I am still working on Thursday on the blog, but in actual fact I am in Edmonton for a quick overnight visit for my son Chad's opening of the Treasury Vodka Bar and Restaurant. That will be next entry. I will finish up Thursday's adventure first...
We were up earlyish for a trip out to the airport to pick up a van for the day to fit everyone in. It was a full size Suburban, and just for the record, I don't want one. The guests were all bright and perky waiting outside the hotel for their 10 AM Pick up...


Dad was tour guide and we started with the city and shoreline portion..






Followed by the "holy crap there are deer EVERYWHERE in the city limit tour" Mostly eating flowers in yards.


We went to see the Seals down at the wharf...


And was reminded one more time that I could feed my charter guests poultry for years and have plenty of leftovers with the size of these here on the island...


But back to the seals, mom and Nancy fed them and we took pictures.


There was a mom and baby wandering around....


And then George bought me my very own seal. I don't even have to clean up after it, although I would think a live one would work fine for me, after all it would not stray to far from the back of Promenade cuz we have lots of lovely charter food left over and it would be an unique marketing opportunity in the charter market I would think....


Had to laugh, dad took us to see one of the most expensive waterfront properties up for sale and we noticed that it has now been sold...


...To the government of Saint Kitts and Nevis for a consulate! OK...I am just going to not say anything at all here.


My obligatory one flower picture...


This is a much better flower picture. More deer eating more flowers...


He does not care at all if I film him and very quickly ignores us to go back to his lunch. He is having to start to reach higher for flowers.


A random scenery and people shot...


There are many good captions for this below picture, but if dad was JUST lean a bit more......If it was someone I did not like or if there was water underneath instead of blackberry bushes, I might be tempted to trip....


Out to My Chosen Cafe at Mechosin for lunch, always a nice spot to visit...and I made them hurry taking the picture as I was STARVING. Everyone laughed at my carrots in the car but I think by the time we hit lunch Don was looking longingly at them! THe guys had a open faced meatloaf sandwich on top of a piece of garlic bread, with fried onions and mushrooms on top and covered with gravy served with fries. Unfortunately, it did not fit into my calories allotted for the day, but it did look amazing....


And some random scenery shots.


And the tour ended up at the Empress Hotel, where we left our friends to have scones, tea and probably beer for some. It was nice to share some time with everyone who over and we think we were very lucky to have so many friends in Victoria the same time as us...


Friday it was off up to Duncan. (I know, the life of a social butterfly never stops now does it?) In another meal that looked amazing was Bazza's hamburger. I had a veggie burger and plain salad. Enough said about that. Sigh.


We met up with a couple that we had met down in Tortola at the May Boat Show. They are in the process of chucking it all away to go sail for a living, and we had updates on courses they are completing etc, just in case you need a good crew they are ready to go! We had a great couple hours gabbing with Cam and Rhonda. They have started a blog to share their adventures, and once (and if I suppose!) I get permission to share that link I will pass it on cuz I know many who read this like following those types of journeys...



That covers Friday, up early Saturday AM to get out to the airport to fly to Edmonton, so until next entry....

We had a treat this week as our friend Margot was over making bank life's miserable doing her job so she came for dinner and a visit at the house. She brought nice flowers, which, yes Sydney, mother loved! I would have preferred frozen blended bushwackers personally!! We had a nice visit though and she already has some of her trips planned to the boat for next season. She already knows how to sort and fold the laundry on the boat and put it away, next we will be working on teaching her how to do DISHES!!!!



Bazza woke up with a totally seized shoulder, which entailed a trip to the acupuncturist and the doctor. First time I had seen this procedure, not sure what I think about it. Not sure what is happening with it, but Bazza is not a whinger so I know it was painful.


I loved this flyer though in the doctors office for prostrate checks....



Watched the neighborhood cats in the back yard. They sit very calmly pursuing their buffet options...


Why do I say buffet options because this is what they sit under. They must be waiting for one to fall from the sky!


We were getting dressed to go out for dinner and my mother and I actually took a decent picture, so I thought I would put it up. The weight loss is starting to show on me now I think.


It was out for dinner at Vic Steak House tonight...I was teasing Margot that she was ordering a caesar to drink so it would look like a salad on her expense accounts! She assured me that it was not so!


We had more friends in town tonight. Dan and Nancy and George and Jane, also known as the "old folks from St Marys" just came off a wonderful cruise up to Alaska with perfect weather (it must be only the BVI they bring shitty weather too..) So along with my parents and Margot, we all had a nice visit. George mentioned that he did not think he had ever seen me before with Make up on. Probably true!


It is MUCH MUCH more fun to visit when I don't have to cook the meal and do the dishes let me tell you. I could see a theme for that happening on the boat...I truly think that Bazza could throw out the long tables in the cockpit and put in round ones as well as it is so much easier to visit that way.


steak....


hamburgers...


pork chops...


and fish and chips were on the menu tonight. The food was "ok" The restaurant was short staffed and you could sure tell that. Service was slow and lacking. Really do you guys have cocktails up here with only 1 oz in them? What in the world is the point of that? That 1 oz does not seem to last very well when it takes you 20 minutes to get the next oz! We had a great visit though and sat and talked for a few hours...


I was not ultra crazy about the public swimming pools with the bandaids floating in them, so opted for a walk the next morning, which apparently I should do more often as it got my heart rate up higher then the swimming does...but I enjoyed it....




My niece will hate me, but doesn't she look cute in her cheerleading outfit? She looks more like my sister every day! And obviously more of a girl then Sydney and I were with being in cheerleading...


In the other big news in our world, my oldest son Chad's new Restaurant and vodka bar opened last night in Edmonton. The Treasury. I am sure it was a schmozzle as those kind of openings always are, in my experience. I still remember my first ever charter I did not being able to get dinner out until 1130 at night! I just kept on giving them more liquor......


This is Chad and his girlfriend Christina, I wish them all the luck in the world...


Once I get new pictures of the opening weekend I will post them.


That is it for today's online diary, time to get ready as we are heading up to Duncan to have lunch with a couple we met at the spring boat show in Tortola, Cam and Rhonda. Cam and Rhonda are a bit younger then us and have done the proverbial sell their worldly possessions, quit their jobs, train for chartering and are planning on doing charters in the BVI. I feel so old, it seems like such a long time ago that we did that!

In Canadian Speak the temperature here in Victoria was 32 degrees. I did not know it ever got to that temperature out here! Apparently the Inland Empire back home is in the triple digits too, so there is heat everywhere..
My dad went to march in that heat in a parade. I cannot even tell you what it was for! He mentioned something about old uniforms not fitting...Go figure!


We made the Saturday afternoon trek with the parents to the Legion...


One of their friends brought their grandson who was visiting from Australia, who brought his voting papers with him for Bazza to countersign (In Australia if you don't vote you get a $200.00 fine! Bazza has been gone ten years.....Yikes!

In Australia you don't just put a X beside the one you want, you also have to RANK them all in the order you want them in, it is all very complex. What was not complex was some of the names of the parties...The sex party (apparently they promote escort services) the fishers and shooters party ( I hope they hunt and fish but i am not sure!) Some were more understandable, the aboriginals, the greens...but I did not see the Pot Party!


Bazza drank vodka (i think he was trying to work up the courage to ask me to dance but he never did!) and it was pretty warm in the building too...


i am not sure what I was up to here, being a bit loopy I think!


Sunday we went over to look at the car show at Oak Bay...Nice and early in the morning before it was hot and busy. You can see Bazza still happily found fresh donuts to munch on....


We saw shiny cars, which don't interest me too much but it was a nice walk...


License Plate...


After that it was off to see Eat. Pray. Love. The boys went whether they wanted to or not. ONe second before I snapped this photo my father was fast asleep! He obviously was in self preservation mode and sensed when I was close with a camera...I think the girls liked it better then the boys..


Then cuz it was hot as can be we decided to heat up the kitchen to bake potatoes in the oven for an hour (just like being on the boat..) But steak and potatoes was yummy...



And so ends the weekend up on Vancouver Island

About the time we got on the road we decided that driving to get there was a very good idea. And we did. By Thursday morning we were heading across the border into Canada, after the appropriate border games...Where do you live? Who's vehicles are these? Why do you have vehicles with CA plates? So do you ever live in Canada? And on, always confuses things when we go through the borders with our different passports and residences...

We dropped the RV at the ferry docks and drove like crazy up to North Vancouver to catch Richard and Lisa for an hour before they went out on charter again...Had to laugh when we pulled up and we both had cameras out at the ready! Had not seen them for only a few months, but I could have hugged Lisa forever! I so enjoy her (sometimes abrasive!!) personality!



I don't know how many pictures i have of these 3 people, but quite a few!


So, we got to see the boat! Lisa is showing off her salon here, (saying please don't take one more crappy picture of me here Kerry!) They both look good, and are eating seafood like kings tottering with only 4 guests back and forth to Vancouver and Desolation Sound.


This is the view looking out their "shed" the boat sits in. NIce view and seals playing around too!!!


Up on the top deck where the tender is stored. Lisa says she has to worked harder on here and Rich says he works less so it sounds like a match made in heaven! Lisa misses chartering and would go back in a second, Richard not so much. They are here until the end of September and then Lisa has to get some holidays in so it is off to Las Vegas, California, UK and Cambodia to go dirt bike riding in the jungle (why oh why????) They are then planning on working a Ski season as chalet hosts in France for a few months after that this winter, so lots of traveling around. Lisa misses the SCUBA diving like crazy. Anyways, it was great to see them if only for a short time and we hope to get together again while we are up here on one of their forays back to the big city. The boat is nice, but truthfully, I prefer Promenade! I don't like tippy boats!!!!!!!!!!


Had to laugh walking back down the dock as the tide was low and it is such a surprise seeing this after our entire 8 inches of tides in the islands. And having to walk up STEEP ramps to get to the parking lot.


We made our way through Vancouver traffic back to the ferry docks and I nicely slept all the way across to Vancouver Island. When we pulled up at my parents, mom had her cousin, Jimmy Lee and wife Lynn visiting from Alberta, so the family parade starts! Poor Bazza....


OUr first meal out with the parents was...well since it was Friday lunch and they always go here then, we made it to Costco.


I had water as there was nothing on the costco menu that i felt like blowing my entire days calorie budget on so I could starve the rest of the day.....


Kevin had taken a picture of my swimming pool at home the other day and it is very nice. I found a swimming pool to swim in up here yesterday, but REALLY? You have to share a lane with all these people? And I know I am a large woman, but do they really make lanes that narrow where I have to practically turn over on the side to squeeze by the person coming the other direction? And I do notice that even after not having swam lengths in a pool for about 2 decades that people still don't know whether they should be in the fast or the slow lane doing their lengths. OK, rant over, I will go back and swim in my own pool soon.


