Saturday, September 27. 2008
An epic weekend blog entry from the British Virgin Islands
For those who follow this, it should keep you reading for about 4 days if you take it in little bites! For my family, it is all the news I have. Now I don't have to send any emails!
This may be the epic blog entry for the weekend. My perky self has reasserted itself. Friday we left St John and checked back into the BVI. We had a (drum roll please...) dreaded town day!!
This is a picture of all the Voyage Yachts, that are still all out of the water, I think there was about 2 boats in the marina down at west end when we came in.
I have to give credit where credit is due though, I had to go to three banks, and I WAS DONE IN AN HOUR! Ok, so I could use the ATM's at two of them (Banco Popular was in spanish and they did not like my pass code either so we had to go into there, but the commercial line was dead) AND just like the performance Lisa went through a couple weeks ago I had decided to close one of my credit cards that we have with First Caribbean that we secured. Why, because the damn thing is never accepted anywhere. Mostly not even on island! We have been in over the years to ask why, and they don't know. They agree that it has happened that we cannot use it and they tell us to get the store to call them. Yeah, right, the store in Puerto Rico has a lot of interest in calling Barbados to authorize my $5.00 purchase! Anyways, since we seem to have credit cards from every bank, we decided we might as well save ourselves the hassle and the fee every year on that one and cancel it. You probably think that this is easy don't you? You would be wrong!
You go into first Caribbean, sure that there is nothing owing on your card, and if there was, well, they could just transfer couldn't they?? No, not that easy. I sit in customer service ten days ago for an hour, while they try and work this out. They finally tell me that they have to send a message to Barbados and when they get an OK back to close the account, they will call. This is not a same day thing! When she calls me back, apparently there is a bit owing on the card, and we are now in the USVI and Puerto Rico, but she says to call her and let her know when I have paid it off. No transfer.
I think, well, I am pretty sure I can just pay that off online, so off I go to do that. Once in my account, though, I cannot get the amount owing my only option is to pay an amount on "BVI credit card" on line (and hope it is the right one!) I asked the system to get me my bill, but it said "not available"
Now, silly me who has lived in the Caribbean for how long did not write down the amount that she told me I owed on the phone. I know, I should really know better, so I guess! I thought I over guessed. Ha! Nope, short by $9.00. Ok, go through procedure again and on Friday go into see customer service rep to tell her it is paid so she can email Barbados again to get an ok to close the account. (Remember, this is a secured already card, and we have our business banking there, with believe me, more then $9.00 in the account)
At First Caribbean we are not dealing with the bank manager, no, we probably have the most junior customer service rep (and I am sure she should know how to do it as Lisa just went through this with the same girl and it took a month!) Panic sets in! No junior customer rep at here desk!! No quick "yeah it is paid" (and yes, I did try calling the bank earlier, but it just rang and rang and rang) So I wait. For another customer service rep. When I get up to her (and believe me, she is uninterested and I am really imposing) she tells me that the customer service rep who was dealing with it IS ON VACATION FOR TWO WEEKS! Apparently, the only one in the bank who can deal with this complex problem. They take my phone number, after consultation with our service reps and I am not certain whether that meant that they would call me when it was done, or if they would give it to the junior rep when she came back in two weeks, but I fear the latter...Sigh, Funny how I managed to make a long story out of my gloating that it only took me an hour at the banks!
The other bank, who had somehow "lost" a $5000.00 deposit in between St Thomas and the BVI of the companies in July, took 5 days to tell me they just could not find it and I should get the original one cancelled and have it reissued. I had figured that out by the day I called them, and I don't even work for the bank, but it took them all week to get there.
Now, this is something that is a bit of a shock to us...This is a set of keys..on a key ring! Most of you may go "so what" BUT I have not owned one of these for about 12-13 years. Now I do.
After over a decade on this island, being perfectly content (mostly) without a vehicle, for some odd reason we decided that this was the year we have to give in and get one. Just to join the other billion SUV's on this island fighting over the same three parking spots in Roadtown! Smart hey??? It is nice. I especially like the picture of it under the palm tree! I wonder if this means we have decided we are staying here??? With owning a boat only, you always have in the back of your head that you can just pick up and go at anytime....
