september storms, sailing and school

Hurricane season has taken on a whole new meaning for us since we have moved to St Thomas. What used to be a foreign news story is now a part of our seasonal business and life. And while the official season begins in June – the actual storm activity usually begins in August and September after a couple months of humid and windless conditions.

This year forecasters have been predicting a more active storm season with multiple named storms. It’s a bit of a sport and certainly always the topic of conversation. Despite the warnings and broadcasts for seasonal preparedness, human nature lends itself to varying degrees of procrastination - putting off the things we deem necessary but not quite as fun. Why bother with mundane house projects and shopping when you can go to the beach? Indeed. When news reports were quickly confirming that Hurricane Earl was, in fact, making its way for an uninvited visit to our islands, it was somewhat like finding out that you had 20 dinner guests arriving in an hour when you didn’t have any food and the house is a mess. Mayhem. Grocery stores were filled with people (stocking up on some of the oddest items), gas stations had long queues and storm shutters were being put in place.

I was at the grocery store three times the day before the storm - the final visit to buy some beer for the guys who helped us move the boat. There was an older man buying provisions in front of me - three bottles of single malt scotch and a variety of canned items. He smiled at my little six-pack and said he hoped I had more than that to get me through the storm. I went through another mental check list. What did I have at home?

Of course, we can include ourselves in this group of procrastinators as we were scrambling to move our boat from the yacht club which had declared the mooring field closed Sunday morning, to the safer haven of the boatyard. We were unable to get the boat out of the water before the storm and realized that we were relegated to the mangroves.

Hiding boats among the mangroves is a favoured option for many – especially live-a-boards. The concept is simple: find a good spot that isn’t too close to your neighbour, tie one end to mangrove trees, throw out a couple of anchors on the other end, hope for the best. The end product is a spider web of boat and anchor lines making the trip in and out an interesting challenge.

Our trip was fairly straightforward after we were kicked out of our first spot which was deemed to be someone else’s hurricane spot since the beginning of time. Apparently we were not versed in hurricane mooring history and thanked them for this new insight. Max was determined to steer the boat during this trip which was a little tricky in light of all the anchor lines waiting to catch unsuspecting keels and propellers. We slipped into a nicely protected spot under the watchful eye of various new neighbours who were all more than willing to lend advice on where we should tie and how far our anchor should be from their line. Mark climbed into the mangroves and tied the boat, I threw out and secured a couple of anchors and then we went back to shore in our friend’s dingy. Good luck little boat. Be safe.

As I type this out I am actually having a hard time recalling the blur of what fortunately turned out to be a close call. Hurricane Earl was a category four storm that hit us August 30th in the early evening. Our team at work really stepped up to the plate before and after the storm - and were out until the 6pm curfew and(just before) it was lifted. School was scheduled to start this day and was cancelled once the storm was confirmed. Our two little men were dragged to work with us until we decided it was time to be safe at home.

At home - we watched the wind whip by with some impressive gusts and from a very unusual direction than the consistent easterly Tradewinds. As it increased in intensity, we watched the system take over - sinking a few boats and clearing some areas. We stood outside for a while watching the excitement until things started to crack and fly by at a concerning rate. I was having flashbacks from Wizard of Oz while I watched airborne branches, pots, debris . No witches on bicycles but I brought the boys bikes inside, just in case. The video clip below is taken from the deck.

The aftermath of this storm has been interesting and consuming. The day after the storm, Mark left the house first, breaking curfew with our (quasi)"essential service" status to be followed pretty quickly by the boys and I. There were many trees, branches and things blocking roads not to mention every police vehicle out with flashing lights. Julian sat in the back seat taking photos with my phone (great attempts...) – trees down, boats with no rig, and a lot of debris. Before we even awoke, we were getting call after call regarding generators that were down or not running properly. It was a very, very busy week where our team was working long days and getting many people up and running.

A good portion of St Thomas and St John was without power for up to a week. For those with functioning generators that provided seamless power – the outage wasn’t too inconvenient. However, for the many people without generators, there were huge problems where they couldn’t get water from their cisterns, couldn’t keep food from spoiling in their freezers or didn’t have ways to cook. After we got through the initial back log of emergency response – we then graduated to the next level of dealing with machines that had been running for a week and were getting tired. Refuelling became another challenge as the port was closed for a couple of days and the diesel supply was limited. We were desperately trying to get diesel from our supplier and others to fill our fuel truck and keep up with the demand. Patience levels were wavering and we all had to move quickly to keep businesses and homes running.