Bazza had bought himself a Net Book a few weeks before we left the islands as his laptop had died. Of course he bought one when he got back and continuing on in our "handing down the electronics" theme, dad inherited the Net Book! He can look up his very own coins on EBAY and read the obituaries of who has died in Victoria wherever and whenever he wants now.


Today is our once a visit trip with the parents to the Saturday afternoon Dance at the Legion, so I better get some work done so I don't miss that...

Although this is really a crap picture, I had to take it when we checked into the RV park last night and they have a large folder with the words EMAILS on it..Nice to see that the older set still prints them off and files them!


We stopped to see Cassie, she looks good for a 6 month pregnant woman who has only 2 features on her body!




We then went to meet my sister, Sydney and Chris for dinner in Pleasanton. A really nice little place called Oasis Grill, and we had WONDERFUL skewers of sirloin, shrimp and spices and Basmati rice. Highly recommend it.... Of course by this time it was after 730 and I would have thought anything was very good.






Of course the Australian contingent in the group had Lamb of some type...


For the first time in a decade or maybe even two I even got to look at the black line for swimming in a pool. I thought of my Swim Vacation friends who only make it to the boat once or twice a year and usually look at black lines (THey have two groups coming on Promenade at the end of March, beginning of April next year if you are looking for some swimming time in the Caribbean sea)


At Harris Ranch not only did they have wonderful food, but they also had an olympic size swimming pool just for me to swim in. Very nice setting. Too bad it is in the middle of NOWHERE. Seriously, like half way in between San Francisco and Los Angeles


Up early and on the road again, up past all the large ships rafted up in the San Francisco Bay and heading north!

My husband looks like the cat who swallowed the canary, he is so happy in his electronic room...Too bad he has to go on a road trip!


We got a nice electric grill that lives inside the house, much easier then getting the flipping barbecue set up! I like it!


We have had a busy few days trying to get ready to get on the road, with Bazza mostly pacing looking out the window waiting for his new toys to come. One did, half an hour before we left. The other one is still missing in action!


To me it looks like a big mixer for the kitchen or something, but his eyes are glowing. I was having a hard time understanding the attraction on having a mill and a lathe, both very expensive and one turns the tool bit on the steel and the other one turns the steel around the tool bit! Does not that seem like they both essentially do the same thing to you?? I thought so too!


However, yes, Bazza it is very pretty, now get in the RV and drive!


I absolutely HATE the I5 between LA and San Francisco. Last time we lost a panel off the bottom of the RV from being so shook up and this time it was part of a door!!!! There is always a ton of trucks on our too small width wise lanes in this country...


Some pretty scenery though of the hay stacks...





Ah, but food nirvana is close at hand, after being shook to death for about 5 hours we hit Harris Ranch....


Harris Ranch is the only USDA approved restaurant that produces beef that is guaranteed to have no residual pesticides. That is cuz they grown their own feed and everything for them. I had prime rib (no, not all of that, I would have blown the healthy eating plan!) the red peppers, sweet corn and potato grown here on the farm was to die for. Bazza and I both said it was the best corn we have had in decades... Sweet and just picked and small!


Bazza had pot roast that he said was the best he had had since he was a child too! All in all successful I would say. Then we climbed into bed along with the sweet smells of cow manure...I harrumped when he said I could not have the A/C on all night and went to sleep without kissing him. Showed him didn't I?


And what did we do with the monster? Left him in California, he still has another week or two of school (and I do mean go to school Kevin, not to the beach)


Dinner with my sister tonight..

For those who wonder which blog I just may post this information on, I am putting it on my personal blog as well...


For those who have been asking about Promenade doing a cabin only sailing in February (where you buy it by the cabin and share the boat with (hopefully) like minded guests! My brain hurts when I try and do up numbers for these types of charters! Much easier to just price the entire boat when you know that you will sell the entire thing instead of worrying how many cabins you are going to sell!

Anyways, whether we have one cabin or all of them sold, this will be a guaranteed sailing, and it is a "no one under the age of 18" trip!

First come first serve on cabins.....


Cabin Only Sailing on Promenade. The one and only cabin only sailing this winter season!

Your choice of either 6 or ten nights onboard

Package:
Saturday Feb 12th, complimentary sleep over if wanted. Boarding after 4 PM, in Roadtown, Tortola. No services (ie, dinner and breakfast on shore)
Sunday Feb 13th- noon start cruise for 6 nights.
Saturday Feb 19th- drop off for any guests only staying on yacht for 6 nights
Wednesday Feb 23rd- drop off for ten night guests.

Includes: All meals and ship's bar, cruising taxes, port taxes, overnight air conditioning and all on board ship's toys. This will include SCUBA diving for any CERTIFIED divers on a casual basis. Breakfast is a casual affair on board.
Excludes: Transportation to and fro the yacht, including plane and taxi fares. Any meals and beverages you choose to have on shore. You will be responsible for one dinner ashore on the ten night package only. BC and Regulator rental if needed at $150.00 for the charter period per person. Crew gratuities for cabana boys!

Cost:

6 nights: Only 1 in cabin, $3000.00 (Starboard or Port Ama with private head, or aft cabins, with king sized beds, share two heads for 3 cabins)
6 nights: 2 in cabin, $3500.00, any cabin
6 nights: Willing to share, (one of two twin (small) twin cabins in aft, you may luck out and get it to yourself, but then again, you may not. These rooms are definitely better if you bring a friend that you know, and need two separate beds) $1700.00 for one person.

10 nights: Only 1 in cabin, $4800.00
10 nights: 2 in cabin, $5500.00
10 nights: Willing to share $2700.00

Other openings for this coming season are for WHOLE BOAT bookings only and are:
Between Dec 4th and 27th
Between March 6th and 26th
Between April 15th and April 23rd

I have really proved what a kind considerate caring person I am this week. I got my husband a present! Self sacrificing as I am...I gave him my IPHONE. Which never leaves my side often, but I did. Then, since I had NO IPHONE now, I had to go out and get myself another phone...and I bought the new iphone! It will do.
Had to laugh though as when I went to hook up his phone on our ATT family plan, it only let me hook it up with a Michigan number, as that was where the account was set up years ago. I did not get it and told her I really did not even want a Michigan number myself! Oh well...

I found this video on our BVI Adventures Blog I will just quote what she said about it and leave it at that.
"Okay, so you know the song, right??? Well, apparently the 22 year-old pop sensation, Iyaz, is from Tortola here in the BVI!!! His song "Replay" hit #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 which led him to Chicago for a chat on Oprah's couch in May...the ultimate definition of "success" in my book!

His album dropped in June and you can't go anywhere here locally and not hear his music. Okay, so onto my recent discovery of his YouTube video for the song "Solo." This video was shot here on the island and if you've visited us it is a "must-see." There are so many places we recognize, Carrot Bay, Cane Garden Bay, etc... The song is pretty catchy too if you don't already know it!"

It is neat to watch and recognize all the places



And last but not least, it appears my son Chad, is getting close to opening (finally!) the high end nightclub they are doing in downtown Edmonton...

And it is amazing how quickly his workshop is taking shape. It looks like a Bazza room that is for sure. I am not sure how I will get him to go back to the boat after making his own workshop...


On the bonus side the garage was cleaned out of all the work shop bits, so there is more room in it!


And what did we do for our family day out yesterday? Kevin's idea, we went to the San Diego zoo. Bazza thought it was an opportunity to have snacks and slurpees...


There were a lot of kids there. Go figure on a Sunday afternoon hey?


There were also animals there. Again, go figure...


Kevin had a look on his face that said, nope, I am not getting to close to that wild cat!


I think in this picture they are looking at each other and both thinking "my god, it is a face that only a mother could love!"


The flamingo's were cute, and messy eaters too! They sounded like high speed battery drills almost...


This guy is sleeping...


and this one is a baby...


Then we went to Elephant and Castle for lunch, made Kevin take the obligatory picture in front of Star of India..... and went home again jiggity jig...


Today I went to get my hair colored and cut...I look like a scarecrow (a fat one)


But she did a nice job, and it is bouncy and has no gray again!


Now, I am supposed to be answering lots of emails, but I just want to have a nap so I am not sure what is going to win out here but I think I have a pretty good idea!

I have been working like a mad women trying to get all the template changed over for this website so I can go on to others. It is tedious at this point in time. I think I have all the switching over, now I need to format and update all the pages. Sigh.

To cheer me up we have gone out to eat a couple times this week.... Not that i had any argument from the boys! They both look quite happy with their food!


I always manage to catch the most glamorous poses possible!


We went out for a drive in the hills last evening. It is so pretty out there, but way out in the middle of nowhere there was 6 tiny skinny kittens mewing on the side of the road. We had to go back and they basically leapt on us!


They were climbing all over Kevin...


Hanging beneath the car wanting to be put in it and just generally unhappy. Obviously they had been left...




The poor things were starving! I had fat free pudding and some string cheese in the car which I gave them and they had it everywhere. I know that taking them to the shelter about means they will be euthanized right away, as there are so many unwanted cats, but I feel so sorry for them and will be going back tomorrow with food. Anyone want kitties?? Bazza tends to think that we don't!


We went into Old Town Temecula last night and had dinner at the EDGE. Unfortunately, it was their first year anniversary which meant lots of loud music and cougars dancing, all to 80's music, but the food was fabulous!
Obviously trying to make up for the loud music we had drinks coming out of every corner of the table.


Really really good food, and we will go back there....


I had my stand by restaurant meal, caesar salad, light on the dressing, no cheese or croutons and a grilled chicken breast, which was what it was, but the guys said there steak and battered fish were very good.


And just for a giggle, apparently Simeon can carry his very own calendar! I wonder if he gets less clothes on as the year goes along!

I went to take a picture of the fridge this morning, to show that i can stuff the fridge at home just as good as the one on the boat and when editing I was reminded of something from when I was growing up.

Of course, the Sears Xmas Wish books would be thumbed over all winter. Imaging all the things I could possibly get. I think I can still remember specific items from when I was 7-8 in them. I guess TV was not quite as exciting back then. One of my favorite things to look at were the fridges and freezers that had all this good looking food in them. I used to imagine that OUR fridge looked like that (it didn't, although there was food in it, it certainly did not have everything the pictures did!). I would go over the items in the fridge over and over again. So, no wonder I love food, I have apparently loved it since I was that age anyways! I can remember crushing up my nickel bags of barbecue chips into tiny little pieces as they seemed to last longer that way, and to even trying to save the last "thing" in a package and putting it in my bedside drawer, so I would always have treats...in the night when I was hungry!
Anyways, my 8 year old self would be pleased to know that eventually she obtained fridges that were full like the catalogs from back then!


Bazza is just happy that he is in the land of fresh danishes for breakfast, and looking even more forward to the land of Tim Hortons and Boston Creams in a couple weeks!


We have three people going three different directions, with one car and one RV. Well, you know my patience with that...I went out to rent a car for a week or two and came home having bought a car three hours later. I thought I would get yelled at, but he just shook his head. I justified it quite well I thought! It is not quite a red sports model!!!!


