Good luck trying to find me!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Paradiso Numero Dos
Headed west for two weeks. We have about 6000 feet of climbing to do before we disappear off the map. I'm going to be hiking, riding, running, eating, drinking, and helping to throw a BIG party.
Good luck trying to find me!
Good luck trying to find me!
Monday, June 28, 2010
Virgin Islands 2010
It seems to be a crime to devote only one blog post to 10 days in the Virgin Islands, but that is what it's going to be. I lost way too many pictures on the trip because my memory card was acting up. I lost some pictures of some really unbelievable stuff, unfortunately. Oh well. I have pictures from the Captain of things that I don't have pictures of, and I give him photo credits below.
I went with a group from school to sail for ten days. Everyone on the trip had personal/professional interests on the trip. The two undergraduates on the trip are required to redesign the sailboat interior when they get back. I am studying ecoresorts for my doctoral studies, so we had several stops planned for me to be able to talk to managers and tour resorts I hadn't visited before in the VI. Another doctoral student on the trip studies human behavior in small spaces (ie. sailboats), and we also had a professor from MU Extension who is interested in incorporating sailing into a student trip to Greece. Our Captain is my/our advisor, and has been leading student sailing trips for 10 years.
We flew into Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas and stayed that night at the Island Beachcomber Hotel in Lindberg Bay. It is a short walk from the airport. The Beachcomber is awesome because it's right on the beach - taking a taxi just to get to the beach is frustrating and expensive, so we always just stay right on the beach. My 10 days of bliss on/in the water started about 10 minutes after we checked in to the hotel. It's a hard thing to get me out of the water after that....
The next day, we took a ferry to Water Island to tour several homes that were set-up with photovoltaic systems, and to tour an ecoresort. The payback for most PV systems down there is THREE YEARS. I don't understand why PV is not used more there, considering the cost of energy is 3-5 times higher than it is here in the Midwest. We had a stop at Honeymoon Beach on Water Island, where I proceeded to fall in the water fully clothed and soak myself. I'm not sure how I can gracefully dribble a soccer ball while sprinting full speed, or smoothly ride a MTB down a rocky hill with no braking and still be one of the clumsiest people on earth, but I proved myself clumsy on this trip several times. This was just the start.
Honeymoon Beach, Water Island
After we toured Water Island, we ferried to Roadtown, Tortola, BVI to get on our boat. I'm on a boat... We heard that song once or twice while we were in the islands. We spent the night on Gitana, then left the next morning for Soper's Hole, Tortola, to check out of customs and then head to St. John, USVI.
Our boat, Gitana, a 42 foot beneteau
This was my first time sailing on a monohull and from the first short sail down to Soper's Hole, I was absolutely in love with it. Sailing on a catamaran isn't sailing... Our first mooring with 3 crew members who had never sailed before happened in an absolute downpour in Soper's Hole. The rain (and wind) made the first mooring a little bit of a nervous experience, but everything went smoothly. Our crew was awesome for the whole trip. We then had to go through customs again in St. John, where we/I had a first in shallow water. Ooops. Now I know what that feels like...
My "clothes" drying on the lifeline in Salomon Bay, between Caneel Bay and Cruz Bay, St. John, USVI
We spent the night moored in Salomon Bay. We hiked from Salomon Bay over to Cruz Bay on NPS trails to eat dinner for the night. We passed some locals playing a pick-up soccer game on the way and I was very, very tempted to join... Looking back, I probably should have. It was dark on the hike back, but luckily I had stashed a couple of headlamps in my bag. We had three headlamps for six of us, so we paired up on the trail. I accidentally grabbed a cactus going down a steep, technical drop in the trail and the person following me did too. Whoops. It looked like a normal tree. I still have a barb in my palm.
The next day we sailed into open water on the south side of St. John to get to the southeastern part of the island. I spent the first part of the trip untangling a line from a spreader (looking straight up the mast and not out to the horizon in open water) and consequently the majority of the sail to Saltpond Bay trying not to move and staring straight at the horizon trying not to get seasick. It was a great sail, so I was disappointed to be wishing I was either physically in the water or on land for the whole thing. Seasickness is a weird thing. I makes you absolutely miserable and you can't get away from it.
Relief came soon enough, when we moored in Saltpond Bay in the Coral Reef National Monument on a NPS mooring, and dinghyed to shore to tour the Concordia Estate. It was great for me, because Ken showed us all the details and I got to ask all the questions I wanted. I now have some really great contacts at Concordia/Maho, people who are leaders in the ecoresort world.
