Virgin Visit

In deference to our daughter Anne, who believes these emails
concentrate too much on the tasks we do on the boat, we have
decided this one will only touch on high points.
We scurried up to the Virgins as soon as Jack's back allowed
to be ready for her arrival on March 20. We wanted her to have
a personalized custom charter of the Virgins with sailing and
snorkeling and a visit to Foxy's on Jost Van Dyke. While she
and her husband Tom have joined us in many places, we have always
been safely in a marina and land-toured with them, so the sailing
experience was lost. This was her last chance until Horizons
is in the tamer waters of the Chesapeake. However, Anne changed
her flight to come in on April 9 because of her job, so we spent
an extra two weeks getting things ready for her and our crew
to arrive on April 26.
(AS: not only my job but also decision to have crew change window
of opportunity...that decision was nearly simultaneous and certainly
synchronous)
Sailing in the Virgins is like sailing through mountaintops on
a shimmering blue lake. (AS: oh yes, why don't they ever include
pictures? well maybe cuz they are too busy doing other things
to think of their *readers) The mountains, individual islands,
are arranged not too far apart to get to in a short sail, to
give you a platform to snorkel the reef and get ready for the
next island. The goal is to get to the head of Sir Francis Drake
Channel, where you can spend your last full day sailing gently
downwind on smooth water. North Sound in Virgin Gorda is where
Laurie chose to spend her fiftieth (AS: I think you read too
much of that time shifting book...um did you mean that was a
while ago?) birthday as a special event and the next day we sailed
downwind to the Baths and came in at Christmas Cove before turning
in our charter yacht.
The snorkeling is also spectacular in the Virgins. It has been
made even easier since we were last here in 2004 because they
have put moorings in everywhere you want to go. Probably that
is a pain at the height of the season, when hundreds of bareboat
charters roam the seas and need to snatch a mooring, but as the
season was winding down, it was only a convenience for us. No
dragging. (AS: and dragging really does suck, I've been there
when it happened in Block Island- will never forget the urgency
of matters, mom in her nightgown and dad in his cap, at just
about dawn when another boat began dragging, and raised the alarm,
a crowded harbor and a mooring adjoining, which did make things
happen quickly. nobody needed coffee after that) More moorings
have been put in areas with the best reef snorkeling, and the
moorings help preserve the reef, so it is a very win-win situation.
Anne was delighted to overcome her fear of fishes. She was
apparently threatened by her first snorkeling experience in Hawaii
when the fish tore open the bread bag she was feeding them from
and started charging her. The fish in the Virgins don't bother
you, they just go about their business.
We took her to Leinster Bay for her snorkeling and moored there
for the night. Leinster is a magic place. Besides the fish,
a short dinghy ride to shore and a walk up the hill takes you
to the ruins of the Annendale sugar plantation. Jack dinghied
us to shore, but eschewed the walk for back and repair purposes,
so Anne and Laurie had a delightful afternoon of walking and
fish viewing. The plantation is lightly staffed by volunteers
for the National Park Service, so Anne had another first—a first
taste of sugarcane, sweet and energizing but not as cloying as
sugar (AS: OMG - picture of how hopped up and happy I was on
the pure cane nectar is required along with Charles our US National
Park Service volunteer. Please donate to the USNPS. They do
good things with the money like build composting toilets at this
park...I wasn't contributing to the holding tank).
>From Leinster we went to Jost Van Dyke. Anne had going to Foxy's
on her life list, since her brother had talked about Foxy since
he accompanied us on the fiftieth birthday trip and she did not.
We had been told Foxy doesn't perform much anymore and it was
important to get there before 9 am.
We cleared customs and immigration by 10:30 and strolled off
to the bar. No singing, no music, people buzzing around, but
no Foxy. (AS: well actually you just didn't notice him sitting
there in the chair...I kinda figured that was him...and mostly
alone actually, I was surprised.) So we sat down at the bar
and had painkillers on the advice of the woman seated at the
end. It turned out she was Geoff Bodine's wife. Now, Jack and
Laurie know nothing about NASCAR, but apparently Anne knows much
more, (AS: not a lot!), so when Geoff introduced himself she
was quite excited and we snapped pictures of them together.
Maybe it's because Anne and Tom have a 1990 Corvette and we don't.
Laurie asked the bartender, a busy man, if Foxy ever performed
anymore and he said rarely, just plays in the morning, but of
course he's here to talk to folks and nodded toward the older
man sitting quietly in a corner. Laurie had wondered when they
came in if that man was Foxy, but he seemed so much older. (AS:
he must have aged a little harder than you two) and taller than
she remembered from 15 years ago. Since he was alone and the
chair next to him was empty, we went over and chatted.
Now, Foxy's conversation is a lot like his songs, in fact much
of his talk is his songs without music, so we talked about what
he had been doing and his kids, and he spoke us songs of how
he had been to Buckingham Palace and how he had been shanghaied
by charter captains and found his wife. Anne pointed out that
she had been to Buckingham Palace, but HE had been invited as
an honored guest. Princess Anne presented him with his MBE a
few years ago in recognition for all he had done for the people
on the island. Foxy has indeed brought wealth to Jost Van Dyke
since he founded his bar in 1968 so the 450 people who live on
the island have jobs and something to be proud of.
We went in the next morning early, but Foxy had decided to go
fishing in Anguilla that morning, so a nice young fellow showed
us around and introduced us to the cooks, who were already at
work for a group they were serving that afternoon. We congratulated
them on the fabulous barbeque we had the night before, which
they cook every night.
Because we knew the weather was going to turn distinctly nasty
by that evening we left Jost for Great Cruz Bay where we decided
there would simply have to be a mooring for us. (AS: sheer force
of willful belief it could be no other way, no plan B/C/D...required)
This would be the most protected place during the blow and this
would be Anne's best place to see St. John. Laurie figured she
and Anne could take a taxi tour to Coral Bay and Skinnylegs,
while Jack stayed on the boat. (AS: Protecting us from dinghy
thieves, leaking sieves and helping his squeaky knee) Luckily
for us, a nice young woman (AS: she loves you for the adjective!
Veronica was the fairy angel of Grand Cruz) led us to a private
mooring she said we could use as she knew the owners were gone
for a while.
The taxi tour was a great success. The driver was a Dominican
(from the nearby island, not a member of the religious order)
and had the naturalist information Anne is always looking for
in a tour. He stopped for every vista shot she wanted (and there
were plenty) and showed Laurie the moorings in a bay we will
stop in on the way back from Red Hook this week when the weather
turns better. St. John is a beautiful island, since 75% of it
is a US National Park. The upscale shopping in Cruz Bay, mainly
for jewelry, is something Laurie and Anne could enjoy more than
Jack and they were back at the bar at the Westin for pickup just
before the rain began. They decided to wait for a lull before
they called him to come get them.
We finished our lovely trip to the islands on a mooring, while
Anne perfected her new rum drink made from local ingredients,
which I believe she has shared on Facebook. Purely in the interests
of science, we sampled the different versions thoroughly, until
she had it just right. (By way of calibration, there was laughter
but no singing.) Before we went to bed, she asked if we needed
to be concerned—the wind was howling out there. We said no,
we were safe on our mooring and protected. (AS: didn't have
any problem sleeping or waking up :)
The last day, back to St. Thomas' Crown Bay Marina for internet
and jump off for the airport, was definitely not a sailing day.
Jack hand steered us safely through 32-knot gusts and twisting
seas, and nowhere near Current Cut, to the shelter of the marina.
(AS: note that at the time it was pointed out that hand steering
is a lot more work than autopilot. He is good enough that I
didn't notice).

