First I wanted to take a moment to say thanks to everyone who helped us out with our trip planning, either through direct answers or just through lurking. You all are the best! Now, on with the trip report…

We flew into St. Thomas on Friday, May 11th and spent the night there since we were too late to catch the last ferry. Thanks to the hubby’s Marriott points we stayed at the Marriott Frenchman’s Reef and were lucky enough to be upgraded to a beautiful suite. We decided on our next adventure (and we had such a great trip that we’re hooked now) we’ll take advantage of this on our last night so we can take a nice long shower and sleep in a comfy bed before having to travel all day on the way home.

Saturday we took the first Native Son ferry from Red Hook to the West End and cabbed it over to The Moorings. We were able to get on our boat: Blue Cat II, a NauticBlue 372. The deliveries from Tico’s and Bobby’s were both on time and had everything we ordered. Bobby’s even brought us two extra packages of bagels which came in very handy and other than that, no substitutions of any kind. After stowing everything we headed to White Bay, JVD and grabbed a mooring ball. Since it was our first time we were very careful and decided to snorkel the mooring to make sure all was well. While snorkeling we found a nice length of rope wrapped around the prop. Fortunately we had diving gear and Bryan was able to cut it off. We spent the afternoon playing in the water and enjoying our first afternoon on the boat. After happy hour we headed out to Great Harbour in the dinghy (probably not our wisest move but everything was fine) and had a great time at Foxy’s bbq. Our friend Jason enjoyed his first taste of Painkillers so much he ended up riding part way back with the dinghy light suctioned to his forehead, glad we brought extra flashlights! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Smile.gif" alt="" />

The next morning we stopped by Sandy Cay for a little snorkeling but didn’t see much, maybe we were in the wrong spot. After enjoying being on the water for a while we moored in Cane Garden Bay thinking we were going to enjoy a ‘cheeseburger in paradise’ at Stanley’s for dinner. Little did we know they must be closed on Sunday nights. So we walked back up the beach and settled on The Elm. Glad we did, dinner was great and we enjoyed the band. Think we might have had dinner next to Malcolm (Manpot) but we weren’t sure so we didn’t say anything….

Monday morning we snorkeled Monkey Point, I would highly recommend this to everyone! We saw a stingray, a large tarpon and so many schooling fish it was constant motion. After Monkey Point we spent the night in Leverick Bay. Dinner at the downstairs restaurant (The Cove?) at the resort was okay pizza.

Tuesday morning, bright and early, we started out for Anegada. We arrived in plenty of time to take a cab to Cow Wreck and enjoy the best conch fritters we’ve ever had, thank you Belle!! Snorkeling wasn’t great although we did see several large conchs and a stingray. Cow Wreck is definitely one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. Dinner was at Neptune’s Treasure, food was fine but we were really disappointed in the service. I’m sure it was an anomaly but it sort of stretched even our patience. We got our free bottle of wine (thanks to the Drinking Man’s Guide) and were promptly forgotten. The guys ended up having to go to the bar to get their own drinks. They brought out Jason & Crystal’s dinners (one lobster and one mahi) then we watched and waited as they served another couple two lobsters, then sent two more lobsters to another table. Eventually they brought out our dinner, or so we thought: “Here’s your swordfish and another mahi”. We were pretty frustrated since about 15 minutes had passed since they brought our friends’ food. We eventually got our lobsters and ended dinner with a nice picture of us and our ‘carcasses’. The table of 10 next to us took some of the frustration out of the evening, very entertaining. Two of the women ended up running around the patio throwing pitchers of water on each other, soaking our friend Crystal and many other things in the process (let’s just say if you’re going to start a water fight with your friend don’t wear a white shirt with nothing underneath). We followed the music down to Potter’s after enjoying our free rum smoothies at Anegada Reef Hotel, thanks to Sidney for serving us as he was closing up.

The seas were less kind to us Wednesday on the way back from Anegada, 5 foot swells or so which made for a longer and rougher ride. Fortunately both couples are used to rough water, we see worse chop on the lake where we both have boats so no one was seasick. We headed to the Baths but there were no mooring balls so we settled for pictures from the boat. The next stop was Norman Island, the Bight. We had a great dinner at Pirates then headed to the Willie T to celebrate Crystal’s birthday. Needless to say we had a great time and Crystal ended up with a free Willie T thong as an ‘apology’ for the flaming birthday shot the bartender gave her. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />

Off to the Indians the next morning but no space for us there so we went to the Caves instead. Crystal and Jason spent some time snorkeling while we set up our dive gear and when they came back for a rest and a Carib we set out on our dive. We decided to head right instead of left (with the crowds) and enjoyed a peaceful dive. That night was spent in Soper’s Hole with dinner at Pusser’s Landing. Everything was very good but the favorite was the Down Island Shrimp. If anyone has the recipe please let me know. I checked Walker’s site but didn’t see anything resembling it. Just to bring up the smoking situation, we had a good laugh when we found out they don’t allow smoking there but they do sell cigarettes at the bar!

We decided to spend our last day at the Soggy Dollar Bar. Bryan & I had been before (as one of the dreaded day boat rental people from St. Thomas) but this was Jason & Crystal’s first time. What a great way to spend our last day! Playing in the water, drinking Painkillers, enjoying the beach bbq…. As we wrapped up our last day we were lucky enough to have a mama and baby dolphin escort us back into Soper’s Hole. The last night we grilled burgers and corn on the boat and tried to polish off the rest of the liquor but ended up more sleepy than anything so we gave up and turned in, in prep for our early start the next day.

Started off for the Moorings first thing the next morning so we could catch the 9:45 ferry. Let the guy know about the line on the prop, which I’m pretty sure he thought we did. Wish we would have kept the rope so he could see how long it had been on there. The only other real issue we had with the boat was the valve to the holding tank for the toilet in our cabin wasn’t working but I won’t get into the nastiness that caused. Let’s just say I’m just glad Bryan has a strong stomach and was willing to clean the bathroom… Once we wrapped at the Moorings we caught the ferry and had time for lunch in St. Thomas, I would not recommend The Green Iguana. The St. Thomas airport was crazy but we made our flight on time, made our Miami flight by a nose and caught our connection from Dallas to KC to arrive home around midnight.

I can tell it was a great vacation, most trips we’re in a villa in the Caribbean and I’ll usually end up reading a book a day. I didn’t even finish my first book until the flight home there was just so much to do, or even just see…. If there’s anyone out there who’s thinking about doing this for the first time as we just did, DO IT!

Favorites:
TTOL
Our traveling companions
Everything about Cow Wreck
Foxy’s BBQ
Painkillers – our friends decided to throw a Painkiller party this summer

Not so much favorites:
DIF
The head on the boat

Thanks again for all of the advice! You all helped make this an amazing vacation!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/thanks.gif" alt="" />