My first blog entry on here was November 14th, 2005. That is 6 years I have been blogging, mostly every day.

SaildiveBVI then was just a concept I had, and a place to start sharing some of the stories and pictures I was taking (yes, admittedly fairly crappy pictures now that i look back on it). SailDiveBVI was not even a yacht broker site then...But I did enjoy playing around with web designing, as it was an artistic side of me, that I could not get out by singing, or drawing or painting! (Just ask my family)

I think I am as surprised as anyone that I have kept it up and gotten much more into photography.

I had originally started blogging as an "anonymous" charter captain in the BVI...being fairly leery of putting my politically incorrect thoughts out there at times, but anyone who knows me also knows that i am horrible at keeping secrets so that did not last long!

Many changes have happened during those 6 years and they are mostly all documented here on this blog. I keep on saying when I get out of the business I will use this blog to write a book of the "other half of the story" as you have to know that I absolutely learned to only tell what I thought was palpable to tell and not get me in trouble (by painful experience..)

I poked fun (subtly) at our charter guests, my friends and family, the politics of the islands, the charter yacht industry and I hoped myself. I tried very hard when I did something that was stupid or less then smart to blog about it first, before someone else would! See this classic example. That way I would get my side of the story out first.

I found over the years, with very few exceptions, our guests on board Promenade loved having an ongoing blog of their week and left the blog address with family back home to follow along with.

In that time, there were only two other people who blogged on here..Lisa, when she was working on board (and since she is going to do a couple charters in December we MIGHT be able to convince her to do an entry!) and Elaine..One of our Adventurous Wenches that came on the boat several times blogged about her week on board from a guests perspective.

Many of our crew remember Lisa and I stridently sending them along with guests and camera in hand to GET US BLOG PHOTOS! And then nightly, usually after dinner, sitting down (her with a glass of wine!) to do our blog entries. Usually on our shitty slow boat internet that maybe as good as dial up some days.

And the frustration it added to our world when we would not have internet on charter for a few days and when we finally did, we would be met with several emails wanting to know WHY we had not been blogging!

It is no lie that on one occasion, we had a mother call or email toward the end of the week to ask why we weren't putting up too many pictures of their child....
We have also had calls after company charters from corporate types requesting we remove various images..which we always did, and changed the boundaries as we went along.

In these 6 years, we have gone through many crew members. I took the time a few months ago to gather pictures on most over the past and will post an entry on some point. We started turning this web site into our yacht charter brokerage site, admittedly with trepidation wondering whether brokers would still book us.

I don't know how many charters we have done over the last 14 years. A lot, I think our lowest year was about 19 and our highest was about 33. We have gotten burnt out at times, aged and gained a lot of weight! I look back on the early pictures where I thought I was so fat then and can only wish I weighted that now!

We have sold Yacht Promenade and business and then bought it back a few short months later (actually I never felt like I had sold it cuz I had a 6 month clause to "train" the new owner on running it..I think they managed to design brochures)

We went from living on Yacht Promenade 24/7 with only about two weeks off of it in the first decade, to running it only half the year now and buying a place we love in SoCal for the other half. We got to the age that we were too old to live with employees younger then our children 24/7 and restructured the boat so when we did do charters, we did not need full time crew living with us.

We have turned SailDiveBVI into a full fledged brokerage, indeed, a family brokerage as my sister does all the paperwork and accounts and my son is also doing yacht charter brokering as well now. We separated out the blogs and moved the Yacht Promenade guests and boat stuff onto the Yacht Promenade site and then we separated out the charter brokerage side and moved it to another blog on the front page of this site, with this original blog that has everything becoming my personal blog..

Now, it is time to make the next step and separate my personal ramblings for friends and family off of here onto my own home. I don't really care if anyone reads it, it is not about that for me, it has just become such a part of my soul, and psyche that I don't know what i would do without it.

I also wanted to update my blogging platform onto Wordpress, as there are so many more features on it then the program I have been using.

I love blogging, photography, the boat, islands, the water and hope to blog for a lot longer...But this will be the last entry on this particular blog. Which is kind of sad for me and I thought I owed more then a nodding glance that I was finished up on here.

SaildiveBVI will just be for our yacht brokerage business. We also have a Facebook page and a twitter page @saildivebvi
Yacht Promenade will be just for our charter and yacht business. We also have a Facebook page and a twitter account @yachtpromenade
Kerry Hucul will be for my personal ramblings. I also have a facebook account where my wordpress blog will update automatically and I will be making the final step of separating my personal tweets out of my @saildivebvi to @kerryhucul (this will take awhile as I have so many people I follow and vice versa as @saildivebvi.com

My kerryhucul site may change a bit, to a self hosting wordpress (for even more options!) in the long run, but if it does I will let you know on there...

It has been a good run.... We have had visitors from all over the world, as you can see here...



THANK YOU!


This was my very first 2 entries on the blog...

Well it is an hour away from pick up time and the weather is going down hill as we write. Awoke this morning and went for a snorkel, thinking, boy is it nice out. Managed to snorkel all the way around from Baughers Bay to the Shell dock in Fish Bay and that does not happen often. Usually it is too rough and you cannot see anything, but today it was nice and clear. Saw a few octopuses that sadly did not have any good shells for me! Seems to be a lot of weird shaped things in the water by the shell dock, could definitely spend more time poking around there. The boat is clean, and now starts the worst hour of the charter week. Waiting. You think you have finished everything, but you feel like a cat on a hot tin roof thinking you are forgetting something. YOu are up, down, and really just want the guests to get here so you can shove the first painkiller of the many of the week into their hands and get out there. Sitting here at Baughers Bay I can see white caps, but not too bad. Still lots of sun, but the weather man is starting to call for all boats to stay in port the next few days and sustained winds of 21 tomorrow, 23 the day after, north swells and "higher gusts in numerous squalls" We are anticipating the weather will obviously go downhill quickly. These guys I have on the boat have a deep sea fishing charter booked this week. The weather may be interesting for that! Oh well, at least there is a full moon party on Wednesday! November is often when we have our worse weather down here.
I understand there is a ton of small jellyfish at the caves today, that is quite unusual for this time. Water temp is hovering about 82 degrees, and I am pretty sure that in the spots I snorkel at daily the coral bleaching is starting to improve.
Only one cruise ship sitting on the dock today as you can see below, and the channel looks flat as can be doesn't it?



******

Just as I suspected, quarter to twelve and what do we hear but the patter of little rain drops!
Our guests did not arrive at noon, as one of them thought he had left his camera in the hotel room so had to get the taxi to turn back to Apple Bay. Apparently they stayed over at Sebastians on Apple Bay, and as per usual, 5 of them were supposed to come in on the 7PM flight from San Juan that was 2 hours delayed, so they did not arrive at the hotel until about 11. The kitchen was closing, and they tried to bribe the cook to keep it open to feed them for a hundred dollars, which he turned down!! Saying he wanted to go home! business must be good on the island!
When I saw the dinghy pulling up to the yacht with ZZ top lookalikes in it, I knew that it would be an interesting week! In their favor, they brought the least amount of luggage I have ever seen on this boat (maybe they just decided that showering and changing was not needed on a boys week away?)


Off we wander to the caves at Norman Island for a snorkel. Great sail on the way over, with winds over 20 knots and soon we had at least 3 seasick and a couple hooting and hollering as they loved it! Stomachs eased as we anchored and snorkel gear was found by all and into the water we went. It was decided that Willy T's was not beckoning that much tonight, but fishing sure was so our next bright idea was to go over to Peter Island, to White Bay, where we always have good fishing at night. It was lovely at the caves, until we pulled up anchor, rounded the point and a squall with 35 knot winds came straight at us. So much for the stomachs that had eased! A couple were looking decidedly green by the time we arrived and one was having an adventure of a lfetime, commenting to me that he had never even lived in a house with an icemaker never mind a yacht with an icemaker! They all brought their own large cups inscribed with their names and BVI cruise 2005, and they pulled out cartons of the cutest little crown royal bottles in bags I have ever seen. Think airplane size, with individual bags!! Pretty gusty at White Bay, coming over the hill there, but only two other boats. We brought out the fishing poles and promptly caught a couple little fish for bait. We hooked a couple sharks as well throughout the night, which broke the lines, and one good sized horse eyed jack that we always seem to catch here. You would think he would learn! After a great barbecue of ribs (in between the rain storms) and several bottles of Dom for dinner I left the boys (alot of testoterone on the boat, a lot, one poor female who will struggle (or not!) to hold her own) to their fishing and other activities on the back deck and departed for bed. Blustery this morning, and we had some heavy rain in the night as well. Funny to hear this morning from a guest of a cruise ship they watched go back and forth outside the islands last night, as they have to arrive at port in the morning so their guests can watch you know! These cruise ships need like, a half an hour to get to the next port, but they manage to stretch it out all night.
Todays excitement, taking ZZ Top for a resort dive, yep, all 8 big boys!


