Newfangled Navigation and Other Changes

Before the vacation, the last time I was on a real boat was, er, a long time ago. After making that crack earlier about our "what island is this!?!" navigation method, I thought I'd say that today's sailing with electronics and GPS mapping is pretty much like being in a 747 compared to the Wright Brothers' plane we used to get down to the BVI from North Carolina. Who needs telltales when you have the wind direction displayed in front of you at all times? The autopilot was of course coupled to the navigation system. You could tell it to keep the wind at a certain angle, steer to a set mark, or steer a compass course. Need to adjust course by 1 degree or 10 degrees? Why turn the wheel when you can press a button and have the autopilot do it? Worried about the shallow spots in an anchorage? Just press a button and the shallow spots near you are displayed with your position relative to them. Course made good vs. course steered -- constantly displayed on the map in front of you. Concerned your anchor might drag while you're sleeping? No worries, an alarm will ring if the depth changes too much too fast.

It was impressive and made me feel old. It was like meeting someone 25 years later who you only saw as a baby. Shocking.

There were a few other things that were surprising to me, too. Everyone uses a sail cover that stays on around the boom all the time. They lower the sail into it, and if they are worried about weather or want to look more shipshape, they tie it up over the top of the sail. Back when I was sailing... gad, don't get me started. It was a bit weird to see boats sailing with this big canvas bag flapping around the bottom of the sails, but it was definitely convenient and a great idea.

Also, few boats worry about that pesky anchoring stuff because every anchorage is festooned with mooring balls. Grab the line and tie up, that's all there is to it. Someone comes by and charges you $25 to stay overnight. It certainly lowers the barrier of entry for bareboating and eliminates a source of worry when you're surrounded by bareboaters. By the same token, it makes cruising in the BVI feel a lot more like tent camping than cruising.

Pin-Up Girl

Thanks to the wonder of Google alerts (that let you receive an EMail when anyone posts something on the Internet that contains a particular phrase you're interested in), the resort marketing people noticed the "bad ass Boston Whaler babe" picture below and asked to use it. Dara may end up being the pin-up girl for the resort now!

More BVI Pics

Dara posted about 40 pictures to Flickr. You should be able to see them here.

Some BVI Pics

Dara is busily merging her pictures and mine, and making them look better by cropping and straightening. In the meantime, here are some of mine.

Here is the bad ass Boston Whaler babe blasting across North Sound in search of good snorkling.

The deserted beach and crystal clear water on Anegada. We went with four other couples on a full day trip to this island, which is about 15 miles north of Virgin Gorda. We ate lunch at a restaurant on the beach. I had the famous Anegada lobster, supposedly only 20 minutes or so out of the water.

We had some great sailing for four days on this 58 foot boat. Here's the view as we headed back north from Cooper Island in 30 kt winds, with reefed main and jib.

The happy sailor.

A better look at Crystal Clear, the boat we were on.

Dara poses on the porch of our cottage overlooking Bercher's Bay (on the ocean side of the island).

Does it get any more decadent than a pina colada on a deserted palm-fringed beach?

This is a view of North Sound we had when we hiked up to the top of a hill on the Biras Creek property. Bitter End is in the background on the right, with Saba Rock being that teeny island above it, followed by Eustacia and Necker. Necker is owned by Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines fame. The other island on the left is Prickly Pear. There is a big reef going all the way around, making the sound very sheltered. North Sound was populated by charter boats and mega-yachts.

Sunrise from our bedroom. About 7AM every morning, we were awake for it!

Evil Van

Our 10-year-old Dodge Caravan has always had its own mind when it comes to electrical problems. It has limited itself to turning on the windshield wipers at odd times, mostly, in addition to relocking itself immediately when I unlock the driver-side door. Lately, though, it seems to have learned a new trick. Perhaps it heard us talking about needing to replace it or saying bad things about the smell, or maybe it took offense at my not repairing the body damage when someone scraped the length of it in a parking lot, I don't know. What I do know is that last night as I was standing by the car pumping gas, I heard a CLICK. It had locked all the doors with my keys inside the car. Bad car! Fortunately I was near the house and Dara was home with a key. I will have to keep a closer eye on it.

Collier County Coonhunters

When leaving Mom & Dad's last night, Mike & I came upon 6 coons hanging out. We treed them with the "Mary Lou" - our trusty steed - and I snapped this photo. You can only see 1 pair of glowing eyes, but there were 4 coons in the tree. If I could have found my camera sooner, there would have been 3 sets of eyes, one on top of the other. They scattered a bit by the time I dug through my purse and snapped this photo. Just up the road about 100 feet, we found 4 more. No need to run around the mountains all night Keith, just have a nice dinner at Mom & Dads and head out for a night of coon-hunting action. You could be back in bed by 8:30.

