Our school district has a fall break in October, so we decided to take advantage of this time off. We had been in contact with our broker and he was setting up a list of boats to view. Hours were spent on the internet locating other boats to see, along with preparing for the trip. We had decided to charter a boat rather than stay in a hotel, so that we could easily move about the islands and take in as much scenery as possible. Plus, these were unsailed waters for us, so we were happy for the new experience.
After spending the night at the grandparents', we kissed the kids as they slept and slipped out the door. At 4am. Yep, we had a 2 hour drive to San Francisco to catch our 8am flight. Lots of coffee was involved.
After checking in and getting through security, which didn't take that long, thankfully, we made our way to the gate. We boarded fairly quickly and settled in for the long flight to Miami, our first stop on this journey. We had only about 30 minutes to get to our connecting flight to St. Thomas, so we were hoping that this plane didn't get delayed.
The plane we were on had this cool interactive screen in front of each seat. I loved playing around with the map, which provided all sorts of info such as length to destination, airspeed, etc. You could also watch a variety of movies (free), or play games. Future note: this will make flying with kids a lot easier.
We landed in Miami with just enough time to get to our next gate, which was already boarding. Noticed that not all of the planes have the upgraded tech we experienced on the first flight. Oh well, it was only 3 more hours. By now, it was dark, so there wasn't much to see out the window. This plane had overhead screens every few seats and played the new Star Trek movie. However, they did not provide sound, and our headphones were in our backpacks overhead. Didn't really feel like getting them out anyway, as we were tired by this point. Amazing how traveling can wipe a person out.
We landed in St. Thomas around 9:30 pm and exited the airplane outside. The heat hit us in a huge wave. Wow, what a difference from our cold weather on the California coast. After picking up our luggage (just one bag, that held stuff for the boat), we walked out into a flurry of activity. Taxi driving in the islands is a popular career and there were no less than 20 different taxis outside of this tiny airport. We hopped into one of the vans and sped off to our hotel for the night, Emerald Bay Resort.
What a beautiful place! Right on the beach (Lindbergh Bay) and the people are great! We put our stuff in the room, called the kids to check in and say goodnight, and headed out to check out the beach. We were given a welcome drink upon arrival, so we took that to the beach and enjoyed the view. The water was warm, again a stark contrast to our 50 degree waters back home. After spending about an hour relaxing, we decided to grab some sleep before continuing on our journey the next day. The time difference of 3 hours did not affect us as much as I thought. It was surprisingly easy to get up at 7am to find breakfast, despite it being 4am back home. We ate at Caribbean Fusion, which was on the hotel property, a lovely beach front restaurant. We sat at a table closest to the water and had our coffee. While we waited for our breakfast, it began to rain, so we moved inside. The food and staff were wonderful.
Around 8:30 am, we were checking out, when a couple offered to share their taxi with us to the ferry terminal. After chatting a bit, the woman mentioned her dad lived around the corner from us! What a small world! They left at the Charlotte Amalie terminal, but we had a boat to see in Red Hook, so David took us all the way to the other end of the island, "no problem".
What a beautiful place! Right on the beach (Lindbergh Bay) and the people are great! We put our stuff in the room, called the kids to check in and say goodnight, and headed out to check out the beach. We were given a welcome drink upon arrival, so we took that to the beach and enjoyed the view. The water was warm, again a stark contrast to our 50 degree waters back home. After spending about an hour relaxing, we decided to grab some sleep before continuing on our journey the next day. The time difference of 3 hours did not affect us as much as I thought. It was surprisingly easy to get up at 7am to find breakfast, despite it being 4am back home. We ate at Caribbean Fusion, which was on the hotel property, a lovely beach front restaurant. We sat at a table closest to the water and had our coffee. While we waited for our breakfast, it began to rain, so we moved inside. The food and staff were wonderful.
Around 8:30 am, we were checking out, when a couple offered to share their taxi with us to the ferry terminal. After chatting a bit, the woman mentioned her dad lived around the corner from us! What a small world! They left at the Charlotte Amalie terminal, but we had a boat to see in Red Hook, so David took us all the way to the other end of the island, "no problem".
David, our driver, was a cool guy. He talked about his visit to California and his hope to buy property there someday, how he grew up in Florida and moved to St. Thomas as a teenager and met his wife, how he splits his time working as a taxi driver and a construction worker, etc. He had all sorts of fun facts about the island and by the end of the short trip, we had a nice friendship going. He gave us his card, so that when we needed a ride back on St. Thomas, to give him a call.
We arrived in Red Hook and the terminal happened to be right next to the marina, where the boat we hoped to see was berthed. This is where we began to learn that our broker was not really doing his job. In fact, he hadn't confirmed anything with the owner's broker at all. Needless to say, we only saw the boat from the dock. The owner's broker said that they could possibly arrange for another viewing on our return trip to St. Thomas on Thursday, so we set that up and went on our way to secure tickets for the ferry ride to West End, Tortola.
It was now around 11 am, so we grabbed a cold drink (ice water and soda; which by the way, we probably drank more cold soda on this trip than we've had in the past year), filled out the customs forms, and waited for time to board the ferry. 11:45 am rolled around and it was time to go. We initially sat up top, as we wanted to take in the view of all the islands, but a rain shower and lightning put a stop to that plan.