One of the other challenges was cellular service. For a few days the service was very poor. In fact the day after the storm it was just about non-existent which meant dispatching the technicians was difficult and customers had to be patient getting through to our office. Our phone lines were so busy that all lines were constantly ringing and there were always voicemails and messages. Slowly as service and functionality returned to the island – our demand continued as there was a steady demand for repairs and information on new machines. We started to sell smaller portable generators which were selling before they even arrived at the port. And we coordinated repairs of smaller units that were getting dropped off at our shop and quickly piling up. The schools and government offices stayed closed for a couple of days due to power outages.

Julian and Max finally started school on Thursday which was a very exciting day for everyone. Julian was so ready to start Grade Three that he was dressed and ready before I even got up that morning (5:45). Can we leave? Can we leave?

With a season unpredictable weather and busy school schedules - there is no time to lament the fact that the boat is now out of the water for a couple of months. Julian and Max, however, are continuing with their sailing program after school and on weekends. After ten weeks of a sailing program this summer, it is no wonder than even Max who just turned five years old is mastering sailing.

summer days

I could begin this entry with all kinds of reasons why I have neglected my writing duties - a demanding business , even more demanding children, and a hectic schedule lying in the sun and working on my tan (oh wait a moment. that was the wishful me...) A couple of recent conversations with dear friends in western areas reminded me that the blog was set up to ensure we keep in contact with our friends and they stay in contact with us!

Enough of the pathetic preamble and onto a bit more substance. I am sitting in the living room listening to some great music on our newly set-up stereo system. Mark is beside me surfing the internet (looking for boats and a crane truck - yes interesting combination but for very separate personal and business applications ).

We have seen some of the heaviest rains in the past few days since we have lived here. Huge downpour, winds and flooding in many parts. I was feeling very happy to be driving my Toyota FJ Cruiser today in four wheel drive passing much smaller vehicles unable to pass through the water. All this rain also brings mosquitoes by the truck load (as I sit here with my electric swat at very close hand) and an increasing number of cases of dengue fever. The boys are now committed to their netting tents at night to avoid the nasty little blood suckers.

Summer is hurricane season and a very busy time for us. We have a team of 11 people right now - all working hard to keep up with the demand. It has been a consistently steady year so far introducing new opportunities and people to our business. Solar power has been a new part of our service offering by becoming an installer for solar thermal hot water heaters. Additionally we are an authorized dealer for a company distributing UPS systems.

The weeks fly by - so much that is accomplished and yet so much seems to be waiting to be done. And while we have come to understand many of the finer points of working and doing business in the USVI - there is always something new to hit us when we least expect it.

And as much as the business environment can change - so can our social landscape.

We have just said good-bye to some very good friends, Frank and Annette, who were one of the first people we met when we arrived in this crazy place. Mark and I were doing race committee for the Rolex Regatta when we met this Californian couple who were dividing their time between the tropics of St Thomas and the jungles of LA. Deciding that they were going to try new adventures, they have sold their home here and have said good-bye to the Caribbean. We had a fun last week with them staying with us which included great dinners, a farewell party, and watching the final World Cup game while eating enough nachos to keep a Mexican family fed for a week. We will miss them.


The sad thing is - our other very good friends - two families in fact - are leaving island soon to pursue business and employment elsewhere. It is feeling like a bit of a mass exodus this month.

And here it is, summer. The island is quieter in many ways with less cruise ships and passengers as well as the many locals who take a break from the island. While Mark and I slave away in our Caribbean headquarters, our two little beach bums have been homing their sailing skills at a sailing camp at the St Thomas Yacht Club. Julian, age 8 1/2 is shaping up to be a very good little sailor. He participated in his first big regatta in early June, the Scotibank International Opti Regatta which welcomed close to 100 sailors age 6-15 from the US, Canada and many islands in the Caribbean. I did race committee for Julian's fleet and it was a really wonderful experience watching Julian perform with these other more experienced kids.

Max, who is not yet 5 years old is the typical second child who is doing everything to keep right up to his older brother including sailing the Opti all by himself. We had both boys out sailing a couple of weekends ago. We rigged up two optis and Max would not let me sail with him. No way. In fact, it took all my negotiation skills to persuade him that Julian should go but wouldn't steer. Mark and I were sailing in a sunfish and sailed off in one direction for a short period keeping a close eye on the intrepid sea dogs. Moments later, Max was sailing by himself and had persuaded Julian to jump out of the boat and into the water. Brotherly love. There was a fair bit of musical boats going on that day and it was great fun (despite the huge bruises on my legs).

Looking back at the last few months, there are probably many great stories. Our visit back to the west coast at Christmas is a very distant memory and still quite a blur considering the short time we were there.

