11/19-12/13-Huntington Beach, CA
The weather in HB was perfect, high in the low 70s, sunny
and calm. The only house project was to fix the fireplace insert; the pilot
would not light properly. Otherwise, it was the usual cleanup of the yard and
settling back into our home. Our house is small, 1900 sq ft, but it seems very
large after living on a boat for a while.
We found Rascal to be in good shape, no issues as we
recommissioned Rascal for a trip to the Island.
We enjoyed the BWCC Chili Cookoff at Claudia and Marcia’s
home. Suzette took second place, Bob Bishop won. We sailed Rascal to Catalina
Island for Thanksgiving with Voyager and Ragina Prospect. 4 glorious days at
the island, sunny warm and calm. With Christmas coming we put up a Christmas
tree and some decorations so it would look like we are home.
We enjoyed several outings and dinners with friends and kept busy with a few Raffaellesco boat projects: a new grill cover and a new infill for between the bimini and dodger. I made these from the Sunbrella that we picked up at Beltrami. I had a list of parts to buy and bring back to Raffaellesco. Suzette had a list of food items to bring, things we could not reasonably get in the islands.
The BWCC Christmas party at Long Beach Yacht Club was a great start to the Christmas celebrations. We helped decorate Fiver, Tom and Debbie’s new boat, for the Shoreline boat parade. The weather was perfect so the turnout of boats was good, lots of great decorations.
12/14/25-Huntington Beach, CA
A full day of preparing the house for our departure. Since
we will only be gone for 4 weeks, it is “Prep Lite” this time. Our bags were
heavier than usual with parts, dive gear food and a little bit of clothes. The
Uber was on time, and we were on our way at 1700 for the travel odyssey. The
airport was deserted on a Sunday evening, checking in was quick and easy, but
there is always a catch. The nice lady at the American Airlines counter asked
if we completed the BVI entry form online. Form, what form? She directed us to
a web site and told us that it must be completed prior to arrival in the BVIs,
seemed easy enough. I am just going to say that Delta Airlines would have
notified us of this requirement in advance of our departure day.
Once past security we headed to the America Airlines Lounge
and set up my laptop in their little business center for some free Wi-Fi. We
logged into the BVI web site with no trouble, but when we completed the lengthy
entry form and submitted it, we got an error message. We attempted three times
to complete the form but received the same error message. It appeared to be a
browser issue. It was time to head to the gate and board without having
completed the entry form. Isn’t international travel fun?
For an alternate browser I thought that I would try my
phone. We inquired with the gate agent about the check in and she suggested an
alternate web site but assured us that they would not keep you from entering
the BVIs. While we waited to board, I tried my phone and, viola, it worked.
That solves that problem. The flight to Pheonix was on time and comfortable. A
short layover and we were on our way to Miami, on time. Domestic first class is
not as fancy as international business class, but there was plenty of room for
my long legs and the seats were comfortable. I slept well and woke up in time
for our descent into Miami. I love a red eye when changing so many time zones.
12/15/25-Miami, FL
In Miami we had a long layover, 5 hours. The Admirals club
made it quite bearable. They had some great food, good espresso drinks and
comfortable lounge chairs. The time passed quickly and we were on our way to Tortola.
It is amazing to me that Tortola is a 3-hour plane ride, it seems like it is
closer than that. They served a very nice lunch; I give American Airlines high marks
for their food. We could see all the Virgin Islands as we banked around for a
landing. The runway is short, so they really slam on the brakes.
Getting through immigration was easy and customs was satisfied with my online check in and no declarations. I was happy that they did not object to all the food we were bringing in, bags of almonds, walnuts and pecans, parmesan cheese from Italy, a huge brick of cheddar, a couple bags of our favorite coffee and sesame crunches for our cabbage salads. We secured our rental car and braced ourselves for driving on the wrong, left, side of the road. We took the high road to the west end of the island; the airport is at the east end. The views were spectacular, you could see the Atlantic to the right and the Caribbean to the left, lots of turquoise and blue water.
We drove directly to the West End Customs office where we
checked the boat in originally. My understanding is that if the boat stays more
than 30 days in the BVIs then you must pay a temporary import fee. When we
checked in we only planned to stay 29 days, so no fee. This was the 29th
day and the boat was not launched yet. Additionally, we decided to stay in the
BVIs for 4 weeks to cruise the area. Also, we can only stay 30 days without
getting special permission to extend our visa and stay longer. It is not difficult;
you simply have to go to the main office in Road Town. I explained to the
customs agent that we were on our 30th day for the boat but freshly
arrived ourselves. She said that we were good to go for customs, no further
needs here, but check with immigrations. Immigrations said we are good to go.
