November 16, 2017
I talked to my mom a couple of times in the last two days and they are doing well. After getting to the airport around 5am on Saturday morning to discover that her flights had been changed to a different airline altogether, mom got checked in but found out that, unfortunately, her baggage was only checked through as far as San Juan while she was going all the way to Tortola. She only had 55 minutes in the San Juan airport so had to decide if she would get her luggage (and most likely miss her flight getting stuck in San Juan where there were only 3 hotel rooms available) or catch her flight and leave her luggage behind. She caught the flight (but later thought she might have had enough time to do both). Customs almost didn't let her in since she had no return flight booked at this time, but after she started crying, the customs officer seemed to take pity on her and implied that, if she just picked a departure date, she would be cleared. Thankfully, they were able to get her luggage delivered to Tortola the next morning because everything is so hard to come by she didn't think she'd be able to replace her clothes.
Nowhere seems to have Wi-Fi (except maybe the airport) which was making communication difficult. They were able, with some trouble, to buy a data only SIM card for mom's phone and can use that to make What'sApp phone calls. Aside from one pretty well-stocked grocery store, a few restaurant/food stands and some tourist stands, there's not much available. One woman they talked with said it would be at least next year before she had water and electricity and had just bought a large container to collect rainwater in as that was the only water she would have for her household.
They were planning to go to St. Croix today, but decided it really didn't make a lot of sense so they stayed put. They did anchor out by some very large rocks (I think called "The Indians") across the harbor for a while this afternoon as it is supposed to be a good snorkel spot. They saw quite a few pretty good fish, although not as many or as colorful as what they see in Hawaii.
The plan is to leave the BVIs tomorrow heading southeast. They should leave around 2 o'clock and sail through the night so that they arrive at the next islands (in the West Indies) during the daytime. Sasha is the planned destination if they can find a decent place to anchor, otherwise, they may move on to St. Eustatius or even St. Kitts. - Gretchen Zahn
Nowhere seems to have Wi-Fi (except maybe the airport) which was making communication difficult. They were able, with some trouble, to buy a data only SIM card for mom's phone and can use that to make What'sApp phone calls. Aside from one pretty well-stocked grocery store, a few restaurant/food stands and some tourist stands, there's not much available. One woman they talked with said it would be at least next year before she had water and electricity and had just bought a large container to collect rainwater in as that was the only water she would have for her household.
They were planning to go to St. Croix today, but decided it really didn't make a lot of sense so they stayed put. They did anchor out by some very large rocks (I think called "The Indians") across the harbor for a while this afternoon as it is supposed to be a good snorkel spot. They saw quite a few pretty good fish, although not as many or as colorful as what they see in Hawaii.
The plan is to leave the BVIs tomorrow heading southeast. They should leave around 2 o'clock and sail through the night so that they arrive at the next islands (in the West Indies) during the daytime. Sasha is the planned destination if they can find a decent place to anchor, otherwise, they may move on to St. Eustatius or even St. Kitts. - Gretchen Zahn
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