In January, I went to Miami and ran the Miami Half Marathon for a second try - (without sister Alex this time). It is a great race despite the 15,000+ people - and a nice (flat)and scenic course to run.


In March, Alex and our nephew Nicholas visited us and we had many great adventures together. The three boys had so much fun that they cried the morning their cousin left and Max asked after them for weeks afterward. We went to St John a couple of times, snorkeled, explored, sailed and had an exceptional trip taking a boat to the Baths in the BVI.

In May, we took a weekend trip to St. Croix for exploration (and a little business). We did all the touristy things including an ATV tour through the rainforest and trails that took us to old sugar mills. It was a riot! Having said that, I was a little nervous with little Max sitting behind me. I had to turn around and check he was still with me when we hit the big pot holes and bumps. The architecture is very pretty on St Croix and there is a great old fortress and other interesting pieces of historical architecture that mark the period of Danish rule.



More recently, we went to Florida where we visited Miami, Ft Lauderdale and Orlando. The trip was a perfect change from our island life allowing us some time to explore, shop, eat out and even visit the wonderfully exhausting world of Disney. We visited a very fun Children's Science Museum in Miami where the boys controlled their own little tugs boats, loaded cargo with cranes, and drove a fire truck. It was great fun. Unfortunately - Spirit Airlines decided to go on strike the day we were to fly home and we had to pay very full price tickets to fly back with American. The only good thing that came out of it was a really nice relaxing extra day by the hotel pool (which somewhat helped me recover from the shock of having to pay a few thousand dollar to get home.) Another mojito to calm the nerves please.

That is all for now with more stories soon.

Thanksgiving in the Virgin Islands

Our third evening of turkey left-overs and the end is near. Despite a crowd of twelve - we really had enough food for a small army. It was a lovely evening here.

I am a little behind in blogging so will post more on the pictoral side than my regular diatribe.

We had a fun little break in Miami over Columbus Day weekend in October (there are a lot of holidays in this place...) where we visited the Miami Zoo, a huge water park and some other parts of this crazy city. Mark and I even managed to get together with our suppliers and went to the Broadcrown warehouse (our generator supplier) which was a worthwhile visit.

Max met a parrot named...Charlotte. Yes, hilarious.

In late October, my parents visited for two weeks after their Panama Canal cruise. We had a great visit which included beach visits, dinner parties with friends, visits to school Halloween concerts and yacht club events. This was their second visit (Dad's third) since we have lived here so they have got to know a few of our friends and have discovered a few favourites such as Magen's Bay, Iggie's at Bolongo and Cafe Amalie downtown (which I think they visited at least three times for lunch!) As usual - most of the photos involve us eating.

Last week the boys were off school for "Thanksgiving Break" which was a week off school allowing those families who desire to celebrate the season with families elsewhere - the time to get away. Of course, these school breaks present some challenges for Mark and I when things are still pretty busy at our business. However - we still managed to squeeze in some fun!

The week before the Thanksgiving break, our friends Christian, Beverley and their daughter Helena were visiting the BVIs at Bitter End Yacht Club from Nova Scotia. While we had hoped to visit as a family - it was just a bit too busy to disappear from work that week. On the Friday, Mark rented a 26ft power cat with Julian and they powered over there in about two hours. After lunch, some sailing and a quick catch up - they said goodbye to our old friends from Vancouver and Victoria days and got the boat back to Red Hook before the 5:00 deadline.




Julian was invited to join a sailing clinic with a couple of the older children at STYC and he had two days of instructional Opti sailing. We followed up the clinic with his very first regatta in St. John where he raced with seven other boys and girls in Johnson Bay near Coral Bay. This little regatta was designed for the novice racer - "green fleet". Despite being the youngest in the group, Julian sailed nine races and did a great job figuring out starts and mark roundings. It was another proud parent moment.

Max accompanied me on the trip and managed to stay quite entertained launching fenders off the committee boat, chatting up a storm and eating his body weight in chips. Max was frequently heard yelling out "That's my "bwa-ther" Ju-ween" or "Tack!".

And I actually wonder how everyone on St. Thomas knows Max???

Import Supply is busy. We are keeping fingers crossed it stays like this over our "slower season" but so far we have a growing list of repairs and machines to maintain. What is also exciting is we are introducing renewable energy products to our customers in the hopes this sector will also take off and "shine" - so to speak.

And to add to our already hectic schedule of business, children, sailing and other activities we seem to be volunteering for - we are moving into a new house next weekend. This three bedroom place has a ideal location in Frenchman's Bay - about 2 minutes from Antilles School and 15 minutes closer to town. We'll be here until we make a decision on what to do regarding real estate which we have been monitoring - closely.

