1710, March 31, Kelly Cove, Norman Island

The author of the cruising guide to the BVIs says he has stayed over in White Bay on Jost Van Dyke at least four different times, and has never had a good sleep due to the rolling. Well, if he'd been with us last night, it would have made five nights. For us though, despite the rolling and bouncing, and despite Stress Free Ivan's 70^th birthday celebration, we managed to sleep pretty well after the almost sleepless night before. Nevertheless, the bouncing of the mooring ball against our hull woke us up around 6:00 this a.m., so we got up to see if the Easter Bunny had made it to the boat.

Sure enough, a few treats had materialized in the night. Katie and I weren't sure how he got here – we thought maybe he had strapped sea turtles to his feet, a la Jack Sparrow.



With the boys still asleep, and Katie eating the ears of her rabbit, Sara and I were keen to get moving, in the hopes of finding a quieter spot to spend tonight. We dropped the mooring ball and motored out into the open water between Jost Van Dyke and Tortola. In a couple of minutes, we were in moderate waves and 25 knots of wind. Given that we haven't sailed much for a few days, we raised the main with a reef in it, and let out the jib part way. We flew across the water to Tortola, hitting a new personal best speed in this boat of 8.5 knots. It was pretty wavy but not too bad, and it was probably only about half an hour before we gained the shelter of Tortola Island.



Once we rounded the corner, we could see a line of dark rain clouds beyond Tortola, so we thought we would duck into the old pirate's hideout of Soper's Hole to wait out the weather. The problem was, it was only 8:00 a.m. by that point, and no one had left Soper's yet, so there was really no room inside. We did a quick cruise through the boats there, then headed back out. By this time, the rain seemed to have blown through, but there were still pretty dark clouds south of Tortola. We decided to chance it, and headed out into Sir Francis Drake channel.

We raised our sails, again with reefs in both, and shot off upwind, with big waves building, right on our beam. The action got pretty wild, and soon everyone that was inside the cabin came up on deck to try and stave off motion sickness. As we moved along, the wind and waves continued to build, and we were seeing gusts up to 28 knots, and were pounding into bigger and bigger waves. With an unfamiliar boat, the kids up on deck, and my mobility limited by my sea urchin foot, I started to get nervous about our ability to safely sail in the weather. We decided to exercise discretion as the better part of valour.  We dropped the sails, fired up the engines, and made a beeline across the channel for Norman Island.



It stayed wild all the way across, but once we arrived in Kelly Cove, the high walls surrounding the cove protected us well from the wind, and we managed to pick up the only free mooring ball in the cove, right up next to shore. It was the flattest and calmest the boat had been in more than 48 hours.



A quick explore in the kayak proved that there was still a booming wind just around the corner in the Bight, and also that there were lots of fish right beneath our boat. So I threw on my snorkel gear, and cruised up and down the walls of the cove, seeing the best assortment of fish we have had the whole trip. It wasn't long before all the kids were in on the action, and we have all gone for at least two long snorkels today. The highlight was seeing a sea turtle up close, but there are lots of other great fish and corals right beneath us. In fact, there are a couple of temporary national parks dive moorings right at the mouth of the cove, and we have watched commercial boats come and go on them throughout the day, dropping off people to check out what is right underneath us.

        

        

So now, after a good snorkel, we are all back on the boat. It has been a cloudy and rainy afternoon, and we are taking advantage of that, and the calm conditions in the cove, to have some downtime. The kids are all watching Pirates of the Caribbean on the iPad, and Sara and I are relaxing with some books. Hopefully the sun will be out again tomorrow, as it is will be our last day on this boat.

1925, March 30, White Bay, Jost Van Dyke

Last night we had a great illustration of why going on a sailing vacation is not the same as going and hanging out in a resort for a week. Sometimes the stress associated with this kind of trip makes it feel a bit less like a vacation, but a bit more like an adventure. After I wrote yesterday`s post, the wind continued to pick up, and with it the waves started to build. The wind was directly out of the east, and the waves had a good half mile to build, so they were pretty big by the time they hit us. With the night getting dark, the wind was gusting hard, and we really started to swing on our anchor. I knew right away that I wouldn't be sleeping well, even if I tried. It may have been a bit of overkill, but the wind and waves were getting strong enough that we decided to post an anchor watch for the night. So, Sara went to bed about 8:30, and I sat up keeping an eye on nearby points of land to make sure we didn't drag anchor or have any other untoward occurrences. Fortunately, Sara can sleep through just about anything, so she fell asleep pretty quickly. I sat up in the salon listening to the boat get banged about, and reading. After a few hours, eventually I dozed off on the settee around the kitchen table, too, trusting the GPS anchor alert on my iPhone to wake me up if we drifted at all (it is a good little app – I recommend it for any boaters reading this).

