Still in St.Maarten

Sunday 27th June

Location: Simpson Bay Lagoon, St.Maarten.

Today it’s supposed to rain heavily all day, and with all the heavy cloud, around it looks as though it’s going to do just that. I’m quite fed up with the weather; we haven’t had a day without rain since we arrived. We have had one or two spells of sunshine, but we’re just getting one wave after another of bad weather, its yucky! Poor Edi he’s been with us for 10 days today, and so far aside from one quick snorkel at Peter Island, we haven’t done anything resembling a vacation. As per normal we seem to spend most of our time repairing, and fixing things. Today the job on the agenda is to repair the guest head (loo), OH joy, poor Bob.
With yet another possible day of rain ahead, we will probably stay inside, all day and get the rest of the jobs done, with a hope of leaving for St.Barths tomorrow. I’m really hoping the weather will improve so we can snorkel in Columbia Bay for a couple of days.
Bob picked up his new satellite phone from the fed ex office the day we arrived here, but he needs another part, hopefully that will arrive tomorrow.

Well it turns out that the weather was lovely today, we had some thunder rumbling in the distance, but the sun has shone all day. We got lots of little jobs done before coming over to Jimbo’s to use the Internet. Now we are about to head over to Rene & Cheryl’s boat for cocktails. Then tonight we’re cooking steaks on the barbeque. Starting to sort of feel like a vacation…

Saturday 26th June

I will be writing my blog daily over the next few weeks, but may not get to post as often as I would like, finding an Internet connection going down the island chain is not always easy. However, I promise to post at every opportunity.

Here is a list of the dolphins and whales I will be looking for on this trip.
Spinner Dolphins, Stenella Longirostris
Atlantic Spotted Dolphin, Stenella Frontalis
Striped Dolphin, Stenella Coeruleoalba
Risso’s Dolphin, Grampus griseus
Short-beaked Common Dolphin, Delphinus delphis
Long-beaked Common Dolphin, Delphinus capensis
Fraser’s Dolphin, Lagenodelphis hosei
Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops truncates
False Killer Whale, Pseudorca crassidens
Short-finned Pilot Whale, Globicephala macrorhynchus
Sperm Whale, Physeter macrocephalus
Humpback Whale, Megaptera novaeangliae

Wish me luck

Saturday 26th June

Yesterday at 5:30 we moved Daisy into Simpson lagoon. The water here is not the best, but everything else about this place I love. We spent the morning visiting various stores, collecting parts and just shopping, we went to Budget Marine, Island Waterworld and more. Edi bought some new dive boots, and snorkel mask, and we looked at the kayak's, Edi and I have finally convinced Bob that we have to have one. We didn't actually buy one today, but we took measurements, and will measure when we get back to see how we can fit it tidily on the for deck. At least Bob is actually considering it now.

We went to Jimbo's for lunch, one of my favorite restaurants, we took our computers with us as Jimbo's has free Wi Fi, and I was able to talk to Mum on skype. Edi joked about us appearing like a disfunctional family, all sitting there around the table working on our computers. This is one of the only chances we get to use the Internet now. So this could be my last post for a while.
The sun is shining at last, but the heavy clouds still threaten. Tomorrow we are expecting a real downpour, so we may not be able to get ashore, although everything here shuts on Sunday's anyway, so it will probably be a day of boat chores.
Well have fun folk's I'll post again asap...

The Start of Our 2nd Journey South

Friday 25th June 2010

The Start of Our second journey south.

