Sunday, June 29. 2008
The other traveling blogger Checking in!
I bet you are dead tired of seeing spectacular sunsets, interesting underwater fish and pretty blue water, so I thought I would put up some pictures to give you something different to look at today!
Even I miss the islands every time I see the pictures!
My father convinced us that a small walk was in order in Victoria Harbor today, as the Tall Ships were in town! My mother said about 830 or 9 we would go, I just about cried so they set it back to ten! I fooled them, I was ready at 10 after 9 though! Here I am with my mom and dad
My father does this walk about every day from about the house, but he deemed to drive us closer. I took along my camera so I would have GREAT excuses to stop for a breather!! You will be able to tell by the amount of pictures i have here that I took a few!
We started out on this side, and I do have to say that it was a gorgeous day out. They could not have asked for better! There was tons of kayakers around. The water was flat calm...
I loved this picture, all the guys were rowing the boat and the girl was going faster beside them shouting out orders!
This part of Victoria used to be owned by the First Nation people a long time ago, and they exchanged land here at the water front for land in Esquimault. Here is a couple old pictures from the 1800's that show where we were standing today...
And this is the same view 130 years later! Pretty awesome. Except for now we have tall ships, planes and ferries instead of canoes!
And some of the tall ships
I love this picture, with the blue skies and the buildings behind it looks like we are in Curaco in the Caribbean a hundred years ago!
There is a woman who owns a few buildings that are OLD, Last name of Janion. One used to be a hotel, but they have been closed for decades upon decades. Her husband told her that as long as she had property she would never be poor. After he died, she has lived by that and has refused to sell. These properties are worth silly sums of money now. This Hotel, was the first one in Victoria to have hot running water. Apparently it is in pretty good shape inside, I would have loved to have seen it!
You can tell a lot of old glass in the buildings, like in this picture. Apparently it takes a fortune to fix up these old buildings, as they have to be brought up to earthquake codes, and there are also heritage laws, so...
One thing I noticed was the amount of homeless people that Victoria has. I guess if you have to be homeless in Canada, this is one of the best cities weather wise. I don't think I saw this many homeless in Atlanta last time we were there! We walked down a small alley
which had tiny little places that had half numbers on them!
I took a picture of the flowers as my mom liked them...
and this field of poppies was sitting there with the facade of an old building that they were hoping to save and build behind it. good luck! There is not much left, but the poppies were pretty.
We saw a couple water fountains that were pretty...
and walked under the gate at China Town
Someone had helpfully hung up a pink purse on the side of the building that a little girl lost (or at least I hope it was a little girl!)
Then we walked down to the Inner Harbor again and looked at some more tall ships!
My mother just died (did I spell that wrong?) and it was a little redder then she is used to, lets say, it matches the color of her face anyways!
The US Coast Guard had there Tall Ship Training Vessel up here. It was built in 1934. We have seen it a couple places before in our travels. NONE of the boats were as nice as Promenade though!
And walking over the bridge back after this marathon hike we saw colorful kayakers.
It was a good day! And just in case you have not seen a picture of Bazzas latest invention in the last couple days, he tells me that he is working on circuitry now... I just want to know where he is going to store it?
THen I found a few pictures assorted on the internet from recent guests that I really liked, so I am reproducing them here (Facebook, guys, you would not believe what you see on there!) I am just putting up tame ones!
A great picture of the boat anchored in the distance...
This is just a couple pretty pictures I liked that i had taken at the Boat show in May. I love all the different colors of the sail bags! Going on that theme, I am starting to see power boats tacking on hefty fuel surcharges, like a thousand dollars a week, what else can you do?
I have been watching a lot what the boats have been doing with prices and offerings in this economy and climate, and my prediction is that quite a few will go out of business in the coming year. Just like the airlines I guess@
And although I have my doubts on whether the people who are supposed to develop Beef Island are in too much of a hurry at the moment, I was given a few pictures of where they plan on putting in their "commercial centre" in Trellis Bay, whatever that is, but here is where it is supposed to go in!
That is my news for the weekend. Tuesday we start an exciting road trip, off to Edmonton to see kids and family, up to Northern Alberta where my mother was from, up to Northern BC eventually ending up taking the ferry down the interior of BC to Port Hardy on the North End of Vancouver Island, where I used to like about 35 years ago! Big trip in the RV with mom and dad!
Even I miss the islands every time I see the pictures!
