It’s a gray and drizzly Friday in the Puget Sound. I’m recovering from my late night plane flight, scratching my bug bites, looking at my digital pics and still feeling the movement of the boat. Time to write a trip report.

19 April – Tuesday – My watch battery died a couple of days ago, effectively putting me on island time early. Between the computer and cell phone clocks, I managed to get thru work OK. This trip, it’s just Lance and I on the Beneteau 332, “Ti Amo”. We left home Monday night to stay near the airport for a 12+ hour, 6:00 am flight SEA-DFW-SJU-EIS. Landed in San Juan in a rainstorm, again, and the American Eagle flight to EIS was bumpy, bumpy, bumpy. It felt like a roller coaster and got a couple of “whee!” exclamations from me. We met couples from Denver and San Diego in the taxi to the Moorings. We walked around the docks a while, identifying Ti Amo, before calling it a night. The walls of the Mooring Inn are apparently very thin, as we had a “screamer” next door. It sounded just like the movies!

20 April – Wednesday – Woke up 7:30ish and breakfasted at the Moorings restaurant. We were able to skip the chart briefing, as we had sat through it last July, but the boat wasn’t going to be ready until 10:15. Bobby’s delivered our groceries about 9:45ish (no watch, remember). Loaded luggage and food into cart to wait for 10:15. The time finally arrived and the Moorings staff came by about 10:45 for the boat briefing and check-out. We pulled out of the harbor about noon, past two very large cruise ships. Saw a sea turtle as we headed out. I thought it was a piece of sea weed until it put it’s head up and dove.
We put up the sails and headed down channel for Soper’s Hole. Our plan was to hole up in Soper’s for a couple of days, exploring the north coast by car. Arrived at Soper’s and caught the ($25) mooring ball first time (this was my first time ever; we didn’t get around to the planned practice sails before heading down). We called Denzil Clyne who arrived in about 2 minutes. We got a 2-door Suzuki Sidekick 4x4 and headed over the hill to Smugglers Cove. There was quite a bit of wave action which had kicked up the sand, so the snorkeling wasn’t very clear. We swam a while but the no-see-ums in the sand chased us off, eventually. We drove up the coast as far as Cane Garden Bay and picked up a couple of items at Bobby’s. Then back to the boat where Lance cooked dinner. I seem to consistently be a bit sea and/or heat sick the first day out, both from the waves and from getting overheated while loading the boat. We watched an awesome lightening storm over St. Thomas.

21 April – Thursday – Relaxed and read and lounged around the boat in the morning. About noon we packed some dry clothes and headed into the marina. The plan was to spend the afternoon at Brewers Bay, find some place to shower, and eat dinner at Quito’s to hear him play acoustic. We drove via Roadtown, checking out the sights on the Drake Highway. We went over Joe’s Hill Road. There was a great road sign showing a truck on a steep hill ahead. We made our way over to CGB to make reservations for dinner that night. There were two large cruise ships in port and the beach was packed with sunbathers. We went on to Brewers Bay. There were cruise shippers there, too. It wasn’t packed, but there were probably 40 or more people on the beach. Taxi’s took most of them away in the late afternoon. There was plenty of wave action there and Lance caught a couple of waves for body surfing. We enjoyed swimming and floating in the surf. The waves kicked up the sand, so snorkeling was cloudy. We had some time to kill before dinner time, so we headed back to Roadtown to get a picture of the cool road sign. It dawned on us that the Moorings has a shower, so we headed over there to get ready for dinner. We hung out around the pool for a while and headed back to CGB. The beach, by then, was quiet again. We walked down to the rope swing where a couple was being photographed. Back to Quito’s where I had my first chicken roti and Lance had broiled snapper. Coconut bread pudding and key lime pie finished it off nicely. Quito began playing just before dessert, so we were able to enjoy his singing for quite a while. I was not familiar with his music, so it was great to finally hear him. We drove back to Soper’s via Long Bay. It was a hot, breezeless night.

