When we left the plane in Miami the hot wind hits. I had a fleece on because I find planes so cold, and I nearly melted. We were able to pass through US Customs quickly, grabbed a cab and went to the Hotel.
Fortunately I had been anal and had put in the emails between myself and the owner, the Bank Transfer and the confirmation into my travel papers so the reservations guy was obliged to give us the key. I am not sure that I would rent an apartment this way again.
The apartment description was exaggerated beyond belief – I am not sure where the web pics came from but it certainly was not the apartment we had the key for!! There was nothing we could do.
We had a short rest and then went for a walk across the road to the beachand then down Ocean Blvd. The wonderful Deco Buildings were either fully restored or in the process and restaurant after restaurant with people touting their wares lined this street.
The beach was just gorgeous – white sand and beautiful people. Most of the girls were wearing next to nothing – some looked great others however!! Lucky there were no mirrors.
We walked around the boardwalk passing marina arms that contained the most amazing boats. Many looked as though they hardly left the security of the berth. We took a break for brunch at a terrific café. There is nothing like American serving sizes.
We then walked back to the boardwalk to find the Yacht Brokers.
I always get nervious when Darren wants to do this.
Years ago when we were first investigating catamarans we really liked the Leopards from South Africa, but were unable to have one of these for the business, as Darren’s Skippers License was for smaller craft.
We are really taken by the Leopard 46 and it just so happened that Ernesto had sold one to a family friend some months before.
He rang the guy to ask if we could go to his house for a look.
It was quite a short drive and the area is a bit like Sanctuary Cove and Hope Island– big houses on Canals. The cat was just fantastic and I think this could be the brand for our next stage in life. Ernesto has also organized that we see the same model in Tortola. This boat is under charter with “The Moorings” and it will be good to see the wear and tear on the same cat that has been under charter for 4 years.
We hope to find an ex charter Leopard, not too old and in great condition – not too much to ask.
We have one day left in Miami and today we have been for a walk and are now sitting by the pool looking at the Atlantic Ocean and the cute Life Saver’s Pods – its really hot but like Melbourne, SoBe has little humidity. Later we’ll have a swim in the ocean (no surf) and maybe do some retail therapy.
Time for a swim. Darren is snoozing on the pool lounge.
Interesting that shops don’t open in Florida until 11.00am and they close at 8.30pm.
We went back to the apartment to pack the bags. They are getting heavier so buying the luggage weigher has paid off again.
We have put more things into the hand luggage because in the US, people bring what we consider to be oversize bags in “carry on luggage”. They then push, bang and squeeze it to get these suitcases into the overhead lockers.
We get a taxi to the airport – a really nice South American Xpat who bought over his family years ago to make a better life.
We just put the large cases through and had a pull-a-long, a back-pack, a fabric shopping bag, Darren,s Bag and my handbag (large) as carry on and nobody worried.
I was really surprised considering the number of security checks.
We met really nice “Southerners” while waiting at the departure gate. They told us that friends who were flying with another airline had been off loaded, as their plane was over booked. The friends who were all spending a long W/E in St John couldn’t get another flight until the next day.
Our plane was also full. Apparently it is par for the course that airlines overbook relying on people not to turn up. It pays to arrive early.
We landed at Charlotte Amelie on St Thomas, US Virgin Islands.
The hot wind hit as we exited the plane – just great. We collected our luggage and went to the Taxi Rank to get a Taxi to the Ferry Dock. The drivers just keep squashing people in as they get paid per person. The more the merrier.
Two of the people in our group had only had 20 mins to make their Ferry to another island. That seemed ok as the Ferry Dock was only 10 mins from the airport.
All seemed well until a local squeezed into the taxi (truck) and wanted to go somewhere else. As he was the last in he had to be dropped off first. The couple, who had to catch the Ferry (last one), were becoming very agitated. Finally the cabbie dropped the guy off but as the taxi stopped it hit another car. The Taxi Driver then left the cab, went to the other side and tried to pull his fender out white pushing the cars fender in. The couple were becoming hysterical. The Cabbie just said something that mean’t “island time”!!.
