We relaxed and enjoyed ourselves, and we enjoyed being lazy. We appreciate all of the other trip reports we've read here before, so here goes!
Dec. 6 - Depart St. Louis for St. Thomas via Atlanta. Carryon luggage only, we shipped sun screen ahead of time. Arrive St. Thomas just slightly later than scheduled, catch a cab to the 4:15pm fast ferry to Roadtown, no problems. Arrive in Roadtown, walk over and check into Maria's by the Sea, grab a small bite to eat, then off the sleep for the early wake-up on Dec. 7 to catch the ferry to Anegada (7am).
Dec. 7 - Nice sunrise on the Roadtown ferry dock, a quick stop at Virgin Gorda and we're headed north to Anegada. It's windy and choppy, but it didn't bother us. Rented a car from Dean Wheatley (via Randy at Neptune's Treasure), so Henny was waiting for us and some other visitors at the ferry dock. Finished the paperwork and off to Neptune's Treasure for breakfast, then checked into our room, changed clothes and headed for Cow Wreck. Spent most of the rest of the day there (lunch & drinks). Very windy and the surf was up, so the water visibility was bad. We didn't even take our snorkels/fins to the beach since you couldn't see much anyway. Stopped and explored the beach on the south side west of Pomato Point, calmer water and a bit less wind. Back to Neptune's for drinks & dinner (lobster), nice sunset.
Dec. 8 - Took a walk this morning on the road to the ferry dock and back to Neptune's. We decided to drive into the Settlement to find Dotsy's Bakery for breakfast and bought her last cinnamon rolls. Spent the rest of the morning on the south beach west of Pomato Point until we spotted the rain moving in. We went to Cow Wreck and arrived just as the rain did. We had lunch and spent the next couple of hours laughing it up with Alex, other guests, et al. while the rain showers moved thru. A gentleman arrived about mid-afternoon - he had walked from Loblolly all the way to Cow Wreck! The rest of his friends arrived later to pick him up to take him back to their boat. Once the showers had moved out, we decided to stay the rest of the afternoon at Cow Wreck, and we went back to Neptune's for dinner.
Dec. 9 - We decided to venture over the Loblolly to see how windy and wavy it was - it was really windy! We walked up and down the beach, took some photos, sat a bit and decided it was really too windy to stay. So we drove back to the south beach for the rest of the day. Took some photos of the cows milling around the Cow Wreck sign at the turn. Another nice sunset at Neptune's. The wind was cool at night so I was glad I had jeans with me, I wore them most evenings (plus the bugs were out!). Dinner at Anegada Reef Hotel (small crowd).
Dec. 10 - Took another morning walk on the road, this time to the west of Neptune's, checking out the partially built buildings off the road. Walked to the beach to check out the (presumably) causarina (sp?) pines and just look around. Mark Soares told us at breakfast the weather the rest of the day and Tuesday would be bad since there was a "gale" just north of us. It was still really windy, no doubt about that! We got some time in the sun on the south beach, then packed up when it clouded up and had lunch at Anegada Reef Hotel as the rain moved in. We dropped off our postcards ("holiday greetings") to mail at Sue Wheatley's Purple Turtle. It rained the rest of the afternoon, so we went back to Neptune's, sat on the covered porch, read our books, drank some rum punches, and lazed away the rest of the day. The rain let up for dinner and the evening. The afternoon ferry was cancelled, stranding several people who were scheduled to leave that day and one couple that had arrived that morning just for a day trip. I believe the airport was also closed due to the high winds.
Dec. 11 - The heavy rain and wind returned with a force in the middle of the night with a lot more wind. We had a rather tense and sleepless night with all the wind and rain and coconuts falling on the roof. It must have let up shortly before sunrise since we were able to fall asleep and awoke to cloudy skies. The airport opened briefly about mid-morning, and the stranded travelers scrambled to catch the sole flight that came in and departed. Incredibly, it cleared off and we were back on the south beach after lunch! Still really windy and there were dark clouds to the west. We went up to Cow Wreck late in the afternoon for beverages and to see how high the surf was on the reef. Back to Neptunes for our last night's dinner - lobster again, imagine that! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />
Dec. 12 - A few weeks before we departed for this trip, we decided to fly out of Anegada on the return rather than go with the ferries (which would have resulted in 14+ hours of traveling), and what a good decision that was! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Thumbsup.gif" alt="" /> The ferry came in Wednesday morning, but we heard it was a rough crossing with the wind and high seas. We had a leisurely morning and lunch lounging around Neptune's Treasure, then we headed to the airport around 1pm for our 1:30 pm flight to St. Thomas. We flew with Island Birds, and it was a really nice flight over the islands. We saw the flamingos on the salt pond and snapped some nice photos of the islands. When we arrived in St. Thomas and went thru customs/immigration, we were informed that we were going to return to an "ice storm" in St. Louis. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" /> Oh well, we were still on island time. A second time thru customs/immigration to catch the Delta flight, and it was only then we heard about Tropical Storm Olga, which was apparently in its early stages Monday and Monday night over us! The flight back to Atlanta was late, so we had to run to our connecting St. Louis flight in Atlanta. Thank goodness we had only carryon luggage! We arrived in St. Louis, no ice <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />, picked up the dogs, arrived home and went to bed.
Overall, a good trip, albeit very windy and periods of rain every day, but good periods of sun every day. Good people, good times, great memories. This was our 3rd trip to Anegada, and we will return. Our next trip is in June 2008 with my husband's family - back to St. John, where we were married in 2000.
ClearBlueH2O