22 April – Friday – Took car back to Denzil Clyne. Checked email at the jewelry shop. Bought Ice at the fuel dock and got underway around noon. A boat full of topless women pulled in as we were headed out. Headed across to JVD, Little Harbor. Sydney at Peace and Love showed us his huge lobsters and asked if we wanted to make reservations. We planned on eating on the boat, so declined. Rena (peace and love taxi) dropped us at Sandcastle on White Bay with arrangements to pick us up later at Ivan’s. Had a painkiller and lounged in the hammock while Lance nailed the hook and hoop game three times. There were lots of people at the Soggy Dollar. Walked down past Ivan’s to the end of the beach to snorkel there. Had heard there were sea turtles there last time. Lance snapped a picture of an anchor wrapped around and through a piece of coral. Snorkeling and swimming was fun. Talked to some people from the Boston area who were there with their children and another family. It started sprinkling, so we wandered over to Ivan’s where we had a glass of his rum punch. Talked to a lady from England who has been camping for some time at Ivan’s with her adult daughter. Rena picked us up right on time and we picked up a party of Californians from Foxy’s on the way back to Little Harbor. It was still raining as we cooked dinner and we decided we should have eaten at Sydney’s. There was a terrific lightening storm during the night and the wind really picked up. There were swells of 3-4 feet rolling straight into the anchorage and the boat was really rocking.

23 April – Saturday – Woke up to continued strong wind and rain and large swells. The dinghy had maybe six inches of water in it. Decided to hang out another day in Little Harbor, but changed our mind as the rain stopped and the other boats ventured out, one after another. Motored across, past Soper’s Hole on to Norman Island. The swells calmed down after rounding the end of Tortola. Picked up our only $20 mooring ball in the Bight, near Pirates. We dinked over to the Caves and snorkeled around…the best snorkeling of the trip so far. Back at the boat, I snorkeled over near the shore where there is a mooring ball in about 5 feet of water (what’s that all about?) There was plenty of marine life and I had a good time. Got cleaned up and went into Pirates, both for drinks and to use the facilities and stand in the air-conditioned store. Lance had the best pina colada of the trip there, and I had a painkiller. Sat on the beach chairs enjoying the view. It was much cooler and comfortable today, after the storm blew through. Back to the boat for an early night.

24 April – Sunday – We got up early (6:10) and motored over to the Indians. We were the first boat there by about 10 minutes. One of the first things we saw underwater was a sea turtle. Hopefully the pics turn out. We were there as the sun was first coming up and we swam through school after school of fish feeding on the particles lit up by the rising sun. Awesome! We set the sails for a relaxing reach up to Trellis Bay for the full moon party that night. After getting settled we went ashore to see what the scoop is for the party. It was stifling on shore, so we had a slushy at “D best cup” (?). Talked to a guy who was on his way home from Little Dix. You could tell who was on their way home by how cleaned up they were. Back to the boat where there was some breeze. It was very hot so I was in and out of the water all afternoon. There were lots of boats both moored and anchored. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect at the Full Moon Party, but it exceeded my expectations. There was a $15 buffet of local foods (curried goat, jerk chicken, BBQ Pork ribs, fish, and other meats, with a choice of side dish – I had rice and peas which turned out to be rice w/ red kidney beans). We arrived on shore at dusk and the place had been transformed. The Caribbean band, the palm branch roofs rustling in the breeze, the lighting, all made it seem like we were in a movie scene. We met Jeremy of the Cyber Café and had some interesting discussions about how the world works. We sat at a table with Jon and Deb who are charter captain and hostess on their boat “Amicus”. Jon’s sister and her husband were visiting from England, so we were able to talk to them about our upcoming trip to the UK. There were fire jugglers and mocko jumbies. How they dance on those stilts is beyond me! We had a great time and used the movie clip function of our digital camera to capture some of the sights and sounds.

