That was good timing!

It looks like we planned that trip very well. Unfortunately, for the
people still there, they are going through some rough weather right
now! There might be more to come, Earl just passed over them and Fiona
is right on his tail. Hang on islanders! I can't imagine 135mph winds
while on a boat. Hope everyone down there has made it to safety.

A Few Afterthoughts

So I thought I was done with the blog, but I remembered a few more things I wanted to share.
First of all, it was quite a stretch for me to go a whole week without wearing makeup, barely wearing shoes, and doing nothing with my hair but washing it!
Kind of liberating though!
Secondly, I failed to mention our tally of alcohol consumed on this trip!
Wow, get ready for this-
4 cases of beer
2 bottles of tequila
2 bottles of rum
1 bottle of vodka
8 bottles of wine
and that still doesn't count the painkillers, cooper island wop's, and whatever else we bought at bars along the way! And to top it off we figured out we only drank 2 bottles of water between us all week and Fred didn't have any water! When you have a beer with your eggs in the morning I guess you are going to go through it a lot faster.
Also, the guys got pretty good at telling the time of day by using the compass to find straight north & using their finger or a pen standing on end & looking at the shadow to determine the time. They got it down to within 15 minutes the last couple of days. If the three of us by a boat together we have decided to call it '3 Stooges'
We would do it again in a heartbeat! Had a blast. Already checked out some bigger boats for next time. They sleep 8 people, who wants to go?!?!?!?

Back at home

I have had a chance to go back over the blog and add more photos and a video
that you have to see!! So go back to the beginning and check it out!
Here also is a map of our travels.
Thanks for following along with me,
Enjoy!
Donnita

Headed home

We are on the plane & getting ready to take off for Miami. We crammed a lot in that last day & a half so I will need my pc with full keyboard access to fill you in. I will work on that tomorrow. We had a blast & I think we gained enough knowledge from our good friend Fred to do this on our own sometime. I have some great pictures & video, not to mention some wonderful memories! Fasten your set belts, it's time for takeoff!

Last full day!

Turns out we decided to cruise past Ginger Island, Fallen Jerusalem, Virgin Gorda, Mosquito Island, Prickly Pear Island, and stop for lunch at Necker Island. We anchored off Necker is the most pristine and blue water I have ever seen. Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Airlines and Virgin Records owns this island. He gets $25,000 a week to rent out a cottage on it and has a full time staff of 60 people to maintain it! Needless to say, we did not go on land but we anchored for lunch and were soon joined by a very hungary Barracuda! I will post a video of Fred spoon feeding him! I took awhile for him to warm up to us, but 'Barrawoody', as we named him, warmed up to Fred pretty fast. He was like having a garbage disposal. He ate all of our scraps and leftover lamb bones and we even gave him a couple of our precious shrimp we were preparing for dinner that night! By far the prettiest stop on the trip! After lunch we cruised all the way back through the Sir Francis Drake Channel to Norman Island where we stopped for the night. There was great snorkeling near some caves and we did make it to the infamous Willy T's. It's a bar and a restaurant on a boat. I guess it gets pretty wild here during the busy season! This was our last night!! The next morning we knew we were supposed to get the boat back to the Marina by 10am, but by now we are on island time! So we dragged our heels a bit. We cruised over to see the East End of St. John then went back to Peter Island to make some lunch before taking the boat back.

Beautiful day!

It's a breath taking day in the BVI! It has been a little hazy the last couple of days but today is clear and the ocean is so calm it looks like a lake.
We have had our morning coffee and toast and we are now preparing to cruise around
today and do some site seeing. Such a nice day for photos. Going to see the Dog Islands and then to Norman Island.
The boys are anxious, gotta go!

Cooper Island

Alright, so we left St.John this morning & cruised to Cooper Island. It was the longest trip yet. Took a couple of hours to get there. Chef Fred wanted to make
Osso Buco with Lamb so the guys had to rig up a strap to hold the pan on the stove so it could cook slowly on trip over. Wow that was delicious! We just kept having to check on it everytime a ferry or large boat passed to be sure it didn't slip off the burner! Everyone in our wake must have been so jealous of the wonderful smell coming from our boat.
So we arrived at Cooper Island and hooked up to a mooring to have lunch and evaluate the bay. Nice breeze.
Steve & I took the dinghy and went to shore. Cute place. A bar and restaurant, a small resort, a dive shop, and a gift shop, that's it. Only about 20 people live on the island. They close up and go home for September so we hit the very end of the season.
By the way, my turn to step on the bee today! What is with all the bees on the beach around here?
So Steve & I are sitting on the beach drinking something with several kinds of booze in it and Fred is snorkeling, and all of the sudden Steve says, "Is our boat loose?"
And I said, "looks like it, go, go go". He took off and ran to the dinghy and raced over to the boat about the same time as Fred was swimming back to it also. In the meantime I am watching our boat drift dangerously close to the rocky shore. The guys got it in time and saved the boat. I guess the rope slipped off the mooring buoy. We won't be letting that happen again.
This evening after happy hour, Fred whipped up some pasta with shrimp, sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms & onions. Another great meal. I am afraid if we eat much more we will sink the boat!
A gorgeous sunset over Tortola tonight. Quite a breeze right now! Nice for keeping the bugs away but a little much for sitting on the fly bridge and enjoying our music.
Can't believe tomorrow is our last full day! It went so fast. Hope to get to Norman Island tomorrow and the famous Willy T's bar. Time will tell. I'll let you know.
Goodnight

Finally the dolphins

Since I haven't figured out how to upload several pictures at once I will just do a few short posts tonight so we can share some great photos.
Here is the picture from a few days ago of the dolphins playing in our wake while on our way to Jost van Dyke.

