6/26 - Day 10: Awaken to roosters - no shock there, and after breakfast we head to Baths. There are cruise ships coming tomorrow, so today is snorkle day. It's a reasonable walk there, and still a bit crowded. People are still bringing dinghy's ashore, and one comes close to AJ and I. In a swell, this is NOT a good idea! We go to Mad Dog's for lunch, and while the sandwiches are great, I am bummed to find that electricity is out.............no blender, no pina coladas.......OH WELL! We stop by Spring Bay to find it empty, and so spend a couple hours snorkling and limin' there too. We head back "home", do happy hour watching the sun set over Beef Island from the library while kids play dominoes, then Kim whips up pizza from leftover spaghetti sauce, followed by a popcorn party on the cottage. Nice evening!<br><br>6/27 - Day 11: Slow moving day, we have NO PLANS, so breakfast on the front porch is followed by a beach day, snorkling by all, some shopping at yacht harbor,and another sunset in the library. Bought Heather a t-shirt that says "Dinghy Girl" - as she did all cast-offs and tie-ups on the boat, she earned it! Dinner is at Bath & Turtle, and is outstanding. We head home to cottage for popcorn and packing. Amazingly, it all fits back into 2 carryons apiece! Even with copious t-shirt purchases and a total of 7 bottles of Callwood's rum, it STILL FITS! We head off to sleep, and brace ourselves for a return to reality.<br><br>6/28 - Day 12: Up for an early breakfast in Fischer's restaurant, then a taxi to ferry dock. Uneventful ride to Roadtown (the last of the day), then taxi to the airport. We check in easily, kill an hour and then board American eagle to San Juan. The cabin closes, the engines power up, then power down, and open up for more passengers. Close up, power up, then back down for MORE standbys. Finally, 25 minutes late, off we go. Land in San Juan, breeze through customs, head to US Air to check in. The self-serve kiosks will not recognize me - why? because we are inside the "1/2 hour" window. The plane to the states has closed, and US Air has no other openings to get us home.The nice lady suggests that I make it American Eagle's problem - off to the OTHER END of the airport. American Eagle has several of us who got booted off connections, and they have room on a plane a few hours later, BUT..............first I have to go BACK to US Air, get tickets issued, and endorsed to A/E. Back across the airport I go, and find another nice person who takes care of it without another line wait. BACK to A/E, where we get 3 boarding passes, and a promise of a seat for Heather at the gate. After a snack of Medalla beer and chips, we actually board, and head home. We are seated separately, Kim draws the screaming baby, AJ gets a teenage girl returning from Aruba, Heather gets non-friendly couple, and I get a nice couple coming from St. John, as well as last row. The stewardess kindly brings me a Budweiser (bummer, no Carib), and does so again later, at which point the guy next to me asks, "Do you know her or something?"...nope, just being nice. We land at BWI on time, meet my father-in-law, pick up the dog and sleep at HOME! In retrospect, this was a celebration trip - right after our Virgin Gorda trip 3 years ago, AJ was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a bone-cancer, which led to a couple years of chemo and surgeries, but he is now cured, and all is right in our world. We never yelled, spent way too much money, introduced the kids to OUR caribbean, and had a wonderful time - we ARE going back! Talked to JD, and was informed (thank goodness) that DaixDream is fine, I didn't hurt his baby after all, and she is even being re-fitted with new genoa, bimini, etc. to make her match Sunsail's other boats. She was truly a wonderful boat to introduce the family to cruising on, we had plenty of room, the refrigeration worked GREAT, and she was very easy to handle in all situations. Hats off to Sunsail, as they have kept her in superb shape in the 2 years since I was last on her - thanks JD! In closing, thanks to all of you whose suggestions made this trip work, a big thanks to Leah at Caribbean Travel for getting airline tickets worked out, and we are already planning an itinerary for our next trip.


"Confidentially, I've had these problems with the tides before"