July 7

OK, it has been awhile so where do I start. OK, the funny stuff first, I forgot to tell you about the day before we headed to St Thomas, I was in town working and Kim and Cate were on the boat. Kim just finished taking a shower to get ready to come pick me up when she heard a funny noise that sounded like something falling into the water. A quick look to make sure that the animals were accounted for and then finish getting dressed, a couple of minutes later she went up on deck to see the dinghy drifting away. I always complain to her about not using the barrel on the carabineer to assure that does not happen. So anyway, in she goes clean clothes and all. After another shower, she came to pick me up. She now uses the barrel to lock the carabineer every time. But pay back is a bitch, so my time had to come too. When we were in St Thomas I had to go to the airport to meet Rose (my sister). So after a shower and clean clothes, Kim takes me over to the concrete wall in town instead of the dinghy dock so it would be easier to get a bus. As I go to jump up on the wall and be nice and push the bow of the dinghy around for her I slip. So there I am hanging on the wall trying to get up before the cell phone in my pocket gets wet. Well I did, but the bottom of my shorts did got wet so off to the airport I go looking like I had peed my pants.

Now the good stuff, my mom and sister both came for a visit. Rose came for 4 days and mom for a little over 2 weeks. While Rose was here we went for a dive with Jost Van Dyke Dive Center. It was a great dive and we had the boat to ourselves with a great captain and dive guide. The next day we headed to Sandy spit and Cate and Rose did a lot of snorkeling and shell hunting. That night we had surf and turf with the big lobsters we had in the freezer. Later that night we had some excitement but more on that later. The next day we headed to Soper's Hole and Rose and Mom did some shopping. The following day Rose went home. The rest of Mom's visit was great and we enjoyed her being here. But I feel bad we did not get to do much, but more on that later.

Now for the bad stuff, if you remember Kim, Cate and Mom all were flying in on June 20th. Their plane was late and they did not arrive until 11 that night. The problem was we needed to be in St John at 8 the next morning because they changed the date for doing the Hurricane Hole permits. So at 4 in the morning we up anchored and headed to St John in 20 knot winds and 6 ft seas. Got there just in time to find out they cancelled it because of weather. Now Rose was coming in later that day at 3. So back we go to St Thomas in the same sea state for another 4 hour trip (and that is when I fell in the water at the wall). Anyway, we got Rose and the next morning we headed to Jost Van Dyke. Going between the islands was not as bad as the trip the day before. Now remember the excitement I told you we had that night, well, we were anchored at one of our favorite spots when we hear a severe weather warning for on the radio, reported to be squalls with 40 knot winds. Well we have out enough anchor chain and good swing room and protected waters in the anchorage so I thought it would be OK. Wrong!!! Right at dark a squall comes through with 60 knot winds and swings us around hard. I was up in the cockpit and started the engine, just not quick enough. What I did not count on was that one rock we hit as we swung around. If I had 3 ft less chain out, we would have missed it too. Anyway, we hit hard enough to put a crack in the end of the keel (see the blog for a picture). It was all over in 10 to 20 minutes and the rest of the night was uneventful. So the next morning I dove the hull to check for damage and found the crack. That is why we headed to Soper,s Hole and have not left here. We had to put Rose on a ferry to get to St Thomas the day she flew home and also why we did not do much the rest of Moms visit. We did take her around Tortola and we had a good time but did not get to do everything I had planned. I took some pictures of the damage and talked to the manager of the boat yard here in Soper's Hole. The estimate is not too bad at $2,000.oo including haul out. I wanted to wait until Mom had left before dealing with the repair so tomorrow we get hauled and I will keep you updated. Cate went home with Mom for 2 weeks so Kim and I have some time alone on a broken boat.

Remember the Hurricane Hole permit process that was cancelled? Well the next weekend it was going to be held again, problem was, we had a broken boat that I did not want to take it out in bad weather. Yep same 20 kt winds and 6 ft seas with small craft warnings but guess what, Yep, they did not cancel it this time. We thought about renting a power boat for the day but the $400.oo price put that out of the picture. We thought about going in the dinghy and hugging the shore line as it was not as far to get there from Soper's Hole but I did not want to risk Kim and I getting in a bad situation so we did not go.

Well I guess that brings you up to date. But life is good and we have no complaints.