She is all ours now

22nd Jan 2006 - 29th Jan 2006
She is all ours now.

We flew to BVI in January; met up with Rich and Carol in Sopers Hole and sailed over to St. John, USVI, and concluded the purchase of the boat. After finding Connections and having all the transaction papers notarized and retrieving the boxes we had previously shipped down, then we motored over to Red Hook Bay on St. Thomas. Bill and I took a taxi to the other end of the island to find the Environmental Services office, where we registered the boat with hailing port of St. Thomas. All this was required because we want to have the boat US Coast Guard documented, and they require that the papers be notarized by a US notary. Then we had to register it USVI so that we could then bring the boat back to the BVI under our ownership. We want to leave the boat at the same marina until we move aboard May 1st. Once the USCG documentation is complete, then we can forget about registering again in USVI once the current registration expires. Once the boat is documented then she does not need to be registered any longer. Everything went smoothly and the boat is now back in the BVI at the marina in Sopers Hole.
Bill's job is causing many headaches for us because they have decided that they do not want to announce his retirement which is supposed to be effective April 28th. Seems like one year's notice should have been sufficient, but we do understand their reluctance to announce this at the current time because they are in the midst of a financing round and that news might make prospective investors leery. So the employer has asked that Bill stay on in his current CFO position for several more months. Bill has agreed to be available via satellite phone and email as long as they require his services, but insists that he must have the entire month of May off to handle getting the boat down to Trinidad for the hurricane season. We had been so looking forward to a leisurely two month trip down island, planning to stay in Grenada for month of July and then on to Trinidad in August. Now that leisurely trip is looking highly unlikely.

We fly to BVI on May 1st and the next day we will go over to St. John to pick up many boxes we have shipped down there and the spares that we have ordered from Amel in France and the Shade Tree Awnings that are also supposed to be shipped down there for us. On May 3rd we have a haulout scheduled at the Independent Boat Yard on St. Thomas. We want to have the boat acid-washed, waxed and bottom painted. Plus service the prop and the line cutter. We will also have the Zodiac liferaft serviced while the boat is hauled. Lucky for us, the only Zodiac authorized service center is in the same harbor as the boat yard we chose for this haulout. We are also having the fuel polished and the fuel tank cleaned, which should be done prior to our arrival. We were leery of heading out on open seas until the fuel tank was cleaned since the boat has sat idle for so long. Probably lots of little nasties growing in that diesel tank that would surely clog our filters or foul our engine once we get into a little wave action.

After all this prep and maintenance work is completed, we planned to head over to St. Martin around May 10th; and then begin our island-hopping down to Grenada. Now, with all his job turmoil, it appears that isn't going to happen as planned. We might have to make a direct sail from St. Thomas down to Grenada, and Bill might have to return to work for a month or more and leave me alone on the boat.

This is not how either of us envisioned starting our cruising life. We'll just have to see how this all pans out.