Saturday Day 1

We arrived and were at baggage claim by about 5am.  We all agreed that getting a room at the hotel even if for just 2.5-3 hours was worth it.  So we collected our bags, except for one.  The bag carousel stopped moving and we were missing a bad.  I started to talk to a rep from JetBlue and we walked over to the office nearby.  While we were chatting, the alarm came on again and the carousel began to move.  Our bag was there!

With our bags in hand, we headed to the hotel, grabbed a room and got some sleep.

Our view from our room - not the best, but not the worst either.  One thing is sure - looks like a great day!

 

We got up at 8:20am, got ready and went to meet our other friends at the Cape Air desk.  Once all checked in we headed to get some breakfast – it was now 9:40, so we figured we had enough time to eat.  At about 10:15, a woman from Cape Air came up and told us we were boarding.  We inhaled what was left, paid and headed down for our flight.  Took off a bit early and likewise arrived in Tortola a bit early.   Got some nice shots on the way.

Magen's Bay on St. Thomas

Sandy Cay

Our whole group (6 of us) were met with the VIP arrival and we relaxed while we were checked in.  It didn’t save us any time this time, but it was nice and relaxing nonetheless J

Once checked in we were off to the Sunsail base and to our boat – a Sunsail 444 – Shazam!  (There’s no exclamation point in the name on the boat, I added that).  We got our provisions, dive gear and everything else we needed and we were off just a bit after 2pm. 

We hoisted the sails (well, the winch did all the work) and we were sailing down the drake towards west end.  JVD was our goal.  Sailing was decent for a bit until we had to turn to head directly downwind.  At that point I furled in the jib and fired up the iron genny..  We cruised the rest of the way and made it to Great Harbor close to 5.

Once settled on the mooring, we lowered the dinghy and then we all jumped in for a swim.  We cleaned up after swimming and then headed in to Foxy’s around 7pm.  We were asked if we had a reservation and we didn’t, but they had room for our group of 6.  Which was good because we didn’t have much on the boat which would have been good for dinner.  We didn’t realize Saturday was their Buffett night.  It worked out great though since everyone loved it.  Food was great and drinks were too!  After dinner, we headed back to the boat were some went to sleep and a few of us hung out for a bit before calling it a night too.  It was a long day!