Things do not always go as planned

Our last week in the Netherlands has arrived.  The keys to our house will be handed over to the new owners on Thursday, June 30. This was accompanied by different emotions in all of us. That day we left for a hotel where we had an unbelievably unforgettable evening with both our families, full of emotions, memories of beautiful moments together and of course good food. 

The next morning at 6.00 am we were all taken by bus from the hotel to Schiphol.  We had taken into account a lot of crowds and chaos, but luckily it wasn’t too bad.  After many tears, hugs and goodbyes, we were 2.5 hours later checked in, went through security and passport control.  The peace was now slowly sinking in.

Our first flight would take 9 hours to Saint Martin. Princess Juliana Airport on Saint Martin is located on Maho Beach.  This airport is ranked in 4th place of the most dangerous airports in the world.  We were very happy that the weather was good on arrival.

Arriving in Saint Martin we had to wait 6 hours for our next flight to Tortola (British Virgin Islands).  Our second flight is with a small airplane that can accommodate up to 12 people and with a deafening noise we flew with a beautiful view of a sunset towards Beef Island Tortola. This flight lasted 40 minutes. 

It is not standard for the immigration service that you arrive by airplane and then do not have a return ticket and leave the country with your own boat.  After some persuading we were allowed to enter the country.

Arriving in the harbour our boat turned out not to be ready and was still lying on the side.  This was different from what we expected.  It’s Friday night and next Monday the islanders have a public holiday and will celebrate Island Day. Tuesday, we will hear more about our boat.  Therefore we checked in at the hotel of the marina.  All three of us were exhausted and after a shower we all fell asleep like a log.  The next day it was windy and rainy.  A tropical storm is forecast for the next 3 days.  Despite these warnings, it wasn’t too bad and we were able to walk around the marina between the rain showers.  The atmosphere is friendly, tropical music is coming from the speakers and the people are warm and welcoming. We could see our boat from a distance and that made us happy. 

That evening we went to eat and drink something in the Beach bar.  Here we soon met Darren and Luke both from the UK but have been working here in the British Virgin Islands for years.  Less than 30 minutes later we were invited to a BBQ party at his house the next day.  During that BBQ evening, we got to know a lot of nice people from different cultures and backgrounds, but all living and working on the British Virgin Islands. Everyone had their own story. We thought everybody knew each other, but that was not the case. Darren put a group of people together who could benefit from each other, which was fun and enlightening. We are grateful that we were able to experience this.