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I have very studiously been trying to learn some new tricks. It is not going that well.
I have been trying to get into Dragon Naturally Speaking voice software to type my emails, for various reasons. One more good reason is the new Siri that is on the Iphone now. It still appears to take me twice as long as to type it if not longer going back or stopping to correct all the mistakes I made. It probably does not help that a lot of the talking I do has weird names for yachts like MIMBAW and MAROLANGA....

I have also been trying to use the Bamboo Wacom tablet for editing my pictures, with about the same results...

I also know that once I go back to the islands, if I am not comfortable with them by then, I will have no time and they will be put away for another year. We are packing up the last boxes to ship to the islands, and starting to feel time drain through the hourglass.

Getting quite excited to get back on the boat and into the water again, but also thinking it will take awhile to adjust to the humidity and work! Also had good news this weekend as my oldest son Chad, is coming down to the islands to do the boat shows at the beginning of November.....and I might be able to talk him into helping get the boat back together too...

Ah well, I know I have work to do...

Apparently I lost a day. I emphatically told my husband it was Friday today which made him happy until he found out that I was wrong. I told him that he should not trust someone who has been on Vycodin for the last couple days after my trip to the dentist!

Only allowed to have soft foods, so ice cream and mashed potatoes have been popular. All better now...Just rack up another few thousand that I have spent on our teeth lately.

I received a tripod and remote for my camera in the mail a couple days go, the better for shooting the hummingbirds that come to my window I am hoping!
Yes, I am really looking like a dweeb now! This picture was taken with the new iphone 4s. It apparently has a better camera on it, which I can see that it really does...



But, I have to get them used to that now. I only managed to get one single solitary shot yesterday of one of the little birds. My odds today are a bit better already, I think I have 3!


I have been making videos of all my recent trips, and updating web sites, etc for the last bit getting ready to go back to the islands.

I have been going back and forth for hours on trying to figure out what to do with my personal blog here. Since I mostly post pictures, it has been quite easy just uploading the pictures to facebook and then commenting on them.

I am trying to decide whether that will be sufficient for me, or if I should get my own wordpress and maybe integrate it with smugmug for my pictures, although a lot of my pictures are not good, they just capture the moment for the blog, so I think they may look ridiculous showing up in some fancy smug mug gallery!

I know not everyone uses Facebook though, but since I was not posting on here, it has forced my husband to get a facebook account so he could read my posts!

I have to narrow down the amount of time I have to spend on the computer, as i overextended myself with a few things keeping up.. I will figure it out I am sure and just as quickly switch directions next month..

We go back to the islands at the end of the month...I hear dribs and drabs of crews going back quite a bit now.

I am making a switch in where I host the video's that I make..They are all shows for guests, friends and family, but I always find with You tube, the quality is not there and I hate watching the nice pictures I take be chopped down to such a small size for you tube...

Now, I may chance my mind when I am in the islands trying to upload these! but I am giving VIMEO a try. You can watch my video's on there, and download for friends and family if you like...



So, the SD version is up and the HD version will be ready in 8 minutes. Not that I am impatient!

Here is the link to it on VIMEO, which if you have the fast internet (mother!) you should be able to watch it in HD and download it. Please let me know if it works!

This is what I did today for my mother in law et al on her trip from Australia to SoCal to UK and back again...

Since I am trying a new video site, I am also embedding it here to see what it looks like....

From the outback in OZ to SOCAL and UK..My mother in laws visit from Kerry Lynn Hucul on Vimeo.

My mother in law immigrated from the UK to Australia back in 1967. She left dozens of siblings and relatives behind. She went with her husband and children. This is the first time she has left Australia since then and made the trek to California to see us, then we took her back to the UK to see her relatives. None too soon. It was a real pleasure putting together this video of our trip and stay. I am hoping by putting this up here, family and friends can get a higher quality video and share the memory with us. This is for the Harkers, Hammonds, Surrmans and Coopers in the UK and Australia. It was a pleasure to meet you all. This is especially for my mother in law though!

This is neat, there is a RSS feed you can use for getting my videos by using this! Video RSS feed

And I stayed up late editing the one for my mom and dad too.. So here it is..

My parents visit to CA, UK, Belgium, Las Vegas and Murrieta from Kerry Lynn Hucul on Vimeo.

The companion edition for my mother in laws video I did is this one that I did for my parents of the "rest of the trip", this allowed me to break it up in two shorter videos...there are also plenty of old cars in here for my father and brother

and the plain old link...

The best thing about this is that I finished everything I put on my to do list for today!

Starting to get homesick for my other home.... I am watching my old videos now..


Trying to get pictures of the hummingbirds coming to my feeder is a slow process. They are skittish!



Said I would make Bushwackers for a do coming up this weekend. Went to Costco to pick up some liquor, surmising I probably needed all three of these....


Looked in my cupboard above the fridge and apparently I think there is going to be a national shortage on baileys and Kahlua..I think I have enough to get me through the first few charters too with bushwackers!

I firmly admit it, I have been posting less on my personal blog. it has taken much less of my time to throw them up in an album on Facebook along with a comment or few while I am editing the pictures then to double post them on here.

I think all my pictures from the UK and Belgium are on there, so I may just make those albums public and if you want to see the pics, you know where to go. Not that Facebook isn't pissing off more then a few with all their changes and privacy concerns, but I share so much on here, it would be rare that there would be something on there that I would not share with anyone and everyone...expect perverts!

If you are on facebook, find me there...

While we were over in the UK I purchased one of the dutch gin bottles that we have many of under water in the islands. I was so surprised to see that they must have had glaze on them as none of the ones I pulled out of the water did!




My bedroom tv is starting to look a bit complex. We upgraded the DVR in there, then, I bought an Apple TV so I could watch that in bed as well as the Living Room..THEN we bought and installed a sling box, with the hope of MAYBE being able to see some of our Directv down on the boat. When/if I have a decent internet connection. Hope springs eternal doesn't it?


My poor husband, it is not often that he is allowed to eat a meal in peace. In fact, I think I have a great talent for taking pictures when he would least like me to take them. You should be glad that you don't live with me!














This is pretty much what he thinks about the whole camera thing..AND he semi cheerfully goes back to get it when I leave it in the car, or makes sure I have all my covers and lenses with me..


Of course, others eating with me are not spared either..My parents look a bit daunted at the food in front of them...


My dad did say that he got to eat in some pretty awesome places though from hanging around with me so maybe that is worth the pictures? This was in the Centre de Ville in Mons, Belgium..


Occasionally, I find a stupid one of me...This was at the dentists...How come if you live in SoCal you need such white teeth? I have found myself looking at teeth picking out the ones who have veneers etc since living here. Fairly pathetic..


My mother with her great granddaughter is equal partys cute and funny.She will show anyone, and if there is no one around, herself, pictures of her baby at the drop of a hat. I did have to laugh at my sister playing mummy for the weekend with strollers and such when we all met up last weekend did my heart good smirking a little..



I told Bazza he could stay home without me putting anything else on the social calendar this coming month...well besides a couple trips to the east coast for concerts and class reunions! The poor man will think being on charter is a breeze after all this come November..

There has been a bit of controversy and new groups that have started lately in regards to the open season for taking of turtles in the BVI.



I myself, naively thought for many years that they would all be protected, until I came across them being cleaned in Little Harbour on Peter. That prompted me to do a bit more research on it. I subsequently then also found turtle shells at the fishermen's landing on Anegada.

I, am not entirely sure where I come down on this debate yet. On one hand, I love turtles, and I love finding them in the water to take pictures of. I especially like it when the older ones sit and let you scrape barnacles off of them.

On the other hand, I do fish and eat fish and wonder if it is any different? Besides wondering whether I have any right to jump into telling others their traditions are wrong. Over the years, Turtle Products on the menus have declined in the BVI (Where did I think this turtle meat came from in early years? I don't know, perhaps the same place as most things, in a package from a far off place...?)



I took the time to actually read a report I had " An assessment of the Status and Exploitation of Marine Turtles in the British Virgin Islands". The link to this PDF for you to read yourself is here.



It is wordy, so here in very simplistic terms is a few facts I picked out. We basically have 4 types of turtles here. Loggerhead (maybe) Green and Hawksbill (most common) and Leatherback (not common)

There are 20-50 fishermen who are licensed to harvest turtles, and then loggerhead and leatherback are prohibited at all time.

The open season is 1 dec until 31 of March and they must be over 20 lbs.

Perhaps around +/- 200 a year are still taken. There are no historical sources prior to the 20th century referencing numbers.

