Day 7 - May 1, 2010 - Back to Reality

Today our fantasy came to an all too soon end. Our day started out on island time with another morning coffee on the veranda looking at the beautiful sunrise over Saba Rock.

Unfortunately we quickly realized that this was not really our lives, just a short time out from the reality of the hustle and bustle of the 21st century rat race.

We boarded the North Sound ferry from Leverick Bay around 9AM, picked up passengers at "The Bitter End Resort" and set off for the Tortola airport. The Ferry ride was like being in the hold of a cargo ship, no air, hot humid, just miserable.

We were hot and sticky when we arrived at the airport around 09:45AM for a 11AM flight to San Juan, a bit tight considering we had to check in, pay our $20/person exit fee and pass thru customs. We had tried to check in via the Internet last night but due to either Fred's ineptitude or the fact that we were originating our flight on American and ending on Continental, booked via Continental, we were not able to check in on line. There was quite a line at the check in, the exit fee line and the security gate. By the time we got to check in, we were informed that our seats were given away and we were wait listed, let's just say the air was still hot and humid and this news did not improve any one's mood. After weighing every piece of baggage (including carry on), they concluded they could carry us all and despite our hand wringing we were able to board our flight to San Juan.

Through all this, we kept taking head count and realizing that we were missing Bob. It seems the $10 bottle of "Foxy's Fire Water Island Rum" that Bob bought for a souvenir had to be shipped home in a checked bag so he got hung up at check in (we all came here with just carry on luggage). Then they singled him out in the security line to do the special screening, when the guy put on the rubber glove Donna said Bob's eyes got pretty big. Then while we were waiting to get the final weight and balance on our aircraft, another security guard invited Bob over to the side for another private conference.

If you know Bob, he is a pretty easy going fella, but I think he had just about enough at this point. Oh... and it got even better.... If you check bags on an international flight, you have to pick them up once you are on US soil and personally take them through customs, so Bob had to retrieve his bag in San Juan. This went rather smoothly and we finished our check in for our Newark and Albany legs and set off to our next round with Homeland Security. This was going swimmingly until, of course, they got to Bob. It seems you can not carry alcohol in your carry on baggage, even on US soil, unless you bought it on the other side of the security gates. So you guessed it, Bob gets the 3rd degree and sent back to the check in counter, he was gone for quite some time, once he got through the check in line again, he was told he needed to get in the bag scanning line and then get back in the check in line and then back in line for security. When he finally showed up again, Ed had the guts to ask him if that was Vaseline on the back of his shorts? Remarkably, Ed is still with us. I know Bob will look back on this someday and laugh...I hope.

We are now at 30 thousand feet and headed for Newark, from there we board a 7:45PM flight to Albany, landing around 9PM, then we have about a 2 hour drive back to the north country. I hope I don't find anything entertaining enough to write anymore about before we get home.




June and I arrived at home around midnight last night, so only 13 hours of travel (ferry-airplane-airplane-airplane-car-ferry-car) and we are transported from an entirely different world where it is summer year round and everything moves at a much slower pace. If you ever get the chance to Visit Virgin Gorda or the other Virgin Islands, you should not pass up the opportunity, it truly is a beautiful place and you will have no choice but to do some LIMIN.

And doing it with friends makes the trip all the more fun.

Day 6 - Just LIMIN

Today, was wind down day. We took the car back to Savannah Beach and did some snorkeling, there was a bit more wind and waves than yesterday, so you had to be careful around the coral and rocks. Despite liberal amounts of sun screen we all got just a little more on the pink side. (Click the play button to see a short movie of snorkeling at Savannah Beach)

After snorkeling, since this was our last full day in Virgin Gorda, we decided to just let the day slow down and hang out...we were really LIMIN.

Donna has been looking for a coconut since we arrived, so I finally found one, after much effort, we were able to get the husk off it, drain the milk and get to the good stuff, it was delicious but it was a lot of work.

After our siesta we booked dinner plans down at the Leverick Bay Marina at the Friday night BBQ, it was another gorgeous evening, starting happy hour 5-6, dinner at 6:30.

Then a live Reggae band, dancing (of course the Pattison girls got this started, then everyone was dancing) and the finale was the Jumbies.

The Jumbies are dancers on stilts...tall stilts and flashy dress, they put on a great show. It was a blast!

