We arrived safely, picked up the jeep and headed to Sonesta Maho. Promptly called Sharon Harris, she had a cell phone in my hand within 15 minutes. Very nice to meet her.
John asked Sharon if we should venture out to check out the island or hit the beach. Local advice rules…she said there was a problem on the hill and traffic would be bad. We stopped at the swim up bar, grabbed a carib and were off to the beach. Vacation just sunk in!
From all I learned on TTOL, I figured out quickly that the bar at the end of the beach was SSBB. We walked over and had some of the best conch fritters we have ever had. Another carib was in order and man was it cold.
First night we had dinner at Lee’s in Simpson Bay. Fresh Wahoo for John and fried shrimp for me. John said it was some of the best wahoo he had ever had. We ended up eating dinner there three times. If you like seafood, go to Lee’s!
We started out early the next day, intent on looping the island. We made it through Phillipsburg and onto Orient. We had an order of toast at Andy & Cheryl’s. Andy had made the New Jersey press and was handing out copies of the article. We caught the tail end of the Nekked Parade. John participated in the dollarbill chasing and walked with 5$. (just kidding)
Next stop was Grand Case, where we got a baggett and a croissant. It was still fairly early in the day, so not many people on the beach. It seemed so peaceful there. We made it back to Maho took a sunset cruise on the Lambada, then fresh lobster from Lee’s.
A day trip to Anquilla on the Tango was a lot of fun. We snorkled a small reef, then had lunch at Rob’s on the beach. I met a TTOLer on the boat, I think his screen name was Knoble? Anyway, he and his wife were very nice. By the end of the day, there were a few people that were just loaded, fall down drunk. Happy drunks, thankfully.
We went to St. Barts the next day on the Rapid Express. Seas were pretty calm, so it was a nice ride. Once we arrived, we took a taxi tour and saw the disco Jimmy Buffet owned and sang about, the one with bad wiring back in the old St. Barts. We stopped in St. Jean and enjoyed a day on the beach. Totally got ripped off at a restaurant called Nikki Beach. Twenty dollars for a diet coke and a Carib is outrageous.
The last full day was the best. We set out to Friars Bay looking for Happy Bay. A nice fellow pointed to the trail and we were off. Happy Bay is as pretty as I had read here. I had read that you have to hike to get there, but once we were there, 4 or 5 cars pulled up. So, you can drive there now. We stayed till noon, then set out to find more beautiful spots on the island.
We found the road to Pointe des pierres a chaux. If you have never taken that road, take it next time. We got to the end of the road and found some locals cleaning a bunch of fish. Very nice guy told us a little history of where we were. He called the beach to the right Bay of Creole. There were only 3 people on the beach. From what the local told us there used to be a resort there that was destroyed by a hurricane. The best part of finding this place was off to the right, a huge cave where water was rushing in from the ocean. We gathered some sea glass and were off to Cupcoy.
We had the middle beach, where the stairs go almost all the way down at Cupcoy, all to ourselves. Very romantic. As we were exiting the beach, John yelled woohoo, and it came back like there was an echo. Turns out, it was Danny returning the woohoo to John. Once up the stairs, Danny reminded us not to leave anything in the jeep. I had left a pink cover up, but it did not get stolen. I think Cupcoy was John’s favorite place so far.
Last night on the island, we went back to Lee’s for dinner. John had the wahoo again, and it was great again. Talked to Lee and he was free to fish in the morning. We had just enough time for a half day of fishing before catching the plane home. We hooked up about a 35 pound mahi mahi, saw the leader but did not boat the fish. They are excellent fishermen, checking the baits and switching them out when needed. Lots of fun.
Boohoo, race back to the hotel to shower, change, return the car and board the plane.