Preparation Complete - in Transit

This blog is being brought to you from Thunder Bay. Bruce, Tim & Wiley left St Thomas early Monday morning (April 19th).....at least that was the plan and I haven't heard anything different. I left St Thomas on April 16th and after seeing the airports in Miami, Memphis and Minneapolis, finally arrived in Thunder Bay 12 hours later......unfortunately my luggage didn't arrive until 2 days later - luckily I have sisters to borrow clothes from.

Now that my part in our Caribbean adventure is over, you might be wondering what I (the non sailor) thought of my time living onboard a 39ft sailboat for 4 months. One question I have - who else thinks they could live with their spouse 24/7 in the limited space of 39 ft while floating on the water, especially if your spouse's name is Bruce! Enough said about that! I did thoroughly enjoy the weather. Hard to beat a consistent temperature of 80 degrees with a soft breeze - the stronger breezes however were my downfall. I really don't like to be heeled over to the extent that wearing a life jacket with a safety harness clipped to the railing is a must.

It was nice to look forward to the newness of each day - going to places we had never been before where just finding a grocery store was an adventure. The beaches were wonderful and the turquoise water warm and inviting (unlike Georgian Bay). I did miss the ordinary, mundane things like a daily shower, being able to do laundry whenever I felt like it & a flush toilet. All in all a small price to pay for experiencing life in a tropical paradise.

Would I do it again........in a heartbeat!

What have you done for me lately?

A couple of times we have mentioned the 150 lbs of tools that we brought down with us and of course tools occupy a special place in my heart. Shortly after we got down here, the hinge on one of the hatches broke and it was time to effect a repair.

Wrenches, allen keys and even drill bits were put into use. The problem with the drill bits was I had no drill. Had to use the vice grips on the drill bit to turn and remount my new hole. Of course, you know where this is leading....let's increase that 150 lbs of tools by buying a new battery drill.

Rivets for repairing the hinge were in stock, having brought them down. The valves on the heads were leaking, so a repair was made with a new valve brought down in my tool package. When I repaired the engine water leak, the hose clamp was in stock in the tool kit. Moving the baby stay so that the dinghy can be stored on deck on the trip home required drilling holes in the deck, wrenches, hack saws - again most of the parts were in stock in the tool kit. For the trip home, we will carry some extra jerry can fuel jugs on deck to extend our motoring range. I needed a board to go between the stantions for attachment. Went to the local hardware store (lumber store) but after the 1km walk, they informed me they don't sell lumber any more. On the way to the lumber store, I had noticed a 2x10 leaning against the wall of a business (looked like a piece left over from a big crate). I asked the owner if I could buy it - he said it was free - no charge. When I asked him if he could cut to length, he gave me that funny look and I knew the answer was "NO". I took my board back to the boat and then had to retrace my steps to the hardware store for a saw. Yipee - more tools! The free 2x10 only cost me $23.00 for a hand saw. The fuel jug rail is now mounted and ready for the trip home. Before I get too smug about all the repairs and spare parts that have worked, talk to me after the ocean crossing and see how many things we had to fix on route and did we have the parts and tools.

We are hoping to leave April 19th from St Thomas. Tim & Wiley will be on board for the trip home. While I might have enough tools down here, I don't have enough sails so they are each bringing a spinnaker and more line. It's 1500 miles to New York City. My target time is 11 days - 10 days would really put a smile on my face - 12 days would be a disappointment and 13 days would be just plain ugly. The average person walks at 4 miles per hour. The power walkers you see in your neighbourhood, swinging their arms, probably do 6 miles per hour - or our approximate sailing speed.

We will push off from the marina at Nanny Cay, Tortola and get our customs clearance from the BVI's to leave tomorrow. Every location we leave now is a goodbye to an old friend. Joan especially is sorry to leave Deadman's Bay on Peter Island where the beach is exceptional and where we spent the last week. Next blog will probably be our last from the Caribbean.

Anguilla

We had a short stop in St Maarten on the way back from St Barts. While waiting our turn for the lift bridge, we had to jockey our position with Nanuman. On his deck I would guess it was 80ft long and about 12" in diameter. His spinnaker pole probably cost as much as might whole boat. Nanuman is a brand new replica of the famous J boat Endeavour II. An 80ft spinnaker pole and no life lines. Once through the bridge and into the breeze, Joan & I hoisted our sails for a great sail to Anguilla. We watched Nanuman motor off to St Barts for their 100ft plus only boat race.

We are only allowed to overnight anchor at one spot in Anguilla and it's not really the commercial centre so one of the things that we did was a taxi tour of the island. Because of my building construction background, I was pumping the taxi drive on info for the cost of building on Anguilla. Stew Jones take note, how much work would you be able to do if a concrete block costs $20.00 instead of our $2.00 or a yard of concrete costs $600.00 instead of our $100.00 dollars in Canada. The taxi ride was maybe a little bit short of our 2 hrs promised but then the taxi driver is paying $10.00 a gallon for his gas compared to our $4.00. Anguilla still officially belongs to Britain and the 14,000 inhabitants have no interest in Independence. Anguilla has decided its tourist market will be low volume, high end and as such has some pretty fancy resorts which we saw on our taxi tour. (Joan's kind of place). We did our customs work, clearing out of Anguilla, leaving at midnight for the night crossing to the BVI's. 14hrs later, we clearing customs again to get back into the BVI's.

We have had a hard time these past 2 weeks trying to keep in touch as a sailing regatta starts this week in the BVI's and dockage at a marina is hard to get. Anchoring is great and cheap but leaves you without internet. Will be exploring spots we missed when last in the BVI's and revisiting those places that we especially liked such as Deadman's Bay where Joan had a relaxing time floating the afternoon away. All too soon, it will be time to plan the trip home.

Voulez-vous couche avec moi ce soir

La rouge tete, oui, non, avec, merci , bonjour- that is about the extent of my French so when it comes to a choice of clearing into the French side of the island of St Maarten or the Dutch side - which one am I going to choose. Yes, you know, I went to the Dutch side and happily it's been rare to hear people speak Dutch. Most conversation is in English.

