BVI 1994
The Fantasea Odyssey
This was the first of our sailing trips, so I did a fairly extensive journal. My sailing partner is a co-worker, Kevin. He and I both have quite a few years of sailing experience, Kevin in England and the US East Coast, and me in San Diego.
I did a real wordy journal for this one, but not too many photos. The other trip journals will be less wordy with more pics.
WEDNESDAY, 3 Aug
Today starts vacation. This will be a really great one, a 10-day bareboat charter of a 45' sailboat from The Moorings, in Tortola, BVI. We're flying from Denver to St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, then taking one of the inter-island ferries to Tortola. It'll take us 2 days to get there, as we have to overnight in Baltimore (we were flying US Airways).
Today was spent packing, doing laundry, and all that other stuff. I took my 2 cats over to my brother's house, where they could visit with their buds, my brother's dog and cat.
We arrived at the Red Roof Inn in Baltimore at around 11:00 PM, where we checked in and asked for a 4:30 AM wakeup call and a cab for 5:15, for our 6:35 AM flight.
THURSDAY, 4 Aug
We got our wakeup calls right on time, so I dragged myself out of bed after only a few hours' sleep to get ready for the next leg. Just a few minutes after the wakeup call, the phone rang again. This time, it was Kevin. He had decided to check the tickets, and discovered that the flight was at 8:20 AM instead of 6:35. I think 635 was the flight number. Well, we cancelled the cab, set another wakeup call, and went back to bed for another few winks.
We made our flight on time, a direct flight to St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. We arrived a little over 4 hours later, on time, at about 12:20 PM, and took a cab to the ferry dock for the ride to Road Harbour, Tortola. When we arrived at the ferry dock, the taxi was immediately surrounded by 5-6 people, all hawking ferry service. There are really only two ferry services, Smith Ferry and Native Sons. I could see the desks inside the terminal. At the time, I thought they were wanting to row us across, or something. But, it turns out they were only hawking for the regular ferry services.
The Smith Ferry runs blue/white boats, and Native Sons green/white. We could see that Smith had a ferry scheduled for a 2:30 PM departure, and the next Native Sons was for 2:45, so we chose Smith and sat down to wait. The ferry was already at the dock. It was a large double-decker with an open top deck and an enclosed lower deck. While we were waiting, the Native Sons boat docked, loaded, and departed. At around 2:40, Kevin went in to ask the woman at the Smith counter where their 2:30 ferry was going to depart. Her response was, "As soon as I find my Captain and finish beating him about the head.". So, we waited. One of the Native Sons crew helpfully told us we'd be lucky if we left before 4:00 PM.
He was almost right. The Captain finally showed up, and we departed around 3:40 PM. The ride on this boat was about 45 minutes. We rode up top. Just outside the harbor at Charlotte Amalie (St. Thomas), we saw a really huge sea turtle surface just alonside the boat, then dive again. It looked like it must have been at least 5' across. We didn't get a chance for a picture, though.
Our first stop was the Customs house at West End, Tortola. We got off the boat, checked in through Customs and Immigration, then got back on the boat for the rest of the ride to Road Harbour.
When we got into Roadtown, we took a taxi to the Mariner Inn, owned by The Moorings and at the marina, where we had rooms for the night. When we checked in, they gave us a card for a complimentary rum punch for each one on the crew. That meant we actually got 4 chits. The rest of our crew, Cindy and Debbie, would not arrive until Saturday evening. Kevin and I didn't let the chits go to waste, however.
After getting settled, we went out walking, looking for the grocery store where we could buy groceries for the boat. We turned left, however, instead of right (where the grocery was about 100 yards away). We didn't find that out until later. We wound up walking into town (a mile or so), but at least our little trek had brought us to Pusser's Outpost, which was one of the must-dos on our list.
Pusser's is the company that did the rum the Royal Navy gave their sailors for over 300 years. They now have a number of stores and resorts throughout the British Virgin Islands. (A couple of years after this trip, I found a Pusser's Outpost in Munich, Germany. They also have a couple on the US East Coast - Charleston, South Carolina, and Annapolis, Maryland.). They are famous for their "Painkiller" rum drink, made with orange juice, pineapple juice, cream of coconut, and Pusser's Rum - either 2, 3, or 4 oz. of rum.
When we got to Pusser's Outpost, we found we were too early for the 5-cent beer night (Tuesday nights), so we had to do with Painkillers (No. 3), and a fish & chips dinner. It was really great. After dinner, it was back to the hotel and bed.