Finally we got going again and arrived at the Ferry Dock. For us things were great as we were able to catch the early ferry as it was leaving late due to “Island Time”.
This was the final trip to our destination, Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands. We cleared customs and then took another Taxi (van) to our hotel before picking up the Yacht. The weather looked great and we were really excited. We checked in and then went for a walk. Just Darren’s luck that there was an agents show of large catamarans in the Marina belonging to our hotel.
We had dinner in the restaurant overlooking these fantastic boats and Darren was in Heaven. The next morning it was off to the Footloose / Moorings Marina, to board Bernie’s and Ted’s Benateau 39.
We did some provisioning of the important things like Breakfast foods, snack foods and some lunch bits and pieces. Dinners were to be ashore.
We had a briefing (so difficult to understand Winston's Jamaican type speak) about the sailing dangers around the BVI’s, what each colour mooring meant (too many to remember) and the importance of being back on time. We had some questions but these were generally ignored. We then had a boat briefing (very quick). Thank heavens that Darren had experience on these boats and we were on our own.
It was time to leave so out we went through the moorings to the Caribbean Sea. The sun was shining, the breeze was perfect and all was good. Unfortunately this didn’t last. We did a quick trip to Norman Island to spend the night.
We picked up a mooring, which was the usual thing.
The water was a gorgeous turquoise green, clear and so inviting. We both jumped off the transom into the water. There was a sandy bottom far below. Heaven!.
That evening we had dinner on shore and a Beach Restaurant
This became our routine at every new island.
Next day we went to sail to the Indians (a rock formation), to go diving to see the coral reefs.
We motored the short distance to the Indians, hoping that it would be sheltered behind the island. No such luck. There were a couple of boats there, but others that were arriving, decided, like us to move on.
Our next stop was Muchaneel Bay on Cooper Island. It was a fairly uneventful sail, even though it was quite rough. We only had the jib out as the wind came up. We motored into the bay and set eyes on a mooring. As we headed towards the mooring, a very large cat came streaming in determined to get it. We had to turn away quickly and the big cats young crew cheered. Such irresponsible behavior. We continued to scour for another mooring but it seemed all were taken so we decided to go on to Virgin Gorga.
We sailed up to Spanish Town and set anchor as there were no moorings left there either. We jumped off the boat and went swimming in glassy water. Darren was snorkeling and decided to go around the rocks close to shore. When he returned to the boat he waived triumphantly and held up a reasonably new fender that he found between the rocks. He loves nothing more than hunting and gathering – anything really. A good find for Bernie and Ted.
We got up early and decided to sail back down to the Baths. The rain had stopped and the water was clear. We took the dinghy into the mooring point and went on foot to the “rock caves”.
What a wonder! The caves are made up of huge boulders balancing on top of each other. To move through, you had to squeeze into small spaces, sometimes having to bend right down so as not to hit your head. We were doing this for about 10 minutes when we came to the hidden water pools. They had clear aquamarine water with white sand bases. So beautiful! We went swimming and only moved on when other people arrived.
We continued negotiating our way through the boulders crawling over low ones and then climbing the stairs of the very large ones. These were man made fortunately or it would have been near impossible to negotiate the steep rock faces. We then came to a beautiful beach. This also had white sand and aquamarine water.
Just 2 or 3 steps and you were up to your neck. The water was warm – 82 degrees. It was a long way back to the dingy so Darren decided to swim around the bay to pick it up. What a hero!
It’s great that most of these small anchorage’s have free wifi, with no login codes. It makes things very easy. The BVI’s are about 11 hours behind Melbourne so we were able to catch up on emails from home. Account’s – not great and Bookings – excellent.
We then went to Happy Hour at Saba Rock – a tiny island right next door to Bitter End YC. Their specialty was Pain Killers - $2.50 each and yes they kill all pain until the following morning. They are made up of Rum, rum, rum, and a little of something secret.
