Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,a tale of a fateful trip.That started from this tropic port,aboard this tiny ship.The mate was a mighty sailin' man,the skipper brave and sure.Five passengers set sail that day,for a three hour tour, a three hour tour………The weather started getting rough,the tiny ship was tossed.If not for the courage of the fearless crew,the Minnow would be lost; the Minnow would be lost.The ship took ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle,with Gilligan, the Skipper too,the Millionaire, and his Wife,the Movie Star, the Professor and Mary Ann,here on Gilligan's Isle.
Okay, nothing horrible happened on the trip. It was awesome. The weather was amazing and the water was so beautiful.
For those of you not in the know, I went to the British Virgin Islands for two weeks this month. Four or five years ago my friend Timm sent me an email about a sailing Flotilla that had a spot free and they were looking for interested parties. Unfortunately, this was during the Nortel days of not knowing if I had a job so I passed, but passed the email along to my other friend Tim. Tim jumped on the idea and headed on the sailing trip to the BVI. He then went back again two years ago with his friend Bill. Last July you might remember I went hiking in Newfoundland. I came back and swore that my next trip would be sitting on a beach somewhere. When I got back from Newfoundland, Tim and I went out for a drink to talk about my trip. I told him that my next trip would be relaxing in the Caribbean. He told me that his friend Jen had just cancelled on going on the BVI trip with him and there was a spot on his boat free. I still wasn't sure if I could afford it. Then he said we would be using our Air Canada points for the flight. Well, that sealed the deal. I was in (my bank account is so not happy with me now).
A little bit of info on the trip: this is the 15th year for this flotilla. Harvey Cracknell has been putting a group of sailors together for years to go and hang out in the beautiful blue. Tim, his friend Bill, his wife Lyn and I signed up to be on a Catamaran for the trip. We were put together with three others for our boat (our skipper Struther and Norm and his now wife Dolores).
Tim, Bill, Lyn and I headed down to the BVI a couple of days early. We flew threw Philidelphia with a stop for the night. Tim has friends in Philly that we met up with at a bar downtown and danced the night away. That was so much fun, but boy was the hotel sketchy. Then back to the airport for our flight to St. Thomas (US VI). A free rum punch off of the plane and then waiting for luggage. A bit of a scare when Tim's luggage was the last one to appear. Then a bit of a freaky ride in a taxi to the ferry dock for our ferry over to Tortola (the main island of the BVI). The ferry ride was fine until we got to West End (our departure point). There appeared to be some issues with figuring out how to dock. Through customs and then we sent Tim off to get the rental car. Lyn and I had some amazing fruit smoothies (oh, the start of the rum drinking) while waiting. Once Tim finally showed up with the car, we came to the realization that there may not be room for all four of us and all the luggage in the tracker. We managed, but Lyn and I were stuck in the backseat covered in backpacks. A fun drive over the hills to our hotel (Sebastian's on the Beach). Tim and Bill left us in the back while they checked in and during that time the rum from my smoothy kicked in. That was some great rum!
The hotel was great, beautiful beach with surfers to watch. Next time, I am booking myself some surf lessons. (Here is a picture of the beach at our hotel.)
(FYI - I started this blog right after my trip, but now it is two weeks later)
We had an awesome day of jumping in the waves. I went for a couple of somersaults at one point. Tim had some issues with sand in his shorts :)
So, we had fun for the first couple of days and then my trip went the way of all of my other trips (remember the Australian airport fiasco?). The day we left the hotel we went over to the marina to find out about getting our catamaran. The woman working there said that there was no way we could find out which boat was ours until 6pm (this was at around 1pm). We couldn't drive around in our car all day with our luggage (Lyn and I couldn't see out the windows because we were covered in bags). The woman at the marina said we could leave our stuff in the office. Bill decided to stay with the luggage while the rest of us went for a hike up Sage Mountain (tallest mountain in the Virgin Islands). It was pretty muddy, but the view was spectacular.
