Return to The Virgin Islands

What better way to get this blog rejuvenated than to post about our recent trip to the US and British Virgin Islands? We've been in Texas for 4 months and really missing our floating home. When Steve and Deb invited us to spend 10 days with them on Alternate Latitude in the Virgin Islands, well, how could we say no?

We went with some of our other sailing friends from Kemah so we dubbed ourselves the Kemah Krew and hopped a plane and headed to the islands.

The notorious Kemah Krew consisted of Troy and Deana, Cory and Tammy, who live on s/v Menestheus, Capt. Rick Weiler and of course, our hosts, Steve and Deb on s/v Alternate Latitude. Alternate Latitude is a 44 foot Voyager Catamaran so there was plenty of room for us all and we had a fantastic and fun filled 10 days of sailing, snorkeling, swimming and just plain having too much fun.

Kemah Krew

Alternate Latitude

The Virgin Islands are fantastic cruising grounds. Easy sailing from one beautiful island to the next. White sand beaches and turquoise waters make sailing there a dream. We have been there on Storyville twice and spent several months cruising those islands. One thing that was noticably different on this trip was that we were there in the off season. When we were there on Storyville every anchorage was full with charter boats and mega yachts everywhere and sometimes, depending on where you were, you had to hope that there would be a mooring available. During the off season there are so many fewer charter boats and many full time cruisers are further south waiting out hurricane season. It was strange to see the empty anchorages, but nice to have them all to ourselves at times.

We flew into St. Thomas and sailed to Jost Van Dyke, Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Peter Island, Norman Island and St. John. What a fantastic trip and just what we needed. Some time on a boat, on the water in the beautiful islands. Oh how we've missed them. We couldn't have asked for better hosts or better friends to spend the time with.

Panoramic Views of The Virgin Islands

Swimming With Turtles

Perfect Beaches

Flying the Spinnaker down the Sir Frances Drake Channel

If you are looking for a vacation that you will never forget, think about chartering with Steve and Deb on Alternate Latitude. They can show you all the cool spots in the Virgin Islands, whether you want to party at the best beach bars or kick back on a beautiful white beach or snorkel with sea turtles. So click on the link to find out how to have a fantastic vacation, and be sure to tell them that Storyville sent you!

One of the coolest things we did was swim with the turtles at Buck Island. They were so cool and we loved every minute of watching them calmly swim and eat sea grass. Here is a video.......

Buck Island Turtle Video from Deana Jones on Vimeo.

Hark, now hear the sailors cry, smell the sea, and feel the sky, let your soul and spirit fly, into the mystic. ~ Van Morrison

 

 

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We Love Boats

We've been land locked for over seven months now and I can't tell you how much I miss being rocked to sleep with the gentle sounds of water lapping at my hull just a foot away from my head. Or waking up and enjoying a cup of coffee in my cockpit as life floats by all around me, or having a sundown rum drink in the cockpit in the late afternoon and doing the same thing. If all goes as planned I will get to experience those things again soon as we are planning to return to Storyville in mid November.

We've been making good use of our time on shore and have several improvements for Storyville when we get back to her. More on that later......

I just to get this blog up and rolling again and ready for some adventures in paradise!

As I was going through some of my personal papers I came across this article that I wrote in 2007 for a local sailing magazine:

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WE LOVE BOATS!

By Deana Jones

"If a man is to be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most." ~ E.B. White

It has occurred to me that I may have an obsession with boats. I mean, most people either like boats, or they don't like boats. Or, they may be somewhere in between, you know, take 'em or leave 'em. Me, on the other hand, I think it may be a little more serious. Don't misunderstand, I realize that there are others out there, just like me, but we usually try to hide our obsession from the "outside world". They just don't understand.

For instance, my husband, Troy and I currently own four boats. One sailboat, two kayaks and one dinghy. Our sailboat is a 37' Morgan Out Island named Different Drummer. You should see us when we head out for a sailing destination - the kayaks on the deck of the sailboat and the dinghy following along behind! We have our own fleet with us wherever we go.

Another clue regarding my obsession would be the fact that we live on our boat, the sailboat of course. We have a perfectly nice home, but we choose instead to stuff ourselves into the small living space on Different Drummer. We even like it!

