BVI Travel Report, May 26 Day 2
Awakening to birds before dawn, sunlight creeping over the mountain, watching the opposite cliff awash in rescinding shadows fought back by the climbing sun straining to gain control over the clouds in the sky...in paradise. Can it get any better? oh yes, the best is yet to come....
We are early risers and I am the earliest. I knew this might be a problem the first morning because I discovered the restaurant would not open till 7:30 and Debra needs coffee quickly. Thankfully the late night on the beach kept her slumbering sweetly while I explored the beach and resort and took a quick swim. Coffee was then secured and delivered to sleeping beauty. Coffee by the beach is pleasant to say the least. And the least I say about the "pastries" for the continental breakfast at Lambert, the better.
We had to be in Road Town between 9 and 12 to take care of the car rental contract. We decided to do it early and begin our exploration of the island since we were not supposed to arrive at our villa till 3. So off we go just before 9. Back to East End and then on to Road Town along the Coast road making note of the various bareboat operations and other significant landmarks learned from the Traveltalkonline board. East End and around the community college has more goats than any area I decided. And Sunday must be livestock day on the roads!
Rental agreement done without a hitch. But here is a tip I found:
If you choose to decline the insurance and go with that provided by your credit card, most of the rentals will then get a pre-authorization of $2000 to cover themselves. If you get the insurance, that pre-authorization can be as little as $0, depending upon the deductible......I get nervous when someone hits my card like that so we elected to go with some local insurance. Also, I just figured the hassles would be so much less if something were to happen.....
A drive thru Road Town and a quick tour to gain some familiarity revealed a lot of closed shops on Sunday. Plenty of grocery shopping available though at RiteWay, Bobbys, KMarks, SupaValu, etc. We decided to head to West End and on we went. A quick tour of Frenchman's Cay and Soper's Hole and then off to Jolly Roger for a late brunch. We were hoping to catch some of the Wooden Boat regatta but alas, we did manage to see some gorgeous wood ships though as they came into Sopers Hole. 
I scanned every vessel I could looking for a TTOL pennant but found none. A wonderful brunch and we discussed our next jaunt---to Cane Garden Bay but which way? Judgement overtook curiousity and we decided upon the Zions Hill Road since it was clearly marked. The old man and his burro descending caused a bit of traffic struggles for a minute but we were sitting right by a church in full glory so the time was enjoyed immensely.
Onward we drove and came to Long Bay. We decided to detour to Smugglers for a possible dip and drink. Now this is an interesting road. No problem for us--felt like Tennessee--but made me wonder how the heck they ever got that Lincoln down there......Smugglers was crowded, well as opposed to my expectation, but it was a holiday weekend and the Music Festival was going.... We decided to move on, not yet comfortable with the laxity of locks and not yet having shed the paranoia of theft. The previously mentioned holiday and festival increased our sensitivity a bit. Later, as life on the island became normal, we became completely comfortable. I was amazed at the extremely limited court cases listed in The Beacon, which by the way comes out on Thursday and is a must read.
Back through Long Bay, Little Apple Bay and a quick stop to check Bomba's where we planned to return for the Full Moon party later. Our guess was the party was mostly going to spill over into the road and parking more than anywhere because of the size of the shack and the anticipated crowd from the Music festival and holiday.
On to Carrot Bay and notations of Shell museum location and Palms Delight and then to Cane Garden Bay as the music festival was cranking up. I had seen many pictures of this beautiful bay and the ships anchored but none was even close to what we saw as we approached from the East.
The bay was packed with vessels! It was an awesome sight and quite an experience for our first view to have been switching up the hill from Carrot Bay and its desertion to suddenly find this sprawling beach covered with people and a turquoise bay spotted with sticks stuck on planks. Lots of traffic as people were going to the festival. We didn't come for the crowds so we pressed on towards Brewers Bay.
The road on the east end of Cane Garden Bay has recently been overpaved with asphalt! This was a change and I wondered how slick this thing will get during a hard rain after awhile when the oil accumulates.
We decided to head into Brewer's Bay from the East side and find the location of our house so we kept to the Ridge road and noted Rudy's, the road to Sage Mtn, Skyworld and came to Cool Breeze bar and hung the left with a double horn blow.
The view of Brewer's Bay is gorgeous as you descend.
We had to go by the house and down some and then turn around to come back up the hill to access the driveway. No way was I backing down that thing first time! First though, I decided to act like a belonger (local term for native Tortolans) and just stop the jeep on the road/hillside and let Debra check to see if it was alright to be there yet. She descended the drive and then returned with more teeth than she left! She hurriedly told me to go turn around and get back there....she would wait. I knew we had a hit!
What a place! Superbly situated and designed for its site. And wonderfully equipped! Patsy was still there cleaning (we were early of course) but told us to unload our baggage and come back later. We decided to go to the grocery while she finished.
Back to Road Town via Huntums Ghut road and after a bit of wandering we found our way to RiteWay where we stocked up on food and essentials.
ALERT---RiteWay does not sell Carib!!! aaaaaugh! No one told me about this....I was so looking forward to sampling this beer. TICO and Road Town Wholesaler were closed but it turns out TICO does not sell Carib either.
After negotiating with the large bull walking down the middle of the coast road near the Moorings dock, we went looking for Bobby's Market. Despite precise instructions and information, we could not locate it!
ALERT--Bobby's only has a sign on the roof, three stories up! There is nothing at ground level to locate this store. When I finally did find it three days later, it was because I was sitting at the gas station and happened to see the sign atop the building.
Anyway, fully stocked with necessities, we returned to the house. A pool plunge, a visit to Brewers Bay and Nicoles for reconnaissance, the first batch of Painkillers, the next batch of Painkillers, the continuing batches.....etc and dinner on the grill at the house and we decided why bother with the drive to Bomba's to celebrate. We were doing just fine right there. And so day 2 dropped over us with a wonderful fog of delirium inspired by the view, the experience and oh yeah, I think those painkillers played a part.....
BVI Travel Report, May 27 Day 3, Memorial Day
Now this is the way to awaken. Gorgeous views with coffee ready thanks to the fantastic kitchen. Bloody Marys with breakfast and checking the boats in the bay with binoculars. (The only thing we discovered our house needed was a telescope, both for the stars and boats.)
We had read that seldom were there any boats moored in Brewers because of the reef. Well there were 3 large cats from Voyage Charter, one motor yacht, one smaller Moorings vessel and a couple other boats that I don't recall immediately. The large cats, motor yacht and Moorings boat were all on the east side of the bay. A couple others were on the west side closer to Nicoles. They made a pretty sight and each day we tracked the boats in and out of the bay. Boy I sure do like those travel binoculars!!
On to the beach for a snorkel and limmin! Nicoles has very comfortable chairs for $3 so we grabbed a couple and parked our carcasses on the beach. Good snorkeling on the west side of the bay revealed some very interesting corals, fish and sea turtles. Less than 20 people at the beach at any time during the day. Wonderful Pina Coladas at Nicoles. We went looking for a late lunch and discovered that most places were in between lunch and dinner serving. So we decided upon a late afternoon trip to Road Town, which was very convenient to our location. We grabbed some appetizers at Pusser's. We highly recommend the calamari, and that is really something because Debra is not a big calamari fan but sure did like Pussers. It was then off to Sunny Carribe for some hot sauce and seasoning and some fish from the grocery for dinner and back to the house for the evening dip, painkillers, dinner on the deck and wine (we like these wine prices!) and the boat watching! This became the routine, and a pleasant one it is.
Things I would do differently.
Go to Bobby's instead of RiteWay. Always. We should have switched our allegiance earlier.
On to Days 4-6
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