My father convinced us that a small walk was in order in Victoria Harbor today, as the Tall Ships were in town! My mother said about 830 or 9 we would go, I just about cried so they set it back to ten! I fooled them, I was ready at 10 after 9 though! Here I am with my mom and dad
My father does this walk about every day from about the house, but he deemed to drive us closer. I took along my camera so I would have GREAT excuses to stop for a breather!! You will be able to tell by the amount of pictures i have here that I took a few!
We started out on this side, and I do have to say that it was a gorgeous day out. They could not have asked for better! There was tons of kayakers around. The water was flat calm...
I loved this picture, all the guys were rowing the boat and the girl was going faster beside them shouting out orders!
This part of Victoria used to be owned by the First Nation people a long time ago, and they exchanged land here at the water front for land in Esquimault. Here is a couple old pictures from the 1800's that show where we were standing today...
And this is the same view 130 years later! Pretty awesome. Except for now we have tall ships, planes and ferries instead of canoes!
And some of the tall ships
I love this picture, with the blue skies and the buildings behind it looks like we are in Curaco in the Caribbean a hundred years ago!
There is a woman who owns a few buildings that are OLD, Last name of Janion. One used to be a hotel, but they have been closed for decades upon decades. Her husband told her that as long as she had property she would never be poor. After he died, she has lived by that and has refused to sell. These properties are worth silly sums of money now. This Hotel, was the first one in Victoria to have hot running water. Apparently it is in pretty good shape inside, I would have loved to have seen it!
You can tell a lot of old glass in the buildings, like in this picture. Apparently it takes a fortune to fix up these old buildings, as they have to be brought up to earthquake codes, and there are also heritage laws, so...
One thing I noticed was the amount of homeless people that Victoria has. I guess if you have to be homeless in Canada, this is one of the best cities weather wise. I don't think I saw this many homeless in Atlanta last time we were there! We walked down a small alley
which had tiny little places that had half numbers on them!
I took a picture of the flowers as my mom liked them...
and this field of poppies was sitting there with the facade of an old building that they were hoping to save and build behind it. good luck! There is not much left, but the poppies were pretty.
We saw a couple water fountains that were pretty...
and walked under the gate at China Town
Someone had helpfully hung up a pink purse on the side of the building that a little girl lost (or at least I hope it was a little girl!)
Then we walked down to the Inner Harbor again and looked at some more tall ships!
My mother just died (did I spell that wrong?) and it was a little redder then she is used to, lets say, it matches the color of her face anyways!
The US Coast Guard had there Tall Ship Training Vessel up here. It was built in 1934. We have seen it a couple places before in our travels. NONE of the boats were as nice as Promenade though!
And walking over the bridge back after this marathon hike we saw colorful kayakers.
It was a good day! And just in case you have not seen a picture of Bazzas latest invention in the last couple days, he tells me that he is working on circuitry now... I just want to know where he is going to store it?
THen I found a few pictures assorted on the internet from recent guests that I really liked, so I am reproducing them here (Facebook, guys, you would not believe what you see on there!) I am just putting up tame ones!
A great picture of the boat anchored in the distance...
This is just a couple pretty pictures I liked that i had taken at the Boat show in May. I love all the different colors of the sail bags! Going on that theme, I am starting to see power boats tacking on hefty fuel surcharges, like a thousand dollars a week, what else can you do?
I have been watching a lot what the boats have been doing with prices and offerings in this economy and climate, and my prediction is that quite a few will go out of business in the coming year. Just like the airlines I guess@
And although I have my doubts on whether the people who are supposed to develop Beef Island are in too much of a hurry at the moment, I was given a few pictures of where they plan on putting in their "commercial centre" in Trellis Bay, whatever that is, but here is where it is supposed to go in!
That is my news for the weekend. Tuesday we start an exciting road trip, off to Edmonton to see kids and family, up to Northern Alberta where my mother was from, up to Northern BC eventually ending up taking the ferry down the interior of BC to Port Hardy on the North End of Vancouver Island, where I used to like about 35 years ago! Big trip in the RV with mom and dad!
Wednesday, June 18. 2008
Don't know where the weeks go..
This is Kerry checking in from Victoria still. We have not needed the air conditioning here once! Pretty good hey! I am not sure where the weeks are flying but flying there are. For those who follow my husbands projects: It is a good thing we arrived at my parents place where he could spread out, as my RV was not big enough for all this! I am not going to tell you what it is. Lets see if you can figure it out. My last guess tonight once it started being painted was jungle gym furniture! Before that it was just outside patio furniture!!