"Trunkers" traditionally harvested Turtle Oil. Turtle eggs also used to be popular, but are no longer popular. There are references to turtles being exported commercially from the BVI back in the 1930's.

The traditional turtling spots in the BVI are basically the same as fishing, The settlement on Anegada, Fish Bay and East End, Tortola...



Here is a link to a Facebook group that has started which may be one of the sources to give you also more information to make up your mind.

Here also is a link to the SEA TURTLE ORG website



Here also is the Link to Conservation and Fisheries, BVI web site



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About this time in the off season I am thinking that being on charter is a lot less work then being on vacation. I have a billion pictures to edit over the next while and yesterday I managed to get mostly caught up on the brokerage side emails and the postings to the charter yacht side...Today is editing.

If you did not realize, we finally convinced Bazzas mother to leave the outback for the first time in a bazillion decades and come see where we lived in California and then take them all back to the United Kingdom to see places and family. This is a rather nice picture of her arriving.

Those who follow me on Twitter or Facebook have probably already seen a lot of these already..




So we now have 3 parents in the back seat of the car, looking happy. Although, you may see a few back seat pictures over the next while and they were not always looking this happy Especially when I was taking them in circles in Europe somewhere...


Mom of course, could not get over the size portions in food and drink in the states...something of course we got over a long time ago!


I would say that mom and Bazza have full sized cakes here never mind individual cupcakes! Really!




Both Bazza and I went to the dentist. Always a struggle to get him to go as he is allergic to the main freezing they use and the alternative does not work that well. Both of us going to the dentist means that without doubt, we have added on another 12 charters we have to do in our lifetime to pay for them!



We did quite a bit of driving and sightseeing (hate driving about now...hate road trips...)



This was just north of us at Lake Elsinore..


This was a very fun slot machine I played at Harrah's Rincon that made lots of noise and pretty colors and gave me enough pennies to pay for dinner...at Marie Callenders! Not too much more upscale then that! Had to show mom the USA casino's. She occasionally plays the "pokies" as they call them in Australia.


After all the trauma of dentists, I needed a relaxation massage...except I came out early with sweat dripping down me. Heated ones are not necessary where we live!


One side of me is Mercedes and Bling...the other side of the road where I live is Happy Jug Liquor...which sells fishing bait too!


The juxtaposition sometimes is amusing...


Another one of the yards a couple blocks away from our house..


Bud lite and snuff...which side of the road do you think this is on?


Dad and I stopped to look at some old cars, with a fierce guard dog sign. The fierce dog ambled over to us, he was about 20, quietly looking for a pat!



The crows have taken up residence in our backyard at times...Has nothing to do with the fact we feed them!



My dad is pretty quick to get out his camera, so I actually have a few pictures with me in them. Usually with camera too though!


He found a picture or two of me swimming in the pool and I do have to say that my pool work outs are going to have to pick up 4 fold to cover all this wonderful food we have been eating on "holidays"

Monday we took a drive over to show Baz's mom San Diego..We opted for the tour bus of La Jolla once we arrived for ease's sake...


Up to the war monument...


Loved the Rolls Royce that was parked outside of the La Valencia Hotel..


Which I took pictures inside as it was pretty...






They had a clam bake buffet on along with the typical live bad Jimmy Buffet singer, but we enjoyed it all...




Family waiting for a cab back to San Diego where we left the car...


The festival of sail was on this labor day weekend, so we walked around looking at all the tall ships...










We went on board to visit a couple of the submarines there and of course the first thing Bazza did was to drop down and look in the areas the tour did not go through!

Back home by early evening and a couple movies flaked out in the living room was on the agenda for the night...

My birthday is coming up sometime soon (although I no longer celebrate them!) My parents carried me down a present on the airplane...and let me open it early..


It was the original very ornate baptism certificate for my grandmother. Thanks parents, nice gift!


We have been out driving! Drives have been big on animals the last couple days...We saw a darn Buffalo! I was surprised...


Does our crow count as an animal?


The scruffiest little chickens I have ever seen at a swap meet back in the hills. I really thought I was in Mexico there...


Original for sale sign on the dog there. The other side had DOG spray painted on, just in case you were not sure what it was!


The Possums in Brisbane are much cuter then the one who was wandering around our back yard last night! This one looked like a very large rat...




Horse at the market..


If you are in the market for a boat this one is only $3000.00 to take it away...




And just because no blog entry should be complete without a food pictures...


Off to take the wrinklies over to San Diego and La Jolla for some sightseeing today. I am sure Bazza is thinking "oh joy, another fun family day in the car"

And apparently a busy week in the BVI with Necker Island going up in flames in Irene..


And the Tropical Sun grounding on the Rhone at Salt Island. No, the coconut telegraph has not given a reliable store on the circumstances yet! BUT it was floated off at high tide two nights ago by shifting weight from the fore to the aft and a couple tugs with no damage to the Rhone itself. It has now been given permission to go into Port Purcell and off load its cargo. Hope their weren't any fresh vegetables on there!!!


My dear friend Janice has been really championing a newish singer, and sat me down when she was on the boat to play some music for me. This gentleman is called Levi Lowrey. I think the type of music is called Southern Ground...

She went down to Atlanta on Monday to watch a benefit they had put on, and sent me this picture of her and Levi... (she really is cute..) After convincing me to also watch the benefit on StageIt, where you pay to be on line at the concert. It is a great idea, but the technology needs some work!


Here is a sample of the music, that he plays, I really do enjoy it...


This was one of the things we had brought home to California from the BVI that Bazza had to use some electrolysis to clean up to find out what it was. It is an old caulking tool for wooden ships hundreds of years ago. How he knows this crap I have no idea!


The deer in the back yard got a change from the flowers and bows mom and dad had put on..Something more fitting with our boat lifestyle!


My father is good at cleaning my windows and they are much cleaner now then when Bazza did them! Nice having live in "help" when the parents arrive for a visit


Dad took on the sorting job of all the coins, which is only fair, since it is for him I shuffle all my coins up from the Virgin islands for him to look at in case he needs anything for his coin collections...


I now have an extra $276.00 in my bank account...Woopie...


My moms face when I brought her home a new Iphone, (she had wanted a cel phone when they are down here in the states..) apparently ms internet will be really happy to have facebook..


Her face looks much better then mine did when I had to go to the dentist's this week and get my first ever crown..

Kind of looks like Vegas doesn't it? Yep, took the drive up on Friday.......


Found some strange looking people there. They look suspiciously like parents. The first of parents arriving, we have Bazza's mom coming from Australia this Thursday too. First time she will have been out of Australia since 1967 when she emigrated from England there. It should be a culture shock for her...


Staying at the Mandalay this time, as that is where the concert is Saturday night...


view from the room and me taking more pictures...


Texas De Brazil for dinner, I think we were the first people at the place when it opened for dinner at 5 PM! It was good, Bazza had lots of lamb for dinner..He was happy...




The sunset was pretty when we came out from dinner, nice soft colors and we decide to take a drive up and down the strip sightseeing. No damn way were we walking in 107 degree heat with many thousand people...








Was playing around taking some pictures at night out of the hotel room. The windows were filthy which really did not help my cause! You can see a billion photographer errors in this picture


pretty lights though...




We opted for a late breakfast, early lunch..I wanted a real smoked meat sandwich...


Bazza opted for hot dogs. The no coffee machine thing in the hotel rooms really sucked. Instead of taking his chances with room service coffee Baz had to get dressed and stand in line at the starbucks in the hotel after he trucked a long way. I probably would not stay here again for that reason. He is not a happy camper without coffee when he first wakes up...



Took a tour through the aquarium at the Mandalay. Humid, and although the parents enjoyed it, we found it a bit lame for the price. That is to be understood since we live in the BVI though and don't need to look at those creatures in a tank...










I could not convince anyone to go to the "beach" although, the beach had many more people on it then we ever do in the BVI too! (except for maybe Cane Garden Bay on Cruise Ship day..)


Went to see Sugarland that night. Floor seats are obviously bad. I saw maybe about three minutes of the main act unless I stood up. Plus if you remained sitting while everyone else was standing it became very hot and the sound was very muffled. Plus we had shriekers directly behind us and the show had lots of trouble with their lights.

I apparently need the concert direct to HD Large screen TV in the living room option...


And nope, we did not come home rich either...

This post is about food..of course, only a few things I blog about and food is one of them. We went to the Black and Blue Steakhouse at Valleyview Casino..it was relatively inexpensive I thought, although I think we all put the difference in the slot machines!

Well, Bazza only lost $6.00 He sucks.




The portions were pretty large. This picture does not show how really large my potato was! Mom and dad will be here next week and then we can go back for the lobster buffet..with even the free coupons we pay for in the slot machines...




