes he was telling were a bit racial and it dawned on me that his perception is that white folks want to hear that.  Maybe I read too much into it or had one too many PainKillers already, but I hope he realizes that most people that come to visit him see him as a fellow human and not a color.

I had the camera going on the table to try to record some of the stories he was telling but they were just too quiet to hear them.  He was really nice though and posed for a picture with all of us.  OBarr and I went in search of the things that we have left tacked or tucked into the ceiling as a memento.  I can't remember where the heck I had put my business card when I was there on a company trip and Obarr couldn't find the flag he thought he had left there.  (Then again, there is likely 1000's of items that people put on the ceiling every year.)

Here is a little tip, if you go there (or anywhere in the islands) and are having dinner at dusk, the NoSeeUm's will get you pretty good so bring some skin so soft or off.  If you ask, quite a few places will have some they will let you use or some will put those small coils you burn in the sand beneath your table.  For those that don't know, NoSeeUm's are just that, you don't see them and they bite like hell.  They seem to stay close to the ground and only bite for about an hour or so as the sun goes down.  From the lower shin down needs to be sprayed.  If there is any wind at all, they are not usually a problem but along the ground under a table, they were active.

We did the touristy thing and went to Foxy's but you MUST, MUST, MUST go to Corsairs.  Corsairs is just down the road from foxy's past the government building.  The owners is an Expat named Vinny who sailed to the islands and never left.  The food at Corsairs is rated the best on the island and next time I will absolutely be going there instead of a meal.  Everyone was raving about it and after our trip, I even saw a write up in a magazine about how good the cooking was.

First round of Absinthe

Deb, T, Oday and I went to Corsairs because we had read somewhere that they served absinthe (The little green fairy) and thought it would be interesting to try.  So we bellied up to the bar and told Vinny what we wanted.  He asked "Shot or some other way".  Hmm, I had heard that Absinthe, should be dripped slowly over a sugar cube on the back of a spoon into a cup with distilled water in it, So we asked him what the difference is.  His answer was classic, "Either way is going to f&%k you up, so not sure why it matters".  From that moment, I liked Vinny.  He did ask if we liked the taste of licorice, two of our party did not so his response was "Do a shot, it won't be in your mouth long enough for the taste to linger"

T and Oday at Corsairs

We sat a chatted with Vinny for a couple of hours.  Really good guy, he had just gotten a GoPro camera so we were talking about that and I helped him download the app he needs and I was letting him connect to my GoPro and show him how he can control it and what not.    The place is laid back, if he was busy, someone else would get us a drink.  They wrote down most of them but not all of them and at the end of the night, he asked how many we had so we could settle up.  I love that there is still a level of trust like that and that people are not all jaded into thinking

Vinny and the Girls.  That thing around his neck is actually a
monocle. I don't think I have ever seen that before.  It was very piratey

someone is going to rip them off.  Deb and T tried to get Vinny to do a shot of Absinthe with them and he said he will drink with them, "just to that shit" which again just cracked me up.  Deb and T were having a good ole' time and trying to ring the bigger dinner bell above the bar.  As I was going through photos for the blog, I found pictures of the girls with Vinny, behind the Bar.  I don't even remember who took those pictures and don't remember them being behind the bar.  Obarr came back to meet us after taking Robert and Mary back to the boat and hanging out for a while.  We left corsairs and wandered on back to the Dinghy dock.   As we were walking down the street, Deb seemed to find someone that you would think was her long lost best friend.

Deb on Swing, T as the Pusher

They said hi, Deb asked how she was, then they gave each other a hug like they had not seen each other in many years.  It turns out Deb had talked to her in Corsairs earlier, but I found it humorous that they seemed so close now.    Oh, and on the walk home,  Debs British accent came out.  She is not from there, never been there but for her it seems to be some kind of a Blood Alcohol Content measurement for her.   And before we could get all the way to the Dinghy dock, someone spotted a tire swing.  So a detour was required and all I kept thinking is that we are a long way from the emergency room :)

So a nice peaceful slow dinghy ride back to the boat and as you can imagine, we all slept pretty well this night.

Below is a short recap video of the days activities form our YouTube Channel.  Click the video below, however if you are reading this blog post from an email subscription or other means, you will have to click on this link to see the video (Norman Island, Snorkeling, Jost Van Dyke, Foxy's and Corsairs)

More Photos from Snorkeling at the Indians.

Schools of fish were everywhere.  These were Surgical Tangs
with Black bodies and a blue tail.

ODay contemplating swimming into an underwater cave

T doing some free diving to about 15 feet or so

OBarr found an rock bridge and was thinking about swimming
under to the other side.  The opening was pretty tight so
cooler heads prevailed

Robert was constantly diving down to 15 or so feet deep.
He is quite the frog-man

I think this may be a parrot fish, but not 100% sure