Although I departed Europe on Saturday the 7th I didn’t get to the BVI until the 8th so my diary/blog doesn’t begin until today. I went to my gate (nonstop from Washington Dulles [IAD] to St. Thomas [STT]) just at boarding time and was surprised to find the area relatively empty; I thought I might have come late but when I reached the airplane I was greeted by an almost empty flight! And this in the middle of high-season in the Caribbean. The 3 1/2 hour flight went by quickly and even the luggage arrived on the conveyor belt shortly after we’d walked to the arrivals area. I caught a shared cab to the ferry terminal and found that I had a bit over an hour until the next ferry, operated by Native Son, but then Caribbean reality set in once again. There were only 6 people ahead of me in line to purchase tickets but it took a good half hour to make it to the front. Ahh, “Island Time once again. The ferry departed on time and made it to the West End without incident. About 40 of us debarked while the rest of the passengers continued on to Road Town. Despite the small number of passengers we had another very long wait before we could go through immigration and customs, as it seemed that the manifest and actual passenger counts didn’t match.
I had two big pieces of luggage, filled mainly with Nespresso coffee pods and various first-aid and emergency kit items (including various bandage types to catheters, sutures, needles, etc.) but I was fortunate that I had put my leather shaving strop on the top of the pile. The customs agent wondered what that leather and linen strap was for, and I explained about using a straight razor for shaving and he really wanted to see a razor one, so I pulled one out and showed it to him. By then his curiosity was satisfied and he didn’t bother to dig down to find all those coffee pods which he could have assessed a duty on.
After that it was another cab ride with some other guests who also have a Jeanneau on island and I was finally back at Nanny Cay. I was early afternoon when I checked in at the hotel, changed and wandered off to the boat. The boat had already been partially detailed by Eric and the hull looked sparkling clean in the tropical sun. I went aboard and while everything looked in order it turned out that the solar panel I’d left attached to keep the main battery bank charged had a wire become loose during storage and the main 24V battery bank was dead as a doornail, showing 4V or so. Oh well, I’d have to see about getting that charged before going into the water.
I went to Peg Legs for a happy hour sun downer libation and ended up having a small meal as the sun set. I feel myself unwinding already, but it will take a good week before I return to the rhythm of the Caribbean.
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