How can this be so long when I intentionally tried to be brief??

Thursday, April 5 – after working all day, drive to Buffalo from Oakville (Toronto area) to stay at Best Western hotel, meet up with rest of family group totaling 9 plus 4 friends who are on a separate boat

Friday, April 6 (Good Friday) – 7:00am flight, early to airport, discover reservation system has crashed and is not matching people to intended destinations, every person has to be checked and rebooked individually, takes us till almost flight time to get to counter to check in, then we get fast tracked through security, second flight on AA was half full so we stretch out, arrive on time in STT, $8pp taxi to Bunker Hill hotel, check in to standard rooms (realize now they upgraded us last time to superior, will never stay in standard again, worth every penny of the $30 difference as superior rooms have balconies, overlook STT and are renovated), love the pool and free breakfast, go into CA for short but successful shopping and find out stores close at 4:00pm on Good Friday, great dinner at Happy Buzzard a stones throw from the Greenhouse, $110 for 5 adults, 4 kids, and 3 rounds of drinks!! Back to the hotel for drinks on the upper patio till who knows when then off to bed. Even though it was Good Friday, the hotel told us where to buy beer as long as we only brought it back to the hotel to consume, there is a convenience store next to the hotel and another one across the street, I’d never go out at night alone even to the store, but we sent the guys and it was fine.

Saturday, April 7 – as the Road Town Fast Ferry is not yet running, we’re on the Native Sun ferry to Road Town via West End and arrive inside of 1 hour, $28/adult and $17/kid one way, get our boat – a 52 ft Jefferson from North South Yacht Vacations in Road Town, minor work still being done, Tico’s order arrives on time and correct, wait for Bobby’s and Last Stop Sports with 3 reminder phone calls but orders are perfect, finally get everything aboard and we’re on our way to Peter Island, grab a mooring ball in Great Harbour for the first time as we usually go into Sprat Bay, a little rolly as we were out a bit, next time we’ll anchor closer to shore, swam to shore with 4 kids, very deep till quite close to shore, was advised by owner of North South charters who happened to be on the beach that in a couple of weeks the old Prospect Reef watersports place will be up and running under new ownership, there’s a lot of work done with new gabion as well as tie retaining walls, kayaks already on shore and a brand new dock, the building appears renovated with a large patio area, we enjoyed BBQ dinner aboard.

Sunday, April 8 – my husband and buddy go diving to the Rhone (outstanding) with Paradise Watersports at Peter Island, the rest of us pack up the kids and dinghy to shore, met Conrad who is an older local blind man who took care of our dinghy while we were ashore and helped us to the beach, we made up a scavenger hunt for the kids while we walked the path past Sprat bay then onto Deadman’s beach, met up with Stephen at the beach bar and left $125 later (about 3.5 hours), kids loved the beach/water, met up with our divers who were just bringing back some cold beer for Conrad as a thank you, left for Great Harbour on JVD, visited my brother on his 59 ft Tarquin from VIP out of STT, then walked the town a bit and enjoyed a great dinner at Foxy’s, met Foxy for the first time and he recited a wonderful poem about Toronto and many points within our immediate area, his vast knowledge is very impressive and he seems to be a genuine and kind person.

Monday, April 9 – off to White Bay, my sister-in-law and her family plus mom dinghy around the point while me and hubby and our 2 kids (aged 10 and 11) elect to walk over the hill, I won’t kid you, it is definitely the same as the 15 incline on my treadmill but thankfully with 2 or 3 plateaus for a bit of a rest in the shade, lovely views, the down side was worse than the upside due to steep slopes, we made it to White Bay after 30 minutes and I would do it again, we stopped at Ivans then on to the Soggy Dollar for drinks and BBQ lunch (a must do for $10), looked around for HeatherlovesJVD but couldn’t find her, stopped at shops and Seddy’s then reportedly we dinghied to the boat where I took a short nap – one too many at the Soggy Dollar!! Enjoyed pasta night aboard. First time we’ve ever stayed in one place for two nights and it was very relaxing.

Tuesday, April 10 – left JVD for CGB, a great boat ride across and we were early and probably the first to get a mooring ball that day, but boy this place always fills up fast, we use a safety line for the first time and decide that we will look into the carabiner posted previously, we go ashore to get a couple groceries and see the kids already in the rough surf, hubby goes back to boat to get the wake boards and we sit and enjoy the kids riding the surf into the beach, we enjoy a rum punch from Rhymers using the DMG2 coupon and after many hours of watching the kids we make reservations for dinner at Big Banana, I bought a beautiful sarong at Lydia’s on the beach for my daughter negotiating a discount using Canadian souveniers, back to the boat to get cleaned up and a great dinner ashore at Big Banana with dancing afterwards, it was all you can eat pasta night for $15 so the kids were very happy! Always great sunsets here.