NOw this was over several days and by the time we got to having blue things hanging on the trees to dry, I though maybe it was a new way of doing Xmas in July!!
Here is something much more recognizable though, my T bone steak from last night and it was quite good as well!
Interesting thread coming in to my inbox on buying a charter yacht at one of the first tier companies. We have always known this, that it is just as inexpensive to charter!
"I have analyzed a couple of proposals and proforma statements from
**** for Charter Yacht Ownership on a couple different
boats. I sat down with my accountant and we looked at the proposals
in detail - guarenteed income, ROI, cost of money invested, buy back,
tax incentives, realistic use, etc.
The bottom line is that it is cheaper for me to charter for 4 to 6
weeks per year than it is to own. In fact, the ROI they offered,
about 9%, would have to closer to 12% to 13% to even breakeven
comparing 4 to 6 charter weeks a year to owning.
One bothersome detail is that should I wish to use the boat for more
weeks than what they offer (both high season and last minute) then
all I get is a 15% discount off rack rates, even the specific boat I
would own. They said "no exceptions." So it appears they would
rather have the boat sit at the dock rather than let the owner use
his own boat should there be no charter. Checking their website, it
appears that I can get more than a 15% discount if I want a last
minute charter. Under those circumstances, they penalize you with
higher rates because you are an owner.
Yes, the **** is offereing me a $100K "discount." But it really
isn't a discount, only a discount on paper on their inflated retail
value of that model. Their proforma ROI and estimated value at the end
of charter are based on the discounted price rather than the their
stated "true value" original price, which means they don't even believe
their own marketing hype. Now if they offered the ROI and a guaranteed
buy back on the original retail value, that would make their offer more
interesting."
End of interesting quote and thread!
The only thing I know is that someone has to be making money otherwise they would not do it...Oh wait, forget I said that, isn't that the airlines strategy?
The very successful Marine Awareness Guide is looking for a way to move forward. Here are a couple notes on it from a recent meeting if anyone has any thoughts?
➢ We are looking at a future run (possibly Aug ???) with edits including:
• Removing “2008” from the cover to have an endless run (or at least until it really needs updating)
• Removing pgs. 54-55 (IYOR) and replacing it with a climate change page and Use of moorings (what to do it gets caught on a prop, proper techniques, etc)
• Addition of NPT moorings & site names
• Editing various minor errors (incl. change of turtle closed season)
• Any errors you have found, please let me know
➢ Costs will be $327.60 per box ($2.73 a copy) for cost of changes, printing & shipping – will need $12,500 up front before printing.
➢ We are looking at seeking partnerships on more of an annual basis (to alleviate numerous letters from both NPT, CFD seeking funding). Specifics still need to be worked out but funding will go towards various activities / projects by both NPT & CFD. Potential to have funds directed towards specific projects (BVI CD Atlas, Marine Awareness Guide, Fisherman’s Day, etc).
And one more exciting thing tonight! It looks like there is going to be a photography competition for your picture of coral on stamps! THat is neat. We were featured on a stamp back in 1992. I shall give more details when they are released, but 2009 they will be looking for great shots of coral!
Basically it is a coral reef photo contest open to everyone in which the 5 winning photos will be part of a 5-year BVI Postal stamp series “protecting our environment, safeguarding our future”.
2009 – Coral reefs
2010 – Endemics of the BVI (photos of species found no where else in the world)
2011 – Coastlines of the BVI
2012 – Wetlands of the BVI
2013 - Forest / watershed
NOw this was over several days and by the time we got to having blue things hanging on the trees to dry, I though maybe it was a new way of doing Xmas in July!!
Here is something much more recognizable though, my T bone steak from last night and it was quite good as well!
Interesting thread coming in to my inbox on buying a charter yacht at one of the first tier companies. We have always known this, that it is just as inexpensive to charter!
"I have analyzed a couple of proposals and proforma statements from
**** for Charter Yacht Ownership on a couple different
boats. I sat down with my accountant and we looked at the proposals
in detail - guarenteed income, ROI, cost of money invested, buy back,
tax incentives, realistic use, etc.
The bottom line is that it is cheaper for me to charter for 4 to 6
weeks per year than it is to own. In fact, the ROI they offered,
about 9%, would have to closer to 12% to 13% to even breakeven
comparing 4 to 6 charter weeks a year to owning.
