First of all....I want to thank everyone on this board that helped me plan my honeymoon trip to the BVI. It was absolutely perfect!!!!! Really. No issues...nothing but good times..and experiences I will remember for the rest of my life. Warning..it was a long and eventfull trip so this is going to be a long report. So long..that I will have to do a seperate report for Anegada.

Thurs 5/19 - Left Denver at 6am for a connection in Dallas to San Juan. Got to San Juan...and had a few hours to kill. Had some of the worst chicken nachos ever...but the beer was cold. I was warned about the food at SJU so it was about what I expected. The bar where we were passing time was closing (5pm?) so they sold us a few beers to take with us and gave us cups. We spent the rest of the time sitting at the Caribbean Sun gate..drinking our "roadies"..waiting on our flight to Tortola. The flight to Tortola was nice...and we were the only tourists on the plan. The crew on the plane was very friendly too. We were the only tourists on the plane and the only ones going through immigration....so that was easy. We caught a cab from Bob the taxi guy to CGB. Got there at night so we couldn't see much on the way in. We checked into Rhymer's and they said we got the last..and worst...room but we would be moved the next day. I knew this was the deal as I had to add an extra night at the last minute and they told me this would happen. The room was small but not that bad. We put our stuff down and headed over to Quito's for the solo show. We were the only ones there until he started playing. Very talented musician. Loved his music. We enjoyed the rest of the night drinking rum drinks listening to Quito right next to the water. I ended up having way to many 4x painkillers. They didn't taste strong but they kicked my butt. It was a good time. Went to the rack fairly early that night..

Fri 5/20 - Woke up not feeling so great. The hotel attendant was at the door at 8am ready to move us to the room we would be in for the rest of our stay. It was at the front of the hotel...right next to the deck. We gathered out stuff and headed over. The room was fantastic. A queen bed and a single bed..a kitchenette..and bathroom. The deck was right out our door so it felt like our own private deck...RIGHT on the beach in CGB. We spent a lot of time there listening to tunes with a cold beverage in hand. We were very pleased with the accomodations. A little on the ghetto fabulous side according to Shelle, but very functional, comfortable, and clean. Once we settled in to the new room..we went downstairs at Rhymers for some breakfast. Good basic breakfast and very inexpensive. We would eat most of our breakfasts there while in Tortola. After breakfast, we settled in for some beach chillin. Wasn't crowded at all. I broke out the snorkelling gear so my wife could try it out. She'd never done it before. We weren't planning on seeing anything..just wanted her to get used to it before we were somewhere with something to see. She took to it pretty quickly and we ended up seeing some fish. There was a lot of bait moving into the bay and we saw quite a few predatory fish as we swam through the bait balls. Huge tarpon (some close to 100lbs), mackrel, snook, and a few others I couldn't id..all within a few feet from us. This got me psyched for fishing..so Shelle returned to her beach chair and I broke out the spinning rod. I walked down the beach and made a few casts. Only fished for an hour or so, and had a few bites from fish too small for the hook I was using. We went back to the room...cleaned up...then headed over to Bobby's grocery to stock up on goodies for the room. Lunch stuff...juices...snacks...and off course...Carib and rum. Took that back to the room then headed over to Stanleys for happy hour and dinner. There were only three other people there. It is such a great place. Nice folks...good food..great views...and once again..inexpensive. I'm not cheap..but I really can't stand tourist areas where prices are inflated for everything. Didn't find this anywhere we went in the BVI...though I'm sure it exists. Very refreshing. We stayed at Rhymers till dark...then headed back to the room to chill on the deck before heading over to Quitos again for the Quito and the Edge show. Made it to Quitos at 9:30 or so..just before they started. Had a great evening listing to Quito and the band. They were really great. I wont miss that the next time I'm in Tortola..and there will be a next time. Headed to bed around 11pm that night.

