MUTUAL FUN - A SAILING ODYSSEY

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FIRST MATE'S LOG - JAN 2002

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February 1, 2002

This is the most spoiled I think we’ve been. We’re sitting on a mooring ball so we have no fears of drifting away in the night and we’re sleeping like babies. The evening wind is chilly (to us) so sweating all night is a thing of the past. Bob keeps buying these delicious pastries, which keeps me in the 25-meter swimming pool doing laps. The wind is still howling but tied to the ball, we don’t even care. Gord and Sue climbed aboard and helped us off the mooring ball today and over to the fuel dock. We’re all fueled and watered and in good shape. We then returned the favor and they are ready to go. There are even showers at the pool so I’m not wasting our precious water aboard. There are shops (expensive) and a nice grocery (expensive) and if I get sick of letting my hair grow a little, even, a hair salon (probably expensive.) Today is Friday and it looks like we may be able to do an overnighter to St. Bart’s on Monday night. If not, no worries. We’ll just stay here until our money runs out.

February 6, 2002

Hallelujah! An overnighter that was calm, mild, warm and fun. We did have to motor-sail but why complain about the little things? Winds were under 10k and seas maybe 3-5, which were lulling instead of violent. When on watch, I used the egg timer and instead of having to lodge it in someplace, I just set it on the cockpit seat and it didn’t roll even once. I pouted until I got my way and we removed the bimini (awning) right before we left and we were treated to a star-filled sky all night. I got to stand up and watch for other boats instead of risk my life by standing outside of the cockpit. In return for this treat, I gave Bob two, 3-hour off watches and he got plenty of rest. We talked to “Lady Simcoe” every couple of hours. At about 3:30am, after just coming up for my watch, Sue called back and said they didn’t know what they snagged but it took them down to 2 knots in a hurry. She told me to beware. That was an interesting concept since it was too dark to beware of anything. The gods were with them because they started right back up but upon trying to anchor at St. Bart’s, Gord dove down and found a big wad of fishing line wrapped around their prop. They got it all off and deemed themselves very lucky for not having to dive in the middle of the ocean. While on watch, I would set the timer for 12 minutes and then lie back and watch the stars. My eyelids would drop and the next I would know, the buzzer was going off. I did this for most of my watch, since traffic was low. It was a grand overnighter and we were anchored in Gustavia, St. Bart’s about 7:30am, after having left Antigua at 5:30pm. Bob went immediately into town to see if we were going to have trouble, losing our original documentation papers and all. No problem. They just wanted to know how long we would be here and Bob paid for a week. This is one place where you could spend a lot of time. Unfortunately, it’s once again a French island and the pastries are even better here. We caught up on our sleep and will explore some today and tomorrow I think we’ll rent scooters and show off the beaches to “Lady Simcoe.” Last time we were here we spent a day scootering around from beach to beach (all topless, some nude.) and we had a great time. Some of the mountains are pretty steep and you wonder if the bike will make it up there. We had so much fun that I think we’ll do it again. If I can keep Bob handcuffed and blindfold him when we go by the pastry shop; maybe we’ll have enough money.

February 7, 2002

Another wonderful St. Bart’s day. We picked up our scooters at 9:00am and he gave us all our instructions in French. We just nodded and smiled. Since we’ve toured this island before, once by scooter and once by car, Bob was deemed tour guide. The hills here are quite steep and Sue laid her bike down not 15 minutes into the day. On a hill with traffic behind her, no less. She walked it down the hill and got back on that bad old horse and was fine the rest of the day. I’m not saying she didn’t go through stages ranging from, “this is OK” to reigning terror” but she was a good sport and never whined or cried. I managed to get through the whole day without a dump but had a few heart palpitations going down some of those mountainsides.

We visited every beach and swam at 2 or 3. It was a beautiful day as it is a beautiful island. We had a delicious lunch where we stopped last time. Bob and I had Dorado, wrapped in foil with onion, bell pepper and some mystery seasoning, rice, pumpkin and some other mystery sides. We turned in our bikes about 5:30pm, very tired but happy. Everyone was making plans for tomorrow and if I don’t just sit and read for a couple of hours, I’m going to collapse. The poor boat has been neglected and needs everything from stainless steel polishing to a good scrubbing of the waterline. The anchorage is a bit rolly but the water is clear and clean so it shouldn’t be a problem. I think I’ll sleep like a baby tonight.