Any time we leave the BVIs the 30-day clock resets. Hope they are right as I go
on my merry way.
On the way to Nanny Cay, where the boat is, we stopped for a
few groceries to tied us over for a day or two and to see what they had to
offer. Arriving at Nanny Cay I was very disappointed to see that Raffaellesco
was still in the storage yard, no work had been done. I stomped over to the
Boat Yard Office, but they were closed. I called Bently, the yard manager, but
I had no answer.
We checked in to the resort hotel and grappled with the fact
that we would not be launching tomorrow. Early to bed, 2000 for a 12-hour nap
in a flat position.
12/16/25-Nanny Cay. Totolla, BVI
I awoke from a sound sleep, startled to see sunshine streaming in my window. I checked the time, 0800! I threw on some clothes and headed to the yard office. I found Bently at his desk and voiced my displeasure. At first, he was confused and suggested we walk out to the boat to jog his memory. About halfway there the light bulb went on and he was very apologetic. We reviewed the scope of work, and he said he could have us in the water by tomorrow. I did not believe him and told him not to rush it but to do the work right.
I stopped at the hotel office and asked if we could stay
another night. No problem. And we needed to move our slip reservation by a day.
No problem. I reported back to the admiral and made our morning coffee. After
coffee I checked on the boats’ progress and found that they had already moved
it out of storage and into the work yard. A couple guys were already working.
Checking in with Bently he was unable to get the paint I
wanted and as a result we would have to change brands. This precipitated the
need to pad sand the old paint and prime before the new paint could go on. Now
the boat will be ready the day after tomorrow. There is a song by Eric Stone about
getting work done in the Caribbean, “It Will be Ready Tomorrow”. We checked on
the progress routinely during the day and it seemed to be going well.
The original plan for the day was to provision since we had
a car. We made several stops and brought several bags of food back to the hotel
room. The car was due back at the airport at 1530, and we made it with minutes
to spare. We grabbed a taxi, sort of an open air with seats in the back of a
pickup and a canopy overhead. The roads are very bumpy so you need to be sure
that you don’t have and elbow or a knee placed where it will bang into the
metal frame of the seats or canopy. We made all the way back to Nanny Cay
without incidence, then the driver slammed the last bump near the taxi stand
and my elbow was in harm’s way, it will heal. The driver was apologetic and we
went on our way.
The boat work was progressing nicely. We had Bently put up a ladder so we could access the boat. This was an opportunity to start loading our stuff on the boat and setting up the dodger, remove the covers and unpack the bedding in preparation for leaving.
Suzette made a simple, but delicious dinner, mango papaya
salsa, chips, cheese, nuts, dried fruit, crackers, and wine from Chile. We
binge watched HGTV, house hunting in the Caribbean. Not that we want a house
here, just interested in what the different islands have to offer.
12/17/25-Nanny Cay, Tortola, BVI
Up with the roosters. There are chickens running wild
everywhere on the island. I stopped by the hotel lobby to see if we could stay
in our room one more night, I was relieved to hear yes. The boat slip was
another story; no boat slips were available. I guess we will be leaving, ready
or not. Taking advantage of the cool morning air, we did some more work
preparing the boat; up with the bimini, Starlink and lines. It rained pretty
good in the early morning so there was not much work going on while it dried out.
The sun was out and it was getting warm; we went into
vacation mode and headed to the beach and lounged in the shade with a good book
and a sea breeze. When we visited the boat in the afternoon it looked good for
a launch tomorrow. We checked in with the office and they said 0930. In the evening,
we moved most of the rest of our stuff on board for a quick departure in the
morning. Suzette enjoyed an evening massage at the spa while I cooked some
squash for dinner, Butternut with butter and cinnamon, delicious.
12/18/25- Nanny Cay, Tortola, BVI
Up with the Roosters and out to install the small stuff,
emergency boarding ladder, MOB sling, dock lines, bumpers and uncover the
steering pods. They crew showed up to move the supports around and paint the
areas under them. We milled around until it was time to check out, 1100. The
boat finally launched at about 1130.
I had not put the Navionics chip in, so we had to stop and pop that in, now we had some idea where we were going. Feeling the need to charge the batteries that had been sitting idle for a month, we motored south to The Bight, Norman Island, BVI.
Lots of open moorings but we chose to anchor just east of
Willie T. The party was already starting so we knew what we were in for in
terms of a noisy night. We jumped into doing chores, we needed to finish
stowing gear and set up the dinghy and davits. Having worked up a sweat we
donned our snorkel gear and checked the anchor. We were not satisfied with our
anchor or the scope of our chain so we reanchored and dove again, much better.
