Well this makes for a record....posted the same week we got home! Here goes......

Thursday Feb 17. Take my daughter Ashley to hospital for ear surgery. Surgery goes well and Kevin drives me to airport. I check the 2 largest bags with the funkiest stuff in them. No problem, both pass TSA inspection. I wait for Paul in the Admirals Lounge. Much nicer to wait here than in the main terminal. 2 pm Paul arrives and checks the other 2 bags. He then meets me at the Lounge for a drink.

3:40pm Wheels up…or so we would think. Flight is delayed about 45 minutes. Good flight and we still arrive on time in SJU. Slight fright as Eagle says the last flight of the night may not go. 20minutes all is well and we are whisked off by bus to the plane.

Arrive 10:20pm EIS. People in front of us on Immigration line have screwed up their paperwork for themselves and a half dozen or so kids traveling with them. Officer is not pleased and goes in slow-mo processing their paperwork. We finally make our way to the desk, pass through with no problems. All bags arrive and we have now discovered that this is the best time of day to bring in lots of stuff. Customs people just want everyone out of the terminal so they can go home. No bags opened…Shocking as we have 4 huge rolling duffels and 3 smaller bags. “No officer, it is just for our charter trip…..”.

Take a taxi to Beef Island Guest House. Even though it is a 2 minute walk, there is no way we are schlepping all that luggage. 1-minute drive and Caroline and Simon greet us at the driveway. They help us in with the luggage and as Caroline promised, there was a 6pak of Carib’s awaiting us in the fridge. The room is perfect. We feel more like we are a guest in someone’s house rather than at a “hotel”. We grab our beers and head down to the DeLoose Mongoose to chat with Caroline as Simon finishes up the kitchen for the evening.

Got a really good night sleep, awake to breakfast laid out on the kitchen table. After breakfast we walk out to the pier to view our first day in Tortola.
9:30 am Andrew arrives to cart us off to TMM. We share the cab with a group chartering from TMM.

Arrive TMM 10am. Our prior charterers are just ready to get off the boat. Perfect, we can step right on and “get to work”. We are using today and Sat. morning to unpack, receive groceries, wireless modem, and for most importantly….Paul to get a good start on installing the desalinator.

We have brought with us 2 very large aluminum mounting plates and assorted wire, hose, fittings etc. Paul gets right to work, while I unpack all the duffels brought and trunks stored in Tortola.

We do work like dogs all day to get a really good start on the mission. 8pm head over to BVI Yacht Club for a quick dinner. We’re pooped, and will have to wait up for our guest, John, to arrive.

11:15pm John finally arrives via Andrews Taxi. A quick couple of Carib’s to welcome him and we are all off to bed.

Sat am John and I head over to Dolphin Discovery. John wants to swim with the dolphins. Paul uses this time to continue on the installation operation.

1pm Dock lines off. We head out of Road Harbor and off to CGB. Upon arrival, "painkillers" for all. John swam into shore to make diner reservation at Quito’s. Later we all went in to go to Bobby’s for a few missing items. Walked the beach and then back to Cattitude to get ready for dinner. Dinner in the new Quito’s. Food was good; but from what I remember the prices have gone up significantly. Not really crazy about eating upstairs, as you cannot really see the stage well from any of the tables. Quito did play solo this Sat. as his band was in Canada for a gig. Place was rather dead, not many locals at all. I have the feeling that the new Quito’s is not longer their main hangout. Too bad.

Sun am Off to our favorite anchorage, White Bay JVD. Drop hook west of the center entrance and then proceed to watch a sailing cat loose control and get blown into a monohull in front of us. We all yell for him to “let the dinghy go”, but he is ignoring all of us. After a lot of yelling on his part to his crew, he proceeds to untie what we thought was his dinghy, but he instead untied the other monohulls second anchor and just let it go. At that point the captain of the monohull arrived from shore and cut the cats dinghy loose. (To all captains….if you get in trouble and cannot get free, let your dinghy go, someone will help you retrieve it.) Luckily, there was not damage to the boats, and Paul and John helped the monohull Captain retrieve the lost anchor.
After the excitement, and being sure that the cat had anchored far enough away from us, we head in the dink over to the west end of White Bay to do some snorkeling. The water is quite chilly. (Knew I should have brought a full wetsuit….note to self…winter cruises call for full suit). Not an abundance of fish and the water is pretty riled up from the winds.
This trip is to become one of our worst for weather. Lots of clouds, occasional showers, and strong winds. All 3 factors make the weather just too cool to really enjoy the water.

