Warning: Dave has informed me that this post is WAY too long. I couldn't help myself.
Last week we went on the most amazing trip! I really had no expectations for this trip, I knew it would be fun, but other than that I was just waiting to see what it would be like. It was absolutely incredible! We went to the Virgin Islands, flying into St. Thomas, and with four couples: Us, the Kirks and Sorensen's (neighbors), and the Clements (a couple from Dave's Hawaii tour last year) we rented a catamaran. We love these couples, and were excited to travel with them. We had a skipper, who was awesome! He is a marine biologist, so he was constantly teaching us, and he was born in the islands, so he knows them inside and out. He is an American, and 34, so in the same age group as all four couples. His name is Daniel, (but I'll just call him Skippy) and I would totally recommend using him as a skipper if you ever do a trip like this, which I think anyone who likes to have fun should! My wonderful husband spent hours and hours researching and planning this trip for us, and found us the cheapest yet nicest boat that worked perfectly. There are four bedrooms and two bathrooms, and a nice big Galley (kitchen and dining area). Our boat had a big trampoline on the front where we spent a lot of time. And then there are two single cabins at the front of the boat, which only really work for a small person. We spent a week down in the Virgin Islands, where we encountered the very best snorkeling I have EVER seen, clear water, sandy beaches, desert islands, natural wonders, good times with friends, and crazy adventures. I loved every second of it, as my husband describes me he says I had a smile on my face through almost the entire trip. I LOVED IT! I just kept looking around me saying, "Who does this?"
Here we are as we sailed out of Frenchtown bay in St. Thomas.
We learned on our way out of the bay that if you jump at the same time the boat hits a wave, you will bounce up high like when someone bounces you on a trampoline. We did this everyday when we traveled, it was so fun! Dave and I were a little bit conservative in our jumping, we didn't want to go overboard.
Our skipper is an excellent free-diver. He can stay underwater for up to 2 minutes. Dave and I went out in the dingy and he jumped in with the metal lobster snare (the metal stick thing in the picture) a few minutes later he swam over to the boat and threw a giant lobster in at my feet. I screamed (I seemed to scream a lot on this trip) and moved to the very edge as far away from the lobster as I could. He got two more lobsters, each about 2 feet long, with HUGE legs and antennae. You can see how big the lobster are if you compare them to the oar, pretty big huh?
Our lobster feast. We were pretty much full already from the legs, but aren't those tails beautiful. We figure it was a few hundred dollars worth of lobster.... Thanks Skippy!
It is jelly fish season down in the Caribbean. These things were everywhere. These jellies are nice, they don't sting really. They have a really pretty purple tone to them which you can't really see in the picture. They are beautiful and graceful as they move. Frequently we would swim through herds of jellies, and other times we would be treading water and whack something with your hand- then you'd look around and realize you were alone, and you must have whacked a jelly fish.
I wish I had an underwater digital camera. I wish I had pictures of the snorkeling we did. We spent a lot of time in the water. The second day we were on the boat, our Skipper went diving for lobster again. He took me with him this time. He told me we would either see a shark or lobsters, but not both because the sharks eat the lobsters. He found a nurse shark sleeping under a rock, and pulled on his tail. It was around 8 feet long and 300 pounds. After he pulled on him, the shark swam straight towards me. I screamed... again! It was pretty cool though. We actually did find lobster too. The shark hadn't eaten them all. Skippy caught three more lobsters.
We snorkeled at Norman Island which is the island where Robert Louis Stevenson got his inspiration for the book "Treasure Island." There are three big caves there that we snorkeled through. Skippy told us that they actually did find treasure in these caves, and that there is still a lot of treasure hidden on this island. I wish I knew how to find it! We packed granola bars to feed the fish, and as soon as you broke some off, you would be surrounded by hundreds of fish. It was so cool!
Skippy took us to a place that he frequently sees octopus. Carrie and I got up early to snorkel with him and look for the octopus. We didn't see any, but in the process of looking we got a personalized tour of all the fish and sea life, and held all kinds of shrimp, cucumbers, urchins, starfish, and conche shells. He would dive to the bottom, pick up some rocks, pull out what he found and bring it up to the surface to teach us about it and let us hold it. We loved it! He also showed us the feather duster anenomes like in Finding Nemo where if you tickle them, they disappear into a little hole. I had fun playing with them.
We went to a place called "The Indians" I felt like I was watching the Discovery Channel. It was at least 50 ft deep of a straight down wall chuck full of the most colorful beautiful coral, and lots of tiny fish. It looked like an aquarium because a lot of the fish were very small and the coral was unbelievable. You could see so far down, I really wish I had pictures of this place... underwater. Here is a picture of what is above the water.
