Thursday, July 10th – Ferry trip to JVD. Wow! It was a great day but we were surprised at how “busy” White Bay has become. Guess who was on the ferry over with us? The group from CGB of course. Had a Painkiller or two at Soggy Dollar, a quick swim and more people watching (husband telling wife that was her LAST painkiller, which it wasn’t, before they got back on their crewed power boat), then we headed down to One Love where Jacob was a gracious and entertaining host (Seddy and Raquel were on St. Thomas).



Way too much people watching, including a credit card sailor and his wife trying to catch a ball wherein she loses her bathing suit top, a loose dinghy hitting a catamaran before being rescued, etc. Ran into Suzy and crew while waiting for burgers at Jewels (which were awesome!). They were mooring at Ivan’s for the night. Their “newbies” were having the vacation of a lifetime. After the ferry ride back we stopped at the Harbour Market for steaks to cook for dinner and a couple of other goodies. Can you say $35 a pound for Omaha steaks? The young checkout girl was just about in shock. They were good, but not as good as the strips we bought at Riteway for half that. We star gazed all night, laughing about all the fun we’d had at White Bay.

Friday, July 11th – Our last day... We slept in, chilled, hit the beach for a swim and ran into Malcolm and crew there for lunch. (Me: “What are you doing in our Bay”. Mal: “Slumming it”. Ha ha ha.) Spent the rest of the day chilling, packing, drinking up the rest of our booze (almost all of it, had a batch of screwdrivers left over for the ferry ride!) and generally just loving being there. One funny episode – while swimming at the villa the cleaning lady, Meena (if you’ve ever shopped at the liquor store at the airport you’ve met her) stopped by to ask me to put a load of towels or sheets in the dryer before we left. Well, someone wasn’t wearing any trunks while floating in his big ole inner tube and I started laughing as he decided to get out of the pool with the tube still around him and she looked to see what I was laughing at and then quickly looked away. Poor poor Meena... We cooked a doctored up frozen pizza for dinner and enjoyed our last evening under the beautiful Caribbean skies. One last sunset...



Saturday, July 12th – Trains, Planes and Automobiles. Actually it was rental car, ferry, taxi, plane, plane, and cab home. Had to wait a few minutes for Jerry to get back to take us to the ferry dock, but this guy is great to deal with. “Everything OK with the car?” Yup. “Thank you for using Jerry’s, hope you use us again soon”. Double yup. The ferry ride over to St. Thomas was enjoyable, got one last dose of Caribbean sun.



After figuring out what to do at the airport (check in first, then go through customs with your bags, then drop your bags off...) we had quite a bit of time to kill at the airport where we imbibed a few beers and ate a hot dog and hamburger. The line to get food there never ends, does it? “Muscle boy” and crew were at the table next to us (we’ll see them again, one more time...).

It was nice having the 757 from St. Thomas instead of the #%*&&+ AT7. Our 2 hour layover in San Juan was extended by over an hour and we spent most of it in the Wave bar. Ate some quesadillas even though we knew we’d get fed in First Class. I commented at one point that I was surprised we didn’t see “Muscle boy” there, when in they walk.

This time no cocktails before take-off, like we needed them... The flight attendant was very chummy (he’s from Tampa too) and very free with pouring the wine. I gave him a tip which I know they’re not supposed to accept, but he’d had a long day and he deserved it. The food wasn’t too bad, Jack had the orange chicken and I had mushroom ravioli. They were surprisingly good! I can’t remember what the dessert was, chocolate cake I think.

Got into Tampa just before midnight and it seemed like it took forever for the bags to show up on the carousel (Tampa is usually pretty good in this regard). Cab ride in the rain home, where we greeted our cats, one of whom was very glad to see us, the other was hiding in the closet, not sure if it was really us!

It was a great trip, highlighted by beautiful views from the villa and many gorgeous sunsets, meeting up with TTOL friends, old and new, a fun day trip to Jost where Jacob at One Love did his best to get us wasted (I got to drive the car for the third time), and just chilling and being caught in the “Syndrome” – so many hours spent just watching the boats come and go in Brewer’s Bay, the clouds, the waves, the stars...

...and the next trip is already booked for next January/February!