More BVI Photos
I posted some more BVI photos.
One of the very few bummers on our BVI trip was that my Olympus "waterproof" camera died. Again. This is the third time. They've covered it under warranty twice, which is almost fine. But to get warranty coverage is about $20 in postage to send the darn thing back to Olympus (UPS only) and then a 3 to 5 week wait to get it returned. Then of course we have to wait until Bb goes north or someone else comes south in order to get the camera back to us (which isn't Olympus's fault, but annoying just the same).
It appears that this particular camera has some problem with the little door on the bottom where you change out the card & battery. Which is important because sooner or later, you're going to *have* to change the battery! The design on said door doesn't look much like a waterproof seal other than that it has a flimsy gasket. Hopefully they've improved that design on future cameras.
So it leaked and stopped working on day two of a week long "Boy, a waterproof camera sure would be fun on this trip!" trip.
So I had forgotten that we did get a few fun photos.
Hopefully, the extended warranty that I purchased will finally cover the camera- they have a "no-lemon clause" and I hope this qualifies. Which should result in us having a new underwater camera sometime soon.
One of the very few bummers on our BVI trip was that my Olympus "waterproof" camera died. Again. This is the third time. They've covered it under warranty twice, which is almost fine. But to get warranty coverage is about $20 in postage to send the darn thing back to Olympus (UPS only) and then a 3 to 5 week wait to get it returned. Then of course we have to wait until Bb goes north or someone else comes south in order to get the camera back to us (which isn't Olympus's fault, but annoying just the same).
It appears that this particular camera has some problem with the little door on the bottom where you change out the card & battery. Which is important because sooner or later, you're going to *have* to change the battery! The design on said door doesn't look much like a waterproof seal other than that it has a flimsy gasket. Hopefully they've improved that design on future cameras.
So it leaked and stopped working on day two of a week long "Boy, a waterproof camera sure would be fun on this trip!" trip.
So I had forgotten that we did get a few fun photos.
Hopefully, the extended warranty that I purchased will finally cover the camera- they have a "no-lemon clause" and I hope this qualifies. Which should result in us having a new underwater camera sometime soon.
Labels: BVI, photo, sailing, vacation
The boat, by the way
Some folks have asked us about the BVI trip, those boaters out there all said "What boat did you get?!?!"
We sorta scratched our virtual heads (or looked confused, if in person) and said "Um... It was about 42 feet. A cat."For those of you who weren't satisfied with the answer, you can now proceed directly to Footloose Charters' web page and see the complete details of our vessel. It was a Moorings 4200.
Apparently it was 41 1/2 feet. For the record. And built in Capetown, South Africa.
Labels: BVI, sailing, vacation
British Virgin Island Odyssey May/June 2008
Lots of interesting things going on down here in beautiful Tamarindo.
For starters, we've finally posted a bunch of our photos from the British Virgin Islands trip we did earlier this month. We have more (obviously) and might put a few more up online, but these are a good cross-section of the journey.
Our friend Jen Gebbie is visiting right now. We've been having a great time hanging out with her. Last Saturday we all threw a little party to belatedly celebrate Jocelyn's birthday. The weather cooperated and we had a nice bbq with plenty of delicious food, friendly faces, and libations. Steve ignored the early signs of a head cold, had a great time, and has been paying double for it all day Sunday :(.
Regardless of the head cold (and hangover) we did a little road trip to Junquillal to look at some property and see a different beach. Caly was apparently delighted to visit the beach three times in one day (three different beaches, no less). The rest of us enjoyed ourselves too!
Speaking of property- we've finally decided to sell our vacant lot in Tamarindo. We really like it and would enjoy building something on it, but now that we've got a lovely house of our own, the idea of building another one just seems excessive. If you know anyone who would like to get a great deal on a beautiful home lot in Tamarindo, send them our way! The lot is 1/8 acre and has a little bit of an ocean view from the 2nd floor (ok, it has a tiny ocean view from the 1st floor, but to enjoy the view you would want to build a 2nd or even 3rd story patio). We're asking $135,000 but will consider offers. The lot is surrounded by single family homes and is an easy walk to the beach (about 3/4 mile).
For starters, we've finally posted a bunch of our photos from the British Virgin Islands trip we did earlier this month. We have more (obviously) and might put a few more up online, but these are a good cross-section of the journey.Our friend Jen Gebbie is visiting right now. We've been having a great time hanging out with her. Last Saturday we all threw a little party to belatedly celebrate Jocelyn's birthday. The weather cooperated and we had a nice bbq with plenty of delicious food, friendly faces, and libations. Steve ignored the early signs of a head cold, had a great time, and has been paying double for it all day Sunday :(.
Regardless of the head cold (and hangover) we did a little road trip to Junquillal to look at some property and see a different beach. Caly was apparently delighted to visit the beach three times in one day (three different beaches, no less). The rest of us enjoyed ourselves too!
