Living on a Dock in a Real Neighborhood

No boater likes being on a dock. You’re usually there to fuel up, get ice, or fix something.

We were at Nanny Cay Marina on Tortola in the British Virgin Islands for the latter, other than our four days of training with Captain Chris.

We had two engine issues, an oil leak, a generator issue, a generator leak, a water maker issue and maybe more, but I already can’t remember. Joe spent hours pouring through manuals to figure things out.

We made numerous trips to the chandlery (a marine “Ace Hardware"), had dinners at Peg Legs restaurant on their teeny beach where Deborah and Kerry greeted us nightly and we had many steps to the local Rite Way grocery that had pretty good vegetables, surprisingly.

Nanny Cay is more than a marina, it’s a neighborhood. Real people live there. We watched kids go off to school with their uniforms and backpacks and parents chatting while their kids took swim lessons in the hotel pool. We enjoyed the Halloween decorations and trick or treaters on the Saturday night before Halloween. (Then Christmas decorations went up right after Halloween!)

We’ll be forever grateful to Jillian at the hotel’s front desk for letting us borrow her Mr. Coffee coffee maker until we got our own that was $50 at the local “department store.” Yes, $50 for the Mr. Coffee that makes 4 cups, not 12.

And we appreciated Justin, the head of the marina, for allowing us to stay “one more day” three times during his boat show that showcased the likes of Tranquility that was docked next to us.

Last, but not least, we so appreciated Richard, Paul Sr. and Paul Jr. (no relation) who kept coming back because we’d text “now we have an oil leak” or “now our engine won’t start.”

This is boat ownership, and we fully expected issues, just not all at the beginning.

We have a video showing our escape from Nanny Cay to go out on our own, but it was hardly escaping. It was an experience that we’ll forever be grateful to the people who made the beginning of our adventure quite pleasant.

And a bonus – the WiFi worked!

I put an arrow on this stock photo to show you where we watched sunrises and sunsets every day. And by the way, this marina was completely decimated by Hurricane Irma in 2017. We visited just 4 months afterwards and it was unrecognizable.

View from the pool/beach in Nanny Cay. Where we first hung out to wait for the delivery of Making Connections in August of 2021.

Cheering on the Broncos from BVI

Trick or Treaters - Halloween 2021 - Nanny Cay

The Nanny Cay neighborhood