After snorkeling, we head into the Soggy Dollar; I have in tow the inflatable bed that Lorna has asked me to get for her from the states. After delivering the box, we head straight to the bar and KC for our first “painkillers” of the day. The place is really crowded, as the rain has forced everyone to take cover. We listen to Reuben play for a while and when it clears outside we head over to the ring game and order lunch of ribs and conch fritters. After lunch I ask Lorna to braid my hair for bringing the bed down. While she is braiding, Paul and John head down the beach in search of a massage for John. They end up at Seddy’s and spend some time talking with him and his wife Jersey.
I meet up with the boys and we head back to Soggy Dollar for more “painkillers”. After a few more drinks, we start dancing with Yolanda (KC’s girlfriend) and Kamisha (KC’s youngest daughter.) At 5 years of age; she sure can dance. I attempt to teach Yolanda the Lindy. Now that was about as funny as Yolanda, Kamisha, & Lorna teaching Paul to dance. Kamisha is enthralled with my camera and proceeds to shoot pics of everyone..
Too many drinks, too much laughing and it is time to go back to Cattitude. John is made to swim back, or so he says, as I can’t really remember a whole lot from that day. Back onboard Cattitude, Paul & John fire up the grills for grilled Jerk chicken. Paul then proceeds to pass out on the salon seats….Done for the night! John & I have dinner and I roll into bed. REALLY done for the night.

Mon. 2/21 Head out to Diamond Cay, Sandy Spit, & Sandy Cay. Way too windy for anchoring at the spit or cay, so we pick up a mooring in front of Foxy’s Taboo. The waves are breaking over the reef between JVD and Little JVD. They are huge!
We take the path to the bubbly pools. We see a mongoose on the path. Along the way John detours to get closer to the breaking waves. They are beautiful. The bubbly pool is really cookin and knocks us all down. After enjoying the beauty we hike back and take Cattitude to Little Harbor for dinner. It is really blowing now and there are no more mooring balls available. A cat pulls up to Cynthia’s dock and takes the entire dock instead of going to one end. We are annoyed and Cynthia says she will call her cousin Gerald to let us dock at the fuel/water dock. She then proceeds to yell across the water. So much for calling…they don’t need no stinkin' phones. Perfect, it takes a little doing to get Cattitude tied up but we are glad we are protected. For not 15 minutes later a VIP Yachts trawler proceeds to get hung up on a monohull anchors just in front of the docks. “Drop the dinghy” we all scream and when he doesn’t, he proceeds to HIT very hard. Hole now if bow of monohull about 15 inches above the water line. They are all scrambling in the monohull to check for water egress. The trawler has his dinghy line cut by the monohull and he heads over between 2 other boats and drops anchor. Great, right in the middle of a mooring field we now have a trawler at anchor. After he is situated, someone from another boat gives him a lift over to the monohull to retrieve his dinghy. He spends the next half hour circling the monohull waiting to meet with the Captain. It apparently is “all well” as there is no more yelling. We settle down for a restful night.
At 7:30 we head over to Harris’s Place for the “All you can eat lobster night” and live music. Wrong again on both counts. She has lobster, but it is not the feast claimed and the music is “canned”. Oh well, food was still good and after dinner we are able to just walk back to our boat. No wet dinghy ride for us. Thank you Cynthia and Gerald…
Paul and John decide to walk up the hill where we earlier saw a man walking (and tacking) up the hill. No need to tack is the report from the boys, but it is steep.

Tues.. 2/22 We head out to Norman Island and Privateer Bay for John to meet up with Aquaventure for his first sea dive. They pick him up at 9 am as planned and while he is gone, Paul continues to work on the install of watermaker. I spend the morning polishing all the wood walls on the port side of the boat and the galley. By noon John comes back and we have lunch of chicken salad wraps. Naps and relaxation are now in order. The weather has not been great, so Paul & I have not spent much time in the water. Around 4pm we head into the Bight and drop anchor in front of the Willy T. John witnesses his first nekkid jumper. Dinner tonite at Pirates and to the Willy T for a couple of drinks.

