Trip Report - Long

January 19, 2005, left Boston on American Airlines, temp. was 5 below zero. Nice flight, no problems. Arrived in Puerto Rico, got American Eagle connection without any problems, only thing was the Am. Eagle plane was HOT, as well as San Juan while they were transporting us via shuttle bus to the plane. Considering that we had just left Boston at 5 below, we were not complaining. Arrived at Beef Island with no problems. While we were awaiting our Clair Air flight to Anegada, we rolled our luggage across the street to Trellis Bay. Beautiful! I had never been there before. Now, we were here! Had lunch at the Cyber Café, food was good.

No problems whatsoever at Clair Air. They actually took us over early to Anegada. Even though the weather was a little drizzly, I actually loved the flight and I was so afraid ahead of time about going on a little plane. Plane was a 7 seater and the view of the Islands was spectacular. When we arrived at the airport however, there was no one there at the desk. Had to wait for our jeep to show up (only 10 minutes). The roads were horrible to ride on, could only go 10 miles per hour. They seemed to have all bumpy coral under the dirt. Anyway, got to the villa, rented at the Anegada Seaside Villas right on the west point. We were very pleasantly surprised. Gorgeous beach. Had supper at the Cow Wreck Beach Bar, great food. Had a Cow Wreck punch, great! The night was extremely windy. Had a $40 HUGE lobster the next day at Neptune’s Treasure. Excellent. Vern, Randy and others at Neptune’s, all extremely nice. Went snorkeling at Loblolly on Thursday even though it was cool and a little rainy. The beach and bar are great though. Had an Anegada Divida (drink), didn’t care for, but I had my first Painkiller here and it was great! Probably as good as the ones at the Soggy Dollar Bar. Was going to stop in at Lavenda Breeze to see George, but we got here late afternoon on Thurs., and thought that he had already left. Next time. George, your place looks great! You must have an awesome view. The view of the water was incredible! Anegadan’s are wonderful people. Headed out on Friday, Jan. 21, Brian sat with the pilot on Clair Air. Gorgeous day, view of all the islands was fantastic, camera however was under with baggage.

Took a cab, $40, from Beef Island to the Jolly Roger at West End Tortola. Never really rode the distance of the Island before, so enjoyed the coastal road and views. KC from Soggy Dollar Bar picked us up at Jolly Roger in his new boat and brought us to Great Harbor where Debby picked us up and brought us to Sandcastle on Jost Van Dyke. Yeah! (By the way, KC had been re-cooperating from a broken ankle.) The day was perfect and we proceeded directly to the beach, ah, White Bay. Everyone was at Sandcastle during our stay and they were in the process of training new managers. Bruce and Debby still own it, probably till end of Feb., met new owners, Jerry and Tish O’Connell, great people with some interesting new ideas for the place although they intend to keep the repeat guest system the same. Also, met new managers, Roger and Sandy from Marina Cay. Weather was perfect for 3 days, then it got a little overcast and the wind and surf really kicked up for a couple of days. Sandcastle actually lost power for several hours one day and had to use the generator. Water was way up to the beach chairs one morning. Did the usual for 7 days, beach, water, bar, eat Oliver’s great dinners, read, snorkel. Went to Ivan’s for “the Fiddler” one night. Band was really good.

On Sunday, went over to Ali Baba’s on Great Harbour to watch the Pat’s game. For those of you who are not Pat’s fans, they did play Pittsburgh, but that is all water under the bridge now. I hate TV on vacation, but when your team is heading to the SuperBowl, it is just something that can’t be missed! Baba was gracious enough to keep the game on for us until it was over even though he did not like football and was falling asleep at the bar and was practically all closed up by the end of the game. Any one getting a chance to eat at Ali Baba’s, please do, as the food is really good and the people are so gracious. Oh, by the way, did I mention that this is the 3rd SuperBowl in 4 years for the New England Patriots??? One point I might make here is that our Cingular cell phone worked great in the BVI as we started to plan our SuperBowl party beginning right after the game! When we called home, we discovered that they received a blizzard with 36 inches of snow! New England does have it’s drawbacks!

Full Moon was gorgeous on Tuesday nite, Jan. 25th! Saw phosperesence in water on Thursday nite, Jan. 27th…always an exciting sight. Went to Foxy’s on Tues. afternoon for Blues show. A Blues Cruise out of Fort Lauderdale FL stopped in Tortola and brought over a few tenders full of people and Blues artists who played at Foxy’s. Awesome show. What really was incredible to me was that we follow this Blues Band, Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials and they were one of the Blues artists featured on the Blues Cruise. Although Lil’ Ed did not come to Foxy’s and play (bummer, because he is the best slide guitar player on earth), his brother and bass player, Pookie did play with a mixed band and we also saw and danced to Kenny Neal. Ran into Kelley from the Lil’ Ed band also. You just never know who you are going to run into in the BVI!

Oh yeah, did I mention, I met Big Jim from this board? He actually stayed at Sandcastle same time as us for close to a week and when we left, he was heading over to Neptune’s on Anegada, so I’m sure that you will have a trip report from him when he gets back. I hope he mentions me in it as I did him. He is a great guy and very knowledgeable and interesting to talk to. Jim, when you read this, I’m looking forward to seeing you again next year.

Now comes the mishaps….when we are leaving and heading home. It figures! But at least they all happened on the way home! First, Bruce, from Sandcastle brought us back to West End Tortola in the Off Island boat. Weather was gorgeous, but water was rough. Brian and I were sitting on a larger cooler in the back of the boat when all of a sudden I found myself on the floor of the boat on top of an anchor. I have a HUGE black and blue bruise on the top of my leg where I hit the anchor and it wasn’t even from a wave. Bruce had down throttled too quickly. He couldn’t apologize enough and I’m lucky that I didn’t hit my head on that anchor. That was the first mishap. After that we took a cab back to Beef Island, checked our luggage and went back to Trellis bay for another lunch. Then back to the airport in plenty of time to catch our American Eagle plane to San Juan. Time for second mishap. American Eagle flight was delayed on arriving to Beef Island. No reason why, no answers at all, just told that all of us would probably miss our connections. As they put it “slim chance”. And I had a window and an aisle seat together in row 4 right behind 1st class on the American Airbus for the ride home to Boston. Bummer, be we, as well as everyone else on the plane missed our connections. When we arrived in San Juan, the American Service desk was actually quite helpful. They put us all up at the Airport Hotel (Best Western), not the greatest, and gave us vouchers for dinner and breakfast the next morning that could only be used at select spots in the airport in which the food was absolutely HORRIBLE. Between the 2 of us, we had a pork chop, 3 chicken wings, some hash, 2 old turnovers and 2 bottles of water for $30. This was the worst food that I have ever had in my life (mishap #3). On this board, I have heard a lot of complaints about San Juan airport and American Eagle connections and now I know exactly why first hand for myself. I will never go through Puerto Rico again. Next year, non-stop, Boston to St. Thomas and then water taxi to Jost Van Dyke. It will be well worth it!

The good news is the flight to Boston Saturday afternoon was very smooth and when we arrived back home on Saturday, our daughter, new son-in-law and a gracious neighbor had us all shoveled out. Can we pick the right time for vacation or what? Not only had they had a blizzard, high winds (to 75 mph), and 36 inches of snow, the temperature never got any higher than 17 degrees! When we arrived home it was 30 degrees and sunny all weekend so I guess we brought back a little sunshine from the BVI after all!

Can’t wait till next year! Hope you enjoyed. Let me know your thoughts or questions. I’ll try to get some pictures up in the near future as I have some beautiful ones!

Meg