Virgin Islands 1970's

First Trip

Some of my classmates in Orthodontic school organized two trips to sail in the Virgin Islands. They were triangle trips that went to 3 places.

The first trip we flew to Puerto Rico and then to Tortolla Island in the British Virgin Islands where we rented two 341 sailboats. Don Orloff was captain of one boat. With him were Taylor and Marsha Hicks and Susie Orloff.

I was captain of the other boat. We had Kaye, Dick and Susie May on our boat. We sailed from island to island. We hired a man to show us how to handle the boat, take care of going through the reefs, etc. He stayed one day. don and I both had sailboats so we knew how to sail. They were all fully stocked with food. We would sail to different island and anchor down to spend the night. The doves would coo all night long. We would take turns on each others boat to eat dinner together. They teepeed our boat. To pay them back we pulled their dingy up beside our boat when they came out to eat. When they went to leave I pumped our bilge water into their dingy. Payment.

We anchored in a little bay and everyone got their snorkeling gear on. Taylor was in the water and I saw this big shark swim by the boat. I yelled to him that I saw a shark but he didn't believe me. A few minutes later I saw Taylor swimming fast toward the boat. he was trying to climb the boat ladder but his flippers wouldn't let him. He finally climbed the ladder on his knees. He said, "There's a shark down there." I said, "That's what I said, Taylor."

We went to St. John's Island in the American Virgins and we went into town. I bought a bear claw necklace for Kaye. We were all standing down at the waterfront watching a boat unload. Don, who was a small guy, loved to take pictures. He was taking pictures of them. One of the guys on the boat said, "If you take a picture of me, I'll take a picture of you with a hole in your head,"

Later we sailed to the other side of Tortolla Island and anchored down by a nice beach with a small shack from which they served food and drinks. The owner was a black fellow with big eyes. The whites of his yes were yellow. We were the only two boats there. We went ashore to get something to eat. He said, "Do you have reservations?" He fed us a great fish dinner. The people on the British Virgin Islands were all very friendly, not so on the American Virgin Islands. On that trip I got a hatch slammed down on my fingernail. It was very painful. We finally burned a hole through the nail to relieve the pain. After two weeks then we flew to New Orleans for two days.

New Orleans

We saw all the sights in New Orleans. The Jazz Areas, tour of Lake Ponchatrain, etc. We ate turtle soup and beignets. We went to lots of antique shops and I saw four copper plated milk cans from England. I bought them and had them shipped home. We use them for bar stools.

Second Trip

The second trip I rented a 44 foot sailboat. We had Kaye and I, Carl and Marsha White, and Dan and Karen Matarangus. The other boat had the Orloffs, Hicks and an orthopedic surgeon and his wife. We sailed for two weeks on another wonderful trip. For fun we had a water balloon pirate fight with eye patches. We also went back to the shack on Tortolla. We radio-ed in and made reservations. They fed us a great lobster dinner and brought down a steel band to play for us. We ate and danced all night. The next day we went to another island where these people had a rum factory in a barn. Don asked the people how much money they made of the little factory. They said we don't ask you how much you make, do we? Karl and I each bought a bottle of rum. Karl, Dan and I were drinking rum on the way to another island. When we got there Dan was pretty drunk. We went to a little bar and the man there offered the girls a tour of their little town. They took us into their houses and all around the town.

The next leg of our trip took us to Mexico City. While we were there we saw Ballet Folkloria, which was fantastic. We toured the Aztec ruins north of Mexico City. We ate in a beautiful white Mexican Restaurant. They brought huge lazy susans full of all kinds of sea foods, salad, and every kind of food. They played Mexican music. It was great. we went to the beautiful museum there and we took a tour of the city. We also went down to Taxico, their silver city where they make all the silver jewelry. We bought jewelry there. as we traveled we stopped at this pretty town where a lot of Americans lived. We ate at a beautiful restaurant that had peacocks walking around on the grass.

The smog and the traffic in Mexico City were unbelievable. The only bad thing about this trip was that I got Montezuma's revenge for about six weeks after we got home.