10. Lost Days in the Virgins

My last few days in the Virgin Islands were fun. Although I was planning on leaving on Tuesday, the weather forced me to wait again. But that meant I got to spend Christmas Day with my friends Mark and Lisa from Tara, who arrived at Leverick Bay on Christmas Eve. We had fun on the beach and then an amazing dinner at the restaurant.

Leverick Bay, you can see Sonic Boom anchored

One day dingying back to my boat, I looked down and instead of dingy floor, I could see fish. It was a bad sign, and in fact that dingy is no more; it’s in a skip. Luckily I managed to find a new one, with the help of Cyril the taxi driver, for $150. Not really new, it was deflated on a beach and covered in crap. I spent a day cleaning it up, and patching the leaks, and now it’s much better than my old one. 

The day of dingy repair, I had needed to borrow a foot pump, so I asked around but couldn’t find anything. The only boat around with people aboard that I hadn’t asked was Necker Belle, Richard Branson’s huge catamaran that was taking on fuel and water at the dock. So I went over and asked them, so I managed to borrow Richard Branson’s foot pump to blow up my dingy. I’d seen him a couple of days before; he walked right by me when I was at the bar. I heard he’s developing Mosquito Island into a resort.

In Leverick Bay I realized I had seen Steve Jobs’ new motor yacht. I saw a magazine, which had a picture of a huge motor yacht I had seen off Norman Island a couple of weeks ago. At the time I thought it was ugly, it looked like Tupperware. Then I noticed it was a Feadship, and thought it must have a famous owner. It turned out to be Venus, the boat Steve Jobs commissioned, and the designer Philip Stark tried to impound for unpaid fees.

Another day I had been sitting in my boat, when I heard someone shout ‘Strolla! That’s my old boat!’ The old owner, previous to the one I bought it off, was sailing into Leverick Bay marina on a catamaran. So I met him at the bar and chatted about the boat. He’d lived on it for a while, and spent lots of money fixing it up.