Staff Training Day

On Friday morning we had an on-water session with the sailing staff at RBVIYC. The wind was howling as is seasonal this time of year, and the sun was out, so it was bound to be a great time. We had a coach boat on the water just in case of an emergency or a broken mast, but thankfully it was all fun, and we got a bunch of nice photos. Here are the highlights.

Behind The Times

I know, I know. Slacking, procrastinating, being busy doing other things. Whatever you want to call it, I have not had a real post in a while. It can be attributed to a few different reasons:

1. Over the holidays I had some visitors. My parents came to down to visit over Christmas, and just as they left, Mallory arrived and was here over New Years and for a while after.

2. The yacht club hired a new Director of Sailing, and his work permit went through at the end of December. So, upon returning to work after the holidays, we had a lot of work to do. I mean, I've never worked as much as I have in the past month in a sailing program before.

3. I got a vehicle.

As a result, I didn't spend much time on the computer while I had visitors, and I have been working my ass off around the club getting stuff organized for our new program, and when I have free time I've been trying to get out and do stuff, like go surfing! I did take a ton of pics though while my parents and Mallory were here, and if you haven't checked them on my facebook yet, then check out a few below.

Well, that's all for now, I will do my best to have more frequent updates, and I just got a new camera so I'll take as many pics as I can. Saturday is Chris' last day at the yacht club, and we may be going cruising on our days off on a 78 foot yacht. Hopefully this will happen and I will have some sweet pics.

New Blog Site!

I have decided to start my blog up on a new blog platform as my other one was a little unreliable. So I just threw up my old posts, and this one to say what up! Expect more soon.

My New Ride

December 22, 2009

Yesterday was an epic day for me. I bought my very first vehicle. My parents have always been generous in letting me use their cars, but for the first time in my life, I have my own. It is a red 1996 Mitsubishi Pajero with a 5-speed transmission, and 4-wheel drive. It's nothing fancy or impressive, quite the opposite really, since it is a typical island vehicle. What I mean by 'island vehicle' is that it has a couple dents in the bumpers and infront of the passenger side door, the paint is sunfaded, many of the door pulls have come off, the locks are finicky, the seats don't quite lock into place all the time, and some of the upholestery is patched up with duct tape. Despite the minor flaws, it runs pretty well, and I love it regardless.

In a way, my new truck reminds me of David Marr's Camry. His car became an integral part of our university family, as it made many good times possible, whether it be trips to the grocery store, the weekend road trips to Tremblant and the parties that ensued. It, too, had it's flaws, like having to shut it off to change CDs, but this gave me a strong appreciation for Nelly's Country Grammar album. It was in it's flaws that it became the perfect ride. We were forced to make the best of it, and even some issues we had with it turned out to be good memories, like when the starter motor went, and we had to push start the car down a snowy road all while chanting the Jamaican bobsled rhyme.

With my truck I now have the freedom to go where I want, when I want. I can get out of Road Town and explore the island! I know that this vehicle will bring me many good times and memories, just as Dave's Camry did. Now I just need to figure out a name for it! Any suggestions?

Big Things Happening

December 18, 2009

I've definitely been slacking on the updating of my blog this past week. It's been a busy few weeks for me here, not much time for limin'.

I have been organizing the Holiday Sailing Camps at RBVIYC, and that has been quite the learning experience! We just finished the first camp yesterday, and we start the next on the 21st! Things have been running smoothly, the kids are having fun, the weather has been good (no doubt!) and we have some good numbers next week as far as registration goes!

A couple weeks ago our coach boat was stolen right from the dock where it was locked up. Of course, when this happened Chris, the godfather of sailing himself, was in St. Thomas competing in a match racing regatta. So I had to deal with this myself, and I have no experience dealing with missing coach boats since that doesn't exactly happen to often back home in Canada. Apparently, dinghies get stolen pretty frequently around here, and this wasn't the first time the yacht club has had a coach boat stolen.

I spent a lot of time over the next week and a bit trying to find our missing coach boat. I filed reports with the police, sent out about 400 emails, made phone calls to marinas and charter and dive companies on the east and west end of the island, I drove around Road Harbour in our small dinghy searching for it, but with no luck. When Chris returned from St. Thomas, we borrowed a large and more powerful RIB to search along the coast and each end of the island. No luck their either, but when we were on the east end of the island, we saw some local fisherman slaughtering two of the largest sea turtles I've ever seen. It was absolutely gruesome, and turns out highly illegal. We ended up putting a press release on the BVI News website, and the next day an off-duty police officer spotted the boat at the Road Town ferry down while having a drink at a local bar. He went to investigate and the 3 youth that had the boat recognized him as police and scattered. Our boat was returned to us but is in extremely rough shape. So now I'm working on getting a sponsor to donate the yacht club a new RIB for our sailing programs.

