Well, I guess we are all going to bore you to death with very long-winded trip reports. Mine is a little different, not a day by day account, but more highlights and lowlights.

HIGHLIGHTS

Downtime prior to Charter – We spent some time at Little Mermaid Villa with Jan Dart on East End before picking up our charter. I really enjoyed having some downtime prior to the charter. It was nice not to rush to the dock from the airport. We went over to Well Bay on East End and checked out the Surfsong Villas (from a distance). The villas looked nice, but they are somewhat close together. The location is very private, the villas are water’s edge, but it is rocky – no sand or beach. The swimming is a short walk around point to Well Bay beach. Well Bay is gorgeous, but the water is shallow and murky. Also, a lot of people come to that beach on the weekends and there’s a little bit of trash to deal with.

ProValor Charters – they spent so much time working with me on details. I asked them a million detailed questions and Cecilia was so nice to answer everything for me. She made it very clear she wanted everything to be perfect for us. When I discovered that there were no cockpit cushions on the upper sides, she literally went into their storage shed and found some leftover float mats for us to use. Their prices are reasonable and they really provide personal service. Best part is that we didn’t have to pay mandatory insurance or mandatory fuel charges. Since we only used 15 gallons of fuel X $4/gallon, the whole trip, it would have been stupid to pay $30/day mandatory fuel charges.

Lagoon 410 Sea Breeze – all systems on this boat were flawless, which was hard to believe because it is 7 years old. We did not have even ONE problem our entire charter. The refrigeration/freezer systems were outstanding, with a separate freezer box. The freezer would actually keep a couple of bags of ice frozen until we needed them for our cockpit cooler. Can’t say enough about being able to store ice and not have to search for more bags everywhere we went. Also, we still had frozen solid meats in the freezer after 8 days. Produce lasted much longer than we have ever experienced before – we still had perfect lettuce and mushrooms 8 days out. The only thing that we didn’t like was that Sea Breeze has a roped trampoline across the foredeck. This was uncomfortable and we prefer the nylon net trampolines. Also, no bow pontoon seats like most other catamarans.

OneMart – I have never been in the OneMart before and wow… what a huge state-side style grocery store. Found everything we needed, plus more that we never thought would be available.

Light Crowds – We were very fortunate to have light crowds everywhere we went. I’m not sure if it was because there truly were not that many charter boats out, or whether we were traveling in a different pattern than the other charter boats. We were in the Bight one night and literally 2/3 of the moorings were empty. The PR Navy was out in force, but their patterns are predictable. Raft up right on the beach and then leave in late afternoon to a dock with electricity. That usually leaves us the only ones remaining in the anchorage.

However, one night I was all excited that we were the only ones in Savannah Bay and would have the place to ourselves. There was one Mega Yacht tucked close to Giorgio’s and we were at the other end. Of course, right about 4pm, four sailing camp catamarans came barreling in and proceeded to anchor within 25 feet of us. In fact, the 4 boats surrounded us in a diamond shape – with us in the middle. They then proceeded to start having the loud fun that all teenagers can accomplish anywhere in the world, including wakeboarding through the anchored boats. I’m still trying to figure out why they couldn’t have gone just 100 yards further away, but it was no big deal really. Another interesting thing was that Cane Garden Bay was not very crowded on Saturday June 30th, even though it was a Bomba Full Moon night. Even the locals said that the anchorage would usually be very packed. They said it was because most of the boats at this time of year are used for the sailing camps and, for obvious reasons, I don’t quite think that the Bomba Full Moon Party is on the kid sailing camp itinerary. And then when we were at White Bay JVD for an afternoon, the place was packed – not sure where all those people materialized from, mostly PR Navy and small powerboats.

Quito’s – Quito played Saturday June 30th and we basically enjoyed a private show. I’m guessing that noone was there because a) it was not a regularly scheduled night, b) it was a Bomba Full Moon Party Night so the locals were over there and c) the TTOLers pooped out early. I had a blast dancing all night on an empty dance floor. Most of the other times I have been there it has been a packed, sweaty, hot, dance floor.

Secret Spots – We enjoyed four different anchorages where we were the only ones in the bay. It was magic!

Our Own Personal Band – Our crew included a bass player, a master Hawaiian slack key guitar player and ukulele player. We had incredible music every night in the cockpit or on the foredeck under the stars. It was one of my favorite things of the trip and the guys had a blast.