One bothersome detail is that should I wish to use the boat for more
weeks than what they offer (both high season and last minute) then
all I get is a 15% discount off rack rates, even the specific boat I
would own. They said "no exceptions." So it appears they would
rather have the boat sit at the dock rather than let the owner use
his own boat should there be no charter. Checking their website, it
appears that I can get more than a 15% discount if I want a last
minute charter. Under those circumstances, they penalize you with
higher rates because you are an owner.
Yes, the **** is offereing me a $100K "discount." But it really
isn't a discount, only a discount on paper on their inflated retail
value of that model. Their proforma ROI and estimated value at the end
of charter are based on the discounted price rather than the their
stated "true value" original price, which means they don't even believe
their own marketing hype. Now if they offered the ROI and a guaranteed
buy back on the original retail value, that would make their offer more
interesting."
End of interesting quote and thread!
The only thing I know is that someone has to be making money otherwise they would not do it...Oh wait, forget I said that, isn't that the airlines strategy?
The very successful Marine Awareness Guide is looking for a way to move forward. Here are a couple notes on it from a recent meeting if anyone has any thoughts?
➢ We are looking at a future run (possibly Aug ???) with edits including:
• Removing “2008” from the cover to have an endless run (or at least until it really needs updating)
• Removing pgs. 54-55 (IYOR) and replacing it with a climate change page and Use of moorings (what to do it gets caught on a prop, proper techniques, etc)
• Addition of NPT moorings & site names
• Editing various minor errors (incl. change of turtle closed season)
• Any errors you have found, please let me know
➢ Costs will be $327.60 per box ($2.73 a copy) for cost of changes, printing & shipping – will need $12,500 up front before printing.
➢ We are looking at seeking partnerships on more of an annual basis (to alleviate numerous letters from both NPT, CFD seeking funding). Specifics still need to be worked out but funding will go towards various activities / projects by both NPT & CFD. Potential to have funds directed towards specific projects (BVI CD Atlas, Marine Awareness Guide, Fisherman’s Day, etc).
And one more exciting thing tonight! It looks like there is going to be a photography competition for your picture of coral on stamps! THat is neat. We were featured on a stamp back in 1992. I shall give more details when they are released, but 2009 they will be looking for great shots of coral!
Basically it is a coral reef photo contest open to everyone in which the 5 winning photos will be part of a 5-year BVI Postal stamp series “protecting our environment, safeguarding our future”.
2009 – Coral reefs
2010 – Endemics of the BVI (photos of species found no where else in the world)
2011 – Coastlines of the BVI
2012 – Wetlands of the BVI
2013 - Forest / watershed
Friday, June 13. 2008
Kerry checking in for friends and family!
The yacht filled up with diesel yesterday. The crew thought it was newsworthy enough to phone at 730 in the AM and tell us it was $5.70 a gallon at CSY Dock. Oh my Gosh! $2000.00 for something that potentially lasts 2 -3 weeks! I think a lot of boats in the BVI will be discovering the long lost art of sailing! It is just about $7.00 a gallon at Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbor I understand. How quickly and how far can this all go up?
There has been a lot of queries on the new addendums to the Marine Ports Authority act. Basically what they are saying is that there has been a mechanism to collect harbor fees (whether you are in a harbor, marina, or indeed just checked into the territory) for many years, but it was never collected. They have now decided that they MUST collect it. Good plan! Although, the wording seems a bit ambiguous, and it definitely says that BVI registered boats are exempt, but not sure how and where it will be collected. As a BVI based, registered and licensed commercial vessel, we firmly support anything that could give us an edge over "foreign yachts" as we are beginning to feel like we are licensed and taxed up the ying yang. These fees they are implicating are fairly hefty, ie $1.00 per foot for the first day, $.075 per foot for the second day, but it would not take long before it would just be cheaper to pay the $200.00 fee for temporary importation into the country, for a foreign yacht, but perhaps this is on top of that!
Here is the PDF, if you can figure it out...
I guess while we are putting up paper, here is the link to the changes in the SCV Code (Small Commercial Vessels in the Caribbean)
My parents have had a cute little bird house with babies on their balcony that looked like they were about to fly away soon, so I thought I better get out my camera and take a picture! I am not sure that he was too impressed with me sticking my lens in his house!
It has been very cold here on the Island. Believe me, no air conditioning is needed at all! They, as well as every other place it appears, is putting in a mega yacht marina in the Inner Harbor. It is all on "First Nation Land" Here we are standing about where they are going to be putting it in yesterday morning!
