Travel with Dale & Margaret

Today Geoff was up (again) at 5:45 am taking pictures and then promptly at 6:30 the engines started, the mooring line came off and we were on our way South to Cooper Island.

On the way, I called Colin, the divemaster from Jost Van Dyke Scuba and arranged for all of us to take the Advanced Diving class on Thursday and Friday at Normal Island.  This course gets you ready to dive deeper than 40 feet (which Geoff and I already can) and includes taking five more dives with an instructor and reading 5 chapters in a dive instruction book..

We decided to head for the Dogs.  Islands that is.  More on this when I get a chance.  We tied up to a National Park red mooring on the South side of “Great Dog”.  Jenn made some great scrambled eggs and toast before we jumped in the water to snorkel.  The snorkeling was fantastic with incredibly clear blue water, lots of fish and calm water.  (More later)

After snorkeling we dried off, unhooked the boat and headed South to Cooper Island which was about 7 nautical miles away.  At some point I’ll give you an overview of the BVI’s which I have been terribly negligent in as well as the history of this area which is actually quite interesting.  Stick with me and I’ll fill you in!

I’m on vacation after all and this vacation is a LOT different that being on a 65 day Regent cruise!  I also promise that each of the kids will write at least one post if for not other reason than I said they would in the beginning blog entry of this trip.  And, I’ll also threaten them that if they DON’T write one that I’ll do it for them.

I drove the last leg (on autopilot, don’t be too impressed).  It’s sort of like driving the cars at Disneyland’s Autotopia (probably don’t have that anymore but they did when I was five!) when it isn’t blowing hard and the seas are flat.  We rounded the point at Coopers and spotted several empty white mooring balls.  We voted and decided to pick the one closest to the beach.  We also noticed that this was the place where Geoff got his PADI certification the last time we were here…from Sail Caribbean Diving (or something like that, I’ll fix it later…it’s too dark to see it now).

Wes, Geoff and I swam the 100 feet to the beach, walked down about 100 yards to the Cooper Island Beach Club and checked it out.  Internet was $10/day (only accessible in the bar), the moorings were $25, paid at the bar or at the boat the next morning and, most important, Happy Hour was 5-6 pm and included 2 for the price of 1 Pain Killers and Bud Lights (we love promotions!).

Geoff and Jenny took the dingy to explore the island.  Wes worked on his homework and I worked on the blog.  When they got back from their island tour we decided to go snorkeling.  However, a 3 foot barracuda had decided to use our dinghy for shade and was just hanging out looking at us.  Whenever we stuck our feet or camera in the water he would slowly move towards us.  The pictures we took showed that he had some serious teeth.  Since we aren’t the bravest divers in the BVI’s we decided to go into shore and have some Pina Colada’s.  After all, we hadn’t had one yet today.  And that’s what we did…even without 2 for the price of 1!

Now that we had become a little braver and I had stopped by the Dive shop to find out if barracuda are man-eaters (they aren’t and there is no record of them eating cruisers in this bay — name coming) we went back to the boat, donned our dive gear, checked to see if the barracuda was still hanging out at the back of the boat (he was) and jumped off the front of the boat.  We went on an extended snorkeling tour up to the point towards Tortolla (to the West) and enjoyed it a lot!

There were interesting little and medium sized fish, lots of urchins, funny little fan-shaped animals that would withdraw their tentacles when you waved at them and, happily, no barracuda.  Well, that is until we swam back to the boat.  Jenny and I were behind Geoff and Wes.  I looked up to see them sitting on the back step and figured something was up.  Next thing I know I was about 6 feet from that big ‘cuda who was looking right at me.  I pointed to him so Jenn would see him but she still was surprised.  Geoff and Wes were laughing at us of course but we swam around the ‘cuda and got on the boat.  We are now fearless divers and ready for more surprises tomorrow.

Next came showers, taking out the frozen tuna, a bit of meal planning and then grabbing computers, camera batteries, etc. and heading over to the bar for those half-price beverages.  Interesting sunset while we played gin rummy and sipped on a couple rounds of pain-killers.  The stormy weather that was forecast was visible here and there, but not over us.  Throughout the evening the wind started shifting and ended up at dinner coming from the  North/Northwest so the boat ended up pointed in the opposite direction.  Geoff, Jenn and Wes headed back to the boat to make dinner while I stayed at the bar working on this article and charging my computer.  I met a nice German couple that had three daughters and took some pictures of the couple sitting at the window while the sun set (my idea).  It turned out that their boat was the one in the distance.  How perfect was that!  They are leaving tomorrow to head back home after 12 days of paradise.   Their daughters are lucky girls for sure!