Now we have a car AND a storage locker here! Roots or what! One of the few requests I had from Bazza was good air conditioning. When he bought this in St Thomas, it was not working, but part of the deal was they would fix the A/C before shipping it over to the BVI. I am sure you know what I am going to say. They didn't. After all, what are we going to do?? Export it back to St Thomas and reimport it again to get the A/C working??? I think not, it is a procedure that rivals going to the banks importing a vehicle here! I let Bazza deal with it... I do now know though that IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT YOU PAID FOR IT WHEN YOU ARE PAYING DUTY. Apparently there is only one person on island, who "decides" what it is worth and charges you accordingly (no, we don't know where that it is based on, at least if it was based on the blue book or something we could understand!) This person interrogates you with questions like asking if you are related to the person you bought it from (nope, no relatives at Caribbean Auto Mart in St Thomas, otherwise the air conditioning would have been fixed I believe!). Each place Bazza went to, from Insurance to Registration to the Import Broker had about the same bad word to call this one person on island qualified to figure out what duty you are going to pay! (20% of what HE thinks it is worth!!) At least Bazza has something else to work on now, he was getting pretty bored just keeping up with the boat, RV, dinghy and mom and dads house!
We oohed, we aahed, we took pictures...and then what is the first thing we promptly did??? Yep, lock both sets of keys in the car! Bet you have seen these types of pictures before!
The second thing we did was take the extra tinting off the front windows as we KNEW it would never pass registration here with those on it! Too bad, it keeps it cooler!!!
While I was waiting for Bazza to break into our new car, I snapped this picture of Joma Marina, where BVI Yacht Charters is, it is looking pretty empty as well!
Sometime next week, I may get a ride in it (after it is plated and has the A/C fixed!) NO more carrying cases of whatever back to the dinghy when we run out. Hell, we can even wander at will to the grocery stores to pick up everything they forget to send us now every week! I then stamped my foot this afternoon and demanded to be FINALLY taken to Salt Island.
This is my home! I never feel at peace anywhere else as I do here on this silly little bay! Of course, I had to try out the new snorkeling camera and in I jumped straight away...The camera is a newer model than my older one, and take pretty good pictures...I was happy. I had had a big morning cleaning ovens and galleys etc so thought that I would not take a long snorkel, but I ended up being in the water for three hours one way or another! Lots of conch here right now...I saw three octopuses...
And the reef was in pretty good shape with some interesting effects..
Little schools of fish peaking at me.
More reef, sand rays, turtles, eels, tulip shell eating soft coral, it was wonderful! Fat girls (and boys I suppose) should swim. It is so wonderful being weightless and stretching without having to lay down because you are out of breath!
I had spied a bottle in the water that was too deep down for me to get so I had Bazza throw my gear in the water and I was pretty exciting when I had a PERFECT OLD MALLET!!!! I probably have not found one of these for a couple years, and they are hundreds of years old! By the time we got out of the water, I was perfectly content...
AND it was sunset. A pretty sunset as well... this is my artsy shot with my mallet bottle in the foreground
and this is just the sunset.
Another reason for being perky is MY GALLEY is DONE! And clean and put back together. The new countertops look nice and the new mac tack brightens up the shelves a lot. Here are the two views of the galley... Stove, oven,
and the sinks and fridges. Good Job Bazza! Apparently I am getting a garburator tomorrow as well! What more could a girl want? More cameras perhaps!!
I got a new explorer and apparently my father got a new car as well! His is only a couple inches tall and came from China via EBAY. A replica of a Volkswagon 411 that we had in Europe decades ago. Probably did not charge him as much duty to import it now did they??
Mom had a pretty cobweb on here clothes line she sent me as well.
I had a couple guests ask me for a picture of Simeon, our Scottish First Mate/Instructor who will be showing up all perky like in a few weeks (I bet it will be getting cold in Scotland!) This is the only picture I could find of him from the last time he was on here. Back in 2002/2003. Gosh we look younger! (and skinnier) That is Bazza and I on the left in case you don't recognize us in our much skinnier years! With us is Cait, who was a stewardess that year from Western Canada. She was quite young then, but I also heard from her a couple days ago as well and she is still enjoying the boating life off and on, looking for her next assignment on the water.
I took the opportunity to take (steal of the web) this picture of her to show you what she looks like now! Cait, you are a knockout!!
This may be the epic blog entry for the weekend. My perky self has reasserted itself. Friday we left St John and checked back into the BVI. We had a (drum roll please...) dreaded town day!!
This is a picture of all the Voyage Yachts, that are still all out of the water, I think there was about 2 boats in the marina down at west end when we came in.
