Aboard the Whisper...Sailing in the British Virgin Islands

“And then there is the most dangerous risk of all, the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later – Randy Komisar”

Well, it’s the night before the big trip. I’ve been waiting for this day for almost 7 months. All the planning, the prepping, and the last minute shopping are coming to an end. In about 6 hours we will be boarding a flight heading to Miami, then to St. Thomas for a trip of a lifetime. With our best friends along for the journey, we will be spending a week sailing on a catamaran in the British Virgin Islands, hopping from island to island, soaking in the sun, and all the rum.

12/30: Our flight was at 5:05 am. I went to bed at 12:30 am, had everything ready to go as everyone was making bets that I will be late. I wasn’t, and I earned my reward, a Starbucks coffee once we got to the airport.

We boarded our plane and were quickly brought back to reality when our plane had some issues and took about 2 hours before we took off, making us miss our connecting flight to Miami. We made the 12:30 pm flight out of Miami, which didn’t put us in St. Thomas until around 4:30 pm. We arrived in the airport, had a few celebratory drinks for finally being off the plane and finally arriving in paradise. We waited for our luggage, and waited, and waited…. Sadly, we were informed that it never made the flight, and that it won’t arrive until almost midnight..

We called our Captain and informed him and we were told to just catch a cab, come to the boat, have a drink and relax. We will spend the night in the Marina, go get the luggage very early in the morning, and head out.

We arrived to meet Captain Denny and Mrs. Pam who had prepared chili for dinner and had some cold Presidente's waiting for us.  The boat was immaculate, clean, and so much more spacious than I would have ever imagined. We were on board a 42’ Fountaine Pajot Venezia Catamaran, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathroom, spacious galley, and an amazing trampoline that will make you forget any worry and stress and take you away from reality. We stayed up on the trampoline for a bit looking at all the stars, and the boats all around us that must have costs millions... and we called it a night. 

12/31: Very early that morning, John and Captain Denny left to get our luggage, they came back around 7 am, thankfully with our entire luggage in tow. We can finally start this vacation.

 John and I sat on the trampoline for around an hour watching the sun come up while Mrs. Pam prepared breakfast. On the menu today was biscuits and gravy. We headed back to the trampoline, hung out, drank a few cold ones, listened to our “Island Mix” and we started our sail to Sopper’s Hole, Tortolla. We arrived at Noon, and the boys loaded up on the dinghy and headed to clear customs.

We then sailed to Norman Island, while Mrs. Pam was whipping up her magic in the kitchen and produced some amazing chicken wraps for lunch. We ate lunch, and got ready to do some snorkeling at the Caves.  We saw so many amazing fish, and being inside the caves was an amazing experience, and what made it even better, it started raining while we were inside, it was such a neat experience. We took a few pictures, and snorkeled back to the boat, showered, and relaxed for a bit while Mrs. Pam prepared dinner – which was fish tacos.

We proceeded to get dressed and ready, after all it was New Year’s Eve, and we were celebrating aboard Willy T’s, the famous floating pirate ship, which is known for having girls, and guys jump off the top – clothing optional.  We spend a few hours there, had a few drinks, got a good buzz and headed back to the boat. It was around 10:30 pm ( I know, we were crazy party people, lol), and hung out on the back deck, listened to some good music, and waited for the clock to hit midnight. Yours truly was exhausted and I fell asleep, only to be woken up by my husband for a Midnight Kiss – then we all went to bed.

1/1: Happy New Years! We woke up early and Mrs. Pam was whipping up some French toast and eggs in the galley. We ate and started our sail to The Indians, a very well-known snorkeling spot in the Islands.  We put our snorkels on and jumped in, the water was cool but refreshing. We snorkeled for about 2 hours, and Captain Denny showed us an small underground cave, probably 10-15 ft below, where you can swim through. The boys attempted it several times, both John & Eric exhausted, and running out of breath, and resurfacing… and after a few more tries, both decided that it just wasn’t meant to be.

