New and Familiar Places

Sue and Gordon got a place to stay at Nanny Cay and needed to watch over their boat and negotiate with the insurance company, so we sadly left them behind. The North swell and winds were still up so we headed to Trellis Bay for the Full moon party. We took a mooring run by the Last Resort at about 1 PM and settled ourselves. Beagle Knot was in the bay so we made arrangements to eat together at the Last Resort. At 4 PM we got ready to go pickup Ladonna and Denis to go to dinner when the man came to collect for the mooring. He asked if we had reservations, and we said we had dinner reservations, but he asked if we reserved the mooring. We never knew you could reserve a mooring! He said yes you could, but since we had dinner reservations we could stay the night, but we could not stay tomorrow as it was reserved for the full moon festival. We asked the cost and he said it was $30 today, but tomorrow it was $130 with a $70 certificate for dinner at the Last Resort. Wow!

Don't pick up this mooring unless you have talked to
The Last Resort

The Last Resort is Trellis Bay

 We picked up Ladonna, Denis and Ladonna’s mother, Betty, and her friend Bonnie. It was a nice dinner, but a bit pricey. In the morning we kept a sharp look out for boats leaving and grabbed the mooring quickly. We then went ashore. Trellis Bay has changed! Everyone has expanded and all has been newly painted. We hiked the beach to the point and found a tree fort. That night was a great party with the music, food, fire balls, and fire dancers. We met Sue and Gordon, as well as LaDonna and Denis and company on the beach and ate the barbeque at the little store and enjoyed the night.

The fire man at Trellis Bay

The Loose Mongoose has added
attractions 

A new patio at the Loose Mongoose and
and expanded bar

A new entrance to Aragorn's

The drift wood carvings at Aragon's
are really great!

There are a lot of wood carvings

We found a tree house on the beach

The Full Moon Party Begins!

The fire balls are always neat!

We and Beagle Knot in
Money Bay at Normans

Just us now Beagle Knot left.

We accompanied Beagle Knot to Money Bay on Normans Island which was deserted. We snorkeled the bay and saw the biggest Parrot Fish ever! Of course I couldn’t get a picture. We also hiked around a bit the second day after Beagle Knot had left.

Leslie relaxes on the beach

The trees look like something out of Tolkin!

The fish at the caves are great!

We Cruised up to Norman’s bight and snorkeled the caves before anchoring behind the Willie T. We swam to the Willie T and had a great time and met some people who invited us to meet them for dinner at the Bight restaurant. We accepted and swam back to change and took the dinghy in to the dock. We had a nice meal.

Little Harbor

Stanly's honor bar

 The next day we headed to Cane Garden Bay. Since the North Swell was still strong we decided to go to Jost Van Dyke instead. We looked at Green Cay, but it was crowded so we went on to Little Harbor. We had never been there so we had to go to Stanly’s honor bar and then made dinner reservations at Harris’s Place. Since we had time we hiked to Taboos for a drink and then on to the bubbling pool. Dinner was great!

H arris's Place was really quite nice!

The bubbling pool

They had some nice lobsters

The night at Harris's was nice

We went to Great Harbor and decided to check out and head to the USVI. There we checked in and spent some time at Maho and Caneel Bay before heading to Water Island. We anchored in Honeymoon and had fun and watched a movie. However the second day we moved to Elephant B ay and anchored in deep sand as the winds and waves were to shift to the West. It was good we did as the winds and waves came in and a big Ketch at Honeymoon drug into 4 boats. We were tight, but hung in there. The storm was 3 days before turning back to the normal East. 

We test the new spreader lights. They are bright!

Carl does some splicing while we
wait for the weather

banded shrimp in Brewers Bay in
two feet of water

After getting mail and provisioning the rest of the week was used to draw up a mooring plan then more wind even stronger was forecast so  we headed over to Brewers Bay. We were a couple days late as a Humpback Whale had come into Brewers Bay and gave birth to its calf! Friends of ours saw it and watched the mother hold the baby on its fin while it caught its breath. After we got there we had a beach get together and 18 Dinghys showed up for a great time of socialization. At sundown a squall came in and chased us all off the beach.

Another storm came in out of the East Northeast and blew 30 to 40 Knots for 3 days! Everyone stayed aboard their boats for 2 days. It has abated now and we are getting ready to move on.

A black Lion Fish in Brewers just off the beach

Hard to believe this is under water!

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

Add caption

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.