Promenade Sail Dive Charters Blog

Hey all, while the boat is tied down in Fajardo, Puerto Rico with only an occasional errant bilge alarm burning out for whatever reason, we are enjoying our summer break up in North America. We have taken the RV up to Victoria, been over to Edmonton and are now in Reno heading back to Southern California for the rest of our time before returning to the islands in mid October to start charter season.

My favorite bit of food in Canada? A trip to Harvey's, damn the diet for this original double bacon cheeseburger, which I gleefully ate every last lick of and looked around for more!



I think I am planning on having a "Bushwacker and Blue Drink" party for my birthday in mid September...appropriately themed around our pool for those within driving distance of us in SoCal..Details up on that soonish. Although, I cannot promise it will be this inviting...



Connor is returning to crew for us on the yacht this winter, (or as some of our guests named him, "Cutey Patootie")



and our loose plan is to also have Simeon crewing on the yacht when he is not doing charters on the other yacht he works on, (not sure what the guests nickname him, but the calendars they made may speak for itself)



I am not sure how that plan is going to work out that, as frankly, the boat is really busy over the winter season and I may opt for a full time stewardess/cooks helper (leave me more time to dive and take pictures!)

Anyhow, this is what I have for openings...(although, I have closed off a spot or two, where I can fit in a charter for REPEAT guests if I run out of calendar room, but we are trying to give ourselves more time in between charters this season)

February 13th through 23rd (cabin only sailing, either 6 or ten nights, 2 cabins open)

March 6th through 26th

April 15th through 23rd

April 23rd to April 29th MAYBE open, although I have a hold on this date and a back up group that wants it too...

May 29th through mid July, I have recently opened this time period up as I have had so many requests for charters at this time period. Although I am somewhat ambivalent and flexible there, depends what comes in for charters, I may do a couple more in May, which I currently have the month blocked off and then close in June...The early bird definitely gets the worm here and gets to set which way I go there!

Have not been blogging much on this blog, my other ones seem to take up most of my time...

The hall closet in the house in SoCal is starting to overflow with things to go back down to the boat, so I know that it will come quicker then I can even imagine...

After turning down several charter requests for next summer's period, we have decided to open up Promenade for 6 more weeks of charter next summer. May 29th to mid July sometime, we will do charters in the British Virgin Islands...Unless someone wants a longer charter somewhere else!

I enjoy the diving so much at that time of year I can't not be there! We will however, still be closed during the month of May so I can take my parents over to Ireland and the United Kingdom (or maybe it is just because I have had enough of doing charters in May when it rains like crazy for some reason)

We now have the follow openings for next season:


December 4th through the morning of the 27th (Xmas week has a 10% surcharge on it)

February 13th through 23rd (cabin only sailing, 3 cabins open for either 6 or ten nights)

March 6th through 26th

April 15th through 22nd

April 23rd to April 29th (HOLD on this week. Hold on Aug 10th, 2010)

May 29th through mid July, I have recently opened this time period up as I have had so many requests for charters at this time period.

I don't think those weeks will last long, so don't hesitate!

For those who have been asking about Promenade doing a cabin only sailing in February (where you buy it by the cabin and share the boat with (hopefully) like minded guests! My brain hurts when I try and do up numbers for these types of charters! Much easier to just price the entire boat when you know that you will sell the entire thing instead of worrying how many cabins you are going to sell!

Anyways, whether we have one cabin or all of them sold, this will be a guaranteed sailing, and it is a "no one under the age of 18" trip!

First come first serve on cabins.....


Cabin Only Sailing on Promenade. The one and only cabin only sailing this winter season!

Your choice of either 6 or ten nights onboard

Package:
Saturday Feb 12th, complimentary sleep over if wanted. Boarding after 4 PM, in Roadtown, Tortola. No services (ie, dinner and breakfast on shore)
Sunday Feb 13th- noon start cruise for 6 nights.
Saturday Feb 19th- drop off for any guests only staying on yacht for 6 nights
Wednesday Feb 23rd- drop off for ten night guests.

