It’s Sunday morning and the party last Tuesday already seems like a long time ago and almost too long ago to even mention in this blog but this was no ordinary party and certainly unlike any other we’ve ever been to. A truly professional managed event. Wall to wall people. 20,000 people of all ages, many dressed in outlandish costumes just added to the fun. At 0300 the crowd started thinning out and at 0500 the anchorage started thinning out. By noon most of the boats were gone. Simply amazing.

We decided to hang there for an extra day and catch up on some much lost sleep so it wasn’t until Thursday morning we headed for the east end of Jost van Dyke to a place called Diamond Cay where there is some great snorkeling. A short hike over the small mountain brought us to the ‘Bubbly Pool’ which is a basin formed by rocks set at just the right height to allow the highest waves to crash over them and flood the small basin. The waves toss you around and knock you over when you’re not ready.

The next day we said goodbye to Doug & Cherry for a few days since they’ve been having issues with their dinghy leaking. They are off to the other side of the island to go dinghy shopping and we headed across the channel to Cane Garden Bay. A lovely anchorage on the north side of Tortola we dropped our hook in 16’ of water in clear sand. A perfect anchorage.

There’s a local by the name of Quito Rymer that owns a bar, an inn and is the feature entertainer two nights a week. This guy is a fantastic guitarist, artist with eight recordings to his credit and has opened for the likes of Ziggy Marley, Third World, and so on. He kept Bob & I thoroughly entertained on Friday evening when the girls decided to spend a quiet night on the boat.

Although Christmas is over the Christmas winds are still blowing so when we left our beautiful anchorage earlier this morning we did so under jib only in a nice downwind run until we rounded ‘West End’ and headed up wind to Norman Island. The wind hit 28knts as we rounded the corner so down came the big jib and out came the small jib and our engine.

Norman Island is the home of Willy T’s, a floating bar where if you’re female and willing to jump into the water from the top balcony topless you’ll be rewarded with a Willy T’s tee shirt. This seems sort of counter productive to me. This island is also home of the famous caves and ‘The Indians’ which are great diving spots so it looks like there will be some more snorkeling in our near future.

When we arrived in the bay we were met by Doug with his new dinghy coming out to greet us. As well a perfectly timed rain shower to wash off all the salt sprayed on our deck during our crashing sail was so welcomed.