bvi captains log blog

The end of an era

admin@saildivebvi.com ( BVI Captains Log Blog) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 13:39:42 -0700

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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Old dog new tricks thing?

admin@saildivebvi.com ( BVI Captains Log Blog) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:06:24 -0700

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...

Hummingbirds

admin@saildivebvi.com ( BVI Captains Log Blog) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 13:14:56 -0700

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.

Youtube to vimeo..

admin@saildivebvi.com ( BVI Captains Log Blog) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 20:24:49 -0700

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!

Reminiscing...Bushwackers...

admin@saildivebvi.com ( BVI Captains Log Blog) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:38:13 -0700

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!