Our friends from Austin, Josh and Sara and their neighbors Greg and Tiffany, rented a house in Megan’s Bay, St. Thomas and had arrived a few days ago.  We met them at Duffy’s Love Shack in Red Hook Bay which is an easy place for us to anchor and a short 20-minute drive for them.

After a few pain killers, fireballs, and three little monkeys we formulated a plan to meet the next day to take them sailing.   We said a silent prayer that we would get some wind in the morning as the weather forecast showed 5 knots.  The next day, after loading everyone into Sugar Shack, we headed to Jost Van Dyke.  There are two bays side by side White Bay and Great Harbor.  We decided to try to grab a mooring ball in White Bay as Le Mischief was here.  Matt and Josh had to take the long dinghy ride over to Great Harbor to clear everyone in – no biggie or so we thought.  Josh got to see the “joy” of clearing into a new country.  Every country has its own particular process, requirements, and rules that you are supposed to know and follow.  We don’t always get it right, but Matt is so courteous that when we get it wrong he can usually get away with it.  This time, we got it wrong.  Evidently, they don’t like when you anchor in one bay and dinghy over to the other.  They threatened Matt with a $10,000 fine and had to call a supervisor several times.  Luckily, they were able to kowtow our way out of it with a warning.  While the boys were pissing off the local government, Greg, Tiff, Sara and I were enjoying a cool dip in the ocean, floating on noodles, cold beverages, and good music – we should feel bad about their experience, but didn’t 😊

With the boys back on board, we served up Blueberry Sprtiz’s and snacks. Now that the crew was fed and enjoyed a few libations it was time to head to Soggy Dollar Bar.  SDB is the original creator of the “pain killer” so of course that was ordered.

Tiff had learned that you can send people a link to a SDB website where they can buy you drinks so the first round was on one of her friends – sweet. I wish I had known this earlier, I would have sent it out on Facebook (hee hee, kidding, sort of, kind of).

We did a little souvenir shopping, drank a few rounds, kept our souvenir cups and headed back to the boat.  After a quick shower, and some pork chops, we dressed for the evening.  Some how, Josh ended up in the water (Wayne is not the only one) and he happened to rub up against our bottom paint causing his new shorts to have a red tone all over.  Oh jeesh.

Josh and Sara presented Matt and the crew with celebratory 50^th birthday shirts – they were so awesome!  Sporting our new shirts, we headed in to Foxy’s where they had a live band.

It is a rare moment when Matt dances and tonight was one of them.  In his Vintage Vessel shirt, he went to the stage where they had called all Bday people (total of 4 males).  The singer sang happy birthday and did a little grove with each of them.  It was certainly a sight to behold.

Sometime after, I got a text from our friend Richard Rincon (who we know from Corpus Christi) and was delivering a boat to St. Thomas.  His crew had gone to bed so Matt and I went to get him in our dinghy.  All was good, until we were about 10’ from the dinghy dock and the outboard dies and would not start – so we got the paddles out, hit the dock, and unloaded Richard and Matt.  As the boys went in for a drink, I trolled the dinghy dock looking for a dinghy with a jerry can or some nice person who could sell me some fuel.  Yes, I know we use a combination of fuel and oil, but at this point, I will take straight up fuel-beggars can’t be choosers, right?  After talking to a few locals about other options: walking to SDB then swimming back to the boat from shore (not a good idea with people who are 3 sheets in), paddling (which was over 5 miles away) or buying fuel.  Ugh….what to do.  Somehow the angels smiled upon me and a young lady dropped off a to-go carton to a dinghy with a spare jerry can.  So I rushed over there, told her my story and she took me to her captain (as this is a huge dink – we are talking 15+ with center counsel). The guys were great, grabbed the can, filled Sweet N Low up, started it on the first pull and wouldn’t take any money!  I insisted on buying them drinks which they took with a huge smile on their face.  I love my sailing community!  We were able to return Richard to his boat and our crew safely to Sugar Shack for a good night’s rest.

The next day we were moving a little more slowly, I made some banana pancakes and we made a plan to go to St. John.   The wind had picked up slightly, and I mean ever so slightly so we were able to sail Big Bertha for a short while. Josh loved couldn’t believe how peaceful it was with the sound of the waves pushing us along and no engines.  Perfect opportunity to showcase off our beautiful sailboat!  We arrived St. John’s and quickly jumped in the water as it was a bit toasty outside.  Matt made pasta with sausage and we enjoyed the night show under the sea.  Matt put out the green light and we saw the most gorgeous spotted ray swimming across the top of the water.  Then several smaller rays played with the large tarpin in the green light.  Pretty cool show.