bvi captains log blog

September 28th, 2008 Update

It has been awhile, but when you combine off season with being in the Caribbean, things move slow. We have had enough people searching the horizon expecting The Flying Cloud to be coming around Round Rock any second, that an update is in order.

When we first started working on obtaining the Windjammer Flying Cloud to sink in the British Virgin Islands, almost a year ago, it was tied up at a dock in Trinidad, with the Marine Museum, who did not want it. Windjammer, the corporation, thought that it was a great idea for her to come home to be sunk in her "home waters" and basically told us we could have it for a dollar. This is what she looked like at the time.

Of course, the Windjammer Corporation ceased operation and somehow, in the midst of all that, the Flying Cloud was sold to a scrap dealer. We re-examined our plans for obtaining her, and decided that even if we had to pay scrap price for her, that it was an important ship to obtain in the British Virgin Islands. At that point, we came to an agreement with the scrap dealer on price and hired a Trinidadian lawyer to take care of our interests. We also, sent Kevin Rowlette of Husky Salvage down to take pictures and to give us a status report, as the scrap dealer, alluded to there having been some vandalism on the ship and the front was a "bit underwater". Our agreement with the scrap dealer was for the price to be paid upon the Flying Cloud being pumped out and floating. You can see here that the Flying Cloud was, indeed, a "bit underwater"!

In some ways, this potentially saved us money, as the rigging was already taken off, you can see it below stored in the yard, and a portion of the ship would have been cleaned out. If you can call sitting in the mucky waters of Trinidad cleaned out! We knew once it was up and floating, we would be able to get it hauled at Burkes yard down there, and patch it enough for us to tow it back to the BVI. This was already agreed upon.

It was disheartening for us to see what damage had been done to the Flying Cloud in the few months since we started the project. However, it is in a murky, dangerous, commercial area of Trinidad where you have NO visibility in the water. We also knew that they would be eager to get it up and out of there as it is blocking a commercial dock and the yard owner, and indeed the Ports Authority have given a directive that it needs to be gone.

We had no plans to bring the Flying Cloud up to the BVI until after hurricane season ended this year, so we had lots of time. Toward the end of August, The scrap dealer had health problems etc and had given it a good attempt to get it off the bottom, tried for a month, backwards and forwards. Each time they would make a bit of progress and the water level would come down, something would implode (ie one of many doors on the main deck) and they would be back to square one. He has given up and says he cannot get any further.

So, what is our next step? We know that we can get it off the bottom, it is just a matter of how much money it will cost us. We are looking at our options.
There are some commercial divers in Chaguaramas, who have been working on a barge in Montserrat, and have agreed to give it a look when they get back and see what they think. As they work out of the Trinidad area, we think that their local knowledge will give us some options.

Other obstacles: We had originally thought we were getting it floating on a mooring for a dollar. Then we were paying the scrap value upon floating, no floating ship, no payment. With the price of steel going up, we may have to pay more for it as it is worth more, from the scrap dealers point of view. We now additionally have to pay to get if off the bottom.

This is where we are sitting now with our project. We are still very enthused and eager to move forward. Our original estimation was that it was going to cost us around a hundred thousand dollars for the project. Now, we are not sure. We have raised quite a bit of money for our project, from private donors as well as all members of the BVI SCUBA Organization. It is important for everyone to know that ALL private donations are sitting in our 501 (c) agents non profit account. They will be returned IF we cannot move ahead with the project.

If anyone has any expertise and/or ideas to help us meet our goal, please let us know! We have received a lot of positive encouragement and support from individuals, BVI Government and Media.

From the August Issue of All at Sea

From The August Issue of the Caribbean Compass

From the August Issue of the BVI Yacht Guide

The response from people sending in stories and pictures has been wonderful! The Flying Cloud, and indeed, the entire Windjammer Fleet has touched many peoples heart and soul! Keep them coming and we will continue to update you on what is happening with our "Sink The Flying Cloud Project"!

For more information, please see our Windjammer Flying Cloud site and our BVISO site
Written by me (Kerry) for the above!

For those who follow this, it should keep you reading for about 4 days if you take it in little bites! For my family, it is all the news I have. Now I don't have to send any emails!
This may be the epic blog entry for the weekend. My perky self has reasserted itself. Friday we left St John and checked back into the BVI. We had a (drum roll please...) dreaded town day!!
This is a picture of all the Voyage Yachts, that are still all out of the water, I think there was about 2 boats in the marina down at west end when we came in.