The last day we slept right out from Honeymoon Beach. Dave and I woke up early in the morning and took the dingy over to the beach for a little romantic swim. We had scarcely gotten in the water when Dave said, "Is that a Sting Ray?" Sure enough, there were a few BIG sting rays swimming around. They were so beautiful.
We spent a day at Sandy Cay(pronounced Key) It's a gorgeous tiny island in the middle of a bunch of other islands with beautiful white sand and absolutely crystal clear water. We played Ultimate Frisbee (it was so fun, but more physical activity than any of us were used to) and Beach Nascar and had a great time!
Our Beach Nascar track (made by Skippy pulling me around by my feet... my bum made a nice little track) Here is how you play: Make the track nice and deep, and add as many obstacles as you can think of- bridges, pits, jumps, underpasses, etc. Everyone needs a nut, or something small and round. You get one flick with your fingernail per turn. You get one mulligan per game. If you flick your nut outside the track, your nut must be returned to it's previous location. You can "jump" the track, if you dare, meaning you can skip some dangerous obstacles by jumping over a corner. If you are stuck in a pit, you can move your nut backwards to a desired location, but that counts as one turn. After completing the first lap whoever is in last place gets two flicks. This is designed to help the losers come back, but in our case it didn't help. Two laps and the game is over.. and Dave won!
Me at Sandy Cay
We ate lunch one day at a place called Willy T's It is an old boat in the middle of a bay that they turned into a restaurant. They encourage you to jump off the back of their boat, so of course I did!
Dave isn't a jumper, but he lost a bet, so he had to jump with me. This was actually my third time.
Right before I hit the water.
Spencer wanted to jump in on top of the 3 foot Barracuda swimming around, he accidentally jumped on a seagull which popped up a few minutes after him. We went fishing right after lunch, and Spencer caught a Yellow-tail Snapper. He also caught a seagull. I had to tease him about his animal cruelty. Here is Skippy unhooking the bird.
We made a long trek up to Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands. There is a place up there called "The Baths" which is made up of gigantic, house sized boulders all stacked up on each other and then carved out by the ocean. It really makes you wonder how it all happened! Our Skipper planned it so we would be at the Baths at 6:00 am before any other tourists were there. He even made us breakfast that morning. Sure enough, we didn't see any tourists until we were done, and Skippy's knowledge of this place enhanced the experience as he showed us which rocks to swim under, jump off of, and climb up to see the coolest things.
They call it the Baths because it was a frequent stop for the slave ships from Africa to bathe the slaves that had been strapped down for the entire trip and clean them up for auction. It is also a very common place for photo shoots. You probably have seen them in magazines and you didn't even know it. It was an absolutely AMAZING place, and the whole time I felt frustrated in knowing that pictures wouldn't do this place any justice. Nonetheless, I will post a ton of pictures of it.
Here is our group picture at the Baths
This is the most famous photographed place at the Baths.
This picture was taken after a REALLY dangerous climb up here, and I spent most of my time up here at the top hyperventilating because I was worried people were going to fall.
This looks like a nice cave, but the coolest part is that it is a cave of a huge rock that is stacked up on a bunch of other huge rocks.
This picture gives a little bit of perspective of how big these boulders are.
This was pretty fun. While sailing at full speed, we would jump off the front of the boat and try to catch this rope. We would drag there until we got tired and then let go and hope we caught the ladder. I really didn't do it that many times, I got a lot of salt water up my nose in the process and my shorts were falling off too. It's probably not the safest thing to do, our skipper had a nice scar on his head from doing this
Here we are at beautiful Trunk Bay on St. John. Dave read that going to the Caribbean and not seeing Trunk Bay was like going to Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower. So we went. It was beautiful. We saw a lot of other beautiful beaches, but this was nice too. We felt bad for all the people there who were stuck on the same island for their trip and didn't see all the incredible sites we did. I don't think I could ever stay just on an island down there now. We loved going everywhere and not seeing any other tourists!
Here is Dave sitting in the water at Trunk Bay with our boat in the background.
We only saw real rain once. We figured it was as good as a shower.
We went out to lunch once and out to dinner once. I wish we wouldn't have. It was way cheaper and easier to eat on the boat, and honestly the food was better. We had a great time cooking on the boat. But here we are heading to our night on the town in Cruz Bay on St. John. We would fit all 9 of us on the dingy... notice Skippy sitting on the motor. What a good sport!
We were given a bottle of Cruzan Rum as a welcome gift. Since none of us drink we thought it would be a good trade, so we carried the Rum around with us in case we needed something from another boat. Skippy informed us that Rum is cheaper than water in these islands, and no one would trade anything valuable for this bottle. We kept it in the dingy just in case. Luckily, Skip didn't drink either... Phew.
These Iguanas were everywhere
Our course. You'll have to click on it to really see it.
