Spring Break 2013 on Hakuna Matata

Before April gets too far gone I am still compelled to blog about our Spring Break and Easter week on Hakuna Matata. So far all those that have trouble rewinding, I apologize. But the week was just too great not to say something about our unique travel experience with friends. As many of you might already know, The Hetrick family chose to spend their spring break helping us crew Hakuna Matata for 8 days! We have traveled with the Hetricks on mission trips, college weekends, wine country and countless weekends all over the midwest but Seabbatical 2013 proved to be one of our greatest adventures. In 8 days we sailed around and hiked through the islands of St John USVI, Norman BVI, Cooper Island, the Baths and North Sound on Virgin Gorda, Little Jost and Jost Van Dyke. Maho Bay on St John continued to be a great mooring spot and we enjoyed a little hike through the campground and mangroves. But we also decided to visit a bay for the locals called Coral Bay. Although it is a quiet, well protected, fairly nondescript bay, it is home to the popular Skinny Legs restaurant. We had a fun meal accompanied by some of the most peculiar island folk band type music we have encountered yet. The trio sounded more like a back woods West Virginia genre than island happy hour music. But the food and company were great and everyone slept really well from a busy day of traveling. Norman Island is usually known for its permanently anchored restaurant the Willy T in which one must tie the dingy to, climb up the ladder of the aging monohaul and possibly jump from the bar of the restaurant if your night calls for that type of behavior. In four visits to Norman Island we have chosen the lesser known but beautiful hiking trails and quiet dinners on our boat or a fantastic meal at the newly renovated Pirates beach side restaurant. Dave and Rhonda treated us to most of our meals out during their stay which was a huge help in feeding the constantly hungry five teens on board. We closed down Pirates restaurant as the kids burned off energy from dinner practicing acrobatics at the beach. Kaylee and Olivia also worked on their "white girl" dance moves in the Pirates dining room. Pirates has a rockin' play list. Dinghy Captain William got us all safely back to Hakuna Matata in the dark. I am unsure if Monday night was the beginning of the endless euchre but we all played so many hands during the week that the cards are completely worn out. Plus, playing cards on a sail boat means there are usually a few cards being blown from the table. Tuesday was spent relaxing, snorkeling the Caves, lots of great food and Happy Hour at our favorite Cooper Island beach club. Wednesday morning called to us early so that we could motor sail to The Baths on Virgin Gorda. If you have never heard of the Baths on Virgin Gorda take a moment to Google some pics, you won't be disappointed. Timing is critical when hiking the Baths because many of the cruise ships bus in tourists from Spanish Town and most are unprepared for the trails. Our timing through the trails and our lunch at the top of the Baths was perfect and we finished up just as the sunburned cruise passengers readied themselves for their prepaid buffet. The trail through Devil's Head Bay is the most popular and the views are breathtaking. If you are a teenage boy then the breath most likely being taken away is your mom's. Teen boys don't believe in hiking through the Baths on the marked trail. Teen boys must climb the highest rocks, squeeze through the smallest possible crevices and get as close to the crashing waves on the gigantic boulders as possible. But that sounds more like a parenting blog... We have climbed through the Baths numerous times but on this hike we included a new detour on a lesser known trail called Rocky Point. Rocky Point takes you to even more sweeping views of the channel between Virgin Gorda and uninhabited Fallen Jerusalem. We were overwhelmed by this hidden little gem. Wednesday afternoon we sailed to Savannah Bay which is supposedly a quiet area because most charter companies don't want their cruisers attempting to anchor and navigate the reef. Within minutes of setting our anchor three large catamaran's anchored just in front of us and two more cats joined them within the hour. These catamaran's were all sailing as a group with captains and crews and lots of youngins' aboard. Their captains spent the afternoon pulling the younger kids tubing behind the dingy and running snorkelers back and forth between the beach and the boats. So much for our quiet bay. Also during anchoring, Bessie's rope got wrapped in the starboard motor! Dave and the boys were great as they worked together cutting and untangling the mangled rope from the prop. A large swell moved in overnight at Savannah which tossed us from side to side all night. We were all pretty glad to head out Thursday for Gorda Sound and hopefully a calmer anchorage. As always, Gorda Sound feels like home to us. We were really glad Dave mentioned that this is also one of his favorite spots and happily obliged taking them to Gorda Sound. Saba Rock is a tiny island barely seen on a map with a tiny beach, gift shop, small hotel, restaurant and bar and the most domesticated, well fed tarpon in the ocean. Happy Hour on Saba Rock is filled with cruisers from all over the world who are eager to share their adventures. It was an amazing feeling to share our story with other cruisers and find so many unique qualities because we chose to experience this seabbatical with our teenagers. Good Friday through Easter Sunday in the islands is a wonderfully different experience. It wasn't until we returned to the States that we realized we did not see one single easter egg, jelly beans, pastel colored bunnies in various forms, etc. What a refreshing experience for our families. Good Friday brought some much needed rain to Little Jost. Following lunch we hiked to the bubbly pool and the sky let loose on us. We were all dressed for swimming anyway and hiking in the rain was such fun as the girls sang and we all skipped from puddle to puddle. The excitement really began as we climbed soaking wet aboard Hakuna Matata and the kids played in the ocean as it poured down. The winds shifted and our anchor came off the ocean floor so we pulled up the anchor and decided to move on to a different bay. We were all very thankful that we had made it back to the boat before the anchor moved on us! As we motored through two more bays it became apparent that anchoring in the wind and rain was not working so we headed on to our next stop at Little Harbour. We finally got to use the heavy weather gear I had packed. Cody brought us all lots of laughs in his yellow poncho and too small yellow rain pants. We needed the comic relief and are always thankful for Cody's joyful spirit. We celebrated our wet arrival to Jost Van Dyke with fish and lobster dinner at Sydney's restaurant. Spiny Caribbean lobster are huge and not as sweet as US east coast lobster. But Caribbean lobsters can feed a crowd of hungry sailors quite well especially when Dave and Rhonda bring an excellent bottle of Caymus to dinner. Saturday and Sunday found us relaxing in Great Harbour just around the bend from White Bay on Jost Van Dyke. While Gorda Sound is full of yachts, private islands, pricey resorts and more populated beaches, Jost Van Dyke's Little Harbour and Great Harbour have landscapes and locals reminiscent of Roatan, Honduras or the sleepy villages of Jamaica. For this reason, Jost Van Dyke has easily become one of our favorite islands in the BVI. The locals are easy to chat with and they enjoy sharing the history of their lives on Jost. Sunday morning rains came and we agreed to plan A (ashore) and a plan B (church on the boat) for our Easter celebration. None of us really wanted to show up at a local congregation like drowned rats from a wet dinghy ride to shore. We had already found a local Methodist church to attend and could actually see the chapel from our boat but were unsure how to get there, dry. We all cleaned up and at the first sign of slightly clear skies we dinghied to shore and quickly made our way to the Methodist church for a lively 2.5 hour Easter service. Most of the hymns seemed to have come straight from the Baptist hymnal I grew up with. The remainder of our Easter Sunday was spent playing beach volleyball, euchre and we even got to watch a little bit of NCAA basketball at Ali Baba restaurant. The rain finally moved on throughout the night and gave way to sunshine on Monday as we motored to Soper's Hole in time for the Hetrick's to meet the ferry that would take them to St Thomas. We loved having this experience with friends. The Hetrick's are great sailors! Our hope is to have pictures on the blog or on dropbox soon. Thanks for continuing to cheer us on in this adventure. -Kelli