s/v Silhouette: March 2011

Saturday, March 26, 2011

I will never achieve sommelier status

Chris, Kathy and Linda with the wine bottles in evidence – after all those darn classes I attended while still in Dallas I did not get one of the first 4 correct. (It was a blind tasting.) The last two were a Zin and a Cab – those were easy as there were only 2 and I DO know the difference between them on my pallet.

This brings us close to the end of March, our plans are to leave the Virgins next Friday (4/1/2001), sail to South Caicos. We will stay there a few days, then go to Rum Cay for a few days, then Georgetown, Exumas to meet friends Betty and Bert Roy.

Steve and Mark

Wine Tasting Cruiser style, which was stylish indeed

Then, John had Mexican night on his boat the next night (forgot my camera). Ane, Kathy and Kenny had a wine tasting the following night.

This is John and Kenny

Steve, John, Kenny and Mark

Happy hour

Then we meet up with some friends and fellow cruisers for Happy Hour and heavy appetizers – here is Kathy, Chris and Linda.

St. Patty’s Day 2011

St. Patty’s Day 2011 and we go to Amigos rather than Molly Malones downstairs to avoid the crowd. This is one of our favorite bartenders, Karen.

And, the adventure is over

And, the adventure is over – our friends have to leave already! Drat!

This is a great little spot

This is a great little spot.

Café Roma

Then we went around the corner to Café Roma for dinner.

The Quiet Mon

The Quiet Mon is one of our regular places to stops.

Mail in the tropics

For those of you who don’t think we get mail, Rick took a picture of us picking it up at Connections in Cruz Bay:

Here is our permanent address until further notice:

Mark & Chris Lignoul
121 Rainbow Drive # 2100
Livingston, TX
77399-1021

Old church

This church in Cruz Bay St. John was built in 1720 and is still in use today.

Tex Mex in the islands

So now we check back into customs at Cruz Bay and hey LOOK – Tex Mex in the islands….go figure. Dorothy I guess we are back in Kansas.

Silhouette insignia

Rick and Susan get to see first hand the insignia Rick designed for us years ago to put on our main and jib sails. He is a graphic designer and made this just for us and we just love it – nice touch for a boat called Silhouette owned by a couple.

We set sail finally…

Finally, as we leave Cane Garden Bay we set sail.

Local ‘spring’ water

Local ‘spring’ water AKA coconut milk.

A refreshing stop

So, we must stop for refreshment, as the saying goes if you don’t have a drink in the morning, you can’t say I’ve been drinking all day.

Callwood’s

We walk down to a place that seems to be deserted and lo and behold it is open for business. It is Callwood’s and definitely our kind of place….off the beaten path.

A walk on the beach

The next morning Rick, Susan and I take a walk on the beach and through part of the town.

Dinner at a beach restaurant

A glorious sunset

A glorious sunset. I know that if Mom had taken the sunset slides of this (yes there are more but I chose only one to blog) that it would have been both a sunset and a sunrise. (Family lore….let me know via email if you are interested in the whole story & I will tell you the whole story.)

Miles and Mark

– Miles and Mark – Rick is left out as he is the photographer.

Mutual friends join us

We have our friends Anne and Miles to thank for introducing us to Rick & Susan years ago. Rick, Susan, Mark and I had many enjoyable sails, dinners, anchor-outs and ONE big storm on Lake Lewisville, etc. since the introduction. Miles & Anne keep their boat in Nanny Cay (over the mountain from where we were going next). We called to see if they could join us for dinner in Cane Garden Bay. They taxied over and this is me, Anne and Susan having cocktails aboard Silhouette.

Shark seen after snorkeling

Soon after getting out of the water Susan spots this big fish swimming around – now it is hard to tell…but…it looks like a shark to us. Needless to say if we had seen it before getting in the water, the snorkeling would have been cancelled. Susan said she had never seen water so pretty, ever.

Better

This is a bit more glamorous.

Snorkeling – a glamorous sport

I help Susan prepare for snorkeling – a glamorous sport if there ever was one.

DOLPHINS

– It was pretty exciting for us and very cool.

DOLPHINS

We did some fine boat acrobatics to keep them in sight for a while.

DOLPHINS

Early on Susan asked us if we ever see dolphins and I said alas only one since the Bahamas. So, we are on our way to Sandy Cay (near Little Jost Van Dyke) to snorkel and what do we spot but DOLPHINS!

Susan and Rick

Susan and Rick (as if you don’t know by now!).

No luck

Meanwhile, I get out the frying pan in preparation, but no luck again…

Fish for dinner?

Mark prepares to catch fish for dinner.

‘On watch’

Susan and I are ‘on watch’ and I am showing her a bit about how the Autohelm and chart plotter works,

Just us hangin’ around the helm…

Susan was a great help in the galley.

Sopers Hole is very picturesque

Rick and Susan looking out over the anchorage.

Sopers Hole tour

The next morning we toured the shopping area – this is Marina Market, a grocery store very well stocked.

Jolly Roger

It was the Jolly Roger for Sundowners and dinner.

A car ‘ride’ island style.

Mother Chicken's love

I just love the wild chickens and usually carry bread for them. I had not noticed this before but the mother chicken was grabbing the bread first, then giving it to her peeps – too cute!

20 years from now we will be saying “Why did we take a picture of a rock?”

A really cool looking rock on the way to Sopers Hole, Tortola.

Sopers Hole was our first stop as we needed to check into British customs.

Iguana in a tree

The required iguana was sited and photographed.

Breakfast ashore

Rick and Susan at Molly Malone’s for breakfast – of course Rick is taking the picture and we are still in bed…

Sittin on the dock of the bay…

Susan and Chris sittin’ on the dock of the bay

Tricky photography – a picture on the airplane

On Saturday March 12 our friends Rick and Susan Carnes flew in to stay with us for a few days. I believe I mentioned before that I ‘forget’ to take pictures when someone else is snapping away so most of these were taken by Rick. Guess it would have been difficult for me to get a picture of Rick and Susan on the airplane now that I think of it…