We met some honeymooners, there who were just starting to relax after their stressed start. They woke up late after their wedding and missed their plane. The airline did not take pity on them so they had to pay $800 for new tickets. They drowned their sorrows and had a great time.
The next morning we decided to sail to Anagarda, which has beautiful beaches and snorkeling areas. It was a fair sail, about 3 to 4 hours away. We took off, hoisted the sails and when we had not gone too far the winds came up and the rain came down. The seas became rough and the wave height increased dramatically. Down with the mainsail and engine on. Even though we had a dodger and bimini we still got drenched. I left Darren to sail the boat and I went down and took to the bed. I decided that there was not much for me to do so it was better that only one of us, continued to be lashed by the bad weather.
When we got to Anagarda, there were no moorings left so we dropped the anchor and had to wait out in the weather until it held. A long and drenching exercise. We stayed on the boat until the weather cleared. Fortunately we saw a monohull preparing to leave its mooring, so we went across in the tender and claimed the mooring by using the fender that Darren had found. It would have been nerve racking having to stay on the anchor overnight, with such strong winds.
A couple of hours later we went into the tiny town for a walk. There were a couple of Restaurants, some “hotel” shacks on the beach, a Laundromat, gift shop and small grocer.
That night we had a lobster dinner. The locals catch the lobsters off the island, put them in cages under the jetties and then prepare them just before they are ready to cook them.
They have ½, 44 gallon drums that they fill with sticks. When they have burned down they BBQ the lobster, then serve them with jugs of melted butter – a heart attack in every bite.
The next morning we decided to leave immediately. It was so rough, it was better that we moved to a more sheltered spot. Marina Cay was a 3 hour sail away. Again we had rough seas with white capped waves. The rain was spasmodic and heavy at times and occasionally the gunnels went into the water. I hate that part so again I went below. I laid down and read my book till we arrived. We baled out the tender, which had lots of water from the rain and then had lunch at the only restaurant. We we got back to the boat we dropped off the transom for a quick swim. That night we just stayed on the boat because we were very tired from lack of sleep.
Our next stop should have been Jost van Dyke but the weather hadn’t improved so we did a short sail across to Cooper Island and Machioneel Bay. Our overnight stay was uneventful but it was becoming a little cold so we didn’t swim or snorkel.
Wouldn’t you know it that the next day it became hot and muggy. Of course this was our last day but we stayed at the marina anyway.
Pics Soon!!
We we left the plane in Miami the hot wind hits. I had a fleece on
because I find planes cold so I nearly melted. We were able to pass through US Customs quickly, grabbed a cab and went to the Hotel.
We had rented a private mini apartment that is part of but separate to the hotel, on Ocean St. To cut the boring parts there was a mix up and took and extended time to finally get the key.
Fortunately I had been anal and had put in the emails between myself and the owned, the Bank Transfer and the confirmation.
I am not sure that I would rent an apartment this way again.
It was embellished beyond – I not sure where the web pics came from.
We had a short rest and then went for a walk across the road to the beachand then down Ocean. Wonderful Deco Buildings either fully restored or in the process and restaurant after restaurant with people touting their wares.
Its just too much!. You literally can’t get away from them unless you walk on the beach side of the road. On the walk back we stopped for a tapas and a cocktail. Both great. We went back to the room to catch up on some sleep.
The beach was just gorgeous – white sand and beautiful people. Most of the girls were wearing next to nothing – some looked great others however!! Lucky there were no mirrors.
The next morning we were up early to go to Coconut Grove – boat city. We hopped the bus to Government Centre, then the train and then another bus. Easy because the traffic is bad and there are bus lanes.
We walked around the boardwalk passed marina arms with the most amazing boats. Many looked as though they hardly went left the security of the berth. We took a break for brunch at a terrific café. There is nothing like American serving sizes.
We then walked back to the boardwalk to find the Yacht Brokers.
I always get nervious when Darren wants to do this.