How Does Their Garden Grow

K, K, & D sent Mom & Dad this AeroGarden for Christmas. It's a hydroponic gardening kit with a grow light (though I had to turn the light off for the photo). It's been growing for a few weeks now and the little little herbs are cranking right along. The basil is really big and tastes great! Dad wants to grow strawberries next.

The PA Farm Show - It's Not Just For Farmers Anymore

Mike & I went out to AJ & Ursula's 2 weekends ago for a belated Christmas and a romp through the much touted PA farm show. I knew there would be no shortage of Thomas photos so I didn't take out my camera until these guys. Who knew Don King got his inspiration from a chicken?

Sufferin' in the BVI

The pics will have to wait, but I thought I'd let you know we're still here and suffering thru the BVI vacation. It is hard to believe we were snowboarding a little more than a week ago! We are right around the corner from the Bitter End Yacht Club on Virgin Gorda, a snoozy little place 28 years ago when we dingied in with Mom and Dad for a beer. These days it is huge, with so many boats moored out front that it is difficult to navigate through. We've zipped around to a few snorkeling spots in a Boston Whaler, taken a trip to the Baths (huge granite boulders with great snorkeling), bummed around a bay in Hobies and Lasers, and circumnavigated Mosquito Island in a 26 foot Folkboat. With that much water action, we're still managing to gain weight on the meals. Tomorrow it's off for four days on a larger sailboat. If the wind cooperates, we should circumnavigate Tortola, stopping at Norman Island, Jost Van Dyck, and Marina Cay before returning. We're tuning up our "What island is this?!?!" navigational skills just in case they're needed.

Pictures when we return in a week!

Kirsti goes gehtto

Mild mannered Special Ed teacher Kirsti went off on RMA algebra teacher yesterday durring a parent teacher conference. I guess she ran out of patience with excuses of how prepared her class of 6 was when they began her class this year. Kirsti's classes are mainly comprised of hispanic students with learning problems as well as language problems and they all exceed 6 students. Blame for others and excuses for your own shortcomings are not acceptable where she works so she didn't accept them at RMA. I wasn't there but I understand there are some bad feelings btween the 2 of them, I'm not sure what the good news is but the bad news is algebra may have just gotten a little harder for Dan, if thats possible.

Bird Dog Gone Bad

I was thumbing through Reuters and saw this little tidbit. Just a warning to Keith - you better be nice to that prize coon hound...

Bird dog steps on gun, kills hunter

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A Houston-area man was killed in a hunting accident after his dog stepped on a loaded shotgun in the back of a pick-up truck, triggering a blast that pierced the vehicle and the hunter's leg, a local sheriff said.

Perry Price, a 46-year-old math teacher, shot a goose on Saturday then put his gun in the back of the truck where the dog was waiting to retrieve the bird.

"I've been in law enforcement 20 years and this is probably the strangest one I've had," said Chambers County Sheriff Joe LaRive.

Investigators found paw prints and mud from the dog, a chocolate Labrador retriever named Arthur, on the shotgun, LaRive said.

Price was taken to a local hospital, but died from a loss of blood after doctors were unable to revive him.

Pickles

Mom asked me to blog this Pickles cartoon for everyone. You'll see, they must have interviewed Mom & Dad before writing this one.

Off to Virgin Gorda

Leaving tomorrow morning early. It can't be soon enough, if you've been following the crazy west coast weather over the last day or two. Garrett and dogs will be holding down the fort. We're not bringing a laptop, but who knows what we'll be able to pull off. Otherwise, I want to see lots of blog postings when we get back!!!

Getting Ready for the BVI?

From one of my favorite sarcastic comics.

West Coast Christmas

We had both kids back inhabiting our usually empty nest this Christmas, perhaps something we won't be getting on a regular basis from here on out. At any rate, we'll take it! And, as a special treat, we had Kyla's boyfriend Josh arrive right after Christmas. They just left this morning and are battling airline connections as I'm typing. Check out the full set of pictures on Flickr. Here are some highlights.

Garrett with the USB cannon that fires "babe missiles". Josh apparently claims credit for pointing Kyla at this gift.

Kyla and Josh in the lift line. Kyla declared she was going to die if she did not get in a day snowboarding, so we packed everyone up and did a marathon day trip to Kirkwood leaving at 4:30 in the morning. 70 miles on our spiders (a fancy substitute for chains) across the pass, but there was plenty of fresh snow.

At Fort Point under the Golden Gate Bridge. Aside from snowboarding, Kyla and Josh put up with the old timers for a full day of San Francisco sightseeing. We wrapped the day up with the musical Jersey Boys.