If I could travel tomorrow, I would go .....

[jiminyC_fan]

I would go back to Norway for a long road trip and explore every inch of it.

[lackcreativity]

11 hours ago, jiminyC_fan said:

I would go back to Norway for a long road trip and explore every inch of it.

I will stand by my original selection of a three week cruise from Istanbul to Rome, with the ports I mentioned earlier.

However, if I was five years younger, I would spend six weeks in Italy traveling from top to bottom. I would return to some favorite locations there, and some well known places we have missed. Also would want to go off the beaten path to some of the smaller towns and linger there.

Sadly, I just don't think I have the stamina for such a trip now. But who knows, with the potential for hip replacement surgery in my future, maybe there will be a second lease on life!

[OnTheJourney]

On 6/25/2020 at 12:52 PM, Jim Avery said:

Where we would choose is not a Viking stop but we did get there last October when Viking Sun stopped in Tortola. We love Jost van Dyke in the BVI. Private jet to STT then private yacht to Jost. Will stay there until we get tired of standing chest deep in calm, crystal clear water drinking beer and eating fresh seafood.😎🍺🍺🦞

 

Jim....as a follow-up to this, I checked with my brother - who went there a long time ago. He remembers quite vividly an evening spent at a place called "Sydney's Peace and Love".....figuring you know of it?? 

Edited June 30, 2020 by OnTheJourney

[Jim Avery]

54 minutes ago, OnTheJourney said:

 

Jim....as a follow-up to this, I checked with my brother - who went there a long time ago. He remembers quite vividly an evening spent at a place called "Sydney's Peace and Love".....figuring you know of it?? 

He might be referring to "Seddy's One Love".  On the beach at White Bay.  Maybe the only place I have ever sat on a plush upholstered couch sitting on beach sand.  Seddy Callwood is Foxy Callwood's (of Foxy's) Nephew I believe.  Sometimes hard to keep facts straight on JvD.  Now a "long time ago" It could have been Sydney's.  All fun.😎🍺

[dd57]

Sidney's Peace and Love is in Little Harbor on JVD.  Wonderful lobsters, wicked painkillers.  While I haven't been there in the last 6 years, Google says it is still there.  Well, reopened after hurricane Irma deposited a ferry on top of their building.

[Jim Avery]

Good news about Sidney's.  I was greatly impressed at all the work done on JvD.  It would be hard to tell it was basically destroyed by the hurricane.  We have always stayed aboard at night when at JvD and anchored in either White Bay or Great Harbor. Never got around to feeling the need to walk over the hill to the rest of JvD.  We always said we would have to go stay there one day.  There seems to be nice guest houses to stay at and since this thread ignores cost we will rent a couple of ATVs and really circumnavigate JvD bar, by bar, by bar.  Sidney's is "on the list".  😎

[OnTheJourney]

5 hours ago, Jim Avery said:

He might be referring to "Seddy's One Love".  On the beach at White Bay.  Maybe the only place I have ever sat on a plush upholstered couch sitting on beach sand.  Seddy Callwood is Foxy Callwood's (of Foxy's) Nephew I believe.  Sometimes hard to keep facts straight on JvD.  Now a "long time ago" It could have been Sydney's.  All fun.😎🍺

 

No...definitely was referring to Sydney's. We're talking (I'd guess anyway) around 35+ years ago. Here is some of what he reminisced in a recent email. I was impressed with the detail of what he recalls.. My brother and his wife love bareboating and did several trips to the Caribbean before their son was born. I don't recall them going down there much after that. He'd still love to do it again, but, at 75 (we're ten years apart) time and some health issues have taken their toll. I was glad I mentioned it since it really jogged some cool memories!! 