I have to give credit where credit is due though, I had to go to three banks, and I WAS DONE IN AN HOUR! Ok, so I could use the ATM's at two of them (Banco Popular was in spanish and they did not like my pass code either so we had to go into there, but the commercial line was dead) AND just like the performance Lisa went through a couple weeks ago I had decided to close one of my credit cards that we have with First Caribbean that we secured. Why, because the damn thing is never accepted anywhere. Mostly not even on island! We have been in over the years to ask why, and they don't know. They agree that it has happened that we cannot use it and they tell us to get the store to call them. Yeah, right, the store in Puerto Rico has a lot of interest in calling Barbados to authorize my $5.00 purchase! Anyways, since we seem to have credit cards from every bank, we decided we might as well save ourselves the hassle and the fee every year on that one and cancel it. You probably think that this is easy don't you? You would be wrong!
You go into first Caribbean, sure that there is nothing owing on your card, and if there was, well, they could just transfer couldn't they?? No, not that easy. I sit in customer service ten days ago for an hour, while they try and work this out. They finally tell me that they have to send a message to Barbados and when they get an OK back to close the account, they will call. This is not a same day thing! When she calls me back, apparently there is a bit owing on the card, and we are now in the USVI and Puerto Rico, but she says to call her and let her know when I have paid it off. No transfer.
I think, well, I am pretty sure I can just pay that off online, so off I go to do that. Once in my account, though, I cannot get the amount owing my only option is to pay an amount on "BVI credit card" on line (and hope it is the right one!) I asked the system to get me my bill, but it said "not available"
Now, silly me who has lived in the Caribbean for how long did not write down the amount that she told me I owed on the phone. I know, I should really know better, so I guess! I thought I over guessed. Ha! Nope, short by $9.00. Ok, go through procedure again and on Friday go into see customer service rep to tell her it is paid so she can email Barbados again to get an ok to close the account. (Remember, this is a secured already card, and we have our business banking there, with believe me, more then $9.00 in the account)
At First Caribbean we are not dealing with the bank manager, no, we probably have the most junior customer service rep (and I am sure she should know how to do it as Lisa just went through this with the same girl and it took a month!) Panic sets in! No junior customer rep at here desk!! No quick "yeah it is paid" (and yes, I did try calling the bank earlier, but it just rang and rang and rang) So I wait. For another customer service rep. When I get up to her (and believe me, she is uninterested and I am really imposing) she tells me that the customer service rep who was dealing with it IS ON VACATION FOR TWO WEEKS! Apparently, the only one in the bank who can deal with this complex problem. They take my phone number, after consultation with our service reps and I am not certain whether that meant that they would call me when it was done, or if they would give it to the junior rep when she came back in two weeks, but I fear the latter...Sigh, Funny how I managed to make a long story out of my gloating that it only took me an hour at the banks!
The other bank, who had somehow "lost" a $5000.00 deposit in between St Thomas and the BVI of the companies in July, took 5 days to tell me they just could not find it and I should get the original one cancelled and have it reissued. I had figured that out by the day I called them, and I don't even work for the bank, but it took them all week to get there.
Now, this is something that is a bit of a shock to us...This is a set of keys..on a key ring! Most of you may go "so what" BUT I have not owned one of these for about 12-13 years. Now I do.
After over a decade on this island, being perfectly content (mostly) without a vehicle, for some odd reason we decided that this was the year we have to give in and get one. Just to join the other billion SUV's on this island fighting over the same three parking spots in Roadtown! Smart hey??? It is nice. I especially like the picture of it under the palm tree! I wonder if this means we have decided we are staying here??? With owning a boat only, you always have in the back of your head that you can just pick up and go at anytime....
Now we have a car AND a storage locker here! Roots or what! One of the few requests I had from Bazza was good air conditioning. When he bought this in St Thomas, it was not working, but part of the deal was they would fix the A/C before shipping it over to the BVI. I am sure you know what I am going to say. They didn't. After all, what are we going to do?? Export it back to St Thomas and reimport it again to get the A/C working??? I think not, it is a procedure that rivals going to the banks importing a vehicle here! I let Bazza deal with it... I do now know though that IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT YOU PAID FOR IT WHEN YOU ARE PAYING DUTY. Apparently there is only one person on island, who "decides" what it is worth and charges you accordingly (no, we don't know where that it is based on, at least if it was based on the blue book or something we could understand!) This person interrogates you with questions like asking if you are related to the person you bought it from (nope, no relatives at Caribbean Auto Mart in St Thomas, otherwise the air conditioning would have been fixed I believe!). Each place Bazza went to, from Insurance to Registration to the Import Broker had about the same bad word to call this one person on island qualified to figure out what duty you are going to pay! (20% of what HE thinks it is worth!!) At least Bazza has something else to work on now, he was getting pretty bored just keeping up with the boat, RV, dinghy and mom and dads house!