February 9, 2002

I paid for my experience with my scooter yesterday, but it was worth it. Those bikes weigh a ton and I wasn’t too proficient at getting the kickstand down; strong-backing it instead of rolling it over. In any case, my back was pretty sore and I spent most of the day in bed. It was rainy and overcast so I didn’t mind, plus I was very tired and had a good nap and quiet time. Tomorrow, we have a big brunch date with our old friend, Jon, who is French Canadian but has taken up residence here in St. Bart’s. He is a star crepe maker and will perform his magic aboard Mutual Fun. “Lady Simcoe” will join us for the feast. We’ll go to the store and get all of the toppings and champagne and orange juice for mimosas. Can’t wait!

February 10, 2002

What a brunch! Jon is as talented as we remember. He mixed, refrigerated and brought with him a double batch of his crepe recipe, made with beer and got acquainted with our galley after a round of mimosas in the cockpit. We tried to stay out of his way but the smell brought everyone down below. Jon had 2 frying pans going and got into a nice rhythm.

As we sipped, he dipped and flipped. After all were made (about 40), we all sat around our table and applied the assortment of toppings. We had cherry and peach compote, (not the Smucker’s type, the real McCoy), real maple syrup, brown and white sugar and crème fraiche. It was a feast of the best sort. My belly was extended and I looked 6 months pregnant in my bib-shorts. After we ate, we all sort of slumped around the main saloon and yapped for another hour or so.

We disbursed all planning on a nice long nap. Just as Bob fell asleep, our neighbor behind us dinghied over and said he was dragging anchor and nobody was on his 60ft. boat except himself; could Bob help? Of course. Bob roused himself and went over and took the helm of this race boat and got the guy reanchored. Next thing I know, Bob’s back on his bunk sawing zzz’s and it’s looking tempting and I doze off myself. I awakened, changed and got Bob up to go into town for the parade. The theme was blue and white with sea garbage. It was interesting but quite puny. Jon came over and had a drink with us and then we came back home for tuna-noodle casserole. The weather has been very windy and even a bit chilly. I dug out my long johns and put them on last night. The outside temp is in the low 70’s at night but this is not typical down here.

Tomorrow we will check out, batten down and get ready to be nervous about our next passage north. We’re headed directly for the Virgin Islands, taking a miss on St. Maartin this time. It’s 110 miles and will take us about 24 hours, through the notorious Anegada Pass. We’ll leave about 11:00am and if we go faster than expected, we’ll still have daylight in which to make land.

February 13, 2002

The passage went great, out by 11am and in by 10am. I had to wear long underwear under my foul-weather gear and socks but it really isn’t that cold. Maybe 70 or so. I had to wake Bob up once as I watched this light that wouldn’t commit to either red or green and I could not decide which way to go and try to get out of its way. He wouldn’t answer me on the radio so Bob came up and told me to take evasive action. I said, ‘which way?” He studied the lights for a while and made the decision to turn right, which I did. Meanwhile, Bob handed me the spotlight, which I shone on our sails and also at him. Turns out, he was a sailboat with some stupid concoction of lights that have red on top and green underneath. We’re still scratching our heads over that one. Green is for starboard and red is port so how are you supposed to figure that out? I tried to get him on the radio to yell at him but again, he didn’t answer. Well, maybe there’s some new-fangled system that we don’t know about. In any case, I was bouncing around the cockpit and so nervous that I had to shed ½ my clothes and was sweating up a storm. Meanwhile, having this good show going on in front of us, we neglected to keep a watch on the rear, where a huge freighter is showing both red and green, too. Well, we could figure this out just fine; he was coming right toward us and fast! Finally, he turned his green and decided to go behind us. He must have been going 25k per hour. So, my first watch wasn’t boring. The rest of the night went fine. We pulled into Soper’s Hole, Tortola went right to the fuel dock and got diesel and water. Bob went into Customs to check us into the British Virgin Islands and I cleaned the boat and got all of the laundry together. We showered, took in the laundry (about a month’s worth) and treated ourselves to a great burger and fries at Pusser’s. We then came back to the boat for a nap as neither of us had slept more than 3 hours and we were pretty drained the rest of the afternoon. We decided to have breakfast for dinner and made eggs, toast and hash browns. It was quite yummy. Our friend, John, on “Sojourn” is coming here tomorrow so we’ll stay and see if we can get together for drinks or dinner. It was a beautiful sunny day and another cool night.

