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Saturday, November 27, 2004 Greetings from Peter Island - again. This time we're moored in Great Harbor, which is right over the hill from Sprat Bay where we spent our first night. We had a great dinner at Abe's last night - of course more lobster than we could ever hope to eat. During our meal, the full moon rose over the mountain - not sure we've ever seen a moon so bright before. Another highlight was watching a 70' catamaran arrive and try to anchor in the dark. This morning we were up early and off the mooring by 7:45. The first part of the sail (to Soper's Hole) was great - winds blowing in the right direction - made the crossing in an hour. As soon as we passed Soper's Hole though, the winds and waves were strong and of course not blowing in the right direction. No worries though - today is the best weather we've had all week so it didn't matter that we didn't make it to Peter Island until noon. One side of the bay (closest to Peter Island Resort) is for anchoring and the other side (by the restaurant Callaloo on the Beach - which is never open) has about 10 moorings. The water here is that amazing color of turquoise and crystal clear. Andy went for a snorkel and saw several turtles (I saw them surfacing trying to escape him :). Went ashore for a bit to hang out in the hammocks in the shade. Right now we're heating up the grill to cook the last of the provisions. We have to have the boat back by noon tomorrow - our flight is at 4. Plan to check-in for our flight and then kill time in Trellis Bay.
Friday, November 26, 2004 Greetings from Little Harbor, Jost Van Dyke - a supposed wireless deadspot :) Not sure why it would be a dead spot, since I'm staring across the channel at Tortola. I even have an AT&T wireless signal from St. Thomas on my cell phone :)) After a hearty breakfast of the last of our eggs/ham/cheese provisions, we left Marina Caye at 8:30 this morning. Another highlight of the morning was watching this strange couple one mooring over bathe on their swim step - uh hello - in broad daylight. They are almost as weird as the people two moorings over who seemes to have caught something and were killing/cleaning it on their deck. Anyhow... After motoring through a few shallow passages, we were on the north side of Tortola. In the past this has been an easy down-wind sail, but today the wind was not cooperating. We're certain that there were small craft advisories today, but since the windometer (whatever that is called in sailing terms) hasn't been too useful, we just know it was wicked windy with lots of waves. We eventually took in the sails and motored - a.k.a. "Jennifer learns how to dump the sails." We arrived in Little Harbor around noon - which is great considering the conditions. We went ashore to pay for the mooring and grab a drink and some ice at Sydneys. After we recovered from the sail over, we took a taxi over to Great Harbor for a visit to Cynthia's Bakery for breakfast for the remaining two mornings and an obligatory stop at Foxy's. Weather cleared up around 2 and hopefully it stays that way for the next 48 hours. Spent the afternoon - you guessed it - lounging on the boat watching pelicans feast on a seemingly endless supply of fish in the bay. In a few hours we're heading over to Abe's for the last of our dinners out. Tomorrow our plan is to head somewhat near Tortola - perhaps Peter Island - to get the boat in order before we return it on Sunday.
Thursday, November 25, 2004 Greetings from Marina Caye. After the obligatory Folgers coffee singles (think tea bag, but with coffee), we left the Bitter End Yacht Club around 8am. Had a nice 1 hour down-wind sail to Great Dog Island, home of the dive site Coral Gardens. We stopped here back in 1997, searching for a plane wreck. Infortunately, we're still searching. We swam at least 400 yards into a strong current looking for the darned thing, but no luck. At least the swim back was nice - very nice coral with lots of giant purple fans, jacks, grunts, and those little neon blue fish that you see in aquariums, and one rogue turtle. We took some pictures with the Nikonos, but not sure how they'll turn out without a flash (yep - we forgot to check before we submerged and it turns out that we didn't have batteries in it - DOH!). The good news is that I'm slowly remembering how to dive - in fact, today Andy remembered "never put sunscreen on your face before you go diving because it irritates the heck out of your eyes if your mask floods." After the dive, we headed to Marina Caye - the wind was a little unusual, but at least we weren't sailing straight into the wind like on Tuesday! We made it to Marina Caye in about an hour and a half, and picked up a mooring right in back of the reef (which is supposedly calmer than the others - we'll see). Went ashore for bushwackers and lunch at Pussers and spent the afternoon sunning and swimming of the boat (are you noticing a theme here??). Tried to upload some pictures, but there seems to be an FTP block on the wireless modem. Harumph. Headed over to Donovan's Reef (one of our favorite restaurants) for our Thanksgiving tradition of anything but turkey - I had an awesome lobster (it's bbq'd, and falling out of the shell in bite-sized pieces). These guys really do a great job - we'll be back for sure. Now we're sitting in the cockpit, under an almost full moon that is so bright that we can see silhouettes of nearby islands. Tomorrow we're headed to Jost Van Dyke - another (yay!) down-wind sail. It's a known wireless dead spot over there - we'll see.
