bvi captains log blog

Well two and a half months since I put it into Labor I finally got my work permit renewal finished today! One day of the year that most of us dislike, sitting around government offices all day long. Cleaning up my computer I found this picture of my hubby from the other night. He swears he was not enjoying himself at all,,, What do you think?

I must have lived on a boat too long, as I thought this was quite interesting, putting the camera on the floor and taking a picture of everyone!

Of course, now that I have my work permit and managed to close down my credit cards, there are many other town things still going on to drive me crazy. I have been having problems with my checks for charters getting into my bank account when they are deposited in the Scotia Bank for me in St Thomas by my clearinghouse. Lots of problems, like they just disappear, so now I have to check each and every one. I had two to check on, one was in there, but not the large one. I asked how long it would take to show up in my account and they told me 21 days. I clarified that I had deposited it in St Thomas, not the mainland. 21 days. Apparently computers for deposits are not a high priority. Still chasing down some business checks, using up all the obscure ones and have checks on order from two banks now, so I guess tomorrow will be another round of searching when they mostly may come, before I totally run out. Also found out today that the company that holds our mortgage on our yacht sold the loan to some one else, a week after i sent up some large payments to pay it down and now those have to be traced... AND went into village Cay to pick up my boat laundry that was supposed to be done yesterday morning and it is still sitting there in a wet mess, so a typical town day! I came home!
right by Sea Breeze near us I have been fascinated with this very old boat, so I stopped to take pictures today. I want to take back my big camera!

It has a lot of character. Anyone for a fixer upper?

Seems that the boys were having a busy cleaning day today, or at least it looked like a laundry day!

and a cleaning of all the masks and fins as well. Busy little beavers I think they were!

I crashed for a nap and at sunset they had dolphins playing and scratching themselves on our lines we use to keep us off the dock! Bazza did try and take pictures for me, but I don't think he had the focus thing very well. He better stick to the point and shoot cameras!



Bitter End announced today they were laying off 30 people. We knew this had been so in the summer, but for it to be also happening now at the beginning of season shows how slow the advance bookings are here. I know we are going to see more. Little Dix had ads in the newspapers for various positions and then they just put in an ad that said all positions were on hold.
Everyone in the charter boat fields is either offering extra commission to brokers, dumping their prices to last years rates and below, or having quite a few cancellations. Many large boats are still available for the HOlidays this year, mostly because of cancellations. It is a tough season, and will be tougher as costs have skyrocketed as well.
No more doom and gloom tonight, I have more work to do so off I go!

I have just had a cancellation on a perfect date for a whole boat booking, Saturday to Saturday, June 20th to June 27th, 2009.
Except for my headboat cabin at the end of March that still has two cabins open, I am full this season.

Well Did you miss me? No, I did not run away but I slept all day Sunday!!!! Bad Willy T's!!!
We enjoyed watching the guests in the morning pack, we are always glad that we don't have to do it. These ones were smart and just brought everything upstairs to fit in the bags.

Others had to sign the guest book...

and Simba looks like he could have slept on the dirty smelly laundry all day I would say!

Monday was very busy. We had to get down to St thomas, which we did, mid afternoon. There used to be a Tiki Tiki party barge that people always looked trashed on from the cruise ships, it is having quite a bit of work done on it now so it will be out plying it's rum swizzle drinks again I am sure!

This is Promenade going through the cut in between Hassel Island and St Thomas. Hassel Island used to be a peninsula of St Thomas. It was separated about 1860, for a few reasons. One being that the water in the deep harbor was absolutely PUTRID. This is when the Danish established a small leper colony on Hassel Island. After purchasing the islands from the Danish in 1917 the Army Corps of Engineers widened it in 1919.

Nice palm tree on the beach!

A few old charter boats that I have not seen for awhile. Serendy is a boat that i looked at purchasing back half a dozen years ago, it is looking pretty sad and mislooked after sitting there now!