Includes: All meals and ship's bar, cruising taxes, port taxes, overnight air conditioning and all on board ship's toys. This will include SCUBA diving for any CERTIFIED divers on a casual basis. Breakfast is a casual affair on board.
Excludes: Transportation to and fro the yacht, including plane and taxi fares. Any meals and beverages you choose to have on shore. You will be responsible for one dinner ashore on the ten night package only. BC and Regulator rental if needed at $150.00 for the charter period per person. Crew gratuities for cabana boys!

Cost:

6 nights: Only 1 in cabin, $3000.00 (Starboard or Port Ama with private head, or aft cabins, with king sized beds, share two heads for 3 cabins)
6 nights: 2 in cabin, $3500.00, any cabin
6 nights: Willing to share, (one of two twin (small) twin cabins in aft, you may luck out and get it to yourself, but then again, you may not. These rooms are definitely better if you bring a friend that you know, and need two separate beds) $1700.00 for one person.

10 nights: Only 1 in cabin, $4800.00
10 nights: 2 in cabin, $5500.00
10 nights: Willing to share $2700.00

Other Openings on Promenade this year are for WHOLE BOAT BOOKINGS only.

Between Dec 4th and 27th
Between March 6th and 26th
Between April 15th and 23rd.

Cross posted...

Can I rant just a little?? Why not! You can always skip, but by doing this I have the information out of internet for others searching for it!

Airport shuttles between LAX and Home. On the Way to the BVI in the spring I used ExecVIPShuttle It was prompt, the guy was nice, and no problems at all. I was quite happy. Coming home this week, I thought I had booked the same company, but I had not. I had booked Airport Express Shuttle

They confirmed my reservation at $145.00 and $5.00 for extra person, and had my flight arrival times. They did tell me to call them when I arrived at LAX, which I thought was a tad strange, as they usually have people there with your name on the sign. But then I thought, ok, well it is a busy airport, so in case you miss them....

We arrived 5 minutes late. We arrived at baggage, got our bags, and I called them. Well, I attempted to call. Apparently cel service in LAX is HORRENDOUS, at least on ATT and I felt like a commercial walking around going "can you hear me now?"

The guy on the phone said to call him back in about 5 minutes and he would try and get a description of the guy I was looking for! Ok, we did... and were told that "we got there earlier then they thought" (Our plane was 5 minutes late) and the soonest they could get someone there (because of traffic) was 405 PM. Fully an hour after we landed. I was definitely not impressed, but what can you do? He then tried to appease me by saying "but it will be direct to Murrieta, no stops" I countered with "well, I had booked that anyways so I was not that impressed"

We watched every other person in sight on our packed flight disappear into cars and we stood at the curb and waited...and waited.... OUr driver finally arrived at 430. Almost an hour and a half after our flight landed, putting us firmly in the freeway traffic.

OUr driver rattled on about nothing, to the point that we just wanted him to shut up. He was a horrible driver and when we were backed up in the real rush hour traffic, as he drove like a beginner, I sadly watched the express lane whizzing by and wanted to say " Its ok, I will pay the extra $5.35 to use that lane" but kept my mouth shut as we crawled along going to Riverside. We finally made it home around 630.

This was after picking us up at the airport and saying "I really don't know where you are going, I don't have the address" and asking us what the best way to get to there was!!! He said "if we wanted" he could put it in his navigator but never did. I started to wonder where in the hell they got this guy from! I figured they really dropped the ball and picked up someone from the street to come get us.

Then to add insult to injury, I asked him how much was due, not having my email with me, and he said "didn't they tell you? I hate to have to call him for it" I told him that he was just going to have too....

Then he wanted to know if they told me about the 18% gratuity. (Funny, seemed to have that figure down!) He called, came back and told me it was 165.00 plus (more then originally quoted) and the 18% gratuity. Then he got out his calcuator and started calcuating the gratuity for me!!!! I laughed and told him to call a spade a spade, it was not a Gratuity, it was a service charge! He said, "well, no not really, it is just for my gas etc" I thought that should be included in the fee...what do I know??? Then he says, "well to make it easier on you, I will just charge you a 11% gratuity" I laughed and at this point might have told him what a loser company they were. I paid $190.00 which was more then the 18% gratuity and now I am composing my letter to the Better Business Bureau and TELLING everyone how horrible they are and how they ripped me off.

Please DON'T use them!!

Now, back to the islands....

