Day 5 - Virgin Gorda

Another beautiful morning to wake up to.  Honestly, I sat on the bridge and enjoyed this view.

Breakfast was Eggs Benedict with fresh fruit.  After that, we lounged around for a bit while Nick and Amy prepared for the day.

Then we repositioned the boat up to Virgin Gorda.  It took appx 1 hour to relocate.  Seriously... even this is so much fun - seeing the different islands, enjoying the views, and so relaxing!  We typically gather on the bridge with Captain Nick and Amy who answer all our many questions.  We listen to music (a custom playlist each day), enjoy the fresh ocean air and occasional spray and just enjoy the beauty around us.  Today we passed lots of different islands including Tortola and the island where Blackbeard left his mutinous crew stranded.

We stopped at the very southern point of Virgin Gorda to moor just offshore of the Baths National Park.  We swam in and then walked up the hill to pay our entry fee and then back down the shore to enter the Baths.  It is so incredible and unique.  I’ve never experienced anything like it.  The views are breathtaking.  Huge boulders line the shore, balanced as if placed in a game of Jenga.  The path goes between and through the cracks and crannies of the rocks and in and out of the ocean water.  Beautiful, fun, etc. 

When we finished, we had a bit longer of a swim back out to our dinghy as Nick had helped the staff fix a swim line that had been down.  But we all made it… and if I don’t say so myself, we are getting MUCH better at getting back into the dinghy from the water.

Amy and Nick suggested we wait for lunch because our mooring location was a bit rough with larger swells coming in off the ocean.  We did not object since we have all been eating SO well and haven’t felt hungry all week.  So we got underway again and headed north for about another hour to North Sound with a charcuterie that Amy had prepared.

We moored in North Sound and again, I was amazed by the beauty of this place.  Surrounded by islands, we are nestled in to our spot surrounded by turquoise waters.  

We sat down to an amazing lunch of crab cakes served with a Ceasar salad.  The kids also had chicken nuggets and Mac and cheese to choose from.  It was an incredible meal.  Amy brought another round of crab cakes out later and many of us had a second helping.  

We cleaned up after lunch and Nick took us ashore to see a one-man Pirate Show “Happy Arr”. On our way out, we decided to trick JC into thinking we had left him behind so we all loaded up in the dinghy and moved the boat out of sight.  Just as JC came up, Amy said we had left and we watched as JC stood on the back of the boat, completely disappointed, gazing at the horizon trying to see us from a distance.  We slowly floated back into his peripheral view and once he realized, we all had a big laugh.   

The pirate show was fun. Set in a beautiful location.  It was a silly comedy routine with a lot of audience participation… maracas, Rum drinking, singing and dancing and the finale for us, a conch shell-blowing competition.  Aunt Gretchen won for the women and Sammy won for the teens.  Both received a conch shell to take home.  Sammy even ended up on stage with the pirate at one point!

After the show we took a quick (and pretty wet) dinghy ride back to the boat to pick up Amy for our dinner reservation on shore.  At the far north end of the sound, there is a small island that has only a restaurant on it called Saba Rock.  Nick and Amy highly recommended it.

The dingy ride back to the boat was lovely.  Its a quiet night with a gorgeous view of the stars and the other boats moored in the sound.  

We played a few games and sent out correspondence to family… but for the most part, we headed to bed. 

We are planning an early morning departure for Anagada and another big day tomorrow. 

Cannot wait!

Day 4 - Norman Island

 It was another beautiful morning spent up on the bridge as we waited for our group to all wake up.  A few very short rain showers came through… leaving us all smitten with the sounds of the rain falling on the water.

Breakfast was an apple pie French toast bake with a caramel drizzle with sausage and fresh fruit.  Amazing again!

We got underway and headed across the channel to check into the BVIs.  We moored the boat and Nick headed ashore with our passports in the dinghy.

 

It took him just under an hour to process our entry through Customs.  Then we were off for the Indians.  On the way we put out the sail (a very cool process on its own) and went the bulk of the trip with our engines off.

 

Unfortunately we ran into some less than ideal weather on the way and had some big gusts come through with the squall.  One of the gusts pulled the main sail so hard that the rope holding it popped the winch and caused the main sail and line to whip in the wind. We cleared the deck area while the crew got it battened down again.  Nick mentioned later that we were lucky to have pulled the main sail down in time to clear the worst of the weather.  Another boat that was trailing us was not so lucky and ended up having to turn south and go quite far out of their way before they could finally drop their sail.  

As we approached our first stop, Nick decided it would be too rough to moor so we decided to skip the Indians and pushed on to Norman Island and the caves further up the coast where we would moor for the night.  Its a beautiful cove with fun snorkeling spots on all sides.   We tied off and Nick and Amy started on lunch.

Today’s lunch was a Vietnamese inspired banh mi sandwich with smoked chicken, carrots, cucumber, avocado and cilantro along with a five spice sauce.  It was served with a peanut Asian slaw.  Everyone raved once again.

After lunch, Tyler climbed up to the ceiling of the bridge onto the boom and put the sail away.  It was fun watching him crawl along the top, tucking in the canvas.  Nick and Amy have both done such a nice job including the kids in activities they’ll enjoy. Its been fun to see them included! 

After our lunch settled, we packed up for a snorkeling trip to the caves.  There was a series of three caves that we could swim to and go in.  We saw lots of fish along the way and at the entrance.  The final cave dead ended on a little stone beach.  We took off our flippers and stacked some rocks, hoping to find them someday on a future visit.  We had a lot of laughs at that little beach… the rocks hurt our feet so we hobbled, and some fell.  Those who kept their flippers on struggled to walk as well... they looked much like a penguin shuffle.  It was a lot of fun.  Then we all headed back to the boat.  Tyler spotted a jelly fish on the way.  Once to the boat we shared some additional laughs just trying to re-enter the dinghy.  Oh gosh, was it funny!

On the ride back to the boat, Nick stopped to let some of us out for some additional snorkeling.  We were within a swim to the boat so we just took our time while he returned with the Wielhouwers.  

We spent some time floating around the boat and enjoying the water a little longer before getting out for showers and cocktails.

Sammy and I especially enjoy laying on the trampoline at the front and enjoying the view of the clouds passing by the mast.  Nick told us the first day that the mast is 105 feet tall.  

After we got cleaned up, Amy had prepared a snack for us… homemade tortillas with heirloom tomatoes, boat-grown basil and a special type of mozzarella cheese.  It was another excellent dish.  After the snack, we played a game prepared for us by some friends of ours and enjoyed the sunset.

Supper was a butter tarragon poached lobster with mushrooms and pasta.  The kids and I were served a very similar plated dish but with breaded chicken instead of the lobster. For dessert, we had a Bailey’s infused cheesecake on a cookie crust topped with a chocolate syrup and shavings of chocolate from a recent stop at Grenada.  It was incredible.

To end the night, Captain Nick set up a projector and screen up on the fly bridge and we snuggled in to watch Captain Ron.  Its an older movie set in the Caribbean with Martin Short and Kurt Russell… but believe it or not, none of us had seen it yet.  We all enjoyed the movie and laughed a lot.

We all headed to bed as soon as the movie finished.  It was already 10:00 pm and was the latest we all had been up so far.  Speaking of sleep, not only are we going to bed early, but we are sleeping in a long time as well.  You can blame the sea air or the rocking of the boat… I’m not sure what causes it, but we are all getting more sleep than ever!