Just back from a 10 day land based trip. It was our eight visit to Tortola. Its sort of strange, we normally return to nearly winter weather but now its nearly 80 degrees here in Ohio.
We arrived at STT at 2:30 but when we got to the ferry dock, only 1 ferry was running to the West End and it was filled. We had to then get a a taxi
to Red Hook and grab the 5:15 which actually left about 6. We didn't get through Customs until nearly 7. We had previously arranged Jerry to pick us up
around 4:30 assuming the ferries were running on their "normal" schedule. We walked out of Customs and he was still there waiting for us!
As proved time & time again, amazing service from Jerry. As always we stayed at the Mongoose apartments. Sandra has always been the best host.
Concerning what we did on a daily basis, we didn't do much. Did our best to hold down the sand on the beach. We did hit a few Kappy Hours.
That is quite the floor show with the regular cast of characters.
Talked to Mal a few times. My wife gave him a Hotwheel diecast of the "ting" I met Saildoggie at the end of our last happy hour. He was going about 32 hours
without sleep.
We had mixed successes with going out to dinner. Bananakeet was great as always the 2 times we ate there. Sky was a nice treat from the normal
island fare with their Indian menu. They only had 1 girl working the Monday night we were there. She had 4 full tables to deal with. She was
holding her own but one more table would of pushed her over the top. She really needed a backup. Our Jolly Roger experience was less than
satisfying. We stopped by on a Saturday afternoon around 1:00 to make reservations. I asked what the special was that evening and the cook said
the jerk prime rib. I made mention that I heard a lot about that and I'm anxious to try it. We got there at 7, asked about the special and the waitress
said it was sold out. She said I really needed to reserve one early in the day. I then said I wish I knew that earlier especially since I made special mention
to the cook earlier that afternoon. I ordered the chicken roti and my wife a double bacon cheeseburger. A little later the waitress confirmed with my wife
that she ordered a double bacon cheeseburger. A few minutes later a chili cheeseburger shows up. I brought it to the waitresses attention and she said just scrape
the chili off, okay I guess. We finished our food and we were out of there at 7:15. I couldn't help to notice that the 2 tables by us, folks that were already seated when
we got there, still didn't get their prime rib! They were livid.
On the ferry ride back to STT. the captain said since there were 2 ferries ahead of us, it would be quicker to clear customs in St John. He was right. Even with the extra
stop, the 2 ferries were still unloading when we got to the STT dock. As a token of my appreciation, I gave him my sunglasses after he made about a dozen comments
on how much he liked them.
All in all, a good relaxing trip. Hopefully we'll be back next year.