**
Apparently it is still raining and flooding in the islands. More rain then you could ever imagine... More rain then anyone could ever want. WEEKS of rain! Guess it was a good thing we covered all the hatches with garbage bags before we left.

This is what Promenade looked like as we left it, totally stripped and tied up for any potential hurricanes (and rain apparently)





The saddest thing in our world is cutting off the bimini, as putting it back on is a two day job for two people, even if it only takes 15 minutes to cut down! We debated on leaving it, as without it, the varnish really goes to ruin, but we surely would have regretted that as soon as a hurricane was on the horizon!




Anyways, there she sits... See you in 3 months Promenade!

We have been swamp dog busy the two days since arriving home. We had to transfer our drivers licenses to CA from Florida, as well as our license tags, finding out that we had to pay a fine because we had not done it in the 20 days since buying the house in April, since we left for the BVI. Plus since we had bought the Lexus less then a year ago in Florida with lower taxes, we had to make up the differences in sales tax to the CA government. Glad to see that we are doing our part to help out California's deficit!!!

Was surprised to see how much paper work was still used at the DMV here compared to Florida! I felt like I was in the 70's...One panic moment was finding out when I switched my license over I had to do a written test...Ha Ha...Ha Ha... Can I say that I looked at the first question which was "what is the legal limit on blood alcohol level for driving" and it had 8, 5 and 0 and I DID NOT know the answer I knew I was in trouble!!!
Bazza "guessed" that since it was CA it would be low and put 5 which was wrong. I opted for the "go outside first and READ the drivers handbook after reading the questions and before doing the test" option. He squeaked through with 6 wrong (the max he could have) and i only had 2! He says it does not count since I read the book!!!

The tests were marked by comparing them to a sheet...Never mind computerized, they did not even have an answer key to put over the circles with the right answer numbers!!!
**
Went to get renew insurances on vehicles, and instead of "what is recommended" she basically told us we had to tell her how much we had to lose in the states so we insured for that amount. My jaw dropped. Welcome to California folks.

**
After all that fun and games, I have managed to eat out at Outback, Panda Express and Red Lobster without going off my eating plan for the days, except for in sodium which is an absolute shocker when you see how much is in this take out food!

**

I think that is enough blabbering on today....

Kevin started a school today to take a bartending course, and looks much better then when I got him a month ago...


And, someone mentioned that we had not had pictures of our granddaughter Ella for awhile, and we have not so here is one! Growing like a weed!

Cross posted....

We went SCUBA diving! Yep, that is right, back into the water for us...
First dive was to Little Thatch, hoping for a drift dive, but the current was turned off then! Still very pretty though.
This was a whole bunch of Basket Stars in the barrel. Love them so much....


Some nice pillar coral....


Kevin doing what he does best....


Posing in front of Black coral...


Bazza told Kev to be the first one out of the water so he could help the others out, as it was a live dive.....


Then it was onto Great Thatch so Glenyce could have a snorkel. Margot and I opted to have a snorkel too, although we put on SCUBA tanks for ours! This fish attraction device type thingy was directly behind where we anchored. Glad we missed it!


Baby fish in a tire....


Angel Fish roaming around....


A Nice Hogfish....


Nice Black coral and schools of fish....


A pretty little turtle that we came upon over a coral head....


This is coral color that Mark had taken with his camera...


Then it was off in between the rain clouds to White Bay on Jost. A common theme this week it seems.


Margot and Glenyce enjoyed cocktails at sunset (pics by Mark)




EVERYONE enjoyed dinner tonight, not only had I made them do tons of exercise but it was STEAK night!


I still have a blog entry to do or two from this charter, I am a couple days behind, but right now actually the boat is being tied up in Puerto Rico and we are leaving on a jet plane soon!! Yaa hoo....

Cross Posted from SaildiveBVI

So, Margot and I talked Bazza into taking us for a drift dive the other afternoon. We jumped in at the east end of the channel side of Little Thatch....The current looked like this!


We get to do so few of these they are always a lot of fun...This is Margot's first ever drift dive and she loved it...


The black coral was spectacular and plentiful....


I found this slipped lobster and surprisingly he did not go anywhere. Eventually he let me pick him up and hold him, until he decided he had enough and skittered away making me squeal like a little girl!


Next we found a shark laying underneath a ledge...


