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

Bitter End, Redux

Volver has returned to where she started, the North Sound, Virgin Gorda.  We arrived slightly grumpy and starving, after a long slog to windward (put on the engine, let auto drive, and suck it up, while reminding self, "we've seen worse!"), which was punctuated by squalls that completely impeded our visibility (and we could see on our AIS that there were four boats headed straight for us!), and wrapped up with an entertaining display of marital disharmony, while we tried to pick up a mooring ball in gusty conditions.  Five tries is a charm, truly!  The captain suggested the first mate pissed someone in authority off, for the gusts would always arrive when she had successfully manoeuvred the boat to within several feet of being successful.   Gratefully, we hopped in the dinghy, and went straight to the Fat Virgin Cafe, where we first dined upon completion of our passage.  The quest for the best chicken roti, started by John and Judy, has been repeated by the captain.  His verdict:  best roti itself:  the Fat Virgin wins, hands down.  The award for the best filling, however, belongs to Foxy's Tamarind Cafe.

Home of (Possibly) the Best Chicken Roti in the BVI

Fat Virgin Selfie

We exercised our perogative to change our minds and went to the USVI, St John to be precise.  The island is mostly a national park, and was spectacularly beautiful, with few boats and fantastic snorkeling.  We saw turtles and a ray.  The town of Cruz Bay was charming, the immigration process a breeze, and the National Park Information Centre was helpful.  Armed with info, we choose to head over to Waterlemon Cay.  Our brain really wanted this to be watermelon, and read it as such many times before getting it right.  What is a waterlemon, anyway?  A gorgeous anchorage!  Of course, there is no anchoring, mooring balls only, to protect the reef.  

The Reef that separates the Cay from Sir Francis Drake Channel

The first day, we swam to shore with shoes in our snorkel gear bag (no dinghy dock, no dinghies on the beach!).  We did a mile long walk along the shore, then up to explore the ruins of a sugar plantation, which was situated on a hill with a terrific view of the Bay.  

Ruins overlooking Waterlemon Cay

That was a much longer swim than anticipated, and didn't leave alot of energy for exploring the reef too much, given the very strong ocean going current in the "no boat" exclusion zone.  So the next morning, we moved the boat closer to shore so our swim to shore was shorter, as we needed to conserve energy for the days hike across the island (over the hill) to visit the small community of Coral Bay.  The park info promised donkeys and goats (don't be afraid of the noises in the night, donkeys are not your friend, please don't pet them!  So much more safety information in the USVI than here in the laid back, BVI), but only delivered copious droppings and one goat on the trail, although the goats were herding themselves in droves through the village of Coral Bay.  

City Slicker Goats

The hermit crab population was quite prolific and unexpected at the top of a mountain, where we saw "NO CRABBING" signs.  The grade was fairly steep and in full sun for the walk home, so we were glad we had obtained sustainance at Skinny Legs cafe.   Despite being quite fatigued and having burning quadriceps upon return, we had good energy to use some upper body muscles and snorkelled the reef. Always use the buddy system when the surfs up!

Mucho Pelicano, trying to hitch a ride on the dinghy

We reluctantly left, and headed for a night in Road Town, in order to do a big provision.  Sadly, there was no room at the marina, and we spent a very rolly night anchored outside the inner harbour, sleeping quite poorly.  No pool, no laundry, no charging up the batteries, but we'll do all these things tomorrow, having made a reservation at Leverick Bay Marina.  There are lots of Salty Dawg boats here in the North Sound, but we have not heard of a lot of organized activities.  

The wind and seas continue unco-operative although the forecast suggests Christmas Day would be a good day to transit, with still east winds, but 10-15 knots of wind and 3-5 foots seas (current conditions 25 knots, 7-10 foot seas).  The wrench in our plans for getting to St. Marten is a current CDC travel advisory.  There is an outbreak of both Dengue fever (no prevention, no treatment, potentially life threatening, and of chikungunya virus (no treatment, RARELY life threatening) in St Marten.  Of course, there is prevention, don't get bit by mosquitos.  However, the captain has no need for bug spray when the first mate is nearby, as she is an insect attractant, currently covered in "no see'em" bites, despite generous application of bug spray.  We really wish to buy a wind generator there:  duty free, lots of boatyard expertise. Will likely head to St. Kitts or Martinique instead.  More later, we have to try and find a place to watch the Barca game!  

Pizza Pub:  Volver's home club burgee shows up in the strangest places!

