HARD AGROUND

 

It has been 2 years since the demise of Frolic and our last blog. I suppose some people may have thought we went down with the ship. We got “blown” into the northwest part of FL known as the panhandle.  We bought a 6 acre property that needed lots of TLC as we had to work with the insurance company 8 months for a payout.  The pictures here are recent after much work.  The gate was an anniversary gift to Carl. 

Our New Place

A couple of cats came with the house

 We spent the first part of 2018 returning to BVI and try to salvage some of our stuff and see the insurance people…..again.  We stayed with friends on Ragamuffin and they sailed us to BVI to work.  In April we took a cruise with Gordon and Sue and stopped at all the islands we would have gone to if Irma had not destroyed us.  End of April saw Leslie having surgery from an old injury so did the recovery bit, then put on our traveling shoes and went visiting. 


















 
Aron and Maddie joined Carl and Eric to sail Puurfect from Amelia Island FL to Newport, RI. 

Kids enjoy Amelia Is.

Eric is prepared to met Aron and
Madison at the airport

The kids enjoy lunch

Aron plots our course while Madison helps

The crew at rest

Night watch Aron and Madison in

charge

 

We visit at  Bret's

Girls miss having a pet

I took Kelly and the girls with me as they wanted hot tubs and hotel rooms and we drove to meet the boat.   We met the boat in Newport and sailed with the kids to some of our old haunts, Cutty Hunk being the favorite. 

We meet Dave and Jan at Block Is.

Girls meet the Blues Brothers
at Cutty Hunk

Cutty Hunk bunkers

Perrfect underway

We visit Newport

From there Carl and I took off for Canada to visit friends at their lake cottage and down to NC to visit more friends at their lake house.  Seems all our friends have lost their boats to Irma and are landlocked at present.

Sue, Gordon, and Leslie on the
lake in Canada

We do a tree walk in Canada

Wilma and Leslie enjoy the lake
in NC

 

Some of our catfish catch in NC

We met the kids again in Nov. in Norfolk and connected with Rebel Marine where Carl and I lived on a boat many years ago.  The kids had a great time as the Marina now has a hot tub and cruiser’s pot luck.    Carl and Eric sailed to Charleston where we all met up with Aron’s family and in-laws to celebrate Thanksgiving.. We lost my Prius to a moon high tide.  Who knew the river would rise over the parking lot and drown the car.  We ended up with an unplanned new Prius.  On this trip we also went to DC as Aron was promoted to Lt. Colonel, very impressive ceremony at Pentagon. 

Sunset coming into Charleston 

The kids explore Charleston

In Dec. Carl tried his luck hunting a deer and caught a cold instead of a deer. We Spent Christmas with the kids on Puurfect in Lake Worth.  It was cold!!  Carl and Eric put in a mooring in 34 degree weather and 0 visibility in the water, ugh but now they had a place to anchor each time they came in and out of the states. 

Purrfect's Grill Master at work

Manatee sanctuary

Eric and family

2019 found us with visitors and working on the property to finish much on the honey do list. We also had to fly back to the Virgin Islands to take care of business, get our mail etc.  We got back just in time to fly out to Georgetown the Bahamas to meet up with the kids and enjoy the Family Island Regatta.  Eric was the announcer for the class C races, made them very exciting.  In May a 2 week trip to Kauai Hawii, a beautiful island to hike, much of the western and northern areas are park.  In June Eric and Kelly completed their 2yr odyssey and sold the boat.  We picked up the girls and brought them back to finish school with us and explore the Walton Beach area while the parents got the boat ready to turn over to new owner.  Eric took a job with his prior company, Boeing, and the whole family left after the 4^th of July for MO. Aron’s family visited in Aug so more exploring.  In November we flew to Albuquerque to visit the cousins there and catch up. It had been 5 yrs.  Again we went hunting in NC and this year Carl got his deer just before we left to meet the whole family in Butler TN for Thanksgiving, a week of eating and eating and eating.  The deer meat is still in NC as we could not go back to get it. 