Our location: Bitter End, Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands.
Following a full day of frantic hard work, preparation, repairs, and maintenance, we were finally ready to set sail at 6:30pm. We were all quite tired, and somewhat grumpy, not the best way to begin a trip. Having checked the weather, Bob had no arguments from Edi or me, when he suggested to our great relief that we all grab a few hours’ sleep, and leave in the early hours of the morning instead.
The alarm went off at 3am, which would have been no problem as we all went to bed at 8pm, and should have had around 7 hours sleep. Unfortunately we were moored next to a charter cat with a group of young girls and guys who were playing the ‘Backstreet Boys’ at full volume, and singing along at the top of their voices (badly). I didn’t get any sleep until our neighbors finally stopped singing, which was sometime around midnight.
At 3:30am we were casting off. There was no moon; we were in total darkness, as we headed into the bay to set our sails before hitting the open ocean. By 4am we were well underway. As we sailed past Necker, the number of lights all over the island amazed us. Very few buildings are visible on Necker by day, but at night, all lit up it looked like a small village.
With the sails set, and everything on deck under control, I went back to bed, leaving Bob and Edi in charge. This is a passage that anyone who knows me will know, I hate! I dread this passage, I have nightmares about it, and in truth I would do anything to avoid doing it. Although it really helped me to have Edi on board, I knew he would be on deck with Bob, leaving me free to slink back under the covers and go back to sleep for the next 10 – 12 hours. Actually, sleep would be a bit of an exaggeration, as we heeled hard to starboard and Daisy pounded up and down, I rolled around eventually ending up sideways across the bed in my attempts not to fall out. It was also really hot below decks as all the hatches were locked, so I had the fan going at full blast to cool me down. I watched a movie and drifted in and out of sleep for most of the leg, wondering again why I had allowed myself to do this. I had prepared food for the trip, but each time either Bob or Edi opened the fridge to get to it everything spilled out. I tried to get a bottle of water out, and the entire top shelf with all its contents fell out and rolled around the galley floor. At one point I ventured up on deck briefly, but the sight of the dark gray skies and angry sea sent me running like a scared rabbit back to bed, I’ll never be a sailor.
Edi woke me around 2pm to come and see the dolphins that were swimming alongside. They looked like Striped Dolphin’s, the last time we did this trip we were fortunate enough to have spotted several of them. There are many different varieties of dolphins sighted throughout the Caribbean. You have to study them closely to differentiate between them, it’s not easy, but as I’m learning what to look for, I’m getting better at it.
Up on deck I was happy to see St.Maarten so close, we would arrive within the hour, relief flooded over me, and for the first time in almost 10 hours I was able to relax, the worst leg of the trip was almost over. At least I hope so.

OH the joy's of Boat Life!!!

Wednesday 23rd June

Bit of a panic (for me) this morning when the 30+ knot winds we were having almost put us on the shore, we were swinging on our anchor stern to the beach, I could literally have stepped off the boat on to the beach. Bob wasn’t concerned as the meter still read 18 - 20’ below us, but the bay here shallows very quickly, and being that close to shore scared me. As the squall passed and the wind dropped off, Daisy settled a comfortable distance from the shore.
Despite having a long list of jobs that needed doing today, we decided to go snorkeling, before starting work. The weather was quite miserable again, gray and rainy, but we were in Great Harbor off Peter Island, one of our favorite places to snorkel, and we weren’t about to let the weather stop us. Edi and I had spotted a magnificent 4’ Leopard Ray when we arrived yesterday, and were hopeful of seeing him again.
Unfortunately the bad weather over the last week had churned up the seabed, so visibility wasn’t as good as we’re used to, and we had to swim very close to shore to see clearly. We were very lucky in spotting three turtles, one of them being a baby, but there was no sign of the Leopard Ray.
Late morning we motored back over to Road Town, where the bay was much rougher than usual, (although its never good here). We all piled into the dinghy and headed into town to run our various errands. Getting back on the boat when we returned was a difficult task as the sea was much rougher, and Daisy was rocking from side to side like a drunk! Ed almost fell in while attempting to jump from the dinghy to the stern deck; miraculously we all eventually managed to board without incident. Then headed over to the fuel dock to fill the tanks.
Underway again, we headed up to Bitter End. Edi helmed all the way as Bob was below decks on a business call. On route I was amused by a very friendly seagull, that allowed me to hand feed him, he flew alongside us for about an hour before taking off.
We picked up a mooring at Bitter End, I made cocktails, and we all settled in for the night. I’m making my delicious ‘Sticky Duck’ for dinner tonight. Tomorrow we plan to leave for St.Maarten, and I have to say I’m dreading it, I hate the crossing even in good weather, and we haven’t had good weather for over a week.
I may need you all to pray for us, even though the crossing is really nothing to worry about, I am such a nervous ninny it scares me to death. OH where the hell did I put the bloody vodka?

Bread making on board

Edi busy in the galley helping me with the very sticky art of making bread. The humid atmosphere here in the Caribbean doesn't help.

