As some of you know, but maybe a lot of you do not, the British Virgin Islands are situated right next to the USVI. …28.65 km to be exact. Tortola does have an airport but since we are on St John we are taking a sailboat trip there to celebrate Michelle‘s birthday to experience what the BVI has to offer! Some of Michelle’s friends will be joining us and we will be staying at an Airbnb.
To get there , Michelle made arrangements with a boat captain, ‘Bali Bob’, aptly named because he would go to Bali and bring back interesting things to sell in the USVI. Bali Bob is quite the character and has a very footloose lifestyle.
Everything starts out great. We packed containers of food and drink, the weather is warm and sunny, good winds for sailing and Molly has taken her seasickness pills since she has a tendency to get nauseous while traveling.
True to lackadaisical island/boating life, Bali Bob was in no hurry. Reclining with one foot on the rudder, he shared some crazy sailing stories including seeing ghosts on the water (Bob does indulge in psychedelics 😵💫 🙄). It took twice as long to get to the BVI with increasing waves pitching the boat and Molly getting whiter by the minute. We arrive to customs and that’s when Bali Bob tells us we “probably” could not get food and drink through customs! What?! But we were so anxious to get poor Molly off the boat, we left our provisions and waved a thank- God- it’s- over goodbye to Bob. Later we found out we could have brought our provisions on island😡. Score for Bali Bob!
Well, that was not going to ruin our trip and we made our way to our Airbnb in Cane Garden Bay to get the party started!
We and Michelle’s friends make our way to Myett’s Restaurant for food and dancing. There’s a limbo contest and Michelle wins!!! A nice bottle of rum from Calwood Rum Distillery, a 400 year old distillery on Tortola!
But the night is still young and we make our way down to another place with a band and dancing. Michelle asks if she can sing with the band and belts out ‘Fever’ !! Never knew she could sing like that!
We are having a riproaring time drinking and dancing and then Michelle suddenly realizes she recognizes one of the patrons who would come to the restaurant she co- managed on St John. Jose is from Puerto Rico , has a great sailboat, gives sailing lessons and happened to have been in a regatta to the BVI that weekend. We spend the evening dancing with him and his friends which ends up the night with an offer for us a stay at his home in San Juan! He says he lives/teaches on his boat most the time which is moored in Fajardo so his large home is empty most of the time.
Life is an adventure and we embrace his offer! (Our trip to Puerto Rico will be in a future blog)
The next day , we walk down the beautiful tropical paths to hit the beaches which have much bigger waves and we get to see surfers. (Did I tell you how much I admire surfers??)
Tortola is even more laid back , casual and quaint than St. John which was surprising to me. We explored the local shops and beach bars including the Callwood Rum Distillery. We wisely departed the island on a ferry boat versus Bali Bob’s sailboat so all in all it was a great little birthday vacation on Tortola!
****See you next week with another adventure!
Traveling Rose in St. John 