February 15, 2002

Had cocktails aboard “Mutual Fun” with John and his guests, a couple from Texas, where John is from. This couple was quite entertaining. They live in a house on a gulf course and they have a golf cart and 4 sets of clubs but neither of them play. They used to have a house with a swimming pool but neither of them swim. They’re from Texas and wear cowboy hats and boots but don’t ride horses. And, they came to stay in the Caribbean with John for a week and they don’t like to play in the water or take the sun or shop or hike. They are perfectly content to sit on the boat and read. John says they’re a pleasure and no trouble at all. They both have a sense of humor though so we enjoyed our cocktail hour and moved on to the famous Jolly Roger steakhouse and splurged-again. We left Tortola this morning and came around to our favorite place; Francis Bay in St. John’s. It was a good passage. About 4 miles of calm waters with no sails up and no squalls, breakdowns or night watches. My kind of sail. I’m getting old, or something. It’s very peaceful here. This is the place where you have to walk up 6 flights to get to the restaurant. It’s a campsite and therefor, a good place to eat on the boat and swim at our choice of 4 beaches. We chose the most southern beach today. We stopped and talked to some acquaintances and then introduced ourselves to 2 other Hans Christians in the anchorage. Extremely rare to have 3 of us in one place. One of the couples has taken up residency here and has bought property and will be building a house. Not to live in, but to rent out. He says you can get $2600 per week, 35 weeks a year. Hmmm. Sounds kind of interesting. We’ve always liked St. John’s….

February 19, 2002

Just been hanging around getting some boat chores done and also being lazy. Had John from “Sojourn” over for a spaghetti feast. He brought the wine, scotch and tequila. I had a couple of wine spritzers and the guys had a couple shots of tequila and some wine with dinner. I don’t think the scotch was touched. I’m not much of a drinker and scotch tastes to me like fuel might. Yesterday we called a Realtor to check out the real estate situation here. We were met by a guy with a goatee, shorts and non-matching shirt and beat-up Jeep that smelled like a cat had missed his mark. We talked for a bit at the campsite here and then he asked if we would like a ride in town. Of course we would, it saved us $10. We wondered around Cruz Bay for awhile, me looking for a dentist and Bob looking for a beer and newspaper. I came up empty but Bob scored. We then decided we didn’t really trust this Realtor and we sought another. This time we ran into a well-dressed gal and well-humored husband; co-owners of a real estate company. The bad news is that a good investment property will run between $500,000 and $750,000. Yes, the income is astounding, from $2600-$5000 per WEEK, but management fees and maintenance will eat at least half the profits, let alone repairs and upgrades. Bottom line, the profit would probably be about $15,000-$20,000 per year. Not enough. It was an idea; a way to stay out here but it won’t wash. We’re just going to hang around here for another 10 days or so and then head north. The phone cards here are wonderful. I can call home for $.05 per minute and I got to call my mom and my friend, Kathy. I’ll make some more calls before we leave. Great fun to be able to talk with people without rushing. There are a number of reasons it is nice to be back in US territory and that is one. Another is the toilet paper. See, it’s something you don’t think about everyday, but I do. It’s nice to squeeze the Charmin and it’s actually perforated. We’ll be back in discomfort before long, in the Bahamas. And it’s worth all of the discomfort to sail in those beautiful islands.

February 20, 2002

To Linda: Best of luck and God be with you.

February 21, 2002

Meat and potatoes weather, folks. I got out the sweats but they all smelled musty so I had to put them out to air. I couldn’t put them on the line because it was blowing so hard they would have been goners in a few minutes so I had to tie them around assorted lines. By the end of the day they were wearable and wear them I did. The night before we had roast beef, boiled and mashed potatoes and a fresh salad. We’re running a bit low on food so last night I had peas and cheese toast. Bob had coffee and cookies. We tried to dinghy in to the little campsite store but the surf was too rough and we couldn’t get in. Do you feel sorry for us? Don’t. We have food; neither of us felt like cooking it. We had planned to go to the campsite restaurant for dinner but it was just too windy and the whitecaps in the anchorage didn’t look appealing. Today is a bit calmer, sunny and warm. More boat chores await.

