Traveling Senior Citizens: Karen's notes: Jan. 11th & Jan. 12th: The Trek Home

Wed., January 12th

My cell phone alarm sounded reveille at 5:25 a.m. A rooster, probably hearing the cell phone, began his morning ritual to assure that everyone would witness the rising sun.

Sallie and Roy scurried about, made a quick breakfast and walked to the airport. Once Sallie was safely through Security, Roy returned to the Beef Island Guest House.

Taya and Karen arose around 7:15 and puttered until time to depart for the airport. It was only a short walk but we decided to take a taxi since we had five heavy duffle bags. No sooner did we arrive than the Morning Monsoon blew through. We were very happy that we opted for the taxi.

All was going well until Taya was selected for bag inspection. Each item in her duffle bag was carefully checked. My goodness, the security agents at the BVI airport really do enjoy their work.

American Eagle plane...Great Camanoe Is. in the distance

The next thing of excitement was the delay of our inbound flight due to “mechanical problems.” By the time we boarded it, we knew that our San Juan connection was impossible.

True to our prediction, we had to go to a service desk at SJU to be rebooked. Taya was confirmed on a later flight to Miami and on to Dulles, with an arrival around midnight. We were put on the standby list for both flights. ARGH! We were then given confirmed flights for the next day and a voucher for today’s lunch.

A British-sounding woman next in the next line was becoming hysterical. One AA supervisor, in a pleasant voice, told her, “...we’ll help you again when you calm down...” The tension was great and we decided to take our new standby tickets, thank our agent for her help and go use our lunch vouchers. By thanking our AA agent, we must have located the last iota of her passenger empathy gene as she whispered that, “...there’s another AA Service Desk by Gate 12 inside the secured area.” Hmm. Was this a tip? We suspected that we were deemed nice travelers and she had shared a big secret. Smiling, we immediately departed that AA Service Desk and proceeded to seek the Tarnished Kettle at the End of the Rainbow.

Spotting the Super Secret AA Service Desk at Gate 12, we strategized that we’d present ourselves as eternally nice passengers and ask the agent to double check our flights to see if we could get home today. Upon greeting a smiling AA agent, I told her that we were going to be the nicest people she would meet today. We reported that we felt so sorry for the AA agents downstairs as they were struggling to rebook hostile passengers. To further connect with this AA agent, we shared that her harried colleague directed us to come to her Service Desk to recheck our flight.

Click. Click. Click. The AA agent’s fake nails attacked her keyboard. Frown. Another clicking attack on the computer’s keys. Another frown. Alas! No luck but she was very pleasant. She must have graduated from AA’s Customer Service Program with high marks as she genuinely appeared to care that we were stranded. Maybe she was worried that we'd ask to sleep at her home?

Thanking her profusely, we had accomplished nothing but felt better for trying.

I was quickly approaching a cranky stage so it was time to use the food vouchers. After two diet Cokes, some greasy fries and a turkey club, I felt better. I went to seek a WiFi connection by Gate 9 in an attempt to search the AA web site for alternate connections. Just as I was getting frustrated trying to connect to the internet, I heard our names paged. I found Roy still in the restaurant with Taya and told him we had to go back to the AA Service Desk at Gate 12.

Oh, happy day! Ruth, the AA agent and my new best friend, produced two confirmed tickets for us. She said she kept trying after we left and snagged the seats. She had paged us three times and almost gave up when I heard her.

We’re now heading to Miami. There’s not a seat to spare but we’re happy travelers now.

Happily Homeward Bound,

Karen

Tues., January 11th

Boo-hoo. Time to return the cat to TMM. Leaving The Bight, Roy hoisted the mainsail while Karen was at the helm. As we passed Pelican Island, the wind increased to 32 kts. We motor sailed to the point at Peter Island, hoping that the wind would significantly decrease once we were in the lee of the island. Instead, we spotted a storm moving west from Cooper Island. The wind increased significantly which meant we dropped the main.

The storm’s path was taking it directly to Road Town. We continued to motor but changed course to avoid the storm. We experienced only a few rain drops but the winds increased to 48 kts. The cat took the waves without any fuss. Shortly, we saw a full double rainbow and all was well.

As we entered the harbor, we phoned TMM for a slip assignment and then went to the Delta fuel dock on the east side. Okay. That was the next adventure as no one was manning the dock. It was difficult docking, but this expert crew defied the unattended dock and tied up. Roy sought out the dock man and we eventually left with twenty-two gallons of diesel to top off the tank.

Returning the cat to TMM went well. Jock, the Scottish TMM gent who checked us back in, complimented us. His exact words were, “I wish all the charter boats came back this clean!” Yes, Captain Roy made certain that his crew left the boat in a “ship-shape” fashion.

Interesting things seem to happen to us. As we arrived at the Beef Island Guest House, Laura, the manager, was looking a bit nervous. She gave me a nice hug and then told us there was a problem with our two rooms. The problem was that we were only going to get one room since a couple refused to checkout. She was offering one large room with four beds. Hey, we’d been living on a cat for a whole week. As long as we had a toilet that we don’t have to pump and our own bed, we were happy campers. Laura was quite relieved that we were willing to share the lodging.

Room #4 had 3 beds. Roy and Karen took "Papa Bear's bed," Taya claimed "Mama Bear's bed, and Sallie, being the most petite, was assigned "Baby Bear's bed" which was a large cot. The room had several large fans and the open windows allowed the Trade Winds to cool the guests. Taya was attacked by the window screen several times when the Trade Winds upgraded to gusts. Roy employed some of his tool talents and secured the aggressive screen in order to spare Taya from any further assaults.

Taya took a nap, while Sallie, Roy and Karen enjoyed a swim in Trellis Bay. Before dinner, Sallie repacked her carryon bag.