THE FIRST TIME IN THREE YEARS .........

Yes, it is the first time in three years that we have taken a slip in a marina ....... And only because the cold front that has found its way down to the BVIs has set up a swell that has made staying in the anchorage outside simply untenable ..... Normally no big deal, but the swell curls around the headland and the throughs and ridges are in line with the wind direction, and so with each roll there is a good chance you'll be thrown out of bed ............. Don't let these sunny photos fool you .......... It can get nasty ........ But it is so nice to be docked in peaceful surroundings and to be able to just walk to the boatyard each morning past bougainvillea and frangipanis that are all in full colour .... Colours so bright you need to put your 'shades' on .............



This then is the new boat "SOUTHERN COMFORT" ........ All of 62 feet long, with a draft of 5'6", a beam of 16ft. and a displacement of 26 tonnes .......... That may change, as we begin loading her with new stuff, although in the last ten days we have removed at least a tonne of 'stuff' in the process of cleaning ........ Oh, and that is not a left-over 'halloween' costume that Laurie is holding ..... No, she did not go disguised as a 'paper-clip' ......... No, that's an additional frame to be added to the davits to support the new solar panels ..... We have already begun bringing items ashore now that we are 'docked' in the VIRGIN GORDA YACHT HARBOUR ..... Everything comes with a price ........



Some things though, are simply "PRICELESS" .................



Like the 100-yard walk to the boatyard, with a glance over your right shoulder to see the Classic Schooner "The Spirit of Massachusetts" out on anchor, just beyond the reef with the island of TORTOLA in the background ....... For people who like to charter, there is no finer stretch of well-protected blue water than the VIRGIN ISLANDS .....



And from the top of the hill on Virgin Gorda, the view is spectacular and appropriately named ....... Still everything is relative ....... Million dollar views, but every item has to be imported and usually triple shipped, so there goes that first million if you want to build a large house here ......



We have opted for a larger boat so as not to have to buy a house when we finally reach Australia ........ A larger boat with accommodation to fit friends and family and the luxury of air-conditioners, a large generator and a washer/drier .... Tropical 'Southern Comfort' you might say ...... But we have a long way to go before we get there ...... One small step at a time, like "The Queen of Southern Comfort" hoisting a battery on board using the halyard winch, or the 'boatyard boys' using a plank as a lever to straighten-out the bent davit frame, that will hold the dinghy and the solar panels ...... The 'boatyard boys' are a mutually-beneficial admiration society made up of boat-owners 'living the dream'........



Now you shouldn't mess with a designer's plans ..... But, this design has difficulties in reversing or steering at low speed, so we have heard from others, thus a little tweaking here and there is worth doing ........ Like fill-in that space between keel and skeg ..... Stops catching fishing nets with the prop and will certainly improve linear flow over the rudder blade ...... And, change out the cut-less rubber bearing on the propeller shaft while she is still out of the water ......



Two more of the 'boatyard boys', Angel and Michael ........ And here's a huge 'improvement' the designer forgot about ........ Fit a bronze through-hull to drain the bilge ...... It is sheer unadulterated pleasure to be able to flush the hull and remove all the built-up 'crap' in the bilge ...... Thirty years of accumulated 'muck' that is in an impossible place to get to and is generally the cause of bilge pump failure ....... Those bolts holding the fitting are through-bolted ....... Held the nuts on a sticky '5200' finger, then pushed a wrench through the little hole and held it in place with string and a magnet ...... ' No 'Darwin' award, but worth something at least, when the bleeding finally stopped .......

This is Frank or better known as "KIWI" and one of the 'boatyard boys'.......... A man with an amazing memory of people, places and events ....... A powerhouse of knowledge nautical, who has spent his entire life 'messing with boats' ...... He has five of them sitting in a lagoon in the US Virgin Islands for no other reason than 'He loves his boats' ....... The biggest of them is a 78ft cutter-rigged sloop that he has sailed single-handed around the World ..... He has met and knows Dick McIlvride, the builder of "ARITA .... He has even met Bert Munroe, the owner of "The World's fastest Indian" that wonderful KIWI movie starring Anthony Hopkins ..... The list of characters and people he's met is endless ..... There are moments in life when you listen and become enthralled in other people's stories that make you wish you could share that with everyone ..... "KIWI" is the genuine article ....... A real adventurer/seaman/delivery skipper/old salt with a life well-lived ........ 'Goodonya mate' ........ Keep it going ...... "ARITA" is also a KIWI of course, having been built in New Zealand back in 1958 ......



Years ago the ABC TV channel in Australia featured a documentary about the spaghetti pickers in Victoria showing them standing on ladders carefully snipping and harvesting the noodles from the branches on the trees, and then carefully handing them to fellow workers who laid them in boxes ...... Anyway there was this huge outcry from the public long before serious 'punking' was invented ........ We are still undecided on the issue ........... And you can make up your own mind .......



