To the Tortola Charter Yacht Society Boat show we will go!

It is after midnight, the first day of the CYS Tortola Boat Show and I have just managed to sort my pictures from the day. I am sure that this boat show is one of the largest, and Bazza and I are in awe of all the charter brokers who manage to get through about 70 boats and ONBOARD in about 4 days of the show. Today we did 11. We will be at the show for 3 days. You multiply it out! The stamina of some of these women in the heat is absolutely astounding!
Spread out over 4 docks, it is 98% catamarans.





We show up bright and early, with me already melting into a puddle of sweat on the dock (when oh when will they air condition the outdoors for this heavy middle aged woman?). The Charter Yacht Society led by Janet has many years practice of putting on these shows and is always organized to the max. We signed in, picked up our tote bags, name tags and "eco friendly" water bottles....

And somewhat giggled when we saw the bright new green recycling bins on the docks with nice new signs like "glass only" as I did not realize we had anywhere for this to GO on Tortola....It is a start and it leads my mind to the article I read in the paper the other day about sanitary napkins and condoms ruining our sewage pipes on Tortola. Let me stop right there. No need for any more details!
The Tourist Board, one of our main sponsors, was just setting up there booth...

And we were off and boat hopping!

I believe I am too tired to write too much tonight, so with only my very short survey sample of the show today (remember, 11 boats only...) let me give you a few highlights.
First, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I started seeing goldfish swimming around in bowls on these boats! And I am NOT only talking one boat now, but several! All I could think was, that I knew how much our boat jiggled (is that a nautical term?) around when the ferry boats came within inches of us, I could just imagine how well these goldfish stayed in their bowls!!

The COMFIEST idea I saw was these humongous pillows for lounging on on Ocean's Seven! Probably totally impractical, and you would forever be running to drag them in when it started to rain, but I sure could picture myself curled up with a book (and that pina colada in hand, just for a change to drinking them on the back deck Lisa!)

Here is a nice close up of them!

One boat that always amazes me with the amount of colorful toys on it is Priorities. Every time I look at it I imagine Children getting as excited as being at a circus! They still win the prize...

But hold on, there is a twist on the goldfish bowl, they have matched them and raised them one duck pond with a wading pool!

At least these are not real ducks so I imagine they will fare better living on board!

I stopped by the CharterportBVI booth to pick up their boats' info and saw the local smiling (and always colorful) charter guru, Dick. I swear he has bought every single one of those hawaiian type shirts in 3XXX from around the world!

I have to admit that I am a typical pathetic female at times (can I say that?) I don't give a damn whether the boats have engines in them that WORK or not, but show me cute towel folds and I will ewww and ahhh with the best of them!
Ad Astra gets a towel prize today...



And the yacht Breanker is no slouch in that department either!



Probably the nicest smiles I saw today were on the crew of Catatonic....Or they could be smiling as they have one of the few places that had a great breeze blowing on them...

NIfty gadget of the day also goes to Catatonic for this nice little presto instant one serving tea, coffee hot chocolate maker that guests can help themselves too...



And I think that best table displays of the day have to go to Green Flash. Although I felt a bit like I was in a Xmas store, it is saying something that I really loved the settings, as red and green are probably my least two favorite colors

She had them decorated inside and out, with a lot of care having gone into them. Interesting to see them, when believe me, I have seen boats just throw a wrinkled table cloth on for boat show and call it set. Or not even go that far!



That brings me to the end of my scintillating commentary tonight, off to get some sleep now...
One final observation, (and not to get hackles up) but a predictable question asked by charter brokers when they don't know the boat is " Is the boat air conditioned" A simple yes or no is fine. Some people like A/C some don't but I have to find a new way to ask the question as without fail I get the same answer from every crew who does not have a/c on board. "we have great ventilation, open hatches, and we anchor out to catch the tradewinds (and then explain to me how the tradewinds work to cool the boat) and then give me some version of "we have never needed it" to "the guests have never once asked for it" (????? Why did we never get these on our boat?)
I have had the cooling principles of trade winds, hatches and anchoring out explained to me every time. I get it. I really just want to know if you have A/C or not. It is not a trick question!
I hope I am coming across as humorous here, it is 1 AM so who knows!!



I leave you with a picture of Mike Johnson showing how brokers should REALLY be doing the boat shows!