We oohed, we aahed, we took pictures...and then what is the first thing we promptly did??? Yep, lock both sets of keys in the car! Bet you have seen these types of pictures before!
The second thing we did was take the extra tinting off the front windows as we KNEW it would never pass registration here with those on it! Too bad, it keeps it cooler!!!
While I was waiting for Bazza to break into our new car, I snapped this picture of Joma Marina, where BVI Yacht Charters is, it is looking pretty empty as well!
Sometime next week, I may get a ride in it (after it is plated and has the A/C fixed!) NO more carrying cases of whatever back to the dinghy when we run out. Hell, we can even wander at will to the grocery stores to pick up everything they forget to send us now every week! I then stamped my foot this afternoon and demanded to be FINALLY taken to Salt Island.
This is my home! I never feel at peace anywhere else as I do here on this silly little bay! Of course, I had to try out the new snorkeling camera and in I jumped straight away...The camera is a newer model than my older one, and take pretty good pictures...I was happy. I had had a big morning cleaning ovens and galleys etc so thought that I would not take a long snorkel, but I ended up being in the water for three hours one way or another! Lots of conch here right now...I saw three octopuses...
And the reef was in pretty good shape with some interesting effects..
Little schools of fish peaking at me.
More reef, sand rays, turtles, eels, tulip shell eating soft coral, it was wonderful! Fat girls (and boys I suppose) should swim. It is so wonderful being weightless and stretching without having to lay down because you are out of breath!
I had spied a bottle in the water that was too deep down for me to get so I had Bazza throw my gear in the water and I was pretty exciting when I had a PERFECT OLD MALLET!!!! I probably have not found one of these for a couple years, and they are hundreds of years old! By the time we got out of the water, I was perfectly content...
AND it was sunset. A pretty sunset as well... this is my artsy shot with my mallet bottle in the foreground
and this is just the sunset.
Another reason for being perky is MY GALLEY is DONE! And clean and put back together. The new countertops look nice and the new mac tack brightens up the shelves a lot. Here are the two views of the galley... Stove, oven,
and the sinks and fridges. Good Job Bazza! Apparently I am getting a garburator tomorrow as well! What more could a girl want? More cameras perhaps!!
I got a new explorer and apparently my father got a new car as well! His is only a couple inches tall and came from China via EBAY. A replica of a Volkswagon 411 that we had in Europe decades ago. Probably did not charge him as much duty to import it now did they??
Mom had a pretty cobweb on here clothes line she sent me as well.
I had a couple guests ask me for a picture of Simeon, our Scottish First Mate/Instructor who will be showing up all perky like in a few weeks (I bet it will be getting cold in Scotland!) This is the only picture I could find of him from the last time he was on here. Back in 2002/2003. Gosh we look younger! (and skinnier) That is Bazza and I on the left in case you don't recognize us in our much skinnier years! With us is Cait, who was a stewardess that year from Western Canada. She was quite young then, but I also heard from her a couple days ago as well and she is still enjoying the boating life off and on, looking for her next assignment on the water.
I took the opportunity to take (steal of the web) this picture of her to show you what she looks like now! Cait, you are a knockout!!
Thursday, September 25. 2008
Sunset over St John
Well we had a pretty productive and tiring day on the boat. Bazza went to St thomas to get more formica, as well as GET ME A NEW SNORKELING CAMERA! Hard to believe, but yep, I needed to replace that little one. I think I use it almost the most! I cleaned while he was gone and did laundry. Again.
I now have new formica in my galley, and I will take a picture of it once he gets the trim on again. It looks pretty good and nice and clean! In that vein I cleaned out the fridge and about everything else I could find in there as well.
We finally moved the tub tonight, all the way up to Watermelon Cay on St John. This is a couple pictures of the sunsets looking behind us... These were taken with two different cameras!
Then I fooled around in Photoshop and turned one of them into a watercolor type thing....
We are the only ones at Watermelon as well, so as soon as we showed up the silversides and Tarpon showed up in full force as well. The silversides were so thick you could just scoop up bait. The color was pretty pink and purple with them being so thick. There were many tarpon bunching them up and scooping up mouthfuls, not just one at a time!
