This is starting to resemble "Groundhog Day"

 We can't believe it's already time to store the boat. It seems just a little while earlier we had brought it out of storage and started our winter "vacation."

The previous 2 years were quite stressful for prepping the boat...it might've even been described as really "un-fun!" We tried to get it all done in just 2 days which, we discovered, caused a lot of lip-biting moments of stress due to the humidity and heat coupled with the lack of breeze in the marina. So, we decided to spread our time out for this year's work over 5 days of which the first 3 were in Little Harbor. There was time for last swims, snorkling, barbequed chicken and relaxing sunsets. The last 2 days were spent in Nanny Cay Marina at the dock and we even had the chores done early enough to enjoy our last evening with Pricsilla and Peter Simpson at Captain Mulligan's.

One of the very last things we do is to raise all of the cushions and interior locker lids to allow air to flow throughout (this helps to curtail the mildew.) Then we finish stowing all of the miscellaneous stuff from the outside...helm wheel, sails, generator, etc. When it all gets done and we are ready to lock up and leave, the inside of the boat looks as though a bomb went off!

the aft cabin

the forward cabin

Just like the inside of our boat, the area of the marina where it is stored looks cramped also. I've often thought that one really strong wind would knock us over like a bunch of dominos. Good thing we have insurance. Notice I didn't say we had good insurance? We don't have a clue if it's good or not as we haven't had a claim, yet.

the sad contraption on the front of the boat
is our dinghy

Nose to rear...

and cheek to cheek

The "Law" was here!

The girls are "sportin" foot thongs. I don't know what to
think about them, yet

Colleen came for a visit and really enjoyed her stay with us. She hails from the Los Angeles area where she's a LA County Deputy Sheriff. Believe me, I was on my best behaviour. She and Karen were friends growing up. Colleen had been on a few supervised dives before and decided to try another while on her visit, so we headed over to Coki Beach (St. Thomas.) Derrick, the dive instructor, helped her through the initial orientation while Karen and I went along for the fun. Prior to the dive, we all snorkled a bit to enjoy the underwater scenery and fishy types.

Derrick, holding an arrow crab, while Colleen looks on
she wanted no part of holding it herself

There they are...30' down

Colleen, Karen and I...water temp= 83.7 degrees with
great visiblility. I've been in YMCA pools that were
colder than this

Colleen looks pretty comfortable diving

After the dive, we started on our sail to Jost Van Dyke to clear customs/immigration to enter into the BVI. We enjoyed the evening walking around the little community in Great Harbor and had a nice sundowner cocktail at Foxy's. We couldn't clear in as the office was closing for the day, but the officer advised "no problem" and to enjoy the sights and take care of it in the morning. Well, the morning's visit with the officers gave us a real surprise...we got charged more $$$ to enter than ever before with no explanation. Oh well, their sandbox, their rules. We left Jost Van Dyke and started our marathon sail to Virgin Gorda. It was our intention to head to windward as far east in the island chain as possible then make successive downwind sails over the following week to return Colleen to St. Thomas. We were so fortunate to have the wind at a good angle for us to make the sail instead of just bashing all of the way with the motor on. Six hours of sailing and we dropped anchor next to Leverick Bay in Gorda Sound. Yay! We got to go to Michael "Beans" pirate show...a real treat for everyone.

Surfin' and catchin waves!

Representing our boat as the official "blowhard"
for the conch blowing contest requires a little practice

MMM...fresh skipjack for dinner

Chumming the seagulls with bread

The "happy arrrr" party is just getting started

Even rain squalls don't stop the fun!

The reigning Queen Conch and King Conch, winners
of the conch blowing contest

Amazing what "painkillers" can do for bringing out the smiles

Michael "Beans" with the girls

I'm sure blessed...not many people get to enjoy dancing
 on the beach at sunset with a princess

We decided to take the boat over to the other end of Gorda Sound to visit Bitter End Yacht Club and take the famous hike above the resort. Karen enjoyed some quiet time, reading on the beach, while Colleen and I challenged ourselves on the "hill climb." I won't include all of the pics of the various sights along the hike, but did want to include the beginning...

Here we are...well-rested and ready

 and ending pics.

Sooo....do you believe she had to carry
me off of the hill....

Or that I carried her off...

For the evening's festivities, we headed back to Leverick Bay for their Friday Night Buffet and Mocko Jumbie party. We passed on the buffet, but sure enjoyed all the rest of it!

The Mocko Jumbies make a tunnel with their
legs to let the "daring" ones join the conga line through them

Those are 2x2 stilts 5' long...talk about real talent and
great entertainment

The crew has decided to start training as mocko jumbies

The next day, we sailed out of the sound and turned south to "The Baths" where we've always had fun showing the unique area to our friends. Everyone gets excited to crawl through the tunnels and over the rocks...I guess most of us are still kids at heart. The area wasn't nearly as crowded as we've seen it in the past, which helps to make it more enjoyable.

So much fun

Colleen is holding up the boulder so Karen can get through

This rock reminds of something belonging in a "Pirates
of the Caribbean" movie...looks like a giant skull

Cindy Loo Whos One and Two, making hair-dos without
any boo hoos because of no juice (electricity)

Later, we anchored for a couple of nights in Benures Bay on Norman Island. We met a friend of ours, Neal on "Amathea," in the bay and we all headed over to the shore to make the hike on top of the island. There's been so many folks that have hiked the area since we were here last that the trails were nicely trampled...we didn't have to forge our way through 4' of grass and toppled trees like in the fall of last year. The views are always stunning, with great photo ops for the beautiful bays on the north and south sides of the island. It's usually best to make the trip early in the morning...there are a lot of trees blocking the breeze on the lower parts of the trail and it can get pretty hot and muggy. I guess I'm better at offering advice instead of taking it, though, as it always seems we make the hike in the hottest part of the day. Maybe if we get up before 9am next time... 

Karen found a humorous way to deflect some of the wrong-doings on the boat when she found out Colleen could be the named scapegoat for everything. The phrase "Colleen did it!" was used quite frequently. Strangely, even after Colleen returned to the US, she was blamed for things...she left my needle-nosed pliers on one of the beaches after Karen and I took the dinghy there for some repairs.

Neal, Colleen and Karen looking south towards Venezuela

Me, enjoying two pretty girls on my arms, with Money Bay
in the background

Soooo Sad....Colleen and Karen are supposed to be enjoying a few last moments
together in Soper's Hole

There was an interesting situation that came about after we left Colleen to the care and concern of the ferry folks at Soper's Hole:

While we waited at the dinghy dock adjacent to the ferry terminal, one of the ferries arrived. Everyone in the terminal was boarded, including Colleen. We had an uneasy feeling that it wasn't the right ferry, although no other ferry was there yet and the departure time was past. Thankfully, Karen convinced me to go talk to the ferry folks and, sure enough, it was headed to St. John instead of St. Thomas. Not one of the staffers had looked at her ticket or said anything about the ferry headed to St. John. They just shouted out "all aboard" and that was it. She got off before it left and went back to wait for the next one, which arrived about 10 minutes later. All was well and we waved our goodbyes...again.

There's a moral to this story...you'd better get used to the "curve balls" in life, because they are what makes it an adventure.

Грегг и Cyndi, часть два (Russian for: Gregg and Cyndi, part two)

There's a lot of folks from Russia that have looked at the blog, so I chose to intro this one in their language...it seemed like something fun to do. Anyway, this is the 2nd of the blogs about Gregg and Cyndi's visit. It's quite long...we were really busy having lots of fun.

We left off with the girls enjoying the rum at Marina Cay. Just prior to our evening's entertainment, we had been diving the "RMS Rhone." There were some great pictures taken and all had a great time. Initially, there was some anxiety due to odd smelling air in some of the dive tanks we had filled earlier in the day. I thought it smelled like compressor oil. We tested it for a minute and it seemed ok so we continued the dive without any troubles. I found out later there were some filters on the dive shop's compressor that needed changing. All together, we tallied up 5 days of diving including the Chimney, RMS Rhone and Spyglass Wall. We even tried a night dive on a reef in Little Harbor. Here's some more pics from some of the dives:

Coral formations

Up, up and away!

Nice pic of a lionfish

The girls...looking pretty

Hanging onto the mooring line at Spyglass Wall

Cyndi headed to The Chimney

No Marine organisms?

I guess that means even lobsters

Looking through the ribs of The Rhone

Gregg next to a prop blade...I took this picture

Me next to the prop...I should've just let Cyndi
take the pictures...her's all turned out!

Karen, next to wreck of The Rhone...Cyndi took
this one...nice!

Of course, we also had to take them to The Baths (Virgin Gorda)...one of the premier touristy spots in the BVI. While there, I read some of the literature about the place...it seems the area is not named for the "bathtub-quality" water temperature, or the secluded "bathtub-like" pools under the large granite boulders. The name has been shortened from batholiths...a large complex of igneous rocks. If I believe Wikipedia, then batholith is the definition for an area over 100 square kilometers (like Yosemite N.P.)...smaller areas like this one should be called "stocks." It probably wouldn't sound so cool to tourists, though...."The Stocks" sounds like a tour of the local jail or something.

At the Top of The Baths

One of the passage ways into another area of rocks

There we were, under the rocks...standing in water
up to our knees...in the dark...and the girls were
 wearing their sunglasses.

Kissing under the rocks

Trees growing in the rocks

Almost crawling through the rocks

Looking between the rocks

Devil's Bay beach, next to the rocks

Karen and I decided to take them to another place we've enjoyed...the trails around Leinster Bay (St. John) and the ruins of the Annaberg Sugar Plantation. It dates back to the mid-1700's when cane sugar was "king" in the islands. Of course, this triggered the importation of slaves to work the plantations. For more info, here is a link to a website:

 http://www.vinow.com/stjohn/nationalpark/annaberg_plantation.php

There's a really hairy goat in the center of pic

Looking over some of the ruins

The original windmill foundation

It took Gregg and Cyndi a long time to make the
extremely dangerous and very illegal climb to
the top of the windmill....

Everyone was happy when they made it back down
without injury or arrest

No, they didn't really climb the windmill...they climbed one of the other buildings.

Lastly, we headed to Cruz Bay (St. John) for a short visit, then on to Red Hook (St. Thomas) for their taxi ride back to the airport and some much-needed rest...it's hard to have this much fun!

Part of Cruz Bay





On the dinghy ride back to the boat

Headed home after a wonderful vacation