The workshop is coming along quite nicely, I may never see him again!


We had a whole bunch of potted plants (well not technically WE but the old owners left them) outside which surprisingly, were still alive after we had been away for 4 months without water! They just may survive us if they can go that long....

This is where I am at with taking this weight off. At the end of the first month when I redid all the blood work, my blood sugar had come back into normal range, my blood pressure had dropped from 135-145 over whatever to 110 over 70, where I sat most of my life, my cholesterol had come down 30 points, and I halved my Nexium dose. The health proof is really in the pudding there for lifestyle changes.

I know better then to starve myself, and truthfully, I love food so much that if I did I would never keep it up over my life, so I have 1600 calories a day, and I use them however I see fit. If I exercise I get extra calories to use. Even with NOT using the salt shaker except for on potatoes, eggs, rice and popcorn, I still have a hard time staying under the 2500 mg of sodium a day, especially when we eat out up here. I seem to have no problem staying under on my cholesterol and my fat.

Usually by the end of the day I have calories left, but they are made up of carb and cholesterol calories, so hard to find food items that ONLY contain those components at night that I actually want to eat.

Some things are just not worth using the calories on. On the other hand, no matter how good it is for you, some things are just not worth eating. You might as well take and put bland glue in your mouth. Some of the things I have found for me, are like Healthy Choice Soup. Bazza and I tried some yesterday, Clam Chowder, and it looks like the real soup, but with 45% less sodium (so you know it still has quite a bit in it...) and low in fat etc. We did not know it was possible to put clams, potatoes, cream, celery, carrots and spices together in a soup and have it be that bland. The total blandness is much worse then the individual items ever would be if you made it at home. Just goes to show how much flavor processing food takes out. I could not tell if I had a potato or a clam in my mouth.

My main stays for breakfast tend to be Lite string cheese, mandarins cups, and a low calorie bread peanut butter sandwich.
I have not broken myself of the habit of eating the majority of my calories at dinner time yet.

Biggest lifesavers for me, jello fat free pudding, sugar free popsicles, 100 calorie popcorn, and god damn it why in the world can they not make a sugar free full throttle!!!

I have tried sugar free amp energy drink a couple times, but the carbonation does not last long...

Exercise. Thank god for water is all I can say. SCUBA diving on the yacht and swimming in the pool here. I don't believe you will ever see me on a treadmill, in a spin class, or running. I had to giggle a couple days ago when I went to Sports Authority looking for masks and a snorkel for the pool at the house and I have, oh, about 50 sets on the boat!

Water, always been a water girl. If I am not in it, I am drinking it. Have no problem getting in my 64 oz or so a day of water...Just don't spare the ice!

Other then that, some of you may notice that page styles on this website are going back and forth between the old design and the new one...It is a long process to change them all over and then edit as well, so it is getting there.

Bazza ordered a new mill, lathe and table saw for his workshop. No, I don't know what they are for. But HE is excited...

By the way talking about Water, and further to the entry I posted a couple of days ago on water, my friend Bob put up this blog entry on his boat bits as well on water.

Via: Term Life Insurance

Poor Bazza....Keeps on thinking moose are mythical creatures. Everyone sees them in Canada besides him...My parents found this baby on the side of the road sitting in travel, and fortuitously had their camera out saying "wouldn't it be neat if a moose came though about now" and it did! So they promptly emailed it to my husband and his only comment was that it was fiberglass, he could see the join lines!


Our daughter in law caught our comment about not getting many baby pictures and sent some of a cute baby girl~


She fell down and scraped up her face, but glad to know that she is a girl after my own heart and is back up and on the laptop again!!!


I do have to say the second shift on pulling stupid wires through conduits managed to do it.. Apparently they put a whole bunch of goop down one side and then VACUMNED it through to the other to make it easier! I was so traumatized by my earlier experience that Bazza took me out for an ice cream! (only 150 calories, people! Go McDonalds)




I had some crazy girlfriends who were on the yacht last year who came in for a wedding (on Monday in Temecula??) from Houston and Virginia. We met up for lunch. First I better remind you what they looked like on the boat..... Debbie and Sherri...


And Karen...(my luck it is their sister Sharon, I always seem to mix these two up!)


Sheri told me that she was going to show me that she could look dressed up. Sorry Sherri, I prefer the boat look! We went to the Vineyard Rose at South Coastal Vineyards. It was very good! BTW Dierks Bentley is playing there August 14th!


We were all happy with our food, A happy look on Sherry...


Seafood Ceviche....


Debbie....


Karen who apparently took pictures of every dish on the boat when they were on had a look that said, yeah hurry up, I am trying to take my own pictures (and she changed her hair color since the boat!)


I thought I might get a half decent picture of me to put up, but no such luck...The old lady transition glasses really are not a cool look now are they! BUT my caesar salad and shrimp was marvelous...


We had a nice visit....... I heard a RUMOR that some guests came back from charter and made a yearly calendar of SIMEON. Turn the page every month, and voila there is a new picture. Just a rumor maybe, but I peed myself laughing. Now that would go to Simeon's head!


And what was bazza doing while I was away lunching with the girls? Well, what else do you think Bazza was doing by digging holes!


I invited him, but for some reason he opted to stay home and dig his way to China maybe...Weird Man!

Can I rant just a little?? Why not! You can always skip, but by doing this I have the information out of internet for others searching for it!

Airport shuttles between LAX and Home. On the Way to the BVI in the spring I used ExecVIPShuttle It was prompt, the guy was nice, and no problems at all. I was quite happy. Coming home this week, I thought I had booked the same company, but I had not. I had booked Airport Express Shuttle

They confirmed my reservation at $145.00 and $5.00 for extra person, and had my flight arrival times. They did tell me to call them when I arrived at LAX, which I thought was a tad strange, as they usually have people there with your name on the sign. But then I thought, ok, well it is a busy airport, so in case you miss them....

We arrived 5 minutes late. We arrived at baggage, got our bags, and I called them. Well, I attempted to call. Apparently cel service in LAX is HORRENDOUS, at least on ATT and I felt like a commercial walking around going "can you hear me now?"

The guy on the phone said to call him back in about 5 minutes and he would try and get a description of the guy I was looking for! Ok, we did... and were told that "we got there earlier then they thought" (Our plane was 5 minutes late) and the soonest they could get someone there (because of traffic) was 405 PM. Fully an hour after we landed. I was definitely not impressed, but what can you do? He then tried to appease me by saying "but it will be direct to Murrieta, no stops" I countered with "well, I had booked that anyways so I was not that impressed"

We watched every other person in sight on our packed flight disappear into cars and we stood at the curb and waited...and waited.... OUr driver finally arrived at 430. Almost an hour and a half after our flight landed, putting us firmly in the freeway traffic.

OUr driver rattled on about nothing, to the point that we just wanted him to shut up. He was a horrible driver and when we were backed up in the real rush hour traffic, as he drove like a beginner, I sadly watched the express lane whizzing by and wanted to say " Its ok, I will pay the extra $5.35 to use that lane" but kept my mouth shut as we crawled along going to Riverside. We finally made it home around 630.

This was after picking us up at the airport and saying "I really don't know where you are going, I don't have the address" and asking us what the best way to get to there was!!! He said "if we wanted" he could put it in his navigator but never did. I started to wonder where in the hell they got this guy from! I figured they really dropped the ball and picked up someone from the street to come get us.

Then to add insult to injury, I asked him how much was due, not having my email with me, and he said "didn't they tell you? I hate to have to call him for it" I told him that he was just going to have too....

Then he wanted to know if they told me about the 18% gratuity. (Funny, seemed to have that figure down!) He called, came back and told me it was 165.00 plus (more then originally quoted) and the 18% gratuity. Then he got out his calcuator and started calcuating the gratuity for me!!!! I laughed and told him to call a spade a spade, it was not a Gratuity, it was a service charge! He said, "well, no not really, it is just for my gas etc" I thought that should be included in the fee...what do I know??? Then he says, "well to make it easier on you, I will just charge you a 11% gratuity" I laughed and at this point might have told him what a loser company they were. I paid $190.00 which was more then the 18% gratuity and now I am composing my letter to the Better Business Bureau and TELLING everyone how horrible they are and how they ripped me off.

Please DON'T use them!!

Now, back to the islands....

**
Apparently it is still raining and flooding in the islands. More rain then you could ever imagine... More rain then anyone could ever want. WEEKS of rain! Guess it was a good thing we covered all the hatches with garbage bags before we left.

This is what Promenade looked like as we left it, totally stripped and tied up for any potential hurricanes (and rain apparently)





The saddest thing in our world is cutting off the bimini, as putting it back on is a two day job for two people, even if it only takes 15 minutes to cut down! We debated on leaving it, as without it, the varnish really goes to ruin, but we surely would have regretted that as soon as a hurricane was on the horizon!




Anyways, there she sits... See you in 3 months Promenade!

We have been swamp dog busy the two days since arriving home. We had to transfer our drivers licenses to CA from Florida, as well as our license tags, finding out that we had to pay a fine because we had not done it in the 20 days since buying the house in April, since we left for the BVI. Plus since we had bought the Lexus less then a year ago in Florida with lower taxes, we had to make up the differences in sales tax to the CA government. Glad to see that we are doing our part to help out California's deficit!!!

Was surprised to see how much paper work was still used at the DMV here compared to Florida! I felt like I was in the 70's...One panic moment was finding out when I switched my license over I had to do a written test...Ha Ha...Ha Ha... Can I say that I looked at the first question which was "what is the legal limit on blood alcohol level for driving" and it had 8, 5 and 0 and I DID NOT know the answer I knew I was in trouble!!!
Bazza "guessed" that since it was CA it would be low and put 5 which was wrong. I opted for the "go outside first and READ the drivers handbook after reading the questions and before doing the test" option. He squeaked through with 6 wrong (the max he could have) and i only had 2! He says it does not count since I read the book!!!

The tests were marked by comparing them to a sheet...Never mind computerized, they did not even have an answer key to put over the circles with the right answer numbers!!!
**
Went to get renew insurances on vehicles, and instead of "what is recommended" she basically told us we had to tell her how much we had to lose in the states so we insured for that amount. My jaw dropped. Welcome to California folks.

**
After all that fun and games, I have managed to eat out at Outback, Panda Express and Red Lobster without going off my eating plan for the days, except for in sodium which is an absolute shocker when you see how much is in this take out food!

**

I think that is enough blabbering on today....

Kevin started a school today to take a bartending course, and looks much better then when I got him a month ago...


And, someone mentioned that we had not had pictures of our granddaughter Ella for awhile, and we have not so here is one! Growing like a weed!

Remember we have done maintenance and are now on vacation for 3 months??? I think my husband is nuts.
He is turning a greenhouse into a workshop. A proper workshop. Sigh. Outside our garage I spied piles of dirt and cement. Always a bad bad sign...


