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.