To the States and Back

There were so many things going on back in the states that we had to put the boat on the mooring and fly back. Ragamuffin was kind enough to take us to shore, watch the boat while we were gone, the water line didn’t go down any so it must be alright, and brought us back to the boat when we returned. Just before we left we happened to call Aron to update him on our arrival. He said he was in the truck driving to the hospital in Orlando as Madison had fallen off  the top of a slide and broke her right arm. It was a double compound fracture. We kept in touch the next few days and she had 2 surgeries to clean and reset the breaks. We arrived to see here in her new cast. She even let us sign it!

Madison with her cast

The class gets together

We then spent two days going to Winter Haven for Leslie’s reunion. That was a fun time and she got reacquainted with a number of class mates and their spouses. 

Missing Arlene

We then drove to Missouri as our other son, Eric, and his family are going to move on to a 47’ Cat they have just bought and go cruising. As a consequence they are selling their house and we had to move all our stuff out and put it in storage. The timing was good as their after school daycare was closed for a few days and we were able to be with the kids so Mom and Dad didn’t have to take vacation days. It was a ball with the kids, as always, and while they were at school we moved all our stuff out and into storage. They have a big job ahead of them as they have given themselves a short time frame to leave. The house was looking great! New kitchen counter tops, newly refinished kitchen cabinets, newly painted rooms, are part of the preparation, but they still have a lot to do. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures.

Cloe is into gymnastics

Daryl walks the stage with her diploma

The graduate's happy family
no more college bills!

When we returned to Florida we went to my niece’s college graduation in FT Myers and stay with old friends from Newport, Mike and Trish.  It was great seeing their FL home on a lake canal. It was great to see our niece walk the stage and receive her Engineering Degree.  Now the job hunt begins.

She is a nice looking boat

Look at all the solar panels!

We also took advantage of being in Ft Meyers to drive over to Lauderdale and look at Eric and Kelly’s new boat. It’s a 47’ Leopard that has just gotten done a long family cruise. So it has a lot of stuff, and needs a bit of maintenance, but she is a big good looking boat.

Look Mom no more big cast!

Back in Tampa, we stayed to see Madison come out of her cast and into a soft cast, and finally her arm was free for her to perform in a ballet with the company she is in. They limited her to only a couple of dances as they were careful about her arm. Unfortunately they do not allow pictures at the ballet.

Everyone came in costumes

The concentration was intense!

We were exhausted so we headed back to the boat! We did a couple of day resupply and headed to Brewers Bay. There we put together a murder mystery dinner with a group of friends. That was really funny! It was a tough mystery, but one guest convicted the right person.

Neat skydiving!

We also went to Nanny Cay to help friends with their boat. They had a number of electrical issues after a rewiring of the entire boat, so we helped them resolve them. While we were there we saw these weird skydivers come land right at the marina.

Eric at the helm

Going down the waterway

Eric was going to bring his new boat to the yard to haul out and have some repairs done, so I flew down to be a deck hand for him. The day after I arrived we went to the boat to take it to the yard. Unfortunately Eric felt terrible! He said he felt he had a huge hangover except we hadn’t had anything to drink the night before and he felt he had pulled a muscle in his groin. But he worked through it and we got the boat to the marina just before a squall came in. However, after doing the paperwork he felt really bad and he let me drive back to the friends where we were staying . Fortunately she is a doctor and she confirmed what I told Eric, that he had an infected lymph node, but that was because his left leg above the ankle was all pink. He had a bad case of cellulitis.  She gave me a prescription and I went and got it for Eric. He was done for the day.

Eric's leg at the hospital

The next day he felt better and we went to the boat and got some projects done, but my noon the leg looked red and red streaks were going up his leg. He texted a picture to his friend and she said’ “Go to the hospital now!” So we did. We went to the emergency room and by 3 he was on IV drugs and by 8 he was admitted. He spent the rest of the week in the hospital on IVs and when he was released on Friday he had a 3 hour drug infusion. I spent the week between the hospital and doing the list of boat repair  Eric had make.  Actually, we got all the necessary things done.   

Aron, Katie, and Julie at the beach

kids in their natural habitat

more natural habitat

Since he couldn’t get a flight until Sunday we went to Jenson beach and visited is brother Aron, who was there on vacation, and had dinner with my brother Bret and his wife Val.

Our hosts, Russ and Dr. Lisa

The family Drew and Maddy

Eric left on Sunday and I dropped him off as I couldn’t get a flight until Monday. So I did a couple projects on the boat that day, and spent some time with our hosts and their family.

Carl wishes he was there

 I missed Leslie’s birthday, the King of Wings contest, and the Floatapluza. There is always so much going on.

Carl gooping the drain hole

What a beautiful job!

When I got back, parts had come in to fix the head door latch. So I did that, and we put 3 patches on the dinghy in an effort to not have to pump her up every other day. We also re-beded the dinghy drain plug, in an effort to stop getting water in the lower hull of our Caribe, but to no avail.

Adventure of the Seas glides into port

Oh no! The Brigands are beating
my warriors!