We have been very busy and it is amazing how the time is going although I am not sure that i am accomplishing much...Bazza apparently was quite happy to be at my parents for the summer, as he has taken over the downstairs patio as well for his ROV project. It has gotten too large for the RV now!
We have had honeymooners on the boat a couple times, and we just found out why they were not back this year! Congrats Kim and Brendan! We will have future sailors!!
And one of our friends, Janice, who has been on the boat several times (as well as being a keen scrabble player on line with Lisa and I) just went diving in Key Largo, so I am taking the liberty to share a couple pictures of her trip there.
They saw a dolphin...
And I love this bird sitting on the balcony!
And I guess they have some pretty sunsets in Key Largo as well! Not as good as Lisa's from last night though!
We tried to take some family pictures of the 4 of this with the timer on my camera. This is what we looked like for a half an hour and never did get the time figured out! Have to go back and read the manual.
So we did get one with my dad, all three bellies sticking out anyways! This was on our way to the afternoon at the legion. Yes, we really do know how to live!
There has been a lot of queries on the new addendums to the Marine Ports Authority act. Basically what they are saying is that there has been a mechanism to collect harbor fees (whether you are in a harbor, marina, or indeed just checked into the territory) for many years, but it was never collected. They have now decided that they MUST collect it. Good plan! Although, the wording seems a bit ambiguous, and it definitely says that BVI registered boats are exempt, but not sure how and where it will be collected. As a BVI based, registered and licensed commercial vessel, we firmly support anything that could give us an edge over "foreign yachts" as we are beginning to feel like we are licensed and taxed up the ying yang. These fees they are implicating are fairly hefty, ie $1.00 per foot for the first day, $.075 per foot for the second day, but it would not take long before it would just be cheaper to pay the $200.00 fee for temporary importation into the country, for a foreign yacht, but perhaps this is on top of that!
Here is the PDF, if you can figure it out...
I guess while we are putting up paper, here is the link to the changes in the SCV Code (Small Commercial Vessels in the Caribbean)
My parents have had a cute little bird house with babies on their balcony that looked like they were about to fly away soon, so I thought I better get out my camera and take a picture! I am not sure that he was too impressed with me sticking my lens in his house!
It has been very cold here on the Island. Believe me, no air conditioning is needed at all! They, as well as every other place it appears, is putting in a mega yacht marina in the Inner Harbor. It is all on "First Nation Land" Here we are standing about where they are going to be putting it in yesterday morning!
We have been very busy and it is amazing how the time is going although I am not sure that i am accomplishing much...Bazza apparently was quite happy to be at my parents for the summer, as he has taken over the downstairs patio as well for his ROV project. It has gotten too large for the RV now!
We have had honeymooners on the boat a couple times, and we just found out why they were not back this year! Congrats Kim and Brendan! We will have future sailors!!
And one of our friends, Janice, who has been on the boat several times (as well as being a keen scrabble player on line with Lisa and I) just went diving in Key Largo, so I am taking the liberty to share a couple pictures of her trip there.
They saw a dolphin...
And I love this bird sitting on the balcony!
And I guess they have some pretty sunsets in Key Largo as well! Not as good as Lisa's from last night though!
We tried to take some family pictures of the 4 of this with the timer on my camera. This is what we looked like for a half an hour and never did get the time figured out! Have to go back and read the manual.
So we did get one with my dad, all three bellies sticking out anyways! This was on our way to the afternoon at the legion. Yes, we really do know how to live!
Thursday, June 5. 2008
Kerry checking in from Victoria
Our overnight stay at a casino was here in Oregon on the way up. Went in for dinner, but put no money in the machines!
They also had this great old bathtub for a horse trough, but I would have liked for a bathtub!
We took the ferry over from Anacortes in Washington, and IT WAS VERY COLD!
THiS COLD
This was Friday Harbor, I am sure lovely in the sun...
No wind, which did not make it any warmer.
Big marina in the San Juan Islands
So, I had quite the shock of my life this morning! Before we went across the border to Canada, we remembered that the last time we used our air card from ATT up here we spent thousands of dollars for web usage roaming. Well, no sirree we were not going to let that happen again, so before we came up we phoned and got the upgraded package so we could use the card in Canada and Mexico as well. Another $50.00 a month or so.
