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.

Getting to know "The Owners"

These are the visits most yacht crew dread- entertaining "The Owners". We were up past 4am this morning making the final push to get the boat organized. Then, back up at 7:30am to quickly clean everything and make a few last minute repairs before heading off to the airport. We were not sure what to expect-- or what our owner expected of us! In the few hours we have spent together I have to say that Sasha and I are lucky with our owner-- he is totally laid back and wants to really work with us to make this boat run smoothly. Once back on the boat we all sat up on the fly bridge and sipped Painkillers. We mapped out our day of last minute shopping (nice little Saturday) and had a great flank steak dinner aboard. Everyone is quite work out from either travel or cleaning-- Goodnight!

Clean!

Current Location: American Yacht Harbor, Red Hook Bay, St. Thomas, USVI
Lat/Lon: 18°19’30.00” N 64°51’08.94” W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: Clear

The boat is clean and the owner claims to have "never seen the boat this clean before". Even if it's true, everybody is happy. And tired. Happy Halloween!!! Pictures to follow.

Hard at Work

Current Location: American Yacht Harbor, Red Hook Bay, St. Thomas, USVI
Lat/Lon: 18°19’30.00” N 64°51’08.94” W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: Partly Cloudy

Well, we tore the boat apart and put it back together again, taking everything out of every cabinet, cleaning it (and the cabinets) and putting it all back together. We found some surprises, for example more linens than we could ever use in a month, and a mess of tools that took an entire day to sort out. Along the way I did some significant repairs: removed a fried inverter, disconnected a leaking water heater, fixed an a/c drain, cleaned all the strainers, etc. Next few tasks on the list include overhauling the watermaker, servicing the generator, and taking her for a spin on the open sea! But first, we go shopping! Look out St. Thomas!

Home sweet home

We have arrived in St. Thomas, and taxi'd to American Yacht Harbor in Red Hook. There we found the yacht Hypnautic and she is YAARRRRR!! Our new home and office definitlely floats, which is a good start. There is some work and a lot of cleaning to do, and we will get started on that just as soon and we get a few rum cocktails and some dinner under our belt. Cheers from paradise!

Sasha's Birthday Parrrrrty

Sasha is officially another year older. This year he celebrated in NYC on the ice at Rockefeller center. He decided that I wasn't that bad at skating, though I can not moonwalk or waltz jump like him. We skated with friends, then went back to Dan's apartment to eat pizza and play video games. All in all a pretty good night, but not complete until we tore into the pirate cake that I baked and then carried from one venue to another in a large cardboard box!!

Sailing... on our day off?

We went sailing on the Muddy Charles in Boston while in town for a wedding. I raced at MIT when I was in college there, and every time I'm in town I go for a sail. This time, we went sailing every day we were there! The early October weather was gorgeous and Tara got to sail some smaller boats for a change. The last day as you can see there was not much wind but we took a few friends all around the basin and a fun time was had by all.

Hypnautized

Follow the adventures of Capt. Sasha and Chef Tara on Sailing Yacht Hypnautic! Official website: www.hypnauticyacht.com