He did have a tarpon on the line, but he only had it on 4 lb gear and it went right underneath the rudder and PING! Another night!
My mother convinced me to try garlic pills to help with cholestrol. I remember her telling me they were non odorous, or maybe she told me to get the non odorous ones. I have taken those damn things for three days now and I cannot even STAND myself. I smell, taste, and ooze and sweat garlic! The bottle now goes in the garbage. Remember, get non odorous garlic pills! Come to think of it, I could just throw one or two of those into my meals I am cooking and I won't even have to buy garlic!
We might wander back to Tortola tomorrow, if we get word that our car has arrived (it was supposed to be here earlier this week) and they said they would call, but of course, I am sure we will have to go chase it down.
I now have new formica in my galley, and I will take a picture of it once he gets the trim on again. It looks pretty good and nice and clean! In that vein I cleaned out the fridge and about everything else I could find in there as well.
We finally moved the tub tonight, all the way up to Watermelon Cay on St John. This is a couple pictures of the sunsets looking behind us... These were taken with two different cameras!
Then I fooled around in Photoshop and turned one of them into a watercolor type thing....
We are the only ones at Watermelon as well, so as soon as we showed up the silversides and Tarpon showed up in full force as well. The silversides were so thick you could just scoop up bait. The color was pretty pink and purple with them being so thick. There were many tarpon bunching them up and scooping up mouthfuls, not just one at a time!
He did have a tarpon on the line, but he only had it on 4 lb gear and it went right underneath the rudder and PING! Another night!
My mother convinced me to try garlic pills to help with cholestrol. I remember her telling me they were non odorous, or maybe she told me to get the non odorous ones. I have taken those damn things for three days now and I cannot even STAND myself. I smell, taste, and ooze and sweat garlic! The bottle now goes in the garbage. Remember, get non odorous garlic pills! Come to think of it, I could just throw one or two of those into my meals I am cooking and I won't even have to buy garlic!
We might wander back to Tortola tomorrow, if we get word that our car has arrived (it was supposed to be here earlier this week) and they said they would call, but of course, I am sure we will have to go chase it down.
Tuesday, September 23. 2008
Richie and Lisa checking in from Belize!
So here we are sitting on the beach, or at least as close as you can be without being sat in the sand! sipping blue margaritas and watching the world go past and checking in on the real world!
So far we have had an amazing time in Belize, the Aggressor live a board was amazing (but not a patch on Promenade!) We dived our little hearts out and saw some amazing stuff! Heres a few of Richies pictures, but not his best he told me to say!
First of all his favorite, a blenny and a type he hasn't seen before a diamond back!
Something we had no idea about, this thing looked black, in the picture it looks red, it was the size of a pin head and it could uncurl its back and swim with wings! any suggestions????
We saw a cute eagle ray who was terrified by Richie and his camera
A rare eel
You see these file fish in BVI, but they were every where here, a slender file fish
Something you don't see in the BVI and my ultimate favorite, a nudibranch
Then there was also big stuff, namely reef sharks, we saw some in the blue hole which was fabulous and a must for any one coming to Belize. We saw 3 reef sharks, about 6 - 7 feet long, these 2 circled for most of the dive though
We also had a 7 foot reef shark for a few dives on the reef, the guys on the boat caught a Bermuda chubb and killed it and put it in a pyramid and lowered it to the bottom to see what it might attract, there were big grouper, moray and in came the shark, he was around and stayed all afternoon, so we got some good pics, when they took the chubb out the pryramid a big old grouper ate him in one swallow, it was then Mr shark came back with 2 buddies, apparently he wasn't too happy about it, he swam straight at Richs camera, so he got some good close ups, but Rich had to bash him on the nose with the housing to get him to back off, so he then decided to look at my fins, I wasn't having any of that, so a quick fin in the nose and we decided it was time to go investigate the beer and hot tub back on board!!!! I certainly wasn't night diving that night!!!!
Anyhow, back to the cuter things, 2 tiny snails
A type of cowrie I had never seen before
and every ones fav a turtle to finish!
We caught colds flying to Belize (typical) but managed to get by with all the diving thankfully, it was a wonderful experience. After all that diving though we decided to head to Caye Caulker, a sand castle 40 mins NE of Belize City, it was a welcome relief, the word laid back doesn't quite describe! We are just out of "town" in a bug hut, so we have hired push bikes, a lot of fun apart from the numb bum!!
