AND ON TO 'FOXYS' ........ FOR MORE T-SHIRTS ................

A great down-wind run from VIRGIN GORDA to JOST VAN DYKE doing 2.3 knots and TODA VIA doing 7 knots and over the horizon ............ Well, he does have a racing boat ...............Anchor in the bay and off to see 'FOXY' again ............ He is such a character and a great story-teller as well as a wooden boat fanatic ............... We see his micro brewery out the back ........... Absolutely necessary ............. For on New Year's Eve there is anything up to ten thousand people here ........... Most of whom may not remember a lot ................ Today however, is a quiet day and we get him to ourselves ............ The main street (all sand) that runs in front of his premises is deserted .........His son-in-law has just come in with 170 lbs of lobster and parts with some to DWIGHT .......... That Captain Dwight sure gets around, for FOXY greets him like a long lost son ............ How do you do that? .........



Look at those lobsters and the subsequent lobster salad ............... Look at the setting for a quick lunch on board ................ Yeah, well, someone has to do this .............



And the little 'Entrepreneur' operating the dinghy (above) is BUNNY ...... All of six years old, who goes around the anchorage morning and night collecting "garbage bags" at $ 3.00 a pop ............... Then off-loads it all on the dock (above), and with a little handcart takes two bags at a time to a dumpster ...............He greets you in proper English with a "Good morning Sah, may I take your garbage" ............ Now who can so "No" to that ......



We were content to watch others in FOXY'S Tavern at night ............. The memory of the last time is still very fresh ......... That may, or may not, be water that I'm holding in the cup...............



And the "QUEEN OF FLORIDA" gets to sit on Foxy's lap .......... But there is also Foxy's look-alike dummy strumming his guitar................ And after a few drinks of Foxy's Famous Firewater rum, patrons have been known to carry on quite a long conversation with this dummy telling "Foxy" their life story ............. It is probably good that they don't remember that part of the evening...............



We caught up with Foxy's wife TESSA, who hails from Melbourne, AUSTRALIA ....... Married for forty years and has seen it all ............... Between them they have a bunch of children and grandchildren to carry on the enterprise ........ It was from her side of the business that we loaded up the T-shirts ........Meantime Foxy (above) is giving his grandchildren a taste of honey from his hives ............

And as for the shapely Island sloop, well, it is being built by island students from local timber to local design under Foxy's watchful eye and funded in part by donations from people like singer/songwriter Kenny Chesney and Sir Richard Branson, of VIRGIN AIRLINES fame, and while on the subject of name dropping, FOXY's real name is Feliciano Callwood ........... I bet you didn't see that one coming ..........



We sailed back to St. Thomas to have a look around at the other end of the island ............. Definitely more bars than supermarkets .......... ARITA is anchored out there somewhere ..............Do a double-click on any of the photos to enlarge them .......



A super mini-cruise in excellent company while not actually sailing together, although we did see TODA VIA disappear over the horizon each time .............. All of that, and then the superb dinners was just wonderful ................

Now all of that we could handle, but then to add this final bit ........... Well, how would you handle this ....... When Capt. Dwight calls us on cell phone, just when we are still struggling to get close to Culebra P.R. to tell us that he has managed to land a couple of fish while sailing ....................... I tell you, there has to be a conspiracy somewhere, because we haven't caught anything more than seaweed .......... Somebody please help us here................. A 25 lb wahoo/kingfish and a huge horse-eyed jack ........... I'm telling you ............... Do a double-click and lick your chops .............I bet you can taste them ...........

DWIGHT, MARJORIE AND THE YACHT "TODA VIA" ARE JUST TOO MUCH ...

THE JUMBIES .........................................

Sail around the corner past Spanish Town on VIRGIN GORDA to the southern end of the island and you come to this beautiful protected and enclosed harbour ............. You enter through a marked passage in the reef .............. At one end is the LEVERICK BAY resort/marina, and at the other end, some two miles away, is the BITTER END YACHT CLUB, and all of it in nice deep water ................ But at LEVERICK is where the 'Happy Hour' on a Friday night breaks out in wild dancing by the JUMBIES, a group of local performers on well-disguised stilts ........... Nothing stilted about this performance ............ That's not to say that you can't also break out in wild dancing but somehow "White people just don't have that rhythm" .......... Being one of them, I can say that ........... "It just ain't there"........ The others are as supple as a snake, while the rest of us 'admirers' are as stiff as their stilts ............. The mind gyrates, the body doesn't ......... There is a disconnect in there somewhere ................ Doesn't stop us from trying though .........Check out the video below .......