 We headed back to the boat to have lunch, and today’s menu had turkey wraps. We ate, lounged, and sailed to Trellis Bay on Beef Island. It was around a 3 hour sail. We lounged on the trampoline, and I attempted to read only to fall asleep after a few pages. Between the rocking of the boat, the sound of the water hitting the hulls, the perfect sun beaming down, and the good music, you couldn’t help but falling in and out of sleep, it was just relaxing.

We arrived at Trellis Bay and took the dinghy to shore and headed to the Loose Mongoose, known for their BBC’s. We had a few rounds, enjoyed the scenary and headed back to the boat dinner. It was New Years Day, and of course we had to have black eyed peas, and chicken tikka and a bottle of vino.  We finished dinner, and we all layed down on the trampoline. It was a night of crystal clear skies and what it seemed like every single star was out and shinning bright. Life honestly can’t get better than this. To be in the Islands, with good people, it’s just good for the soul.

1/2: I woke up around 6:20 am, and Captain Denny started our sailing day very early. We are headed to Virgin Gorda today to see the Baths and get there before the crowds do. It’s approximately 5.2 miles away from Trellis Bay.

As always, Mrs. Pam had fresh coffee waiting for us every morning (again, is this real life?!?). We arrived at The Baths around 8 am, had breakfast sandwiches and by 9 am we started our swim into The Baths.  It was completely empty, barely anyone was on the beach, let alone inside the caves. 

Captain Denny took us all around The Baths, showed us a beach that had no name, then onto the 2^nd Beach, Devils Bay – or as we called it, DooDoo Cove, for reasons that we will keep to ourselves J. The views were unreal, every single picture looked like it could be out of a magazine, and I couldn’t help but think of how many amazing screen savers I was going to have – oh now I’m thinking about work, stop, stop, stop!

We walked over to the Top of the Baths restaurant, had a drink, walked back down and headed back to the boat. It was lunch time and we were all hungry and tired, and today’s menu included brats and coleslaw that was made with Honey Cashews, it was out of this world delicious! 

We then sailed onto Leverick Bay, Virgin Gorda, and found a mooring ball and hooked. We decided to take a plunge in the beautiful blue water, sip on a few drinks, then showered and headed to Shore for some fun. We walked around the shops then headed to Jumbies for a few cocktails. Marissa and I were trying to capture those “perfect shots”, while the guys sat around and drank. Later on, John turns around and notices a guy that looked familiar and goes “Man, that guy sure looks a lot like Ron White”, I turned out and said “that IS him!”.  We said hello, he looked like he was with his wife, son, and either son’s gf or wife. He of course had a shot in his hand, this time it was Patron, came over, took a picture with us and they were back on their way to their dinghy, which I might say, was the size of our boat…

We headed back to our boat where Mrs Pam  had prepared a delicious dinner. Tonight’s menu included a very thick porkchop with a portabella mushroom gravy, sweet potatoes, and a spinach salad w/ a balsamic curry dressing.

We stayed up that night playing games, cards and listened to some good ol’ country music. We started out playing Catch phrase where it seemed to always land on John’s turn, then we switched to UNO – the LONGEST game ever! John kept loosing which gave us all a good laugh (his competitive nature hates to lose…) NO GREEN CARD JOHN!!! Oh we laughed until our sides hurt, then laughed even harder when DooDoo cove was mentioned. We called it a night around 10. It was a hot night with no breeze, but we made it.

1/3: John and I woke up around 7:30 am and we sat on the trampoline drinking our morning coffee. Soon after I went inside and was talking to Captain Denny and Mrs. Pam about diving and my awful experience with it in St. John.  Mrs. Pam started preparing breakfast for us, an egg frittata with avocados, papaya, a peach muffin, along with coffee, milk, and OJ. 

Today is going to be the longest sail yet of the trip – we are headed to Anegada! The farthest of the Islands in the BVI’s.

We arrived to Anegada around 10 am, found a mooring ball, and got hooked on. The water is absolutely beautiful here, just the perfect shade of turquoise. The water was a little rough here, and we elected to stay on the boat for a few hours. I laid on the trampoline, took my kindle out, and relaxed until around 3:20 pm.  We then all got ready to head to shore to check out this new resort that was built, the “Anegada Beach Club”.  It also didn’t hurt that Happy Hour was started at 4 pm. 