Wes picked me up and we had a fantastic dinner on the front of the boat.  I was sitting in the outside table and it was HOT!  No wind was getting back there so I went up and continued writing this article with a beautiful breeze blowing in my face.  Within 15 minutes dinner showed up on the trampoline and it was spectacular.  It was dark but the lighting on the boat is quite good…but not as good as the salad, couscous, broccoli, grilled green and yellow onions and grilled tuna steaks.  Wow!  Jenny outdid herself tonight.

Reading books on the trampoline (it is too dark to read but Jenny says that an eye doctor told her that reading in the dark ISN’T bad for your eyes…that’s an old wives tale…I’ll have to check that out when I get home), finishing blog articles and just crashing before we head back over to the bar to finish the night and send these articles on the bar’s wireless internet (they charge but I’ll see if I can talk them out of it for the plug I’m giving them).  Wow…the Cooper’s Island Beach Club is the BEST! (that’s the big plug).

Up tomorrow early, motoring down to Normal Island and meeting up with the dive company for our advanced training.  We are planning on staying at Normal overnight and more diving on Friday unless something better comes up.

I have downloaded a lot of pictures but just don’t have the time to sort through them and integrate them into these articles.  But, I promise I will do it soon.  Real vacations are hell for bloggers!  By the way, the fish of the day was named ‘Cuda.  I wanted Barry but that name was taken last night by the real Barry.

Under VERY starry skies sitting on the front of our NoName catamaran #921 at Coopers Island, I’m signing off.

Well, except I just remembered that I didn’t pay the tab at the bar so I headed back in the dinghy, by myself and am now sitting at the bar finishing this article and getting internet connection to upload the last few blog entires.  And, for those who were good enough blog followers to get this far, here are a few random pictures from the last few days.

BVI Catchup 1 Picture Gallery: http://gallery.me.com/travelwithdmcontent/100734

BVI Catchup 2 Picture Gallery: http://gallery.me.com/travelwithdmcontent/100744

Ciao!

I wanted to call this post Anegada da Vida after one of my all time favorite songs from my high school and rock band era, Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” but I will spare you from that.  At the time it was the longest song at something like 12 minutes.  Followed by the Door’s “The End” — only then followed by the length of this post!

Up at 6:30 am, on the “road” before 7:00 am and heading North at 7.8 knots within 15 minutes.  Not a bad start as we need to travel approx. 16 miles from the central part of Virgin Gorda to Anegada Island, the northern-most outpost in the BVI’s.  We continued to make good time as we passed the “Dogs”, our unreached destination from the first day.

After about half an hour we ran into a big squall with hard driving rain that felt like hail on our skin followed by a huge, full rainbow over Tortola (nice!).  With Geoff as captain there is no turning back in our “NoName” boat # 921 so we charged ahead under full sails doing nearly 8 knots soaking wet.  The squall continued as the low lying island palms and pine trees emerged from the misty view.  There is no point on the island higher than 20 feet and 98% is probably only 4 feet high.  We jibed a couple times to kill some time until the storm passed and then carefully followed the marker buoys in and found a mooring ball that was in a good location reasonably near shore.  There are reefs everywhere and one area just East has over 300 wrecks!

The water was beautifully clear with various shades of blue.  Almost as soon as we had tied up a black guy with long dread locks, whose name turned out to be Barry, pulled up in a small motorboat to collect the mooring fee. He also gave us a menu for his restaurant on the beach, told us that we would need to tell him our order before 4 pm and that dinner was at 7:00.  He was very friendly, engaging and sold us on the dinner.  We put in our order right then and there and said it would be grouper, mahi mahi and lobster.  We are still wondering why it isn’t grouper grouper and lobster lobster as well.

We had a choice of taking a cab, a shuttle from one of the hotels or renting a car.  It seemed that the car was the best deal and most flexible so we did that.  It was a small car but quite new with manual transmission that was very European in that I could have driven it all day without going past 2^nd gear.  They told us at the rental company to drive only on the main road (there happens to be only one paved road on the whole island) except for a couple dirt roads that are “approved” to drive on.  Turns out that the dirt roads are really sand/ground up coral roads that had a huge amount of water on them from the recent rains.  It also turns out that even the paved road are only paved about 60% of the way around the island.