Headed East

Another beautiful morning in the Caribbean. We are pulling up anchor & heading east today. Still not exactly sure where we are going yet. Maybe Virgin Gorda, maybe Cooper Island, or maybe the east side of Tortola. We are just going to wing it today. I will keep you posted when I can. Hasta la vista St. John!

St. John- Hawksnest Bay

All I can do is tell you about the beautiful bay we are anchored in on St. John because I do not have wifi I can't upload pictures. We are at Hawksnest Bay St. John & we are the only boat in the bay. We snorkeled today & saw red snapper & grouper, but darn no pole!! Would have been good eats! After we got back on the boat we saw schools of sardines jumping out of the water & birds grabbing them & at the same time tuna below was feeding on the sardines, very cool! Now it is HAPPY HOUR!! Bye for now!
Now we have a photo!

a quick update- Jost van Dyke

Okay, got to St John this morning so I am connected
to civilization again. Have had a fantastic couple of days
at sea. Spent 2 nights at Jost Van Dyke.
Such a beautiful white sandy bay!!
Painkillers weren't too bad either!
Partied hard on Monday so yesterday was
a little more low key!
I hope to have wifi later to upload some pics from my camera.
We had a school of dolphins playing
in the wake of our boat on the way to Jost.
It was so cool. I got a couple good photos.
Fred fell in the dinghy & I fell out of the dinghy, &
Steve got stung by a bee on his big toe!! Did I mention how good those painkillers were?!?! We are all good & enjoying beautiful Cruz Bay St John for now!

Under way!!

So the bags did not make it. No suprise. Anyway, we went on to the Marina to get the boat and meet up with Fred. Went through the orientation, bought our groceries, and
still no bags. So instead of just waiting around we went over to Peter Island on the boat, which by the way, the boat's name is 'Stroke of Luck'. Kind of humorous actually. So we did have a wonderful night in Little Harbour at Peter Island.
We grilled hamburgers out on the top deck and looked at all the stars!!
It was a beautiful night. The next morning we got up and made omletes and then took
a little swim and snorkel before headed back to Tortola to fetch our bags!! Yay they arrived. Since we were in the area we stopped back the dock to refill our water & ice. On the way back to Tortola we had a couple of dolphins swimming next to the boat. Also had a sea turtle swimming by our boat over at Peter Isand. Next stop is Cane Garden Bay on the other side of Tortola.

A very eventful 1st day!!

Well, Friday the 13th stood up to it's reputation this time! I've never been a superstitious person but wow. We were supposed to fly from Chicago to Miami to St Thomas and meet Fred, our friend and captain, at a hotel. The plan was to spend the night on St Thomas and take an early ferry to Tortola on Saturday to pick up our boat. Instead we ended up with a cancelled flight from Chicago due to mechanical issues. The only other flights out of Chicago did not get us to our connection in Miami. So after a long conversation with an American Airlines agent,(who was wonderful, by the way), we ended up rebooking all of our flights down in order to get to the boat asap. So, instead we flew from Chicago to Miami then to San Juan getting in at midnight. Found a small, quaint, but clean hotel to sleep for 6 hours then back to San Juan airport for the first flight out to Tortola this morning to meet Fred at the boat. The hotel had a fun bar on the beach that under different circumstances we would have enjoyed, but we were exhausted and knew we only had 6 hours until we had to head back to the airport. So our first night was supposed to be spent charting our course and planning our menus, but instead we are just going to go straight to the boat and wing it! We are crossing our fingers that our bags actually make it! All in all we are only arriving about 2 hours late to the boat. Not too bad considering! Cross your fingers & hope the bags make it! And wish for less hectic days ahead! I have added a picture of our hotel lounge since that has been the only thing to take of picture of yet outside of an airport!!

Going over the checklist!

Getting everything packed up & checking off
our lists. I don't think Woody got the memo
that he isn't going along yet!

The Countdown is ON !!!

The day is getting near for us to leave for our catamaran adventure in the British Virgin Islands. We are pretty much packed, the cat sitters have been arranged, & we have chatted
with Fred a few times to discuss last minute details. Need to start working on a menu since we will be doing all of our own cooking, for the most part. We pick up the boat on Saturday!
Ahoy matey!! My next post should come from the boat!!
I am looking forward to sharing the beauty of the islands with all of you!
Donnita