We met a really nice young man Ernesto, who spent a deal of time with us going through the listed cats for sale.
Years ago when we were first investigating catamarans we really liked the Leopards from South Africa, but were unable to have one of these for the business, as Darren’s Skippers License was for smaller craft.
We are really taken by the Leopard 46 and it just so happened that Ernesto had sold one to a family friend some months before.
He rang the guy to ask if we could go to his house for a look.
It was quite a short drive and the area is a bit like Sanctuary Cove and Hope Island– big houses on Canals. The cat was just fantastic and I think this could be the brand for our next stage in life.
Ernesto has also organized that we see the same model in Tortola. This boat is under charter with “The Moorings” and it will be good to see the wear and tear on the same cat that has been under charter for 4 years.
We hope to find an ex charter Leopard, not too old and in great condition – not too much to ask.
After the boat investigation we caught a bus around other parts of Miami – Little Havana, Little Haiti, and similar areas. For most of the time we were the only white “folk” on the bus and the only ones whose mother tongue was English. A bit unnerving but really interesting, all the same. We have had enough of the Tourist Tours after Egypt.
We have one day left in Miami and today we have been for a walk and are now sitting by the pool looking at the Atlantic Ocean and the cute Life Saver’s Pods – its really hot but like Melbourne, Sobe has little humidity. Later we’ll have a swim in the ocean (no surf) and maybe do some retail therapy.
Time for a swim. Darren is snoozing on the pool lounge.
Interesting that shops don’t open in Florida until 11.00am and they close at 8.30pm.
Final Day in Miami – We went for a walk and a swim in the ocean. The water was warm even though it was the Atlantic Ocean.
We went back to the apartment to pack the bags. They are getting heavier so Buying the luggage weigher has paid off again.
We have put more things into the hand luggage because in the US people bring what we consider to be oversize bags in “carry on luggage”. They then push, bang and squeeze it to get these suitcases into the overhead lockers..
We get a taxi to the airport – a really nice South American Xpat who bought over his family years ago to make a better life.
American Airlines seems to have the furtherist away check in at MIA as well as Paris. We had to pay for all luggage on this flight even though it did not say so when we booked and paid.
We just put the large cases through and had a pull-a-long, a back-pack, a fabric shopping bag, Darrens Bag and my handbag (large) as carry on and nobody worried.
I was really surprised considering the number of security checks.
We met really nice “Southerners” while waiting at the departure gate. They told us that friends who were flying with another airline had been off loaded as their plane was over booked. The friends who were all spending a long W/E in St John couldn’t get another flight until the next day.
Our plane was also full. Apparently it is par for the course that airlines overbook relying on people not to turn up. It pays to arrive early.
We landed at Charlotte Amelie on St Thomas, US Virgin Islands.
The hot wind hit as we exited the plane – just great. We collected our luggage and went to the Taxi Rank to get a Taxi to the Ferry Dock. The drivers just squash people. The more the merrier.
Two of the people in our group only had 20 mins to make their Ferry to another island. That seemed ok as the Ferry Dock was only 10 mins from the airport.
All seemed well until a local squeezed into the taxi (truck) and wanted to go somewhere else. As he was the last in he had to be dropped off first. The couple, who had to catch the Ferry (last), were becoming very agitated. Finally the cabbie dropped the guy off but as the taxi stopped it hit another car. The Taxi Driver then left the cab, went to the other side and tried to pull his fender out white pushing the cars fender in. The couple were becoming hysterical. The Cabbie just said something that mean’t “island Time”!!.
Finally we got going again and arrived at the Ferry Dock. For us things were great as we were able to catch the early ferry as it was leaving late due to “Island Time”.
This was the final trip to our destination, Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands. We cleared customs and then took another Taxi (van) to our hotel before picking up the Yacht. The weather looked great and we were really excited. We checked in and then went for a walk. Just Darren’s luck that there was and agents show of large catamarans in the Marina belonging to our hotel.