Photo Credit: Captain Ronn
Concordia, St. John, USVI
That evening I convinced 2/3 of the crew that we should hike to the top of Ramshead, a rocky peninsula, to watch the sun set. I hiked to Ramshead from Maho Bay with Wes last year on an epic 8 hour hike. It wasn't epic this time, but it sure was beautiful. Good idea, Anne.
Sunset from the Ramshead
Sunset from Blue and White Pebble Beach near Saltpond Bay
Sunrise in Saltpond Bay with Concordia on the hill
The next day we sailed to Virgin Gorda, with a stop in Roadtown to go back through customs.
The swimmer (me) tying up the dinghy at the Baths, Virgin Gorda, BVI Photo Credit: Captain Ronn
When things need to be done in the water, I am usually the person who jumps at the chance to get it done. I absolutely love the water and am very comfortable skin diving, snorkeling, swimming, whatever. Thank you Marge Fonner for all those years of coaching and instruction! What started as a competitive sport has turned into a yearning for the water. SO I tied up the dinghy, and then we hiked through the Baths, to the Top of the Baths for lunch. It was hot! Right after the Captain took this picture, a chicken wandered through the restaurant, which is not uncommon in the VI.
Top of the Baths, Virgin Gorda, BVI Photo Credit: Captain Ronn
We had some firsts that day - we couldn't find a mooring ball at Spanishtown, we anchored instead, we got too close to another boat while anchored, we pulled up the anchor and motored into the marina in the dark (which was only slightly tense, but with a capable Captain and crew, we pulled it off).
The next morning I clumsily dropped my sunglasses into the water in the marina, and had my scariest skin dive yet to fetch them. We were only in probably 10 feet of water, but when I got in, the water was so icky that I couldn't even see my fin tips. Yetch. I was actually pretty scared because you really don't know what is down there. The Captain told me to just dive, and I would know I was at the bottom when I got there. Yeah, I had no idea where I was in the water until I finally saw the nasty bottom when I was about a foot from it. It was a good thing I had white frames, because I would not have been able to see them otherwise. I got to the bottom and spotted the glasses a few feet away, and then pulled back suddenly when I saw something black stream by my face. I calmed down a bit, then noticed it was a stream of darker liquid flowing along the bottom. Yetch again. I had to swim through TWO of these to my glasses. I have never been so glad to get out of the water when I got back to the surface. I could taste motor oil and who knows what else after I got out. So, yeah, I showered right then and there. Disgusting. I still shudder at the thought of what those streams of dark liquid could have been....
We sailed northeast that day to Saba Rock and the Bitter End Yacht Club. It was a great sail, the waters near Virgin Gorda are my favorite of the VI, I think.
The view from Saba Rock
A sign in a restaurant at the Bitter End (Chandler is my middle name, a family name, but a Ship Chandler is a dealer in shipping/boating supplies.)
We spent a very toasty night in Leverick Bay, Virgin Gorda because of the absence of wind. Usually sleeping on the boat is a very comfortable in the water even in the summer, just because of the wind. You almost never see water that calm. It was weird.
The calm water we woke up to in Leverick Bay
We motored to Savannah Bay that morning to go snorkeling. Savannah Bay is relatively deserted, because only people who have been there before go in - the channel isn't marked, so you have to know where you are going, and watch the bottom to be sure. The bay is mostly used by locals, but Captain Ronn had been there several times before, so it was no that big of a deal. We had a bit of a hard time getting into the anchorage, because the sun kept going behind the clouds, so we couldn't see the bottom to pick out the coral/sandy bottom. Ronn knew roughly where the channel was, so we did fine, but it was still a little stressful. It wasn't shallow enough for us to hit bottom, but you still don't want to risk hitting any coral. We anchored in the sandy bottom, then dinghyed to shore with our gear to snorkel for the morning/afternoon.
