November 30^th

Well I’m back in the BVI after my trip to the UK and it's now Saturday night, 6.50. Dave is having a power nap, Ken is doing his crosswords, Jordan is out sailing for the night with another new friend, Indy is with 3 girls on a boat 3 doors up, Molly is still at Lincolns and I have just poured my first V&T and sat down to write the blog and a few emails. We have had a good day today, we hired a car for the week to show Ken the island and today we drove round the island, visiting Sage Mountain (highest point), Cane garden Bay (hideous! - a usually quiet little beach had been transformed into “Benidorm does the Caribbean” as a huge cruise ship was in port and all the taxis' had taken bus loads of visitors there), so we didn't stay.  We moved on and had lunch at the Jolly Roger nr Sopers hole and finished with an afternoon swim and cocktails at Smugglers cove (hence the power nap!).

Thursday was Thanksgiving and we were invited to Lincolns for dinner. I was expecting caribbean or indian food, perhaps chicken roti or fish curry but was really surprised when they served Roast Turkey with all the trimming! As usual the food was excellent and we had a great evening. I had bought all of the children, even the teenagers,  a chocolate advent calender back from the UK and they were fascinated with these as they do not have advent calenders here of any description - I am not sure how many of them will last until Dec 1st! They have become so much like an extended family to us, whilst I was away Dave used Lincoln's car, often taking Sonia to work and the kids to school as a Thankyou and to help Lincoln out, as he is snowed under with work as usual. Molly has been with them again for the last week or two, she seems in no rush to come home, unfaithful hound...!

The main purpose of the trip to the UK was to help Lisa, my daughter in law with the twins. Oli is currently working off shore and so it was a good time to go back and offer some help. It was great to have so much quality time with them, they are both doing very well now and Thomas has finally started to gain a little weight, at 3 months old he was still only 7lb when I left but Lisa and her mum, who is also with her, have really persevered with his feeding and it is really starting to pay off – I had a text yesterday to say he had gained another 7oz!  Unfortunately being with Lisa and the babies took more time than I thought and I didn’t get chance to catch up with the people I promised, so if you’re reading this – sorry, I hope to be back again very soon!

It has been odd being back, I have missed my mum, Lisa, the babies and being home, though certainly not the weather, and I was very emotional for the first few days, I'm a bit too old for hormones so I think I was just tired, the trip back is long when you start out for Gatwick at 4am and then have 2 flights, we arrived into Tortola at 6.30, (10.30 English time) and then there is a 25 min drive to the boat and the kids seemed more eager to see what was in my 3 cases than they did to see me, not the big emotional reunion one hopes for! Then when I got back, one of our bags had been searched, presumably at Gatwick and all the xmas presents inside had been ripped open and the new laptop I had bought Dave had been smashed, so that upset me. They all seemed to have coped fine without me, our new friends John & Donalda stayed close and spent alot of time with Dave and the children. Also much of the boat had been rearranged, cupboards cleaned out and 15 bags of stuff had been removed in my absence, all of that made me feel a little odd I must admit. Perhaps I am not as needed as I thought!

Not sure of the plans for the coming week, mainly because we still do not know if we have sold Chilli or not. The survey was completed whilst I was in the UK and I believe that went well, Chilli did really well when put through her paces, and the test sail took over 5 hours, but we are still waiting for a formal acceptance from the buyer. Unfortunately we are not supposed to use the boat after survey, so it has made it a little difficult as we have Ken out here for a holiday expecting to do some sailing. So in the absence of a decision we remain in limbo.  On the other side of the equation, the broker and seller of the boat we would purchase if the sale goes ahead could not be more helpful and we anticipate that that end will go smoothly if we have indeed sold Chilli.

November 8^th to 11th

Sunday morning and we continue to spruce up Chilli, I also do the heat exchanger on the engine with Edward in preparation for the new season.  Having once been caught out by the heat exchanger on the genset we are taking precautions! Sunday afternoon and we are off to a barbeque at Lincoln’s in aid of Al, his son’s birthday. Al recently had a bad accident in the bathroom, he fell as he got out of shower and cracked his head on the wall passing out cold. After two days in hospital all seems to be OK, scans are clear.

