Saturday 6th February 2016

 

A quick farewell to Roadtown, which we've not had much time to see and with the mega influx of American Cruise ship tourists we could manage without, we head by cab to Hodges creek and our sailing trip. The taxi arrives and the aged Caribbean gentleman that is diving it motions to us that he is incapable - or too aged - to have anything at all to do with our cases. Once we get going the journey never gets past 20m.p.h. In fact, Speedy, our driver doesn't get into 3rd gear! Even bicycles could overtake us, such is the tardiness of the vehicle. 
 
Eventually we meet up with Scott our Skipper/C.E.O. (Chief experience officer) and the other 6 travellers who we will spend the next week. Anna and Petra are friends who enjoy travelling together and live in Switzerland. Bryan and Rachel who live in Toronto, then 2 girls from Australia who share the final cabin, who had never met before Emily from Perth and Sophie from Brisbane originally but who lived in Sydney before leaving to do a year of travelling. Everyone else is in there 20s or 30s except our Skipper who is in his early 40s. So a as we guessed we would be the seniors of the group but it's no problem.
 
Our Yacht is the Spyglass she's a 45 foot catamaran and quite beautiful. Three years old and bigger that we expected which means, very happily for us, bigger cabins and a longer bed! This is always the worry when Peter is over 6' 5" and most beds are built for the average guy. 
 
We have a briefing from Scott at the Marina cafe and then head to the nearest supermarket to stock up on provisions that suit everyone for breakfast, lunches and snacks for the week as except for a bar-b-que our evening meals will be eaten at various restaurants we stop at along the way. We load our goodies onto our boat and by 4pm it's anchors-away and we head off on our first port of call Marina Cay a tiny anchorage about an hour and a half sail from Hodges Creek. It's surrounded on almost 3 sides by a reef and we are heading to Pussers Restaurant which serves fabulous meals, scrumptious cocktails and is right on the beach. The waters around the B. V. I.s are every shade of blue imaginable, we are surrounded at our mooring by many other similar sized yachts and as we have almost an hour before our dinner reservation it's a perfect excuse to dive into the crystal clear water, so Peter and I make the most of the moment whilst the younger crowd open beers. So we are bobbing about in the super salty briny and loving every minute what a way to spend half an hour before dinner. 
 
We journey from yacht to Marina Cay by our small inflatable tender called Fast Eddie when it's got just 2 or 3 on board, but very steady Eddie when all 9 of us are. It's only minutes to get to our mooring and a moments walk along the beach of pure white sand and coral pieces to the restaurant. It's in a magical position and at a round table for 9 meals just don't get much more perfect than this. Drinks are ordered, mainly cocktails, mine is a deadly concoction of Rum, Kahlua, Baileys and Coconut cream called a Bushwacker! Peter's drinking a Painkiller. This cocktail originated in the Soggy Dollar bar in the B.V.I.s and contains Rum, Coconut, Pineapple and Orange juice in varying quantities. Peter's is a 2, the ratings goes as high as the Rum content, this can be dangerous. The group enjoy a fabulous evening of getting to know each other, great food and drinks. This should be a fun week.