Sailing Trip Day 2: Road Town + Trellis Bay

On Day 2 of our Sailing Trip, we got up and ate breakfast at Sebastian's Seaside Grill, loaded up our bags on another open air taxi, and took the scenic route across the island over to Road Town, where our sailboat would be waiting for us. We decided to wear our trip shirts that Jenny and Zach designed for us on this day, so yep, we were that family. Matching vacation shirts FTW!

I can't remember exactly what bay our driver said this was, but Kyle and I think it's Cane Garden Bay (one of my favorite anchorages of the trip - you'll hear more about it later).

Another bay off of Tortola.

Our first glimpse of Road Town, the capital of the British Virgin Islands. As you can see I took this photo from pretty high up, so to get down there we had to go down some very steep hills. Thankfully we made it in one piece!

Once we got into Road Town, we stopped at the market to load up on groceries. We ate breakfast and lunch on the boat every day, and cooked dinner on the boat a couple of times too, so we had to make sure we got everything we needed. We split the list up and everyone was running around getting what was on their portion of the list. With our matching t-shirts it made me feel like I was on one of those game shows, you know the ones where you had to run around the store and try to stuff everything you possibly can into your cart within 5 minutes? I can't remember the name of it but that's what I kept thinking of. After that our taxi driver took us over to Conch Charters, where we were finally able to see our boat!

Once we unloaded our luggage and groceries off the taxi, we had to wait a little bit for the Conch Charters staff to finish cleaning off the deck of our boat and for Kyle's dad to settle the checking-in logistics. In the meantime we grabbed these carts and loaded up our stuff so it would be easier to drag around.

After we were allowed on the boat, it took us a while to haul everything on it and unpack the groceries and our bags. One of the Conch Charters staff also had to show Kyle's dad and Zach around the boat, talking about how to work the various control panels and giving pointers on things like how to flush the toilets and when to turn the engine on so you can cool down the fridge, etc. Believe it or not, we eventually were ready to hit the water, so this Conch Charters staff member helped us navigate out of the marina. 

Once we were out far enough, his buddy came to pick him up on a dinghy and we were on our own! 

Since we were on a catamaran, there was netting between the two hulls on the bow that you could sit on. Perfect place for tanning during the day and stargazing at night! 

We're on a boat!

Kyle got to take the wheel for a few minutes on our way over to Beef Island. 

We moored up at Trellis Bay, Beef Island, for our first night on the boat. To hook up to a mooring buoy, you have to tie two deck lines (ropes) to the mooring buoy and then tie the line to a cleat on the boat.  Sounds simple but you have to work quickly in order for it to hold correctly. Here's our mooring buoy team at work for the first time:

Bow chicka wow wow! Look at that hottie in the hat! ;)

We saw this lady drive by on a dinghy with her two dogs, and it immediately made me miss Doc (we boarded him at my dad's clinic while we were gone). I can't imagine having two dogs to walk all the time while you are on a sailing trip!

Trellis Bay is where we were supposed to pick up Fred and Christina, the 7th and 8th members of our motley crew, so Kyle's dad sent Kyle and me on the dinghy to the three bars/restaurants on shore to look for them. They were nowhere in sight, so we came back to the boat empty handed except for a few potatoes for dinner that night. Kyle's mom was able to get in touch with Fred and found out their flight was delayed, causing them to miss the ferry over to Beef Island. So plan B - pick them up the next day in Anegada! For our first meal on the boat, we had steak with salad, grilled garlic bread and sauteed potatoes and onions. Yummy!

The grill was attached to the side of the boat and hung off the edge to make it less of a fire hazard. Thankfully Kyle's dad is a grill-master and none of the steaks fell in the water!

At the end of the day, Jenny couldn't have put it better when she said "Now I feel like I'm on vacation!". Up next: boat tour and we sail to Anegada, the only coral island in the BVI. 

P.S. I'm listing all the sailing trip posts with their links on the new Our Travels page up top. Be sure to check it out, I linked to some of the other places we've traveled as well!