 

 "We had a great time there - I actually remember it well. First we went to the small island to the east of it - Little Jost Van Dyke (what else?) and anchored off its southern coast because we had read in all the cruising guides about Green Cay and what an unspoiled little island it was. Along with another small one to its south - Sandy Cay - they were described as uninhabited and without commercial enterprise, etc. So we anchored just off little jost in Manchioneel Bay (had to look that one up - memory isn't THAT good - wonderful name though?) just off the west coast of this little Cay. Set the hook good and then took the dinghy to the cay and discovered immediately that the effect of the trades and currents coming between little jost and the cay were only just a tad short of the effect my rowing was having on forward progress. Finally got there and explored a bit. Somewhat disappointing although as advertised but, really, it was a little island with palm trees and dead palm leaves on it! Big whoop. We immediately scuttled our original plans to visit Sandy Cay too since it's out there to the south on its own with no shelter from the winds at all. So after a walk around we got back in the dinghy for what I anticipated would be a nice downwind drift to the boat. The current and wind was so strong it was all I could do to steer the thing TO the boat and then get it STOPPED enough to grab a line and be able to climb aboard. We decided to get an anchorage for the night and pulled into the first south coast bay we came to on Jost and anchored.

 

As we were setting up for the night and relaxing, some native guy in a rowboat came around and handed everyone a pink flyer for "Sidney's Peace and Love" - I'm sure I still have it somewhere - about drinks, food and dancing. We dinghied ashore and had a great time. The food was good, there was a steel band of locals got going and the woman running the bar got drunk and spent the night dancing with the band and told us to make our own drinks and just put some money in a glass on the bar. I remember it as one of the best nights we ever had - one of those perfect moments. We did go in to Great Harbor and White Bay just to motor around between the boats and look around but went back to Water Lemon Cay for the next night. I hear times have changed there now - all over the islands. Very busy. At least now all the dinghys come with outboards. 
had a great time there - I actually remember it well. First we went to the small island to the east of it - Little Jost Van Dyke (what else?) and anchored off its southern coast because we had read in all the cruising guides about Green Cay and what an unspoiled little island it was. Along with another small one to its south - Sandy Cay - they were described as uninhabited and without commercial enterprise, etc. So we anchored just off little jost in Manchioneel Bay (had to look that one up - memory isn't THAT good - wonderful name though?) just off the west coast of this little Cay. Set the hook good and then took the dinghy to the cay and discovered immediately that the effect of the trades and currents coming between little jost and the cay were only just a tad short of the effect my rowing was having on forward progress. Finally got there and explored a bit. Somewhat disappointing although as advertised but, really, it was a little island with f-ing palm trees and dead palm leaves on it! Big whoop. We immediately scuttled our original plans to visit Sandy Cay too since it's out there to the south on its own with no shelter from the winds at all. So after a walk around we got back in the dinghy for what I anticipated would be a nice downwind drift to the boat. The damn current and wind was so strong it was all I could do to steer the thing TO the boat and then get it STOPPED enough to grab a line and be able to climb aboard. We decided to get an anchorage for the night and pulled into the first south coast bay we came to on Jost and anchored. As we were setting up for the night and relaxing, some native guy in a rowboat came around and handed everyone a pink flyer for "Sidney's Peace and Love" - I'm sure I still have it somewhere - about drinks, food and dancing. We dinghied ashore and had a great time. The food was good, there was a steel band of locals got going and the woman running the bar got drunk and spent the night dancing with the band and told us to make our own drinks and just put some money in a glass on the bar. I remember it as one of the best nights we ever had - one of those perfect moments . 

Edited June 30, 2020 by OnTheJourney

[Jim Avery]

Great post.  To some extent, it is still like that on JvD.  What helps is only being accessible by boat.  We really do have to stay there ashore and hit all the places missed.  Good to have goals, right?🍺😎

[OnTheJourney]

Thanks. The passion for that trip comes through in his words, for sure. I left this part out but, know what? He'd feel it belongs in there with the rest of the story.... 😁  "Of course when you make your own drinks you don't skimp and I got plastered. Very late we finally (took a giggly and roundabout wander and) got back to the boat. I did some night swimming - which isn't that smart in those waters - and that was Jost. Never got to Foxy's and never heard of the other one."     

 

I think it may have been the only time he was ever there. They once did a vacation on St. Croix and raved about it - so a few years later my wife and I went. Mid-80s. Stayed at "Grapetree Bay Hotel", which was destroyed by one of the hurricanes. Had this beat-up Mitsubishi and drove it all around the island sightseeing till it literally died as we came into the rental car parking lot on the last day. I seem to recall at one point we stopped over at Frederiksted and were absolutely amazed looking at whatever cruise ships were docked at the time. At that point, we had yet to do our first cruise, which wasn't till '99. Great memories. 

Edited June 30, 2020 by OnTheJourney