Some heard about the outdoor concert for Toby Keith we went to in Irvine. The tickets said 4. We showed up at 3. Chad dropped us off and I had told him to pick us up at 7, should be over by then... He said he was laughing as he drove way watching us disappear hand in hand in our matching pink shirts looking around the parking lot and being much younger then us, realizing that since there was a tailgate party going on in the parking lot, there was not a chance of hell this concert was going to be done by 7..

I joined the line up to get in the port a potty's before we even got in the gate...


Although there were a few ancients like Bazza and I, we slowly realized that we would be sitting in the grass for hours before Toby Keith even came on. I am not really a grass sitting port a potty kind of girl, and Bazza was not either...


To make a long story short, by the time Toby Keith came on at 915 we were tucked up in our bed at home. This is what Bazza looked like when we left the concert at 7 PM!


I will live and learn

We enjoyed the Maine Lobster that Hopper and Swim Vacation sent us... They have 3 charters out on our boat this winter and will be very busy!

I almost think I am in Tortola. I think these are Turtle Doves in the back yard...Enjoying the sunflower seeds out of the bird mix if nothing else! The rest they just scatter around...




Went for a drive on the back roads over to Palm Springs..Took pictures of color for my mother...




Set the scene here, we are just about to go down the hill into Palm Desert...and I said to Bazza "I hate this hill going down" and Bazza says "apparently your family does too!" A reference to me taking my family on this drive and them telling me afterwards that they were scared shitless...


Date Palms at dusk...


I love this car wash sign...where do you see signs like this anymore?


Went to see the movie "the whistleblower" not uplifting at all, but very good and then went to an Austrian Restaurant for dinner..an Austrian Restaurant with quite an Australian influence in the menu from Barrumundi to Kangaroo!


The shrimp cocktail was excellent..


Bazza had duck...


I had the schnitzel...


And the chocolate mousse with a honey/coffee glaze for dinner was wonderful. In fact, the entire meal was and we enjoyed it very much!


A nice drive home and a very nice evening out we had, with still being in bed by 10:30 pm!


Had to go out so I could show off my new hair color! The only day it ever looks this good...

As funny stories go...Chad left California on Monday afternoon driving the RV up to Alberta...



First time we ever let anyone drive our RV, and of course I was being a "nervous mother" . They live away from you for decades, come home for three days and you are reminding them to drive carefully, and wanting to know if they need something to eat! Surprised I did not do his laundry (he did mine)

He calls us somewhere in Utah saying that he needed to talk to Bazza....uh oh...Fuel surging or some such. Easy fix though, loose relay...

We don't hear from him for a few hours and then he calls again..in Idaho somewhere. Idaho in the middle of nowhere...and after talking to him Bazza tells me it needs an alternator...

Well apparently he goes to step out of the RV and there is a rattlesnake at the door, which he has to skirt around to get up the hills to try and find a cel signal ... which he couldn't but found friendly old people to lend him theirs. He could not break down outside Camping World in a major city or even a NAPA in a small city, but instead 44 miles away from where he has to call a mechanic too...A mechanic who had to come from Montana and had been up since 130 in the AM. This being late afternoon...

Not only that but the mechanic has to send his wife to get the part in another direction.... and then they had to call Bazza to figure out how to put on the serpentine fan belt...

Chad was watching the numbers on the calculator go around and around tallying up this bill in the middle of nowhere and then decided he just wants to get to Canada. About the time a deer skidded on his hoofs to avoid hitting the RV.

He pulls finally up to the Canadian border at 3 AM in the morning, now freezing cold as we had the heat shut off in the RV (we don't need heat in 100 degree California weather...) only to have the guy tell him that he could not take the RV across the border!



Apparently something to do with Canadians not being able to bring US vehicles in or something??? Chad said at the time he did not even care, and wondered how much Bazza would mind flying up to Coutts Montana or something to drive the RV across and then fly out of Lethbridge

The customs guy said they had a lot of snowbirds show up with vehicles they bought in the states expecting to just bring them across...But after looking at all our paperwork decided to be nice and only charge Chad the GST on a fair value of the RV...SInce it seems we really do not live in Canada. Apparently he googled the value of the thing and Chad was egging him on to take the dented up low end value...and after spending a few thousand dollars unexpectedly on the trip up, was happy to head to the nearest Tim Horton's.

Said that those places were in the middle of nowhere (last time I looked Edmonton was in the middle of nowhere as well...). I reminded him that there was a reason most people on the continent live along the coastlines....

And, if the vehicle goes back across the border before January he can get his GST back...

So friends and family may be wondering what is going on around the house in SoCal. First of all, a lot of sleeping! And maybe buying too much food...
We took a drive back up to LA on Thursday to pick up my oldest, Chad...


And once more was reminded that I live in redneck country...


I am not sure what you call this homemade convertible...


Traffic was actually not bad...


The next couple days was a flurry of activity and cleaning. Chad is moving out to Vancouver this fall to start up a new division of his real jobs company. He wanted to borrow our RV to live in for the first while until he figured out where he wanted to live...


When he was done cleaning it looked so good I wanted to keep it!


Our house was absolutely filthy on the outside, so house cleaning was in order too...




Along with taking leaves off the roofs...


And cleaning there too. I thought the younger generation could do it instead of Bazza or my dad climbing up on ladders...


Since we have my parents AND my mother in law coming in a couple weeks, we had to get the air conditioner working in the sun room too...


Took a drive to show Chad around the area around sunset...





More later...

Remember this knife in a leather scabbard I showed you a couple days ago?


Not sure whether I had put up the pictures of the actual cleaned up blade, with the gold bits on it...




We spent a night on one of the little islands off Culebra, the other guys did one last dive, and then spent the hot day in the marina at Fajardo tying up the boat. Practically crying taking down the awning... Putting it to bed for hurricane season is always MUCH easier then putting it all back together for charters in the fall.

Bazza thinks he was quite clever this time though with reducing the mildew problem we have on the boat while leaving it and bought several dehumidifiers that he set up so they would circulate through the boat and drain in the bilges on the air conditioning system, without needing sea water. I will be interested to see how it goes...


Our luggage disappearing down the long dock in Puerto...


My varnish which will be no more by November...




A great afternoon meal in Old San Juan and we spent the rest of the time in the Best Western at the airport, which is no longer new and had no hot water again, but is decidedly convenient..


Bazza was not thinking that my laptop was the place to be setting my drink on the plane, but it is not like there was a lot of room...


We flew Delta this time, flights were all on time and went smoothly...connected in Atlanta, and soon enough we were seeing Riverside out of our window..


The drive home from LAX went spectacularly in terms of missing traffic and we found my pool cover needed a good cleaning....


The peach tree was laden...


And I went to Costco! Surprise!


We collected all our mail and Bazza wondered when the recycling man would be here...Which would be my father who does all this! He won't be here for a couple weeks, Bazza thought the recycling probably would need to go out before then


He is happily set up in his toy room (what a guy!)


And me? I seem to not be able to do too much more then sleep! A lot!

Where next on the diving agenda this week? Well, that would be Caneel Bay and Cruz Bay...along with a dive outside of Cruz Bay for Janice and I while the rest who had not been took a bit of a look around the town. THey said it was hot. Yep, believe that!

I was so proud, the first thing I found on the dive was a brand new west marine boat hook and brought it up for Bazza he said, and I quote "great, that means I have 43 now"! Guess he is glad I left the others that were not brand new down there!

This poor Tarpon had a hook through his mouth that had been there awhile...





Barrel Sponges...


With arrow crabs in them!


More Tarpon...always a lot of this corner...


Janice found a tiny little anchor...apparently it wasn't enough to hold this sailboat floating!








And a small Lionfish...we are seeing them about every dive nowadays....


Jamie was laughing at me that I was shooting everything, above and below the water with a fish eye...Yep, that was about it! It is a new shiny toy. He is a much better underwater photographer then me. Takes his time, adjusts the settings, etc. Those who know me know that if it swims in front of me while I am swimming quickly I am going to take its picture, but that is about the extent of my patience for sitting in one place under water. I am beginning to understand that I apparently dive quite quickly.

Anyways, Jamie has a lot of good underwater photo's here and I am sure the ones from the BVI will show up when he gets them edited too!. Link here.


Interestingly, where that charter yacht went on the rocks that I blogged about, "Little Saba" we dove around there the same day.... there is about 4 or 5 little islands around there and rocks sticking up... good diving and tons of birds.... I have another funny story about that place, we were pulling up on one of those little places to pick up a dive ball, and there was a dive boat on the ball in front of us from the USVI. Small, and not one I knew, the wind was blowing a bit and really no pick up line on it to speak off... As all the good old boys were staring at us, we were all thinking "don't f* up the pick up!" I was on helm..Bazza at the front who heard one of the guys say to his divers "this ought to be good, they probably never leave a marina"
We did not miss it. Then just to prove whatever he yelled out to Bazza that he had been diving there for 15 years and "better have a long painter" on that. Bazza smiled and thanked him...

