Long, hot Summer in the Caribbean

It's been a long, hot summer in the Caribbean. Yeah, blue skies, turquoise water, spectacular sunrises and sunsets, great snorkeling, but also hot, humid, sticky, swarming with sand fleas, mosquitoes, and flies.  We need a break from paradise!!!!!!

 

Paul, one of our dock friends at Brooksy, returned in September to announce that he was going to sell his boat and buy a trawler.  His plan was to take his boat to Texas where he envisions a better market since it has been for sale for two years in Roatan.  We offered to help him take the boat to Texas and began preparing to do so. 

 

Lady H is a 53' French, luxury yacht.  All systems are electric, including the winches and sails!  We sailed her with Paul to Guanaja for a shake down to check systems.  On our return, we hit a squall and with only the genoa and mizzen were able to do 7.8 knots!! We kept waiting for our weather window, but it never came.  So unfortunately, by Thanksgiving we had to cancel our trip as we needed to get back to the US before the end of 2012.   At this writing, Paul is due back from the US soon.  Another sailor friend will help him to get Lady H to Texas as planned. 

Mike and Lilo, Stephania, Jon Piero and Maria, took a vacation for about 5 weeks. They had asked David to "mind" the docks, so we needed to stay at Brooksy Point. After all it was hurricane season. It was pretty quiet here. Adagio, Lady H and New Horizons; and Enchantress stopped by a couple of times.  Funny, but we continued with our "potlucks" every Saturday and of course "happy hour"~ no surprise there!!!


 

We were beginning to wonder if Mike and Lilo would ever return. They originally said they would be back in 15 days. Ayla, their female German Shepherd birthing 6 pups seemed to have been the "event" that spurred their return. Mom and pups are all doing well. Being as they already have 5 - 8 month old pups, and the parents, they are going to sell the new litter. We also learned that Mike and Lilo are expecting! Congrats to them! 

 

We awoke to a loud bang one evening, by the time David reached the dock, The Green Hornet, Mike and Lilo's boat was engulfed in flames!  David and Mike had to work very quickly to untie 2 boats very close by.  Surprisingly enough they do have a fire department in French Harbor.  They did arrive, but it took them 45 minutes to get here.  They were expecting a house fire, so it took even longer to get enough hose down to the water.  It was an electrical fire and luckily they are insured.  Mike is in the process of rebuilding her now.

 

It didn't take long for Mike and Lilo to get back in the swing of things. They hosted a Thanksgiving dinner.  It was very nice, but we were homesick.

As 2012 was coming to a close, we left Roatan and spent some time with our family in the states.  Unfortunately, we were not able to see all of our friends and even do all we needed to do.  David and I both got the flu.  It was good to get back to the “land of plenty”.  We were like kids in the candy store; everything you want or need to buy is available . . . a far cry from the Caribbean!   

Every time we go back to the States , it seems to have changed more. The hustle and bustle, the traffic, the construction . . . it can really get on your nerves.  I have to admit, we do love to watch TV and just zone out at the end of the day, but the drug commercials will drive you crazy!   Progress marches on I guess.  I guess our age is showing. . . everyone is on such a fast track and no one talks on their phones anymore.  It's all texting . . . good thing we have thumbs!!!!

 

Since the opening of Brooksy Point, Mike has made it his "duty" to mark the channel into Little French Cay.  He came up with the idea of using our old bowsprit as a marker.  It will probably float away, as others have, but it's a fun story for now!   

The competition between Brooksy Point, Fantasy Island and Frenchy's 44 is in full swing! Brooksy has now started a "Tuesday Trivia Night". As it turned out, our team, "Atlantico's", (David, me, Jim (Little Ben), Greg (Insatiable One) came in 2nd place for the very first game.  Another team won and since they were leaving Roatan, the duty to 1st place winners, to host the next game, fell to us!! So we didn't get "the $$", just all the work!!! It was fun, but it does take time to come up with 4 categories, 3 questions for each of 4 rounds. While I was working at Brooksy on a particularly slow Sunday I Googled for the question/answers. Our categories were: The Olympics, Nautical, Phobias, and Animals. European Connection won and will host the games next week. Do you know what type of phobia Sesquipedalophobia is?

 

While we were visiting family in the states for a couple of weeks, we got an email from our friends Patricia and Allen (Nauti Nauti) that an 80’ ship had come into Brooksy Point.  It’s been a long time since I’ve had any really good stories for the blog and this is a good one.

Victoria is an 80' all aluminum sailing vessel.  The vessel was purchased in 2006 and after being refurbished began on a new venture and voyage. The owner has a contract with the Danish government.  He takes several juveniles and provides them the schooling they need to graduate from high school and also to prepare for SAT's.  Sailing Victoria is an alternative to serving their time in a juvenile detention center.  Sounds like a great option to me!  It is a very lucrative and rewarding business/occupation.  Presently, they have only two young men, but when they arrived in Roatan they had five juveniles. Some stay for a few months others for up to a year. If they are not happy aboard Victoria they have the choice to return to Denmark to finish their sentences. 

 

We had the pleasure one evening to meet Christian (left) and Casper (right) at Brooksy Point.  Christian is the Victoria's first mate, Caspar is the Teacher aboard Victoria, although Christian also teaches.  They and the juveniles are from Denmark. Christian has been traveling the world aboard tall ships for nearly ten years serving several occupations.  Caspar has only been on Victoria for a year and even though he very much enjoyed crewing on Victoria, will soon be going back to Denmark to join his family and resume his job there. 

 

I thought it was quite an interesting story and was so glad Christian offered to let David and I to come aboard.  Victoria has been refurbished to become a more comfortable space for the studentsand crew.  As with many ships/boats originally it had a lot of teak which made the interior very dark; so they brightened it up with white laminate and light wood trim.  If I remember correctly, there were 5 staterooms with quite ample bunks, a large eat-in galley (capable of seating approximately 10 people), normal size stove, huge  refrigerator and stand alone freezer, separate shower and toilet, a washing machine, watermaker, and a huge, walk-in engine compartment in the stern with a very large diesel engine and two generators.  It hardly looks like a ship below! A very comfortable living space indeed!  They also have a large covered cockpit with a table/bench area to seat the crew and students.  They are all a very long way from home, but Victoria is very well equipped to sustain them.
 

 

The students have the choice of learning to sail and help with regular maintenance/repairs on the ship or not.  The atmosphere is very open and yielding to their desire.  It’s up to them to learn as much or as little as they choose.  It would be interesting to know what their success rate may be.  

Victoria has spent about a month at Brooksy Point and they soon will be on their way again.  I’m glad we had the opportunity to meet them and hear their story. We did not have the pleasure of meeting the Captain/owner; he left with one of the students the day we arrived. Though, Harry, a new Captain arrived just before their departure.  Christian is on holiday for six weeks, so Bill joined them to serve as First Mate.  They are headed to Belize and beyond.

All in all, 2012 wasn't the best year for us.  David had to replace the bowsprit, repair the generator, replace the transmission, repair the celinoid for our stove, rebuild the propane locker, replace our chartplotter and autopilot . . . and since returning to the boat, in January, we have had replace our toilet, and VHF radio and antenna!  It never ends!!!! 

So we are hoping 2013 will be less about replacing and repairing and a lot more about SAILING!  We are really READY for a new adventure!!!  We're not sure where we're going, but we're going somewhere!!!

 Stay tuned!