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Friday March 16, 2012

Up early and off to Road Town. The Winter Wins are blowing very early and very strong. John is loving the new sail; we are doing 10.5 knots and make it quickly to Village Key Marina in Road Town, Tortola. We have a 10 AM appointment with people finishing work on the new dodger, the "wind shields" are done but the sides are being fitted to curve around the wenches and accommodate the lines controlling the sails. The welder on the work crew, Andy who is 49 years old, tells us he is playing in a rugby game tonight in the stadium next to the marina. Saturday is St. Patrick's Day so we start making our plans to see the game at around 6 PM.

We also spent most of the day fighting with a failing internet service. This is high season and BVI gets limited bandwidth from Puerto Rico. There is also a mega yacht race at the Bitter End this weekend. If the Italians are there, and they are, the bandwidth is being consumed sending documentation of their exploits back home. After trying to connect 20 times, you finally get an extremely slow connection that only works for a minute or two before timing out. Thus my blog waited until today to be updated. 

At 6 PM we head off to the rugby match. We can see the field lights from Bella Donna but the entrance to the field is not obvious. We enter on the wrong side of the field, have to crawl under a broken chain link fence, and walk around the track and field artificial surface (the best quality I have ever seen) to the home side stands on the far side. It is a mix of rugby loving locals mostly much younger than ourselves. There is the delicious smell of cooking burgers and dogs. We grab a Heineken beer and settle into the stands to view what is my first live rugby game. The BVI team was playing a team the announcer is calling George Washington. Andy who came too late to play, and a obviously having had a few beers, says it is Washington State, but we think they are from Saint Louis. Anyway, the BVI team is awesome, the final score is 72 to 0.

It looks like the fans and the players are about to party big, but we need to move on the The Watering Hole back in Village Kay.  This is a daytime coffee shop and nighttime South African bar that is one of our favorites. Since tomorrow is Saint Patricks's Day and we are leaving we have to make room for Watering Hole tonight. It is just next door to the marina on the water you have to know the place is there, but it is hard to miss if you look north. There is some seating outside and some inside surrounded by wine racks. You walk in and either order by the glass over the bar or grab a bottle from the rack each marked with a bottle price. We order 3 ciders, a vodka and one red wine, yes that we me. As always John wants to make sure we enjoy ourselves so he grabs a bottle of ClipPort, Clippy's, and 5 shot glasses. Clippy's is a brandy from South Africa. In fact I think most all the alcohol at The Watering Hole is South African. In fact the owners, Graeme and Bridgit Maccallum, are the main importer of South African alcohol in the Virgin Islands. The atmosphere, quality and variety always amazes me. I see more visits in the future.

We finish the evening with a different Deborah recipe for ceviche; I love ceviche and especially Deborah's.

God Bless Bella Donna