It was now around 11 am, so we grabbed a cold drink (ice water and soda; which by the way, we probably drank more cold soda on this trip than we've had in the past year), filled out the customs forms, and waited for time to board the ferry. 11:45 am rolled around and it was time to go. We initially sat up top, as we wanted to take in the view of all the islands, but a rain shower and lightning put a stop to that plan.
We sat inside the air conditioned cabin and watched the islands and colorful water pass by. We docked around 12:45 pm where it was pouring. Thankfully, there were many taxi drivers waiting. One lady motioned for us to go to her van, where we escaped the showers. Another couple joined us, and turns out they were from Gilroy! Again, what a small world. We were treated to a scenic route of the island, going around Cane Garden Bay and eventually cutting down along the middle of the island towards Road Town. Port Purcell is where the boat we chartered was located. All in all, it was about an hour's drive.
We chartered Amethyst, a Beneteau 34, through BVI Yacht Charters (used VI Sailing initially and they set it up through BVIYC). By now, it was around 3pm, and if we wanted to leave port anytime soon, we had to get a move on. Sailing at night is not allowed.
Since we have our sailing certification, checking in was a breeze. We had a quick chart briefing (we also took a course online, so this made it even quicker), Tony took us through the boat and showed us all the systems, etc., and by 3:30pm, we had our empty packs on our backs and were walking to the nearest grocery store, Rightway.
It was about a 10 minute walk, (watch out though, because there aren't any crosswalks, and we had to remind ourselves to adjust to the fact that they drive on the opposite side of the road) and we thoroughly enjoyed the AC once inside the store. Provisioning in the islands is definitely more expensive than the mainland. I enjoyed comparing the prices though, when I could. Many of the items did not have a price on the shelf, so we were sort of guesstimating how much things cost. For the prices I did find, you can basically double the cost from the mainland. There were many brand names we recognized, although definitely not the big selection we are used to. One costly item was apples. It was $2 for ONE apple! One roll of toilet paper was $1.79 (yep, one ROLL, not a package).
We met another cruising couple while shopping and chatted up awhile. When we got to the butter, we both exclaimed how we couldn't possibly use up the double containers that they were sold in, so they said to meet them up front and they would give us one of the tubs. Cool! We checked out and all in all, it was about $170 for the week. We filled our packs and ended up having to buy a couple of plastic bags to carry it all. Our menu contained fish, sandwich makings, salad, bbq items, eggs, pancake mix, jam, coffee creamer (we brought our own coffee and pasta from home), pasta sauce, and light snacks. We didn't get ice, but since the boat had a fridge and freezer, we figured we didn't need any. We bought the nice couple their bags (to pay them back for the butter), and headed out. Next door, is a store called Cash and Carry, which sells bulk items (sort of like Costco). They had closed by the time we finished shopping, so I waited with our purchases while Jared went back into Riteway to get a case of water. We were advised NOT to drink the water on the boat. While reading online, I read about how you never know when the water tanks were last cleaned, so its best to use bottled water for drinking.
We made it back to the boat around 4:30pm and Tony said that since we knew what we were doing, he'd let us go ahead and leave port. He recommended sailing to The Bight on Norman Island, but we ended up going straight across to Peter Island and picked up a mooring ball in Great Harbour.
Turns out others had the same idea, because we had about 10 other boats in there with us. Not exactly the solitude we were looking for, and wow, did those people like to party. At one point, two catamarans had a music war going. A LOUD music war. One even upped the ante with a rainbow colored light show. It made fun entertainment for all of about 5 minutes, before we swore we would do everything possible to ensure we never anchored or moored with these people again.
We don't begrudge them party time, however, we were tired from traveling and trying to sleep with all that racket was difficult. It was also HOT. So darn hot, because we failed to notice the entire anchorage was sheltered by the island, and to add to that, the boat did not have much ventilation. A couple of tiny hatches and a few even smaller porthole windows. Even with the windscoop up and fans going in the cabin, we were sweating like crazy. Jumping in the water to cool off didn't really help either. So, we kept everything open, despite warnings of mosquitoes (which by the way, we only saw ONE the entire trip, thankfully). Jared tried sleeping up on deck, but that wasn't any better. We learned an important lesson that first night: find an anchorage where the island is lower and allows wind to pass through!
Torola off in the distance.
We don't begrudge them party time, however, we were tired from traveling and trying to sleep with all that racket was difficult. It was also HOT. So darn hot, because we failed to notice the entire anchorage was sheltered by the island, and to add to that, the boat did not have much ventilation. A couple of tiny hatches and a few even smaller porthole windows. Even with the windscoop up and fans going in the cabin, we were sweating like crazy. Jumping in the water to cool off didn't really help either. So, we kept everything open, despite warnings of mosquitoes (which by the way, we only saw ONE the entire trip, thankfully). Jared tried sleeping up on deck, but that wasn't any better. We learned an important lesson that first night: find an anchorage where the island is lower and allows wind to pass through!
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