Sat 5/21- Woke up and headed downstairs for our usual Rhymers breakfast. We talked over what we wanted to do that day and Shelle wanted to stick around CGB again and lay on the beach. We were exhausted from our wedding travels, work, and traveling again so we needed a day or too of relaxation. I wanted to try out the fishing a little more too.. Shelle settled in to her beach chair and I headed down the beach with my spinning rod. Again..hardly anyone on the beach. Caught a lizard fish on my second cast (not sure if that's what it's really called but it looks just like the lizard fish we catch trolling in NC)..then headed down the beach looking for other fish. I was soon joined by a little nine year old local boy named Brian. I later learned that he was Glen's (as in water taxi, beach toy, boat rental Glen) nephew and was related to just about everyone in CGB. He was very interested in what I was doing and he ended up following me around the whole day...in the room...on the beach..in the bar..he certainly took a liking to me and my wife. It made fishing a little more difficult as he was far from quiet but he was entertaining. I fished for about 30 minutes with little luck..just a few bonefish follows..but enough to keep it exciting. It was just great being out there hangin with Brian and casting. Didn't take long before I saw several nice snook patroling the beach 2-3 feet off shore. After about 30 minutes of stalking, keeping Brian quiet, and changing lures...I was finally able to hook one. It was a nice snook...about 7-8 lbs. Brian got very excited and kept screaming "THANK YOU", "THANK YOU"...so I figured he like to eat fish...and...snook are great to eat. I had no intentions of keeping it but Brian ran off and soon came back with a grocery bag. The fish was too big for the bag..and Brian was too scared of the fish to carry it..so his dad came out and got it. He was very appreciative. That was my first snook and it was a blast. Unfortunately...I didn't have my camera with me. I really didn't plan on catching anything. Oh well. I went back to the room and got the fly rod to try my hand at casting a big saltwater rod. I had borrowed it and figured I needed to practice before I got into the bonefish on Anegada. It wasn't much different than my trout rods really. Just a little bigger. I wasn't planning on catching anything but ended up hooking another smaller snook near where I caught the first one. This one got off before I could get my hand on it...but it was too small to keep anyway. I decided to call it a day on fishing and headed over to Glen's shop to talk to him about a water taxi's to Jost and his boat rental rates. Glen said the rate for two people is $75 round trip, but it's $25 per person if you have three people..a boat rental for a 20' center console was $200 plus gas. I then headed over to Stanley's to meet up with Shelle for happy hour and chillin. Happy hour at Stanley's became a routine. Shelle and I discussed the taxi vs. renting a boat. The reason we stayed at Rhymers vs. a more expensive spot was so we could spend money on fun stuff...so we decided to do the boat rental. I walked over to Glen's and set it all up. He makes it very easy. We bought Brian a burger at Stanley's...another one of his uncles was waiting on us...and we had drinks. Grabbed a taxi over to Carrot Bay a few hours later to have dinner at Palm's Delight. The taxi driver said he'd be back in two hours. I had heard from several folks on this board that they had good food. We weren't disappointed. Hardly anyone there..the people were nice..and food was great. The view from the restaurant was great too. I had my first roti and Shelle had the gingerwine chicken. We both like the roti better and became huge roti fans after that. We had a little kitty staring at us during dinner so we had to share our leftovers. We seemed to have this kind of company at dinner everywhere in Tortola. Shelle is a veterinarian and a sucker for a cute critter...so am I. We loved it. The cab driver returned a little early so I bought him a beer and we chatted a bit before headed back to CGB. So laid back. I love it. We retired early that night as we had big day on the boat the next day.

