charter yacht

It was an early morning and a sad farewell to our guests this week. I know we all truly enjoyed it very much and the hours flew by! They left us a lot of nice comments.....

We truly enjoyed the spectacular trip. Third time around for us. Diving, sailing, food, all excellent! A special thank you for your patience and guidance for Caseys certification. THE MILLERS, CHARLOTTE NC

Thanks for making our vacation perfect. The food was the absolute best. Diving and Sailing and Hiking were the best. Thanks for Julies resort dives and Davids certification. We will remember the Bubbly Pool, Baths and Rhone, Banana Boat and the DESSERTS! LITTONS, MARIETTA, GA

Thanks guys, we enjoyed it too...

Then it was a mad dash to get the boat cleaned up and turned around for pick up this afternoon. I knew my food order was not coming until after noon, and I thought that as it usually has many things missing on it, and noone had confirmed that I was ACTUALLY getting an order, that I would just go in and buy what I thought I would not get! I have never seen Riteway so packed!! there was no produce on the shelves and everyone was pawing through the boxes as soon as they came out of the warehouse! The check out lines were very long. When we returned to the boat, for the first time ever, I got everything I had ordered, so these guests will not go hungry.
We pick up at 4 this afternoon... (Coincendently, these guests were on board the week before last weeks guests three years ago! and from the same State)

We put up the sail and made our way out into the gale force winds, for a short sail over to Little Harbor on Peter Island...

Dinner of seared tuna was had, with chocolate espresso cake for dessert and I am totally exhausted and off to bed!

It is a record for me..It is almost midnight and I am still editing pictures to give to the guests and doing my blog...I don't often stay up this late, but the last day of charter is often very hectic.
We went off of Little Thatch this morning to do a drift dive, except it was slack tide so there was less then no current!

Some of the divers went up...

and we found an old decrepit abandoned trap with a Nurse Shark in it that i am not sure how it got into it! That provided lots of excitement for all our divers to see....



We snorkeled with our tanks for quite awhile just under the surface watching the bait fish, Steve kept on thinking that he could touch them there was so many!

Beautiful soft corals and sponges down there...

It was over to Great Thatch then to hike up to the fort, have hamburgers, snorkel, dive and all that kind of stuff. We were going to go up the channel but it was so nice at Thatch, we stayed there all day for a second dive, which we did as a drift dive down Great Thatch toward St Thomas. It was beautiful and the current was smoking. Best drift dive I have done here, except for when we took ourselves out of the current it felt like we had lead weights on, a lot of them as we came to such a halt...

Everyone was very happy with this dive...We had eels, lobsters, turtles and what have you.

Some gigantic Angel Fish as well!

Then it was time for the long hike up the channel to East End, and we did not get there until almost 8 PM! BUT, we had hot turkey sandwiches waiting for dinner....



Followed by cake and homemade ice cream, so it was very good!

Busy day tomorrow, up early, drop, clean boat and provision and back on charter tomorrow afternoon at 3 when I guess we will see new faces up here!

No words needed with this picture! Our guests are much better looking then ourselves and we all wish everyone happy holidays from the BVI

The good ship Promenade is out on charter again! The weather is gorgeous with white puffy clouds and gentle winds. Joining us this week are two families, one from North Carolina who has been on Promenade twice before, and a brand new family from Georgia.
We were anchored bright and early by the ferry dock waiting for them to come in...They were smiling and happy to see us from the boat.....

although they said one old couple on there sniffed their noses and said "Promenade, hmmm, that is the boat that ran into us in the middle of the night and a crew member hurt there leg trying to separate the boats" Don't remember that, so I will assume it was not while we were on here!
The first wave arrived...

and then the next wave arrived with more luggage...

They tried to tell us it was because there was so much dive gear in the bags, was the reason there were so many bags! We will see!!

Some were just happy to get their shoesies off!

I loved this decrepit old fishing boat that was anchored by the ferry dock today, it had so much character....

We stowed the gear, and had a light lunch....

Lotion was applied and we were off sailing!

We have people finishing off their dive certifications this week, so Little Harbor seemed like a perfect first stop. We tied in to a rock on the point...

and then I guess it was the muscle man contest, or was it perhaps to see who was whiter???????

and all our divers (not so quickly) got themselves ready to get in the water.

Some with a leap...



Bazza took the certified men down and they saw a gigantic turtle I guess that had been hit on his shell.

After a walk through the buildings on land, it was off for another sunset sail down to Norman Island

We anchored off of Privateer Bay and watched the sunset over St John

And pretty standard for my blog, the first nights dinner picture.

I hear talk and movement with the launch sallying forth to Willy T's in the Bight tonight. Should be a bit of a party there, the Bight was fairly busy when we went by. I also hear that one of the crewed charter yachts saw a Lion Fish at the Indians in the last couple days...No pictures yet!