AArgh! FTP block on the wireless modem! Seeing if email works...
Wednesday, November 24, 2004 Greetings from the Bitter End Yacht Club in North Sound, Virgin Gorda. Had a bit of a lazy day today compared to the sailing marathon yesterday. Went ashore for breakfast at Leverick Bay and also used their showers (because you really can't pass up a land shower if it presents itself). We had a flawless stop at the fuel dock - no one came out to help us with the lines, but Andy let the boat drift right up and he stepped off and secured it. Only needed 10 gallons, but it's about $3/gallon - but we got a free water fill since we'd stayed the night on the mooring. Figured - we hadn't used much water :) Headed across the sound to Prickley Pear Island, but the moorings there seemed to be pretty choppy so we headed over to the Bitter End. Spent the day doing pretty much nothing - sunning, swimming off the boat, watching HUGE boats arrive (dollar prize to the first person who finds info on the sailing yachts "Georgia" and "Ranger" out of Grand Cayman - they're actually rentals, but owned by the same person). When the arrived, activity at the resort pretty much stopped as they eclipsed most of the island. Went ashore for some bushwackers and to take a walk around. The showers have been renovated into nice teak air conditioned bathrooms. Not sure where the showers are since we indulged at Leverick Bay. They are also doing some development, timeshares or villas or something. The moon is almost full which makes it VERY bright out on the water. We also forgot how many stars are visible when you are outside the city. Tomorrow we plan to head over to Marina Caye, perhaps stopping at one of the Dogs (a group of small uninhabited islands along the way) for a dive, since we didn't get to try out the camera yesterday. Perhaps dive #2 will be better than dive #1 :)
Tuesday, November 23, 2004 Greetings from Leverick Bay in the North Sound of Virgin Gorda. First, an apology to the people who we thought moored themselves to a fish trap - it was indeed a private mooring. Aint that the best kept secret on Cooper Island - it's yellow and to the far left if you are looking at the island. But they still ran over our mooring line, and had to make three attempts to grab it :) Up early this am and dropped the mooring by 7. Headed over the the Wreck of the Rhone - ties to be the first ones there with another sailboat, but they left. So we gear up and make a plan for what we're going to do. Get in the water, decend, and head towards the wreck. But as I'm about the enter the water from the back of the boat, my brand new snorkel goes flying into the water and quickly sinks. No problem, they're really a nice to have rather than a requirement. So I'm all suited up in my 5mm wetsuit, which by the way, is easier to put on in the dressing room than when you're all sweaty and salty on a boat. I get in the water, but can't descend if my life depended on it. I then begin to panic and swim back to the boat, where I realize, what the heck am I doing?? I've done this 50+ times. So I get more weight (22 pounds total) and we continue on schedule. Only problem is that we can't seem to find a sunken 180+ foot wreck (but we did find my snorkel)! We swim around for a while and then decide that the goal was to dive, not to see the wreck, so we headed back to the boat. By the way - the only reason I was wearing a 5mm wetsuit is because we're going to the Galapagos for Christmas so I wanted to test it out to see how much weight I'll need. Turns out it makes me pretty darned buoyant. We packed away all the gear and headed towards North Sounds. The winds were great today, but after 10 or so tacks we'd only gone 3/4 of the way so we turned on the engines. Everyone else is so what the heck :) We arrived in Leverick Bay. Quite comica entry - first we missed the mooring (ok, Andy missed it), then on the second approach I dropped the grabber and had to jump in to fetch it. Andy was terribly embarrassed, but I wanted to charge the surrounding boats for the happy hour entertainment :) Just finished BBQ on the boat - not sure what's on tap for tomorrow - likely the Baths: )