While reading a local newspaper (in MacDonalds) there was a picture that broke my heart. There was a Moorings Beneteau 505 (50ft) sitting completely submerged on a reef just outside their charter base. They didn't think they could get it off in one piece so they are going to take hydraulic chain saws and cut it to pieces and take it off the reef that way. Until they remove it, I imagine it will make all the charterers leaving their base extremely nervous.

We went for an island taxi tour and it's very evident with the different cultures on the French and Dutch side. I think it is fair to say 2 common characteristics on the French side were thinness and smoking. Joan seems to be taken a little bit with the French pastries. Most of the islands over here are a country unto themselves. St Maarten happens to be two countries, but you have to clear customs in with your boat as well as out with your boat. If you don't clear out, the next country may not let you in.

So we cleared out of St Maarten Dutch side and headed for St Barts. Remember how I avoided the French in St Maarten, well St Barts is definitely French. Obviously I was going to be nervous about clearing in. Usually the captain is the only one allowed off the boat so the double bugaboo about St Barts is not only is it French but their customs form is computer driven. After playing dumb and asking for help (the keyboard seemed to be different) I was able to complete the forms and clear into the country. St Barts is hands down the neatest, cleanest, least improvised island that we have seen down here. Restaurant cafes are endless around the harbour with lots of public waterfront walkways. The island was French during the pirate days but France gave it to Sweden for some trading rights into Stockholm, but after 100 years, Sweden decided it was too much of a burden, so they gave it back to France.

In another week, St Barts will hold a sailboat race but I don't yet qualify to enter. To take the starting line, the qualification is that your vessel must be over 100ft long. I was thinking if I bought another 393 (39ft), the 2 boats would give me 78 ft and 2 masts - I'm not sure if I would be ketch or a yawl or a schooner. Now 78 ft doesn't make 100, so maybe if I talked to the guys cutting up the 50ft Beneteau, I might be able to get a 22ft piece to bring me up to the 100ft. If their section had a mast as well, I would have 3 masts and that might make me pretty unique.

Small cars and electric cars are certainly the "in" thing in St Barts and we saw some pretty unique, probably European, vehicles. St Barts is as far south as we are going to go so technically we are on our way home. I'm tired of clearing customs. One of the islands further south requires you to register with the port authority when you arrive, then leave that building and go to another one for customs, then leave that building and walk down the street to the police station for immigration.

Antigua is getting a very bad name regarding crime and apparently 2 cruise ship lines are going to stop calling into there. The volcano at Montserrat is still putting out ash and depending on which way the wind blows, the ash is landing on and doing damage to boats in Nevis and St Kitts.
Heading off to Anguilla tomorrow.....or maybe the next day.....depending on the winds!

Sint Maarten/St Martin/St Maarten

I can't believe that I've started prepping some items for the trip home. I have bought some extra jerry cans for water, emergency rations and diesel for extra motoring conditions. Also bought the chart for Bermuda. A number of people have expressed an interest in sailing home but I wasn't able to give them a plan of attack until now. I would like to leave Saturday, April 24th from Charlotte Amalie, USVI to Bermuda - distance about 850 miles (6 or 7 days). Waiting for the next weather window, we would probably leave Bermuda for New York City about May 1st (distance about 650 miles - 4 or 5 days). You cannot make a landfall in Bermuda in gale conditions and if such existed, we would simply continue on to New York City as one trip. If this is of interest to you - contact Trevor at 416-903-5190 or email address trevor_draper1@yahoo.ca. If you're interested, try to get back to Trevor by March 20th. When you give him a $200 deposit for boat equipment, you've booked your spot on the return voyage. You will still need to budget air fare & food. Airfare from Buffalo to Charlotte Amalie (STT) will probably be reasonably cheap.

I have talked about the extravagance of various yachts but when I entered the lagoon in
St Maarten during the Regatta week, my jaw dropped and my eyes dilated wide open. This put the mega yacht harbour in St. Thomas to shame. It didn't matter whether it was massive power boats or sailboats, they were all here. Of course, I'm here with my 39 footer but that other former Lion's Head cottager outdid me. He brought his 131 ft sailboat and because it doesn't have the volume down below, he also brought his 161 ft power boat for evening activities. Make sure you keep buying those Timbits & coffee. Yes, Ron Joyce keeps his boats in St Maarten and St Bart to promote his Nova Scotia resort - Destination Fox Harbour.

The size and scope of these race boats is unbelievable. Visione, the largest sloop in the world at 236 ft didn't race but of course was here to showcase itself - and yes, there are some smaller boats in the Regatta, so Stew should check out the results of the one 36.7. The racing is during the day and the partying is during the evening. We attended 2 of the 4 evening sessions and the slogan for Regatta is Lets Have Some Serious Fun. What's nice about the bigger islands is that they have some semi taxi/bus minivans for a dollar or two.

Checking out our bank statements on the internet, we noticed numerous charges on our Visa that were a mystery to us. A call to the Visa centre and we found out that Joan's Visa card number had been stolen. The Visa centre was very nice and thankfully we only had to cancel Joan's card and that folks is called Utopia. Imagine someone else taking Joan's card away from her on my behalf. They will issue a new one but we're not sure if it will get down here or not in time for her to use it.

We were going to leave the other morning and while doing my morning checks, I discovered about 7 bucket fulls of water in the bilge below the engine. After bailing all the water (bilge pump doesn't extract from under the engine), starting searching for the possible problems. After quite some time, I discovered one hose clamp had busted and this would be an easy repair because of all my spare parts and tools which we lugged down in our luggage.

People who have sailed with me know when we have a problem, we fix it and we don't dwell on our bad luck. Quickly we move to start counting our good luck. This problem arose at dock in a marina, not out on the open sea pitching and rolling. The repair was easy, no further damage was done to any other components.

Joan got an extra day at the marina which means one extra shower....PRICELESS!

OSR (Ontario School Record)

After 18 hrs of sailing, we found St Maarten which was probably a good thing since I didn't have charts of Africa. As soon as we arrived at 7:30 a.m. the Coast Guard came by and boarded our boat for inspection. The officers were very polite and it was a very pleasant experience. More about St Maarten in the next blog - just wanted to let everybody know that we arrived safely and the Heineken Regatta just happens to be on this week!

