May 18, 2012
Drove over to San Diego and spent the night on the boat.
The next day, we drove up to Los Angeles arriving around 6 PM. We checked into a Hotel and then around 11 PM, we left the truck at a parking facility near the airport. In the morning, we caught the early morning flight out to Miami, Florida. After a short layover in which we had lunch at TGI Fridays in the airport, we caught our connecting flight to ST Thomas USVI. We arrived in St Thomas late in the evening on the 19th only to realize that I had left my spare set of hearing aids on the table in the restaurant. We picked up a rental car at the airport – a Ford fusion – and drove off to find Blue Beard’s Castle.
After being stopped by the local constabulary for running a red light and being given a stern warning, we found the entrance to Blue Beard’s Castle and checked in for the week.
For the week, we had a nice studio apartment with a partial kitchen, a full bath, and a patio that over looked the harbor – one of the many harbors on the island.
The only drawback to Blue Beard’s Castle – other than the obvious that there never was a real pirate named Blue Beard and he did neither visited nor built a castle on St. Thomas, was all of the bloody steps. It was 36 steps down from the parking lot to our apartment, which meant that it was also 36 steps back up every time we wanted to go anywhere. Also, the pool was another 47 steps above the parking lot, and reception was another 16 steps above that. One of the major tourist attractions in downtown Charlotte Amalie was an area called the 99 steps. We went up and down these steps in the center of the old tourist town just to say that we had done it; and then I pointed out that from our room up to the reception desk was exactly – you guessed it – 99 steps.
During the week, we drove all over the island, burned up the transmission in the Fusion, enriched the local economy – sometimes unintentionally – and visited as many different beaches as we could find.
We made friends with the locals
And even got up close to the wildlife.
We checked out the fortifications guarding the harbor
As well as those at Bluebeard’s Castle
Perhaps the most relaxing beach was one that we had decided early on not to visit due to the admission fee.
With so many other beaches available, we figured we didn’t need to pay an entrance fee. Later in the week, we did stop in and pay the fee to go to Magan’s Bay.
The beach we enjoyed the most was at Hidden Harbor – the last beach we visited on the last day of our trip.
We stayed too long at this beach and almost missed our flight home. We found ourselves running from the security checkpoint through the gate area as they were announcing that they were closing the doors and all passengers should be on board.
As we returned through Miami, we stopped at TGI Fridays on the off chance that they had found my hearing aids – but no luck. We arrived back in LA late in the evening on the 26th and retrieved the truck from the parking facility and drove back to San Diego.
Spent the day the 27th hanging around the boat, went for a bike ride down to the cruise ship terminal, and dinner at the seafood restaurant near Mission Bay Marriott and Dana Landing.
always project to do on a boat
On the 28th, took the boat out sailing. We sailed east along the Bay towards the Coronado Bridge, and then turned back to the North along the back of the U.S.S. Midway and west back to the slip. We had a nice quiet, peaceful sail with Alanah at the tiller and me working the sails until it was time to come into the slip.
As we came along the waterway between “F” dock and “G” dock, we missed the slip and ended up motoring back out to the open area towards Spanish Landing Park. Then we took another try at getting into the slip only to be coming in too fast and riding the front of the boat up and onto the cushioned rail of the dock before coming to a stop. Like they say about airplanes, any landing you can walk away from is a successful landing – I guess that any docking maneuver you can walk away from is a successful maneuver.
July 4, 2012
The fourth of July came on a Wednesday this year. We rented a car and drove over to San Diego on the fourth. We anticipated the fireworks display right out our front door and across the street in San Diego Bay. About five minutes before the show was to start, we heard one loud explosion followed by another and looked out the boat cabin entry towards the Bay and the sky was filled with fireworks explosions – one after another; right on top of each other. The entire fireworks show that was to take an hour or more, went up within two minutes. The media reported the next day that there was some sort of “technical glitch” that caused the premature igniting of all the fireworks.
The next day, we took the boat out sailing. As we left the slip, the engine died and we continued to drift across the lane towards the other boats on “G” dock. I realized that I had not turned the gas on – just the water – and jumped down into the cabin, throwing the ladder out of the way, pulled back on the engine cover so that I could get to the gas valve, and sure enough, it was in the off position. I pushed it over into the open position and climbed back into the cockpit and the engine started right up.
We went out into the harbor and headed out toward the Pacific Ocean passing by Shelter Island on one side and the Navy Base Airfield on the other. Before getting to the entrance to the Bay past Point Loma, we turned around and headed back into the Bay and back to the slip. We had a great three hour sail without mishaps or complications. On the 6th, we headed home to Scottsdale. We had tickets to the Beach Boys concert on the 7th and did not want to miss it.
July 27, 2012
At 2:00 PM, I was told that if I was up to date on my projects, I could leave early, so I called Alanah and asked if she wanted to go to San Diego. I left work at 2:15 PM and by 4:00 we were on the road headed out of town. We had rented a car from Enterprise, packed and gotten away in less than two hours – some kind of a record – at least for us.
On Saturday, we decided to go sailing. There was a good steady breeze and we battened down the hatches and made ready for a day’s sailing. As we left the slip, I told Alanah that we wanted to swing the nose of the boat into the empty slip beside us as we pushed the boat back into the lane. As we were leaving the slip, the engine died. I knew that the gas was on and could not get the engine to start up again, so I grabbed the last line that ran from the port side of the transom to the dock to keep us from drifting across the lane. The wind was quite strong and it would not have taken long for us to have been blown those few 40 or so feet. Unfortunately, Alanah had released the bow and it was nearing the lane, almost clearing the end of the other side dock. I yelled for Alanah to run around and I would throw her a line. Then I ran up to the bow with one of the dock lines, looped it around the stanchion on the boat and gave it a huge toss towards Alanah on the end of the side dock. She and I were both surprised when she ended up with the entire line. It had come unhooked from the stanchion.
TTFN
TropicalCastaway 