BVI Trip part 4
Going Home

7/19 We awoke at the TMM docks after a restful night (sort of) with the A/C on. Someone set the temp at 64, I damn near froze. We packed all (most!) of our stuff and got ready for the checkout which was relatively painless around 10:00am. The rest of the crew taxi’d everything down to the ferry dock and the first mate and I walked down just to get some land legs again. We missed the 10:30am RTFF to CA but viewed it as a plus because we now had breakfast and enjoyed the morning at a leisurely rate. We ate at a small café across from the ferry docks (can not remember the name!) which was very good and another rain event occured so we relaxed under the canopy. Later we walked downtown and the admiral and I went through all of the small shops while the crew went further downtown. Final retail therapy had occurred and we walked over to the ferry dock to wait for the 2:30pm ferry.
The RTFF to CA is much smoother than the Bomba Charger (even in 5 ft seas) and we got through C&I fairly quickly. I caught a ride to the airport to get the rental car, went back to pick up the crew in short order and we made our way to the Bunker Hill Hotel. Now some folks have called this neighborhood a “little sketchy” but I call it bombed out. Maybe it’s just my perspective but I would never stay in this area again. I will say the hotel rooms are pretty clean and the walk to the shopping area is short but parking is a real problem (which has been outlined before) and the neighborhood is scary at night for the ladies. We had dinner that night at The Greenhouse and it was excellent. They had 2for1 drink specials and reduced prices on the appetizers. Our bill for 7 peeps was $267 all in but we drank a lot of booze and had full dinners all around plus 4 appetizer plates. Very reasonable.
7/20 Breakfast the next morning was adequate albeit not large; however it was complementary and nicely served at the upper pool area. We had decided to move back to the BW Carib so right after breakfast we shuffled our stuff over there until check-in and drove back to town. Some retail therapy was in order but a huge deluge and thundering booms of thunder (the start of TS Bonnie) slowed our progress and we went back to the hotel mid-afternoon since our rooms were ready. It cleared a little and we used the pool for our last night on St Thomas. It was not exactly as planned but relaxing and the restaurant was pretty good again. We all retired early due to early flights.
7/21 Up at 5:00am to get over to the airport by 6:00am. No one was in line so we got through C&I very quickly but there was a line behind us as we finished. Timing is everything! We ate breakfast in the airport which was just barely passable but convenient. The admiral and I left almost on time for Miami at 8:15am but the daughter and family were delayed more than an hour until 9:30am and almost missed their connection in San Juan to Chicago. The Tim-man did not have a flight until 2:30pm and AA would not change his ticket for less than $1600!!! Pretty bad since he is in the active Air Force, at least they did not charge him to check his bag.
The admiral and I arrived back in Reno at 7:30pm, got a cab to Tim’s house to retrieve the car and arrived home at exactly 9:00pm. Whew! It is good to go and good to be back home.

Final thoughts:
I would go back in a minute but the admiral would like A/C in the cabins at night. We can do that next time!!
Someone much wiser than me had said “take half the clothes and twice as much money” as you had planned. That is very close to the truth on the clothing not quite right on the money. We could have gotten by with 1 bag for both of us for clothing and a small bag for incidentals (toothpaste, deodorant, etc.) We only exceeded our spending budget by about 50% so the money was pretty close.!@#$% BTW, the boat expenses estimated by the charter company were right on the mark so those expenditures don’t count. The boat used 23 gallons of diesel but it has mechanical refrigeration so we had to run both motors morning and night and we motored hard into the wind on 3 different days in the interest of time.
The boat was the right size for 7 peeps, a Fountaine Pajot 40 and sailed very well. She is more forgiving than I am a sailor.
Do not take the fins, only take your mask and snorkel. The charter company had fins for the crew.
Make sure your boat has some kind of sunshade for early mornings and late afternoons or bring your own like we did. It saved us from excessive sunburn. Since the wind is generally from the east, the boat is usually stern to the setting sun and the cockpit gets a full load of sun.
Make sure you really understand the boat refrigeration systems before leaving the dock. We got off light but it would have been much worse if we had purchased a full weeks’ worth of food. It was my fault, not anyone else.
Have fun and don’t take any plans too seriously. We had great plans for our 2 days on STT but storms changed those plans. It’s vacation, enjoy...we did