11.05.10 Look Out Jack Sparrow - Here We Come!!!

We arrived in Tortola, BVI's around 2:00pm. We made it through customs and met a nice lady waiting for the "Jerry" party. We dumped our bags into the van and the driver proceeded to drive on the left side of the street, through the tiny, run down roads of Tortola.  The driver dropped us off at the Catamaran Company office in the Village Cay Marina, where we were chartering the boat. At the office, we unloaded our bags and went to the Village Cay Restaurant to grab a bite to eat. We ordered up some conch fritters, A.K.A. the conch, pronounced "conk." The conk is a large sea snail whose flavorful meat is a favorite of Caribbean Islanders. We were also extremely thirsty from our travels, so we ordered up a round of Carib Premium Lagers, also an islander favorite.

Jerry, Dale, Lora and Darryl met up with us at the Village Cay Restaurant and joined us for drinks. After a few Caribs, we were greeted by a Catamaran Co. employee who informed us that we could board the boat.  Ann and Jerry were still missing, but the eight of us grabbed our bags and headed to the slip where our boat was docked. We boarded the Jack Sparrow and unloaded our bags. The catamaran was huge! 5 staterooms, 5 bathrooms (or heads in yacht language), two births the size of a roomy coffin, and a huge front and back deck.

The crew took a tour of the boat and everyone was more than pleased with the accommodations. There was one exception however, which turned out to be the butt of many jokes and hardy laughs. One of the staterooms featured a room the size of a shoe box with twin bunk beds and a tiny bathroom suited for small children under the age of 10. All four of the other staterooms were built for adults and easy, spacious living, so you would definitely refrain from wanting to strangle your partner. Alex, Erin, Brian and I agreed to switch off sleeping in the "kids room." Alex decided that he and Erin would take the first turn in the master suite, so Brian and I got the first four nights in the bunk beds and I quickly chose the top bunk. Brian counted the days eagerly.  Ann and Jerry finally arrived right around the time the provisions, beer, and liquor were delivered to the boat.

After loading and storing the provisions, the crew settled into the salon to chat and laugh, and eat salty snacks for dinner.

Captain Jerry thought it would be a fine time to set a few rules before we set out to sea in the morning. So, the captain, along with the help of a few rambunctious crew members came up with the following rules:

1.) DO NOT SINK THE BOAT (completely logical).
2.) NO SAND IN THE BOAT (the captain threatened a cavity search)!!!
3.) DO NOT CALL ANYONE A WHORE (it's important that we all get along).

We displayed the rules on post-it notes in the salon, slept on the boat in the marina that night, and planned to set out to sea in the morning.