Cane Garden Bay, Tortola
LIBERTAD
Paul Huntley
Mon 20 Apr 2009 22:28
So here we are in Cane Garden Bay, Tortola - none
of us had visited before so we thought we'd drop in and check the place
out...
We left Norman Island - the pirate island
yesterday all of us feeling the few too many rum punches the night before! After
a gentle saunter across the Sir Francis Drake Channel we dropped in quickly into
Sopers Hole to top up the boat's water supply. With that out the way we headed
across to Jost Van Dyke - Little Bay to be precise and revisited Cynthia in her
bar Harris' Place. We tried to anchor but the wind was getting up and we ended
up dragging a bit too much and Dad wasn't keen for Libertad to end up on the
rocks so we gave in and went for the soft option of mooring! A lazy afternoon of
book reading, DVD watching and swimming (along with Ewan spotting 2 turtles -
that swiftly disapeared into the depths when we jumped in with snorkels on to
get a better look - typical!! ) we headed ashore in a slightly deflated Doris
(her bow has a leak...) and investigated the Jost Van Dyke 'Happy Hour' - which
seemed to be pretty non-existent... At the second bar we tried - Cynthia
was nowhere to be found...(complete with hundreds of old t-shirts hanging from
the ceiling) we came across a self-service bar....was a bit odd just to go
behind this bar and help ourselves from their fridges - bit of a novelty to us
westerners I think! Dinner was expertly cooked by the captain himself,
lasagne with homemade garlic bread - thanks Dad! After a few episodes of Faulty
Towers it was time for bed - o what an exciting / hard life we live out here
onboard Libertad!
This morning we were up at the crack of sparrows
and decided to go for a walk around to Great Bay before the sun got too hot and
we forgot how to use our legs - honestly walking from the galley to the cockpit
seems to be enough these days! Half an hour later we arrived and attempted to
find the bakery (Cynthia's recommendation) for a spot of brekkie or a loaf of
bread for lunch. We found the bakery although the staff were less than keen to
sell us anything "come back in an hour for bread" was their gruff reply! After a
surveillance of the menu handily printed and stuck on the wall, Dad ordered
a bacon and egg sarnie....After what can only be described as a look of surprise
/ disgust / outrage we were told that this would not be possible, only in not so
many words - a curt "no" seemed to suffice with no explanation...Dad decided to
stick to a juice - he's watching his figure so i'm told! I'm sure a training
course on Customer Service or Business Accumen would not go amiss! Once back in
Little Bay after this adventure we had a fry up (diet apparantly gone out the
window eh Dad?!) and set off for our next destination.
We had a good sail across to Cane Garden Bay - it's
all a bit more civilised here on the mainland! We headed ashore, and as I got
off Doris (the dinghy) I managed to fall though the jetty - a plank was missing!
Ended up with a few grazes but could have been a lot worse - imagine it at
night, so dangerous but typical Caribbean! Once ashore we investigated the small
town and found a suitable bar for a drink. A spot of shopping was called for and
leaving the supermarket it seems I managed to pick up someone else's shopping
bag that was left at the end of the conveyor...once back on board we discovered
we had aquired an extra lettuce, a box of cooked chicken and two red snapper! So
someone is going hungry tonight without their shopping! But for us definately
the catch of the day!
Right so I thinks that's everything up til now -
looking forward to our novelty dinner!
Sarah.
PS The boat's email address is
[boatname.at.mailasail.com] - don't want to write it all in so we avoid the
spam!
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