First Visitor of 2013

With our delayed launching we were still in Leverick Bay in the BVI taking on water and fuel and cleaning the boat as the time came for our friend Diane to come spend a couple weeks with us. Our plan to meet her in St. Thomas was not going to work out so a call to her and an added flight to Virgin Gorda with a taxi ride brought her to us in Leverick Bay. It was a fortuitous event as now all our sailing back to the USVI would be down wind and with the waves to our back. We were excited to show her some of the BVI and started in North Sound with a local pirate show, Happy Ahrrrr, in Leverick and a Tarpon feeding at Saba Rock,

Diane arrives

A ranbow herolds Diane's arrival

The Happy Ahrrrr show

Michael Bean is smoking!!

 

 







a great burger at the Fat Virgin, and a hike around the Bitter End Yacht Club.

The Fat Virgin has the best burgers in the BVI

The hike on Bitter End

We worked our way around the North side of Tortola with a stop at Trellis Bay to see the Last Resort and happy hour at the Loose Mongoose. We spent the afternoon at the Scrub Island Resort in the pool and hot tub with drinks and snacks before mooring at Marina Cay and seeing where the movie Virgin Islands was filmed with a great sunset at their bar.

Relaxing at Scrub Cay

The infinity pool at Scrub Resort



Cane Garden Bay Sunset

Callawood's distillary

At Cane Garden Bay we walked the beach and toured Collawood’s Rummery started in the late 1800s, the only distillery left in the Virgins.

Bottles of Rum

The still made in the late 1800s



The buffet

The sign says it all

On the way to Jost Van Dyke Island we stopped at Sand Cay, a little sand island which is now part of the park system, and hiked around the island. We moored in Great Harbor and took the dinghy in to Foxy’s for his all you can eat barbeque buffet.



JJ with his dog tiller in a kayak at Maho

We checked out of the BVI and sailed to St Johns in the USVI to check in and spent the day in Maho Bay, one of our favorite places. However the north swell had really stirred up the water so the visibility on our snorkeling was really bad. We hiked Francis Bay and visited the Eco Lodge before heading on to Caneel Bay.

I love these cute snails

Erin loves the dive

It is beautiful down there

From Caneel Bay we took the dinghy to town and spent the afternoon and next day exploring the town. While Diane and Leslie toured the town, Carl took the opportunity to go on a 3 tank dive with Cruz Bay Watersports on the South side of St. John which was a good first dive of the year.

Aug, Peg, and us on Midnight Rambler

We sailed to Christmas Cove where we met Aug and Peg for an evening of catching up, food and drinks. The next day we were off to Long Bay in St. Thomas where we anchored in our old spot inside the pirate ship fleet. As it was late, checking out Charlotte Amelia would have to wait a day.

That is some heavy equipment

After hiking around town in the morning we took the dollar bus up to Crown Bay to pick up our water maker. It was a good thing we brought 2 duffle bags as the two packages weighed 100 lbs.! Carl was able to put about 90 lbs. of equipment in the bags and carry them down to the marina a half mile away. There after lunch Diane and Leslie watched most of the equipment while Carl took the dollar bus back to the dinghy with about 40 lbs. of equipment to drop off at the boat and then bring the dinghy to the marina to pick up the ladies and the rest of the equipment.

The Rising Sun 10th largest yacht in world

The 3 schooners

Our last stop would be Brewers Bay.  On the way we passed 3 old schooners anchored off of Hassel Island, the Virginia, the Armistead, and the Harvey Gamage. They are some classic schooners! We anchored in one of our spots from last year and immediately went for a swim in the clear warm water.  We recognized some boats of people we met from last year so will be making neighbor calls.   Diane will fly back and we will start figuring out the water maker and how it goes together. 

 

We’re Back!

They say the two best days in a sailor’s life is the day they buy a boat and the day they sell the boat.  I disagree as we are having a lot of fun in the in between. I will contest though that the two worst days in a sailor’s life is the day the boat is hauled and the day it is launched.  We are now launched with much to do to get to this point. 

Carl after luging luggage from airport

The Luggage we carried

After a wonderful visit with family and the holidays, we arrived in St. Thomas with all 200lbs. of luggage making the same flights.  Happy face!  We arrived late afternoon so stayed at the Hotel Carib, great and within walking distance of the airport.  Caught the 5:00 PM direct ferry to Virgin Gorda so arrived at 7:00pm., since we were on the hard right where the ferries park for the night they gave us a ride to the stern of FROLIC.  Everyone is great here.  Crawled on board and passed out.  Friday dawned bright and early as the ferry’s take off at 5:30 and they are not quiet!!

Stuff to sort and put away

Frolic waiting to go back to the water

 

Carl mixing the paint

Lelsie hard at work sanding the bottom

Carl painting the bottom

There was a long list of jobs to do before launching, including sanding and painting the bottom, so it took almost a week to get Frolic ready to go back in the water, I was optimistic with my 2 day prediction.

Leslie's Mermaid is now mounted

New starboard side electrical panels

 











While ashore we took the opportunity to do a little shore exploring and we found some great places we miss from the water. One place is the Copper Mine Shaft Restaurant. It sits on the top of a hill and has a spectacular view of the Frances Drake Passage and of the sunsets, as advertised. They also have the Mine Shaft drink which is a production to make, the secret ingredients come down to the bar in a bucket, tastee to drink and packs a wallop!