I am sure I can find some more fish pictures to put up here...On our way down to Cruz Bay in amongst all the seas, it looked pretty flat for an hour, so we went to check out Mercurious Rock to see if we could possibly get on there for a dive...

Always one of the prettiest dives in my books.. I have lots of pictures of this!




Found a lobster...


And then put Janice in the picture as well...


Glassy eyed Sweepers in the cave...






And one last one of Janice...


One of the crewed charter yachts, Solitude broke up this weekend on Little Saba in the USVI. I don't know what happened. These pictures were taken by SEA TOW, you can find more pictures on their page. Apparently I understand there was only a female on board who was washed overboard and rescued by Sea Tow, but the boat was not! it broke up within an hour and they were looking for someone to take their charter the next day.
It all changes in a moment...




We went on a night dive at West End, Sopers Hole, to see the sting rays and Tarpons. Very cloudy water, horrible surface conditions meaning the dinghy was dispatched to retrieve us, but it always thrills me there, I think Jamie got some very good pictures of the tarpon at the bottom, I mostly amused myself taking pictures of him!


OK, bad pictures too!


Not sure where we were here, but there was a little turtle on a ledge and jamie taking pictures of him...




And a couple treasure finds on this entry too...I took everyone along with me looking for "stuff"
Jamie found a bronze candlestick which I kind of think was the find of the day...


Although Bazza tea pot was pretty interesting as well..




Bazza found a very interesting old pirates knife a bit ago. In a leather scabbard and it had quite a bit of gold on it too, including the nut that held the blade to the hilt. To bad the hilt was gone, but it was still a fascinating find that we are going to research more...




Can't believe we are still fighting winds and seas at the beginning of August.

Pull up to the marina in Puerto Del Rey..We have a double slip there and there was a newish crewed charter cat in the slip next to us. They had lines not only on all their cleats, but also all of ours. No problem, looked to us like they were doing exactly what we were doing...tying up the boat and leaving it for hurricane season. So we tied all our lines over all theirs. They watched us.

They then watched us scurry around yesterday, get the boat ready, take down the AWNING even and put luggage outside to leave the boat... and in the mid day sun today, about 20 minutes before Bazza was finishing up to meet us at the cab, he tells Bazza that he is leaving the marina the next day!!!

Bazza tongue in cheek I am sure says something like "guess I should retie all my lines under yours then" and does...

Considering they were all over our cleats anyways, I did not get a warm fuzzy feeling that they could not be bothered to tell us that much earlier in the process...I will bear that in mind!

We were just happy to be going home for a few months...

In between dodging wind and seas from Emily we managed to get in a fair amount of diving this week...Although it was a tad challenging trying to find visibility in a lot of spots...
I decided to change my lens on my camera and do a night dive on Blonde Rock. A spectacular night dive, although you would not know it as I only came back with one picture in focus on the macro, a basket star, which is not a difficult picture to take. It took me half the dive to realize HOW CLOSE I had to get without my wide angle on!


If I would have had a wide angle on, I could have taken brilliant pictures of Jamie taking photo's of large turtles that were hanging out under the ledges. We liked the dive so much we went back and did it the next morning in day light as well!


Some nice pillar coral...


File Fish...


We found our turtle and came at him from all sides it appears...


There were hundreds of squid down there! Not that I could take pictures of the tiny things, but they were still nice..


Squirrel Fish hiding in a large coral head... This was on Angelfish Reef, Norman Island...


Goat Fish with a shrimp on it being cleaned...


The Eagle Ray circled us back and forth the entire dive...


An nice purple anemone...


And a file fish...


Thats enough underwater pictures, I am even starting to bore myself with them! Lets go with Bushwackers in the harbour at Charlotte Amalie...


And some finds on one of our SCUBA dives!

So what have we been doing? Lots of diving mostly! In between watching weather forecasts for Emily. We had our strongest winds last night, but I don't think we saw more then about 40 in gusts. Still feels like January out here though...and the water viz has gone to hell too.

Have not even made it out of the BVI yet, but today is looking good. At West End now.

Sent Bazza to get me some Irish Whiskey for my cheesecake and he found the liquor cabinet floating! Apparently one of the exhausts on the generator had worn out and we had quite a bit of water throughout the floors in the saloon. Took Bazza awhile to sort that out. Went into Little Harbour on Peter cuz we needed somewhere flat enough to have a hole two inches above the waterline open...


Jamie proudly showing off his new housing...


Went down and the only ones on the wreck, came up and there were many people on the wreck!


Sunday there were fast boats racing all over the place at Road Harbour, including customs and marine police being out..I would say that those boats SHOULD win any race...


We are sharing the dinner cooking duties on board...after a few dives we are all quite hungry!


Janice playing tug of war with an octopus...the octopus won...


And some diving pictures, why not. We had a nice couple dives on Carrot Rock...


And for Heather, the new DX7000 DOES capture sun rays much better then the D200, and they are about my favorite. I am still working the camera settings..I tended to over expose everything the first couple dives...


I was getting some vignetting as well, which I don't think I was supposed to be getting with the new mini dome...


This is diving on Blonde Rock, which I think gave a really nice effect with the 10-17...


Turtles on every dive, this little guy I scared him when he was head down eating...


Another wide angle shot of the boat...


Nurse Shark coming at me...


Tarpon in the surge coming over Carrot Rock...


And another turtle on Carrot Rock...


Thats enough pictures for now, time to go diving!

Well we have been very busy! My ear finally cleared up enough for me to join life one more time, but we had a lot to do to get ready for a couple friends coming this week to go diving. The plan was to go through the Spanish Virgins doing some new diving and ending up in Fajardo, but as anyone knows who watches the weather, Potential Tropical Storm Emily put paid to that..So we are in the BVI.
Had a lot to do to get ready to leave everything for a couple months regardless. Pay bills in advance, letters that we won't be here, put away the small boats, go to numerous banks, you get the idea. Buoy Boy is nicely tied into the Mangroves and someone else is watching it for us now...


An old dive buddie of mine and his wife arrived at the ferries... we picked them up..


While I waited I watched them slowly gather up all the seagrass in the water...


And took pictures of all the colorful flags that are hanging for Carnival...


Headed over to Pussers for a good cheeseburger..It was quite busy..


Then off for a bit of diving. My friend is into Photography as much as I am, so we spent a lot of time putting gear together. We have both just gotten new housings for the DX7000, me aquatica and him a Nauti cam..


Then it was off to the Rhone for a mid afternoon dive...






Tried to hurry after that and get in the water as my favorite Salt Island dive to get the sunset rays on the water, but we just missed the light, so we did a dusk type dive...




And Bazza finally found really live gold treasure. This was the leather scabbard and a bit of gold on the end of a blade as well as the gold nut that held it onto the hilt... He was pretty excited! He had found this awhile ago but had just gotten around to doing electrolysis on it to clean it up...


And the first pictures off my new housing and camera..Totally overexposed, and i know it was the first time in my life that the Eagle Ray was actually coming TOWARD me and not going the other way...


I turned my friend Jamie into a deckhand and we circled around Road Harbour waiting for my friend Janice to arrive on the ferry..She said she came complete with fully steel drum bands and KFC on the ferry we know how to put on a parade for her arrival!


By the time we then managed to do another dive last night and sit down to Stir Fried shrimp it was almost 1130 by the time some of us went to bed! Yikes!

Have not done a post of things I have found diving lately..Ear infections and all! Wondering if we have a museum or such for these things on St Thomas? Anyone know?

Pipes were popular..we have found a couple. This one says B & J smith, 107 Argyle St. Argyle St is in Glasgow and that is the name of an old pipe company... so...I can put two and two together..




This wood thing in the front with string between the two pieces? I suggested it was nimchucks, Bazza smiled and told me it was nunchucks..and really it is shot from the pirate days. Shooting these out of cannons would cause them to twirl across decks at ankle height and shatter ankles!


Assorted pieces of pottery...






I think we have a complete dinner serving here! From cutlery to old tin cups...




This is the first onion bottle that we have found. It is pretty delicate, not sturdy like all the mallets are...


Torpedo bottle..this one from Barbados...


I am not sure what this little jar was used for..anyone know?


Stuff!

I think most of the last week has been lost to a drug induced demerol coma for one horrendous ear infection. I have not ate anything very hard and I have had lots of good sleeps!
Bazza and Felix have been out doing some stuff on Buoy Boy, and I have been holed up in North Sound watching the squalls come through when not sleeping.


It even looked cold at Prickly Pear today...


