Day 1, Sunday, May 1st. “Queen’s Day”
Arrived in Road Town, on the island of Tortola, British Virgin Islands via a pleasant 90 minute ferry from St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. The Sunsail Marina is quiet at 6 pm, and since we are so far south it is also getting dark. We check in with a couple of young guys who barely look up from their computer screen to point out the sailboat we will be chartering for a week. (For the rest of the trip we refer to them as Harold and Kumar as in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle).
The marina is filled with Sunsail, Moorings and Footloose mono-hulls and catamarans. We find our 35 ft Beneteau 343 sailboat named Neil’s Dream from Brockville, Ontario. (Later back in Idaho, a Google search reveals that Brockville is midway between Watertown, N.Y. and Montreal in the heart of the 1000 islands on the St. Lawrence River.)
We see immediately that Neil’s Dream is just perfect. With a large cockpit, wheel and nav station at the helm and a big bimini overhead. Below deck are two large berths, a roomy salon, very functional kitchen and a clean head. We also notice however, after 2 days of traveling from Idaho and very much in need of a cocktail, that the Ample Hamper – the grocery store we hired to do our provisioning – has not provisioned our Carib or Red Stripe beer or our rum. They did a nice job with all other provisions, conveniently packing the frozen meats on ice in the fridge. Most boats are equipped with a charcoal barbie fastened to an aft stanchion which hangs out over the water. This grill set up will turn out to be one of our favorite things about evenings on Neil’s Dream.
We grab a cab and head out in search of dinner and a cold beer. Our cabbie picks up 8 Brits as well and when we drop by the Ample Hamper to see about our bevies we are informed that it is “Queen’s Day” and that is why most things are closed and most likely why we do not have our beer and rum We also read in the notes that we may meet our skipper this evening but he seems to be partaking in “Queen’s Day” too so we head out in search of dinner. We go to Pusser’s in Road Town for an uninspired meal but the nice bartender packs 4 cold take out Stellas to buoy us through the unpacking process.
With the boat squared away we take showers at the Sunsail marina and sit in the cockpit to enjoy the night air. We are surprised at the few parties on boats around us, expecting every boat to be heading out tomorrow. We sleep well in the aft berth although it is warm and the breeze we had earlier dies but the marina is peaceful and the rocking of the boat soothing.
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