bvi captains log blog

Sorry for those who are getting automated feeds show up from my blog on Facebook etc. I have long been pondering a few things, and I am not sure where I want to go with some of them.

My businesses and personal stuff have always been all lumped together in my blogs, Facebook, Twitter etc. I have never minded sharing the personal stuff I do with complete strangers on my blog, although sometimes in the past I have wished I could have left off my Facebook page how drunk I was the night before!
I have also at times felt sorry for the people who read my blog, as lots read it for different reasons, sometimes they ARE family and will read everything, some are just interested in Fish pictures, some only interested in what good gossip I get through the coconut telegraph, some just love the BVI. I have often felt sorry for those who have no interest in my family having to sift through it all. I know, you would think that I would have better things to be concerned about don't you??????? Apparently I don't!

My blog automatically feeds into my Facebook, which is mostly people I know, but not all, as some I have become friends with on line through my blog. I have had friends (not many) complain that they feel like I am constantly advertising my business on Facebook, and I cringe when I hear that, as I truly am not trying to, it is just that they are all tied together, and I truly enjoy seeing what the power of social media does FOR me personally and FOR my businesses. It truly is amazing.

As most of you know, I am sometimes NOT politically correct on my blog, which is sometimes not in keeping with the business end of my life and I have business associates who don't like it when I do that! Yep, feeling like a bit of a rock and a hard place.

I do not think that I have enough patience and organizational skills, knowing my personality, to sift through everything and decide which "on line" persona it is going to go through and keep them separate. I have often felt like part of the reason that our repeat guests like us so much is BECAUSE I am fairly real and don't just put up pretty pictures and do a brochure every single day. I need feedback. (well, something other then what I have received above, you know, the rock and the hard place comments)

Because we own and run small businesses, they don't seem to separate very well in my mind, and they all seem to be part of me.


What got me started on this today?


Well, I have had a group on Facebook for Yacht Promenade for a few years, and it is really not integrated in very well with everything else and the new pages they have are much more easy to work with, so after posting an event in my group (which is here) I went looking for the info on how to turn a group into a page, which does not seem to be possible, so I am in the process of setting up a page (which you can see here) post the events again, add the pictures again, and annoy those who don't want to see the business advertising stuff by having it go through my feed one more time. I guess they could just defriend me!

Yes, I am on twitter here, as well and everything gets lumped together too!


I use Linked in too...

How do others deal with this? And, WHY DO I CARE??
Of course you know if I split things into "personal" and "business" then I get to poke fun at my guests more then I do now that they are all joined!!

wreck week june 12th - june 19th, 2010

british virgin islands

Soar over the 310-foot long wreck of the RMS Rhone with Promenade Sail Dive Charters during Wreck Week 2010!

June 12th- 19th, 2010 in conjunction with The BVI Tourist Board (For BVI Tourism's Facebook group for Wreck Week please click here)

Your week on Promenade will include 6 nights and 7 days (Sunday June 13th through Saturday June 19th) onboard our wide stable air conditioned multi-hull with all buffet meals, cocktails and h'or d'oeuvres, wine with dinner, all diving, and other water sports including fishing, waterskiing, kayaking.

Our style of diving on Promenade is casual. If you are a photographer, please feel free to go at your own pace. If you want a divemaster to lead you, follow our crew member, if you prefer diving by yourself after a thorough briefing on the site, go ahead. IF you want to get up very early in the morning and jump in the water (as we tend to anchor over dive sites because of night dives this week) feel free to (as long as a crew member knows that you are in the water).

This is a sample itienary ONLY. We have two wrecks, the Parametta and the ROCUS on Anegada Reef, that if the weather conditions allow, we will be going out to dive. We do however, guarantee to hit as many wrecks as we can in the time as we can and to do unlimited diving.

Day One: (June 13th Sunday)

Board Promenade 12 noon. Promenade will welcome you with a light lunch before sailing over to the wreck of the FEARLESS outside Great Harbor on Peter Island to do our first wreck dive. We will anchor for the evening at Little Harbor on Peter Island. For those staying overnight on island the evening before, Saturday the 12th, you are welcome to attend WRECK WEEK opening party at Nanny Cay Marina. Details to follow.

Day Two: (June 14th Monday)

We will dive Carrot Rock on the outside of Peter Island after breakfast, one of our favorite dive sites, with pinnacles reaching from 70 feet up to the surface. Lunch will be at White Bay at Peter Island, with time for a beach excursion or snorkeling trip before we dive “Brown Pants” on the outside of Norman Island, or Santa Monica Rock, so named for the Santa Monica that hit the pinnacles here on April 29th, 1783 and subsequently sank at Water Creek on St John. We will anchor for the night at Privateer Bay on Norman Island. Also known as the Caves at Treasure Point and the setting of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.

Day Three: (June 15th, Tuesday)

After a snorkel before breakfast with all the Glassy Eyed Sweepers in the caves, we will take a short hop over to the Indians, so named as they look like an Indians feathered headdress from a distance, where we will do a dive before sailing up for lunch at Salt Island. After hearing the history of the wreck of the Rhone we will dive the Rhone in the afternoon, and then after dinner SCUBA to watch the turtles sleeping underneath the wreck and the lobsters and crabs wandering around. This is bar none, not only the Best Wreck dive in the Caribbean, but also in the top 5 dives of the world. We will anchor overnight on Salt Island.

