Woke up and remembered that my sister walked us through the constellations last night.  The most notable one was “Twinkie dinks belt”.  The group did a nice exercise session led by my beautiful wife, Cindy.  Afterwards, everyone jumped into the water for a few laps around the boat.  We set sail for Virgin Gorda to check out the Baths.  The winds were blowing hard from the North, which forced us to tack multiple times in the Sir Francis Drake Channel making it a slightly longer trip.  While sailing, a fish, presumably a large one, hit our line and made it zing but came off as we reeled it in.  In the midst of all the excitement I stubbed my toe and cut it on some standing gear.

We had a quick stop at the Baths on a mooring, but because of the big north swell not one got into the water.  Tonight we might be staying in St. Thomas Bay.  Beth and Pat made a kick-ass jalapeño, basil, vodka lemonade while Jeff entertained us with his paraplegic dance.

Didn’t end up staying in St. Thomas Bay, since all the moorings were taken.  Decided to beat into the wind towards North Sound for better protection.  30 knot winds and a 5-7 foot swell made it a slow go at 3-4 knots per hour.  Pulled into North Sound around 5:30pm.  Moored up to a 2nd buoy after our first attempt was much too close to other boats.  Jeff and Pat cooked another great meal of fried fish bites, onion rings and awesome chili con carne.

Inebriated names were agreed upon by the group:  Chris is Dale, Cindy is Debbie, Lindsay is Chip, Aaron is Tyroil, Jeff is Gary, Pat is Ace, Michael is Oscar, Sarah is Cookie, Steven is Bart and Beth is Wanda.

Up early to try some trolling on the southern drop off, where the depth goes from 100 feet to 1000 feet.  It’s along the southern end of the BVIs.  We motored out past the island, then raised the sails.  Put out the trolling spread on two rods and immediately caught a tiny bonita.  Trolled on out past the drop.  4-5 foot seas and 15+ knot winds today.  Few folks are not feeling good because of the large swell.  Changed lures a few times with no luck other than 1 additional medium-size bonita.  Aaron took the helm for a bit, but was having trouble tacking without help from the engines (tacking is turning the boat the other direction into the wind).  We got the lines caught on the prop on one tack, so I had to jump in and cut them loose.  Pulled in the trolling lines and made our way to a day mooring at the site of the Rhone shipwreck near Salt Island.  Again, seeing mostly dead stuff w/ some fish and a turtle.

Headed to Cooper Island for the night.  All moorings were full at Manchioneel Bay, so we anchored in Haulovers Bay nearby.  Nerve racking to anchor for the first time.  Noises during the night usually wake me up, due to thoughts of the anchor releasing and the boat drifting into another boat or shore…

Most of the group took the dinghy over to the resort back at Manchineel Bay, but Mike, Pat and I stayed at the boat.  Pat caught a couple nice sized Yellowtail Snapper.  We enjoyed another fantastic dinner on the boat, consisting of grilled shrimp, rice and baked veggies.  Jeff and Pat are doing a great job as our chefs!  Amazing star gazing and even saw a couple shooting stars.

Provisioned the boat w/ food, liquor and fishing gear rentals.  It’s a spacious boat in good condition, but a couple things like autopilot are not working.  We departed the marina about 1pm.  Raised the sails the first time just outside the harbor and without much trouble by the green crew members.  Gonna need some teaching and patience on this trip with so many crew that are new to sailing.

First stop was a day mooring at The Indians for some snorkeling.  Not much to see there, as most of the reef is dead.  Water is a bit chillier than folks expected, but feels good after a hot and sunny afternoon sail.

Next stop was Norman Island.  Picked up a mooring in The Bight.  Took the dinghy over to a floating bar called Willy T’s for a sunset drink.  Lots of inebriated people hanging out there, was sorta like Spring Break 2013.  We settled in for sleep after a tasty dinner of fish which we bought earlier in the day.

Made it in safely yesterday afternoon to st Thomas. Other part of the group was delayed about an hour in San Juan. Caught our taxi about 6pm and headed to red hook for the ferry. Ferry ended being a high speed drug running center console. Did about 50mph in the pitch black conditions over to Tortola where the boat is docked.

Unpacked everyone’s stuff and got settled into our mobile home. Boat is really spacious and in good condition. Up early on Saturday getting checked in for the boat, provisioning and customs. Headed over to Peter island this afternoon.

47′ Catana prepared for departure form Hodges Creek Marina

Arrived safely back in Orlando on Tuesday evening. A long day of travel, but it all went smoothly. Slept really good back that night.

Action packed Wednesday included a drive up to Jacksonville to check out our rental home, as the tenants had moved out. All was well there with a couple minor plumbing issues to resolve soon. Picked up our old patio furniture to bring back for Cindy’s parents to use on their new brick patio. Had a great vegetarian dinner with good friends before driving back around 11pm to cocoa beach. Got to bed around 2am…

Up early again today with more stuff to do in prep for the next trip. Took care of everything before we head down to Fort Lauderdale tonight to have dinner and stay with friends. Flight leaves mañana around noon! Looking forward to some great sailing, fishing, sightseeing and other indulgences in the islands!

