Pirate in the Caribbean

Adventure is Southbound! It's a 90 mile trip over open ocean from the British Virgin Islands to our next stop, Sint Maarten.  In fair weather, this trip should take about 12 hours and is often done overnight so that when you arrive you can check in to customs and immigration the next day.  Typically the wind is in your face for the entire journey and there are many horror stories of sailors pounding into big winds and huge waves for 15 to 20 hours or more. This often happens in December due to what is known in the Caribbean as the "Christmas Winds". Our original plan was to stay in BVI until after New Years, as our friends Dave and Lorrie would be there on a charter boat starting New Year's Eve.  We had purchased everything to make a big spaghetti dinner for the whole crew.  However, some will say that the most dangerous thing on a sailboat is a schedule.  We ended up having a perfect weather window with low wave heights, a full moon and light winds in what shou...

Merry Christmas Caribbean Style 🌴 The wonderful thing about Christmas is that no matter where you are, you can find some beautiful Christmas spirit.   We had the opportunity to attend the local community Christmas concert in Great Harbour on Jost Van Dyke.  Proceeds went to the local church to replace the roof that is still missing since Hurricane Irma.  The entertainment included a children's choir and a steel drummer playing Christmas carols.  What a special evening to share with these lovely people.  This year for the first time, we are celebrating without a Christmas tree.  As a result, I have asked friends to send me a picture of their tree so I can live vicariously through them.  😀 However, even in the British Virgin Islands, you can buy a fresh tree.  Luckily the sign said that they were on sale - until Dec 31st no less. Every establishment has their own kind of Christmas tree.  At the Soggy Dollar Bar, they have a Painkiller Cu...

Finally at Anchor!   So happy to be off the dock.  The first stop is one of our favourites - a small, shallow anchorage at Peter Island without any amenities.  We love this anchorage because of the beautiful crystal clear water and all the wonderful sea life.      A great opportunity to just hang on a hook and chill.   For our first time ever, we used an anchoring system that is all managed from the cockpit - so cool.  Once we were happy with the anchor,  Roger tied the stern to the shore to stop us from swinging.   A turtle popped up to say hello and w hile adjusting the anchor, Roger saw a spotted ray.  After all the work over the past several weeks and months, we were so happy just to sit and enjoy the sunset. The next day Roger took Pirate for a long walk along the top of Peter Island, where she encountered her first goat and her first hermit crab.  By then, she was ready for a cool down in the water.  Time for th...

The Final Stretch! After a quick break, we headed back to Sunsail base to finish the last few items on our list.   The new forward AC unit (one of 3 units in the boat) had arrived and needed to be installed.    Because we don't have a generator, we cannot run AC unless we are at a dock and can plug in to shore power.  That's no problem because at anchor you always get a beautiful breeze.  When the technician closed the main through hull valve and pulled the cooling pipe off the broken AC unit, a fire hose of water entered the boat. Roger quickly produce a wooden plug to stem the flow. Thus the boat went back to the yard for another haul out to replace the faulty valve. We took the opportunity to install a through hull for our new watermaker.  Tama had the watermaker as a top priority as Pirate would require frequent rinsing due to her love of swimming.  We have two 90 gallon water tanks but having to return to port once a week to refill them can be a p...

  Pirate's Bight - A Must See for a Pirate! Roger was working full tilt - at least 16 hours a day, for more than 2 weeks - so we headed over to Norman Island and Pirate's Bight for a couple of nights of much needed relaxation. Pirate got to check out the Pirate ship, Willy T.   And go for a ride in her favourite boat. Perfect for a Soggy Doggy! Then she and Roger went for a swim off the beach. All went well until Pirate stepped on a sea urchin!  Poor baby was scrambling around on 3 legs.  We put some bug 'n burn lotion on her paw and that seemed to help.   The next day was pretty rainy - unusual for us to experience in BVI - but it gave us lots of time for rest and relaxation.  And of course the bonus was the beautiful rainbows afterward.