When we finally got back to the boat, we discovered that our boat had moved enough to wrap the anchor rode around a coral head. Yowzas. Not good. Captain Ronn and I jumped in to see what we could do. We were in maybe 25 feet of water, so it's not like it was a super easy skin dive down to the bottom. My first few dives, I freaked out a little because of the depth and because I felt how heavy the chain was underwater. I didn't think we would have any luck getting untangled. It as also very difficult to see how the chain was wrapped around the coral. Two frenchmen in Speedos came over to help out, and with them and Ronn directing Bobbi how to move the boat, and me telling someone to tighten/loosen the anchor rode, then diving to pull the anchor away and off the coral, we made some progress. Eventually we were able to move the chain away from the underside of the coral enough to see exactly where it was caught on top of the coral. It was really a mess. I really, really have a thing against touching coral, and get mad a people when I see them do it (I dove with some people near St. John last year who touched stuff and pushed off coral. Ugh, it mad me so mad.). This time, though, I had no choice. The chain was wrapped around the coral and could do more damage than me going down to brace myself against the coral and pull the thing off... I was wearing Ronn's diving gloves, so I braced myself with one arm and managed to wrench the chain free with the other, and swim the chain to the side off the coral. My first and last time to touch coral. I feel worse about the chain than me touching, though. We got out of there rather quickly after we chatted with the frenchmen.
We went straight across the channel to moor in Trellis Bay, off Beef Island. We took a dinghy to shore, and on the ride I got "fish slapped." A fish jumped right out of the water, and the dinghy carried my side/back right into it, where it left a wet, fishy smelling mark on my clean dress. Clean clothes are pretty sacred on a boat... Even after the water dried, my dress had a strong fishy smell to it, which is why, I am sure this cat took a liking to me when we dinghyed back across the bay to Marina Cay.
Cat at Pusser's, Marina Cay Photo Credit: Bobbi on my camera
This post is getting long so I will give the short version of the rest of the trip. I love to sail on a monohull. It's such a great feeling when you find that sweet spot and the wind fills the sails and the boat pops and lurches forward. We sailed in a storm and couldn't see more than 25 meters in any direction. My pictures of this are gone. We snorkeled the wreck of the Rhone, which was incredible. We couldn't stay long because the above mentioned storm was blowing in, but I will be back to dive it, not just snorkel it.
The crew getting ready to dinghy to shore for a dinner out Photo Credit: Captain Ronn
I can sail really well on a starboard tack. Not so much on a port tack, though. It was weird. Couldn't figure it out. I have to master it. Soon.
I wish I didn't get seasick, even with the medication.
Me snorkeling (snorfeling, as Danica says) with zebrafish at Monkey Point off of Guana Island, BVI Photo Credit: Captain Ronn
It was a really, really, great trip and I am still digesting everything. Three days after we got back, Wes and I closed on our house, so I've been going nonstop since for the last three weeks getting us moved and unpacked....
I went with a group from school to sail for ten days. Everyone on the trip had personal/professional interests on the trip. The two undergraduates on the trip are required to redesign the sailboat interior when they get back. I am studying ecoresorts for my doctoral studies, so we had several stops planned for me to be able to talk to managers and tour resorts I hadn't visited before in the VI. Another doctoral student on the trip studies human behavior in small spaces (ie. sailboats), and we also had a professor from MU Extension who is interested in incorporating sailing into a student trip to Greece. Our Captain is my/our advisor, and has been leading student sailing trips for 10 years.
We flew into Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas and stayed that night at the Island Beachcomber Hotel in Lindberg Bay. It is a short walk from the airport. The Beachcomber is awesome because it's right on the beach - taking a taxi just to get to the beach is frustrating and expensive, so we always just stay right on the beach. My 10 days of bliss on/in the water started about 10 minutes after we checked in to the hotel. It's a hard thing to get me out of the water after that....
The next day, we took a ferry to Water Island to tour several homes that were set-up with photovoltaic systems, and to tour an ecoresort. The payback for most PV systems down there is THREE YEARS. I don't understand why PV is not used more there, considering the cost of energy is 3-5 times higher than it is here in the Midwest. We had a stop at Honeymoon Beach on Water Island, where I proceeded to fall in the water fully clothed and soak myself. I'm not sure how I can gracefully dribble a soccer ball while sprinting full speed, or smoothly ride a MTB down a rocky hill with no braking and still be one of the clumsiest people on earth, but I proved myself clumsy on this trip several times. This was just the start.
Honeymoon Beach, Water Island
After we toured Water Island, we ferried to Roadtown, Tortola, BVI to get on our boat. I'm on a boat... We heard that song once or twice while we were in the islands. We spent the night on Gitana, then left the next morning for Soper's Hole, Tortola, to check out of customs and then head to St. John, USVI.