Around 0315, Sara got up and we switched – I went down to the berth, and managed to get a few hours of sleep myself. This morning, we were both up by 6:30, and we had the boat moving by 6:45, looking for a quieter place to spend the day, and hopefully the night. We headed around the corner and cruised down the south side of Jost Van Dyke, passing Little Harbour, then Great Harbour. We pulled into White Bay, and although there were quite big rollers coming in here, we picked up a mooring ball to see what it would be like. We were just in front of the surf breaking over the reef, and occasionally a wave would hit us and rock us pretty hard, so we switched mooring balls, and ended up the perfect distance in front of the reef – close enough to watch the waves break right nearby, but not so close that they were affecting us much. It is still fairly rolly and active in here, but nowhere near what we had last night.



It wasn't long after we got here that the 3 or 4 foot waves breaking on the reef made me think I wished I had a surfboard with me (and that I knew how to use it). Then, it occurred to me that I might be able to catch some waves in the kayak. So I headed out, and sure enough, I was able to get some really good rides on the kayak. I have tried that kind of thing a bit before on the west coast of Canada, so I had a sense of how to steer the kayak and paddle hard to stay on the wave. It was really fun, and I only got dumped once. I touched the reef with my foot as I got back in the kayak, so knew it wasn't too deep, but there was no harm done.

    

After I paddled back to the boat, Sara and I went ashore to walk along the really pretty white sand beach. Not much here other than beach "restaurants" which are really just open air shacks selling food, drinks, and T-shirts. The famous Soggy Dollar Bar is one of the places along this stretch of beach. We checked out their menus, but they are really not geared towards kids. It is hard to justify spending $25.00 on a meal that you know a kid will not enjoy, and will probably only eat half of. One of the great pleasures of travelling by boat is that you have your own kitchen, and your own food with you wherever you go, and we all tend to prefer eating on the boat, making food in portions and styles that we are more used to.

    

Nevertheless, we were looking for an adventure for lunch, and we needed a few more groceries and some gas for the dinghy, so we headed back out to the boat, and piled everyone into the dinghy to head around the point back into Great Harbor. Great Harbor is the most developed bay on the island (despite its name, it is still not really that big – lots of mooring balls, and one dirt road, with a few more beach bars, and a single grocery store). It was a pretty damp dinghy ride, with strong winds still blowing from the east, right in the direction we wanted to go. We all got a bit wet, but the sun was out again, so it didn`t bother anyone too much.

The famous restaurant in Great Harbor is called Foxy's, and it has a reputation as a real party place. That's why we avoided mooring in Great Harbor, although the beach there looks nice.

We walked along the one beach front road, and checked out the grocery store. We then popped into a beach front bar and grill for lunch (called Corsair). The service was typical BVIs; slow and a bit surly, but the food was really quite good. The kids all had burgers, and Alexander said it was the best he had ever had. We took advantage of the free WiFi to Skype a call to Grandma and Grandpa back on Vancouver Island.

    

    

After lunch, we grabbed the dinghy gas tank, and set off in search of boat gas. Luckily, the one gas station on the island was open, and actually had gas and oil, so we managed to replenish our supply for the outboard. I am pretty sure we wouldn't have had enough to get back to the boat otherwise. Driving around with a dinghy full of a family of five really burns up the gas. While Alexander and I got the boat gas sorted out, Sara and the other kids went and got a few groceries. It looked like it was threatening to rain again, so we hopped in the dinghy, and hightailed it back to the boat, this time running with the waves, so staying drier.

Back at the boat, the wind was up, and so was the surf on the reef behind us, so I decided to take the kayak out again, and see if I could repeat my success of the morning with the surfing. The kids popped into the water for a quick swim to cool off.