Stay tuned the next 10 days for updates from the islands

5 hour drive went relatively smooth this morning.  Got to the airport around 11am, dropped cindy off with the bags and surfboards, then i took off to drop the rental car.  Took a bit to find a gas station, return the car and shuttle back to the airport.  Cindy was a bit concerned when i returned an hour later!  Made it back in time for check-in and payment of the outrageous $56 departure tax.  Flight is on time for our return to los estados unidos.

Came across this huge bull on our ride back to san jose

A last Trit for both of us

Gringo money maker at the airport, $25 bag of chocolates.. really??!

Hit the waves again this morning around 730 for our final surf session of the trip. Waves were not very big today, but caught some really clean lefts and rights over about 4 hours. Beautiful day with really clear water. You could see schools of fish scattering as your cruised down the beach on a wave. Surfed today on the south end of the beach, so we could hopefully make the Surfing Nosara web page photos. Cindy made their page and we both are on their Facebook page.

Walked back to the house, stopping for a couple coco frios on the way. Will be cleaning the boards and packing up this afternoon. In the meantime, I made a delicious lunch and following it up with a banana smoothie. It’s clean out the fridge day for us, but likely eating dinner at the Asian restaurant right next to our house. Will be dropping off our donation clothes this afternoon too, thanks Matt and Laura!

Early rise tomorrow for our 5 hour drive back to San Jose, before we board our JetBlue flight back to Orlando. We have had an amazing time here and our final day of surfing was a spectacular ending.

Out of bed early this morning to try a sunrise surf session. Waves were quite fun, but surprising number of people already In the water at 630am. Caught some nice rides over a few hours, before heading back to the house. Packed up the car around 10 and drove north to check out some other beaches. Didn’t bring the surfboards cause the tide wasn’t right during the afternoon.

Roads around here are all gravel, with some in decent shape and most in really bad shape. Many washouts, rocks, downed trees, etc. to be aware of. Makes for an exhausting ride as driver or passenger. Hard to believe anything on cars here can last very long between the dust, Horrible road conditions and salty air. Made it up to Marbella around 1130am and found a nice beachfront restaurant for a couple Imperials and lunch. I enjoyed delicious chicken nachos dish and Cindy had some extra plump fish tacos with beans and rice.

Afterwards we took a walk down the beach to find a shady spot for a siesta. Onshore breeze was keeping us cool for a nice hour of relaxation. Very few people at this beach compared to Guiones. The black sand is blazingly hot!

Walked back to the car and headed off back to our house to catch the sunset surf session. Stopped at the supermarket in nosara to grab some things for dinner and or remaining meals here. Got back to the house and did a quick change to get out in the surf. Enjoyed some sunset waves with a smaller crowd than usual, likely cause of the superbowl.

Cindy is a tired woman tonight, 3 surf sessions in the last 24 hours!
Last day of surfing tomorrow, so we are gonna keep at it!

View from the tiki hut bar at Marbella Beach

Beautiful black sand beach

Low tide exploration

Tide pool with a bunch of urchins

A shady spot for a beach siesta

Popular destination to see turtles come ashore to lay eggs in the fall

Up at our usual time today for breakfast and coffee on the patio. Cindy waxed up her board and headed down to the beach around 9. I stayed back at the house, as I am still nursing the rib. I got motivated a bit later and decided to head down to the beach with the go pro and capture some video of Cindy surfing while I swam. Hopefully got a few good shots, but found it sorta difficult to swim around, stay in the right place and get decent footage. Kudos to the in-water photographers that capture surfing shots..

Tried to grab some stuff at the farmers market around lunchtime, but most of the vendors had already left for the day. Walked back to our place and decided to see if the surf photographer was hanging at the bar with his laptop. He takes photos each morning of the surfers on this end of the beach, then usually hangs out at gilded iguana for anyone that wants purchase some of the shots. Cindy went thru about 500 photos per day going back to January 13th! Found around 120 photos of us and copied em over to our SD card. No way to share them out right now, but sit tight and behold another quality C+C video production in late February.

Made another couple walking trips to the car rental place. Reserved a car earlier in the week, so we could check out some other areas. Went to pick it up, but that model didn’t have a surf rack, so had to come back later and pickup an upgraded model which had one. Need a surf rack since we plan on driving back to San Jose on Tuesday morning to catch our flight. Finally got it squared away around 3pm. Feels weird to drive around after walking everywhere the last 3 weeks. Stick shift too, which will take a bit to get used to again. I’ll be the engine revving gringo…

Hadn’t planned on surfing again while we were here, but viewing those surf photos got me excited! 4 o’clock surf session came around and said let’s do this, so we both prepped and walked down to the beach for a beautiful sunset session. Caught some fun rides and the rib didn’t bother me much. Felt great to be back out in the water on my board, especially with a great view of the sunset. Likely wouldn’t be the recommended treatment for my rib, but I figure there will be time for healing after this trip.

Off to il basilico tonight for pizza, a place we really enjoyed on our last visit and now easily reachable in our coche.