He spoke to lots of people and then got us invited onto a fantastic 64” cat, that was going into high end charter. The couple who run it had a “Bucket” (large) of rum punch left over and between the 4 of us it went down quite nicely. We finally left and wobbled down the dock.
We had dinner in the restaurant overlooking these fantastic boats and Darren was in Heaven. The next morning it was off to the Footloose / Moorings Marina, to board Bernie’s and Ted’s Benateau 39.
We did some provisioning of the important things like Breakfast foods, snack foods and some lunch bits and pieces. Dinners were to be ashore.
We had a briefing (so difficult to understand Winston) about the sailing dangers around the BVI’s, what each colour mooring meant (too many to remember) and the importance of being back on time. We had some questions but these were generally ignored. We then had a boat briefing (very quick). Thank heavens that Darren has experience on these boats and we were on our own.
Before we left we went to inspect a couple of Leopard 46 Cats that are on the market. Huge decision!.
It was time to leave so out we went through the moorings to the Caribbean Sea. The sun was shining, the breeze was perfect and all was good. Unfortunately this didn’t last. We did a quick trip to Norman Island to spend the night.
We picked up a mooring, which was the usual thing.
That was my job. I had to go to the bow, get the boat hook on the way, extend the boat hook, lean over the side with it, guide Darren and pick up the mooring with the boat hook – waves, tide wind - and then secure the boat. Darren did this last easy part!!
The water was a gorgeous turquoise green, clear and so inviting. We both jumped off the transom into the water. There was a sandy bottom far below. Heaven!.
That evening we had dinner on shore and a Beach Restaurant
This became our routine at every new island.
Norman Island
Next day we went to sail to the Indians (a rock formation), to go diving to see the coral reefs.
Overnight the weather had changed. The wind had come up and with it the chop and waves. Large, rolling waves. My faves not!
We motored the short distance to the Indians, hoping that it would be sheltered behind the island. No such luck. There were a couple of boats there, but others that were arriving, decided, like us to move on.
Our next stop was Muchaneel Bay on Cooper Island. It was a fairly uneventful sail, even though it was quite rough. We only had the jib out as the wind came up. We motored into the bay and set eyes on a mooring. As we headed towards the mooring, a very large cat came streaming in determined to get it. We had to turn away quickly and the big cats young crew cheered. Such irresponsible behavior. We continued to scour for another mooring but it seemed all were taken so we decided to go on to Virgin Gorga.
We sailed up to Spanish Town and set anchor as there were no moorings left there either. We jumped off the boat and went swimming in glassy water. Darren was snorkeling and seceded to go around the rocks close to shore. When he returned to the boat he waived triumphantly and held up a reasonably new fender that he found between the rocks. He loves nothing more than hunting and gathering – anything really. A good find for Bernie and Ted.
That night we took the tender into shore and had a pretty ordinary dinner at the marina. We went back to the boat to check the anchor and all was good so we went to bed. It was really rough overnight so neither of us got much sleep. The boat rocked and rolled but the anchor hold was good. It rained all night.
We got up early and decided that we sail back down to the Baths. The rain had stopped and the water was clear. We took the dinghy into the mooring point and went on foot to the “rock caves”.
What a wonder! The caves are made up of huge boulders balancing on top of each other. To move through, you had to squeeze into small spaces, sometimes having to bend right down so as not to hit your head. We were doing this for about 10 minutes when we came to the hidden water pools. They had clear aquamarine water with white sand bases. So beautiful! We went swimming and only moved on when other people arrived.
We continued negotiating our way through the boulders crawling over low ones and then climbing the stairs of the very large ones. These were man made fortunately or it would have been near impossible to negotiate the steep rock faces. We then came to a beautiful beach. This also had white sand and aquamarine water.
Just 2 or 3 steps and you were up to your neck. The water was warm – 82 degrees. It was a long way back to the dingy so Darren decided to swim around the bay to pick it up. What a hero!
