This gets long as I’ve included some things for newbies so they have an idea of some of the details of things, and of course to get this all down before I forget it.

Route & Overnights (Clockwise from Sopers Hole & Back)
12 Mar Fri – Beef Island to Sopers Hole, Tortola – sleep aboard
13 Mar Sat - Great Harbor, JVD
14 Mar Sun – Cane Garden Bay, Tortola
15 Mar Mon – Marina Cay
16 Mar Tue – Leverick Bay, Virgin Gorda
17 Mar Wed – Cooper Island
18 Mar Thu – Bight, Norman Island
19 Mar Fri – Bight, Norman Island
20 Mar Sat – Sopers Hole – Beef Island

Day 1 - Fri
I left home around 4 a.m. on Friday to get to Mpls, MN airport for 6 a.m. flight to Miami, then on to Puerto Rico, then on to Beef Island, arriving around 6 p.m, then on by taxi to West End. That makes for one long day. Of course one crew member arrived without her checked bag.

Our crew of 8 arrived at different times and dates, but we all knew to head to Sopers Hole to Voyage Charters by Friday eve. The drive from Beef Island to Sopers Hole is sometimes better at night because one doesn’t notice how close to the edge the driver gets at times.

We were all there in time to head to Jolley Rogers (where I noticed someone viewing TTOL a few feet away and stuck up a conversation, with “Bruce” if I remember right – but I was drinking several Carib by then), for dinner and drinks and then back to our 44’ Voyage cat to unpack and head to bed.

Day 2 - Sat
We all headed to the coffee shop/café (Cyber Café ?) that is just past Pussers and down an alleyway for breakfast. They have a nice little courtyard with tables, and a good menu. Then it was back to the boat for more unpacking. Our 10 a.m. briefing started after 10:30 a.m., which I attended with our captain’s wife. Being the youngest person (61.75) on the trip, I needed to know where all the stuff was I would be responsible for. Voyage does a good briefing, but I came away wondering if I should have recorded some of the information on video.

Our 10 a.m. provisioning order from Bobby’s arrived around 11 a.m. or so. I’d say the order was 95% correct, and an hour late isn’t that big a deal and I was at the briefing anyway. As I placed the order, I wanted to double check each item as it was put aboard. We had the delivery person and another on the dock handing things to the 2 of us in the cockpit, as I checked things off on order form and handing all to the 3 inside stowing it all away, which took about an hour. A nice tip to delivery person, and it was time for lunch. My only very minor complaint is that it was like pulling teeth from delivery person to find out that something wasn’t in the order or there was a substitution.

We were soon on our way to JVD, arriving well before the BBQ. About this time we got a call from Voyage Charters that the missing luggage had arrived and it was on a cat headed to the Bight. Once the “special delivery” cat arrived we contacted them and went over in dingy to retrieve bag. We still had plenty of time to head ashore to wander the settlement. I struck up a conversation with Foxy, discussing many things including his Bucket List to see Yellowstone Nat’l Park someday. Dinner was as good as I remembered, but to my recollection Foxy’s BBQ was less crowded, the dance floor was full though. Several drinks later, some dancing (with one of our crew dancing on the table instead of the dance floor), and it was time to dingy back to our boat.

Day 3 – Sun
We headed out of Great Harbor and headed in a leisurely zig-zag towards Cane Garden Bay stopping off at Sandy Spit for some snorkeling and my requisite walk around the island. Instead of my usual rocky approach, I noticed kids playing in the shallow water and decided they most likely are not playing on the rocks, but in sand – so I headed their direction and found a nice exit point to beach. Then off to CGB, where ½ the crew decided to jump ship and swim to shore for part of the afternoon. I decided I needed to do a quality control check of our beer & rum supplies; someone has to do it! Dinner was BBQ at the Elm w/the Elm Tones (? Name) playing, and where I met my 2nd TTOL person this trip (Malcom-I hope I’m getting the names right) after spying his tell-tale orange VW-Thing out back.. Quite a nice evening.

Day 4 – Mon
We left CGB with another zig-zag pattern heading to Marina Cay via Monkey Point to do some snorkeling along the way. Always good snorkeling at MP, and of course we were there so early that a ball was easy to find. We arrived at Marina Cay WAY before Happy Hour, but this meant I could secure 8 chairs well in advance of the Bean show. The show of course was GREAT, but we left at 6:30 for our dinner reservations. A very good dinner, and nice place to relax.

Day 5 – Tue
We left Marina Cay and headed to Leverick Bay for our reserved slip. Soon after arriving the catamaran from Necker Island showed up opposite us at the end dock. Now that’s a BIG cat. We did the BBQ lunch and sat in one of the grass shack/huts down the beach a bit, that extend up the hillside. Nice viewing from up there. The Necker cat still looked BIG from up there. After lunch we first headed to the grocery store to replenish a bit, because surprise-surprise we were already out of beer.

It was so hot during this visit and low wind that we were going through the water and beer much faster than expected. And using the motor more than usual or anticipated.

