Tortola

Date Sept. 20, 2009 This is Karen
Right now I am sitting on the sailboat named ‘Golden Crown’. We are anchored in a the middle of a bay in Tortola. We arrived in Tortola yesterday via a Catamaran Ferry from St. Thomas, USVI. It took an hour on the Ferry. We were sitting in an air conditioned compartment which was great because it started raining. It didn’t last long. I am told, the rain is welcomed because it cools things down. Boy it was hot yesterday. But after we got on the boat and moved it to the bay, it cooled downed because of the wind.
Going through customs in Tortola was a piece of cake. I was quite surprised they didn’t look in any of our bags. We came with 4 duffels weighing at least 50 lbs each and two smaller bags.
Anyways, after customs we took a taxi to meet Captain Jim at the Golden Crown. I can tell we are going to have a great time with him on the boat for 10 days.
I discovered how peaceful and relaxing it is to sleep on a boat. The gentle rocking is so comfortable. All was great until we felt water on our faces. We had the window or hatch thing (I do need to learn the names of these things) above our head open. Well Sandy shut the window/hatch thing, and all was well. It only rained a few minutes though, so Sandy opened it again and we fell back to sleep until it started raining again. Same routine…shut the thing until it stopped raining. We woke to a beautiful morning and really good coffee. Had some breakfast and went snorkeling. Again saw some incredible things that we certainly never saw in Montana. One very interesting thing….there was a barracuda hanging around under boat when we were ready to get back in. Now the same thing happen the last time we were snorkeling in St. Thomas. The captain of the boat in St. Thomas, said that barracudas like to hang out under the boats. Well I guess he was right. This one today was even bigger…maybe 4 feet long. Captain Jim said they won’t hurt you, but I tell you, he looks frightening.