Speaking of property- we've finally decided to sell our vacant lot in Tamarindo. We really like it and would enjoy building something on it, but now that we've got a lovely house of our own, the idea of building another one just seems excessive. If you know anyone who would like to get a great deal on a beautiful home lot in Tamarindo, send them our way! The lot is 1/8 acre and has a little bit of an ocean view from the 2nd floor (ok, it has a tiny ocean view from the 1st floor, but to enjoy the view you would want to build a 2nd or even 3rd story patio). We're asking $135,000 but will consider offers. The lot is surrounded by single family homes and is an easy walk to the beach (about 3/4 mile).Labels: BVI, photo, sailing, vacation
We did a big circle, mostly
Several people have asked "Where did you go in the islands?" and since we did take our own gps along on the ride, I threw together a quick google earth track of our route. It isn't perfect. That would have required that Steve was on the ball enough to turn the gps on every day before we started sailing and also remember to save our track at the end of the day. But at least we've got a rough indication of where we sailed, which is more fun than trying to describe it.
We do still have pictures on the way. Be patient.
ps: you may or may not have noticed that there are now google adsense links on the left column. If you think that online journals are cheapened by the inclusion of advertising (we do, sorta) then you can block the ads by using Firefox and installing the "Adblock" extension. It is fantastic. With a little training, you can make your browser remove just about every advertisement. Great stuff. Alternately, you may see something that you like on that sidebar, and click through to shopping bliss. Which is profitable to us, which has obvious upsides.
Labels: BVI, sailing, vacation
Ahhh. Vacation.
We took a vacation. A real, live, no-computers, no-phone vacation. And we took it in the tropics. The real, warm-water, blue-skies, wear-your-bathing-suit-all-day tropics. "Don't you live in the tropics?", You ask. "Why, yes, now that you mention it, we do.", We reply. "So why on earth would you go on vacation in the tropics?", You ask? And that would be a very good question, and one we asked ourselves countless times as we bloodied our heads banging them against the wall of airline routes out of Costa Rica to other tropical vacation destinations.
We don't live in a place conducive to airport hubs and direct flights to out-of-the-way islands, and this fact was never more apparent than when desiring to travel east a couple thousand miles and having instead to travel north, then south, then east over two days to do so. But, the good news is that we would gladly do it all again to see what we now firmly believe is the most beautiful water in the entire world. Now, we should probably cut the water in the Meditteranean and the water off the coast of Africa, and probably the water somewhere off the coast of South America some slack, as we've never seen it, so we are more than likely under informed judges, but be that as it may, we're in love with the British Virgin Islands (and the American, French and Dutch ones, since really, as far as the islands are concerned, it's really all the same thing.)
We bareboat chartered a 42' Catamaran to more fully indulge in our love affair and spent our days, well, sailing. And eating. And wearing our bathing suits all day. And drinking - rum being the beverage of the BVIs et. al. And really, that's about all I have to tell of our days spent on the boat. We carelessly (and I mean this in the frivolous, worry-free sense, not the thoughtless, mean-spirited sense) whiled away our days with the concerns of sailing, snorkeling, eating and rum drinking. And within that carelessness does not lie much of a story. Which, I suppose is the mark of a truly, deeply and well spent vacation. So I will let our photos tell you what we did. I'm posting only a few here today. As time permits, we will post more than you could possibly want to see!
We don't live in a place conducive to airport hubs and direct flights to out-of-the-way islands, and this fact was never more apparent than when desiring to travel east a couple thousand miles and having instead to travel north, then south, then east over two days to do so. But, the good news is that we would gladly do it all again to see what we now firmly believe is the most beautiful water in the entire world. Now, we should probably cut the water in the Meditteranean and the water off the coast of Africa, and probably the water somewhere off the coast of South America some slack, as we've never seen it, so we are more than likely under informed judges, but be that as it may, we're in love with the British Virgin Islands (and the American, French and Dutch ones, since really, as far as the islands are concerned, it's really all the same thing.)
We bareboat chartered a 42' Catamaran to more fully indulge in our love affair and spent our days, well, sailing. And eating. And wearing our bathing suits all day. And drinking - rum being the beverage of the BVIs et. al. And really, that's about all I have to tell of our days spent on the boat. We carelessly (and I mean this in the frivolous, worry-free sense, not the thoughtless, mean-spirited sense) whiled away our days with the concerns of sailing, snorkeling, eating and rum drinking. And within that carelessness does not lie much of a story. Which, I suppose is the mark of a truly, deeply and well spent vacation. So I will let our photos tell you what we did. I'm posting only a few here today. As time permits, we will post more than you could possibly want to see!
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Labels: BVI, sailing, vacation
BVI
So far our Virgin Islands trip is going fantastic!
We've had good weather, some sun, some clouds, fun snorkeling, beautiful 8 knot sailing with low swell, good food and great company.
Pics to follow, but at $20/hour for super-slow internet, I just can't stomach uploading them yet.
Off to see more beauty!
We've had good weather, some sun, some clouds, fun snorkeling, beautiful 8 knot sailing with low swell, good food and great company.
Pics to follow, but at $20/hour for super-slow internet, I just can't stomach uploading them yet.
Off to see more beauty!
Labels: BVI, sailing, vacation
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