This past weekend also brought about the holiday season with 3 back-to-back Christmas parties. The first was a pretty swanky affair, and our entourage rolled in dress to the part with flip-flop, shorts, and t-shirts. The second party was hosted by the owner of the boat I live on, Colin. He lives in an incredible house on the top of the mountain, and over looks Cane Garden Bay. His party was a pig roast, and it was amazing. It was the first pig roast I've ever been to, and it will not be the last. The food was incredible. The third party was also on the top of the mountain, and was a tonne of fun, with the old and the young challenging each other in rounds of beer pong. Chris and I were the reigning champs of the evening winning every game we played, as well as 6 games in a row.

It is very strange to be down in the Caribbean for Christmas, as it can be difficult to get in the holiday spirit without the cold weather, snow, and ugly sweaters. But mostly it is strange since I won't be having any turkey dinners with my family, there will be no snowboarding or partying with my closet friends, no Christmas eve traditions with Ryan, and I won't be able to enjoy all the delicious treats Mallory and her mother make! Thankfully, my parents are taking the opportunity to come visit me over Christmas (they probably just got on the ferry in St. Thomas right now) and then after Mallory will be visiting over New Years. I'm stoked I won't be alone over the holidays, but it is this time of year more than ever, that I realize what awesome friends and family I have, and how much I miss them right now!!! I'm also looking forward to February when all my boys come down!

That was a rather long update, I gotta keep posting more consistantly. On Monday I will find out if I'll be getting my first ever motor vehicle, so if all goes well I'll be posting some photos of that!

Happy Birthday!

December 10, 2009

Today is Miss Mallory's birthday, and I'm pretty bummed I couldn't be with her to celebrate. So I just wanted to wish her a Happy Birthday right here on my blog! Hope you have a great time out on the town tonight! Have fun!!

Eat this LCBO

December 10, 2009

This blows my mind everytime I got to the store. I know the boys back home will appreciate this!

Notice the 4 cent difference between the Litre bottle and the 750mL. Thats value.

I got published!

December 3, 2009

November was a very busy month for me since we were preparing to have the BVI Sailing Team Trials Regatta on 28th & 29th. The weekend was a success and we had more kids show up for the regatta than we expected! After big events like this we try to write up a press release to put in the paper about it, as to draw more attention to what we do over at RBVIYC. Anyway, I was put in charge of writing the article and it got published so check it out!

http://www.bvinews.com/all_news/sports/8632.html

Ain't nothin like dat Ting!

November 27, 2009

Back in my high school days, there used to be this small restaurant right around the corner called 'Da Soup Shack'. I used to hit it up for beef patties at lunch sometimes, and it was there that I discovered the amazingness that is Ting. It is a grapefruit soda from the Caribbean, and it is incredibly delicious. I'm pretty sure it's also synonymous with refreshment down here; even Senka in Cool Runnins' is drinking a Ting when he's preparing for the push cart derby (two blog posts in a row that reference the movie?) Now, the Ting that I used to get came in a small green bottle with a green and yellow label. You can also get Ting in a can, too. For the most part, things taste better in glass bottles. It wasn't until I got a beef patty and a Ting from Crandall's (more on this later) that I noticed a legitimate difference between the bottled and canned product.

The canned version of Ting claims to be made with real Jamaican grapefruit, where as the bottled version is made with real Caribbean grapefruit. Not much of a difference seeing as Jamaica is in the Caribbean. The bottled Ting has little bits of pulp floating in it though, and has a much nicer flavour than the canned Ting. Upon closer investigation of the labels, bottled Ting is a product of St. Kitts & Nevis, yet the canned Ting is a product of the UK and imported back into the Caribbean!! So really the canned Ting, though quite delicious, is really an impostor compared to Ting in a bottle. Once again proving the all things are better in bottles.

On a side note, Ting is great mixed with rum, vodka or gin! Whatever you like, Ting goes well with it. It's actually a rather popular drink down here, though I had discovered this prior to arriving, thanks to the Tings left in the fridge at Daniel's house. Don't you worry Danny boy, there will be plenty of Rum and Tings going around when you get here in February.

Mastheads, Wing Sails, and Team Trials

November 26, 2009

I must admit, nothing crazy has been happening in Roadtown. I've been keeping the evenings pretty low key in order to have sufficient cash flow, and in order to keep off the "BVI Belly", at least for now. Chris is preparing his boat to be sold as he is leaving island in a couple months, so I was giving him a hand in running new halyards and what not. Not being too scared of heights, I was the one hoisted up to the top of the mast in a harnessed seat called a "Bosun's chair". After being grinded up to the masthead, I was slightly concerned for my safety as it appeared the mast head was starting to seperate from the mast itself. Yet, I proceeded to spend the next 2 hours at the top of that mast as we attemped to feed a wieghted line that was attached to the new halyard down through the mast. Needless to say after spending 2 hours jiggling, dangling, jerking, feeding and refeeding that line down the mast, we couldn't get it through.

We called it a night, and went about having some dinner, and devising a new plan to get the halyard through. Chris drew up a intricate and complex plan to feed this halyard, which I couldn't even begin to explain. So this morning, I was hoisted back to the top of that mast, and his plan went into action. And sure enough it worked quite successfully. I'm pretty stoked I don't have to go up that mast again, especially since it is a freestanding mast without spreaders or shrouds to climb or hang onto.

