Day Fourteen: Saturday 9th January
Eggs Benedict and ham got us off to a fair start on our last day, by the morning of which we were feeling quite glad of the prospect of getting our feet back on solid ground. Not that we had been disappointed with the cruise, but we had begun to get a little bored. Opportunities for watersports were severely limited by time factors and local restrictions (for example, many bays forbid motorsports because of the danger to swimmers and snorkelers) and there was an apparent total lack of availability of various items of water-sports gear which we had assumed from the ship’s publicity literature would be made readily accessible such as hobie cats and windsurfers.
The crew, while very pleasant and accommodating, had not given us much in the way of watersports opportunities (or appraised us of the availability of same) and apart from snorkelling there had been nothing active to do unless you include swimming round the boat or doing exercises on the deck, neither of which are half as much fun as water skiing.
In short, we would have preferred to have been given more access to watersports and more varied water-based activities, as we quickly got bored of sitting on deck reading books while the boat sailed from one place to another. Richard got through about six books during the week, finally in desperation plumbing the depths by grinding through a tedious collection of Herman Hesse’s fairy tales (courtesy of the small on-board library), while Sam got through five paperbacks.
We departed the boat at 11am at Trellis Bay and checked into the Beef Island Guest House (more of which later).
Our thoughts on the boat were, briefly, summarised as follows:
PLUS POINTS
Relaxed,intimate,friendly
Limited/zero water sports activities
Small number of people aboard
Cabins have very little natural light
Characterful vessel, good snorkelling
Piped "musak" on deck very irritating (though they did turn it off when asked)
Caribbean-style food excellent
American/European-style food mediocre
Good variety of interesting locations visited
Limited/zero choice at meal times.Fixed meal times
Wind power used for virtually all ships movements
On-board mobile phone was never able to get through to the UK (we tried about fiftteen times!)
Air conditioned cabins
Breakfast quality patchy, amazingly bad coffee at breakfast
Able to anchor in small coves and bays
Ships movements sometimes restricted choice to remain on beaches
Other interesting facts about the boat:
Above right; View of Boat from Salt Island
Below; Road town Tortola, seen from the hilltops
Once at Beef Island Guest House we decided to go for a tour of the island. (pictures taken from the coastal road below) This was undertaken in a taxi and cost us US$52. It took about two-and-a-half hours, and included seeing all the sights: Sky View, the highest point on the island with a viewing area and a gift shop selling the obligatory crap gifts; Mount Healthy National Park, a tiny (less-than-one-acre) but nonetheless historically interesting national park complete with the remains of an old sugar-processing windmill from days gone by; and Callwood Distillery, a tumble-down rum distillery situated in Cane Garden Bay.
Callwood Distillery looks, from the outside, like a filmset of an abandoned 1930's garage which time forgot. You expect to see bits of old Ford Zephyrs and Duesenberg wiper motors littered about. On entering the dim interior, one notices among the barrels racked up against the far wall a selection of old pieces of distilling equipment which looked as if they had been salvaged from Tutankhamun’s tomb. And sitting on two barrels just inside the doorway are two ancient old black men, who don’t move a muscle, but just sit and stare straight ahead of them as you walk past. On the left hand side is a very dusty makeshift counter behind which lurks a little Indian/Mexican guy with the most shifty eyes you ever saw.
The conversation inside the distillery went something like this:
Richard: “So, this is where you distil rum?”
Little Indian/Mexican guy: “Hmmm, yaa, hmm.”
R: “How much do you make a month here?“
LIMG: “Hmm, aah, distil, yes.”
R: “Do you make a lot? How much a week? Forty barrels, maybe? More? Less?“
LIMG: “Dut know. Distil, yes. Ahh, hmm.”
R: “Where do you keep the mash tubs?”
LIMG: “Umm, ahh, tubs.”
R: “Are they up here?” (indicating up ladder, leading to spooky dark place)
LIMG: “Oh! No can go! Hmm, no allow!”
R: “Could I just take a look?” (motions towards ladder, leading to mysterious cubby hole)
LIMG (getting very animated): “No, you no allow! You buy, yes, only allow in here, you buy, only can go in here, no allow!”