Imagine my surprise when they called me this morning and said that in two days our web usage was almost $5000.00!!!! My jaw dropped! It turned out that they had not put the package on when we called the other day, (what a surprise!) so they did not and backdated it so the charges should come off!
Considering I just want through a back and forth with ATT over my IPHONE trying to make them believe that my IPHONE was not making calls from Haiti, St Lucia, Jamaica, Trinidad and the British Virgin Islands all on the same day, it was like a re occuring nightmare!
The best line I heard with that customer service rep was it was "possible" that I picked up those networks from the BVI so they could not do anything about it. Hell, we have a hard enough time picking up our own cel companies down there, never mind the ones in Haiti!
And, the International Roaming Package for your cel phone that give you 50 MB of data a month, just works in 42 countries Internationally! The BVI is not one of them either. BUT at least if you have the International Traveler and the International Roaming package for IPHONE it is only going to cost you 1.9 cents per kilobyte instead of the $5000, it just about cost us for 100 MB of data in Canada!
So beware of that, when you bring your phones down to the islands. There is nothing that tells you that you are getting data from Haiti or Trinidad, in fact, mine said ATT the entire time. So I naturally assumed I was picked up the ATT St Thomas network. Live and learn one more time.
We had gone out to a Mexican Place, and I don't like spicy things, and this chile looked way too dangerous for me!
I urge all my guests, and everyone else who has flights booked next winter on American Airlines down here to DOUBLE CHECK their itienaries. When they did the schedule shake up over the last weekend, a lot of people who thought they were flying direct to San Juan, found out they weren't and many others found out they had overnight flights, getting there and back. Or more.
If this has happened to you, you are going to have to get on the phone and get a better flight plan. Do not leave it. Additionally, if you have charters booked for next winter down here and you do not have flights BOOKED yet, you are going to want to get on it. The availiblity is, going to be in one word, pathetic.
Delta is still flying a fairly reasonable schedule into St Thomas, and there is talk that the Tourist Board will be working together with the Government and the ferry operators to put on at least one evening ferry coming over, so we can get people over to the BVI.
I wonder if they will put more lights on Johnson's Reef at night so the ferry operators have a better chance of avoiding it.
There is also rumor of a high speed ferry coming into play from Puerto Rico. I will let you know as I hear of any of these things happening.
Please contact me if you need help figuring out your schedule and how to work it all together! I am going to get out a personal email to everyone on this, but this is a much faster way of getting it done.
Anyways, this is home for the next while, we just fit in the driveway and the satellite dish is going through the veranda to get the narrow little beam it needs for Directv! All is good and we are just getting comfortable and I am going to catch up on work!
They also had this great old bathtub for a horse trough, but I would have liked for a bathtub!
We took the ferry over from Anacortes in Washington, and IT WAS VERY COLD!
THiS COLD
This was Friday Harbor, I am sure lovely in the sun...
No wind, which did not make it any warmer.
Big marina in the San Juan Islands
So, I had quite the shock of my life this morning! Before we went across the border to Canada, we remembered that the last time we used our air card from ATT up here we spent thousands of dollars for web usage roaming. Well, no sirree we were not going to let that happen again, so before we came up we phoned and got the upgraded package so we could use the card in Canada and Mexico as well. Another $50.00 a month or so.
Imagine my surprise when they called me this morning and said that in two days our web usage was almost $5000.00!!!! My jaw dropped! It turned out that they had not put the package on when we called the other day, (what a surprise!) so they did not and backdated it so the charges should come off!
Considering I just want through a back and forth with ATT over my IPHONE trying to make them believe that my IPHONE was not making calls from Haiti, St Lucia, Jamaica, Trinidad and the British Virgin Islands all on the same day, it was like a re occuring nightmare!
The best line I heard with that customer service rep was it was "possible" that I picked up those networks from the BVI so they could not do anything about it. Hell, we have a hard enough time picking up our own cel companies down there, never mind the ones in Haiti!
And, the International Roaming Package for your cel phone that give you 50 MB of data a month, just works in 42 countries Internationally! The BVI is not one of them either. BUT at least if you have the International Traveler and the International Roaming package for IPHONE it is only going to cost you 1.9 cents per kilobyte instead of the $5000, it just about cost us for 100 MB of data in Canada!
So beware of that, when you bring your phones down to the islands. There is nothing that tells you that you are getting data from Haiti or Trinidad, in fact, mine said ATT the entire time. So I naturally assumed I was picked up the ATT St Thomas network. Live and learn one more time.
