A Merry Caribbean Christmas, 2009

Welcome to our Christmas blog, 2009

Trellis Bay, Beef Island, BVI

The above two pictures were taken in Trellis Bay in September of this year and we chose to spend Christmas here because we have met so many nice people who live here. Trellis Bay is adjacent to the Tortola airport. As you can see, the dock would be pretty handy to tie up the dinghy to pick up arriving guests to our little section of paradise! No, I haven't asked anyone at the tower for a job.

As you can see, 110v electricity is not readily available on a sailboat. Karen has learned to improvise with her blow drying technique. She's getting ready for our Christmas Eve dinner on shore with some of our friends. In the picture below, we are seated inside "De Loose Mongoose". This is the main hangout for all of the cruisers and liveaboards in Trellis Bay. Starting on the left is Heather (Canada) Toddy and Sue (UK) Ken (Florida) then Karen and John (Canada). Rose, the cook, and the rest of the staff served up a wonderful meal: Turkey, ham, cheesy mashed pototoes, vegetables and dessert...my favorite part of the meal. Karen had pecan pie and I had Caribbean black rum cake and pumpkin pie. MMMMM!

On Christmas day, Karen cooked up an even better meal for the two of us to share on our boat.

Ham, potatoes with gravy and green beans with sausage. Some of our friends stopped by during the day to visit and drop off small gifts. Kim, another friend, brought some cookies, John and Heather brought us our 1st Caribbean decoration (a snowman) as well as some DVD movies to watch from their inventory.

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and enjoy a peaceful and prosperous New Year!

Meanwhile, we'll keep working hard at trying to be productive and make all of you proud of us!

Our 2nd fav. anchorage...Benures Bay, Norman Island

We almost thought we had found another "treasure"...but it turned out to be some kind of rusted iron shaft inside of a wooden shaft inside iron collars. I tossed it aside as it had no value or use on our boat. Anybody have a guess as to what it might be? I thought it may be part of a wheel or turnstock from an old ship.

There were so many shells and chunks of finger coral on the beach, you would have to dig to look for sand. The size of the different variety of shells was also astounding...here are 3 different sea urchin shells; all were within about 3 inches of each other on the beach. Evidently, some varieties are edible. My cousins had a business in the Puget Sound area harvesting them for restaurants...until the fishing regulations/government run them out of business.

I believe this fish is a tropical gar or possibly a trumpetfish. Either way, it was about 2' long. It and it's other buddies were swimming along Karen and I as were snorkling behind our boat.

This is one of the 6 stingrays we saw. It was about 3' across and hovered below us for quite awhile. They appear to like sandy and grassy areas. I don't think we have seen any up in the coral or within the close shallows of the shoreline. The small fish stayed right above it, regardless of what the stingray was doing. I believe the fish do that in case the stingray scares up a smaller fish that the larger one can eat. Or maybe it's like me...just wants to be ornery.

Right up next to the rocky, shallow shoreline areas were schools of fish....billions of them. In this picture, the smaller fish were about 2" and the larger were about 6". The 2 different sized fish schools stayed independant, but ran parallel to each other...almost like freeway traffic.

In the morning, a group of men were planning on fishing with either drop nets or gill nets. I'm not sure what type of fish they were looking for, but they weren't able to do it. Karen and I had come in the night before and dropped the anchor and stern-tied to the shoreline...just like the other 5 boats. Evidently, they felt we were in "their" fishing spot and were a little upset, despite the "thumbs up" gesture from the one fellow. Our unique ability to negotiate a truce with them kept the problem from escalating into a gesture battle. They ended up going somewhere else to fish and we chose to apply the "the largest pirate ship wins" rule.

