Sept. 30



Much has happened since our last blog:

• We snorkled a lot of different places in the area around Tortola (British Virgin Islands), and saw numerous colorful fish and reef features. I even was stung numerous times by unseen small creatures; I believe they were small, transparent jellyfish. Three days later and the blisters are still there. The water is quite warm...about 80 deg...and pretty calm so far. We saw some large fish when chumming with left-over rice from dinner, averaging about 2' long with some about 5' on the last evening on the training boat. Captain Jim said they were remoras...we thought they looked more like sharks.


• Karen and I are in the process of purchasing a sailboat, a 2002 Beneteau 361 (36', 2 cabin monohull), and will know for sure in the next week. The boat needs to be hauled out of the water, checked for any problems and necessary repairs, then we take it out for a "sea trial" to make sure it's what we want.


• Karen and I also finished our sailing instruction with Captain Jim Palmer. We are looking forward to trying out our new skills on our own...taking small steps and being careful until we have much more experience under our belts. Captain Jim taught us well!


• We are now staying in Sint Maarten (the Dutch side of St. Martin) in an apartment graciously offered by Captain Jim, who also happened to own a few apartments here. How cool...It's a one bedroom, with kitchen, bath and a three level deck overlooking one of the large bays of the island. We've also rented a car for October, and have already been to a lot of the areas...even at the end of the airport runway where the jets land or takeoff next to the beach. We've managed to get many photos and tonight I hope some can get onto the blog, with labels.

Sandy here:

9/21/09...The last few days here in Tortola have been hot, muggy and not much wind with blue skies and calm seas. Saw some "island deer" (actually, wild goats) on Peter Island. I didn't get pics but I ranged them with my calculating eye...about a 90yd shot...a Mathews could've made it. Also saw some sea turtles, and I was thinking turtle soup might be a cool thing to try. Most of the reef fish and the predatory types like barracuda and snapper will give you a disease called "ciguatera" if eaten. Most people here catch and release them. The fish that you can eat is more off of the coast...tuna, wahoo, etc. Other islands don't have this problem, from what I've been told.

Today, Karen and went with a boat broker to look at boats. Saw some, with most needing some work. Good thing I'm really handy. Will be looking at more tomorrow. Our sailing instruction starts on the 23rd. We've already gotten invaluble training so far. We are really happy with our choice with Jim.

Having a great time!

Tortola

Date Sept. 20, 2009 This is Karen
Right now I am sitting on the sailboat named ‘Golden Crown’. We are anchored in a the middle of a bay in Tortola. We arrived in Tortola yesterday via a Catamaran Ferry from St. Thomas, USVI. It took an hour on the Ferry. We were sitting in an air conditioned compartment which was great because it started raining. It didn’t last long. I am told, the rain is welcomed because it cools things down. Boy it was hot yesterday. But after we got on the boat and moved it to the bay, it cooled downed because of the wind.
Going through customs in Tortola was a piece of cake. I was quite surprised they didn’t look in any of our bags. We came with 4 duffels weighing at least 50 lbs each and two smaller bags.
Anyways, after customs we took a taxi to meet Captain Jim at the Golden Crown. I can tell we are going to have a great time with him on the boat for 10 days.
I discovered how peaceful and relaxing it is to sleep on a boat. The gentle rocking is so comfortable. All was great until we felt water on our faces. We had the window or hatch thing (I do need to learn the names of these things) above our head open. Well Sandy shut the window/hatch thing, and all was well. It only rained a few minutes though, so Sandy opened it again and we fell back to sleep until it started raining again. Same routine…shut the thing until it stopped raining. We woke to a beautiful morning and really good coffee. Had some breakfast and went snorkeling. Again saw some incredible things that we certainly never saw in Montana. One very interesting thing….there was a barracuda hanging around under boat when we were ready to get back in. Now the same thing happen the last time we were snorkeling in St. Thomas. The captain of the boat in St. Thomas, said that barracudas like to hang out under the boats. Well I guess he was right. This one today was even bigger…maybe 4 feet long. Captain Jim said they won’t hurt you, but I tell you, he looks frightening.

Hey Toto, this doesn't look like Montana

Well, we are on day six in St. Thomas, and just had a minute to create a blog. Not sure how this all works.

We have had a great time on our first stop in Paradise! I finished my dive certification, then we did two boat dives. Saw some incredible things!!! Met some great people! I'm not much of a writer so, I will now pass the laptop to my adorable (and wordy) husband.

Love you, Karen

hey everyone...i'm not into capitalization...so deal with it.

we've had a really great time here...Karen has done really well with her dive certification...much better than the zero vis in MT. lots to see here.

The first part of the week focused on relaxing and diving...today was my day to have too much crown royal with all of our new friends. the resort only had about 6 or 7 couples in-house during the week and we got to know all of them well. Hunting dominated my conversations...can't speak for karen. some tentative plans were made for hunting next year....we'll see.

next week is sailing...not sure how intense or scary, but we'll see. we are really looking forward to the challenge. i can't express how excited i am to get started. i've been through all of the training books so far twice and even have a rope to practice my knots with.

As you can see, we are having a great time, with little planned beyond the next few days...not bad for being retired. I feel as though we are still on an extended vacation... retirement hasn't sunk in yet.

Not sure when we'll have internet to post here, but we will post as often as possible. we will attach photos and other stuff when we figure out how.

love you, sandy



Sandy