Hitauk is the old german minesweeper that Petra and Arno own. I always think that this boat has mystery about it!

We saw paradiso (Of David Vann fame) it actually looks way better then the last time I saw it, it appears to be clean AND have some paint on it!

This pirate boat was sitting in Charlotte Amalie Harbor, looking like it will be ready to do some kind of pirate tours at some time. Surprising to me, I have had several emails from pirates boats wanting to come down here and offer short pirate tours around the harbour this year. AND the RMS Bounty (replice) is for sale as well!

Here is the marine slip on Hassel Island that they are cleaning up. From being built originally in 1840 it was used off and on up until the 1960's! Pretty impressive....

Creque Marine Railway was built in 1940 as the St thomas Marine repair slip and is probably one of, if not the earliest known, steam powered marine railways. there are still many pieces of old equipment everywhere.

Some large anchors off the railway.

Garrison House at Fort Willoughby, The Danish use the island in the 17th and 18th centuries for defense and then the British used it during the Napoleonic wars.

this is Fort Shipley, or Shipleys Battery if you like.

Hassel Island was also where the small hotel was located that was immortalized in Herman Wouk's Book "Don't Stop the Carnival" printed in the 1960's. A must read for everyone thinking of moving to the islands.

Two other things that came through my inbox today. Guana Island is featured in Go magazine. Click on the picture to go to the PDF of the article.

And the spa at Little Dix was featured in Global, again click on the picture to go to the article in PDF.


I was in the post office in St Thomas this morning and sent the boys over to MacDonalds to get breakfast sandwiches. It was close and easy. When they came back saying they could not even see through the greasy hand prints on the door and they just got me some and were not having any themselves, I decided I could do quite nicely with out them!! We stopped at the other MacDonalds yesterday as well and it was just as pathetic. After being in line for 25 minutes watching one women with one plastic glove on making burgers with one hand, I went for the almost burnt apple pies and order of fries that I figured I had a hope in hell of getting!

Picked up diesel at Yacht Haven as Crown Bay Fuel Dock was closed and that was $4.50 a gallon. We are tucked up nice and safe back in Harbourview tonight, and I probably have more stories but they will have to wait as I am too tired!

Well in Eastern Europe you have the tradition of showing off the bloody sheets the next morning, so the guests did a mock sheet for the entire bay to see. They did go into Foxy's Friday night, although I think by the time they got there the festivities were just about over with for the evening.

Bazza and I went over to foxy's in the Am...

As Foxy had told us he would take us out and show us his boat...

We like his boat, it is only about 45 feet long, and was built in the 60's for crossing the english channel. He originally bought it in Anguilla and was going to do cargo shipping between the islands. Now that fell through so he is looking at partnering with someone on Anegada to fish sea mounts. We love this style of boat, nice and wide and open and great potential. I think Bazza likes it as he sees an easy method of getting his ROV on and off!!

The guests wanted to go back to White Bay and spend as much time as they could today, as it was their favorite spot and last day, so we cruised back there watching the bait balls.

Promenade is so pretty anchored at the beach from the front I think!

Onto dinner time and Bazza bonded with the guests over birthday cake (cherry)

Then Bazza and Simba bonded with the guests with a last celebratory shot..

I am not sure who or what Simba is bonding with here though!

I have to make special mention that these guests have been about the best group I have ever had at gathering up their plates and napkins and passing and bringing them down for us to watch. Very impressive. As the week went on they became more creative and my linen off the table was coming back tied in little packages!

I have had Nancy all week wanting to help do dishes etc. The guests wanted to go to Willy T's tonight. It was Bazzas birthday (thank god, I get sick of hearing from his that he is a boy toy for the 58 days he is younger) So we came to an arrangement, if they did the dishes and cleaned the galley we would go with them for a drink. What a scurry of activity! There was about 4 guests in the galley cleaning..They even changed the garbage! We appreciated it.

