House:
The house we rented was called "Drifters' Retreat". We found it through an online villa rental website. Sorry, but we don't remember which website. It doesn't matter anyway, since the home is no longer available as a rental unit. The owners had sold the house and we were their very last renters. It's not known if the new owners would rent the place or not. The house was located on Great Camanoe Island, a private residential island just across the bay from Beef Island and Tortola. The island had no commercial businesses on it. There were quite a few nice homes scattered about the island.

The house was a real nice simple two-bedroom ranch. It was an easy, relatively flat, 100 ft walk from the house to the community marina where the boat was kept. The grounds were nice and private with lots of trees and bushes and flowering plants all around. The front of the house had a full-length deck from which you could get a nice view of all the boats moored at the Marina Cay anchorage. The front dining room also opened onto the deck. We always ate our home meals there so we could watch the peaceful action out in the bay. In the evening we could watch the stars from the deck.

The master bedroom had its own master bathroom and the spare bedroom had its own separate bath. The kitchen was large, roomy and well supplied.

There was also a large collection of videos in the spare bedroom that we made good use of. We spent several evenings watching a movie or two that we had not seen yet.

The back had a very private patio with a dinette table and chairs. There were also 3 or 4 bird feeders out back. The feeders kept the Bananaquit population well fed. One of my daily "chores" was filling the feeders every morning. The flock of Bananaquits would be hopping about the trees out back, chirping loudly in the morning to remind me lest I forget to feed them their breakfast! There was also a hummingbird feeder that was frequently visited.

^ Above is the front deck. A great place to hang out all day.

< Here's the patio area out behind the house.

Here's Diane enjoying the front Dining Room. We ate all our meals here looking out over the boats anchored around Marina Cay .

^ Here's where the house is located in reference to other landmarks.

Boat:
The boat was a 15 foot "inflatable" with a solid hull and inflatable tubes along the gunwale. It had a good powerful 50 Hp outboard and a center console with throttle and steering controls. It was great! It got us everywhere we wanted to go in speed and comfort.

The community boat dock, about 100 ft from the house.

^ Here I am driving the boat. Monkey Point is behind me in the distance.

Trellis Bay:
Trellis Bay was a short (100 yd ?) walk from the Beef Island airport. Just exit the terminal building, turn left and follow the sidewalk till your toes are wet. There's no possible reason to need to take a taxi, unless you brought loads of luggage. But then, there's absolutely no need to bring loads of luggage. From the dock at Trellis Bay it was a short 5-minute boat ride across the water to Great Camanoe Island and the house. When we arrived, the house caretaker was waiting for us at the Trellis Bay public dock to take us to the house, show us around, and demonstrate how to operate the boat.

At Trellis Bay is a general food market, an internet café, a car rental place, a restaurant, North Sound Ferry Service, and several artist's studios. The food market had a limited selection and was probably pricey, but the convenience was hard to beat. One day we walked from Trellis Bay, past the airport, over the bridge onto Tortola, and down the road to a larger food market in East End. It was about a 3-mile walk one way. Going back with the groceries was a bit of a bother. We could have gotten a taxi but we're kinda cheap and besides, we liked the exercise.

^ Here I am walking down the Main Street at Trellis Bay.

^This is the main market store at Trellis Bay. ^

< One of the artist studios at Trellis Bay.