Hi all,
I finally am sitting down to write the report. Seems hard to get off the island time! Well, we got out of Houston rather early on Monday and flew into San Juan. There we had no trouble. I had worried before with hearing tales of lost luggage but it was a breeze. Next we hopped over to Cape Air and I was a little nervous. I had read resears trip report and he had written that his girlfriend was nervous on the VERY small plane. Joe was smart by never telling me that we were on the same kind. I don't know now why I believed him when he told me he wasn't sure..he was trying to hold out as long as he could! And yes, it was SMALL! Those of you who have gotten the link see us sitting right behind the pilot! Turns out he was just as rattled as me!
Two ferry rides later we were in paradise! The first thing I did was go see Gertrude and Olga. What wonderful women. We went up to our Perfect Pineapple #4 and checked it out. It was great. There are lots of pictures of it as well. We were very pleased. I particularly loved the early mornings out on the porch. There were no "busy" noises around. Just the sound of the doves (beautiful) and Gertrude's rooster.."Auntie Gertrude"! There were quite a few lizards too..they eat noseeums! We were great friends!
We ate breakfast at Sandcastle pretty much every morning. It was incredible. Rum french toast one morning and banana pancakes the next. Our favorite was the cheese omlet. We had dinner there a couple of times too. The Saturday night Beach Kebob night was outstanding.
We had barbque at Ivan's on Thursday and I highly recommend it. We had such a great time there. Gertrude and the boys came down and Reuben was playing. It was a perfect night.
We also had lobster at Abe's twice. The noseeums were a bit more down there so I will use more OFF the next time we go. They serve it with melted butter with lime juice in it. YUM!
During the days we hung out at Ivan's or at Gertrude's. The hammocks at either place are great.
I guess here is as good a place as any to put the Hobie Cat story..right Roger? LOL
Well, we met this great guy, Todd, that had rented the cat from St. John. He invited us (Joe,Mark and myself) to go sailing up to Sandy Spit. I was nervous about it but it was a pretty day and I hadn't been up there yet so... we went. We took our snorkling gear and some granola bars. We had a bottle of water and our flip flops. Away we went. Since the wind was coming from right over Sandy Spit, we had to "TAK" over there. (that means zig-zag to catch the wind) So, on our 3rd TAK we started to take on water. Soon Mark had to get off and start kicking from behind. Next was Joe and soon after, it was me. All three of us were WAY out and kicking across to the nearest beach which happened to be Smugglers Cove on Tortola. We were about a mile and a half to two miles out. I was pretty scared. We were all trying to be positive and smile while we were out there. I was looking down and I thought I saw "something" down there beneath us. I kept on going and had my fins on hoping it would help. Oh, did I mention it was dead still out there. No wind at all. As we got closer to S.C. we encountered the VERY rocky cliff on the right. Somehow we kicked right past it. Todd was steering the best he could from up on the tarp. We entered the cove and it went from bad to worse. Soon Stevens saw us out there struggling and came running down the beach and rocky shore. He was yelling at us to "avoid the reef"!! Great I thought. I tried to yell back and find out where it was but right then it started to pour down rain. I swear it was bouncing right back up in my eyes. Joe and Todd were trying to walk the boat around the rocks but it was no use. Right then my knee kicks a big rock of coral. I looked under me and could see we were right on top of the reef. Almost right away it was 5 inches under the water. There I was..waves rolling over the top of my head pushing me back into it. My fins were still on my feet and I couldn't get my balance with the waves enough to get them off. We were also pretty weak from all the kicking. I kind of lost it so to make a long story shorter..Stevens and this other guide made their way out and helped me up and got me out. We were all so lucky to only get the small coral burns that we did..and no sea urchins got us. This story goes on and on..sorry! We ended up trying to get it pulled back to JVD and it really sank then. Back to shore again for the second time. Todd wanted to stay with the Cat so Joe, Mark and I took the 6 o'clock ferry back soaking wet and with our wits shaken a bit. We had dinner at Sandcastle and had a bottle of wine. That is when Mark told me he saw the sharks too! Sigh..All's well that ends well!
<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />
I finally got back in the water the next afternoon and snorkeled again. I have to say that the snorkeling there is wonderful. We did it several times.
We got great tans and met some of the nicest people we have ever met. We actually met snowhaters there and had dinner at Gertrude's with them! Wonderful people! (Hi Laurie and Brad)
Thank you to everyone who made this trip better with all of your help beforehand. It was so cool to have the things that made our trip better(like the flashlight) and all of the snags never happened that normally do because we were so prepared! (don't count the cat) And the TTOL hat and coozies made it easy to find each other there too! Joe had his hat on everyday.
We are counting down the days till July! Hope to see some of you there.
If anyone wants a link to our photos please PM me with your email address and I will get it to you asap!

Heather