When I'm not boating, I'm usually thinking about boating. I just can't wait to get out there on the water and see what adventures are in store. Troy is just as bad. He is usually working on boats, or talking about boats, or thinking about boats, sometimes even dreaming about boats. You get the picture.

We started boating on Lake Livingston on a pontoon boat. That was lots of fun - fishing, swimming, just hanging out on the lake, but something seemed to be lacking. Then one day Troy confided to me that he had always wanted to try sailing. Little did we know how that would affect our destiny. We took a moonlight sail on a sailboat maned Blue Marlin through Leisure Learning. We didn't know what to expect, but we really had a great time. The bay was beautiful under a full moon. I think we were both hooked on sailing that night. A little while later we decided to take sailing lessons.

We took our first lessons through Bay Area Sailing School. It was lots of information to take in at once, I felt overwhelmed and thought I would never understand how to sail, much less what to call all that stuff on the boat! Who knew there were no ropes on a sailboat? That each "rope" had its own name according to its use? Anyway, the school did a great job and before we knew it we were ASA certified sailors.

Troy, being also obsessed with eBay (that's another article for another day), found a 21 foot Ericson for sale and it just happened to be in Kemah, Texas, and it just happened to be in our price range. We are a little nervous and undecided about buying it, but my obsession took over and I clicked the "confirm bid" button and, ta da! we bought our first sailboat, sight unseen. She was a great little boat to get started in. We sailed her all around Clear Lake and spent every weekend scrunched up in that tiny cabin - loving every minute of it!

Eventually we (really, me) started wanting more space. I mean, if we're gonna spend every weekend on the boat, I would like to at least stand up when I'm in the cabin. Is that too much to ask? Troy found an old 27 foot Balboa on a trailer at Lynn's Sailboats on I-45. She hadn't been in the water in about 13 years. She had been sitting on a trailer somewhere in west Texas. She needed lots, and I do mean lots, of cleaning and TLC. Troy gave her a nice bottom job, we cleaned her up and named her Storyville. I like to think we brought her back to life. We sailed Storyville all around Galveston Bay and Trinity Bay and had a great time. In fact, Troy claims to have had the best day of his life on that boat, but that's another story too. Maybe he'll write about it some day.

Well - here we are - life is good and we are spending every weekend on Storyville. If course, given the fact that we are both obsessed with boats, we (in this case I mean Troy) are always looking at boat ads and going around to various boat brokers and looking at the boats for sale. By the way, that's what you call entertainment for someone obsessed with boats. One day Troy tells me that he found a boat for sale and it was such a great deal that we just had to take a look. We took a few of our other "boat obsessed" friends with us and went to see Different Drummer. We fell in love at first sight. We decided on the spot that we just had to make an offer. The broker told us that there was already an offer pending, but he would take our offer as a back up. I guess it was fate, the other buyer couldn't get financing, so Different Drummer now belongs to us.

Five years after the obsession began here we are living aboard and loving it. If course, given our obsession, who knows what the future will hold. Troy sure had is eye on a Morgan 41!

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What a story to look back on. Another six years have gone by. We ended up with the Morgan 41, named her Storyville, sold and gave away all of our belongings and took off for the cruising life. We've been gone for 3 years with 2 1/2 of that time spent on our boat, on the hook. Storyville hasn't been tied up in a marina in 3 years! What fun we've had and we are looking forward to more of the same when we get back to Grenada to be reunited with Storyville. And, yes, we are still obsessed with boats.

Damon and Marcie Become Sailors

We were very fortunate to meet some really good friends by accident.  Well, maybe not accident but more just by surprise at the time and place. You never know when you will meet people that will become lifelong friends.  One of the things that I love/hate about the cruising life is the people that you meet along the way.  I love it because we meet people from all walks of life and spend time getting to know such a diverse group of people.  I hate it because sometimes you have to say goodbye before you want to.  It's more of a blessing than a curse though, 'cause we get to meet so many awesome people along the way.

