charter yacht

Received an email from the Charter Yacht Society talking about the Nautic Swan Victoria sinking this past weekend.

"I regret having to share the news that member yacht Swan Victoria sank on Saturday after hitting a submerged object.
Thankfully, Klaus and Martha are safe having been air lifted to Puerto Rico. They were enroute to Panama."



From Sail World:
Two crew have been found floating in the Caribbean in their six-man life raft.

They were found more than 24 hours after they broadcast a distress signal that their yacht, the 48ft Swan Victoria, a Club Swan yacht member, had sunk after hitting a submerged object.

Her crew, Skipper Klaus and Chef Martha, who took holidaying sailors for charters around the Caribbean, were experienced professional sailors.

The U.S.Coast Guard rescued the pair, who had been sailing the yacht from St Thomas in the U.S. Virgins to Panama. At the time they were positioned around 100 miles southwest of Puerto Rico when the collision occurred on Saturday.

You can click here to go to Sail World to read the rest of the story.

Our thoughts are with them. You hate hearing these things....

Well once again, I have a whole mess of random pictures to throw up on my blog. We had a fun few days. All these pictures are a mix of Skip's, Alex's and mine....We did not get the sails up once. It was too flat! Of course, since Bazza had no Conner for deckhand, he was probably thanking his lucky stars. Apparently I have not done enough of the deck work and you know what they say, "if you don't use them, you lose them" According to my husband, I have truly lost them. Combined with having the mechanical ability of a "housebrick" in his words! I have to admit I did lose the boat hook in the water...Not even going to tell you about it!

Skip had a better picture of a deer. Look at all the velvet on his antlers...They just grew!


This is the new ruin they excavated below the old school house on top of the hill at Waterlemon Cay....


And our one fishing prize was a barracuda...They hooked about 7 Tarpon one night, but none made it on board!


Birds, I love them more every year and love taking pictures of them....




A magnificent Frigate bird...


Gina made Grand Marnier Orange FRENCH TOAST! It was REALLY REALLY good too.....


A nice little lizard...


Baz et al went for a hike up to the fort on Great Thatch, while Gina and I passed on that pleasure and went for a dive instead....


Old graves....


On the beach.....


A selection of pottery shards....


Love Skips picture of a brown boobie here...


Gina, for some reason thought she was the "bird whisperer" and all she really did was chase them all away!


Love this Pelican sitting in the colorful rocks. This was off Tobago...


Where we went for a dive, and saw a couple nice Hog Fish....


Gina and Skip going down....


Some funky coral...


And some nice coral. The fish life was REALLY light on here. Not much at all. Surprisingly so I thought!


Alex found the Starfish at Waterlemon Cay...


And Max found some conch....


A pretty toitle....


Blowing the conch shell...


Bazza actually let Max drive the boat, and I do mean do turns and everything. Not just hold the helm while it was on auto piilot!


Just to cap it off we found a mother and baby dolphin off Lovongo Cay that we followed for quite awhile. The seas were so flat we were joking we could have seen turtles on Jost Van Dyke from there!




We had a good visit, but it is just about time for us to go back to work....

Well Sunday was one heck of a busy day! We were up at 630 and heading to East End to drop off charter guests. Then while the boat started moving down to St John, with two still on board, I went to town, got a few groceries, checked the boat and all of us out and met the boat down at West End. Passed Promenade on the way down so stopped and took pictures!


It was a good week with the guests on board, but I was happy to be finished cooking by yesterday! We had spectacular weather for the most part, and they are always amazed that we can find something new to do every single year. Yep, we learn more every year! Bazza was fixing his bait catching net for fishing tonight....as we now have friends on board.


Gina and Skip along with Max and Alex from Alpharetta Georgia, our good friends, joined us for a couple days out on the boat. Miss Gina brought me a house warming present! It will look wonderful in my house in CA>


Talk about learning something new every year. I have now learnt something new daily. Did you know we have DEER on the island?? Yes, as in BAMBI! I did not know that! But, yesterday when heading back up to Waterlemon Cay we found two on the beach, and then today we saw one (with 4 goats following it none the less!!) on Tobago. Who knew?




The water and seas are HOT and FLAT. No breeze but lots of bugs! We sat on deck to try and get a bit of breeze!


The Annenberg Sugar Plantation seemed to be more visible then normal to me....


I had told Gina they HAD to do the cooking if they were coming on the boat. For those who know Gina, she is a trooper that way and have everyone pre prepped, bagged and ready to go! I loved pretending I was a guest and watching all the cooking and dishes being done around me! They are happy cookies anyways!


We had a great baked ziti with Italian Sausage in the nicest large lasagne pan I have ever seen!


Just came back to finish this off...we had dolphins, a mommy and baby swimming around!