Back to the marina, still no access to the boat. There happen to be two marinas owned by the same company. One has a pool. So, Tim and I headed to the pool while we waited for 6pm. Unfortunately, 6pm came and still no access to a boat. The ferry containing the other 100 people on our trip showed up just after 6pm with a whole pile of drunk / happy people. The four of us, not happy. I think they finally found us a boat at 7pm. An upgrade, woo hoo. We upgraded from a 38' to a 45' cat. Which meant that instead of 3 cabins, we had 4. This meant that our skipper didn't have to sleep in the salon at our dining room table. Finally, we get on to our boat and can unpack. But, first we had a group outing to dinner. Our groceries were set to be delivered, but every boat but ours seemed to get theirs. So, Bill and Lyn stayed behind to wait for the food. Tim and Struther (our skipper) were at a skipper's meeting. So, I headed withs Norm and Dolores to dinner. Dinner was very tasty; the painkillers - drink of the BVI - not so much. Then when Bill, Lyn and Tim showed up, we found out that our boat was not our boat. Apparently, it had a mechanical difficulty. So, it was ours for the night and a new boat in the morning.
Remember I said morning for a new boat. Not the case. We finally got a new boat around 1pm. We had to transfer all the food, luggage and alcohol.
(Here's a shot of Tim, me and Struther with all the beer.)
How fun! Finally we left around 2pm, I think. Too late to actually get to snorkel at the two snorkelling stops of the day (the caves and the Indians). Those of you who know me well, will know that I was not a happy camper. So, I drank, a lot. Tim was making Margaritas and Painkillers. That night we were stopped in the Bight. Tim went finishing off the back of our boat and caught a fish (which he threw back). In this harbour is a 'pirate ship' called the Willie T. You can jump off the top level of the Willie T. I didn't really need alot of convincing. But, I did need better depth perception. I misjudged where the water was (it was 1am and I was drunk) and hit the water with my butt and leg and was super bruised. Of course, that didn't stop me from jumping a second time. Yes, normally, very afraid of the water. Drunk, not so much.
The Indians with the Bight in the background:
The next day, Tim and I tried to get everyone up early so we could do the snorkelling we missed the day before. Unfortunately, there was no getting the boat to leave early on any day. We did get to the Indians (a rock formation) for a 15 min snorkel. We moored the boat and then jumped off the back. So, my fear water didn't really kick in on the way to the rocks. As we were swimming, it got shallower, which seemed to be okay. Very pretty, swam through the rocks and then it just opened up. But, then we swam back to the boat. It got deeper and darker and the boat seemed very far away. Then I saw the silver shape. A barracuda between us and the boat. That did not make me happy. I could not get into the boat fast enough. Tim and Bill, though, thought it was very cool. That night we were in West End on the island of Tortola for a pizza dinner.
Just so you can get an idea of the size of the boat, here it is from the back. One night Struther and I were dancing to my psychadelic mix and I almost slipped right off the back into the water. Alcohol and a boat seems like a good idea, but alcohol, a boat and Mel dancing seems like a bad idea.
The next day we travelled to a place called Sandy Cay. An unpopulated island with the most gorgeous beach. Swam into the island and saw all these pretty silver fish. Took a bit of a walk through the vegetation until we came upon a bunch of wasps (or hornets, I can't tell the difference). Back to the beach, quickly.
Here is Tim and I off of Sandy Cay with our boat Enchantress in the background. Isn't the water spectacular?
Then off to the island of Jost Van Dyke for a wedding. Norm and Dolores got married on the beach at White Bay. It was very beautiful and touching. Congratulations you guys! After an amazing dinner at the hotel where they were staying the group headed to Foxy's for dancing. Norm and the guys sang Margaritaville and then I headed back to the boat. I was very tired on our trip (not sure if that was the iron deficiency or the huge amount of fresh air and sun).
The next day we headed back to White Bay to swim into the Soggy Dollar Bar (another Barracuda). So called because you have to swim to the bar, no dinghies (Swim in, drink, Swim out - repeat). Then we headed out for an amazing sail. Three hours with the waves crashing over the front of the boat and the trampoline. At one point Lyn couldn't see Tim, Bill or I because we were covered with a wave. It was amazing (up to 7.8 knots)! We saw two schools of flying fish (they are so tiny).