Wed 2/23 We meet up with Aquaventure again, this time at Haulover Bay on Cooper. While John is diving, Paul again works on watermaker and I do some additional cleaning.
After John’s return we head out for Trellis Bay as tonite is the “Full Moon Party” and we want to be sure to get a mooring. Eat lunch while underway. Upon arrival, there are still a few balls and we grab one off the south point of Bellamy Cay. While Paul continues to work, John & I head into Cybercafe to clean up our email (This trips I was suppose to have a wireless modem from Renport, but they could not get it working on my new Dell X300. Go figure.) I see Jeremy and after a half hour on the computers he comps us 50% for TTOL. Thanks Jeremy. On the way back out to Cattitude we see yet another cat in trouble. This one has proceeded to land himself on the reef along the east side of the Last Resort. He is hard aground and being blown further up. Not quite sure how he finally got off, but later that afternoon he wasn’t there anymore.
We decide to see Michael Beans on Marina Cay for Happy Arrrrrr! The weather is still blowing and we know that the dink ride will suck. We decide to dink to shore and take the Marina Cay go VERY fast ferry over. Good plan. This is our first visit to see Michael Beans, Not sure why until now we have not gotten here. He is great and we are immediate fans. John offers the only toast of the evening and wins a shot of rum. “Love the islands, love the show….the skies may be cloudy, the winds may blow, but we ain’t got the cold and snow!”. Touché! After the show we are waiting for the “goVERYfast ferry” and on the dock John meets a family and kids from where he had been Asst. Principal. Ooops! He has on a shirt about not being a f#*%ing people person. So much for being an upstanding role model.

We barbeque on the boat and after dinner head to Cybercafe for Full Moon Party. The band is playing, but the Mocko Jumbies are very late in arriving and we are getting bored. The weather still sucks. Finally 2 show up. One is a little boy of 7years dancing on stilts along with the adult. Later 3 more show up and at that time Jeremy lights the one ball that has not been confiscated by the Conservation Dept. The wind is blowing so bad and all the embers and cinders are blowing towards the crowd. We watch for a few more minutes and decide that we are done and leave.

Thurs am. We head out for Monkey Point. The snorkeling here is usually very good, but with the clouds, wind, and strong surf, it is only fair. I have now vowed to bring a long suit for winter trips. After snorkeling, we head out to the Baths. I let John & Paul do the Bath tour as I chill in my beloved hammock. At about 4:30 we must make a decision as to the next stop and we decide to go to Spanish Town. (never been there before). We call ahead and take a slip with electric for a/c for the night. Again a good choice as the weather is still crummy. We walk over and have Bushwacker’s at the Bath & Turtle and for dinner walk to “The Rock”. Food very good and we were able to eat outside as the rain held off.

Fri am. Wake up to lots of rain. Today we are suppose to head to North Sound and to Leverick for the Friday Night beach party. The weather convinces us to head to Peter Island for the afternoon of limin on the boat while Paul finishes up the desal plant. After a VERY long nap we head over to Cooper for the night and dinner at the Cooper Island Beach Club. Desalinator is finally finished and working…..unlimited water….very cool.
Tonite we run it for the first time and by morning our both tanks will be FULL. Lovin it!

Sat 9am Tanks are full….no more water worries. John leaves on Aquaventure for a final dive. This time it is the Rhone. The weather is still crummy and it rains hard. By 11 the skies are finally clearing up a little and maybe now the winds will slow down. We can only be hopeful. Paul continues to finish the clean up and do some minor other repairs. When John gets back, we have lunch and then hoist up anchor and head out to Trellis for his last evening. John is put at the helm and Paul & I get to BOTH enjoy the pushpit seats. The best seats in the house! We pick up a mooring at Marina Cay to do a little quick shopping and for John & I to grab a couple of drinks at the bar. Again we leave Paul working. What a guy!
We then head over to Trellis for a final stop at DeLoose Mongoose. John left his glasses aboard Aquaventure and they were supposed to deliver them at 6:30. At Mongoose, Paul plays horseshoes with Simon while we wait. 7:15 and still no glasses. We have 8pm dinner reservations at The Last Resort, so we head back to Cattitude to get cleaned up. John will check with Simon and Caroline in the morning for his glasses before he flies out. At The Last Resort the food is as always spectacular. Alistair is a great chef and a wonderful entertainer. After dinner the show is fun as ever. Unfortunately, by then end of the show several patrons are stinking drunk and ruin the fun. We leave before it gets real ugly.

