First thing is, Again, thank you to everyone on TTOL that made the trip so much better with your knowledge.

It was great to meet a few TTOl'ers while down there. It’s amazing how small our world really is.

Boat chartered was a Conch Charters 403, 3 cabins, 2 heads Dockside A/C

May 14,2012 0230 hours, the alarm went off after a night of no sleep, due to excitement. We had packed our bags the night before and attempted to do carry-on only, but that did not happen. 0330 Our Cab showed up because dummy me booked round trip airfare from Dulles to STT and back to Reagan National Airport. Trip to STT was uneventful. Arrived 22 minutes ahead of schedule, which was pretty cool.

Arrived at the Ferry dock around 1pm to learn the 130 ferry had been cancelled due to mechanical issues, there was an older couple in the taxi with us on the way to the ferry terminal that began to freak out at this point. We explained Island Time to them, and headed up to The Pump Room, for some drinks and a much needed bite to eat.

We hopped on board Smith's 330pm ferry to Roadtown with a stop at West End. The ferry was extremely empty, there were maybe 15 other people on board.

We arrived at Roadtown and got through Customs within 5 minutes of stepping off the ferry(WOW this trip is going really well so far). We hailed a cab to Conch Charters(could have walked it I think) and arrived to find they had closed for the day, but they left a note for us as to the whereabouts of our boat “MOYO”. A couple of the dock hands were topping off water tanks and told us Riteway had just stopped by with our Provisions and had already put them away for us!!!! A quick look on the boat revealed that we got nothing we ordered and a bunch of crap we did not order, including 4 lbs of butter, who needs 4 pounds of butter? Oh well, we are on vacation. To THE PUB for dinner and drinks, thenb ack to the boat for some much needed rest in the A/C which was set to 66 degrees when we got on and boy o boy it worked great!

Tuesday May 15. Woke up at 6am(wife and I normally wake up at 415, so sleeping in was nice) and did a thorough going over the boat from bow to stern, inside and out. I even read the boat manual from cover to cover. Everything looked good except the missing anchor, which puzzled me. Did someone steal it?

No one had arrived at Conch Charters yet, so we freshened up in the shower and had breakfast at The Pub. It was a great morning and was going to be a beautiful day for sailing. The wind was 16-20 from the east and only a few clouds in the sky.

We arrived back at the boat after a light breakfast and met with Ema from Conch charters. She would be conducting our boat briefing. She was super nice and knew the boat inside and out, she explained that our anchor had been removed for a new coat of paint and would be back before we left the dock. Ema finished up our briefing and it was back to The Pub for our chart briefing with Jules. She went over everything with us and answered all our questions. Although Anegada is said to be off limits in the boat manual on board, she gave us permission to go. We have never been so I was super excited from reading all the praises on TTOL.

830am we are ready to leave the dock, minus that missing anchor, by 845 our anchor had been attached and Ross(Conch Charters Captain) hopped on to take us out of the Fort Burt Marina. He explained to us they take all the boats out because of the reef that is just outside the marina. Once out of the reef, he was picked up on a dinghy and we were off on our own.

To THE BIGHT!!! I was itching to put the sails up the second we left the dock, but it was not feasible until we got to the Harbor entrance buoy. We were Sailing!! and we had huge smiles, this is what it is all about for us. My wife handled the lines and I steered the course for the Bight. What a perfect day. Yes, we have a video camera and two still image camera's, but this was bliss, no time for pictures. We were just enjoying the Channel and all the beauty of being in paradise.

A quick broad reach to The Bight, and we dropped the sails, I wanted to keep going, but it looked like the mooring field was already filling up. We had not grabbed a mooring ball since our trip last year, and this was a much bigger boat, the wind was howling and the motor was much louder than expected. I knew communication was going to be a challenge so a quick briefing on hand signals by my wife to me, and we were good to go. My wife grabbed the ball on the first shot.

We put off everything and just sat up on the bow and soaked it all in, which was sparsely interrupted by the occasional yelling crew having issues with a mooring ball. We sat up there for at least 3 hours, did we remember suntan lotion? My wife decided it was time for some grub so off to The Pirate's Bite. I do not remember what we had to eat, but the atmosphere was great. I was a little disturbed by two couples that had arrived on a Catamaran with their 4 kids. They left their kids on the boat and they were drinking, heavily, at the bar. I overheard them ask the bartender to turn the VHF up because he told his 8 year old to call on the radio if they needed something.

After we finished eating we walked around the island and my wife went shell hunting along the water.

Deliverance stopped by our boat at some point and we bought a bunch of fresh fruit and veggies, as our Riteway order was a complete waste.

Off to bed early.

The winds were still howling through the night. This boat had great ventilation, we were almost to the point of being chilly with the hatches open.

More to come. Sorry I am long winded.

Joel