May 1, 2016 Lazy Bones Update: British Virgin Islands (BVI’s), U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico Our last update left off with us setting sail on March 14th from St Maarten, the most northerly of the Leeward Islands, to the British Virgin Islands (BVI’s). Our destination was the island of Virgin Gorda, 84 miles northwest. We left St. Maarten at 5:30 AM and experienced rain squalls most of the day, but we averaged over eight knots and even hit 10.2 knots! We arrived at Virgin Gorda North Sound at 3:30 PM and anchored off Prickly Pear Island. The next morning we took the dinghy across the sound to Gun Creek and cleared in with customs. We came back to Lazy Bones and motor-sailed over to the Bitter End Yacht Club (BEYC), anchored outside the mooring field, and went ashore for lunch. The BEYC is a unique nautical resort that caters to all yachtsmen. They have a small marina, several restaurants, friendly bars, a small grocery store, bungalows, Wi-Fi, a pool, and much more. It’s a great place to hang out, have some drinks, and enjoy a nice meal. At 4:30 we took the dinghy over to Saba Rock for happy hour. This tiny island was owned by Bert Kilbride, a big enthusiast for SCUBA diving, back in the fifties. In the sixties Bert opened the Pirates Pub, set up a few moorings, and Saba Rock became the local sailors’ hangout. In 1997, he sold out to a developer who built an amazing resort on this tiny piece of rock. We ordered a couple of the famous “Painkiller” drinks, made with rum, pineapple juice, orange juice, and cream of coconut. They taste like a fruit smoothie, and it doesn’t take too many of these drinks to live up to their name! At 5:00 PM Saba Rock has tarpon feeding alongside their dock. Tarpon are about four feet long, resemble a barracuda, and are fierce fighters, so they are popular with anglers. Lance explained everything you would want to know about tarpon, then he asked for volunteers to feed the fish. Gayle was chosen to lie stomach down on the dock, wrap a piece of fish gut around her fingers which was attached to some delectable fish part, and hold her arm out over the water. The tarpon started jumping up to snatch the dangling bait. After that excitement, Lance handed her a couple of huge lobsters to hold up. This was followed by some yummy lobster tacos at the bar, and, of course, more painkillers. The next day we moved one mile west and anchored in Leverick Bay. Neptune II had recommended the Michael Beans Pirate Show ashore here. The show is free, and drinks and food are available. Michael has created a fun show for adults and kids alike, with music, singing, stories, and contests, all with very high energy and lots of audience participation. It sounded a bit corny, but it turned out to be a lot of fun and laughter. Jeff even managed to win a bottle of rum for blowing the conch shell the longest in the men’s category! We were anxious to get our communications up and running, so the next morning we headed around the top of Virgin Gorda and down the west coast to Spanish Town, where we anchored behind the moorings. We went ashore for lunch and bought sim cards for the telephone and iPad. Each country we enter requires different sim cards, so we have quite a collection from the Caribbean! Early the next morning, before the cruise ship crowds arrived, we took the dinghy over to The Baths, a unique and unusual formation of huge granite boulders, pools, caves, and trails. We tied the dinghy up to a tether line between two buoys designated for that purpose and snorkeled ashore. We followed the trail to Devil’s Bay through the rocks and pools, with the waves rushing in and out. It is a highly- recommended and amazing experience! The only problem was that Gayle discovered she could not get herself back into the dinghy. She has a left shoulder injury, so she can’t use that arm to pull herself up. Jeff managed to push her gently into the dinghy by coming up underneath her. We decided that she probably shouldn’t do any more snorkeling until her shoulder heals. After lunch we sailed five miles from Spanish Town to Pusser’s Marina Cay, an idyllic islet almost completely surrounded by a reef, and anchored behind the mooring balls. Ashore is the famous Pusser’s Restaurant, Bar, and Company Store. From 1655 until 1970, sailors in the British Royal Navy were given a daily