Long trip report of our last sailing adventure with our two boys. I'll download some pictures later this week.

June 5, 2007, Tuesday
Left Columbus, GA around 5:00am for our 7:50 flight out of Atlanta on Spirit Airlines. It was a little slow checking in at the counter but not too bad. Flight down was uneventful; we stopped in Fort Lauderdale for about 45 minutes. Arrived on St. Thomas around 1:35, gathered our cooler and “toys” bag that we checked and headed to the taxi area. We waited for a while here but were eventually directed to join a van with another group of people heading to resorts on St. Thomas. At the ferry dock we were not met by lots of people trying to push us to their ferries as we have been in the past. That was a welcome relief. We went upstairs to the Petite Pump room for a cold Caribe. We took the Smith’s Ferry over because it left a good 45 minutes before the Road Town Fast Ferry. Not a bad ride but a little hot. The ferry was absolutely full, never before had we experienced a full ferry. We then cleared through customs and took a taxi to the Footloose base. We waited a while here for Customer Service to return to the office area. Once she did, we were able to board our 473, Kia Ora. We were disappointed that shore power had not been hooked up before our arrival so that we could unpack on a cool boat. We were doing a night start only because the boat had shore power. I would not dream on staying at the Moorings/Footloose Marina without shore power. Anyway, we asked about this and Footloose said that the boat would have to moved to another dock in order to have shore power. While waiting to move the boat over, Boots did our boat briefing, which was nice to have this out of the way and not have to wait until the following morning. This was our 5th charter with Footloose or Moorings within the last 4 years. Together, we found a few problems with the boat that they took care of first thing the next morning. Well, everything except the autopilot. The boat was then moved over to Dock A. Bobby’s had not shown up with provisions so I went Customer Service at Footloose and called them. They said they had not gotten our order. We had received an email confirmation of it before we left home. I had not printed the order as I usually do and so I had no way to email them a list that night. Oh well…I would deal with that in the morning. We called a taxi and headed to Spaghetti Junction for dinner. We had a wonderful meal there. The filet in marsala wine sauce was the best. Headed back to the Footloose base and a semi-cooled boat for bed. It had been a long day.
June 6, 2007
Woke early and headed to breakfast at the Mariner Inn. Walter and I then left the boys at the marina to get fins, unpack… while we walked to the Rite way store in Road Town to grocery shop. I thought this store was great! They had everything we needed and were very helpful in helping us find the things we couldn’t find. We caught a taxi back to the Footloose base and found the Footloose staff working on the couple of things that we found wrong with the boat. We topped off with water and fuel before leaving as our fuel gauge was not working and we had been sent out another time without full water and diesel tanks. So, around 12:00 we were off. We were sailing with our 14-½ year old and almost 11 year old boys. We had the 10 year old take the helm while the 14 year old hoisted the main and the jib under Walter’s direction. We then turned and headed toward Soper’s Hole. Once on the north side of Tortola, we swapped Max and Walt out on the helm and found some really good wind, up to 22 knots a couple of times. The boys had only sailed on a 4300 and 4700 in the BVI before so the monohull thing was different for them. I wish I had a video of the smiles on their faces when the wind picked up. We were moving and heeling just enough to get their interest up. We sailed to Diamond Cay to catch a mooring ball for the evening there after seeing how crowded Cane Garden Bay was from a distance. Well, Diamond Cay was full too, not a single mooring ball. We motored up behind Green Cay and Sandy Spit and dropped anchor for the night. We took the dinghy over to Sandy Spit for a great swim and then came back to the boat and grilled out filets we had brought from home. We woke the next morning to a beautiful rainbow in the west. We had a quick breakfast and sailed to Monkey Point. The winds were great and seas were calm. We did some tacking but it was a great experience for the boys to practice. Monkey Point was crowded also and the snorkeling was not near as good as it was the previous year. It’s sad to see the reefs dying so. The boys did not even want to have a quick sandwich before heading out again. So, we had lunch en route to Leverick Bay. We enjoyed watching the kite surfers that afternoon. They really put on a show in Gorda Sound. Had supper on the boat and went to bed pretty early.
June 7, 2007
Nick from Leverick, reserved a Jeep for us from Speedy’s for this day. We left Leverick after a short morning rain shower and headed out to explore Virgin Gorda by land. What great views!!! We had a wonderful time visiting Coppermine Point, had lunch at the Top of the Baths, the boys took a walkie talkie down to the Baths and had a blast exploring down there while we had drinks up by the pool. We left there and went to Savannah Bay. We had the beach to ourselves for a while. This was beautiful! I could have spent the day here. We arrived back at the boat around 4:00 and motored down to Saba Rock for the night. The boys swam off the boat for a long time while we chilled and listened to music. We grilled out again and then went ashore for dessert at Saba Rock and some t-shirt/hat shopping. Had great service at Saba Rock! Another good night sleep with the wind keeping us cool.
June 8, 2007
Breakfast at Bitter End is a Trussell guy thing. I tagged along not too embarrassed by the boys appetites. We were hoping to rent some Hobies but the wind was too light for any good sailing in Gorda Sound. Walter and Walt took the dinghy to Oil Nut Bay to look around while Max and I played cards and scrubbed the boat down. We headed out before lunch and sailed to Cooper Island. The wind was only 5-8 knots, too little for us. It took a while to get to Cooper. I took Max out in the dinghy to practice his dinghy skills while there was no wind or seas. We made dinner reservations and chilled on the boat until the huge cat pulled up and their teenagers began skiing through the mooring ball field. They were skiing around the inner edge and circling through the outside areas to turn with one driver on the dinghy (no spotter). This really bothers me as so many people were swimming off the backs of their boats. I just don’t get this! It is my pet peeve! Supper was excellent. The boys had pasta with grilled shrimp and I had the chicken roti. We enjoyed our first dinner ashore very much! We didn’t sleep as well this night as the seas were rolly as they usually are at Cooper and there was little breeze.
June 9, 2007 The Last Day out
Woke early and had a light breakfast and headed to the Indians to snorkel. We had to wait for a mooring ball about 30 minutes. Saw several boats with no dinghy anywhere in sight or crew in sight. Do you think they dinghied over to the Caves from there? We snorkeled for about an hour and took off as many boats were waiting for a ball by this time. Some of the same boats were still on the balls as we left with no snorkelers, dinghies or crew in sight. We headed into the Bight and took a ball there. We had so much fun jumping off the boat and floating around in the water there. We could have stayed all day, as there was no wind to speak of again. We then motor sailed by White Bay on the back of Peter and headed back to the Footloose Base for a swim in the pool. Had supper at the Marina, which was only fair.
June 10, 2007
We sadly packed up and took the Fast Ferry back to STT for our flight home. In FLL we did have to change terminals and reclear security even though we stayed on Spirit. Our pilot was an hour late but he made up some time in flight. I would fly Spirit again as our experience with them was good. Home around 1:30 in the morning.

Highlights:
Savannah Bay
Sailing in 20-25 knots on the north side of Tortola
Jeep Tour of Virgin Gorda
Dinner at Cooper Island
Swimming in the Bight
Watching the boys become sailors (3rd trip for them)

Disappointments:
The crowds
The reefs
The lack of wind for 3 days
The water-skiers in the mooring ball fields