We are up at 4:45am to get the 9am flight from JFK. Everything is packed and it is an easy ride to JFK. There is very little traffic, but then again how many people are actually up and driving at that hour.
Arrival at the airport goes really smoothly. We are quick through security and off to the Admirals Club to wait for the plane. We head down to the gate at 8:20 as boarding is supposed to start at 8:30. When we get to the gate, the plane has already started boarding and it appears that all the luggage bins near our seats are full. People seem to just leave their luggage in the first available bin and then head to their seats in the back of the plane. Now this will make for an interesting departure from the plane since our carry-on luggage is way behind us. So people in the front have their luggage in the back, and people in the back have their luggage in the front. The plane is totally full. Not one empty seat. Poor LuSea is crammed between Paul’s feet. Luckily, the lady next to us is friendly. The flight is smooth and we arrive 15 min. early. Cool.
At the airport Paul goes to pick up our luggage and I call the car company. This is the first time we are using this company. When they answer I explain that we have arrived and will be waiting outside. They will recognize us by the small black dog with us. “DOG” they say, “we don’t rent cars to people with dogs”. You ARE kidding, I reply. No one told us that there was a restriction and they reply with that we didn’t tell them that we had a dog. It is a total standoff. No matter how I try to convince then that the dog doesn’t shed, is in a travel bag, etc. the answer is “NO”. They attempt to find us another car company that will accept dogs and they send us to Hertz. Now I know Hertz will not take us back to the marina at the end of the rental but we talk to them anyway. “No way” is their response when I request a return to the marina after the rental. This is not going well. I do, however, have a reservation that I had made with Budget a couple of months ago. We had decided to try to find another company that would rent us a car because of their really high prices. I go to Budget and they have our car. Twice the price, but we have no choice. The rest goes smoothly. We are quickly processed and Paul brings the car to LuSea and I who are standing guard over our luggage.
There is not much traffic, so we arrive at the marina in short order (after a quick stop at McDonalds---we are starving).
Now starts the unpacking process. It is not that bad as most of the stuff has been shipped via Carib Trans. We take out all the things that have been put away. I find a couple of Carib’s that were left from our last trip and immediately put them in the freezer. By 5pm we call it a day. We have been up since 4am. I pull those Carib’s from the freezer and we stroll the docks.
Wed. June 16th – day 2
Today is shopping day. We have to do the “Great Circle”….. Price Smart (like Costco), CostULess (like BJ’s), Kmart, Home Depot, Budget Marine, etc. We do Budget Marine and while there, we see a kayak in the middle of the store. For sh&ts and giggles I ask the price. It turns out that someone had won it months ago and never picked it up. Roger, the store manager, tells us that the guy would probably sell it and he offers to call him for us to see. Well, long story short…… we are now proud owners of a 2 seat kayak with backrests, paddles, and a fishing drogue. We leave the money with the store manager and put the kayak and assorted peripherals in the back of the mini van. Luckily, we are not far from the marina and only a short distance in the main road with few hills. The kayak sticks out the back of the van by about 3 feet, so I hold on to it while Paul drives. We take it to Cattitude and put it up on our dinghy davits and begin our trek again. Now to Kmart for liquor, Home Depot for more storage containers and finally to CostULess . After CostULess we return to the boat to put the cold items away and have lunch. (You just can’t keep anything in the car as the heat it pretty bad right now. After lunch, we head out a second time, this trip is Price Smart and Plaza Extra (the grocery store) and much to Paul’s dismay a quick stop to the nursery to get a small amount of potting soil. I WILL have fresh parsley and basil. We head back to the boat and put away the second batch. By 6pm it is time for “sundowners”. We have a dinner of a Rotissere Chicken from CostULess. Early to bed, tomorrow is pickup of the 22 boxes from Carib Trans. Thursday June 17th - day 3. We are having coffee before we leave and Kiwi (the carpenter) shows up. He is looking to get the final payment for the door that he installed between our cabin and the “basement”. He does magnificent work, but is on island time and island price. We end up sitting and chatting for over an hour. He is telling us about all the places he has been while cruising. We now have a small solar powered “turning” globe on our salon table (thank you Ted) and he takes it and point out his stops and adventures along the way. By 10:30 I say that we have to get going. He leaves, with money in hand (he is happy) and Paul and I head out to pick up our shipment and do a quick batch of laundry. Our travel clothes are quite yucky (did I say it is really hot and muggy) and I want to put them away until we are ready to travel back home. We stop at the Laundromat and I start the load. While the load it running we head to St. Thomas Shipping where our stuff is. We pay for the shipment and Paul will take the paperwork to Customs to clear in the shipment and I will go back to the Laundromat with LuSea (undercover) to finish up the laundry. Paul picks me up and we head back to St. Thomas shipping to load up the boxes. They all FIT!