Indolence

Volver is at Jost VanDyke.  Azure seas, gentle breeze. We have dined at the iconic Foxy's and had to stay for several hours due to the promise of an upcoming Barca game (they handily beat Villa Real 2:1).  Next thing we knew we were back at the boat, eating crisps for dinner.  

We did have the perfect, though very short sail over here.  13 knots of wind on the beam, gusting to 20, 1.5 foot seas.  Now, if only we could have that wind pushing us to St. Martin.  

Today, wake up, note that the boat is filthy, inside and out, perhaps we'll scrub after coffee, or after the squalls pass, or after lunch.  No, never mind, we'll get in the dinghy and go around the corner to White Bay and have a swim and a lounge on a noodle and drink an overpriced beer at the famed Soggy Dollar.  We stopped there during our honeymoon but didn't see the point of paying when beer on the crewed charter was so convenient and free!  Unfortunately, it tasted exactly the same as the one down the road for half the price!  We might have known this; but I guess we can tick it off the bucket list!

Came home and noticed people pointing off the bow of their boat.  This is very common, and is often entertaining, as people are usually picking up a mooring ball.  But we knew this couple had arrived several hours before.  The eagle eyes of the captain spotted the two dolphins swimming around our anchorage!  Awesome!

We have decided to return to Road Town, pay the nice people some money, and have our Visa extended, and then make our way back to the Bitter End for the Holidays. Bill and Linda, organizers of the Salty Dawg Rally, encouraged us to buy some decorations in the US, for the North Sound prides itself on it's Holiday Spirit, but we had no intent of still being in the BVI!  We are also short of power, and will probably buy a wind generator in St. Martin.  Perhaps a small string of LED lights would be in order!  Don't want to be the only grinch in the crowd!  Speaking of the holidays, the first mate missed Girl's Baking Day today, now an annual tradition!  Always fun and gets us into the mood for celebrating.  Hope Emma, Faye, and Grace enjoyed the day!  

Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke.  Now this is living!

Still in the BVIs

We are in Soper's Hole, tied to a dock to access some power, water, and wifi, after 5 days on a mooring ball.  The marina guide advertised laundry and an ice cream shop also, but they were just kidding!  Today, we got out the sewing machine and did more repairs:  even fixed the dodger of our neighbor, who just arrived after a very difficult passage (10 days from Florida, on a 52 foot boat), and who had a rogue wave blow out the zipper on their brand new dodger. After recovering from their hangovers, their task for today was to find someone to fix this, and they would have been out of luck had Volver's sewing machine not been employed from the easily viewed cockpit, as there are very few boat services here!   They wanted to pay for this service but I'm not operating a business illegally from the marina!  We started but did not finish completion of a boom shade (thank you for the fabric John and Judy), which will help with shade and hopefully with ventilation, as it has been raining so much we've frequently had to close our hatches for the better part of many days. 

Soper's Hole facing south, daytime

We enjoyed the beautiful sunset here, while on the mooring ball.  

Sunset, Soper's Hole, BVI

Of note, please see the mangled block from our unintentional jibe, which the captain has hung from the arch, as a badge of honor, rather than as a badge of shame.  Perhaps it is a rememberance:  never again.  The first mate does not know:    why is it there, and what does it mean?   

After leaving Nanny Cay, we went to Norman Island, "the Bight," where there is good snorkelling. While there, the first mate got to climb the mast three times in 20 knot gusts!  We waited until the gusts slowed to a rate of every three minutes, from every one minute.  Technically speaking, she was hoisted, but this is hard work for the captain, so she tries to help.  There was mild fear at times and there is still significant bruising of the sternum, one thigh, and one shin, where she was shimmying to try and lessen the captains load!  And now we have new lazy jacks!  Then we went to Peter Island, another cute anchorage.  We took the ferry into Road Town and did another big provision.  Left our dinghy on the beach all day, tied to a tree.  We were hoping it would still be there when we got back with more groceries than planned, for it was far too far to swim to our boat!  Fortunately, the BVI are a pretty safe place:  hardly anyone locks up anything!