 

All and all it was a great last day in Virgin Gorda, tomorrow we catch a ferry from Leverick bay back to the airport

Day 5 - More Beaches

Today we thought we would get up a bit early and head for Spring Bay, this beach was recommended by Tiina the care taker of our Villa. It was another day of spectacular snorkeling, we thought were were only going to stay for a short time, but we stayed much longer, we just could not leave. At Spring Bay the beach is small, with a small cove, smaller than the one on Gilligan's Island (for those old enough to remember that show), to exit the cove you need to cross a reef with large boulders. It looked treacherous but we found that you could snorkel over the reef, once on the other side, the water was clear to large depths and the marine life was fantastic. We had a great time.

From Spring Bay we headed over to check out the copper mine, it was a good ride, but not much to see other than ruins. So we decided to find a place for lunch.




We stopped at the Yacht Club where there are various shops and a few places to eat. We did not plan to stay to eat at this one place since it was not air conditioned and it was getting pretty warm, but with 2 for 1 rum punches and Marcus the bartender, who the girls took a shine too, we ended up hanging there for a few hours. We even ran into Meron our Guide from our trip to Anegada the day before. Needless to say after a few hours of rum punches, and a few appetizers we were well past lunch and headed back to the Villa to do some LIMIN at the pool. We decided to extend our Safari vehicle another day, so I stopped in their office a few hours after we should have returned it...they said cool mon, no worries...we are getting to like the island attitude.

After slightly sobering up at the pool we went down to the local Leverick bay bar for happy hour, where you can get "Pain killers", "Bushwackers", "Rum Punch" and a few others for $3 a drink. The names all fit, they have the desired effect.

One thing about island time is that it is hard to figure out what time it is. In the morning and early afternoon the "its five o'clock somewhere" rule applies and in the evening it seems later than it is since the sun sets around 6-6:30 here this time of year. Again just forget about anybody rushing to do anything, it just is not going to happen, it takes some getting used to initially but within a few days everyone is on "Island Time".


No plans yet for tomorrow, we may just go back to Savannah beach or Spring Bay, they were both awesome and worth doing again.

Day 4 - The Beaches

Today we lounged around the pool in the morning.

We wanted to go see the famous beaches, most notably 'The Baths'.

We debated to call a taxi or rent a car, but settled on renting a car, we were not sure what it took to qualify to rent a vehicle in British Virgin Gorda. Well it turns out not much. The rental company had the car dropped at the Leverick bay hotel just down the street. I went down, they gave me the keys and said stop in at the rental place about 20 mins away, when I get a chance to pay and fill out the paper work. The never asked for my license, can you drive a standard, or anything else....what a hoot. I guess you are not going to leave the island with the car. So we rented a mini safari vehicle, basically a Toyota pickup with benches and a Bimini top. So off we went, driving on the left going up hills that are as steep as anything you will see in San Francisco.

Bob and Ed gave us directions.

We first stopped at Savannah Beach, it really was awesome, crystal blue, warm, lots of fish it was great for snorkeling.

We then went to The Baths, it was pretty spectacular, there are huge boulders everywhere, they formed caves which you can hike through.

 So we took the hike into the caves which makes its way to a small cove called Devil's Beach, again spectacular. We went swimming again and it was 'awesome' as Bob would say.

We then made our way back up to The Bath's restaurant, where we had a great lunch.

We ended our day with a boat ride to Saba Rock Resort, where we had dinner. Saba Rock is basically a very small island that has a hotel and restaurant, it is only accessible by boat, all the yachters show up in their dingy's. On the ride back to Leverick bay, there was a large Yacht, our driver asked if that was ours, we said no, then Ed said, ours is around the point and much larger, I don't think he bought it but it was good for a laugh.

Day 3 - Anegada Island, Lobllolly Beach

Today we booked a trip with Dive BVI to Anegada Island. This island is about 15 miles north of Virgin Gorda and is one of the premier snorkeling and scuba diving sites in the world. The boat we took was a very odd catamaran, it had two very long narrow hulls that cut the water like the old displacement hull boats versus a plane hull that rides on top. This result in an amazingly smooth ride even with 2 or 3 foot swells.

We arrived at Anegada and took a safari like truck across the island to Lobllolly beach, amazing white sand and coral reefs.

(Donna) OH!  Wait up!  Fred absolutely no mention of Meron.  what's up with that?  The hostess and guide for the trip.  For you at least.  I guess she did help the rest of us a little. She took a group picture  and posed for one.

When we got to Anegada, it was pretty windy so the water was churned up a bit more than usual but we had a great time. We all got pretty sun burned despite using sun screen (at least some of us did).

We got back from the trip around 4:30 and have been just hanging at the house having a good time, we heard they got snow at home this AM, we really feel for you guys…..really, just a little.

