Merry Christmas from the Bitter End

Volver has been quite relaxed and is enjoying the Holiday festivities.  There was a carolling boat, which was raising money for BVI search and rescue, and a Christmas eve parade of lights, which we enjoyed despite the downpour.  Several well lit boats wound their way amongst the very full anchorage in the North Sound.

Christmas Eve Parade of lights

 This is Stray Cat, which is a charter boat!  Way to show the spirit!

Also for Christmas eve, there was the Hobie Cat beer can regatta, the object being to get close enough to the committee boat to pick up a beer!  

Speed Demons for beer!

We went for a Christmas eve hike, over the rocky island to the other side and back.

Volver from above

Volver has been joined by Happy Chaos and Unknown Island.  Co-incidentally, the three Hanses from Toronto are moored in a triangle with only a small dive boat in the centre.  Seems to happen wherever we go.  Although in this case, the Capt'n alerted Happy Chaos to a lone but slightly hidden ball that had just been vacated and was obscured by the early morning sun (He contends a beer is owed to him for this, and intends to announce this later today, when we actually see Sean!).  And we held onto our ball while going over to Leverick Bay on monday by leaving the dinghy behind.  Good thing too, because even though we paid for a night on the dock, the marina is completely exposed, and the boat was rocking so hard the lines were creaking, and we developed a fear our cleats would be lifted out of the deck.  From experience, there was going to be no sleep that night, so we headed home.  Clean laundry, ice, water, and a little bit of battery top up, but no happy hour with the accordian playing pirate guy, no pool, no downloading shows for later viewing!  The first mate said, the sheets are no longer salty!  The capt'n asserts that we are just like a potato chip when getting into bed:  covered in salt and grease! There was no room at the inn when we made our way back, so it was a good thing we paid for our dinghy to sleep there!  We enjoyed that mooring ball that night!

Happy to return to the calm of a mooring ball after an unpleasant experience at the dock!

Christmas day plans are to have a potluck/beach BBQ with Happy Chaos, Unknown Island, and Fabuloso.  Everyone is cooking up a feast, lots of Indian food, and we are hoping for clear skies.  We made friends with the bar staff at the Sandbox yesterday (in fact we told her the chicken roti surpasses all others:  slow b/c she was making the roti to order), so hopefully we can seek shelter inside if need be, as long as we buy some bevvies from them!  We have a loaf of bread rising at this time, will need to wrap up soon!  

No Christmas pressies for Volver.  Every morning when we wake up in the Caribbean (and don't have to go to work) is a gift!   The weather is still not our friend, and the captain has listened to Peter, who expressed disappointment in the output of his wind generator, and appreciation of his gas generator:  hence, he now concurs with the first mate's assessment, and agrees to pick up a gas powered generator.  Home Depot in St. Thomas may by our best bet, if we are not going to suck it up and head to the windward.  It looks as though there has been a lot of mosquito fogging going on, and Sin. Maarten is probably safe, when met with sufficient DEET power (and the dutch side was always said to be safe, although the first mate suspects mosquitos don't respect international boundaries!) 

Volver (and it's capt'n and first mate) wish everyone a fabulous, healthy, and peaceful holiday.  We leave you with this beauty of an orange sunset.  

Stunning Sunset, North Sound