Breakfast was scrambled eggs, bacon, and coffee --- after arriving in the area, we moored off a small key. I’m told the difference between a key and an island is that a key has no water source. This key was totally uninhabited, with just a beautiful stretch of beach, lots of sun, and the ever-present turquoise blue water.
We were encouraged to swim in to shore, which turned out to be the only real physical effort we made all week. Fortunately, we decided to take our snorkel gear, just in case, which enable us to get there safely (flippers really helped). The water was quite rough and the currents strong. No pictures, as we didn't have a reliable "dry bag" to get the cameras in to shore.
My first inclination was to collapse on the beach a la Castaway, but instead stowed my snorkel gear before setting off to comb the beach for shells. It would have been possible to walk around the circumference of the island, but only if we took the trail through the "jungle-y" part --- we wanted to stay on the beach. Scott and I walked as far as where the sand turned to rock, then turned around. Scott had a little "run-in" with some native "pokeys" --- why he didn’t have flip-flops on, I don’t know.
I picked up several more shells, and Gayle spotted several good sized chunks of sea fan, which I’ll take home and use to make something. After an hour or so, we jumped back into the water for the swim back to the boat. The return trip was much easier, as we weren’t fighting the current.
Captain Allan served up another delicious lunch --- warm shrimp salad with kalamata olives. After naps, we started off for Jost Van Dyke and our last adventure.
We planned to visit both the Soggy Dollar Bar and Foxy’s that day. Soggy Dollar Bar is situated on another beautiful beach. The bar got it’s name because the only way it used to be accessible was for passengers to jump from their dinghy into the water, soaking the bills in their pockets --- Soggy Dollar Bar.
Nowadays, since there still is no dock on this part of the island, the traditional way of accessing the bar is by swimming in (a much easier swim than that morning’s), although it is possible to take a dinghy either partway or all the way to the beach. We opted to dinghy in, offloading in about 4-5’ of water.
As in every other place we’ve visited, it was a lively party atmosphere, busy bar, gift shop and food available. There were a couple of musicians in the bar area playing live music, hammocks strung between some of the trees and a ring swing/toss game set up on one of the trees. (A hook is fastened into the tree trunk, a ring is attached to the tree by a long cord --- you swing the ring toward the tree and hook, with the goal being hook the ring to the hook.)
There were also dozens of beach chairs available. We settled in to get some sun and enjoy some drinks. After several cycles of sunscreen, sun/drinks, swimming, back to sunscreen, etc., we heard Scott’s name being called. Some friends of Scott and Gayle’s happened to be visiting the BVIs --- we were actually supposed to meet them the night before at Bomba’s but couldn’t reach them after we changed our plans. So, out of the ocean appeared Sally and Rob. We had all be getting a little weary by that time, but those two managed to kickstart our engines again.
The afternoon continued as before: sunscreen, sun/drinks, water, repeat. Every time I finished a drink, there was another one being handed to me.
Gayle and I tried the ring-toss game --- beating it after only a few swings. I think it may have been sheer luck, as our reasoning abilities were a bit impaired by then.
Before the sun went down, we swam back to the boat, rested for a half-hour or so, and took off for the next beach and Foxy’s. Foxy’s is a well-known bar/restaurant decorated with items signed by visitors and hung by the ceiling by the dozen --- everything from tank tops to jerseys to sweatpants, business cards, home-made posters.
The owner of the next restaurant over, Corsairs, happened by and we struck up a conversation with him. We decided to walk the short distance to his restaurant for dinner.
Dana ordered pasta primavera for me, but unfortunately I don’t remember a lot of it. I’m sure it was good, as he says his dinner was good, too. I do remember that our little waitress was newly arrived from the Philipines. And there were cats in the restaurant. That's about all I remember.
A short walk back to the dock, into the dinghy and back to the boat finished off this most celebratory evening. It was quite late (and we had all had more than enough to drink) so we turned in.
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