But yeah, apparently he now has a floor. Yippee....


I cleaned the sun room, did laundry, had a nice long swim and then a shower, put on my pajamas and was in bed relaxing watching TV. He comes in and asks for help for awhile. I Pout, stamp my feet, find shoes, press record on the DVR and off I go. Whining all the way.
He tells me that he is going to attempt the impossible. He needs heavy electrical wire from the garage to by the pool. I am going to PUSH three wires through the conduit and he will pull on the other end...
Not only will I push three wires but I will do this while putting a ton of GLOOP on the wires coating them thoroughly. He said I could not have too much gloop. Which meant in about 5 seconds, I was covered with it, and I had so much running down my elbows I could not push any wires...He though maybe we should switch end...


You see, we had to push and pull this wire ALL THE WAY along here to the pool pump at the back of the house!!


On the other end I had to pull up on a mallet and put my hip into it...When he told me to start pulling, I am afraid to say, I had already been pulling!


He told me to go back, he would wait for Kevin.

Thank you very much. I thoroughly LOATHE projects, maintenance, dirt, building things. I just would rather buy new things

Will miracles ever cease? I actually got in the swimming pool for the first time and LOVED it. It was nice to have it shallow enough that I could walk it (which is good exercise of a different kind) rather then just swimming...


Bazza was pleased to see that I was going to make use of it as well!


Not much of excitement here, I went shopping. After a busy few days of being home, I crashed and it was all I could do to get myself out of bed. I sat here and stared at the computer, and finally gave up and went to the PROMENADE (mall, not boat!!)

I was hungry, so went to PF Changs for lunch, thinking that it would be healthy food that I could find something on. Yeah, after looking at the menu up and down I settled on steamed rice and steamed vegetable dumplings to keep it within guidelines to have a chance in hell of actually having any calories left for dinner. Most of the main dishes I would have only been able to eat half of and I would have been over in Sodium then..... What I had was good though and the price tag was only $6.95!

Bazza replaced some scuzzy looking water pipes under the house...


He also had to do some work on the gas pipes, and is now in the process of turning one of the green houses into a "workshop" with concrete floors and air conditioning thank you very much!

We still had time to get some more dives in. First we went down to the west end of Jost Van Dyke, and did another live dive. Here are Mark and Margot dropping down into the water column....


The schools of fish are lacking from what they used to be on this corner, I guess just like many places....


But we did enjoy watching the tarpon hunting in the shallows....


Mark shooting up at the school...


And another nice little Hogfish. Been seeing more of those then I have for a long time....


Our second dive was at Little Thatch again, where we managed to drift a long way although not quite as far as the other day. This old piece of whatever had a nice spotted eel in it...




We saw lobster and beautiful barrel sponges as well...




Over to Waterlemon Cay for a snorkel and then a late afternoon sail down to Caneel Bay. We checked into St John in the AM and then some of us went to the Westin for some jet skiing and some opted to go back to the boat for snorkeling. First time I have been over at the Westin. It is actually a nice resort.




And in another keepsake moment, I have a picture of Kevin with a broom in his hand! Amazing.... (actually both he and Bazza have worked very hard getting the boat ready)


We sailed down to Charlotte Amalie and managed to fit in two dives near there looking for treasures. Both Margot and Mark found old bottles, Mark found a torpedo bottle, which was nice. The theme of the last couple/ few days has been RAIN on top of the wind we were having already. I feel bad as a group I booked on another charter yacht was arriving this weekend from Brazil and, the story goes that June was the rainiest June month in BVI records and July was shaping up that way too.

I made Bazza get up in the middle of night and check on things as the leading edge of one squall jerked us sideways and scared the crap out of me! We managed to get our guests ashore in between rain clouds in the morning and were on our way to Puerto Rico. Rain all the way




We still managed to strip sails and get some things put away though, here the sails are down...


Even though we circled for quite awhile, trying to find a break to get into our slip, it just was not happening, and of course it was looking like this as we were trying to back in....


We finally gave up and went forward which gave me the opportunity to say to my husband "Bazza Bwoke" one more time before he got to leave the always breaking boat this summer! Now, he could possibly blame it on us deckhands too and he may not be far wrong.....


Later on in the afternoon though the marina looked like this.....Naturally






Everyone was watching us curiously as we continued to tie the boat up as if a category three hurricane was approaching. Pictures for that later!

As I just finish typing this we are almost 4 hours into our flight from SJU to LAX! HOME!!! TONIGHT!! NO charters or boat for several months! Yippee.....

We went SCUBA diving! Yep, that is right, back into the water for us...
First dive was to Little Thatch, hoping for a drift dive, but the current was turned off then! Still very pretty though.
This was a whole bunch of Basket Stars in the barrel. Love them so much....


Some nice pillar coral....


Kevin doing what he does best....


Posing in front of Black coral...


Bazza told Kev to be the first one out of the water so he could help the others out, as it was a live dive.....


Then it was onto Great Thatch so Glenyce could have a snorkel. Margot and I opted to have a snorkel too, although we put on SCUBA tanks for ours! This fish attraction device type thingy was directly behind where we anchored. Glad we missed it!


Baby fish in a tire....


Angel Fish roaming around....


A Nice Hogfish....


Nice Black coral and schools of fish....


A pretty little turtle that we came upon over a coral head....


This is coral color that Mark had taken with his camera...


Then it was off in between the rain clouds to White Bay on Jost. A common theme this week it seems.


Margot and Glenyce enjoyed cocktails at sunset (pics by Mark)




EVERYONE enjoyed dinner tonight, not only had I made them do tons of exercise but it was STEAK night!


I still have a blog entry to do or two from this charter, I am a couple days behind, but right now actually the boat is being tied up in Puerto Rico and we are leaving on a jet plane soon!! Yaa hoo....

What last charter of the season would be complete without a stop at Salt Island, and a SCUBA dive there? Certainly not mine! Off we went...

We have been calling my son the darter on dives, as he darts around everywhere, always coming back to the mothership though! He also spends a lot of time standing or sitting on the bottom. At least he picks sand to do it in...but this is a common sight!


Lots of Southern Rays....


Spotted eel eating a fish....


I did not let my guests rest too much as after the SCUBA dive it was straight into a lumpy snorkel all the length of the Bay...






I was the only one who caught this Eagle Ray that was swimming by briefly in the shallows...


Then it was a sail over to Roadtown and a trip back down near Little Thatch to go diving again.. We are loving this spot lately!








Again, my favorite silhouette type pictures..


And in another first for me, I am in the Power Lounger with Margot sipping at Bushwacker at Jost Van Dyke! You have to see it to believe it I think.....


And for those who want to skip ahead to the end of the week...since I am several days behind on here, this is the slide show from last night, pictures from Me and Mark!

Even though Miss Margot whined and complained about getting into her wet wetsuit for the third dive, I was determined that we WERE going diving...I think she put it off until the very last moment!


We did not think there were many Tarpon around until we got in the water, then there was hundreds in the water column, but they were quickly forgotten once we made it down to the bottom and found the hundreds of Sting Rays that kept on fighting to get into our light beam....




This little Decorator Crab was just trying to skittle out of the way I think! Bazza and Kevin found Mantis Shrimp, and Mark and I just followed the Sting Ray...Margot hovered above watching us all...A very neat experience one more time.








On our safety stop we kept on getting these little black puffs and could not figure it out until we saw the tiny little squid. An amazing amount of ink was in these tiny little things. I watched them and giggled the entire time...


Of course while we were doing all this, Glenyce had to wait for her dinner too...It was a late one! We were all about sleeping by the time this was done and happy to fall into bed for the night.

The winds have almost been like Xmas winds, and we are surely happy that we are heading this way this week and not the other!

So, Margot and I talked Bazza into taking us for a drift dive the other afternoon. We jumped in at the east end of the channel side of Little Thatch....The current looked like this!


We get to do so few of these they are always a lot of fun...This is Margot's first ever drift dive and she loved it...


The black coral was spectacular and plentiful....


I found this slipped lobster and surprisingly he did not go anywhere. Eventually he let me pick him up and hold him, until he decided he had enough and skittered away making me squeal like a little girl!


Next we found a shark laying underneath a ledge...


The soft corals and the colors were absolutely pristine and beautiful....


By the end of our drift dive we had gone about a nautical mile and came up way in the middle somewhere between Little Thatch and Great Thatch! Strobes are great though for getting the boat to spot you...A couple clicks and Bazza was right on us...




After that it was into Sopers Hole for the night cuz we wanted to go for a dive with the Tarpons and Sting Rays!

Give it a few days and the blog starts working again...Weird! Now I can put entries in there proper place again... It is after 10 PM tonight and we just finished dinner!! Why, because we went for a night dive. You know it is summer out now when we go in for night dives...
We enjoyed our time at Little Harbour on Peter, it was a large snorkeling trip...every one was in!


I always manage to get my guests best side for the blog!


We watched the Pelicans on the dock...


Sting Rays....


This Hermit Crab was trying out a new house...I don't think it is any larger then the one has had now though!


I played with the upside down jelly fish...






The corner was very still with not much water flow, hence quite a bit of green algae with lots of little fish hiding from the big fish in it....




Lots of fish underneath the dock...







It was time to go for another glorious sail, this time back up to Salt Island again for another dive....We put Kevin to work....


While some napped....


Then it was back down for another fun filled current dive on the RHONE. Only ones there again!


A nice little Peacock Flounder...


These two sting rays made for some wonderful photoes...


Lobster...


You know I am just too damn tired to comment on the rest of these tonight! Tomorrow I will finish it off...
This Octopus was on the Condenser. Quite in the open. We showed it to Margot, she "nodded and smiled" which meant she did not see the damn thing at all!


My rays again... By this time we were getting tired of fighting current....


Mark and his camera...


The Puffer fish are plentiful and large on the wreck lately, We just love them!




Kevin doing his starfish routine. This guy darts every where back and forth very quickly under water, you think I dive fast, no one can keep up with him!


And the Horse Eyed jacks that we spotted on our safety stop!


One last picture...Kerry being VERY guest LIKE and napping on the bimbo mats!! (new bimbo mats by the way, we replaced those...)

There is something about us moving the boat to West End on Tortola. The wind starts howling and we keep on thinking we might just blow away! Yesterday being no exception when a wave starting coming through... Actually driving down the West Coast Road this is what it looked like. Certainly did not look very water friendly!


We had been planning on going out for dinner to Pusser's or Jolly Roger at West End, but figured a restaurant with 4 sides was a better call, so off we trudged into Pussers in Roadtown....


Had a few chuckles at dinner. See this WIDE 1 oz plastic container? This is what the milk for the coffee came in! (never mind we asked for black coffee...) we all looked funny at that. Dinner was ok. Not good. Bazza's well done burger was the rawest thing possible, but he hesitated to send it back as it might have taken forever and he was starving and Kevin thought his grilled reuben panini should have actually been grilled instead of cold, but not to be, and he was surprised to find coleslaw instead of sauerkraut on it....


