bvi captains log blog

Yep, sounds like San Francisco..We had a big day, picked up my sister et spouse and drove into Fishermans Wharf bright and early. My sister likes the hot fresh donuts here and they were very good!

We had a perfect day for sightseeing in San Francisco today! First we went to watch all the Sea Lions on there own docks. They did not smell as bad as the ones in the Galapagos did!



We did not tell them what we were doing so imagine their surprise when the shuttle bus turned up to take us on a helicopter sightseeing tour.

Syd and Chris had never been on one before.

It was such a clear perfect day with not a cloud in the sky! Of course we had bundled up warmly but we hardly needed it cuz it was so warm. I think the most interesting part was flying UNDER and then OVER the Golden Gate Bridge! We could see lots of Sea Lions from up in the air as well.



After that it was on to Sausilto where we landed and went into town to an Italian Restaurant for lunch. Good lunch, everyone enjoyed theres! We walked around a bit and then took the ferry back over to San Francisco and that is where the jackets came in handy! My sister was laughing at my hat! I don't know why, I have carted that around in my bag since the first time I was in Australia since developing Roseca to try and avoid outbreaks!!!

Nice view of the Skyline from the water, even if I think my guests who live in this area and go sailing on San Francisco Bay are CRAZY!! I think I am spoiled by the warm wind and the blue water in the British Virgin Islands!

And I still think they are crazy for swimming over to Alcatraz here! Something for out Swim Vacation People from last week to do.

The crew I know shopped there little hearts out in St Thomas yesterday, and were glad to get back to the BVI.
I had an email from an old crew member, Scott, who worked on the boat for awhile back in 1999. He is applying for the coast guard and needed to submit some scenario's and how he handled them.
He included the tale of an incident that happened on New Years Eve back then. I had forgotten this story and now looking back, you can spot the things done wrong from a mile away, but hey, luck and sometimes common sense wins out in the end. I quote from Scott:
Alone at Sea
What Happened: New Years eve, 1999, working on Promenade, 65 trimaran, British Virgin Islands. Captain sent me to get ice in Spanish Town, Virgin Gorda. Set adrift from Promenade in a 20 ft open boat in middle of channel, Promenade carried on to Bitter End Yacht Club. Could not get engine started. Did not have radio contact with Promenade or any other boats!
What I did: Signaled other boats using life jacket, eventually local fishermen stopped. I had been drifting in channel for about 2 hours, while charter boats went by, some even waved back! Towed into Spanish Town to main ferry dock. Tried to determine what was wrong with the engine with help from the police superintendent, customs man and fisherman. Went with money for ice to get more gas for boat, this did not work. Figured I better get to North Sound to let Captain know what happened. Hitched a ride to Gun Point, and begged a free ride on ferry to Bitter End Yacht Club which was about 6 miles away. Found a friend who gave me a dinghy ride out to Promenade, now had been missing for 6 hours.
What was the result: Captain went to Spanish Town and got boat going, came back in time to take guests to Bitter End for New Years Eve Party.

