A Book about the BVI's

Sit back and relax, here we go, another long one. I swear this is the last ridiculously long post for awhile, but I’m a detail person and I can’t help it. Next stop on the trip-o-rama was the British Virgin Islands. We had planned this trip with Steve and Lori. You may remember we all went to Jost Van Dyke, BVI a few years back (because Kenny Chesney sings about it). Then S&L chartered a boat a couple years back and went all over the BVI’s and it looked amazing. We wanted to do it too!

Unfortunately, CW couldn’t go last minute =( but made me promise to still go. It was already paid for and I was ready for some happy days in the island sun. We had planned to stay at a resort on Tortola for the first 2 nights and then meet up with them for the last 3 (they were on the boat 10 days total). Both S&L are super skilled on boats (must be their Florida roots) and I definitely felt safe with Steve as my captain and Lori as first mate. She kind of got the short end of the stick having to run all over, tie up those ropes (whatever they’re called), put the bumpers out, do the moorings (that takes major skill fyi), put the dinghy (known as Yellow Bird) in and out, geez, that’s some hard work for sure. I wasn’t much help. Big surprise.

Anyways, I was warned that there would be no over-packing on this trip and no jewelry. Wa-wah?? I could only carry on my mountain of stuff–no checking bags. Well, it took me about two weeks to get it to work, but I did it (and still managed to end up packing about 5 dresses too many it ended up). I headed to Tortola (via San Juan) and was hoping that all the rain that I’d seen in the forecast was a joke. My flight into San Juan arrived early, so I went straight to the Cape Air desk and they were able to get me on the flight leaving right then. I walked out on the tarmac, saw that tiny little plane and freaked a bit.

I had planned to have a little liquid courage in me before that moment…and I would’ve had CW with me to distract me, with his excitement. I was told that I’d be in the seat next to the pilot (which I guess was very coveted, but I was not so thrilled. I really meant to take a pic of my view (what looked like an antique plane dashboard), but was too freaked out. My pilot was a cool lady, totally relaxed, telling me she does that flight 3 times a day. Well, lady, I don’t. Thirty minutes later as the rain was starting to fall I saw the runway. Really? That thing–in this thing? Ok, just do it and get it over with. Shockingly, it was the smoothest landing I’ve had in a long time (and not as scary as landing in Telluride airport).

I went through customs, grabbed a cab and hoped the driver wasn’t going to kidnap me and put me into sexual slavery (d*mn Dateline, why do I watch those shows before going out of the country)? I saw that he had a “World’s Best Dad” sign hanging from his rearview mirror and asked him if he had kids. He did and talked about them for about half the ride (whew, he was cool and not a murderer of ladies traveling by themselves). 45 minutes later we pulled into Long Bay and the rain actually stopped for me.

After a little rig-a-ma-ro switching rooms (CW originally booked an ocean front cabana on stilts to be romantic, but Lori had prepped me that I’d probably want to change to one of the rooms by the pool since I was by myself). She was right. Those cabanas were super cool, but definitely isolated and since it wasn’t busy season, the resort was not packed.

I would have been a sitting duck (again, argghh Dateline). I waited for my room to be ready, changed into my suit (in the lobby bathroom, which I soon realized was a haven for mosquitos). I’d been there 15 minutes and had about 10 bites on my ankles. Fabulous. Welcome to the islands Iowa girl.

I walked down on the beach, had lunch at the pool, chatted with a lady who was also by herself and finally headed up to my room to change for dinner. It’s a good thing I’m cool with doing things on my own (thanks to the crazy hours CW works at the hospital), I just grabbed my book and walked down the beach to the restaurant.

That night the Pasta House was open (ah, hello, I’m in the islands and I’m having lasagna)? It was really good actually.

I bought a bottle of wine and made the trek back to my room (with the wine opener as my defensive tool in case some jo-shmo decided to jump me). I had a relaxing night out on my balcony journaling (to try to remember all the details to pass along to CW) and read my book. Good thing I brought some chick books—so easy to read.

Lori called the next morning to see how I was and to see if I wanted them to come get me a day early. I could tell it was going to be somewhat sunny out, so I decided I was cool and would hit the pool all day.

That I did. I laid out at the beach for a couple hours (I was THE only one there for most of it, then finally saw a couple a little ways down). I wrote in the sand and took pics (to show CW that I was thinking about him, without trying to rub it in his face that I was in the middle of the islands) and sat in the water trying to meditate. Now, I don’t really know how to meditate, but I was by myself in the middle of the British Virgin Islands, so why not? I asked myself, “what do I meditate about, how do I clear my mind, hmmm….OOoooohhhhhmmmmm….Namasteeeeee….hmmm, look at that bird”…..needless to say, it didn’t really work.

I headed to the pool and spent the entire day chilling on a raft and reading.

CW called, so I filled him in on what he was missing, in a nice, of course I wish you were here, way. Dinner at the main restaurant again…salad and dessert. I really just wanted the dessert, but felt bad, so I got the salad too. As I left I realized that there were 3 tables behind me with only one person also. Wha? There were 4 of us lonely souls having dinner alone? I should have turned around earlier and we could have made a little “solo” party of it. Oh well.

I woke up and went to breakfast back on the beach (and realized exactly 20 minutes in that my legs were being eaten alive by a mass of bugs).

It was my own private island.

The sweet waitress gave me Skin so Soft (for $10) and said it would help. It did. Where was she the day before? I hung out with a rooster (or, was he a chicken—more of that to come later) and talked to him like he/she was a person. I was definitely glad that I was off to meet S&L at Sopers Hole shortly. I’m pretty sure I was going a bit loony in my solitude.

