Tuesday Afternoon:

We have to be off the boat by 11 am tomorrow – at the boat base in Road Town, Tortola. Usually we go back the night before so we can make sure we are there, pack up, and relax. We are supposed to leave the boat as we found it – which means we have to clean out the refrigerator and cabinets and make sure all is tidy.

But – we don’t want our cruise to end so soon!

So we have decided to be bold and spend our last night out and get up super early to return the boat. (We acknowledge that this may be a bad decision.)

So – we are heading to Trellis Bay – approximately 3-4 hours from the base. Stay tuned.

Tuesday Afternoon:

We’ve had a great day at Trellis Bay. We took a mooring and dinghied ashore for lunch at “Da Loose Mongoose” – a VERY laid back spot. And walked around the shops. There is an artist colony at this end of the island, so it was interesting to see the artists at work.

We spent the afternoon packing and cleaning so that we could jump off the boat when we arrived at base. We got the boat all ready to return her ship-shape.

Tuesday Night:

We rewarded ourselves with dinner at a restaurant on an island in the middle of the Bay – The Last Resort – which was full of other dinghies and even had live music (we met the musician earlier in the day because he came around to collect our $30 mooring fee).

Wednesday Morning (EARLY!):

It is 6 am, and we are setting off back to Road Town. We are the only boat on the water – very peaceful watching the sunrise.

But we turn the point and VERY windy with 3-4 foot swells. This may not be a relaxing ride.

Wednesday Mid-Morning:

I looked back and noticed the outboard on the dinghy was lop-sided. I mentioned to Frank, who turned white and said, “Oh no – if we hit a big wave, it will fall in the water.” (This would be very bad because we would have to purchase a new one.)

The waves were pretty bumpy so it wasn’t safe to get into the dinghy, which was darting all around, even when I tried to slow down. So we decided to make a detour to a little uncharted cove with less of a swell. We picked our way in carefully until the water settled a bit. I pulled the dinghy in and held for all I was worth, so Frank could maneuver aboard from a sitting position on the swim platform. He righted the engine and tied it off to secure it. Every now and then, big winds would come up, and Frank and the dinghy would bob all around, while I tried to very slowly circle so we didn’t wash up on the rocks. I was very relieved when Frank was safely back on the big boat. (In all the excitement, Frank also cut his arm so even has battle scars to show for our daring rescue at sea!)

We have no pictures from this part of our journey – for obvious reasons – all hands on deck!

Wednesday – 11 a.m. Sharp

We made it! We navigated our way into the Harbour right by two big cruise ships and to our dock, Frank’s arm bandaged from his heroics (I think the boat base people were impressed with our ingenuity). We finished our packing and jumped off – ready for our next adventure.