Random thoughts: Retirement, conch hunting

Ahh, retirement...Just talked to some of my former coworkers. They were wondering what it is like to be out of the business of talking to airplanes. I really don't miss it very much, but I sure do miss spending time with all of them. Karen feels the same way about nursing...there's a lot to like about the jobs, but this is so much better. We've had our ups and downs since we've left... missing family and friends, dealing with the high cost of everything, mechanical breakdowns with the boat, discovering new and unique adventures, learning to sail, diving and snorkling, all the wonderful friends we've made so far. Just like everything in life, it's been a mixed bag of treats! Would we trade it for our former life? NO WAY!!! We are so blessed with the lifestyle given to us and can't think of very much we would change.

This is a photo of our boat from the bow, looking up at the genoa sail (on the left) and mainsail. The red flag is on the starboard (right side) lower spreader and represents the host country where we are sailing...the British Virgin Islands. We will need to put up a different flag for every other place we go.

Karen is enjoying this day very much. She is the main helmsperson whenever we dock the boat, deploy or recover the anchor and whenever I'm busy taking pictures on the bow.  On the other hand, I get to handle most of the dock lines and fenders, do the anchor stuff and get to spend time with my lovely lady.

This is a fishing "rig" we found floating in the shallows while we were taking the dinghy out exploring the coastline. I guess the fishing poles need to be a little bigger!

While out snorkling, about 15' below us, we saw a large area of sea grass...and guess what loves to live in these areas....yes, folks, that is a live queen conch (pronounced "conk"). It's over 10" long. Just like with elk, there are a number of recipes for it. We decided our 1st was going to be turned into a local dish...fresh conch salad.

After boiling on our stove for 40 minutes...voila!

This is the all of it; some edible, some not so much. We had to do some internet searching to figure what parts were best. If I understand my conch anatomy, the part on the upper left is good and all of the green/brown/black/grey stuff wasn't. Doesn't sound too hard.

This is what was left after removing the stuff. Now I went out to the cockpit of our boat and pounded (tenderized) the above choice morsel for about 10 minutes with our winch handle. No, I didn't have a hammer. After marinating the, now subdued, piece of conch meat for 24 hours in lime juice, we chopped it up into very small pieces.

Then we added it to bell peppers, onion, celery, cilantro, tomato and more lime juice for a somewhat tasty salad. Not too bad, but I feel it would have been tastier without the lime juice and boiled with potatoes to make a conch chowder.

Here's Karen blowing all of you a kiss...well, actually, it was for me but I can share it with all of you too!

More Friends we've met

We continue to meet wonderful people while in Little Harbor. Above is a picture of Aaron and Carola, newlyweds from the San Fransisco area. They were married in July and, finally, have a chance for their honeymoon. They chartered a sailboat similar to ours and just happened to anchor right next to us in the bay. We had lunch on their boat, sharing our "wares" and they came over to ours later that evening with wine and chocolates. Two days later, when we had to get back over to Road Harbor, we met up with them again and strolled around Road Town, eventually ending up at a small restaurant for dinner. What a fun couple they are! We hope to visit with them in CA this summer.

 While in the bay, this "big boy" asked us if it was alright to anchor next to all of us. We thought for a few minutes and finally gave in. I guess the bay was big enough for all of us "upper crust" sorts. Aaron and Carola stayed in the bay longer that day than we did and mentioned, later, that there was a fancy helicopter flying around this boat like they were inspecting things.

Road Town and Little Harbor

Here are some random photos of our time in Road Harbor, Tortola and the return trip to Little Harbor on Peter Island. We needed to be in Road Harbor, mainly, for meeting with the "nice" custom agents to extend our time in the BVI. We went in our best clothes to sell ourselves and it worked...they will let us stay until April 30th...even though we needed and asked to stay until the end of June. Oh...and we had to pay $20. Everytime you go in or out of the BVI (air or sea) you are charged a customs fee and even a surcharge if on Sunday, and the amount never seems to be the same each time. But hey, maybe it's just us. We still will go in and out of the BVI to visit other places.

Above is a photo of the community Christmas tree in Road Town. Most of the people here appear to be Christian, with numerous stores playing music and many people singing Christian songs. This is especially noticeable during this season.