Wednesday 23rd June

Looks like a windy, stormy day, I'm praying for good weather for our crossing, but I don't think it's going to happen...

Boat life!

The sights you see when living on a boat. I love it that people who live this way just don't give a damn!

The Lagoon, Benner Bay, St.Thomas

Monday 21st June
(No please don't worry, this isn't a picture of Daisy!)


Hoorah, blue sky and sunshine. Bob quickly burst my bubble by telling me to make the most of it, as it isn’t going to last, there is another front moving in behind the one that just passed us, and another behind that one, we will probably have rain and nasty weather until next Sunday, “OH joy”
We moved the boat alongside after lunch, and filled the water tanks, then motored around to the Lagoon, Benner Bay. Approaching the Lagoon is always a little precarious as it’s very shallow. Daisy draws 6’ 3” and the maximum depth in the marina is 7’. So we are only just able to get in, and had to approach with caution, at times we only had a couple of inches under the keel. I noticed a couple of boats that had sunk, but were still partially afloat in the shallow waters. We were able to come alongside on the T dock, and Bob and Edi walked to the shop to collect the life raft; poor Bob was a bit shocked by the $1200 bill. However, the raft was very overdue for a service, and at least we can rest assured that it’s all in good working order should (God forbid) we ever need to use it.
We left the Lagoon and motored over to Honeymoon Bay, on St.John for the night.

Bread making on board

Saturday 19th June

We woke to heavy, continuous rain, and skies dark with cloud, it looks as though it will be like this all day. Our plan had been to drive out around St.Thomas and sight see, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen, at least not this morning.
So, what to do while it’s raining cats and dogs? I decided to work on perfecting my bread making skills, which are a little like my sailing skills, very amateurish and frequently unsuccessful. I have in the past managed semi successful bread with the use of a bread maker, but it was still a little dense, and heavier than I would have liked. Obviously I can’t use a bread maker on board, it would run the boat batteries dead in no time. I really need to learn to make bread by hand.
You could use my loafs of home made bread to build houses, they were like bricks. However, before I returned to Daisy this time, I spent many hours browsing the cookbook isles of my local Barns & Noble, my absolute favorite store, and I found a fabulous book called ‘DOUGH’, by Richard Bertinet. This wonderful book explains in really easy to understand terms, the methods, and techniques to the art of making bread. Not the sweet, cakey type American bread, but the light as air, crusty, delicious style bread. Found in Europe. OH how I’ve missed that wonderful bread. The book comes with a DVD, so you can clearly see Richard’s technique.
It took me a while longer than it should to perfect the dough, as I hadn’t allowed for the moist, humid atmosphere on board, here in the Caribbean. I was working with the dough for almost an hour, until my hand’s ached so much I had to stop. I couldn’t quite get the dough to be anything other than sticky. However, an hour and a half later, I was taking the most delicious little bread rolls out of the oven, I was eating them hot smothered with butter, they were absolutely wonderful, and the boat smelt like Heaven. All the slapping of the dough on the marble board had woken Edi, and he came out to see what I was doing. I started making another batch and as he watched me slap, and stretch, adding air and struggling with the stickiness of the dough, he decided he wanted to have a go, as it turns out, Edi is quite the bread maker! The result; light, crusty, delicious bread. Yummy!

Ed hard at work with the dough

When we return to the BVI’s and have Internet service again, I’m going to write to Richard Bertinet and thank him for his wonderful book, that has enabled me to finally make not only edible, but wonderfully delicious bread. www.thebertinetkitchen.com