There was even surfing on a break at the channel entrance.

We also discovered that catamarans are multipurpose as well as multihull. In water they are a great way to sail in comfort, and on land they make a great car port!

A couple of other secrets we found are the Mermaid Bar which has good drinks and a wonderful buffet, but also sits out in the water with a great view of the northern part of the passage.

Carl "Chazzing" on a chase lounge

Leslie lounges on the beach couch

The other is the Coco Maya which is a beach bar next to the Mermaid. It is gorgeous with many beach couches and lounge beds and a gas fired fire pit. It serves good drinks and tapas as well as standard dinners and lunch.

The Coco Maya's gas fire pit at night

Carl opens a coconut with technology

Finally the day came to launch the boat, always a time of great stress and trepidation, and Frolic once again took to her native element. The seacocks held, the engines, after a bit of priming of the water pumps, started and shifted, and the instruments came alive. With a big sigh of relief we motored out of Spanish Town Harbor and headed to Leverick Bay for the beginning of a second year on the water.

Frolic hits the water

 

Wide Open Spaces on Land Reminds Us of Wide Open Spaces on Water

We unpacked from the East Coast and repacked to head to Wyoming and a visit with family.  This year we flew instead of driving as it is a two day drive from MO and a 3hr. flight.  We had a babysitting obligation in MO for the end of the month and didn’t have the luxury of the extra driving time.  We did miss the wonderful scenery thru Nebraska and Wyoming and seeing family that we saw last year.

 We arrived in Billings, MT. at 9:30 am and headed to Cody.  The majestic mountains were off to the right and the sky just opened up all around us.  The bigness of the country is awe inspiring.   Arrived in Cody by noon and went straight to mom’s, she is great and loving the idea she will soon be 90yrs. old.  Good friends have opened a winery, Buffalo Jump, in Cody and the wines are superb.  Since it was Friday we were there in time for Wine Down Friday an afterhours wine tasting club they have started.  The winery interior is rustic, the walls being from an old barn found out in the plains. 

Buffalo skin in the winery

 

 

 

 

 

Scott and Beckey enjoy the winery

Leslie, sister Ally, and Scott and Becky

 

Starting Sat. my sister, who now manages the thrift shops for the Episcopal Church, put us to work and we volunteered for the next ten days.  This is quite an undertaking and very successful for the church and community.  We were amazed at the variety of donations. 

 

The Beer Fest at the edge of town

contestants made their own tap

 

Sat. night we went to an annual brew tasting.  Local brewers (garage type) present their brews for voting.  Some really good home-made beer were consumed, my favorite was a pumpkin ale which surprised me.

Leslie admires the Yaks

Chewbaca

Friends of my sister who used to live where we grew up have moved to Cody and have a Yack Ranch.  I now know where they must have gotten Chew Baca’s character on Star Wars, uncanny look alike.  Yack meat is delicious and good for you as it is lean.

Reconstructed guard tower at camp

Reconstucted Barracks

We took a morning and drove out to Heart Mountain Internment Camp.  This is the site where more than 14,000 Japanese Americans were confined during World War ll, making it the third largest city in Wyoming.  At one time the camp encompassed 47,000 acres with barracks type housing.  A family was only allowed to bring with them what each could carry. All their possessions were confiscated.   A family was allotted approx. a 20’by 24’ space with multiple generations living together; as many as 10 people could be sharing this space.  The space included an army cot, a mattress and a blanket for each person.  There were no bathrooms except public baths and no cooking facilities except the camp cafeteria.   The barracks had no insulation in the beginning and the coal furnaces were a constant worry for fires in these flimsy buildings.  The “camp” eventually included a hospital, internee-managed fire, police and judicial systems, a post office, a sewage treatment plant; a power station; a water system, two grade schools in barracks, a high school building and several cooperative enterprises.  Internees formed a very active recreation program and developed an agricultural program to provide fresh vegetables, poultry, pigs, and cattle. 

Picture of the camp under construction

 

 In 1944, the US government decided to draft the 18 yr. old internees, 88 refused to go and were sent to prison, 800 served our country with distinction.   Even though the Japanese-Americans were resourceful, they were living inside barbed wire with guard houses surrounding them.   The last train of internees left Heart Mountain on Nov. 10, 1945 each person receiving a ticket to the West Coast and $25.00.  Many of these people went on to recover what they lost, some became doctors, lawyers and even politicians but some never recovered, a phenomenal testimony to human spirit.  If you get to Wyoming this is a must visit.

Buffalo Bill Museam

Each dot pin is a place he performed his show, impressive

           Another must see in Cody is the Buffalo Bill Cody museum and Old Trail Town which is where Cody first laid out the town of Cody.  The refurbished Bill Cody exhibit had reopened and the man was fascinating.  We included a picture of the US which shows by all the stick pins where he performed The Wild West Show with Buffalo Bill Cody.  He employed hundreds of people from all over the world and had to transport and set up these shows at each destination.  The show also went to Europe where it was extremely popular.

Part of Old Town

          On our last night in Cody we went to a wild crazy annual Halloween party where the beer cooler is a real casket in the front yard.   We must now head back to MO. and babysit our grandchildren then onto GA to babysit our other son’s children as he and his wife will be on travel over the next 2weeks.  Eric and family will drive down for Thanksgiving so we will all be together.  Carl has many projects to finish yet in anticipation of returning to FROLIC.

Ready to Party!

Beer casket