We had a day on a sail boat I took pictures to show you our 30 foot mono hull sail experience, there was no ice maker Kerry!!!! The boom was held on with electic tape, but it did the job and we snorkelled!!!!
We snorkelled with a mantee! It was one of the top 3 things I have seen in the water
then on to shark alley, nurse sharks gallore and finally a small reef which was Noahs ark, it had 2 of everything!
So here I am back to my margarita, more to follow (blog that is not margarita, although the blue margarita is like Kerrys blue drink on tequilla, I am liking it!)
So far we have had an amazing time in Belize, the Aggressor live a board was amazing (but not a patch on Promenade!) We dived our little hearts out and saw some amazing stuff! Heres a few of Richies pictures, but not his best he told me to say!
First of all his favorite, a blenny and a type he hasn't seen before a diamond back!
Something we had no idea about, this thing looked black, in the picture it looks red, it was the size of a pin head and it could uncurl its back and swim with wings! any suggestions????
We saw a cute eagle ray who was terrified by Richie and his camera
A rare eel
You see these file fish in BVI, but they were every where here, a slender file fish
Something you don't see in the BVI and my ultimate favorite, a nudibranch
Then there was also big stuff, namely reef sharks, we saw some in the blue hole which was fabulous and a must for any one coming to Belize. We saw 3 reef sharks, about 6 - 7 feet long, these 2 circled for most of the dive though
We also had a 7 foot reef shark for a few dives on the reef, the guys on the boat caught a Bermuda chubb and killed it and put it in a pyramid and lowered it to the bottom to see what it might attract, there were big grouper, moray and in came the shark, he was around and stayed all afternoon, so we got some good pics, when they took the chubb out the pryramid a big old grouper ate him in one swallow, it was then Mr shark came back with 2 buddies, apparently he wasn't too happy about it, he swam straight at Richs camera, so he got some good close ups, but Rich had to bash him on the nose with the housing to get him to back off, so he then decided to look at my fins, I wasn't having any of that, so a quick fin in the nose and we decided it was time to go investigate the beer and hot tub back on board!!!! I certainly wasn't night diving that night!!!!
Anyhow, back to the cuter things, 2 tiny snails
A type of cowrie I had never seen before
and every ones fav a turtle to finish!
We caught colds flying to Belize (typical) but managed to get by with all the diving thankfully, it was a wonderful experience. After all that diving though we decided to head to Caye Caulker, a sand castle 40 mins NE of Belize City, it was a welcome relief, the word laid back doesn't quite describe! We are just out of "town" in a bug hut, so we have hired push bikes, a lot of fun apart from the numb bum!!
We had a day on a sail boat I took pictures to show you our 30 foot mono hull sail experience, there was no ice maker Kerry!!!! The boom was held on with electic tape, but it did the job and we snorkelled!!!!
We snorkelled with a mantee! It was one of the top 3 things I have seen in the water
then on to shark alley, nurse sharks gallore and finally a small reef which was Noahs ark, it had 2 of everything!
So here I am back to my margarita, more to follow (blog that is not margarita, although the blue margarita is like Kerrys blue drink on tequilla, I am liking it!)
Monday, September 22. 2008
From Puerto Rico to Caneel Bay
We have had an interesting 36 hours. We had to be out of the Marina first thing Monday morning as they were doing work. We were not as sure as our anchoring ground around there, especially with a slow moving system with winds from different points and tons of rain. We decided to poke our nose out and see what happened about 1 PM Sunday afternoon.
We came back to the USVI at 2 knots the entire night and still managed to break a damn trampoline!
I don't believe I have ever seen quite so much rain. It was definitely torrential all night long!
Gina and I thought we had only put in enough quarters for the hour ride, not the 17 hour ride. It was an adventure and we were WET
Gina was a trooper though and lasted longer then me outside
We alternated napping in the salon, and getting every single towel on the boat wet, but pulled up to Caneel Bay about 6 this morning. AND IT STILL CONTINUED TO RAIN!
I understand Puerto Rico has the worse flooding that it has seen in memory.
Now, I have a ton of emails from the weekend to answer, but that can wait until tomorrow.
We came back to the USVI at 2 knots the entire night and still managed to break a damn trampoline!
I don't believe I have ever seen quite so much rain. It was definitely torrential all night long!