Carl's deer

The Family at Thanksgiving

 Our niece got married in Dec. in the keys and it was a big family gathering with family coming in from as far away as Australia.  And since we were in the keys we had to continue the party in Key West.  We rounded out the year with a trip to MO. to spend Christmas with Eric and family and ring in 2020.  Many more adventures happened in between as well as lots of work on property but these are the highlights of the two years since last we blogged.

Girls dress up for Halloween

The Fly In at Lakeland

Hope  this finds everyone healthy and enjoying a new year!

Post Irma Virgin Islands

We arrived in the Virgin Islands 7 weeks after Hurricane Irma and 6 weeks after Hurricane Maria hit the Virgin Islands. The British Virgin Islands took the eye of Irma with 185 mph sustained winds and gusts of 220 to 240 mph, and a surge of around 13’! Maria was not insignificant as people whose boats were blown ashore with Irma were literally blown back into the water by Maria. The boat yards were devastated! The hurricane chain in the Paraquita Bay failed and virtually all the boats, several hundred, were destroyed or heavily damaged. Although we didn’t see it, we were told the hurricane chain in St John also failed and most of the boats sheltering in Hurricane Hole were destroyed. An amateur weatherman there recorded long wind gusts of 275 mph.

The Steele point at Sopers hole the
houses faired pretty well

The ferry house and customs is gone
Customs is now the open tent

 The predominate damage to houses were the loss of roofs, although many houses were completely blown out or down. Sopers Hole was hard hit.

Pussars is gone

The Voyager yard is up and running

Customs is operating out of an open sided tent, Pussars is gone as are many other buildings on that side. They were clearing a pile of wreckage that were one time boats.

The middle is wreckage that was once
boats being removed by a backhoe

The Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour
is devastated

Throughout the islands the people were upbeat, friendly, helpful and anxious to run their business and take care of visitors. A picture is worth a thousand words so here are the islands.

Fichers is heavily damaged

All the boats in the yard were over

The islands are not destroyed, but are ready to take in visitors, renew their businesses, and start making some money to continue the repairs. Remember, the islands are green, the sky clear and blue, and the water is clear and warm. They are rebuilding quickly and as I write this I am sure many more businesses are open.

The Rock Café lost its roof

The Rock Church was heavily
damaged, but we had service Sunday

Marina Cay was badly damaged,
Pussars is gone, but they are starting
to rebuild and will be open 1 Dec

In Cane Garden Bay Quito's continues
to build the new hotel and also repair
the beach bar

All the beach at Cane Garden is damaged

Myett's was closed, but will open soon.
The store in the back was open and
undamaged, even the glass windows

Rhymers is already rebuilding and
is open. We had drinks and food, and
they said rooms were ready to rent

Rhymers is already building a new
bigger porch and deck

At Jost Van Dyke Foxys is up and
running, even the shirt shop is open

Foxys was heavily damaged

Foxys is putting all back together

Corsairs is gutted

The Church at Great Harbour is
gutted, but they are working on it
already

No one was exempt from Irma's fury

At White Bay Ivans is destroyed

Hendo's survived and the Soggy Dollar
rebuild is well underway

Gertrudes was wiped out, but people
have already rebuilt her house and
the beach Bar is next. Gertrude was
one of the only people on Jost Van Dyke
seriously hurt and was evacuated

One Love had drinks and is rebuilding

Residents are living in tents

We had drinks at Foxy's and
Al Baba's who is working hard
to rebuild

Foxy had his costume Halloween
Party. He even provided costumes!

The party was small but went on a while

Leslie was in the middle of it

Entering the US we were greeted by
a pod of porpoises!

In St Thomas Enki was wiped out
and Culebra I was sunk

A big crane was there to lift a dry dock
from the Crown Bay Cruise Ship dock.
FEMA and others were housed in this
cruise ship at Crown Bay

Vendors park is running, but is waiting
for visitors

Fresh Bistro is up and running

Havensight is open for business

The public housing survived well even
the solar hot water heaters made it!

Roofs were a major causality so the
blue roofs appear everywhere

Utility workers were everywhere getting
power restored

Redhook didn't escape damge

I was shocked the newly planted trees
made it!

Water Island Honeymoon beach got
hit hard

Heidi's is up and running. She still
serves great burgers!

The Virgin Islands await you. The air and water are clear and warm and the beer cold!