The soft corals and the colors were absolutely pristine and beautiful....


By the end of our drift dive we had gone about a nautical mile and came up way in the middle somewhere between Little Thatch and Great Thatch! Strobes are great though for getting the boat to spot you...A couple clicks and Bazza was right on us...




After that it was into Sopers Hole for the night cuz we wanted to go for a dive with the Tarpons and Sting Rays!

Give it a few days and the blog starts working again...Weird! Now I can put entries in there proper place again... It is after 10 PM tonight and we just finished dinner!! Why, because we went for a night dive. You know it is summer out now when we go in for night dives...
We enjoyed our time at Little Harbour on Peter, it was a large snorkeling trip...every one was in!


I always manage to get my guests best side for the blog!


We watched the Pelicans on the dock...


Sting Rays....


This Hermit Crab was trying out a new house...I don't think it is any larger then the one has had now though!


I played with the upside down jelly fish...






The corner was very still with not much water flow, hence quite a bit of green algae with lots of little fish hiding from the big fish in it....




Lots of fish underneath the dock...







It was time to go for another glorious sail, this time back up to Salt Island again for another dive....We put Kevin to work....


While some napped....


Then it was back down for another fun filled current dive on the RHONE. Only ones there again!


A nice little Peacock Flounder...


These two sting rays made for some wonderful photoes...


Lobster...


You know I am just too damn tired to comment on the rest of these tonight! Tomorrow I will finish it off...
This Octopus was on the Condenser. Quite in the open. We showed it to Margot, she "nodded and smiled" which meant she did not see the damn thing at all!


My rays again... By this time we were getting tired of fighting current....


Mark and his camera...


The Puffer fish are plentiful and large on the wreck lately, We just love them!




Kevin doing his starfish routine. This guy darts every where back and forth very quickly under water, you think I dive fast, no one can keep up with him!


And the Horse Eyed jacks that we spotted on our safety stop!


One last picture...Kerry being VERY guest LIKE and napping on the bimbo mats!! (new bimbo mats by the way, we replaced those...)

So, Mark and Glenyce showed up on the noon ferry from Jacksonville, FL (well, via St Thomas) so our small group is complete and we were ready to go away for the week and play!



First there was the all important matter of lunch, although EVERYONE is eating Kerry Healthy food this week, no charter creme sauces in sight, so simple is the motto!



First, Kevin had to relearn something about anchors and sails so Bazza did not have to do it all (moi?? Of course I am not doing it!, Bazza is saying today that if he had the choice of a conch or a Kerry to help, a conch may be a better choice! Harrummppphhhh!)


And in another rare moment, Kevin is pulling sails...He was quite funny as the second time he said to Bazza "Do you want me to release the lines?" and we all laughed at how smooth he was being, but nope, he was pulling the strings! We have a very nice sail. I laid there on the deck like a guest and thought that it was much better to be a guest on a charter yacht then crew on the charter yacht!


This is from last nights dinner...Jerk Chicken Breasts with salsa, baked potatoes with caramelized mushrooms and onions...yummm. We tried our hand at fishing last night, but that did not pan out very well...


Our first stop for a dive was Salt Island...Wreck of the Rhone. A rare picture, someone taking a snap of me getting in the water....


Margot coming down....


Mark coming down...


Margot again looking very cute! We had quite a bit of current and the water was very GREEN today...


Made Margot follow me through the wreck without a light, we just used the strobe on my camera....


This Barracuda did not want to give up his post at the entrance to the wreck...Margot finally was forced to shoo him away with her hands and even then he did not go very far.....




He deemed to sit by the side until we were out and then went straight back in.


Mark coming out of the wreck. We were the only ones on the dive, always nice!


The Puffer Fish were out in full force on the wreck today....


And the large Angel Fish...


The Snappers just waited and hoped we would be staying until it was truly dark so he could hunt in the lights!


Never seen these schools of fish on the Rhone before. Was surprised! At first we thought they were Bally hoo, and then almost like a Barracuda. Turns out they are Sennet, and are a member of the Barracuda family, uncommon here. Yep, first time I have seen t
Them!


They circled us nicely, and about that time we hit a current wall and could not get any closer to the shallow end, so we went back to the boat! Nice dive...Very eerie down there with the murky green water!


