A Much Needed Visit from Home

The Barth’s visit provided a much-needed infusion of home. Gina, Nathan and Andrew arrived in St. Thomas a couple days before Brian, so we arranged a rendezvous at their hotel off Frenchman’s Reef.  Gina graciously watched the kids while Tom and I secured provisions.  Fortunately, the wind allowed us to anchor at the hotel’s beach, so we took advantage of long showers, before retiring to the beach bar while watching the incredible sunset and the boys building sandcastles. The next morning, Tom collected Gina and the boys from the ferry dock, giving them the boat tour and safety speech before setting off to collect Brian from the airport. One can anchor off Lindbergh Bay just a short walk from the runway…it’s the first time we’ve made an airport pickup by boat! Once Brian was onboard we headed for St John’s Leincester Bay. Despite favorable winds, everyone was hot when we arrived, so we cooled off by swimming, paddle-boarding and sailing in the dingy. The next morning, the Barth’s toured Annaberg Sugar Plantation with Zoe while we snorkeled. Unfortunately, our excursion was cut short when JT sustained several jellyfish stings through his rashguard. Once everyone was back aboard we set our sights on the BVI.

The next four days passed in a whirlwind of good company, good food and excellent Painkillers. We crammed our favorite spots into the few short days: Cooper Island, the Baths, Eustatia Sound, The Bitter End and Saba Rock’s fish feeding/Happy Hour.  The boys picked up their friendship without skipping a beat. The week saw Nathan bravely facing the lively surf at the Bath’s and Andrew swimming fearlessly from Liberator. Our last day at the Bitter End the Barth’s graciously treated us to dinner. While there, we ogled the maxi-yachts in for a big-boat regatta. These 130-feet plus long sailboats have masts reaching so far into the sky that they are required to light their masts with red lights to signify an aviation hazard. We counted 16 such masts.  A highlight for Zoe was seeing the Necker Belle, an 80-ft catamaran belonging to Richard Branson.  The days passed too quickly and before we knew it were dropping the Barths off at Cruz Bay to catch the ferry back to St. Thomas. 

After the frenetic activity of the previous 4 days Liberator felt strangely quiet and we were all a little sad. Zoe cried for an hour two days running; a combination of tween hormones coupled with a wave of homesickness. We haven’t had the good fortune to meet a family with children headed in our direction, so having good friends visit made us all a little homesick for our friends.