Rosie & Tuppergal?s Caribbean Trip 2013

[AX-O]

Had a wonderful day today. I picked up Rosie, Victoria and keys at the FBO in Aguadilla. I sat outside the approach end of the runway and took a few pics of Rosie and keys landing. After a few minutes for customs, we drove to our home. On the way Rosie was hungry and wanted to eat so we stopped on the side of the road at my cousin's food stand. They had a traditional dish and we drove to our house. They met my family and I gave them a tour of our place. They left happy after trying some more traditional dishes. I dropped them off at the airport and they did an over fly above the coast line by our house.

It was awesome to have a bud met my family and hang out. RVs are AWESOME!

Rosie just called me and asked me to post. He made it to Tortola but missed the ferry by 3 minutes so he won't be home until after 10:30 (the next ferry). Sorry all, no pics. I have limited capabilities right now.

Hope everyone is having a great day.

From Rosie: Yes, a very long day...here's the summary of the today's (16 April) flight.

Many thanks to Daryl Tolliver (again) for this screenshot that shows all the WX detours we made. Ignore dots 1-6 as they are from the April 12th arrival



Here's a 'cleaned' up version that shows today's routing: Beef Island (green dot - top right) to Anegada to Aguadilla to Vieques to Culebra to St. Croix back to Beef Island. The track above shows the detour we took to flyby Axel's grandparent's house (south of Aguadilla



The pictures from this day of flying come up a bit later down this page...

[Rosie]

Hi to our RV Family of Friends!

I’m a bit late on these pictures as they come from before our day of flying around the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico but am FINALLY catching up!

For me, Key’s and Sharkbait, Days 7, 8 and 9 all started out the same with Jailbird dropping us off at Dive BVI at ~0845 to catch the 0900 dive boat. We had three days of EXCELLENT diving. Here are photos from Sharkbait's camera:

















Keys with his GoPro in hand:



Here’s a picture taken by diver ‘Joe’ of me and Keys:

[Rosie]

To continue our days on Virgin Gorda:

Jailbird was back to the dive shop ~1300 to pick us up (in the Suburban we rented) and then we were off to lunch with the group. After lunch, we?d take a drive and check out the island.

Here?s Steph & Keys enjoying a beer!



And check this out?..what are these symbols????!!?? Men?s room and Ladies room!



Another day of diving?another beer for Keys!



Savannah & Pond Bays



Enjoying good times at Leverick Bay: Starting with me (clockwise), Keys, Sharkbait, Steph, Tuppergal, Indira and Jailbird:



Yes Keys?that?s where we are?.Leverick Bay on Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands!



And here?s Steph, playing ?Vanna White?



So here?s a GREAT STORY for you?.Key?s sees this HUGE yacht moored on the end of the pier, and he tells me,
?I?m going walk over to that yacht, and I want you to take a picture of me on top!?

I say, "?..Yeah, right?.that?s NOT going to happen Keys"

And Jailbird says, ?I?ll take the picture!?

? Yeah, right?.that?s NOT going to happen Keys.

Here?s Key?s briefing Jailbird on how to use the camera?.he hasn?t even approached the yacht yet to ask!



And, by golly....Keys walks up to the yacht....talks to one guy then another....I lose sight of him, then he appears...and then he yells down, "Take the picture!" That was COOL Keys!



It really was a BIG yacht!

[Rosie]

In the picture above, note the sailboat that is directly opposite the yacht...the one with the tallest mast:

After taking the picture of Keys on the yacht, Jailbird, Keys & Indira made friends with the people on the sailboat and got a personal tour.....They were on the boat awhile so here's a picture of Chris & Indira (from a distance):



And Keys (and have a beer while your there :-)



OK group, where to next?



Let's get a sunset picture!



Let's have dinner and a toast to being on "Island Time"! That's Steph at the end of the table, and to her left is the ONLY picture we have of Opie's wife, E-Stitch (Gail Dodson):






A new day...how about a short walk (<5 min) to "The Baths" from Southern Gables.







And another day comes to an end...(raw photo, not retouched)




So that's how our days on Virgin Gorda went...diving...eating...driving...swimming...visi ting...relaxing...and watching beautiful sunsets!

Keep poundin' them rivets because it's ALL worth it! Rosie & Tuppergal

[Rosie]

Hi to our RV Family of Friends!

We’ve been having such a GREAT TIME here on Virgin Gorda that it’s REALLY easy to get behind!

It’s nearly midnight but wanted to get you caught up for Today’s flying (April 16th) which was a LOT OF FUN!

After three (3) full days of two-tank dives, I had always planned a day-off from diving timed to be the day before we leave the island (April 16th). Jailbird was a trooper and got up at 0415 to get Keys, Tuppergal and I to the ferry dock to catch the 0500 (o’dark hundred) “Speedy’s” Ferry to Trellis Bay. We arrived before 0530, and it’s maybe a five minute walk from the Trellis Ferry Dock to the Beef Island airport Terminal.

Once there, Keys/I pulled out our pilot’s license and passport then went to the ‘Departure’ gate where Security folks were yet accepting people to pass through (the commercial flight was not there yet).

We told the security people we needed to get to the General aviation ramp, showed our pilot licenses and passports, passed through the metal detector and then walked to our planes. I’ll bet money that people waiting around the terminal were wondering why we were so special. We arrived to the ramp to see Opie & e-Stitch’s plane parked with us to make five little planes! Opie had picked up his wife Gail (e-Stitch) in Puerto Rico who joined him on the trip. They stayed a couple of days visiting with friends then joined us.



