Fri. Jul. 15th, 2005

We woke up early as always and got the coffee started. During our morning coffee pre breakfast time there was a guy standing on the swim platform of a cat moored near us. Jim noticed that he was looking rather distressed about something. Perhaps the fact there was no dinghy attached to the back of his boat. We looked around and the only dinghy in site was tied up to the Willy T's dock. Hey isn't that the bunch that were the rude loud party bunch? So we started trying to figure out what had his panties in such a knot. Jim came up with the best story of all. He was thinking that perhaps that was his dinghy tied to the WillyT and he'd just noticed his girlfriend wasn't home yet. That Goldilocks guy was super cute, and quite a charmer with that Brit accent. Our neighbor was so worried he had started trying to get the kayak down off the deck.

Thats when we noticed there was another dinghy waaaay down the bay and washed up on the rocks. I like Jim's version better. Jim called over for him to wait, he'd come over in our dinghy and run him to his. The guy lucked out as there was no major damage. It still had the engine attached and was able to turn over and start up on the second try.

Jim had noticed that it was no wonder it had come loose in that wind as the painter was a small 4 foot length of thin Dacron line. None of us could see the charter company having sent it out in that state so we could only surmise they'd wrapped the original painter around the prop, and replaced it with the only bit of "rope" they could find on board.

After breakfast we headed back to Road Harbour to drop off Liz. She had biz to take care of, real estate papers to sign, and couldn't put it off any longer. While we were there it seemed this would be a good time to see Road Town while Jim handled some laundry. Liz dropped us off at the old Main Street area on her way out. She pointed out the places that would likely interest us as she went thru town. I don't know that I'll ever get used to the cars being left hand drive and the roads beings right hand drive..

We wandered over to the post office and dropped off the batch of completed post cards. We were a bit thirsty so walked along the road until we found a small market and grabbed two ginger beers. I love the fact that its possible here to get the really spicy ginger beer and not the little weak ginger ale we always have in the states. Found a shady spot with benches in the little square in front of the police station to have our drinks and watch the chickens rooting about in the bushes. Tortola is certainly an island of contrasts. You can watch the little girls walk by in their starched school uniforms as they step over the farm life that wanders loose thru the middle of town. Look up at the mansions perched on the hills and the small little tin houses lower down. Liz had mentioned the unemployment rate is about 50% here.*

We wandered down to the Crafts Alive village and got sarongs for Adri and I, shirts for Matt and Carissa and some other souveniers for the gang back home. Also picked up a few more postcards. We still had some time to kill before heading back to meet Jim, so we opted for lunch at the Pussers in Road Town. Don't know if it was because it was lunch instead of dinner or if it was because we were at a different location, but the menu was quite a bit different, even to the appetizers. The biggest problem I've always had with boats is after a day or two I get my "sea legs", but it takes forever to get used to NOT swaying when on land. We made a lot of comments about "floating tables" and needing to anchor our chairs.

Made the mistake of sitting inside where it was air conditioned, so everything seemed extra muggy when we came out. As we stepped off the veranda it started to sprinkle. Len was so certain it was just going to be a few drops that we kept going. Big mistake. By the time we got to the crosswalk it was coming in sheets. Good old Emily banding. Once we made it to cover we were completely drenched and dripping. It felt pretty good on the sunburn however.

We wanted to hit the market on the way back so I could get some sunscreen that actually works. Never, ever buy Longs brand sunscreen if you need something that works! We threaded out way thru the throngs of rush hour traffic and people trying to get into Bobbys Market and ran into Jim as he came out. Its a busy door way, so we pretty well literally smacked into each other.

He said he had the dinghy over this way, so we could grab what we needed and then meet him at the end of the docks at Village Cay Marina. You have to love the sun and heat there, buy the time we'd shelled out the $12 for a bottle of Hawaiian Tropic SPF 45 suntan lotion and walked to the end of the jetty we were completely dry.

He ran us and the supplies/ice out to the boat so we could get the cold stuff put away while he ran back for laundry. We stopped at Village Cay on the way out to fill the water tanks on Golden Crown again while we could. We practiced using spring lines to leave the dock and we were on our way out of the harbour and back to the channel again. We started for Cooper, but then noted the time and thought it might be better to head direct for Fat Hogs Bay.

The marina there was nearly deserted, but they have a GREAT restaurant - the "Harbour View". Its hard to miss, its the upper level of the yellow gold building with the green roof that has a dive flag and RESTAURANT painted in 6 foot high letters. I think of all the places we enjoyed this one most of all, and not just because we had Dennis Millers clone as the manager of the evening.

We ate on the veranda, and someone in the lot next door felt it was a good day to burn off the brush and debris. Luckily for us the wind was blowing the thick smoke away from the building.

The staff have a big whiteboard with all the daily specials on it (and there are a LOT of specials). They bring the board to your table and explain the various appetizer and dinner entries on the list and leave it there while you decide. I went for the lamb, and Len had the guinness something or other. Apparently they also serve pizza, as thats what Jim had back on the boat.

The food was excellent, the service fantastic and no-see-um problem not bad, but a little bug juice wouldn't hurt anyway. We actually got the check long before we'd planned to meet Jim back at the dock for once. It wasn't very crowded, perhaps due to it being off season, but we can't wait to go back there our next trip. The manager saw us to the door as we left and made certain everything had been ok with the meal. Lovely place and can't recommend it highly enough.

Jim picked us up at the dock and we headed back out. Talked about what we wanted to do the next day and tossed around various possibilities. There are still several things we need to cover for our certification as well. We discussed going to Anegada to watch all the boats in the regatta sail up and that was the front runner plan. If so we'd be taking someone Jim and Liz knew named Ed along for the ride. But we agreed we'd see how the weather looked in the morning before we made our final decision. Anegada is one long sail so it would certainly be a good test of the new sunscreen. I was getting burned way too often at this point and was starting to be a little sun shy.

We actually had a nice breeze that night and no squalls raining on us for once.