FRIDAY, 5 Aug
Every charter starts with a Skipper's Briefing. This is at about 9:15 AM the morning you start the charter, and covers dos and don'ts, where we can resupply with fuel and water, etc. After the Briefing, we went to the "boat show". I thought it was going to be some kind of a sales pitch, but instead it was a walk-through of the boat and its equipment - where everything was and how it worked. Very professional. After the boat show, you are free to take off. Our boat was named the Fantasea. It was a Moorings 445, a 45' Beneteau Oceana which is custom-built for The Moorings. It is a beautiful boat, and extremely well laid out.
The boat had 3 berths (1 in the bow and 2 aft), each with a double-size bed, and each with their own private shower/head, plus a shower on the transom. It has a 3-burner propane stove, and a refrigerator/freezer in the galley, plus a cooler for drinks up in the cockpit.
The boat comes equipped with VHF radio, GPS, cellular phone, and an AM/FM/CD/Casette player with remote speakers in the cockpit.
After the boat show, we were free to leave. Well, almost.
When you fill out the paperwork for the charter, you include a "sailing resume" that lists your experience. Just before we left home, I had received a call from The Moorings, and since our both large boat experience had been a little while ago, they wanted us to take a check-out with one of their skippers. We had time to kill waiting for Cindy and Debbie anyway, so that wasn't a problem.
The skipper's name was Thor, and he was born on Tortola. He was an architecture student at university in Newcastle, England. His father is an architect, and his mother is the only dive-specialist MD on the island.
When Thor arrived, he looked at Kevin and asked what his sailing experience was. He raised his eyebrows at the response, then asked me the same. When I related my experience, he looked at both of us and asked, "Why am I here?". But, we did the checkout anyway. We motored out of the harbor, sailed across Sir Francis Drake Passage to Peter Island, dropped the anchor, raised the anchor, and sailed back. Then we took Thor in for a beer. We passed.
We cooked up hamburgers, sauteed mushrooms and onions, and fried potatoes for dinner. Great first meal aboard. Kevin did the cooking, and I did the clean-up, which was fine with me, because it got really hot down in the galley while he was cooking.
One note - I discovered Anchor butter here. This is *really* good butter. It's New Zealand butter, and the best I've had.
SATURDAY, 6 Aug
Started off this morning with breakfast a-la Kevin. Scrambled eggs, sauteed mushrooms, and fried potatoes. After breakfast, we decided to sail a bit while waiting for Cindy and Debbie to arrive. We sailed across the channel to Salt Island, and anchored in a small bay on the north side. The bay was picture-postcard pretty, with a white sand beach, green water, and palm trees. There were about 4 shanty houses just in the trees, with a small dog running around on the beach.
I went snorkeling in to the beach, and Kevin took the dinghy. I found a nice little reef on the east side of the bay, which rose to about a foot from the surface. I found a cut in the reef I swam through to get to shore, but not much in the way of fish here that I could see. Kevin met me ashore, and we played with the dog for a bit then headed back for the boat and Road Harbour. We got cleaned up, then spent some time at happy hour, until we had to go to the airport on Beef Island to pick up Cindy and Debbie.
The cab ride to the airport was an adventure in itself. The cab was a station wagon, and the driver an older man with his granddaughter along. He had to rearrange his load (granddaughter and bags of groceries) so Kevin and I had a place to sit. The road to the airport has lots of speed mountains in them (the things we call speed bumps here pretty much pale in comparison). Anyway, at one of these things, the driver had to brake pretty hard (guess it snuck up on him), and the groceries up in the front seat slid off and spilled onto the floor. Well, we just sat where we were in the middle of the road (pitch black outside and about 1-1/2 car widths wide) while he picked up and repacked the groceries. Things are pretty casual here. I should also note that they drive on the left side of the road here (British style), but all the cars are left-hand drive cars. The cab ride is very reasonable - $5US pretty much anywhere on the island, and only $2US into town. Which reminds me - don't forget to look BOTH ways before crossing a street.
After picking Cindy and Debbie up outside Customs, we got another cab back to The Moorings, got them settled in, then took another cab to Pusser's for dinner. We were a little late for the full menu, but they did fix us some sandwiches. And, of course, there were always the Painkillers.