Now life is back to “normal” and we will see what the rest of the season brings. We already have Tropical Storm Bret ravishing the Venezuela coast, and Cindy setting her sights on the Texas Louisiana border. Summer brings hurricane season and we are already seeing activity. However , it is now calm and we watch the cruise ships come in across from us and enjoy a game of "Dark Tower".

Not Where We Thought We Would Be

Oh! We have been bad! It has been a long time since we blogged! This may have to be two blogs. The year has not gone as planned or expected. The boat has been wonderful! Very few boat projects or repairs, knock on wood. However, we still haven’t gone very far, or taken the trips we had expected to as we have been busy helping others with some of their problems. That is not bad! We have enjoyed all of it, but it isn’t as exciting to read about as visiting new places and having new experiences. However, it is a part of life, and a wonderful part of life it is.

Ahh St Patrick's Day

Ohh! He's happy!

St Patrick’s Day was a blast at St John!  As usual we got there early and the green drinks were flowing on the street! The parade is 1 block long and lasted 20 minute, but a eye popping 20 min. it is.  There were maybe 4 floats, but they distributed all kinds of trinkets and balls. We anchored in Caneel Bay and met lots of our friends from BVI over to celebrate with the Irish.   What a great Time!

Maybe old majorettes

The kids even had fun

Ahh! Mermaids!

A fun float

The Irish Toast

A true Irish Lass

One of the majorettes

The end of the parade

Carl splicing a line for the mooring

Carl with a sand screw

sand screw started to  be drilled in

With us spending a lot of time in the USVI, Carl decided to put in a mooring. After a week anchored at the spot to watch the winds and movement of the other boats around, we went around and took GPS positions of all the nearby moorings and plotted them out. We then found the midpoint of the other moorings and put down a marker. It was 165’ from the nearest mooring, but we watched it and talked to our neighbors about being moored there. Everyone said it looked good so Carl and our friend and diving buddy Jane dove down and put in 3 sand screws. Jane then had to leave to go to the states, so Carl finished it up by laying down the chain and connecting screws to make the mooring.

Our second night at the mooring Carl awoke to the sound of a bilge pump going. He checked and found water in the port bilge, but the pump was not pumping it out. He emptied the bilge using the hand pump and the next day took the pump out and replaced the diaphragm. We tested it and it worked fine. Problem solved! However, the next month we did our normal testing and the pump didn’t work again. It actually popped the breaker. The pump came out again and we found it was frozen. So off to the chandlery for a new pump and installed it. All is good again.

The El Galleon

She is all rope rigged and has cannons! 

you had to walk out there to furl the sail

We went to town one day and saw a Spanish Galleon at dock! An investigation found it is a reproduction and open for visiting. It is neat! It has cannons and all rope rigging and is constructed just like the old Galleons which plied the oceans for over 300 years!

The captains cabin

The wheel and it uses rope to the rudder

A

The boat is nestled on the ship and the supports welded on

Another new experience was helping a friend put a friend’s boat on a boat carrier! Of course the time we were told to be there was postponed for 2 hours, but it was interesting getting the boat hooked up to be hauled out and then going on board to put away all the fenders and lines and reattaching the backstay while they welded the boat supports to the hull.

The bride and Groom

The head table all set up

The father daughter dance

We were invited to a wedding and reception on Honeymoon Beach at Water Island. It is a wonderful place for a wedding with the ocean in the background and driftwood arch.  The wedding cake was cupcakes with palm trees, mermaids, and boats as decoration.  Carl liked all the flavors, had to try one of each!

The floor is open

The wedding cupcakes

Noah and Catlin were working on their apartment to get it ready to rent so as a wedding gift Carl spent some time giving electrical help spending  3 days putting up boxes and conduit on a concrete wall and running wires through them. It was a challenge to find power and get it to the receptacles. Later they called to say there was no power at the plugs, then there was power. Carl met with Catlin’s father, Scott, still latter and they talked about it and Carl suggested there was a switch that went to the power line he used, shades of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Scott checked and sure enough he found a switch that was controlling the power to the outlets. Someone would switch it and he would lose power, then someone would switch it again and he had power back.

Carl spent some time helping friends with boat problems. He helped install and seal an exhaust elbow and a heating hose adaptor on one friend’s boat and tighten the shaft seal on an Island Packet. You have to use a crowbar and hammer to hit the corner of the packing nut as there is no room for a wrench or anything in the narrow keel where it goes through. We helped a friend haul up their dinghy and patch a hole in its keel. Then there was a dive to clear a friend’s anchor line from an old abandoned sand screw, and wiring up some bow lights on a boat was another payback Carl did. I say payback because all these people, and more, had helped us with things in the past. They had paid forward.

The Danmark

The poop deck

The crew called to quarters

As we went by Crown Bay one day we saw the Danmark at the dock. It is a tall ship from Denmark here for the 100^th anniversary of the transfer of the Virgin Islands from Denmark control to the US. It is a beautiful ship and it is used to train young people how to sail.

The Danmark is dwarfed by Celebrity Cruise ship

Ready for the parade to start

The parade begins with a veteran

The next day was transfer day. It had a parade and speeches and officials and music and dancing. A great time of fun.

The Danmark Crew

ROTC is really big down here

One school's ROTC class

some of the entertainment

The Danish flag coming down

The US flag going up

We then went to the US for a while, but that will be the next blog.