Our boat, Gitana, a 42 foot beneteau
This was my first time sailing on a monohull and from the first short sail down to Soper's Hole, I was absolutely in love with it. Sailing on a catamaran isn't sailing... Our first mooring with 3 crew members who had never sailed before happened in an absolute downpour in Soper's Hole. The rain (and wind) made the first mooring a little bit of a nervous experience, but everything went smoothly. Our crew was awesome for the whole trip. We then had to go through customs again in St. John, where we/I had a first in shallow water. Ooops. Now I know what that feels like...
My "clothes" drying on the lifeline in Salomon Bay, between Caneel Bay and Cruz Bay, St. John, USVI
We spent the night moored in Salomon Bay. We hiked from Salomon Bay over to Cruz Bay on NPS trails to eat dinner for the night. We passed some locals playing a pick-up soccer game on the way and I was very, very tempted to join... Looking back, I probably should have. It was dark on the hike back, but luckily I had stashed a couple of headlamps in my bag. We had three headlamps for six of us, so we paired up on the trail. I accidentally grabbed a cactus going down a steep, technical drop in the trail and the person following me did too. Whoops. It looked like a normal tree. I still have a barb in my palm.
The next day we sailed into open water on the south side of St. John to get to the southeastern part of the island. I spent the first part of the trip untangling a line from a spreader (looking straight up the mast and not out to the horizon in open water) and consequently the majority of the sail to Saltpond Bay trying not to move and staring straight at the horizon trying not to get seasick. It was a great sail, so I was disappointed to be wishing I was either physically in the water or on land for the whole thing. Seasickness is a weird thing. I makes you absolutely miserable and you can't get away from it.
Relief came soon enough, when we moored in Saltpond Bay in the Coral Reef National Monument on a NPS mooring, and dinghyed to shore to tour the Concordia Estate. It was great for me, because Ken showed us all the details and I got to ask all the questions I wanted. I now have some really great contacts at Concordia/Maho, people who are leaders in the ecoresort world.
Photo Credit: Captain Ronn
Concordia, St. John, USVI
That evening I convinced 2/3 of the crew that we should hike to the top of Ramshead, a rocky peninsula, to watch the sun set. I hiked to Ramshead from Maho Bay with Wes last year on an epic 8 hour hike. It wasn't epic this time, but it sure was beautiful. Good idea, Anne.
Sunset from the Ramshead
Sunset from Blue and White Pebble Beach near Saltpond Bay
Sunrise in Saltpond Bay with Concordia on the hill
The next day we sailed to Virgin Gorda, with a stop in Roadtown to go back through customs.
The swimmer (me) tying up the dinghy at the Baths, Virgin Gorda, BVI Photo Credit: Captain Ronn
When things need to be done in the water, I am usually the person who jumps at the chance to get it done. I absolutely love the water and am very comfortable skin diving, snorkeling, swimming, whatever. Thank you Marge Fonner for all those years of coaching and instruction! What started as a competitive sport has turned into a yearning for the water. SO I tied up the dinghy, and then we hiked through the Baths, to the Top of the Baths for lunch. It was hot! Right after the Captain took this picture, a chicken wandered through the restaurant, which is not uncommon in the VI.
Top of the Baths, Virgin Gorda, BVI Photo Credit: Captain Ronn
We had some firsts that day - we couldn't find a mooring ball at Spanishtown, we anchored instead, we got too close to another boat while anchored, we pulled up the anchor and motored into the marina in the dark (which was only slightly tense, but with a capable Captain and crew, we pulled it off).
The next morning I clumsily dropped my sunglasses into the water in the marina, and had my scariest skin dive yet to fetch them. We were only in probably 10 feet of water, but when I got in, the water was so icky that I couldn't even see my fin tips. Yetch. I was actually pretty scared because you really don't know what is down there. The Captain told me to just dive, and I would know I was at the bottom when I got there. Yeah, I had no idea where I was in the water until I finally saw the nasty bottom when I was about a foot from it. It was a good thing I had white frames, because I would not have been able to see them otherwise. I got to the bottom and spotted the glasses a few feet away, and then pulled back suddenly when I saw something black stream by my face. I calmed down a bit, then noticed it was a stream of darker liquid flowing along the bottom. Yetch again. I had to swim through TWO of these to my glasses. I have never been so glad to get out of the water when I got back to the surface. I could taste motor oil and who knows what else after I got out. So, yeah, I showered right then and there. Disgusting. I still shudder at the thought of what those streams of dark liquid could have been....
