We got up this morning bright and early 9 (for a cruiser anyway) at 9am and headed
into shore where we had four rental scooters waiting for us.
I use the word “scooter” very loosely—so loosely in fact, the term would
need to be held together with zip-ties, much like a couple of shaky scooters we rented.
While Mark treated himself to a brand spanking new scooter,
I got to challenge my driving skills by driving this bad boy:
Everywhere you looked it was held together with zip-ties.
The poor thing rattled and shook and moaned as if it was afraid to be
back on the open road again. My scooter tended to vacillate between
veering sharply to
the right (the exact side of the road you did not want to be driving on) and
shook so roughly that it sounded like it was going to fatally break
apart.
Looks like Keith's scratched up helmet may have
been with my zip-tied bike for whatever incident caused the need for so
many zip ties...
Here's Kathy getting a check ride for her bike...
None of the kids wanted to ride on the back with me and
begged to ride with Mark. Seems a quick
game of paper, scissor, rock would decide the final outcome of who would be the
victim riding with me on the back of my misfit motorcycle. They knew my scooter was in such serious
disrepair that it would require two very steady hands to keep it on the road
and they both knew I’d mostly likely be using one of my hands to precariously
operate a camera and not the scooter--someone's gotta take pictures.
Life in the Left Lane...
First thing first, we headed strait inland to find Dotsie’s
Bakery. Both Keith and Kathy have sailed
here to Anegada before and Kathy made a B-line to the bakery she remembered
from their last stop.
Inside we were happy to find Dotsie had made pumpkin
pie! Keith couldn’t resist a slice—which
he said tasted just like the pumpkin pie his mother used to make with the best
flaky crust.
Mark settled for Dotsie’s fresh baked cookies and I bought a
slice of her pineapple pie. Who knew
pineapple could be the star of it’s very own pie? Apparently in the islands you can stick all
kinds of things in a pie that Marie Calendar doesn’t even know about.
That was the best pie ever!
And indeed the crust was the best flaky crust as Keith reported.
Once we had stuffed ourselves at Dotsie’s bakery we headed
past The Settlement…
It became apparent quite quickly that not only were we to
concentrate on keeping to the left side of the road but that it would be
necessary to keep an eye out for major impediments in the highway as well--namely missing bits of road, telephone wires precariously
crossing sections of the highway, and skiddish beasts roaming wherever they
please: goats, burrios, and those large horned cattle—the kind of cows that would
clearly win a game of chicken with our scooters.
We braved the roads and found a perfect sunny beach to play—Loblolly
Beach.
The water had a good undertow so it was the perfect beach to
walk far up and then drift dive back down.
Or if you’re a really smart doctor, it would be a really
good day to jamb stuff up your nose…
Yes indeed, this man is a doctor. Obviously NOT an ENT specialist, though he
may be in need of one after his little solo game of "Pin the Sea Shells on the Doctor".
When we’d got enough sun and water, we packed up our fins
and snorkels and rode our scooters back to town, turned them back in, and headed back to the boat.
We batten down all the hatches, pulled up anchor and headed
for Jost Van Dyke.
While underway, Connor and Chloe decided to hang out in the
shade of the back deck and play some cards but it got a little breezy for card
playing and they made a makeshift wind barrier…
When it got even more windy they batten down some makeshift
hatches around the deck’s table and keep right on playing cards…
Shortly after our Starboard engine decided to quit
working—that’d be the British side giving us problems. Luckily we’ve got two engines and at the time
we were getting ready to raise the main and turn both engines off
altogether. But now we needed to
troubleshoot a grouchy engine. Kathy grabbed
a flashlight and Mark headed down to survey the situation.
It ended up being a belt problem. Mark tried to jury rig something but it just
wouldn’t hold. We radio-ed the charter
company and made arrangements to sail near them so that they could send someone
out to meet us and put on a new belt in the morning.
Later, Connor decided to let down the main. I wish I’d gotten pictures of this because I
think he set a new world record for letting down a sail. He technique was a tad bit unorthodox and somewhat
painful. He grabbed the line to the sail
and as he was instructed to let it down faster his foot slipped and he fell,
dropping the line altogether and sending the sail strait down in record
time.
Here's Keith lowering the main into the lazy jack with a more gentle approach that Connor's...
We finally made it in to Jost Van Dyke.
It took us two tries to set the anchor in at Great Harbor,
but this time Mark did not need to hand carry the darn anchor--lucky guy. Though he wished he had because this harbor
was particularly crowded with boats--which meant he had a rather large audience
watching him maneuver the boat and set the anchor.
Cruisers don't have televisions on board so it seems we like to find
entertainment wherever we can and often anyone who sets an anchor nearby
gets watched like their the evenings' news.
The reason for the crowds out in the harbor was that it was Thanksgiving. It seemed every cruiser out in the Virgins had sailed
to Jost Van Dyke to have thanksgiving dinner at Foxy’s, and we were one of
them.
(not sure who this guy is posing in our photo but he worked there...and he wanted to be in our photo.)
Despite being a British island, they served up a traditional Thanksgiving feast:
Chloe got her boogie on with some of the other cruisers:
We called or text all our kids back in the states to wish
them all a Happy Thanksgiving. Chris and
Mal and the kids are in Corpus Christie Texas celebrating Thanksgiving a day
early since Chris will have a busy day at work in the E.R., Marc
probably had to work on Thanksgiving as well as crime never takes a holiday and
someone’s gotta keep people safe so he and Brittany were home in Oregon, Annie and Chris are in California celebrating
turkey day with the Chris’ family, and Cassandra is at home missing Sam who’s
in Wichita Falls Texas still in specialty training on Sheppard Air Force
Base. As for the Skillman kids, Mitchell
got a ride from Rexburg to Portland to spend Thanksgiving with Chey and Justice
at Justice’s family celebration in Portland.
We’re grateful for our family on Thanksgiving and hope
they’re having a great holiday.
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