When any student starts school in Ontario a file is opened on them for their entire school years. In the old days (my time), there were lots of anecdotal comments in them so you can imagine what my file looked like. Now-a-days it's more factual, mostly report card and assessment information. During my 30 year teaching career, I chose to never look in an OSR for any student as it was my choice to treat the student as he presented himself to me and not based on anyone else's assessment. I wanted to use this philosophy when going to the US Virgin Islands and not having any preconceived notions of the islands. Unfortunately it wasn't possible to go in with no previous knowledge or opinions. When Trevor was down at Christmas the radio stations were promoting all kinds of family activities at beaches and parks. The announcers always finished off on a personal note telling the listeners to please leave their weapons at home for the holidays. While reading one of the cultural books on the BVI's, the author noted that one year they had a homicide and some years they didn't, while St Thomas had 23 homicides for the month of March that year.

We spent almost a month in the US Virgin Islands and had a wonderful, safe experience. Now, it should be noted that we are not night owls and much of the crime happens after dark and we were already back on the boat most nights before dark. Living beside the United States, it is easy to forget how well they do things. The history in the BVI's has disappeared and only exists in the printed form. The USVI has the same history but it is very well preserved and documented for presentation to the public. The national park of St John is done to that same standard as all the national parks in the US mainland. The park system can easily tap into the expertise that exists on mainland USA.

The BVI's best attribute is that it caters to the cold weather (northern) tourist who want sun, beaches and booze - to let loose one week a year or more if you're retired like us!

Size Does Matter

Tim's is bigger than mine. He was supposed to get a 44ft boat but when the charter company found out there would be 8 of them, they were forced to get a 48ft boat, but Tim didn't tell them there were actually 9 instead of 8. Jerry's is bigger than mine. Cheryl says she likes the big one in Florida better.

We spent a week anchored off the mega dock in Charlotte Amalie. The unofficial size for mega yachts is 100ft and they are not really interested in little guys like us. They have their own collection of specialized Gucci type stores at this dock. Believe it or not, Joan wasn't even interested in seeing what the prices were. I guess if you have to look at the price, then you can't afford it. We saw some 50, 60 & 70ft boats sneak into the yacht harbour, probably hoping that some day they would have a boat the unofficial right size. 50's & 60ft boats look pretty small beside the 100ft boats. The 100ft boats looked pretty small compared to the 200ft boats. There was a big size difference between the 200's & the 250's (Kismet). Natayana at 300ft was grander again. None of them approached Princess Marianna at 350ft with a helicopter on the back deck. The mega yacht harbour is beside the cruise ship terminal and even Princess Marianna became quite small compared to the cruise ships. When we were developing the breakwall for the Lion's Head Harbour, one option we looked at was sinking a Great Lakes freighter for the breakwall like they did in Port Credit (they used 3). The cost at the time was $30,000 - the value of scrap steel. I'm going to buy one of these 730ft Great Lakes freighters. I have all kinds of friends storing various items for winter in Lion's Head. I'll stop storing Jerry's boat & cars at the house and store them on the ship, so now my ship has a Lincoln & a Corvette, 28ft runabout and I'm sure I can find canoes, kayaks, seadoos & dinghys that need storage as well. Tim has all his sports equipment stored away for winter, so I'll store that and now my ship has a basketball court, volleyball court, archery range and a fitness centre. My ship will come complete with a fitness trainer (Nathan). Fuel might be expensive, so maybe I can go over to Europe and pick up a couple of windmills for Wiley in exchange for fuel. Maybe a better idea, I'll just have Wiley store a windmill on the ship (they are only 400ft tall - half the ship's length, with 300ft of sweep on the blades). A nice 2 mega watt would do. Heck, the boat would easily hold 2 - lets get 2! This may produce a surplus of power so now when I visit an island and plug in, I'll be able to light the island up.

I'll need some mechanical help, so I'll do all the welding, Joe will become the ship's electrician & Mike will be my diesel mechanic. Peter's restaurant is doing well in Thunder Bay, but he probably needs a winter break. He won't be able to serve Princess Diana again and I won't let Prince Philip on the ship, but I'm sure we can find some other royalty down here. For the summer maybe I'll just dock the ship in Port Elgin or Kincardine - plug into the grid & make money........Stand back & look at the decadence that my ship has. Maybe Bruce's is the biggest!

The week in St Thomas was very unique and it's easy to see why as many as 7 cruise ships can be here on one day. St Thomas was a bit of a slave colony but functioned more as a central trading area for the entire Caribbean. This required large warehouses which have now been converted into an endless montage of stores. I think if I said, if you put all the jewellery counters end to end, they would easily approach a mile and I do not think I'm exaggerating. To see the 200-300 year architecture was interesting. Many of the stores don't have opening doors or glass windows, but simply the hurricane shutters which are opened during the day and padlocked at night. This gives the old downtown area a quaint look.

We have been in St Croix for almost a week now and enjoyed its different historical architecture in the city of Christianstead. Some of the buildings are crumbling ruins (think Roman Coliseum, Stonehenge) no garbage dump here.

Later today we will leave St Croix for St Marten, an approximate 18hr sail. Next posting should be from there if all goes well!

Back to Reality

We are at American Yacht Harbour on St Thomas waiting for Tim Matheson's group of charterers to come in at the end of their charter, but since it is now dark, we assume they will show up early tomorrow morning. Our understanding is that their flight is at 11:00a.m. so it will be a busy morning for them & we'll likely barely have time to hear the highlights of their charter week. The house picture in our blog last week, I think I found that particular house in a real estate magazine. If you want it, it's for sale - price $32 million.

We spent the week back at St John, doing a bit of sailing and touring the south side of the island. In Lienster Bay, we got our first dose of reality of what life was like 200 years ago on the slave sugar plantation. Rum is simply a by product of making sugar. In 1733 the slaves revolted and controlled the island for 6 months. Eventually they lost and slavery continued for another 110 years.

We had one free night of anchorage in Coral Bay, but Joan's best comment was "this place looks like a slum for boats". There were all kinds of derelict boats shipwrecked on shore and there were all kinds of people living on derelict boats that would never sail again. We were happy to leave early the next day, looking for a more picturesque anchorage.