We walked back to The Moorings, and stopped on the way back at a large open field that had been set up as a carnival. The first week in August is their annual 'Carnival' celebration, and we arrived just after the formal thing ended, but there were still rides set up and this area in the lot. There was a wooden stage towards the front, and surrounding the whole area was a whole line of little plywood shacks. Some of them served food, but every one of them was a bar.
Alongside the stage were two huge tall speaker towers. I think the lights on the whole island must have dimmed when they turned on the amplifiers. Seems like they were trying to entertain the folks on St. Thomas from there. There were a couple of young boys (maybe 10 years old) standing about 6 inches in front of the speakers, peering intently at them. They almost certainly had to be looking for something in the speakers, because they surely couldn't hear a thing. We finally headed back for the boat around 1:00 AM.
SUNDAY, 7 Aug
We got up a little late this morning (wonder why), and Kevin cooked another great breakfast. We headed to the right grocery store this time to provision for the rest of the week. We found food pretty reasonable, but beer was expensive. The strange thing was that liquor was dirt cheap.
While Kevin and Cindy stored the supplies, Debbie and I went up to the dive shop at the head of the pier, Underwater Safaris, and rented scuba gear for the week. The Moorings supplied mask, snorkel, and fins, but we needed tanks, regulators, and other stuff. We planned to dive a couple of places, but primarily wanted to dive an old shipwreck off Salt Island, the RMS Rhone. The Rhone was an old wooden Royal Mail Ship that sank in 1867. It's in 30-80' of water, and is a National Park. The water's really clear here, so it's a great dive.
We finally got everything put together and stowed, and headed out about 2:00 PM for our first sailing destination. First stop was Cooper Island, across the Passage. The Cooper Island Beach Club was reported to have the best conch fritters in the Islands, but they closed at 2:30 PM, so we didn't get to sample them. When we arrived at Manchioneel Bay, the few moorings were taken, so we anchored down at the south end. We put 2 anchors out, because just to the south of us was a nice big rock reef. I did not want to wake up in the middle of the night on top of this reef. We got a good set on the anchor, though, because everything held well.
Didn't get much sleep, though - the skipper never gets to sleep at anchor. We tried for moorings at each stop, because they are commercially maintained, but sometimes they are all taken. But at least the night sky was absolutely beautiful. It was crystal clear, and the Milky Way was just unreal. There was a really bright light track across the water from Venus, as bright as you'd expect from the moon.
MONDAY, 8 Aug
This morning we headed up to Virgin Gorda, the second large island in the British Virgin Islands (Tortola being the other). The island supposedly got its name because from the sea, it looks like a plump Virgin Mary lying on the water. Anyway, we sailed up to Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour, about halfway up the coast, and took a slip there. It was expensive ($39US a night), and very restrictive - no laundry on the rails, no barbeques, no noise at all between 5PM and 7AM, etc. But, they did have free showers, plus laundry facilities, and a number of shops. We stopped for a snack and drink at the Bath and Turtle. They don't have Painkillers here (that's a Pusser's exclusive), but I had something called an Island Limeade. It was quite good, even though I don't know what was in it. We ordered both crab and conch fritters for snacks. The conch fritters here were absolutely outstanding!
While we were sitting there, I noticed a T-shirt one guy was wearing, with a slogan on the back. It was so great, I had to take a picture of it. The slogan was:
| Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks Italian, the mechanics German, the lovers French, and it is all organized by the Swiss. |
| Hell is where the chefs are British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, the police German, and it is all organized by the Italians. |
TUESDAY, 9 Aug
We left fairly early this morning, and headed out to Great Dog Island, where Debbie and I planned to do a little diving along the cliffs and reefs. The water was warm and visibility good, but we didn't see much particularly noteworthy.
After we got cleaned up from the dive, we headed back down the Virgin Gorda coast to The Baths, an area where huge volcanic boulders have tumbled down on top of one another onto the beach. There are grottos and caves, and it's a must-see for anyone going to that area. There are day moorings for the boats, then you take the dinghy in through a reef to the beach. There's great snorkeling there, plus you can go exploring among the rocks. There are gigantic boulders leaning against one another, forming huge caverns, with passages to the sea, and crystal clear water inside.
After spending some time at The Baths, we headed up to the north end of Tortola, planning to spend the night in Trellis Bay. When we got there, we found it pretty full, so headed across the bay to a little island in the entrance called Marina Cay. It has a reef surrounding it, so the inside waters are nice, and it had plenty of moorings. The island itself had a restaurant on it, but it was closed for renovation. There did have showers and laundry facilities, however, plus a small grocery and boutique. Underwater Safaris also had a place where we could exchange our air tanks for fresh ones.