But one thing is for sure ....... Chickens love spaghetti ..... They will sit under your chair just to get some ....... This mother hen and her brood of seven has joined us each day for lunch ..... Kids don't seem to mind at all ...... Now that's 'free range' ......

CLEAN, CHECK, KEEP OR CHUCK .......

Each day we opened up our crate in CULEBRA, Puerto Rico,and took out more stuff to take with us to the VIRGIN ISLANDS in preparation of getting the new boat "SOUTHERN COMFORT" ready ........ Load it all in the dinghy, take it to "ARITA" and try not to sink her ...... We think we loaded maybe an extra ton with batteries, tools, inverters, water-maker and just stuff .....



Further to the north of us, the cold and snow is on its way while we 'rejoice' in these beautiful temperatures and where frangipanis bloom all year round ....



And to the west of us are Annemieke and Timo in CURACAO, having their 'WOOD FOR WOOD' sculpture exhibition to raise the funds to replace the loss of their beloved yacht 'BLUE MARLIN' ..... Very well attended and an absolute success story ............. The sculptures sold like 'hot cakes' ......



Incredibly talented to create these brilliant oil paintings out of washed-up driftwood ....... Even a reporter from the local newspaper gave the venture the 'Thumbs up' .....



And Timo is not slow off the mark either ......In no time at all, he has his floatation raft completed on which the new plywood/epoxy yacht is to be constructed ..... She is to be called "LAZY LIZ" ...... (Strange for there is nothing lazy about either of them) ...... This platform's buoyancy was worked out to carry the weight of construction without going under, but then finally being submerged in order to launch it, when she is rolled over .....



Talk about 'Thinking outside the box' ....... What a classic way of constructing a yacht .......



But despite Timo's enthusiasm and ingenuity, someone still has to keep an eye on him .......



We departed CULEBRA and cruised through the US VIRGIN ISLANDS like a 'knife through hot Brie cheese' ........ Anchored between St. Thomas and St. Johns in Christmas Cove and took the dinghy ashore to meet with the broker who sold us "SOUTHERN COMFORT" ...... Yes, the deed is done ..... We have put "ARITA" officially on the market .......... You can take a sneek-peek at www.stthomasyachtsales.com .. Look under 'John Alden Custom' ..... And when we got back to "ARITA" in the late afternoon there was this beautiful rainbow ...... Both ends visible on the water .... Isn't that supposed to mean something 'rich and wonderful' ........



And in the morning, we moved south to the British Virgin islands and straight to VIRGIN GORDA ......... Motoring through a headwind of twenty knots ......



These beautiful volcanic islands lie right in the path of the Caribbean 'hurricane alley' and are very steep-sided with poor holding, and very little natural shelter ...... The local marinas kind of bury the hulls during haul-out time or as in this case simply build a concrete well to hold the keel and rudder but it helps keep the yachts low-down during the terrible winds of the summer season .... Most other yachts move out of the hurricane zone south to Trinidad or further north to the USA .....



But VIRGIN GORDA is beautiful .... Even the dock where the cargo ferries land is nice ....... And only a mile away are those famous granite boulders called " The Baths " ....



That''s "ARITA" anchored out on the far right in the rolly swell and we come ashore in the dinghy to begin the real appraisal of what we have purchased ...... This is the moment of true reality ...... Our own reality show without cameras ..... And at the end of that first day, covered in sweat and 'sheizen' we are ecstatic .... "SOUTHERN COMFORT" is truly beautiful ....... No less so than "ARITA", but just a different kind of beauty...... Laurie has this necklace made of 'sea-beans' ...... She wondered, what with all the perspiration, they might just sprout ....... "Don't call me sweetheart", .... "Try sweatheart ...."



We found at least twenty pairs of fins and snorkels on board, skis, wakeboard and floaties ....... All the toys you can think of, for charter guests young and old .... We donated it all to Micheal Beans on the yacht "Mangele" next door, for his "HAITI Good Samaritan Foundation" ..... You remember(maybe?) that Micheal Bean is the talented musician that runs the pirate show at Leverick Bay in Virgin Gorda Sound during the sailing season ..... We are keeping the kayak though .....



What a beautiful place to work in ..............



But what are we going to do with fifteen life-jackets ...... Let's see if the cruise ship anchored out needs some more .....



We are now up to our eyeballs in work .... Cleaning, scrubbing, sorting, chucking, polishing .... The boat has been closed up for more than two years, and in the tropics you can kind of figure what that means ........ And in the engine room there is an accumulation of water, diesel and oil that goes back well beyond the last two years .... Not that we're complaining, after all when the day is done and the body has recovered, the sunrise is pure 'inspiration' to do it all again ...... Even though we have dirt and crud up to our elbows before showering at night, we are 'Still living the dream' ............. And if we seem to use that word 'BEAUTIFUL' far too often, it is because it is all true ..........

And Yahoo News mentions something about 'HOME DEPOT's improved fiscal outlook ...... Well, we know why that is ..... We hit HOME DEPOT in Puerto Rico only last week, several times .....