The Barbie afternoon stretches into the evening and a great time is had by all. Wonderful food, great company and lots of laughter: the highlight of the evening was Al’s birthday cake which Becky had baked, we all sang happy birthday and then Al tried to blow out the ‘never go out’ candles. We are used to them in the UK but no one had seen them over here. There were amazed faces as Al struggled to blow them, lots of giggles and helping ‘blows’ form the younger members of the family. Then big ‘Boss’ stepped forward a  BVI ‘belonger’ of significant proportions. Well he blew five or six big puffs and they all went out, big cheers all round, but the cheers subsided as one by one the candles came back to life! We walked back through the warm night to Nanny Cay, full and a little worse for wear!

November 9^th and our long stop at Nanny Cay has come to an end and we are roaming the BVI again. Our new starter motor in place Chilli starts quietly and like a dream! Great to be out in the Channel enjoying the Easterly as we head down to Sopers Hole to see some friends. As our friends would say, we set the genoa and off she went at 6 to 8 knots. Always find on these downhill runs that the boat runs a lot better with just the genoa out, no worries, and she will cope with wind speeds from 5 to 25 knots without any concern.

This was only a short run but we made the most of it by taking an indirect route! We arrived in Sopers Hole and picked up a buoy right outside the marina, you could almost hop onto the dock. The kids love Sopers hole it is a very pretty place and one that the breeze blows through constantly filling the boat with cooling, but still warm air.

We tried to contact Robin but unfortunately there has been a family crisis, his three year old granddaughter had got into difficulties in a neighbours swimming pool! Our feelings go out to them.

Becky has very mixed feelings at this time as she is due to go back to England tomorrow for two weeks. She would like to be here if the boat survey for Chilli goes ahead and frankly I would like her here too as she is the one that uses a lot of the navigation communication gear not me, on the other hand she is keen to give Lisa our daughter-in-law support with the twins.

Today 10/11/09 we popped into to see the guy who will hold our deposit for the Cat, if we manage to buy it. We read through the purchase agreement with him, it is all done in a trice and we have now transferred the money to an escrow account. All seems to be going well with our purchase, so much less complicated than the time we are having selling Chilli, as I said in our last blog so I won’t go on about it again.

Later in the day we sail to Penns landing in preparation for Becky’s departure tomorrow, we have a blustery  easterly on the nose, so Jordan and I start to have fun tacking up the channel. This meets with disapproval from Becky as the ‘boys’ stripped to the waist in squally rain (warm rain of course), move sails from port to starboard and get Chilli a little heeled over. We give in, discretion being the better part of valour, and put on Chilli’s powerful engine and motor up the channel. We arrive at Penns and are greeted by our friends Don and John.

Becky invited Don and John over for sundowners and nibbles, in retaliation Don insists that we join her and John for supper at Red Rock Cafe and of course Bushwhackers on their boat for puddings!

The 11^th November and Becky is due to depart. Fortunately for us Lincoln has contacted us and told us that he will be passing by on his way to the airport so no worries about getting there.

Nov 3rd - Nov 7th

Well here we are still in Nanny Cay, I think the kids are putting down roots as the boat is either populated with kids from the area or they are off with sleep overs, India especially.

We have spent a lot of time with our new friends Donelda and John and I have become quite addicted to Bushwacker cocktails but Becky spoilt it all by working out they packed about 400 calories each, I was wondering why my waistline was beginning to expand and hunger pangs disappeared after just one glass. The more we have got to know them the better friends we have become. Unfortunately they moved on today as they were expected in Penn's Landing but we will almost certainly meet up again soon. Our last meal out with them at the Secret garden was really special, fantastic food, amazing tropical setting and great restauranters.