While we were sitting on the boat, a gal came along in her Zodiac selling jewelry boat-to-boat. It was called Hand-Crafted by Anouk. I think this was Anouk. Some pretty nice stuff in the collection, too.
I mentioned the reef surrounding Marina Cay. The reef is pretty shallow, and Debbie and I went snorkeling. We saw some pretty big sea slugs, and a few fish. Even got a couple of pictures.
Dinner was barbecued burgers and corn-on-the-cob.
WEDNESDAY, 10 Aug
We left Marina Cay and headed for Cane Garden Bay, a really beautiful bay on the back side of Tortola. Winds were steady, so it was a downwind run all they way on a single tack. We made anywhere from 5 to 8+ knots - really good speed. Cane Garden Bay is another picture-postcard setting - a large sweeping sand beach, clear water, and palm trees - but there are some pretty wicked reefs on the way in.
My brother had been here before, and I was told I had to look up a T-shirt shop. He didn't remember the name of it, of course. When he was here, though, his wife was feeling a little under the weather, and one of the gals in this T-shirt shop had made up a home-brew remedy for her. It worked pretty well. So, my mission was to find the shop and say 'Hi'.
I found a shop next to the Paradise Club bar, and I found this very nice lady named Olivette. She remembered the incident, but wasn't sure what she had made - either soda water bitters or rum and something. But, she said to say 'Hi'.
We ate ashore at Rhymer's that night - I had a good garlic-sauteed shrimp, and the others had hamburgers and fishburgers. We also ordered conch fritters, but they weren't up to the Bath and Turtle's.
Later that night, down on the south shore near the distillery, there was some kind of party. There was an awning set up with colored lights around it, and a live band. We found out later it was a fish fry. We didn't get to the distillery this trip, though. Something to put on the list for next time.
THURSDAY, 11 Aug
Today we sailed down to West End, or Soper's Hole. This is the west end of Tortola, and there's a nice, protected anchorage. We again had a downwind sail, and topped out at over 7 knots. We picked up a mooring in West End, as we were going to be there a couple of nights. The women wanted to go over to St. Thomas to do some shopping, and we would pick up the ferry from there. It was easier to take the ferry than try clearing the boat in and out of both US and British Customs. We had gotten there fairly early, so stopped for lunch at the Pusser's there (another one). We filled up the water tanks, and took showers ashore, and did a little window shopping. It was kind of a kick-back day today.
Dinner aboard that night was BBQ'd hamburgers, corn-on-the-cob, sauteed mushrooms and spam.
FRIDAY, 12 Aug
We got up early to catch the ferry to Charlotte Amalie, the capitol of St. Thomas. We arrived before most of the shops opened, so stopped for breakfast at a little place called Gladys' Cafe. After breakfast, we headed for the shops (mostly jewelry). It wasn't long before Kevin and I decided that shopping just wasn't our style, so we headed back for the ferry. We told the girls to make sure they didn't miss the last ferry - that we'd pick them up at the Customs dock at West End.
We took the 12:30 ferry back, again on one of the Smith Ferry boats. This one was not the double-decker we had taken over on our way in. This one looked more like a real boat, fully enclosed, with a really high bow. The inside was a bunch of airplane seats, complete with fold-down trays.
When we left, we left just behind one of the Native Sons boats of about the same size. Once outside the breakwater at Charlotte Amalie, it was a drag race. The skipper firewalled the throttles of both huge turbo-charged marine diesels, and we took off. It sounded like we were sitting inside a jet engine. But this boat was fast! One of the crew told me this boat was the fastest in the Islands. It (the Bomba Charger) would do about 37 knots. It didn't take long for us to leave the Native Sons boat "in the dust". What a ride!
When Kevin and I got back to the boat, we took our laundry ashore to take care of some of the more mundane stuff. We found that with the heat and humidity, dirty clothes got pretty ripe pretty quickly. After the laundry, we settled back to wait for the girls.
While kicking back in the cockpit, we heard some commotion in the water near the boat. Checking, we saw a momma dolphin with her youngster, just cruising around the boats. Kevin ran for his camera, but they were gone before he could get a picture. There were lots of other critters in that bay, too. We saw a lot of jellyfish up near the dock. These were up to about 8" in diameter, light purple in color, with 4 loops on the top. I sort of looked it up later, and it looked like the Aurelia, or Moon Jellyfish. Anyway, we decided not to go swimming there.
