Have a Happy New Year

Hi folks: It is just after noon on the last day of the year. We are in Grand Case, having enjoyed a Tuesday Night Barbecue here. We had "sundowners" aboard Prudence, then went ashore with Derek and Betsy of Lorien, who caught up with us just yesterday. Since we parted with them a day out of Bermuda, they have enjoyed many guests aboard during their time in Antigua, Barbuda, and the Saints. However, they have been plagued by technical problems aboard the big boat, and are somewhat disillusioned.
They will be leaving on Thursday to sail back to Florida to sell. Hopefully they'll be back with a smaller, less demanding cat.

This is a beautiful day here. We talked Derek and Betsy into a morning walk on the long sandy beach, and it was quite nice - we theorize that these two have been so overwhelmed by entertaining that they may not get time to do such things. Dawn could only find one flip-flop and a clothespin, so booty-hunting was a bust. I (Laurie) have just received my haircut from Dawn, a low maintenance #4. Her salon doesn't offer a complimentary shampoo, so I had a wonderful joybath, and am good to go... We
are about to take a slow "jib-sail" back to Marigot, where we will host Derek and Betsy as well as Joe and Wendy of OffCall for a New Year's Eve dinner. We'll try our best to stay up for the fireworks, if only to protect the boat from errant flares and sparks.

Believe me that we are thinking about many of our friends and family back home these days - those we normally visit at this time as well as those we have not spent real quality time with for way too long. It is really nice here, but having it all would mean many people here with us (Okay, having it all would mean you were all on boats beside us).

Tomorrow we dinghy in to pick up Lorna and Brian at the airport. We'll let them communicate here next.

We wish you all the best in 2009!

Laurie's Chores

The wind is still blowing here, but is expected to calm down a bit tomorrow and for the next few days, so we’re still anchored in Marigot Bay in St. Martin. Yesterday, Laurie and I went through town and found new speakers for inside the boat. He had just replaced the outside speakers a couple days ago, and thought the inside ones should be replaced too. When we found a nice set of marine Sony speakers yesterday for inside, we made sure the diameter of the hole was just right. This time they were installed in only a few minutes and now our sound system sounds greatly improved!

Today, Laurie is totally consumed with installing the salt water tap beside the sink in the galley. He has every tool at his fingertips and is running hose throughout the boat. When it is fully installed, it will deliver seawater to our sink with a small electric pump. This allows us to rinse dishes with lots of water and then do a final wash with minimal fresh water. The pump installation takes place under the starboard bed in with the water-making equipment. He’s getting all this done before Lorna and Brian arrive, so he doesn’t have to dislocate them from their room!

He’s doing all this work today and yesterday with a terrible cold. About 6 days ago, we escaped a huge rain storm in town by ducking into a little restaurant for a coffee and snack. We worried about a lady who was coughing and hacking while putting the cutlery together for the day by wrapping it in napkins. We were right to worry about it as Laurie woke up yesterday with a nasty sore throat. He’s having no difficulty working today however, so all is not lost!

Christmas Dinner

We were invited to the 30 foot boat, "Off Call" by Joe and Wendy for Christmas dinner last night. Laurie has talked with Joe for a few years on the morning ham net, and we've been enjoying getting together. They had a full size turkey cooking in the oven, mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce. I brought squash (frozen and brought from home), along with fresh green beans with almonds and cilantro. What a feast!! We enjoyed lots of wine and conversation. It was a riot to watch Wendy cleaning
up the turkey after dinner, getting it ready for their refrigerator. Her little kitchen is at the base of the hatchway and ladder and she was very adept at tossing the useless pieces out the hatch with precision accuracy! I really should have filmed it!

