Departing Tortola

*(As you may have guessed, this belated blog post is from early December.)

Well, the time came to depart our marina and head home. 

Christmas was coming after all...

We had about 17+ hours of travel ahead of us...which ALWAYS includes an adventure of some sort. 

And it started with this...

Our cabbie was 30 minutes late. He was as lethargic as they come and said we would take a shortcut to the airport... Which was thru the mountains and up super STEEP "streets of San Francisco" grade hills. He was driving slower than the little old lady from Pasadena...

Everyone passed us. He chatted and with his thick accent we couldn't make out a word he said. You'd think he was speaking swahili. I don't know if this is how he gets his kicks, but he should get his 

fa-la-la's elsewhere instead of from hurried foreigners...

He didn't have a strong enough car to go up hills and didn't have strong enough brakes to go down. 

We even had to stop and wait for construction maintenance on the "shortcut" road to be repaired..

Then.. after what was almost an hour for a 20 min ride, he hits 

a speed bump at full speed and we almost hit the roof. 

Some stunt driver he was...

He was quite apologetic, and I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants as this 

whole cabbie adventure (we always seem to have them!) was a riot!! 

Finally we arrived at the airport...ready to go.

And get our groove on...

At the airport, I spotted Martina Navatalova and Tarcy Austin returning 

from the Necker Cup. They were flying back to Puerto Rico
with us. It doesn't appear they are besties.

My other sightings were the cats wandering the airport, a random songbird or two flying above our heads and a couple feral dogs. Let's not forget the chickens and rooster wandering the perimeter... 

Too funny! Definitely one of the more casual airports we've been to.

And if you get some pre-flight hunger pains, you can head to the local ice cream stand there..

All flights out of Tortola go to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Once we arrived in SJ, we then connected to Charlotte, North Carolina...finally touching down on terra firma in LA. YAY!! I'll be glad when the "3 flights to get to a destination" portion of our adventure is concluded. It is just for this BVI destination luckily.  17+ hours to get to a destination and 3 connections is exhausting. but all part of our crazy fun adventure!

We cleared customs in San Juan, Puerto Rico. As soon as we walked into the customs area we made a beeline for the Global Entry kiosks. For those of you wondering about Global Entry, it's a "fast pass" for getting through customs which I highly recommend. You sign up on their website, get a full background check and vetted through the Department of Homeland Security. Then, you're on your way to speedy checkpoints when re-entering the US from aboard. I always have a little fun at the kiosk and make sure I get a snazzy pose for the customs official when he will collect my receipt.
Case in point below... It keeps me entertained. 

Anyhoo- we are off!

Until next time campers....

Cooper Island, The Baths and Scrub Island

We left Peter Island late afternoon & headed over to Cooper Island for dinner.

Cooper Island’s Manchioneel Bay is featured on many sailing itineraries as a natural stop 

along the Sister Island chain leading to The Baths at Virgin Gorda. 

Moor-Seacure Ltd own and operate 30 moorings in Manchioneel Bay suitable for vessels up to 60ft in length and 20 net tons. (that counts us out.) Mooring balls are available on a first-come basis only. It will be interesting to see them all filled once we return here after the holidays which is HIGH season. That mean's "Christmas Crazy" will be in full effect!

Anchoring in the mooring field or sea grass is not permitted, as Manchioneel Bay is one of the Department of Conservation & Fisheries’ Sea Grass monitoring sites.

The beach club here was so nicely done...

 And sure cast a romantic spell.

It "allegedly" had the best & only rum bar in the British Virgin Islands...

This vintage Zacapa  rum is allegedly the best you can taste!

I worked my "prom pose" after dinner... everyone else, remained normal.

The next morning, we departed...

And took off to tour the infamous BATHS on Virgin Gorda...

No, not the type of "bath" you're thinking of...

We all swam to shore...

And were happy to be there...
But then...when we looked around for the Baths, Brad noticed that we came
ashore to soon and were on the wrong beach. HA! Back to the boat we swam...

And tried again, on the correct beach. So funny!

Bish forged his own snorkel path to the Baths..

And then we found the infamous cave which leads to Devils Bay.

Beautiful rocks were everywhere. Their beauty shaped by years
& years of being carved out by the sea.

This is the ENTRANCE to the infamous "Baths"!

Brads ready..

 Yes, you duck down low and make your way through this narrow crevice in the rocks. Claustrophobes need not apply... Somehow I didn't get this "memo".

And this is what you see when you come out on the other side..

Such intrinsic beauty, I can't get over it! It's etched in my memory forever.

I have to admit, this photo "nugget" was one of my faves!! 

However there were about 60 cruise ship passengers behind us
 ready to pounce so I had to snap the pics quickly & get back outside for fresh air! 

This rock reminded me of a ships hull...

This was the rope handrail used to propel oneself up the steep rocks..

Gorgeous topography!

Bish worked his water polo goalie moves...

Once we finished our little "bath" tour, it was off to Scrub Island

to do what else...
spa & a scrub of course!

All tied up at the dock and ready for FUN.

Now that trampoline looks like there's some entertainment to be had there...

The resort at Scrub Island was beautiful and wonderfully appointed.

Kim & I skedaddled to the spa for our afternoon appointments.

While us girls enjoyed our pampering, the boys took a dingy cruise
& headed out on a tour of their own crazy concoction.

Mark fabulously captured their photo safari...

This is a makeshift multi-person hammock. Too bad they didn't imbibe...

I wonder where the mongoose got loose?

This is Mark's now infamous "Ode to Color" as Brad demonstrates his rotational skill set...

They found an abandoned boat...Brad was all to glad to captain it until it ran out of gas. 

OK, I might be kidding.

Brad killed it as Mark's live model and worked it like a native!

These were live lobsters sitting in their cage just under the dock where we were at.
Someone's dinner is waiting..

We chilled at the spa and took our time shockingly.

Sunset at Scrub Island was spectacular!

Kim and I finished our day of pampering and headed back to the boat where Bish had prepped a cornucopia of delish appetizers.

We dined at the resorts' restaurant that night (we even got dressed up for the first time that week!) and of course I had to tell the waiter it was Kim's birthday we were celebrating...
A month or so late, but FUN nonetheless!