We arrived to Shore, waiting around ½ hour for our ride. Meanwhile, we took around 231 pictures of the beautiful picturesque palm tree that was swaying in the wind… I mean, how could we not!

Our car arrived, we hoped in the back of a pickup and took about 1 minute, very bumpy ride to the resort – it was nothing to rave about. We ordered a few drinks, and walked down to the beach. There was MAYBE 5 people there, it was very quiet, very picturesque, and the blue water went out as far as you can see. Since there was no store there, I collected some sand for my Anegada ornament that I will make once I get home and we headed back to the dock. 

It looked like a bad storm was headed our way and we were trying to get back to the boat before getting soaked. As we were heading to the dinghy, we noticed a guy chopping up some fresh Lobster. It was such a cool experience to see in person, and even held a live one – for picture of course, then we got in the dinghy right as it started raining – and of course we got soaked!. We showered, and got ready for dinner.

Dinner tonight included a ceasar salad appetizer, followed by mahi mahi risotto rice mix with green beans. Dessert was key lime pie – my favorite! We stayed up and played a few rounds of UNO before calling in a night. That night we were woken up by a few sprinkle showers and we rushed to close all the hatches. It definitely makes for some interesting nights! But hey, it’s all about the experience!

1/4: We woke up and Captain Denny had already started the sailing to Monkey Point, Guana Island for some snorkeling. Mrs Pam had our coffee’s ready along with some egg and charizo tacos. This was the first morning that was stomach was feeling a little queezy, but nothing that a few Dramamines couldn’t fix.

We arrived at Monkey Point and we are ready to get into this beautiful water.  There was not a soul, not a boat in site, it was just us and we were absolutely ok with that! Captain Denny was telling us the best way to start our snorkeling, and I see a little beach in between the 2 cliffs that I wanted to go to. We saw an array of beautiful fish, a spotted ray, and for the highlight of all of my snorkeling experiences – I spotted an octopus! It was hands down the coolest thing I have ever seen while snorkeling. I was about 5 feel away from it and signaled to the others to come see. It was changing colors as it was moving and we were lucky enough to snap a few pictures and even got a video!

John and I swam to the rocky beach, it was very small, but unique, took a few pictures, then headed back. It was lunch time and we were hungry! Mrs. Pam had tacos ready for us and as we lounged on the deck, we started our trek to Cane Garden Bay, Tortolla, which is known for it’s phenomenal out of this world sunsets – and I can’t wait. We arrived there and it looked like such a beautiful, very colorful town with some shops and bars along the beach. We headed to shore and captain Denny dropped us off and gave us a walkie talkie and told us to radio him when we are ready.

As we were walking on the deck, we spotted a gigantic stingray, and as we were all in shock on how large it was, an even bigger more gigantic turtle swims by! I have never seen a sea turtle, let alone one that was the size of a kitchen table! It was impressive to say the least! 

We headed to the beach and went into a few of the shops as I was looking for an ornament to collect – which I found. We then headed to Quito’s for some bar food and a few cold ones. We sat at the bar overlooking the water while Marissa and I were trying to figure out how to take time lapse videos of the sunset.  Let me tell you this, the sunset did not disappoint, and we were lucky enough to capture it on video. I could move here, and live here, and work at a small bar and be perfectly and absolutely content and happy with my life….

We were ready to head back and Marissa radio’ d Captain Denny with “4 little piggies on shore to 
Whisper, over” haha! We got picked up, we showered, and got ready for dinner. (by getting ready I mean we put on pajamas..). Tonight’s menu included BBQ ribs with a blackbean salad and corn. Let me tell you this, how Mrs. Pam was able to whip up all this food in a tiny galley was beyond amazing! Those ribs were gone in about 45 seconds. Our tummies were very happy tonight.

That night, we had a crazy rainstorm hit us and we got up in the middle of the night scrambling to close all the hatches. I looked up at him somewhat hysterically laughing and he was soaking wet… what can you do besides laugh at this point? It was a pretty funny scene in my head.

