Promenade Sail Dive Charters Blog

I can't believe it is April already! In January when I looked at the charters I had to do for Feb and March it looked, well, very tiring. They went quick though. Having Lindsey here to help on the boat made a big difference.
We are all cleaned and ready and waiting for the next set of guests who come in this afternoon from St Thomas. Tucked into our little spot in Inner Harbour for turn around one more time. I seem to have spent a lot of time here and at Trellis Bay lately. So many guests leaving early arriving late...

These are a couple pictures I took at Trellis Bay dropping off a couple weeks ago...

Using your tripod is not that helpful on the boat on the water I have surely found out...


Letting the dive gear dry off for a day or so....




"the little one" from Swim Vacation hides notes everywhere when she leaves. We find them for months! Here I am collecting a few of them! Cute!


Todays guests are from North Carolina and we have 4 preteens and 4 adults...LOVING totally this dry weather we have been having lately. Almost makes up for the months that we have rain non stop...

Of course I did put up video's of the last couple charter weeks. Here is the one that ended yesterday...

and here is the second week of Swim Vacation...

Is it Swim Vacation? Or Photo Vacation? Maybe Salt Vacation or Anegada Vacation? Any way you cut it, the shooting for this past week of Swim Vacation was spectacular with great guests, and great days... In the British Virgin Islands on Yacht Promenade

Music by Adele, Rolling in the Deep, Set Fire to the Rain

Swim Vacation has opened up their registration for their charters next year: We have a week in early December and then two weeks straddling the end of March and early April... those are all too far away for me to think about yet! I only have 15 sleeps until some time off

Oh yes, a calendar of what we have coming up for openings is probably a good thing to add. Next season is already half full...

Well things have certainly been busy aboard the old yacht! We just finished off #6 of 10 in a row of charters. Go us. The final touches are being put on Promenade and within a couple hours a new group of Swim Vacationers will step on board.

You can see all about our adventures swimming last week on the Swim Vacation blog here



You can also see everything from the boat side of what was going on from the video I put together of the week...

Sailing and Swimming the British Virgin Islands

I think mostly what I did last week was cook and edit pictures! Lindsey left to go back to the Cape on Tuesday and we all whined.....

Fitzy had a birthday coming up..which meant our cake making skills came into play on the last night of charter...



For those who know Fitzy, they will not be surprised to know that Bazza made a jock strap to put on the cake..Yes, there is a story behind it!



The guests were just as amused!


It was turn around day which started bright and early yesterday morning since the first guest to leave had a 715 AM flight! We found lots of provisions..



But at least I had a little one who could stand in the sink and put them away while I handed things to her!





Then of course we did the round of the stores for the other supplies... and decided to surprise Hopper by meeting him at the airport with a dark and stormy (apparently we had too much time on our hands for a turn around day..)

I am guessing you would not see us stopping on the last freeway exit at a major airport in the states to bring our supplies out of the back seat to mix it up, but it is not so unusual here on Tortola!



He has no idea...


But he was a fairly happy camper!


Between that time and the time we had dinner at Caprricio's that night, we had quite the adventure..I shall blog about that later! But dinner at Caprricio's was good, and we found Mark, the first tripeat Swim Vacation guest!!!!!!


And so another Swim Vacation week starts. I have some lofty goals this week cuz we are supposed to have some good weather!

So..life on the good ship Promenade is busy as can be! We have a group this week who does not get out of bed until, well it was 1030 this morning! Big smiles from the crew!!!! We are one of the charter boats who never cares if we are still sailing to an anchorage at 7 at night, but don't like moving early in the AM.

We dropped off our last charter Saturday morning, and had the boat cleaned, restocked and brought up to Trellis Bay by dinner time to pick up our next guests, repeats from Texas! We get a lot of Texans..

It looks like Felix is doing all the work here and Lindsey is watching! But it is not true...


Sunset in Village Cay, just before we left for Trellis Bay..


The cute pelican sitting on the old gas pump. He was sitting on the front of our boat, but the crew did not think it was quite as cute as I did having him there on their clean boat and sprayed water at the poor pelican!!!


