365 Days & Counting: What I Learned at the Boat Show

Time to change the nature of this blog. Up until now we have posted when on vacation on Mowzer. Now that it is officially the last year before we go to live-aboard status we have a lot to accomplish.

Yep, you read it here in black and white, by November next year we should be aboard Mowzer and in the middle of a refit that will set us up as real bona fide cruisers. I have to keep pinching myself to believe it is real and then feel the need for a paper bag to stop the hyper-ventilating.

Now, onto the second part of this post's title. As is our Thanksgiving (Canadian) tradition, we headed to the Annapolis Boat Show for the weekend. In October 2009, we made the trek and it changed our world. We met John and the crew at CYOA and agreed to purchase Mowzer. I can tell you, that was quite a show! Since then we have visited on an annual basis, enjoyed looking at the shiny new boats, picked up a few items (including a SailRite sewing machine last year) and generally dreamt of the changes that were to come. This year felt quite different as we went with a specific purpose, to scope out the equipment we feel we need to add to Mowzer before setting off into the wild blue yonder. Here's our list:

• Radar - will go with Raymarine since we already have Raymarine instruments including our chart plotter
• AIS transceiver - this is an add-on to our VHF and chart plotter that will allow us to transmit our boat info to others and to receive boat info including size, speed & name from others.
• Water maker - after much reading and debate we have decided to go with the Cruiser RO system that should produce up to 30 gallons of potable water per hour
• Generator - Honda 2000 - to produce all that glorious water among other things
• Solar panels - we definitely want to augment our power supply as greenly as possible so we'll start with two 125 watt Solbian panels. These are thin flexible panels that we will attach directly to the Bimini with zippers and Velcro so we won't need a heavy stainless steel frame manufactured and added to the boat.
• EPIRB & personal AIS beacons - these are safety devices that will send out alerts in the horrific circumstance that we find ourselves needing dire assistance. Hopefully these will never actually be used.

Along with these items that we'll be adding, CYOA will be delivering Mowzer out of charter with new canvas (sails, Bimini, sail bag, helm cover & cushions), trampoline, and thoroughly serviced engines. Basically she will have a spring in her step and should be raring to go.

Now, what do we have to accomplish in this year? Well, we have to sell our house, downsize three generations of stuff, arrange all the little details and the not-so-little details, and be ready to go at this time next year.

Quick, pass me that brown paper bag!!

Ram Head and Return

What a change in the weather from the past two weeks. Hard rain and winds had us hunkered down in our little anchorage for the evening and when the sun rose in the morning the sea was covered in whitecaps and the wind was still blowing at 20-25 knots from the east. Perfect for a downwind sail back to St. Thomas.

Before leaving our unnamed bay however, we went ashore for a hike up to Ram Head. In our hiking guidebook the beach is labelled as blue cobblestone which is certainly descriptive.

Reading on in the guidebook, apparently this was an area where maroon slaves hid out before the 1733 slave rebellion and although there is no groundwater, they survived on water in barrel cactus and the local seafood of whelks and conch. The cactus still inhabit the place giving it a strange scenery.

Such a rugged place with spectacular views along the south coast of St. John and the western islands of the BVI. With the wind howling, you get a real sense of just how powerful the sea and wind can be.

Easterly view into the bays of Hurricane Hole

Westerly view of Saltpond and Lameshur Bays

Mowzer and only one other boat in the anchorage - an easy but rugged climb

Ram Hill with the BVI in the distance

Bordeaux Mtn that we climbed over yesterday

Our final sail back to St. Thomas was quick and easy with following winds and seas - took us about 3.5 hours under genny alone and after we sorted out some radio confusion at the fuel dock we filled up and picked up a mooring at CYOA. Henry's getting really good at bringing Mowzer into the dock, but as he rightly pointed out Crown Bay is super easy especially when there's a big freighter just outside blocking all the wind!

Ashore, we enjoyed a couple of cold drinks at Hook, Line & Sinker and met up with Deb, Jay and Nancy there. Unfortunately Looney Bien has now closed - we never did make it there and had plans to break our last night habit of Pie Whole. Guess the greater plan was to keep us returning there which is exactly what we did.

As a final note, yes, we did manage to get through the whole bottle of rum from day 1. Final drinks on the aft-deck as the day winded down in St. Thomas.

 

St. John Moments

We decided to revisit the Petroglyphs on St. John that are accessible from Lameshur Bay via the Reef Bay trail. The last time we were here was in November after the rainy season and what a difference that makes. This time the water falls were completely dried up and we were able to scramble up over the 'falls' into the dry gut and really see the magnitude of the entire area. Compare this to the previous time we were here.

Previously Henry sat on this rock enjoying a bit of a 'shower'.

The top (third) level of the falls - one can only imagine the torrents that rush down here.

Honestly, this really was the easy way up - no thorns.