But not nearly as cold as the leading edge of the squall was coming back down the channel this afternoon..


With carnival/festival showing up here in the BVI this coming weekend, and everything closes down, it is a sure sign that we should be going off island for a couple months...and we are starting the process now of putting away, stripping down and looking toward Puerto Rico...

A couple friends coming this weekend to dive and make the trip with us and then the tails of the BVI will be over for a couple months. But I have one last day I can get to have fun at the banks tomorrow though! Should be easy, end of month just before they close for three days early next week hey?

I came up with an ear infection too much diving I guess! Has not stopped me from diving though since it is inner ear. It is painful at times...

Spent a night over at Salt Island, these are just a few pictures from that dive. My favorite time of day, late afternoon. Even a picture of my husband! I have been jokingly asking him if he needed me to do a PADI refresher course for him it has been so long since he dived, he did not see as much humor in it as I did..


Lots of baby lobsters around....


Some soft healthy corals...




Rock formation...






Old wreck of a small boat that i have not seen there before...


Just some all round so so pictures. I have been seeing some good growth of corals though which is nice.








Took a trip down to Charlotte Amalie to pick up my new camera housing, which gave us an opportunity to look at wreck sailboats and on the island ferries and take pictures...

Don't know how long this one has been there just off Cruz Bay....a sailboat...




I see the poor pathetic looking ferry is still on James...


Good thing they have a line tying this ferry to the rocks, would hate to have it slip off or anything...


Stopped off to see Miss Gina and teenagers down in Cruz Bay...


Made use of the camera I had with me too!




The welcome park in Cruz Bay has been finished and re opened. Kind of reminds me of the Noel Lloyd park in Roadtown...




Watched my husband drop the dinghy keys in the water...At least it was shallow and clear!!


And I now have another housing..Nice and clean and shiny, unlike the old one that is looking pretty beat up...


Nice and calm in Charlotte Amalie Harbour, although I understand the wind is up and the seas are up with a wave coming through if we poked our noses out of the harbor. We won't do that for a couple days!

We have all noticed a lot of seaweed piling up around the shores and waters of the BVI. Apparently it is natural, although the first time I have seen it to this extent here.. I took this picture of it yesterday afternoon at Salt Island..


Chief Conservation and Fisheries Officer Mr. Bertrand Lettsome is confirming reports of an abundance of Sargassum in the Territory’s waters, but assures residents there is no cause for alarm.

Defining the natural substance, the Chief Conservation and Fisheries Officer said, “Sargassum is the large brown patches of seaweed seen floating on the water surface. This is abundant in the North Atlantic in an area known as the Sargasso Sea.”

He added, “When I was a child this was something that happened every year and with the sargassum came young turtles and juvenile fish. It is natural and good for the environment. It is very rich in nutrients and makes good fertilizer when washed on shore.”

The Chief Conservation and Fisheries Officer added, “Sargassum is distributed throughout oceans worldwide by prevailing winds, storms and ocean currents and that can be a probable cause of its abundance in the Virgin Islands at this time. This is a natural occurrence and is no cause for concern.”

He added that sargassum also serves as an important pelagic habitat for numerous species of marine life and is adapted to the tropical environment.

***
I also had decided that Bazza wanted to come diving with me their to collect some Lion Fish for REEF GUARDIANS. He was not as convinced as me, but since I have been feeling blue lately, he decided that it was a good idea.



We killed 8 here a couple weeks ago. We added another 4 today. There was one small one that kept on sliding off the tip still there, and I am sure many more.


Bazza thinks he wants to keep a live one in a fish tank this fall on the boat. I wondered if I could get guests I did not like to put their hands in the tank to feed it!

We took Buoy Boy out diving this weekend...Well, that is until it blew the transmission! Welcome to the world of boats one more time. I know it is time to go do something else when I look at the boats with loathing!


A few other mishaps...like deciding I was bored with my wide angle lens and putting on the 60mm. And then remembering the exact same thing I think every time I change from a wide angle underwater. That I hate them.
You can ask why, I know lots of people love them and you can get great close pictures of fish...which is great if you are doing a fish ID book! I just don't see how people tell a story though with them. These are about the worlds most boring fish pictures here in my eyes...No sky, background, divers...you get the picture..








Hey, I saw another couple black reef sharks. You can tell he was fairly far away for me to be able to capture him with a 60mm!!!


******

The eyes and cameras and photoshop fool you. I was playing around last night taking pictures of the sunset at a couple different stages with two different cameras and two different lens. These were all shot at the same place at different focal lengths and different settings. You would think they were different places wouldn't you?

But it is funny...

I don't dive the Chimney much on the Dogs, and once before I took my guests through the "wrong" chimney. On yesterdays dive there I was very careful thinking the entire time "don't go to the wrong place"



I realized one more time when my guests and I had to turn sideways to get through the exit that I had gone to the wrong place again!


No, I did not tell the guests that I f*** up...

I must be the only dive master (and especially who has been here as many years as I have!) who cannot find the damn chimney!

Glad I can give everyone a chuckle for the day

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Last blog to update tonight, most important emails answered and time to go to bed. No one was up until almost ten this morning, except for one who wandered around the boat by himself for about 4 hours!
See I told you Bazzas plane would have a spot on the boat..Why do I think come Sunday more projects may actually live on the boat??


I have also decided that whoever is dredging this piece of water here has taken out a lifetime "nephew of a politican" job. It is not a quick job..Plus they started in the corner near where they are doing the dumping. Spent months dredging. Then every time the water and silt runs down from the dumping group it falls down on where they started...so it will have to be redone, probably don't have to worry about it getting that far in my lifetime though..


Ah! I found another blog I can bore you with my cave pictures from last night!






I am fairly excited as I hear that we are going to move our "fleet" up to North Sound next week for a week of diving. Base out of there instead of Road town. We figured Felix could varnish the boat anywhere!

I was just looking at ticket prices to bring Bazzas mother over this fall. All I can do is sit here and say "wow" The Australian dollar is now worth quite a bit more then the US dollar! I think I could buy a small country for the price this trip is going to cost me!
Better book another charter! I don't know how many times I can say "just one more charter"

This is something you don't see very often. Bazza going for a dive. Although it was just not a dive, he was looking for something for someone. I always hate doing live diving when I am the one on the helm, as I am not as confident as he is that I will find him!


He thought he would make it easy on me and tow the dan buoy so I could know where he was. At which time he promptly brought it under the water and I spent the next 45 minutes scanning the horizon for a buoy that was compressed on the bottom...at a hundred feet!


A hundred feet is not my ideal diving space as I cannot stay down long enough to make me happy...so he just dropped me off on a reef outside near paraquita and I had a lovely dive with beautiful coral in 30 feet of water...

Look at how pretty this all was! And even a lobster thrown in there...














I came up and there was the boat right where it should be looking for me. Looking forward to picking up our guests today and going for some more diving since it looks like maybe we won't have 30 knot winds and big seas for a few days! What a concept...

I know you will find this hard to believe but I don't think these lacy little boy type shorts in the laundry sorting process this morning were mine!



I think blogging is mostly my relaxation. That and playing scrabble of some sort on line. Just finished packing the fridge for charter tomorrow and it all fit! Of course it should, I only have 7 fishing and diving guests this week!

Yep, and after this one starting tomorrow it is PLAY TIME! A few weeks of diving, and we are really hoping that after have had rain for the last while we will get some flat seas!
But first, it is the weekly "sort the laundry that came back and see what was ruined with bleach, or the guests used them to remove make up this week" performance...

I do have to commend last weeks guests, as usually we are down a few towels during the week, but they informed me that we were UP 2 towels this week that they had found in the water! Yey guests! Although next time can I request different colors then orange?



And the desperate rain we had yesterday had a great effect. The crew cabin, pantry and head hatches all were re bedded and sealed! Even Bazza could not ignore my whining any more.


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After last nights glorious sunset, we now apparently have a monsoon this AM. It has been bucketing down for 2 hours straight and I am wondering which retaining wall is going to collapse next on island...

I was finally driven out of my bed as there is a leak in my corner that I was trying to hide from and it was not working! Felix was out yesterday caulking up various places that leaks could be..apparently has not found the spot yet.

I have a fun filled town day in front of me, if it ever stops raining....








How do you like the amount of water in the tender?


Happy mud day! Anyone want to go swimming?

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After purchasing various boosters and cables to see whether we could boost our internet connection and maybe pick up some of the land connections when Boatphone is really pathetic the boys spent some time with cables and Felix sitting on the top of the mast for hours swaying in the Peter Island Ferry wake at times over the last couple days.






I think it was as fun for them as it looks. But we now have an antennae at the top of the mast with a booster and the cables ran down the mast to my desktop in the saloon. I am sitting in Road Harbour and picking up Peter Island Resorts signal. We shall see how it all works out...I was rather hoping it would be strong enough to pick up my signal in Murrieta!