I was ready for some social interaction! Pronto. You’ll notice that I don’t have one picture with me in it for the first 2 days. Just scenery. There weren’t too many people to ask to take my picture and it’s always kindof weird posing by yourself for strangers, right? I was crazy happy to see them and check out their boat, the beautiful Dixie Rodes. Hello girl. Whoop whoop, I had friends again!

We boated it to Cooper Island (with some slightly bigger waves than I was expecting). We grabbed the rafts and chatted the day away in the water.

When we got to the little island, I noticed how cute it was with little pathways and handmade signs…exactly how I had pictured Jost Van Dyke years before…JVD was a little less “cute” and a lot more “rough” compared to this adorable little place (but nothing compares to the Soggy Dollar there, best place ever).

I shopped a bit and we settled in for some bubbly.

We had a great dinner and were done for the night.

My first night on the boat was pretty good for a non-sea-legs girl. It took a little getting used to remembering not to put tp (or anything) down the toilet, to be conservative and watch my water when brushing my teeth and letting the waves lull me to sleep. Not bad. I was a trooper, I could do this boat thing.

We woke up bright and early and were excited to go to The Baths in Virgin Gorda. Well, that was not in our cards my friends. We lost an engine and had to make our way back to the marina in Tortola to get our Dixie a check-up. Yes, you heard me–lost an engine!

Big waves and one engine made for a slightly scared Kays. But, I was in good hands. In a nutshell, we ended up spending the day (and ultimately night) at the marina. There were some problems with the gas (the running joke was “bad gas” all day long), that halted our trip for the day.

We made the best of it (and kept reiterating that we were in the BVI’s, so really, there was no complaining). We spent our day obsessing over the roosters and chickens across the way….literally ALL day and got accosted by a local (something to do with a banana is all I can disclose).

We were getting a little loopy asking each other questions about chickens, eggs and roosters (oh my). We eventually found the binoculars and stalked them, with every move being fascinating and worthy of telling everyone on board. Hours later the maintenance guys drove the boat over to get new gas and wouldn’t ya know it…holy moly tropical storm winds blew in. It was a bit scary and at moments comical. Lori and I were downstairs by ourselves with compressed air canisters flying around us (true), the poor guy pumping the gas was getting pummeled outside and I’m not really sure what was happening with Steve and all the other guys up on top. It was a hurricane party getting gas (insert “bad gas” here).

We made some apps and beverages for our new favorite guys and were happy to end up back at the marina. Add it to the list of random, crazy things that had happened on this trip. Add it UP.

We were all more than ready to get off the boat and find a happy hour place.

Pussers was our chosen spot and then dinner with an amazing view.

What a day. I decided I’d sleep better if I moved to one of the inside bedrooms, since again, Dateline was in my head (fyi, Dateline is forever crossed off my list of appropriate shows to watch before traveling).

I was woken up around 4am by a crazy storm and was more than excited to recognize that we were in fact docked at the marina and not moored out in the ocean. I took the opportunity to finally shower at the marina bathrooms (I did not get to enjoy the treachery of trying to maneuver a shower in one of the boat bathrooms). Somehow even IN the shower I was still being eated by mosquitos. We were off to enjoy our last full day.

I really wanted to check out this boat called the Willy T. It’s kind of a party boat and can get a little baum-chica-baum-baum at night. We stopped in the Bight on Norman Island for the day and night. The sun made some showings and I was thankful that God was not going to be cruel enough to ruin our last day. Steve grilled us some hot dogs and sausages and we laid around relaxing.

We were ready for a real happy hour and took our Yellow Bird to the Pirate’s Bight for some cocktails.

Lori found a swing,

I found a hammock and she did a photo shoot for me. I had written in the sand back at Long Bay, but decided I really needed to be IN the photos and would make a little collage for CW. I’m so sweet I know…

Last stop was the infamous Willy T. I was ready. Bring it on.

It was pretty low-key until a boatload of guys from Puerto Rico docked up. Whoa, we immediately were bombarded and found out they were all family and ready to have a good time. I had heard about the “shot ski” invention, that 4 people do at the same time.

I was happy to capture pics of the daring ones, me not included. After being a tad harassed by one of the guys (I proceeded to grab a random dude and told him that this guy was my incognito bodyguard. The poor random guy didn’t quite know what to think, but he played his part) and I emphatically told him that yes, I was really married and more directly, that he was not the boss of me (not in those words, a few expletives were thrown in)…haha, you’d think I hit the guy in the face by his reaction. Guess he was not used to a strong, in your face chica. Hola dude!

The Willy T did not disappoint, loved the drama!

We stayed for dinner and ended our night on the Dixie Rodes with a little jam-out to some Glee songs (go ahead, judge if you want). It was great.

It was pretty funny waking up in the middle of the night, not quite sure where I was and definitley not comprehending that I was on a boat. I tried 3 times to get out of the bed (the wrong way) and struggled trying to find the little push-button light to the discreet bathroom door. Oh, I was on a boat..don’t flush the tp!!

It was time to head home and the rain was back. Go figure.

CW and I were originally booked on a later flight than S&L that would meet up in San Juan. After saying goodbye to them at the airport, I was growing a bit weary of my little Cessna, set to “maybe” take off 2 hours later. The storm got a little too strong for my liking and I high-tailed it over to the American Airlines counter. I decided to just bight the bullet and bought a ticket on that bigger plane because I had a feeling I wouldn’t be getting out of her if not. No way was I up for another solo night and with a tropical storm looming! The extra money was more than worth my sanity and I even ended up right behind S&L on the flight. After a long day of traveling and approximately 30 bug bites, I opened my door to my pretty pups.

I don’t think it’s stopped raining since I got home 8 days ago….I’m over this rain, but rain in the BVI’s is still better than Tampa.