Sun 7am Up early…..John is packing for his afternoon flight. I make a farewell breakfast of French Toast and Melon (and real caffinated coffee). After breakfast John takes his final LONG shower and we drop him off at the DeLooseMongoose dock to retrieve his glasses and drop our garbage and find his way to the airport. We bid him farewell and head back to Cattitude.

Pick up anchor and not real sure where we want to head. Thinking about Cam Bay, but the north swell is still real and we opt for Lee Bay. A great choice. We are the only ones in the bay. Snorkeling and swimming and a quick walk thru the Mud Flats to Cam Bay takes up our afternoon. The houses around are all dark as night falls. We are in complete darkness. About an hour later the light on Tortola start glow. A perfect moon lit night.

Monday 2-28 It is our last full day. We spend the morning just limin on the boat. By noon another cat shows up. There goes the neighborhood. We take a leisurely snorkeling tour and by 2pm the bay has 4 to 5 more boats in it. Time to move on.
We head to Little Harbor on Peter Island for our last night. A beautiful trip. Winds pushing us all the way. Upon arrival the bay is perfect. All the boats are stern in so we proceed to break out the second anchor and do the same. We spend some time packing up a lot of our stuff. Then it is time to finish off the booze. 2 “Painkillers” for Paul…..2 Vodka & Tonics for me….Then the last of the Red & White Wines. Ok we are done. Let’s try jumping off the bow. Now I am the proverbial chicken. Paul jumps…ok so he is the showoff. I finally go to jump and in the air…my cell phone goes off. MY PHONE…………splash.
Very cool. Last time to chill in my beloved hammock. Dinner of clean out fridge Quesidilla’s. Paul is in charge of chopping and we have chicken, bacon, tomato, onion, and cheddar with Sour Cream. They are great and enough left for Paul for lunch for tomorrow. An early night as we decide morning will be the best time to finish up the packing.

Tuesday 3-1 Time to go home. More packing of our stuff. We then head over to Nanny Cay for fuel as they are more reliable than Conch’s fuel dock. We are thrilled…..burning again about 6.3 gals per hour for the 2 engines and about as half gallon an hour for the genset. By noon we are back at TMM and doing the final packup (no matter how early we start we always seem to be down to the wire) and check-in with TMM. While in TMM’s office we have the unexpected please of meeting up with Davide. He is there checking out a boat for a quick charter in April. I suggest Cattitude, but he tells me she is already booked for the dates he wants…. I do bring him onboard for a quick tour of Cattitude anyway. We will meet again in June for the TTOL party.

2:30 pm our cab should be here. We are done, but no cab. 3pm no cab. FINALLY at 3:15 the cab shows up for our 4:15 flight. We arrive at EIS at 3:45 and they have already started loading the plane. We check in and while Paul pays the departure fee, I check with all possibilities for John’s camera that he unfortunately left at the airport. He emailed me to check, but NO ONE has the camera.

4pm we are the last ones on the plane. They were waiting for us. Flight to SJU no problem. Arrival in SJU….a bunch of people on the Customs line, but it still moves quickly. We get though and head to Admirals Club. A good decision to join. We can change here, check emails, (hey, someone else wants to charter Cattitude) and just relax before joining the throngs to the plane.

Well here we are, flying back to Cold Snowy Wet NY. 3degrees (centigrade) 14 inches of snow. NY sucks. This week was probably about worst weather yet down here. The water temp upon arrival was about 76degrees and by the time we left about 81.4…….summer is coming!

Well…..how many days to May 21???????????????? And our next Cattitude adventure?

Cell phone note. My Cingular phone had service most of the time. You did have to watch in some areas, as it would then say "CCT Boatphone" instead of "Cingular". Cingular calls free. CCT Boatphone…not sure. I did make one call using them, as it was really important. Will check the rate upon arrival home. I do like knowing that I always have service down there (even if emergency calls are expensive) Most areas, other than those out of line of sight of STT, picked up Cingular. I even got Cingular just long enough on the ride to the airport (high up on the coastal road) to check voicemail that arrived via CCT Boatphone.