Below is one of the cruise ships that came to Tortola over night...I believe it is one of the Princess ships.While we were anchored in the harbor, we saw three other various cruise ships. We were there for 6 days. The water color was medium brown...like chocolate milk. When asking someone why it wasn't very clean looking, we were told that the direct sewage outflow for the town was right behind our boat. Not sure if it is actually untreated or not. Anyway, it was pretty special to pull up the anchor, as it had quite a layer of "stuff" on it. No snorkling here!

While on our way out of Road Harbor over to Peter Island, this smaller cruise ship passed behind us. Karen googled the ship name and found out this company will provide for your cruising pleasure at a nominal fee of $12000/wk, pp,dbl occupancy.

The other photos are of us being silly/happy at being in our fav anchorage. The only downside was when I decided to snorkle around the hull of the boat and clean off the brown slime and barnacles. Yuck!

The Baths and "dumpster diving"

THE BATHS

Remember, you can click on the photos to see a larger view!

This is a view of the area at sea level, with some of the sailboats that came after we got there. These folks, obviously, knew where they were going. Our boat is off the right (North) about 1/2 mile. More about that later.

The large, pointed rock right of center rises about 30' above water. The pool depth in lower left is about 7' deep.

Karen is standing at the entrance to The Baths. We had to wait to take this picture as there were at least 30 people that came out the entrance. A lot of land-based tour groups come here from Spanish Town, many of which arrived from the different cruise ships that visit the BVI. If you visit the area with one of these tours, keep in mind that some of the tours will only be at this site for about an hour. This isn't enough time to work your way down the trail, through the maze of boulders and allow any time for snorkling or beach time.  There is a semblance of a trail that you follow to go through the boulders, sandy areas, and pools. The trail requires you to wade in water less than 2' deep and also go up/down some stairs that lead you to the next area. For the more adventurous, like me, you can climb up through the boulders and get on top...but it sure would be painful if you fell.

 The water where I'm standing is about 1' deep and the view is looking towards the ocean. Each wave flows into these little grottos that are covered in soft sand, and there are hundreds of small fish in them. Of course, the water is much warmer than you are used to...the average water temperature, even at depths of 60', is about 82.

Here's another small grotto. This is about 3' deep and the flat rock in the lower center tends to block most of the wave coming in to the point of it being really nice to float in. With all of the boulders and open spaces, there's a lot of echos of water gurgling and the waves splashing in. Some of the spaces between the rocks are tight enough that the water makes a sort of popping noise as it gushes through. Even though a lot of people visit here, it is possible to find a remote pool that is off the regular trail and somewhat private.

This is one of the areas that I explored that is off the path. It's up from the surf area and only gets water and sand during a storm. There's quite a few areas like this that are relatively unexplored by the average tourist.

Yes, I just can't help myself...I have to climb. I'm looking down about 20' to where Karen is moving down a narrow crevice. This is actually about 3/4 of the way through the maze of boulders. At the end is a small trail that you take to another beach area. We had our snorkling gear with us as we made our way through here. At the beach, we donned our gear and started to snorkle our way back along the shoreline. It is surprising how deep the boulders go below the surface. There may be about 30' or so of it showing above the surface, yet and equal or greater amount is below. And there isn't any slope to the seabed...it's almost as though the boulders were just dumped here from a huge truck.

Here's Karen, swimming in a pool area near the beach. She's in about 8' of water. Some folks never venture out of these protected areas, as there are so many fish and other things to see in just these areas alone. But not us, we were borne for adventure! We don't want to see just the measly ol fish that everybody else sees. We don't want to just play in these baby waters where even the waves don't really bother.

Do you remember, earlier, that I said we were about 1/2 mile from our boat? Ahhh, yes! You can't appreciate this view without really being there. This was taken about 150' off shore from the beach we left. The boats ahead (no, ours wasn't one of them) are actually about 400' off. Then we had to snorkle/swim/struggle past them for the next 1/2 mile to our boat. Notice the swell of the ocean. We did too. It wasn't quite this rough when we left the boat.