After the girls got back, Debbie and I went ashore to Pusser's for dinner. The special that night was jerked beef filet. "Jerked" here does not refer to 'jerkey'. It means highly spiced. And this was! But, boy, was it delicious.
SATURDAY, 13 Aug
Today after breakfast, we headed over to Salt Island, to dive the RMS Rhone, and old British mail ship. The winds were up, and the seas up a little, so not too many boats were out. This meant there were no boats at the moorings at the Rhone, so we had it all to ourselves. Debbie and I got our gear on for the dive, and Kevin gave me his underwater Minolta 110 to take with me. There was a pretty good current running, so we swam up-current before diving. There was a plaque on the ocean floor that said it was illegal to take anything, and I tried to get a picture of it, but the depth was too great for the camera. The shutter wouldn't work at that depth (about 60').
Which was really a shame, because underwater it was spectacular. The wreck is over 100 years old, and broken into several parts. We were looking at the bow section, lying on its right side. The huge anchor was sitting by itself a few yards away. We could see the ribs and internal structure easily, and there were whole schools of fish sitting inside the ship frame.
After Debbie and I got back aboard, we moved over to one of the day moorings for lunch. While waiting topside, I noticed a really funny-looking boat in the Passage. I got the binoculars and discovered it was a dismasted sailboat. I think it was a boat which had just sailed past us up the channel past the Rhone into the Sir Francis Drake Passage. In the channel it was protected from the wind, but as soon as it cleared Salt Island, it must have gotten nailed by the wind and dismasted.
Several other boats were close and responded, and one brought the crew off in their dinghy. I tried reaching Search & Rescue on the radio, but couldn't, so wound up calling The Moorings on the cell phone. They said they'd call SAR, who shortly called me back on the cell phone. I talked to this very British voice from SAR. He asked if they were in danger of running aground or sinking, and I told him it didn't look like it, as they were drifting down the center of the Passage, and away from any rocks. He told me that that charter company was sending a chase boat out to get them, and asked me to let them know that if I were able to communicate with them.
Seems like they don't get too excited about things down in this part of the world. But, the chase boat eventually arrived and everything got taken care of safely.
We finished lunch and headed back to Road Harbour and The Moorings for the night, as Cindy and Debbie had to catch an early flight out of Beef Island the following morning. After securing at the slip, we went to Pusser's again for dinner. Cindy and Debbie shared a pizza, Kevin had a shepherd's pie, and I had a steak and ale pie. Great meal. We turned in early, as the girls had an early flight to catch.
SUNDAY, 14 Aug
We all got up early, and Kevin and I saw Cindy and Debbie off at the shuttle to the airport. Then Kevin and I figured for our last sail, we'd sail out around Norman Island and then back into The Moorings for our last night.
We had great winds again, and so we decided we'd try the genoa alone without the main. It was going to be a beam reach both ways, so it should have been pretty simple. The sailing part was, but it was the rest of the things that got interesting.
On our way out of the harbor, we noticed that the dinghy (an 8' rigid dinghy with an outboard and towed behind us) was tracking a little funny. We checked, and found it half full of water, and the motor's fuel tank was floating in the water inside the boat. We assumed it was from the rain the previous night. We pulled the dinghy up to the boat, and Kevin got in and bailed it out, and then we headed off again.
We unfurled the genoa and headed down the Passage at a good 7 knots. We made Norman Island in just over an hour, and decided to turn around and sail back.
Kevin was driving this leg, so after setting the sails, I was kicking back in the cockpit and enjoying the ride. I glanced back at the dinghy for the usual periodic check, and found that it was still behind us and following, but about a foot under water. The fuel tank was following the dinghy, still attached to the outboard motor by the fuel line.
We hauled the dinghy up to the boat, and had to use the spare halyard to winch it up on its end to drain the water out. We got everything put back together after about a half-hour's strenuous work, then let it out again and continued our journey back.
I checked again a short time later, and found the dinghy under water again, but this time upside down. So, we pulled it in again, only this time we took everything aboard - fuel tank, oars, dinghy anchor, and we even cut the outboard loose and brought it aboard. Now, of course, the dinghy wanted to float.
