Traveling around the British Virgin Islands and Charlotte

We spent December in the British Virgin Islands, mostly in Nanny Cay Tortola, while we were redoing some work on the boat that didn’t go as planned over the summer. This included a few weeks in a local hotel that we renamed “Villa Roach”.

On December 12th we celebrated the biggest, brightest and last full moon of 2008 at the Trellis Bay Fireball Full Moon Party.

It had been cloudy and raining most of the day, but as the sun set the rain stopped and the clouds cleared, opening the sky for a bright full moon. The night started with entertainment from a steel drum band and demonstrations by local artists accompanied by strong rum drinks. We visited with old and new cruising friends amongst the fireballs.

As the night progressed we were entertained by giant jumbies, fire jugglers and people jumping rope, while the rope was on fire!

Then the metal fireball sculptures just off the beach where lit. There were three large metal sculptures that where stuffed with wood and set alight.

While the work was being finished on Berkeley East we decided to rent a car and tour Tortola. We drove around the whole island stopping at various beaches and restaurants, enjoying the less touristy parts of the Island.

From there, we took the ferry over to Virgin Gorda and spent a few days at Little Dix Bay Resort and Spa, a small luxury resort built by the Rockefellers in the 1960’s.

When we arrived back at Berkeley East, we found that the work had slowed and it would be another week before things were finished. The work was being done on “Island Time” – very slowly and not at all if we were not watching. Once they finished, we needed to be off BE for at least seven days, and not wanting to spend Christmas at “Villa Roach,” we headed back to Charlotte, NC.

Our arrival into Charlotte, in shorts and flip flops, was met with temperatures below freezing. Oh well, it was great to catch up with friends and family, do some paper work that we had been avoiding and play Wii. As our Wii bowling scores soared above two hundred we decided this bowling thing was easy and headed off to the bowling lanes with friends. This quickly brought us back to reality as the real thing turned out to be much more difficult.

It was a different Christmas than we planned, but it was great to spend the time with friends and family while enjoying the comfort of our home.