11.08.10 Lora's Submission: The Kids Go to the Willy T

Adventure at the Willy T. Danielle, Brian, Erin and Alex went by dink to the Willy T.

Lora writing in my journal

The Willy T was run by Dillion and Max, two British bartenders that were hitting on Erin and Danielle.  Dillion showed Erin and Danielle their "living quarters" on the boat. Dillion told Danielle and Erin that they were the first girls ever to enter the bartenders' stateroom. Hah! So, sweet and so naive.  Dillion and Max's living quarters made Danielle and Brian's room on the Jack Sparrow look great!

Girls on the Willy T were getting crazy off the margaritas and taking off their tops, so Erin and Danielle decided to order up a few.



The bartenders poured shot after shot trying to take advantage of the Jack Sparrow maidens.  They couldn't believe that the girls were with Alex and Brian.  The kids finally arrived back at the Jack Sparrow and a fight erupted on the deck between Jerry Krause and Danielle over fishing.  Meanwhile...back on the Willy T, the best music was playing, it was "Fallen" by the Beatles.  The Old People (or the O.P.'s as they will be referred to from here on out) didn't know what song it was.  What Losers!

11.08.10 Waiting at the West End: Soper's Hole

At 8:03am we were on our way to the West End: Soper's Hole; a change of plans from meeting the Catamaran Co. at Trellis Bay.  We all decided to bet on the time the Catamaran Co. mechanic would STEP on the boat.  I wrote down everyone's proposed time.  The bet was $1.00 per person. Dale motored us into the West End, she thought she was driving the boat, but it was actually on auto pilot.  Darryl proved time and time again to be a fantastic 1st mate.

We docked at Soper's Hole and Dale, Ann, Lora, Erin and I went to get coffee and tea and to the grocery store for additional items.  We also caught up on U.S. news.  9:38am and no Catamaran Co.  Brian and I already lost.  Erin made breakfast for everyone, scrambled eggs with ham.

Sean from the Catamaran Co. finally arrived - not by boat as planned, but by car. He had been waiving at us frantically from the dock.  Darryl and Captain Jerry had to pick him up in the dink.  Sean set foot on the boat at 10:44am.  Dale won the bet.  She said 10:35am, so everyone paid Dale.  Erin and I sang "We need a hero!" (you know, the song from the movie Footloose) to Sean.  Sean told the crew that he needed a belt for the engine, so he was going to have to meet up with us again later when he got the belt.  Dude took down Sean's phone number in my journal and had Sean promise that we would see him again....Well, you probably know how that went.

Alex was not feeling well - stomach issues.  We motored over to "The Indians" to snorkel.  Erin and I got out our noodles and noodled against the current, while Brian, Alex, Lora, Darryl, and Captain Jerry snorkeled.

Ann, Dale and Jerry swam with the rope tied to the boat, which served as their lifeline.  Then we ventured over to the Caves on Norman Island.  Alex, Darryl, Lora, Brian, Erin and I fed the tarpon fish and Lora got bit!  Alex, Brian, Darryl, and Lora snorkeled into the caves and Darryl saw a reef shark. 

We ate haystacks (tortilla chips smothered in chili with all the fixings) for lunch and cruised over to The Bight, on Norman Island where Treasure Island was filmed and where we moored for the night.  Dale showed us the single births at the front of the boat and while Brian was checking it out he opened the porthole leading to Alex and Erin's bathroom, where he accidentally stumbled upon Alex's bare behind sitting on the toilet. 

Conveniently located in the same bay where we were moored was the infamous Willy T, so Alex, Erin, Brian and I just had to go and check it out.  The Willy T or The William Thornton is a floating bar & restaurant situated in The Bight at Norman Island.  Dr. William Thornton was born on Jost Van Dyke, he was an English physician, inventor, painter and architect who designed the United States Capitol and apparently, HE LIKED TO PARTY!  The Willy T is known for its rude behavior, loud music and dancing into the wee hours of the night; not to mention the constant display of naked drunkards jumping off the boat. Brian and Erin sprung into action and proceeded to bring down the dinghy to head over to the Willy T. The rope holding up the dinghy ran too quickly through Brian's bare hands and he nearly lost a finger!  Let's just say he got a very bad rope burn.

The Willy T

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!!!

11.06.10 The Crew Gets Bushwhacked!

The crew woke up Saturday morning and I have to say that the top bunk bed was fine, but I could not say much for my bottom bunk partner. We ate breakfast on the boat and while the rest of the crew was preparing for departure, Erin, Ann and I decided we needed some extra supplies to make the trip even better. We walked around the marina and went into a few dive and nautical type shops. We stumbled upon three very essential items: can koozies, four swimming noodles, and Ann bought a new hat.