Wednesday, April 11 – one of my favourite days as we’ve got a long boat ride to Saba Rock, we stop along the way to snorkel Monkey Point and others go to White Bay on Guana, it is a beautiful beach and we are respectful to stay away from their beach bar as non-guests are supposed to do, the kids are back in the water snorkeling along the beach and having a great time, back in the boat we finish the run to Saba and enjoy swimming behind the boat once on a mooring, the current is really strong here and I was having some difficulty getting back to the boat between the current and the boat swinging around, we enjoy a fish and steak dinner onboard then go dancing to Saba Rock and close the place down. Earlier in the day, my newly romantic husband decides we should sleep under the stars and he brings our mattress up onto the bow where we spend every night afterwards under the stars counting shooting stars and talking long into the night about this trip, past trips and future trips, very romantic!! (hint hint to all the guys reading this)

Thursday, April 12 – my second favourite day, we boat over to Leverick and go ashore to pick up our 3 suzuki vitaras already in the Leverick parking lot from Speedy’s, our 3rd time renting vehicles from speedy’s in wonderful condition and perfect for our island tour, it was our first visit to Savannah bay and I still can’t believe how far we could walk out, back in the cars to pay at Speedy’s then off to lunch at the Top of the Baths, a great lunch, spectacular views and a refreshing fresh water swim in their pool, then on to Spring Bay for pictures among the boulders then through the Crawl to Trunk Bay for snorkeling and beach combing, my daughter says this is her favourite beach, I get misty as it’s also mine, a great moment!! We lose all track of time as we’re having so much family fun and forget to make dinner reservations at Leverick, when we return to Leverick, we leave the cars in the parking lot as directed and try to make dinner reservations, earliest is 8:30pm and that’s much too late for the kids, so dinner onboard!! But first, it’s happy hour at Leverick, so me and hubby and kids sit by the pool for a bit for drinks and freshwater swim then join everyone else on the boat for dinner.

Friday, April 13 – We were originally going to go back to Peter but decide on Cooper as we weren’t able to do our special birthday dinner for mom last night at Leverick, no problem as we know CIBC would be great, we arrive and swim ashore with the kids and beachcomb a bit before snorkeling Cistern Point where my brother-in-law spots a school of squid, dinner was very good and the calamari was outstanding, the wait staff are superb with the exception of one fellow who was not our waiter for long, my sister-in-law arranged for a special dessert for mom’s birthday with a candle she brought and card we all signed and the entire restaurant sang happy birthday (as you know all boaters would!!), another misty moment for the family. As always, the sunsets here are spectacular and we get misty about this being our last night on the boat, we go to bed for our last night on the bow and it is so bloody windy, every time we turn over the wind catches the sheets and parachutes them off us, after great amounts of patience, we elect to sleep on the fantastic custom twin couches with 4-foot square dining table in the middle of them on the aft deck and have a great sleep.

Saturday, April 14th – with much regret, we return the boat to North South and ferry back to STT, check into Bunker Hill Hotel, I ask if we could have our 2 rooms upgraded to superior and they agree at no charge to us, we go into town for some souvenier shopping and special purchases, I got the perfume I’ve been wanting for 6 months at A.H. Riise and we buy a lovely white gold ankle bracelet for mom’s birthday from a jewelry shop just past A.H. Riise (the one with the free samples of Cruzan – no relation to my ability to not remember the store’s name) and back to the hotel to get cleaned up for dinner, the kids are still in the pool, we decide to go back to the Happy Buzzard for dinner but they are closed up tighter than tight so we try the Greenhouse for a party of 9 on a Saturday night with no reservations, we were at our table in 5 minutes, the staff and manager there are always wonderful and it was a perfect choice for our last dinner in the Caribbean and a great place to give mom her special ankle bracelet (another misty family moment), back to the hotel for some drinks on the upper patio overlooking town then off to bed.

Sunday, April 15th – we wake up for news that our second flight from JFK to BUF is cancelled due to high winds, our friends are on the phone from the hotel to sort things out and we are advised to go to the airport early and work with the agents at the counter, after 3 hours at the counter we have a new flight arranged which is a bit earlier than our original, the STT to JFK flight is good except when we get close to JFK we drop quite a distance with people sick and crying and nervous, we land safe and with the help of the onboard flight attendants try to get out of the plane as we’re an hour late with less than an hour to our next flight, when we arrive in the terminal we’re told that our flight is cancelled and we spend many hours trying to find another flight which was confirmed for 3:30pm the following day, so off to a hotel in Long Island at our expense (weather is out of their control), the following morning we end up splitting into 3 travel groups as one group needs to pick up our cars in Buffalo, another group wants to go direct to Toronto and another group wants to avoid Toronto, we all end up home safe and sound a full 24 hours later than planned but no worse for wear.

All in all, a great family holiday, we tried some new things, went to some new places, I can’t believe how many more places we still need to see, we met many great people both boaters and belongers, we ate too much, drank too much and listened to the kids laugh all week and can’t wait to get back, we’re already planning for next year for just Jon and I and checked flight prices today and it’s only our first day back!

Sorry it’s so long, but you guys have been so good with info in your trip reports that I wanted to do the same to maybe help someone else out.

CanadianGirrrl