This morning we dinghied over to shore to tour the shops and artists’ wares at Trellis Bay.
Welcome to Trellis Bay.One of the bathyspheres that they cut away to make the fireballs for the full-moon parties.
We missed Full Moon by about a week this trip. Next trip we’ll definitely have to book during a Full Moon!
On the sail back to Fat Hog’s Bay today, Susanne was at the helm and Laura worked the lines by herself. They’ve both done really well with learning the ins and out of the boat, and they’re bonifide sailors now!
We got to the marina in time to finish up the closing paperwork on the charter. We’ll spend the night on the dock, since our flight leaves at 7:30 AM tomorrow. It’s a bittersweet day. Sad that it’s almost over. But ecstatic to use the showers at the marina!
We walked over to Red Rock for an amazing dinner. A perfect last supper for a fantastic trip. So many great memories and experiences. As always, I already can’t wait to come back.
This morning we are headed to Virgin Gorda to see the Baths – always an awesome sight no many how many times you’ve been before. The winds and waves were strong, but not too strong. We made it to the Baths with one tack.
Heading to Virgin Gorda
When we arrived, the mooring field was already full, so we had to wait a bit for a ball to free up. One finally did, and when we tried to get the ball, we approached it from windward – a mistake in our haste to get the ball. We drifted too quickly after hooking the ball with the pole, so that we had to drop it and the pole in the water. I jumped in to retrieve the pole and we were able to hook it the second time, before the other circling boats did. Never a dull moment.
Approaching the Baths.
There was a yellow flag warning at the Baths, so the swim from the dinghy dock to the baths was a challenging one. Some of the sights from this trip to the Baths:
Looking out at the mooring field from the Baths.A view from inside the Baths.A tide pool inside the Baths.
We all enjoyed a cheeseburger in Paradise at Poorman’s Bar at the foot of the hill. For extra points, we all had to execute a dinghy flop one more time for the ride back to the boat. No pics of that, though. 🙂
After the Baths, we headed for Trellis Bay on Tortola to spend the night. We hit the Loose Mongoose for happy hour ashore (and a quick update on the Final Four and Championship game).
Sunset over Tortola – from Trellis Bay.
Then headed back to the boat for our last dinner aboard, and we played Rummikub until we couldn’t keep our eyes open. Noone made it ashore to watch the NCAA Championship game.
After the marathon day we had yesterday, we’re taking it easy today. We all dinghied over to Cistern Point and snorkeled for quite a while.
More swimming with the fishies.
Between Cistern Point and our boat, a turtle was hanging out. He was one cool dude – he didn’t mind that we floated close by to watch him for quite a while. These are the best pictures I’ve gotten of a turtle of all my Caribbean trips. I like how the colors get clearer and more vibrant as he gets closer to the surface.
The guys are headed back to Jost again today. Tan-a-na’s crew leaves early tomorrow morning, so they are headed back to Tortola to spend the night at the marina. After lunch we shopped ashore and enjoyed people/boat watching all afternoon, before hitting happy hour again on Cooper.
Cooper Island palms.
For sunset, we dinghied out to the mouth of the bay, beyond the anchorage, to get an unobstructed view of the sun setting over Tortola.
We headed out early this morning, by 7:30AM. Winds are still 20+ knots. 3-5′ seas, very rough. Luckily the rain seems to have passed. We sailed it to Soper’s Hole, to go through BVI Customs & Immigration again. We picked up a few more provisions there, but quickly headed back out to make Cooper Island by sunset, and join up again with Maggie and Tan-a-na.
The BVI Spring Regatta is in full swing this week. We got a front-row seat of some of the races as we cruised across the channel to Cooper Island.
We pulled into Machioneel Bay at 4pm, at exactly the same time Maggie did. After a quick dip we all met up at the Cooper Island Beach Club for Happy Hour and dinner. It’s good to have the gang back together.
The winds have turned nasty, 25-28 knots out of the east. Here in Lameshur Bay, we are very protected, so you’d hardly notice. We’re staying another night. Tan-a-na is going to make a run for Road Town on Tortola to check back into the BVI, as they discovered an error with their visas – they expire today, instead of the day they leave. The guys are heading back to Jost, I think, for the night.
So we look forward to a very relaxing day and night here. We made the right decision, as Tan-a-na told us that they had a terrible passage to Road Town. 6 foot waves, 28 knot winds, rain. Once in Road Town, the winds were so strong, they couldn’t get an anchor set, so they made a run to Norman for the night.
Nestled into Great Lameshur, we went for a long snorkel this morning.
Fan coral.A pair of cuttlefish.Now, what is it they say about snorkeling among a school of baitfish…?Rugged beach at Great Lameshur Bay.
