June 2<br>Having spent the night at the Ramada Airport South in Atlanta, we were up at 5am and walked to the nearby Waffle House and had breakfast in the middle of some drug deals and local colorful prostitutes finishing their work day.. or night. The AA flight left on time.. for a change.. and we were off on the first leg to Miami. Di and I split there, she going to San Juan and Beef.. I proceeded to STT. I took Cape Air to Beef arriving 20 mins after Di. My faithful friend, Junie, picked us up and we were off to Hodges Creek to Sunsail. Crew (Jeannette and John) were there waiting and we boarded our Jeanneau 43DS with excessive tonnage of baggage. After securing a critical supply of ice, we had a drink, unpacked a few things and proceeded to Fat Hog Bob's for dinner. Most surprised with FHB's. Thought it would be a southern bbq joint with picnic tables but was rather "casual elegant" with wonderful food, huge servings and moderate prices.<br>June 3<br>Got a quickie Sunsail boat briefing and a delivery of liquor and mixes from Bobby's, while the gals bought stuff for one dinner at Ample Hamper. Pulled out for Norman and had a nice sail down. Good dinner aboard and dinked to the Willie T. only to find it packed with very drunk college age<br>kids who were fighting and barfing on the dink dock. We opted for Billy Bones only to find several dozen huge cigarette type boats packing the dock and not an inch to park a bar of Ivory soap. More martinis and Wild Turkey aboard our boat became more appealing and we returned to fire up our JB cd's. An hour later, around 11p, the cig boats pulled out of the Bight.. sounding much like a shuttle launch.<br>June 4<br>Headed for Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour on what seemed like a dozen pointless tacks before we made some headway toward the Dogs and managed a shot into the harbour. Got a slip beside a 3-story power boat from San Juan that managed to block all but the smallest breath of air. Discovered quickly that the building housing the showers, stores and the Commissary had an A/C failure and the Commissary was closed for a month. The bathhouse was maintaining a constant temp of 118 degrees. We went back to the boat for cocktails and were greeted by our new neighbors from Texas.<br>The father was a lay preacher who came over and saved us and blessed the pate'. Then the rest of "Married With Children" came to see us.. the son who was a Woodstock refugee and currently a reggae band promoter in Chicago. Got<br>free "no cover charge" passes to the Wild Hare Club "right in front of Wrigley Field man.. you can't miss it". He just happened to have a special on CDs of Ghana artists he was promoting.. 2 for $10. Went to Buck's Market shopping.. found a great standing rib to fix.. whenever.. but the bakery was closed.. although there were hot dogs on the rotisserie on the counter cooking away. It was about then we<br>realized it was Whit Monday.. BVI holiday.. most everyone was somewhere doing whatever they do on Whit Monday. Dinner at Little Dix.. disappointing.. sure as hell not worth $75/pp.. but such is change.<br>June 5<br>Went back to Buck's to see if there was anything new.. then the bakery. Still closed.. same hot dogs still cooking. They looked done by then. Left and headed to North Sound. Good sail, good wind.. took a ball near Saba Rock, thinking we were on one of their moorings. Wrong.. but they were nice and filled us in on the only 10 that are theirs. Went over to Eustatia Is. snorkeling. Nice reef, plenty of the usual fish. Wandered around BEYC, down the store to laugh at<br>$6 boxes of Triscuits. Dinner at Saba Rock was a nice buffet, good food and some NBA finals on tv.<br>June 6<br>Motored up to Leverick and tied off in a slip to shop, do some laundry, shop and Palm Tree Gallery and have lunch. Pretty decent pizza there and then returned to Saba Rock to one of their moorings this time. $20 mooring fee there also gets you a free bag of ice and up to 250 gals of water to fill the boat. Pretty damn good deal. People there are really nice.