Friday, December 10, 2010

St. John, The Rest

Our next day in St. John was bound to be epic... The plan was to charter a boat for our little group, that was going to go over to the British Virgin Islands for the day! We met at the dock at 9am, and we were off with our captain, who just happened to bring along 4 cases of beer and two gallons of fresh made Painkillers. The first stop was Tortola to get our passports stamped and "enter" the country. Not a bad little bay to sit in, while our crew handled the paperwork.

Along the way to our first stop we passed Gilligan's Island... no, really. This might look familiar as it was the island filmed for the opening sequence.

We had time to kill before the bar opened, yes, really, so the captain took us to this absolutely amazing little cove, where we could do some snorkling. I am sure the fish were used to getting fed by the boaters that came here, but that just meant that there were that many more fish out! This was some of the clearest water we snorkled in, ranging from about 35 feet deep to very shallow on the steep rock walls. There were also three seperate caves for us to snorkel into, and massive reefs, teeming with life! After about 90 minutes of snorkling there, we were off to Willy Ts, a bar on a "pirate ship" anchored off shore, in another stunning cove.

Like I said, the cove was pretty stunning. Not a bad view while I munched my conch fritters... and the beginning of the alcoholic beverages for the day.

But our next stop, was the one that everyone was REALLY looking forward to... The Soggy Dollar Bar. The only word I could use to sum this place up, would be "Heaven".

The name of the bar comes from the fact that the only way to get to this bar is by boat, so that means you're swimming into shore to get your drinks. But that really, really wasn't a problem. The water here was no doubt, the most insanely perfect shade of blue I have ever seen.

Jesse, Jessica and I did some snorkeling for a bit, though the reef wasn't that interesting. But I wasn't going to miss doing some swimming in this water. Especially since the plan for the rest of the day consisted of sitting on the beach drinking. Jesse and I volunteered anytime people needed us to swim out to the boat to pick up a few more beers.

I only managed to sit on the beach for about half an hour, before deciding it sounded like a much better idea to stand neck-deep in the water while enjoying my drinks. I really really loved the fact that the water was so warm, that you had to keep your drink above the water, in order to prevent it from getting warm too quickly. Right here is the life... relaxing on your sick boat, as the sun starts to drop at Soggy Dollar;

An amazing day out! Though people were getting pretty tired after a full day of sun, swimming, boating...

...and drinking... as one of us were about to get especially "bitten" by the alcohol.

The next morning was another rough one, but I wasn't about to miss another chance to hit the beach. So we were back at Salt Pond Bay, for an epic day of snorkeling, and saw some great sea life as well! Including a solid 40" Mackeral who was not very amused by me swimming up next to him so Jesse could get a good idea of scale! I really have no idea why I came back out of the water this day...

Jeff made a mass of kabobs that night and we all worked hard to drink up the last of our alcohol, you know, to make sure we didn't waste anything. Except for Brittainy... I'm pretty sure she didn't have any drinks that night!

The next day we had one more view from our amazing patio, and then it was time to start the long trip back. I swear it was all I could do to keep from throwing myself over the rail of the ferry and swimming for "freedom".

So my advice? Absolutely, most definitely go. But make sure you only get a one way ticket and by no means plan on coming back. Even if you aren't sure now that you don't want to come back, you'll understand once you get there.

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