In the afternoon Susanne, Laura and I headed ashore to hike the Lameshur Trail. We got lucky and missed the rain completely. We had gorgeous views from the hills along the trail.
View from the Lameshur Trail, overlooking the plantation ruin and Little Lameshur Bay.View from Lameshur Trail. Great Lameshur Bay in the distance, Little Lameshur Bay in the foreground. That lone boat in Great Lameshur is ours.Hermit crab on Lameshur trail.Looking SSW from Lameshur Trail. Reef Bay in the foreground.
Another dinner aboard tonight and then we will head back to the BVI in the morning.
This morning we topped up the water tank, got some ice and emergency provisions (i.e., Dove Bars) before heading out from Great Harbour.
Dove Bar wisdom.
Destination: St. John’s of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Since we’ll be leaving BVI and entering USVI, we have to visit Customs & Immigration to check out before leaving here, and check in at Cruz Bay once arriving in St. Johns. This is our first time to go to USVI by boat from BVI and deal with the Customs/Immigration thing. I’ll let you know later if it’s worth it.
We didn’t go ashore in Cruz Bay other than to clear customs. We caught a ball in Caneel Bay and ate lunch, then waited through some rain showers for the other 2 boats’ crews to come back to make a plan for the night. The original plan was to stay in Leinster Bay on the north side of St. John’s. But we’re getting intermittent rain stroms, and the wind is really kicking up now. So, the NE swells would make for a very rough mooring. Instead, Monte suggested Lameshur Bay on the south side of the island. Maggie stayed in Caneel Bay, since they were unable to anchor if it turned out they didn’t get a mooring ball. But Tan-a-Na and Jim’s Dream decided to make a run through the rain for a very remote and unspoiled Great Lameshur Bay, and got two of the last remaining mooring balls in time to watch a beautiful sunset.
A rain shower in the distance, from Lameshur Bay.Sunset over Great Lameshur Bay, St. John’s, USVI
We got up and headed out for our first snorkel of the trip at the Caves in Privateer Bay on Norman.
Afterwards we sailed to Great Harbour on Jost and all three boats met up again.
We took the taxi-ride-from-hell to Abe’s in Little Harbour for dinner: 11 ginormous lobster, many painkillers from the honor bar, and nonstop stories and laughing. 🙂
It’s a good thing we ordered “medium” sized ones, i’d hate to see the “large” ones!
Afterwards we spent the evening dancing at Foxy’s – and seeing some of the more bizarre sights of the trip.
We enjoyed a nice night on the boat last night, and spent a leisurely morning at anchor. We were back home in time for me to bake a cake for the birthday boy. And, taking liberties with being the big kids that we are, that’s what we had for dinner! #notgonnagrowup
What a party! John and Debbie were awesome hosts for the ball last night. Dancing and merry making ensued til the wee hours. Today we’re headed for home. But first we drove around town one more time.
This is a shot of the lovely cathedral downtown:
One of the trees along the parade route, be-decked with beads:
We met Asha & Shekhar, Maxia & Ralph, and Patrick and Rita for brunch at Blue Dog Cafe. The food was absolutely DElicious. If you are anywhere near Lafayette you should stop in for a bite. The place is lined with artwork from George Rodrigue, a native of these parts, and who also co-owned the cafe until he passed away last year. I took a shot of one of his many works in the cafe:
We made it back home tonight, and were greeted by temperatures in the 20s! Brrrrr.
On the drive home today I saw that the bluebonnets are already in bloom along Highway 71 (!) Early, but hopefully a good year for them.
1 lb mussels, 2 cloves sliced garlic, 1 diced shallot, 1/4 c chopped parsley, several stalks of thyme, pinch of salt, dozen or so pieces of saffron, tbsp butter, 2 cups white wine.
Toss all but mussels in skillet, bring to low boil for 5 mins. Add cleaned mussels. Cover and cook for 10 mins til mussels are open. Shake pan a few times. Add a couple pieces of toast and yum!
Tonight Monte made pasta. I “helped” by hovering over the stove while he was making a light white wine sage cream sauce repeating how hungry I was.
Homemade pasta is nothing short of amazingly delicious. We have pasta roller and pasta cutter attachments for our KitchenAid mixer that make the prep pretty easy.
He used Mario Batali’s recipe for basic pasta dough. You can find a version of the recipe here. He made a smaller batch (3 eggs and 2.5c flour) and kneaded it for 10 mins, letting it rest for 30 mins before rolling & cutting. Here’s the finished product. We cut it fettuccine size. Yummmmmmmm
Sheila365 