March 16, 2013

Winds are up just a bit, and they are expecting to increase over the next few days, it's sunny out and the sky is dotted with puffy clouds. Yesterday was a great beach day had a great time chill-axing listening to the waves break on Orient beach. We were able to catch a bus where the bus driver packs about 10-12 hot and sometimes sweaty people in the bus. It's more like an extended van. Everyone says Bon Jour or good day! It generally takes us through Gran Case, which is another lovely seaside town, then through the hills over the mountains to Orient Beach. There are times when we get lucky and the bus will actually take us down to the beach itself for an extra $1. That saves time and we arrive on the beach not nearly as tired as we would if we walked the probably 3 miles or so to the beach. The beach this time was not nearly as crowded as in the past I think that the season has had it's ups and downs this year.

Once settled at the far end of the beach it was time to just relax. Yes! Lunch was at our fab spot..."Aloha" and it really is great every time we go there the Lobster salad was yummy!

After tanning and have a cold frosty "tan all over" beverage we headed back up to catch the bus. This time we did the walk....hot and sweaty...thank goodness the bus was not overly packed!

Our quick shower last night felt great and is one of those special treats when you are living on a boat.

This morning, great news "Afternoon Delight" showed up from the BVI! It will be great to see then and hang out with them for a few days.

Cheers!
Lori

Shrimpin in St Martin

March 7, 2013

Ken took time out of his busy retired schedule to go shrimpin!  He caught one! Actually the dinghy did! Just one, not even enough for stir fry.  We could have used it for bait but here in the lagoon, the water is so nasty that I would not want to eat anything that swam in these waters!

We did go to Lagoonies for World children's book day!  I got a chance to talk to a group of cruiser kids about my book.  Sold several books to the mom's.  It was a fun event and enjoyed reading to the kids.  Lagoonies is now going to have several of my books on sale.  I'll be promoting my book on the St Martin net that comes on VHF channel 14 it is a dutch guy that does a nice service by giving the weather, lost and found, announcements, questions, arrivals and departures.  Each morning at 730am except Sunday, Mike comes on the radio.

Interesting guy, he used to own a bar with the name Barnicles he sold that and has Shrimp's laundry and boat service, his Dog's name is shrimpy.  His wife Sally is in charge of the laundry and they sell ice which is a huge necessity here on the boat.

Cheers!
Lori

2 Dinghy's in tow

March 5, 2013

Reality Check now has 2 Dinghy's tied to her stern.  It was great getting a new dinghy, getting used to it will be the next thing.  It has a "v" bottom and is smaller than the good ole one that has numerous leaks.  Just happy that we don't have to pump up the dinghy every time we want to run an errands.

Cheers!
Lori

18 hours and we arrived St. Martin

Arrived into St Martin after 18 hours of motor sailing.  We were met with a nice rainfall right before the bridge went up and that shower gave Reality Check a nice fresh water bath, now we will be collecting water for showers!

Cheers!
Lori


You can also read about our journey on realitycheck.blogspot.com

Bon voyage BVI

MondayMarch 4, 2013

After getting the motor, and dinghy on board we set out past Round Rock BVI for St Martin, left at 10am, seas were 4', winds light 7-8 mph.  Put out the main with one reef knowing that sometime between 8-10 pm the winds were going to shift and we felt it best to prepare for that event.  Motor sailed into the night had ginger ale and ritz crackers for a small light snack.  Old faithful...Bonine did the trick for me....no motion sickness, defiantly did not go down into the boat very often.  Stood watch several times and then we worked together spotting commercial boats.  Came across one wrongly lit barge that helped make the decision to purchase an automatic information system once we arrived into St Marten!  After that experience the AIS was #1 on the list!

Saw the moon rise at 230am on my watch, big and orange right over St Marten.  We arrived into Marigot at 4:30am.  Dropped the anchor and caught a quick nap after we got the dinghy off the deck.  The bridge opening on the french side was at 730am, it was interesting to see everyone line up waiting for the bridge to open, as we patiently waited the rain came, slickers on we watched as Reality Check was washed down with rain water, it's a good thing since now we could start to collect water for showers and dishes.

Once in the lagoon ended up running aground on sand and had to rock our way out of being stuck, a quick rock back and forth and we were free again.  Dropped the anchor and caught a little shut eye, then came the job of putting the motor on.  Checked in at the Captain of the port and we then treated ourselves to Serafina's!  Amazingly great!

It felt great to just rest.

Cheers!
Lori

St. Thomas book pick up!

March 2, 2013

Struck out for St. Thomas at 3:30am for last minute provisioning as well as picking up my shipment of books "The Under the Ocean Alphabet".   

Seas were calm and we had a smooth motor, wasn't worth putting up the jib. Arrived Red Hook at 8:30am  got on the dock right away which was super.  I was so excited picking up my first shipment of books, 2 boxes and they are beautiful.

 Had success with selling my book to a lovely shop in St Thomas,  Fish Face.  Www.fishfacevi.com
afterwhich we celebrated with lunch at The Green House.

  Having stuffed myself on a crab wrap that was very good we then hopped on one of the open air buses to Tutu mall and Kmart picked up the last minute items like a ladel, Fresca, plastic garbage can and odds and ends.   We hopped into a not legal taxi, or some folks call them entrepenures for our ride back to Red Hook.  Our driver we found out was from Monserrat, we asked many questions about out his homeland, plus how to know when coconuts are ripe.....he offered up that it would be just as easy to buy brown ones and not mess with claiming up the trees and picking out what we think are ripe ones.  I think that it is the perfect answer to making coconut chips.   Maybe down island on our journey we will run into a  young no fear kid who will climb up a coconut tree for us picking ripe ones.

Spent the remainder of the afternoon making the boat ship shape, so many things to do to prep the boat for out next leg of the journey.

At the end of the day, we found ourselves at Molly Malones, their Shepard's pie was wonderful!  Ended the night at Duffy's Love Shack with a tropical beverage which was well deserved after sweating late in the afternoon prepping the boat.


Cheers!
Lori

Feb 26, 2013
Maya Cove, Hodges Creek, British Virgin Islands

Good Afternoon,

Sitting here at Endymion waiting for the stars to align, well the winds and waves to lessen.  Probably going to head over to St. Thomas to pick up a package that I'm waiting for in the next 5 days.  We will spend one night at the Marina in Red Hook.  On our list of to do's in St. Thomas is a Kmart and Cost-u-less run, then either head out to St. Martin from there or maybe return to the BVI.  Then it's a waiting game until we have a good window to head down. Have everything on the boat except my clothes and art supplies, those will come with me once we decide when we will head over to St. Thomas.

Cheers!
Lori
the Sailingardener