The Oct 15 - 25, 2004, Sailing Adventure

My husband Bob and I have been anticipating this trip since we heard The Moorings was running a 35% off anniversary sale for 2004. We booked and deposited in December 2003. And the waiting game began. How we have dreamed of the beaches , beach bars, tropical waters, warm temps, and lovely moorings of the BVI. It will have been a whole year since we last arrived the shores of the BVI.
We took the nonstop flight from JFK to St Thomas on Oct 15. We spent the night before at the Radisson JFK. The flight is at 800a. We live in Connecticut and don't relish the thought of getting up at 330a. We did AA's online check in and had no checked bags. It worked out great. No line at the security. So we are at the gate in no time.
Our flight was on time. About a 1/2 hour of turbulence but ok after that. We arrived a bit early around 1145a. Cab it to the ferry dock but had to wait until 200p for the next ferry. So we strolled through the stores. Had lunch at Gladys' Cafe. Great spot, nice people, good food and service. We relaxed to island time on the ferry. Which was good, since we stopped at Red Hook and St John. No problems clearing customs at the West End.
Finally we are on our way to The Moorings. After a quick check-in at the Mariner Inn. We check out the boats and guess which one is ours for the next week. A happy hour cocktail. Then dinner at The Pub and cocktails after at Pusser's. Tried to find the baseball playoffs (we are big Red Sox fans) but turns out, postponed due to rain.
Our boat is Esprit Liberte, a Mooring 413. We pull away from the dock at 1200n. Sail to Norman Island. Had lunch then snorkeled the caves. Freshened up and headed to Pirates for happy hour. Chatted with April the bartender. Then met Bobbie, Doug and Kim from Michigan for a few laughs. We planned to meet at the Willy-T later but my husband was already 3 sails to the wind by the time dinner was over. We stayed in for the night. We decide to return to the bight for our last evening.
The next day, a great, long sail with lots of tacking to Fallen Jerusalem. Discovered this spot last year and wanted to return. When we arrive there is a BVI Customs boat moored on one of the balls. About 5 guys on the boat A couple guys we wearing vests.
Then a US Homeland Security boat rafts up to the customs boat. Not sure what is going on. But the boys pull out some high powered rifles. They don't aim the weapons but a couple guys strap them over their shoulders. Freaked me out big time. I go below to change for snorkling by the time we are ready the boats are gone. We thought maybe some sort of training. Whatever, our tax dollars hard at work.
We motor to Spanish Town and moor outside the harbor. Head in for happy hour and provisions. Later we catch some of the ball game on TV but are really tired so we head to bed before it ends. Good news awaits us in Anegeda.
The next morning about 730a we motor to the Baths to get a prime mooring ball. Enjoy breakfast, then a morning snorkel. We head to shore and walk up to Mad Dogs (a must visit) for a couple cocktails. Yummy painkillers. Bob serenades me on the guitar which he found on Mad Dogs' porch. Very awesome morning.
After a quick lunch we sail to North Sound. We were having so much fun sailing we almost pick up a ball under sail. Went a shore at BEYC, relax in the shade outside the Pub with a cocktail. Later went to Saba for happy hour. Relaxed on the boat for the night.
Big day ahead of us. We filled our water tanks, get our ice and then off to Anegada by 930a. A really good sail, I was thrilled to be at the helm the whole way. Anegada is our favorite place. There is just something special about it. We head to shore to make dinner reservations at ARH. It's here we find out the Sox have come back to win 2 games. We are thrilled. Potter's tonight to watch the game!!. Life is good, we're on Anegada and the Sox have made a come back. How great is this? We snag a rental from ARH for the afternoon. We begin our island tour and the rains come. No biggie. Every other time we have been to Anegada the sun is out and it's quite hot. The clouds were a nice change of pace. We play darts at Cow Wreck while enjoying some rum punches. Move on to Loblolly for a cocktail. The rains let up but still cloudy. We head to Flash of Beauty and have the place to ourselves. Totally cool. A quick dip before heading to Potters for Happy Hour.
Awesome lobster at ARH. They just know how to cook it. It is perfectly done. The other places I have had lobster in the BVI. Were always over cooked and dry. I'm sticking with AHR for my lobster dinner from now on. We go to Potter's to watch the ball game. By the 7th inning we are the only ones at Potter's. They are wanting to close up. So back to boat. But thankfully I pick up the game on the radio. Not the best reception but we can still hear. Sox Win!!!
We head for Trellis Bay the next morning. Bob has plans to take a windsurfing lesson in Trellis. We stop at Marina Cay for a quick walk around and to enjoy the view from the top of the hill. Motor over to Trellis. Bob does his lesson. I check out the sights, browse through the Aragon shop, relax and read. Bob does pretty well windsurfing. We head to Mongoose for happy hour. It is our first visit there. A neat spot. Plus they have a very large TV. Dinner on the boat then back to the beach bar for game 7. Met a nice couple that will be sailing for 6 months around the Caribbean. They are spending one month in the BVI to get the boat ready for the trip. Again, by the 7th inning time to close the bar. The Sox have a big lead but it's not over until the last out. This time I had a harder time getting the game on the radio. But as fate would have it. Found the game in time for the last out. Sox go to the World Series. Life is great.
The next morning we wake up to a steady rain . No end in sight. Dark skies all around. I head up on deck for some fresh air and hope to see clear skies breaking through the clouds. No luck. We had planned on motoring to Monkey Point for breakfast and a snorkel. No go. We don our fowl weather gear and motor with the jib up to Jost. Thankfully the rains have stopped by our arrival into Great Harbor. The clouds remain but that's ok. We head ashore to check out Foxy's gift shop, have a quick pop and get a few groceries. We decide to dinghying to White Bay. A little bumpy but no problems. We hang out at Soggy Dollar and chat with Debbie (a fellow Sox fan). Then stop at Ivan's for a couple cocktails..
