Our 1st solo dive!!!

Karen and I dove for the 1st time without an instructor! What fun we had. Sue and Toddy joined us on our boat for a trip to "The Indians" and Pelican Island. We stopped in the marina before our departure and picked up some dive tanks, and we were off! The sail out to the area was easy, as the winds were light and the waves were small...our only concern was whether there would be a mooring at the dive sight that would be available. The Indians are very popular for diving and snorkling and the North side of Pelican Island is noted as an easy dive area. There turned out to be 3 moorings we had available to choose from.

This is a view of The Indians from our mooring. They are a group of 4 rock formations rising 50' above the surface and extend vertically 50' to the sea floor.

Toddy kept watch on the boat while Sue snorkled around the area and Karen and I dove. The boat was moored in 25' of water, and the area we dove on descended to about 45'. Visibility was pretty good...about 40' or so.

This is a view of Karen at 30', with a soft coral (gorgonian) in between us.

The purple tube in the center of this photo is a sponge.

This common fan coral has a flamingo tongue on it. They eat the coral polyps that make up the fan, with the result of eventually killing the fan coral. The green areas of this coral are still healthy.

Karen tends to have waaayyy more air left over in her tank than I do. On this dive she had 1/2 of her air left over (1500#) after being down 45 minutes, while I was down to 1000#. We decided to go back to the boat and let Toddy use my equipment to go down for awhile.

Finally...We are Outta Control !!!!!

We finally found time to get the boat renaming process started...all of this retired lifestyle just drains you of time to be productive! Karen talked (begged) her favorite brother (Ken Brown, esq.)and  my favorite brother-in-law into providing us some vinyl names for our boat, we thought we had better get started removing the old one...Miss Ann. Ken and his wife Susan own/operate a successful sign company in Southern California. Thanks, so much, Ken and Sue!!!

Toddy and I are removing the old letters from the stern of our boat...in the rain

Our friends, Joyce and Ken, came the day before our party and joined Sue, Toddy, Karen and me for the evening

What party???  you are wondering.....why, it's a renaming party! We invited some of the friends we have made in Nanny Cay area (where the boat has been moored for the last 2 weeks). Karen and Sue put together a really nice spread of chips, fruit, shrimp, veggies, and meats. Oh yeah...and I bought the drinks. Rum, champagne, beer, wine and a little pop to mix things with.

I was supposed to toast the winds of the North, South, East and West for favorable and safe conditions by splashing a little of the champagne on the various places on the boat....I bought 3 bottles of the stuff. Why just waste it on the boat? There were soooo many unsuspecting people, especially on the dock, that were unprepared for the champagne spray-bath I gave them. Laughing while running on a narrow dock is kinda like everyone trying to evacuate an elevator...all at once.

Then, came the moment everyone was waiting for...

We Are Now Offically...

Outta Control

One of our firsts tasks was to take something with the old name written on it and "cast it" to King Poseidan, or was it King Neptune?...anyway, toss it into the water and ask for one of them to strike the old name from his ledger and add our new name and also ask for safe and friendly seas.

And then more toasting...we started the rounds

Next, came the rum...friends (new and old) had to "earn" a swig by saying something nice about Karen and I to our boat...yes, people talk to their boats!

Believe me, the B.S. was flowing fast....you can't believe what people will do for free (and frequent drinks) of rum.

I don't think Karen likes rum, straight from the bottle!

Brendan pretends, but we think he likes rum too...or maybe, this is what he thinks of helping me fix the macerator pump in the head again.

Fred is in our cockpit talking about sailing stories...he has forgotten more than Karen and I will ever know about sailing.

We have ordered some graphics for the sides of the boat to add some personal character, celebrating my career in air traffic control....more about that in a future blog.

Cheers to all of you who helped us get to where we are!

"Always cleaning up after others", "Down the toilet", "Up a tree w/o a ladder"

Sandy and Karen before our "big day"!

We went to the marina with Sue last week to help out a friend on some of the boats he manages for others. We really didn't know what needed to be done, but you help others when they ask....so....away we went. Karen and Sue worked on cleaning and prepping a 50' power yacht for its owner. Lots of cleaning and prepping...cleaned the heads (the toilet area and there were 3 of them), cleaned the fridge and galley, cleaned the cushions, cleaned the carpets and floors, made up the beds, cleaned about a million wooden louvers over all of the ports (windows), straightening out and "prettying" things up, etc! Wow...they were busy! So, being the lazy one, I sure didn't want to do that! I was given a small task on a little sailboat...on the head...in this case, the actual head (the toilet). It was not working (plugged?) and it was an electric one. Well, I found out the pump circuit fuse was fried. Instanly, I recognized that I had found the problem...just replace it and everything would work fine (then I could go get some beer and go watch Karen and Sue work). Turning the pump on fried the fuse again. OOHH NOOO... pumps usually only do this if they are plugged or seized! The pump needed to be removed...it was at the bottom of the bowl...it was a macerator pump, one of those gems that chops up the stuff after you do "your thing" and then pumps it somewhere else (I've discussed "where" before). This made me wish I was doing Karen and Sue's boat by myself. Anyway, I've changed dirty diapers before, so how bad could it be? Honestly, I had horrible visions of full hoses, backed up toilet traps and things no one is ever supposed to see or touch. I enlisted some help from one of the friends' employees and went to work. After a lot of working, hosing down, straining, holding our breaths, and airing out the area, the pump came out. Evidently, sea water (which the head uses to flush with) is highly corrosive to electric parts and seizes windings on pumps when it can. Luckily, the previous head "user" hadn't been using it for awhile, so the job wasn't really bad.

