Jun 2006

Brian and Bill (June 2): Bushwackers! We rediscovered Bill's favourite drink in the BVI here in Marina Cay (even though Bill couldn't remember the name!). We're sitting up at the Sunset Bar, enjoying the bitchin' views, Bill presented the crew of the good ship Soul Healer, with personalized Canadian, doo rags (see a picture of the fearless crew below). Thanks Ann! They're awesome!

To get a picture of the crew, we enlisted the help of the drunken table next to us. However, the evil omens were upon us, and the photo babe handily allowed our new digital camera to meet the ground with case denting impact. Fortunatley (for us), there was no damage done to the camera except for a dent.

The Canadian doo rags attracted the attention of a hot babe (and her new husband). Turned out, she was from Toronto, and new buddies were made. Anyway, we ended up being the last dingy to weave our way across the anchorage back to the boat. Sleep came swiftly to the weary.

The Motley Crew

Mike (June 1st): OK... So I ordered some new sails from Doyle in the Barbados and had them delivered to the BVI. That was the plan. What happened was that nobody seemed to know what happened to this sail. So finally, we got a notification from the airline that they located the shipment and we could pick them up from the airport. We picked up a mooring ball in Trellis Bay, hopped into the dingy and headed for shore. For those who may not know, Trellis Bay is right at the airport. In fact, the runway flight path goes right across the bay. Anyway, Alison and I realize as we got to shore that we didn't have our departure clearance papers (the sails were sent 'Yacht In Transit' for tax exemption reasons) and now have to go back to the boat to get it. While the time burn is only five minutes, this is gonna hurt. We finally get to the airport and get the airline's agent who pops back into the customs area. The world is golden... not. She pops back out at what is now 4:33pm and tells us that customs has gone home at 4:30pm. D'ya see how those five minutes figure in? Anyway. She chearfully also tells us that customs will reopen for us on Tuesday, this being a long weekend in the BVI. This is not good since this is Friday! Ouch! I throw a foot stamping episode and she relents and fetches us a customs agent who normally works arriving passengers and not cargo. Since the shipment was labelled 'Yacht In Transit', no customs or duty charges apply, so she was prepared to release the sail shipment to us. But where was it? A search of the unclaimed baggage was no joy. Next was a call to the cargo terminal, but more no joy since they'd already left. By chance, Alison saw a box sitting by a baggage conveyor at arrivals and inquired. There it was! It had been sitting on the floor for almost a week. Amazing that no one messed with it. The box was heavy, so I hijacked a porter cart, loaded it on and proceeded to head out to the airport back to the bay. I told Alison not to look back for fear someone was noticing the heisted cart. We got to the dock, unloaded and returned the cart to the airport with no-one having taken notice. Whew!

Alison (June 1): Yes, our luggage did arrive. A day late, but it did finally make it. It seems that our luggage had the opportunity to do a little site seeing in San Juan.

While we were waiting for the taxi to deliver our luggage to the base, it was off to Road Town for provisioning. And then a stop at Tico's for refreshments (we couldn't go any where without an ample supply of beer, rum and wine).

Boat is now fueled, watered and ready to depart. We're off to Norman Island (The Bight), where Bill and Brian showed their boat handling prowess. Then it was off to the Caves, for a snorkel fest. The colours in the caves were amazing, and we saw lots of crabs clinging to the walls. We were thinking that dinner might be surf and turf but the surf wasn't that easy to catch. So, instead we had amazing steaks that Mike BBQ'd on board.

If you want to see some pics of us having a great time, check out this website - 'http://www.digiproofs.com/ecom/page_view.pl?p=3YswO49'. Yacht Shots BVI takes pics of boats in the BVI and post them onto the web for purchase. That's us on the boat! Eat your hearts out!

Alison: Bill, Brian and I finally arrived here in Tortola! No problems with the flights and we got into Tortola last night, on schedule at 8:30pm. And then the fun began. The huge line up at immigration took us about 1/2 hour to get through. Then it was off to get our luggage, but it didn't take us long to realize that none of our luggage was there. None for Bill. None for Brian. None for me. Another 1/2 hour to file the necessary claims with American Airlines where they assured us that our luggage would be on the next flight, or maybe the next one, or the next, well maybe sometime tomorrow.

Luggageless, we took a taxi over to the marina to catch up with Mike. As we expected, we found Mike sitting at the bar, Bushwacker in hand. Fortunately, Mike had told the bar that we would be arriving tired and hungry, so the kitchen was kept open for us. After some food, a couple of cold beers, we were ready to head off to the boat and bunk down.

While work was being done to Soul Healer, he stayed on another boat. With air conditioning! The air conditioning made the night at the dock much more comfortable. Mike, while a good skipper still needs to work on his hosting skills. Brian and Bill woke up around 5am a little cool, and searched their cabins for a blanket or an extra sheet. But none were to be found. Lesson for Mike: Make sure each cabin has extra sheets, a blanket and towels (at least Bill and Brian had a pillow).

Mike: Sheets and blankets were piled in the salon. They're big boys so they coulda got their own.

Alison: Today, we're off to get some provisioning. And then the plan is to sail over to Norman Island, and snorkel the Caves. This will give us a chance to check the boat over and make sure everything is ship shape before we start our passage to the Turks and Caicos.