Anyways, backing up a bit here...we did have some nice weather in St Thomas this weekend and got some good diving in. Our friend Chris from Commercial Dive Services came down to dive with us...


And here are some of the treasures. This is a 7 lb cannonball! Yep, a cannon ball. I thought that was neat and was going to leave it down there as I did not want to haul it back, but then thought that Bazza would like it.


He proceeded to outdo me anyways by coming back with an over 20 lb shot bar for cannons! Show off... Inflated his safety sausage to bring the thing back!


We had Torpedo bottles a plenty....


As well as others, some with lots of writing too...




This is a button that Chris found, it has three cannons on it. Fairly neat!


I love the old ladle, and cannot wait to see it when it is all cleaned up. I can just imagine it being all dented from going into great big pots dishing out stew on board ships! Also so exciting finding this stuff....


Bits of pottery, old oar locks, a plate, a cup and odds and ends. Yes, it was fun!

I have mentioned before on the Blog that there is a very large group of former SHAPE students in Belgium that have connected on Facebook.

Interesting coincidences- the far reach of SHAPE from high school.. For a few months this winter Bruce owned Promenade. Bruce and I had a bit in common as he was also raised Military, although his Father being a 3 star General was in a different league! A couple days ago Bruce passed on a message from his ex wife, saying that she actually KNEW ME from then... I won't put up any last names, as she prefers to keep her internet presence down (I know sounds strange to me who puts my whole life out there!) This is what she wrote...

" When we were in Mons/SHAPE. 1975/76/77. She was in the Canadian school and I was in the American school. But I remember her well. Mother wanted to see all the schools I could go to. There was an Aid who took us to the French and American schools which had hallways and were like regular schools, and then took us to the Canadian school, which was a cubby hole, and I've always remembered the shock on Kerry's face as the Aid opened the door into their cubby hole. It was such a "Who the hell are you?". So cute. Mother saw the Canadian cubby hole, and said, "Barbara will be going to the American school". I saw Kerry maybe one or two times after that when I was doing a recital, but I always remembered her. Most kids were blase about everything, but she had spunk. So, I emailed her My sister, Laura, actually graduated from SHAPE in '76. She was a SHAPE Spartan Drill team...Remember the AYA? Best pistachio ice cream EVER. Oh, and the Bon Marche? That was the first and thankfully only time I have ever seen roll-on deodorant on a tester. I still have a hard time wrapping my head around that. We lived in Mons in a 200 year old town house, not at SHAPE. My Dad had gotten to the point in his career where the house came along with the assignment. He worked directly for Haig. I loved walking up to the Grand Place to buy fresh bread and market. Ohhhh....the Pâtisserie! Remember the bronze monkey? You had to rub it with your left hand for good luck? When I remember back to the Canadian school, it does come back as something like out of a movie. Where they open a door in a wall and there is a whole world behind it. I still think of it as a cubby hole. There was a picture of you on your blog where you had that "What the hell?" face, and I was like, "I know that girl." 2+2=4 and so here we are. Or maybe it's BVI + Dallas = Mons....:-)"

She was correct, the Canadian Section was behind these big ass heavy doors that looked like you were locked in an insane asylum...Until I finally got to go to the American Section for my last year, I never felt like I was part of the school community really there behind those doors..... She really brought back a memory that I had forgotten.

Funny, she said I was spunky, and a lot of other people remembered my big smile back then, but I was sure a bundle of insecurity without much self confidence then for the most part! Damn cat eye glasses I had to wear I believe!

In St Thomas, behind the auto place is a bar. The bar is called Big Cock Bar. I had never noticed it before! We all laughed.


Even though there was no cruise ships in port on Friday, traffic was still pretty backed up with road construction. I had lots of time to snap pictures of there goats eating!


I am not sure how it is possible that we had so many boxes and running around to do in St Thomas, after all, we are going back to the mainland in a couple weeks, but some things never change I guess!!




Kevin is getting over being sick, and looking healthier and perkier...


We went over to Hassle Island to do a bit of a swim in the afternoon...


They have the largest Angel Fish i have ever seen in this part of the world!


Saw lots of lobster as well!


Some interesting coral formations... (better then rock formations when you are diving!)




Some more Humongous Angel Fish...


This one thought he was hiding from me....


When I came up it was just about sunset....


This you cannot really tell from this picture, but you will when I post one of it cleaned up, but this is an approx 7 lb cannon ball!!! I picked it up and debated whether I would or could carry it back to the boat as I also had my camera, but i knew Bazza would like it, so I humped it back, using a ton of air....


Bazza saw a Lionfish today, in West Gregory Channel kind of by Crown Bay Marina. I am not sure who to report it to in the USVI, but apparently this Lionfish was a big one, about 12 inches across!

So, when you pull anchors out of the muck that you have had down there for a year or two I wonder what it looks like? You have probably asked yourself that question repeatedly haven't you??

Well, I am here to show you.




Yes, it smells about as bad as it looks too. Since we are tying the boat up in PUerto Del Rey, Fajardo this summer for hurricane season while we go back to North America (by the way, 17 days until then....a countdown), by the time we returned at the end of October, we would not be able to find these anchors they would be too deep. Hence, we had to pull them up and put them in the storage locker. "we" is not quite true as my help was taking pictures of the performance only!





We are finally leaving dock today. The anchors are coming up, the water has been filled, the storage/work shop has been cleaned up, our power cord has been cut away from the power box, and soon we will run free!!

Bazza's boat, Buoy Boat, has already even been hauled and put into storage at Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour, we will leave the Bingo Bus for another week or so before hauling it as well.

Off to St Thomas for the weekend, back up to Tortola on Monday for a ton of running around, pick up a few friends for a week next Sunday, and then time to go back to the land of fast food restaurants and fast internet for a few months!

Once again, we have spent 4 straight months on island working our asses off on this boat. And, let's not even talk about the last month...maintenance time every year, I get, well, a little grumpy lets put it that way.

We did most everything we wanted to, we want to change some of our bathroom fixtures and lights this summer, but we will buy them at home and ship them down for next season. We did not get new rain guards done for the cockpit, but you only see the mildew on them when they are down! So, sometime...

We revarnished our cockpit tables which had table epoxy on them this last year which was HORRIBLE and showed water spots each and every time it rained..

OK, I am just babbling now... Happy to have a change!

Well Mark, I guess you don't have to worry. The boat actually looks like a charter boat again! Bazza has even cleaned it! See how nice our cockpit looks????




Something I had to take a picture of, as my youngest son is here for a bit and I have not seen him with a scrub brush in his hand for very long let me tell you!


A couple days ago, Kevin and I went over to Salt Island. Him for a snorkel and me for a dive. It helps, when you are doing such things, we found out to bring full tanks of air not empty, and more then one snorkel between the two of you! So he snorkeled....


And then I went for a snorkel with my camera...


So, you get some shallow water corals shots, which is ok, cuz the snorkeling there shallow is some of the best around for picture taking I think....










This poor little fish had Isopods on both sides of his head!


I spent a lot of time up in the shallows by the dock taking pictures. The late afternoon lighting was perfect.



PS: Tidbits passed on Lionfish sightings...

We have unconfirmed sightings (no photo or specimen) at the Indians, Lee Bay (north side just west of the small cave); Mountain Point (somewhere between Long Bay beach and the SE dive site @ Mt. Pt); & Great thatch. If any of you are out and about, keep your eyes out at these places.

About us having blue skies and the sun being out..It started out nice (this is looking down at Smugglers Cove from Belmont Estates)



But before I left the West End it started pouring and that was just about all it did for the rest of the day then. On every end of the island....




I know it is going to stop some day...I went out in the afternoon to Beef Bluff again for a dive, trying out a lens I have not used for a long time. My macro. Apparently I have totally forgotten how as these are the best "mood" pictures I took, as I got nothing else!








I did have a gigantic Nurse Shark I could see coming at me across the reef, and they are pretty skittish so I kept on waiting for him to veer away. He didn't. He kept on coming right at me. I started flashing my strobes at him and literally, he did not notice me until he was 6 inches from my camera. I was just getting ready to hit him with it! Then he saw me and quickly turned...Good thing he was only a Nurse Shark as I might have had a heart attack otherwise!

So, Richard and Lisa who are lazing around in the blazing hot sunshine of Vancouver pretending to be working, were over on Vancouver Island this week.....So glad they go to have a tour of the area with mom and dad and they spent time together!
And good timing as mom and dad are taking off on a cross country jaunt on Thursday to visit relatives in Winnipeg...


They even had sunshine on Vancouver Island, as Lisa is despairing of EVER seeing anything but rain in Vancouver!


Of course they went out and ate....


This picture should be captioned "Put the hammer down and back away from Bazza's toys, Richie!!" As believe me, once we get back up to Canada in August, Bazza will be full speed ahead working on whatever project he has in the house there as well!


Basically it has rained on Tortola. The seas are dirty over here, and getting out for a SCUBA dive is getting pretty boring on the reefs just out here. None the less, it is keeping up some exercise in my world. Even if I can't see anything!




A nice little sting ray, with interesting marks on his back...


Not sure what they were made from.....here is a close up...


Soft coral tubes....


Feather Dusters...


An upside down jelly fish....


I loved this little peppermint shrimp, usually I only getting them inside so I really cannot see them to take a picture!


A flame Helmet which is nice and clean...


This part of the reef seemed to have a ton of old bicycle wheels on it...maybe a load was lost!


An old Large Triton Trumpet...


The octopus gave me a nice murex shell today! This is just his eye....



A very large anchor and chain laying there. In good shape too!


And on the maintenance front? Well, of course, there is maintenance happening. The doors are back on the boat and look SPECTACULAR. So much nicer then the blue paint! Unfortunately we had to use the same old handles off the old ones as that was our only choice on island... It worked out so well that at some point we will replace the doors on the cabins in the ama's...But not soon!


The cockpit is totally stripped apart down to everything out of the lockers, the lids off and has been cleaned and painted.... Even new awlgrip! It looks fairly disgusting doesn't it?


But this is in the half way stage and it is looking much better.... They are almost done now, and I will put up a nice shiny picture of the cockpit and nice blue cushions when all is said and done.

Which lately has been horribly missing for what seems like forever, but was probably only about ten days. We had some big rains in squalls yesterday though...especially in the evening.

Bazza had to go into town yesterday morning to look at someones dive compressor, so I tagged along to get out of the house. For those keeping track, the freezers in Bobby's that hold the vegetables and meats today were all just fridges too. Lots of bareboaters in there provisioning though!

Bazza found me a present in the driveway. A large old Tarantula! I would have died it I saw that on the boat. I don't like bugs.


