TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Trip Report Part 2 (Nov 16-19)

Here we go with Part 2!

Day 5: We’re headed to Cane Garden Bay, but made a stop at Monkey Point. This is a great snorkeling spot. There are about 5 (?) mooring balls there and the wind was howling through that little cove, but the snorkeling was fantastic! Lots of bigger fish and beautiful coral. We motored on to CGB and went ashore. Dropped off garbage and picked up a few groceries at the small grocery near Ryhmer’s. I think it’s called Paradise grocery. It’s a small store, but they seemed to have everything we needed (best prices on liquor for restocking). We lounged around the boat and in the water on our floaties. Finally headed ashore to Myetts for drinks & appetizers. They had live music – can’t remember the name of the guy but he was really good. Then we headed down the beach to Quito’s. Quito’s had great flatbread pizzas for about $14. It started to rain and ended up being a huge downpour. In a small break between showers we managed to get down the dock to our dinghy and back to the boat.

Day 6: Leaving CGB, we headed over to the fuel dock for fuel & water. It was really rolly over there. We had 5 fenders out, bow & stern lines and a spring line to keep us off the dock. There are no deck hands there to help – just one older gentleman to pump gas. One of the cleats that’s cemented into the dock, looks like it could come loose at any time and go flying through someone’s boat. We were glad to get off that dock and head to White Bay on Jost. We were one of the first boats there and grabbed one of the only mooring balls (there are 2) between Soggy Dollar and Ivan’s. There are a few more balls down by Ivan’s but not many.


Slowly but surely it filled up with boats (day trippers mostly) and a small cruise ship brought lots and lots of people over. We got there early enough to snag chairs right by the water and we lounged there after lunch.


Mic is no longer there (as most of you know). The girl behind the bar did a good job of keeping up with the crowd. To order lunch now, you go get a “ticket” and fill it out and bring it to an older woman named Claire who is not at all friendly. She was screeching “can I help the next person in line?!” It was pretty obnoxious and not the vibe we’re used to here. We ordered and waited about 1 ½ hours for lunch. The fish & chips were pretty soggy. My husband didn’t think the painkillers were as good. Could be a perception thing since Mic didn’t make them. Who knows. I think next time, we’ll stop for a pain killer, but then head down to One Love for the rest of the time.

Hopped in the dinghy to head down to Ivan’s and we were followed by a beautiful turtle!


We went to Ivan’s to see if the OSU flag we hung from our daughter’s engagement last spring was still there and it was!


Had a few drinks and watched the cruise ship people and their organized games on the beach. We left White Bay and headed to Great Harbour for the night. We swam and floated around for the rest of the afternoon. The Sunsail charter boat moored next to us had Zac Brown on board! One of our crew chatted with him at the bar at Foxy’s that night and he invited us to come over and jump off their bimini top if we wanted to. Pretty cool! While Foxy’s was open for dinner, their t-shirt shop closes at about 6:00 pm. We just made it in time to get a few shirts.

Day 7: We’re off to Norman Island and the Indians. We grabbed a mooring ball at the Indians and 2 of our crew snorkeled for a while.



Then we headed into the bight and grabbed a ball (near the Willy T) and headed over to snorkel the caves. All was fine until I spotted a few jelly fish and then I was outta the water. Maybe an irrational fear but they scare me and I wanted nothing to do with them (they probably wanted nothing to do with me either, but I wasn’t taking any chances). We headed to the Willy T for a drink before dinner. It was pretty quiet that night. After drinks, we went to Pirate’s Bight for dinner. This is a great place! The atmosphere was wonderful, food was fantastic and the service was top notch. Throughout the week, I made BIG progress on my Drinking Guide!

Day 8: We’re up at 6:00 am and off the ball by 6:30 to get back to TMM. Fuel dock opens at 7:30 and after our fill up we head to TMM. I call ahead for our dock assignment and find that we’re on C dock, starboard side. We round the corner to find that every single slip is full at TMM – double stacked everywhere and I’m thinking “you want us to put this boat where?!” Good thing Captain Andy is calm, cool and collected and with Travis’ help directing from the dock, Andy backed that cat right into the slip like it was no big deal. Since we were staying on Tortola a few more days, we let the crew shower & get off the boat to catch their taxi to the ferry dock. Andy and I stayed behind and cleaned up the boat and did our debriefing. Again, the TMM staff is so warm & friendly! (more on our Tortola stay in another report!)

It was a wonderful week and a fantastic trip! The weather was hot and we saw a little bit of rain (mostly at night), but not enough to affect our trip in the least. Chris & Olivia, who we didn’t know well before the trip, became good friends. We ate, drank & laughed till our stomachs ached!

(thanks for the t-shirts Mark!)

This was our 3rd trip to the BVI’s in the last year – and we’re already booked for April 2016. It’s addicting!

Julie

Loved reading your report!

Drinking Guide?? Tell me more...

Love it, thanks for writing the trip report. Its always fun to meet famous and infamous people. Yep, addicting.

Cheers, RickG

Great report Julie! Glad to see the weather and swells were cooperative enough to moor in White Bay.

I need to mark-off several places on my Drinking Guide in Jan-Feb. I always start drinking and forget all about the guide. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />

Great report CottageGirl! BTW, we met Mark 2 weeks ago at Beamers last home game in Blacksburg, he is good people, primarily because he fed us bourbon and cider <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />

Well done and thanks
Looking forward to hearing about your
land based adventures on Tortola

Mike

Awesome time had by all...yes those darn drinking guides...I now have two which have never been used.....same as you Michael ...always get too far into the drinking fun and forget the damn things. ... Maybe 2016?

sorry to hear that soggy has gone down hill ...but not surprised...I as most of you, prefer the other white bay spots and Ivan's ...

Sorry to hear Willys was quiet...we have always had WAY too much fun on all our visits.

Sounds like a super duper sailing week.

Can't wait to hear how you liked Sebastian's and your Tortola experiences. we will be bringing a newbie couple in March ( the same couple we sailed in .Greece with) and I would love to rent a car for a few days on Tortola to show them around. ..Ward and I have done this a few times but interested in what your highlights were.

Now that my DIF is severe I better get ready for work....yuck ....but it's Friday right? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />