New Drink: RC Wings on the Rocks

Saturday, January 21, 2017

This morning, we got up and started a few more chores while we had hydro and free (yes, free!) water.  By 11:00, we threw off the dock lines and headed toward St. John.  The winds are very light today, 5-6 knots, so we are motoring.  We've had strong winds for so long that this is a little strange.  The ocean is about as flat as we've seen it, with only 1-2 foot swells.  About halfway across, the ocean got even flatter and the wind was down to 1-2 knots.  We had a smooth ride across, like gliding over molasses.  Since it was so smooth, Carey used the time wisely and worked at obliterating the rust from all of the stainless on the boat.  Big, thankless job that has to be redone frequently.  I watched for other boat traffic while Carey worked.  Hey, somebody has to do it!  Teehee.

When we were about an hour out, we could see a dark cloud over St. John and it was pouring.  We changed course from due north to west for awhile, which seemed to work.  By the time we turned back toward Lameshur Bay, it was clearing, although there was a very black sky to our east.  Fingers crossed that we miss both storms.

It was supposed to take about 4 1/2 hours to get to Lameshur Bay on St. John, but, with our detour, it took more like 5 1/2 hours  We didn't mind, though.  It was a lovely day to be out on the water, and we missed almost all of the rain.


Sunday, January 22, 2017

Okay, here's something that's a bit different.  Bioluminescence is the emission of light by living organisms like plankton, deep sea fishes, bacteria, etc.  When we're sailing along at night, we often see sparkles of light all along the water where our boat has stirred it up.  That's bioluminescence.  Here's the eerie part.  Our toilets use sea water, so at night with the lights off, the water sometimes glows in the toilet.  Eerie!

We had a lovely leisurely breakfast this morning, and took our coffee on deck to watch the sea life wake up.   The fish were jumping and there are lots of big turtles here.  You can hear the turtles exhale when they come up for air, just like a whale spout.  The air is very still this morning, hardly any wind.

We left Lameshur at 10:15 and motored to Cruz Bay.  We need to buy provisions for company this week.  But, first, we stopped for lunch at the Ocean Grill in Mongoose Junction in Cruz Bay. We just discovered this place.  It's a really nice restaurant, clean, and they have good food.  The building is all natural rock and very beautiful.

We walked to the Starfish Market in Cruz Bay.  We are going to take Jeff and Gail there to provision next week, because they've got some specialty stuff that he'll like and that isn't available at other markets around here.  We filled our bags with lots of good food, caught a taxi back to the dinghy dock, dinghied to our boat, and lifted anchor.

Once again, the winds were very light, so we motored over to Christmas Cove, with a short detour to check out Sapphire Bay Marina.  The entrance there is extremely narrow and poorly marked, so we won't be going there.  We dropped anchor at Christmas Cove at 4:00 pm and had a peaceful evening.


Monday, January 23, 2017

Today, we got ready for our friend, Beth, to arrive.  Cleaning, straightening, making beds--all that good stuff.

We picked up Beth at 5:10 at the fuel dock of American Yacht Harbor.  Poor thing; her first night out and the anchorage was very rolly.  Usually, here at Christmas Cove it's pretty calm, but not this evening.  We had dinner, chatted and had an early night.


Tuesday, January 24, 2017

What a terrible night!  Carey and I got up at 7:00 am and moved the boat over to the bay by the Ritz.  It was blowing and the swells were big, so it hadn't been very comfortable for sleeping. We thought it would be better to have breakfast in that bay.

After breakfast, we motored over to Trunk Bay where they have an underwater snorkel trail by Trunk Cay.  Beth and I went in and snorkelled for awhile. They actually have signs underwater about what you're seeing. Pretty simple info, but it was different. The only problem was that it was a snorkelling traffic jam. There were so many people there that I kept having to detour out of their way or risk being flippered to death. I think I'm a snorkelling snob.  I like to snorkel by myself, not in crowds.

Later, we sailed to Jost Van Dyke to clear into the BVIs, then anchored at Little Jost Van Dyke.


Wednesday, January 25, 2017

What a calm night!  Quiet, calm, no rolling.  Good sleep.

After a peaceful breakfast, I went snorkelling.  There are shallow reefs here, so you can get quite close to the fish and the coral.  It's great for seeing their brilliant colours.

Once back at the boat, we dinghied over to land and walked to the Bubbly Pool.  The tide was out, so it wasn't as spectacular a splash when the water gushes through the rocks, but it was still a good show.

On the way back, we stopped at Foxy's Taboo for lunch and then dinghied back to the boat.  Once back, Beth and I went snorkelling.

We decided to sail to Brewers Bay for the night.  We were looking for an ideal place to anchor.  Carey was on the bow and I was on the helm.  I ALWAYS keep one eye on the chartplotter to make sure I don't run into anything underwater. Unfortunately, that doesn't always mean you're safe with the Caribbean charts.  We hit rocks!!  Grind, crunch, scrape, ugh.  These were uncharted rocks in the middle of the bay.  Yikes!  I reversed quickly, then gently turned sideways and we were off.  It was a few seconds of horror, and then we could breathe again.  Phew, time for a double.  I'm creating a new drink--R C Wings on the Rocks.

Once we were settled, we got quite a diving show by the pelicans.  Later, the swells started picking up. Carey tried putting the stern anchor out to keep our bow into the waves, and to keep us from rolling side to side, but it dragged and he had to take it up again.  Uh, oh, another rolly night.


Thursday, January 26, 2017

Terrible night for sleeping. We were rolling wildly.  No fun, and very little sleep.  Carey and I got up at 7:00 am (again!) and we could see huge rollers breaking over the reef in the centre of the bay.  They were so big you could surf them!

Time to move the boat to Soper's Hole.  We motored all the way and an hour later we had picked up a mooring ball. Beth slept through it all (or at least stayed in bed trying to sleep).  

Beth and I wandered the town for awhile and then returned to the boat for lunch. During lunch, I ran out of propane for the stove.  Carey was able to slowly cook the food on the barbecue, but it took three times as long. Not ideal. Afterward, we all dinghied our laundry to the laundromat and our propane bottles to the coffee shop (go figure) and then sat in Pussers waiting for the laundry to be done. The propane bottles will be ready for pick up by 7 am tomorrow.  Back at the boat we had dinner (barbecued pork chops, salad, and a cold bean and tomato mixture) and enjoyed a peaceful night.


Friday, January 27, 2017

We dinghied in to have breakfast at D'Best Cup (delicious!) and to pick up our propane bottles from them. While we were on land, we checked out their small chandlery (ship's store), and bought ice and lemons.  Then, we went to Customs and dropped off our trash on the other side of the harbour.  (Anywhere we can get rid of trash is a bonus.). We cleared out of the BVIs, dinghied back to the boat and we left for Cruz Bay, St. John, USVI.

We anchored in the designated Customs and Immigration area in Cruz Bay, dinghied over, and cleared in at Customs.  Since it was already after 1:00, we had lunch onboard and then we left for Lameshur Bay.  Beth took the helm for the first time in her life and she loved it!  She didn't know that this should have been on her bucket list.  Haha.  Check that one off.  She's now thinking that sailing lessons might be in her future.

We arrived at Lameshur Bay at 3:50 pm and picked up our favourite mooring ball (#14).  It's so nice that people leave that one open for us.  It feels like home.


Saturday, January 28, 2017

I got up a bit earlier than everyone else to make my homemade bread for breakfast.  By 8:00, we were enjoying the warm bread with butter, honey, and peanut butter.  Yum.

We watched the turtles popping up their heads all over the bay while we relaxed after breakfast. Such a peaceful place.  Around 11:00, Beth and I went snorkelling.  Here we saw the biggest parrot fish, lots of yellowtail snappers, blue tangs, angel fish, bright yellow coral, a feather-like coral and lots of other big and little fish.  This is an excellent place for snorkelling.  We were hoping to swim with the turtles, but they proved elusive.  Shy creatures, I guess.

After lunch, we headed out to check out Nazareth Bay on the southeast coast of St. Thomas.  This might be a better place to drop off our guests (especially with an east wind).  Beth took the helm with the sails set for a broad reach.  A little bit tricky to hold her line with the waves on our stern, but she did well.  Carey noticed a very dark line of clouds to the east, so we furled the sails and motored to Christmas Cove to wait out the squall. We got anchored just in time!

While we waited for the squall to pass, we each took showers and got ready for our evening out.
Once it had blown itself out, we motored over to check out Nazareth Bay.  After the squall, we saw a rainbow with the most vivid colours.  Gorgeous.

Nazareth Bay was too rolly, so we turned around and anchored in Cowpet Bay.  Still a bit rolly, but it will work for now.  It rained again, so we waited a while longer.

We finally dinghied into the beach at the Elysian Resort and caught a cab (with driver, Roland) to Bluebeard's Castle where Beth will be staying for a couple of days. We had a delicious meal at the Banana Tree Restaurant onsite and all of us especially enjoyed the 'Oh My Gorgonzola Bread'--ciabatta garlic bread with melted Gorgonzola cheese all over it.  Oh, my!  Delicious.  Beth treated us to this wonderful meal.  So nice!

Carey and I called Roland, our favourite taxi driver, (who was already waiting in the lobby for us) and he drove us back to the Elysian where we jumped in our dinghy and made it back to our boat before eleven o'clock.



Sunday, January 29, 2017

After breakfast, we moved the boat the short distance across the St. James Bay from Cowpet Bay to Christmas Cove. It should have been a simple move, but the St. Thomas Yacht Club had set up a race course right in the middle of the bay.  We had to try to avoid the racers and go around their course instead of through it.  The move to Christmas Cove will give us a more settled area to do our cleaning before Gail and Jeff arrive this afternoon.

I Don't Wanna Iguana

Sunday, January 15, 2017

At Coral Harbor, we dinghied over to the dinghy dock and Norma treated us to lunch at Skinny Legs.  "Best burgers on the island!"  That comment makes us laugh, because almost every restaurant we've been to has said that.  However, these burgers WERE delicious.  We took a walk around, found a man selling fresh fruit and homemade bread (there's breakfast tomorrow!), and went to Pickles Deli to buy a bag of ice.

Once we got back to the boat, we decided to head back to Lameshur for the night.  It's a much more peaceful, protected, and picturesque bay.  We actually got to sail back (yahoo!) instead of motoring, so that was Norma's thrill for the day.  When we arrived, there was only one mooring ball left in the entire anchorage--and it was the one we left this morning.  Perfect!  Home again.


Monday, January 16, 2017

We had a lovely downwind sail all the way to Red Hook this morning in twenty knot winds.  We were deeply reefed, and we were still going at over 6 knots.  We had decided to go to the American Yacht Harbor marina for the night, because Norma wanted to take us out for a nice meal on her last night with us.  When we arrived at AYH, the winds were howling straight into the bay and Carey didn't think we could make a safe landing at a dock, so we turned around and motored over to Great Bay.  It's a little rolly here, but definitely more protected so we are going to make the best of it and go out for dinner at the Ritz.  Woohoo!

After lunch, just as we were about to dinghy over to the Ritz beach for a walk around the area, it started to rain. We delayed our departure for a few minutes and then we were off.  We hiked along the road and did a big loop until we were back at the Ritz.  It's not really safe to walk along the road, because it is narrow and the drivers don't always move over for walkers.  Yikes!

Back at the Ritz, we made reservations for dinner and Norma picked up a flyer for places to eat in St. Thomas.  There was a 2-for-1 coupon inside for Zest, the frozen yoghurt shop right there at the Ritz, so we wandered over and made ourselves some delicious sundaes.  As it turned out, the coupon was for $20 off, so we got all three for free!  Now, that's my kind of deal!

We returned to the boat, cleaned up for supper, and dinghied back to the beach for dinner at Essenza.  Norma was treating us, and insisted that we order drinks, appetizers, sides, and mains.  Well, allrightee!  We all had really delicious meals, then ordered a chocolate dessert to take back with us.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

After breakfast, Norma started packing and cleaning. Talk about a perfect guest--she cleaned everything in the vee berth, even the ceiling!  It looks great now.  Thanks, Norma!

We had a light lunch, shared the scrumptious chocolate dessert from the Ritz, and then dinghied Norma over to the Ritz just after 1:00 so she could catch a cab to the airport.  All went as planned.

Later, Carey and I went back to the boat, lifted anchor and headed back to Lameshur Bay.  We've decided to go 40 miles south to the island of St. Croix tomorrow, and this will be a good jumping off point.

Wednesday. January 18, 2017

We sailed away from Lameshur Bay at 8:30 am. The forecast was for 20 knot winds (about 40 km) and 6 foot swells, and that's pretty much what we got. The swells were on our beam, for the most part, which made it quite a roller coaster ride--sideways. By 9:00, we could see the island of St. Croix which was still 35 nautical miles away.  We were hand steering because our batteries were low and the autopilot takes too much juice. We are depending on our solar panels today, because we aren't running the engine.  We saw several flying fish skimming above the water and then we saw two frigate birds grab a flying fish above the surface right out of the air. Very cool.

We've seen a couple of power boats out here today, but that's about it.   At home, we wouldn't go out in this weather, but that has more to do with docking than sailing. It's no fun docking in high winds. Ugh.  On this ocean passage we go over the Puerto Rico Trench which is 12,732 feet deep here!  Wow!  That's a lot of water under our keel.

When we arrived in the Christiansted Harbour, we fuelled up and then looked for a place to anchor.  It's very crowded, so that was tougher than it should have been.  We finally found a spot we thought would be protected, dropped anchor, and then was told the Coast Guard didn't want anyone anchoring that close to their underwater power cables.  Aaaarrrrggghhh!  We lifted anchor and headed for the anchorage near Altoona Park.  It didn't look nearly as protected, so we prepared ourselves for a rolly night.  Also, it's too far to the shore and too windy to take our dinghy off the bow.  Hmmmm, I guess we'll stay onboard for tonight.


Thursday, January 19, 2017

The anchorage near Altoona Park at Christiansted Harbor wasn't nearly as rolly as we expected, so we both had a good night sleep.  However, we decided to make a move that would work better for us. The long dinghy ride from this anchorage would take us forever and use up all of our dinghy battery power (if we could safely launch the dinghy at all).  We decided to go east about three miles and stay at the Green Cay Marina.  They have laundry, restaurants, wifi, and power to recharge our boat and dinghy batteries.

By 10:30, we were tied to a Green Cay Marina dock (A17).  It's a little tricky getting tied up because it has spiles on the stern (which we had to lasso) and a tiny finger dock where we could climb on and off the boat.  Good thing we have long legs!  While we were tying up, a trumpetfish swam by.  Trumpetfish are long skinny fish--very distinctive.

As I approached the office two very large, colourful  iguanas speedily waddled toward me on the dock. They didn't seem phased to be that close to a human at all. One of them ran by me and jumped off the dock into the water. The other hesitated for a minute and then followed his brother to the edge. He didn't feel like a swim, I guess, and just sat there posing for me. I continued on to the office and saw four more iguanas on the lawn. Wow, lotsa iguanas!

Now that we have a decent place to stay, we decided to get a taxi to go back to explore Christiansted.  Andy's Taxi arrived and he apologized for being late.  He said his middle name is punctuality. I said mine was, too!  He said, April?  Yes, I replied, catching onto his train of thought. 'Taurus?' Yes! Bosom buddies right off the bat. LOL. Andy is an old guy who talks and laughs and knows everyone.  He took us into town and said he would be back in a couple of hours to pick us up.  Before he left, he pointed out the huge tarpon hanging around the docks looking for a handout.  There were at least 12 of them and they were from 3-6 feet long.

We had lunch at Rum Runners.  Their slogan is: The liver is evil. It must be punished. LOL.  So, we punished our livers with a Rum Runner.  After lunch we sauntered along the boardwalk that runs all along the shoreline.  It's very pretty, with colourful historical buildings on one side and lots of boats moored in the harbour on the other side.

Andy picked us up around 4:10 (Mr. Punctuality, he's not), and we headed back to the marina to get our laundry done.  Later, around 8:00, we went to Galleons Restaurant right here at the marina for an appetizer dinner.  Yummy crab cakes and summer salad.  Delicious!


Friday, January 20, 2017

This morning, we are headed out for a tour of the island.

St. Croix is located 35 miles south of the other Virgin Islands and has an area of 84 square miles, 28 miles east-to-west and seven miles north to south at its widest point. Its population is about 52,000.  It is quite beautiful--moderately mountainous, green and lush.  The tallest mountain is 1200 feet high.

Andy, the taxi driver cum tour guide, picked us up at 9:00 and took us sightseeing and told us about the island.  Like the other Virgin Islands, they drive on the left side of the road here.  There are 3 golf courses on St. Croix.  Yesterday, on our way to Green Cay Marina, we saw the Buccaneer Golf Course which has a par three hole right on the coast.  That beautiful coastal view would be very distracting when you're trying to make a putt.  Mahogany trees line the roads here and we saw a mongoose race across the road.  There are no waterfalls or freshwater rivers on St. Croix. They capture water from their roofs and it runs into a cistern. Next on the agenda was a tour of the Cruzan Rum Distillery. They make their rum with molasses.  The tour was very interesting. The vat where they added yeast was bubbling and swirling, which was all due to the yeast. Talk about active yeast!  No stirring or agitating needed.  

After the tour, which took an hour instead of the promised half hour, we were given rum samples and a rum drink called an Illusion (coconut rum, mango rum, and pineapple juice). Delicious, but a little earlier than we usually drink. We jumped back in the cab and headed for Fredericksted, on the west end of St. Croix.  It's a pleasant place and we took a short stroll along their waterfront, then back in the van with Andy.  Andy sprinkled his sightseeing tour with biblical songs and stories. Hmmmmm, not exactly what we signed up for.  We headed back toward Christiansted and Andy's air conditioning quit and his engine light came on.  Carey encouraged him to pull into a service station so they could check the radiator.  Carey helped him add water to the rad and make sure everything was okay.  We all climbed back in and motored toward our marina, where we said  goodbye to Andy.  Not your typical day with a taxi driver, but everything goes in the Caribbean.  No, no rebate for Carey's mechanical help from Andy, but none expected.

We walked to the Deep End, a bar and grill on the resort, for a late lunch.  One of the workers gave us a ride in his golf cart, which was great because the bright sun is hot!  It is so clear today that we can see right across to the islands of St. Thomas, St. John, and Virgin Gorda from our seats in the restaurant. The winds and swells have died down so our trip back should be much calmer.

Now, we are doing some maintenance (putting up the Code Zero sail, adding water, filling water cans, washing the salt off of the boat, etc.) and preparing to sail back to St. John tomorrow.

This is how much salt I can wipe off of the boat in one swipe.  Yuck!

Dinghy Adventure, Rain and Sun

Monday, January 9, 2017

We walked to the Starfish Market in Cruz Bay, found most of our stuff, and then hopped on an open air taxi for the ride back with all of our bags.  I had taken a large soft cooler bag with us, so I was able to pack all of the meat around a bag of ice to keep it cool for the ride back. Worked great.  We stowed all of the provisions, picked up anchor, and motored over to Christmas Cove where we anchored for the night.

After we had been fed, watered, showered, and were relaxing with our books, our bilge pump started to whine.  It wasn't draining properly and we suspected that water was getting past the one-way valve in the hose.  At 9:30 pm, Carey started taking it apart.  We drained the water out of the hose and then ran some clean water through it, hoping that if something was lodged in the valve, we could dislodge it.  It seemed to work after several tests, so Carey reconnected everything, we cleaned up the mess, and went to bed...with fingers crossed.


Tuesday, January 10, 2017

We motored over to Red Hook today to buy a few things and to get organized for Norma's arrival.  We bought a back up bilge pump (just in case the old one keeps acting up), went to lunch at the Bar & Still (best burgers around), and picked up a few provisions from Moe's Fresh Market (items that the Starfish Market in Cruz Bay were out of).  Then, we dinghied back to the boat to get our propane tank.  We dropped it off at Neptune Fishing and we'll have to pick it up after 5:00 tomorrow.  They're the only place around that refills propane tanks, so we were happy to find them.  Back to the boat and then on to Christmas Cove for the night.

We are going to radio Pizza Pi (a boat permanently moored in this Cove) to order a pizza for supper tonight.  Kind of a cool business--pizzeria on their boat.


Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Today, we are setting up for Norma's arrival.  We cleaned the vee berth and head, made the bed, and generally cleaned and straightened the rest of the boat.  Sparkling clean!

Our biggest challenge is finding places to store the stuff that we usually store in the vee berth.  We have guests from now until the middle of March, so we found permanent spots for everything.  It looks so nice and open now!  Perfect for our guests.

Carey is working on cleaning the sensor on the bilge pump, as well.  We are hoping that this fixes it up and we can keep the new one as a back up.  We poured water in several times and it worked brilliantly. Crisis averted...for today.

It's been raining off and on all day. Usually, there's a light rain every day and then it's over, but today it's been raining heavier and more often. Only short breaks between rain bursts.  Lots of wind, too. We are hoping that it stops before we have to go to the marina.

The plan is to go to the fuel dock at the American Yacht Harbor at 4:20, get diesel and water, pick up the propane tank at 5:00, and wait for Norma to arrive.  We can't pick up our propane until after 5:00, because Neptune's delivery truck isn't back until then (they send the propane tanks out to refill).  Neptune's is only open until 5:30, so we have a narrow window to pick up our propane tank.

I will meet Norma at the front doors of the American Yacht Harbor building, then take her through the C Dock gates.  All of the other gates are locked, and there is a guard at C dock, so only boaters staying in the marina are allowed in.  We will rejoin Carey at the fuel dock and be on our way. Fingers crossed.

Well, it turned out that Norma's taxi driver had a mind of her own.  She disregarded where Norma said she was going and assured her that she meant the USVI Yacht Club.  It took a while, but Norma finally arrived at the American Yacht Harbor.

We loaded her up and motored off to the Great Bay at the Ritz.

Thursday, January 12, 2017

We lost the dinghy!

Well, Norma's visit started off with a bang.  After a rolly night at the Ritz's Great Bay, we lifted anchor and motored to St. John Island.  The wind was howling and the swells were big, but Norm handled it like an old salty.

We finally made it to Mahoe Bay and we were about to pick up a mooring ball when Norma said, 'Where's the dinghy?'  I looked around to where we had tied it to the stern of the boat, then looked around again. What?  No dinghy.  Carey's knot had held beautifully, but the line was snapped right off.  I called Carey from the bow and we turned around to scour the coastline from here to Hawksnest Bay.  Norma and Carey used the binoculars to see the shoreline better, while I navigated us around the reefs and rocks.  We had just given up when Norma and I both heard a comment on the VHF radio to the Coast Guard about a 'found dinghy.'  I called in to contact the speaker and told him what kind of dinghy we had lost.  Miracles of miracles, he said I had described accurately the dinghy he had found.

Dick Dawson, a sailing instructor on Keremeos, and his crew practised their 'Man Over Board' drills by retrieving our overturned dinghy, and then had to fish out our seats and storage bag that were floating separately.  He took it all back to Mahoe Bay, so we returned there and he dinghied over with our dinghy in tow.

Phew!  Crisis averted.  His reward was a case of Bud Light for him and a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon for his wife.  Cheap price for returning our dinghy.  Thanks, Dick!

Next, we thought we'd go snorkelling.  We changed into our swimsuits and started getting everything out, but the boat was listing side to side so badly from the swells on our beam, that we decided to move out. There was really no ideal spot with the wave and wind direction, but we moved to the best spot we could find, at Caneel Bay.  We picked up a mooring ball at 4:45 and settled in for the night.


Friday, January 13, 2017

Wow, what a rolly night!  This was probably the toughest, windiest, rolliest night we've had so far.  Really difficult to find a protected anchorage right now, especially on the north side of St. John.  The wind was howling all night, making the waves that much bigger.

We dropped our mooring ball just after 10:30 and headed for Lameshur Bay on the south side of St. John.  Our original plan was to cross to the island of Jost Van Dyke, but it's just too rough today.
 is fabulous.  Very calm.

After lunch, we dinghied over to the dock where we paid for our mooring ball and walked to Yawzi Point, where we enjoyed a beautiful view of our boat in the bay.  We sang, 'Raindrops keep falling on my head,' and 'Here comes the sun,' because it would rain for about five minutes, then stop, dry up, then rain again.  Repeat.

When we returned to the boat, Norma and I went snorkelling.  Who cares if it rains while you're snorkelling?  Norma saw two stingrays, one small and one large, and lots of colourful fish and coral, as usual.

Later, we had dinner, chatted, and read our books before bed.


Saturday, January 14, 2017

We spent the day in Lameshur Bay.  We decided to stay put because the wind gusts are incredibly strong today (even though we have protection from the hills surrounding us), so we're pretty sure there will be big swells and winds outside of this bay.  We enjoyed a relaxing day.  Norma and I actually sat down to read (while Carey worked at trying to obliterate our rust) and we did a bit of maintenance work.  Every time we'd get a huge gust of wind, we would look at the sky because it usually meant that we'd get a rain shower.  Then, we'd quickly throw the cockpit cushions down below and close all of the hatches.  Once the shower went over, we'd go back out and reverse the process.  Lately, that's how we get our exercise every day.

While watching the water, we spotted a porcupinefish swimming under our boat.  He had a very large flat head and a spotted, boxy body, with a small tail.  He was about 18 inches long.  By the time I grabbed my camera, he was gone, of course.

Here's a photo from our marine life book.

Later, I went for a swim and saw a large tarpon near our boat.  They are not friendly looking fish,   Kind of grouchy looking, but he didn't bother with me at all.  I guess I'm too big to eat.

After lunch, we all dinghied over to the dock to pay our fees and to drop off our garbage. Anyplace we find a garbage receptacle we take advantage of it.  While over there, we went for a walk to the Tectite Museum which featured an 'aquanaut' environment that NASA had created in the 60s and 70s to see how people would react to being underwater for long periods of time (like the astronauts would have to be in space). It was quite interesting to read all about it.  The old Tectite site is nearby and scuba divers can check it out.

When we arrived back at the boat we had dinner and just relaxed for the evening.


Sunday, January 15, 2017

We had a delicious breakfast of homemade bread and made plans for the day.  Although the wind was still howling, we decided to take an excursion to a nearby harbor.  We headed out to Coral Harbor on the southeast side of St. John around 10:00. We pounded through the big swells, head on into the winds.  Good thing Norma is an intrepid sailor!

An hour later, we arrived at Coral Harbor and found a place to anchor.  This is one of the few areas on St. John that allows anchoring.

We had lunch at Skinny Legs. Yummy burger.

3000 Nautical Miles!

3000 Nautical Miles!

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

After wandering around the beachfront establishments of Cane Garden Bay, and having lunch and wifi at Rhymer's, we headed back to the boat.  Once again, someone had anchored their boat directly in front of us and way too close.  Grrrr.  Carey had had enough of people and boats, so we headed back to Brewer's Bay for the night, where it is a lot quieter and only two boats in the whole bay.  Perfect!

When we got back to Brewers, I checked our total nautical miles travelled and we have gone 3000 nautical miles, exactly, since we left Sarnia in September.  That equals 5556 kilometres. Wow, that's a long way!


Thursday, January 5, 2017

After breakfast we left to go around the west end of Tortola and back to Road Town on the south side of the island.  We arrived in Road Harbour at 12:45. The plan was to have some lunch at Pussers and then pick up a package at the post office.  Best laid plans.

We anchored near the ferry dock, thinking we were very clever to have scored such a great spot close to shore.  Poor fools.  First, we had a struggle to get the dinghy motor onto the dinghy safely with no injuries, damage, or loss of equipment.  The wave action from the ferries and the ocean swells created an unsafe situation between the bouncing dinghy and the boat stern that was slamming down on the waves.  To prepare the dinghy, I hand Carey the Torqeedo engine parts (prop, battery, handle) and he puts it together ready for use.  However, we had to be careful that the stern didn't slam down onto the dinghy while I was pulling it close to hand parts over.  We survived that part, then had to find a dinghy dock.  Unfortunately, the only one was around the other side of the very long cruise ship pier and into the marina on the other side.  We were salt-sprayed and a little damp by the time we made it into Village Cay Marina.  We tied up to their dinghy dock and walked across the street to the BVI Tourism office.  Boy, that was handy!  The lovely tourism woman gave us instructions to get to the post office and a recommendation for a good restaurant for lunch.  We walked a couple of blocks to the Post Office to see if they had received our package (a part for our dinghy that had been sent at the end of November). Nope, no package.  (We had been warned that the prospect of receiving anything through the BVI mail was a 50-50 proposition, so we weren't too surprised, but still a little disappointed.).

Needing sustenance, we headed out to the Virgin Queen Restaurant.  Rusting sign, crumbling concrete, and a climb upstairs to a second storey establishment.  Hmmmmm.  I didn't think I'd get Carey up there, but I was glad he did.  It was lovely, and the food was delicious.

Chickens and roosters are everywhere on the islands.  They are quite pretty and run free.

Our dinghy ride back to the boat was almost as long, but we ducked under the cruise ship pier that was bridged at the far end, which cut off about a quarter mile.  We reversed the previous act with Carey handing me parts from the bouncing dinghy and then readied the boat for another sail.  We sailed across Sir Francis Drake Channel to Benures Bay on Norman Island, one of our favourite anchorages.  We arrived at dusk, saw a beautiful sunset, and enjoyed the night sky while relaxing in the cockpit.


Friday, January 6, 2017

Happy birthday, Carey and Craig!  Wow, this is ALMOST a big birthday.

Carey chose oatmeal and toast for his birthday breakfast.  Then, the work began. We had a long list of chores for today.  Woohoo, Happy Birthday!  Well, at least we got a lot accomplished.

I did some laundry with golf balls in my handy dry bag, cleaned all six of the fans with ear swabs (a tedious, but rewarding job), inventoried and rearranged the food stores, and found the navigation charts for our future trips to St. Martin and to the Bahamas.

Carey cleaned the bilge pump (yucky job), checked the water in the batteries, added fuel cleaner to the fuel tank, vacuumed, and researched methods of using a stern anchor.

By the time we were finished, it was time for dinner.  Nothing exciting today, but we felt good by the time we dropped into bed.


Saturday, January 7, 2017

A few more chores accomplished this morning, and then we were off to The Bight, on the west side of Norman Island.

We ran the engine at 2200 RPMs while we ate lunch so we could recharge the dinghy Torqeedo 916 battery. It takes a long time to recharge using a 12 Volt charger, as opposed to 110 Volt on a dock.. In two hours, it only charged from 12 to 24 percent.

After a picture perfect mooring ball pickup (woohoo!), we wandered around the Bight and took a short hike.

We checked out the menus (and exorbitant prices) of the two restaurants there and found out their Happy Hour was at four o'clock when their Painkillers and Margaritas were on for half price. Sounded good until we checked out the regular prices of their cocktails--$13-16 each.  Suddenly, half price didn't sound like that good a deal.  We headed back to the boat, slipped our mooring, and motored back to Benures Bay where we could have a home cooked meal and drinks for free. Plus, we saved the $30 mooring fee.  Now, that's a Happy Hour!

When we got settled in Benures, I went snorkelling by myself. Carey's toe is healing nicely, but he needs a couple more days before going into the water, I think. We had anchored near the north east end of the bay, near the rocky point, so this was an area of the bay we hadn't snorkelled before.  While out there, I saw my first starfish!  Very exciting.  This was a great place to snorkel. Lots of colourful fish and coral.


Sunday, January 8, 2017

We lifted anchor at 9:45 and sailed to Soper's Hole on the west end of Tortola. There is a Customs office there, plus laundry and wifi.  All things we need.

We arrived at 11:25 and picked up a mooring. After dropping off our laundry, we stopped at Pussers for lunch and to access their wifi.  The wifi was the big draw and we connected our devices immediately and downloaded a few emails.  A few minutes later, we ordered and it was like a magic switch had turned off the wifi.  It was 'down' for the next two hours.  Aaaarrrrrggggghhhhh!  Can you imagine my frustration?  Probably not.  I've been saving up all of the things I need the wifi for--reading and responding to email, updating the blog, downloading ebooks, downloading a new cruising guide I purchased for Puerto Rico, sending arrival info to Norma, and researching a few items.  None of that got done.  Grrrrrr.  I don't mind paying Pussers expensive prices for lunch as long as I can connect to their wifi, but without wifi it's just not worth it. Did I say 'Grrrrrrrrr'?

We picked up our laundry, dinghied back to the boat, and decided to blow this pop stand.  We cleared out of the BVI, dumped our trash, slipped our mooring, and motored to St. John Island, in the US Virgin Islands.  Protocol says that we have to check in with Customs and Immigration before we can leave our boat.  Unfortunately, we arrived in Cruz Bay at 5:15 and the Customs office closes at 5:30, so we didn't have time to get the dinghy ready and over to their office before they closed.  Also, the sign at their Customs anchoring area said there was no overnight anchoring there.  Unfortunately, that had been our plan.  That meant either picking up and paying for a mooring ball there (where it's very crowded and ferries roar in and out constantly), or finding another spot for the night.  In an effort to save the coral, St. John has almost no areas where they allow anchoring.  They have mooring balls set up in almost every bay, and they all charge a fee.  So, tonight, we are on a mooring ball just around the point from Cruz Bay in Hawksnest Bay.  When the ferries and boats go by, we start rocking, so it may be a rough night.

We are flying our yellow Q flag.  Q is for quarantine.  It shows that we have not cleared in to Customs yet and therefore we are not allowed to leave the boat.  Once we have cleared in, in the morning, we will switch the Q flag for a USVI courtesy flag.  Every time we go to a new country, we switch to that country's courtesy flag. Q flags and courtesy flags are always flown on the starboard side, up near the spreader.  We proudly fly a bigger Canadian flag off our stern, of course.

Monday, January 9, 2017

The rolling and rocking started at 6:00 am, because that's when the motor boats start moving. Not bad, because we had a pretty peaceful night up to then.  During breakfast, we listened to the donkeys braying in the hills. We've heard the goats bleating before, but this is the first time for donkeys.

On the way to Cruz Bay to clear in, we passed Quetzal, and shortly after that, we passed John Kretschmer in his dinghy on his way to Cruz Bay.  Funny how we keep bumping into familiar faces and boats.

We cleared in at Customs and then went for lunch at the Sun Dog Cafe where we enjoyed delicious, authentic Mexican food.  Now, we are off to the Starfish market for provisions.

Photos for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

 Relaxing at Scrub Island Resort.  LOVE this bench!

Artists' work at Trellis Bay.

Like it says, I Love BVI.

Catchin' the breeze at Trellis Bay.

More Trellis Bay art on the beach.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Friday, December 30, 2016

Friday morning, we dinghied over to the Scrub Island Resort for breakfast and to pick up our laundry.  Long wait for the laundry, but the Crunchy French toast was delish, and Carey loved his bacon, eggs, home fries, and English Muffin.  (Crunchy French Toast is made with almonds, coconut, and corn flakes for you chefs out there.)  Better yet, we didn't have to do our laundry--a hot and sweaty job.


The weather is much more comfortable since we returned from our trip to the snowy north. Hot in the sun, but not muggy, and it's quite comfortable in the shade (unless you're in a laundromat).

Once we got back to the boat, we dug in to our chores.  I washed the flag, dove in to retrieve a plastic ring from the flag clip (any excuse for a swim), scrubbed the rust off the barbecue, scrubbed the bathroom floors, and cleaned the sinks.  Carey charged up our Torqeedo dinghy battery and went around the whole boat and sprayed and scrubbed off the rust.  While we were working, a two-foot reef shark swam under our boat with a yellow lure in its mouth. I guess that was the one that got away!

Around 2:40, we were just finishing up our chores and about to have a late lunch, when Carey dropped the swim platform on his toe.  He bled copiously and he had two deep cuts on the top of his left big toe.  Luckily, he had the stern shower in his hand at the time, so he irrigated the wound immediately.  (He says he was just trying to wash the blood off the boat, but it worked great for cleaning the cut.)  I doctored it up with steri-strips (to hold it closed, instead of stitches), antibiotic cream, sterile gauze, and medical tape. I hope he heals quickly and it doesn't get infected. So much for our plans to go out for dinner on Marina Cay.  We stayed onboard and will take it easy while Carey heals.




Saturday, December 31, 2016

New Year's Eve!  We stayed on board all day.  As it turned out, it wasn't a great day--weather-wise--to go anywhere anyway.  It was overcast and windy and it rained intermittently all day.  We read books, did small jobs, and Carey rested his foot--elevated, of course. It swelled a bit, and bruising was starting to show on his other toes, but overall nothing too alarming.

We celebrated New Year's Eve with a spaghetti dinner and went to bed early.


Sunday, January 1, 2017

Happy New Year!

Carey's foot looks a little better today--less swelling, but we're still being very careful with it.  Another day of small chores and relaxing.  Carey's not allowed in the water while he's healing, so that means no snorkelling or swimming for a while.  Bummer.


Monday, January 2, 2016

Happy Birthday, Jo-Ann!

Today, we wanted to get fuel, water, dispose of trash, and move to Trellis Bay.  The first problem was that the boat in front of us had anchored too close, so our anchor was almost beneath his boat.  (This is a common issue down here.  Everyone thinks they are on mooring balls, so they anchor way too close for comfort.). We hailed him on the radio and asked him to turn his engine on and to be prepared to motor forward.  He agreed, turned his engine on, but never moved, even when we came up beside him.  We managed to get away without any contact, thank goodness.  Our next adventure was to try to get to the Marina Cay fuel dock.  The winds were howling and blowing us off the dock. In those conditions, we need someone on the dock to catch our lines.  Unfortunately, the guy wasn't ready, and another boat came in right in front of us, head on, giving us no room to go around.  We narrowly missed him and decided to forget about fuelling up there.  We motored over to Trellis Bay for our third adventure for the morning--trying to pick up a mooring ball in 20 knots of wind is so fun, but once again we prevailed.  Usually, I'm on the helm and Carey picks up the mooring ball, but since he has an injured toe, we switched places.  That always makes things a bit more interesting.