At this point we decided to bring this stimulating exchange of words to a close by buying a bottle of their finest (!) stuff (dark rum) which cost US$6 for a large bottle (probably about a litre). We took some photographs of the exterior and noticed from a prominent sign that “photography is only permitted after making a purchase”. Evidently they’re so tight-fisted that they won’t “allow” photography of their precious distillery unless you have bought something. In point of fact their rum wasn’t too bad, although I did harbour some dark suspicions about the little Mexican's role in the operation. As we left we noticed the two motionless black guys were still on their barrels and had apparently not moved a muscle. Maybe they were stuffed.
Right; Calwood Distiller
y
After our tour of the Island we were hungry so we had a snack at the Loose Mongoose. It was very good; we chose chicken and vegetable burritos and the size of the portions and the quality of the food was good. We met up with a couple who had been on the boat with us. They were supposed to be flying out to Antigua, but had been badly let down by LIAT who had completely overbooked the flight and they were forced to hang around and wait for another one. Hence Richard's suspicions were confirmed and we were pleased that we had booked our internal flights with American Eagle. During the meal three out of the four of us were jumping around, flailing at ourselves like people with some strange neurological disorder due to all the mosquitoes. They are very tiny and extremely numerous inflicting very painful bites (which leave scars in some cases, Sam still has some bite marks three months later) Richard however was not affected at all and the small creatures could be seen landing on him and not finding him appealing flying off to find a more tasty morsel; namely Sam sitting beside him smothered in insect repellent. (Tip: Richard thinks this is due to drinking lots of beer which mozzies apparently don't like) We did not find any brand of insect repellent which would keep Sam bite free, Richard however remained virtually untouched throughout the holiday despite using hardly anything.
We spent the rest of the afternoon having a pleasant walk along the beach, picking up lots of conch shells and annoying the local hermit crab population by picking them up and taking their photos.
That evening we decided to go to the Last Resort which is a pub/ restaurant situated on its own island. It is renowned for its "live entertainment" and had been recommended as one of the places around Beef Island to experience. We called their launch over to us (free) using the phone provided by them near to their jetty. A friendly Australian chap came over in a launch about 5 mins later and took us over to the Last Resort. It all looked very pleasant and we decided to stay and sample their dinner (a fixed price gets you three courses one of which is choice from a well-stocked buffet and is served to everyone in the restaurant at the same time) We ordered drinks and then sat down at a small table, the first course arrived at the appointed time (soup and bread) and after this we were informed that the meal would be served as a buffet. Having finished our soup we went to find the buffet and whilst investigating some interesting looking dishes we were told off in no uncertain terms by a very large Caribbean lady. We were told the buffet was not ready yet and we had to go back to our table until called. She was just like a school dinner lady. We humbly returned to our seats only to be called up again 2 mins later. The food was very good though, with traditional roast beef and yorkshire puddings being the main attraction, and Richard said it was the best roast beef he had ever tasted. (Strange, that a bizarre out-of-the-way place like this can serve better traditional English food than is available anywhere in England). Desert of ice-cream followed. During the meal several animals including at least 3 dogs and one donkey accosted the guests in the hope of getting scraps- it did add to the general ambience of the place and was quite good fun as long as you don't mind animals. Satisfied by our meal we eagerly awaited the "entertainment".
An Englishman called Alan was the entertainment that night (and I believe every night). We waited a long time after he was scheduled to start and were informed that he was a little held up. Eventually he arrived, extremely drunk and proceeded to slur jokes into the microphone at us. The jokes, even when intelligible were not in the least funny except to Alan himself who appeared to be having a tremendous time. After the jokes finished and a round of polite applause, Alan proceeded to try and play various musical instruments including a guitar, piano and harmonica. Unfortunately he was multi-untalented and at one point the dogs had to be removed from the vicinity because his music inspired them to howl in time to his playing. This being the most tuneful and interesting interlude it was a shame when the dogs were removed by the management. It would have been better if they had removed Alan and let the dogs carry on! Richard and I decided it was time to go and do something more entertaining such as wash our hair at the hotel and called the launch man over to take us back over the bay. We would point out that the food and ambience was good at The Last Resort, and it would be charitable for us to suggest that we had perhaps caught “Alan” on an off night. Dinner was good value and cost about US$50 with drinks.
We did not sleep especially well that night, it was very hot with no air conditioning, and we were plagued with mosquitoes. Sam had put insect repellent all over her body but had forgotten the soles of her feet. In the morning some very painful bites hindered her steps.
Above; View of Cane Garden Bay, Tortola, and (above top) Richard videoing same
© Copyright 1999 Richard and Samantha Harrison