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We woke up at 6 a.m., made coffee (we always bring ground Dunkin' Donuts coffee from home), and got into our bathing suits. We packed all that we would need for a day on a boat. Marty had said to expect him at 7:18 on his motorcycle. We headed out the door at 7:20 only to find that the rear passenger tire on the Focus was flat. Guess that wasn't just a faulty tire pressure sensor last night. We had forgotten all about it. This was the only day that we had time-sensitive plans, so it stood to reason that today of all days we would have a flat tire. For once we hoped that Marty was running late. Steve called him and managed to catch him just before he left the house on his bike. He said that he would clean out his car and pick us up to drive us all down to the marina. That sounded good to us. While we waited for Marty to arrive, Craig called Hertz about the tire. They suggested that we either change it ourselves or they could meet up with us and take care of it. Since we were going to be boating all day, there was no time to deal with it today. We would figure out what to do tomorrow.
Marty arrived and we all piled into his car. He dropped Craig, Steve, and Mom off at Marina Market to buy provisions for a day out on the water. Marty and I parked the car across the street at the garage and walked to the dock to see Mattheus at See & Ski boat rentals. I had everyone's passports and Marty and I filled out all of the paperwork. The others were back with sandwiches, beer, snacks, and ice in record time. We stowed the food in the cooler and put our bags in the hold. After so many years of island hopping, we worked like a well-oiled machine. With Cap'n Marty at the helm and Steve (a.k.a. "Milky") as first mate, we set off from Red Hook towards St. John. We passed picturesque Trunk Bay and enjoyed some fresh muffins from Marina Market. We anchored off of Peter Bay in St. John and Craig, Milky, and I went for a swim in the clear Caribbean water. We enjoyed watching pelicans and another sea bird whom we dubbed Jonathan. We aren't sure what kind of bird he was, but he had distinctive turquoise coloring on the underside of his belly and wings. The pelicans plunged straight into the water, whereas Jonathan glided along the water, just barely preventing his wingtips from breaking the surface. The weather was partly cloudy, which turned out to be a good thing because none of us would get sunburned. We could see rain clouds in the distance, dumping rain on the coasts of other islands. Hopefully we would avoid it during the rest of our travels today. We climbed back on the boat and dug our wonderful Marina Market sandwiches out of the cooler. Craig and I had our usual: the turkey with cranberry sauce, cream cheese, and dijon mustard. It was delicious. We had already worked up an appetite this early in the morning. After that, we docked at Tortola to clear customs for the British Virgin Islands. Mom got her first stamp in her passport here – how exciting!! The customs folks were feeling especially friendly and the process went very quickly. It cost us $10 each. We got back into the boat and were now free to cruise the British Virgin Islands. We anchored off Sandy Caye, a gorgeous strip of white sand and palm trees. We all got into the water here for a swim, even Cap'n "It's too cold to swim in November" Marty. Once Marty and Mom got back onto the boat, a rain cloud caught up with us. We continued swimming while raindrops pelted us. Marty told us that we better get out of the water or we were going to get wet. Once we were back aboard the boat, Milky played the role of relief captain for a while as we cruised through open ocean. Normally we would head over to Norman Island to the Willy T for cocktails. It is always one of the highlights of the Island Hop. But we had learned over Facebook that our favorite bartender, Zeus, is no longer there. It just wouldn’t be the same without him. So we changed up the itinerary and went to Foxy’s Tamarind Bar on Jost Van Dyke – someplace we haven’t visited in several years. At Foxy's, we sat at a table in the sand near the bar and the stage where Foxy the proprietor sometimes plays his trademark island calypso guitar. We drank painkillers and ordered some lunch. I got conch fritters. They were fresh, hot, and delicious in a tahini sauce. Craig and Steve got a delicious chicken roti and curry. As good as the fritters were. I had to admit that I should have gotten the roti. It was unbelievable! We caught sight of the proprietor Foxy with Massachusetts Senator and one time Presidential hopeful John Kerry. Mom shook Kerry's hand and he smilingly acknowledged her Patriots T-shirt. We ordered a second round of drinks. We browsed around in the shop and Mom bought a pair of sandals. The boat was anchored in waist-high water, so we walked through the water and climbed aboard via the ladder. We had hoped to stop at the Soggy Dollar Bar for some more drinks, but it was packed with people and Marty didn’t feel comfortable anchoring the boat so close to so many other boats. So we skipped it and headed back toward St. Thomas instead, via Pillsbury Sound. We saw a rainbow over one of the ships we passed. We had been dodging rainstorms all day but the only one to get us was at Sandy Caye when we were swimming anyway. We arrived in Red Hook at St Thomas at 4:40 p.m. For once we weren't racing the clock to get back to the marina by 5 o'clock. This meant that we were able to make it back to Secret Harbour to enjoy the sunset. We sat in chairs on the beach and enjoyed the fantastic display. The restaurant on the premises of Secret Harbour had changed hands since last year. The Blue Moon Cafe (which we could always count on for a nice, quality meal) had been renovated and replaced by the clichéd-sounding Sunset Grille. It is always convenient to just walk out of our room and down the beach to the on-site restaurant, especially after a full day on the water like we'd had today, so we decided to give it a shot. We were seated at a table overlooking the ocean. We ordered a round of bushwhackers. As an appetizer, we shared the "ahi nachos." This was a sushi dish made to look like nachos and salsa. Fresh tuna piled delicately on wanton chips was served with mango salsa, wasabi sour cream, seaweed salad, and pickled ginger. It was delicious. For our entree we had jerk chicken with coconut bread pudding and apple rum raisin salad. It was amazing. This new restaurant certainly lived up to the reputation of its predecessor. For dessert I had chocolate decadence with vanilla ice cream and Craig got fruit cobbler with vanilla ice cream. After finishing our meals, we walked back down the beach to our room. It had been a busy day and we were all rather tired, so we made an early night of it. Marty left at around 9:30 and we went to bed at around 10. |
 Steve, Mom, Cap'n Marty, Craig  Craig and Cap'n Marty  Marty, Steve, Mom, and Craig  Steph at Foxy's  Sunset at Secret Harbour  Steve, Marty, Mom, Craig, and Steph at the Sunset Grille  |
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