Life Raft

Friday 18th June
We had a little rain this morning, but with the approaching front moving this way (East) from Africa, it was expected. Bob has been tracking the storm for the last week, and was relieved as it was downgraded from a 60% chance of becoming a major storm to only 10%. Between the showers yesterday Bob went ashore to rent a car. We carefully took the life raft off the side of the boat and thanks to our strong son Edi, we got it into the dinghy and ashore. Life rafts need servicing every few years, an important task bearing in mind it could be the only thing between you and the open sea, should disaster strike. The raft was last serviced in Rhode Island in 2006, when we bought the boat, or at least we were told it had been inspected! We drove to the store where we made an appointment to go back at 3:30 to watch them opening the raft. It’s important to know what’s inside, and how to operate it. Leaving the shop we drove to the Bovine industrial estate, as I had been told there was a marble and granite workshop there. I was looking for an off cut of marble that I could use to make bread. The guys in the shop were really helpful and cut me exactly the size I wanted from an off cut they had. Happy with my marble board we drove back to Red Hook, where we had lunch at Molly Malone’s, before returning to the inflatable shop for the opening of the raft.
The sealed plastic bag around the raft was not in great shape; there was water and mold inside. However once open, the raft inside the plastic bag looked to be in reasonable shape. They blew it up, and Edi and I were amazed at its size. It’s an 8 person raft, although looking at it, there is no way I would want to be in there with 7 other people. The operation of it was explained to us and the contents inspected. They told us there was no way our raft had been inspected in 2006; it probably hadn’t been inspected since new. Thank goodness Bob decided to have it done now, its such an important safety feature of the boat.
The grocery store was right across the road from the inflatable shop, and I was prepared with my shopping bags and grocery list. Bob and Edi took one cart and bought all the drinks, while I bought the food. We had 2 carts overflowing with goods. All the food and drink only just fitted into our little car, and as we headed back to Charlotte Amalie the car struggled and groaned its way up the steep hills around the island. It took two trips to get everything back to the boat, and then an hour for me to stow everything. Fortunately the rain didn’t start again until we were all safely back on board, but then it rained, and thundered, and the lightening flashed all around us. It rained heavily all night.

Never Give Up

Thursday 17th June
An amazing thing happened last night that I still can’t quite believe. It does prove however, that never giving up pays off.
We had arrived back at Sopers Hole much later than we intended thanks to the fiasco with the anchor. Once we had picked up a mooring, showered and changed we went over to the Jolly Roger for dinner.
The Jolly Roger is one of my favorite places to eat in the BVI. The restaurant has a lovely location, with a large dining deck that extends right out over the water where you can watch schools of Tarpin swimming around. The food is always good, especially night’s when they have the barbeque going, and the staff are really friendly, service can be a little slow sometimes, but with such an idyllic location you really don’t mind waiting, there is always a great atmosphere, great music and even a DJ occasionally. Anyway, enough about the restaurant.
So we’re sitting at our table overlooking the water and I shake my hand as I’m explaining something and my wedding ring flies off my finger, bounces a couple of times on the deck and disappears down one of the cracks, into the ocean below. We heard it bounce but didn’t see where it actually fell through. Other diners and staff all got up to help us look for it; one of the diners used the light from his phone to shine through the cracks into the water below. For a harbor, Sopers Hole has incredibly clean water and its as clear as crystal so we were able to clearly see the sea bed beneath us, all be it through the cracks in the deck. Everyone is helping us look for a while, but eventually they all gave up and went back to their meals. At the end of the evening when there was only a couple of diners left, we resumed the search. Bob went back to the boat to get a flashlight, and the friendly barman “Big Sexy” as he calls himself, pulled up one of the planks on the deck so we could get a better view below. The seabed was littered with pebbles, rocks and sand. I had already given up; it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. But Bob has never given up on anything in his life, and wasn’t about to leave until he found it. So there we all are, on our hands and knees crawling around the deck looking for my ring, when Bob suddenly yells, “I can see it”. It took the rest of us ages to see where it was, as it was only partially visible, buried in the sand between a couple of rocks. Then we were faced with the next problem, how do we retrieve it? One of the diners, who were helping us reached through but the water was too deep. So Bob went back to the boat once again and fetched one of his tools, a very long, thin rod with a grabber on the end. Using this incredibly useful device, and reaching as far as he could through the opening in the deck, he eventually managed to pick the ring up off the seabed. I couldn’t believe he had found it. Everyone cheered and applauded. Big Sexy replaced the plank in the deck and Bob and I went back to Daisy.
Never Give, Up!

Off line !

Off to St. Thomas to pick up Edi and get some spare parts, and have the life raft serviced. I won't have internet again until we return to the BVI's in about 4 - 5 days.

Till then...

:-)

Anchors Away!

