Trip report July/August 2006

First a reminder: Anegada is a small island. A restaurant on a small island needs to be able to plan for dinner. If not enough patrons they may send the staff home, if more than usual they have the opportunity to call someone to help. Having the right amount of food for the orders is important for a small place. PLEASE remember that on JVD and Anegada in particular if you want to dine out make reservations and dinner selections before 4. I know the cruising guides caution to do so but you’d be amazed at the number of folks who expect last minute accommodation and are surprised if nothing is available. This is particularly important if you want lobster (get your order in as early as possible for lobster)


Let me start this by apologizing to the many TTOL’ers I met during the trip and forget to mention as I must be pre Alzheimer’s in remembering who I’ve met…..or is that the drink? Also I only took about a total of 10 pictures, having captured hundreds of the same view so many times.

Off to Neptune’s Treasure. Got lucky with all my flights on time and easily caught the Anegada ferry. Sure felt good to be back. Randy, Linda, Vernon and Sally all to great me. As usual dropped bags in room and hit the bar where I stayed planted until late that night. TUNA for dinner. Perfectly cooked. Saw many islanders who stopped by including Sue Wheatley. Mark and Dean (Soares) came by for happy hour and of course Kia who I have nicknamed Miss Ting (after the soda). Michelle and Tom came by, they were on the last week of running Pam’s Kitchen and looking a bit wiped out. All that getting up at 4 in the morning and not closing til 5 6 days a week, and it gets very hot in that bakery. The others can shut off their ovens after the morning bakery but with their pizza and sandwich business the heat stays on throughout the day.

Ran over to Cow Wreck to see Alex. As always at Cow Wreck I run into TTOL’ers. This time I knew to stop and visit Davide, Cele, Barb and Ken who were staying in one of the cottages at Cow Wreck. I had missed them when they stopped to see me at Neptune’s. Of course had met Davide and Cele several other times both at Brandywine and Cow Wreck where Davide seems to enjoy getting in the kitchen to Belle’s glee. Barb and Ken I had met earlier in the year at of all places Brandywine. What a great place to stay. Very comfortable. Had a couple beers and then off to the bar. In that I hate carrying money or much of any thing else besides my beer coozie and book I setup a tab for the 2.5 weeks I’d be there. (More about that later). On a later day I came by the Cow Wreck Bar and Davide and Ken had just returned fishing with Alex. They went looking for shark. First Alex took them to a location where the shark were mating and of course had to hear all about that, told Alex what was he thinking taking Davide to watch sharks have sex. He doesn’t need any more ideas. They did catch a shark while out and as the day went on the shark got longer and longer, last I heard it was about 12 feet. Amazing what several drinks will do. Alex cleaned and hung the shark and later Belle did up some fish strips that were amazing. She put out her home made hot sauce which Davide quickly grabbed and liberally used. I tried to warn him that even Alex got a numb mouth with that stuff but it was too late. What a look on his face when the sauce came in contact with his mouth.

While at Neptune’s I usually help a bit by running Sally or others back and forth in the jeep and run other errands which I always enjoy. This trip as well as last August nephew/grandson John from Saba was spending part of his school holiday visiting. While there he would celebrate his 15th birthday. What a great kid. Being from Saba John doesn’t have a huge selection of young ladies to visit, so when he found out that the sail school had weekly stops on Anegada with many young ladies he beamed. The kids learn all the necessaries of sailing and of course get to play as well. They go to Loblolly each trip where they do the beach thing as well as eat at Big Bamboo. I needed to run someone to the airport so told John we’d go to Big Bamboo after the airport, boy did he have a smile. When we arrived the kids were just getting off the buses. We headed to the bar while the kids went straight for the tables and lunch. Unfortunately TS Chris was on his way and the school had decided to cut the trip short so it was a quick lunch and back to the boats to return to a safer place. I know many TTOL’ers had to retreat for awhile as well. Poor John here were more kids than his whole school and some delightful young ladies and he didn’t have the opportunity to do more than say hi to a few who came up to the bar. (side note here, if you happen to be around these kids at a bar don’t expect a drink quickly as they all want virgin blended drinks and each one wants a different flavor) The brevity of the visit did not take John’s smile away though. He knew he had more groups to come. Took John and Kia over to Cow Wreck several times. Alex took them out on his boat one time to fish, both are avid fishermen and of course they fished from shore as well. Kia frequently fishes off the dock at Neptune’s Treasure usually catching something and John spends even more time doing the same as well as up and down the beaches. I did get John back another time to meet some of the sail school kids.

John shares his birth date with the Prince of Neptune’s Treasure also known as Thomas, Dean and Niurka’s son who celebrated his 1st birthday during my stay. Niurkie is from the Dominican Republic and has several relatives on Anegada, so they all showed up for a BBQ along with the Soares family and assorted friends. It was a great time. The boys even broke out the good Heineken Pilsner they get in Saba.

The night TS Chris was due to hit there were no boats in the harbour and of course no guests for dinner. Geenette was hanging around just to cook my Tuna and I usually eat late. I told her to get out…go home no need to hang around just for me. Then I remembered the quality of the Tuna and found they had some powdered wasabi and of course some soy sauce. Who needs to cook? What a meal that made!!!!!!!!!!!!

During my stay one morning there was a knock on my door with someone calling out in a Scottish accent “are ya’ in there BigJim?”. Go to the door and there is Derek who I knew as the island nurse on JVD. Seems in all their wisdom the Health Services had not only blown away their chances at keeping this highly qualified, hard working and dedicated employee they added insult to injury by sending him away from his JVD family his last week in the islands. He was to fill in for the Anegada island nurse his last week of duty. I spent several nights drinking with Derek and had a great time. It is a huge loss to JVD and all of the BVI his having worked on Virgin Gorda as well. When word was out that Derek was on Anegada the lines formed at the clinic. His competency was well known and many were eager to get his help. He was kept very busy. I’m sure sorry he’s gone as are a whole lot more folks.

Spent most every night at the bar with Vernon who is very entertaining. Love watching him make up to the ladies. We should all do so well at his age, hell I should do that well with the ladies now. I tell him it’s that full head of wavy silver hair.

Had great times at and was treated well at my two other hangouts…Cow Wreck and Big Bamboo. Aubrey at Big Bamboo was in the process of building a dive shop on the property and has his dive master working on the structure.

On my next to last day Randy and I took off bar hopping and had a great time, last stop was at Cow Wreck where I wanted to settle my tab. When we got there no one was behind the bar but that’s not unusual so I went behind the bar and got us a couple of beers. Ran into of all people Colin from JVD Water Sports who had brought a group over on his new boat. We noticed that the kitchen door was closed and the family cars were nowhere in sight. Colin said they’d been there awhile and had seen no one. Finally we took off with the agreement Randy would settle the tab for me and I’d settle with him. The next day I was on the ferry and there was Belle. Turns out Belle’s mother had died the day before which is why they weren’t around. She was off to tend to the required family business of saying goodbye to a loved one. I had heard many good things about her mother.

Also on the ferry were Michelle and Tom who had picked up some things for their move to Tortola and sitting next to me was island nurse Derek. He was off to Scotland with a booty call in New York and a big smile in anticipation but tempered with a last look at the islands he wouldn’t see again for a long time.

My thanks to all who make my stays so amazing.
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