Gina and I thought we had only put in enough quarters for the hour ride, not the 17 hour ride. It was an adventure and we were WET
Gina was a trooper though and lasted longer then me outside
We alternated napping in the salon, and getting every single towel on the boat wet, but pulled up to Caneel Bay about 6 this morning. AND IT STILL CONTINUED TO RAIN!
I understand Puerto Rico has the worse flooding that it has seen in memory.
Now, I have a ton of emails from the weekend to answer, but that can wait until tomorrow.
Wednesday, September 17. 2008
Birthdays and Swimming Horses
First of all, thank you everyone who sent me the birthday wishes! I had a busy day shopping in St Thomas for my birthday and yes, believe it or not, I did get a couple presents. I picked them out myself and they came in the mail today. One is a camera and one is a camcorder! Go figure... Different cameras for different things you know. My little snorkeling camera flooded yesterday afternoon, so that will mean that I have to get ANOTHER camera. My husband wishes I would have taken up knitting.
Lets go back to yesterday though. We decided to make the run down to St John in the evening when it was cooler out. Just as we pulled out of Roadharbor the horse and rider came swimming by...
We hung around and watched them for awhile, and it was very interesting as the dolphins were wanting to play with the horse! The horse did not want to be in the water and the rider really made him swim a long way today. He sounded like a freight train going by. Here is a crummy shot of the dolphins and you can just see the horse in the top left corner.
Of course I hemmed and hawed whether I would get in the water or not, knowing when I finally did the dolphins and horse would leave, and yep, they all did. I went for a bit of a swim anyways. I have enjoyed being back in the water swimming. There were a lot of silver sides on the point at Baughers, more then I have ever seen before on my swims here.
Finally we took off down the channel, flat flat water!
Bazza said to me that he would be fine if the seas were like this all the time in the BVI, I had to agree! It was flat calm, and I took out my big camera to get some sunset shots as we were traveling down.
Here is Little and Great Thatch Islands
About this time I saw a small little dinghy coming from West End, with 3 young guys on it driving like crazy, this was after customs closed and it reminded me that I had read a statistic recently that there are rather a lot of dinghy's that are stolen from Sopers Hole and ran over to the US side.
Just then for the first time in a decade, just on sunset, we were pulled over by the coastguard. You bless the days you do everything right and feel secure that you have your clearance papers from the BVI right beside you!
They were very nice young men, but the funny part was seeing one of them with a sea sick patch on! You see the seas, hate to see him when it is rough out!
They did their paperwork, gave us the cursory (not much as they said since we were a commercially certified vessel in the BVI they knew we would have up to date safety equipment, and since we weren't US flagged they were not too concerned!
They went on there way and we carried on to St John.. Anchored in Caneel Bay, (the only boat there!) and went into customs on St John to check in in the morning. Quite funny as there was one guy there, who said he was from St Croix, and he was only there as no one had shown up today! He had no idea what he was doing and we talked him through the procedure. All we could do was laugh. He even said he had no idea what he was doing, and kept on asking us what they normally did and kept for paperwork! Then our friend Gina was over on St John and offered to take us running around so we quickly went over to Red Hook where she picked us up and that is all for tonight!
Lets go back to yesterday though. We decided to make the run down to St John in the evening when it was cooler out. Just as we pulled out of Roadharbor the horse and rider came swimming by...
We hung around and watched them for awhile, and it was very interesting as the dolphins were wanting to play with the horse! The horse did not want to be in the water and the rider really made him swim a long way today. He sounded like a freight train going by. Here is a crummy shot of the dolphins and you can just see the horse in the top left corner.
Of course I hemmed and hawed whether I would get in the water or not, knowing when I finally did the dolphins and horse would leave, and yep, they all did. I went for a bit of a swim anyways. I have enjoyed being back in the water swimming. There were a lot of silver sides on the point at Baughers, more then I have ever seen before on my swims here.
Finally we took off down the channel, flat flat water!
Bazza said to me that he would be fine if the seas were like this all the time in the BVI, I had to agree! It was flat calm, and I took out my big camera to get some sunset shots as we were traveling down.
Here is Little and Great Thatch Islands
About this time I saw a small little dinghy coming from West End, with 3 young guys on it driving like crazy, this was after customs closed and it reminded me that I had read a statistic recently that there are rather a lot of dinghy's that are stolen from Sopers Hole and ran over to the US side.
Just then for the first time in a decade, just on sunset, we were pulled over by the coastguard. You bless the days you do everything right and feel secure that you have your clearance papers from the BVI right beside you!
