Pirate Invasion!

We left Pirate’s Bight temporarily to do scuba diving. I dove the Indians (large pinnacles that protrude from the surface) with Cupcake and Rita. We returned to the Bight to prepare for our boarding and invasion of the floating boat bar, the Willie T’s. We all dressed up in pirate gear, and rigged a Jolly Roger flag on Qen’s lobster snare. To get us in the right mood, Twirly performed the open passage of Treasure Island. Then we boarded the dinghy and set out for the Willie T’s. As we approached we yelled out nasty threats such as “Arrrrrrghh!” and “Prepare to be boarded, ye scallywags!”, much to the amusement of the other patrons. The captain brought along a flask full of the 15 yr aged Pusser’s rum (definitely the smoothest, best rum I ever tasted. 2^nd best rum is Mount Gay Rum from Barbados), which we all swigged. Took lots of pics on the upper deck, then came back down and started a Limbo line, which got the rest of the patrons excited and they started participating too. By the time we left we were the life of the party and most patrons seemed thankful for our takeover. Including the owner/manager who begged us to return again on Friday when a TV crew was coming to film a special on unusual bars around the world.

Norman Treasure

We arrived today at Norman Island, the basis of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Treasure Island. “Spyglass Hill” is clearly visible as our boat approaches the Pirate’s Bight mooring. There is fantastic snorkeling at the nearby Pirate Caves. Lots of the brightly colored Parrotfish. Underwater you can actually hear the scraping noise of the Parrotfish chewing the coral. This chewing creates the fine white sand you see on the beaches around here. There are 2 bars here. One beach bar, and a floating boat bar. Today we went to the beach bar (we have bigger plans for the boat bar). When we reached dock, we saw an amazing sight. Some large tarpon fish (at least 3’ long) and sharks (at least 4’ long) had herded a large school of a smaller fish into a very tight group right up against the dock. This group was so dense at first it looked like just the rocky bottom, but when you looked closely you could see the individual fish moving within it. It was basically a carpet of fish, about 3’ thick and 30’ across!

The beach bar had giant versions of popular games, such as Jenga (played with two-by-fours) and Connect 4. We had rum punches with homemade rum that the bartender had made himself. We left the bar with the Jenga game booby-trapped in an extremely precarious state, where the slightest nudge would send the entire tower crashing down.

Cooper's Island

Home of the world's best conch fritters!

!!!Seriously entertaining!!!

Can't resist the Key Lime pie.

Lots and lots of rum drinks.

Franklin gave the Captain's meal free and let us take a picture behind the bar.

IXAT

 
spells TAXI backwards. This is the taxi we took to go to dinner at the Rock Cafe, a restaurant nestled between actual granite boulders in the Baths of Virgin Gorda.

 
Some of my fellow crew mates. Here is a video of our first sail!

Bomba's Shack

A raunchy irreverent bar that is literally a shack. They are famous for their wild Full Moon parties (yes, we are going to that!).

Tortola - Nanny Cay

Our boat, "Kristina". She's a humongous 57' catamaran, with *seven* bathrooms, 8 cabins, and WiFi internet!

Full boat specs

I find I have a hard time thinking of it as a sailboat; to me, it's more like a cruise ship, or a floating condo!

I now start Part 2 of my trip -- where I join up with 7 other friends to sail around the BVI!


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Tortola - Sugarmill Hotel

The view from the Sugarmill Hotel.

Tortola, BVI

Aerial shot of Nanny Cay Marina. Our boat is actually visible on the dock. Here is a 90 sec video of the landing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2BGkb6YlQg