Yo ho ho, It's a Pirates Life for Me

Craig and I just returned from a 10 day sailing adventure in the British Virgin Islands celebrating Craig's 51st birthday.  We have sailed the islands before with good friends Albert and Laurie Davis but they were unable to go this year so Craig and I rented a 37 foot Beneteau monohull sailboat for the 2 of us.

Craig was the captain and I was the first mate.  In other words, he steered and I was in charge of manning the sails.  I prefer it that way because I like being busy so pulling the ropes, lines as they are called on a sailboat, was right up my alley.

We set sail from Tortolla and over the days we sailed to Jost Van Dyke, Virgin Gorda, Norman Island and Marina Cay.  We had multiple stops on each island.

We moored at Trellis Bay on the island of Tortolla the first 2 nights because there was a full moon while we were there and Trellis Bay has a full moon party complete with a Caribbean Buffet which was delicious (I even tried the curried goat), a steel drum band, sky walkers for entertainment and the final event of the night is the lighting of the burning man.  The burning man is a steel structure out in the bay that has an enclosure at the bottom which is filled with wood and set on fire.

We made a quick stop at Marina Cay to record ourselves on the Pusser's Red Box Webcam.  This is a British style phone booth at the end of the dock which takes photos every 15 seconds. 

Next we went sailed to Jost Van Dyke.  We moored in Great Harbour for the night.  We went to around to White Bay which is the sight of the Soggy Dollar Bar and had a great time on the beach.  After returning to Great Harbour we had dinner at Foxy's with 2 couple we met from San Fransico.   There was an old rastafarian with dreadlocks down to his ankles who danced the whole night and there was a younger guy who danced with a pole.  It was quite entertaining.  Craig and I practiced our dance moves too. 

At Norman Island we moored to the Bight.  We cooked dinner on the boat but later went to Willie T's which is a permenately moored old freight boat that is half restrauant and half bar.  We met a young couple who are from the states but are living on the island.  We had a good time visiting with them. 

On Virgin Gorda, we went to The Baths which are large granite rocks you climb through.  We snorkeled and swam and just enjoyed the day.  We moored for the night at Spanish Town so we could get fresh water and top off our fuel tanks.  The winds were pretty strong that night so the boat did alot of rocking and spinning.

Also on Virgin Gorda we sailed to North Sound and moored at The Bitter End.  It is a beautiful bay which we had not gone to on our previous visit.  We dinghied to different beaches and snorkeled.

For our last night at sea we decided to eat at Saba Rock.  This is a restrauant/ 8 room hotel built on a very small "island" next to The Bitter End.  The decks for dinning are built out over the water and they had lights in the water which attracted very large tarpin.  At last count there were over 20 swimming in and around the lights.

Our last day of sailing we just put up the jib so we would have a "slow and relaxing" sail back to the marina.

Our final night we ate on the boat one last time to finish off our provisions.  We did go to the grocery store and pick up small tenderloins since we still had some charcoal.  We dined on pasta, cheese bread and steak.

It was a great trip; hard work yet relaxing but it is always nice to be back home.

Below are some additional photos to enjoy.

Craig checked out the accomodations at 2 of the local police stations...just in case.

Sunsets in the BVI are breath taking.

Blue Water and white sand