Our B.V.I. Adventure

The Shands were so kind to pick me up at Trellis Bay on Tuesday afternoon, Day 237.  We went out for an afternoon of snorkeling and island hopping.  Our first stop was Cooper Island.

We were last here in March on the White Squall 2.  Michael, Travis and I snorkeled the reef at Cooper, but we did not go ashore.  I sure wish we had!  The Cooper Island Beach Club is amazing!!!  They recently remodeled the club and did a fantastic job.

I am obsessed with their furniture...the media cabinet specifically.  It is made with colorful wood, distressed from the weather and upcycled in this beautiful way.  The backs of the chairs at the bar also incorporate the same wood.  You can see the tops of the chairs in the background of the photo with the drink.
That drink is a "Santiago" by the way.  Ingredients include...rum, lime juice, Sprite and bitters.  It is very similar to the Naked Lorda, but instead of Sprite, Naked Lorna calls for club soda and Stevia.

The Shands invited us to their house on Great Camanoe for dinner, so we headed back to Tortola to fetch Michael at Hodges Creek Marina once he was finished with work.   Leslie and Shae took us over to Potato Bay, which is on the north side of Camanoe.  We think it gets its name from all of the potato shaped rocks that cover the beach.  There must be thousands and thousands of these perfectly rounded rocks in all shades of gray.  Walking on top of them requires the balance of a gymnast!

Potato Bay is extremely private and serene.  It is small, maybe about 50 yards long.  What I found so unique about this beach is how the rocks abruptly stop at the water's edge.  The surface under the water is soft white sand.  {We did not have our camera with us, but Michael snapped this one with his Blackberry...you can get an idea of just how rocky the shore was...}

We snorkeled for sand dollars and watched the sun set behind Guana island.  What a way to end the day!

Huge thanks to the Shands (the Orrells and the Jacksons) for sharing the night with us!  We had a wonderful time!  

Da Tree Men headlined their first Full Moon Party at the infamous Bomba's Shack on Monday night.
A great crowd turned out to sip mushroom tea, bask in the light of the full moon and listen to Da Tree Men.  A shout out to new friends, Jim and his wife Cynthia, Lisa-Marie, Kimmy, and the LSU gang!  It was great meeting y'all!


The guys were excited at the end of the night when Bomba himself presented them with a check, complete with palm tree clip art in the top left corner.  This may seem like an insignificant detail to most, but if and when the guys get paid, it's usually cash and not all that "official."  So this was different and nice...at least that was the feeling at 1:30 in the morning when we felt the need to snap this photo!  Ha!
      
What I love most about this photo is the simplicity of the address for Bomba's Shack!  That's how it is all over the island.  No house numbers, no zip codes, just bays, hills and coves...

The Soggy Dollar Bar celebrated its 40th anniversary on Saturday with a huge party!  If you're not familiar with the Soggy Dollar Bar, it's the most popular "sunny place for shady people" on the island of Jost van Dyke.  It is famous for the Painkiller drink, invented there in 1970! 

We chartered a 38 foot Beneteau out of Soper's Hole with some friends, old and new.  Our captain, Paul was great!  He put Michael and other members of our group to work, tacking and jibing our way to White Bay!  It was our first official "sail" to Jost.  Usually we take the Contender, a 26 foot power boat, from Nanny Cay.  It is a completely different experience, one that I highly recommend!!! 
We couldn't believe how many boats were there!  At one point I counted 50 or more and it was only one o'clock in the afternoon!
The Shands brought their boat, a Power Cat named "Camanoe Catillac," and met us there for a few Painkillers in the afternoon sun.  We even swam back out to their boat for some snacks, including curry deviled eggs {need that recipe Ginger!} and fresh tomatoes from Mississippi!  A few back flips off of the boat later, we found ourselves swimming back to the beach to round up our crew...and a motley crew it was!  Thanks to Captain Paul for putting up with us!!!   

Oh and here's a quick video I shot during the middle of the party...


 
Cheers!

The Shands are back in town!  Road Town that is!  You may remember, we first met the Shands back in February, on Day 56 to be exact.  {They live in Mississippi, have a hosue on Great Camanoe...I went to school with one of their son-in-laws...}  Well, they're back in the islands and we met up with them on Friday at where else?  But Pusser's Pub!


That is Leslie on the left, one of Ginger and Rodney's three beautiful daughters.  I was so happy to finally meet her!  We've been Facebook friends for months now!  Leslie's husband, Shae, Michael and Rodney posed for a photo too!

We had such a great time!  Everyone was drinking Naked Lorna's when Lorna appeared!  Charles had one more drink the Shands needed to try...  After finding out that Ginger and Rodney enjoy martinis, he had Andre shake up a lychee martini!  

Cheers!

There is a new video magazine making its debut here in the British Virgin Islands this month.  It is very well done, if I do say so myself!


I've emailed back and forth with the publisher, "Island" Jim Kelley a few times.  He also has a BVI video sharing site where I've posted Da Tree Men's performance of their Jost Van Dyke song.  By the way, that song is gaining some traction online!  My YouTube post has more than 350 views.  It has also been embedded on several sites like bvimusic.com, onlinebvi.net, and countless Facebook pages!

The band is working on some other songs that Adam wrote.  I can't wait to hear Bushwacker and Bomba.  Da Tree Men had a rehearsal last night as they're playing the Full Moon Party at Bomba Shack next week!  Very exciting!

This is what Bonnie means to meteoroligists...
To us it means this:
Yeah, that brown body of water?  That's my lane.  This photo was taken just one hill away from where we live.  Since our house is so open, we've been running around closing shutters and the sliding glass doors each and every time one of these heavy bands of rain rolls through... 

On the positive side, the rain cools things down which makes it more tolerable.  That's cold comfort to all the visitors, including Whitney, who were hoping for sunny skies and crystal blue waters. 

Since Whitney and I won't be able to be together for her birthday next month, I surprised her with a trip to the Spa at Peter Island on Day 230!  It was her last full day in the BVI and the weather was holding up...

So, we enjoyed lunch on the veranda and pedicures in the afternoon!

The chef surprised Whitney with a cold piece of key lime pie, complete with a special message in chocolate!
We had plenty of pool time too...
All in all, it was a wonderfully relaxing day.  One we both needed after the weeks we'd each had!