(Donna) It was a repetitive laugh all evening.  Wonder what the poor B--- are doing now.  Oh Yeah, freezing their b.. off.  Poor guys. It's grueling down here.  To bed on island time up at six.  Well for a few of us at least. Jean is up now, gotta go.

Day 2 - Totola to Virgin Gorda

(Fred) Yesterday our travel plans went exactly as planned, you can't ask for more than that, we arrived in Tortola, Beef Island at about 5:30PM, and then met up with Mike and Teresa at 6PM, perfect timing.

We got a van to take the eight of us from the airport to our hotel for the night Maria's by the Sea.  Holy crap, we almost died about five times, the roads are narrow, hilly and apparently driving on your side (the left) is just a recommendation, I was sitting between Donna and Jean, I have claw marks in both of my legs.  The more Donna screamed, the faster our driver seemed to go, he even drag raced a bunch of kids, yes he won.  Everyone was pretty tired and hungry when we finally got checked in.  It is not good to be in a hurry for anything here, we gathered for dinner and it seemed we would quench our hunger quickly, but not on "Island Time". Although the food was good, it did take a long time to get and there was no rushing them.  Today we will nose around here a bit and then take the ferry to our Villa in Virgin Gorda.

(Jean) Day 2 -- Awake at 6:00, showered and down in the lobby at 6:30 with Fred on the computer.  Very warm and humid - just what we asked for! Ed tried to find coffee - gave up. Breakfast at 7:30 we hope.
(June) Awakened by the roosters!  Yes, there are roosters and chickens roaming everywhere, even at the airport.  Quite comfortable temperature right now with a little breeze, no worries mon.

(Fred) This morning we were still in Tortola and had some time to kill so the girls did some shopping, then we set off for the Ferry to Virgin Gorda.  We thought we were on the 11:30, but when we got there we found that there was no 11:30 so we booked the 12:30. Since we had some time we decided to go for a walk, well we found Pusser's, the famous bar of the BVIs.  We had some 'pain killers' to steel our selves for the water crossing to VG.  It is a good thing we had to leave in an hour because those twins took a fancy to those 'pain killers' and we would have been in trouble. We boarded the Ferry and arrived in VG, where we got a taxi...another white knuckle ride...we stopped at the local store where you can buy food and booze...which we did. 

We arrived at our Villa around 2PM, our Villa is is huge with breath taking views of the ocean, just what we had hoped for.

 (Donna) Arrived at Virgin Gorda,  AHHH taxi drivers waiting.  Open air bus, groceries and then a hair raising drive across the island. The heights were amazing and the views were beyond description.  Steep is not an exaggeration for the roads, sometimes they just dropped.  The villa, oh, what a place!  Choose a bedroom, yeah, we each got the best one.  Now time for another relaxing beverage.  Two minute walk to the beach.  5 minute walk to the Leverick Bay hotel.  Had to break out the snorkeling gear.  Where to go, oh yeah the pool.  What fun, no coral or minnows but there were two or three sharks.  Yes, and watch Jean learn to use her snorkel.  Huh!  The hardest decision was what to make to drink next.  Yes and Bob, the Pagan gawd--- let's see oh there he is on the deck--- most of the day.  Tomorrow we will head for Anegada via ferry to snorkel for real on Lobllolly beach.  Goodnight Irene

Day One - Sun April 25th, 2010 - Travel

(Fred) This is day one with the Pattison girls..ugh.  Bob and Donna Kitchin, Ed and Jean Allen, Fred and June Jaquish, and Mike and Teresa Smith are off to the British Virgin Islands, Virgin Gorda for a week in the sun.

Today started at 02:30AM at Jean and Ed's with Jean chasing me (Fred) around the house in my underwear, she is lucky I am quick, it may have ruined her trip if she actually saw me.  We were getting our S...together when the phone rang, it was Donna...up since 2AM wondering why we had not got to her house yet.  We arrived at the Kitchins to pick them up at 3:15AM, bags were in the drive and Donna was outside waiting for us.....she was a bit anxious according to Bob.  We are now at the Albany airport, connecting to Newark, then to San Juan, PR, then to Tortola where we will spend the first night, then take a ferry to Virgin Gorda where we have rented a Villa (Coconut Grove).

(Donna) Anxious isn't the exact word for it, hyper, ready to go and weird. Lots of giggling on the road to the airport. The men in the front that is.  We girls sat patiently and quietly in the back. Sunrise at the airport was fabulous.