Trip Pics for this report
http://twojims.com/FebruaryMarchTrip.htmlFebruary-March 2006 BVI Trip Notes:
Left Thursday Feb. 23. Continental/Cape Air with no delays.
Stayed at SJU Airport Hotel. Other end of airport from the two airlines. Room was small with small LCD TV mounted on the wall, it was comfortable, newish and clean.
Left next a.m. for 12:30 arrival at Beef. I was the only passenger on the plane with Cape Air and unlike American Eagle they didn’t come up with a bogus excuse to cancel the flight. Thought this would be an easy entry through Immigration and Customs. But just ahead was a chock full Caribbean Sun plane. Not one of those in the line ahead of me had their forms filled out right. Some had to leave the line and redo the cards. The Cape Air rep reviewed mine while I was in the line to forestall any issues, too bad the other airlines don’t do this, their customer service is amazing. The rep waited until I had gotten through customs before he went back to his other duties. If I had been a first timer this would have made an even bigger difference.
It’s off to Roadtown for the Anegada ferry, hit Riteway for my special scotch and grabbed a snack at Pusser’s, not my favorite but Capricio was quite busy. The ferry left exactly on time, the ride was a bit longer than the 55 minutes it had taken in August. They are apparently running the ferry on only two of the three engines to save fuel. It took 1 hr 20 minutes this trip over. Got off the ferry and Tony left with a cab full and no other drivers there. I ran into several people over my time there who arrived to no taxi’s, so you might want to make arrangements ahead of time. Fortunately the very gracious Sue Wheatly offered a ride to me and a friend of Vernon’s who was down to visit. Would run into Sue several times and enjoyed her company very much.
Home. Randy greeted me with a glass of Bombay, this was about 5:15, didn’t go to my room until after 11:30 that night. Just sat there drinking and having my first of several tuna steaks. (Damn those are good).
I had arranged for the canned protein drinks I use to be shipped ahead of time and they were there waiting for me, with the refrigerator in the room that worked out great. In the past all I’ve shipped ahead was a box of books, the cost of shipping the protein drink was almost double the cost of the drinks, but then they are necessary and worth every penny.
My first morning was so clear that you could see St. Thomas very clearly, not an everyday occurrence. I was so relaxed and happy to be there I didn’t leave the place that day. That night got to talking to Aubrey of the Big Bamboo, told him about the old days when we used to party at the old Big Bamboo on Virgin Gorda. Aubrey smiles and tells me that was his place and usually his band playing. I don’t know if I ever had a better time partying than those nights under the stars at the Virgin Gorda Big Bamboo. As we were talking we reminisced about people we used to know and he asked me if I remembered Spooge. Spooge was an Englishman with longish grey hair and a somewhat unruly grey beard who worked as a seaman on the Flying Cloud. Spooge didn’t talk much to most passengers and when he did it was a muttered bloody this and bloody that. But if he was comfortable with you would talk at length and was quite interesting. It turns out that Aubrey had sponsored Spooge to work in the BVI. He has been working at the Anegada Electric plant for about 14 years. I wanted to meet him and expected to do so at the Big Bamboo. A couple of days later Sue (known as Canadian Sue, formerly of Ivan’s) and I had been to the beach then ran into Sally who needed a ride home for her midday break, on the way back from taking Sally still in the Settlement I saw a guy and hit the brakes, even after all those years I immediately recognized Spooge. If you ran into him here in the States you would think him perhaps homeless with the rope belt and two trash bags on a stick plus a rope as leash for his beloved Obie Dobie (a nicely kept mid size dog). We talked at the side of the road for close to an hour and he invited me to visit at the electric plant sometime during my stay, I agreed and off we went. Still kinda blows my mind running into him after all those years.
One very enjoyable distraction is sitting on the deck at Pam’s Kitchen. Tom and Michelle are great hosts and one meets many people. JD (Daix) is a good friend of theirs and called the tendency to sit there a good part of the day “deck disease”. Mike and Kim, a couple I met down there, practically moved in there. They had spent a good bit of time on Tortola diving and saw no need to wear themselves out further. While sitting there this laid back fellow ventures up and introduces himself as Glenn (GlennA). He had come over with friends and left them to wonder the island and came to visit. Very interesting man, between his roady experiences (Tom also a former roady), geological interests (also shared with Tom), woodworking knowledge (shared with Mike) and love of the BVI and beer (shared with yours truly) it was a great visit and much too short.
Earlier I mentioned Canadian Sue, I spent some time with her there. I had a car and we would run over to the beaches and out and about. A couple of nights after all had left the restaurant/bar area Randy would turn off all the lights and we would sit and be totally amazed at the stars. Lot’s of shooting stars each night. Sue worked for Ivan for some time which was how she and Vernon met. Sue and I shared a number of acquaintances on JVD.
Another interesting person I met was Uncle Al a TTOL’er. He, it turns out, IS Uncle Al of the Soars family, Vernon’s brother. What a trip that was. He and Vernon with ton’s of stories. Al is a retired electrician and was directing visiting friends in running some wiring. We all called it wiring by committee. The visiting friends were Bill and Dennis, spent many evenings with Bill at the bar and also at Cow Wreck. They had years of experience with the Soars and were along with Al, Vernon and I, the group of “old buzzards” sitting around kibitzing. Great guys. They had come to help with the Dark and Stormy which was being held the weekend after I left.
Met Julia and Joel who are with We Be Divin’ and were setting up shop on Anegada. Julia is quite lovely and they were a lot of fun several nights in a row. They had just started and were busy each day with divers.
Of course I spent many days between Big Bamboo and Cow Wreck. Aubrey and Deann took good care of me at Big Bamboo. And Alex of Cow Wreck was his usual entertaining self. He is quite busy these days, he teaches music at the school, has his band and with the band they also create beats for popular musicians. Apparently the musicians send the words to a new song along to Alex and the band work on a beat for the music. I had never heard of that but it sure makes sense. Belle, of course, was the great hostess. She is such a nice lady.
One of the things I ran into this trip much more than any other were the great number of TTOL’ers. Not a day went by on the whole trip that I didn’t meet at least one person or group who used the board. Some days, especially at Cow Wreck I met many more. One day I ran into Davide with a group of friends from Italy. As soon as I saw him leave the Cow Wreck Kitchen with a bowl of pasta I recognized him. That same day I ran into Nick from Leverick who was there with some others who work over there as well as Eustasia. They commented that this was the new getaway for BVIslanders. Later that evening I ran into John and April of Spaghetti Junction there for dinner at Neptune’s.
Spent 12 nights there and enjoyed every one of them. Arrive to hugs and favorite drink and spend time with people who make you part of the family. There is no better way to spend time. Thank you Vernon, Randy, Linda, Tom, Michelle, Mark, Dean, Kia, Thomas, Sally, Carmela and Glenora.
Trip Pics
http://twojims.com/FebruaryMarchTrip.htmlForgot to mention there were many whales sited off both Cow Wreck and Loblolly.
