Saturday, April 29th
When we told friends and family we were going to be living on a boat with 6-8 strangers, sleeping below deck, sailing, etc. – they laughed. Primarily because I (Olivia) am claustrophobic, experience motion sickness (I have to take Dramamine before I get to an amusement park) and I am a complete, and utter control freak. On the bright side – at least I own my weaknesses!! There are a lot of reasons we wanted to do this trip – any day on the water is an AMAZING day in our book…we had to know what an entire week be like? We have grand ideas of retiring or semi-retiring in a location where sailing conditions exist. And last, but not least, the idea of buying and living on a boat for a period is very, very appealing. But could we do it?
We called Friday and arranged for our favorite Taxi driver – “Mr. Nice Guy” to pick us up between 10:00 and 10:30am Saturday morning. He arrived on time, and just in time as the skies opened and poured rain.
Marcus and I waited with another couple, making small talk about places we’ve been, places we want to go and experiences at BBC. Eventually, another couple made their way up – it was at this time, Mr. Nice Guy informed us that we were waiting on two more people – then we would load up and be on our way. The plan was to drop Marcus and I off at the ferry terminal, and the other 6 people would continue to the airport. A VERY long story short, eventually the other two people FINALLY showed up and made sure they were the first people in the taxi.
If you’ve never been to St. Thomas before – now is where I should probably point out that most taxis are passenger vans that can hold 8-12 people, and anytime the taxi can be filled – it will be filled. Airport, ferry terminals, resorts, etc. – plan on getting to know other travelers, and plan on making multiple stops.
Logic, would suggest those that are getting out of the taxi first, should sit up front – not in the back. Our late taxi partners didn’t see it that way and were in the first row. Marcus took the seat next to the taxi driver and I climbed in the third row of the van. As if the logistics weren’t irritating enough – these two also asked the taxi driver to stop at an ATM on their way to the airport!! Other people in the van were beginning to sweat their airport arrival and departure times. I was starting to sweat the ferry schedule. If we didn’t make the noon ferry, we would have several hours to kill before the next ferry, and we would be cutting it a little closer than comfortable, with an on-time arrival and boarding for our sailing excursion. We rolled into the ferry terminal at 11:45 with the next ferry departure at noon. We made it with just enough time!
Ferry ride to Tortola was mostly uneventful – passage was a little roll-y and rough, but thanks to my dose of Dramamine before embarking, I was totally chill and only mildly sick. We rolled into Road Town and disembarked into a very long customs line. I have to chuckle because our time with the customs agent was easy peasey – he asked only two question, and then smiled and said “you must really like it here…” Took me by surprise, and then it occurred to me (I’m a little slow on the uptake) – it was all our previous BVI stamps. I smiled back and said “we do! What gave us away, the 6 other stamps?” He just nodded and told us to enjoy our visit. Grabbed our bags, through Immigration with a little more humor – I tried to go through a separate line from Marcus, and I was asked if we were together, my response was “do I have to claim him?” The immigration official told me simply (with a laugh), “yes.”
Hopped in George’s Taxi for the trip over to Nanny Cay to check in at the Tradewinds base. Two things I learned between St. Thomas at Tortola:
1. Every single person we met or stood near in the customs line was boarding a sail boat for the next week.
2. I should’ve stolen the pen from the night stand at BBC – thank you kind man traveling for your 60th birthday for loaning us your pen for our customs forms!
George kindly walked us to the Tradewinds office, and checked us in – even offering us a drink while we waited. We waited our turn and eventually had the chance to check in, pay our AI fee for the week and get directions for a lunch spot. At this point, it was just after 3pm and we hadn’t eaten anything other than a Granola bar each, roughly 8 hours earlier – bordering on hangry, we had two choices – a local sports bar around the corner or a slightly longer walk to the other side of the Marina to Peg Legs. We opted for Peg Legs, primarily for the view. This is about the time I started getting nervous…very nervous. I had this sinking feeling that the week was going to be dreadful. (Control freak = anxiety!) I could barely eat, so naturally, a rum punch was in order.
Given the fact that we would have dinner on board tonight, we decided to split a small pizza at Peg Legs, and enjoyed people (and boat) watching. Service was island slow, we didn’t mind – pizza was great! Headed back to base around 4:30, for a prompt 5pm boarding.
At this point, the Tradewinds base is hopping with everyone waiting to board their respective catamarans. All we knew is that we were on Turquoise Dream (aka TD) – we knew nothing at all about how many guests would be on board, who in the mass of people would we be sharing a boat with?
Our captain – Richard and first mate Dominique (aka Rich& Dom) hopped off the boat, onto the dock and asked for those that were on TD. We discovered there were 3 other couples that were on vacation (Brad & Barb, Ed & Anne, Tom & Vickie), and a second crew (aka training crew) that would be joining us for the week, Indy and Jo. TD was boarded, introductions were made, Rich covered some basic “need to knows” and we were asked to point out our bags so they could take them to our cabins.
Given my OCD tendencies, I had prepared myself for TD – the oldest boat in the Tradewinds fleet, the legacy that started the company nearly 20 years ago. In other words, a smaller, old boat – complete with all the smells and feels of an old boat. I had you tubed and googled the heck out of Tradewinds, read reviews on the boats and was prepared for the physical condition of the boat. Was I disappointed, yes – who wouldn’t want a shiny new boat? But, this was all part of the adventure!
We quickly unpacked our bags, familiarized ourselves with how the toilet in our cabin worked, took another dose of Dramamine and headed to the deck for the cruise out of Nanny Cay.
The plan: Motor to Great Harbor at Peter Island, where we would spend our first night and have our first dinner on board TD.
The weather was still cloudy/rainy and we were informed by our crew that the weather wasn’t expected to clear until Thursday or Friday that week. The winds were also Easterly, which had churned up the sea, making the swells a little bigger than usual, and impacting snorkeling and diving conditions.
“It’s all part of the adventure, it’s all part of the adventure” – How quickly this had become our mantra.
Once we were out of the Marina, I had to move to the starboard bow of the boat, because I was getting sea sick staring at the galley. If you’ve ever been on any boat, you probably know sitting forward on a boat drastically increases the chances of getting wet and by the time we made it to Peter Island I was SOAKED and covered in sea salt…but I was happy.
Dom had worked her magic in the kitchen – tonight’s dinner began with zucchini soup, with an entrée of Salmon Rolls, sautéed vegetables and roasted potatoes. For desert – carrot cake! Wine and cocktails were flowing, we spent the evening visiting with our boat mates, just hanging out and getting to know each other, with the perfect island play list streaming from the sound system.
Flip Flops & Time Off - Adventures in Travel & Every Day Life 