Full Moon Party - Trellis Bay, BVI

Fire Sculpture by Aragorn

I really hope that our readers won't mind if I skip around a bit on the blog. I feel like we skipped over blogging about so much of our Virgin Islands experiences for various reasons (lack of a computer, lack of Internet, temporary lack of interest in blogging, etc.). I was looking back through some pictures and decided that I should blog about some of our wonderful adventures and experiences while we were sailing this spring. So I will be posting some about our Virgin Islands adventures and some about our current Luperon adventures as well as keeping up to date on our preparations to sail south once again. Check in often and try to keep up!

In March we spent a fun night at Trellis Bay on Beef Island in the British Virgin Islands. Lucky for us, there is an airport within walking distance and our friends Geoie and Sarah were due to fly in just in time to meet up with us in Trellis Bay. They would spend a week cruising the BVIs with us and staying on Pipe Muh Bligh with Stacy and Rene. The three boats (Storyville, Island Dream and Pipe Muh Bligh) had a great time showing Geoie and Sarah around the BVIs and making sure that we hit all the fun places, all in one weeks time.

It is almost impossible to anchor there as Trellis bay has one of the most dense mooring fields that we have seen so far. Picking up a mooring on a windy day can be a little tricky as the other boats are so closely packed together. Somehow Island Dream managed to anchor, but then Pat is braver than we are. LOL

ROTI = yummy

Locally born artist, Aragorn has a studio there. He has some beautiful pottery and other things, but he is mostly known for his fire sculptures. Every month on the full moon there is a Full Moon Party. Trellis Bay is a very cool place to visit, even if you are not lucky enough to be there for a Full Moon Party, there is a pretty beach with plenty of little shops, restaurants and bars.  Our favorite bar was Da Loose Mongoose and I don't remember the name of the little restaurant, but we had one of the best Rotis ever there. On the night of the full moon, everyone comes out to play. There is local music and crafts, mocko jumbie dancers (local dancers on stilts), fire dancers, a barbecue buffet and some awesome fire sculptures by Aragorn. Some of the fire sculptures are set out over the water. What a fun filled night. It really is a great party and a sight to behold. We are looking forward to another full moon party. I'm thinking January.

More Fire Sculptures

Gonna set it on fire!

Burning Man!

Pat and Darnell of Island Dream (Photobomb courtesy of Troy)

Rene and Stacy of Pipe Muh Bligh

Sarah and Geoie - future cruisers

Twirling

and Fire Dancing 

Mocko Jumbies

Pat

Troy and Rene - not sure why but I find this pic to be hilarious

It really was a full moon

Rasta Man

The most tangible of all visible mysteries - fire.  ~Leigh Hunt

Sunday in Luperon

Rosa selling jewelry and books 

We spent today as we do most Sundays in Luperon.  Puerto Blanco marina has a cruiser swap meet every Sunday.  Some weeks there are more swaps going on than others.  Mainly it is just a chance for all of the cruisers in the harbor to get together and socialize.  The marina restaurant has a BBQ lunch that is very good.  I had the BBQ and Troy ordered the Pico Pollo (a Dominican version of fried chicken).

Sorry I don't have anything more exciting to post today, but it sure was a nice relaxing day! Since we don't have a way to watch the Texans with their undefeated season, a game of Mexican Train with friends was the next best thing.  We spent the whole afternoon playing with Stacey and Rene from Pipe Muh Bligh, Darnell and Pat from Island Dream and Lucy and Pat from Illusions.  I don't need to mention that I won, but I will anyway! LOL

Chicken on the barbie, yum, yum

Bruce Van Sant's books - must reads for cruising in the Caribbean

Pico Pollo

A little Mexican Train

Troy and I with Bruce and Rosa Van Sant - they call Luperon home

How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then to rest afterward.  ~Spanish Proverb

Under The Sea

 We enjoyed some great snorkeling in the British and Spanish Virgin Islands. One of our favorite places was Culebra in the Spanish Virgins. I got a new underwater camera for my birthday and I had so much fun taking pictures of the beautiful underwater world. I highly recommend my new camera, the Canon D10, and now (of course) there is an even newer version. I REALLY love the looks and features of the new one. Isn’t that the way it always works? You buy an electronic device and practically the next day they come out with a better one? Anyway, in case anybody needs ideas for a Christmas gift (hint, hint), take a look at the Canon D20!

