November 26 - Jost van Dyke, British Virgin Islands

 Today we anchored in Great Harbour off the island of Jost van Dyke, one of the four largest islands in the British Virgin Islands. The island is named after a Dutchman but as with other islands in the Caribbean has been under the control of several nations. It ultimately came under British control. Like so many of the Antilles Hurricane Irma devastated it and stripped it of much of its vegetation. Al and I came here for a day 46 years ago when we took a vacation to St. Thomas and took a ferry for a day trip.

There were a couple of excursions available but I stayed on the ship and if I'm honest I basically did not much of anything.  The weather and temperature were lovely so I spent a while sitting on the veranda, writing in my journal and generally being lazy.  A small cruise ship came in and anchored near us.  It was the Sea Dream II.  I think I've read that it's super-deluxe, but truthfully I wasn't impressed by the exterior looks of it.

We sailed around 1:30 PM; it's a long haul to Miami from here.  The singers did a sail-away show by the pool.  What an incredibly talented group they are.  Chris, our cruise director, sang and he has an awesome voice. Not long after it was time for trivia.  We didn't win but we weren't at the bottom.

Dinner was interesting. I was invited to the table hosted by Katie and Mary Ann, two of the singers.  What nice and talented young women they are!  Mary Ann worked a season at Busch Gardens Williamsburg right down the road from me. Katie lives in Wilmington, North Carolina, so still in  my neck of the woods, sort of. But the most interesting person, or perhaps I should say unusual, was one of the other people at the table.  There were two sisters traveling together and I asked Rose, the one sitting across from me, what she  does.  She  lives in Texas just north of Dallas and she said she had a rather odd profession.  I don't know what I expected but she went on to tell me she repairs accordions. I have never met an accordion repairperson and I can't imagine there are many.  Coincidentally that was the instrument I learned to play since a piano was not something we could take along when my father was transferred. She and her sister seemed like two fun people; in fact they were two of the people who were dancing with me and others when we sailed from Antigua.

There was a show after but all this lazing around is tiring so I headed home to deck 10.  We have two more full days before it's back to the real world. Tonight off to our port side I could see the lights of San Juan and the north coast of Puerto Rico, but we're pretty far off shore. More blathering later...

I apologize but I'm into sunsets so I'm adding a couple here.

This was last night when we sailed from St. Kitts.  Look at how calm the seas were.

A hillside on Jost van Dyke - look at how dry and denuded it looks. It's not what I think of when I think of lush Caribbean islands.

I forgot to mention that  the British Virgin Islands are a big sailboat favorite. This sailboat was zipping along close-hauled toward us.

Our cruise director singing at the sailaway.   Some day I may figure out how to video something with my iPhone but for now I  haven't mastered that.  Trust me, he's very good.

And just one more sunset as we sailed north of St. Thomas