New Years Day and the next

Another year under our belt and here’s to a New Year ahead.

We heard the fireworks go off at midnight, then again at 1am. Megs (from Alpha Crucis) asked if we’d heard the music blaring until 4am but we didn’t hear it in the boatyard. They’re right on C Dock so I’m sure they heard all the live music the whole night through… Wayne worked on waxing the boat today and I tried my hand at mending a seam on the starboard settee and mending part of the port side settee that Robber the Rodent had chewed through.  The buffer decided to bite the dust for poor Wayne in the middle of waxing the side of the hull. I did manage to finish the starboard settee cushion and one of the port side cushions but I’m not sure how to handle the other one. 

Yacht Week at VGYH - all the rafted boats and their flags

Yacht Week and the marina is FULL...

      The marina got a bit crazy this afternoon. I kept hearing Lucy N say “We’re all filled up” to anybody hailing the marina looking to come in for the night. Turns out she had 48 boats coming in, 24 of which were catamarans.  It's something called "Yacht Week". Once they started coming in, the place was crazy. There weren’t enough bodies to handle putting the boats in the berths and rafting up the cats. Lucy was on the docks trying to direct traffic and it looked like they had 1 dock hand, maybe 2. I was a little distracted by an old guy on the back of one catamaran, naked as a j-bird bathing and turning every which way. I really didn’t need to see him but he was twirling and washing for all the world to see. I diverted my attention back to the boats coming in and  I helped as best as I could directing a couple of boats to where Lucy  wanted them   and catching lines. It was amazing… Along the wall they were packed and still coming in. I  had a mono in a slip, a cat right behind them and another cat in the berth in front of that. The maneuvering was something… there was less than ½ foot between the three of them. After helping a bit, then feeling a little useless (guys on boats don’t like to take directions from females without radios in their hands) I went back to the boat to get Wayne.  So many boats and flags… One banner (huge) said “Party with Sluts”. I kid you not… I guess the guy on the back of the cat was a version of an older slut?

Yep College week

      I grabbed my camera, computer and some money and figured I’d better get a table if I wanted to check email and get a burger. Wayne was going to meet me. There was standing room only in the restaurant but I did hop over the railing when I spotted an empty table. After sitting at the table for 45 minutes and not getting wifi on any signal, I changed and moved closer to the bar. Still no reception or service. People kept coming and going… Exasperated at not getting food or drinks I think. I finally went out to the patio bar/restaurant and grabbed a table with no chairs. Then finally found a seat and got wifi. The place was packed and crazy… More folks kept grabbing up seats as folks got ticked and left because of no service. It went on and on... When Wayne finally found me, I still didn’t have a drink or a burger or even spot the bartender… But I did have a seat and wifi… folks kept asking if I had wifi and what the password was…  I gave it to them but they couldn’t log on (tequila1)… It occurred to me that I was probably on the marina wifi (I was). I couldn’t remember what the password was though… It’s different than the boatyard’s code (which I couldn’t get to work). We finally got service3 ½ hours later and after a lot of people watching (one young woman kept trying to catch a rooster while others egged her on – even bribing the cock with food – didn’t work) we finally headed back to the boat. Tonight we can hear the music blaring. The boats are rafted in tight all along the marina and the folks are in a partying mood. It’s a shame most places are closed due to the holiday! There’s money to be had here and nobody to take it… 

January 2, 2014

“Yacht Week” is basically a gathering of college kids that rent sailboats and do a tour of the BVI for a week. Some boats have captains and the others follow the boats with the captains. They hit Foxies for New Year’s Eve, here for New Years and are heading to Anagoda today (January 2nd).  It’s taking them a while to get out but they say they’re on Island Time. The “College Kid” group explains a lot. Going down the dock to visit Alpha Crucis  (their guests got hung up in Miami) one of the cats had a blow up doll on the bow… yep, party week, kind of like Fleet Week on the East Coast of the U.S. I guess only in the U.K. territories they have yacht week… They slowly got all the vessels out as the Cruise Ships brought in their passengers. It looks like the same cruise ships in the harbor – one blue, one white. The last few days this place has been busy, busy, busy… We decided to stay in the boat yard until Monday. Wayne’s still varnishing the rub rail and we need to get the motor off the rail and dinghy set up…  It would be more comfortable in the water but it doesn’t really matter. I made use of our “still” time to try and patch up the upholstery that the rat had tried to chew up for bedding or whatever it was doing (trying to get to my stores?).

     I walked with Suzi (s/v Sheilah) to the store so she could get some items & we shared some girl time.  They had some wonderful looking salads so I got a chef salad for Wayne and a tuna salad for me. They were huge and one would have sufficed for both of us. I now have left over lettuce for something else.