With boat settled we cleaned up and headed to Willy Ts for a sun downer.
The dinghies and boats were a nonstop parade bringing
visitors to this floating bar/restaurant. It is more bar than restaurant. We
ordered up Willy’s special for Suzette, Don Q coconut rum and pineapple juice,
her new favorite. For me, Black Seal on the rocks with a squeeze of lime, when
in the islands. The sign on the poop deck read “No Diving No Jumping” as they
climbed over the rail and jumped in one right after another. This was all good
fun to watch until a young women came up to the group, flipped up her skirt and
showed us her new Willy T tattoo. Well, everyone had to have one so the ladies
lined up so the Warden could slap one on their ass complete with his handprint
in pink. Some of the ladies opted for a boob job, here he was gentler. The
party raged on into the wee hours, but enough rum and you sleep like a baby
through the noise.
I did get up about 0330 for an anchor check, the wind was gusting pretty good, but all was well and the sea was calm.
12/19/25-The Bight, Norman Island, BVI
Taking advantage of the cool morning we managed to clean up
our list of chores and our boat. About 1100 we pulled the anchor and headed
around the point to Privateers Cove where it was a lot quieter. The snorkeling
was fabulous and there were only 3 boats in the cove. I would list the fish we
saw, but it would be a very long list. The sea floor was littered with Sea
Stars. It was so relaxing with a nice breeze and quiet surrounds. A little
rocking revealed a new grown around the companion way. This was in addition to
an existing one that had eluded me since day one. The new noise was easily addressed
with an adjustment of the stops for the engine hatch cover. The second one was
more difficult, but between the two of us it appears that a wood shim may have
done the job. Two engineers at work.
12/20/25-Privateers Cove, Norman Island, BVI
It was a warm night, so we slept in the cockpit, which
turned out to be very comfortable. Fortunately, we awoke and headed below just
in time to miss the morning rain. After coffee we addressed some cleaning,
always something to clean on a boat.
In this cove there are 3 caves. We dinghied over and tied
off on a string line to drop in and snorkel the caves. They were deeper than
expected, next time I will bring my dive light. Tons of beautiful coral and
tropical fish. Back on the boat it was lunchtime as we watched boats streaming
in. Saturday is charter boat turnover day, thus the reason no one was here on
Friday night. We seem to have a resident sea turtle that shows himself with
some frequency.
By night fall we counted 15 huge cats in the cove. Once the
sun set the fancy colored lights came on, lights underwater and lights running
up the various masts. This created quite a nighttime spectacle. Our Christmas
lights and Christmas tree are overwhelmed.
12/21/25-Privateers Cove, Norman Island, BVI
Up with the sun despite rain and wind prediction. We are
working on getting accustomed to the Caribbean weather, wind and unpredictable
rain. We needed to charge the batteries among other things, so we ran the
generator most of the morning. Two loads of laundry done, a half tank of water
made, other device batteries charged and so on.
The hatches in the Master Stateroom are aft of the berth, so
we get very little breeze in our bed despite there being plenty of breeze. So
rather than a wind scoop on the hatch I need a wind redirector. I used the
fabric from the original grill cover and fabricated a prototype wind redirector
that just might work. My inventor friends Bill and Claude would be proud.
Claude might even advocate for a patent but let’s see if we can perfect it.
Inevitably it seems to rain every day here, at some time. I
think that a fly or cover over the cabin may be in order. Otherwise, we get
wet! We set off for a snorkel in the sunshine, but by the time we reached the
shore the clouds rolled in. I swam like a fish, but the torrent of rain hit
about 2 minutes before my arrival at the boat. First the hatches were closed,
then the clothes off the line and finally moped up the mess. In 10 minutes, it
was over.
With the wind consistently from the east the bow has become
a favorite spot as the sun gets low in the west. Our longe cushions are perfect
for a bit of reading and a nap. I was motivated for one more chore. On the last
trip I dropped the tiny battery cover, for my digital calipers, into the anchor
locker and it was lost. Since the chain was out of the locker it was not so
difficult to bring out the main anchor rode. I found the tiny plastic cover
along with seaweed and a lot of dirt. Now it is a real project. I pulled out
the stern anchor, the stern anchor bag of chain and the stern anchor bag of rode.
Mind you I can stand in the locker. I broke out the boat soap, scrub brush and
hose for a good cleaning. About the time I was finishing up, another down pour
arrived. Done for the day I took a shower in the rain, soap and shampoo.
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