Dinner on the boat. We go ahsore after dinner. Foxy's is pretty quiet so we walk down to Corsair's. Vinnie puts the TV on for us so we can watch the National League game. We order some jerk chicken wings (Vinnie's recommendation) to snack on during the game. They were quite good. Then we share a piece of key lime pie. We really enjoyed Corsair's, Vinnie is great host. Maybe next year we will have dinner there.
This morning we wake to sunny skies (yippy) but very little wind. We motor to Soper's for a little shopping. Next stop will be the Indians. We do sail but very slow going. We finally arrive and have a great snorkel. Worth the trip. Since we missed the Willy-T our first night we decide the Bight is in order for our last night. We go back to Pirates for Happy Hour. April made me the best painkiller of the trip. Dinner on the boat again. Off to the Willy-T for some night time entertainment.
The Willy-T is always fun. We show up about 830p, a nice size crowd was there, people hanging out drinking, chatting. I see this one blonde woman sitting at the bar wearing a bathing suit top and little mini skirt. Joking to my husband I say, "I bet she's the first to take her top off". Not 15 minutes later she gets up on the platform area and dances a little bit then off come the clothes. She shakes her booty and such. Jumps down dances with her male companion. Then eventually rerobes. Lots of camara flashes. I know things can get wild at the Willy-T, but this seemed a bit too staged. Bob commented, "I bet she's a stripper from St Thomas". We met Tammy and Roger from Chicago. We had a laugh over the strip show. There were some more naked breast later on and tattoos. That were definately spontaneous. I must admit I did get a tattoo myself.
Well, it was here. The day we had to return the boat. The skies were theatening so we motored back to Mooring's base. Did our debriefing and went into town for some shopping. Decided on The Pub for lunch. Got caught in the rain as we walked there. No biggie we dried off eventually. We had a little time to kill so we had one last cocktail at Pusser's. Then hopped on the 230p Fast Ferry. Which was not very fast. I guess the really fast boat was under repair. Cleared customs with no problem. Picked up an Avis rental. They have an office right next to the ferry terminal in St Thomas. We had 2 nights at the Marriott in St Thomas to look forward to.
By the time we got to the hotel it was happy hour. So straight to the bar for cocktails. We met a nice gentleman at the bar originally from Trinidad. He works for ESSO and lives in San Juan. Often comes to St Thomas on business. He told us a funny story. A friend asks him to pick a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue on his next trip to STT. He goes to the store in STT to buy the bottle and finds this liquor is quite expensive. He decided to double check with his friend to make sure the price is ok. Tells his friend the cost is $88 a bottle. The friend replies "$88, in that case get 2 bottles".
Our room was lovely. Located in the main building with a waterview but on the ground level. It would have been nice to have a higher floor but we really did not spend much time in the room anyway.
We had dinner and drinks at Iggies. Located at Bolongo Bay Resort. It's a great little beach bar. The fare is pub food with a caribbean flare. A good value for the money. We chose Iggies because of the 7 TVs they had. We wanted to watch our Sox play game 1 of the World Series. They also had karaoke that evening as well.
The next day we had breakfast at the Havensight Cafe. Good food and not expensive. We cruised up to Paradise Point with the car. I had read about a neat store, The Pirates Chest, located at the Point. Plus the views were suppose to be nice as well. Both the store and the views were not a let down. A really good rum punch at the bar too.
I had read The Pirates Chest had replica coin pendants made from some of the silver bars from the wreck of the Atocha. There is also has a large collection of real coins from various wrecks but those were above my budget. Most of the replica pendants cost $40 to $60. The store owner Sean Loughman takes great pride in his store. He welcomed us into his store and really appreciated our business. He is also a huge Red Sox fans. If you are looking for a neat piece of history to buy, visit his store.
We headed to Secret Harbor for a swim. We had lunch at the Blue Moon Cafe. Their Thai Sesame coleslaw is the BEST. We got kicked off the beach chairs since we were not guests of the hotel. We opted not to pay the rental fee since we had not planned on staying all afternoon. We were introduced to Cruzan's Blackstrap Rum at Blue Moon's bar. We decided we needed to bring home a bottle of this awesome stuff. On our way back to the Marriott we swung by Iggies. We wondered down the beach to check out the resort. A neat little place but not a great beach. Hung out on the hammock outside Iggies for a while and had a couple cocktails. Very relaxing. Dinner at Mim's Seaford Bistro. Al Fresco dining right on the water. Good food and service. The prices were decent as well. We were tired after dinner so we watched the game in our hotel room. Sox win again!!!
Our last morning. The vacation is almost over. Returned to Gladys' Cafe for breakfast. Since it was our final morning, we both had Bloody Marys with our breakfast. Met Gladys and told her we would be back next year. We wondered the stores. Did a little shopping, and got our rum. We had one more cocktail at the little bar behind the Blackbeard Ale store. Don't waste your money on their drinks unless you get a beer. We ordered rum punches and we asked ourselves, "where's the rum?". It honestly tasted like there was no rum in the drink at all. It was the only bad cocktail for the entire trip.
We got to the airport almost 2 hours in advance. Only one AA person doing the check-ins. But shortly another AA employee arrived. We probably waited about 20 mintues to check in. No lines at customs or security, we breezed right through. Hung out at the bar. Toasted to a wonderful trip. Flight was on time and we arrive JFK on time as well.
Already counting the days until next year