Yesterday, Laurie replaced our outdoor speakers with new ones. We thought we had purchased the correct size, however we were off by 1/4 inch. Because we had no jig saw, Laurie worked away at it with the dremel and hack saw. Seems as if all these little jobs become big pretty quick! After that, we decided to re-anchor since we had dragged about 12 feet in the night. One engine refused to start, so before you knew it, Laurie had the key assembly taken apart and was spreading glue everywhere.
The windlass refused to work too, since it only works with the engine that wouldn't start! So after a bit of fiddling, Laurie had it all back together with everything working again. The small job of re-anchoring stretched from a 10 minute job to about an hour and a half! Oh well, what else was there to do?!

Today, we're enjoying reading and doing next to nothing! Maybe when things open up tomorrow we'll head into town.

Merry Christmas from Cat Tales

Good morning everyone. After spending a couple days up in Orient Bay with Walter and his guests on "Madness", we both returned to Marigot Bay, the capital of St. Martin. High winds were being predicted for the period and they were right. We've been tugging on our anchor for days now and will have to re-anchor again today because of the 12 feet we drug in the night. I don't think the little sailboat right behind us wants to see this much of us!

Walter's guests left 2 days ago and other friends arrived. We've been hiking through the back streets and up into the mountains for magnificent views of the lagoon, the harbours and the beautiful turquoise water surrounding the island.

Laurie has been chatting for the past few years with Joe (and Wendy) from the boat "Off Call" on the morning Ham Radio net, and a few days ago they arrived here in St. Martin. After a couple drinks on our boat, we finally got to put faces with the names!! Today, we'll head over to their boat for a feast of turkey. I'll bring fresh vegetables to compliment the meal.

Walter, however, is having some troubles with his Christmas dinner. Yesterday he and Joanne and Paul bought 4 very expensive lobsters and decided after talking to the vender to take them back to the boat and put them into a mesh bag and tie them to the back of the boat to ensure their freshness. They were swimming around the tasty snack last night, however this morning when they checked out their dinner…they were gone! Not just the lobster, but the entire mesh bag. Walter insists he tied a bowline,
and 2 half hitches and it was good line, not the polypropylene stuff that could easily bounce a knot out if you look at it sideways!! We've had a fun time teasing him because back in Bermuda he found a family of lobster on the bottom of the bay and tried to get them without success, so I don't think that lobster is on the menu for Walter these days. I can see Joanne fishing off the back of the boat, so maybe that's Plan B.

We're looking forward to Lorna and Brian arriving here a week from today, and hoping that the winds will calm down a bit to allow travel around the island and over to St. Barts.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

St. Martin

We're enjoying pleasant calm weather in Marigot Bay in St. Martin. We're expecting the same calm weather until at least Christmas when the winds are supposed to pick up.

We met up with Walter from Madness whom we met while up in Bermuda. It was great to see a familiar face!

We also met up with a boat called "Prudence" with Doug and Sheryl onboard. They chose to sail to the Caribbean via the Thorny Path, which means sailing into the wind towards the east. They have lived onboard for the past 18 months and came from Puerto Rico on the same weather window as we enjoyed.

We're not able to hook up to wifi from the boat...unlike the BVI's everything costs money so we're uploading this from a restaurant with wifi!!

Dawn

Wonderful Sail to St. Martin

We arrived in St. Martin last night at 9:30 p.m.

Normal weather at this time of the year is 15-20 knots from the east, the direction of St. Martin; making a trip to St. Martin a passage into wind and waves. We had been watching this weather window develop, possibly bringing wind from the north, for almost a week, considering a couple times a day all the factors for a safe crossing: wind strength and direction, sea state, potential for squalls, amount of light. It started to look good, and we made our decision to go for it while at Norman's Bight.

Tuesday morning, we spent hours tacking up the Sir Francis Drake Channel to Spanish Town, which had a Customs office. We were able to check out at 3:00, and continued sailing up to Gorda Sound. We anchored at dusk in Drake's Anchorage, checked the weather again on Wednesday morning, and started out at 7:30 a.m.