It took me even less time to get the hang of it than it had in the morning, and I was getting some really great rides on the waves. After a while, a guy on a stand up paddle board joined me, and he started getting some great rides in, too. Then, a couple of teenagers came out in kayaks. I got a big ego boost when they asked me where I was from. They told me they were from the BVIs, and were surfers, but had never surfed in a kayak before. They were pretty impressed at what I was doing, and they started to try and follow me into the waves. Sure enough, my middle aged ego took the bait, and before long, I was hitting even bigger waves than I had before. It was tricky, though, with a bunch more people on the waves to try and avoid. Pretty soon I got caught broadside to a wave, and got dumped again. Just like in the morning, my foot hit the reef, but this time, I managed to step directly on one of the big spiny sea urchins they have here. These aren`t like the little urchins we have back home. They are about the size of a 5 pin bowling ball, and have spines that are about 4 or 5 inches long. As I learned to my dismay, they are sharp like needles, and will pierce the bottom of a foot easily. In the first picture below, that is me waiting for a wave just over Christopher`s shoulder. You can see how close to the boats the waves are breaking.



    

I jumped back into the kayak, in quite a bit of pain, and paddeled back to the boat as quickly as I could. Once on board, we grabbed the tweezers, and I managed to pull out five or six of the longer spines. It was unnerving to see how much spine came out each time I pulled, followed by a small gush of blood. The spines are quite brittle though, so lots of them had broken off at the skin, and try as I might, I couldn`t get them out. There are still about twenty or so in the bottom of my foot, looking like so many slivers from an old board. It is too sore to put any weight directly on the foot, but I managed to miss my heel, so I can hobble around that way. I have read about people stepping on sea urchins that have some kind of toxin in their spines, causing excruciating pain up their leg, so I am feeling pretty lucky that this doesn`t seem to be that kind of urchin. It just feels like a whole bunch of slivers in the bottom of my foot, but nothing else, and there doesn`t appear to have been any reaction so far.

Anyway, after that little adventure, I laid down to have a nap, which is probably what I should have been doing in the first place. The sounds of reggae from Ivan`s No Stress Bar floated out over the moorage. Apparently it is Ivan`s 70^th birthday today. After napping for a bit, we had another good boat dinner, and we are just settling the kids down for the night. The waves are still moving the boat around a lot, but we are on a solid mooring ball, and are looking forward to a more secure night, with a much better sleep than yesterday. The band is just firing up again though. Hopefully Ivan won`t party too late. After all he is 70. Although apparently stress free – he may be able to sleep all day tomorrow.

1945, March 29, East End Harbor, Jost Van Dyke

We awoke in Cam Bay this a.m., with a beautiful view of the beach, and only two other boats in the bay. It was truly the Caribbean experience we were looking for.



After a relaxed breakfast of pancakes, we sorted out the boat, and headed off for Jost Van Dyke. Coming back through Marina Cay, where we had been the night before, we noticed considerably fewer boats. It must have been extra full when we were there because of the full moon party. As we passed Monkey Point, where we had tried to snorkel the day before, we noticed that there were no boats on the national park mooring balls.

It became pretty apparent why, as we headed along the north side of Tortola, aimed at Jost Van Dyke. There were big swells coming in from the north, rocking us side to side as we took them straight on our starboard side. I turned a bit north to try and quarter the waves and relieve the rocking, but even so, all the kids were soon up on deck feeling a bit green from the motion. We all felt better sitting up front on the trampolines, where we could watch the waves come in. There was very little wind, so we just motored straight across to Diamond Cay.

As we approached the last available mooring ball in the field, another charter boat gunned his engine to beat us to it. I backed off without a fuss and let him have it, as I actually wasn't all that keen to spend another night in a crowded mooring field anyway (so there, nyaah).

We turned around and motored around a little spit, and found ourselves in lots of room to anchor in East End Harbor, with reasonable protection. We let out lots of chain, since there is plenty of room here, with only three other boats anchored off to our side, and no one in front or behind.

We had a quick lunch, then headed out in the dinghy to explore. We first headed over to Sandy Spit, which is a beautiful little beach with a tuft of trees and bushes in the middle, but ringed by sand. Unfortunately, the big north swell was wrapping around the spit, creating quite an onshore wave, and we weren't keen to try our first surf landing, so we stayed out a safe distance, and satisfied ourself with pictures instead.



From there, we headed back over to Diamond Cay to check out the famed "Bubbly Pool", which is a pool where the waves rush in through rocks to create a natural "Jacuzzi" type action. The kids had a great time playing in the rush of seawater, and after a tour group left, we had it all to ourselves for about half an hour.