Other exciting upcoming events includes our trip to the west coast. We are looking forward to our first trip back to Victoria and Vancouver in almost two years. I may not recognize Vancouver. Mark and the boys arrive the 20th of December and I'll arrive shortly after on the 23rd. Max has literally not worn longer pants since he left Vancouver as he quite simply refuses. It will be a fun visit for all of us and we look forward to seeing our family and friends - even if we do freeze!

Sunday at Coral World

A quieter weekend for us as we get over colds. We managed, however, to make the trek to Coral World where we have a family membership (our mini-version of the Vancouver Aquarium). Julian fed the stingrays, Max led the way deciding what to see and when, and we all enjoyed a quiet visit with relatively few other visitors.

Coral World is a great spot - with a few shows including the shark feeding show, the sting ray feeding show, and even a sea lion show where they come out to do a few tricks inside the fish tank display area (I still can't really get over this show where we are all crowded on one side of the room behind a "rope" watching mostly trained teenage sea lions do tricks...)

A few pictures of today's outing.

The boys have been in school for over a month and we are back to a routine of getting them to school by 7:30 and then off to work. We have become accustomed to getting to bed earlier during the week and getting up with the sun. The days are already starting to get shorter. Having said that, there is only a difference of about one hour of extra daylight during the summer months at this lattitude. It gets dark just after 6:30 right now and the sun rises about 5:45.

Life at Import Supply remains steady with a constant stream of machines to service, repair or assess. The ongoing challenge is managing both the workload and our team when the demands and priorities are constantly changing. We are currently servicing over 400 machines every month on the three islands so it does feel like a juggling act some days. We are in the midst of getting our website finalized and have been running a few hurricane ads over the past few months. Interestingly enough, despite our communications efforts, we do have to remind ourselves that business on the island is still very much word-of-mouth. Being out in the community and meeting with people still seems to get better results.

Friday night we did something we frequently used to do in Vancouver. Order take-away sushi. And while this won't seem like anything too exciting for our Vancouver friends, it is truly a treat these days at $9 for a california roll. And at the rate that Julian and Max eat sushi - you can appreciate that we don't do this too frequently.

We are off to Miami this coming weekend which is not only Canadian Thanksgiving but Columbus Day. We are fitting in some appointments with some planned visits to the Miami Metro Zoo, the Science Museum and a waterpark. I am already mentally preparing myself for driving on busy freeways on the RIGHT hand side of the road. We are looking forward to our mini getaway and the boys are extremely excited about everything from the airplane to staying in a hotel!

We hope this update finds everyone healthy and doing well. Keep in touch - we love to hear from you.

Architecture

We drove around today armed with a camera with the objective of taking a few pictures of things that we see every day. There is, in fact, some pretty gingerbread architecture in the main town. Mark and I frequently comment how the colours look so lovely but fitting in this environment but would translate poorly in a Vancouver neighbourhood. I could only imagine the comments from neighbours if we painted a house a coral green or pinky-orange shade in Point Grey!

Here are a few images of town.





The white building below is the building that houses the Office of the Governor of the USVI.

Back to School

Julian and Max were back to school last week and not a moment too soon. After nearly three months of summer vacation, a little structure and a regular schedule have been enthusiastically welcomed by both our boys (and their parents). Max has joined Julian at Antilles School and has started PreK. Julian started Grade Two and is officially in Lower School now moving up from the Early Learning Centre. I can't get over how much Julian has grown this summer - and not just his hairThe school has adopted a uniform this year - polo style school shirts and khaki shorts, pants or skirts (for the girls only!). And while their was mixed reaction to the uniform announcement, I must admit that it makes things simple and straightforward.

Update - At long last

At last I have made time to pick up the laptop and write a short update. (The laptop has some sort of problem which we cannot seem to get fixed here. There are times when it just will not turn on..... As you can see it is on now).

We are house sitting for some friends who are up in New York and the Canadian Maritime provinces till early December. They have been very kind (and trusting!) and have allowed us the use of their fabulous home, just up the street from the house we rented for over a year, near the village of Red Hook on St Thomas' eastern end. So far we are doing well, no broken dishes etc to report!

The boys are both in sailing camp at the yacht club - which is very near where we live. Julian is turning out to be a great little Optimist dingy sailor. Max is just beginning, but from experiences on our IC24 I am pretty sure he will be catch on quickly. Max, who turns 4 next month, has given up any form of nap in order to be in sailing camp. Evidently he is pretty active at camp as once this week he fell asleep at the dinner table. As I write this he enjoying a long Sunday afternoon nap to catch up....

