What's the Third time??

Cut me once, shame on you. Cut me twice shame on me. And third times the charm?!? Just sent my knives to be sharpened before coming down this way. I'm rethinking that so called great idea as I find myself chopping under sail or mid conversation with guests. Either way I'm usually only able to keep one eye on the knife and the other... not. Today was the third good one. Three fingers and one amazing wash cloth later I'm still learning. As he ran to get the Bactine and bandages today Sasha asked me to "please stop cutting myself". I told him I'd do my best. Ps. Mom, I'm setting up a PO Box next week-- please send more washcloths, at this rate I might make it till Christmas.

Second Charter

Second time around-- you'd assume it would be similar to the first, but this time they brought the whole famdamily. Mom, Dad, and 2 boys ages 14 and 8. The parents are originally from Kentucky but are raising the boys on the east coast now. Great people so far (aka. they LOVE my cooking). We are anchored in Francis Bay off of St. John and as soon as everyone is up and we do a little breakfast we'll be off to Jost Van Dyke to check into the BVIs and say hello to Foxy. I'm excited to work with the kids over the next few days, they are really into the ocean and all it's creatures. We bought fish ID cards for snorkle time and hope to begin naming fish this afternoon! The excitment over the underwater world is refreshing and a great reminder as to how special this place really is.

Gorgeous sunrise over St. John

Current Location: Francis Bay, St. John, USVI
Lat/Lon: 18°21.86' N 64°44.8' W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: Partly Cloudy

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Current Location: Francis Bay, St. John, USVI
Lat/Lon: 18°21.86' N 64°44.8' W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: Scattered Showers

What a long day! Wake up in Village Cay Marina (after dropping off our guests, doing laundry, provisioning, cleaning the boat, and servicing the generator yesterday), sail 15 miles downwind to Redhook, St. Thomas, anchor outside because our slip isn't ready, end up picking up our new guests at the fuel dock, get them moved in, tour the boat, motor out to St. John, eat lunch, snorkel, kayak, unwrap the dinghy painter from the propeller (yes, it even happens to professionals like me), grab a mooring in Francis Bay, re-splice the dinghy painter, cook dinner, and, finally, go to bed. We are sure to sleep well tonight!!!!!

Full Moon Party at Trellis Bay

Current Location: Trellis Bay
Lat/Lon: 18°26.88' N 64°31.9' W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: FULL MOON

Howlin' at the moon, fireballs in the water, steel drum band on the beach, and our first full moon party at Trellis Bay! Pics soon, busy day of diving tomorrow.

Boat Photo

Here are some more photos of the boat. (Top Left: Crew Cabin, Top Right: State Room, Bottom Left: Master Suite, Bottom Right: Salon) These were taken during the boat show so they give you an idea of how good it can look when no one is allowed to touch anything! ! Sasha and I have been enjoying the first charter-- these people are up around 6:30 every morning wanting to dive. We love it!

Amazing diving today

Current Location: Cooper Island Beach Club
Lat/Lon: 18°23.06' N 64°30.85' W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: Almost a full moon!!!

We dove Angelfish Reef and the Indians today and it was awesome. We saw turtles, sharks, barracuda, tarpon, and countless other fish, as well as corals, pirate caves, etc. Check out this Flamingo Tongue.

Hitting the water running

Current Location: Great Harbor, Jost van Dyke
Lat/Lon: anchored just in front of Foxy's (everybody knows where Foxy's is!)
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: Moonlit

Our first charter is going amazingly well. I fixed a few things on the boat that really needed fixing, and Tara fixed some great meals that got really eaten. We logged 25 miles of sailing today (from Anegada to Jost van Dyke) and went SCUBA diving twice, including a stop at the wreck of the Chikuzen! Setting up the boat was fun (Tara got to shop for her herb garden) and Hypnautic looks GREAT. We have done some fantastic diving already, and we rigged the absolutely MASSIVE gennaker for the downwind run. Here is a picture of Tara dwarfed by sail area. INCONCEIVABLE!!!

Boat show a success! Finally on charter!!

Current Location: NW corner of Salt Island, BVI
Lat/Lon: 18°22.42' N 64°31.9' W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: Moonlit

The 27th Annual BVI Charter Yacht Society Boat Show at Village Cay was a great success. We are finally on our first day of our first charter. No time to write right now, but we'll get some pictures online soon! Planning on diving the Rhone tomorrow.

Liquid Courage

Wow. To all the boys out there, I now feel the pressure of asking a girl to marry you. Tonight was the big night for our owner. He has been planning his proposal for a couple months and Sasha and I have been in on it for a few weeks now. We took him out to run errands with us today so that we could talk specifics while his girlfriend stayed on the boat to keep an eye on the wash/ wax crew. As soon as we got back I started in with the cocktails to settle the nerves. In the end everything went well and she said YES! Not sure what we would have done had she said no. We actually talked about bringing her passport with us just in case we needed to drop her at the airport on our way back to the boat :) Looks like she made the right choice.