    

We then headed back to the boat, hoping to do some snorkeling around the reef nearby. But shortly after we got back, the clouds that had been threatening all day opened up, and we had our first taste of tropical rain. We were expecting a downpour for only a few minutes, but we had steady rain for over an hour, and we learned where the leaks on the boat are (there are a few – it looks like Katie will be sleeping in a bit of a wet berth tonight. If it rains a lot more, we may have to move her in with one of the other kids). We battened down the hatches, as they say, and sat out the rainy weather. Once things settled a bit we cooked dinner, and we are now sitting at anchor wondering what the night will bring. The wind is gusting pretty hard, and there is more rain in the forecast for the next couple of days, so it may be a different look for our trip through the weekend. We have almost all our anchor chain out, though, and we are on a nice sandy bottom, so hopefully the anchor will hold, and we'll still be in the same spot tomorrow morning.

1330, March 28, Cam Bay, Great Camanoe Island

    

Yesterday was another big day; but don't worry, I'll catch you up on all the action.

Despite the rockin' party the night before in Anegada, we actually ended up sleeping OK. The music, while loud and obnoxious, didn't last all that long, so we managed to drift off to sleep around 11:00.

We were up bright and early yesterday a.m., and heading for the channel markers out of the Anegada moorage by about 0830. We had an easy motorsail back across to Marina Cay, with light winds on our nose. We got some good pictures of Galeaux (Rich and Kim's boat) en route. We are getting much better at sailing this boat, and we actually felt like we knew what we were doing coming back. No troubles raising sails, tacking, or anything. Just good, straight up sailing. Sara and I make a good team – she is really good at trimming sails to make us go as fast as we can, and I seem to have a better grasp of the boat systems, engines, etc., so between the two of us, we have a solid system. Hope neither one of us falls overboard (at least until we can get the kids trained up). Actually, they are all learning things, too, and Alexander is now great at coiling lines and helping to furl and unfurl the jib. Christopher has been helping with sail trimming and grabbing mooring bouys, and Katie is a great help keeping everything shipshape.

    

Once into Marina Cay, we grabbed a couple of the last mooring balls, and marvelled at how quickly the moorage filled up, then overflowed with boats anchored everywhere. We definitely were seeing how busy these Islands can get on an Easter week.



We set out to explore the Cay and its surroundings. We checked out Pusser's general store, but managed to resist purchasing any more T-shirts. We then dinghied up to Cam Bay (where we are now) on Great Camanoe Island, and had a great snorkel in the warm water inside the reef. Despite the fact that there were probably 50-75 boats a few minutes south of here, there were only 4 boats anchored in this small bay. I took the 5 minute walk across the island to Lee Bay, and there were only 5 boats in there, too. It is starting to look like the best way to avoid the crowds here is to anchor out, anywhere there isn't a beach restaurant and a bar.

    

The highlight of snorkelling Cam bay was seeing my first stingray (or skate – I'm not sure which). In fact, there were lots of rays all over the bottom of this bay, filter feeding off the sand. I'll have to look up exactly what they were when I get back to the land of internet. Sorry, no pictures, but I did get a video which I can show you if you want.

After snorkelling, we headed into Pusser's restaurant (apparently "Pusser" comes from the old term "Purser", who was the crew member on a British Naval vessel responsible for doling out food and supplies. Since the naval standard for such things was often higher than what a sailor could get ashore, eventually the phrase "It's Pusser's!" became used to describe something that was of good quality, so that is what they named the restaurant and store here). Ironically, the service in Pusser's was so bad it was laughable. Sara and Katie and I showed up a few minutes after Rich, Kim and the kids had all ordered drinks. Rich told us when they ordered 9 drinks, the bartender's response was "That is going to be a lot of work." As she delivered the drinks, Sara and I asked if we could order a couple more. She held up one finger, in the universal sign for "Give me a minute", and walked back to the bar. Quite some time later, she came back, and Sara ordered a Corona, while I ordered the same strawberry/mango smoothie Christopher had, since it looked pretty good. With an exasperated look, the bartender said "Why didn't you tell me before – it is a small blender, and I could have done them both at the same time!" She stalked off, while we were protesting that we had tried to ask, but she wouldn't let us. A few minutes later came back with my drink, and a Coors Lite for Sara. We didn't have the heart to tell her Sara had actually asked for a Corona. It was really pretty funny. But it did keep us from buying anything else at Pusser's.