We had gone out to a Mexican Place, and I don't like spicy things, and this chile looked way too dangerous for me!
I urge all my guests, and everyone else who has flights booked next winter on American Airlines down here to DOUBLE CHECK their itienaries. When they did the schedule shake up over the last weekend, a lot of people who thought they were flying direct to San Juan, found out they weren't and many others found out they had overnight flights, getting there and back. Or more.
If this has happened to you, you are going to have to get on the phone and get a better flight plan. Do not leave it. Additionally, if you have charters booked for next winter down here and you do not have flights BOOKED yet, you are going to want to get on it. The availiblity is, going to be in one word, pathetic.
Delta is still flying a fairly reasonable schedule into St Thomas, and there is talk that the Tourist Board will be working together with the Government and the ferry operators to put on at least one evening ferry coming over, so we can get people over to the BVI.
I wonder if they will put more lights on Johnson's Reef at night so the ferry operators have a better chance of avoiding it.
There is also rumor of a high speed ferry coming into play from Puerto Rico. I will let you know as I hear of any of these things happening.
Please contact me if you need help figuring out your schedule and how to work it all together! I am going to get out a personal email to everyone on this, but this is a much faster way of getting it done.
Anyways, this is home for the next while, we just fit in the driveway and the satellite dish is going through the veranda to get the narrow little beam it needs for Directv! All is good and we are just getting comfortable and I am going to catch up on work!
Monday, June 2. 2008
Kerry checking in..
From somewhere looking at Mount Olympia in Washington, I thought I better check in so family and friends can know where we are!
We enjoyed spending time at my sisters, although since she had just had surgery on her knee she was not too mobile. At all. I did what any good sister would do though and went and bought her get well presents, you know, like flowers, chocolate and balloons..OR if you are me, you buy much more practical gifts!
Come on, I put a bow on it! I have been looking at one of these things for the boat for years, but it is just not practical for the size of it to only make one blender full at a time!
It does chip and whir (and does not spill all over the counter, unlike Lisa and I with our blenders though!) So, I finally bought one. I was walking around Costco with everyone giggling saying "I know what you are doing tonight" EVERYONE. I felt like I might as well just tattooed LUSH over my forehead! My sister liked it though!
Not that it is such a bad thing, but we wonder what the point is of buying drinks when you go out, and I swear it would take you about 20 to feel anything unlike our drinks on the boat!
Anyways, we left her entertainment and started up the I 5 to my parents place in Victoria. The roads in California were HORRIBLE! We shook quite a few things off the bottom of the RV going through that state!
Remember I showed you a picture of a croc eating a kangaroo awhile ago from Australia? Well I don't know if these are made up, but here is a croc eating a SHARK!!!
So after that I will show you a cute little picture of a squid, I found on the roll of my camera.
For those who bareboat and give a damn about keeping up on all the latest things in the BVI, as opposed to our guests on Promenade who expect us to just keep up on this stuff, here is a link to a PDF of the National Parks act that was signed into law as a condition of the government receiving Sandy Cay from the Rockefeller Foundation.
I read the entire thing, for those who don't want to and the thing it is missing is a CHART! When we had the meetings about this act years ago, it was basically said that about 30% of every habitat would be protected under the act, and there would be fishing, snorkeling, and other types of priority areas. These could be changeable, depending on conditions, and perhaps may rotate to allow some areas not to see as heavy a use. There is usually a debate in the BVI as the fishermen say the divers scare away the fish, and the divers think the fishermen just take the fish. So, fishing priority areas for example you would not be able to dive in. Although the Marine Guide that was released awhile ago, had the places pretty broadly laid out, ie, saying "great Harbor Peter Island" it did not mean that the entire bay would be closed, and in fact we were told each area would be about a room size or so. I believe the areas were not exactly decided and signed into law.
Although it always scares me in the BVI when we get passed a "fait accompli" as it usually is not good.
