Aunt Louise and Pam visit us!

The Ruby Princess entering the Crown Bay Marina

Our 1st visitors in the Caribbean arrived on the Ruby Princess. Aunt Louise (older sister of Karen's mother) and her friend, Pam came to St. Thomas and were anxious to go sailing. We arrived in the harbor the previous night and watched the ship come into Crown Bay Marina in the morning. Of course, we met them right near where the passengers disembarked the ship. Then, they experienced their 1st dinghy ride!

Sailing south of Water Island, towards Buck Island

Aunt Louise got the "hang of it" right away, as we sailed out of the harbor for Buck Island...3 miles south. She has that relaxed boater look...with beer in hand.

The girls look like they're having fun....Pam taking the "high side, Karen peeking a look, and Aunt Louise "staying low"!

Pam snorkling

Pam, Karen, and I snorkled around the bay between Buck and Capella Islands. Aunt Louise stayed aboard to enjoy the sun and the music. I would have to say the water was clearer than what I've seen in other places and the schools of fish were everywhere. We even found the remnants of a ship wreck near the shoreline.

A school of Blue Tang

At 70, Aunt Louise is still a "hottie"!

We returned to the boat from our snorkling, enjoying snacks/lunch with a light rain shower to cool things off. Then, it was time to head back to shore. The sailing out and the return was really nice...15 knots of wind off of the beam, allowing us to sail on one tack to and from the island.

I couldn't get Aunt Louise to stand on the railing with her arms extended...like in the movie "Titanic"

We decided to spend some time on shore having a cocktail before their return to the ship. It really rained hard for a short time after we got  to shore, but we stayed under the canopy at our table and watched all of the tourists get soaked. This is the time of the season when daytime showers are more frequent, so keep that in mind if you choose to visit us next year. We like the rain, as it tends to wash off the dried salt on the boat....plus it sure cools things down a bit.

Standing on shore between the rain showers

Pam and Aunt Louise, on their balcony (middle row, right side), waving goodbye to us.

We took our dinghy over to the ship before it left, hoping to see them one last time...and to slap the bull too!

The BVI Spring Regatta....

A view of some of the boats rounding the southern end of Dead Chest Island

What a bunch of rookies we were...well, most of us, anyway. Don and Mora (brother/sister) hired Toddy to help them sail the regatta race. Toddy knew extra help was needed, so Derek, Roddy, another man named Don and I were asked to fill out the crew roster. The boat used by us was "Perelandra" a Beneteau 361 identical to our boat.

Perelandra was the smallest boat in our class, Bareboat B, but we held our own against all of the entrants. There were 2 races held on the first 2 days and then 1 race on the final day. On the 1st day, we placed 1st and 5th...on the 2nd day, the 1st race was canceled at the finish line and we placed 1st in the 2nd race. We were told the racing judges canceled the race because they couldn't separate the times for the individual boats since there were so many crossing the line at the same time (about 30). We discovered another irregularity with the judging once we returned to port on the 2nd day...at least 2 other boats didn't have their certifications completed prior to the start of the racing, but were allowed to continue racing anyway, and their certification became valid after the 1st day. The net effect to us was that our 1st days' placements were changed to a 2nd and an 8th. Anyway, we took 1st again on the final race, despite jumping the start line and having to return and restart and then catch up to the rest of the boats. What a wonderful feeling. Overall, their were as many as 50 boats of different classes all among each other. Close calls were commonplace. On one start, another boat passed behind us less than 2 feet away. Yahoo!! 

The crew was not being lazy...and no, Derek isn't sleeping on the job...he's watching sail trim while staying as low as he can.

Despite all of the shenanigans with the judging, we ended up placing 2nd overall in a class of 14 boats. 1st place went to a boat sponsored by Heineken...we were sponsored by "Sailing for Dumbies" (aka self-sponsored). The whole crew contributed to our success, but special recognition needs to go to Toddy for his superb guidance and command of the boat.