There is another side of the week, of course. This is an excerpt
from the email Anne sent Tom on day four.

Today we had a good morning. After several days of prodigious
vomiting and a review of WebMD side effects of lysinopril, we
stopped in at the medical practice across the street from our
second marina. Dr has changed mom's HBP meds and the coughing
and vomiting should be gone within 48 hours :) we had to come
to the marina anyway because the throttle repair my dad jury
rigged while good was not a long term solution… The throttle
failed when we took up our first mooring yesterday afternoon.
As we headed to the marina the engine seemed to overheat, so
now we have to look into that too. But they know the people
here and Kevin came by and said he would get the part dad needs
today and had advice for him on the engine. So we now will wait
for dad to fill the engine radiator with h2o and hope for the
best. Oh the joy...seriously though, I am glad that I could
go with my mom to the dr and get her straightened out finally.
Tell Maggie we thank her. (AS: our friend Maggie was the one
who let us know about the risk, not a doctor...word of mouth
marketing may play an important part in getting good health care)

Since Anne has left we have gone back to the marina in Red Hook.
Kevin is changing out our sump pump and has discovered yet a
new problem. We have ordered a new thermostat and changed the
cooling water. Laurie has gone back to the doctor who has adjusted
her BP meds slightly. He mentioned that he had the same reaction
to lisonopril for over a year before he realized he needed to
pay attention to it. One in twenty develop an allergy to their
ACE inhibitor.

We effected many other repairs and improvements in the month,
but our little girl had a Virgin Island holiday finally. Good
Old Anne!

(AS: much love and great times and memories! and crossing off
Foxy's and the VIs in the lifelist...only wish I took more video!
Hope you are safely in the States with happy, well-fed crew
soon! Tom has been watching the big weather patterns --- you
may have northerlies, plan accordingly and call if you want Tom's
forecast too - free)

We sent this to Anne first, for her permission to use her email
to Tom. We hope the formatting makes it through webbox for easy
readability, but we can't tell from the sending end.