Monday, November 22, 2004 Greetings from Cooper Island. Let's see... Our last post was as we were leaving Norman Island on Sunday. We left around 10am and hit a few squalls on the was to Peter Island. Think "white squall" - but the good news is that I am completely over my bout with seasickness. We picked up a mooring in Sprat Bay a bit before noon, and the weather had already cleared by then. Had some snacks on the boat before heading in to Peter Island Resort. Since we were here two years ago, the overnight mooring fees have gone up to $45 - likely because they read my blog about what a bargain it is. There's a huge new spa over on the deserted beach and the whole beach is roped off to deter bareboaters :) Had a few bushwackers at the bar, which are a pretty good deal at $8 per. They also had a decent steel pan band singing "fools rush in". We headed back to the boat to avoid the evening dress code. Had dinner aboard surrounded by the most active pelicans we've ever encountered. The bay is full of millions of little fish, and the pelicans dive non stop - quite entertaining to watch. Man, if we'd skipped drinks at the bar this vacation would be damn cheap so far :) This morning we headed out kinda late and were minutes away from grabbing the last mooring ball at the Wreck of the Rhone. Oh well, can dive it tomorrow. Saw lots of turtles while sailing today. Instead we spent the day at Cooper Island. Went ashore for lunch and exploring - the long beach we used to like is now private property. Spent the afternoon swimming off the boat and watching people fight for the last few moorings. The bay here faces West, so we've got a great view of the sun setting over what we think is St. John. Just finished watching a 50 foot Moorings boat makes three attempts at grabbing what they thought was a mooring - running over our mooring on the way - I still don't think that they know it's a fish trap. "Look honey, this one has a little present attached to the bottom of it!" Tomorrow the plan is to dive in the am and then head to either Virgin Gorda or Marina Cay. Of course, who knows where we'll end up :)
Did I mention that these posts are done WIRELESS from a boat in the middle of the Caribbean??? How cool is that?!? :)
Sunday, November 21, 2004 Greetings from Norman Island - known for it's wild bar the Willy T and also for being one of the known wireless deadspots in the region. Ha! We left the docks yesterday at 3:30 - the latest we've ever left by a good 4-5 hours! According to the GPS we went 6.78 miles - all of the waypoints are still in there from our last trip. Hit a few rain squalls on our way to Norman Island, but we made it before dark and even snagged a mooring ball. Since I was suffering from "mal de mer", we didn't go ashore and spent the night lounging in the cockpit - me trying not to throw up and Andy recounting the "snoot full" of wind we had on the way over. Woke up this am to bright blue skies, a light breeze, and a settled tummy. For the first time ever, I cooked a meal on the boat and made scrambled eggs with ham and cheese. About to go for a swim - the water is 83 degrees! Today we're headed to either Peter Island or Norman Island - will try to check in from there.
Saturday, November 20, 2004 Greetings from aboard Island Time in Road Town harbor. Flights this am went off without a hitch and we were at the marina by 10:30am. The boat is nearly new and BVI Yacht Charters went out of their way to call all of our suppliers to see if they could deliver early so we could be off the dock this afternoon. The scuba tanks were delivered, and the wireless modem is up and running. Had lunch at Pusser's and now we're waiting for is provisioning from Bobby's and we'll be ready to take off. We hadn't planned on leaving today, so we're not sure where we'll go. Has to be somewhere with ample moorings since we'll get in around 4 - probably Norman Island or Peter Island. The weather was warm and sunny earlier - there's a passing shower now - and looks like there's sun and some good wind after that.
Friday, November 19, 2004 Magically they found a new plane and we are now in the h terminal. Lots of grumpy people who paid 4 a sleep aboard tonight & now won't be there until sunday. Departure in 45 minutes.