And just to finish this off, I have heard a bit of gossip about petty thefts in West End, and that has been ongoing the last 6 months or so more then usual, so lock up!
"You should all be aware that we have been reliably told that two youngsters were warned off while they were interfering with a dinghy at Frenchmans Cay,apparently trying to remove it without permission.Also in West End,behind Pussers,a vehicle has been badly damaged by someone who tried to steal the car and as a consequence severly damaged the wiring loom to the point where the vehicle is inoperable.And,last night,there appears to have been an attempt to part us from our dinghy which was tied alongside----fortunately securely locked to a stanchion."

From our Swim Vacation Trip Last week, the professional Photographer, Heather Perry spent a lot of time editing and putting up pictures of the trip. They are truly nice to view!


You can see more by following the links in the email she sent me today! Happy viewing....
I have put up a gallery of my favorite swim vacation images on my website. Please visit by clicking here:

http://www.heatherperryphoto.com

I have also put up the slideshow with music if you'd like to see it:

http://www.heatherperryphoto.com/Heather_Perry_Photography/SwimVacationMovie.html

And me today, well, no internet yet, no starter motor for the vehicle yet by mid afternoon, so it is going to be a busy evening to get ready for charter first thing in the AM

I really want to go back on charter. Sometimes living on the island beats me down. Today is one of those days. Lets continue on about CCT Boatphone. Since I was in town this morning, I went in there, as I had some time and I figured my luck might be better then Bazzas. I saw a customer service rep right away!! Feeling quite full of myself by this time....I explain that we are paying this much for internet a month and I see it advertised everywhere else for cheaper, so what do I have to do to get it cheaper. The conversation roughly goes like this:
HER "The cheapest you can get it for is $69.00 a month"
ME: "That is fine, I pay $99. now"
HER: "You have to sign a contract for 18 months (or whatever number she muttered that I smiled and nodded at as I never understand people) and pay the first two months in advance
ME: "That is fine, I have already had it for years and years"
HER: "Did you bring in your laptop to get a new card?"
ME: "No, I don't need a new card, the one I have works fine and I have already paid for it through CCT, several times, whenever they put out a new card" (I remembered this from the first time my husband went in and he found out the "new faster cards" were faster, if and it is a big IF as the network here does not support it, although it may someday...)
HER: "Well, if you don't get a new card, you are only eligible for the $79.00 a month plan, not the $69.00"
ME: "Well, I have a perfectly good card that works fine so why would I buy a new one"
HER: " This is a corporate account"
ME: " I have no idea whether it is in my name, the company name or both, we have had it so long we just want it changed"

She agreed to do it. I also got our phone plan changed to $40.00 less a month with more features (included unlimited calling to the USA and Canada!) by signing a 12 month contract and "prepaying" something...which I did.
I floated out of there, went home and told Bazza about my trip and how I had gotten it done. We joked and said that the internet probably won't work at all now...You probably know what i am going to say, that the internet does not work at all now...and you would be right!
First of all, the internet immediately stopped working and then I saw this ad in the newspaper which says the internet is $69.00 a month and they give you a FREE card or MODEM!!

I cringed thinking that I had to call in and deluded myself that maybe the internet was just down..... yeah, very delusional...I finally called. Went through the entire story to a customer service rep and spent a half hour on the phone. Finally put my husband on and he went through about a half hour with the end result being "you have to bring everything in" He finally hung up on them after telling them they were archaic I believe! He called back when he regained his composure and went through the entire thing again only to be told "the person who can help him is not in" Stop laughing!!! It is NOT funny!!! Then he gets an inkling and it is sort of confirmed by the person on the phone that because we use a PCMCIA card (sold to us for a lot of money through Boatphone) in the back of a pyramid router (sold to us for a lot of money through boatphone) which allows us to broadcast our signal through the boat, the new plans only work with ONE connection. They are trying to get rid of all the old pyramids so then you have to pay for an extra line........ Net result is, tomorrow he has to take in the laptops, cards, pyramid, the whole kit and cabooble to them. Does not matter that we said, the equipment is fine, it is whatever you did today that messed it up. And, hopefully, we will be able to get it back to the $99.00 a month we used to pay so we can use it throughout the boat. If I did not laugh I would cry. I step forward, 8 steps back....
Moving on, went by the big house on Buck Island, and also noticed this stone structure on the back beach, don't know what it is.



On my way into Roadtown by dinghy (as the started motor that was supposed to be to us by now has not even gotten a credit card to pay for it yet from us!) there was this helpful boat that was towing two dingies that were all over the place, but made the trip nice and flat!

Took the opportunity to go into the hurricane hole, as I have only been there once before. Found some neat Tortola sloops...

and old small tri and assorted other boats being used...

A few sunken boats here and there....

a fixer upper boat if anyone is looking for one!

And going by Fish Bay we have noticed that the derelict ships have been cleared out and they are busy flattening and "making more land" in the bay, I wonder what is going on there????


I thought, well since I have no internet on the boat, I will go sit in the car with the A/C and pick up the marina connection...HA! No starter motor, no A/C, so I am sitting with the mosquitos uploading this...