1/5: the next morning, we got up and had our coffee on the trampoline as usual while Mrs Pam prepared egg and bacon for breakfast. Today is the day I have been waiting for, we are heading to Sandy Cay – a cute, secluded, looks like it belongs in CondeNast Magazine island with nothing on it but a beautiful stretch of white sand and lots of palm trees in the middle with a trail. We Jumped in the water and swam up to shore. We placed our snorkles and our waterproof bag under a shady tree and we wanted to check out the trail, until I was getting eaten up alive with mosquitoes and we John and I elected to go back to the beach while Marissa and Eric walked the trails. We took a few pictures along the beach and that’s when John told me I had to put the camera away and just enjoy this beautiful scenery. Every once in a while I need a reminder that I should put the camera away and just live in the moment, and I’m thankful I have him there to remind of that sometimes. We got in the water and just “chilled” in the beautiful torquise crystal clear water for about 30 minutes before Marissa and Eric joined us. There is a 90 minute mooring limit and we headed back to the boat shortly after.

Mrs. Pam had prepared hamburgers and Mac & Cheese for lunch and we quickly ate as we were all very hungry. We motored over to Jost Van Dyke and moored infront of Ivans. Jost is probably my favorite Island in the BVI’s. It’s home to one of the most beautiful beaches in the World, White Bay. And it’s also known for a few small bars whithin walking distance of each other. Soggy Dollar is home to the famous drink, the Painkiller. Ivans Stress Free Bar is known as a favorite spot for Kenny Chesney, along with One Love Bar.

Captain Denny took us to shore and dropped us off at Soggy Dollar. We ordered 2 drinks each and found some chairs on the beach and hung out. White bay is the perfect place for people watching, and today is no different.  There was a boat infront of us with a handful of kids… by kids I mean early 20’s or so partying. We all watched and laughed remembering how we use to act at that age…

We then headed over to One Love Bar and ordered their lobster quesadillas and a few bushwackers. We hung out there for a bit before making the walk over to Ivan’s .  

Neither I or John have been there before and it was a neat looking bar that we wanted to check out. It’s called Ivan’s Stress Free bar for a reason, it’s open, beachy, wood floors, playing country music, pictures of Kenny Chesney all on the wall. This is where he wrote “somewhere in the sun” and also filmed “no shoes, no shirt, no problem”.

We headed up to the top deck, grabbed a few chairs, and placed our feet up, and just enjoyed the breathtaking scenery. We met a couple and chatted them up a bit before calling Captain Denny and heading back to the boat. 

We showered and Mrs Pam had dinner ready for us, ceasar salad, a delicious mouthwatering steak, green beans, and some wine. We hung out, ate, and talked about our futures, our future kids and more life changing and important matters – then called it a night.

1/6: I was the first one to wake up around 7:15 am and went up to the trampoline. It’s not often that I wake up in absolute paradise, In the middle of the Caribbean on a catamaran and I wanted to soak it all in. Mrs Pam was awake shortly after and prepared coffee for us and john joined shortly after. We sat on the deck, sipping our last cup of coffee aboard the Whisper.

Breakfast was eggs and bacon, then we got ready and started packing our belongings. It was a bitter sweet morning as we were leaving the Whisper – but thankfully we had a few more days on St. John. We quickly gathered and packed all of our things, so we can sit on the trampoline and enjoy the last sail back to St. John.

We moored and took the dinghy and our belongings to Customs on St. John. And while Marissa and Eric were getting our luggage, John and I went to L&L Jeep rentals to pick up our jeep – where we realized we had confirmed for an extra day than we really needed but it was too late to change. We went back with the jeep, loaded our things, and said goodbye to Captain Denny and Mrs Pam for the best vacation of our lives.

We made our way to the Condo we are renting for a few days. First things first, turn on that AC! We all took a very LONG shower, and by long I mean it was probably 15-20 minutes, but it felt like an hour after the showers we took aboard the Whisper – in and out within 5 minutes or less.