We did the best we could driving about and had a lot of fun in the process.  Of course, it was me driving and the kids spurring me on to go faster throught the huge puddles and pot holes to keep from getting stuck.  Getting stuck costs $300 to get a tow and I’m not sure if it was that motivation or just plain having fun that motivated their enthusiasm for this craziness!

We followed the “road signs” to Loblolly Beach at the end of the “dirt” road.   The place was deserted except for a black lady at the second beachfront restaurant/bar.  The wind was blowing like crazy and it was threatening rain again.  She said that we should snorkel  anyway if we are strong swimmers but go up the beach a bit as the current will carry us down the beach.  We did just that and it worked out great.  Funny things was, the absolutely best place was right in front of her restaurant.  The current was strong at first and the water shallow over the coral heads but further down the beach there were open areas about 10-12 feet deep surrounded by coral with small caves and lots of colorful fish.  Geoff also managed to find a 3-4 foot barracuda in a small cave-like area down about 10 feet and he slowly swam by us.  Another time a squid buzzed us, stopped for a bit but then, as I tried to get a picture of him, he squirted away at amazing speed!

In terms of driving on the island it is hard to believe that even with only one road that the signs are pretty much non-existent.  We attempted to take the connecting authorized dirt road several times but ended up at either dead ends or non-passable swampy roads every time.  So, we doubled back to the road we knew and went around the long way past the main town called “The Settlement”.

At the far West end of the island there was an indication on the map of “Ruins”.  Driving down that dirt road we came to what appeard to be a former collection of 6 bungallows that were built too close to the water and two of them had completely fallen into the ocean.  The whole area had been abandoned and it looked like it would make a good movie set for the Lost TV show.

We drove back to the traffic circle, took the 3 o’clock spoke and drove back to the Anegada Reef Hotel to drop the kids off with the skin diving gear and then down the street half a block to the car rental company.  They were closed but the guy who runs the gift shop kitty corner from them told me to just leave the keys in the car.  “It’s an island after all.  No one is going to steal the car!”.   I forgot to tell you that they drive on the left side of the road here (it is the British Virgin Islands after all) and we only saw two other cars all day!  Pretty amazing.

We had Pina Colada’s at the hotel which was open air (of course!) and walked back to the dock.  There were three local kids with a big pile of lobsters on a table cutting off their arms and legs with a big knife and cutting them in half.  Looks like our dinner has arrived!   Jumping in the dinghy Jenny pulled the starter cord and took us safely back to #921 (our poor boat still didn’t have a name on the side).   It was a beautiful night so we couldn’t resist just jumping off the back of the cat for a quick swim in the warm turquoise water followed by showers on the swim step.  A warm breeze was gusting from time to time and the sunset was nice enough for Geoff and me to take a few pictures.

After we all got ready Jenny drove us (she’s in Wes’s dinghy driving school) to the Whispering Pines restaurant.  This was definitely an outdoorsy, rustic restaurant with a very open air bar, tables of all shapes and sizes (and stability ratings and degrees of levelness) set up on the sand.  The bbq’s were made of cut steel barrels, the food was all prepared outside “picnic style” and the whole atmosphere was island outdoor party.  The kids were very excited about this.

We started with drinks (Geoff with his virgin drinks) and walked around a bit.  Geoff and I made sure we had our laptops and camera battery chargers plugged in.  We were seated at our “beachfront” table (doesn’t really do it justice…the pictures might) and waited for our dinner which came in about a half hour in “courses”.  The entrée was mahi mahi, grouper and a big lobster, then we had a nice salad followed by steamed vegetables and a baked potato.  The kids loved it!  Couldn’t beat the location as we were almost sitting in the water which was about 2 feet below us.

Barry (from the morning visit) came over and talked to us several times, sharing his insights into life, stories about Anegada, his former life as a keyboardist in the reggae band “Third World”.  I guess that was a good band because the kids had heard of it but I’ll have to check it out when I get home.   Throughout the night he gave Wes some key learnings including the judicious use of recreational drugs and going slow when having sex.  He apologized to “dad” (that’s me) but felt it important for Wes to know the important things in life.  We ended the night with another long conversation with Barry.  He’s a motivated and successful guy who has big plans for the Whispering Pines.

One interesting bit about Anegada is that only locals can own property.  And not just any locals.  They have to have relatives who have owned land here for generations.  Barry’s grandparents owned the property and he just became partners with his uncle in the business.  So, Geoff’s idea of buying a place on the water in Anegada isn’t going to happen (just kidding, sort of).