The gist of what will be happening is: There will be areas that will be off limits at different times for different activities. You will not be able to anchor within so many feet of a National Parks Mooring. YOu will not be able to go more then 5 MPH in a dinghy in a Parks area. That means there will be some bays that you will not be able to do water sports in. There will be some places you cannot fish. YOu cannot dive. You can only snorkel. Etc. There is a provision for fines. UP to ten thousand. There is also some talk that National Parks would like to take over all the Moorings in the territory and farm out the upkeep and just do the enforcement. Conservation and Fisheries and a couple other departments will be under one umbrella and elevated to an equally important ministerial department like, say, Immigration. There are pages and pages in this act of things you have to apply for special permission for. IE, salvaging, historic shipwrecks etc etc. Down to taking pictures for advertising in a park. And of course pay the appropriate fee. Of course the other question that comes up is the enforcement end, as currently we do NOT have that available in the BVI,
I will let you know more as we know more. The head of National Parks will be talking to the BVI SCUBA Operators this week at their meeting, so we are ALL lining up our questions!
Here is the link to the PDF. National Parks May 08
I think it is a great idea to protect part of every habitat, as what The Virgin Islands Environmental Council is trying to do with Hans Creek!
I understand the petition against Hans Creek Development is over 12,000 and climbing!
We enjoyed spending time at my sisters, although since she had just had surgery on her knee she was not too mobile. At all. I did what any good sister would do though and went and bought her get well presents, you know, like flowers, chocolate and balloons..OR if you are me, you buy much more practical gifts!
Come on, I put a bow on it! I have been looking at one of these things for the boat for years, but it is just not practical for the size of it to only make one blender full at a time!
It does chip and whir (and does not spill all over the counter, unlike Lisa and I with our blenders though!) So, I finally bought one. I was walking around Costco with everyone giggling saying "I know what you are doing tonight" EVERYONE. I felt like I might as well just tattooed LUSH over my forehead! My sister liked it though!
Not that it is such a bad thing, but we wonder what the point is of buying drinks when you go out, and I swear it would take you about 20 to feel anything unlike our drinks on the boat!
Anyways, we left her entertainment and started up the I 5 to my parents place in Victoria. The roads in California were HORRIBLE! We shook quite a few things off the bottom of the RV going through that state!
Remember I showed you a picture of a croc eating a kangaroo awhile ago from Australia? Well I don't know if these are made up, but here is a croc eating a SHARK!!!
So after that I will show you a cute little picture of a squid, I found on the roll of my camera.
For those who bareboat and give a damn about keeping up on all the latest things in the BVI, as opposed to our guests on Promenade who expect us to just keep up on this stuff, here is a link to a PDF of the National Parks act that was signed into law as a condition of the government receiving Sandy Cay from the Rockefeller Foundation.
I read the entire thing, for those who don't want to and the thing it is missing is a CHART! When we had the meetings about this act years ago, it was basically said that about 30% of every habitat would be protected under the act, and there would be fishing, snorkeling, and other types of priority areas. These could be changeable, depending on conditions, and perhaps may rotate to allow some areas not to see as heavy a use. There is usually a debate in the BVI as the fishermen say the divers scare away the fish, and the divers think the fishermen just take the fish. So, fishing priority areas for example you would not be able to dive in. Although the Marine Guide that was released awhile ago, had the places pretty broadly laid out, ie, saying "great Harbor Peter Island" it did not mean that the entire bay would be closed, and in fact we were told each area would be about a room size or so. I believe the areas were not exactly decided and signed into law.
Although it always scares me in the BVI when we get passed a "fait accompli" as it usually is not good.
The gist of what will be happening is: There will be areas that will be off limits at different times for different activities. You will not be able to anchor within so many feet of a National Parks Mooring. YOu will not be able to go more then 5 MPH in a dinghy in a Parks area. That means there will be some bays that you will not be able to do water sports in. There will be some places you cannot fish. YOu cannot dive. You can only snorkel. Etc. There is a provision for fines. UP to ten thousand. There is also some talk that National Parks would like to take over all the Moorings in the territory and farm out the upkeep and just do the enforcement. Conservation and Fisheries and a couple other departments will be under one umbrella and elevated to an equally important ministerial department like, say, Immigration. There are pages and pages in this act of things you have to apply for special permission for. IE, salvaging, historic shipwrecks etc etc. Down to taking pictures for advertising in a park. And of course pay the appropriate fee. Of course the other question that comes up is the enforcement end, as currently we do NOT have that available in the BVI,
I will let you know more as we know more. The head of National Parks will be talking to the BVI SCUBA Operators this week at their meeting, so we are ALL lining up our questions!
Here is the link to the PDF. National Parks May 08
I think it is a great idea to protect part of every habitat, as what The Virgin Islands Environmental Council is trying to do with Hans Creek!
I understand the petition against Hans Creek Development is over 12,000 and climbing!
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