I have to give credit where credit is due though, I had to go to three banks, and I WAS DONE IN AN HOUR! Ok, so I could use the ATM's at two of them (Banco Popular was in spanish and they did not like my pass code either so we had to go into there, but the commercial line was dead) AND just like the performance Lisa went through a couple weeks ago I had decided to close one of my credit cards that we have with First Caribbean that we secured. Why, because the damn thing is never accepted anywhere. Mostly not even on island! We have been in over the years to ask why, and they don't know. They agree that it has happened that we cannot use it and they tell us to get the store to call them. Yeah, right, the store in Puerto Rico has a lot of interest in calling Barbados to authorize my $5.00 purchase! Anyways, since we seem to have credit cards from every bank, we decided we might as well save ourselves the hassle and the fee every year on that one and cancel it. You probably think that this is easy don't you? You would be wrong!
You go into first Caribbean, sure that there is nothing owing on your card, and if there was, well, they could just transfer couldn't they?? No, not that easy. I sit in customer service ten days ago for an hour, while they try and work this out. They finally tell me that they have to send a message to Barbados and when they get an OK back to close the account, they will call. This is not a same day thing! When she calls me back, apparently there is a bit owing on the card, and we are now in the USVI and Puerto Rico, but she says to call her and let her know when I have paid it off. No transfer.
I think, well, I am pretty sure I can just pay that off online, so off I go to do that. Once in my account, though, I cannot get the amount owing my only option is to pay an amount on "BVI credit card" on line (and hope it is the right one!) I asked the system to get me my bill, but it said "not available"
Now, silly me who has lived in the Caribbean for how long did not write down the amount that she told me I owed on the phone. I know, I should really know better, so I guess! I thought I over guessed. Ha! Nope, short by $9.00. Ok, go through procedure again and on Friday go into see customer service rep to tell her it is paid so she can email Barbados again to get an ok to close the account. (Remember, this is a secured already card, and we have our business banking there, with believe me, more then $9.00 in the account)
At First Caribbean we are not dealing with the bank manager, no, we probably have the most junior customer service rep (and I am sure she should know how to do it as Lisa just went through this with the same girl and it took a month!) Panic sets in! No junior customer rep at here desk!! No quick "yeah it is paid" (and yes, I did try calling the bank earlier, but it just rang and rang and rang) So I wait. For another customer service rep. When I get up to her (and believe me, she is uninterested and I am really imposing) she tells me that the customer service rep who was dealing with it IS ON VACATION FOR TWO WEEKS! Apparently, the only one in the bank who can deal with this complex problem. They take my phone number, after consultation with our service reps and I am not certain whether that meant that they would call me when it was done, or if they would give it to the junior rep when she came back in two weeks, but I fear the latter...Sigh, Funny how I managed to make a long story out of my gloating that it only took me an hour at the banks!
The other bank, who had somehow "lost" a $5000.00 deposit in between St Thomas and the BVI of the companies in July, took 5 days to tell me they just could not find it and I should get the original one cancelled and have it reissued. I had figured that out by the day I called them, and I don't even work for the bank, but it took them all week to get there.

Now, this is something that is a bit of a shock to us...This is a set of keys..on a key ring! Most of you may go "so what" BUT I have not owned one of these for about 12-13 years. Now I do.

After over a decade on this island, being perfectly content (mostly) without a vehicle, for some odd reason we decided that this was the year we have to give in and get one. Just to join the other billion SUV's on this island fighting over the same three parking spots in Roadtown! Smart hey??? It is nice. I especially like the picture of it under the palm tree! I wonder if this means we have decided we are staying here??? With owning a boat only, you always have in the back of your head that you can just pick up and go at anytime....

Now we have a car AND a storage locker here! Roots or what! One of the few requests I had from Bazza was good air conditioning. When he bought this in St Thomas, it was not working, but part of the deal was they would fix the A/C before shipping it over to the BVI. I am sure you know what I am going to say. They didn't. After all, what are we going to do?? Export it back to St Thomas and reimport it again to get the A/C working??? I think not, it is a procedure that rivals going to the banks importing a vehicle here! I let Bazza deal with it... I do now know though that IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT YOU PAID FOR IT WHEN YOU ARE PAYING DUTY. Apparently there is only one person on island, who "decides" what it is worth and charges you accordingly (no, we don't know where that it is based on, at least if it was based on the blue book or something we could understand!) This person interrogates you with questions like asking if you are related to the person you bought it from (nope, no relatives at Caribbean Auto Mart in St Thomas, otherwise the air conditioning would have been fixed I believe!). Each place Bazza went to, from Insurance to Registration to the Import Broker had about the same bad word to call this one person on island qualified to figure out what duty you are going to pay! (20% of what HE thinks it is worth!!) At least Bazza has something else to work on now, he was getting pretty bored just keeping up with the boat, RV, dinghy and mom and dads house!
We oohed, we aahed, we took pictures...and then what is the first thing we promptly did??? Yep, lock both sets of keys in the car! Bet you have seen these types of pictures before!