Roger is Always Making New Friends   After all the work that the Sunsail team did on the boat, working side by side with Roger, they developed a great camaraderie.  The guys taught Roger the official island hand shake and he was even invited to the Sunsail Staff only Christmas party. He enjoyed  an evening of Reggae and  island delicacies like Goat Water Soup.  Dinner was cooked on a BBQ that was made of a truck wheel welded to 4 steel rod legs covered with a fridge grate. When the Q produced perfectly cooked jerk chicken and islanded style ribs, Roger got to wondering if we all really need $5000 Weber BBQs. 

  Adventure I is Almost Ready! Roger and the Sunsail team have done a phenomenal amount of work to get the boat ready. Over 200 items were repaired, fixed or replaced. Every inch of the boat was scrubbed, cleaned and power washed. Thank the good lord for Clorox Wipes and Spray 9! As you can see below one of the most recent additions was the name on the side of the boat and to the front of Pirates favourite boat, our 10'6" inflatable named SOGGY.  A shake down cruise is a must to see what isn't quite right.  Here's Roger heading out with the Canadian flag courtesy of our friends Felicity and Seth. Sure enough, when Roger single handed the boat up to Beef Island to pick Pirate and myself up, all of a sudden all of the engine warning horns and lights went off. He thought it was overheating so he shut everything down, jumped below and pulled the hatch off the engine. It turned out the alternator had fried itself.  After making it to Trellis Bay, which is a 5 min walk to ...

It Takes A Village and a Bit of Patience 😀! Pirate and I both arrived safely in BVI!  Our trek started in Miami at the Amerijet Cargo warehouse.  Thankfully, Craig and Cathie were so gracious and offered to drive us from Marco Island .  They helped me drop Pirate off and then took me to the airport the next morning!  We arrived at the Amerijet Cargo building at 8:30 pm, and Pirate was finally 'processed' after 10 pm for her 1 am flight.  Have you ever been inside a cargo warehouse?  What a s**t show.  At one point an employee came up and said "Welcome to the Jungle"!!  I felt so much better after that 😂 Roger and I were quite anxious about Pirate since she would be in the crate for 15 hours before she arrived in BVI.  She had to fly first to San Juan, and with the help of an Apple AirTag, we were able to track Pirate on her journey! It was a full body wag for 10 minutes when Pirate saw Roger at the airport.  The local vet, who is also ...

Pirate's Getting Ready! Today Pirate visited Dr. Bongiorno on Marco Island to get her health certificates for travel, along with the remaining vaccinations and pills to meet the travel requirements for 10 countries!  Kathleen from Life Unleased/Caribbean Pet has helped us along the way, and Allison, pictured below, was super helpful getting everything organized for the health certificates at Dr. Bongiorno's office.   A week from now Pirate will be heading to Miami to catch a flight with Amerijet, a cargo airline, to travel to the British Virgin Islands through Puerto Rico!  She will be arriving before me, so Roger will be there to greet her!  Looking forward to lots of tail wags when I arrive a couple of hours later!  

Getting The Boat Ready   Our boat is a 2016, Jeanneau 479 that came off charter from Sunsail in BVI in 2020.  We put the down payment on the boat in March, pending a list of over 80 items being completed by Sunsail before the purchase would be finalized. Trying to get a boat ready that is over a thousand miles away is a logistical nightmare, but Roger was up to the challenge. Roger arrived a week ago in Tortola with 170 lbs of luggage - hardly any clothes - mostly just equipment for the boat!   Unfortunately, there was still a ton of work left to be done on the boat.  With Roger's encouragement, there were soon 6-8 guys working on it for 11 hours a day until it was completed.  The improvements included new sails, new canvas, new plastic windows in the dodger, all new side windows in the cabin top, all hatches painted and de-crazed (sanded and polished), brand new anchor chain and rode, all new instruments, brand new cushions in the main salon, new leather on the...

Our Adventure Over the next few months, Roger and I will be sailing the Caribbean on our new Jeanneau 479, called Adventure I.  We will be starting in the British Virgin Islands, stopping in St. Maarten, St. Barths, Antigua, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and finally in Grenada where the boat will remain on the hard over the summer.    This blog will help to keep everyone updated on our adventures!  Pirate of course is going to be joining us, and thus the name of the blog:  Pirate in the Caribbean!  Hope you enjoy hearing about our travels!