Visit with Lew and Kimmers - Lew and Kim are old friends of my parents (sorry, I guess that ages them!!) and I was honored to be invited up for a drink. Gorgeous view and great memories of old times with my parents. The most interesting thing was to see her computer desk looking out on the North Sound where she does all of her on-the-spot reporting for us mainlanders!

LOWLIGHTS:

Provisioning Ourselves – this turned into a 2 day task, although admittedly because I was not as researched and organized as I should have been – I just got too busy to even get around to ordering from Bobby’s before we left. Probably because I spent too much time lurking and chatting on TravelTalkOnline – rather than attending to my provisioning duties. First had to go to Tico and get some beverages, then had to go to Caribbean Cellars and get different types of beverages. If I remember correctly we had to go there to get the Carib. In hindsight we should have just picked up the Carib at OneMart. Tico’s would not deliver the large order to our boat in the timeframe that we needed, so they made us drive over to another warehouse to actually buy the stuff. Then later that day we went to RiteWay Wholesale which really didn’t have anything we needed (waste of time). Then over to OneMart which had everything we needed, but took about 2 hours in the store. They didn’t have any good chicken breasts or beef (or at least I couldn’t find it in their freezer area), so then we had to go to the small market in Hodge’s Creek (Sunsail base). Of course their store freezer was broken and they announced that they would have to go in the back to their storage freezer and rummage through everything. They literally did not want to sell us anything. I finally begged enough that they went and just got 8 of whatever was on top of the storage freezer. Lucky for us it was T-Bone steaks and not pork tongues or something. Then I got one set of fish and shrimp delivered from Sailor’s Ketch. And then finally, the morning we departed I had to go to the small RiteBreeze in Fat Hog’s Bay to get 25 gallons of drinking water because I didn’t want to haul that back in our rental car to the boat. Of course all of this required a rental car and a lot of hauling groceries from rental car to the boat.

Next time I think I will order all drinking water and beverages from Bobby’s or Tico’s and then maybe only go to OneMart (or just give up and order everything). The differences are that OneMart has very high quality produce and really good selection which you don’t get from the order/delivery method. So, you have to balance out getting limited selection/quality with the hassle of getting to RoadTown and spending time in the OneMart. And, frankly OneMart had a full selection of beers/wines/spirits (at least for us – we aren’t exotic wine drinkers, more just rum drinks and beer) and you really don’t have to bother with Tico’s or Caribbean Cellars.

ProValor Dock – The winds and swells were pretty strong the night we did all the provisioning and a sleepaboard. For some reason the boats at the dock in Fat Hog’s Bay in front of Harbour View Marina were rolling and yanking every which way. I literally got so seasick at the dock from the unnatural movement that I had to get off the boat most of the night. My husband had to do all stowing of the provisions by himself. Another couple arrived straight from the airport onto the Lagoon 410S2 next to us and the wife got so violently seasick they had to get off the boat and go to Hodge’s Creek hotel. So basically they paid for sleepaboard AND hotel room for the same night ! When we returned the night before our flight home, they were very kind and moved us to another dock that had more protection and everything was fine.

Generators– We were in Trellis Bay one night to pick up our guests from the airport. The moorings are pretty close there and a catamaran came in late in the afternoon. The weather was perfect, good strong cooling breeze. But for some reason they were all locked inside, hatches closed, with the generator going full blast for their air conditioning. Unfortunately the generator was loud and was very annoying. We could hear it all night while we were trying to sleep – I think it is very annoying and rude and ruins the whole atmosphere of the anchorage, even though Trellis Bay is not really a ‘secluded anchorage’. But, that is my personal opinion.

GENERAL GOSSIP

July 4 – On Wednesday morning we left the Indians. This was after one of our crew accidentally swam back to the wrong catamaran, took off their snorkel gear and started up the sugar scoop to be surprised by a strange face in the cockpit. He quickly apologized and had to gear up again and swim over to the correct boat with a red face! We noticed a private charter catamaran sailing out at the same time and we had a ‘race’ down Sir Francis Drake Channel. The next morning my husband ran into the charter captain at the Peter Island Marina dock. The captain told us he was waiting to find out if his guests were going to continue their charter. Turns out as they were sailing down the channel, the woman on board starting screaming and going into fits. I guess she was scared out of her wits and literally worked herself into a major anxiety attack. He quickly pulled into Sprat Bay, grabbed a mooring and the guests went into Peter Island Resort. He had no idea whether they were ever going to get back on the boat again. I didn’t catch the name of the catamaran but she has a large squiggly line on her jib.

Sorry for the long report, Geri