We messed around in Charlotte Amalie for a few days. Mostly undamaged by the hurricanes and full of little alley way streets and shops. We stupidly wandered in to a Persian rug emporium and only just escaped without a boat load of rugs “at a very good never to be repeated cheaper that Europe” price.
We sailed back to Jost Van Dyke and checked back in to the BVI’s and a quick drink at the Soggy Dollar where we ran in to a couple we met at the WARC reunion in Iceland! and then back to Tortola where we left the boat for 10 days while we flew to Tampa. Pete had a dermatology appointment to follow up on his level 2 melanoma in Australia last October. I decided to have a check too and it was me that ended up with a 5 stitch excision! We stayed with an old work colleague and friend Tom and wife Lisa. They were great hosts and we ate and drank far too much! Super Bowl was on while we were there so that was a fun evening with a bunch of Americans in front of the TV. There is an Aussie lady who has opened a pie shop just down the road from tom’s so Pete got a meat pie fix. We also managed to buy a few things for the boat that we were having trouble getting in the Caribbean including a new washing machine! Our old one just kept on filling – not a good thing on a boat. Anyway we think we have it shipped from Amazon and now on a boat to Tortola where we are now waiting for it - with fingers crossed as nothing goes smoothly around her at the best of times never mind after two hurricanes. A lot of people here still do now have power after 4 months and the internet is unreliable and land lines just not working mostly. The British government has committed a few billions but the government here is apparently so corrupt that they have to give it to the Governor to spend!! It will take years and years to fix all the infrastructure here. There are two official tip sites that are quite huge where people can take their wreckage – both more than a kilometre long and many stories high already.