    

After drinks, it was back to the boat to fire up the charcoal BBQ (I still haven't figured out exactly how to make that work well. Propane is sure a lot easier on a boat – lights right away, no problems with the wind, and provides a reasonably even heat). Despite my fumbling to get the coals lit, we eventually had another great boat dinner of steak, potatoes, and fresh vegetables that some enterprising hippies had sold us from their dinghy after crossing over from Trellis Bay. In fact, they were doing a great business in the moorage. They mentioned to us that it was the full moon party in Trellis Bay that night, and despite being fairly exhausted, after dinner I rounded up a crew of kids and Kim to go and check it out.

We motored across the open channel to Trellis Bay in the dark, but the full moon was so bright, it hardly mattered. Just to be safe, I also had my super bright Lupine headlamp, which looks like a car headlight, and my handheld GPS to guide the way (in the form of my iphone running Navionics charts – better than any chartplotter I have used on a boat yet).

The party was in full swing when we got there, and it was cool to see the burning art they had set up on the beach. The kids found a climbing tree, and we did a quick tour around the party, but before long, we were all tired enough that we headed back across the bay and settled in for bed.

    

    

This morning, we were up early again. Today was to be our last day with Rich and Kim, and the kids were a bit sad about it. It has been great sailing with them, and certainly is helpful having another set of ideas around an unfamiliar boat in unfamiliar territory. We were ready to slow down our pace a bit though – we have a bit more time than they do, and we could feel their need to see and do as much as possible in their last few days, while we felt like we were all wearing out a bit, and needed some quiet Caribbean relaxation.

We actually said goodbye to Rich, Kim and crew at Marina Cay, then had a relaxed breakfast of pancakes, followed by a meeting of our crew to decide where we would go next. We felt we needed to get the kids more involved in destination planning, since so far, they have pretty much just been along for the ride, and we were getting the sense they really had no idea where we were at any given time.

As a group, we discussed the pros and cons, and decided to head over to Monkey Point on Guana Island to snorkel, as we heard from several people it was a great place to go. When we got there, there was a fairly big swell coming in from the North, but we were lucky to find an empty National Park mooring, and picked that up. Lo and behold, after being there for a few minutes, up drove Rich, Kim, Kara and Graham in their dinghy. There had not been any free moorings when they motored past, so they had anchored in the next bay and dinghied in to snorkel.

The snorkeling, unfortunately, didn't live up to expectations. The north swell made the visibility really poor, and there seemed to be lots of small, stinging creatures in the water (maybe jellyfish?) which we didn't really see, but we all felt. So after another goodbye at Monkey Point, Galeaux set off for Diamond Cay, while we backtracked into Lee Bay.

Lee Bay was empty when we got there, and we considered anchoring, but there was a fair north swell into there too.

So, off we set right back to where we started the day, then through the Marina Cay anchorage and up to Cam Bay. Once in here, there was only one other boat, and the beach was as beautiful and quiet as it was yesterday. We've all had lunch, and been for a snorkel, and are settled in for our old tradition of "quiet time" after lunch, which really works well with getting kids through long busy days.

One other thing of interest happened today so far. As we were motoring along this morning, I noticed that our fresh water pump was on, and wasn't going off (it usually just flicks on for a minute to pressurize the system, then goes off.) I thought maybe one of the kids had left the water running somewhere, so I just flicked it off at the panel. Later, when Sara went to run some water, she noticed the same thing, and she heard water leaking under the sink. Sure enough, a small piece of hose connecting two larger hoses had burst, and was leaking our precious fresh water everywhere. Fortunately, we already were near the bottom of our first tank, so we didn't lose too much. Anyway, the interesting thing, for people that know me, is that I managed to wedge myself in under the sink, undo the hose clamps holding the connector in place, pull it out, cut off the split part, and put it back into place, all in about 10 minutes. So far, the plumbing seems to be fixed, and is working without leaking again. Not bad for someone who doesn't really know anything about plumbing. Also, not bad for a tool kit on the boat which consists in it's entirety of a single flat head screwdriver and a wrench. Hopefully we won't have to fix anything bigger than that on this trip.