When I got up this morning I saw all these bits of styrofoam in the saloon on the steps and my first thought was wondering if we had a rat, as I had just cleaned the saloon yesterday. No rat, but apparently some of the stuffing from the mast somehow blew out the mast and in the saloon last night....


You can see that Bazzas machine made it on the boat. With only 7 guests on board this coming week, all divers and fishers, somehow I don't think it will be going off the boat!


This is the sunset tonight along with the contraption that gets it on and off..I don't ask. It is safer...




Necker Belle coming into Roadtown yesterday..I seem to see that yacht everywhere now...


It truly was a spectacular sunset tonight. I am just about to take out my camera again and see what the sky looks like again...I even went to sit on the sail bag and get up higher to take these ones...

Just to give me a laugh today, a couple things have brightened my dismal mood.
One is some of the comments that have shown up under the picture of the SMITH ferry up on Little St James on the BVI Beacons web/facebook page...



Did he had a BVI skippers license?

Maybe his brakes weren't working properly?

Branson's Lemurs stole a dinghy from Mosquito Island the other night and were out re arranging all the small islands and cays..

Aground on a reef? Looks like a full on island to me. Lemurs were probably mixing the rum punch.

An island is a pretty obvious navigational hazard...

Give the guy a break how was he meant to see that !!!!!!!!!!!!!!


******
And from the BVI Platinum today..
Follow the link to get the whole story...

"Duane Jean Baptiste of J.S Archibald & Co. during an application in the court yesterday July 5, explained that his client was granted $70,000 bail with $35,000 in cash and $35,000 signed surety. He said at the time, his client's surety paid the $35,000 cash, which paved the way for his client to be released on bail pending a trial. However, during his time out on bail, he was arrested for murder.

Jean Baptiste said Simmonds Jr. is now on remand for murder and will not be going anywhere. According to the Attorney At Law, the cash component of the bail for the robbery will serve no purpose at this stage, noting that it is not a small amount of cash. To this end, he requested that the money be released to the surety."

The $190,000 cash from the robbery was never found, now while he was out on bail ($35,000 cash) and was arrested for murder he wants the bail money released as it serves "no purpose"

I don't know if I had put up this picture or not... It is the Squirrel fish on the crow's nest of the RMS Rhone...


My favorite fly place, Mountain Point, featured flies copulating on my computer screen this week. I was NOT impressed!


This amused me, not sure if it will amuse others, but I made use of some space saver bags for some clothes that I did not need on the boat, or perhaps did not FIT after spending two months in the states..


This is a total of what I have on the boat..and it is so "me" it is pathetic!
13 night gowns
14 swim suits
7 rash guards (we probably don't need to go down the list too much further now do we?)
4 pairs of shorts
2 pairs of capri's
10 shirts
15 sports bras...


We were on a dive at Seal Rock a couple days ago and I had some interesting pictures I thought. There were some nice schools of fish around...




Bad picture, but I do love the squid! I have been waiting 3 months people AFTER paying for the housing to get it for my DX7000 from Aquatica. It is supposed to be shipping today. I really want it for underwater and the D200 is just not cutting it for me after using the new camera with the fish eye for awhile...






And the boat when I was coming up from a sunset dive yesterday afternoon..

CCT Boatphone.

I have ranted and raved about this company many times. We figure they have the lousiest customer service of anyone we have ever met. I am DONE with NOT speaking my mind on them. Perhaps with enough bad publicity someone will actually pay attention.

We have had an account with Boatphone for like 13 years. We figure we have paid them well in excess of a hundred thousand dollars in that time. Conservatively. The last time we purchased an (expensive) phone through them, it came with a french plug in! This spring while home we bought an unlocked IPHONE.

We have not had a contract on them for a decade, and our bill has always been post pay. We have spent many hours over the decades trying to sort out all the problems their business models and change of business models affects us.

Many years ago, we used to regularly have to go in and see Rob Lyons cuz they would cut off our phone every time they changed something. Usually on Post Pay you are allowed some time to pay the damn bill. When we went away sometime this year to just pay the darn bill when due as we were not on island to receive the always late bills in the mail anyways and then have to go through the whole please turn my phone that you should not have cut off back on.

While on the charter before this one, our phone, internet, and modem was all cut off with no messages. We waited for a day figuring there was just problems with the system. It never came up. We called. They had cut us off for "non payment". It turns out our credit card expiry date was past.
WHen inquiring about why no text or call to say credit card was expired they said "ah, we used to, but customers complained because the phone rang in the middle of the night and that they stopped doing it...and we have so many customers we really could not keep up with that"

and...when inquiring how this is possible in this day and age of internet and computers were told:
"we should call in once a month to check and see if the expiry date on our credit card was that month or not"

One week later we get a text saying that our phone is going to be cut off again unless we pay the bill. Sigh.

This then happens:
Bazza calls. They answer the phone hello. They say then their system is down. They say that the text must be because of the bill last week. We say no, we gave them new credit card details. They take our info and tell us the billing manager will call us back. They never do.

Bazza goes into Boatphone yesterday. Saw customer service agent "ah yeah, we have been having problems with the credit cards"
Bazza says " Does that mean that credit cards for monthly services cannot be used?"
CSA says "Yeah that is right you have to see customer service"

Then he waited. and waited. and in case he was bored he did some more waiting. For an HOUR AND A HALF. Eventually they saw him and she said "ah yeah, the machine was down on Friday (holiday) and it was down for a bit later, but it is up now"

"Anyone who's date was then to come out would get a message saying they would be cut off, and she will see if she can make it go through"
CSA then says "Oh, it is declined"

She looks up the credit card on file, and it turns out that a week ago when he switched cards cuz they had cut us off, all they did was change the expiry date on the c/c he gave them, not the credit card number.

Bazza: "what plan are we on?" "We should be on Freedom 1"
CSA: "No actually you are on Freedom 2, which means you either get unlimited international to certain places or you get mobile internet"
Bazza "no, we are supposed to have both, I brought in the phone 2 weeks ago and set that up"
CSA" looks it up and says, actually you do have both but you are only being charged for freedom 2. Which when they eventually find that out they will charge you an additional $20.00 a month"

Bazza hands her a brochure that he picked up in the front that said if you are on the Freedom 1 plan you can get up to 50% off on your other mobile devices. What is the deal, why aren't we getting that?
CSA: "oh no no, that is only if you have been on a contrat and your plan is about to run out"
Bazza "Well, I don't have a contract, my contract ran out 12 years ago"
CSA: "no no, you are you on a contract until the 6th month of 2013"
Bazza: "no, i have not signed any contract, nor will I sign any contract, I do not have a contract"

They work out that when he went in a few weeks ago and got the mobile internet put on the IPHONE that we bought in Canada, they clicked the "you are on a 2 year contract button" on the computer.

CSA: "well that is strange, that should only be if you bought the phone through them at their discount (ahem) rate and not brought in your own phone"

Then it is left as she will have to get ahold of her boss (at lunch, 3 PM in the afternoon) and they will call us back.

At 2 PM Bazza tried to make an appointment with the General Manager, who's secretary said "you will have to call back later he is at lunch!"

Here we sit the next day.

Really? Really? And you wonder why I make Bazza do these things?

Next up: Our bank here.

We have ordered business checks TWICE in the last 4 months. We don't have them yet and instead are buying their very expensive ten pack they make up in the bank. You can ask why. The first time they told me the place was closed in PR and they would take the info, call it in in the morning and order them. I tried to give them a voided copy of the old check, but they said they did not need it.

The second time, same story, and it was just before we went off island, so I assumed (wrongly) that they would be here when we returned. Third time I sent in Bazza. No checks. Why you may ask? They don't make that style any longer (it was whatever the bank gave us at the time, not like we are stupid enough to pick a special STYLE here in the islands now are we?) They said they had left us a message (of course they did) and wanted to know what style they should order. Bazza said they should order the style with wings that gets here the quickest!

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We killed 8 alone at the anchorage at Salt, in quite a small area as well.


The one very good thing about this was we fed the dead Lionfish to the spotted eel. He ate him quite nicely, although they have already learnt and he ate the belly part of the fish only. There had been one living right above the eel, apparently they still need some help killing them...




A few personal pics I had not gotten around to putting up for my mom and that yet. "Not gotten around to" means not having an internet connection that can download or upload anything more then a basic email! I finally got up this morning and went into Dive BVI at the Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour to do some work.

She was concerned about the weight of the water on the pool covering back in Murrieta, so Bazza fashioned her a pump that will keep the water off...



I have hit old person status, and I find more and more that I am needing to wear shoes on the boat which I don't like. Just developing some foot problems...