The snorkeling around St John has been the best - swimming with turtles and stingrays and once in a while seeing these stingrays jump 10 ft in the air. One of our anchorages on the south side of the island was Little Lameshur. It's claim to fame was that during the 60's NASA ran an underwater program here where some aquanauts stayed under water for 2 full months. The program was called Tektite and its purpose was to see how people functioned in small spaces previous to the long space voyages. There was a nice museum on this program at the Virgin Islands Environmental Resources Station. I'm sure it would be possible for BPDS senior science environmental class to come to the centre for a trip. This area is also a UNESCO biosphere reserve.

On my second day at Little Lameshur, I wanted to do some hiking to a former plantation great house, sugar factory and pictographs. First stop on the trail was the great house. While walking the trail, numerous mongoose scurried across. They were an introduced species to control the snakes and rats in the sugar cane fields; but much like the slaves, they didn't like their new job. The mongoose hunt during the day and the rats & snakes come out at night so they decided to settle on bird and turtle egg nests instead. They are a pest but there is no way to get rid of them now. Arriving at the great house, it was all boarded up as someone had tried a restoration but had obviously given up. Walking around the back, there was one doorway pulled off. It was very dark inside but the sunlight was able to highlight the arched plaster entrance way which would have been impressive in its day. I slowly walked in, a little bit nervous about the quality of the floor as all these homes had cisterns in the basement and I didn't want to fall through the floor and drown - so I just continued to creep in slowly - wishing I had my x-country skis to spread my weight over more area. There was lots of crap on the floor and I wasn't sure what animals were responsible and were they waiting for me outside. Pretty soon I got my answer. OH SHIT - they are dive bombing at me. My first reaction was to grab my hat and wave it above my head to try to protect myself. OH SHIT! my sunglasses were on my hat and now they're somewhere on this dark floor. I can't run out as I'm too worried about the safety of the floor. I continue waving my hat above my head and find my sunglasses but the earlobe piece is missing. I still don't know what is attacking me. I grab my glasses (minus the earlobe piece), carefully shuffle towards the door. Nothing followed me outside - so now it's time to turn & look back inside. I thought they were birds nesting but now I can see the house is filled with a very large bat colony. Joan is thankful that she wasn't with me. The house was in partial disrepair, which was great for me as I was able to see building construction. There was all kinds of special brick work and fancy cornices - some in disrepair but also some had been refurbished. Just before leaving, I spotted a plaque on one of the porch pillars that was dated 1846 - one year after slavery ended. The journey continued down the valley to the sugar factory. This was the last operating one on St John and closed about 1907. Its first operation was under slave labour and when the slaves were emancipated, it was converted to steam power and worked that way for over 50 years. All the steam equipment was still there and again I was able to marvel at the machinery that was built in 1861 - some of it looked like a good dose of WD40 and it could be back in running condition. From my previous experience at the great house, every room I entered started with an inspection of the ceiling and yes - there they were - great thriving masses of bats in clusters of probably 100 or more - again Joan is thankful that she wasn't with me. The third part of the trip back up the trail was to the sometimes waterfall. I sat down for lunch beside a pool of still water - it was too dry for any waterfall. While eating lunch, I looked up and there he was staring at me - a Tatino indian pictograph face carved into the rock. After lunch I inspected the next lower pool and there were more carvings in the rock. This second set of pictures was placed so that they were reflected in the still pool of water but here in the water, their images were upside down. Upon leaving the waterfall pools, I came upon 2 unexpected inhabitants - were they wild goats - no maybe wild donkeys - no must be on the Bruce Peninsula - those were 2 whitetail deer. They must hang around the pools as the only source of fresh water. During this hike I passed miles and miles of stone fences, obviously piled by the slaves, to mark roads and planting fields. The sugar farms disappeared when slavery ended. The slaves were not free labour but were simply a commodity and they were bought and sold just like any piece of equipment. At the end of the slave rebellion in 1733, many slaves chose to jump off the cliff rather than to return to slavery. For us - who have only known freedom - the concept of slavery is simply words and pictures, but their stories and hardships were real.

US Virgin Islands

We went to St. John's this week. I could lie and tell my mom it's a church, but no it's just really one of the three main islands in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The USVI is really a recent terminology as the U.S. bought them from Denmark in 1917. It was the Danish who ran the slave plantations in the 1800's and because they needed money in WW1 they sold them to the States. 2/3 of St. John is a national park. I know, we said we were decadent last week, but maybe it was this week that we were really decadent. We never sailed once, but moved 2 or 3 miles every day to a new anchorage beach. The day's activities were swimming, snorkelling & beaching.....sounds pretty decadent doesn't it! We knew Tim Matheson was chartering this week, but we miscalculated his starting date as we had booked into the marina tonight hoping to see him, but they left this morning. However, he was able to catch up with us in an anchorage early in the afternoon before he headed off ot the BVI's.

The monster homes, possibly the Rockerfeller estates that Joan mistook for hotels at Cinnamon Bay were pretty impressive as you can see from the picture included here. Alot of the old plantation ruins are marked on trails, but we haven't had a chance to pull ourselves away from water based activities to put on the hiking shoes and heaven forbid socks!

Decadence & the Drapers

The BVI's are a special place - no doubt about it. Think about an entire country that doesn't smoke cigarettes. Of course there are people smoking cigarettes - they are dumb white people from off island and they probably have to look hard for a place to buy them as they aren't very visable. They also avoid (or ban) all the North American fast foot restaurants. You also can't have seadoos or motor bikes over 125 cc's. One newspaper story told about the police consficating a large motorcycle, but the owner simply broke into the police station that night and took it back, but smuggled it off island.

Of course, now we are in the USVI and all that American culture is full face in front of you. For the 6 weeks in the BVI's, we never had any soft drinks or obviously fast food. Two days in the harbour here, we've eaten at Subway twice and the beverage was obviously a soft drink.