Now it was time to explore The Last Resort on Bellamy Cay (a tiny island in the middle of Trellis Bay) and Trellis Bay on shore on Beef Island.

The Last Resort was closed until 4:00, but we chatted with the Executive Chef (who was casually attired in shorts and tee shirt) and perused his menu.  After a wander around the shore of Trellis Bay and a couple of rum punches and Painkillers, we decided to free ourselves from the mooring ball (at $30 per night) and returned to our earlier (free) anchorage. We dropped anchor at 5:00 near Cam Bay.  Yankee Lady (Ned, Kelly, and four daughters) was moored at Marina Cay, so we were hoping to see Ned and his family.  We dinghied over to Pussers, and they were there.  So nice to see them!  They bought us a drink and we chatted for hours.  I got my kid fix by chatting with Hadley (12), Findlay (11), Tilly (9), and Scotia (6).  Great kids.  Findlay went back to the boat to prepare supper, so when it was ready she came back to pick them up.  We talked about possibly going to St. Martin with them, so we'll touch base later in the month.  After they left, we ate dinner at Pussers, then dinghied back home around 11:30.


Tuesday, January 3, 2017

We lifted anchor this morning after 11 and headed west along the north coast of Tortola.  It has rained almost every day since we returned, and of course it started raining as we were leaving.  Luckily, the rain doesn't last long and it turns into a sunny day quickly.

We arrived in Brewer's Bay at 12:30.  There's a pretty beach at the end of the bay, but no other boats here yet.  It's very pretty and we have a clear view of the island of Jost Van Dyke.

Carey worked all afternoon on assembling and mounting our stern anchor while I relaxed with a book.  Ahhhhhhh.  Just before dark we looked down and saw a three foot reef shark lazily swimming by our swim ladder.  They are amazing creatures.


Wednesday, January 4, 2016

When we sit in the cockpit for breakfast, we see and hear lots of wildlife--pelicans, frigates, and albatrosses divebombing for their food, roosters crowing, flying fish skipping across the surface (sometimes up to 30 yards!), and fish jumping.  One of the truly beautiful things is when the tiny minnow-sized Silversides fish all leap out of the water in one wave. It looks like a swarm of silver locusts, or confetti tossed over the water.  In this bay we have large schools of Silversides fish swimming by our boat constantly.  Great feeding grounds for the birds and larger fish.  The albatrosses (or fish hawks, as they are called locally) have a brown velvet look to their feathers and they dive down 3-4 feet under the water for their meals.  It's quite a spectacle as they will dive so close to the boat that we can see their dive bubbles under the water.

We stopped for fuel, water, and ice at the town docks here, but the dock was extremely rolly with the northern ground swell, and Carey was not happy with the chafe on the lines and fenders.  After filling up, we headed to the south side of the bay and anchored.  Lots going on on this beach--tourists on beach chairs with umbrellas, beach bars, restaurants and places to provision.  We went to shore to check it out and had a delicious lunch at Rhymer's (who had free wifi, of course).



Scary Stuff in Paradise

Although things are pretty darn nice down here in the Caribbean, there are a few flies in the ointment that we need to be aware of--manchineel trees, ciguatera toxin, and zika virus.

Manchineel trees grow in the Caribbean, Florida, Central and South America, and Mexico, and their fruit looks like crab apples.   However, they are very dangerous.  Luckily, the Caribbean governments take them seriously and put warning signs up near most of them. This is what the sign that we saw said: Warning - Poisonous Tree.  This Manchineel Tree is one of the most poisonous in the world, containing strong toxins in all its parts.  Standing beneath the tree during rain may cause blistering to the skin, as the sap contains phorbol and other skin irritants.  The fruit can also be fatal if ingested.

Yikes, we steer clear of this tree whenever we see it!

And then, there is the Zika Virus.

Zika is primarily spread through the bite of an infected mosquito.  These mosquitoes are aggressive daytime biters. They also bite at night. The mosquitoes that spread Zika virus also spread dengue and chikungunya viruses.  Luckily for us, we don't see many mosquitoes down here. At dusk a few bugs come out, but then they disappear again when it gets dark.

The most common symptoms of Zika virus disease are fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes.  It's a short-term illness that resolves within days to weeks.  In most cases, there are no symptoms.  To me, it sounds like having the flu.

There's no vaccine or specific treatment for the disease. Treatment instead focuses on relieving symptoms and includes rest, rehydration and medications for fever and pain.

The next scary thing is the ciguatera toxin.

Ciguatera is a foodborn illness (food poisoning) caused by eating fish that is contaminated by ciguatera toxin.  The areas of concern include the Caribbean Sea, Hawaii, and coastal Central America.  Ciguatera toxin can cause nausea, pain, cardiac, and neurological symptoms in humans when ingested.  It's pretty serious.

Ciguatera toxin tends to accumulate in large predator fish (weight over 2 Kg or about 4.5 lbs), such as the barracuda, grouper, red snapper, eel, amberjack, sea bass, and Spanish mackerel, because they eat other fish that consume toxin-producing algae (dinoflagellates), which live in coral reef waters. Ciguatera toxin is harmless to fish, but poisonous to humans.  The toxin is odorless and tasteless, and cooking does not destroy it.

Since Carey doesn't eat much fish, this doesn't concern him, and I'm careful about what fish I order in restaurants.

Of course, then we have scary things like sharks, stingrays, jellyfish, and sea urchins, but these are generally only an issue if you do something to them.