So from the experience of a decade on, you can look back and say and ask REALLY quick off the top of your head... No blame being placed on anyone, just thoughts. Why were we untying tender from large yacht before we made sure it ran? (Perhaps this was on the reasons we learnt to always hang on to the large yacht until we got tender going, whether underway or at anchor!) We always seem to have to drop a tender in the water for some reason or other (and ice is as good an answer why as any other, but we eliminated a lot of that need by putting an ice maker on board!) Why did the tender not have a working radio and why was the main boat not in eye contact to make sure all was going fine? We always have a hard mounted radio in the tender now, and we try and remember to also always take a handheld, so lesson was learned again somewhere along the way! The VHF radio's do not last to long in the tender, even though we are supposed to get ones that are made for it. Cel phone? I know we had cel phone on boat, so why did crew member not call or was it that we did not hear it?? I seem to remember a couple other things about this incident. We had two tenders, but the other one had broken I believe so we only had the one with us, and no way to get ashore. I remember we were exasperated with Scott wondering what took so long with the ice!! Poor guy, out in the channel and we are wondering why he is taking so long! I remember calling up the captain from Cuan Law and he brought us ice (gotta take care of the guests drinks you know) and arranged to get our guests taken into Bitter End. Obviously now looking back, without myriad back up communications systems, we should have put out a PAN PAN asking people to be on the look out for him, or tried calling where he was picking up the ice to see what had happened. I am sure others will see a million more things that should have been done here, but this is a start. One other thing about that day, was poor Scotts New Years Eve was NOT quite over with yet! You are probably thinking the poor guy deserved and had a drink or three two many after that, but the truth would be that night was blowing 25-30 knots in Bitter End, as it often does, and just around midnight, our Bruce anchor drug, or we were having problems with swinging with all the boats (we were on two anchors and line at that time, no chain) and in the midst of reanchoring the line, all 3-4 hundred feet whatever we had, was let run out of the locker and disappeared with our heavy strong anchor with it! Scott's job to end this fun New Years eve was to go diving at midnight looking for a missing anchor and line! Which he found. And we now carry CHAIN! When Bazza came on board he took a couple looks at the line and thought "nope" not happening! It was very funny though as we always put down the two anchors, and when Bazza first came on the boat we had a short term deckhand, who was oh, I don't know, about 55 or so, and we called him "one ball Ken". Why did we call him "one ball Ken?" because Ken would let all our guests know on the very first day that he only had one testicle! Especially the girls. He thought it made him a start, we just thought it was ridiculous. Anyways, Bazza did enjoy the anchor lines the few weeks Ken was on board as even with the windlass, once they were up you would have to coil the damn things into the locker and Ken would have to lay down on the Bimbo Mats for a break spread eagled after the first anchor he was so pooped! I am sure I saw Bazza giggling more then once! End of stories tonight, time to see how the plane ride goes tomorrow night back to the BVI! Oh, and just for clarity, neither Bazza nor I was the captain on board on New Years Eve 1999! I was the lowly cook!!

So seemingly out of nowhere, two days ago I start getting emails on the BVI Air show. I had never heard of this beast until then. Thought "neat" and moved on my day. Then today I got emails, about the traffic situation and allowing more time to get to the airport as they were expecting ten THOUSAND people to the show! This caught my eye, as frankly, isn't that half the population of the BVI?
Then I realized that we are landing in the BVI friday morning smack dab in the middle of this show. That gave me a sinking feeling... You know how I feel about the airports in the Caribbean.
So, whoever is going to this air show, here is the link on it BVI Air Show and be cautious of leaving extra time to get to and fro the airport this Friday and Saturday...
I thought this was a pretty neat trick! My husband fell asleep mid mouse click! Of course I had to take a picture!

Went out for dinner at Outback with my sister and family. That was nice, but believe me we needed our jackets here in the San Francisco area! A biting wind!

Spent today running around trying to get a couple bits and bobs the crew wanted...things like B wanted Bullfrog sun screen! I can only imagine it is better then the rest?? Bought some neat new outside glasses and cocktail glasses for the boat as well, and Bazza was talking about hitting the fishing department at Walmart. Gee what a surprise!
Bought myself the new wireless back up drive Time Capsule from Mac. One terabite and a N router as well.....I thought this time I would let Bazza read the instructions before I went slap dash happy into setting it up as when I do that I usually mess it up and I may have my computer already backed up to a couple back up drives, but in my world after a billion computer crashes you can never have too many back up drives!! Going out for the day tomorrow with my sister. We have a surprise for them!

Soon to be back to Tortola! Flight was ok coming back, everything was on time which is very unusual in my Caribbean world. THey do pack you in like sardines though! Nothing a couple sleeping pills did not take care of for me though!
We spent all week visiting relatives in various shirts, short periods at a time. Bazza has more sisters then I know what to do with! We went and met his younger sister Anna and her husband for coffee one morning.

ANd of course, I did have to make iced coffees once or twice and realized how pretty they look in iced glasses!

Not many RV's like ours in Australia, although there is starting to be a few. Mostly WInnebago's. Notice the door is on the opposite side to what we are used to! Also would not want to put the price of fuel in them! It was costing us enough to fill the car!

Time for a nap and then out to Outback Steakhouse with my sister tonight.