Blogs from Tortola, British Virgin Islands, Central America Caribbean - page 3

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Ok so im currently at Home in the BVI (thats British Virgin Islnds for those that dont know) so im technically not traveling at the moment. However, I just returned from St Vincent for 5 weeks and St Lucia for 9 days. Im home until August 11th when i'll be traveling to my favourate place in the whole world (after home sweet home of course) NEW YORK CITY!!!!!!!!! I spend about 2 - 5 months there every year...so i guess its more my home than the BVI is since i spend more time there. My Island is currently celebrating our yearly carnival so i am pretty much never home!! Here are some pics of the carnival so far!! Enjoy!! ... read more
2 of my band members!
Photo 3
In Virgin Gorda


Hi, everyone. We are anchored in Fat Hog's Bay, Tortola, British Virgin Islands. We've been in the BVIs a little over a week and have once again enjoyed our stay here. This is my 4th visit (Jimmy's 5th) to the BVIs. Jimmy has been diving at 3 different sites here this past week, plus a lot of snorkeling. We ran into our friends Dave and Michelle on s/v Daniell Storey whom we haven't seen since last August, so it has been fun catching up with friends. In January we had friends visit from Fort Worth. They met us in Puerto Rico. We sailed with them to Vieques, St. Croix, Culebra, and then back to Puerto Rico. This was our first visit to St. Croix. We attempted to sail to St. Croix last year, but made a ... read more
Soper's Hole, BVIs


One area in the BVIs that we were excited to explore was Cane Garden Bay on the western end of Tortola. Unfortunately we had skipped this anchorage on our trip 10 years ago and we wanted to make sure to visit it this time. Cane Garden Bay, as the name implies, was a major port for the sugar cane industry. In fact there is the still a working rum distillery in Cane Garden Bay which has been in the Callwood family since the 1800’s. It is the longest running distillery in the Caribbean and definitely worth a stop. Seriously, we couldn’t call ourselves the Rum Runners if we didn’t go to a rum distillery and pick up a barrel or two (okay…just kidding, not a barrel but at least a few bottles of rum). When we ... read more
Dinghy Row
Callwood Rum Distillary
Rum  for the Rum Runners


We decided to cross the Sir Francis Drake Channel into the territorial waters of the British Virgin Islands, a whopping 2 miles away from St. John. Our first stop was Soper’s Hole on Tortola to clear customs and visit Pusser’s Landing. Pusser’s Landing used to be the base for sunsail charter boats and has a great restaurant, bar, and many fun shops to explore. It is amazing that we were here 10 years ago, seems like ancient history. Jay and I had just started dating, about 2 months into our relationship, when we decided to charter a boat together in the BVIs. Crazy, right?!?! It certainly was one of those trips that was either going to make us or break us. My mom specifically said as she dropped us off at the airport, “When you two ... read more
Pusser's Landing


Happy 2008 to you all! To round out 2007, the Fox family set sail in the Caribbean for a 10-day adventure that proved to be a true vacation and offered some quality family time. We left Denver the day after Christmas leaving behind a foot of snow and setting our sights to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We only had one full day to really enjoy Puerto Rico, so we woke up early to walk the streets of Old San Juan. Old fortification walls line the city’s edge and a few forts offer incredible views of the ocean and the city, as well as insights into the city's history. We did not know it yet, but we were settling into “island time”- meaning time to slow down! Being there when the Puerto Ricans were on break for ... read more
Mama and yummy baked goods
beautiful door in Old San Juan
Walking around the outside of the fortified walls


The pace in Hampton was a tad more frantic than Deltaville. The boats for the 1500 were arriving every day and each no doubt had many things to accomplish. We arranged for our inspection for Monday morning as we wanted as much time as possible to rectify any shortcomings. Rick showed up bright and early the next morning and we went through the list point by point. Well it seems the frantic activity over the past 7 weeks paid off because except for a few minor points, we were ready to go. One thing he didn’t check though and I guess he has to accept some things as presented, was that our newly installed SSB radio was not set up to send on the required frequency for the rally. To make it work, the radio still ... read more
Sessions
The start
Gulf Stream


I arrived late last night on my home for the next 80 days of sailing - Ocean Star. It was a bit of a monumental journey via car, then three plane trips, a taxi, a ferry and last of all a small boat to arrive exhausted but happy to be at my final destination: the British Virgin Islands. Boat living is somewhat more confined than living at home; I am in a cabin with one other staff member. The room itself is about 2.5m by 2m, consists of two bunks and a couple of small portholes out onto the deck. Storage space is at a premium with my clothes tucked away under my bed and my books and the like stuffed down one side of the mattress. But the slightly cramped living quarters are more than ... read more
Ocean Star 2
The dock - cheerful paintwork!


Writing a quick blog about my last stay on Tortola, my favorite island in the BVI/VI. I stayed at Fort Recovery this past may with my son and wife. The place is fascinating and sits right on it's own private beach. There is a 17th Century Dutch Fort right smack in the middle of the resort, which is ENORMOUS and is the oldest standing Fort in the Caribbean. We were amazed how it was so perfect and fared so well throughout the centuries. We rented a 2bdr new villa which was immaculately clean, of great taste, warm Caribbean colors, had a lot of tribal and African artifact decor, many prints of local artwork and some originals, designer sheets, a well equipped kitchen, large bathroom, huge living room with cable television and powerful a/c and fan. ... read more


Hello families and friends, Well, we thought we had arrived, but there was one more adventure left! We delivered the great San Juan boat one leg further to the beautiful island of Virgin Gorda. What a gorgeous trip, calmer seas and interesting islands. We picked up the owner and his family, after customs and immigration again, and headed over to Tortola, where we stuffed our gear in our bags and headed to the Tortola airport in a taxi. There a Bell helicopter was waiting to take us back to San Juan Puerto Rico airport. It was great to see the islands that we had just boated through, and to see all those nasty reefs that we were careful to avoid. At this writing, we are cooling our jets at the Atlanta airport, awaiting our flight to ... read more




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