One Very Sad Dad! (AND ME)
07 March 2014
Karen

Friday, Mar 7th, 2014
We put Jenni and Danielle on the 10 am Ferry today…unfortunately, and there is a spirit of gloom over the good ship Regenero right now….However, we just had the BEST time with the two of them this past week, so we are trying (not completely successfully) to focus on the GREAT time we had rather than the fact that it is over.. I’ll attempt to recap.
Saturday, Mar 1 – due to another winter storm in the Midwest two of the girls were able to advance their flights to today instead of tomorrow….unfortunately the third had a work emergency that required her to cancel off the trip...Boo!
So we ended up picking up just two cute ladies at the airport Saturday night. Then, as we had not yet provisioned for the trip, we were off to the grocery while the two of them relaxed in the warm Caribbean sunshine.
After stowing our supplies, I was off to join them at Tickles, for dinner and ‘ladies night’ which consisted of some loud music, with the dinosaur rockers, and a few older girls attempting to entice several much younger men onto the dance floor. It takes some moxie to pull off gold Lame! However, we did have a chance to talk with Philip, the young Brazilian captain on the boat next to us, and I earned my stripes as an acceptable ‘wing-woman’ for engaging him in conversation…and translating for the girls…not from ‘Portuguese’, …but the ‘boater’ language we all speak!
So, Sunday am..we were up and off the docks before 7am heading east in the calmest conditions that we have ever seen…so calm that we had the fastest trip to Sopers for check in, and then arrived at the Indians before 11am! We easily found a can at the Indians, and snorkeled in the best conditioned we have seen all year…wonderful!
After a great snorkel there, we headed over to Privateer, and had a big swim to the caves and a great snorkel there only to spy a large eel…who was not Danielle’s friend, and no swell pushing into the caves. We had a bit of trouble with the center, deep cave, as it was littered with grass, and the carcasses of dead crabs, as well as many live crabs skittering along the walls. Cool for some, creepy for others!
On the way back, we discovered Barry, hanging out under the boat…with his boyfriend, Barry - two big Baracuda’s just chilling in the shade. It made for super fast sea baths!
One of the main reasons we wanted to be here was to see the sunset into the sea, however, we discovered that that time is now past, and the sun is too far north and so sinks onto the island instead. Still wonderful color in the sky…but no green flash! We did manage to see 3 shooting stars tonight…and Danielle did advise that today was…..OK. I advised her that was payback for throwing me under the bus when I advised Jim that of course she didn’t know the movie’ Heartbreak Ridge’, to which she replies…’Heartbreak Ridge, Clint Eastwood…yeah, good movie’…AARRGH!
After a great night at Privateer, it was up the mainsail and off to Leverick Bay. A great sail, where we ducked several, and hit a few storms along the way, and arrived at the Leverick around 1pm. Not long after Glenn and Sylvie stopped by for a visit! We haven’t seen them since Grenada, so it was great to visit and catch up with them. The girls were laughing at us and all the boating gossip we were catching up with. Then Monday night it was off to see Michael Beans…a great show as always, with the girls definitely getting into it, and the Painkillers and Bushwackers flowing. At this point we have decided that the girls are actually twins, and their priority status fluctuates between 1 & 2 depending on behavior. Danielle did blow the conch…AND know the middle letter of the pirate alphabet after all….hmmmmm.
We rented a car and so early on Tuesday we were off down the mountain and to the Baths, which was very nearly empty, and a great climb thru. After some time on the beach, it was time to head up to Hog Heaven for lunch and a great view. While up at Hog Heaven, we noticed that the boat didn’t seem to be in the same position that we left it, and later in the afternoon, after we got back down to the water we discovered it wasn’t! Clearly our boat had been moved and after talking to the marina guys and other boats around we had no clear answers as to why. A very disconcerting feeling….but we all tried to put it out of our minds and focus on the great day that we had. So we downloaded all the photos and had picture night remembering our first few great days!
On Wednesday, Mar 5th, we are sailing down the channel, and heading for The Bight so we can snorkel a bit more. Danielle takes the helm and sails us downwind beautifully and in short order we are anchored up on our favorite can in the bight, right next to the wall! As we are having lunch a dingy comes alongside and ties up, and we begin to discover the story about why our boat was moved. Turns out a cruising boat while leaving got fouled on our mooring line and was trapped in front of our boat. Fortunately for us, the boat they were travelling with had a local captain on it, who was able to come on board, start the engines and move us safely to another mooring, allowing the problem boat to drift free. Fortunately Cap’n Marley was the man of the hour and Regenero was moved safely out of harms way, with no damage. That’s the short version of the story…but we sure all slept better knowing what happened!
We took a long snorkel over behind the Willie T on a turtle hunt, and fortunately were able to find a few. Jenni tried to hug the biggest one, but discovered just how fast those suckers actually are as he swam away.
For happy hour, we dropped the girls off at Willie T’s although it was a pretty quiet night as it was Wednesday, however they had fun, and brought me a lovely blended margarita for the ride home.
Thursday, Mar 6th… off to Sopers, where we picked up a mooring by 9am. Then packed for a day at the beach, and headed over on the ferry to JVD. Took a walk across town to Foxy’s for a little shopping, and then took a taxi over the hill to White Bay. Grabbed a hammock, and a beach chair and whiled away the day with lunch and a drink, swimming, beach walking, and an enjoyable show. We caught the 5pm ferry back to Sopers, after physically ripping Danielle away from the beach. She even went so far as to try and leave her credit card at the bar…so she would HAVE to stay…clever, clever girl! A great last day for us all.
So Friday, after overnighting at Sopers we put the ‘twins’ on the 10am Ferry to Charlotte Amalie, and headed back to the boat to cry in private. We had just the best time with them, every where…and so wish they didn’t have to go home.