We were apprehensive, as, although the weather said wind from the NNE at 10-15 knots, the previous week's strong winds had reportedly left the seas in a bad state. We motorsailed behind the Anegada Reef, until 10:00, and the water was indeed rough - suggesting worse seas beyond the reef. However, once we got out from under the protection of the reef, we found large waves, but not much banging. Indeed, once we were able to turn 15 degrees further off the wind, Cat Tales picked up her skirts and
started skipping off to the ENE just fine. By mid-afternoon, the waves were seldom touching the underside of the salon, and we zipped up and down the large rollers at speeds between 6 and 8 knots. It was a beautiful weather window, and we simply lounged around, played with the sails, and watched the water go by. We had some fishing fun, but didn't land a thing.

We did encounter squally activity under the Anguilla - St. Martin grouping after dark, but nothing worse than 25 knots, and the rain washed off our salt - making it hard to be unhappy. We ghosted into Simpson Bay around some mega-yachts, and dropped the hook in 4-5 metres of water to a sandy bottom.

We're sitting here, watching the mega-yachts come and go from the bridge to the lagoon, and big cattle-marans head out to snorkelling adventures. We'll pick up the anchor and go around to Marigot to clear customs. We can't connect to WiFi here, so we may either post this with ham or wait until we get around the corner.

We hope all is just as fine with our friends and relatives at home.

Passage to St. Martin

We've been watching the weather and it would seem that we may have a bit of a break in the East Winds that constantly blow down here. They're calling for N and NE winds for the next 2 days, however, because it's been so windy, the seas will be very large. If we wait until the seas die down somewhat, we'll be back to the constant trade winds from the East. Our destination, St. Martin is due ESE, approximately a 13 hour sail. We may leave Wednesday morning, or evening depending on the most recent
forecast.

We had 2 beautiful days here in Norman's Byte and managed a great booty hunt on the beach. We found lots of great treasures, so our Christmas shopping is now finished! I gave Laurie a nice baseball hat from the Willie T (brand new) along with a beer cozy, and he gave me a beautiful rope floor mat and a LED flashlight!

Jost van Dyke

After being returned to the water back in Virgin Gorda after work done to the boat, we sailed directly to Jost van Dyke.

Today we are in White Bay, and still on our first cup of coffee. There are Bar Jacks jumping, Frigate Birds circling, and pelicans diving. Pretty much the day here starts with the decision about who gets breakfast and who is breakfast. The small boats left during the daylight, so only we and a few giant charter cats stayed, with their guests and crews. The busy beach we walked yesterday is empty except for a couple of people who swam in for a morning walk. It's a beautiful quiet moment.

White Bay has a big reef to stop the larger swells from making real havoc, but the long white beach is still steep and the waves hit pretty heavy, making dinghy stops and launches often rough; so it is a beach to which most boaters just swim ashore. Anyway, there is a tiny hotel here called the Sand Castle Hotel, with a bar called the "Soggy Dollar Bar". (some of my money is drying in the kitchen right now) They insist they invented the "Painkiller", back in the day. Boats bring hundreds of people to the beach. Some come around the corner from Foxy's area, some are little charter boats smart enough to miss the reef (one didn't yesterday), and many sail and motor over from the USVI, an hour away - making it a great people-watching spot as well.

We have been watching a really unique cruise ship called Sea Dream Yacht Club. It is a compact version of the big girls we see down here and is able to gunk hole with the rest of us! Apparently it's an all inclusive and only carries 100 guests. If you book a year in advance, they give you a nice discount. We spoke with 2 separate groups of people yesterday on the beach asking how they were enjoying their cruise and they raved on and on and on about it. You might want to google it and try it out sometime. Might be something we'd be interested in doing in the summer or fall to the Mediterranean or some place different! They anchored off the "Baths", then off Soper's Hole. After that they were just outside the anchorage at Foxy's and yesterday they were right here in White's Bay for the entire day!!

Well, that's it for Jost Van Dyke for this year. We're heading off to Norman's Byte today to snorkel and booty hunt on the beach!