Sun 5/22 Met up with Glen at 9am to pick up the boat we had rented for the day. Signed a few papers...loaded up a cooler with beer, water, ice, and ....squid for bait. Glen even let us use another fishing rod as we only had one. After some brief instruction on the "workings" of the boat, we were off to.....????? We had no idea. We just wanted to anchor off somewhere for a few hours to fish, snorkel, and lay in the sun. Since the wind was blowing strong we decided go on the protected side of Little Jost. We motored over in no time...squeezed throught the little cut between Little Jost and Green Cay...and sure enough..the water was like a lake. Once out in front of Little Jost..the water dropped off quickly and was very calm. This was just what I was looking for. Now...anchoring. I've heard horror stories of anchors getting stuck in rock/coral in deep water with no way to free it...so I broke out the snokelling gear to check out the bottom. It was about 30-40 feet deep where we were and the bottom looked pretty safe for anchoring. Saw some fish too. While in the water I cruised over to the rock ledge that was Little Jost..and checked it out. It was a good snorkelling spot with lots of coral mixed with rocks. Shelle was not too happy about piloting the boat while I was swimming around..and honestly it was a little creepy looking down and out at all of that deep water so I kept the snorkelling adventure short and headed back to the boat. I threw the anchor over and made sure it was holding. We broke open the Caribs and I proceeded to cut up the squid into tiny pieces to see if I could draw some fish in. I've never done any bottom fishing in tropical water but have read enough and watched enough on TV to know you often need to chum up the water a bit to be successful. Didn't take long before I was catching lots of fish. All pretty small though. A few varieties of grouper, yellow tail snapper, lots of larger parrot fish, and even a moray eel. I was having a blast. And the scenery was beautiful. This was exactly what I was looking for. At one point...I was pulling in a nice parrot fish when I felt a large tug on the line...after that it felt like dead weight. Once I got the fish in...it was just half a fish..and a barracuda was close behind. We had a lot of fun with the barracuda with what was left of the parrot fish. I had Shelle do the teasing part while I casted the other rod which was loaded with a little squid-looking jig. The barracuda didn't hesitate to eat the jig but immediately took off and cut right through the 30lb leader I was using. Never saw it again. After several hours of this...we decided to head over to White Bay to the Soggy Dollar for lunch. I had no idea where I was going but we made it at about 2pm. I anchored the boat just a few feet from shore...but we still got wet getting in. It is the Soggy Dollar after all:) We weren't sure where the Soggy Dollar was on White Bay...but once we got on shore we realized we had anchored right in front of it. We had a time getting food and drinks. The bartender was nice, but wasn't in any hurry to get anyone a drink. He also had no idea who to serve first. I saw lots of people wait for a long time..and other walk up and get lucky with quick service. We soon learned that Shelle could get drinks quicker than I could (duh) and she would just order multiple drinks at once. The flying fish sandwiches, drinks, music, and atmosphere were all great. We also ran into three couples from NC (my home state). I see why everyone loves that spot so much. At around 4:30 we started back to CGB. We met Glen at the dock and he helped us unload. In the process...Shelle snapped the tip off of the fishing rod he let us use. I offered to pay for it but Glen said not to worry that he could fix it. Cool. Once we got unloaded and everything back to the room..I caught up with Glen to settle up for the day. The boat (pretty nice), gas, case of beer, water, ice, and bait...came to $270 total. It was WELL worth the money. I will do the same next time I'm down...probably with friend/family. A great time and Glen took care of all of the details. I really can't say enough about how nice of a guy he is. He did give me a hard time about releasing all of the fish I caught that day. He said they were perfect eating size. All but the parrott fish looked too small to me...and I didn't know people ate parrot fish. Quality operation and reasonably priced. We were planning on heading to Myett's for dinner but Glen said Big Bannana was just as good and a better value. We cleaned up and headed over there for dinner. I had the ribs and Shelle had the roti. Both were just great. We had another little kitty join us that night too. It was a great meal to end a fantastic day!!!