2130, March 26, Anegada Island

Galeaux (Voyage 50) at full sail

So today, we are getting a real taste of the BVIs at Spring Break. The incredibly innovative playlist of Souls Calling, a catamaran marked Denver Colorado – has so far consisted of "I'm on a Boat" – twice – with special sing along emphasis on the "motherf'in" part. Nice for our kids. That was quickly followed by Gangnam Style, Party Rock, and we're now into the Black Eyed Peas, "Tonights Gonna Be a Good Night". Hmm, I'm not so sure. All played as loud as their stereo will go, in the most crowded anchorage I've ever seen. Oh well, we knew things would be busy here, and sure enough, we're experiencing it first hand.

It started with us getting off the mooring in Leverick Bay this a.m. around 9:30. We took a quick tour around Gorda Sound to see some of the notable spots like the Bitter End Yacht Club and Saba Rock, as well as some pretty impressive super yachts. We then joined the BVI 500, as we sailed across 2 ½ hours of open water to Anegada Island. At one point we counted 50 other boats around us. Despite all the boat traffic, we had a great downwind sail, and Sara and I seem to have finally figured out how this boat sails. We made good time to the moorage at Anegada (oh, now they're on to "I'm sexy and I know it".)

"Oh, George, can you go to the store and get some bread?"  "Sure.  Just be a tic.  I'll take the helicopter."

Best emergency exit. Ever.

Anyway, not surprisingly, once we got here, all the mooring balls were full, so we headed around the mooring field to the back, and prepared to set an anchor. As soon as we turned to set an anchor, a semi-official looking guy in a yellow shirt dinghied out and pointed us away from where we were going to anchor, and showed us to another spot. Not knowing any better, we assumed he was someone in charge, and followed him. (OK, now they're back "On a motherf' in' boat". Seems to be a fairly limited DJ. Not a lot of originality there. At least they are clearly aware that they are, in fact, on a boat).

So, anyhoo, we followed Mr. Yellowhirt to the point where he thought we should drop anchor, and even though it seemed a bit close to some other boats, we went ahead and dropped the anchor. After a few tries and some figuring out how the windlass and anchor snubbing gear on this boat work, we finally were anchored securely. It took a while though, and we provided some good entertainment for the boats around us.

Unfortunately, a few moments after we were finally anchored, the incredibly tanned skipper on the boat behind us started looking very pointedly and disapprovingly at us, as he stood on his foredeck in his speedo. Eventually, he let us know we were apparently sitting overtop their anchor, and they planned to leave at 7:30 tomorrow a.m., so we could either move now or first thing tomorrow. At that point, the last thing we wanted to do was up anchor and try again, but we honored tradition, and respected his request to move, going through the whole anchoring rigamarole again. It went a bit smoother this time, although there was a strong wind which made the boat tricky to handle.

Once we were finally anchored, the official looking guy in the yellow shirt came back. I thought he was going to talk to us about why we moved our boat, and didn't anchor where he showed us. But instead, he invited us to have lobster dinner in his restaurant on the beach that night. Turns out, all his guiding us around had nothing to do with making sure we got anchored well. Instead, he was just out working up business for his restaurant. It didn't really matter though – he had seemed sincere in his efforts to help us, and we did want to have lobster in Anegada, so we told him sure, we would be over later tonight, and we called his restaurant and booked in for all 9 of us.

Finally, with the boat firmly anchored, we went for a quick swim, mainly to dive on the anchor and confirm it was well dug in. It was, so we got out, dried off, and headed ashore to grab a taxi over to Loblolly beach, one of the open beaches on the Atlantic side of the island. We had a beautiful hour and half there snorkelling  swimming, walking on the beach, and enjoying the $8.00 virgin daiquiris they served up at the bar.

Cousins on Loblolly Beach

We headed back to the boat around 5:30, and just had time to change and head back to the beach for lobster dinner at the Whistling Pines restaurant. It was really good, and they served huge Caribbean spiny lobster, salad, and baked potatoes. The kids all loved the chance to try the lobster, and they all did really well with it. It was very different from the North Atlantic lobster we see in Canada. All the meat was in the tail, and there were no big claws. It was rich and fishy, but delicious.

One lobster tail.  One.

Then, it was back to the boat after a long day, to tuck the kids in and try to get some sleep. We'll see how that works out. Maybe in the morning when we leave, we'll let the kids play the neighbours a tune on the conch shell we bought in Leverick Bay.