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Well - 22 months and 46 blogs, and our trip is nearly over. We are feeling alternately very sad and extremely happy! In a few days time we will no longer be 'living on a boat' cruisers, able to access exclusive beaches and go where the wind takes us. We will however be able to bath / shower as often as we like, be able to sleep in real beds, and use electricity in a wasteful way. In a couple of weeks time we will be buying a car (shortly followed by moving into our new house) spending pounds not dollars and be generally just like everyone else.
We had a great sail today - from a desert Island by Jost Van Dyke to Norman island. After short tacking though some narrow passes we had 3 other boats to race (2 catamarans and a monohull) and we left them all for dead - very satisfying. We arrived in time to go and snorkel / goggle / swim some caves which was fun, and now are anchored just off a large building that says PIRATES on it (John went to investigate - it is a bar - he investigated it very well and it is a real bar selling real drinks).
We have been enjoying our remaining time on Double Helix. We went to another full moon party in Trellis Bay, which was not as busy but still good fun - Anna stayed awake much longer and did some impressive dancing to a great steel band. From there we headed to Road town for a stint of getting admin things done. We managed to get to a lawyer to complete some things for selling the boat, we managed to book hotels for New York, and our last few days in the BVI, and eventually after many wrong turns, we sent off some boxes on a ship, bound for the UK via Miami! This was not an easy task and the hoops we had to jump through were not signposted!! However we had lots of help from the women at Tropical Shipping and we will wait and see where our boxes go.
From Road Town we set off to see Jost Van Dyke - named after a Dutch Pirate and had a lovely sail there, close hauled all the way. We anchored off a desert Island protected from the Atlantic by a reef. When we went ashore after school the next morning we discovered lots of crabs, a sand cliff for jumping off, and some good snorkelling. It was very small and very lovely. From there we motored over to the mainland (if you can call it that) and went to Foxys famous cafe for lunch, followed by an intrepid walk to see the bubbly pool. The walk was fun - nice to be on land that is not a beach for a while, and the bubbly pool when we arrived was - well - small, and very very mosquito rich. We sat in it for a while (the biubbly pool is a pool of water separted from the sea by rocks - when a big wave comes in it fill with water and bubbles), but i got so many bites that we decided to run for it and legged it back to Double Helix (without even getting Anna dressed!) I was so itchy from all the bites that I jumped in half way back in the dingy and swam back to the boat to try and cool my skin down! The rest of Jost Van Dyke was not so full of mozzis, and we enjoyed white beach especially. It is a very poplular spot and Ellen and Anna had no end of people to go and talk to, most of whom thought they were lovely, so John and I got to read our books on the beach.
Before we left Jost Van Dyke we headed back to the deserted island (a very peaceful spot) and popped in to Foxys for more lunch and a couple of souvenir T-shirts (something to put in our new suitcases - we don't seem to have very many clothes left).
We will be leaving Double Helix on Sunday 24th June - Jan arrives that night, and will spend the next day with John learning the boat. We will all decamp to a hotel (with pool) for 5 days before we head off to New York and then back to the UK.
We have had a 'ceremony' already (thought of and organised by Ellen) where we have all talked about feeling sad that we are leaving Double Helix - Ellen and Anna are very excited about living in hotels, (as am I) but the reality of it has still not really hit us. We will miss our boat and our lifestyle.
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