I will let Damon tell you the story about how we met.  Here is a guest blog from Damon and Marcie, friends that came to visit us in the US and Spanish Virgin Islands:

Marcie and Damon chillin' at Mamacita's in Culebra

Little did we know that a trip to a Dominican Republic resort would change our lives. It started innocently enough: While lying in our cabana, soaking up as much of paradise as we could, we kept seeing the same group of friends whooping it up in the cold tubs on the beach. I nudged Marcie and said, “We gotta get to know those people, I overheard them talking about living on their boats.” It sounded like a fantasy life, and we had to know more.

We invited ourselves in the tub and made quick friends of the whole gang; Troy and Deana, Rene and Stacy, Patrick and Darnell, and Ivy. We were fascinated by our new friends, and we just didn’t stop the barrage of questions about the lifestyle and their idyllic life on board their floating homes. All of our curiosity and Deana’s southern hospitality added up to an invitation to spend time with them on Storyville. What a gift!! It took us a couple months to work out the details but we met up with Storyville in St Thomas in May. 

Growing up on an inland lake in Michigan, I love the water, but neither Marcie nor I really knew what we were in for. Would we be comfortable on a boat for ten days? Would Troy and Deana be our kind of people? Would we fit in with the “boat people”? If they got sick of us would they make us walk the plank? Well, it all worked out well. Storyville is a beautiful and comfortable boat, and Troy and Deana could not have been more hospitable. They made sure we felt right at home.

A cuttlefish see on a reef at Culebrita

We set sail out of St Thomas on a beautiful day. It took us only a few hours to reach Culebrita. The uninhabited island is only accessible by private boat so the only people we saw during our visit were other cruisers.  The small protected cove is exactly what you see on brochures for Caribbean vacations: beautiful bright blue water, a pristine beach and snorkeling right behind the boat. I think we were in the water about three minutes after hooking up to the buoy.

Can you see Troy waiving?

The only structure on Culebrita is an ancient light house built by the Spanish Crown in 1886. It took us about an hour to hike to the peak and take in breathtaking views of the entire island and Storyville below. If you look real close in this picture I think you can see Troy waiving from the cockpit.

One of the best evenings we had on the trip was Mexican pot-luck night. We made a couple of dishes, grabbed a couple of bottles and dingy’d over to Island Dream for an evening of getting to know your neighbors. What a blast! I can certainly say that the boating community is very warm and welcoming. At least this group of sailors is. It was great to get to know the rest of the cruising armada Rene and Stacy, and Pat and Darnell, and also to experience each of their floating homes. A big thank you to all for their hospitality.

The ten days seemed to go by in a blink and we were not ready to leave when the time came. Our hosts had effortlessly made our adventure an amazing and memorable one. One thing is for sure: our lives have been altered forever. We have a three-year plan to become cruisers. Thank you Troy and Deana!



Damon was even brave enough to go up the mast for us!

Strangers are just friends waiting to happen. ~Rod McKuen, Looking for a Friend

The Baths

At long last we made our visit to The Baths.  This incredible place merits its own blog.  What a wonderful experience.  The Baths are located on the southwest tip of Virgin Gorda.  It is an unusual formation of large granite boulders.  The sea washes between these boulders creating pools with shafts of light shining down through the rocks.  It really creates a dramatic effect.  There is a trail guiding you through the boulders and pools.  Sometimes you climb, sometimes you crawl, but around each corner you are guaranteed another breathtaking view.  Once you make it to the end of the trail you are rewarded with the beach at Devil’s Bay.  This has to be one of the most beautiful beaches that we have ever seen.  White sand, incredibly blue water, palm trees and, adding something a little different, lots of large boulders.  It really is breathtaking.  We spent a whole morning there exploring the path through the boulders and swimming in Devil’s Bay. 

The boulders of The Baths were once embedded in volcanic lava, once the winds and sea wore the lava away and carved dishes and holes in the harder granite, we were left with the beautiful natural phenomenon. 

I had a hard time editing photos for this blog post.  There were so many beautiful shot of the boulders and the sea. 

Underwater view of The Baths

Sea Grapes

Stairway to Heaven or.... Devil's Bay?

Devil's Bay - I told you this beach was gorgeous

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