My mother’s dream vacation of sailing the virgin islands unfortunately started off with a few hitches. My mom and stepdad arrived two days before us to stock the sailboat with supplies and food, but found the boat had a flood in the engine and generator which needed immediate attention. Not good. My stepdad spent the next three days working hard with an electrician and boat handyman to fix it so we could get up and running. As a result, our sail was delayed two days even after we arrived, but the last five days made up for it and there are worse things than being “grounded” in St. Thomas anyway ;)
Once the boat was up and sailing without worry of a fire or other such difficulties we sailed to a new US and British Virgin Island each of our five remaining days, mooring at Jost Von Dyke, Marina K in Tortola, Norman Island, Peter Island and St. John. We snorkeled almost every day and sometimes even twice, we also went kayaking and did some light hiking and exploring. Once we started sailing though we were probably on land less than 5 hours total our entire trip, since we lived in the water and on the 47 foot boat called We Be Jazzin. Each night it would rain and we’d wake up to close all the hatches on the boat and suffocate until things cleared up which luckily it did each day.
I think I must have picked up a little head cold on our seven+ hour plane ride to Puerto Rico and jump over to St. Thomas though since I had a sore throat and runny nose throughout our trip and even passed it along to my mom and boyfriend near the end. Luckily, being in the warm air and beautiful islands it was hard to stay sick, I only really felt it at night as I tried to sleep.
At Norman Island we re-visited Pirates (formerly Billy Bones), which is a fun bar where everyone writes on the ceilings and walls. Unfortunately my scribblings from 1998 had been painted over with newer graffiti. However, I found a free beam to write/advertise the following:
I wonder if anyone will visit here because of it? I spotted someone else had done the same and wrote stickfiguremusic.com up in the rafters and I just checked it out, so who knows. Would be interesting to have someone spot it and then come to see what I'm about.
Overall I’m rested, tan and had a lovely vacation. I’ve never seen such clear waters or such amazing reefs. Everyone got along well, I held my own in Scrabble competitions (came in 2nd), finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and even got to swim with a turtle. I also bought a big bead necklace that looks like this one offered at Newport News but in red and chunkier like those Hawaiian beans. Here are some photos from the trip:
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