Just to finish off the blog, here is a nice little Dolphin pic today... We anchored over night at Great Harbour on Peter and now are in Little Harbour about to go for a snorkel!

This is what it looks like when you wait for delayed air planes about sunset, you know, when the mosquito's are starting to come out, at the non air conditioned airport!



Finally our friend Margot showed up, smiling broadly and happy to be here. So would I be after the Vancouver-Edmonton-Winnipeg-Toronto-Miami-SJU-EIS route!


We went clean across the island to have dinner at the Jolly Roger in West End, as it was Caribbean BBQ night....


AND we had Caribbean Jerk Prime Rib! Oh my god was it wonderful!! We left the fat from the meat on the plate, that was about all!




Back to the boat, which is in Baughers Bay on Mooring, and it was time to go to bed for all...Her first night on board she manages to break her air conditioner, so she stood by and gave Baz moral support in fixing it this morning!!!


We have dropped the lines and have escaped harbour! No more maintenance this week (well, if Bazza would stop breaking stuff...)

Again we have had a very busy week that just flew by. 630 Friday evening and we have a boat that is cleanish, has food on it (ish), has full SCUBA tanks and off we will go again tomorrow night.
Not only do we have FULL Scuba Tanks, but they were also filled with our brand new compressor that was put in this week!


West End always has more Tarpon then you can imagine. We spent a few evenings this week attempting to catch them. First we had to get the minnows. That is what the strainer is for! No net! Unfortunately there were not that many minnows and the Tarpon were faster then the strainer operator was!


One came on board....


Many got away....In fact this Tarpon would not open its mouth for them to grab it....


They both tried and eventually, they lost it!


This is the shot bar that was found diving last week. Apparently when it comes out of a cannon it spins really fast and it is like having a bowling ball size ball! I just thought it was bar bells, and would have said the same thing if I saw it in the water!


Lots of bits and pieces ...it is sure fun!


We spent a couple town days this week, hot, sweaty, and BUSY! We know we have to be done maintenance as both Baz and I are finding that everything we touch we are either breaking or dropping, so we will be fine with going out diving this coming week!

cross posted from my other blog...

So, Richard and Lisa who are lazing around in the blazing hot sunshine of Vancouver pretending to be working, were over on Vancouver Island this week.....So glad they go to have a tour of the area with mom and dad and they spent time together!
And good timing as mom and dad are taking off on a cross country jaunt on Thursday to visit relatives in Winnipeg...


They even had sunshine on Vancouver Island, as Lisa is despairing of EVER seeing anything but rain in Vancouver!


Of course they went out and ate....


This picture should be captioned "Put the hammer down and back away from Bazza's toys, Richie!!" As believe me, once we get back up to Canada in August, Bazza will be full speed ahead working on whatever project he has in the house there as well!


Basically it has rained on Tortola. The seas are dirty over here, and getting out for a SCUBA dive is getting pretty boring on the reefs just out here. None the less, it is keeping up some exercise in my world. Even if I can't see anything!




A nice little sting ray, with interesting marks on his back...


Not sure what they were made from.....here is a close up...


Soft coral tubes....


Feather Dusters...


An upside down jelly fish....


I loved this little peppermint shrimp, usually I only getting them inside so I really cannot see them to take a picture!


A flame Helmet which is nice and clean...


This part of the reef seemed to have a ton of old bicycle wheels on it...maybe a load was lost!


An old Large Triton Trumpet...


The octopus gave me a nice murex shell today! This is just his eye....



A very large anchor and chain laying there. In good shape too!


And on the maintenance front? Well, of course, there is maintenance happening. The doors are back on the boat and look SPECTACULAR. So much nicer then the blue paint! Unfortunately we had to use the same old handles off the old ones as that was our only choice on island... It worked out so well that at some point we will replace the doors on the cabins in the ama's...But not soon!


The cockpit is totally stripped apart down to everything out of the lockers, the lids off and has been cleaned and painted.... Even new awlgrip! It looks fairly disgusting doesn't it?


But this is in the half way stage and it is looking much better.... They are almost done now, and I will put up a nice shiny picture of the cockpit and nice blue cushions when all is said and done.

Having a pile of shiny brand new looking cockpit cushions....



And the puppy coming up with a look on his face and empty hands when he can find NO MORE to sew!!!!