While moseying along  towards our boat...20 minutes later...I spied this strange long wiggly thing moving on the seabed below us. After going back and following it, I realized it was a line (rope). And the end of the line was caught on a coral head. As I moved closer overhead, I could see that there was a small anchor hung up in the coral. After being sufficiently trained by Steve Hovis on the philosophy and proper techniques of dumpster diving, I couldn't pass this up. No siree. So down I went. And down I went. And down I went.

After equalizing my ears for about the 4th time, I reached my goal (about 33' below) retrieved the anchor and line, and started back up. My 1st thought when I looked back at the surface was "Gee, this doesn't look good! That's a long way back up!" It's funny how you don't realize the gravity of a situation until already committed. Anyway, up I went and became pleasantly surprised at how easy I rose back to the surface. Hey...piece of cake. And then at the surface the weight of the anchor required me to tread the water a little more than usual. Do you remember me saying the line was still attached. As it began to entangle my legs, I decided that an anchor in hand was better than an anchor and line and me on the bottom again. So, I decided to untie the line and planned for a return trip some other day. Luckily, there happened to be one of those wonderful charter boats close by that you saw in the previous picture. I dumped off the anchor to the guy watching us from the bow, and after about 3 minutes of breathing, Karen and I were off to our boat again. It took us about another 45 minutes to get there. Just as soon as we got back, we headed back on the dinghy to get the anchor. I think I will post a picture of it on the blog side bar in a place of honor. And next time we come to The Baths, we know right where to park the boat!

Hey Steve....This definitly gives new meaning to the term dumpster "diving"!!!!!

Spanish Town and The Baths, part one

Spanish Town, on Virgin Gorda, used to be the capitol of the BVI. It has a small harbor and a lot of historical significance. It was one of the 1st settlements in Virgin Gorda and BVI. Near here are ruins of mining activities from the 1700's. We stopped here after leaving the North Sound, sailing Southwest along the island. Many areas of these islands have claimed ships on their reefs. The island of Anegada, especially. While up in the North Sound area, we saw one sailboat that got too close to the reef at the entrance to the Sound. It appeared that the charter couple tried to take a 6' draft boat through a 4' deep area of the reef. This was not a good day for them, and it sure was not a pretty sight for the rest of us. We had heard of two other instances of the same during the week while we were there. Did you notice the coconut palms in the top picture...I sure did. It appears the natives pick up any that drop; I can't find them very often. The "palm tree thingy" in the lower picture is actually a cycad, and not related. They are cone-bearing, and resemble an overgrown fern.

After leaving Spanish Town, we motored the boat South to The Baths, one of the most popular places in the BVI. The Baths are located on the Southern tip of Virgin Gorda and are made huge boulders of granite tumbled and exposed on the island and into the sea. The areas where the boulders are stacked in and near the water have created grottos of sand and pools of water. I would definately put this on anyone's agenda visiting the area. This picture is taken from the restaurant above the area. We walked up a neat trail created through the boulders to get to the restaurant.

One of the views of the restaurant..."The Top of The Baths" that we ate at...and the use of the pool was complimentary for the restaurant guests. We were Legal!!

Normal brunch attire isn't always this casual at the restaurants. We had been in the water and planned on more of same after eating. We are living proof that you won't get cramps from swimming right after you eat. The Baths are a National Park area and dinghys are not allowed on the shorelines, so we had to swim the 100+ yards to shore...well, not actually...we used our fins and snorkle gear.

 Just off the balcony of the restaurant was this planting area. We find it so unusual to see cactus and palm trees growing in the same climate. We were told the Virgin Islands are actually more desert than tropical, due to the rainfall amount. I will finish the rest of this story later...I'm getting tired of all the stress of fun, so it's to bed for me. The next blog posting will be more about The Baths and a water version of "dumpster diving"!