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We had a very busy couple of days after dropping” the ladies” off at the airport. As soon as we got back to the boat it was time to pull anchor and head back to Road Town where we could clean and prepare the boat for a showing over in St Thomas, US Virgin Islands. There had been a ‘mini’ boat show with a few boats that had been organized by our agent for earlier in the week but we weren’t able to attend because we still had guests onboard. One of the brokers asked if we could still come over to meet her and let her have a look at ‘Sophisticated Lady’ sometime this season, but being we were booked for quite a while the only time available was during that weekend before our next arrivals on Monday which meant we had to hustle! We cleaned and scrubbed the boat inside and out, filled up the water tanks and headed over to St Johns in the US Virgin Islands. We just loved Maho Bay where we had spent Christmas Eve with our friends so decided it would be a great ‘half-way’ point to spend the night. It was a beautiful evening with lots of stars and we enjoyed some quiet time on deck before calling it an early night. The next day was Friday and we didn’t have to be in St Thomas until Saturday morning when we had booked a slip at American Yacht Harbour for our meeting so we headed over to Cruz Bay, a cool little island town that we really enjoyed the last time we were there. It is packed full of colorful shops and people and we enjoyed just wandering around checking everything out. One of our friends owns ‘Joe’s Rum Hut’ there, a beautiful bar right on the water with a spectacular view, especially at sunset… we stopped in to say hi and found out there was going to be a party that night… sounds like a plan is forming! We headed back to the boat to drop off all the groceries we had picked up for our ‘boatshow’ the next day, and got ready to head back for the party. The beach was full of people and all the little bars along the waters edge were lit up and playing cool music so we headed along the beach stopping in each bar along the way and checking out the different atmosphere that each had to offer. When we got to Joes bar it was packed with people having a great time and Joe came over and even bought us a drink… very cool!! We hung out there for quite a while and then sampled a delicious piece of ‘island’ pizza before heading back to ‘Sophisticated Lady’ for the night. The dinghy ride from Cruz Bay out to Honeymoon Bay where we were anchored can be a little long, especially at night but it was so spectacular out this night, and the boat was anchored only a few hundred feet from one of the most beautiful white sand beaches in the islands that we got the idea we just had to go to the beach! We stopped by the boat to pick up Ashley and off we went! The stars were so bright and the crescent moon was just starting to re-appear, combine that with the lapping of the waves on the beach and the palm trees hanging overhead gently swinging in the breeze… we just laid out on the sand and took it all in the whole time thinking… are we really here… is this really where we live!! Sometimes things are just so beautiful around you that it becomes hard to imagine that you are lucky enough to actually be there enjoying it firsthand! It wasn’t too long before we were shaken back to reality when a wave much bigger than the rest came crashing ashore and completely covered us in salt water, lol… even the dinghy got swamped! Now the dinghy was filled with salt water and sand… and we were covered in it head to toe! We tried to rinse off in the ocean but the waves were all full of sand anyway so that wasn’t happening. We managed to get the dinghy pumped out and back in the water (the surf had really picked up) and we made our way back to ‘Sophisticated Lady’. The next morning we couldn’t believe how much sand we had tracked through the cockpit, even after thinking we had done a pretty good job rinsing ourselves off before coming aboard… now we had a boatshow in a few hours and had to re-clean everything! We broke out the hose and the vacuum cleaner and made pretty quick work of it actually, lol, but we were movin! We didn’t know how many people might come down as we had sent out an email to about 10 travel brokers on St Thomas and it was very short notice, and it was a Saturday, and we were the only boat in the show! We were pleasantly surprised when over the course of the day we had 6 of the companies we had emailed all came down to meet us and check out ‘Sophisticated Lady’. We had drinks and snacks out and had a very pleasant day sitting down with everyone and getting to know the people that would possibly be representing us in the near future. By 5:30 the last brokers had gone and we had dinner reservations for 7:30 so decided to take Ashley for a walk before we had to get ready. While walking we bumped into a couple with 2 dogs who were also liveaboards and had a really nice chat. Dana and Martha invited us back to their boat, a custom 65 foot sailboat named ‘Sarah Jane’ that they had just finished building about 2 years ago. They had already completed a circumnavigation on a 48 footer and then decided to go a little bigger. Well ‘Sarah Jane’ just about took our breath away… turns out Dana had been in the boat building business and this was his final piece that they were going to retire on. She was absolutely beautiful with a stunning pilot house, teak decks, dark blue hull, and the wood inside was just about to die for! Even their bathrooms were beautiful, right down to the gold inlaid dolphins in the sinks! It’s amazing the people you meet just walking down a dock and we enjoyed hanging out with them until we were almost late for dinner! We decided to go visit my friend Kevin, a chef from Toronto who I hadn’t seen in 14 years. I heard he had moved to the US Virgin Islands and started his own restaurant with his wife Laura. The restaurant was called Roberts American Grill, named after their oldest son. I found a restaurant guide for the islands and sure enough, there they were, and they were only about a 5 minute drive from our marina! I called them up and made reservations and by 7:30 we were on our way! What a gorgeous restaurant they have… right on a beautiful beach in a bay, and most of the restaurant was open air with big sliding glass windows to close it up during inclement weather. Their food was outstanding, every dish was a complete taste sensation… right down to their ‘Blackened Potato Salad’ which was like nothing we had ever had before! We tried to get the recipe but he said there was only 2 places in the world that served that salad and he was one of them, lol. They had a wine list that would impress anyone and served up a Californian Cabernet at such a perfect temperature it went down as smooth as water! That was a nice surprise after being in the French side of St Maarten where they served red wine ice cold…. The next morning we had Dana and Martha over for a visit before we headed off on our way back to BVI to pick up our guests the next day. We stopped at St John to spend the night but passed by Maho Bay this time in order to check out a new bay called Waterlemon Bay that Dana and Martha had recommended as it had great snorkeling around a tiny little island on the edge of the bay, and long trails to hike on and even old ruins to explore! We only had one night and it was already about 3pm when we got there so we decided to check out the snorkeling, and yes, it was great! We were out for over an hour and even shot some good underwater footage for our up-and-coming DVD! We stopped into Road Town the next day to provision for our charter, then headed over to Trellis Bay which is right beside the airport where we would anchor in time to meet our guests when they arrived. Bob and Cindy are onboard now and are a lovely couple… they are here as an early celebration of their 13th anniversary which is later this month and we are having a great time with them! They arrived late Monday evening and we welcomed them aboard with some ice cold Painkillers… a local drink which is the most recent craze of the Caribbean and they are delicious! We’ve perfected our new recipe with pineapple juice, coconut milk, coconut rum, and lots of Cruzan rum, the rum that is brewed right here in the Virgin Islands! Needless to say, many Painkillers were enjoyed by all before we called it a night… we had a big day planned for tomorrow!
Sundowner Painkillers in Trellis Bay We were all up early and ready to go, we pulled anchor and set sail across the North shore of Tortola for a 2-3 hour sail over towards Jost Van Dyke and our lunchtime stop at Sandy Spit… that lonely little island of sand with the lone palm tree hanging over the beach that was made famous as a Windows desktop a few years ago… there have many pictures taken of it since then!
Bob & Cindy on deck in front of Sandy Spit After that we plan on visiting our favorite spot… Diamond Cay! More to come soon… take care everyone!
‘Sophisticated Lady’ at anchor in Trellis Bay Cheers, |