About 9:00 pm we headed back to the ship with our fully charged camera and laptop batteries, got ready for bed and played gin rummy until we crashed.  Wes won and Geoff, who was our coach in the game, lost.  It was a good time.  Jenny heard a squeaking noise and told Geoff about it.  Checking into it he found that our right rudder was just about to lose a nut off the retaining bolt and would have fallen off!  Good catch Jenn!  Geoff tightened it and it should be good for the rest of the trip.  One of the things that happens with a new boat on a shakedown cruise.  Good times!

The morning broke with copious clouds, some white and puffy, some dark and threatening rain and a shifty breeze blowing anywhere from 10-20 knots.  I walked to the Sunsail office to use their facilities and post yesterday’s blog where I ran into Alan the supervisor who gave us our orientation session yesterday.  He said the chart briefing would take place at half past eight (in his wonderful British accent) and jokingly reminded me that he would be expecting the tip I discussed yesterday for successfully moving it up an hour.  I said, “No problem, sir!”.  Jenny and Wes went shopping at the French bakery for some bread, cheese and other assorted goodies.

Geoff was anxious to get moving and, after our dinghy was brought by we started the engines, eyed an exit strategy, released our docklines and slowly worked our way around the monohull on our starboard side.  Geoff expertly controlled the two Yanmar 29hp diesels and had us heading into the main channel in a couple minutes.  The wind was now breaking 20 knots (1.2 X = 24 mph) so I drove while Goeff raised the main with one reef, deployed the roller furled jib and then killed the engines.  The rest of the day we were breaking 7 knots with an occasional 8 as the wind cycled from 22 to 28 knots.

Our original plan was to head to the group of islands just West of Virgin Gorda called “The Dogs”.  There isn’t anything on the islands but they have great skin diving and are pretty much where you need to sail to even if you are heading to The Baths on VG.  Tacking back and forth to the Dogs Geoff saw two larger cats that were sailing ahead of us and decided that the “race was on”.  After a couple long tacks we passed ahead of them and “won the big race!”.  But, all that tacking had eaten up the time that we had hoped to spend in the Dogs.

We decided to tack towards the Baths which is a beautiful area consisting of very large and colorful boulders, crystal clear water and interesting paths connecting the main area with Devil’s Bay.  When we got to the Baths there were no mooring balls to tie up to and anchoring can damage the coral at this national park.  So we headed North to the marina area where there was supposed to be good anchorage, instead found a decent mooring and tied up.

We then got in the dinghy and went into the harbor to pay as it says in the cruising guide.  Nothing doing…they said they will collect at the ball.  Took the dinghy about 15 minutes down to the Baths, tied up and jumped in for some skin diving.  The water was wonderfully clear and warm with a number of smallish colorful fish.  This is a national park and the area is spectacularly clean.  After swimming around taking pictures with the underwater Canon D10 Jenn and I went to shore to explore while Geoff and Wes were already climbing around on top of the massive boulders, probably looking for a place to jump off a cliff into the water.  Since we had been here on our last trip it was easy for Jenn and me to find the route through the huge boulders, caves with a foot of perfectly clear water and ladders up and down to go over to beautiful Devil’s Bay.

After showers Geoff started the charcoal on the BBQ off the back of the boat and managed to singe his sideburns and hair in the process.  But, after all he did needed a haircut and actually looked better after the process!

One of the things I failed to mention is that at Sunsail and Moorings over 90% of their boats were still at the docks.  Easter was a big week for them and just after is one of the slowest of the year.  So, we are lucky going about this week as the traffic on the water is way down.  Normally, their would be hundreds of people at the Baths.  Today there were only about six besides us.

At night, after we played a fun game of gin rummy we all got ready for bed.  While Wes was brushing his teeth, spitting his toothpaste in the water off the aft port side of the boat he discovered a large fish circling next to the boat.  We all went out to look and sure enough it turned out to be a 4+ foot”fish” that we later determined was a nurse shark.  It was about the size of the one we had seen diving on Sunday off Little Jost.  We had made and proven that nurse sharks love the taste of  toothpaste so Jenny named our new shark friend “Colgate”.  We had a good laugh about this and probably used about 1/4^th tube of Wes’ precious toothpaste on our experiment.  Good clean (teeth anyway) fun.

As I lay in my bed (bunk?) the wind is cycling wildly, turning the boat around constantly and gusting probably to 30 knots at times.  Having a catamaran is nice, however, because despite this the boat is very calm and it just lulls you to sleep.  And, with that I’ll have to say “Good night”.