February 23, 2002

We meant to sail around from Francis Bay, St. John to Coral Bay, St. John, about 10 miles. Into the wind, waves and current. We didn’t make it. We went back to Soper’s Hole, Tortola and picked up a mooring ball, mixed with people again and had a nice dinner out. Yesterday the winds and seas were down a bit and we tried again. It was actually a fun motor over, even though conditions were not perfect. We couldn’t sail but it was only 2 hours. We met up with “Sojourn” and “Lady Simcoe.” Had burgers at Skinny Legs (yum) and a nice afternoon playing dominoes. Sue and Gord are on an 8-mile walk from Cruz Bay back to Coral Bay this morning. I don’t know why but there was some sort of run/walk-a-thon. If they’re not too tired, we will play dominoes again and munch on John’s now-refrigerating keylime pie. There’s supposed to be a good band here Sunday night so we may stay, or we may head out. Coral Bay is the strangest place we have been in the islands. The people, that is. It’s a whole group of over-aged hippies. Long hair and big earring and torn jeans. They all appear poor and happy (you can tell when they smile, most have missing teeth.) The music played at Skinny Legs is old 60’s and 70’s. Janis Joplin, The Doors, Woodstock stuff. There is not much here, a pathetically small grocery, a couple of bars and a marine store inside of a shack. There is a “Connections”, which is a fax/phone and Internet shack with the computer down. It might work today and I may get this emailed. Last time we were here we decided it was eerie and we wouldn’t come back. So much for decisions cast in Jell-O.

February 25, 2002 That Coral Bay is one party place. I am still recovering. Last night they had this great band, consisting of 3 nerd-type guys called the Bel-Aires. Boy could these guys make music! After about the 3rd song, I started dancing and didn’t stop until they were done, 4 hours later. My body is sore and tired. My mind is sore and tired. We had to get out of that place while we still had brain cells. We had one of those picture-perfect motors around the corner to Leinster Bay, about 10 miles north. The seas were all of about 1ft. and the winds were 10-13k. I sat up on the deck and rested myself all the way there while Bob navigated. We rewarded ourselves with Nathan’s Famous hot dogs for lunch and then I hit my bunk for a couple of hours. When I awoke at 3:00pm, the sun was shining and the fish were calling to be viewed so we went for a snorkel. We saw 3 sting rays, all with fish aboard them and I snorkeled around a little island called, Waterlemon Cay and saw a small barracuda. I swam with him for awhile, until I thought he was getting annoyed with me. Never good to annoy a barracuda. We then took a dinghy tour of the anchorage and stopped and chatted with some acquaintances. Grilled chicken, buttered pasta and green beans rounded off a wonderful day and have made me quite sleepy. We are once again on one of the free mooring balls so sleep should be wonderful tonight.

February 26, 2002 It’s a hot chocolate morning! Grey skies, rain, hot cocoa and a good book. All the makings of a relaxing day.

February 28, 2002 It’s been a perfect couple of days. Weather has been hot and sunny and the wind has been calm, the anchorage has been flat. “Lady Simcoe” motored in yesterday. Bob and I hiked up the mountain (small mountain) to some ruins. We don’t know the history but it was a good walk. Today we had a fun adventure. We decided to dinghy over to Soper’s Hole, Tortola from Leinster Bay, St. John. Sound impressive? In actuality, it took us 6 minutes. Had the seas been kicked up, it would have been not such a fun adventure but they were only a foot or so and it was quite fun. We had lunch with Gord and Sue and then picked up some great food from the Ample Hamper to keep us going for a few more days. We really like this anchorage. The swimming is great, as is the snorkeling and it’s been nice and flat in here. We met a group of 8 charterers at lunch from Kentucky. Their last day is today and they came and anchored right in front of us. I ended up snorkeling a bit with them. I snorkel around the little island and when I was about 1/3 way around, I found myself alone and the conditions were a little rougher on the windward side. As I was just trying to decide whether to go full around, and berating myself for being such a baby, I found myself looking into the eyes of a 4ft. shark. It’s the first I’ve seen down here and I forgot what the different kinds look like so I panicked a bit. I started swimming fast back to civilization, all the while racking my feeble brain for what kind it might be. When I met up with the charter boat folks, I told them about the shark. They all swam back to safe water but then I convinced some of them to swim around with me again. We didn’t see the shark again but we did see a small barracuda. Later, I dinghied over to our friend on “Kristali” and looked up in their book the different kinds of sharks. It was a nurse shark and now I am the fool. If I had known that, I would have stayed there and swam with him for awhile. He would no sooner eat me then I him. Tomorrow, Bob has promised to go back with me to try to find him. Ten bucks says he chickens out. Any takers?

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