Odds and ends and bits and bobs!

In the last 24 hours we have been down to Charlotte Amalie and back to get parcels and mail parcels. Always a fun filled trip that took us an hour to check in at CA this morning and then an hour in the post office line, then the llloooonnnngggg sail (motor) back up here.

Moved off the boat this afternoon into a hotel so Rich and Lisa could actually get the boat cleaned up before THEIR charter on Sunday...We go up to Florida then! It was either I had to get out of their way or I was going to have to help clean for charter and that did not seem like such a good idea to me! We are here until this weekend so we can attend the Charter Yacht Society Boat Show this weekend.


This is a really interesting animated picture that shows the spread of the lionfish since 1992. It really brings it home.
The link for it is here.

and the email that went with it is talking about spotting them in Bonaire in the last week.

"You may already have heard this from other sources, but here are some details.
Early this week Lionfish were found on both Bonaire and Curaçao.
The first one was sighted and subsequently caught and killed at Nucove on Bonaire on Monday Oct 26. It was 3 cm long, so a small juvenile. The next day, Tue 27, also on Bonaire, a second lionfish was sighted and caught at Something Special. This one was slightly bigger, about 5 cm long. That same day, Tue 28, a lionfish was caught by dive shop Ocean Encounters West at Watamula on Curaçao, it was also a small juvenile, about 4 cm long (see photos by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson).

It would appear that a cloud of larvae carried by the ocean currents passed by the windward islands recently, out of which the larvae settled when they found the sea bottom within reach. It is likely then that hundreds of juvenile Lionfish are now living around the islands. Because they can live down to depths of 150 m (500 ft) or more we will never see most of them, only those that end up relatively shallow, like the three that have now been reported.

Tissue samples of these lionfish will be sent to the REEF foundation which has set up a lionfish research program for the whole region to compare their DNA and track their dispersion all over the region. The US Geological Service USGS has set up a database of all lionfish sightings as part of their Nonindigenous Aquatic Species database, The ABC island have now been added to their Lionfish distribution map: http://nas.er.usgs.gov/taxgroup/fish/lionfishdistribution.asp"
This is the Lionfish captured in Bonaire.


We have had probably 4-6 sightings in the BVI over the last 12-18 months, but they have just been one offs. No one has been able to find them once they go back. There have been reported off the cruise ship dock in Roadtown, at the Bight in Norman, at the Indians, Angelfish Reef on Norman, and off of the North side of Guana Island.

In other coconut telegraph news, we received report from a crewed charter yacht at Young Island Cut on St Vincent that was boarded and robbed less then a week ago. They apparently also had death threats and told to leave the country. Additionally, there was another boat there that was robbed of $10,000. the next night I understand. Young Island Cut was/is generally a safe are of St Vincent, I guess you never know do you??

The USVI Tourist Board put out their bi monthly newsletter today, and here is a PDF of it, for those who are interested.

I think that is about it for the night, not too much exciting just some bits and pieces. I hear rumor that my husband is actually going to get his metal detector out tomorrow and go play!