We must be a bit more acclimated to either the hiking or the weather since once we had finished the hike that we had once felt quite challenging, we both wanted to carry on and instead of returning back along the trail we turned the other way and continued on the Reef Bay Trail up to the Centerline Road. The name of this road is pretty self explanatory in as much as it traverses the centre ridge of St. John from Cruz Bay at the western end over to Coral Bay in the east. What amazes me is that every year the St. John road race has runners completing the run from one end to another in some insane time, including the climb up well over 1000'. Well, we traversed just a small portion of the road before turning off toward Bordeaux Mountain where we picked up the Bordeaux Mtn Trail which is a straight descent back down to Lameshur Bay and the welcoming cool waters.

The final descent to Lameshur - Mowzer, bottom left.

We completed the last portion of the trail in a light rainshower and the sun remained with us long enough for a good snorkel along Donkey Cove which always presents us with a great diversity of fish and coral - some of the best.

We have never actually been into Saltpond Bay but have heard it is a good anchorage so we tried to get in this afternoon but with only four mooring balls and the holiday weekend, they were all taken. It looked like some unsettled weather was heading in so we picked up a ball in the next bay directly under Ram Head. We don't know the name of this bay, it's not marked with a name on any of the charts we have, but we have nicknamed it 'stink-um bay' due to the fishy/seaweedy smell emanating from the shore. The smell is counteracted by the fact that there is only one other ball here so we are pretty much guaranteed a nice secluded and quiet anchorage for the evening. As we anticipated from the clouds the weather worsened into a full-blown squall that lasted about an hour so we were happy to have picked up a ball in this sheltered cove. In the middle of the blow another monohull arrived and I am sure to the relief of their crew were able to find the one available ball. They quickly tied up and disappeared below, most likely to dry out.

The front rolling in over St. John

Here are a sampling of a few more of the sights we saw during our hike of almost 15 km.

This tree is known by a number of names including the obvious, "Monkey No Climb"

Look carefully to the left of me for more carvings.

Nope, not scared at all.

The mighty roots of the Kapok.

Not completely unscathed after our scramble.

Back to the USVI

We started the day with a dinghy ride back into Gun Creek to check out of the BVI. It is quite amazing how the agents in the BVI really act as ambassadors of their country, genuinely enquiring of our stay and if we plan to return in such a pleasant manner.

The day unfolded with little wind, especially in the direction we were going, so it turned into a motor excursion from North Sound on Virgin Gorda all the way down to Cruz Bay on St. John. The trip however was sunny and uneventful and with the motor running we enjoyed the competency of the auto pilot at the helm holding a steady course across the north shore of Tortola.

Check-in formalities were completed with the US Customs & Border Patrol, which are also quite pleasant in Cruz Bay but with a slightly different tone and no informal chit-chat. We then reversed direction around the south shore of St. John and came to rest on a mooring ball in one of our favourite locations, Greater Lameshur Bay.

Sum total we covered 36 nautical miles.

The only picture all day was of a rain squall over Tortola

North Sound Revisited

Ok, on the off chance we sound like groupies here, we'll get this out of the way immediately. Yes, we have what might be termed a small addiction to a blog Zero To Cruising. Mike and Rebecca Sweeney set off from Kingston, Ontario about 3 years ago to cruise south on their PDQ catamaran and we have followed their trials, tribulations and learnings ever since.

When we arrived down here we realized that they had made the trek up from Grenada and were in the BVI, but serendipity had us crossing paths as they had to exit to the USVI just as we were heading east. Again, as we were heading from Virgin Gorda over to Trellis Bay earlier in the week our paths crossed and then finally we connected back in North Sound yesterday morning.

We anchored in Leverick Bay this time which is across the sound from where we were earlier and spent a bit of time exploring this area up to Gun Creek, the end of the road on Virgin Gorda. The other resort areas are only accessible by water. Gun Creek is a bustling little community that includes a customs and immigration office (we were able to check into opening hours for our check-out all around the Easter Holidays) and also the water taxi that transports workers to the various resorts as well as anyone else who wants to get around. We picked up some last minute groceries and enjoyed a bushwacker at Jumbies before heading back to Mowzer.

In the afternoon Mike and Rebecca and their friends Kirk and Donna (from Ainulindale) joined us for drinks/snacks and most interesting conversations about their experiences as they have travelled down the east U.S. coast and as far south as Trinidad. We explored all sorts of topics from the social politics of the cruising community to the rules, regulations and realities of head pumpout (sewage disposal for those wondering).

As our time down here winds to an end, we now need to make our way back toward the USVI, so we're off this morning west-bound and will most likely head to St. John for a couple more days of exploration. If our web connections goes down we may be quiet for a while - basically "off the grid" in St. John.

ZeroToCruising with Ainulindale just behind them

Doesn't matter what your boat is like, if you paint it blue and yellow it's pretty