ration of rum by the ship’s “Purser”, a word the sailors later coined as “Pusser”. We enjoyed some of their famous Painkiller drinks, along with some conch fritters. Conch is basically a giant sea snail and is served every imaginable way: conch burgers, conch salad, conch chowder, conch ceviche, etc. The wind started to pick up a bit and we started rolling, so we motored across to Trellis Bay on the east end of the island of Tortola and grabbed a mooring ($30/night is the standard rate for a mooring in the BVI’s). Trellis Bay is a haven for artists and local craftsmen, so we enjoyed browsing through the shops along the shore. We went to The Last Resort, a restaurant on a tiny islet in the middle of the bay, but the place was dead and they no longer have the donkey inside that you feed carrots to. We ended up at De Loose Mongoose for happy hour and dinner with some fellow cruisers. Our next stop was Road Town, the main town on Tortola, where the cruise ships make their stop. We anchored outside of Fort Burt Marina near the entrance to the huge bay. It was quite rolly that night, so the next morning we moved closer into the bay and anchored next to Wickam Cay 2. We went ashore for some sightseeing and provisioning. Jeff also took our yet again troublesome alternator to Al’s Marine and left it to be repaired. After lunch we motored to Sea Cows Bay just around the corner and anchored behind the reef. Jeff took our malfunctioning battery charger to Nanny Cay Marina for repairs in the dinghy. With all the broken parts dropped off for repair, we sailed down to Soper’s Hole at the west end of Tortola and grabbed a mooring for the night. The next day we went shopping at all the cute but touristy boutiques and had lunch and dinner at the Pusser’s Restaurant and Bar on the waterfront. Our next stop was Cane Garden Bay, a huge, beautiful, protected bay on the northwest side of Tortola. Keith and Marianne from the megayacht Shalimar, which was anchored nearby, came by on their SUP’s to say hi. We had run into them twice before, at the Bitter End and Leverick Bay. We made a plan to go to the Full Moon Party the next night at Bomba’s Surfside Shack in Apple Bay. It is a popular bar/shack that is famous for getting wild the night of the full moon with reggae music, dancing, booze, mushroom tea, bras, panties, etc. The full moon rose up over the horizon around 8:30 PM the next evening, so we hopped into a taxi and headed for Bomba’s. We had expected a crazy night with a big, raucous crowd, but it was very subdued and laid back. The crews of Lazy Bones and Shalimar had drinks and danced until midnight, then grabbed a taxi back to Cane Garden Bay. March 24th was Jeff’s birthday and we decided to celebrate it at the island of Jost Van Dyke just six miles across the channel from Cane Garden Bay. Jost Van Dyke is refreshingly undeveloped. Main Street is a beach lined with hammocks and open-air restaurant/bars. We picked up a mooring in Great Harbour bay, home of the legendary Foxy. We had both been here many years ago and had the opportunity to meet him. In fact, Foxy’s was one of the top ten places in the world to be for the millennium, and Gayle was one of the 5,000 revelers that night on an island that only has a population of 200! It was quite a treat seeing Foxy all these years later, still telling his stories through long, improvisational calypso rhymes and songs. We don’t know how he does it, but it is amazing to listen to him. Foxy opened a bar here in the 1960’s for all the free- spirited boaters who came to Jost Van Dyke’s unspoiled shores. He single-handedly put the island on the map with his beach bar and his amazing personality. We spent several days at Great Harbour, enjoying the great food and rum punch. We went to the weekend barbeque dinner at Foxy’s with Keith, Marianne, and Keith’s daughter, Monique, followed by dancing until midnight. Around noon the next day we walked up and over a steep hill in the blazing sun to White Bay to have drinks at the famous Soggy Dollar Bar. Arriving hot and thirsty, we were hugely disappointed to find out that it was Good Friday and no alcohol was being served until later that evening. Somehow a Coke did not hit the spot! On Easter Sunday we were invited over to the catamaran Optimus to enjoy happy hour with our friends Joe, Kamala, and their adorable son, Mackenzie.