In front, Roddy and Mora,

In back, Me, Derek, Don, and Toddy.

Not pictured was the other Don who had to leave before the finish

The Mocko Jumbies entertained everyone at the awards ceremony

We had a wonderful evening on the last day...each racing class had it's winners, and the atmosphere was full of celebration. There were many vendors offering alcohol, food and souvenirs. Karen and I met many friends that we haven't seen for awhile.

Don and Mora had purchased some raffle tickets and, not to anyone's surprise, won 3 bottles of  "Necker Island Champagne". I'm not sure if the stuff is sold retail, but I wouldn't doubt that it isn't. Necker Island, next to Virgin Gorda, is owned by Sir Richard Branson (Virgin Airlines, Virgin Records, etc). He runs a very exclusive private resort there for the rich and famous (we heard Oprah was here last week) The champagne is his own label.

We've been promised more regatta pics from some of the other crew and will post them when able. If you want to see the regatta website, go to 

http://www.bvispringregatta.org/

some of the pics of Perelandra (#24) from the regatta photographer, Yachtshots, can be seen at

http://www.digiproofs.com/ecom/g.pl

I really want to do more racing...and get Karen out there next time!!

Our next adventure will be back to St. Thomas to pick up Karen's Aunt Louise and her friend at the cruise ship dock for some fun in the sun.

See ya

The sailing lifestyle

What's it like to be a sailor? Especially, gypsy sailors like us?

Well, you meet the most wonderful people. And like a weird pyramid scheme, those people lead you to more wonderful people, and they lead you to more, and so on. Most of our choices to go places are based on heresay from others, living the lifestyle. Some may tell us that we need more experience before launching out while others advise us places that are easy to go to...they all have given good advice that we usually heed. Of course, boat problems or simply its limitations dictate our destinations also. Some of the best advice comes from those we have been closest to. To all, we can only say "Thank you"!

Being a sailor taps into so many different parts of person's ability and level of tolerance. Once you realize that your safety and sanity are linked to attempting something you've never thought possible, you realize the job wasn't so hard after all. I have to admit that it has come somewhat easy for me. I can't even tell the number of times I relied on my mechanical knowledge developed from years working on helicopters in the Army, those spent in the logging industry with my dad and brothers, and even those building houses. Some of you know of my somewhat infamous temper, so Karen has learned to deflate my tirades when working on the boat and taught me to be less tempermental. It's quite a testament to our love that we haven't really had difficulties with each other despite being together 24/7 for 8 months. I may be the nuts and bolts guy, but she has continued to be the financial whiz of our enterprise, keeping our budget intact, not to mention her cooking. Every boat needs a chef...ours has a great one. Speaking of ability, she has become very adept at steering the boat, which she does exclusively whenever we are anchoring, docking or rafting. Very technical tasks! What's unusual is that 90% of the people we've seen steering boats during anchoring...are the men. And guess who does the lifting and retrieving of the anchor and all of the other dirty tasks? Yep...it's the women. It doesn't make sense to me...I would rather do the directing and watching over things instead of the one task of steering. But, I don't know, maybe it's just me. As you can see, it would be difficult to do all of this single-handed; sailing and living aboard a boat is really a team effort.

And what about the actual act of sailing? It's almost entirely carefree, and so peaceful and quiet (whenever the motor isn't running). It seems like you're on a Sunday drive if the wind and waves are light. It's like an amusment park ride when it isn't. Waking up in a new anchorage and enjoying the sunrise with the only noise being the surf, birds chirping and the fish splashing is something wonderful. The rocking of the boat puts you to sleep like a little baby, although sometimes the rocking wakes you up whenever it gets more than gentle. Sunsets and the tropical breezes through the hatches are so refreshing. Of course, the mosquitos aren't so refreshing, so you put up the screens or put on the bug spray.

No matter which way we look at it...we are soooo happy about our decision to live this lifestyle. We think of ourselves as gypsy sailors...we could even be called outta control gypsy sailors...we certainly have found our best life yet!