Then 3 of us took the dingy across to Mosquito Island to snorkel by the sandy beach area that is off to the left when viewing from Leverick. We must have gone to the wrong place as there really weren’t many fish to see, but someone else arriving later anchored out in the little bay and swam to the rocky point further away. I did have a ray swim right next to me, and found a good sized turtle in one of the sandy ruts between grassy areas. The dingy ride back across the channel was less rough than coming when we appeared to be in Ferry path. I don’t like waves in a dingy!

Then it was off to the showers, and then to the fresh water pool. Boy that is nice. Eventually it got to be dinner time and we all cleaned up and headed to upstairs restaurant for a very good dinner. Service is GREAT-as is the food. A very nice place. Never did see Nick. Yes, we did the TTOL special with slip with 2 bags of free ice and a water fill for boat.

Day 6 – Wed
Started the morning off with a shower, my last real shower until getting home. Then we had breakfast aboard as usual and eventually got under way to Cooper Island. We did a bit of snorkeling in the area and eventually headed in to the beach club for dinner. Cooper Island is a nice enough place, and the improvements to restaurant are nice, but a lot of the larger tables are right by the kitchen, which is a bit too noisy for dining. Food was acceptable, not exceptional.

Day 7 – Thu
Left Cooper and headed toward Norman Island, but I wanted to get closer to the islands on the way, especially Salt – to take photos. In the past I didn’t have a digital camera, and needed new photos. This is an interesting step back in time island. We eventually made it to the Bight and took a ball near shore midway between the Willy-T and the caves. It is still good snorkeling along the rocky shore. Captain, his wife and I headed in the dingy to the Willy-T for early afternoon painkillers (what else) while Zeus was still tending bar, so Captain and his wife could catch up with their long time friend. They owned a cat in BVI from around 1995-2005. Zeus usually remembers me, as the first time we met in 2001 he told my captain & friend that he thought I was the guard from the t.v. show Night Court. While the 3 of them caught up on kids/grandkids, etc., I enjoyed the other activities occurring around me. It was a nice afternoon.

We headed back to our boat (Paradise Encounter) for more snorkeling and to rest up for dinner. We headed to Pirates for dinner, which I enjoyed and their bar makes much better/stronger drinks than the one at Cooper. Boy it gets dark out there.

Day 8 – Fri
I could hear the captain starting the engines, so I jumped out of bed to get us off the mooring ball, and to learn we were heading to the caves really early, 7 a.m. As no one else was around the caves we were able to do breakfast and snorkel well before anyone else showed up, and were off again before the last ball was taken. Of course now, we’re out in the water away from Norman when we decide to raise the dingy and secure it to our stern, before raising the main. I sure got practice climbing up and down the mast and guiding the line back and forth, as raising the dingy or the main required the same line. I’d recommend that others do this while in a bay or on a ball, where there are less waves.

The wind was finally up so we headed out of the Bight to more open water to really let the boat go for awhile. This was our only real sailing day, as some days there was absolutely no breeze – that can get hot out there. Then we headed back to the Bight and to our spot between the Willy-T and the caves, so we could do swimming and snorkeling along the rock wall. First we headed to Willy-T for lunch with whole crew and I spent more time down with Zeus and others to “enjoy the sights”. After a hearty lunch and a painkiller or 2, we headed back to the boat, some napped and I headed back into the water for more snorkeling. We did dinner onboard to use up odds and ends and 6 of us needed to pack up our things.

Day 9 – Sat
We did our usual breakfast aboard, and some finished packing, but we were heading back to Sopers Hole by 9 to catch taxi back to Beef Island and our noon flight to Puerto Rico. Arriving well ahead of time, we checked our bags, and some went to watch t.v. at airport. I left my carry-on bag with crew and grabbed camera to walk the 5 minutes to the beach. Headed into the grocery store, bought a tall Red Strip and headed to the benches at the dock to stare away my last hour on the islands. This is the way to end the trip, on the water – not in the airport.

In summary it was 75s at night and mid to upper 80s in day, little breeze which resulted in a lot of motoring. This trip was only 1 week, much shorter than usual; but long enough. Our captain and his wife stayed another week on boat to next take their family around the islands. Provisioning error was too little 1-gallon jugs and small bottles of drinking water for the hot windless days. Even those not expected to drink beer were drinking beer. Each evening we used bug spray when ashore in the evening, but only on our lower legs and feet to keep no-see-ums to a minimum. With light breeze at night, near shoreline moorings resulted in my getting a lot of bits at night from no-see-ums. I was a pin cushion when I got home. I took newer LED flashlights with for finding our dingy at night, not recommended as these didn’t really send out a beam of light very far. I always used Bobby’s for provisioning and will again. We didn’t sail everyday which is sad, but we did snorkel at least once to two or three times a day at once occasion, that’s nice. The flight with 3 plane changes from Beef to MN is very tiring.

I’m ready to go back, but its warming up here in MN and my MG needs to get out on the road again.