I spent most of the afternoon today with Lincoln, who looked after Molly over the summer (she has booked her Christmas holidays with Lincoln when we go to Antigua), I helped, in I guess a minor way, put a 440 detroit diesel into a fishing boat. This huge V6, twin cycle diesel, weighs about 2000lbs I am told. It was balanced on the end of an extended fork of a large extending fork lift. The arm was bent like a banana as we raised this thing 20ft into the air and into the cab of boat. We then attached it to two pulleys in preparation for its descent into bilge of the boat.

Jordan has spent more time fishing with Boss, who is a huge guy and a belonger, the two of them look like chalk and cheese as they set out but they both love the fishing. Jordan came back with some Hinds and Becky cooked them. Wow really good with Wasabi and Soy sauce. Of course we invited Don and John to join us. Good night on Chilli Oyster.

Chilli is looking really good these days, now fully spruced up after her time on the hard. It has cost us a bit but well worth the money as she looks a picture. We are still keen to buy a Cat but the process over here of boat sale is painful and very frustrating. We have been within an ace of stopping the whole process, enjoying this season in the Caribbean and then sending Chilli back to Southampton to sell her in the UK where we have been told Europeans are raiding the boat yards because of the strength of the Euro. One more snag along the way and that will be the route we will take.

Oct 25th - Nov 2nd

Another week in Nanny Cay, almost in a daily routine now.... Up at 7, teach kids until 3, work on boat when not teaching, spend remainder of time drinking,eating and sleeping in that order! But Kids love it here and I think we are going to have a hard time leaving. Highlights of the week included a Halloween party on the beach, lunch at the Boat House, in Sea Cows bay with some new friends we have met, John & Donelda, Canadians on a boat called Afternoon Delight, and a great day out on Sunday with John & Donelda and Sam & Simon, our other friends from the Marina hotel. We had a late brunch in the Tamarind Club on the other side of the island and then found a beach where the surf wasn't too high, and spent nearly 2 hours on a deserted beach in the sea in the pouring rain until it was nearly dark!  

The halloween party, run by the International School on the island, was a huge success. I guess there were over 300 children present as well as most of their parents. Jordan decided he was too cool to dress up but India seemed to suit her costume a little too well! We gave the kids a day off on friday as it was half term at home and they had worked well all week. So Jordan blagged his way onto a fishing boat and went out for the day with Boss, a friend of Lincoln's, on a Maine Lobster fishing boat. Despite being out for 12 hours, there were no fish to sushi. They trawled for 4 hours and only caught a small baracuda, and then they did some bottom trawling and pulled up a host of small fish and a couple of sharks!

Peg Legs, the local bar, reopened on Friday night. We have spent many hours in there on a previous occasions but it has been closed for refurbishment since we arrived back in the BVI in september. It has been much improved and gone more upmarket, but suffered a minor setback on thurday, the day before the grand opening when the Chef blew himself up on a gas pipe he had cut because he kept stubbing his toe! They open for food for the first time on tuesday and we have been invited to the VIP opening night.

On Thursday we got our new neighbours, when "Afternoon Delight" a 42ft Hunter, arrived in the slip next to us. We got talking and don't seem to have stopped all weekend. John & Donelda are a retired couple who divide their time between the BVI in the winter and their home town of Saskatchewan in Canada, they have 5 grown up children and have so far been unphased by the antics of our two recalcigent teenagers, and we have gratefully escaped to the relative calm of their salon on more than one occasion this weekend. They have also introduced us to the calorific pleasures of Bushwacker cocktails, a concotion of coconut rum, vodka, baileys and Kaluha! On Thursday night we had a BBQ on the dock with Jem, first mate on the big powerboat opposite us - Bjorg IV. He has taken Jordan under his wing, so I went shopping with him in the afternoon and then he showed Jordan how to make Turkish Sausages (like small shish kebabs!) and a mixed bean salad. Indy's friend Hannah and her mum Caroline, came and I added ribs to the menu so we had quite a feast. As it happens the left overs were very much appreciated on friday night, when Sam, Simon and one of Nanny Cay marinas owners, a scottish man called Cameron came back to the boat in need of something to soak up the beer after Peglegs opening!