We started with a flight around the island of Virgin Gorda. Here are the boats moored at

We got the planes untied, ropes put away (left the ground stakes since we were coming back to Beef Island at the end of the day) and pulled the planes onto the paved ramp. We got to see a very nice sunrise.



Yes Keys, you have time to clean your windscreen!



The tower did not open until 0700, so a few minutes before, I called them and arranged a ‘tour of the BVI’ prior to departing to Anegada. “No problem!” they said and off we were.

Here’s the terminal building:



And sailboats moored in Trellis Bay:



We started with a flight around the island of Virgin Gorda. Here are the boats moored at “The Baths”:



Here's the Virgin Gorda airport that runs right along the coastline...and it's open ONLY to twin-engine aircraft:



Here's Saba Rock Resort, a rock's throw from the famous "Bitter End Yacht Club":



...and Leverick Bay:



Of course, a flyby of this Cruise Ship was warranted:

[Rosie]

We continued on clockwise flying around the islands at <1000' as instructed by the tower...no problem here!

Can't think of the island but "HMS Rhone" was sunk right off this island:



The 'Indians":



Here's the 'West End' of Tortola:



From here, we headed direct (21nm) to Anegada (TUPA) 'just because we could". Here I am chasing down Keys.



Here we are on final and on the ramp at Anegada:





Stewart and Damon were there and helped with our 'GenDecs' and landing fee. I later found out the Jailbird and Sharkbait gave them RV rides later in the day when they arrived to have lunch on Anegada:



From Anegada, we were direct to St. Thomas (TIST) for fuel (and a pin in the map). Check out our 'loopy' ground track around the BVI that shows both my initial crosswind-to-downwind arrival to Beef Island and also the 360 degree turn I made around the 'Indians':



Here's Cruz Bay on St. John. The St. Thomas Tower wanted us on the south side of the airport for a right downwind to the runway.



Here's Charlotte Amalie Bay at St. Thomas:

[Rosie]

Right downwind and base to final for Runway 10 Cyril E. King Airport, St. Thomas (TIST):





After landing, we were directed to Gate 10 behind the terminal building to Customs. While in Customs, our planes were fueled.

No pictures while on the Customs ramp (obviously) there but here we are crossing the runway to the north side to taxi to the St. Thomas Jet Center to pay the fuel bill:



Yes, we were there :-)





It was time to 'punch out' for Aguadilla to go visit we Axel so we were cleared back across the runway and taxi via Alpha to Runway 10:



Charlotte Amalie (Bay) came into view moments after takeoff. Check out the Cruise Ships in-port:



These views made possible by a climbing right turn to the downwind, generous donations from the 'Rosales sweat-equity account' with special consideration from Van's Aircraft:





Time to head for Aguadilla (TJBQ) to see Axel and his family:

[Rosie]

In this picture, you can see Culebra (TJCP) airport under Keys (we were to land here later today...):



The flight to Aguadilla was less than an hour. The cloud build-ups were all over the island so we stayed on the north side for most all of the flight.



It's always good to see your wingman out there.



Inbound to Aguadilla, I asked Keys to take the lead so he could get some practice 'making decisions'. He's guiding me to the left downwind, and you are looking at the most northwest corner of Puerto Rico:



This is left base to final turn, and convenient picture for the Tuppergal to take:



I actually saw Axel waving at us on the approach end :-) The tower allowed a formation landing, and we taxied to the Copeca FBO:



Even though we cleared Customs at St. Thomas, Aguadilla Customs wanted to see us. I had called them prior to takeoff from St. Thomas just-in-case. Once inside Customs, they decided they did not need to see us. Ok, picture time while we are here:





Here we are on the way home after stopping for a soda and the place we had a bite to eat (owned by a relative of Axel):

[Rosie]

Here is the longtime family home of Axel's Grandparents. All I can say is....WOW!







Axel and his Grandpa (who built everything you see...even the homes next door):

[Rosie]

We were able to visit for about two hours then it was time to leave. We were trying to be back by 1700 to Beef Island to clear Customs back into the BVI and catch the 1800 Ferry from Trellis Bay to Virgin Gorda. Axel loaded us up, and on the way to the airport, stopped a bakery for some fresh (water) bread and turnillos.

After saying our goodbyes, we bought fuel then departed heading back to Axel's Grandparent's place. We got some great pics...of the wrong house! Oh Well, off to Vieques we went, and once again, could buildups

Here's our course northbound to the coast:



...and then eastbound. You can see three tracks here: 1) From Punta Cana to Beef Island 2) From St. Thomas to Aguadilla and our last track flying to Vieques. The course to Vieques is actually about 30deg right turn but we could not go that way (dark clouds):



We finally saw a more direct route to Vieques so we took it:



Here are the pictures of the three remaining islands we landed on:

Vieques:





Culebra:





On final to St. Croix;



Waiting for the fuel truck...



...and back to Beef Island :-)



...and we still missed the Ferry...We landed behind a plane that had a 'jillion' people on it so there was no-way we'd get through the line and make the ferry. We waited about two hours and caught the next one...but we waited in Trellis Bay with food and drink!

Keep poundin' them rivets because it's ALL worth it! Rosie & Tuppergal