The six of us had a very nice Shabbos/Shabbat here at the docks in Spanish Town, Virgin Gorda. Shabbos comes in and ends earlier here than back home - around 6:45 and 7:30, so as I type this many of you are probably just coming out of Shabbos.
Obviously there are no pictures, but I'll try to describe the scene. We are in a slip (a spot on the dock) several boats away from shore. Around us are other sailboats and some larger motor yachts. Apparently this is a very popular time to come to Virgin Gorda and the British Virgin Islands in general because of Christmas in July, a yearly festival. A lot of Spanish-speaking people are here on surrounding yachts for this, many of them from Puerto Rico. They have been having a good time.
But Friday evening was nice and quiet. After showering (onshore!), we dressed up (a little, it is the tropics. I wore a white polo shirt) and went to the front of our boat, where we sat and sang kabbalat Shabbat together, and part of maariv (such as v'Shamru). Kiddush was on some Kedem grape juice I brought from home. For dinner we had brussel sprouts, rice, and red snapper! It was very good (thanks to Ben and his beloved cayenne pepper), but the interesting aspect of all of this is the fish. We had thought we would be eating fish a lot here in the islands, but as it turns out, there is a toxin in a lot of the fish around here that makes local fishing pretty much impossible. So this fish was from the supermarket (a supermarket in which Yoni was dismayed to find that there was more readily available kosher food than in the stores he frequents in London). We did highs and lows of the day again. Ben told us the story behind the seltzer he bought (what he considers the "champagne of seltzers"). The rest of the meal was filled with zemiros.
After dinner Yoni, Chana Gila, Ben, and I played a card game called Loke, which is similar to Spades and Bridge. Sammy and Amichai read. Then we all went to sleep. And boy, did we sleep! It rained much of the night and was still cloudy and rainy throughout the rest of the day (and is now pouring again as I type this). I slept later than I expected, but it was one of the best nights of sleep I got the whole trip so far (it was also a cooler night than most). After getting up we davened and had kiddush (grape juice and some Sara Lee pecan coffee cake and some Verona cookies). Then we either fell asleep again or read, until lunch in the early afternoon.
Thanks to the weather, it was a much cooler day, which we were very thankful for. It can get really, really hot here and I hadn't been looking forward to a sweaty, disgusting Shabbat. But it turned out really well. It was also good timing with the rain, because any other day of the week we can't sail in the rain anyway! During the rest of the afternoon we hung out, read, and tried learning to play bridge. While Yoni and I dominated the Loke game the night before, Ben and CG got back at us today with bridge (or at least Ben's admittedly own version of bridge).
By the afternoon, another yacht that had showed up right next to us started playing lots of pop and dance music. They and another boat or two seemed to know each other and they were quite loud. Christmas in July, everyone! We davened mincha inside the boat, where it was quieter and then had a quick seudah shlishit upstairs. We wanted to sing the regular tunes for seudah shlishit, but couldn't because of the music alongside us, so we walked over to a nearby field and sang. Some mosquitos really loved our singing and kissed us all over.
Maariv was said inside the boat too, as was havdalah. Then it was time for onshore showers again and other motzai shabbat activities!
Shavua Tov!
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