Took this picture by the garbage dump on the way into town...SHould have gotten the entire car in the picture as it was a 70's model that looked like it should go to the junkyard and a reddish color that fades in the sun... Looked no different then many of the cars we have junked on the side of the road!



So, I went for a splash in the afternoon. Went by Beef Bluff and actually had some visibility. I forgot what that was like almost! I stayed down there for 100 minutes. Never more then 30 feet though!
Starfish....


Brittle Star wrapped around the coral...


Fire coral just growing...


More peppermint shrimp!


Remora....


Another shrimp. So unusual for me to get them outside...


Lots of Flamingo tongues...





It was bucketing down with rain while I was diving though. This is looking up...


Sand Diver...


Birds sitting on the rocks outside Hans Creek...


I was curious how this hermit crab inside was going to get his conch shell out and off of the fire coral?


Nice little golden eel...


Sting ray....




And that covers the fish pictures for today! Time for me to get ready and go out. I have to go down to West End and take photo's of a villa and then I want to go into Cantik and see what they have for outside coffee tables for replacing the one we have in the cockpit. They have a lot of patio furniture nowadays that is water resistant...

It appears from the look of this that we MAY get some rain this weekend! Better then a hurricane! I wonder if I point this out to the maintenance powers that be that it will mean that it will be too rainy to do maintenance and we will have to go diving or something? I doubt it!


****
Now the bit for my girlfriends (which may bore you males silly, jump down there is fishie pictures on the bottom)
Now, me, health things...what does this picture have in general....healthier food. Those who know me, know I love food. Nothing makes my eyes light up quite like a large plate of putaha (perogies for those who are not Ukrainian) with bacon and sour cream or a big juicy steak and baked potato loaded with EVERYTHING. My husbands laughs when he sees how much I perk up when I see a Starbucks, or one of my favorite restaurants come into view. I tell him at least it is not cocaine I am addicted too (I would be skinnier though!)


I have not dieted for a long long time. I have no idea what the prevalent theory is on watching what you eat, and quite frankly, nor did I want to. My husband likes me large, case closed. Although I think he prefers if I am healthier. Since starting chartering in 98 I have gained 60 lbs, give or take a few. I guess I enjoy my cooking.
I have a history of gestational diabetes, the ancestry has lots of it, and in fact when I did my 23andme genetic medical tests, it came out with something like a 63% of diabetes. My blood sugar has been sitting a bit high for a few years, but marginally. I knew it was coming. I really did. I was not looking forward to the day that I was going to actually have to DEAL with it. I lived on the edge, I did not start watching it years ago, putting it off.

I know, get the tiny violins out and cue them now... I have been so tired lately and seriously out of breath, except for when I am in the water, then I am fine, that we knew I had to go in and get tests and see what was happening. Yeah, I had it all, high cholestrol, high blood pressure, crossed over on the diabetes line, and surprisingly, I was severely anemic. Just a grab bag of lifestyle issues there.

I have never been very good on my cholestrol medication, as it give me leg twitches and cramps, so I only take it for awhile and then quit. They gave me a new one. And lots of other pills.
****
Side note: When I went in for the follow up glucose tests, which they did every have hour for a few hours, my veins were getting sore as they are pretty small toward the end. One time I bled everywhere. On the VERY last needle, they put in a tiny butterfly needle, I guess to get it in and not hurt me. As I am watching this in my arm I am thinking "Why the F** did they not put this in on the first needle and just used it for getting blood instead of sticking me a billion times??"
****
So yeah, the "I can eat everything I want anytime I want" has to go away. It has for the last week. I know that I don't have to take off THAT much weight to lose those health problems. And If I took off 50 lbs, I would be tons healthier (except my fat face would have more WRINKLES from being skinnier!)
I am trying to look at is as a lifestyle change, and truthfully, since I watched what I was eating back in the early days of time, it has become a lot easier. I signed up on My Fitness Pal which basically counts everything for me as soon as I enter what I eat or exercise and lets me know right away whether I am going to make my target. I love the fact that I can actually have anything I want, as long as I am going to exercise more, or eat less of something else! I mean, really, 3 cups of popcorn?? Ha! But double that and I am ok!

I never knew how much some foods had of sodium in them. And what a carb was etc etc. I will say that I am allergic to a chemical in most fruits and vegetables when they are fresh, have been all my life, so I have to be creative as raw veggies and fruit just cannot go on my menu plan....

And that is the end of the girlfriend post...you will be able to know if I stick to it by watching pictures of me on the blog! But know I am doing this for health, not because I want to be skinny! And by the way, a week of iron and my heart has stopped feeling like it is going to beat out of my chest. Amazing. Good thing there is doctors when you finally get off your behind and go to one!

******

Now that is out of the way, lets go back to the fish pictures....
Since we appear to be chained to this dock (yes, I get like this EVERY maintenance season...whiny...) and the Bingo Bus is not running, I was forced to take out the dinghy to get in the water. I just went out to the other side of Red Rock here, and it was pretty. These are squid eggs....



Many sting rays in the grass out there which must mean there are turtles too but I did not see any!


You are going to see a lot of "fish trap" art from this dive. There were dozens of old traps, so i took pictures of them, and all the little fish that were amusing using them for shelter....







Did have a spotted eel or two as well...


And I hit the lobster jackpot! I saw dozens and dozens of lobsters.....



I think this is my favorite picture of the dive, with the anemone behind it.....


Some surprisingly healthy coral....


Flamingo Tongues....


Just an interesting bit of something sticking up....


And then I ran across this. Which goes to prove that you can never know what you are going to see on a dive. A truck Trailer. A large one. Sitting nice as can be on top of the reef! Quite funny actually....






Then, someone's rudder. I was getting low on air so I could not scout around for the rest of the boat to see if it was there!


And these are just a series of more "fish trap art"











I think I will go back here today and see what else I see. There was a very large chain down there that I followed for awhile before I lost it, I would like to see if that leads to an anchor. Bazza is in doing yucky town stuff. Insurance etc.
I am sure he is arguing with them that we did not need a new survey for the boat since we bought it back from Bruce (we just had one done in November before selling the boat), when they transferred it to him he had to argue that his from last month was good enough and I am sure he will have to argue the same today..... Why don't there all every understand that a LTD company owns the boat, not a personal person!!!

I am one lucky girl. I still have both my parents, and I get to spend quite a bit of time with them! My dad was born in 1937 and my mother in 1940 (sorry mom!)

Looking at this picture taken of my mother when she came home from the hospital on the Homestead in Northern Alberta, I can almost believe the stories she tells of walking uphill to school both ways!


Mom was a farm girl, from Scottish, Norwegian and French roots. She loved growing up on the farm, even through the war they had lots of food as they grew it all themselves. She had favorite horses, cats, and even a little dog, Tippy. Although mostly her mean nasty little brothers got to play with it!
Her big sister, Eileen, is 9 years older then her, and still lives up in Northern Alberta, not far from the old homestead!
She had 4 younger brothers, Bennie, Chum, (real name Kerry like me), Donald and Herbie. Only two are still alive, and I think she misses them daily still.

My dad, on the other hand, grew up very poor from a single mother and one older sister, Marjorie (no longer alive) on the city streets of Winnipeg and then Toronto. Pure Ukrainian background (or whatever the country borders were at the time there...) Dad had to work from a very young age to bring in money to help support the family. They did indeed, eat ketchup sandwiches for dinner many times. Dad had a bicycle when he was quite young that he could only ride for delivering telegrams or groceries, stuff that brought in money, as it might get broken!


They both joined the air force when they were old enough, and I believe met each other up in Goose Bay Labrador. I am sure there was not much else to do up there besides meet people!!!!




They were married in 1959. Rumor has it that dad gambled all his money away when going up to Alberta for the wedding and MOM had to lend him money! Surprised she did not turn and run!


A military career that took them all over the world, and three amazingly beautiful and smart kids they thanked god for EVERY single day of their life! Yep, that is me in the middle with my sister Sydney (9 years younger) and brother Danny (3 years younger). Notice I made sure I picked an older picture when we were all skinnier????



My dad is so cute...He has this little camera that he wears on his belt buckle, I would be surprised if it is not the earliest model of digital! And whips it out like he is pulling out a gun to take pictures!
He has it on in this picture of them on Anegada awhile ago....
My mom is so cute too...She loves getting dressed up in sparkles and bling, and loves flowers and plants. Poor women got my sister and I who could care less about either of those two things. Come to think of it, neither can my brother....

But, we love them both and are very glad to have them still in our life, and hope they stick around for a lot longer..... We turned out to be just as lucky to have them as they are to have us!


Here is to my parents, Constance Joan and Sidney George!

Well that was a long night without much sleep... The wind howled, the waves crashed and the boats all danced across and around the dock. On anchor watch in the middle of the night, we heard the Coast Guard a few times on the VHF...

This is not a good marina in a blow like that from the direction it came from, so exposed. I sat in the cockpit for awhile last night planning my escape route. Alternatively, looking at the other side to make sure none of the boats on moorings were going to come down on this.

Calmed down a lot by this morning...This was the view this AM


Unfortunately it was just one of those days. This Trader's boat came into the marina, pulled onto the windward side of the heaving dock, backed in, and then apparently did not have any lines ready. It all went to hell, as they were tossed sideways and under the dock quite a bit....Took awhile to get to get that straightened out with a few crunches. I thought I overheard them say that they thought it would be better in here then out on mooring......


Then Tony from UBS came over, and needed Bazzas help to go tow their boat in. Apparently, they had JUST gotten fuel at Alphonso's and went straight out, only to have the gas they just filled up with be about pure water, and did not make it past Buck Island!!!


We think about now we will just keep our head down and see if we can not be the "3rd strike, you are out" today....

Yesterday afternoon it was still calm enough to go for a dive out in the harbor here, so off I went... I had Groupers....


Flamingo Tongue...


And I scared the hell out of this little turtle who had his mouth in munching away. He left quickly once he realized I was right beside him....


A few spotted drums (?) around...


The eye of an octopus...



A southern sting ray...


Nice little Hogfish. Seeing more around then usual of those lately....


Yeah, more lobster then I know what to do with and I am going to stop taking pictures of them too!


Two HUGE HUMONGOUS angelfish..


And the cutest little puffer that came right up and looked in my camera lens for a minute or two. Not scared at all.


It has been drizzling all day, and is just kind of cold and dreary feeling. I even have the air conditioning off in the boat right now...(I am sure not for long...) I am thinking that movies and TV sound like a great idea, we are down to the last few episodes to watch of this season of LOST, so I think that may be the thing to do.

With popcorn.

And just tired today...Sick of the boat, sick of maintenance, sick of eating low fat low cholestrol crap food that i hate. I think I should stop blogging now!

Blogging has become a real outlet for me. I still so enjoy it after all these years. If I have things going on that I don't share, and let's face it, not everything should be shared with the world, especially when you are running a business, I always feel a bit out of kilter cuz I have not written about it. Ultimate narcissism isn't it?

