DAY THREE: JVD
Morning comes early again and I love it! We awake in Cane Garden Bay after a great night with friends! We hustle around and get coffee made, check the weather and prepare to leave for JVD. Like she is an old pro at it, Ruth releases the mooring and we are on our way early. We are headed to Great Harbor for two days.
As we pulled by Sandy Cay, Ruth was just in awe again at the postcard looking little island. I cruised over to let her see White Beach and then headed in to get our ball. Once again, what a great job on the ball! She snatched that bugger and we are no longer the talk of the mooring field. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />
I went below and there was water everywhere in the galley. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/cloud.gif" alt="" /> I assumed that the cooler had leaked so we started mopping it up. I thought “dang, this is a lot of water!” Ruth crawled under the table as water was under there as well. At that point she said “Jim, water is leaking from under the cushions!!” I pulled the cushions and some cover boards and found that the water pump had sprung a leak. I ensured the pump was off and checked our tanks….EMPTY!! No wonder there was so much water! I called the Moorings and they said they would have someone there within 2 hours. While we are waiting for the Moorings, Bridget and Brian pull up and got a ball behind us and waited for us to go ashore. At about the 1.5 hour mark I called them and they said their guy was at White Beach and would be there in 15 minutes. So, we waited….after 30 minutes I called again and they were very apologetic that their guy had been pulled for an emergency grounding – a boat was taking on water – and we were bumped back. Against what I felt was my better judgment, we agreed with the moorings that we would leave the door unlocked so they could get in a make the repair without us being there.
While we were waiting during the first hour or so there, Ruth swam over to Bridget and Brian’s boat and talked a bit and we also saw several day-trippers from somewhere having a great time. A boat full of what looked to be college age kids were drinking and diving into the water and as each came up from the dive, they were swinging their suits over their heads…..Ruth was laughing so hard and I was snapping pics. At one point, they all lined up so that someone on their boat could take a picture and all of them put their suits/shorts on their heads…..too much fun!! We sat and enjoyed coffee and eventually drinks and watched the many feeding frenzies and many turtles.
Eventually we yelled over to Brian and Bridget that we were ready to go ashore. We got in the dinghy and met them on shore, got a taxi and headed to White Beach.
As we rounded the top of the hill with White Beach in site, the taxi driver stopped for us to soak it in….what a great site and even more priceless was the look on Ruth’s face! The driver took us to the Soggy Dollar – we grabbed a handful of drinks am commenced to chill ‘ax! I wrote my office on the internet and told them to check the Soggy Dollar Cam …they did and got a screen shot of us sitting there!! Pretty cool!! Evan and Nina made the trip on a dinghy and joined us….so the extended family was back together! The beach was packed and there was a VERY LARGE vessel anchored quite a ways out and it had a large blow-up slide from the top deck to the water!
At some point, I told Ruth we should go for a walk and Bridget and Brian were getting ready to snorkel the west end of the bay. We walked with them and Ruth and I stopped a Once Love’s and Gertrude’s. I took some great pics of her sitting in the waves. We started singing the Kenny Chesney song Somewhere in the Sun ….”Oh I wish I was there tonight” and changed the words to “Thank God we are here tonight, on Jost Van Dyke”….at some point I pulled out my phone and put the song on and we danced in the waves to the music and just took it all in! Some gal at One Love offered to take some pics….we did and moved on down the beach back to Soggy Dollar. After we all caught up with each other, someone mentioned walking down to Ivan’s……so…off we go to Ivan’s! We got there and OF COURSE ordered another drink (that’s what ya do…right??) And took some great pictures of a blue chair, Bridget and Nina in the hammock, and many other things! We eventually called the taxi and headed back to the dinghies and Evan and Nina pulled off with a promise we would all get together for dinner at Corsairs!
When the sun goes down…over the water…..sorry I digress……the sun went down and we all headed to shore for dinner! The gal at Corsairs remembered Bridget, Brian, Evan and Nina’s name……pretty cool ….it had been quite some time since they had been in there so I was impressed! Ruth and I ordered the lobster for two. Neither of us were impressed with the meal…the lobster was dry and over cooked…the veggies were steamed just right though and for us, the meal was only part of it….the big enjoyment was our new found family (notice we went from friends to family??) Anyways, we had a GREAT TIME!! I don’t believe any of us wanted the evening/day to end…but it did and it was back to the boat for a night cap and our final ING words for the day!
Day four will include a trip to the bubbly pool, meeting more people, one of the BEST burgers I have had in my life and of course an encore of White Beach!! That trip report will follow! BTW….once I am done with the trip reports, we will find a way to post pictures for all to see. If anyone has a suggestion on a site to do that in an easy/cheap fashion….I am open to suggestions.
One other thing…Ruth and I are headed out to Austin tonight to see Jimmy Buffet and Jackson Browne and then on to Houston to see my Detroit Tigers play the Astros on Saturday in Houston. So, I’m not sure if I will get to day four report today….but it will be here as soon as I can!
