Hello old and new TTOL'ers!

I have been lurking in the shadows, reading about everyone's adventures, But, It has been many years since we last sailed these turquoise waters. Good things come to those who wait! We did have a charter booked, then cancelled when covid disrupted the world... then time simply passed. We last chartered the BVI in 2017 right before Irma, what great memories on SV Orion with my family!! I didn't give up sailing, actually moved a boat from Annapolis to Key West when a face mask was unfortunately fashionable, strange times,

With travel plans back to Italy started, this weekend our daughter texts "hey, sailing used to be OUR THING!, can we go??" Took us two seconds to reply, "YES" and after just a couple days we have a Lagoon on hold!

We are excited to start planning this July charter and I hope you don't mind that I pick your brains over the next few weeks. Feels good to be typing this, Cheers!

Hey Beerman, welcome back! Looking forward to hearing about your future adventures!

Welcome back..I'll be on island all of July..

Awesome Beerman. I had the same experience -- chartered in 2017, and not again until this past February. And it was indeed great to be back.

Dan

Thank you guys, I have been poking my head into TTOL over the years, just not as often as I should have! Dan I know it will be great! Back in the day when STJ was our yearly land excursion "for decades" we skipped a couple years, I may have teared up on the ferry ride over on our return, the islands are that special to us.

Malcolm, we do plan a night in CGB, if we can coordinate it would be nice to meet you in person, I've enjoyed your contributions here for years!

Best name on the forum - welcome back!

Thank you Steve74, have been spending so much time in Italy that I thought I might have to change the name...NOT! My wife just said our flights are booked, so this trip is officially happening!

Great to hear from you again Beerman. Always loved your posts and pics! Looking forward to your July posts! BTW - Go Hokies!

##TRUTH

Welcome back! Don't think I've ever met you in my "stalking" of TTOLers over the years since I'm more of a landlubber. But I plan on being there July 8 to 16 (also after a long absence) so maybe we'll exchange some adult sodas!

Isn't it strange how daughters never told you how great a time they were having, at the time. Then years down the line when they have to pay for their own trips, they remember how much fun it was when dad paid for a boat in an exotic location

Unfortunately our dates won’t align. Always fun to meet TTOL’ers!

My wife and I were sitting at Flash of Beauty last November when a group came down and someone walked over and said, Are you Adrian? Another TTOLer recognized me from my picture. Quite a shock, because when your sitting there staring out it seems like your at the end of the earth, but we enjoyed chatting.

That is funny, but our daughter has always told us how much she loved and appreciated our trips. She’s engaged now and I’m just happy they enjoy being around us old folks, even if I pay a little extra! 😁

It is interesting, our previous trip was also in 2017 before the hurricanes. We just returned from a charter aboard a Bali 4.6 last week. Enjoy the planning and anticipation. We found a number of places to be the same as always, and then others of course completely done over - most notably Saba Rock, BEYC and Marina Cay. We had a wonderful time with ten family members on board including two grandkids (5&7 y.o.). Everyone had a blast.

Crazy right! One year we were at Leverick and our daughter walks back to the boat laughing and says "some guy just asked if I was "Beerman's" daughter!" I think it was Nick, miss that guy!!

Hey Adrian! That was me at Flash of Beauty in Nov. Then we crossed paths sailing the rest of the week. It was great meeting you and your wife. We are headed to the Exumas this year to get away from the crowds of the BVI. We always come back to the BVI.

Good to hear from you! Hope you enjoy the Exumas. We're headed back to BVI first two weeks of November.

I hope you post a report on your trip to the Exumas. I'm considering it for next year and would like to get as much info as I can (particularly Abacos vs Exumas).

Tmsxm: Abacos are a good choice for something different. But knowing your preference for monos, you may want to consider a small cat as it is skinny water sailing. Get the current sailing guide, it is perfect for first timers.

Thanks! Yep, fully resigned to getting a cat for this trip. I've been slowly warming to the idea anyway. I grew up racing and it was baked into me to really "sail" the boat - getting the perfect trim on the sails, just the right amount of weather helm, eyes glued to the telltales, etc. I just couldn't see trying (and failing) to do that on a cat sitting on a bench seat in a fixed position. As I get older and as we are now taking another couple, I'm finding that I'm less determined to do all that work. It's much more about comfort at the destination now than squeezing a tenth of a knot more out of the boat.

That said, on this last trip, the sail back from Norman to the base was just about perfect and would not have been the same on a cat (I think).