A humongous very good burger with everyone on it I had at Pussers last week! Although I could have done without the egg....



I went into Bobby's looking for herbs and this was the welcoming display that we get to choose from. It ain't no Abertson's let me tell you!


We have more then our fair share of winds and rains this week. Diving has been challenging, to say the least. Good thing these people did not want to sail as it is either too wet or too high of winds to sail anyways!

How do you like the Industrial Sized Permit that was on the Fearless this week? He let me take pictures of him for a long time...

Not sure I ever showed you my pictures of the fish counter in Riteway. It looked so pretty..





Had to laugh when we were on Fuel Dock last week as Rhonda and Cam were putting Quest in Marina, under full eyes of my camera Of course I stood there with camera in hand "just in case"
Cam looked like he had the "hmmm, where do I go and what do I do now" look...


But Rhonda was doing all the hard work with lines....


Although we had no rain on charter, the day we were cleaning boat in between it POURED like crazy...Not a pretty sight out of the window!






Yes, the same day I had to load lots of groceries back and forth to the boat...


But I made it...


About a day and a half before we dropped off the last LARGE charter I found out that I was dropping on Saturday not Friday, from a combination of errors.
This is me drinking the dregs out of the Bushwacker pitcher.. We made it, but there was a bit of juggling with everything and plans to make it happen...


I am now on my idea of a heaven charter. I only cook dinner and they told me when leaving harbour yesterday that they did not care if they saw another person or boat, they only wanted to sail if they "had to" and they wanted to dive and fish...Oh yeah, and to take them to the dive spots that I wanted to go too!!!!!

I am so behind on all my blogs I think I am ahead! On the other hand I have a squeaky clean boat after turning around this morning.

Lets see if I can back up a bit and catch these up over the next couple days before we pick up again...

The most exciting thing about this drop off was it marked the END of my LAST fully crewed charter. From now on out it is more involvement from the guests and less from our end. It was time. I am old.

When we were anchored off of Spanishtown this week and the guests were wandering around on the very hot land, I jumped in the water to see what the coral looked like. I was so impressed with it when I took photo's of the boat that sank there a few months ago.
I am still impressed, but holy current! Newbies could get in trouble there!






A few other things i found under the boat..An anemone...


A sting Ray..


And I love this Brittle Worm and a Flamingo Tongue on a piece of coral...


These next three pictures are my great white hunter moment, without Connor's help I managed to get this Lion Fish which was in Salt anchorage. There are a lot there actually...


Without a camera though it was hard to stay down!


We cut his head off and tried to feed it to the Barracuda under the boat, but no such luck.


Found this in my car last week when I first came back...


And this was the Pelican sitting on the end of the fuel dock at Village Cay when we were docked there picking up a week ago...


More later, lets see if I can get a couple days forward first in the other blog!

And especially my daddy! I am so pleased to spend so much time lately with my parents. And I also know how lucky I am.



Here are a few pictures I took the other night while on C dock at Village Cay, various wrecks, birds, and boats on dock that looked like they should be wrecks!






The mangroves are in really rough shape here, have been ever since I have lived down here, but getting worse I think. Very sad to see the birds on this area of gunk...








And if anyone is looking for a kayak, here is a nice little sunken one at the end of C dock that you just have to bring up...


******
There is a lot of seaweed junk floating around in the water. I think Bazza has cleaned out every pump (and we have like 57!) and strainer and through hull on the boat. He just got out of the water, it is 10:30 at night, and I hear something else cycling...Yeeks, I think I will just sneak off to bed. Glad I am not the engineer tonight!

This almost feels redundant posting some of these pictures, as between all the bleach today I found time to post them on twitter and facebook, but like anyone with a new toy (or in my case lens) I think everyone else will be as thrilled as I am with my new toy!

Check out my yacht promenade blog for some of the pics, and here are a few more...





My pantry all clean and white!


Some pictures from last night.....all taken at Baughers Bay, Peter Island Ferry Dock, and Promenade and Cuan Law..











And the fish counter at Riteway! More fish then I have ever seen in it!







That is all for tonight, I think that I deserve and early bed time and a movie tonight.....

My blogging style has been changing lately, I have been posting more short updates and pictures on my twitter accounts and Facebook...for those of you who don't twitter or facebook, well these is some pictures here, although I am splitting up my blogs more. One of these days I will do a post with my various facebook pages and twitter accounts.

I really dislike splitting them all up and prefer to post everything on one stream, but it just is not practical. Some people don't give a damn about my personal life and some don't give a damn about boats!

Ah well, we did find out immediately that we were back in Puerto Rico as the humidity was 100% and it was monsoon season it appeared. Good thing I had rented a suv or some type at the airport cuz after the trips to Costco, Econo and all, there was not an inch left of space in it as you can see from the pictures.




No, he does not always drive naked, just he was THAT wet!


I, on the other hand have that looks that says " I have flown all night and now I get to go shopping how did that happen" and I have decided that charter yacht shopping is NOT as much fun as just shopping for the house and the local Albertsons when I buy delicate little cart loads!


We don't see rain that often in SoCal this time of year, so I was amused by it all...


Also meant we had a veritable train going down the docks at Fajardo!


And then it meant that my smelly mildewy boat looked like this. Which really was not that handy when we found out the fridge system was empty of gas and had a leak and our gas was in the BVI. We always know how to make more work for ourselves!




Motto of the story is to go to COSTCO AFTER checking to make sure the boat systems are working! But we were efficient....


We were efficient though, by 5 PM we had shopped, loaded the boat, filled with water, returned the car, untied the yacht from the dock and were on our way back to the Virgin Islands! No way I was losing this food......Not bad considering we did not leave the airport at San Juan until about 10:20 AM. Holy, I just realized how damn hard we worked Sunday!!!!!!!!!!


Yeah, we had a bit of mold in spots...Glad it is Felix cleaning the awnings and not me before charter!


And took off trailing bird nests in our stack pack as well! (still there, two days later, I guess it will be gone by charter this weekend! Again, not my department!)




Pulled up into St Thomas about 130 AM. Going VEEERRRRYYYYY slowly with a dirty boat bottom and upwind, an entire 5.3 knots. I thought those lights of St thomas was NEVER get closer. Loved the rocking of the boat though and being back on the water.....

Saw this old range rover I thought my brother would like in Puerto Rico...

I can feel the weight sliding off of me in the humidity in less then 24 hours being back in the islands, but I think I better finish putting up the pictures from my nieces grad in San Francisco before I go onto that...
It gives me a good chance to ignore all the mildew hunting I have to do in our cabin for a few minutes while Bazza takes all the mildewy pillows to the laundry lady. We ended up sleeping in the saloon last night, not a chance I was sleeping in the cabin. Between the mildew and the bugs that had found their way in there....

My parents and us, took our grand niece Payson, out for the day on Thursday. I thought, "how hard can it be". Well, putting a baby into a car seat 12 times in a few hours is not that much fun really. Nor do I remember my arms getting quite that sore after throwing a 15 lb baby in the air when my children were young! Of course I gave her Kerry sized drinks...She loved them!


We took baby to visit her proud grandmother at work..First time i have seen where my sister works..


Bazza messed with her by playing with her need to have everything in it's place and moved all her pens and other things around. She was not amused.


However, Hitachi does have the neatest toilets i have been in. The seats are warmed, then it has streams to clean the front and back, and you can then be blow dried! You could seriously spend some time in these washrooms I would say.


We went to Pleasanton Fair Grounds for Melissa's graduation...


We are all in a row with bright shining faces..wait what do I see?


Well, most of us were looking interested!


Graduation is done...


Graduate looks good and is even smiling...(uncommon)


My two nieces, Melissa and Cassie...


The assorted family pictures...




Melissa balking at one more picture...


The men looking for birds in the trees also wishing their were no more pictures...


And off to Oasis in Pleasanton for dinner.


Shrimp, and lamb type things, but we were all pretty tired by that time..






We revived by breakfast time when eating half the planet for breakfast at Denny's. Cuz, their grand slam breakfasts are just not delicate little food choices now are they?




Then as we might have starved before dinner time, it was back to have a family bbq of steaks mid afternoon.




By 530 PM Baz and I were back on the road to Murrieta, so we could pack and get on the plane the next night...

We found someone we knew again, my parents drove down for the grad from Victoria.


My sister enjoyed her new Nikon, and is taking pictures left and right...


Sometimes she is even way too cute! I think she looks about 3 in this picture..


A mother and graduating daughter moment...


And a great grandmother with the baby moment...


Yeah, we all are a bit crazy over the baby...


Payson is fairly adorable...


Although I am not sure the men were in total agreement! They were not getting as close. Someone might have asked them to do diapers...
Bazza is just tired of having his picture taken all the time I think...