A Day at the Races

It's Boxing Day in Tortola!  Everything's closed, of course...except the Laundromat, which will substantially improve Kai Kanani's air freshness.  Walter's Jeep is functional, even if it hasn't been cleaned since May, when Tony spent considerable effort washing years of mud and grime off the inside and outside as a gift for Walter loaning us the car.  This time it's a "rental"... 

On our way to Myett's for lunch, we discover something completely new...quite rare on Tortola!  Mr Stout, first born son of the original Government Minister Stout, has opened a spectacular new bar on the Ridge Road above Cane Garden Bay.

He's quite the talker, and his bar really is nice.  The view - World Class!  Chris and Kara are enjoying a week away from the Chicago winter, and we recommended Red Rock Restaurant, and lo and behold, they showed up - but didn't come visit us on Kai Kanani after dinner.  Where are you guys?

Next stop:  The oldest rum distillery in the Caribbean...more than 400 years old!  Wood fired one pot still makes 25 gallons per day during the season of pretty darn good rum.  Arundel Rum is sold only on Tortola, mostly to tourists who come to the distillery. 

These people know how to have fun, too.  The best selling rum:  "The Horny Rum...The Panty Dropper"! 

 

 

During Mr. Stout's soliloquy, we discovered that on Boxing Day the Tortolans enjoy serious horse racing at Ellis Thomas Downs.  Kevin, previously unbeknownst to Craig, is a major horse racing fan.  You should have seen him, like a kid in a candy store!  What a great time!  Tortolan women are, how shall we say, fashion oriented?  Like loud, man, really loud!  Bright colors, incredible shoes, they strut their stuff on Boxing Day at the races.  Check out Miss British Virgin Islands, a real cutey.

Circles

It seems as though we've spent considerable effort going around in circles, on land and by sea.  Coming and going to and from Home Depot for last minute supplies we discovered ambiguity in Puerto Rican Highway signs.  Plus, speed limits in MPH and "Mile Markers" in KM.  Go figure, who does this stuff?

Boat mechanics are a requirement.  Shooting them, however,  is just not acceptable, even when it appears warranted.  Kai Kanani has had a very slow leak in her hydraulic steering system.  We're talking really slow, like add a couple of ounces of oil per year.  One never knows, however, when a small leak could become a big one!  Our long term much desired boat mechanic, the famous "Undertaker" (hearse included) found the slow leak and dutifully repaired it.  We're pretty sure he even put oil back into the system...just not quite enough, we discovered, in the middle of the ocean 20 miles out to sea.   After much consternation, circling round and round, and adding the last drops of hydraulic fluid we had on board, we determined with some modicum of certainty that we could steer with autopilot, but not necessarily with the wheel!  Could have been worse.  Threading the needle through the fifty foot wide entrance to Culebra Ensanada Honda on autopilot was nerve racking but uneventful.  The sunset, however, was priceless!

Spanish to English at 8 knots

The trip from the "Spanish Virgin Islands" to USVI and BVI is nearly always a slog directly into the Easterly trade winds.  Not today!

Off the coast of St. Thomas we had perfect wind to sail!  As if celebrating the Christmas spirit the wind flowed joyously through four of Kai Kanani's five sails, propelling us at eight knots towards Penn's Landing on the East End of Tortola, where we docked at 4 PM.  Well, to be honest, we anchored in the bay and dinghied ashore in search of hydraulic fluid, because we couldn't possibly dock under auto pilot!  Thankfully Walter's shop had a stock of ATF, and after Kai Kanani's steering system gleefully sucked down another pint of fluid, full steering was restored and moments later we were tied up at the dock.  We celebrated with a wondefrul dinner at the Tamarind Inn.

Merry Xmas to all.

Green to Port and Red to Starboard, right?

I went below to flip the switch, all excited about how fabulous the cockpit was going to look all lit up. Kevin brightened up the moment as the power streamed through hundreds of LED lights:  "You're not going to believe this".  Ok, we all get a little confused now and then.  Which apparently was the case when our new cockpit LED lights were packed in the ultra modern factory in China.  Check out the photos of the box with the big red sticker emblazoned with the bold capital "R".  Merry Xmas, we now have a very red and green boat just in time for the holidays!  Two steps forward, one step back. That's boating!

It's Sunday night, and it feels like we've been working non-stop all week.  Oh, we have, no wonder we feel that way.  Not for naught, however, as we now have a newly rubberized dinghy, a stern rail mount for our Yamaha, almost all new running rigging (ughh, another day we'll share the Quino story), and best of all:  new radar!  Yeah, it worked on the first try.  Oh, did I mention a really cool new fan in the master stateroom, sorry Kevin - but darn, you already have two fans and lots of airflow.

It's been blowing 20 knots with 6-8 foot seas all week anyway.  The weather gods are cooperating, we have a really nice weather window Tuesday and Wednesday to head East.  Tortola bound we'll be Tuesday morning!

Drinking too much in Puerto Rico

Wow, Kevin and I have spent more than an hour trying to start this blog!  First my phone wouldn't connect to my computer; turned out to be a bad cable!  Kevin had a spare, hallejuah!  It's a miracle, Kevin doesn't even have a Samsung, but they use the same cable!  That's a first for the techy geeks who make us buy different power cables for every different device.  But I digress.

So we finally got a photo of Kai Kanani up on our new Google+ account, and we're learning as we go.  So what's going on?  Quino, our famous rigger, finally showed up today after promising for six weeks to install a new radar unit 40 feet up the mast, and all new running rigging.  He promptly used a rope the size of a shoelace to lower the old radar unit to the deck...smash, it came crashing down from 40' sending chips of gelcoat and teak flying in various directions, barely missing the main hatch.  He promised to pay for the repairs...we'll see.  Tomorrow he's going to use a much bigger rope to raise the new Garmin 18HD radar dome up the mast, and with any luck we'll have radar.  Kai Kanani's running rigging is now much more color coordinated, tomorrow we'll see that finished product as well.  Maybe,only  if Quino shows up again.

Dinghy repairs are proceeding...but we still have a leak in the forward tube.  Hmmm, we're scratching our heads on that one.

With any luck we'll be heading East on Saturday or Sunday.  Stay tuned!

Craig and Kevin