We continued our journey back to The Moorings, but I had called them and they sent their chase boat out to meet us with another dinghy. I told them they could take ours and keep theirs - as we were coming in for our last night, anyway. We finally made it back to the dock and got tied up, straightened up a few things, then headed into town for a well-deserved beer. Or two.
This time we went to a small restaurant next door to Pusser's that looked like an English Pub, called the Tavern in the Town. The owner, an Englishman named Dave, told us he had first come to the BVI about 11 years earlier, sayted a few years, then went back to England. They managed to stay for about 4 years before they came back to the BVI permanently.
Dave served us some real English cider (Strongbow Special Reserve), which was absolutely delicious. Kevin ordered a fish & chips dinner, and I had what he called a striploin steak. The veggie servings were huge, and it was all cooked perfectly and totally delicious. I was totally stuffed. We finally managed to waddle back to the boat and bed. What a day!
MONDAY, 15 Aug
We got up early to finish cleaning up the boat, as we had to turn it in by noon. As soon as we finished the check-in, we headed down the road to the other Moorings hotel, the Treasure Isle. We chose that one because it has air conditioning, and the Mariner Inn does not.
We eventually got checked in at Treasure Isle, then after a short nap, headed into Roadtown proper for a little last-minute shopping. We decided to take a cab over the mountain to Cane Garden Bay, to the T-shirt shop there, since I couldn't find what I was looking for in Roadtown. The road over is steep, windy, and still only about 1-1/2 cars wide. The view is pretty spectacular in both directions, however.
I think I may have mentioned that it seems like everything here is a bar. At the very crest of the mountain, we saw a house whose owner had build a roadside-stand bar in his driveway. Just in case you needed a little extra fortification for the wild roads, I guess. Gotta give the guy credit for trying. The sign on the stand said it was open 24 hours.
Anyway, we finally got back over to Roadtown safe and sound, and very hungry. We wanted to go back to Dave's place - the Tavern in the Town - but it wasn't open yet, so we stopped next door at Pusser's for dinner. Kevin had the fish & chips again, and I had their honey-baked chicken and chips. Again, the food was pretty good.
We did decide that a cider after dinner would be nice, and since Dave's was now open, we stopped in there. We ordered the cider, but Dave told us he was out of the special reserve. He was expecting more in any day, now, since it was due in on the boat in June. I guess 'island time' strikes again.
Dave asked us if we would like to eat, but we said we already had, thank you. Just out of curiosity, Kevin asked what the special tonight would have been. Turns out it was an English breakfast - eggs, English sausage, English bacon, fried bread, and fried tomatoes. Kevin said he just had to have one - he hadn't had a proper English breakfast in over 5 years. It looked really good, and if I hadn't been already stuffed, I would have tried it. I don't know how Kevin managed, but he ate the whole thing.
We got a cab back to the hotel, and made arrangements with the driver to return in the morning and pick us up and take us to West End in time to catch the 10:00 ferry to St. Thomas. Arrangements made, we went back to our rooms to retire in air-conditioned comfort.
TUESDAY, 16 Aug
Our cab driver was actually early this morning. We got to West End in plenty of time, and got on our Bomba Charger again. We checked in through US Customs in Charlotte Amalie, then got a cab to the airport, where we had to go through US Customs again. They specifically asked about jewelery, but we hadn't purchased any. One inspector walked up to Kevin and, without saying a word, grabbed his arm and twisted his wrist over, almost wrenching his arm out of its socket. I guess she wanted to look at his watch band. Kevin was wearing a Rolex, which he's owned for something like 14 years. It would have been nice to just ask. What a jerk!
I was a little worried, though, because I had bought (and declared) 2 bottles of Pusser's Rum, and as I'm standing in the customs line see a sign that says we're limited to 1 liter. But nobody said anything.
Our flight back was to San Juan then Baltimore, where we would have to overnight again. We got in at a fairly reasonable time, and ordered in for dinner, then ordered an early (4:15AM) wakeup call (real, this time), a cab for 5:15, and called it a night.
WEDNESDAY, 17 Aug
Boy, is 4:15 AM early! But, at lease we got to the airport in plenty of time for our 6:35 AM flight. This one was through Charlotte, NC, then on to Denver. We got in around 10:00 AM, and Cindy (former crewmate) came to pick us up.
It was a great trip, but boy is it nice to be home!
So, that's it for this one. Stay tuned - the next one's in the works.
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