Since arriving down here, I have been following the proceedings leading up to the 33rd America's Cup Regatta. Now for those who don't know what the America's Cup is, it is basically the Holy Grail of sailing. It is the highest level of professional sailing, and a stupid amount of money is put into making these boats as fast as possible, and inventing new technologies to do so. Currently the America's Cup trophy is in the hands of the Swiss defender Alinghi, and BMW Oracle Racing from the USA is competing to win it back. Usually this race is sailed with monohull boats but for the first time, both teams are using multihulls. Alingi has a 90 foot catamaran, and BMW Oracle has a 100 foot trimaran. There has been a ton of legal battles involved with this cup, but I'll skip through that boring nonsense and get to the awesome part. After loosing their mast during a practise sail, BMW Oracle released their secret weapon which they had been designing and engineering for quite some time. They constructed the world's largest wing (bigger than the wing span of a 747) and stuck it vertically on their trimaran. It's a marvel of engineering and no sailboat before this, has ever looked so badass. Sailing Anarchy had this photo posted and it just looks unreal. I'm really looking forward to February when the regatta goes down.

On another note, this weekend is the BVI Sailing Team trials and we've been busy preparing for the regatta. Should be a great weekend of tight competition and racing. We're anticipating a pretty good turnout. I'll be sure to take some photos.

Officially Operating on Island Time

November 24, 2009

So it has taken me a few weeks to get things going on the blog. It was a very hectic first week in the BVI, spending much time in labour/immigration offices or wandering around Roadtown trying to figure out where I'm supposed to be going. I successfully sorted out all my paper work with labour and immigration, and I am now a resident of the BVI, complete with a fancy stamp in my passport.

The original plan for my living arrangements were to stay on and take care of a boat that I had found on Craigslist. Like most things you find over Craigslist, if it sounds too good to be true, it's probably not true. The boat was in decent condition, but wasn't what the owner described it to be, and he seemed to have other motives for the boat beyond me taking care of it. He already had a buyer lined up, and I didn't want to end up without a place to stay once the deal was finalized to I decided to walk away. I ended up crashing on my buddy/colleague Chris' boat for the week and he set me up with a friend who happened to have an old-school 46 foot yacht (maybe its a ship? certainly a solid vessel) laying anchored in the same harbour where his boat was. Though this boat was even older, and stankier, and required a lot of work, I didn't have too many more options, so it had to suffice.

After a not-so-successful swim under the boat to chip barnacles off the prop, the boat was moved onto the dock, and 2 days were spent cleaning the mildew out of the boat. Chris took me shopping to pimp the boat out and make it more liveable, and lets just say the "island department store" is highly entertaining after some afternoon beers! The main cabin (aka the "chill-zone") of the boat is now finely decorated with red chili lights, tropical fish throw pillows, lion and jaguar printed blankets, while my sleeping quarters are donned with the finest zebra print blankets, a pillow with a cartoon panda on it, and some sort of ambiguous wild animal print rug. The "island department store" is certainly no Ikea. The kitchen was re-fitted with a small bar fridge that costed far too much for it's size, and a small convection oven which has been known to make everything from eggs to hot dogs to pizzas. My cooking abilities have been severely downsized due to the size and caliber of the kitchen but I make do. The sacrifices one makes to live in paradise. Ghetto luxury, no doubt.

I am quickly approaching the end of my first month on the island, and time has been flying by. I didn't have a slow introduction to my job, so it has kept me on my toes everyday. The yacht club here has hired me basically to help with improving it's sailing program and to help run the national sailing team. It has been a lot of work, but all of it rewarding. At the end of the month we have team trials for the BVI sailing team, and I will be heading up the new Development Team, which introduces young and keen sailors into racing. It's going to be a great program and I'm really stoked to get it started.

As far as traveling around Tortola, and to the other islands, I haven't done a lot of that. I've been to the east end of Tortola, and spent an afternoon on the beach, and made a venture to the Bitter End Yacht Club on Virgin Gorda last Monday for a "Monday Night Mash Up". It was quite the night and a hell of a party. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see much of the island as it was dark when we arrived. Though the next morning I woke up to an incredible view from my friend Alex's house. There are a few photos from his place, and from the walk back to the ferry dock. Soon I will have a real ghetto jeep to ride around in, so I should be able to explore more of the island, and hopefully get out into the surf at Josiah's bay and eventually Cane Garden bay.

December will be bringing many good things, so I look forward to the upcoming month! The 'Christmas Winds' will be picking up, my parents will be visiting for Christmas, and my beautiful girlfriend will be visiting and staying over New Years! December will involve a plenty of good times and some stories, and hopefully some good photos, too.

In conclusion, things are going well for me here on Tortola, and I have been settling in comfortably. Life is certainly different down here compared to the hustle and bustle of Toronto and Ottawa, though I miss home quite a bit. So far the hardest part is dealing with missing my friends and loved ones, and adjusting to the slow pace at which everything and everyone moves. That's all for now.