Movie - Trip from Rhode Island to Bermuda Oct 2008

Here is the little movie I put together while in Bermuda. I didn't want to share it before doing the second leg in fear of frightening family at home. I'll put together another one from Bermuda down to the BVI's later.

Trip from Rhode Island to Bermuda

Click on the link above.

Boatyard Blues

It's a hard, hard, hard life on the hard, sitting here on Virgin Gorda. Not really!

We were lifted out of the water at 11:00 on Tuesday, just after some wind and strong rain. After the haulout crew pressure-washed the boat, it looked pretty bad, with flaking bottom paint everywhere. It was difficult watching days of hard work and hundreds of dollars worth of toxic paint literally run down the drain. It is now obvious that cuprous oxide paint should never be placed on tributyl tin paint, no matter how well you have sanded it off. After some significant banter with the yard's
manager, a tough lady named Pamela, we determined what work should be done; and then we had to wait 24 hours for a price to emerge. However, "island time" notwithstanding, workmen began grinding off all the cuprous oxide coating right after lunch yesterday, and by this morning it was 95% removed, and some patching of the primer coat could begin. We expect to have two coats of new bottom paint professionally installed by mid-day tomorrow, and will likely be splashed before supper.

During the delay, we had a Yanmar expert install new seals in the starboard saildrive; so hopefully, we'll be "good to go" from here on.

Although we got a nice walk in on Tuesday afternoon, we went for a monster hike yesterday. We toured the Little Dix Bay resort, and found a mountain path over the hill to Savannah Bay. The hiking and climbing was an excellent workout, and the terrain delivered some marvellous vistas. You may wish to Google the resort - such a steal at only $850 per day, as it includes meals. The trail was quite rough, and I believe the heights were around 300' above the beaches. We were surprised by the number
of small crabs living in the heights, inside of large snail shells. When they hear a person coming, they run to the shells and throw themselves into them with such force that they begin to roll, sometimes bouncing down the hill across the trail. We travelled the road back to the marina, which provided even more fabulous views. What a day for Dawn to have forgotten her camera. Maybe she'll want to travel the same route today? All kidding aside, it is me who is suffering from blisters.

Life on the hard has its advantages. There are little problems, like getting keys to washrooms, and removing the night's pee bucket without spilling it. But it isn't all bad. The strong wind and sun has ensured that our batteries and freezer work fine. The lower refrigerator has been supplemented with ice, which gets robbed for the daily cocktail experiments. The wind has also kept the mosquitos at bay, which is a good thing since Dengue Fever is an issue in the area. We have had some good
meals, excellent sleeps without motion or worrying about our own or other's anchors, and of course hot showers, the first since Rhode Island. You folks really shouldn't take showers for granted. Go a week without them and think of us when you finally step back into one.

Interestingly, crew of a Canadian boat just dropped by and passed on the news that a number of moorings failed in Gorda Sound during the strong winds these last couple of days - one of which, sent a 50 foot boat beam onto some other moored sailboats. We'll likely see the damage arrive at the boatyard today.

Here's another bit of "local flavour". Dawn just returned from a little shopping across the street. She asked a proprietor if the Nora Jones DVD that was playing was for sale. He said: "Not yet. I just got this one, and haven't made copies yet. Come back tomorrow".

If YOU come back tomorrow, we'll try to have some pictures up - or better yet, maybe the movie of our crossing to Bermuda.

Wastin' Away Again...

Gosh, there's very little happening in our lives. We're at anchor outside Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour, awaiting haulout tomorrow, to get some of the previously discussed work looked at.

Saturday was taken up with reprovisioning in Road Harbour, where we bought 9 handles of rum for $9 each, and a lot of beer for $0.50 per can. Don't worry, we bought groceries too. We then sailed to Cooper Island for an overnighter, then sailed to the Baths before a little jibwork to get here. Both days, the sailing in Sir Francis Drake Channel were beautiful. We had the minimum of sail up, and bounded along magically. We had a little workout at the Baths, swimming into the shore and back, reacquainting
ourselves with our colourful aquatic friends along the way.

