Goodbye BVI

Norman Island, BVI

We're spending our last days in the BVI and leaving for St. Maarten/St. Barths/Anguilla on Monday. Just an 80 mile sail but we're excited nevertheless about getting closer to the "real Caribbean". Can't believe L'ORIENT will be soon in L'Orient, St. Barths (we named the boat after our honeymoon destination - the name means "place of dreams" in colloquial French).

Our front yard - Jost Van Dyke
BVI was fun but expensive.........a bag of Tostitos retails for $9 in the tourist grocery store and entrees at the most average restaurant start at $35. We set a new Tom and Kirstin record by not stepping foot in a restaurant for four straight days! We are looking forward to getting far enough southeast to have street food like we did in the Grenadines and Guadaloupe. We will also be locking the dinghy more regularly as well.

But next stop is St. Barths and Anguilla, where we will be the riff-raff. Looking forward to coming up behind someone at an ATM and having them run. I really feel a star sighting coming..............maybe we will see Brad and Angelina on the beach so we can say WAZZUP or something cool like that. If we anchor off the beach they're using we can come out of the water like commandos....before their muscle shoos us away.

Anyway, during the next few nights we are continuing to eat through our Caribbean 1500 provisions. We bought enough food for a month so tonight it's vegetarian chili with hot dogs cut up in it........isn't the contradiction delicious?

Our BVI top 5:
1) The North Beach of Prickly Pear island - for two straight days we shared the most beautiful beach in the world with only a handful of goats. Dangerous dinghy ride but absolutely worth it. And watch out for the giant sea urchins.
2) Our Jost Van Dyke dolphin visit - at dusk we were surprised by a curious 8 foot long dolphin who circled our boat for 10 minutes while we were at anchor. Sunset and a friendly dolphin - can't beat that. Wish he liked cheez-its better.
3) Diamond Cay anchorage on Jost Van Dyke - beautiful spot surrounded by boulders and two sandy islands. The closest things to the Seychelles but without the pirates.
4) Peter Island - Besides having a gorgeous beach and delicious food, this island has amazing paths that take you through tropical foliage. Great lizards.
5a) Norman Island snorkeling - We did the caves but found the best snorkeling, complete with stingrays and barracuda to be right off the beach.
5b) If we had to add another item, it would be our 100 meters of 3/8 inch anchor chain and our 75 lb anchor. Why ? It was "Yacht Week" in BVI, which means every drunk 20 something with a driver's license can rent a catamaran and invite 8-10 college buddies to sail this week. What's the connection between the anchor and Yacht Week ? Rental boats can't anchor in deep water........we were able to stay away from these human hazards and enjoy the BVI without encountering the boys from Sigma Phi or wherever they came from.

It was also great to see our friends from the Caribbean 1500 - especially Wavelength and Lady (...great paella Jenny).