After getting myself cleaned up, I was given the treat of fixing a light...the one on top of the mast on another sailboat. No, you don't take down the mast to get at it. Nor do you have some method of lowering the light from the top. Someone has to go up in a harness, hanging from some ropes. Of course I was overjoyed, as I haven't done something like that since working up in the woods and climbing trees to hang blocks (really large pulleys). Anyway, up I went...

One of the other employees had to crank me up manually with one of the boats winches. He sure didn't have fun, but I did! And the view was fantastic! I repaired the broken wire and, reluctantly, had them lower me back down. I kind of felt like my nephew, Tyler, who is a lineman for an electric company in the Portland, Oregon area. Karen had a great time taking pictures of me working instead of her and Sue. We all celebrated our "fun" day with a nice dinner at the "house on the hill"!

Sheltons are now Outta Control on YouTube!

Hello everyone...

We have put some of our videos we've taken onto YouTube. Access to the site can be made directly by clicking on the link on the top right side bar of our blog (right above the flag picture).

If you want to access the site through YouTube directly, our address is SheltonsOuttaControl.

We have 3 on there now and plan on putting more there once we get them edited and such.

Let us know what you think.

Love you all,

Sandy and Karen

On top of the world!

These are our newest friends, Susan and Toddy. They are from Rhosneigr, Anglesey, North Wales, UK.

We've been invited to visit/stay with them in the home they are staying in on Tortola. Sue and Toddy were asked by the owner to keep an eye on the place and watch the 3 dogs while they are away. Toddy is a sailing instructor and has been extremely helpful in teaching us to trim our sails, docking the boat in close quarters and working on the dinghy/boat. Sue and Karen have made some fabulous meals and we all feel as though we are eating like royalty.

This is a view from the pool area next to our room, looking to the west. We are above the ocean and surrounding island with views of over 50 miles to the horizon. Rumor has it that the property is for sale or could be rented at over $20,000/month.

On this night, Karen and I feel that we were at least 3 degrees of separation closer to Kevin Bacon...All 4 of us were invited to the home of an aquaintance of Toddy and Sue's for drinks and "horses de ovaries". Although we aren't rich and famous, obviously, the people inviting us were. We really enjoyed ourselves and, I think, y'all woulda been proud of us...we didn't embarass anyone's name and we left all of the silverware.

The place is called Steele Point Estates and can be found at http://www.steelepoint.com/ It rents for over $12,000/wk and more during the holidays. There may be a break in the price for monthly rentals. Let us know if you want to book your next vacation here. We'll join you and give a tour of the place!

And Toddy and Sue feel like we can go out in public with them again, soon.

This is one of the terraced walkways.

We are enjoying ourselves immensly with this life of ours.

We are hoping to be asked up to the house again someday.

Happy New Year

Well, here we all are...wondering what happened to last year, why does time seem to go so fast, the kids growing up so quickly, etc.

Karen and I have discovered the fountain of youth. It doesn't have anything to do with a certain place or a type of lifestyle...it's a state of mind! Over the last few years we have become better at loving each other, sharing thoughts, talking problems through, giving back instead of always taking...all of the "stuff" that we, sometimes, take for granted. It's unbelievable how much the little things carry forward into good will with each other as well as others. Keeping an open mind towards other people and opportunities that are presented sure does make a difference in life.

Anyway, we hope that all of our friends and family have a healthy, happy, peaceful 2010.

Karen is enjoying a tree swing while on our evening walk!

I'm in front of the Bellamy Cay restaurant..."The Last Resort". The theme for the New Year's Party included the participants dressing in devilish and angelic costumes. We didn't, though. 

 Karen does think I have a "devil dude" on my shoulder already, so that should be enough.

We spent our New Year celebration at Trellis Bay...where we also spent Christmas. There was a full moon party and since it was a "blue moon" and it fell on New Year's eve, the celebration was full of people from all over the world. Karen and I decided to go over to the little island in the middle of the bay (Bellamy Cay) for a party and live band and toasted/hugged/kissed 2010 in style.

Since we weren't eating at the restaurant, we found the most comfortable seat in the house. The late-comers were sure jealous!

"PAARRTYYY"

The fireworks went off at the right time, with most of the people coming off of the dance floor to see it all.

Later, we went ashore to where the full moon party was in full swing...more people than you can imagine, the fireballs were lit, and the "Rasta" dudes rapping music!

Send us emails to let us know how things went for your New Year celebrations...we love to hear from all of you!

Love you all...Sandy and Karen