Caribbean Cruising

We are finally back from our week-long sailboat adventure in the Caribbean. There are countless stories to tell and numerous pics to post - I hope I remember half of them (unlike others on the trip, I did not keep a diary!). So, I will do my best to recap the trip and all the sights and hopefully share some funny stories along the way.

Day 1: Robin and I leave for St. Thomas (who the heck booked the 7 AM flight out of DFW???) and are picked up by a Lincoln Towncar which has part of the side of the car pressing in on the tire. Let's just say that made for a quite harmonious ride to the airport. Anyway, we arrive safely and are met at the airport by the crew of the sailboat Persephone, who happen to be holding rum punch in hand. No matter how long of a day it was, a little rum punch is sure to pick one up! We walk across the street to the beach where a dinghy is waiting. We load up our luggage and off we go to the sailboat Persephone for cocktails, steaks on the grill, and conversation with Robin's friends from his sailing days. Here we are making our way to Christmas Cove in St. Thomas for the night.

Day 2: Robin and I head over to Red Hook to pick up our charter sailboat from Island Yachts. Our 42' bareboat is named Sweet Dreams. While Robin is getting the crash course on the ins and outs of the boat, I make my way over to the supermarket to purchase provisions. Let's just say that consisted of a lot of beverages and mixers as your truly does very little in the way of actual cooking at home, much less on a boat! We then sailed out of the harbor cautiously, as Robin didn't want to damage the half million dollar boats around us, and were off to Jost Van Dyke to meet up with the rest of the crew.

As it turns out, Robin's parents were in Jost Van Dyke on their own motored charter boat. We were greeted by dinghy and soon made our way to shore to Foxy's. Their motto: Every Day's a Party! We had all-you-can-eat barbecue on the grill and consumed everything from red wine to Pain Killers (I'll define the pain killer later). At some point, the girls found themselves on the dance floor with none other than Foxy himself. Here are a couple pics of us enjoying the evening and, of course, the alcohol:


Day 3: After sleeping in and then reading 50 pages of my book, I still managed to be awake hours before Robin. How could I sleep in when this beautiful scenery was surrounding me?

Today, we headed over to Little Jost Van Dyke to go to the Bubbly Pool near Diamond Cay. It's a secret rock formation where the waves come in, break on the rocks, and produce a bubbly pool. We soon discovered the joy in sitting on the rocks and letting the waves come in push us off.


That afternoon, we were off to Cane Garden Bay, Tortola. We watched the sunset and some menacing clouds enter the sky while drinking gin and tonics on deck. Dinner was again ashore.


Day 4: We lost our "buddy boat" today, but no fear as we were on our way to Norman Island to anchor near the floating bar The William Thornton.


While we sat out on deck drinking our concocted Pain Killers (1 part pineapple juice, 1 part orange juice, Coco Lopez and too damn much rum), we watched the crowds move in to the Willie T. I had been looking forward to this outing for a while, as Robin kept telling me that a little flash of the boobs while jumping off the top deck equals a free T-shirt. Little did I know that they had stopped the tradition and I would have to settle with purchasing a T-shirt. Nevertheless, we made our way over to the bar around 9:00pm and continued the party. We ordered more Pain Killers and even partook in their infamous "Shotski" - shot glasses stuck to a water ski. There is also a picture of the Ship's Articles. Our favorite was #8: Body shots shall not be performed on mates whose navel capacity exceed 1 litre.


Day 5: We started off the day with a little early AM snorkeling at "The Caves" off of Norman Island. Basically, you can swim and snorkel inside the caves all the while seeing numerous nearby sea creatures. Thanks to Captain Robin, my mask was non-functional as he forgot to tell me to take off the protective sealant using toothpaste before I tried to cave dive.

We didn't stay long before we were off to pick up the parental units at Spanishtown, Virgin Gorda. Robin had his "Winch Wenches" during the sail as a member Karen from Persephone came to join us on the sail. The two of us managed the sails while Captain Robin was barking off orders. Here is us sailing as well as Persephone along our side.


We picked up the parents and then made our way up to the North Sound of Virgin Gorda to Saba Rock. Essentially, Saba Rock is the smallest island in the BVI and consists of a restaurant and hotel. We took the dinghy to shore, had another all-you can-eat buffet, and enjoyed the scenery of the Bitter End Yacht Club.

Day 6: Today we went back to Spanishtown, Virgin Gorda to see "The Baths". These are large, rounded rocks that form a kind of maze that you can navigate through. We swam to shore and climbed on and through different rock formations. The pictures are sub-optimal because they were taken with our underwater camera.

After spending an hour or two there, we made our way to Peter Island to meet up again with Persephone. We dined on homemade pizzas and you guessed it, Pain Killers, and we subjected to countless probing questions from Robin's father. My favorite: Where do you see yourself in 10 years (50 words or less)? Though Robin failed to mention seeing us together (I think that is a bad omen), I did manage to place him somewhere between my Porsche 911 and boy toy as one option and married with kids as the other option. This was the first time I have been confined to such a small space with any of boyfriend's parents - luckily, it went well.


Day 7: Today was pure luxury at Peter Island- in fact, it was well deserved as I had rationed shower water on the trip (thanks to Robin being the "shower nazi"), managed to shave my armpits only twice so far (and everyone knows how anal I am about body hair), wore no makeup for a week, wore my hair tied back which I only do at the gym, and somehow managed to survive without my flat iron. Today would be the first day that we actually spend the whole day ashore. We toured the island, ate lunch on the beach and then enjoyed a little private time on the beach.

We were off to the The Spa at Peter Island for a little pampering and most importantly, a long shower! My spa treatment consisted of coconut and brown sugar body scrub followed by a full body massage. 90 minutes of pampering, followed by a long shower and then the use of electricity was absolute heaven! We took the water taxi over to Road Town, Tortola that evening for dinner.

Day 8: Today was supposed to be our relaxing day. We were planning on anchoring in Salt Pond Bay, St. John, leisurely clearing customs as Cruz Bay, and them shopping at Mongoose Junction. Instead, I found out my grandmother had passed away and I was busy changing flights while Robin was taking the boat near the airport. An unexpected end to a great vacation, but I can't imagine her wanting me to be anywhere else.