We changed, got dressed, and headed to Joe’s Rum Hut for lunch and a few drinks. We Headed to Hawksnest beach for a few hours before heading back to the Condo to get ready for dinner. Tonight was going to be our first of 2 fancy dinners while we are on St. John and we were heading to Asolare for a dinner reservation at 8:15 pm

We arrived and were seated on the beautiful balcony overlooking the town that was alive with the lights and music coming from the few local bars. We ordered the Island Pancake appetizer and a bottle of wine. John ordered the conch encrusted Corvina which is a local white flaky fish, and I ordered a steak which was equally delicious. For dessert, we ordered a lavender infused Crème Brule that was absolute heaven and just perfect enough to end our night. We headed home, and went straight to bed.

1/7: We woke up, got gussied up and ready to go take our “fancy pictures”. I  had told Marissa that we needed to take some maternity pics while we were there. And John and I – well mainly me, wanted to also take nice pictures while we were all dressed up. First stop – locating Oppenheimer Beach!

I follow a blogger online who travels to all these amazing places, and while browsing her posts a few months back, I noticed that she was in St. John and took a pictures at this beautiful beach that had a tire swing. I had commented on her pictures and she told me that it was a hidden gem and you had to look for it closely. I HAD to find this beach when we get to St. John – and we sure did!

It was high tide and a little difficult to get on that tire swing, but we did it and took about a million pictures. It was absolutely perfect, and so beautiful, but the water was so high that we said we will come back that afternoon, in our bathing suits, to take more pictures.

We headed to Maho Beach and took our fancy pictures there then headed to Coral Bay to eat lunch at Skinny Legs and enjoy their awesome burgers. We headed back to Cruz Bay and walked around Mongoose Junction, enjoyed the shops, then headed for some ice cream at Scoops. Ice cream is so much better as an adult when its painkiller flavored and has alcohol – you just can’t beat that! We headed back to a few shops, where I got 2 shirts, and went to the Beach Bar for a drink.

We went back to Oppenheimer to take more pictures, this time the tide was a little nicer to us. Some of the pictures we took here are my favorite from this vacation – frame worthy honestly, they were just beautiful.

We headed back to Hawksnest for a few hours where there was unusual high tide but john elected to stay in the water and get beaten up, while myself, Marissa and Eric stayed on the Beach relaxing. I met a lady who was sitting close who happens to be from New Hampshire and owns 2 properties on the Island. She gave me her contact information in the event we would come back and are interested in staying at her house.  We headed back to the Condo to get ready for dinner which was at ZoZo’s at 7:45 pm.

We arrived at ZoZo’s and were seated at a railside table overlooking the pristine grounds of Caneel Bay Resort. For appetizers, we ordered the filet mignon meatballs, the Antipasto plate that had a ball of fried goat cheese – yeah I’ll let that settle in for a minute – pure heaven. Dinner was a HUGE portion of pork 3 ways for John and Eric, and Marissa and I ordered the Osso Bucco – which in reality we could have shared because we were stuffed from the appetizers. Of course there’s room for dessert though, and we ordered a key lime pie mousse. We headed back to our Condo, packed all of our things, and headed to bed!

1/8: it’s our last day in paradise, and although it was bittersweet, I think we were all ready to head home. We finished packing up our belongings, cleaned the Condo, dropped the jeep back to L&L at 10am and we headed to eat Breakfast at Cruz Bay  Landing for their amazing coffee’s and pancakes. We finished and walked around the shops for a bit, bought some hot sauce (that later was taken away at the airport because yours truly forgot to put liquids in the checked luggage… very sad). We bought our tickets for the Noon ferry back to Red Hook and took a cab to the airport.

Our vacation has come to an end. I could not have asked for a better time away from reality, or for better friends to be with, or for a better Captain and Chef. This was a trip of a lifetime for all of us. Marissa and Eric are at a point in their lives where they are about to welcome their first born into this world. John and I don’t know what 2016 will hold for us. To say we are blessed to be able to take this vacation is an understatement. This is the first vacation where I left without being truly upset, sad, or depressed. It was the perfect amount of time needed to decompress, leave all of the worries behind, and enjoy a truly relaxing vacation. It also helps tremendously that we lost cell service when we left St. John aboard the Whisper so I couldn’t check emails even if I wanted to.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to Captain Denny and Mrs Pam. Thank you for sharing your home with us. Thank you for taking care of our every need. Thank you for showing us the beautiful BVI’s like I never thought I would ever see them. Thank you for a trip of a lifetime.