November 4 - Tortola, British Virgin Islands

We had a pretty good storm yesterday afternoon that stayed all night.  We did a bit of rolling, but what was more interesting to me was the bouncing.  On the big Princess ships we've been on you'll be going along pretty smoothly and then suddenly there's a big shudder, almost as if you hit a speed bump, which jolts you awake.  On this ship we sort of bounced along with little jumps almost continuously.  Made it easier to sleep.

Our tour this morning was memorable and disappointing at the same time.  We were in an open air jitney type vehicle, except that it was built on a Ford F450 truck so it had lots of power which we definitely needed.  The speaker wasn't working so we couldn't hear the guide/driver, not that it would have helped much since he was hard to understand when he was standing in front of you.  He stopped a few times to get out and tell us a little bit about what we were seeing, but we really learned nothing about life here.  This is a very mountainous island and I think we drove up and over each one.  The roads are very narrow and winding so he had to honk before nearly every curve and we had a few close calls.  They build huge homes that hang off the hills.  There was damage from Irma here also of course, but they are much further along in rebuilding.  We looked down on many homes that looked great for the first 2 or 3 floors and then had a flat roof with lots of rebar and pipes sticking up as if getting ready for construction, but no materials around.  We speculate it had something to do with lower taxes on an "unfinished" house, but don't know since our guide wasn't available to ask.  We had an hour stop at a beach, but the day was overcast so it wasn't terribly picturesque.  I thought surely after the beach we'd be taking a level coast road back to the ship. No chance.  The second part over different mountains was shorter, but even steeper.  The brakes squealed, which all the men commented on, and started smelling bad just as we got to the bottom.

Spent our usual afternoon reading, napping and exercising (one of us anyway).  Tonight was our last dinner at the  Chef's Table for Asian night and we enjoyed chatting with a couple of Scottish ladies at the next table.