This is the busy season for the business. Extra busy this year as we parted ways with our General Manager. We have hired a temp to work with a couple of projects, which is helping. Apart from a slightly higher work load for Charlotte and myself, not having a manager has allowed us to immerse ourselves in all aspects of the business. This has highlighted a few things that we need to do to create efficiencies and serve our clients better. How is the business going? Despite a softer global economy, we have added a few new service contracts and repair side of the business continues to boom.

And what of the effects of the global economy? We know that there are less cruise ship visits planned for next year and that the number of actual passengers is also down. "On Island", as the locals say, there is now doubt that the economy has slowed. Housing sales are way off, rents have come down. Some of the tourist oriented stores are having a hard time or have closed "in town". In keeping with Darwinism the weakest stores are the ones that have gone. Housing prices which had become stratospheric are apparently starting to come down according a few realtors we know. The good news in all this for us is that those businesses, households and government offices etc that already have generators continue to need them serviced and repaired.

The weaker economy afforded us an opportunity to book a long weekend using a nearly affordable "locals" rate at the Bitter End Yacht Club on Virgin Gorda in the BVIs. (BEYC is a sailing and water sports oriented resort). We had visited Bitter End years ago when we chartered a sailing boat with another couple, but had never stayed.

It was a really enjoyable adventure. To get there we took a ferry from Red Hook to the Western end of Tortola in the BVIs. Then we took a taxi (driven by a wonderful man, Mr. Forbes, who shared with us his life story and historical points of interest on the island) to the Eastern end of Tortola. Then we took a launch over to the resort. We left the house in STT about 7:15 am in the morning and arrived at BEYC by about 11:30 am.

Bitter End is an all inclusive - you can use the fleet of boats: Hobies, Lasers, Optis, Rhodes 19s, Hunter 216s, IC24s, kayaks etc. Day trips to places like the "Baths" of Virgin Gorda, a spectacular bay filled with giant boulders from some long forgotten Ice Age are also included. About the only things not included are sailing the BEYC Express 37 (sorry Trev Salmon & Tom Hawker) and "adult beverages". There are at least 2 dining rooms and food can be ordered a la carte or for those wanting to get back out on the water, there is a buffet. It must be said that the food and service were really wonderful. It did seem to us as thought the resort must not be fully booked, which was nice as we were never waiting to access the boats, or find a seat in restaurant etc.

After checking in we stopped right away for lunch. The boys really enjoyed the trip over, but were hungry and really wanted to get into the pool. We sat down to wait for our lunch, but due to an ordering snafu (literally the only service issue we had during our stay) we had a bit of a wait, so the boys enjoyed a session of jumping off the dock right in front of the restaurant.
This proved to be well timed as they were soon joined by another family with 3 similarly aged children from Colorado. For the rest of the weekend our boys and Liza, Ethan and Devon were inseparable.

Accommodation is in a series of free standing, two unit buildings.
We had a unit right at the end which afforded us a wonderful view of the forest canopy and a view out towards Necker Island, owned of course, by Sir Richard Branson.
Each unit has a wrap around deck and a great hammock. Max liked it so much that he fell asleep there Saturday afternoon.

That afternoon I sailed in a "regatta" in Hobie Waves. Not the fastest catamarans, but certainly fun in the 15 knot trade winds.

Saturday we took the boys for a sail on a larger Hobie. We sailed around to the bay where the more upmarket Biras Creek Resort is located, and then back around Gorda Sound between Virgin Gorda and Prickly Pear Island.

The boys were so exhausted from Friday's fun that they both fell asleep on the trampoline that more or less forms the deck of the Hobie Getaway.

We had a slower paced afternoon, even finding time for Max and myself to have a nap!

Sunday was breezier, and the laser "regatta" was cancelled do to a forecast weather system. I had a great morning on a Hobie Wave, then we packed up, said our good-byes and at 2pm took a launch to Gun Creek on Virgin Gorda.

We took a taxi to Spanish Town, the main settlement on Virgin Gorda. (The island has a population of 3000). The drive across Virgin Gorda was very interesting, wonderful scenery and spectacular beaches and reefs. From Spanish Town we took a ferry to Red Hook. On the way back the tropical wave did hit, and the heavens opened up in a torrential rain shower. Thankfully we were going East so any squalls associated with the wave had little effect on our little ferry. Once at Red Hook, via Cruz Bay, St John for Customs and Border Protection we hopped in our truck and arrived home in time for dinner. We all slept very well that night.

Hopefully one of us will find time to update the blog more frequently.