11.07.10 Where's the Sun?

I woke up to the sound of thunder and lighting at 4:00am. The generator went out, so that meant no air conditioning and Brian was having a heatstroke. I left the portal open, so the end of my bed was soaked! I fired up the fan that was hanging over the top bunk to try and cool us off, but it was only providing me air and did Brian absolutely no good. After a while, we fell back asleep. The generator kicked back on around 6:30am and we finally got up around 8:30am. We all got breakfast and Brian reminded Erin that she had two more days until we switched rooms. Brian took the dink to the moorage pay station and he found out that Cruz Bay, where we moored for the night was part of the Virgin Islands National Park. He also had Captain Jerry's Golden Age card, so we only had to pay half the price to stay overnight!  2/3's of St. John's Island is a U.S. National Park.

We started out to Jost Van Dyke sailing - then motoring.  Jost Van Dyke is the island voted one of the top New Years Eve places in the world, famous for Foxy's Bar.  We moored the boat, took the dink ashore to Jost Van Dyke and checked into the BVI immigration and customs office.  Erin was greeted by a local guy named L.A. out in front of the police station.  L.A. said to Erin, "You make things on my body stand up that do not have legs." Erin was shocked and Alex scurried off to Foxy's Bar for a painkiller - another delicious Caribbean cocktail.

The crew shopped, drank a plethora of cocktails, such as painkillers, white van dykians, the Dude had a B.B.C., a Friggin on the Riggin, a Vanilla Killer, and Caribs.

The owner of the bar, Foxy, was hanging out in a Sarah Palin t-shirt and Erin and I took a picture with him.  Lionel Richie was playing over the loudspeakers and other fantastic R&B jams.  Jerry Krause faked a heart attack, but he was really having a brain freeze from his cocktail. While the crew was hanging at Foxy's it started to rain, so we sat for awhile and waited out two white squalls.

Foxy, Owner of Foxy's Bar

The crew returned to the boat and ate wraps for lunch. After lunch, we rounded the bin to the Soggy Dollar Bar in White Bay.  It was beginning to rain and I motored the boat into the bay, poorly according to Captain Jerry.

Erin, Alex, Darryl, Captain Jerry, Brian and I jumped off the boat and into the beautiful blue water.  This is the only way to access The Soggy Dollar Bar, which is where it gets its name.  The swim into shore results in some soaked currency that the bartenders hang on a clothes line situated behind the bar. We all swam to shore and rolled up to the bar.  Island music was playing and there was a group of young kids playing flip cup in the corner.  We wondered if they had ever heard of the NW Chapter - Courtland Manor (this is what Brian and I call our home in Seattle). It began to rain harder, so we took shelter and drank painkillers and caribs and talked with the toothless band member who told me to "have fun in life!"

While we were having drinks and thoroughly enjoying the scene, we noticed a few of our crew members on the boat yelling at us and blowing the horn.  I bought a soggy dollar koozie and off we were jumping back into the ocean in the pouring rain.  We all took warm showers on the back of the boat. We also found out two interesting tidbits of information: We were down to one engine and Brian lost his wedding ring on the swim back to the boat from the Soggy Dollar.

We cruised to Little Harbor on Jost Van Dyke where we docked for the night.  The Dude phoned the Catamaran Co. to tell them about the engine and they planned to meet us the next day at Trellis Bay at 9:00am.  Dale called ahead to Sydney's Peace and Love Restaurant to place our dinner order. We took two dink trips to Sydney's Restaurant. At Sydney's you make your own drinks!  That's right, you head behind the counter and pour yourself a cocktail or grab a beer and write up your own tab.  I discovered Rum Coconut and Soda - YUMMY!

Brian and I rolled over to the T-shirt shop and bought one t-shirt for my dad with a map of the BVI's on the back.  After going through 80 t-shirts, Brian found one for himself.  Alex showed up to tell us that dinner was served. I arrived to the table to find a huge lobster with a side of butter. 

Brian dinked Ann, both Jerry's, Dale, Lora and Darryl back to the boat and then returned to finish his drink and pick up Erin, Alex and I.  Three boys from the island rolled over to our table and wanted to use my camera to take pictures.  The youngest boy tried taking pictures with my camera and then I ended up taking pictures of the boys, as well as one with Alex and the youngest boy, wearing Alex's glasses.

We dinked back to the boat and it was pouring rain. We take off tomorrow to meet the Catamaran Co. to fix the boat. Please let there be sun tomorrow!!!