Joan's indulgence has been to search out the ads for a hair salon and she found one at the spa at the Wyndam Resort. Now the serious question is what has caused those gray roots to show. Is it:
a) Sailing on life jacket & safety harness days

b) Trying to pick up the mooring ball

c) Worrying whether the anchor is going to hold

d) Trying to handle the dock lines when docking

e) Spending 31 with Bruce (24/7)

f) Always the Mate - never the Captain

g) Boats float, but Joan doesn't

h) Trying to keep the boat headed into the wind for sail take downs

i) Trying to hang on when heeling angles approach 45 degrees

j) Trying to get into the dinghy without falling over or falling out.

Now our decadence pales in comparison to some other people down here. A couple of weeks ago in the North Sound, I saw a nice mega yacht come in so I went down to have a look at it and its name was Rising Sun. It had some unique features like the anchors were not exposed on the side of the hull but were hidden behind doors that lifted up when it was time to anchor. At the aft end, there were a number of garages in the side of the hull where the fleet of accessory boats were kept, ranging up to 30 or 40ft. I couldn't see it, but the empty deck space at the back end was the helicopter landing pad. A recent article identified this boat (ship) as being 450 ft long. My quick calculation makes that about 120 ft longer than the Cheechimon (ferry). The owner of the boat is Larry Ellison of Oracle (computer hardware or software). He is the America's Cup sponsor for the U.S. entry.

After our open air taxi ride across St. Thomas today, seeing some of the poorer sections, some of the locals might find our lifestyle of sailing quite decadent.

Cruising with Jeremey & Melissa

Sometimes the stars align and you hit a home run (Nathan only hit a few) and at other times, the stars don't know what the hell alignment means. The day before Jeremey & Melissa arrived, sailing to the airport anchorage was another one of those safety harness, double reef sails. We never took the double reef out for the entire week that Jeremey & Melissa were down here with us. Their plane arrived on time and so did they, but they were the last ones out of the baggage claim area because it's hard to claim your baggage when it doesn't arrive. They had to run to catch their connecting flight in Chicago, but I guess the baggage couldn't run quite as fast. All those warm northern clothes they arrived in just isn't going to cut it down here in the Caribbean. Smart thinking Melissa had packed her bathing suit in her carry-on though. Baggage didn't arrive in on the next flight that night, or the first flight the next morning either. We weren't about to sit in the anchorage and wait for luggage so we told them we would keep in touch as we travelled through the islands and they would have to find us. Baggage finally arrived 2 days late and because the airport was on our return route, we picked it up. The smiles on Jeremey & Melissa's face brightened a little bit after 2 days of borrowing "old" people clothes.

Cane Garden Bay is the anchorage where they taxi all the cruise ship passengers for a day of sun and fun. All the lounge chairs are neatly lined up on the beach for the throngs that will arrive. We happened to be lucky and be there on a day where there were no cruise ships in so we had most of the beach to ourselves - didn't have to share. Jeremey found some literature that put a price on renting Richard Branson's house on Necker Island. Most literature says that if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it, but the number Jeremey found was $47,900 per night! That might make it an expensive week. Because of the strength of the winds, we almost had Peter Island to ourselves as well. The night before Jeremey & Melissa were to leave, the airport anchorage at Trellis Bay had a Full Moon Party at the beach bar. Some of the local artisans talked and demonstrated their skills - pottery wheel work and kiln firing were impressively demonstrated. But more was still to come. Even though it had rained quite heavily during the day and early evening - which meant we weren't sure we were going to see the full moon - the sculptured metal ball bonfires were able to be lit. Later in the evening, we had another chance to see the Jumbie stilt dancers again and unfortunately one fell from a great height during the routine but wasn't hurt. We had the good fortune of running into Adam Matheson twice this week. The first time, we passed each other as it took the brain awhile to register that that face might be someone you know. The second time, we caught up with each other at the Full Moon Party.

The flight home for Jeremey & Melissa had more adventure as a flight was delayed resulting in a missed connecting flight, but they did eventually get home early in the morning.

Our visitors visa for the BVI's expires tomorrow but we left the BVI's today & cleared through U.S. customs at St. John. Tonight we sit in St. Thomas at Red Hook on the patio terrace. Two bars have competing bands so the music gets a bit mixed. We hope to be travelling in the USVI's for the next 2 or 3 weeks.

Note to Tim: Clearing in and out of the BVI's might be easiest at Jost Van Dyke. This would have the added advantage of going to Foxies twice. If Adam has not made plans past your charter and wants to sail the Leeward Islands with us, contact us at draper.bruce@yahoo.ca or 284-545-6389 (if we're still using our BVI cell phone sim card).

News Flash - Canada's Population Increases by One

On January 20th official paperwork was completed to allow Living in Fiction to immigrate to Canada. Of U.S. parents, she has spent her entire life living in the BVI's.

In a wide ranging interview, Living expounded on a number of factors relating to the decision. Even though she had spent her entire life in the BVI's, she could never become a belonger (citizen) but would always remain a non-belonger (immigrant). 45% of the BVI population is belongers and the majority 55% are non-belongers, most on 6 month work permits - nothing longer is available. Belongers also have the right to vote and as a non-belonger, she would never get that right. With her parents being from Minnesota, she had enjoyed many conversations about the white, fluffy stuff and relief from this heat, also the idea of putting her feet (keel) up on shore for six months had a strong appeal. The health care system also was a determining factor. Now that she has offspring, AB (dinghy) and Tohatsu (8hp motor), concerns for their education was something she had to consider. Most BVI islanders have to leave the island for post secondary education. She understands that Lion's Head has a good university just down the road (Waterloo). It is with great anticipation that she looks forward to the trip to her new home after 3 more months of glorious sailing in the south.

P.S.

Jeremey & Melissa arrive tomorrow so will be out cruising - mostly out of touch with internet for about a week.