The second thing we did was take the extra tinting off the front windows as we KNEW it would never pass registration here with those on it! Too bad, it keeps it cooler!!!

While I was waiting for Bazza to break into our new car, I snapped this picture of Joma Marina, where BVI Yacht Charters is, it is looking pretty empty as well!

Sometime next week, I may get a ride in it (after it is plated and has the A/C fixed!) NO more carrying cases of whatever back to the dinghy when we run out. Hell, we can even wander at will to the grocery stores to pick up everything they forget to send us now every week! I then stamped my foot this afternoon and demanded to be FINALLY taken to Salt Island.
This is my home! I never feel at peace anywhere else as I do here on this silly little bay! Of course, I had to try out the new snorkeling camera and in I jumped straight away...The camera is a newer model than my older one, and take pretty good pictures...I was happy. I had had a big morning cleaning ovens and galleys etc so thought that I would not take a long snorkel, but I ended up being in the water for three hours one way or another! Lots of conch here right now...I saw three octopuses...

And the reef was in pretty good shape with some interesting effects..

Little schools of fish peaking at me.

More reef, sand rays, turtles, eels, tulip shell eating soft coral, it was wonderful! Fat girls (and boys I suppose) should swim. It is so wonderful being weightless and stretching without having to lay down because you are out of breath!

I had spied a bottle in the water that was too deep down for me to get so I had Bazza throw my gear in the water and I was pretty exciting when I had a PERFECT OLD MALLET!!!! I probably have not found one of these for a couple years, and they are hundreds of years old! By the time we got out of the water, I was perfectly content...

AND it was sunset. A pretty sunset as well... this is my artsy shot with my mallet bottle in the foreground

and this is just the sunset.

Another reason for being perky is MY GALLEY is DONE! And clean and put back together. The new countertops look nice and the new mac tack brightens up the shelves a lot. Here are the two views of the galley... Stove, oven,

and the sinks and fridges. Good Job Bazza! Apparently I am getting a garburator tomorrow as well! What more could a girl want? More cameras perhaps!!

I got a new explorer and apparently my father got a new car as well! His is only a couple inches tall and came from China via EBAY. A replica of a Volkswagon 411 that we had in Europe decades ago. Probably did not charge him as much duty to import it now did they??

Mom had a pretty cobweb on here clothes line she sent me as well.

I had a couple guests ask me for a picture of Simeon, our Scottish First Mate/Instructor who will be showing up all perky like in a few weeks (I bet it will be getting cold in Scotland!) This is the only picture I could find of him from the last time he was on here. Back in 2002/2003. Gosh we look younger! (and skinnier) That is Bazza and I on the left in case you don't recognize us in our much skinnier years! With us is Cait, who was a stewardess that year from Western Canada. She was quite young then, but I also heard from her a couple days ago as well and she is still enjoying the boating life off and on, looking for her next assignment on the water.

I took the opportunity to take (steal of the web) this picture of her to show you what she looks like now! Cait, you are a knockout!!

Well we had a pretty productive and tiring day on the boat. Bazza went to St thomas to get more formica, as well as GET ME A NEW SNORKELING CAMERA! Hard to believe, but yep, I needed to replace that little one. I think I use it almost the most! I cleaned while he was gone and did laundry. Again.
I now have new formica in my galley, and I will take a picture of it once he gets the trim on again. It looks pretty good and nice and clean! In that vein I cleaned out the fridge and about everything else I could find in there as well.
We finally moved the tub tonight, all the way up to Watermelon Cay on St John. This is a couple pictures of the sunsets looking behind us... These were taken with two different cameras!



Then I fooled around in Photoshop and turned one of them into a watercolor type thing....

We are the only ones at Watermelon as well, so as soon as we showed up the silversides and Tarpon showed up in full force as well. The silversides were so thick you could just scoop up bait. The color was pretty pink and purple with them being so thick. There were many tarpon bunching them up and scooping up mouthfuls, not just one at a time!

He did have a tarpon on the line, but he only had it on 4 lb gear and it went right underneath the rudder and PING! Another night!

My mother convinced me to try garlic pills to help with cholestrol. I remember her telling me they were non odorous, or maybe she told me to get the non odorous ones. I have taken those damn things for three days now and I cannot even STAND myself. I smell, taste, and ooze and sweat garlic! The bottle now goes in the garbage. Remember, get non odorous garlic pills! Come to think of it, I could just throw one or two of those into my meals I am cooking and I won't even have to buy garlic!
We might wander back to Tortola tomorrow, if we get word that our car has arrived (it was supposed to be here earlier this week) and they said they would call, but of course, I am sure we will have to go chase it down.