It looks less and less like we will make St. Martin by Christmas.  Fellow Salty Dogs Bill and Maureen from Kalunamoo visited today and gave us a synopsis of the latest weather update from Chris Parker.  He says this uncharacteristic weather has lasted for 6-8 weeks, and shows no signs of abating until December 23.  The winds continue to be straight from the east and seas are 8 feet, which would make for 24 hours of very unpleasant motoring.  Even though Christmas is not that big a deal for us, I'm not convinced I want to spend it beating to windward or searching for a place to stay.  I suspect there will be very little movement around that time.  So we can either "import" our boat to the BVIs (ie., pay them $200 if we stay longer than 30 days) or we can leave.  The advantage of staying would be to take the opportunity to join some fellow salty dogs in the Bitter End for the Holiday Festivities, and this departure point would give us a better point of sail than if we left from the USVI.

The plan. as of this minute, is to head to Jost Van Dyke tomorrow.  Party central there, but not much else.  Hopefully we can find a laundry!  Amazing how much time it takes to just live down here!  

BTW, the first mate was quite convinced she was the cat whisperer in Nanny Cay, when cats would follow her and nudge her for more cuddles, but it turns out that the cats are so loved and cared for, with shots and immunizations and food, that they are just suckers for a tummy rub.    Here is a tree cat, same thing in Soper's Hole.  All of them have names and can be picked up if you dare.

Soper's Hole Tree Cat, Pusser's Bar and Restaurant

Jumbies No More!

Volver is still in Nanny Cay and things are looking up.
We have been here 9 days.  Many people have helped us fix the boat. 


Corrosion is killer.  The fridge was fixed after Alfred was able to ascertain that nothing was wrong with it apart from corroded wires.  We could not find the original ones, despite Herculean efforts, so we ran new ones.  Also not fun. Then the entire 12 volt system was acting up (no lights, fans, or water pressure!) and the main switch to the 12 volt panel was the culprit:  it was, you guessed it, corroded.  The captain is still working on re-wiring the anchor windlass, brand new but corroded! 

We are just waiting for the sails, which were promised for today, but the Quantum fellow forgot to order the jib clewboard when we gave him the sails last week and also does not have our two broken battens in stock.  We will leave Saturday, with or without a jib, and may have to return to retrieve it upon future completion of the work. 

Captain's birthday yesterday.  We celebrated by going into town where we were able to get so soaked in a downpour that our shop in the super air-conditioned store for a massive provision was painful.  All limbs went numb! 

The barber had a long lineup and the captain didn't wait.  The first mate found a set of clippers for sale and now she can add "Ship's Barber" to her "Linked-In" page.  The captain is happy with the result: he thinks he looks younger. 

We were able to eat well (they had decent steaks!  not so common in the Caribbean).  We were down to emergency food:  the first mate made curried Textured Vegetable Protein the night before!  It just tastes like the sauce, not so bad, really, but the captain decided it looked scarily similar to worms.   The big provision was rounded out by the addition of the snack food we call "Sin," which is Chicago Mix popcorn:  a mix of cheddar and caramel corn that tends get hoovered up quite quickly in our household.  I thought there was a nine month reprieve from that temptation but not so much! 

There is a Salty Dawg party tonight in downtown Road Town and the organizers have arranged a shuttle to pick up people from Nanny Cay and from Soper's Hole.  Should be a good turnout for the BBQ.  We can pretend this is the captain's Birthday party. 

It still rains all the time.  We finally got our new table mount back from the stainless steel manufacturer (it was rebar and this corrodes quite handily), so the first mate needs some dry time in the cockpit to get to some sewing repairs.  The forecast is for 25-30 knot winds coming from the East, which will likely lead us to postpone the 100 nautical mile journey to St. Martin for a while.  We hope to spend the Holidays there.  We look forward to changing locations soon.  We'll probably visit Jost Van Dyke, Peter and Norman Islands while we are waiting for the sail repairs.

More later, hopefully after we've moved somewhere away from all of the boat repairs!   

Happy Hour

Happy hour at Captain Mulligan's, Nanny Cay, BVI. Fridays at 6 is the time to go for free BBQ ribs and chicken wings.  The Capt'n enjoyed.  

The first mate had her locks chopped off a little shorter than anticipated, leaving her captain quite convinced he is now cheating on his real wife, who is not a grey haired old lady, who is somewhat boyish in nature.    

A Selfie, Mulligan's Happy Hour

Nanny Cay is the place to be for repairs.  All the boats on C-Dock are in the process of working with various trades to get ourselves back to the life of being cruisers.  Guess who we found on C-dock? Happy Chaos and Unknown Island, of course!  They are both having their rudders replaced and these will have to come from the factory in Germany (under warranty).  There was a problem with the electrical connectivity that caused rudder post corrosion.  They are both lucky to have caught the problem before a crisis occurred.  Volver is of a much older vintage, and does not appear to have the problem.  Although we have not lifted the boat for a proper inspection, we don't have the "ground" that appears to be responsible for their troubles.  

