Trip report PART 2 –

Did not mention before, but this is our 25th anniv. trip, at least our excuse for sneaking away without kids for several days, while they are in school and staying with grandparents at night. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/circle.gif" alt="" />

After a very nice dinner at Pirates, we check out the gift shop just before it closes. After that we just walk around the beach for a few minutes, trying to walk off a little of the meal we just finished. Dingy back out to the boat, a million stars out, very clear and calm night. Two very large motor yachts are near the outside of the anchorage, very brightly lit up and anchored in deep water. Another large yacht is med moored on the west side of Kellys Cove, close to the “Bight” side. We just kind of relaxed and listed to some music from the iphone - I am not a great computer expert, etc… but I did figure out how to load about 300 songs onto my phone, I put into random playback so it is always a surprise for what is going to come up next, and the boat had a stereo input jack for these purposes. We like the music more in the background than loud-- We like “hammock music” if you can listen to it while laying in a hammock, then it is OK. Actually, just talking about stuff like Jackson Browne, Sade, JB, Van Morrison, Steely Dan, Emmy Lou, maybe even Supertramp , etc, you get the idea.

One very good idea I learned from this forum is the “bullet blender” I ordered the entire setup about a week prior to our trip, the completely tested everything while up in our fishing boat that is now stored out in the “barn”, had to find a good 12v source somewhere, and the car battery just did not seem right, ha ha….. I just needed to make sure this thing is really going to work before I haul it and an inverter 1,400 miles to the south. But I will say that the bullet blender works great! And , I think my frozen concoctions are much better than any I have ever purchased in the BVI, for sure. Enough about that though.

Water is very calm and we are sleeping hard until about 4 am, when all heck breaks loose. Very heavy rain downpour starts and strong winds, can hear the wind blowing hard through the rigging and it sounds like buckets of water are being dumped onto the deck. Winds are very strong from the south. Hatches are closed, even had to close the cover over the companionway, even with a dodger center panel zipped closed connected to the bimini top above. So I get up, look at the GPS anchor alarm ( I running drag queen on my ipad) to see if we are holding good on the mooring, we are still good. After about 10 minutes I peek outside and notice the big boats that were in the anchorage are now gone, wonder where they went? After about 30 minutes the wind calms down a lot and rain slows. Back to sleep.

Up the next morning, have breakfast then time to bail out the dingy. It must have had 6 or 8 inches of water in it. I look over and notice that mooring balls at the Indians are available, so we unhook and motor over and grab a ball there. We both snorkel the Indians, whick is really one of the best sites to do this, in my opinion. We see a lot of fish and coral, water is very clear , as we can see the bottom very clearly even in the deeper water where the sailboat is moored. Our 13 year old son has a Nikon cool pix, a nice camera that will take nice high resolution stills and video , even good to 33 ft. So I make a few underwater videos while snorkeling, they came out pretty good. Interstingly, the moorings at the Indians did not ever fill up, there was always at least one mooring available while we were there, but we did see several boats come and go. We depart Indians at about 11:30 -- east bound.

It is Friday, would be great to make it up to Leverick for the Jumbies, but we decide just too far for us to go today – all still pretty-much dead upwind for us. So we decide on Marina Key. Five or six tacks later we are there, arrive at about 2:30 or 3:00. From there, since it is still early in the day, we decide to dingy over to Trellis bay (we never been there before) and check out the last resort, we were thinking maybe appetizer and drinks? So we go over by dingy and Last Resort not open until 6 pm or so, but we spend a minute looking around the little island anyway. I happen to be a pilot (airplane that is) and I notice an old aircraft propeller laying on the wall, near the water. Tips are all curled in, I feel sorry for whoever did that…. I am wondering if they found the prop in the water off the end of the runway at EIS….

So, we continue our great dingy ride over to the dock at Trellis bay and walk around there for a little while. We go to the cyber café and pick up the wifi signal, check email, let the folks back home know we are still alive. Still cant get the idea of something to eat off our mind, although we just had lunch maybe 3 hours ago on the boat. So I ask the lady at the cyber café how long it would be if we ordered a chicken roti (it was a special listed on the board and we thought we would split one), the nice lady said that it takes a lot of work, and would be about an hour. So we said we would pass on that as we needed to go soon, and just got a couple of drinks, then went out under the porch and sat at one of their tables to relax and take in the sights. We were just there talking and about 10 minutes later the lady comes up behind us and slides this great big plate onto the table between us, a fantastic looking chicken roti with veggies, etc… We split the dish and it was just perfect, just enough jerk spices and whatever else they make those things with to create the perfect little lunch#2 for the day! We paid our tab with a good tip and were soon on our way back to Marina Key.

Back at the boat – what next? Well, we need to begin to prepare plans for our next meal! So I call pussers on 16 and make reservations for 2 at 7:30. Coconut crusted grouper with the perfect chutney sauce and a carribean grilled salad with chicken for the admiral. Food was again exceptional. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/dine.gif" alt="" /> One little supprise, iced tea is $4 per glass, and if you need a refill like we always do, it is $4 each time…. Live and learn. It is good though and back at the boat we feel we have reached the ultimate place of relaxation and complete satisfaction, as far as vacations go.

Anchorage at Marina Key is a little “rolly” that night, maybe ferry traffic? Anyway, were surprised by the motion and did not sleep as good as expected.

To be continued - - -