You would think that the act of writing it down whether anyone reads it or not would be enough. But, somehow not..I have entries I would love to share with just my girlfriends, so I have thought about password protecting, or putting up another blog (god forbid!) but it really seems like too much work.

So, it goes here. At least I am a real person. I read quite a few blogs, and some of these women are MUCH braver then I am with sharing information. I read a whole cross section of blogs and info, although I am not much for commenting on them, I feel like I know some of these women. And it does seem to be mostly women I follow, not intentionally, I guess they blog more!

Some of the blogs I read, you would wonder what kind of off beat things I am into...but they all seem to fit together. It is like reading stories and getting gossip all the time.

So, what blogs do I follow and why? Well, a sample of them that I read are...

Some are work related, to keep me up to date what is going on in the chartering world. Although, if it is purely a blog that "sells things" and does not give me an insight into the people behind it it quickly gets boring...

I follow Kim Kavin of Charter Wave, to see what she has up for info on happenings and boats. She also has a personal blog I follow here which is lately detailing her triathalons (see I cannot even spell the word, never mind DO IT) triumphs and struggles. I get out of breath just reading it!

I follow Sheila at Paradise Connections. She blogs about not only booking yacht charters, but also the trials and tribulations of cruising the Caribbean in their yacht which was dismasted last fall in a storm and they have spent all winter in St. Croix building a new mast. Sheila has become a good friend over the years, and we enjoy being snarky together at times!

In a rare occurrence, a male on my blogging list, her husband also blogs, about boaty "things", and he always seems to have new projects on the go in his head and in real. Bob is not always politically correct, which I really enjoy.

Jean Beswick, on Jeannius started off by blogging when they were doing charters here in the Caribbean and then had a great opportunity to go on the around the world arc race, so off they went. They are in the middle of Tonga somewhere in the back of beyond, and her writing style has some real english deadpan humor in it which I love. When she blogs about wanting to run away screaming from the boat to civilization (well, I am paraphrasing) all I can do is nod my head and agree.....

Adventure Antigua, blogs about life on the water in that area. They also sometimes are politically incorrect which I like! They do echo tours and day tours.

BVI Bound, has not posted much in the last couple of months, but of course, I like to keep up with any blogs that are happening in the BVI. I am still waiting for more people to blog from here!

Storm Carib has daily updated posts from weather watchers all over the Caribbean, and I like to keep an eye on the weather everywhere in the Caribbean it appears!

Dear Miss Mermaid was perhaps the original blogger in the BVI. She lived her for many years, making her living as an accountant and a chef, (and writing books) She always seems to keep her identity a secret, although us on island know her name. She has recently bought a motorhome and is traveling around the states, trying to make a living and take care of some health issues she left the islands for. Her blogging was sporadic for quite awhile, but has now picked up again. She is humorous, and i chuckle reading it. She has a loyal following. Have to giggle at anyone now driving around the states in a RV...I wonder if she will have people like we did come up to us at a mall in Atlanta and pound on the RV going "I read your blog!"

I read the blogs from the old time SCUBA divers at Undercurrent I love the tales of the old days and the idiocracy that is involved in Dive training nowadays.

Harts at Sea. They live on a boat. Not sure how I started following this one...One of my newer follows...Blog always go up and down, one you loved reading last month no longer blogs or whatever...

Catittude does not blog much, a power cat that was in TMM for a few years, they have now wrapped up their businesses stateside and are moving about this week permanently down here on the boat, so I imagine it will pick up. They will be doing some charters...

Our BVI Adventure started this winter, by a couple who recently moved to Tortola, he as the Director of International Sales or Marketing or some such at Pussers. Enjoy her writing and always love other BVI bloggers!

Rock2Rock. A family cruising, currently in Polynesia.

Sandy Montgomery on Sail or Not Think I started reading this when I was following her misadventures about picking up sailing jobs off the internet trying desperately to find a place for herself on a boat in the islands. Hate to laugh at others misfortune, but it was seriously funny. Still enjoy reading about her travels and tribulations, the good and bad, from almost being homeless, to being in Palm Springs. She is based out in Vancouver, where near we live when we are up in Canada, so that is always fun to read too.

Not many charter crews blog, and if they do, it is very sporadically. Tom and Becca are on Hypnautic and put up occasional entries.

This couple, Sasha and Tara, USED to be on Hypnautic, then on Diadem and now looking again!

Then there is the St Thomas Blog, as we have to know what is going on on that side of the Virgins!

And another blog on living over on the US Side from Captain Jay..Always pretty water pictures!

If anyone remembers the charter yacht Shellette, it is on a round the world journey too...(See if I read all these others ones I don't have to do it myself! And never would unless I can get fast internet at all times and the generator never breaks!)

Let see, we also have a woman blogger from Australia I follow on Wanderlust. Not sure how I got there either!

So called "Mommy Bloggers" there are lots. Lots of people blog about their children, which I don't find particularly interesting. Sue me. However, some of them blog about their trials in regards to children and that I like. Also the up and downs of trying to survive as a family in this economy are interesting.

Uppercase Women. Don't always agree with her, but I appreciate women who are larger and also blogging about it!

I somehow got connected onto a few alternative blogs, raising children, living off the land and such. Interestingly some of these girls came out of some fairly heavy body modification blogs before getting to the raising children route. I enjoy reading the alternate views on life. No damned way am I interested in doing any of this parenting where they suck on your breast forever and you co sleep etc etc.

This girl, glorious and free, lives outside Kincardine in Ontario where I lived for many years and I don't know how she has the energy to do everything she does AND do it while getting new tattoos all over the place.

Type Alice is a girl that I have been following for a few years. Her husband keeps a fishing blog and website and was born on Tortola. I started following her when she was blogging while living on Tortola and have kept up through the moves back to chilly canada and the natural parenting etc etc.

Heather blogs on the Spohrs are Multiplying Heather had a toddler die a year or so ago, and has continued to blog through the birth of her new daughter Annabel.

Equal people think that Sandy Benson is nuts or a great person. She has 15 children, money to raise them, most of them adopted, many with special needs, and this is one women who shares more intimate details that most of us would cringe at sharing. But I have enjoyed reading her story over the years. How much energy can one person have? She has taken numerous hits in the blogging world for "oversharing" but I think people can write about whatever they want, if you don't like it, don't read it.

We're all friends here seems to be a lower income girl who had a very troubled life growing up and is now in a three way relationship and there is children involved. I was taken aback when I first started reading it, very much, but this girl can WRITE! She lives in low income housing in Southern California, and in some ways it is another one of those where you feel like you are watching a train wreck but can't look away. I love her writing style, and it is an interesting look inside the dynamics of three person relationships. Believe me, if there was Polygamists who blogged too I would probably read those as well!

And, last but not least, is a blog by our friend and former guest, Tom Richey who is taking his retirement in So Ca and attending Culinary Arts School! He calls himself "Chef wanna B"

So, a real hodge podge of blogs, and no, I don't go to those sites every day, when there are new entries they show up in my RSS reader. There is many more, but this turned out to be a much longer entry then it was going to be, and it went in a totally different direction then it was going to as well...I was going to write about some health issues I now have, some changes I have to make etc etc. You know, the original commiserating with the girlfriends post I started doing?

That will have to wait until later.

To each of the blog writers above, I may not comment on your blogs, but I enjoy reading each and every one of them so thank you!

And me going SCUBA diving is a three way win!

1) I get exercise, as let's face it, not a chance in hell I will be getting out on land walking or running here is it?
2) I get pictures for my blog
3) Bazza does not have to listen to me whine about the maintenance for a couple hours every day...

I drove happily from East End down to West End to pick up some mail that someone had brought over for me from the USVI side yesterday, as that then meant I was away from the maintenance zone for another couple hours...Are you seeing a pattern here????

**
By the way, before I get into the fish pictures, I have a "friends" week coming up on the boat in july, that i thought was just about filled up, but things happen and now I have lots of room! This is not a charter week per se, but a "hang out on the boat, share expenses, and ok, we will do some fun things and dive too" July 11th to 17th. The price is less then half what I normally charge for a cabin with two people in it, even without the diving thrown in and a couple other things, so you will never get a better deal to come on this yacht. Unless of course, you are my immediate family

I am sure someone wants to come hang out with us in the islands for the week...I will even guarantee you that you do NOT have to do any maintenance! We will have a lot of fun.
**
Now, fish pictures. Better then maintenance I suppose!
I am getting to know this little reef out here pretty good. I understand that East End here used to be the main anchorage for Tortola way back when...Who knew?
I found Tulip shells....


And Sting Rays...


This grouper thought he was hiding and I could not see him...


Yeah, and more lobsters then I know what to do with....


But a nice Eagle Ray came swimming by!





Uh oh, I don't think this lobster made it!


More Fish pot art!


And this was Red Rock from various angles....







There were literally hundreds of heart urchins on the grass....


I brought these all up, they were dead, but I just took pictures and threw them back as they never would have cleaned up. Large cowries, unusual to see nowadays, but I am seeing a lot of them here....


This? Who knows, obviously a misfire, just thought it was kind of different...


We are supposed to be getting a lot of rain. We have been waiting and waiting. So far, just blue skies and light wind. We will take that....

Always makes you sit up and take notice on Friday afternoons!

I love popsicles. You know, the sugar free ones in tropical flavors... Always a challenge to find on island, as, let's face it, you have to find a grocery store that actually has a freezer working, and not only working but at a low enough temperature. I have become a connoiseur at scanning the grocery store shelves and finding something that may actually still be frozen. Bazza's entertainment is to look for the thermometers in the fridges and freezers and point out what the temperature is.

The new Riteway beside us in East End, has wonderful beautiful new freezers, and the ice cream out of them is probably the hardest I have seen on Tortola. But, no popsicles. Friday I planned. I took along a frozen bag with me to town, as I can usually find half melted popsicles at Bobby's... I figured I could get them home and finish freezing them.

Bobby's, is in sadly poor shape. I saw milk containers in the chill section that looked like they were going to burst their seams. Every cooler was filthy, not working properly if at all and it really reminded me of the OLD Bobby's, before this one was built.

I went to the ice cream freezers, which covered most of the aisle, but half were empty and broken and the other half, I opened the door and I could SEE the ice cream melting out of the boxes and the popsicles were just sticky fruit juice piling on the bottom. No savior there. This is a common occurrence. I am not sure how much they have to charge for all the wastage....

I went into One Mart, as they have them too. Well, I fear their freezers were not that much better. The ice cream ones were mostly turned off or melting. Plus, I always wonder why ice cream has to be sold in the same quarter section of the store as salt fish does?

If you want to make a million dollars on Tortola, be a top notch freezer mechanic and learn how to clean them too. You should have them tripping over you to give you work!

******

And, how is maintenance coming you ask? Of course you do! And of course it is... We are beginning to have things that look like cockpit cushions...