Anegada

Friday in North Sound was a full day of rain but it did stop enough so that we could see the Jumbie (stilt dancers) in the evening and enjoy a buffet dinner complete with a roasted pig. Hoping to go to Anegada tomorrow (Saturday) as the winds are supposed to be from the east and that is what we want. When we wake up Saturday morning, the line squalls are still coming through but we have to leave by 9:00 a.m. so that our arrival coincides with the high sun so that we will be able to view the reefs and coral heads to enter the anchorage. The BVI's are volcanic with some islands rising to 2,000 ft. Anegada is different, maybe a bit like me, and its highest point is only 28 ft. Hell, I've got trees in the backyard more than twice that size and it's only a little over 4 times my 5ft 8 1/2 ". Let me qualify that 5ft 8 1/2" - I was that height the last time I was measured. We all know at some point you will reach that magic plateau when you start to shrink, but I do know that I am taller than all my boys.

Anegada is the site of more than 300 shipwrecks and charter boats are not allowed to go there. For years the small community of about 100 people lived off the avails of the shipwrecks. I tell Joan we're leaving in 10 minutes. When the 10 minutes is up, I see another line squall coming through the anchorage so I delay, telling her we'll go 10 minutes after it stops. However, 10 minutes after it stops - there seems to be another one behind it so maybe we'll go tomorrow. After it goes through, the sun comes out so I give her another 10 minute warning. Joan knows it's not going to be her kind of sailing day when I pull out inflatable vests, safety harnesses and tethers. While still on the mooring ball, I hoist the main sail with a 2nd reef in place - drop the mooring ball and we are off. Once through the entrance of the harbour, I hoist a very small hanky of a jib. We are only doing 5.5 knots but if we get hit by a line squall, this might be manageable. As I look back at the harbour, it looks like it is about to get hit again but I think it is going to miss us. There are some boats out ahead of us so maybe I can follow them to the island and anchorage. Oh shit, I think that line squall is going to hit us. It does and we are up to 8.5 knots, semi under control. Oh shit, remember that story about the plates. They didn't get turned upside down and jumped the fiddle inside the cupboard, knocking the door open, spilling all the plates onto the floor. Remember how they didn't break last time - NOT this time. There was shattered glass everywhere as only corelle can shatter. With the boat's motion, the cupboard door is smashing around wildly. I have to go down below to close that door. The first step down puts glass into my left foot and then glass into the right foot follows, then I cut my hand trying to take the glass out of my feet - but I did get the door closed. Back up top - look at that, the sun is coming out. Oh shit, the GPS chart plotter has lost its fix. I need this to get into the anchorage but maybe if it doesn't come back, I can follow those boats up ahead. Oh shit, we're getting hit by another line squall and I can't see any of the boats up ahead or any chance of the 28ft high island. Compounding this, my speed is back up to the 8.5 knots and I don't want to be going this fast as I'm too close to the island. A cat boat has overtaken me from behind (the next day he tells me he was doing 11.5 knots), but why is he way over there to my side? If his course is right, I'm too far inside. If my course is right, he's headed to Iceland. My chart plotter comes back to life, but now I don't know whether to trust my instrument or the boat far off to my side. The squall starts to subside and I can faintly see the boats ahead and the island. The picture book showing the entrance to the anchorage unfortunately is down below and with all the motion of the boat, I'm not taking a chance to go down there again. We found the entrance through the reefs successfully and were able to locate a mooring ball for the night's anchorage. The first order of business was to find some shoes down below and start to clean up the glass.

On shore one day I "rented" a bicycle (the vendor wasn't there and we never did find him) so I guess it was free. The few homes on the island were all fenced in and I thought this was strange as surely there wouldn't be any crime. The explanation is that the island is a free range for cattle, goats, sheep and donkeys so you fence your property to keep them out. Anegada is about 11 miles long and the entire island is rimmed with a beach, but with this big of an island there are only 2 entrances to anchorages. During our stay we saw 2 boats go aground and then struggle to get off. Another day ashore we passed a pickup truck sitting just outside a bar and there he was, sitting in the back of the bed. The owner of the pickup truck asked if I wanted to go swimming to see if we could find his brother. I said I would pass on that one just in case his brother was bigger. In the back of the pickup truck was a very large shark, cut into 3 pieces so he would fit. My guess is he was about 2ft wide and probably 12 to 14ft long and probably weighed in the neighbourhood of 750 lbs.

When Nathan & Kelly visit, they want a remote place with few other people and Anegada seems to fit the bill perfectly. Because of all the reefs around Anegada, the local fishermen supply most of the BVI's. Lobster being the main attraction - and they were HUGE.

Want to buy an Island?

The BVI's is made up of about 60 islands and rocks. Not unlike Georgian Bay, some are owned by the government, some by individuals and some with shared ownership. How does an island get its name. When we left Deadman's Bay 2 weeks ago, we passed Dead Chest Island. It seems William Teach (Blackbeard) found some of his crew to be recalcitrant about their duties - maybe they didn't like murder, rape & plundering. So Blackbeard put them off on the island with a cutlass, a bottle of rum and no hope of getting ashore since they didn't know how to swim. When we were up in North Sound with Trev, we mentioned Necker Island which is owned by Richard Branson. This is where he chose to get married in 1989. This last time up into North Sound, we anchored off Mosquito Island. With the onshore wind, we certainly didn't find any mosquitoes on the water. We anchored behind the reef in 25 knots of wind, gusting to 35 knots. The reef did an excellent job of knocking down the seas. An anchorage is supposed to provide shelter from the seas and winds. We were 100% open to the direction of the wind and yes those gusts seemed very strong once it got dark. I should have put out a second anchor but did dive down to see if the anchor was set. Remember that story about dragging anchor at Foxies New Years Eve, well this time we didn't drag anchor and found the boat where we put it when we got up the next morning. Mosquito Island was supposed to have mooring balls and a restaurant - no mooring balls were present and the restaurant was abandoned. The place seemed a little run down. We heard that there was a new purchaser of the island - maybe he needed my financial help to get things back up and running. Richard Branson owns Necker Island, Virgin Airways, Virgin Mobile and this year Virgin Galactica (2010 space trips start). Apparently he is the new purchaser of Mosquito Island with grand plans for it for tourism development. I bet one of the first things he does is change the name. I'm going to start the rumour that Richard Branson's real plans are to buy the country. It only has 20,000 people. He probably has a worldwide work force that big and the name of the country fits perfectly with his business moniker.

We hope to get some blogs done while in a marina. Time for the trek to get provisions for Jeremey & Melissa's visit.

