Re: Diary23rd April 2004
Out Of India
Birgitte and Ray Charmak
Mon 24 Apr 2006 01:39
We will try and make amends.
Rather than fill in the gap from when we last wrote I shall try and cover
the main points.
Overall the weather has improved we had a wet start for what is normally
drier in the Caribbean.
Birgitte's Sister Christina and her husband Jacob and sons Oscar and Herman
family joined us in Antigua, as our first guests in the Caribbean, and the
fact that they missed their flight from Gatwick to Antigua did not damper
their holiday everyone was on good form and we sailed to Barbuda to enjoy
miles and miles of white sand beeches with no one on them.
On our way to St Martin we had a serious water leak and eventually
discovered it was down to the poor fittings supplied by Oyster's Boat Yard at Ipswich,
this was put right and what appeared to be a
disaster with water everywhere returned to normality eventually, once we
could get some one to look at the problem.( All good and competent agents
are flat out with work, everywhere we go; so if you are looking for a career
change I suggest the Marine industry may be worth looking at!)
We loved St Bart's and St Martin on the French side although the shops on the
Dutch side ( St Martin is half Dutch half French) were particularly
appealing to Birgitte as it was time to pre shop for her birthday.St Bart's
is full of up market Jewellery and clothing stores thank goodness we first
went to St martin and did the bulk of our shopping there.The food on both
islands is absolutely fantastic. You actually think you are in France
particularly with St Bart's.
We celebrated Birgitte's Birthday on the 27th March in Road Bay Anguilla,
unfortunately the weather started to get rainy, however we still managed a
fantastic blow out lunch one of the best steaks I have had in the Caribbean
with pre dinkies at a very good beech restaurant called Roy's Grill owned by
an English couple, Birgitte was sensible and had fish.
Next day we did our first overnight sail where it was just Birgitte and I
previously to Los Palmas and during the Atlantic crossing we had crew to
share in the night watches.It was really enjoyable and most pleasant the
stars were awesome, the only problem is fishing vessels which don't have
the same care and attention for Navigation lights or any sort of lights for
that matter! as we do; and the vessels in question are often so small we do
not always pick them on our radar which is a fantastic device to have.The
other problem is Birgitte cannot sleep when it's her turn to rest and by the
time dawn broke she is absolutely shattered; we will have to work a way round all
of this which I am sure we will, perhaps my lullaby song routine needs to
be improved!
The main purpose of the BVI was to join the Oyster Regatta What Fun!
Oyster certainly know how to throw a good party or should I say parties we
needed a rest at the end of 4 days.
Peter Mantel my mentor for Out of India joined us with his wife Liz for a
few days , his Oyster was in Antigua and they managed the first day of
racing with us, Simon and his pal Will joined us for the last 2 days,overall
we had a fantastic time but no great prizes as in Cadiz.Clearly Cadiz was
beginners luck!
After the Regatta we sailed to the Bight at Norman Island often referred to
as Treasure Island a letter of 1750 stated "Recovery of the treasure from
Nuestra Senora buried at Norman Island comprising $450,000 dollars,plate
cochineal,indigo,tobacco,much dug up by tortolians." This was where we joined
Barry Sullivan MD of Pentanes Insurance, at Willie T's the bar and
restaurant which is a is Internationally famous as all females who jump off
the top deck starkers get a free unique T shirt to prove their feat.Willie
T's is actually called William Thornton named after the architect for the
US capital building,is a replica of a topsail lumber schooner measuring 93 Ft
and stories abound about many wild nights of partying.We joined Barry with
some other friends from the Oyster crowd Unfortunately we proved to be
party poopers with the previous nights playing catch Up! Simon and will
managed to keep the traditions in flow.
We celebrated Simon's 30th birthday on the 11th April at Manchonell Bay at Cooper Island, a
truly special little island in the BVI's.As so many of them are.We then set
off on the hunt for sandy beeches and suitable sites for Kite surfing.Simon
has a kite surf and Will was volunteered on the first day as his "Kite
Bitch"; as Si eventually said Kite Surfing and sailing don't go well together,
and Will had enough off being a bitch!
All the same the kite was flying and the Kite Bitch was in pursuit in our
dingy at North Sound in Virgin Gorda, Si and Will met up with the Richard Branson team off his Island,and we were unofficially invited there the next day.
Necker Island is approached from Virgin Sound, which came first I ask, Virgin Records or Virgin Sound! I have also been told the storey of how RB put in a cheeky but successful offer of $200,000 some 20 years ago when the asking price was $800,000 ; I am told it has recently been appraised at $40,Million- not a bad deal eh!
Well we had a short visit and it certainly is a plush spot.
A visit to a most beautiful spot at the south end of Virgin Gorda called the Baths for it's natural pools and rocks was a good finale for the boys visit.
On their last day we experienced a blow out pipe on the Water maker Water Water everywhere! well fortunately the oyster support system came into place and a local agent sorted things;what was infuriating was to learn the Oyster team in Ipswich had fitted ordinary steel fittings on the Water Maker which naturally rusted!You can imagine my frustrations expressed in emails!
Well hear we are still in the BVI as Oyster have asked the local agent for the seafresh water maker to make other checks.Then we head for the US and Spanish Virgin Islands, heading North for Newport
More Later!