Alan was the first to notice. We were enjoying a relaxing morning inside Alegria, in Little Harbor Jost Van Dyke.  The kids were in Tristan’s room playing a game, a beautiful sun was shining, the goats were calling on the hillside.  All that was spoiled when Alan said:

“I think those two guys in the boat behind us are naked.”

A moment’s pause before we all jumped to the window.  Sure enough, there in the cockpit of the monohull about forty feet away from us, one guy was totally naked and the other had a shirt on but no pants.  This is a very small harbor and the boats and the mooring balls are very close together here, so they had to know everyone could see them, but they seemed very much at ease.  At one point, the guy who was totally naked went forward and stood by the mast for the entire harbor to see.  DUDE!  What are you thinking?

Now I’m not a prude, and if someone wants to go naked, by all means have at it, BUT, not in a small harbor where everyone can see you.  Can you not wait ten minutes until you leave the harbor and strip? 

After watching for awhile (and who could turn away?) we finally saw one woman appear and later another.  Apparently it was two couples, on a very small sailboat.  The women, however, stayed fully clothed.  Thankfully the kids stayed downstairs and didn’t see anything.  For us, it was like watching a train wreck, we couldn’t stop watching.  A few questions came to mind.  They were on a thirty six foot monohull.  That’s tight quarters for 2 couples. If they aren’t wearing clothes outside the boat, they surely aren’t wearing them below. At minimum there was some naked bumping into each other. UGH!

 According to the judges (us!), one of the guys seemed older than the other, which led to all kinds of speculations as to the relationship.  The worst of all possible scenarios was “Father-Son”.  EEWW!!!  Could you imagine going naked with your Dad?  It took us awhile to get that thought out of our heads. (No offence Dad!)

Fortunately, they were getting ready to leave.  The older guy who is just wearing a shirt obviously is worried about the sun because before he goes to the front of the boat, he puts on a hat!  A hat!!!  Not pants as most people would, but a hat!  Oh, and shoes, he put on shoes, because obviously you could stub your toe on something.  We all watch him head to the front of the boat to release the mooring ball.  He’s checking the lines, we keep watching.  He’s signaling back to other naked guy, we keep watching. We can see him straining from the side (naked straining is again not pretty!).  Suddenly their boat turns. Instead of a side view we now have the full naked BUTT view.   He bends over and….

 DUDE!!!  NOT COOL DUDE!!!  NOT COOL!!!

We waited until they were well ahead of us before we left, because as you know, “If you aren’t the lead dog, the view never changes!”

 About four o’clock, our friends the Petty’s arrived.  I don’t think our kids could stand it much longer.  Dan and Tristan went to shore at BigMahoBay to pick them up in the dinghy.  On the first trip he brought back the suitcases and the boys, Alec and Collin, then he headed back for Karon and Alan.  As soon as the boys were on the boat, before I even could get a hug, the clothes were coming off, and the suitcases were being attacked.  Luckily Karon had packed their swimsuits in outside pockets, and in less then 5 minutes, all the kids were yelling and jumping off the back of the boat.  What a picture!   This has been the longest time we have gone without seeing them, but you couldn’t tell that from how quick they all fell in together.  

We plan to stay here at Maho today and tomorrow and move to the BVI’s on Saturday, if the weather is good. 

 The long awaited date was finally here.  Tessa’s birthday was today.  For over a month now, all we have heard about was how many days to her birthday.  We had elaborate plans for a party.  But in the cruising world, the best laid plans…….

CruzBay to Red Hook, on our way to Charlotte Amalie to pick up the presents.  Tessa did get to open one present before we left that morning, a charm bracelet from Grandma and Grandpa, which I had brought back with us from Christmas.  That held her over for a little while.  We thought we would be back early, so she wouldn’t have to wait long for her party but the trip expanded.  After getting to Red Hook, we walked to the marine store to get some supplies.  From there we caught the local bus, (very cheap, you can pretty much ride the whole island for a dollar), and headed to Kmart. The Kmart in Red Hook is big, and while I helped Tessa shop for some new clothes, the boys were off looking for swim shoes.  We had a quick birthday lunch at McDonalds, and then caught another local bus.  The buses run in a figure 8 on the island.  Kmart is the center of the figure 8.  We ended up getting on the bus that was going back the way we just came, so we had a longer ride as we went back to the ferry dock, then back to Kmart before heading to Charlotte Amalie.  That was fine for the rest of us since it had started to rain, but Tessa was about out of her skin.  She wanted her presents.  After getting caught in traffic, we finally made it to our mailbox about an hour later.  We were overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that was there.  There were at least 8 boxes, and one huge box containing our breeze boosters.  All of us brought backpacks for the occasion, so I made Tessa and Tristan turn around while I opened the boxes, and started loading their backpacks.    I wouldn’t let them see what was in the boxes as I wanted them to be surprised when we got back to the boat.  While we were at our mailbox, we ran into Chris and Anne from Blue Runner, The dive shop they work at was just around the corner.  We spent a few minutes talking to them, and you should have seen Tessa.  She has seen the boxes, she knows there is candy and birthday presents, they are in a backpack she is being forced to carry, but she can’t touch them and now Mom and Dan are socializing, instead of getting her back to the boat so she can start her party.  Chris gave her a lollipop to appease her, but that really didn’t help.  We said goodbye and headed out to find a taxi.  This time we took the ferry from Charlotte Amalie toCruzBay instead of stopping in Red Hook.  Back inCruzBay, Dan and Tristan stopped at the barber shop for haircuts.  We were way behind schedule for the party, so I reached in the backpack and brought out a present for Tessa to open.  That bought me a little more time.  By the time the haircuts were done and we got back to the boat, it was after 6:00 pm, and I still hadn’t made Tessa’s birthday cake.  We were all exhausted, but at 8:00 pm, we had presents, cake, and a promise we would carry the party over to the next day.  Not exactly what she hoped for, but it turned out alright.