Jim and Sally visited

We had Jim and Sally Crowell down for a couple of days. I wasn’t sure how they would do on a boat because they had never been on this kind of boat before, But they did great. I’m always surprised when people don’t get sea sick and they weren’t sick at all. We really have only had four people get sick down here out of the 50 people we have had down.

Since Jim and Sally were only here for three days we didn’t take them far. We went over to Francis Bay on St John. We did some swimming and hung out on the beach.

The next day we did Trunk bay, which had some good snorkeling that day. While snorkeling I saw my first octopus. Those things really change color fast. It was a light blue color, then went to black then went to a brown when it moved next to a rock. It looked just like the rock.

Next we went to Cruz Bay on St John, then we finished by staying in Redhook.

I think Jim and Sally had a pretty good time all in all.

Jim Driving the boat

On the beach

Another beautiful sunset

St Croix

Since we weren't going to have any visitors for a few days we decided to hop over to St. Croix since we hadn't been there yet.  I guess it was a little more than a hop, about 40 nautical miles with a eastern wind at about 17 knots so we had a really good sail all the way over.  It took close to 8 hours but we left early Thursday morning and are spending three nights here.  We anchored in Gallows Bay which is next to the channel leading into Christiansted.   We decided to rent a car so we could tour the island and we took the dogs along, which they loved it.  The island is about 80 square miles and actually bigger than St. Thomas and St. John.  It has some fairly nice beaches and a rain forest.  There are really only two main towns, Christiansted and Frederiksted.  I guess Frederiksted gets cruise ships in once in a while but there weren't any while we were there.  Last night there was a live band in the gazebo in downtown Frederiksted which we listened to for a little while, while we watched the sunset.  While we were driving around we thought it didn't seem like we were on a tropical island but then you would go around a turn and there would be a beautiful beach.  There is a reef that goes almost around the whole island and I guess the diving is awesome (we didn't try it though)  but there  are probably about 80 different dive sites marked on the local map covering the North and West side of the island
We stopped for lunch at Coconuts in Frederiksteda and we met this young couple and when we asked them where they were from the girl said Loveland, Colorado.  We couldn't believe it but it was actually George Lundeen's daughter.  Crazy small world we live in.
We will be heading back to Charlotte Amalie Sunday so we can get ready for the Crowell's visit, then we have Wes's sister and her family coming down, so we will be pretty busy the next couple of weeks

Downtown Christiansted

The Fort in Christiansted

Downtown Frederiksted

The furthest Eastern point of the US

 

Another beautiful sunset over the water

Oh and we got our new trampoline put on.  It only took me three days to get it strung but it was worth it.

J and Anne came for a visit

We had J and Anne down for a week and they are going back today. We did the BVI's and also stopped at Hurricane Hole on St John on the way back. We had never been there so it was nice to go  someplace new. There is a town over on the east end of St John that I didn't know about.
Where we stayed there wasn't much around. We were the only boat there and the star viewing was pretty good.
I think J and Anne had a pretty good time. They got to snorkel quite a bit and J and I dove the wreck of the rhone. That is my favorite dive in the BVI's. When we dove I couldn't get my BC to inflate so I had to kick the whole time we were diving, but we still had a pretty good dive and saw a turtle under the water.
I think it will take a week to get the dogs back to normal. J and Anne spoiled them the whole week.
Max and Lexie always got a little of J and Ann's dinner and they could always go to them for some attention.
Anne developed a taste for Bushwhackers and Velvet cinn. But we told her they only taste good down here.
When we got back to St Thomas we got our new trampoline for the front of our boat. We will be putting that in this week.
Other than that, we have March Maddness this week. I plan on spending a lot of time at Hooters.

                                                           J and Ann on the boat

Sunset at Cain Garden Bay

A tall ship at Norman Island

                                                       J Driving the boat

A little boat work

Its been a while since I blogged so I thought I would take a little time and let you all know what I have been doing on the boat. As Karen said in the last blog we got our new head sail. We should get a chance to try that out tomorrow. 

I also put two new screws in the stays for the mast. The old bolts just rusted off. Then I put some shims in the strut that holds the cutless bearing. This is under water so I got on the tanks and worked under water. That was a new experience. But it really quieted down the port side engine.

I got the water maker working. It was so great to be making water. We needed to get the pump fixed and I got that in the mail on Monday. Now that I have it in, the water maker is working great. I still need to pump the exit water out of the boat but I will get that done today.  

