I went downtown tonight to celebrate Laura’s birthday. We ate at Perla’s, and strolled up and down South Congress til it was time to call it a night.
champers night cap at Hotel San Jose…
the (blurryish) soco view towards downtown… 
A reflection of the Frost Bank Tower on the building next door… 
Happy Birthday, Laura!
Summer arrived yesterday morning at 5AM central time (or thereabouts). Yesterday we set out for a raftup to mark the occassion. Marty & Sue joined us on Nirvana. We met up with Dancer, Kalliopi, Voodoo, Solace, Sapphire and Karma. It’s been a very long time since we enjoyed a raftup with that many other crazies. We had a fun evening, and a nice, relaxed day today. Fair winds and non-stifling temps. All is well.
Today was a pretty full day. The weather was supposed to be colder and drizzly, but it turned out to be another lovely day with blue skies. Keep ’em coming.
Mom and I went to the Armed Forces Day parade, one of the oldest and longest in the country.
I squeezed in a little geo-caching during the afternoon, and then headed over to Seattle to meet my sisters and spent a few hours on the waterfront. We ducked into this little corner o’heaven to watch the Sounders game (win!).
And then caught the ferry home. Pretty views from the stern.
Tuesday, April 8.
This morning we dinghied over to shore to tour the shops and artists’ wares at Trellis Bay.
On the sail back to Fat Hog’s Bay today, Susanne was at the helm and Laura worked the lines by herself. They’ve both done really well with learning the ins and out of the boat, and they’re bonifide sailors now!
We got to the marina in time to finish up the closing paperwork on the charter. We’ll spend the night on the dock, since our flight leaves at 7:30 AM tomorrow. It’s a bittersweet day. Sad that it’s almost over. But ecstatic to use the showers at the marina!
We walked over to Red Rock for an amazing dinner. A perfect last supper for a fantastic trip. So many great memories and experiences. As always, I already can’t wait to come back.
Sunday, April 6.
After the marathon day we had yesterday, we’re taking it easy today. We all dinghied over to Cistern Point and snorkeled for quite a while.
Between Cistern Point and our boat, a turtle was hanging out. He was one cool dude – he didn’t mind that we floated close by to watch him for quite a while. These are the best pictures I’ve gotten of a turtle of all my Caribbean trips. I like how the colors get clearer and more vibrant as he gets closer to the surface.
The guys are headed back to Jost again today. Tan-a-na’s crew leaves early tomorrow morning, so they are headed back to Tortola to spend the night at the marina. After lunch we shopped ashore and enjoyed people/boat watching all afternoon, before hitting happy hour again on Cooper.
For sunset, we dinghied out to the mouth of the bay, beyond the anchorage, to get an unobstructed view of the sun setting over Tortola.
Saturday, April 5.
We headed out early this morning, by 7:30AM. Winds are still 20+ knots. 3-5′ seas, very rough. Luckily the rain seems to have passed. We sailed it to Soper’s Hole, to go through BVI Customs & Immigration again. We picked up a few more provisions there, but quickly headed back out to make Cooper Island by sunset, and join up again with Maggie and Tan-a-na.
The BVI Spring Regatta is in full swing this week. We got a front-row seat of some of the races as we cruised across the channel to Cooper Island.
We pulled into Machioneel Bay at 4pm, at exactly the same time Maggie did. After a quick dip we all met up at the Cooper Island Beach Club for Happy Hour and dinner. It’s good to have the gang back together.
Cooper Island has the best sunsets…..
Wednesday, April 2.
Today we took a daysail to Sandy Cay. It was a beautiful day for it. This is our 3rd trip to the BVI, and this is our first time to stop here.
Susanne and Laura are getting the hang of this sailing thing…
We set an anchor and ate lunch on the boat before snorkeling to shore for a walk around. Tan-a-na joined us. Unfortunately, Maggie’s windlass was not working, so they had to sail on to Cane Garden Bay.
We had intended to moor overnight in White Bay, but its been getting a bit stormy and the wind is really picking up and driving up big NE swells so it would be too rough in there tonight. Instead, we all ended up back in Great Harbour for one more night.
We cooked up our first meal aboard tonight. This is not roughing it!
Tuesday, April 1.
We got up and headed out for our first snorkel of the trip at the Caves in Privateer Bay on Norman.
Afterwards we sailed to Great Harbour on Jost and all three boats met up again.
We took the taxi-ride-from-hell to Abe’s in Little Harbour for dinner: 11 ginormous lobster, many painkillers from the honor bar, and nonstop stories and laughing. 🙂
It’s a good thing we ordered “medium” sized ones, i’d hate to see the “large” ones!
Afterwards we spent the evening dancing at Foxy’s – and seeing some of the more bizarre sights of the trip.
Some found objects from today:
We headed down to our nearby pub after work to grab dinner while playing a few rounds of cards with Tom and Doray. This hand was typical of most of mine all night. “I pass.”
I don’t have an actual bucket list. I do have a long-memorized list of things that I’ve always wanted to try once. One of those is scuba diving. But, my aversion to larger-than-me fishes with sharp teeth has kept me from that one. Snorkeling will happily suffice for me.
Another one from my wannado list is skydiving. Well, this year I watched the construction and grand opening of an indoor skydiving funhouse in Austin called iFly. It’s basically a vertical wind tunnel in which you can experience free fall without the hassle of planes and parachutes. Works for me. And boy is it FUN!
Colleen and I each went 3 times. I will definitely go back again.
Check it out!
This weekend Lori & Dave are out of town, and Jake is staying with us. He’s a great kid. I don’t know who is keeping an eye on who. 🙂 We had a fun pizza / game night last night with Doray, Tom, Sue & Marty. It is so nice to spend time with friends.
Jake and I have been racing Mario Karts on the wii quite a bit this weekend, but today we headed to K1 Speed for the real thing. It’s a pretty awesome indoor venue for kart racing. This is not bumper cars, folks, these karts can go over 40 mph. It was pretty fun! That’s Jake in #25 in the shot above. And I couldn’t resist taking a selfie in my cool racing hat…
Julie joined us on Nirvana for a raftup last night in Arky South with Rory & Greg on Sapphire. Kurt, Barbara and some of their friends came out on Dancer and tied up to us until after sunset. Nick & Isabel came motoring into the cove on Kalliopi right before sunset to join us. Even from a distance, we could see many people on the deck of their boat. As they came closer, we counted 14 teenagers + Isabel, Nick and Dmitri. Whoooa nelly, that’s a lot of people. And they were staying the night! It was a going away party for Morgan who is heading to college next week. Everyone had lots of fun. And we didn’t lose anyone! Never a dull moment. 🙂
As much as we love spending our weekends on the lake, it’s nice to have a change of scenery every once in a while. I mean, we live in an awesome place; we have to get out and about. On the first Sunday of every month, the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum offers free admission to all their exhibits. So, we made plans to go today to see their current special exhibit on Texas Furniture. Here are a few scenes from our day…
The iconic, iron lonestar out in front of the museum…it was a beautiful day…
I snuck a pic from inside… shhh… a tad blurry, but a grand 4 poster bed…
Lunch at Freddie’s…
And, I finally got a picture of the Austin mural on South 1st street… it’s probably about time for some TLC – it’s showing a little wear and tear…
And we wrapped up the day at the Zilker Hillside Theater. Their 55th annual summer musical this year is Little Shop of Horrors. It was a great show…
G’nite all!
We went toobing today on the San Marcos. It’s always a great time – we try to make it out there at least once every summer. It’s funny, all the toobing photos from every year look like exactly the same trip. 🙂
Sheila365 