After a restoring sleep I awoke at Sugar Plum to splashes of sunshine, a cool breeze and the twitter of birds. From the balcony I was pleasantly surprised to see several of my crew wandering down the road towards Sebastian’s. Things were definitely improving.

After a great breakfast at Sebastian’s stage two of the grand plan began. The skippers and after guards took one of the Monteros to Nanny Cay to check in with Horizon and get briefed while a second would head for Road Town Wholesale to pick up the Presidente and a few last minute items at Riteway. The third would remain to bring over the late risers about 11AM.

At Nanny Cay the two 523’s were berthed side by side and looked in excellent condition. Check in was straightforward and the briefings were professional and complete. Then things started getting confused.

We learned long ago to provision each boat separately to be sure both got everything they need and all of one item did not end up on one boat. My boat would have all the fixings for the shrimp creole and the junk food. Trey’s all the fajita ingredients and lots of “healthy” snacks. Bobby’s delivery man arrived right on time and after inquiring which boat would get what began storing the food away. It wasn’t until we got to the Indians that we realized that the orders had been reversed. A quick dinghy shuffle in the Bight corrected that situation. But the booze was another matter.

We had combined the orders from Tico and Caribbean Cellars and assigned a dock master to divide them up. Some how all the red wine made it to my boat and all the white to Trey’s but all the Scotch and soda water made it to my boat so I was happy.

Right on schedule at 12:30 we were off to the Indians for the first snorkel. It was a light day at the Indians so we were able to pick up two balls next to each other. There was no sign of the algae that had been reported and while the coral is in much poorer shape the fish were plentiful. No boats were waiting for a ball so we had a quick lunch before heading for the Bight.

It has been our tradition to close the Willy T on our first night and this time was no exception. The bar tender immediately recognized Ruth as “Glenn’s daughter” and she ended up tending bar before the night ended.

Friday morning is when all the “Where’s Waldo” started on TTOL. Nick was trying to find me to let us know that he had to give our slips to a couple of go fasts coming for the poker run. That was OK with us. After all those guys have to spend all their money on gas so they can’t afford a dinghy. We took a couple of close in balls at Leverick and listened to the theresadollartheresadollartheresadollartheresadollar chorus as an amazing array of go fasts boats rumbled past. Nick was running all over making sure everything was perfect while Monica calmly maintained the sanity level. The BBQ was outstanding! Everything from fresh fruit to a whole BBQ npig. I wonder who stayed up all night drinking beer and tending that pig. I have done it a couple of times and always fell asleep before it was served. They sat us up in the crow’s nest where we had a fantastic view of all the action and everyone ate until they were stuffed. Felt sorry for the waitress climbing all those steps to bring us drinks. The Jumbies were a big hit with all the newbies and we had a group picture taken standing under the troupe.

Saturday we headed for our obligatory stop at the Baths before heading over to Trellis Bay. Kneafsey and family were to fly in from Antigua on Liat and stay at the Beef Island Guest House before riding up to Anegada with us Sunday so I went ashore to say hello to Jeremy and leave word at BIGH that I would pick them up in the morning. Again the reservations gods intervened. BIGH had them down for June rather than May and were full so we cleared one of our staterooms and I went to meet their flight and bring them aboard for the night. True to the name, Liat’s 10PM arrived at 11:30 and the very tired threesome emerged from C&I missing all of their checked luggage.

Sunday Morning arrived with puffy white clouds and an ESE wind at 15 knots. Lilly quickly took command of the crew for a near perfect reach up to Anegada. Well, almost perfect. The boats were almost exactly identical in design and age but Trey took an early lead and opened it up to more than a mile. I had the boat trimmed for the best speed I could get and his lead still kept increasing. Something was wrong! Even then it was a personal record 2:25 ride up so I didn’t let all the trash talk bug me.

BillH was waiting at the dock with a cold Presidente in hand when we got to Neptune’s and Dean had our two pickups ready. We were off to Loblolly for some snorkeling before heading to Cow Wreck for late afternoon cocktails. I just love the looks on the newbies’ faces when I just stroll behind the bar and start handing out beers.

Monday was a busy day for me. After dropping the crew off at Loblolly Kneafsey and I went off to explore several slobs (sink holes) and the caliche quarry. The Caliche quarry was especially interesting. We found three sequences of calcium carbonate covered by limestone. Clear evidence that Anegada has risen and submerged at least three times in the past few million years. On return to Neptune’s I made a survey of the wifi coverage and talked to Randy about a major overhaul to give good coverage both out to the mooring field and cover all of the property with at least 4 bars. (I have all the equipment on hand now and hope to install it sometime in late July.)

Preparing for diner at Neptune’s we had our first disciplinary action. One of the crew was found attempting to use a steam iron! Sparing the cat-o-nine t-tails we let it go with a short lecture on marine electrical systems. However, loading the dinghies and proceeded in to diner we were careful to splash his nicely creased pants. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Devil.gif" alt="" />

The crew at Neptune’s out did themselves. The corn salad was delicious and plentiful. And the fish and lobster were fantastic. Tuesday morning I had feeling that leaving Neptune’s is like leaving home. The Soars just makes you feel like you are part of their family.

Next Stop Monkey Point and Cane Garden Bay