Thursday 17th June
So the plan had been to sail yesterday, but like so many unplanned things that happen on a boat, we didn't. When attempting to bring up the anchor it refused to move, the winch was churning away spinning but the chain remained unmoved. I lowered it again just a little and tried again to bring it back up, while Bob shifted the boats position, but nothing worked and the anchor remained firmly on the bottom. Then to add to my panic the chain started to pull out, I watched helplessly not knowing how to stop it, I could see it was all going to drop to the ocean floor. As luck would have it, the chain stopped pulling just long enough for me to attach the snubber, but at this point I only had about three feet of chain left in the locker. Bob put on his snorkel and swam out over the anchor to see what was preventing it from coming up. The anchor was about 150 feet off the bow and 40 feet down in a sandy bottom, but the chain was wrapped around a rock. Bob had the idea that maneuvering the boat around would free it. Unfortunately the wind had picked up and the boat was pulling hard against the anchor and I was now panicked that the snubber would break, it had a couple of fray's that didn't look as though they would hold a 32 ton vessel. At this point Bob decided to take the winch apart, but without spare parts he was unable to do anything to fix it. Attempting to move the boat around the chain didn't work either, so we decided to bring the anchor up manually using 2 snubbers, attaching one and pulling, then attaching another and pulling, it was a painfully long hard job, that took us over an hour. With blistered hands and sore backs we eventually got the anchor up. OH the joys of boating.

Bittersweet

As anyone who reads my blog knows, I am not a fan of sailing, I can, in truth say that I hate sailing. I have, thankfully, over the last three years completely lost my fear of deep water, and now happily swim off the boat wherever we are. However an appreciation for the actual sailing still eludes me.

I'm quite happy when we're anchored, moored or alongside, and I love many aspects of living on a boat with the exception of sailing, if I could simply get off and fly to meet the boat when it reaches its next destination I would be perfectly happy, unfortunately that's not possible, so I grit my teeth, down a big glass of something alcoholic, and pray with a passion.

Its funny because despite having attended Catholic school, I've never been very religious, that is until recently, since living on a boat I find myself praying all the time, in fact I talk to God more than anyone I know. He's obviously listening to me because despite many terrifying encounters I'm still here, obviously he has a purpose for me, so I trust in him to protect me from the dreaded sea for a while yet at least.

Bob on the other hand, has always been quite religious, and is in his element, never happier than when he's at the helm when we're at sea. While I sit frozen (depending on how much alcohol I've consumed) praying for us to reach our destination as quickly as possible. Well, actually, there have been times when we've been at sea and I've loved it, but unfortunately those occasions are few and far between.

This is a bizarre sort of life that I lead, given the terror I feel, although most of it I love, so that sort of makes up for the periods of panic and terror. Anyway today we are done with our varnishing, polishing, boat tidying, and fun stuff like sunbathing and snorkeling, and are about to go sailing "OH JOY".

We have to go back to Sopers Hole to check out of the BVI's, then sail over to St.Thomas, where we will take our life raft in for service, collect the satellite phone that hopefully has been repaired, check in, and wait for Edi to arrive tomorrow night.

I'm never quite as nervous when we have other people on board, especially any of my children, all of whom fortunately love to sail. We have the dreaded passage to St.Maarten coming up, a 14 hour passage that usually finds me in a horizontal position for 12 out of the 14 hours leg, thank God Edi will be with us to help Bob as I am always reliably useless!

Gulls

The Dreamy and the Dirty

Tuesday 15th June
We had another wonderful day, with beautiful weather. This morning Bob had to take the ferry from Sopers Hole to Red Hook, St.Thomas to get a visa, so we can sail over to St.Thomas on Thursday to collect Edi. In the afternoon we sailed back to Peter island, this time dropping anchor in a secluded bay where we could swim in our birthday suits, without offending anyone.

It was dreamy, the water is such a lovely temperature this time of year. I fed the fish and the seagulls off the back of the boat and took some great shots. Late afternoon Bob set about his list of chores, one of which was to fix the front head... A truly Dirty, stinky job, ewwwww, nasty, but he didn't want it to be a job that Edi would have to help with when he got here, so like a great Dad he's doing it himself, no help from me I'm afraid, I'm truly not good with those dirty jobs.

No, boat life is not always about Paradise, the crap always manages to creep in there somehow!