Then it was our turn to hold up our end of the bargain (and this trip to Willy T's only happens about once a year for us, so we are done now for the season!) Into the dinghy we piled. Since we were anchored immediately behind it, we did not have far to go...

Our guests immediately hit the dance floor...

and i went to the washroom and when I came back what did I see?? My boy toy of a husband surrounded by a bevy of beautiful women...can't leave him alone for one moment! These girls were determined that he was going to dance...

The guests thought that Simba should drink shots since he did not want a drink...that is logic I suppose!

I understand that we closed Willy T's down last night, although, I was smart as I had my swim suit still on (not my pajamas) and when I had enough and had to get back to the boat to set up breakfast trays I could jump right in for a swim, and off I went. My husband must have had a good birthday, as this is another version of the naps he has.

Up early to get back to Roadtown so more later!

We had an island special wedding today at the Soggy Dollar Bay!
We had a ring bearer... (rings nicely pinned on one of our deck cushions) although the ring bearer looks a little old for the position!

We had a flower girl who had on less clothes then the bride! Her flower bucket was a pot of sand that was spread out on the beach aisle. We also had a half naked wedding videographer, who also had on less clothes then the bride....

We had a bride with a long train and volunteers to hold up the train...

We had a nautical groom with a tuxedo...

We had someone to give away the bride, as her parents were not here.... We had the wedding song playing in the background...

We had a father who was I believe got his papers on line somewhere. The scroll with the wedding vows seemed to be very long, and include items like Sandy promising to always clean up after Dietz...I believe our father actually looked more like count dracula! I think she also had to promise to keep her head under the covers when he farts

I believe our blushing bride was almost in tears when she saw her sparkling ring and could not believe that they had the right size. We did not know that this was the day she got married the first time on!

A lovely ceremony was held water side, with about 70 onlookers on the beach watching them all...

Then it was time for the group photo to cherish for ever and show all their grandkids! Then we had the first dance song which was "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC!

After the ceremony the groom bought mango daiquiris all the way around!
Who says you have to spend a lot of money to get married in the islands!!!

Once again, firmly taking off my tourism hat here, but it is necessary. Our rule of dealing with anchorages and areas of the BVI that we do not think are that safe, is we just do not go there. Cane Garden Bay has been on that list for many years.
I don't want to hear "just keep a sharp eye out" "there are many more dangerous places (insert whatever)" Our reasons that we had chosen the BVI for chartering are many. One of these reasons was safety.
I am not going to repeat the entire story leading up to this, but we had guests who wanted to go to the full moon party last night at Bombas. Us anchoring at Cane Garden Bay made the most sense. Simba thought he would go along with them, and we told him that we would drop him off then as we will not leave the dinghy on dock there. When he heard our reasons, he decided to stay behind.

Our standard operating procedure here is No dinghy on the dinghy dock at night, locked or not. Someone must remain on the boat at all times with all security lights and cockpit lights blazing brightly. In addition, Simba napped in the cockpit last night. May seem extreme, but it appears to be a place that boats are often boarded in the evening while people are out enjoying the festivities, and rifled through. We did not have our motion sensors on as we had a crew member in the cockpit, otherwise, they would have been on.

When he went in to dock to pick up the guests around midnight, he found people from a couple catamarans jumping up and down as they had been robbed. Proved our point once again on why we either do not come here overnight, or take the precautions we do. I do not know any more details then that, but I am sure they will come out in the coconut telegraph soon.

I know the businesses in Cane Garden Bay are quite cognizant of what is going on and have banded together to hire a security guard at least on Friday and Saturday nights near the dinghy dock. But, this was a Thursday and a Full Moon Party and a security guard is not going to be out patrolling the anchorages, where there seems to be a lot of the thieving action.

We need to do MORE as a community, land and water based here to clean this up. It is in all our best interests. The above is what we do, I suggest boats anchoring here overnight implement some of these measures.