Mon 5/23 - The plan today is to rent a jeep and explore the island a bit and Bomba Shack that night for the full moon party. After breakfast at..you guessed it..Rhymers..I headed over to Dels to get a jeep. The guy there said to check back in an hour and Del would have a jeep for me. So, I decided this was good chance to check out spot and the east end of CGB where I saw lots of birds working some baitfish. I went back to the room...grabbed the rod... and walked down the road that leads to the east point of the bay. It was very rocky..and right of the rocks the water was dark with baitfish...and LOTS of tarpon. I almost messed my britches when I saw them. There were probably 50 fish ...all very big...slowly rolling through the bait gorging themselves. I was very excited at a chance at my first tarpon. I casted for about about 45 minutes trying different lures. The fish were very focused on the little baitfish. I finally got one to take a plug (looks like a fish..with lots of treble hooks). It immediately came out of the water and danced across the top. About 20 minutes and three more jumps later...the fish was tired. I had no idea what do do next. I was balanced precariously on the rocks and there was this huge fish (60-70lbs) with a bunch of treble hooks in its mouth. For one..I could barely pick it up..two..I would probably fall on the rocks in the process...three..the fish had a mouth full of hooks that I didn't want in my hand. There were some guys pretty close in a dingy that came over to watch..and tons of people watching from their sailboats. I trying to yell to them to come over and help..but just about that time..the 30 lb flourocarbon leader finally wore through. I was relieved..though I would have liked to get a better picture. The only picture I got was while it was still in the water and you can't get a good perspective of it's size. I didn't care that much though. I had a great time fighting it. I picked up the jeep on the way back to the room. We decided we would check out Road Town for the afternoon. It didn't take me long to get used to driving on the left. It was so fun driving that little pseudo-jeep (Suzuki Sidekick) on those roads. We got to Road Town a little before lunch. Got lost trying to find some shopping/eating/drinking spots as I didn't have a map. We eventually found a parking spot near the round-about. Walked around a bit...got some cash from the ATM...did a little shopping...tried the roti at Mid-Town Cafe (a locals spot) and it was great...drove around Road Town a little more before heading back to CGB around 4pm or so. Went over to Stanley's for happy hour and decided to just do a burger for dinner. We cleaned up and made it over to Bombas at about 9ish. As expected...it was a crazy scene. We had a great time though. Ran into the NC folks we met at the Soggy Dollar the day before. I don't have a lot to write about the Bomba party. Honestely I don't remember a whole lot:) I just remember I had a great time and it was a crazy scene. Remember talking to LOTS of people. Everyone was very friendly.

Tues 5/24 - We woke up and decided to change it up a bit for breakfast and do Big Banana instead of Rhymers. I had the coconut pancakes and Shelle had an omlette. It was good, but Rhymer's is still my favorite spot for breakfast. Today was our day to explore the west end of the island. We were going to stop off at Smuggler's Cove for some snorkeling..then head further west to Sopers Hole. We stopped at Nan's little road-side art/pottery stand. Cool stuff. Bought a nice hand-painted bowl. Made our way to Smuggler's. We followed all of the signs and drove some roads that rquired 4wd due to the mud...but never found Smuggler's? We decided to just spend some time on the beach at the west end of Long Bay. Nice and hardly anyone there. Tried to snorkel a bit but the water was too cloudy with sand as the waves were fairly high. Still fun though. Stayed there for a few hours then headed further west to Sopers Hole. Got to Sopers and stopped in to the Jolly Roger for a few drinks. Cool place. I wished I was hungry as the food looked great. Drove around Sopers a bit then headed back to CGB. Shelle wanted to make sure she had some more roti before we left Tortola..and we hadn't heard of any restaurants in Anegada serving it..so...we decided to Big Banana again for dinner so Shelle could get her roti fix. I opted for the BBG chicken. Dinner was perfect. Love the Big B.

Wed 5/25 - We woke up and had our usual breakfast at Rhymers. Today we were headed to Anegada. Our flight left at 5pm so we had some time to play in CGB. We went back up to the room and packed all of our stuff up. The woman at the front desk offered to store our bags for us while we played. We stowed our bags...then made our rounds to say goodbye to all of the folks that had been so nice to us. Then it was time for more Stanleys. Made it to Stanley's at about noon. Stayed there until our cab picked us up at 3:30 for the trip to the airport. I had originall asked the taxi guy to come at 2:30. When he got there at 2:30..he said I would get there too early and that 3:30 was better. He told me to go back to Stanley's and enjoy myself for a while and he would wait. Very cool. At 3:30 I found him drinking a beer at the little bar behind the Big Banana. That was very nice of him. The tirp to the airport was uneventful. Just great scenery...and great conversation with the cab driver.

On to Anegada!!!!! I'll post the report for that soon.

Here are the pictures for the Tortola/Jost leg of the trip.

http://www.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=23620389/t_=21609895