We’er Back in BVIs

 

Well, after a great trip in the states visiting family and friends for the holiday season, we headed back to Frolic in the BVI. We met our friends Gordon and Suzanne off Oceanwings in Miami and flew with them to St Thomas. The plane was late leaving by an hour because they needed to put a sticker on the exit door. As a consequence we were an hour late arriving and had to call the ferry to Virgin Gorda to see if they would hold it as it was the last ferry of the day! They held the ferry for us and several other people on the flight so we arrived at Spanishtown in the dark. One of Sue’s bags was missing! Of course it was the one with all their electronics in it. She told everyone about it and a search was started for it. We dropped our luggage off at Frolic and opened her up to air before heading to Sue and Gordon’s place to crash on their floor.

Carl Spray and seals the dinghy side seams

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Leslie brushes away spiders and webs

The next day work began. Our batteries were really low so the first order of business was to get the little Honda generator running and the battery charger going on the batteries. Leslie cleaned and organized while I checked and cleaned  the engine. I also sprayed the spray and seal stuff on the dinghy in hopes of stopping the water leaking into the bottom hull of the dinghy.

 Gordon came over to tell us his boat has 3’ of water in it! I went and looked and it was not good! Somehow rain, of which we found out they had an abundance of in November and December, had got into the boat and the forward and aft floor boards were awash with the saloon water just under the floor. A real mess! He got a hold of his insurance company to start a claim and they said they would have someone over there the next day.

Suzanne and Leslie paint Frolic's bottom

I added new LED deck lights

Oceanwings is towed to Nanny Cay

While we worked on getting our boat the next couple of days the insurance company looked at his boat and validated his claim and arranged to have it towed to Nanny Cay for repairs as they had better facilities there while Gordon rented a pump and spent a day pumping out the water. There had to be over 2,000 gallons of water in the boat.

Carl pulling out the windlass

I decided to replace the brushes on my windlass and got 3 of the 4 changed before I dropped a screw in the motor! Leslie and I spent the next hour and a half getting the screw and washer out of the motor and then I finished the job. We got dropped in the water and Sue and Gordon joined us as they had hauled their boat at Nanny Cay and a crew was cleaning up the oil and mess.

The new stage out on a platform over the water by the dinghy
dock

We went to Leverick Bay and immediately saw changes. They had moved Michael Beans stage to over the water by the dinghy dock. We were there for a week as

Carl with Zultran practicing the rebreather

There were mermaids in the pool!

Carl took an underwater rebreather course and the rest of us cleaned the boat and took on water and provisions.

Mermaids and mermen came up on the beach

We dress up for the Happy Ahrrrrrr! Show

Mr. Beans on his new stage

We saw the Michael Beans show and as always it was fun.

The crowd gets into the show

The jumbies were great

We also stayed for the Friday Pig Roast and Jumbies show.

Our home!

We are a Mermaid haven

It was blowing at Leverick so we put all our fenders out

It was time for Sue and Gordon to get to Nanny Cay and get to work on their boat, so we had a great sail down wind to Sea Cow Bay and took a dock so they would have easy access to the yard next door. Their boat had been cleaned, but they couldn’t live on it so we invited them to stay on our boat while they got their boat and claim sorted out. We are impressed with their insurance carrier as they seem to be anxious to get them back in the water and sailing.

Carl helps paint Oceanwings' bottom tit for tat

We helped them paint their bottom and off load their things to a storage area they rented so they could get in the water.

Once in the water we helped them assess their systems to see what worked and what was broke. Things of course move slower in the yard than you wish so it took a couple of weeks to determine what their role is in the claim and what they had to do as well as get estimates from various shops to repair everything. It is a big expense, but the insurance carrier and the surveyor seem to be agreeing to the repairs. Soon they will move ashore, but it looks like at least 6 weeks before they will be ready to sea trials.

Leslie uses our new thermal cooker

 

Our Mexican chicken dinner from
our thermal cooker

Life on the Frolic for the Ladies

Carl mounted our new multi-device
charger

We will now begin this years adventure.