Starry, Starry Night

Hey, I'm 5ft 8 1/2" and if I remember my "normal" tables correctly, that's exactly average. So where do you fit - above or below average. It makes a difference when people are designing items for the consumer. Hair on the top of your head serves a number of purposes. It can make you look younger, or lack of hair can make you look older. It can insulate you from the sun's rays. It can insulate you in the cold Canadian winter. Keep you cooler in the hot, tropical sun. It protects your scalp from blows and wear & tear. Since I lost my hair to Nathan's bet many years ago, I have lost all the advantages of hair. So when the boat designers make the forward head door 5ft 7", it tends to wear the skin off the top of your head if you're too old and senile to remember that this door isn't tall enough. The forward head door isn't the only assault on me, the dodger has also been built to that 5ft 7" standard and it also inflicts its wear & tear on my hairless scalp. These two items have been built too low for me but at night when I go to put my main halyard away, I can't reach the darn thing because 5'8" isn't tall enough! If the skin on my scalp gets a chance to grow back, I promise to treat it better for the rest of this trip.

After our last blog & seeing Trev off on the ferry, we spent a couple of days at Nanny Cay Marina docks trying to get our boat registration paperwork straightened out. No luck yet, but hopefully at some point soon, we will have this boat registered as a Canadian vessel. The last four days we have spent in the idyllic anchorage of Deadman's Bay on Peter Island - one of the more exclusive resorts in the BVI's. There has been quite a bit of algae and barnacles growing on the bottom of my brand new dinghy, so one of my priorities was to get to the beach and scrub the bottom. There was nobody at the little beach area in a secluded spot, so that's where I went to do my work. Half way through scrubbing the bottom of the dinghy, resort personnel pulled up with 2 guests. They were a bout to have a private lunch at the honeymoon beach and I was asked politely to leave - half way done. I agreed and the resort worker headed off leaving the couple alone. As soon as the resort worker was out of earshot, the couple said that I was welcome to finish my work. I did a hurried job & left, but did finish it up 2 days later at the yachters' beach where we are segregated off from the resort.

With this much idle time on your hands, you spend alot of time watching the goings on around you and I am sure I have provided amusement for others watching me. One of the more interesting observations for me is watching the behaviours on the mega yachts. Yesterday afternoon I saw 2 crew members dinghy into the beach to pick up the owners. Once they had them on board, they took them back to the ship immediately. They had room in the dinghy, but didn't bring back any of the beach articles - chairs, umbrella, towels, toys, etc on this trip. Instead, the owners were dropped off & the crew returned to the beach for the mundane job of gathering up the beach gear. I can only assume the beach gear didn't have enough social standing to travel in the same dinghy ride.

Peter Island is so well run that every morning a tractor with beach combing equipment rakes the beach & cleans up any debris that has been brought in on the night's waves. This morning, 2 crewmen came from the mothership (mega yacht), dropped off all the beach gear and 1 crewman, while the dinghy operator went back to the yacht. The crewman left on shore started to spread out the beach chairs, umbrella and towels. Then, I couldn't believe it, he had brought a rake and started raking the beach all around where these people were going to set up. Cloud cover came in and within a short while it started to rain and then to pour. No one from from the mothership to pick up this crewman. They simply left him to stand in his nicely raked sand in the rain. The clouds went away and the afternoon was nice so at least his work wasn't wasted. I've always had the words "service" and "servant" in my vocabulary, but haven't really thought much about the "servant" word as it wasn't part of my world. After having watched the activities on a couple of mega yachts, I think these crew fit more into the servant category than the trained professionals that they actually are.

This blog is coming to you on a starry, starry night - sitting in the cockpit (swatting at a few mosquitoes), looking at the mountainside lights of Tortola.

Cruising with Trev

When we last left you, we were waiting for Trevor to arrive in about 2 hours. For the people coming to visit us this winter, we have advised you that you have to land in Charlotte Amalie by about 2:30 in the afternoon so you can catch the last ferry to the BVI's at approx 4:14 or 4:30. I know I'm a dinosaur but that doesn't bother me. There are these new fangled gadgets called cell phones and I have one now. Not only can you talk on one, but you can get text messages. At 4:30 we get a text message from Trevor that he is at the airport waiting for his bags. This is not good news as he'll never make the last ferry and will have to stay over in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Joan tried her real first text message & the process was slow. It would have been much easier to talk to Trevor. We waited for an hour and a half 6:00 for his next text message and he says that he's at the marina - no statement about what marina so we assume he is still in St. Thomas. A short while later we get another text (why doesn't he just call us) saying that he'll be at the boat shortly. How did he get here? Has he cleared customs? When he shows up, we have all kinds of questions about the texts. It seems his phone was delaying his text messages by about an hour. Some of the timing now makes sense.

Early the next morning we have to provision the yacht and $500.00 later we're ready to go. Of course food is very expensive here but we were also loaded down with a significant amount of alcohol of Trevor's choosing. Our first destination is Norman Island. Within a half hour, we are practicing our first Man Overboard Drill for real. No - no one fell overboard but the guy who commissioned the dinghy & motor didn't tie a very good bowline on the dinghy & it came loose. So since the dinghy represents more value than most of the vehicles I have owned, rescue is imperative. For Trev, one of the stronger memories of Norman Island will be of the Willy T. floating bar. If any of you have a floating derelict boat that would hold about 75 people, it would be a great way to make a million dollars. After snorkeling at the caves the next day, we headed off to Virgin Gorda. The caves on Norman Island are reputed to be the source for Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. The winds were light and we only made 3 or 4 knots speed, making Joan happy, while Trevor wondered where the promised winds were. Every time you people up north choose to have a storm so you can get more snow, the affects are felt down here. A storm system moves out into the Atlantic, creating large swells which eventually land down here. At harbour in Virgin Gorda, we rocked all night as these 10ft swells landed on the shore. These swells made it too rough to anchor off the Baths at Virgin Gorda, so we took a taxi to this National Park site. It's pretty intimidating to be standing between 30ft granite boulders and watching 10ft breaking waves come in. At one location Joan wanted her picture taken between the rocks. After the first picture, Joan decided she wanted a 2nd picture and I pointed to the incoming wave, but within seconds it struck & Joan had disappeared. Luckily the wave had pushed her upstream, between rocks & she said she didn't hit or bang anything. Remember, Joan is a weak swimmer at best. We'd been told that the North Sound in Virgin Gorda would be a good spot for Christmas as all the mega yachts would be there & possibly well decorated for Christmas. Trev finally had a sailing day as we were well heeled over with the rail almost in the water. Gear had been stored before we left, but the crash of plates resounded from below. The floor was covered with plates & bowls but the corral held up. We found that the trick is to turn the plates upside down before we go sailing so that they don't jump the shelf fiddle & force the cupboard door open. One of the visiting boats for Christmas Eve night was Sea Cloud - 350 ft long with 4 masts, the tallest being 180ft tall. They don't use white anchor lights on their mast like us little guys - they use red lights - likely to warn aircraft! This boat in its prime had a crew of 72 people and belonged to the heiress of General Foods.