Soggy Dollar Bar at White Bay: 
That night we were anchored at Beef Island. Tim and I rented a car to head back to West End (where we all stayed at the hotel) to go to the Bomba Shack for the Full Moon Party (a monthly event). At the Bomba you buy a mug and then they will fill it with Mushroom Tea. I partook of the mushroom tea and then proceeded to pass out in the rental car while Tim went back to the party. Tim came back with three other people from the Flotilla (who needed a ride back). On the ride back there was a speedbump that was not marked. We went airborne, I can't believe I didn't throw up on the dashboard (Paul shared my sentiment from the back seat).
This is me at the Bomba Shack prior to the tea:
Then off to the Baths on Virgin Gorda. A snorkel at the Baths (so cool). Lots of fish, lots of rocks. Apparently, another Barracuda around our boat. Dinner with the whole Flotilla that night. Tim, Bill, Lyn and I sat at a table with two other couples. Dinner was amazing. At the end of dinner we were speaking with the other two couples about where we all worked. I told them where I worked and they had actually heard of it. Turns out the two men used to work with our company's new president. Such a small world.
There was a huge storm that night. It was impossible to get to the dinghys to get back to the boat. So, we hung out at the bar until the storm subsided. The next day we went on a tour of the island that included a hike through the Baths. The rocks were so cool and the waves were insane. Very different than the day before when it was completely calm for snorkelling.
At one point Evelyn and Barb were pulled off of a rock by a wave. Then we headed to a restaurant for lunch that had a pool. We hung out there drinking for awhile!
Then we headed to Bitter End. It was gorgeous. 
A decision was made to not go to Anagada the next day due to the weather. So, we hung out in Bitter End. It was beautiful!
While on the trip, Tim taught me how to drive the dinghy. At first I wasn't sure how to dock, so Tim did the docking at the island and then (mistakenly) allowed me to dock when we got back to the boat at Bitter End (I believe). This was a big mistake. Since I hadn't docked at the island I wasn't comfortable with neutral and reverse. When we came back to the boat I missed the steps and ended up almost driving us under the catamaran. Tim ended up bleeding from attempting to push us off the back of the boat (so sorry Tim). But, he trusted me enough to let me try again and now I am quite happy with the dinghy driving (where's that Dinghy captain shirt?).
The next day the swells were huge, 10 feet, when we went out for a sail. That really freaked me out. That day they had cancelled the snorkelling because the water was too rough. Our boat was not doing so well. Mechanical difficulties kept plaguing us. So, the crew made a decision to go back to Road Town instead of Coopers Island. On the way back we actually got to stop at The Caves so we could snorkel. And just as Tim predicted it was the best snorkelling of the trip.
We had so much fun on the way back to the Marina. We had a ton of fruits and veggies left on the boat. We decided that it would be fun to have veggie bowling. That turned into veggie throwing and hit the dinghy with the veggies. The grapes were the best! Tim hit the bow of the dinghy with a bunch of grapes that exploded.
Don't worry no one let me be in charge of the boat:
Most of the boat crews headed to a rib place for dinner and then we invited everyone back to our boat to party on our last night (we had a lot of alcohol to get rid of). The next morning (as with the first night) we were the last boat to get checked out. Then onto the ferry for free rum punches and a ride back to St. Thomas to the airport. On the way, the ferry had to be turned around because someone left their passport / wallet on their boat and we had to go back to get it.
Tim, Bill, Lyn and I were supposed to be on a flight back to Philly and then on to Toronto. But, the flight was cancelled so they put us on the same flight as everyone else. Which was cool because we got to have a few more hours with everyone.
I caught a cold in the last couple of days and so I pretty much passed out on the floor of the airport in Charlotte, North Carolina. I just wanted sleep.
Back into Toronto around midnight, grabbed my luggage and headed for home. Very happy to be in my own bed even though it felt like it was moving and I kept dreaming that I was still on the boat.
I hope my dad and my step mom will come on this trip in the future. Tim says he would love to skipper a boat with my dad.
Thanks to everyone that made the trip awesome! Hope to see you all out there sometime.
Sunset at West End:
