Dealing with a Pandemic on a Sailboat

I sit here this Sunday morning doing the same thing that I do every Sunday morning: enjoying coffee in the cockpit of Smitty, listening to Acoustic Sunrise on the Boston radio station Mix 104.1 (thank you magical internet), and feeling blessed to be in yet another beautiful anchorage in the Caribbean. Today, however, instead of my usual Sunday Funday Care-Free attitude, I am very worried about the future.

My worry is the same as yours, the Coronavirus and its impact on the world. We are in Antigua, where their first case of the virus has now been confirmed. Just about every island in the Eastern Caribbean (the area of which we currently are cruising) have been affected.  Most countries have put travel restrictions in place, including not allowing travelers from high-risk countries. As the USA is now considered high-risk, what does this mean for us? We don’t know. Our cruising permit in Antigua & Barbuda expires in a week, since we have been in this country for almost two months, we are pretty confident we can get another month approved, but then we would have to leave the country by the end of April, as our immigration approvals are only good for 90-days from initial arrival. Then what? Where do we go? These are our hourly discussions.

The good news is that we live on a boat and have a different mindset then most people. We have weathered severe storms (two category 5 Hurricanes) in the Caribbean and are well aware that you always need to be prepared.  We have enough non-perishable food to last at least a couple months, a water maker, extra fuel, plenty of wine (thank you very much French Islands) and, of course, the Rum Tank! And yes, we already have all that stuff that people have gone crazy buying and are hoarding: hand sanitizer, toilet paper, bleach, Clorox wipes, medical-grade face masks, two half-face respirators and one full-face respirator, with appropriate filter cartridges….Now that I have just typed all that I am thinking maybe we should be selling Smitty with all this stuff on her…she’s a gold mine!  Didn’t I just read about a Canadian couple that made $70k from selling Clorox wipes at an exorbitant price?

We came to Antigua specifically for the Classic Yacht Race, which I have always wanted to see, which of course, has just been cancelled. Most islands are starting to cancel all large events as well as closing restaurants/bars. For how long? No-one knows.

So, do we stop cruising for now and go back to the USVI? I don’t know.

What I do know is our plans for today:  make blueberry pancakes, continue to obsessively read every update and contemplate our plans, and, rum drinks on the beach while soaking up the Caribbean sun and social distancing ourselves from others (except Kevin & Cheryl on sv Leaf Nu, they have been deemed safe) –  that should brighten my mood! 

Stay Healthy All and try to have a Happy Sunday-Funday!

 

Deshaies: Gardens and Waterfalls

After staying in St.Barts longer then anticipated, we found the best 24-hour weather window we could manage and made a dash to get to Guadeloupe (the island in the Caribbean, not the town in Mexico of the same name). The sail ended up being a bit more sporty then expected so we decided to take a more scenic route in order to be in the lee (less wind and waves) of the islands of St.Kitts, Nevis, and Montserrat. We did see lots of dolphins and a whale, so that helped make the journey more enjoyable!

Guadeloupe is nicknamed the “The Butterfly Island,” due to its shape. The island is divided in the middle by a narrow river, Rivière Salée. The west-wing of the butterfly is Basse-Terre and the east-wing is Grande-Terre. We decided that our first stop in Guadeloupe would be the little town of Deshaies (“Dey Hay”) located in the northwest corner of the west-wing.

The main attraction in this area, as recommended by several guidebooks and other cruisers, is the Botanical Garden.  Upon further research, I learned that you can climb up the steep hill from the town or you can get picked up by the free shuttle, which of course we chose the shuttle route. Putting my best French forward (which is very, very little), I called and requested a pick-up. After about 45-minutes of walking around looking for our ride, I finally found the bus. Pleased with myself, I stepped onto the bus to confirm with the driver that he will be taking our group up the hill to the garden.  Well, my satisfaction was short-lived.  Between hand signals, broken French/English, and Google translate, I learned that this is a public bus that is currently on break and does not go to the garden.  However, the driver took pity on me and yelled to the group to all hop aboard. This very nice man gave us a ride to the Garden, he wouldn’t let us pay him anything!

The Deshaies Botanical Garden is located on a 7-hectare property that belonged to the French comedian Coluche. Michel Gaillard, a nursery gardener, friend of Coluche, opened a palm tree nursery in Guadeloupe to supply his Paris-based company. In 1985 Coluche asked Michel Gaillard to look after and maintain his property in exchange for land to create his nursery. Unfortunately Coluche died a year later. Thanks to his knowledge of the property, Michel Gaillard bought it in 1991 and took many years to turn it into the magical garden that is visited today.

We also hiked up the Deshaies River to the waterfall. Described in a cruising guide as “a five-year-old hiked here for two hours without problem”; well, after hiking all day, climbing over boulders and pulling ourselves up very muddy terrain, I call BullShit on this description!  What should have been a couple of hour hike took our group of five all day and we never found what any of us deemed to be any sort of worthy waterfall.  At least the foliage along the way was pretty.

Kevin contemplating how to proceed

Well deserved drinks after our hike. Left to right: Stacey on sv Smitty, Peggy, Kevin, and Teddy on sv Asante.

Information for Cruisers traveling to Deshaies, Guadeloupe (as of January 2020):

•  Moorings are Free but almost all are taken by local boats that leave a dinghy to reserve their spot when they leave. Hope for a mooring but plan to anchor in 30+ feet of water behind the moorings.  Leave plenty of scope as you will spin 360.
• Check in/out can be completed at the Police Station for free.  Use the computer in the hallway then see the front desk clerk with all paperwork. The Police Station Opens at 7:30 each weekday; closes midday for lunch then opens again in the afternoon, closed by 5.
• Bringing a pet? No Problem.  Be sure all paperwork is up-to-date, thats it! This French Island has no additional fees and does not require any special vet exams in order to import your pet. 

 

 

Autour du Rocher – St.Barts

Saint Barthélemy (often abbreviated as St-Barth in French and St. Barths or St. Barts in English)

Long before Kenny Chesney popularized drinking on Jost Van Dyke, there was the original guy that sang about sailing and partying in the Caribbean, Jimmy Buffett.

Being that we are Parrot Heads (fans of Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band), we have gone to many concerts and have been inspired by Jimmy Buffett’s lyrics that entice listeners to sail away to the islands in search of that One Particular Harbor and to have a Cheeseburger in Paradise with a good, cold beer.  All that being said, the island of St.Barts is one of Jimmy Buffett’s favorite hang outs and where some of his most legendary songs were inspired, so we had to check out this rock!

…Baby put it on the coconut telegraph (telegraph)…In twenty-five words or less ~Jimmy Buffett – Coconut Telegraph

…You can hear ’em on the coconut telegraph (telegraph)….Sayin’ who did dis and dat  ~Jimmy Buffett – Coconut Telegraph

The anchorage we stayed in, Anse du Colombiar, just north of the main city of Gustavia, is beautiful. There were more turtles in this one bay then I have ever seen in one place (which, of course, I didn’t get any good pictures of). The beach is a perfect soft, white sand and has a couple of small natural pools.   There is a spot on the beach with a rock wall that blocked the east wind that was coming across the peninsula off the Atlantic Ocean and was a great spot for a beach fire.

The hiking was easy with very pretty views, as well as many goats and tortoises.

View of the Atlantic Ocean side of St.Barts and the trail to hike to the other beach.

 

…Listen to the night birds cry…Sit and watch the sunset die…Well I hope you understand I just had to go back to the island ~Jimmy Buffett – Back to the Island

Walking on Clouds: Saba

Located just 50 miles southwest of St.Maarten is the volcanic island of Saba. Although this little island is only five square miles it rises to an amazing height of about 3,100 feet, making it the highest elevation in all of the Netherlands Kingdom. The entire island is steep and you will not find a flat road or sandy beach. But the views are just breathtaking!

The Ladder                                                                                                                                                    Before the harbor was build the only way to get cargo to and from shore was via “The Ladder” which consists of 800 steps that were cut into the steep rock wall.

The best way to see this island is to take a tour and hike. So we hopped a cab and headed up the steep island to The Bottom, the island’s capital.  

The Bottom

Hells Gate

Looking down to see the airport runway.

However, the most spectacular views on the island have to be earned by climbing to the top of Mt.Scenery. The hike includes 1,064 steps and then climbing over some large boulders.  The climb feels like you are in a fairy tale as you ascend into the clouds/mist, when a cloud passes under you get the sensation that you are walking on clouds.

Peggy hiked the trail in flip flops.

 

Pictures from around the town called The Windwardside:

Clogs of the Netherlands

All buildings on Saba must have a red roof per the law.

We ended our island tour with some sundowners and a nice sunset back on Smitty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See Ya Virgin Islands – Heading South to St.Martin/St.Maarten

After spending the last couple of years working in the Virgin Islands, surviving two Category 5 hurricanes (known as Irmaria in the Virgin Islands), and having added many upgrades to Smitty, we said see ya and headed south from St.Thomas in order to explore the rest of the Eastern Caribbean!

We sailed to St.Croix, hoping this would give us a better angle to sail to St.Martin. But alas, it was not in the cards. As usual for us, there was no sailing to be had, just choppy, confused seas. Unfortunately, due to the boat bouncing around, we had issues with our fuel filters getting plugged-up with the gunk that had gotten stirred up from the bottom of the diesel tank. The good news is, Jesse has become a pro at quickly changing the filters and we have many spares because we have run into this particular challenge in the past.  He changed out to a new filter, we bleed the fuel, started the engine, and away we go. This issue happened a couple times on what should have been a 24-hour passage. About ten miles outside St.Martin (French side), when we went to restart the engine there was a pop noise and then she wouldn’t restart! After several hours and still no resolution, we made the decision to sail into the port (note: we were sailing, well trying, while Jesse was down below trying to figure out the problem).  The wind was not in our favor (very slow sailing with long tacks back and forth to make any progress forward) and it was dark by the time we entered the port, which we had never been into before and there are unlit buoys and boats to keep an eye out for. Thankfully, this bay is very large with a nice sandy bottom, we dropped the anchor and hooked right away.

It took a couple of days of tracing wires, checking batteries, testing all engine components, to finally find a loose ground wire!  Yes, after all that, the issue really was that simple and didn’t cost anything to fix!  As you can imagine, we went out and celebrated after that! Time for good French wine, cheese, and baguettes!

We spent about a week or so checking out this half French (St.Martin) and half Dutch Island (St.Maarten). You can take a dinghy or car (we did both) from one country to the other without having to check in or out of either country.

Marigot, St.Martin

entry to Fort Louis

cannon – Fort Louis

Jesse on the receiving end of a cannon!

Fort Louis

Random Scenes from Marigot Bay:  Local Art and a Horse “parked” outside the grocery store.

local art made from repurposed materials

horse parked outside a grocery store

And no trip to St.Martin is complete without a stop at Maho Beach to watch the planes fly very low overhead to land at the Princess Juliana International Airport in St.Maarten.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Newly Salted

We were recently asked to share our experiences and a bit of our background for the blog Newly Salted.  Our interview is  below, but please also check out the experiences that many other cruisers have shared on their site: http://newlysalted.blogspot.com/

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About Us

Stacey was born & raised in Milford, CT and grew up power-boating on Long Island Sound and the Housatonic River.

Jesse was born & raised on the South Shore of Massachusetts and grew up sailing on Buzzards Bay and fishing the Cape Cod Canal.

Summer, our dog, is an Australian Cattle dog-mix.  She is now about 10 years old.  We adopted her as a pup and she has been sailing with us since we got her.

Being typical “Type A” personalities, we spent most of our adult life dedicated to our careers.  Jesse was a geologist and worked in the consulting industry cleaning up petroleum and chemical spills.  Stacey was an accountant and worked in public accounting firms and private investment companies.  The two of us had become disenfranchised with the idea of defining ourselves by our jobs and didn’t want to wait until retirement to live life. So, we sold everything (house, cars, etc), quit the jobs, and, in September 2015, a couple days before Stacey’s 40th birthday, we sailed away.  Now we are trying to fill our lives with experiences and fun.

Our sailing vessel is Smitty, our Catalina 310.  We have owned her for almost seven years now, mostly cruising the coast of New England and living aboard her prior to our departure (yes – we lived aboard in Boston during the snowiest winter on record! See Blizzard of 2015 as a Liveabord ).  In September 2015, we untied the lines and set sail south from Hingham, MA (Smitty’s home port – just south of Boston). We sailed all down the US East Coast (primarily via the ICW), Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Spanish Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands, and British Virgin Islands.

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Q & A

As you started cruising, what transitions did you find the most difficult?

Both of our jobs required us to manage various projects at the same time and still meet all deadlines. For us, the most difficult transition was to learn to slow down and enjoy life.

Is there something you wish you had bought or installed before starting out?

When we bought our boat our initial intent wasn’t to cruise on her full-time; we bought a boat that worked for what we wanted at that time. That being said, the Catalina 310 was produced to be a coastal cruiser and does not have capacity to hold a lot of water. We were ok with this fact and set sail anyway, we assumed we could get water in most locations we were going.  This was correct, until we wanted to cruise in more remote areas in other countries.  We have since installed a water maker. 

What pieces of gear would you leave on the dock next time? Why?

Our Catalina 310 came with a microwave.  We would often have microwave popcorn or heat up leftovers.  Once we left our homeport dock, we very rarely stayed at marinas, therefore, we very rarely used our microwave.  We learned how to make popcorn the “old-school” way (stove top) and gave away the microwave while in Puerto Rico.

What mistakes did you make as you started cruising?

I’m not sure if it was necessarily a mistake, but we spent way more money then we anticipated.  We were in “vacation mode” and did not stick to a budget. Our thought was that we would likely only see some of these places only once. I am glad we enjoyed them to their fullest, but I do wish we had more of a spending plan or budget in place.

What do you find the most exciting about your cruising life?

To describe it in one word:  Beauty

The locations, the people, the sailing (well, except all the “Easting” of the Mona Passage),  the wild life (we still get excited when we see dolphins – especially swimming off our bow while under sail!), the color changes of the waters we have sailed, and of course the sunsets! It’s been an amazingly beautiful experience.

What do you dislike about cruising that surprised you?

I have been very surprised to see some cruisers (both US & foreign flagged vessels) having a complete disregard for the environment and ecosystems. We have seen them anchor on reefs, fishing and taking conch and lobster out of season or from no-take zones, and keeping undersized fish, conch and lobster. Even when we have gone over to let them know the rules they did not care!

What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you didn’t find to be true?

We were told that when you slipped away from the dock you were leaving behind so many of the hassles of land life.  Often we heard the term “Stuff being left to dirt dwellers”.  Unfortunately, we often found that we would be on a beautiful beach, sitting around a fire with other cruisers and there would be talks of politics.; too much talk of politics. We thought that would be left on land but there seems to be lots of talk of politics at sundowners and pot lucks. 

What is something that you read or head about cruising, that you found to be particularly accurate?

“Just Go – Don’t Wait!”  We read and heard this often.  I can tell you from experience, this is a very true statement. If you don’t set a date and just go then you won’t do it.  The boat is never going to be 100% ready, there will always be more projects to complete or things that break that need to be fixed. If you wait until retirement or until the boat is done then who knows what your health or life circumstances will be in the future.

What (if anything) do you wish someone had told you before you started cruising?

I wish someone had told us that it is ok to live “outside the box of normal society”;  that it is ok to live life and you don’t have to do things that are “expected of you” .  We regret investing our hard-earned money into things like a house and cars – we wish we had invested those funds into cruising at an earlier age (like in our 20’s).

What are your plans now?  If they do not include cruising, tell us why?

Prior to leaving to cruise, both of us got our Captains license, with the expectation that we would need to pick up some work at some point, doing something, so why not do something we love!  We are currently anchored in Elephant Bay next to Water Island and St.Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, where we live on our boat and go out sailing as much as possible.  Jesse is a Captain – taking guests out sailing and snorkeling daily.  Stacey has been both Crew and Captain on various vessels but has most recently transitioned to an accounting-financial management position.  Our current plan is to continue to enjoy this beautiful paradise, build up the cruising kitty, complete more projects, and contemplate getting a bigger boat.  We are not done cruising, just on a break for a bit. But we continue to live on Smitty in the Caribbean as we explore these options. 

Life on a Rock

I often get asked how I like living here in the Caribbean.  I guess the best way to describe it is some days I feel like I am living a Kenny Chesney song:

Drivin’ on the left side gotta be learned. Happy hours from 3 to 6 but it never really stops. …We got Rasta religions, and parrots and pigeons, Mango and salt on a stick.  Life is a lime and from time to time, I gotta go get my fix, yea. We roll with the flow, friends come and go. Usually by the edge of the dock. That’s just livin’ life on a rock.

Other days, I feel like we are just back to the same daily grind as everyone else…with the exception that we commute via our dinghy (our 10′ motor boat that gets us to and from Smitty & shore) and most of the time the weather is beautiful and warm.

When we were cruising (sailing from place to place and not formally working) every day was that fun summer song.  We sailed, we strolled the beaches, we swam/snorkeled, fished, and watched the sunset while having a cold drink from the cockpit of our boat. We rolled with the flow, friends came and went.

Now, we are back to scheduled days off, working on boat projects, and trying to save money. Our time with visiting friends is more like vacation – trying to show them all the “tourist” stuff and eating/drinking out.  We really are back to being liveaboards and not cruisers.  We very seldom take Smitty out anymore, as it is our home and a complete pain to prepare her to be “sail ready”. Sail ready to anyone that has never sailed on a monohull means that anything that can fall over will once under sail (when the boat heels or leans over); everything must be stowed away unless you want a mess to clean up or items to be broken.

At this point, we are transitioning into summer & slow-season in the islands.  There will be very little tourism which means it’s the ideal time to sail and visit all those anchorages that are normally packed. However, we do have to keep an eye out because hurricane season is acomin‘!

We are currently contemplating the future:  Perhaps sail south and stretch the limited funds that we have? Stay here and continue to work the same jobs? Find somewhere else to live & work – maybe back to the states (doubtful!), Puerto Rico, St. Croix, or St. Maarten? While we consider our options, Jesse is going to go sailing for a couple of weeks – delivering a boat from St.Thomas to Florida (details to come in a separate post). So  many things to think about, but on the plus side, we do live in paradise and now we have a water maker. 🙂

St.Thomas living -First three months of 2017

Wow – we are now three months into 2017 and I haven’t written a blog post yet this year! Well, let’s fix that…

I feel like we have been on a bit of a roller coaster over the past couple months. In January, we were supposed to go to St. Maarten to see family, but the winds were honkin’ with sporadic gusts that churned up the seas during the exact time we had arranged to take off from our work obligations. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the trip. We were really bummed since we were looking forward to seeing our family for so long. I know it’s pretty far out, but we are already planning to make the trip next January when they are in St. Maarten again. Since we were already off from work, we decided to play tourist on St.Thomas. We rented a car and hit the popular tourist spots and went to all the beaches that you cannot get to by public transportation, including Magen’s Bay (where we got married 15 years ago).

Also in January, the pilot for Flying Fish Seaplane Tour quit and the company could not find a replacement. Unfortunately, since there were no more seaplane tours happening, there was no longer a need for a captain to bring guests to the seaplane, so Stacey no longer has a Captain job. And, now that it is high-season, all of the Captain-Crew jobs are filled; Stacey is currently working at a jewelry store. Jesse, on the other hand, has been busy sailing the 42-foot trimaran, Tribal, just about everyday.

We haven’t been out sailing much, my dad is in the hospital, and we have been busy working, in other words, we really needed a change. We did manage to sneak in a short trip to Christmas Cove to have pizza from the pizza boat, Pizza Pi. While there, we bumped into Lauren & Brian from Nightengale Tune – we had not seen them since the Bahamas. The next day, when we got back to our mooring after the night at Christmas Cove, I thought I heard a hail on the VHF calling Smitty. Odd, since we never have our VHF on when we are home (aka on our mooring), so who would try to hail us? ”Smitty, Smitty, Smitty, this is sailing vessel Wrightaway”. I was so excited to hear Deb’s voice! We had missed Deb, Keith, & Kai since we last saw them in the Bahamas. We knew they were making their way south but we didn’t expect them to be here so soon. Their timing was the real pick-me-up that we needed!

Over the past three months we have made new friends, but we have also watched as friends sailed away. We have recently learned that Jamie & Keith on Kookaburra are leaving St.Thomas to head to Long Island Sound. We wish them all the best but we will surely miss them! And lastly, Stacey said goodbye to her phone as it dove into the deep blue sea (a new one is on it’s way). 😦

And so, the boat projects continue on (we just completed the installation of a water maker!-WooHoo!) and we try to fit in sailing and fun. We are looking forward to a fun next couple of weeks: our friend Tim will be visiting, the St.Thomas Sailing Regatta, Carnival (think Mardi Gras) and Stacey’s family visiting in May.

2016 in Review

I write this to you as I sit in the cockpit of Smitty, enjoying my morning coffee and wearing shorts and a t-shirt (aka my pajamas).  Smitty is anchored at our new Home Port in Elephant Bay just off of Water Island and St.Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. It’s warm and breezy and, for my second winter in a row, I am thoroughly enjoying not suffering through the cold and snow.

Smitty at her home anchorage in the Virgin Islands.  She’s the one centered behind the reef.

January

Completed our traverse of the entire Inter Coastal Waterway (ICW). We entered at the Dismal Swamp in Virginia and ended when we crossed to No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne, Florida.

Our first boat break-up:  Yes, Skelton Crew of sv Hullabaloo, I’m talking about you!  We miss you guys! For those that do not recall, they called it quits and took their boat back home. 😦

Lived on the boat on the hard (aka on dry land) in Indiantown, FL for a week. But at least we finally got to meet up with some sailors whose blogs we have followed for several years that inspired us to get out here now. Thanks MJ Sailing and the Cynical Sailor and His Salty Sidekick!  

Our first overnight passage in open water:  Florida to Bahamas Crossing. 

Raised the yellow quarantine flag and sailed into our first foreign port:  Bimini, Bahamas.

Our first overnight anchoring on a large body of water with no land in site on the Bahamas Bank.

February – April:  Bahamas

The best sailing day ever happened as we traveled off the coast of Eleuthera; lovingly referred to as “The Day”, which included dolphins (of course).  This write-up is published in the most recent issue of Cruising Outpost (our first paid article!).

We traveled extensively through the Bahamas for a several months:  Swam with the pigs at Staniel Cay, left our mark on BooBoo Hill in the Exumas Land & Sea Park, harvested our first conch at Lee Stocking Island, had our first overnight visitor on sv Smitty in Georgetown, checked out the Bahamas Family Regatta, swam with turtles at Conception, swam with a wild dolphin at Red Shanks, swam Dean’s Blue Hole in Long Island, had our first beach fire on Cat Island, snorkeled, hiked, fished, and best of all, met so many great people.

 May – first part of June:  Turks & Caicos and Dominican Republic

We visited Turks & Caicos – where we met sv Sea Frog and sv Party of Five (thanks Barbara Hart!) and met back up with sv Last Tango and sv Odoya. All of which (except sv Odoya) we traveled with for the next few months.

We learned to play Mexican Train.  I still really suck at it, but thank you to Quincy on sv Party of Five for teaching me how to play.

Responded to our first “May Day” call from another vessel: The Three Passages: Part 1 – Turks & Caicos to the Dominican Republic

After a rough passage with thunderstorms and confused seas, we arrived in Luperon, Dominican Republic on May 30.  We visited Puerto Plata, where we jumped and slid off the 27 Waterfalls, and sailed to Samana, a luxurious resort where we only paid $1/ft per night. 

Second part of June – July:  Puerto Rico and the Spanish Virgin Islands

We made it through the Mona Passage and arrived safely in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. The Three Passages: Part 3 – The Mona Passage

We sailed and toured southern Puerto Rico and took a car trip to San Juan. 

We got to see first hand what happens to a boat that got struck by lightening. Puerto Rico

We visited the Spanish Virgin Islands:  Culebra & Culebrita 

August – December:  British & US Virgin Islands

We have been sailing around and checking out various islands (and bars!) in the Virgin Islands since August.  We were so happy to have been able to share this experience with our “L Dock” buddies (Captain Ken and sv Sunshine are officially L Dock buddies now!) that came down and chartered two boats in December.

We attended our first Full-Moon Party at Trellis Bay, BVI

We set up our new home base (recovered a mooring system that was abandoned), thanks to Jamie & Keith on sv Kookaburra. We can’t thank these two enough for all the help and guidance they have given us (and they are super fun to hang out with!). 🙂

Stacey with Keith & Jamie of sv Kookaburra

View of Magen’s Bay  – where we got married almost 15 years ago

We have officially registered Smitty Ditty (the dinghy) and Smitty in the US Virgin Islands. We officially removed Smitty from the Hingham, MA tax assessors list…I think we are now considered sea gypsies.

We have decided that St.John in the USVI is still our favorite island and we are trying to figure out a way to live and work there.

Maho Beach, St.John

This is the first year since we have been old enough to work that we did not earn enough income to meet the requirement to file tax returns.

Jobs in paradise:  trying to offset our spending and build our savings back up:

Stacey has been crew on a sailing catamaran (up to 80 guests at a time) and a power catamaran (up to 130 guests at a time). Currently, Stacey is Captain of the motor vessel that takes guests from the shore to the Sea Plane in the harbor. Bonus: Stacey got to go on a Sea Plan ride – landing on the water…this has been on her life “bucket list” since the first time that she was in St.Thomas over 20 years ago. Flying Fish Seaplane Tours

Flying Fish Seaplane Tours

Jesse is Captain of the sailing trimaran Tribal.  He takes up to 10 guests at a time sailing, snorkeling, and fishing. This boat is what racing sailors would call a “rocket ship” – it’s super fast! Jesse has gotten it up to 28 knots under sail. Tribal Day Sails

We celebrated our first Christmas in the Caribbean; complete with a boat parade and steel drum bands.

In summary, we have been to so many beautiful places and have met so many wonderful people that are now friends for life. We have had to endure storms, inconsiderate cruisers, and other challenges. We have had good days and bad days. But, in the end, it’s been an amazing journey that we absolutely do not regret.  We plan to spend 2017 in the Virgin Islands, as we work to build the cruising kitty back up, however, we will sneak in some fun trips as well (like St.Marteen in January – get ready Frank we are coming for you!)

Big Hugs to our family & friends – we miss you all so much!

Happy & Health New Year to All!

It’s a Long Story that Involves a Goat, a Bottle of Tequila, and a Pitching Wedge

Even before we left our homeport of Massachusetts, some of our boating friends were already talking about renting a boat and sailing around with us in the British Virgin Islands.  At that point I was skeptical if we would make it to the Caribbean, never mind make plans with others.  But a couple of months after we left, those same friends started to ask when we thought we might be in the Caribbean because they wanted to book a boat.  It was so exciting to know that I would see them again but at the same time it is so hard to commit to being somewhere by a certain date when one is traveling by sailboat. But, it did all come together and on December 9th and 10th two groups of friends flew down to St.Thomas then ferried over to Tortola, BVI to get on two catamarans and sail around the British Virgin Islands with us!

Jesse and I dinghied over to the Indians to meet up with the crew of sv Bear Necessities:  Pam aka Pamalama, Chris aka Big C, Chris aka Cooley, Liz, Dan aka Pants, Kerrie aka Kerrie Time, Steve, and Meaghan.  It was so unreal to see our friends sailing up, it just didn’t feel real, I felt like we were watching a video of them or something.  Then, watching them do a piss poor job of picking up a mooring was just comical.  To be fair, although most of the crew owns boats, none have ever operated a catamaran.  Before they were even all tied up I was on the boat crying and hugging everyone, still it did not seem real!

We snorkeled the Indians and then had a very short motor passage over to The Bight, where sv Smitty was already anchored.  Bear Necessities picked up a mooring with 100% improvement vs the first attempt earlier that day, and we were right back into step like we were at Worlds End in Hingham, MA – floats off the back in the water, tied with dock lines so we wouldn’t lose anyone and drinks all around.

