Still Preparing for the Season

Cat Tales has just arrived at Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke, at lunch on a Tuesday.  We  have been motoring from North Sound, Virgin Gorda, since a little to 9, using the motoring time to make all the fresh water we could hold, and to charge the refrigerator until all was in danger of freezing.  Dawn passed out beers, and I said:  "Ahh, the traditional 'anchor beer'", Dawn said:  "Unlike the beers for no reason we've been drinking at lunch and every other time."  I pointed out that it is too late in our lives to try to play for higher moral ground in this particular area.

We have been sitting in Drake's Anchorage, North Sound since Saturday, and have charged our physical and emotional batteries there in the flat calm after both our hard week on the hard and the bouncy time anchored off Spanishtown with the chain pushing noisy boulders of coral around.

We have enjoyed that anchorage, first with Kristin and Terry, of Silk Pajamas; with whom we have had a great walk over the hill of Leverick Bay resort and a nice lunch, and with whom we also enjoyed a lovely batch of sundowners a few nights ago aboard Cat Tales.  We were joined during the sundowners by a couple of cruisers, Fred and Dorothy, of s/v Aviva, who have recently arrived from the Virginia area.  It was great to again expand our list of friends down here.  Last night, Steve and Maria of s/v Aspen arrived from the Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour, and all 4 couples got together for a real nice casual dinner at the resort.

It was our intention to truly explore the North Sound, but Al and Michelle of s/v Tarantella have been contacting us electronically to make our way to their location in the USVI to visit and head to St. Croix, so that is what we are up to.

We have also been spending daylight hours working on Cat Tales.  I have successfully installed a new chartplotter and GPS combo (Raymarine a75) at the steering station, and am working hard to wire up the accessories so we can see the information from our transponders regarding speed, depth, and wind direction/strength.  We also have a repeater (Raymarine i70) and an AIS transceiver to connect to this system.  So, you can see there's lots yet to do!!

Here is Jost van Dyke where we're presently anchored!

Last night, upon arrival back to Cat Tales from supper, we found that our toilet seat cover had simply broken off the toilet due to two disintegrated hinges, marking just one more failure.  Since launch, we have been dealing with a failed VHS radio, a failed inverter, failing toilet system (not just the cover), a broken door latch which lead to breaking hinges as I tried to repair it, and a failed stereo system.  Of course, we are thankful for what systems have successfully come back on line without needing much care - no worries.  Still, I keep reminding myself of Jimmy Buffett's words:  " If you like surfing, you'd better like paddling, too; because there is a lot of paddling in surfing."  Yes, often I remind myself, but sometimes my mind just comes back with  "F*&# off, Jimmy Buffett!"

The failures and need for raw materials and new parts are one of the things driving us over to the USVI early.  We'll see how that goes.