The BVIs

The bubbly pool

​Following a night at Pusser’s we decided to return the next morning for a beach day. Our waiter from the night before told us that to get one of their chairs we’d have to pay for a drink, but that was untrue. She failed to mention that if a cruise ship was coming into Tortola then we’d have to pay about $20 for an umbrella.
The beach was far more packed then we expected. Rows and rows of beach chairs lined the shore and it was a stroke of luck that we found a few open to use about three rows back.
When we left for the beach I was prepared with The Handmaid’s Tale (which I couldn’t get through) and a swimsuit. My parents were far more prepared with their towels, books, snacks, swimsuits, and wallets. But even they aren’t perfect.
My dad forgot his phone which gave me the perfect opportunity to return to the boat to get my kindle and towel. I heard so many good things about The Handmaid’s Tale but I found it challenging to get through, the story is interesting and I wish I could read more but (most likely due to my age) the writing style was difficult to understand.
I may have worn a swimsuit, but that by no means meant I would get in. My parents running from the water screaming, “It’s cold!” was enough to keep me away. I’ve started to regret that decision when a pant-lined tan started to appear on my thigh, at least it’s better than my dad’s red arms.
When we got onto the boat our skin had lost any brown-tint we may have gotten from the months in the sun. We’d completely forgotten everything we’d learned on how to avoid sunburns. A few days into sailing my dad had a V-neck shaped tan on his chest and small circlets on his arms. I think he was embarrassed to go shirtless because of it.
Mark opted out of going with us, so when we returned, we spent the night with him saying our goodbyes. He’d be leaving early in the morning for the airport. He was originally going to take a cab but after our first night at Pusser’s we became friends with one of the waitresses and she offered to drive him.
The same day that Mark left, our friends Mandy and Joe from the boat SV Kuma Too arrived. The Virgin Islands is the home base for their chartering business, so they spent the afternoon showing us around some of their favorite spots.
The first place they brought us to was a bar called Quito’s where we spent most of the night. While my parents were talking at the bar, I was sitting on one of the high-tops reading. We ordered a few appetizers before moving to a second restaurant called Paradise Bar and Restaurant. The night ended with a game of Jenga where my dad played for me because I didn’t want to be crushed by the falling wooden pieces.
The next morning, we woke up a little later than usual to make up for the late night we had before Jost Van Dyke. We’ve already been to this island, but this time we were on the opposite side located near a restaurant named Foxy’s Taboo, owned by the restaurant Foxy’s that I mentioned in my last post.
I personally prefer this bar over the other because it’s more secluded with a smaller area and less busybody’s running around. We spent the day working at the restaurant before eventually ganging up with Kuma Too later in the day.
Mandy and Joe directed us around the bar to one of the trails that would lead us to the bubbly pools. We took one of the longer hikes up so we could see a cliff-like view of our anchorage. Besides seeing my life flash before my eyes a few dozen times, we got to the pools safely.
We saw a few goats (that I am almost positive are magical) on our way to the pools. Each goat was in varying coats of black, brown, and white. We saw so many that at some point we started naming them. Oreo. Brownie. Coconut. Well, I did at least.
The bubbly pool is a small circular pool with a sliver of space connected to the ocean. When the tide is up enough, water will crash through that sliver and fill the pool with water. Sea foam will flow in creating the appearance of bubbles. We didn’t come at the best time and the bubbly pool was slowly dwindling, with only a few bubbles to show for.
I initially planned to get into the pool but a few seconds in the frigid water with who knows what biting at my feet, made me opt for climbing rocks instead.
The bubbly pool is famous for its bubbles, but I think the entire area is like Elephant Rocks in Missouri. There are huge boulders that are just begging someone to climb them and not just goats. So, I did. I watched from the sliver of space between boulders for the good waves that would result in a bubble-filled pool so my parents could snap a decent photo of the area.
After we left the bubbly pool, we headed back to Foxy’s Taboo to share some drinks and talk. To be perfectly honest I didn’t bring much to the conversation because I was reading on one of the restaurant’s hammock chairs. Good drink + Comfy chair + Interesting book = Addison isn’t listening.
I was hoping to eat at the restaurant but instead we dinghied back to the boat and ate leftover burgers before parting ways and going to sleep.
Our final day in this area was spent working before heading to a famous bar called
B-Line. We did get to eat there. They have about five things on the menu and all of them are amazing. I assume. We ordered three separate dishes, two of one kind, two of another, and one of the last, to split between Mandy, Joe, my mom, my dad, and me.
They were out of one of the dishes and the other wasn’t something we could split among each other so we decided on three we would all enjoy.
For the first time in a long time, I didn’t read while we were waiting for food. Instead, I crushed all of them at cornhole. Not to brag…too much. We had a competition where each person squared off against someone else and the winner would face a new person. I had a royal flush and beat everyone, securing first place for myself.
I got increasingly worse as time passed. In the first round I got about eight in the hole, but by the final round I was almost neck and neck with Mandy, neither of us even landing on the board.
We quickly finished up our game when the food came out and set about creating a revolving idea where each of us would take a bite before passing our plate the person to the right. It didn’t end up working, so we just tried to eat a fifth of everything before giving it to someone who hadn’t had any of that dish yet.
You’d think the night would end there, but no! We went back to our boat with Mandy and Joe in tow to do G&P. G&P stands for Grab and Play, something we created for when we have friends over. We get out our music box of instruments, put on some music, and grab an instrument and play to the beat.
I went to bed early, so I can’t accurately say how long the adults were playing into the night. Using experience, I assume it was around 2:00 when they stopped.
The next day we returned to Cane Garden for our final night in the BVIs.
We all spent the day doing our own activities until the afternoon when we went over to Kuma Too for drinks. My parents had the drinks, not me. We spent a couple hours chatting until the guys decided to go in for a guy’s night with the girls prepared to take a separate dinghy for a girl’s night.
I was supposed to be with them for their girl’s night, but in the end, I drove myself back to the boat to read. Sometimes you just don’t feel like being around that many people and you want to be alone, with my parents doing their own thing it was the perfect opportunity. I’m not a crazy teenager, yet, so I didn’t do anything besides sit in the salon and read.
The next morning, we followed Kuma Too to customs where my mom and I would check out of the country before joining Mandy and Joe to the USVIs, then flying to Tampa.

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