They were very nice young men, but the funny part was seeing one of them with a sea sick patch on! You see the seas, hate to see him when it is rough out!
They did their paperwork, gave us the cursory (not much as they said since we were a commercially certified vessel in the BVI they knew we would have up to date safety equipment, and since we weren't US flagged they were not too concerned!
They went on there way and we carried on to St John.. Anchored in Caneel Bay, (the only boat there!) and went into customs on St John to check in in the morning. Quite funny as there was one guy there, who said he was from St Croix, and he was only there as no one had shown up today! He had no idea what he was doing and we talked him through the procedure. All we could do was laugh. He even said he had no idea what he was doing, and kept on asking us what they normally did and kept for paperwork! Then our friend Gina was over on St John and offered to take us running around so we quickly went over to Red Hook where she picked us up and that is all for tonight!
Sunday, September 14. 2008
Accounting day on the boat
It has been traumatic, really! This pictures should have a shot of me with my head down on the desk!
In between trying to figure out why ATT has suspended my IPHONE on a Sunday ( well we know why, they thought we should pay a $10,000. data bill on our modem card , not the iphone, and had been waiting for a mediator to call us to sort it out. We disagreed with that) so after being on hold for 2 hours (AT BVI rates) they told him noone could help him on a Sunday,which begs the question, why did they not tell him that at the beginning? He did go through the whole scenario. They did tell him that if we sent the bill they would credit the account. We will. If I ever get service again.
Then a large deposit of money that was put into our bank by our clearinghouse this summer, never made it to my bank. In fact, they sent me a copy of the slip, (but not stamped) so they have to figure out where that went.
About this time in the accounting procedure I decided to get out of my husband who was on hold with the cel company devils and go have a nap before I got yelled at...Only to have the air conditioning quit in the cabin. I slept without it. Which just goes to prove that I get smarter with age.
When I awoke, he is telling me that we have to reformat my Large terabite airport express and then use it plugged in. So much for the wireless back up that just happen without me knowing it! He tells me that it is a common problem.
Just to top all this off, I have about 18 questions on my list and things to do at the bank tomorrow. One interesting amount is
$45.00 for a "bank adjustment"?????
The other one is on my corporate bank end statements there is a note on all pages that say " Starting October 1st things are being changed which effect what you pay on your corporate account" Ask a representative for details. Couldn't they have just SENT the details in the letter instead of making me do the customer service dance in the bank.
Oh well, the only bank I also had decent internet on here, gives me a nice notice when trying to access it that says "forbidden access" and that is just the landing page! Not logging in, and that is a different bank...
You may not hear from me for awhile come tomorrow, I could be in a padded room manically pressing the phone pad on my IPHONE trying to bond with it!
In between trying to figure out why ATT has suspended my IPHONE on a Sunday ( well we know why, they thought we should pay a $10,000. data bill on our modem card , not the iphone, and had been waiting for a mediator to call us to sort it out. We disagreed with that) so after being on hold for 2 hours (AT BVI rates) they told him noone could help him on a Sunday,which begs the question, why did they not tell him that at the beginning? He did go through the whole scenario. They did tell him that if we sent the bill they would credit the account. We will. If I ever get service again.
Then a large deposit of money that was put into our bank by our clearinghouse this summer, never made it to my bank. In fact, they sent me a copy of the slip, (but not stamped) so they have to figure out where that went.
About this time in the accounting procedure I decided to get out of my husband who was on hold with the cel company devils and go have a nap before I got yelled at...Only to have the air conditioning quit in the cabin. I slept without it. Which just goes to prove that I get smarter with age.
When I awoke, he is telling me that we have to reformat my Large terabite airport express and then use it plugged in. So much for the wireless back up that just happen without me knowing it! He tells me that it is a common problem.
Just to top all this off, I have about 18 questions on my list and things to do at the bank tomorrow. One interesting amount is
$45.00 for a "bank adjustment"?????
The other one is on my corporate bank end statements there is a note on all pages that say " Starting October 1st things are being changed which effect what you pay on your corporate account" Ask a representative for details. Couldn't they have just SENT the details in the letter instead of making me do the customer service dance in the bank.
Oh well, the only bank I also had decent internet on here, gives me a nice notice when trying to access it that says "forbidden access" and that is just the landing page! Not logging in, and that is a different bank...
You may not hear from me for awhile come tomorrow, I could be in a padded room manically pressing the phone pad on my IPHONE trying to bond with it!
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