We all decided to get rinsed off and changed to head over to the 100’ Schooner, The William E. Thornton aka The Willy T, for drinks and dinner.  After a while, we noticed that one of the dinghies (Bear Necessities had two dinghies for their group of eight) was still missing.  They had decided to go on a trip around the anchorage when we went back to Smitty but they were now MIA.  Jesse and I figured that maybe they already had gone over to the Willy T so we headed over to the Willy T, but upon arrival, their dinghy wasn’t there either.  Hmmm, they must be down at the other restaurant, let’s go check.  As we pull up to the dock Liz and Kerrie come running over to us and all I hear is them say “It’s Bad!”  Uh Oh – what are they talking about?….

As Liz, Kerrie, Pam, Cooley, and Chris were walking the beach they saw some guys playing Jenga.  This isn’t the normal table size Jenga, but the super-sized version that consists of large pieces of wood (think 2 x 4 size pieces).  After they watched one of the participants use two hands, someone jokingly said “hey that’s cheating you can’t use two hands”, from here I am not exactly sure of the story, I don’t know if the guy was drunk or angry or just joking but next thing I know for sure is that a our friend got knocked in the face with this piece of wood that the Jenga player threw at the group for whatever stupid reason!  The blow was hard enough to shatter the lens of his sunglasses and bring him to his knees. Due to concern that he may have a fractured skull or damage to his eye (which was already extremely swollen and black & blue and bleeding) and he likely has a concussion, the restaurant called VISAR (Virgin Island Search and Rescue) to come and pick up our friend in order to bring him to the nearest hospital, back on Tortola!

Keep in mind, this is day one, these guys have paid literally thousands of dollars to take this vacation and now it may be over, and, this particular friend is the qualified captain of sv Bear Necessities, I really can’t believe this is happening!

So, off our friend and his girlfriend went to go back to Tortola in a large RIB boat that goes something like 65 mph. Jesse dropped me off at the Willy T to tell the other half of the crew what was going on and he went to drop off the other three so they can change.  At this point, no one feels like having fun, we all have that awful feeling like we just found out a friend died – everyone was just in a state of shock.  Then just as I finished telling everyone what’s happening, the second group of friends gets to the Willy T and they, of course are all excited and ready to party with everyone. So, I repeat the story to the crew of sv Sunshine:  Deb, Whitey, Sarah, Amanda, and Ken. Then, I’m not sure how the turn of events happened, but we all decided that our friend would be more pissed if he knew that we were sitting around not having fun because of what happened…so, we decided to do what we all do best together – DRINK! 

Willy T

sv Sunshine  – Whitey, Amanda, Deb, Sarah, and Captain Ken

And from that point the shenanigans ensued, there were naked jumpers from the top deck, naked body shots, board shots, dancing, tattoos (fake), and so much ass slapping!  Oh, and let’s not forget about how one drunken person fell into the water three times while trying to get into the dinghy to go back to his boat (Cooley!), and not on purpose.

Meanwhile, two of friends were on Tortola.  Our friend had his head x-rayed and underwent other tests and further examination is required by an eye specialist once he gets back to the states.  I cannot speak highly enough about VISAR and Moorings.  VISAR very quickly responded and professionally handled the situation.  Moorings arranged for our friends to spend the night on a boat that was at their home base and kept the restaurant open late so they can eat and brought them back to Norman’s Island the next day.

It took a lot of convincing, and pain meds, but our friend did decide to stay in the BVI.  By the end of the week he was feeling better enough to joke about his incident a little.  I tried to get him to wear a Pirate eye patch but he said he wouldn’t wear one unless we found and caught a live parrot for his shoulder (epic fail). He also was joking that the VISAR crew all wore helmets but did not give “the guy with the head injury” a helmet to wear.  We joked about how no one is ever going to believe this story so we might as well spin it to something that sounds just as preposterous…like telling people “It’s a Long Story that Involves a Goat, a Bottle of Tequila, and a Pitching Wedge”.

  Again, this was day one of their visit, more stories to come…