I also started working on some little projects that I haven’t had time for. Like getting all the outlets working. Some of the 12 Volt outlets were only putting out 11.2 Volts. So I ran some new wire and now I have 12 volts on them. I built a little dam to catch the rain water and funnel it into the water tank. That was an easy job but it took a lot of time because I widdled it. 

The engines are running great so in general we are in much better shape than when I bought the boat.

The two bolts with the auto seal on them I replaced. Also I build the dam and the dam on the side to catch water

This is my water maker.

Wes's Parents Visit

Wes's parents visited last week and I really give them big kudos for staying on the boat for a full week after staying at a nice resort in St Thomas for two weeks. See, they are both in their 70's and not as mobile as they used to be and it's not the easiest thing getting in and out of the dinghy and walking around the boat when it's bouncing all over the place. We decided to take them over to Culebra, which is one of the Spanish Virgin Islands  but you have to travel about 18 miles of open water and we had some pretty rough water going over.  His mom got sea sick a couple of times and his dad fell getting in the dinghy when we picked them up at the airport but they were really good sports about it all.
We did manage to have some fun though. We rented a golf cart and showed them the island and visited three beaches and spent a few hours at Flamenco beach, which is really nice.  Wes also gave them snorkeling lessons.

When we got back to Charlotte Amalie our new jib sail was waiting for us - YAY.  So we got that put on.  We haven't had a chance to try it out yet though.  We are thinking we might head over to Christmas Cove or Honeymoon Bay for a couple of days until our next guests arrive next Sunday, which are a couple of places we haven't been to yet.  Honeymoon Bay is on Water Island, which is just outside of Charlotte Amalie and Christmas Cove is on Great St. James Island which is just off the Southeastern tip of St. Thomas.

Max of course had to help with the new jib sail

A Visit From Our Friends in Loveland

We spent last week in the BVI's with our old neighbors, Pam and Steve.  We had some really crazy weather and a couple of days the wind was pretty intense.  The night we stayed at Cooper Island we rock and rolled all night, but I think they still had a really good time.  We finally got it figured out with the Department of Agriculture getting the dogs in and out of there much easier, yay.

Steve said that he was surprised by how close the islands are and I think they weren't expecting to be able to visit so many islands.
Wes's parents are also here on the island but they are staying in a condo.  They plan on staying on the boat next week.  I think we will go to Culebra and maybe Megan's Bay.  We'll see how the weather holds out.
It's been really nice especially for Wes because the engines are running really good (quick-knock on wood) so he's been able to relax a little bit and do some little fixes on the boat but at least he hasn't had to crawl down into the hot engine compartments.

The weather made it really great at the bubbly pool

relaxing on the beach at Cooper Island (I think Wes was way too relaxed)

Making our way through the baths

Pam taking dinghy driving lessons

Do we call you "Captain Steve"?

Back in the USVI

Matt left today after a fun filled week over in the BVI's.  The last post should have been posted on the 26th but Wes forgot to hit publish so we got it posted late.  We spent the last eight days in the BVI's and we were hoping to go to Anegada but the wind was pretty strong making the water pretty rough AND when we were in Sopers Hole a huge gust came up and pulled our jib sail out of the roller and it  got shredded on the spreader.  It really wasn't too much of a surprise because when we were in Man O War getting all the work on the boat done, Jay, who repaired our jib sail said that it probably wouldn't last much longer.  We told him that if he could repair it so we could at least get to St Thomas, that would be great.  Well, we have been in St. Thomas for 3 months now so it lasted a little longer than we anticipated.  We have one on order and it should be here in about 3 weeks.
We did visit Jost Van Dyke (Foxy's), Virgin Gorda (the Baths), Norman Island (The Willy T and the Caves), Sandy Cay and Salt Island where Matt was able to dive the Wreck of the Rhone.  I think he had a great time snorkeling too.  All in all it was an awesome week.

What remains of our jib sail

The dogs had a great time playing Frizbee on the beach at Sandy Cay

Max dug a nice hole in the sand to keep cool

Then Lexie proceeded to take it over when he turned around

And who wouldn't want to live in this beautiful place?  It is definitely paradise. 

Matt's Visit

Matt our son is here for a visit. He will be here for 8 days and we are very happy to have him. We are going to do the British Virgin Islands. First we are going to Foxy's on Jost Van Dyke then Anegada.  Neither Karen or I have ever been to Anegada so that should be a lot of fun. We also are going to Cain Garden Bay on Tortola to see Eric Stone play. Eric is a favorite island music artist. They are having a regatta from The BVI's to St Martens. I guess that Bob Bitchin will also be there. He is a magazine publisher and author, he used to ride harley's and now cruises. Sounds familiar. Anyway I hope to meet him.

