By Island Jim Kelley

Thursday was coming to a close and I was attempting to slip away from work early. I was invited by friends to join them for a few days of sailing. Norman called me early that Thursday morning. He was telling me that they were in Great Harbor at Jost Van Dyke and wanted to know if I could catch the last ferry over and join them. Of course I jumped at the chance to sail on a 45-foot catamaran for the next four days.

In the British Virgin Islands, Easter is celebrated with a four day weekend. The weather forecast was calling for great sailing weather, as usual here in the BVI. As the time grew closer to the end of the day and the last ferry out, I had a feeling I was just not going to make it. Newton's law played a role in the demise of my early day departure and I had no choice but to let the ferry go without me. I tried calling Norman on his cell phone but as it turned out, he was out of the carrier zone. Yes, a total of approximately 7 miles.

I decided I would relax that night and wake up early on Good Friday and take the first ferry over to Jost at 7:30 am. I rushed out the door and drove to West End where the ferry was. The "When" is the name of the ferry and most people here on the island call it the "If and When". You just never know if it will be late or early or run at all for that matter. The captain seems to depart when he feels like it. If the "When" has several people onboard and it is thirty minutes earlier than its departure time, well, he leaves!

I got to West End and the "When" was still sitting at its berth along the Customs and Immigrations dock. No problem, I thought. I decided to grab the local newspaper and relax for a bit before we took off. I waited and I waited, I went for a walk, I came back, I finished reading the newspaper. It was now nearing 8:30 am and the captain was nowhere to be found. I knew that I had to get over to Jost Van Dyke early because when you're on a sailboat, you spend much of the day sailing. I knew Norman would get an early start on the day heading to his next destination.

As I sat there debating whether or not I should go see if the captain showed up, one of the dock workers waved me over. As I approached he told me that there was a guy going over if I wanted a ride in a small 20' motor boat. I jumped on and we were off. As we got closer to Jost, I was looking for Norman's boat and didn't see it. I had the guy drop me off at the dock in front of the Immigrations office. I thanked the local for giving me a lift and at that point he informed me that the ride I just took was twenty dollars. Twenty dollars! I said. The ferry is fifteen dollars round trip. He told me that yes, but this was a private ride and it was twenty. No way, I'll give you ten! We argued for a bit and he told me we could go to the police station if I wanted. I agreed and we walked over. As we were headed over I knew damn right well I was not going to win this one but figured I would go as far as I could with my argument. As we climbed the stairs to the office he was yelling for his buddy inside. When we got to the top, this big local with a belly the size of several spare tires came out with nothing on but a towel wrapped around his waist. The islands version of Mayberry, I thought to myself. There stood a dark, oversized Barney Fife. I paid the twenty dollars.

After all that, I walked over to Foxy's which is a local bar to see if I could use the VHS radio to call out to Norman's boat. As it turned out, Foxy's was closed for the day. I proceeded up the beach to Ali Babas. They told me I could use the radio if it was working. Needless to say, it wasn't. I thought to myself, well I am here for several hours because who the hell knows when "When" will be here if it ever does. So I decided to hike over the mountain to one of my favorite beaches in the BVI, White Bay.

It was a pretty hot morning and I didn't pack any water for my hike, not knowing I would be hiking. It took awhile to get there and the whole time walking, I was thinking about how wonderful that ice, cold beer is going to taste when I arrived. As I got closer to the Soggy Dollar Bar, my pace picked up to an almost sprint. I made it, I thought! Thank God! The bartender came out and I immediately asked for a beer, taken from the way bottom of the cooler. I want the coldest one you can find, I told her. Not saying a word she pointed to a sign at the back of the bar that read. "Due to BVI law, no alcoholic beverages can be sold on Good Friday."

I'm not sure, but I think I fell over backwards. I'll have an orange juice, I said, with a very quiet mumble. As I sat there drinking my juice, the new manager of the Soggy Dollar Bar came out. It was my friend George who had been living on Tortola and racing boats around the Caribbean prior to coming to Jost. After talking for a few minutes and filling him in on the details of my day, he called me out back. He pointed to the cooler and told me to help myself to whatever I wanted. Woo hooo!! ICE COLD BEER!

The rest of the afternoon I sat there with great company and good food, drinking my cold beer on one of the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean. As the day came to a close, I thought to myself "this wasn't a bad day, as a matter of fact it was a Good Friday!"