Look the sewing room busy in action!



And this is the list that says "I am so damn tired of you taking pictures of me for your blog, I am just humoring you you know" Not sure what he is complaining about, he has more then a conch shell on!


New doors for the aft are all cut out and are (were) in the process of being varnished. Unfortunately, apparently the wood we could get for it on island, well, was not the best quality, so the varnish is going on the very thin veneer wonky. Not sure what they are going to do with that....


*****

I went to get in the Bingo Bus yesterday to go for a dive...Only to have it in "get home" mode. Bazza worked on it for awhile and then told me I was not going dive in it, cuz it was computer controlled it was going to have to go in to be looked at where they have a machine to read it. This meant a "discussion" ensued with me first telling him that that was incredibly stupid when I had a perfectly good engineer at home and he should just buy whatever it was he needed. Him telling me how expensive it was. Me telling him that he should have told me this before we bought it, that it was really silly as we never take anything in...Him telling me it would not have made any difference at the time if he had told me. Me insisting it would have. Him telling me that if I wanted a fast boat with a big outboard they all had them now. Me arguing that the tender with the 50 hp did not have one.

Well, I could go on, but you get the picture. My choice was to take the tender not the power boat, so off I went bouncing across the channel cursing at (the boat, and maybe husband) each time my kidneys were jarred. Incredible how quickly I got used to the power boat and don't want to deem to put my behind in the dinghy!!!

Anyways, it was nice to get in with my camera, although it was pretty cloudy and a water temp of 85 degrees already.... So you get some fishie pictures...


A flounder...



A rock Hind....



I loved this tiny fish on the shell. Unfortunately I had a wide angle lens on, so this is cropped like crazy....



A spotted eel...


This sting ray was surprised as can be when he came up over this coral head and saw me there...



This one just ignored me...




If you look carefully on the left in the bottom there is another spotted eel sticking out his head. I love the colors of the soft corals around him...






This Tarpon followed me around for a lot of the dive. Unusual. Usually the Barracuda do that, but we was with me the entire time....


I then bounced my way across the channel again, and cooked up some blackened mahi mahi for dinner. It was GREAT!

Perhaps...Interspersed with doing some medical appointments, getting blood work and doing "town" things.

One of the town things was turned in our work permits for renewal, and you would think I had never done this before, as although I had our cards on the papers, I had forgotten to "walk with" passport photo's so we had to track those down. Not as easy as you think as the first place we went to have all kinds of difficulties and it ended up finally with only me getting pictures and Bazza having to walk to the other place on Main Street.

Bazza has spent some time with electrolysis cleaning up the sword handle he found. It is very pretty underneath, and we assume it is quite old, and has a mark of R A with a crown on top of the R. Which I think would stand for Royal Artillery...but we will see!






Going into town early this morning from East End, I was met with several spots were sewage was gushing out on the road...Always pleasant! By mid morning crews were out digging out one of them.

Made Bazza stop to take a picture of these goats and sheep. Not sure if they were trying to fill themselves up with gas or get a ride in the boat!




Oh! There is the maintenance pictures...Bazza is on to making new covers for the cockpit cushions. They really need it. Although unwrapping the roll, we find, either they sent, or we ordered the wrong color, as it is quite a flat dark blue and we wanted more of a textured "hide the dirt" kind. There was no thought of sending it back though....


As you know, it is going to look fresh and clean unlike these disgusting old covers!


I don't have any doors at all in the aft of the boat. It looks quite weird to me and there appears to be a whole bunch more room in the cabins too!


The bathroom doors looked particularly grotty once they were taken off, but Felix is cutting new wood, and they will soon be all new shiny varnished doors with new hinges and locks!


5 degrees cooler in town this morning then it was yesterday... 92 yesterday, 87 today. That is much better!

And the maintenance march continues on board...

Who knew ANYONE could fit into the garbage lockers on the aft quarterdeck? Certainly Bazza nor I cannot, but apparently Felix can! We will no longer have large holes going from the crew cabin to them to the delight of the crew and anyone else who sleeps in there now!

Bazza LOVES having Felix on board to help with the maintenance I can tell. He is thorough, conscientious and although not a speed demon, loves working on boats. Felix is from Dominica originally, but has been working in the BVI for a few years now on day sail boats etc. which are really slowing down this time of year, so it helps both of us out...


Bazza has this afternoon FINISHED going through every inch of the inside of the yacht. It has been scrubbed to within an inch of it's life.


I have to say that I have never seen these "spare tool" bins underneath the back beds been totally cleaned out before. And I think that was from long before we bought the boat in 1998! We did also manage to find a couple pairs of guests underwear down in these holes! Just in case you are missing yours...feel free to email me and describe them to get them back!


And finally, I am getting some new websites. This is a mock up of the new one for this website. I absolutely love it. No, that is not the header picture, a full size snap of the underside of our dinghy, but it was a place holder! This will have my charter specials blog embedded right in the front page...The best part, I am not coding it.

Another exciting Sunday maintenance day here in the islands...I am actually caught up with my accounting! That is an amazing feat.

Next on the to do list, is updating the websites, especially the Promenade one...

When I say that there has been things taken apart on this boat that have never been before, this is a view in the port ama for those who know it from the laundry closet looking back through the SCUBA gear room and to the small crew cabin in the aft. Look how empty it is! Bazza, has cleaned every surface, and done any minor repairs he sees.....

I see some painting coming up in someone's world (not mine! I imagine Lisa is jealous, that is usually her department!)


Of course, all the SCUBA gear looks like this in the cockpit, but, hey, it is not my department! I am just pleased and grateful that it is getting sorted out, and made pretty. Crew areas NEVER see as much attention as the guest cabins do, and some say, you can tell a boat on how you keep the crew cabins...There just never seems to be enough time for everything that needs to be done on the boat.






I am going to start my search for new boat light fixtures for the cabins, as I think that will modernize the cabins look to go along with some of the other things...

In REALLY exciting news in my world, I am at this moment getting high speed hard wired internet down on the boat...See Kerry do the happy dance! 1000 feet of cable being run from the hotel down to my boat will have me SPEEDING along the internet pathway now..Next thing you know I will be asking for cable television...Hmmmm.

And just like a little Suzy Homemaker I am baking a cake this afternoon. Not sure why, maybe in celebration of having gotten my accounting caught up to date!

Thought about going for a dive this afternoon, but it is already 430, so I may try that tomorrow.

And for the two laughs of the day....

1) Bazza thought about taking this crew cabin back here and putting in an additional smaller generator and a washer dryer. I told him that was fine, but there was not a chance in hell I was climbing down into the ama in those small rooms to do laundry. Since he did not figure he wanted to do it, that idea has gone bye bye...

2) He put a board under our bed in the V berth, this was not thick, maybe an inch or so, but apparently it was JUST ENOUGH so both of us looked like Winnie the Pooh getting stuck in the hole and had a heck of a time getting in and turned around. The board now goes to be stored in the storage locker...

It cannot be swords and pirate bottles all the time folks! Apparently it was time for me to go back to work.

I sorted out the linen closet (for all our fine linens you know...) apparently we had a need for about 50-60 sets of towels. And I had a lot to do with that. They are down to a more manageable 40 or so now!

I wish I was one of these people who could tell what size sheets they are by feeling, however, even after decades here I end up opening every damn single one to see what size it is...Gosh I really was not kidding that this was a boring entry was I!


My kitchen was taken apart, cleaned, painted and thankfully does not look like this any longer...


I know Lisa will be impressed with our newly painted white fridge! We can be pathetic...




And for those who become semi crew/ guests, we are redoing the crew cabins. They will only be single beds, but they will have more room. Some paint, taking the old exhaust hoses that have been doing nothing for many years out (that is what the holes are...now we can fill them in and that room will not smell like the garbage locker any longer!)


I am also told that we get all new varnished doors in all the aft, and new sinks and in some cases sink units and counter tops...Pretty exciting!
Also we decided new SCUBA gear was in order...

Boring entry, but what can I say, happy in our world.

I have noticed that East End here is a duty free zone. Whether it is supposed to be or not is another question, but watching the fuel tankers, the fast boats and all other means, it certainly is. You get away with things down here you would not in Roadtown that is for sure!

Had a rain this afternoon and realized how much volcanic ash and sahara dust the boat has picked up. Brown rivers running everywhere!

Talking of swords, Bazzas is coming along nicely. The handle is cleaned off, it is brass and it has the initals A R carved in it. I will put up pics!

We have managed to make our way back to the dock. That can only mean that work is REALLY going to go on now. My boat looks like it too...

First on the list is the yearly end of season go right through the boat spring cleaning, throwing away everything that looks tacky, broken or like crap, making a list of what needs purchasing, fixing or, my favorite, buying!

I think that wine must be related to chicken parmesan somehow as they multiply. I am not quite sure how I have ended up with so many, filling up the galley and spilling over into the salon!


The last group did not leave me a lick of VODKA anywhere, but wine, hey, we are good. Considering we don't touch that stuff....


We had parts of the salon apart that had never been taken apart before in the old girls history. The shop vac is going full steam ahead, and every nook and cranny is cleaned, and sprayed in case any potential bugs thing they are going to show up....


Before we left Thatch yesterday, we did see a ferry with only one engine transfering people or crew onto the white ferry....No big drama.....


We have some new presents! Puppette/Bingo Bus got some nice whips to keep it off the side of Promenade. It will cut down on Bazza's fiberglass work fixing the side of Promenade substantially when it is alongside! Much nicer now....


We FINALLY after many years, have our VERY own dock cart! I will have to keep it chained in cement, but boy will it come in handy.....


And one of my happy pictures from this afternoon, the galley is getting cleaned and painted with a few little electrical things tidied up!


I am attempting to make a dent in paperwork. Some, I have not done since we arrived back on island in early April. Believe me it is beyond due!

Enjoying the pleasure the last couple days of getting to drive through the sewage spouting out of the manhole cover on the highway by the roundabout. That is pleasant. Imagine what the people smell waiting there for their rides out to East End!

Boat papers for Promenade. Duty paid papers for Promenade. Yearly Trade License renewal. Bill of sale for the Bingo Bus. 3 passports, (Australian, Canadian and UK), US Visa's...

Well they have in common that they should not get wet. Never mind SIT In water for OVER 2 days. They are also among the most important papers we have....

Other things, like credit cards, money, business cards are not as important....

I was not sure whether to laugh or cry.....



And I know that many of you are going to think I did this (as it generally would be me!) but it was BAZZA! He was distracted a couple days ago and left the bag once he checked in to the BVI in the dinghy. It sat in the water on the bottom of the tender since then.


The funniest thing, is watching how ticked off he is with himself...as he says, "he just does not do that stuff"


Isn't age a wonderful thing!

Replacing one passport from the islands is bad enough, replacing three and a US visa, well, let's just not think about it tonight!

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....