We sailed northeast that day to Saba Rock and the Bitter End Yacht Club. It was a great sail, the waters near Virgin Gorda are my favorite of the VI, I think.
The view from Saba Rock
A sign in a restaurant at the Bitter End (Chandler is my middle name, a family name, but a Ship Chandler is a dealer in shipping/boating supplies.)
We spent a very toasty night in Leverick Bay, Virgin Gorda because of the absence of wind. Usually sleeping on the boat is a very comfortable in the water even in the summer, just because of the wind. You almost never see water that calm. It was weird.
The calm water we woke up to in Leverick Bay
We motored to Savannah Bay that morning to go snorkeling. Savannah Bay is relatively deserted, because only people who have been there before go in - the channel isn't marked, so you have to know where you are going, and watch the bottom to be sure. The bay is mostly used by locals, but Captain Ronn had been there several times before, so it was no that big of a deal. We had a bit of a hard time getting into the anchorage, because the sun kept going behind the clouds, so we couldn't see the bottom to pick out the coral/sandy bottom. Ronn knew roughly where the channel was, so we did fine, but it was still a little stressful. It wasn't shallow enough for us to hit bottom, but you still don't want to risk hitting any coral. We anchored in the sandy bottom, then dinghyed to shore with our gear to snorkel for the morning/afternoon.
When we finally got back to the boat, we discovered that our boat had moved enough to wrap the anchor rode around a coral head. Yowzas. Not good. Captain Ronn and I jumped in to see what we could do. We were in maybe 25 feet of water, so it's not like it was a super easy skin dive down to the bottom. My first few dives, I freaked out a little because of the depth and because I felt how heavy the chain was underwater. I didn't think we would have any luck getting untangled. It as also very difficult to see how the chain was wrapped around the coral. Two frenchmen in Speedos came over to help out, and with them and Ronn directing Bobbi how to move the boat, and me telling someone to tighten/loosen the anchor rode, then diving to pull the anchor away and off the coral, we made some progress. Eventually we were able to move the chain away from the underside of the coral enough to see exactly where it was caught on top of the coral. It was really a mess. I really, really have a thing against touching coral, and get mad a people when I see them do it (I dove with some people near St. John last year who touched stuff and pushed off coral. Ugh, it mad me so mad.). This time, though, I had no choice. The chain was wrapped around the coral and could do more damage than me going down to brace myself against the coral and pull the thing off... I was wearing Ronn's diving gloves, so I braced myself with one arm and managed to wrench the chain free with the other, and swim the chain to the side off the coral. My first and last time to touch coral. I feel worse about the chain than me touching, though. We got out of there rather quickly after we chatted with the frenchmen.
We went straight across the channel to moor in Trellis Bay, off Beef Island. We took a dinghy to shore, and on the ride I got "fish slapped." A fish jumped right out of the water, and the dinghy carried my side/back right into it, where it left a wet, fishy smelling mark on my clean dress. Clean clothes are pretty sacred on a boat... Even after the water dried, my dress had a strong fishy smell to it, which is why, I am sure this cat took a liking to me when we dinghyed back across the bay to Marina Cay.
Cat at Pusser's, Marina Cay Photo Credit: Bobbi on my camera
This post is getting long so I will give the short version of the rest of the trip. I love to sail on a monohull. It's such a great feeling when you find that sweet spot and the wind fills the sails and the boat pops and lurches forward. We sailed in a storm and couldn't see more than 25 meters in any direction. My pictures of this are gone. We snorkeled the wreck of the Rhone, which was incredible. We couldn't stay long because the above mentioned storm was blowing in, but I will be back to dive it, not just snorkel it.
The crew getting ready to dinghy to shore for a dinner out Photo Credit: Captain Ronn
I can sail really well on a starboard tack. Not so much on a port tack, though. It was weird. Couldn't figure it out. I have to master it. Soon.
I wish I didn't get seasick, even with the medication.
Me snorkeling (snorfeling, as Danica says) with zebrafish at Monkey Point off of Guana Island, BVI Photo Credit: Captain Ronn
It was a really, really, great trip and I am still digesting everything. Three days after we got back, Wes and I closed on our house, so I've been going nonstop since for the last three weeks getting us moved and unpacked....
Monday, June 21, 2010
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