I didn't get much blogging done while we were sailing this winter/spring. I guess we were having too much fun, plus, I use the age old excuse of poor internet. Hopefully we have been able to make progress with the internet issue by our purchase of the The WirieAP. We have only used it here in Luperon so far, but we can't wait to get out there after hurricane season and check it out in other harbors. It sure is nice to have internet on the boat instead of lugging the computer to a local restaurant/bar and trying to get everything accomplished before drinking too much beer! Hopefully the Wirie will help me keep the blog more current.

There were so many pictures that it was really hard to edit them down. I will post them to the blog using my Flickr account. So click on ******* this link ******** and enjoy a slide show of some of the beautiful sea life that we saw in the Virgin Islands.

By the way, we just added our blog to the Sailing Blogs website where you will find many similar blogs as well as all kinds of blogs about boat building, racing and well, just about anything to do with sailing.  Click on the icon at the right and give us a "boost" or a comment!

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), it's always our self we find in the sea.

~e.e. cummings

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Dominican Style)

Glenny, her mom and children

  The other fund raiser that I mentioned in a previous blog post was to benefit a wonderful lady that we have all come to know and love. Glenny works at JR's Bistro. She is a single mother with two young children and she always has a smile on her face. She has been a great help to me with my Spanish and she is learning to speak English really well. Our friends Joe and Kim, former cruisers that decided to make Luperon their home, discovered that Glenny was living in a house with holes in the roof and walls and a dirt floor. You can imagine the conditions of the dirt floor when there is rain. Anyway, thanks to Jerry, Joe and Kim, they organized poker runs, auctions, bake sales and raffles. We enjoyed ourselves while raising money to completely rebuild the roof, floor and outer walls of Glenny's house. No more walking in the mud for her and her children.

What started out as a project to put a new roof on her house ended up being a complete tear down and re-build. Thanks to the hard work of Joe and Kim and to the generosity of the local gringo population. We all adore Glenny and it was wonderful to know that we were able to help such a lovely person. She is the talk of the neighborhood now and it seems like she has been an a Dominican version of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition!

The house still needs to be painted and we are trying to raise a little more money so that she can have a kitchen sink. I will be sure to post an update.

Before

The is the back of the house

Termite were taking over!

Hard to believe the shape the house was in

Getting the new floor

It was a challenge for the guys to get the walls straight

The house looks great on the inside

Glenny - see, she always has a smile on her face

All the neighborhood children are excited

Here is the kitchen - now we need a sink

Nicest house in the neighborhood!

It takes hands to build a house, but only hearts can build a home.  ~Author Unknown

Look! There's a Boat on that Mountain!

Just look at that view!

 We took a trip up in the mountains to visit our friends that are living up there. We had a great visit with Esther and Derrick and with Cade and Lisa. Esther and Derrick have a home on the mountain and Lisa and Cade are in the planning stages of building. While they are preparing the land and planning their home, Cade set a plan in motion that he had been dreaming up for quite some time.

They have a beautiful sail boat named Sand Dollar that has been their home for many years while they sailed the Caribbean and South America. Sand Dollar was for sale, but Cade decided that they could move the boat up on the mountain and live in her while they build their house. After the house is built, Sand Dollar will become a guest house. They have some exciting plans for an add on bathroom/mud room. The will have a “ground level” entry through the mud room into the boat. We can't wait to see what it's like to sleep in a boat at 2500 feet with none of the gentle roll that we are accustomed to.

It was quite a feat just to get the boat up there. Absolutely amazing that Cade was able to pull this off. Of course, he's an engineer, so he had every detail thought through and planned out. That doesn't mean that everything went as planned. I think he was in double trouble with plans because, 1) it's a boat – nothing goes as planned when working on or with a boat; and 2) we're in the Dominican Republic, nothing goes as planned when working on or in the Dominican Republic. So, against all odds, Sand Dollar has a new home on the mountain. I bet the local Dominicans think they just got some loco gringos for neighbors!