Volver has enough electrical problems of her own.  Bill and Linda Knowles from the Salty Dawg rally directed us to Lincoln (behind Quantum) to sort out our alternator problem.  In less than a one hour service call he was able to determine that the two guys at the Bitter End did not know how to install our alternator, and he fixed it quietly and left.  But Alfred the fridge guy has been here twice and no luck.  The first time, he was here for 2 hours just trying to access the compressor, and left advising that we must tear up the boat before he can help us.  The captain spent the entire afternoon, but eventually was able to remove the compressor from it's bracket and expose it sufficiently.  Called Alfred, he comes this morning and tells us the compressor and the controller seem fine.  Can we please re-wire the system and then call him again.  

Yes, we can.  This takes several hours.  Much dirt, more intimate aquaintance with the bilge (truly thought they were all cleaned) and when we figured out a way, we hoped to just hook up the wires and ask Alfred to inspect.  The wires, when tested by touching the batteries, turn on the compressor and Bob is your uncle!  Not so soon hopefulness, for as soon as the circuit was closed we lost power to the entire boat!  Yes, we need Alfred.  This will have to wait until next week. It is friday, and he is on family time now.

Both of our sails are in to the sailmaker and we have asked him for a quote for new windows for the dodger. People kept falling on them and they are horribly yellow anyway.  We bought new lines for the 2nd reef.  Have not heard from New England Ropes about how we can cash in our raffle winnings, so we have held off on buying a replacement for now.  We need a bunch of new blocks and a rigger to come and do some work on our boom but no luck in getting him to come for a visit so far.  We somehow ended up with a piece of re-bar in our cockpit table instead of stainless steel, which nearly rusted itself in place, and caused rust stains to permeate the binnacle, so we have a stainless guy replacing that.  

We've run out of groceries again and it is a  
$32 cab fare to get more.  We hoped to have a fridge/freezer by the time we needed to buy meat/fish again.  Does not take long when you are buying a 3 day supply. Veggies are still unrefrigerated but the fridge is stocked with cold beer.  One has to prioritize.  We are back to creative use of tinned tuna and the restos.  

Are we having fun?  Some.  I think we feel stalled. Waiting all the time.  Capt'n not sure if he can live with so little structure:  wants to have a functional boat now.  Wants to sail now!  We've done nothing but plan, organize, repair, and spend money for months.  Would like to start reaping the rewards.  If we could access retail stores more easily we would be happier.  Eating well is a very important part of our happiness.  I bought my folding MAC wagon and would be happy to cart it around town and fill it up and enjoy the shopping in Road Town.  But Nanny Cay is where it is at for concentrated Trades people, and that is what we needed, so here we are, rounding out the better part of a whole month, without much in the way of produce/refrigeration!

This weekend, we have laundry, some sewing, but mostly a lot of waiting.  There is a beach, pool, and a beach bar.  We'll do some of that, and pretend we are tourists on vacation.  I did not mention that it is raining here, alot.  Pretty well as soon as you get your hatches open to vent the heat out, the wind starts up and you know you have 5 minutes.  Then, a few drops, then a deluge.  More significant when your dodger is elsewhere as your companionway is unprotected!  The rain also starts when you have left the boat and are about 50 feet away:  too far to turn back, but we wouldn't anyway.  It is a warm rain, and you'll never get anywhere if you wait for it to stop.  I should not have spoken.  such a nice night.  I have challenged the Gods.  Gotta get cover now.  

We Made Blue Water Sailing Magazine!

Sadly, they reference our blown out mainsheet and the good luck we had to win a replacement!  Even more sadly, the first mate can not figure out how to cash in her winnings!

http://bwsailing.com/cc/2013/11/21/update-salty-dawgs-in-the-sun/

Not sure if you need a subscription to access the article.

This just in,  the first mate was finally able to wrestle Windows 8 into submission and was able to update the 2 last BVI posts with some photos.  

Wish us happy sailing (we will leave whether or not we have paid the mechanic by tomorrow, he seems to be on Caribbean time w.r.t getting us the bill) and happy boat repair in exotic places!  

fooled you, this was in Melbourne