Week 2

Tuesday June 22

Resorted grocery cabinets

Paul installed windlass and we put markers in the new anchor chain

Kiwi came to measure for bookshelf in our stateroom

Kenny came to inquire about me fixing the marina’s QkBks

VERYVERY HOT & MUGGY -almost unbearable

Wednesday June 23, 2010

We continue to unpack and I have a meeting with the marina General Manager and the Owner. It is agreed that I will do some more QkBks work for them when we are back in the marina on July 15th. Hey, it pays the dockage bills. As the owner is driving me back to our boat, he asks what Paul did for a living and when I say Union Electrician his eyes light up. Ooops, Paul may have work also. (Hey what is good for the gander, is good for the goose). When I come back to the boat Paul is ready to install the new anchor chain. We move it by hand from the dock to the compartment. It is sooo nice and clean. What a pleasure after the old rusty chain. I doubt that we will ever get all the rust marks off the deck from the old chain. The windlass works great!

Thursday June 24th, 2010 Today I re-sort all the food cabinets and put away the last of the provisions. We are finally unpacked! Yippee!. It takes a good part of the day and Paul installs our hurricane lines at the dock. We must have them installed, even though we are going out cruising. They want us to be prepared if something starts brewing. We get a call on Paul’s cell phone and someone is interested in buying our old 2500 watt inverter. He comes to see it and writes me a check. We still have to uninstall it and install the new one, so it is decided that when we get it out, we will deliver it to him in Tortola and he will trade his check for “cold hard cash”. This works out great for us as we really don’t want to be carrying the second inverter around until we got a buyer. Now we just have to unload the cooler and charcoal grille that we have and we will be very happy. This is our last night at the dock. We can’t wait to get out of here. Unfortunately for me, it is the last night of A/C until we are at Leverick Bay and on their docks. We also install the radome cable, the wifi cables and antenna and the wires for the spreader lights. The radar works! The wifi works, but I can’t seem to get onto a free wifi signal. Well, maybe in the BVI.

Friday June 25th, 2010 We are officially cruising. We leave the dock early morning and head straight to Christmas Cove at St. James Island. It is one of the nicest anchorages and very close to our marina. We still have to scrub the bottom, polish the bimini frame, put up the life jacket bag and wash the boat. The weather has started to turn crummy again. This rain just doesn’t stop. It doesn’t bother Paul who is under the boat using our “Hooka” diving system. It is an air compressor with a very fine filter hooked up to one or two 100’ air hoses with dive regulators attached. It is like diving with tanks, but you don’t have to refill tanks and it runs off our A/C power. Paul is under the boat for about 3 hours cleaning and when he comes up he looks like crap. It is very hard work and cleaning the props is the worst part. He takes a rest in the salon while I make lunch. We finish cleaning the bimini and I polish the stainless frame where the lifejackets will hang. There is too much rust to do the whole thing at one shot. Paul finishes under the boat. Takes about another hour and a half, but hopefully he won’t have to do it again for a couple of months. Cocktails, dinner and bed. Our usual routine.

Sat. June 26th, 2010. Up early again and today is boat washing day. Luckily it is still cloudy with intermittent rain. The rain actually helps by keeping the softscrub wet. It takes all day, but we have it done by about 6pm. The sun finally comes out and there is a really nice dry north wind. It is so pleasant out after an entire week of rain. We have cocktails and watch the sunset. Dinner and bed. Tomorrow we head over to the BVI for the start of the TTOL Regatta.

Sun. June 27th, 2010. At 11am we head for Soper’s Hole, West End, Tortola. It is a nice cruise and we pick up a mooring ball at about 12:30pm. I try to call the BVI Vet to meet us to clear in LuSea, but I just get the recording. We head in to Customs & Immigration to “clear in”. We tell them that we have LuSea (they actually remember us from the last time). We clear no problem other than it is Sunday so all the fees are tripled for Overtime. $31. to get into the silly country. Now LuSea on the other hand, is a problem. They can’t get a hold of the BVI Vet either. We tell them that the last time we came, the Vet said to just leave the papers and the money in an envelope and that that would be fine. They say”NO”, we can only do that if the Vet tells them that that is OK. Grrrrrrrr. We wait and wait, finally they get someone on the phone who says that someone else will come down to clear her in. We ask “how long” and no one has any idea. So we decide to go to the Market to get a few items and take our handheld VHF radio along so that they can call us when the VET arrives. We get back from the Market and put everything away. Still no call. I tell Paul to get the dog, her travel bag, and that we are going to C&I with her. We get to the office and I plop her in her bag on the counter and say that we have been waiting for 1.5 hours now and really need to clear her in so that we can get to our next stop yet today. After another couple of phone calls, they tell us to leave the paperwork and the money in an envelope and to have a nice day.l (WAIT, didn’t I say that 2 hours ago?) Off we head with LuSea “legal”.

We head over to the Bight at Norman Island. There we meet up with the other TTOL regatta boats. Blue Moon, Catatonic, Utopia, Long Over Do, Galeaux, & Southern Composure. We hop into our dinghy with LuSea and start making the round to say high to all our friends. While we are visiting boats the most incredible thing happens. A dolphin appears in the Bight and is swimming around the kids in the water. He is having as much fun as the people in the water and those watching. He does a couple of jumps, swims on his back and is just swimming in and under all the kids. WOW! It is so cool He stays and plays for almost 30 minutes. Nothing on this trip will top that. We head in for dinner (in pirate garb) at 7pm. It is a very nice buffet and we stay until about 10:30 talking and just relaxing.

Monday June 28th We cruise to Virgin Gorda and Leverick Bay. On the way it pours and then clears. Even LuSea had her rain gear on.  We go through the “cut” and get a slip at Leverick Bay Marina for the next 2 nights. A/C again, YES! After everyone arrives we all head up to the pool to cool off and have a few drinks. LuSea joins us and we just wet her down. But, we enjoy the freshwater pool. Cindy and Gene with their guests Ginny and Bruce come to the dock to see us. They are in our dinghy tomorrow for the poker run.

We later have dinner aboard and Jeff from Blue Moon comes over to bring me his dolphin pics. 10pm off to bed. Tomorrow is the Leverick Bay Dinghy Poker Run.