More visitors

On Sarah and Kristi’s first night here we were fortunate enough to have been visited by a dolphin.  Danielle, Sarah’s friend who lives in St. Thomas had brought them from the airport to Red Hook where we were anchored and we were just hanging out on the boat for a bit when we noticed a dolphin nearby. We had not seen a dolphin since last summer in Puerto Rico and Danielle had never seen one in the Virgins so we were all enchanted with it’s visit that evening. We had a nice dinner out and made plans for Danielle to catch up with us on the weekend. She teaches math at the University of St. Thomas and had to work for the rest of the week.

The following morning we left Red Hook and headed over to Jost Van Dyke to clear into the BVIs for a few days. As is the custom, we tried out a few Pain Killers at the Soggy Dollar in White Bay while swimming and walking the beach.  We then moved out to Sandy Spit, an island of about 100 yards in diameter where we swam some more and played a game of beach bocci ball which involved circumnavigating the spit.

By the afternoon we had made our way to Diamond Cay where we anchored for the night.  Sarah and Kristi did a little exploring in the morning and visited the bubbling pools.  We then had a great sail along the north shore of Tortolla and stopped at Monkey Point for a bit of snorkeling.  We decided to get a mooring ball at Marina Cay for the night and had dinner ashore at Pussers.  The next morning we were off to the Baths; fortunately they were not quite as busy as during our visit last month and we took the time to do some snorkeling this time.  It is an amazing place to snorkel with many varieties of fish and beautiful sand channels between huge boulders.   Well worth taking your mask and fins if you go there.  Next stop, Cooper island where we picked up a mooring ball and went in for happy hour.  We all decided that Cooper Island Beach Club serves the best Pain Killers and we would try to emulate theirs.

First thing the next morning we motored over to Road Town on Tortola to pick up Danielle who was taking the ferry from Charlotte Amalie and would spend Saturday and Sunday with us. It was a very rolly anchorage in Road Town and everyone was pretty anxious to get underway quickly.  We had a nice sail across Sir Francis Drake Channel over to the Bight at Norman’s island where we picked up another mooring. We spent the afternoon snorkeling just outside the Bight which was beautiful then hung out on the beach at Pirates Bight Restaurant for the rest of the afternoon.  We had a nice dinner aboard Echo and as usual an early night since we are pretty tired by 9:00 or so.

Sunday morning we had hoped to snorkel the Indians just outside of the bight but it was so busy we were not able to pick up a mooring. Instead we had nice downwind sail back to Cruz Bay on St. John. We decided this would would work for Danielle since she had to work Monday morning and we would spend the rest of Sarah and Kristi’s visit on St. John. Clearing in and out of the two countries complicates things a bit but somehow it all works out.

We spent the next few days hanging out in Francis Bay and Water Lemon bay swimming, snorkeling, hanging on the beach and a little bit of hiking.  Before we knew it it was time to get back to Charlotte Amalie for their flight home.  As usual, good byes make us a bit sad.  We do enjoy company and felt like the Virgin Islands worked out well.  We never expected to be here in the Virgin Islands this long but do feel it was a great place to have visitors.