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