Today was both a wonderfully beautiful day and a bittersweet day. Today we chartered a boat to take us around the Caribbean and to help us drop Joan's urn into Waterlemon Key in St. John. The crew of Born to Rhumb was wonderful. Andy and Shane were a wonderful couple that treated both us and Joan with the most respect. The first thing we did was head out to what I will forever think of as Joan's Key. We were all silent as we drove there and of course we were all crying as we lowered Joan into the water. Her beautiful Himalayan salt urn would dissolve and eventually Joan would be at rest in her Key. We did not stay there long because we all agreed Joan would be madder than hell if we wasted the day mourning so we said our goodbyes and headed off to do some snorkeling and boating. We first had to go to Tortola to sign in with the British Virgin Islands and "cross" their boarders. Then it was off to have fun in the sun.
My new favorite hobby is snorkeling. Its like entering a new world! I am in love with the ocean. We snorkeled twice that day. Once for about 45 minutes around a rock formation called "The Indians" because it looks like two Indians in a canoe. The coral around The Indians is one of the healthiest reefs in the world and it was awesome! there were so many different kinds of coral and fish you just couldn't take it all in. Sadly my underwater camera didn't want to work, but both Meg and Rob took pictures so I am stealing those :) I wish I could tell you all the different types of coral and fish I saw but I can't. What I can tell you is that I saw a ton of parrot fish which are a beautiful green and orange and a ton of brain and lip coral. It was amazing and I could have stayed there all day if it were possible. The only mistake of the trip happened in about 42 feet of water. Meg dropped her camera! Whoops! Thankfully our group had a mermaid with us ;) Andy is an expert at snorkeling and could actually get down to the bottom to retreive it. The crazy thing is, while the camera is only supposed to go to 10 feet, it still works just fine! After we left the Indians we went to Norman Island which is in the British Virgin Islands and snorkeled in some caves. It was amazing to see how the sea water changed the rocks over time. there were stripes of orange and purple. It was beautiful!
At this point it was time for lunch. We all headed to Jost Van Dike for lunch and a little shopping. We went to Foxy's Taboo for lunch and I had an awesome salad with beets and walnuts in it. I also got a few trinkets from the gift shop. We then got back on the boat to head to a teeny island called Sandy Spit. There we saw some interesting tourists who decided to show off their massive amounts of plastic surgery in the breast area lol. It was interesting but we ignored them as much as possible and walked around the spit collecting rocks and coral. We then headed back to Jost Van Dike to do a little shopping in the main bay. Apparently Foxy got his start selling trinkets, then decided to open a bar and restaurant named after his dog Taboo. Foxy's Store was a tad pricey so I didn't buy much but they did sell Cuban Cigars there that I found interesting. We cant buy them though thanks to the government :(
After we were done shopping we boated around the island to the Soggy Dollar Bar on White Beach. It got its name because there is no dock there so you have to swim to shore and all you can pay with is soggy dollars! Supposedly it is the bar that started the painkiller drink. It is a mix of rum, orange and pineapple juice, and coconut milk with a dash of nutmeg on top. It is quite delightful and we had plenty on the boat during the day. This was our last stop of the day so we headed back to St. John to go back through customs and enter US territory again. Once we got back to the villa we had a simple dinner because we were all so exhausted from the fun and sun and went to bed.
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