Just a few comments
AA was fine, flights on time. We just love the nonstop between JFK to STT. We did have one schedule change. Our orginal return date was Sunday Oct 24 but AA canceled the nonstop that day. We changed to the nonstop on Monday. In the end we were happy to have the extra day.

Mariner Inn has clean, basic accomodations, good sized rooms. Good for a night or 2. Would not stay there for a land based trip.
Nice restaurant/bar/pool area. I really liked the simple design and openess of the restaurant space. Ate breakfast the morning of our charter . Food was fine, a wee bit pricey. Employees all were friendly and pleasant.

Marriott is very nice, but expensive if buying anything at the resort. Beautiful rooms. Long walk to the beach or you have to take a shuttle. Next year we may go for one of the smaller resorts where the rooms are right on the beach. We did not eat any meals at the hotel.

Did provisioning with Bobby's (2nd time). Delivered on time. 2 small complaints. They gave us taco shells that expired in August. Boy were they stale. Ordered plain white wine vinegar, instead got tarragon flavored vinegar. I will use them again.

Had good, friendly services at all the places we ate and drank. Did not have one bad meal. Only one bad drink.
On STT
Gladys' Cafe (ate here twice)
Iggies
Mim's Seaford Bistro
Havensight Cafe
BVI
Mariner Inn restaurant
The Pub
Pusser's (for drinks only)
Anegada Reef Hotel
Corsair's

Met a lot of nice people from all over. It was funny. Everyone we chatted with who lived there were all transplants. Did not meet anyone orginally from the BVI or USVI.

Carole