25 April – Monday – We woke late-ish and looked out the window to see a water spout in the distance beyond Marina Cay, through the cut between Great Camanoe and Scrub Island. Lance took some great pictures of it. We had planned to go to George Dog for some snorkeling, but decided to let the weather blow over. We went to shore and checked our email at the Cyber Café and picked up some provisions at Trellis Bay Market. Mid-morning, we headed over to George Dog. There was a boat about a half-hour ahead of us who picked up the one red mooring ball there. About the time we arrived, they were casting off and a boat with a big Texas flag picked up the ball. We were under the impression you were not allowed to anchor in a National Park, so we decided to turn on the motor and hang out there till the Texans were done. We could eat lunch, charge the motor and wait for a good snorkel. The snorkelers got back to the boat, but showed no sign of leaving. Other boats came and anchored, hmmm, well, maybe we could anchor, but it appeared to be coral on the bottom and the mooring ball should be open soon; there was a 90 minute max, after all. Ninety minutes came and went, 95, 100, 105. Maybe the boat load of topless women had something to do with the delay. Finally we gave up and left, deciding to come back the next day and thinking uncharitable thoughts about Texans (note: my family tree is filled with Texans going back 150+ years, so I’m disposed to generally think well of them ). We later looked at our material and couldn’t find any prohibition on anchoring anywhere but at the Rhone. We picked up a mooring ball at Marina Cay and snorkled the reef opposite Marina Cay, off Great Camanoe. We saw a ray and ran into lots of small jelly fish in the shallow, warmer water. They were the first jellies we had encountered…and our sea safe “jelly fish repellent” was back in the boat. But there were no stings. We dinghied (my spell check doesn’t like that word) between Great Camanoe and Scrub Island to see what was back there. We could see a mast across a saddle of land; I assume it must have been in Lee Bay. That night we went in for the tail end of Michael Bean’s show. One of the audience members, Donna, had formerly been in a band with him, and he let her sing a few songs. It was great. We walked over to the bar and had drinks on the beach. Very romantic.

26 April – Tuesday – Set the alarm and got up early to head over to George Dog again. The ball was free when we arrived and the sun was just coming over the island. There were types of coral that we hadn’t seen anywhere else. The coral near shore appeared to be very healthy. A rain shower came while we were in the water. I love the way the surface of the water looks from underneath during the rain. Still no boats around when we finished snorkeling, so were able to take showers on the swim step, au natural. Very refreshing. When a boat appeared in the distance, we regretfully donned our clothes and dropped the mooring ball. My little tantrum of the previous day had been wasted energy. Our George Dog experience was way better than it would have been the day before. (As usually turns out to be the case when I get all worked up about something; you’d think I’d learn). One long tack took us to Cooper Island where we would spend our last night on the boat. We arrived at the same time as a boat full of guys from a yacht club in Tennessee. They were stopping for lunch on their way back from Anegada. Sounds like they were having a great time. Had some more great snorkeling at Cistern Point. The mooring ball field filled up over the course of the afternoon, some boats arriving with women going topless. Now, I bought some two piece swim suits for this trip even though I fall into the “fat chick” category and generally don’t wear two piece suits, both out of self respect and out of consideration of my fellow man. But I finally got to the point of saying, forget this, if these women can ride around topless on their boats, I should be able to wear my two-piece in public. If my fat tummy offends anyone they can just avert their eyes. No one here knows me, anyway! It was another hot afternoon with light, variable breezes.

27 April – Wednesday – We woke up with the boat broadside to the slight breeze. The winds had been so fluctuating and light during the night that the bridle had twisted and the mooring ball ended up amidship, underwater, just ahead of the keel. After snorkeling around under the boat (in the company of a 4’ barracuda) Lance determined it wasn’t in danger of catching on the prop. He tried to use the dinghy to push the boat around to untwist the bridle, but there was too much windage. So in the end, we let go the mooring ball and drifted free before starting the motor. After packing up the boat, we sailed back to Roadtown under the jib alone, making good time. After checking out of the boat, we jumped into the Moorings pool where I met some people who were glad to be done with their charter and had been counting down the days til they were back in their own beds. They had been down over a half a dozen times and felt this was probably their last time. – We went to the Tamarind Club for our last night. What a great experience! It felt like its own little world. The lay-out of the 9 room hotel, bar, and pool was very conducive to everyone interacting with each other. Toward early evening, local people showed up both at the bar and the swimming pool and restaurant. It felt like a friendly community. There was a band at dinner, so we were able to dance. We booked the honeymoon suite, which had a private patio with a hammock. All in all it exceeded our expections.

28 April – Thursday – Checked in the airport an hour early and walked over to Trellis Bay to take Jeremy’s suggestion of eating breakfast at the Cyber Café before getting on the plane. (We were the cleaned up ones now!) We had a great omelet that gave us a good foundation for our 16+ hour trip home to Seattle.

Notes:
· Saw no biting insects, but ended up with lots of bug bites. Was glad for the Benadryl, both the ointment and the pills.
· All the Moor Secure balls were $25. The Bight (Pirates) were $20
· Vacation w/ hubby lots of fun, but a totally different experience than going with friends. Both are good in their own way.
· Used an owner’s week obtained via sailonline.com
· Used sea-step purchased on sailonline.com to climb semi-gracefully into dinghy after snorkeling

View pictures at : http://community.webshots.com/user/captainlance