We love riding up to the mountains, for one thing, it's a lot cooler up there, so that's a nice break from the heat. Plus, we never fail to be amazed at all the wonderful plants that grow wild. The sweetest bananas that we have ever eaten, not to mention the avocados, limes, oranges, mangoes, coffee..... the list goes on and on. I must admit that I'm a little jealous of Lisa having her very own avocado trees. Lucky for us, she likes to share!

The poetry of the earth is never dead.  ~John Keats

Time for School!

Most cruisers that we know are just like us, they are cruising on a budget. They either have no income, or a fixed income from a pension or other investments. Most of us certainly don't think of ourselves as rich, or even well off. We are just trying to stretch a dollar (or peso) as far as it will go. Many of the locals here in Luperon think that all the boaters have lots of money and, of course, we disagree. We have spent enough time here to learn that, to most of the local population, we do have lots of money. It's was really eye opening to Troy and I to see the conditions that some people live in here and to realize that, while we don't realize it, we are certainly rich compared to them.

We have become great friends with Jerry, the owner of JR's Bistro. Jerry has a big heart and he has connections with local people that know the best ways to help the community. Jerry organized a couple of fund raisers recently and we were very impressed with the generosity of the cruising community as well as the community of gringos that have decided to call Luperon home.

It came to Jerry's attention that children who cannot afford school uniforms are not allowed to attend school. We couldn't believe it! What kind of rule is that? Anyway, through Jerry and with the help of the assistant principal at the school, we collected enough pesos to buy uniforms, notebooks, pencils and a few school supplies for 38 children.

We had a lot of fun passing out the uniforms to the excited kids. I was wondering if the kids “back home” would be as excited about getting school uniforms. Somehow, I think not!

We also had another very successful fundraiser that we are all excited about. I will post about that one soon.

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.  ~Attributed to both Andy McIntyre and Derek Bok

These girls can't wait to get their uniforms!

Jerry and Assistant Principal Anilda - checking the list

Here you go

Look at all the happy students and parents

Storyville gets a Nature's Head

We recently decided that it was time to start thinking about replacing the heads on Storyville. For all my land lubber friends, you probably know me well enough by now to realize that I'm talking about the toilets on the boat. I know what you're thinking – gross. It get's even grosser (is that a word?) when you think about the hoses and holding tanks and everything that has passed through them in the last 30 years.

We have several friends that are using waterless composting toilets. It just makes so much sense for us so, we decided that it was worth looking into. It would mean that we could do away with two thru hull – don't worry about what that is if you're not a boater, but if you are, you know what a benefit that is – and, bonus, we would get rid of all those stinky hoses and the holding tank as well. Creating more room for storage. Just kind of plug and play, so to speak.

We decided to try to bring one back with us from our visit to Houston. The packing box was just under the airlines size requirements and well under their weight requirements. We were still a little nervous, not knowing what to expect with the shipping. It all went incredibly smoothly. We were stopped by customs when we entered the DR. They sent the box through their scanner and decided that they needed a better look. They were a little surprised when they opened the box. You should have seen the look on the inspector's face when he lifted the lid! I guess he was worried that we were traveling with a used toilet. Oh well, it worked! Free shipping.

Anyways, we got the toilet back to Storyville and she is now fully installed, thanks to Troy's hard work. The removal of the old system was the worst part of the ordeal and I will spare you the details. Let's just say that Troy is my hero for handling that stinky, nasty job.

It took us a little while to find the composting material. We took our Dominican friend, who speaks great English, with us to 3 different nursery’s, but the language barrier proved to be too high because he didn't know what peat moss was and we couldn't describe it. They really don't have much use for that here, I guess because the ground is very fertile. We did a little more research and decided to try a mix of coconut husks, banana leaves and mulch. Wish me luck.

Let the composting begin!

We give a great big thanks to Gene Cupples, owner of Eco-mmode, distributor for Nature's Head in the Kemah area. Click the link above to learn more, or give him a call at 419/306-3351.

The old head, ready to come out

Nature's Head

Ready to remove the old system (yuck)

That is a picture of "gross" right there.  The old holding bag.

Ready to compost!

Installed and ready to go!