SPA MORNING - BEACH AFTERNOON

The day dawns sunny with puffy clouds high in the sky. I have decided to go back to Sopers Hole to Serendipity Spa and have a body scrub, rain or sun. I am still peeling and it looks disgusting. They said that the treatment would get rid of all of the dead skin and I don't want to go home looking like this.

When I get there, the fellow I spoke to yesterday isn't there, it's two women. They are from India and they don't speak English very well consequently I can't make them understand what I want. I have decided to have the package that includes a massage and facial along with the scrub. They call their boss, the guy from yesterday, and I tell him what I want. I hand the phone to one of the women and he translates.

The room for the massage etc. is right off of the reception area, divided by just a curtain. And the curtain at the moment has enough of a space between the two panels that I can see inside. I don't like that much - I like privacy.

I go in and get ready and she starts with the body scrub. It feels and smells great. After about 45 minutes of scrubbing she tells me to get in the shower and wash it all off. I am kind of horrified when I see the shower. It's tiny, it's old, and the door is a DOOR - like a wooden door so no light gets in except for a small window in it. I ask if there's a light but there's not. So I leave the door open a bit while I shower off. This is certainly no luxury spa, but their prices hardly reflect that. Someone had suggested, when I asked on TTOL what to do in the rain, to go to the spa on Peter Island. I wonder what that place is like.

I get back on the table for the massage part and it feels great. 45 minutes later, she says she is done. I ask about the facial. She looks confused. "Facial? You want facial?" "Yes, I asked for the package." "Package? You want package?" Oh dear. She calls her boss. I ask, "What did I just have done?" "The body scrub." "That's it?" "Yes." So I decide to leave it at that as it seemed to include the massage and is almost $100 less than the package, meaning the package wasn't really all that good of a deal at all.

I leave there well oiled, my hair as well as she did a scalp massage with oil, so I go straight back to my hotel to wash my hair.

It's still a nice day out and I decided to go to Cane Garden Bay for one more visit. I like that beach as the water is really clear and the bottom all sand. And on Sunday's The Elm has a famed bar-b-que and live entertainment from a band called The Elm Tones that I have read about on TTOL and it's supposed to be very good.

It starts to rain as I am driving there.

When I pull into the parking lot behind all of the bars, the rain has died down to a drizzle so I head to the beach. All of the wind and rain from the previous day or so has fouled the water. It is just like Anegada - no longer crystal clear and clean. I can't see the bottom at all. Bummer! And I braved that horrible hill to get here!

I go up to Myette's bar and see one of the couples I met from the last time I was here. We sit at the bar and chat for an hour or so until the sun comes back out then I head to the beach for some rays. I find a spot where the water is actually still quite clear and walk in but right away the white angel fish start bumping my legs again. Did I mention that from before? The same fish that followed me around Loblolly Bay are here but these ones bump into my legs and arms and nibble at me. It doesn't hurt but it freaks me out. So, today, I never get in above my thighs before I have to turn and dash out as fast as I can.

I decide not to wait for the bar-b-que to start as it's 4:30 and it doesn't get going until 6:30 and the music at 7:00. It's that darned road that I hate driving, especially at night. It's stressing me out thinking about it and it doesn't help that I can clearly see the cut in the trees for the road down into the bay from the beach and I keep looking at how high it is where it starts and how steep it is. As I really enjoyed the ribs at Myette's the other day I decide to order them again and then go home.

Cane Garden Bay.

Cane Garden Bay.

As I am just finishing up, the very handsome bar tender, who has the day off today, walks in from the beach and goes behind the bar to make himself a drink. He is talking with the other bartender and I can hear a very British accent that I didn't notice when I was here a few days ago (because he hardly spoke). I ask him where he is from and he says 'London, born and bred." He's only been here for 14 months. I ask him what brought him here and he tells me he was writing a novel set in the Caribbean and wanted to be here to learn more about the people and the culture. He's ready to leave though, he doesn't like the smallness of island life or the work he is doing - bar tending. His dream is to live in New York and be a published author - he's just finished his novel. He gives me his web site address and I promise him I will go have a look at it. I give him my card and tell him if he ever writes a script, email it to me.

Stephen, the handsome bartender.

It's dark by the time I leave so I could have stayed for the other bar-b-que after all, which I can hear is in full swing just down the beach. But I am okay with it and eager to get the drive over with. To be honest, the worst part of the drive going back is meeting another car coming at you on a curve as you head down the hill, and as long as that doesn't happen it's not as bad as going up - that's just awful, cars or no cars. And, happily, I don't come across any cars on the curves. I so wish there was a way for me to accurately convey what it's like going up hill, coming to one of those hairpin curves when you're on the inside. The blacktop is actually vertical right in the elbow of the curve. I wish I could stop to take a photo of it to show you but there's NO WAY one can stop on those hills... you'd never get going again. I've heard stories of people rolling back because they were going too slow. Terrifying.