We went back to the boat and the rain came down once more, so we up anchored and , put up the main and jib and sailed to North Sound. This was supposedly a great place and it lived up to its reputation. We moored outside the Bitter End Yacht Club, grabbed the computer and Ipad and motored in to pick up the wifi.
It’s great that most of these small anchorage’s have free wifi, with no login codes. It makes things very easy. The BVI’s are about 11 hours behind Melbourne so we were able to catch up on emails from home. Account’s – not great and Bookings – excellent.
We then went to Happy Hour at Saba Rock – a tiny island right next door to Bitter End YC. Their specialty was Pain Killers - $2.50 each and yes they kill all pain until the following morning. They are made up of Rum, rum, rum, and a little of something secret.
We met some honeymooners, there who were just starting to relax after their stressed start. They woke up late after their wedding and missed their plane. The airline did not take pity on them so they had to pay $800 for new tickets. They drowned their sorrows and had a great time.
The next morning we decided to sail to Anagarda, which has beautiful beaches and snorkeling areas. It was a fair sail, about 3 to 4 hours away. We took off, hoisted the sails and when we had not gone too far the winds came up and the rain came down. The seas became rough and the wave height increased dramatically. Down with the mainsail and engine on. Even though we had a dodger and bimini we still got drenched. I left Darren to sail the boat and I went down and took to the bed. I decided that there was not much for me to do so it was better that only one of us, continued to be lashed by the bad weather.
When we got to Anagarda, there were no moorings left so we dropped the anchor
and had to wait out in the weather until it held. A long and drenching exercise. We stayed on the boat until the weather cleared. Fortunately we saw a monohull preparing to leave its mooring, so we went across in the tender and claimed the mooring by using the fender that Darren had found. It would have been nerve racking having to stay on the anchor overnight, with such strong winds.
A couple of hours later we went into the tiny town for a walk. There were a couple of Restaurants, some “hotel” shacks on the beach, a Laundromat, gift shop and small grocer.
That night we had a lobster dinner. The locals catch the lobsters off the island, put them in cages under the jetties and then prepare them just before they are ready to cook them.
They have ½, 44 gallon drums that they fill with sticks. When they have burned down they BBQ the lobster, then serve them with jugs of melted butter – a heart attack in every bite.
Just as we got back to the boat in the tender, the rain poured down again and the wind came up. Needless to say we got very little sleep.
The next morning we decided to leave immediately. It was so rough, it was better the we moved to a more sheltered spot. Marina Cay was a 3 hour sail away. Again we had rough seas with white capped waves. The rain was spasmodic and heavy at times and occasionally the gunnels went into the water. I hate that part so again I went below. I laid down and read my book till we arrived. We baled out the tender, which had lots of water from the rain and then had lunch at the only restaurant. We we got back to the boat we dropped off the transom for a quick swim. That night we just stayed on the boat because we were very tired from lack of sleep.
Our next stop should have been Jost van Dyke but the weather hadn’t improved so we did a short sail across to Cooper Island and Machioneel Bay. Our overnight stay was uneventful but it was becoming a little cold so we didn’t swim or snorkel.
Next stop was Great Harbour on Peters Island. This was our second last night. It was pouring with rain and the winds were quite strong. We were just across the Carribbean Sea from the Footloose base in Road Town on Tortola. It was uncomfortable being on a mooring in a relatively unprotected area so we left there and sailed back to the Marina base.
It poured with rain the whole way and continued to rain all afternoon. Not exactly what we wanted. Finally it stopped that evening so we took the tender and putted all around the bay.
We saw the Nekker Belle, Richard Bransons very large Catamaran – its great – and then had a look at other marinas dotted around. We then had Happy Hour at a noisy and met some “whities” who lived on the BVI’s. One couple ran a privater catamaran thet took 6 guests for 7 day adventures and the second couple worked in admin for The Moorings.
Wouldn’t you know it that the next day it became hot and muggy. Of course this was our last day but we stayed at the marina anyway.
Today is the final adventure in the Virgin Islands.
No comments:
Post a Comment