The 24 hour haul with “handluggage” and multiple Covid-19 documentations along the way…

With grandfathers taking each the fam’s to the airport at 3.30am in the morning the journeys start was smooth. Carrying only handluggage we whisked through ticketbooths, tax free and onto the plane. First headed for schipol, Amsterdam and then an 8hour flight to St Martin. Stepping off the plane in St Martin with the silky warm wind stroking over our tired faces was just pure bliss. The flight was quite a bit delayed, but luckily we had 6 hrs to spare in St Martin. That was fortunate cause checking in there took just about 2 hours for the 8 of us… and we were the only ones in line…The bags seemed to have soaked up moisture along the way, so the handluggage weight max 12 kg hour by hour ended up between 17 and 25kg each by the time we reached St Martin and had to be checked for the last leg of the trip(in a mini plane with propellers).

Though the checking in took long, we had a couple of hours to spare and the 8 of us headed over to Sunset Beach bar where the children jumped in the waves of the sunset beach with jumbojets and smaller planes roaring right overhead-quite the experience! With some beers soft drinks and Mexican food in our tummies we prepared for the last 4 hours of the trip..

After showing the covid passes and antigen test papers another 10 times, we crammed into the plane with 21(!) seats and open cockpit and headed up into the sky with turbulence and clammy hands and pounding hearts- but once again the pilot got us safe back on the ground so that we could present our covid passes and antigen tests another 10-15 times before we got through the BVI customs at Beef Island.

In the pitch black evening of Beef Island we got into driver Eric’s minibus and hurled along Tortolas narrow roads with honking horns over kidneywrenching bumps to Sopers Hole- But we made it there in one piece, and 24 hrs after the journey began we collapsed in our selected cabins of “Double Trouble” outside Omar’s Fusion restaurant.

Just a little inexperienced in sleeping in a boat with overhead windows, we woke up in soaked beds cause the skies decided to give us a little welcome to the BVI shower- fast learning; don’t sleep with the top windows open(or wake up fast when the rain starts and shut them at lightning speed).😂 But waking up to this sight made it all worth while!

The children so wanted to take a morning bath in the bathtub temp water, so of course the 3 Young boys twisted our arm and got their way. But then, all of a sudden little brown bits and corn came floating… and yes, it is what you think- the boats dont have septic tanks so all is flushed out into sea instantly… needless to say the boys came out of the water quicker than captain hook facing the crocodile, and had to be hosed down a couple of times… more things to be learned the hard way😆 and later, when Robert the boat guy came to show us the boat, we asked him about this and all he said was: «I wouldnt go swimming here in the marina- theyve seen a 10 ft shark and lots of huge barracudas here because of the restaurantremnants that are flushed etc»…. oh ye heatartack- no more monkeys swimming in the marina! And go to the bathroom mid-sea!!