The next day, we headed west under light wind conditions again. Trev is giving me a hard time about the lack of wind. We checked out the Trellis Bay anchorage and saw that you can walk to Beef Island airport from it so this may become the preferred route into the BVI's for any of our visitors. Trev has made the statement that he is never coming sailing with his parents again without a friend. It seems that the parents go to bed around 9:00 p.m. & leave him to drink by himself.

The incoming millennium was a big deal & the NY Times suggested 3 places to celebrate its coming. One of them just happened to be a beach bar in the BVI's - Foxies. Trevor has circled this location since arriving & this is where he wants to be New Year's Eve. We showed up 3 days early just to see if there was going to be a spot for us and that night at the bar, the local in-house dancer performed some amazing gymnastic type moves while retrieving his beer under tables, chairs & benches. The next day we headed out to Sandy Cay which we had already passed just for a day at the beach. Those 10ft northern swells were still coming in when I landed Joan & Trevor in the surf with the dinghy. I went back to the big boat to make sure it was securely anchored. I could see already, it wasn't going to be easy to retrieve the 2 of them from the beach. While watching from the boat, Joan is standing 50ft from the water's edge & oblivious to the incoming wave. It knocked her down, dragged her for 50ft along the beach to the water, all the time coughing & spluttering. Trev now notices his mother being dragged into the sea & comes to the rescue. Joan recovers & starts crawling back up the beach only to be overcome by another wave & drags her back down the 50ft of sand again. Trev gets her again, tries to help her up the beach again but she is too tired & exhausted and more or less has to be dragged up. I get to watch all this from 200 ft away on the big boat. They go higher up the beach & Joan dries out & recovers. Some people pay big money to have their skin exfoliated. Four hours later, Joan is still trying to get all the sand out of her hair & off her body.

We head back to Foxies as Trev wants to have a good spot. This is 2 days early & the harbour already looks half full. We've got a good spot but the boats just keep coming and all the anchoring spacing keeps getting smaller & smaller. By the time nightfall comes, I'm counting over 100 boats, some of them mega yachts & I'm glad we got our spot during the daylight as the wind is picking up. After supper & it's now dark, we determine that we are dragging anchor & try to reset it about 3 times. Apparently we are on a coral outcrop & the anchor just won't dig in. It's dark, it's windy, there are 100 boats anchored and now I have to try to find a new spot to sit for the night. We meandered in & around the boats looking for a good spot, trying several but the anchor just didn't seem to want to hold. One spot had great promise but at the last minute just seemed to give up. I told Trev to bring the anchor all the way up just to make sure it wasn't fouled with weeds or something. When it gets to the top, Trev sees about a 100lb chunk of coral wedged in the teeth of the anchor. After alot of effort, he was able to work it free & we continued our search for a good anchoring spot. Finally after 2 or 3 more tries, we finally got a place that seemed to be working. I didn't like it as we were too close to other boats, including the 150ft mega yacht beside us. We are anchored in 30ft of water & my normal choice back home would be 10 to 15ft. Because we are surrounded by mountains, the wind is not in a straight line but has a swirling activity so the boats are moving constantly. If everybody has the same amount of anchor line out, everything should work out well was my old line of thinking. That assumed all boats were about the same length. The boat's swinging arc is really its length of anchor line plus the length of the boat - so this monster beside us is going to have a great big arc compared to ours. So Trev & I decide to spend the night in the cockpit on anchor watch. Boats did approach within 10ft but we got thru the night alright & remember this is the day before New Years Eve! Since we held all night through the wind, we decided to keep the spot. The anchor should be well set now. It's enjoyable watching the mega yacht's crew serve the owner & guests. Joan is quite envious. Trev says we can get $2 beers at one place on the beach so we headed in for a few. Lots of people are strolling during the afternoon - I imagine checking out things for tonight. There is an advantage to being a guy & being able to take a pee real quick. The evening crowds resulted in women lining up 20 deep waiting their turn in the bathroom. With that brand new dinghy that I have, I was quite concerned with so many people around whether it was still going to be mine by the end of the evening. The end result was that it was no problem.

The first day of the new year, we sail off to Cane Garden Bay, supposedly one of the most picturesque beaches in the Caribbean. It was very pretty but that northern surge is still coming in. There are surfers just 100 yds behind us, enjoying the swells as they break. Joan says her beach experience was a little bit more pleasurable. With that in mind, the next day we headed over to White Beach and this one is some people's favourite. We are quite pleased with our navigation, having to go through reefs to get to both beaches. There were 2 big sea turtles playing in the entrance of the bay but Trev wasn't able to get his snorkeling equipment on fast enough. Trev is getting worried about leaving this warmth & sunshine behind and heading back to the land of snow. Winds are light so we end up motoring back into Road Town and stayed there because it is close to the ferry dock that Trev required. Because we were in an enclosed city town harbour on a hot, windless day, I plugged in the air conditioner just for the afternoon and in the evening we just used regular shore power to charge the batteries. The next day the dockage bill was $58 for dockage, $14 for 84 gallons of water & $62 for electricity!! Needless to say, we were shocked & probably won't use this marina location again. We have had an email from Trev saying that he is safely back in Toronto - definitely wishing he was back here.