Monday June 14, Peter Island

I can't help waking up early when I'm in the islands. I was up again before 6am this morning. Its another glorious morning here but quite windy. We had quite a lot of rain yesterday, but as always the sun wasn't far behind. As I'm sitting here writing this a couple of Bottlenose Dolphins have swum into the bay. I'm hoping to go snorkeling today, Bob and I were so busy with jobs on the boat yesterday, that by the time we were ready to go heavy rain had moved in, so we had to shut up the boat and wait it out. By the time the rain had stopped it was almost dusk, and we never swim at dusk, or dawn as its feeding time and having spotted a couple of sharks in this bay, I think I'll stay safe.
I adore these quiet mornings, where I can sit up on deck enjoying a cup of tea and just watch the dolphins, and the pelicans, its so incredibly peaceful here. The waves gently lapping the shore, the birds performing their early morning chorus, an occasional squawk from one of the gulls chasing the pelicans trying to steal their catch.
Bob has been tracking a depression that's building off the coast of Africa, and heading this way. This morning the storm has stepped up another level and its now predicted that it will very possibly develop into a hurricane. All the weather experts have predicted this year will be a bad one for hurricane's, so we really need to get going South soon.
Edi arrives on Thursday, then we can head out, Saturday I hope, weather permitting, we need to keep a close eye on the storm, surviving one hurricane was enough for me, I'm not excited about dealing with another.
We plan to sail to St.Maarten where I will provision for the trip, then we plan to spend a couple of days snorkeling in Columbia Bay off St.Barths, before sailing on to Dominicia. Its only 7am here and its already too hot to sit in the sun.

Peter Island

Back in the bay at Peter Island, officially the best resort in the Caribbean for cocktails, they actually put alcohol in their drinks. Perfect day, lovely weather, wonderful breeze, quiet, calm, beautiful, not too many other boats, its like a dream, if only boat life was always this wonderful. However, we have 2 cats close enough that we can just see and hear them, one very noisy and full of happy very drunk people, and the other an old fat guy who appears to do everything naked, from washing down his boat to cooking on the barbeque and his young, topless companion. Meanwhile I am amused by the Pelicans and the fish jumping all around the boat. Sitting here watching the sunset and sipping a cocktail, I have to say life really doesn't get much better than this. I'm cooking sweet mustard crusted lamb chops with grilled vegetables for dinner tonight.

Apologizes to the fat naked guy that may possibly be reading this, enjoy!

In Tortola

Friday 11th June 2010
We arrived back at Beef Island at 6:30pm last night, to blistering heat and no breeze at all in the harbor. I'm so grateful for air conditioning. Having provisioned, and unpacked, I'm ready to set sail. Bob's checking all the systems before we head out to Peter Island for a few days, where we hope to do some snorkeling. I'm wondering whether we'll have any more shark encounters!

I left Nicho-San at home with Danni this time, as we are only on Daisy for 6 weeks. This actually feels like a long vacation, but I'm already missing Nicho...

Back to Daisy

Thursday 10th June
Last day at home in Ohio, at least for a while, we return to Tortola and Daisy tomorrow.

We plan to stay around the BVI's until next Thursday (17th) when Edi arrives, then we will set sail for St.Maarten and St.Barths. I'm looking forward to visiting Columbia Bay again and swimming with the turtles. I just hope over the next 6 weeks that we don't encounter any hurricanes.
Wish us luck

Delta Airlines Let Down!

I have to say that in all my years of flying, Delta airlines have let me down the most.


While trying to book a flight today using my air miles, the Delta representative gave me two available dates within my required dates, but told me that it would be easier for me to book the flights on line, she said they would be 75,000 miles plus $175.

When I tried to book on line the dates were not available, in fact there were no dates available over the three months that I was looking?

So I called Delta back and another, this time unfriendly representative told me that the dates I had been given were not available, and the previous representative had lied to me, and that was why she had told me to go and book on line!!!

In fact there are no dates available using air miles over the period of the three months I am looking at, despite Delta's promise of no black out dates. The second representative also said she was only allowed to look at 14 dates, and after that there was nothing she could do.

Delta was not at all helpful, they admitted lying to me, did very little to help, and have been unable to live up to any of their so called promises.

This is only one of the hundreds of unpleasant experiences I have had with this airline over the last ten years, as soon as I have used all my air miles (providing I can ever find an available flight to use them on) I will NEVER FLY DELTA again.

If anyone reading this has had any similar experiences with Delta, please let me know. This airline really shouldn't be allowed to treat people this way, and openly lie to them.