Escaping to the BVIs

Thanks to our pals on s/v Honey Ryder, we got an invite to escape to the tropics.  Thanks to the fine folks at Southwest Airlines, most of our airfare for me was free.

After a brief layover in San Juan to start getting into the island mood--meaning walking on the beach, drinking rum drinks, etc.  We arrived Saturday morning in Beef Island.  Great little flight on Seabourne Airlines except for the last 10 minutes of stomach dropping descent as we made our way through a squall line and fresh breezes to land.  At which point, I briefly thought, hmmmm, it will be really ironic if we LAND on Tom and Sabrina's boat instead of the airport.  I don't think they'll be amused.

View of USVIs by plane.

Arrival in BVIs was fine.  A little adventure in customs, but nothing bad.  They didn't have any BVIs customs forms in PR, so we had to rush and fill one out at the BVI airport. As a result I guessed probably a little high on all the stuff we were bringing in for Tom and Sabrina. (Or maybe not, as we starting thinking earlier).

So, then I get to explain it to the very nice, but ex-NBA player customs agent, and let it be told, there are not a lot of people taller than me out there, so I was sir, yes, sir.  In a moment of brilliance, I had stuck all of the receipts with the items we were bringing in.  So, when the customs agent saw the Racor filters, he knew EXACTLY what they were. (Oh…crap).  However, even though I explained I probably guessed high, he said, you claimed $500, and you signed it, so you need to pay 10% of that.  OR….I can go through your bags and I will charge 15% of what I think the value is.  $50 it is sir, and thank you very much.  

But let me make this clear--he was very, very polite and nice about it, but no nonsense.  I can respect that.

Now we needed to wait for Tim to pick up a wireless router in case there was some emergency at work he needed to take care of.  We weren't sure if he'd have a good data connection or not on the iPhone (he did), but the rest of of took advantage of the router during the week.  We rented our router from Renport, and things went really smoothly.  Tom showed up while Tim was sitting in the Renport guy's truck doing the paperwork.  So we pretty much started off the trip with the first joke: Where's Tim? Oh, he's over there conducting a drug deal.  Totally, what it looked like. Money exchanged and a bag handed over.  Nice.

Waiting for Renport, and for the squall to pass through.

So, a short walk to the dingy dock and we managed to fit us, our bags and make it to the boat in one piece.  Whoo-hoo.  We were created with muffins and rum drinks.  Rock and roll.  

Of course, I had to do my manic, need to get crap unpacked and put away NOW mode before I could settle down.  I don't think Sabrina minded because she was awarded with my former paperweight, I mean camera that is shock proof and underwater proof.  And yep, took her about five seconds before she was operating it better than I ever could.

Later in the day, the squalls passed, so we headed to shore to explore Trellis Bay a bit and have some afternoon drinks.