Day Four: (June 16th, Wednesday)

Up and in the water early for a dive before breakfast before anyone else has a chance to disturb the wreck, this will cap off our SCUBA diving on the RMS Rhone. We have three additional wrecks on our diving agenda today the Beatta, the Inganess and the Marie L and the Pat, as well as a planned Pig Roast and Beach Party on Cooper Island, meeting up with the other divers participating in Wreck Week.

 

Day Five: (June 17th, Thursday) We sai early, weather permitting, out to the wreck of the CHIKUZEN, our second most famous wreck. We will dive the Chikuzen before lunch and again, after lunch before taking a leisurely sunset sail into Muskmelon Bay on Guana Island, one of our favorite deserted anchorages. Or perhaps we will head out to the Rocus and the Parametta? It all depends on the weather! A night dive is planned for those interested.

Day Six: (June 18th, Friday)

After a breakfast of watching the pelicans circling while they feed on the billions of bait fish in this bay, we will go around to the outside to dive Grand Central Station. Grand Central Station is so named for the many fish that converge around here, and it is capped up by a spectacular large cave that goes through the island at about 60 feet. Perhaps this afternoon will be a good time to visit the Baths? Friday night will find Promenade either anchored at Trellis Bay for the closing party on Wreck Week, or docked at our marina 5 minutes away from Trellis Bay and the BVI airport.

Day Seven: (June 19th, Saturday)

Sadly, it is time to sail back to marina, and disembark and leave paradise, with great memories.

 

Goliath Grouper on the wreck of the Chikuzen

PACKAGE:

Accommodation with Yacht Promenade Liveaboard (6 nights Sunday to Saturday)

All food and beverages on the yacht (wine with dinner, cocktail hour, (for those not night diving!) beer and soda)

Unlimited diving featuring the wrecks of the BVI, inc a minimum of 3 dives on the wreck of the RMS Rhone (inc 1 night dive)

Includes all tank fills, BC's and regs are available at an extra rental cost for those who would like

Dive Anegada (weather permitting), inc The Chikuzen and The Rocus

Special souvenir T-shirt

Souvenir Chart to map your week

Dive Book on the Chikuzen or RMS Rhone

Pig Roast Beach Party on Cooper Island (cash bar for alcoholic beverages on land)

Wrap up party at Trellis Bay (cash bar for alcoholic beverages on land)

$4000.00 based on 2 people sharing a cabin.

Discounts are available for a group chartering the entire yacht

We had no internet last evening, it was quite a shock to the system and I decided that sleeping would be a good plan instead!
After mostly an unexciting day doing bookwork (again, today should be the end of it) I decided to go for a swim. Simeon had his boat on dock grinding fiberglass. I bet you that was a hot dusty job! I saw baby pufferfish going underneath the dock, so there may be an explosion of them soon that get sucked into our air conditioning water intakes.

Salt Island has been calling my name a lot, so I loaded up the dinghy with dive gear and camera and off I went. A late afternoon dive is about my favorite. I had better pictures this afternoon anyways...



This Spotted eel was tucked into a free floating piece of soft coral and he did not want to come out so I could take a picture either!

Hermit crab peaking out at me...

I was surprised how many large hermit crabs there were around, and I did not realize they dug up the bottom as much as they do, but I followed them for a bit around and the path they were digging up was a couple inches deep anyways...

A few little schools of fish darted back and forth by me...

And anemones! Gosh how I love the colors on anemones, so I have many different colors here. One of the best places to get anemone pictures.



The eyes of a crab...

A skittish Triggerfish eyeing me...

A hind peeking over at me (wishing I would go away...)

Anemone # 2

Nice Clean Tulip Shell...Saw a couple VERY large Tritons as well, but did not take pictures as there shells were very dirty...

A little Triggerfish peering at me hoping I would go away...

Anemone #3

The same little Triggerfish, still wishing I would go away!

A not very good picture of a brittle star, he was also trying to get away from me...

I just kind of thought this was an interesting picture. I was using my 60 mm lens today, and I quite enjoy that lens. The pictures are usually good and nice and crisp.

It was finally looking like dusk so I thought I better hightail it out of the water so I could get back into Harbourview before dark, having no chance probably myself of missing the rocks going in the harbour on a pitch black night! The sunset was very clear and nice from every direction and i was wishing for a bigger lens then! This is the silhouette of the house on Buck Island...

And looking down Tortola...

I had to laugh when I received an email yesterday morning from my friend Bruce who is a graphic designer (read, way better with things then me creatively...) I knew my blog pictures were bad last night, but apparently bad enough (or my friend was bored enough on a Friday night!) that he played with my picture! This was my version...

And what came back to me!

LOL: Bruce, I am trying for the "getting the picture right the first time out of the camera" which, yes, is taking me about a hundred thousand snaps and I ain't there yet!!

It appears Richard and LIsa have one more holiday in them before they get back to the BVI toward the end of September, a week in Turkey on Tuesday! They have spanned the globe in the last year and I hope they realize I will have their paint and varnish brushes nicely lined up for them on the back (slippery needs non skid paint) deck ! And I will point out that Bazza managed to ONLY have to do the outside varnish ONCE while they were not here by optimally spacing it out over the season!

OK, enough of babbling here, time to go finish up the accounting.