Back to St. Thomas

We spent the last week back at home in Loveland so we could attend my dad's memorial.  It's heartbreaking knowing I won't be able to just pick up the phone and talk to my dad any longer.  It was nice being home though because I was able to visit with people that I hadn't seen in years.  It's sad that  it takes a funeral to get everyone together.  But we are back in St. Thomas in Red Hook.  Wes asked me if it felt like we were back home or if Loveland still feels like home and I have to say that Loveland still feels like home.  I guess after 52 years in Colorado it is hard to think of anything other than Colorado as my home. But the dogs were sure glad that we were back.  I think they missed us a bit.  The gentleman that we had watch them who we met at the veterinarian office did a great job taking care of them-he even gave them a bath-yay.  I've spent the last couple of hours though running back and forth to the veterinarian's office to try and get all of the paperwork taken care of so we can go back and fourth to the British Virgin Islands without so much hassle.  It's kind of funny that we took them through the Bahama's, Turks and Caicos, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico and didn't have any trouble at all but once we get to the BVI's, they give us so much trouble. But I have the number of the head Veterinarian there and I am going to give him a call to see if we can make this any easier because we plan on going over there several times over the next few months.
We decided to stay in the marina for a couple of extra days here in Red Hook so Wes can work on the engines and try to get everything working good before we head out again.  He pulled the toilet out and sawed a hole in the fiberglass (which made me a little nervous) but this made it possible for him to reach the screws that came out that were holding the engine stable.  Hopefully everything will go back together nicely and then he can start on hooking up the water maker.  It will be so nice once everything gets working correctly.  BUT every cruiser we talk to said that there is always something breaking and you always have something that you need to fix.  I guess it's just life on a boat.

Megan's Bay

We spent a couple of days at Megan's bay, which is on the North side of St. Thomas and has to be one of my favorite spots that we have been to.  They have a really nice beach and some great snorkeling. I especially like that they have an over abundance of sand dollars and Wes collected some for me.
Then on Friday we headed back over to red hook so Wes could start working on replacing the transmission on the starboard side which really needs to be taken care of since we're having trouble putting that side into forward.  He spent pretty much all of Saturday working on getting the old one out and Sunday he will work on putting the new one in. This is another first for him and I have to say he is doing one heck of a job but it isn't without a lot, and I mean a lot, of four letter words. But this will be good practice for when he has to do the port side, which will be very soon.
Then Tuesday we head back to Colorado for a week.  We will be leaving the boat in a slip at the marina here in red hook and the guy who picked up Lexie and Max last time we had them boarded is actually going to watch them at his house while were gone.

Over at St. John

We took a couple of days and went to St. John in a bay called Francis bay. It’s a very well protected cove and it was good to have the protection. We had a couple of days where the wind was really howling. In the bay we only caught a little of that.  Every once in a while we would get a gust and it would be around 25 kts., but for the most part we were protected.

We took the dogs on a three mile walk to the old sugar factory on the other side of the cove. 

They had a good time and we saw one of the best preserved Sugar Factories in the Caribbean.

It seemed to function from the early 1800's to around 1880. Everything is grown up around it and it hard to image all that being cleared for sugar cane. 

We have three or four couples here in Francis bay that we met and it's nice knowing some people. We are going over to one of their boats tonight to listen to the Dallas/Detroit game.

I think we will be in Redhook next. Then maybe Megan’s bay.

Happy New Year

We had New Years Eve on the boat last night. We went to bed about 9:30 but they had fireworks in the bay at 11:45 so we got up for them. The fireworks were great but after it sounded like there was a war going on. People in St Thomas seem to think it’s all right to fire there AK-47’s on New Years Eve. These things are fully auto too. I stayed under cover for the hour and a half they were doing it. I figure anything that goes up must come down and they probably shoot near the bay. 

Today we are going over to St. John. We were going to go to St. Croix but we have the Christmas winds coming in for the next two weeks. They blow around 25 kts and the seas are around 10 ft. So I don’t think I need to be out on the open ocean for that. The trip to St. John is easy. It’s only about 3 miles of open ocean and we are right next to land during that part. After that it’s all surrounded by land so even if the winds are high they don't get the seas up.

There is a nice bay over there and I think we will go for a week or more.

I’ve mostly finished the repairs on my boat. I put a new starter and alternator on the port side and I had to fix two brackets on the starboard side. But now both engines are running and charging, so life is good. I still have a little wiring to do but I can do that over at St. John.

Karen also painted our bathroom.

That’s all for now, have a very merry new year.