I get back in time to watch the end of Celebrity Apprentice on the TV instead of having to download it like I have done for every other episode. John Rich won! YAY!!!

WHAT TO DO, AND WAY OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE

I wake up to more rain, torrents of it. I think that, perhaps, the rainy season has started and it's not going to let up before I go home.

Not sure what to do, I post on TTOL asking what there is to do in the rain here. I don't get any replies before I decide to drive to Soper's Hole - a small marina with some nice shops that I remember visiting when I was here two years ago. There's also a Spa there. Maybe I will go have a body scrub to get rid of all this peeling skin. Sounds like a plan!

When I park and walk across the road, there's a fellow in a white van from a sail charter company. He waves me over, tells me his name is Captain Pete, and asks if I am interested in going for a sail. I tell him I had thought about it but decided not to. He then say's, "Where are you staying? At Sebastian's?" I am taken aback by this and ask how he knows that. He tells me he has seen me there, in the restaurant and outside at the table on my laptop several times. He said he saw me there last night and was going to come over and talk to me but I got up and left before he could do it. He asks if he can take me on a sail now and I lie and say I am meeting someone for coffee. He then asks me what I am doing tonight and my first thought is 'oh no, here we go again', but say "I have no idea, I don't really make plans. I am on vacation." He says he would like to take me out for a meal or to hear some good music. I tell him that's nice of him but I really don't know what I will want to do by this evening. He says he will drop by Sebastian's tonight. Great.

He drives off and I bypass the shops for now and go down to the docks for a look at some of the boats.

A really beautiful sailboat.

Love the name of this boat.

I finally get to the shops and go into one or two and then, as I am walking past Pusser's I see a young mom and her 2 year old daughter that I met while at Long Bay yesterday. I say hi and she invites me to sit with them so I do. I guess I am meeting someone after all! The mom is Melissa and the daughter is Stella and she is super cute. They had spent 4 or 5 days on a sailboat with some relatives and are now at Long Bay until tomorrow when they return home to Seattle. As we chat, she tells me that she took a taxi here and needs to go into Road Town because the bank machine here is not working (probably out of cash - as usual). She said that when she went into Road Town yesterday, it cost her $50 in fare. I tell her that I have a car and will take her into town to the bank there. She is very grateful and so, while they finish a bite to eat, I go to the Spa to get a brochure because I think my idea of a body scrub is brilliant and will go another day, and then for a quick look in some of the shops.

We head into Road Town and I park in the big lot by the sea and we walk to the first bank. It won't take her card. Stella is making some noises and pointing and, when we turn to look, there's a huge blueish crab in the corner of the tiled area - he's pressing himself right into the corner like he is terrified. I can't believe he climbed four stairs to get there. When we leave I am wishing I had taken a photo but figure I will on the way back, but when we return, he's gone.

We go to Scotia Bank and she get's what she needs and we head back to the car and then to Long Bay. I stop at Sebastian's on the way to get into a swim suit and then spend a lovely and SUNNY!!! afternoon in the pool with my two new friends. Stella seems to warm up to me and I help her go to the top of the small slide there and her mom waits at the bottom in the pool to catch her. She is fearless and goes straight down and then wants more. She goes for a dozen times or more and then, suddenly, freaks out at the top and needs to be carried down the steps. And that's it for the slide.

Someone just woke up from a very short nap and doesn't want to have her picture taken.

The best we could manage.

There's an outdoor movie night, a Disney film. at 7:00 at Long Bay. Melissa decides to try to get Stella to have a nap before it starts and so I head back to Sebastian's. I am invited to come back for the movie but I decide to stay in. I head down to the restaurant so I can use the wifi - that is the biggest drawback to this place, no wifi in the room, only at the restaurant. As I am sitting there, Pete, the boat captain I met earlier, shows up. I see, now that he is standing, that he has a very bad limp and that his left arm seems useless, curled up into his side. I ask about it and he tells me he had a stroke a couple of years ago. We sit and talk and he says that he wants more business from the internet but can't figure out how to get it. I take a look at his website and instantly see why he's not getting it. The site is dated and amateurish. Also, in a Google search of BVI CHARTERS, he is buried on the 8th page. He asks how he can improve the site and we spend the next hour talking about that.

After a bit he asks what my plans are for the next few days and again, I tell him I don't really have any. I have three or four places I still want to go to and I will go as the fancy hits me. One is Jost Van Dyke and he tells me he will take me there on his sailboat. I know he does this for a living and that he charges $100 for a day sail, but I am not sure if he is offering as a customer or as a friend thing and doesn't expect pay. So I ask; How much will he charge me, and he thinks a moment and says "If there are other people coming, nothing. If just you, $50." It's a good deal but still twice as much as the ferry. But then, I'd have to take a taxi from the ferry dock to White Bay. And I'd have to leave at 5:00 - the last ferry off of the island. This way, there'd be more leeway. But I don't want to give the guy the wrong idea because I am not interested in anything more than friendship.

I am so not used to handling this sort of situation. It's way out of my comfort zone.