Sailing, Take Me Away...

So I did something pretty amazingly fun yesterday in Tortola, BVI. We set sail on a yacht for the day. Yes, you read right, a yacht. A millionaire's dream. We didn't pull in and clear until 1:00pm or so and a group of us decided to head out on a sailboat. This sailboat was equipped with 4 bedrooms, a common room, a kitchen, and a deck area. It was a yacht so to speak. Not a motor yacht like the fancy ones a millionaire would own, but a yacht nonetheless. We went to the local grocer first and stocked up on snacks, liquor, and mixers. It was going to be a cool day of relaxing on the water with the wind catching our sails. We headed off out of Tortola toward a place called Normal Island. It was great. The winds were a little up and the current was a little strong sending our sailboat on a pretty intense list, but it was okay. We were all secure. Some of our team took turns at the wheel as we headed out and our captain prepared the sails. Since the winch was broken we had to use muscle power to raise the sails in which I helped along with some of the other able bodied people on board. We were up and ready within 20 minutes of sailing and enjoying life. I just laid out on deck for a while catching the cool breeze and the sun. After about an hour of sailing and passing some cool coves and caves that would've provided some excellent snorkeling had we brought our gear we arrived at Willy T's floating bar. We had to pull up a buoy about a whole football field or so from the bar so some of us decided to swim. We had a little speedboat tugging along with us, but we were told there wasn't much fuel in it for recreational use and we needed the exercise anyway. It was quite the swim. I thought I wasn't going to make it there it was farther away than I suspected. One of our guys didn't even bother and ended up taking the speedboat and another one made it half way before he was just treading water and the speedboat picked him up. I did make it, but was exhausted. We all took pride in ourselves for swimming there (those of us that did), but we all forgot one thing… money. Oops!!! I even had a special pouch for money and things that needed to be waterproofed in my board shorts and I forgot we were swimming to a bar. Oh well. We started a tab. Now for those that don't know about Willy T's it's a floating fun bar in the Caribbean. You can look them up on the internet at www.bareboatsbvi.com/norman_island_willy_t.html and check 'em out. It's a hopping bar that all the little speedboats pull up to in the Bay of Normal Island and have good times, good food, and music. ALSO it is known for people jumping naked off the top level of the boat into the water. Yes, naked. Of the 8 of us that went, 5 jumped off naked. I did not partake. It was fun to watch though. Hilarious indeed. We stayed there for a while soaking up the atmosphere before 3 of us swam back to the sailboat. That would include me. I jumped off the floating bar and swam back to the ship. Exercise needed, lol. The rest took the speedboat. We pooled our money together and then the captain and one other took that back to Willy T's to pay our tab. We had a sunset sail back to the ship. This was absolutely breathtaking. I even got my turn at the wheel and drove the boat for a while on complete wind power. Fabulous!!! Warm from the cocktails despite the cool air we headed back to the ship for some BBQ dinner outside. What a perfect end to a fabulous day.