<br>June 7<br>Great fresh breeze made the run to Anegada 1 hr 45 min from <br>N. Sound entry to first Anegada mark. Had to deviate from Walker's GPS coords to keep from running over the first buoy. Make that W64 23.653 instead of .652! Had some upset tummies aboard so didn't make it to Loblolly and only had 3 <br>for lobster at Neptunes. Great dinner. Dinked to Walker's boat and visited, then roamed the area before dinner.<br>June 8<br>28.5 miles from Anegada to Cane Garden and a wonderful sail if you have the wind.. and we did. Sailed right through the <br>Scrub/Great Camanoe cut by Marina Cay with "Victory At Sea"<br>full blast on the boom box! Got to Cane Garden by 2pm but only mooring ball had no pennant. Tied a dock line to one <br>and took it. Cocktails and chilling til I went in to meet Linda (new Mrs. Sparrow) and Rick. Wonderful couple, look way too young for their age.. convinced they're aliens! Had a great visit but couldn't get crew with bad case of GI probs<br>off the boat that night. Went back to Quito's alone later and visited. Might have even had a drink.. I think.<br>June 9<br>To Jost, Great Harbour, anchored uneventfully. Visited with Tess & Fox .. Debbie and Katie.. then off to White Bay by dink for drinks and lunch.. flying fish sandwich and painkillers. No doubt the best beach in the BVI. Back to Foxy's and ballads, then back to boat for cleanup and off to Abe's for lobster for Di who missed it on Anegada. Power was off in Little Harbour so dinner was 4 of us alone there eating by flashlights and lanterns. Great food! Lighting was so-so!<br>June 10<br>Sailed south to Francis Bay on S*. J**n and took a mooring.<br>Did not go to Cr*z B*y at all.. sorry. Dinked around but couldn't take it ashore with all the swim areas blocked to boats now. We did take down our BVI flag and raised the Swiss courtesy pennant.. neutral seemed like a good plan.<br>Never knew a Swiss flag had chocolate written on it but that's what we were using. Left mid-afternoon for Soper's and got a nice breezy outside slip. Wandered the shops then<br>to the JR for dinner. Lou & Kay looked great as ever and dinner was wonderful. Ran into Katie Morgan, mgr of Little Thatch. Seems like the owners are going to stop renting it next month and keep for their own private use. Guess the rental of $10,400 per day (1 to 3 couples) just didn't cover expenses! <br>June 11<br>Run to Marina Cay was dead into the wind so we motored up there.. 2.5 hours.. took a ball and immediately saw JD as we hooked up. Kneafsey arrived in good form flying a black radial headsail downwind from the east. All met at Top 'o Hill bar for drinks and Michael Bean. Mike K went back to his boat and we had dinner with JD and his friend Steve.<br>June 12<br>Typical lousy departure day.. up packing at 6am.. motoring back to Hodges Creek at 7 to arrive at 8:30. Left for Beef at 10. J & J got an early flight. I was due out on Air Sunshine at 12:30. Seems like my two checked bags totalled<br>114 lbs. Air Sunshine allows a total of 40 lbs so got hit for another $37. Cape Air was $59 from STT to EIS. Air "Shine" ended up being $145 from EIS to STT. Lousy deal if you ask me. But all return flights were on time.. Di and I met as scheduled back in Miami, finally arriving back in Augusta from ATL by car at 1am. Long damn day.. but fun.<br>Summary:<br>Saba Rock is best deal on free ice/water for a $20 mooring fee. 50 yards away you can pay BEYC the same thing and get nothing.<br>Water is still 10 cents/gal in VGYH but I'm about to stop overnighting in there. Just no air.. too hot.. what breeze there is hits you abeam.<br>One night at Anegada isn't enough. Same for Jost. <br>Might pass on Norman next time. I miss Deadman's at Peter for sheer beauty. <br>Questions? Sounds uneventful huh? Guess you had to be there!<br>bh<br><br><br>Bill H<br>Augusta, GA <br>bill@augustarealtor.com<br><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Administrator on 6/15/01 06:32 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
