O Captain my Captain

Tortola

May 25, 2025

Hello from the islands! Rhianna and I were woken up around 2 am when a viciously windy storm blew through. For only less than 10 minutes it sounded like a train was going by, but somehow Lan slept through the whole thing!

We started getting our mishaps out of the way early, around 30 minutes later, when a car hit a telephone pole about a block away and knocked out our power (including our beloved AC). Thankfully it stayed cool enough to sleep through the morning, but we were definitely grateful to be checking out soon. 

After emerging from our room we chatted with our gracious host Yvonne, who apparently drove around at 2:30 in the morning looking for someone to fix the power! We also talked a bit with some other guests at the BnB, a couple who had more than a few sailing trips under their belts. They were able to give us some recommendations on places to go, which we would be thankful for later when Chris arrived and informed us he had no plan. 

After that we walked down to the Moorings to have breakfast, rent snorkels, and to check out the nearby French deli. Back at the room we packed up, bid adieu to our host, and went back to the Moorings to drop off our bags and get a taxi to a nearby beach. 

At the reception desk we were told to just leave our bags anywhere in the lobby which we thought was strange at first, but by the end of the day the whole lobby was full of luggage. The receptionist gave us some complimentary drink tickets as part of check in, but made sure to inform us that 9 am is a little early to start drinking and advised that we wait a while (we hadn't intended otherwise!). 

Next we found someone to call us a cab to the beach, and while on the phone with the driver she told us it would be about a 15 minute hike from the drop-off spot to get down to the beach. We told her that was fine with us, which seemed to surprise her quite a bit! After a 30 minute hunt for beach towels (the staff here operates under “Island time”, says Chris, which is also my excuse for writing this blog a whole day late), we hopped in our taxi and took a scenic drive through the mountains to get to the beach.

Our driver struggled a little to find the right spot, but eventually he did and we were off on foot. The “hike” turned out to be a 5 minute walk downhill, and suddenly we were at a breathtaking, secluded beach with stunning blue water. We had the whole place practically to ourselves! We marveled at the crystal clear azure water, the surrounding mountains and sparse homes with precarious stairs leading down to the beach, and played cards in the sand. We came back from a swim to find the cards scattered around the beach from the wind, but we made sure to gather them all up. 

We had arrived at 10 and told our driver to come back at 2, but (as most beach days go) after only an hour or so we decided we'd have him come back at 12:30 instead. It was HOT, we were dreaming of ham and cheese croissants we saw earlier at the deli, and somehow Rhianna and I ended up getting burnt despite reapplying sunscreen several times. We later decided the Panama Jack sunscreen we bought at the Moorings market was simply no good. Having a sunburn on day 1 before even embarking was not ideal! 

We hiked back up to our pickup spot, noting how easy it was, and our driver arrived promptly. Upon returning to Road Town we were robbed blind.

(Okay, I was being dramatic, but the taxi ride was a whooping $80 for a total of 20 minutes driving - $12 per person, each way, plus tip!)

Our driver dropped us off at a restaurant that ended up being closed, despite him and Google both telling us they were open, but thankfully we found a great spot a few blocks away. We ordered roti, a jerk chicken wrap, fish n’ chips, coconut shrimp, fresh lemonade and ting soda. Everything was amazing and we were so grateful for the delicious food after the long 2.5 hours we spent at the beach, and the island atmosphere was perfect. 

While sitting at the table, a large truck with a telephone pole held on with ratchet straps drove by. We laughed and joked that it was heading to replace the one that had been hit last night, which turned out to be true!

On the walk back towards the Moorings we spotted a gelato shop (!!!) and of course stopped for some. They had a pistachio gelato cake in the freezer that looked amazing, Rhianna hopes she can find one like it back home and I concur.  

On our walk we came across a sidewalk that had “watch your step” written every foot or so, it was pretty excessive. We had some fun taking videos of the sidewalk and panning over to one of us pretending to trip. 

We got back to the Moorings sweaty, sandy and full, and immediately jumped in the pool. Some of the property was without power so the bathrooms were dark, and without Wifi we had to unfortunately enjoy each other's company. We drank painkillers and waited for our fearless captain, Chris, to arrive from San Juan. 

After landing at Beef Island, Chris called to ask if we could rent him a snorkel which we had already done, so I felt that we were starting off in his good graces (a nice spot to be in, considering we'd be stuck on a boat with him!).

He arrived in typical Chris fashion, with too-long creamsicle orange cargo shorts, a purple shirt, green Crocs with socks and a red bucket hat. I thought they'd throw him out immediately but they gave him a free Rum Runner instead. Once settled he joined us in the pool chairs, but not before calamitously moving our heavy umbrellas into place to provide more shade, and doing the same for the people sitting near us. He moved with the air of someone who knew what they were doing, with none of the skill to match (*sigh*, Hannigans). 

He then disrupted the little peace left at the pool by doing his typical sideways cannonball into the water. Afterwards I helped the old man set up Venmo so that we could start a group to keep track of expenses. Once he realized he could enter any expense he wanted, he was on board and got up to speed quickly. He was requesting money from us in no time! (Oh how the tables have turned.)

We finally got the call that our boat was ready! We would be embarking on Unreel, not Mustard Mitt like we had hoped. We boarded with our belongings and immediately realized we couldn't figure out how to set up the saloon bed that was promised in the boat specs. After asking several people, one of the workers actually knew how to convert the table, which involved lifting it up off of its legs (why didn't we think of that?) and inserting shorter legs. Someone fetched shorter legs from another boat just before we found ours tucked away in an ottoman, but then we were still left with a low table with no cushion on top. Over the next couple of hours we tried adding several kinds of cushions from other boats, rearranging the existing cushions, and even begging for a whole mattress to throw on top. We kept delaying dinner in order to figure out the bed situation, but finally around 8 we were hangry enough to just order pizza to-go from one of the restaurants (since we couldn't get a table without a reservation). We ate mostly in silence, with occasional grumbling about the situation. 

Finally at almost 9 pm we were provided with the right sized cushion to make a fabulous bed for Lan! We were all pretty tired at this point and turned in 

- Kerry