I totally jinxed us! We're still @ O'Hare-plane broken. We decided to stick it out rather than try 2 get rerouted. It's like an episöde of Airline with people freakin out all over the place. The good news is that our seats to tortola are now hot commodities. Now off 2 spend our food vouchers...
Greetings from O'Hare-where the Christmas decorations are in full swing & we're scheduled for an on-time departure. Posted from a Nokia mobile phone in Chicago.
Monday, November 15, 2004 
Sunday, November 14, 2004 For those of you playing along at home, here's our planned* itinerary: 
*Subject to change without notice due to wind, weather, and crowds :)
Saturday, November 13, 2004 I remember what I didn't like about dive trips - the extra luggage! We'd gotten to the point that we could go just about anywhere for 7-10 days without having to check any luggage. Not so when the 7-10 day trip includes diving. Packed all the dive gear today - one big honkin 55 pound bag. Good thing the American Airlines limit for international flights is 70 lbs. wetsuits, booties, hoods (I know, the water is over 80 degress, but I'm practicing for the Galapagos) masks, fins, snorkels bcd's, regulators, gauges dive computer, slate, dive logs/c cards dry bags, towels
Wednesday, November 10, 2004 
Sunday, November 07, 2004 Haven't posted in a while because my mind is consumed with vacation planning :) It's only 12 days until wheels up for our vacation to BVI aboard Island Time Today we emailed our provisioning list to Bobby's. During the past two trips (in 1997 and 2002) we ate most breakfasts and lunches on the boat and went ashore for dinner every night - with the exception of Peter Island, where we got take-out since we didn't want to get dressed up for the dining room. It's just the two of us and we cook a lot at home so we don't want to spend precious vacation time slaving away in the galley. The problem is, food doesn't keep very well in the icebox and pb&j gets old after day three. This trip, we're going to actually use the bbq - nothing crazy, just burgers/dogs - still likely to eat dinner ashore most nights, but at least we have more options. For those interested, here is our provisioning list: From Bobby's 4 Apples Granny Smith 113ct 4 Banana Ripe Yellow Per lbs 4 Limes 200ct 1 Large dozen Eggs 1 2% Fresh Milk 1/2gal 1 Kraft American Singles 8slices 1 Rondele,Four Pepper 4oz 1 Hebrew National Franks 7pk 12oz (All Beef) 1 Raspberry Preserve 340g 1 Peanut Butter Creamy 12oz 2 Ketchup 14oz 1 French's Mustard 6oz 1 Havarti lb .5 Honey Ham Chunk/sliced lb 1 Salami Genoa Chunk/sliced lb 1 Lawry Season Salt 4oz 1 Salt & Pepper Shaker 1.5oz 2 Paper Towels Bounty roll 1 Toilet Paper x4pcks Charmin 0 Trash Bag Sml 30ct 1 Garbage Bag 33gal 10ct 1 Aluminum Foil 25ft 1 Trash Bags Medium 18ct 2 Instant Charcoal 5lbs 1 Long Matches 40ea 1 Musquito Coils Cobra 10pk 2 Sponge 1ea 1 Dishwashing Liquid 18oz 0 Bread Whole Wheat 20oz 1 Sara Lee Coffee Cake 11.5oz 1 Whole Wheat Bread Fresh 24oz 2 Hot Dog Rolls 8rolls Fresh 11oz 1 Hamburger Buns 8buns Fresh 21oz 6 Diet Coke 12oz 6 Ginger Ale 12oz 3 Drinking water Gallon 2 Ice Cubes Med Bag 10# 1 Ice BLOCK Med Bag 10# 1 Cranberry Juice 64oz 1 Pineapple/Banana/Orange 64oz 1 Hamburger 4oz 1 Corona Bottles 24/12oz 1 Captain Morgan Spice Rum 1 Ltr 1 Grey Goose 750ml Coming with us: Bagel Chips Munchies Snack Mix Miniature Oreos Pepperidge Farm Butterfly Crackers (because there's no reason to pick through the assorted box, when they sell a whole box of only butterflys :) Cashews Folgers Coffee Singles Mosquito Coils (you can never have too many) Ziplock Storage Containers And no, I didn't forget clothes-pins - they're part of the general packing that I plan to do next weekend :)
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