OK, I’m now running low on D’s but tomorrow I’ll be all charged up again.  Today we got up early, ate some Cliff bars (I brought 3 boxes with me and they are all gone!) grabbed our bags and checked them at the front desk of the Long Bay.  The cab showed up right on time at 7:15 am.  Just prior I had a feeling I was forgetting something and double checked my camera bag.  I couldn’t find the Canon D10 water resistant camera and, when I went back to the room, I found out that it had fallen behind the drapes where my bag had been sitting.  Yes!!!  The cab ride was quick…only one more time over that steep and windy road!  Oh, make that two…over and back.

After a short wait at the Jolly Roger dock a small outboard picked us up along with the dive instructors and the boat captain for the day.  The weather had turned windy (as in, the wind was blowing!) and a bit gray.  We were getting wet on the 15 minute ride around the West end of Tortola to the South shore of Jost Van Dyke, a sleepy island where Jost Van Dyke Dive (JVDD) has their headquarters and store.  We got off that boat on the dock and walked to their store which is a short “block”, although they really don’t have blocks, just one dirt road…this place is pretty primitive.  We had been hoping for some coffee…the islands don’t start very early and, at 8:30 we finally found a bare bones bakery called Christine’s Kitchen (I think), got some very dry banana bread and a coffee.

Right about that time I figured out that I had left my dive booties, gloves and prescription mask somewhere, either the Jolly Roger dock or the hotel.  No problem, I grabbed a mask and snorkel form JVDD and was good to go.  The instructor grabbed an extra pair of fins just in case my fins weren’t on the boat too, which turned out to be a good thing since Geoff then discovered that he didn’t have his fins!  So we were both forgetful together which was a relief to me.

We motored about 10 minutes around the island and anchored for our first dive.  We donned our gear and sat on the edge of the boat and did a back flop into the warm water.  Jenn and Wes did the same with their instructor and went off for the first of three dives that would qualify them for their PADI certification.  I started taking pictures as we went down to 60 feet in reasonably clear waters and reefs typical of this area.  There were some parrot fish, angel fish, etc. and our guide pointed out some other interesting underwater life.  For some reason, my air pressure was dropping faster than the other two divers so, after only about 30 minutes we had to surface.  Of course, back on the boat they poked a bit of fun at me for taking too many pictures which used up my air (I didn’t really understand this…).

When all of us had taken enough time on the surface, we moved to a nearby area and Jenn and Wes changed tanks and went in for their second training session.  The rest of us did free diving which, it turns out, is more dangerous as a higher number of people die doing it.  August, our guide, when he was younger, could free dive down to 160 feet and some people can go to 200 feet or more!  That is simply amazing.  Now he can go to maybe 60 feet.  Geoff could probably go down to 30 feet and I could go down to around 20 feet.  It’s harder than you’d think!

After Jenn and Wes surfaced and got settled, we moved about 10 minutes to the East to Little Jost Van Dyke island which is REALLY primitive.  Meaning, nothing there at all, just a small beautiful sandy beach.  A number of sailboats were anchored off the shore as their owners explored the beach.  I decided to not take the camera on this tank dive because I didn’t want to be accused of breathing too much air!  Of course, as soon as we went down to about 30 feet, what would we see?  About a 4-5 foot curious nurse shark that came straight at August, almost poking him in the mask.  I was right next to him but Geoff was out in front.  We tried to get Geoff’s attention but after about 2 minutes he turned around on his own and swam after the shark.  Great fun!  The rest of the dive was down a slope to about 60 feet and then swimming around looking for interesting things.  Quite nice diving here.

Jenn and Wes finished their regimen and were now officially certified!  They were quite happy about this and were both are excited to dive more in the future.  Nice!

The ride back to the Jolly Roger was a bit rough as it had been raining on and off all day, there were squall areas here and there and we got a bit wet.  No problem, we had just been diving!  Back at the Jolly Roger I found my diving stuff and Geoff’s fins and sunglasses had been put safely away and we collected it.  After Jenn and Wes had filled out their dive record we met with Colin, the owner of JVDD and talked about our plans for the week. There is an advanced diving class that he would give us for free if we dove two more days sometime next week at one of more the nearby islands (Peter, Cooper, Norman).  Geoff got excited about this so we might do it.  Not much studying involved…just more diving at depths greater than the 40 feet that Jenn and Wes are now qualified to do.