After a wild night at LEVERICK BAY some of us are exhausted and need all the rest we can get before motoring to the BITTER END for 'refueling' ...........



And while on our way to the BITTER END, we spot this lonesome flamingo drifting in the sound .........A beautiful sight ........... We creep closer and closer, very slowly, waiting for that moment of flight and hoping not to miss it ...............



The flamingo wasn't the only majestic, rare and beautiful object floating on the placid waters of the sound ............ There was also this magnificent yawl "BOLERO" ...... No doubt a Sparkman & Stevens design, with all of its varnished woodwork and cabin top covered in fawn-coloured canvas, as protection from the sun. ............. A 'Rembrandt' on the water ........... Literally a canvas on the water .............. Sure to be seen again during 'CLASSIC WEEK' in Antigua in April next year ........ Always assuming we can break free from wonderful Puerto Rico ......... And Dwight's invitations aren't exactly helping ....



"EL PRESIDENTE", Capt. Dwight Rodriguez, is over the moon with the sailing ........... His yacht "TODA VIA" flies, and leaves us reaching for binoculars within an hour ................Don't know how he does it ............ We never used to be this slow ...............We will just have to stop buying boat stuff on EBAY ......

IN AWE OF WHAT WE SAW ......................AND ATE .............

We joined our Puerto Rico friends, DWIGHT AND MARJORIE RODRIGUEZ to do a 10 day mini cruise through the VIRGIN ISLANDS ..............Dwight's yacht, TODA VIA has undergone some major renovation and this was to be a 'virgin cruise' ...............And to top it off, DWIGHT said he would do all the cooking ......... Which means incredible food and exquisite cuisine, served like we are on a cruise ship (which of course, we are)............ Speaking of which, there were six big cruise ships docked in Charlotte Amalie, ST. THOMAS when we arrived........... That's like releasing 15,000 people to invade a small town for about six hours.............. And that happens every day, seven days a week ......................And every night ARITA and TODA VIA would be rafted up together ........... Talk about going out for dinner by only having to step over two life-lines ...........



Here's one of those beautiful meals, a fully-fledged "PAELLA" rice with seafood to die for ...........And our journey continued past St. Thomas and St. Johns to the beautiful FRANCIS bay ...........Where we promptly picked up a mooring, not over the bow as most people would, but around the propellor ............... That way, the wind will ensure that you are facing backwards and won't be going anywhere for a quite while .......... Pure sympathy and compassion forced a neighbouring yachtsman, Micheal Bean, to come over with a dive tank after I failed to be able to release the thick mooring line ..............



We invited Micheal Bean and Pamela, "The Queen of Colorado" to join us on board and became amazed at the extent of their stories ........... Definitely need to be continued when we sail south again............. But on to Pirate Bay, NORMAN ISLAND in the BVIs and then VIRGIN GORDA and the 'Baths', those majestic granite boulders that you can never get enough of ............The sandy path that leads between these boulders takes you back to being a kid on an adventure trail, which on this day led to 'DEVILS BAY' filled with 300 to 400 Germans, escapees from one of the cruise ships docked in ROAD TOWN, TORTOLA, in the British Virgin Islands ............ They had been ferried across for a day in the sun to turn 'lily-white' into 'salmon pink'and 'blood red' ...............

Micheal Bean, on the other hand, has a beautiful black-hulled yacht "MANGELE" built in ferro-cement, that will outlast all of us ............ He has been contracted to perform at one of the resorts in VIRGIN CORDA to do the 'HAPPY AARRRGH' Pirate show with songs, stories and ballads and general rape, pillage and plunder routines .................. We need to get with them some more ........... Kindred spirits .............




You just have to double-click on some of the photos above to get the surreal quality and the majestic feel of the place ............. The 'serenity pool' in particular .......... One can stand there for quite a long time and admire the light reflected by the water, as it dances on the walls ............. And note the new stickers on the outboard motor that now say 8 HP instead of 15 HP ............. All in an attempt to prevent the motor from being stolen ......... 15 Hp motors are big ticket items in the islands................ We now have the fastest '8 HP' in the World ............ This Pelican is no fool .............. "Hey, Ma look at me and this Ferarri" ........

We had taken so many photos of rounded boulders and things, that suddenly there was this one photo amongst them all................. Turned out to be that I must have clicked a good shot of my knees ............. And you probably thought it was something else, didn't you.............

We fall asleep with bellies full .............. Dwight's rich food is killing us ......... What a way to die .............