Posts tagged: British Virgin Islands

still dying. hurry up and message me back. lol.”

It’s really fun to mess with your friends when you send them a message like that when they’re expecting you to spend the next two years in the Mediterranean.  This is this exchange I had with my good friend Kim from Lahowind when I let the news spill to her that we were in fact turning around and eventually making our way back to Florida.  As you can see, we were both excited at the prospect of seeing each other again so soon.

I won’t lie when I say that part of our schedule lately has been based on when we could meet up with our friends Kim and Jereme.  They were already entertaining family, but I was going to be damned if we were so close to each other and I missed out on a meeting.  With Matt’s “We need to get back to Florida to begin work on the new boat ASAP” mind frame, I knew that any chance I was given with Kim and Jereme, I had to snatch it.  So when they told us they’d be in Virgin Gorda on Sunday, we said “We’ll be there”.

Leaving St. Martin yesterday after making yet one more quick stop to Island Water World, we were on our way to the Virgin Islands in perfect conditions.  15-20 knot winds on the back quarter, sun shinning.  I’m not going to hide it from you….it was a perfect day to lay out on deck while getting rid of tan lines and sipping on the cheap gin we had just purchased at one of the mega marts in St.Maarten.

The evening and night went quite smoothly as far as sailing goes although it was quite nice except for the fact that there were actually boats to watch out for which we hadn’t seen since our sail from Lanzarote to Gran Canaria.  Moving along quite swiftly we actually had to slow ourselves down so we wouldn’t arrive before sunrise, and Matt woke me even a few hours early for my 8 am shift since he could barley keep his eyes open once it became light out.  Part of his vampire syndrome where he can only be active when it’s dark out.

Having stayed up to date on Kim’s blog with the little internet we were eventually pulling in Simpson Bay, I knew that Prickly Pear had spots to anchor, and even though Laho was going to try and take a spot near Saba Rock that night, we should still be in dinghy distance from each other.  Pulling into Gorda Sound just after 9 am, we dropped anchor in a near empty spot and fell heavily back into sleep until the early afternoon.  From there we tidy’d up a bit and swam in the beautiful teal waters until we were able to reach Kim and Jereme on the radio.  They had been coming from another spot in the BVI’s and we weren’t always in easy connection.

When I did finally reach Kim she told me they were running a little behind schedule and should be getting to Virgin Gorda around 5:30.  Since they had planned on making a delicious dinner for us on their boat but were apparently a sweaty mess and needed to clean up before we visited, we had no trouble pushing back our original 6:00 dinner reservation to 7 while they cleaned up and prepped the boat for us.

When we got the call on the VHF that everything was ready, we loaded ourselves into the dink along with a full cooler and a gin & tonic in my hands as we went to greet our long lost friends.  After getting easily lost in the dark anchorage but finding them surprisingly easily considering all the anchor lights shinning against the black sky, we climbed aboard to lots of hugs and excited chatter.  Kim led me below to watch as she prepped our baby back ribs and fed me a Laho dark & stormy that I admittedly hadn’t stopped bugging her aobut since she first blogged about it on her site.  Those liquids mixed in that cute glass?  How should I have been able to resist?

When dinner was served it was nothing short of amazing and the buffet style Kim had set up below deck worked out perfect for the six of us to grab plates and fill them with food at our leisure.  Oh that’s right, I forgot to mention the cousins!  Jereme’s cousin Lindsay and her husband Keith were visiting at the same time as us.  I do remember that they were extremely cool people that had extremely cool stories to tell, but I can’t remember all of it and I’ll tell you why in just a sec.

I have a condtion and it seems to be that I’ve become a bit of a lightweight lately.  The gin & tonic I brought over with me?  One drink down.  The margarita that Kim made me with the tasty tequila she first let me sample in Bimini?  Two drinks down.  (Or should I say three by the strength Kim mixed it at, haha).  The delicious Dark & Stormy?  I was O-U-T.

Ok, maybe not like, passed out right away, but I definitely wasn’t completely with it.  I think I snapped a few photos of everyone enjoying themselves in the cockpit and may have commandeered one of our Canary Island beers from Matt.  I was still enough with it to pose for a few photos with Kim which I looked surprisingly sober for.  I am a little ashamed that my first day back with one of my good friends and I was not quite myself 60 minutes in….but I blame that on Matt for not drinking with me enough in the Canary Islands or having nightly sundowners on our passage.  Like that would have been a possibility anyway in the not-so-great conditions we suffered in for 2,200 miles.

Photo courtesy of Lahowind

So, even if I don’t remember every detail that happened, I do remember enough to know that I had a great time that night.  And the pictures prove that as well.  I had a least a little time to connect with Kim again while her margarita was working it’s way through my system and catch up on our last 10 months apart.

We’ve both traveled so far and experienced so much.  Yet the universe found a way in it’s heart to bring us back together.  A set of friends who’s bond was immediate and strong and has continued over moths apart and thousands of miles in distance.  I can easily say that I love this couple with all my heart and visiting them again, especially after the loneliness that followed me through the Atlantic Island of Europe, was enough to fill my soul and last me for months to come.  Plus these are the few people I know that would let fall asleep in a temporary tequila/rum coma on their coach roof, wake up with enough energy to make one joke about boobs before getting shoved into a dinghy to say good-bye, and still want to talk to me the next day.