Winter Holidays … 2019

Plans change ….  

Initially, we had planned to take our camper down south for the Holiday Season and over New Years Eve. The weather looked promising to head to New Orleans in Louisiana, then on the Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, before heading up north again along the Eastern Seaboard.  Besides escaping winter here up north, we also wanted to check out our camping gear (and its modifications)  before shipping the van – one more time – to Europe.   (See here for our travel report http://sv-lbvida.blogspot.com/2018/03/).



Not so!!!



Friends called,

informing us that they had just bought another sail boat in the British Virgin Islands for their charter business (http://sailorsconcierge.com/) … and were wondering if we would like to spend the holiday season with them, instead.



24 hours later, our flight was booked to St. Thomas (US Virgin Islands), hotel in St. Thomas reserved, and ferry schedules from St. Thomas to Road Town (BVI) figured out, as well as taxis … you name it.



Upon arrival, we were welcomed by the familiar warm and humid air.  YES!  It felt like being “home” again.  We had been here before numerous times, and always enjoyed our experiences here.



Rather taking the airport taxi van (a $US 15 ride per person (!!!), for a 5 minute drive) into downtown St. Thomas, we walked up to the Intersection and made use of the $1 open air taxis, instead.  This way, we were greeted with a beautiful and unobstructed view of the harbour, while the wind cooled us off.

An ice-cold beer on the terrace of our  hotel, overlooking St. Thomas, set the mood for the days to come.

The one-hour fast ferry ride to the British Virgin Islands was fun, and we were able to identify numerous anchorages along the way, where we had stayed with La Buena Vida.



Another taxi ride – this time only $8 pp (J)  for a 5 min ride (no 1$ buses in the BVI !!!) - brought us to Nanny Cay Marina, where our friends stayed.



Time to change into shorts and sandals, and to get rid of all the Christmas presents we had brought along.



Hurricane Irma and Maria:



In September of 2017, two category 5 hurricanes “visited” the islands.  More than 2 years later, the devastation is evident, above ground and below.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/20/british-virgin-islands-hurricane-maria-irma-recovery-effort

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/27/us/hurricane-maria-virgin-islands.html



A walk along the waterfront from Road Town to the marina reveals severely damaged houses, or ruins, with huge concrete boulders twisted or thrown to the ground, when these structures were constructed of cement. Other places were a bundle of garbage.  Harbours and bays are full of boats on the hard, completely destroyed and shredded.

When we sailed around Tortola, re-visiting anchorages, we were struck by the fact that the hurricanes had stripped the floor of sand in most places.  Jost van Dyke, in the past a major watering spot for visiting sailors (requiring reservations when you wanted to have supper at night), looked empty.

The “Soggy Dollar Bar”, famous for its drink “Pain Killer”, was the only one with some (!) tourist traffic – in the past, the beach was full of activities.  Nevertheless, we tried to support the local economy be having another “ Pain Killer” …

Completing our circumnavigation of Tortola, a visit to Virgin Gorda (our point of arrival with La Buena Vida back in 2008 – great memories!),

a visit to The Bath with its volcanic rock formations,

we headed back to the marina.  

The anchor winch gave us trouble, so we used the marina as a base to undertake daily excursions across the Drake Channel to Norman Island, enjoying walks and refreshing dips in the water  … before we head home for a night in an air conditioned (!!!) boat. 

Drake Channel

Norman Island - The Bight

Cooling off ...

Hiking to see ...

our boat.  Bavaria 36

Paradies!



Sadly, our stay came to an end, and on January 1, we retraced our steps to the St. Thomas airport.



The airport was crowded, not only many travellers were heading back, but also due to the fact that most planes had been delayed – including ours (2 hrs).  Assuming we were going to miss our connecting flight back to Syracuse from Charlotte, NC, we were wondering how and when we would make it back.  But … this connecting flight was also delayed by 2+ hours.  Eventually, we arrived at a closing airport around 2am, walked over to the airport hotel (only a 10min walk fortunately, could not call the shuttle because the WiFi at the airport had been shut down by the time we arrived (???), and our SIM card does not work in the US !!!), and at 4:45 we fell into our bed at home.



We had a great time.  Miss our friends,

miss our excursions, miss … so many things.



But time is moving fast.  Europe, here we come!