BVIs - "The Conclusion of Our Vaca"

After spending 3 glorious days on the island of Virgin Gorda, we left mid-morning on Saturday, December 6th and made our way out of the harbour at Bitter End. As soon as we entered the Sir Francis Drake Channel, Jimmy and Amanda put up the sails and away we went - straight down the channel with the wind at our back the whole way! We sailed about 4 hours and passed by some of the places we had visited over the week. Lastly, we sailed along the southern coast of Tortola, past the village of Road Town and returned to West End. Here we claimed one of the mooring buoys in the harbour and spent the night.

Sunday morning kept us busy with packing up, tidying our cabin and preparing our paperwork to depart the BVIs. John and Jimmy went ashore in the zodiac to purchase our tickets for the ferry and Amanda and I enjoyed the last of our ‘pink’ conversations while we cleaned up the galley. When the ‘boys’ came back, we had breakfast, made our Xmas video for the Grant/Hamre clan et al and laughed the morning away.

When the time came for us to board the ferry, Jimmy and Amanda took us in the zodiac and did a ‘drive-by’, dropping us off at the ferry dock. We hugged each other hard and they shoved away from the dock leaving us to wait for the ferry. They returned to their boat, lifted the zodiac and unhooked from the mooring. In turn, John and I boarded the passenger ferry and climbed onto the top deck – from here, we could see Jimmy and Amanda preparing for their departure. And, as the ferry departed the dock, Jimmy and Amanda followed in the wake of the ferry:

We waved till the boat was a wee speck in the distance and I’m sure I could see them waving back – Amanda on the bow and Jimmy at the helm!

It wasn’t long before the ferry was ‘on plane’. By then, Jimmy and Amanda had rounded the corner of the island to head back towards the village of Road Town. The ferry powered its’ way over the 20+ miles in 40 short minutes to St. Thomas. We arrived at the port, passed through US Immigration and Customs, caught a van-type taxi and made our way to the airport to catch our Cape Air flight back to Puerto Rico. The next two flights to Houston and then back to Harlingen were uneventful. It felt funny to come ‘home’ from vacation to South Padre Island instead of Kingston – back to Texas instead of Ontario – first time we’ve ever done that!

It was wonderful to be with Jimmy and Amanda and, in the end, it was sad to leave them. Yes, it was ‘a trip of a lifetime’ but, more than that, the week together was incredibly memorable – it was jam-packed full of quality time. And, even though it was sad to leave them, I knew when they rounded that corner, they were already on their next adventure… and so were we…