Prior to the weekend, we met a nice Canadian couple, John and Heather Hamilton, who keep a 32' sailboat, Escapade X in Trellis bay, and have spent over 30 years in the region. We had them over for drinks, then spent a lovely time the next night on their boat for a supper.

We've spent a few nights alone on Cat Tales, just enjoying the night air and each other's company. Although I don't intend to write a "sucks to be you" - type note, it really is lovely to sit outside at night in such splendid weather. In NB, we'd only get one or two nights per year like we get here literally every night. In NB, there might only be an hour of that night that would be bug-free. No bugs here.

5 Days in the BVI

Well, we've been here for 5 days.

Saturday, I jumped off in Trellis Bay to check the anchor, and determined that the bottom paint had failed. I had sanded down the hull in NB, and worked hard to place new ablative paint on the boat. I have no idea why it is flaking off.

Sunday, we had a high-wind sail around to Road Harbour, where we spent some time checking into customs and immigration, and had a nice meal at the Village Cay Marina restaurant. The day continued with a downwind sail to Norman Island where, after a fabulous supper cooked by Dawn, Grant and I investigated the Willy T floating restaurant. Grant determined that it was too seedy for him, and we returned after only one beer. The wind came up and the anchor dragged around 1 a.m., and Grant and I took
turns all night on anchor watch. We reset it at dawn, had two more hours sleep, then Dawn and Grant went snorkelling around the Caves at the mouth of the Bight.

My Monday continued with mechanical checks of the boat, with a resulting find that the starboard saildrive, the one I spent literally days and days dismantling and repairing, is still leaking water into the lubrication oil. Oh well, another reason to be hauled. Grant was impressed with snorkelling - he thought he wasn't interested.

As Grant had a morning flight on Tuesday, we lifted anchor, and had a rollicking 6-7 tack sail up the Sir Francis Drake Channel, back to Trellis Bay, Beef Island, in strong winds. Grant treated us to a great meal at the Last Resort Island restaurant, and we went to bed rather early in anticipation of the dark dinghy ride to shore for the airport. After sad good-byes, Dawn and I hiked over to the north shore of Beef Island to beachcomb for booty. We arrived back to the boat only to hear by Skype-phone
that Grant was stuck in Puerto Rico after being bumped. We do hear he made it home on Wednesday, after spending an unscheduled overnight in Ottawa. We wonder how he feels, slogging around the numerous airports, with the extra bag of gear we sent along with him.

So, we're slowing down, doing chores, shopping for a boat haulout for new bottom paint and mechanical work, and enjoying the finding of booty on the beaches. Since landing here, we've found two new fenders, a blue Taylor fender cover, a couple dozen SS screws from wrecks, a mesh cover from a liferaft, a floating light for a MOB (man overboard) system, and a nice blue wine goblet. We're also looking for a nice weather window for the upwind slog to St. Martin, but will not likely find that on the
beach.

We'll keep you posted regarding our haulout experience, if these people will kindly answer our inquiries.

Pictures of the trip south

Take a look at this beautiful fish, the mahi mahi, also known as the dolphin fish. We ate 2 of the 3 portions and have one left to go. It was magnificant!!



Grant releived me one morning at 6:00 am to do his watch, and when I got up he had this flying fish sitting on a plate! What a laugh we had digging out the teeny cup and cutlery to make it look bigger than it is. We know that it's a good fish for eating, however, it was pretty stiff when Grant found him onboard so we decided to call him "bait" for the next fishing session, rather than breakfast!


It was unbelievable how calm it was over the middle piece of the trip to the BVI's. Playing dominoes 2 days in a row is proof of that!!



Grant flew out of here this morning. We really appreciate his talents with sailing and doing chores. Thanks to all the crew who helped get this baby down south!!

Dawn