Next, we ate lunch upstairs at the Jolly Roger, stuffed ourselves and I found a cab that took us back to the Long Bay and then one more time over the hill to Road Town and Sunsail.  Next we checked in, found our assigned boat and got an early orientation on our boat by a very entertaining guy who just happened to be checking out the equipment.  Unfortunately, Geoff’s plans to leave early in the morning got short circuited since we have to have a briefing (along with all the other cruisers leaving tomorrow) on the area.

Off to the market we went to buy some very expensive groceries (they pretty much have a monopoly on the island…).  Then showered at the Sunsail facility and walked to a local restaurant called CF’s which, after we walked in turned out to be the exact same place that we had all eaten at over 10 years ago when we last sailed from the same facility.  Pretty funny that we would have found the same place, which was quite rustic and definitely local flavor.  The meal was good although it took them maybe 15 minutes to bring two of the drinks, 30 minutes for mine and about an hour to bring Wes’s.  The drinking age down here apparently is 16 by the way!

On the way home we stopped by another market where we found the prices for vegetables to be significantly lower so we stocked up on some more oranges, bought our liquor (not much) and another $100 worth of misc. stuff like charcoal.  The walk home felt good and we are now safe and sound on our new home away from home.  We have all called home on Skype and are ready for bed to rest up before our next adventure which starts tomorrow.

Pictures will be added to this entry when we get a chance.  I’ll also tell you about our brand new Sunsail 384 catamaran in the next article.  We don’t have an inverter so we can’t charge our computers, ipods, etc. once we leave except off shore at a restaurant.  So, we’ll do the best we can.  We’re looking forward to relaxing!

We are settling in and our hotel is decent enough.  Although it is positioned as a 5 star resort, I’d say it is more like 3.5 star room, 4 star “island” central facilities and a 6 star beach and view.  Our rooms are on the top floor of a two story building that has a total of four “suites”.  We have one large room and a combination closet/bat/shower that is separated from the other room by two louvered doors.  In the room we have two queen beds that are, let’s say, adequate.  Outside the sliding glass door is a 10’ x 10’ covered patio which overlooks the palm-lined beach, crystal clear ocean and Jost Van Dyke Island off in the distance.  The view is definitely the best part!

Last night Geoff and I woke around 1 am to a torrential downpour and extreme winds, the sound of which was accentuated by the metal roofs.  We slept with the sliding door wide open and the fans going full speed.  It probably got down to 75 degrees and was a bit on the humid side…but overall quite nice.

This morning Geoff got up early and went for a run and swim at the beach.  It was a beautiful morning with Jost Van Dyke clear in the distance, crystal blue and aqua waves breaking and pelicans and white petrels diving for their breakfast.  Later, when everyone was awake,  we walked about 50 feet to the hotel restaurant for a nice breakfast, punctuated by a rooster crowing and families of chicken walking about looking for a bite to eat.  The baby and youngster chickens were quite humorous, very friendly and always talkative.

After breakfast Jenn and Wes went to their in-pool PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) training, Geoff went to the beach to catch up on his reading and I ended up going to the pool to audit a portion of their dive training class as well as do some blog writing.  The class went without a hitch and Wes and Jenn were model students.  We went to lunch a couple hours later and they both said they are really enjoyed it and are feeling much more confident in their diving skills.  Since both have “graduated” from their online PADI course, they only need 3 more open water dives to be certified.

After lunch found Geoff down at the beach and I went for a short swim in the ocean, took a shower and got ready for dinner.  The troops followed in progression and before long we were walking up the STEEP hill towards town.  And, I mean, it’s a steep hill!  We checked out several restaurants, from the sublime (think Chez Panisse where Jenny works) to the ridiculously clichéd beach shack adult bar (no one was there fortunately).  We picked the middle to upper end option closest to “home”, had drinks on the patio, filmed the sunset and sat inside with a beautiful view of the ocean.  A good dinner and a good time.

The walk on the way back to the hotel seemed even steeper than it was earlier…and it starting to rain as we approached the hotel.  We made it back safely and headed to the lounge to do a little picture and blog editing before packing our bags and flopping into bed.

Tomorrow is an early day — we have a cab picking us up at 7:15 am when we will head over to West End to catch the dive boat and do 3 more dives.  Then, a cab back to the hotel to get our bags and then over to Road Town to shop for provisions before we board our catamaran!  Not sure when we’ll have internet access next but as soon as we do we’ll let you know how things are going.  Stay tuned!