St John boat rental

Everyone should try to live out one of their dreams at least once in a lifetime, well actually that is how I used to feel. This particular dream was to Captain my own boat through the Sir Francis Drake Channel. I wanted to spend my birthday week pretending I was something much more that what my day job allowed me to call myself. I wanted to see what the pirates saw. The only problem was, I had never actually driven a boat before!

It all started out innocently enough. My plan was to rent a boat and take off on a day long journey from the dock of Cruz Bay in St. John and head out through the Sir Francis Drake Channel and over to the British Virgin Islands. There was ony one small problem though, I had never driven a boat in my life. I have steered a few and helped with the sails on others, but to actually be in charge with no one to guide me was a different story. For some reason I thought that because I am good at riding my jet skis, that this would offer some type of assistance. I should have remembered that one of the most important things to always be aware of
when riding a jet ski is to stay away from the rocks.

The morning was spent eating breakfast at Mongoose Junction in
Cruz Bay with my companion who will be called Miss X, because she doesn't want to be publicly linked to this story. She kept asking "are you sure you have never driven a boat before"?
My answer never wavered, but I did try to reassure her that everything would be alright.

IIt was October 19th, and the horizon looked like it was going to offer perfect boating skies for the rest of the day. After breakfast we headed over to the southern side of the dock to find the Ocean Runner boat rental booth. Nobody was around when we arrived. I walked down to the water and already my nerves were beginning rattle. I had been imagining a ski boat of some type. Maybe like the hippie next door had in his driveway when I was growing up. But I didn't see anything like that in front of me now. The only thing I saw were two boats which were already way out of my league. But for some reason, I knew I would soon be heading off with one of these motorized fantasy machines.

Soon the owner arrived to call us inside to fill out some paperwork, and to go over a few of the rules. He handed me a map and asked if I had ever used a boating map before? "Of course!" I responded, and then going silent. I didn't want to mention that the previous map was actually only of the lake an hour away from my house. The contract was explained that even with insurance, my damage deductible was going to be $5,000.
What could go wrong I thought?
We then headed back down to the water to take a look at the boat.

I had already came this far, and no matter how stupid this idea was starting to look, and no matter that the words of advice from my dad "don't do it" kept ringing through my head, there was no way I was turning back now!