Once we got back to the boat, we learned from Captain Jerry that our first stop would be the U.S. Virgin Islands. Before we were able to depart the marina, the crew had to walk about a mile to the BVI's immigration and customs office to check out of the BVI's, so we could get into the U.S. We all crammed into a little room the size of a jail cell with a water cooler (thank God) and our passports. Our trip organizer, Dale filled out the paperwork, while we chatted it up with a very friendly customs agent. The customs agent cleared us for departure. We headed back to the Jack Sparrow where we received an orientation from the Catamaran Co. employee (something about how to work the generator, etc.,).

Finally, we were off to the open seas. The girls spent most of the time at the front of the boat.

I started to feel a bit queasy until I heard that our first stop was going to be the West End of Tortola to order up bushwhackers for the crew. Bushwhackers are popular island drinks, served frozen, similar to a milkshake, except they are filled with a ton of booze - creme de cacao, kahlua, rum, and an extensive list of other special alcoholic ingredients.

Darryl (A.K.A. "Dude") Alex, and Brian went ahead and took the dinghy (A.K.A. "dink") ashore to Pusser's restaurant to get bushwhackers for the entire crew. Dude brought back five Pusser's British Virgin Islands Drinking Mugs; humongous round tin cups filled to the rim with bushwhackers. $230.00 for five drinks and two bottles of rum! Needless to say, we all got bushwhacked!

We left the West End and crossed over to the U.S. Virgin Islands, where we moored for a bit at Trunk Bay. Trunk Bay has an amazing beach with white sand and is ideal for diving and snorkeling. The crew decided it would be a fine time for a swim, so everyone took turns diving and jumping into the water, some more graciously than others. Noodles were utilized and some of us took the opportunity to shower on the back of the boat just to wash the stink off.

We left Trunk Bay and motored over to Cruz Bay on St. John's Island, where Erin, Ann and I decided to head to shore on the dink captained by Brian and his 1st mate, Alex. Cruz Bay is a major city on St. John's Island and is located on the western tip of the island. Captain Jerry instructed me to take the walkee talkie to shore and relayed to us that we had a total of 45 minutes to shop. Of course, I obeyed the captain and took the radio, but I didn't want to use up the batteries, so I turned the radio off. As we were motoring up to the dock, some of the local boys on the island were yelling at us to rescue their tennis ball from the water. This was hilarious because the dink captain kept going around and around in circles missing the tennis ball completely. Finally, Alex retrieved the ball and as a favor in return, the local boys helped the ladies from the dink to the shore.

Ann, Erin and I went to Mongoose Junction where we bought up as much as we could in 20 minutes. We bought greeting cards, more koozies, and cocktails to go at the Ocean Grill.

When we got back to the dink, Alex and Brian were waiting patiently, drinking beers, and playing craps with the local boys on the island. When we got back to the boat, Captain Jerry was pissed. He told me he tried to radio us in, but I had the radio off. I promised him that it would never happen again (you can see Captain Jerry's pissed off face below - pictured left).

From Cruz Bay, we motored around the island to Francis Bay, named for Sir Francis Drake. During this time, I was wearing my IPA hat from Fort Collins, Colorado (technically Brian's hat that I commandeered) until the wind came up and blew the hat into the water and into the depths of the deep blue sea. The crew enjoyed snacks on the back deck, until it started to rain.  We enjoyed a wonderful chicken dinner, we played a game of 20 questions, e.g., favorite U.S. city, favorite movie, favorite food, and reflected on the days activities. That is when rule number four was born. It reads:

4.) SECURE YOUR SHIT! (hats were lost, beers were toppling over).

That evening, Alex and the Dude drank two Pusser mugs filled with liquor. Alex played tunes all night and probably slept with his iPod remote.

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.

11.04.10 The Trip We Have All Been Waiting For...

Brian and I met Alex at the airport two and a half hours before our flight - just in case of any security breaches. We didn't have any trouble getting through security, so we had some serious time to kill. The three of us decided to grab dinner and go bar hopping through Sea-Tac Airport. We boarded the plane to New York at 10:00pm and met up with Erin at JFK airport around 6:00am EST. From New York, we flew to to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where we waited to board our final flight to Tortola, British Virgin Islands (BVI's). Tortola is where we would meet our fellow seamen and women, board a 50 foot catamaran and sail/motor through the British Virgin Islands for seven days.

Alex and Erin invited us on the trip to the BVI's back in March. They had been on this same trip two years ago and loved it so much they wanted to experience it again. For those of you who really like to travel, there are many places to see, so to repeat a trip is really telling you something. The trip entailed chartering a 50 foot catamaran named "Jack Sparrow" for seven days and eight nights, and exploring various islands with an outstanding crew.  The crew included Captain Jerry Vaughan and his wife, Dale - the ultimate trip planner, Erin's parents, Ann and Jerry Krause, and Lora and Darryl Thomas. Oh, and the "kids" as Erin, Alex, Brian and I were so commonly referred to.

                       Crew Members of the "Jack Sparrow"

Pictured Left to Right: Danielle, Brian, Jerry K., Captain Jerry V., Ann, Erin, Dale, Lora, Darryl (A.K.A. "Dude" / "The 1st Mate"), and Alex.