Finally managed to get around to cutting down the length of this slideshow and taking out some of the "naughty bits" I think I have most of them! This is from the end of May when we had the "old folks" on the boat, although with the addition of 4 younger members I am not sure I can still call them the Old Folks!

It is looking better and better! This is a screen shot I took off my computer this evening. The template is all done, I just need to populate the sections now!

...oh yeah, and embed the blog, which believe me, I seem to have trouble with!

Cross posted....

I love popsicles. You know, the sugar free ones in tropical flavors... Always a challenge to find on island, as, let's face it, you have to find a grocery store that actually has a freezer working, and not only working but at a low enough temperature. I have become a connoiseur at scanning the grocery store shelves and finding something that may actually still be frozen. Bazza's entertainment is to look for the thermometers in the fridges and freezers and point out what the temperature is.

The new Riteway beside us in East End, has wonderful beautiful new freezers, and the ice cream out of them is probably the hardest I have seen on Tortola. But, no popsicles. Friday I planned. I took along a frozen bag with me to town, as I can usually find half melted popsicles at Bobby's... I figured I could get them home and finish freezing them.

Bobby's, is in sadly poor shape. I saw milk containers in the chill section that looked like they were going to burst their seams. Every cooler was filthy, not working properly if at all and it really reminded me of the OLD Bobby's, before this one was built.

I went to the ice cream freezers, which covered most of the aisle, but half were empty and broken and the other half, I opened the door and I could SEE the ice cream melting out of the boxes and the popsicles were just sticky fruit juice piling on the bottom. No savior there. This is a common occurrence. I am not sure how much they have to charge for all the wastage....

I went into One Mart, as they have them too. Well, I fear their freezers were not that much better. The ice cream ones were mostly turned off or melting. Plus, I always wonder why ice cream has to be sold in the same quarter section of the store as salt fish does?

If you want to make a million dollars on Tortola, be a top notch freezer mechanic and learn how to clean them too. You should have them tripping over you to give you work!

******

And, how is maintenance coming you ask? Of course you do! And of course it is... We are beginning to have things that look like cockpit cushions...



Look the sewing room busy in action!



And this is the list that says "I am so damn tired of you taking pictures of me for your blog, I am just humoring you you know" Not sure what he is complaining about, he has more then a conch shell on!


New doors for the aft are all cut out and are (were) in the process of being varnished. Unfortunately, apparently the wood we could get for it on island, well, was not the best quality, so the varnish is going on the very thin veneer wonky. Not sure what they are going to do with that....


*****

I went to get in the Bingo Bus yesterday to go for a dive...Only to have it in "get home" mode. Bazza worked on it for awhile and then told me I was not going dive in it, cuz it was computer controlled it was going to have to go in to be looked at where they have a machine to read it. This meant a "discussion" ensued with me first telling him that that was incredibly stupid when I had a perfectly good engineer at home and he should just buy whatever it was he needed. Him telling me how expensive it was. Me telling him that he should have told me this before we bought it, that it was really silly as we never take anything in...Him telling me it would not have made any difference at the time if he had told me. Me insisting it would have. Him telling me that if I wanted a fast boat with a big outboard they all had them now. Me arguing that the tender with the 50 hp did not have one.

Well, I could go on, but you get the picture. My choice was to take the tender not the power boat, so off I went bouncing across the channel cursing at (the boat, and maybe husband) each time my kidneys were jarred. Incredible how quickly I got used to the power boat and don't want to deem to put my behind in the dinghy!!!

Anyways, it was nice to get in with my camera, although it was pretty cloudy and a water temp of 85 degrees already.... So you get some fishie pictures...


A flounder...



A rock Hind....



I loved this tiny fish on the shell. Unfortunately I had a wide angle lens on, so this is cropped like crazy....



A spotted eel...


This sting ray was surprised as can be when he came up over this coral head and saw me there...



This one just ignored me...




If you look carefully on the left in the bottom there is another spotted eel sticking out his head. I love the colors of the soft corals around him...






This Tarpon followed me around for a lot of the dive. Unusual. Usually the Barracuda do that, but we was with me the entire time....


I then bounced my way across the channel again, and cooked up some blackened mahi mahi for dinner. It was GREAT!