Now comes the real job. Getting them to the boat and unpacking. The marina has dock carts, thankfully, for transporting them from the parking lot to the boat. We pull out our large tarp and set it up in the cockpit. We stack the 22 boxes and call it a day. Cocktails, dinner, and early to bed. Friday June 18th - day 4. We only have the car until 1:30 so we head out once more to CostULess to buy some more storage containers. Paul found some more storage areas in the aft cabins under the floor. It is perfect for storing all the juices and mixers for drinks and for storing the extras of personal toiletries. We drop off the storage boxes at the boat and head out to Red Hook to find West Indies Wind Surfing. We have been told that the owner of WIWSurfing also sells and installs Solar Panels. The road to the beach is horrible, but we manage to get the minivan down to the beach. No one is there. . I tell Paul that we should just call the guy and ask him to come out to the boat to look and talk. We now have an hour before the car is due back and I suggest that we stop for a drink at Lattitude 18 which is right on the same horrible road. Paul immediately responds “but, we have SO much work to do”. I keep my mouth shut, but think to myself, this is not the way I saw this “relaxation” going. A moment later, he says, “well, we aren’t really on any schedule so let’s go”. (Thank you, Jesus!) We decide to not only have a drink, but lunch too. It is right on the water and the wind is blowing strong so it is nice and cool. We have GREAT cheeseburgers (in Paradise) and probably one of the best we have ever had. LuSea sits under the table and watches the iguanas strolling past. Of course, she would really like to “play” with one of them, but luckily for her she is leashed short enough so as not to get to them. They could do a number on her with their tails. We see several iguanas on the lawn as I guess they are the “natural lawnmowers”. 1:30 comes and we return the car. Back at the boat, now comes the real hard work. Putting away 22 boxes of stuff. While cleaning to put stuff away, our vacuum dies. Just great, we have just returned the car and now we have no vacuum. I email Pamela from Catatonic to see if should would mind taking us to get a new one. No prob, is the answer. Saved again! Tonite the rains from Invest-92L are supposed to start. Just what we needed (at least it is not supposed to be a tropical cyclone). We talk to Ashley using Skype for the first time…it is really cool. Even LuSea is using Skype to see her buddies in NY!!!
Sat. June 18th – day 5. I have been asked by the marina manager to look at their QuickBooks, so I have an appointment to go to the office around 9am. It is pouring as the storm has arrived in the VI. It started last night and the rain has been pretty heavy. When there is finally a break around 10:30 I go to meet the bookkeeper. I spend an hour with her and am asked to train their data entry person on Monday. (so much for not working, but it will help to pay the really expensive dockage.) When I get back at the boat, I spend the day emptying boxes and putting stuff away with Paul. We get about 50% of the boxes emptied. Just not put away.
Sun. June 19th – day 6. Today is Father’s Day. It is still pouring. Were we to meet Pamela of Catatonic for breakfast today but due to the storm she couldn’t get out of her driveway. (when they have one of these storms down here, they can get 10 to 18 inches of rain in just a couple of hours). It makes for a real mess of the roads with mudslides and rocks & trees falling. Ashley and Tom both call to wish Paul a “happy F-day”. Paul calls his Dad to wish him a great day, only to find that his Dad is in the hospital. He fell, but seems to be ok. Either way, it is not a good situation. We can only hope for the best on that one. Today is a continuation of emptying boxes. Paul is amazed at how I am able to find a place for everything. It takes some work, but I now have a pretty good handle on it. Anything put in a storage container is marked with its contents. I find the Father’s Day present that I brought for Paul and give it to him at cocktail hour. Another new pair of board shorts. We’ll bring him to the 21st century one way or another.
Monday June 20th – day 7. Still raining but with breaks of sun. Off to see the data entry girl at the office. 9:30am to 11:45am. About an hour after I am there, we hear crying at the office door. LUSEA is outside. I have no idea how she found me from the boat. I call Paul and ask him if he is missing anything. He said that she was there just a few minutes before. She had to walk down the long dock, thru the parking lot, across the small road and into the building that houses the office. Everyone thinks it was by smell. (I must really stink). Back to the job at hand, mission accomplished, though they tell me that there is a bigger need. A new data file. Stay tuned on that one. Maybe I can pay for the entire summer at the marina. Now that would be cool, even though I really am not looking forward to working on QkBks. I am having enough trouble getting myself to enter my data (credit card receipts) in my QkBks on a regular basis. Today we are to have lunch with Pamela (the manager of the charter boat “Catatonic”). When I get out of the office, I find she is waiting for us. I go to get Paul and he has stuff all over the bow as he has started changing out the anchor windlass. We pack it up in the cabin, put LuSea in her crate in the A/C’d bedroom and head out with Pam for lunch and to Kmart for the vacuum. We have lunch at Independent Boat Yard at an outdoor café “Carrigas”. We no sooner sit down at a table and in walks Kiwi. He joins us. (everyone on this island knows everyone….it is a VERY small island) It seems that whatever we order, it not available today. We finally all choose available meals and the food is really good. When it is time to leave Pamela gets a call from her husband (his is terminally ill) and she has to go home. We are left to deal with the “dollar” bus to get to and from Kmart. It actually turns out not to be bad. We only wait a few minutes and the bus comes rolling down the road. Hand out…and it stops. You ring the doorbell that is mounted on the inside roof to tell the driver to stop so you can get off. Hand the driver a dollar and you are done. These busses run very often as they are actually privately owned. So, the more stops they can do, the more they make. It is the main transportation for the locals. It is a great system. In Kmart we find the vacuums but they are much larger than what we had. We finally decide on a 2 gal. wet/dry shop vac, but I am disappointed that it does not have the long extension handles, only a hose and some attachments. (but, I remember, the day before when we threw out the old vac, I threw out the extension tubes. To me they looked that they might actually fit). Guess Paul is going “dumpster diving” when we get back. We head out and find the place to pick up the dollar bus and it arrives shortly. It takes the longer way around, through Red Hook, but it is still a quick ride. We do, however, have to walk the mile road from the main road to the marina. Luckily, it is cloudy and there are some breezes, and they sky doesn’t open up. It was not as bad as I expected, but it is pretty much a downhill walk. Not sure about going the other way, as it is uphill most of the walk. Back at the boat, LuSea is quietly sleeping in her crate. The mechanic is doing a service on our generator, and our anchor chain has been delivered. Since it is now around 4pm we decide to lay out the anchor chain and put the markers on as there is not much more that can be done. Paul does actually install the windlass motor, but it is now 6:30 and we call it quits. It is really hot, and very, very muggy. I have absolutely NO ambition and at 8:30 Paul makes himself a sandwich and I make myself grilled cheese. I am dead. I shower and head to bead. Tomorrow is another day.