Interesting sunset affects on our way into Trellis Bay...






Mega Yacht anchored way out in the channel...


Old interesting boat, anchored at Trellis, probably for the Dark and Stormy!


Like father like son, last time these two were on the boat was 4 years ago...The younger one has grown to 6'4"


We were out of Trellis Bay and off to Cam Bay on Camanoe..The only other boat in there was SandCastle..


It was kind of one of those perfect days out...


Lindsey finding snorkel gear... (Bazza was really happy to give up this job, along with his share of the dishes to Lindsey)


Our pretty boat at anchor...


Biblical sayings on the beach...




Been awhile since I was in Cam Bay, forgotten they had a turtle keep there!


The anchorage...


The boat again..


Lunch!


Frito's apparently are an important part to put on Frito's along with a ton of hot sauce...


Barry and Sylvia..Barry's mission is to learn to sail this week. The thought of buying a boat and going around the world is appealing to him. Bazza can share all kinds of info! Sylvia says she will drink the pinot and give encouragement...

So...long time no speak! I have diligently being posting pictures on our facebook page, but there appears to be not enough hours in the day to keep everything up..We are still here and on charter. The wind has been blowing the last week, usually is the first week of March.
We are anchored over at Beautiful Jost Van Dyke right now, and I am waiting for Felix to come back with parcels from my mommy that Quest nicely picked up for me!

One of the new things is a new keyboard for my desktop, as mine keeps on turning off all the time..

I had to laugh, cuz I have all these big burly men on board the last week..and Dora nicely made up all their rooms with all kinds of colorful fish sheets! I think we must have 4 year olds on board..









Felix has the best view in the world for changing toilet seats..but I do want to question exactly how the toilet seat was snapped right in half??


I have a stew! Yippee me!!!


We went for boys at play at Little Harbour on Peter..It was a pretty afternoon...






Apparently Paddle Boarding works best if you have one in front stabilizing the board, and one in behind pushing you!


And apparently we have some pretty good water skiers on board too!




Others were better at the beer sports...


And various other types of sports..


Time to go watch my chicken parmesan multiply in the oven tonight...bye..

Apparently 2, and a tender, and quite the dance! Little did I know..I thought swimming it looked a hell of a lot easier...









But I am not sure what I am talking about as I am the queen of making too much pasta!

I will be raising my rates for Yacht Promenade next season very shortly...I will honor anything I have quoted for whole groups for a short time, but don't delay!

Costs go up every year on the yacht...I am sure we will still be about the best value around in our size/price/amenities/numbers....

I still have a week or so available around July 7th, 2012 this season and perhaps a bit of time at the beginning of June for whole yacht charters at this years rates.

Contact Kerry soon!

I am trying to upload the movie I made of our charter last week. Let's just say it is not going nearly as well as the diving on the charter did! AND I went to the fast internet on Tortola (fast being a relative term you know...)

We had a spectacular weather week and SCUBA diving ten days or so on board...if you can believe it my husband actually took some good pictures! I made him take the camera and set it up so he only had to press the button...This penguin was hanging out on the spit at Necker Island..


These peacocks were also hanging out there too!






We had a spectacular dive on the Rocus with all kinds of visibility and fish life..




The fishing net draped artistically over the end of the wreck was much appreciated by me as well!




Yes, then we had the incredible experience with the Humpback Whale, but I want to do a special post just on that so I will skip it for the moment! We found a barracuda or two fishing...



Which thrilled Betsy to no end anyways...


Some of our guests rented a car and took supplies to spend the day on Anegada. It was well worth it. It truly was a beautiful day...


The rest of us, well, we attempted our luck with fishing on the north drop...


I had more of a sun tan then I have gotten all winter by sitting up in the sail bag looking for bait balls...which did us absolutely no good at all...


But the colors did not disappoint anyways..




I don't care what anyone says, these cottages still don't look like a good investment to me!


We did get a bit of rain in the late afternoon...


About enough to make it quite pretty...


And then we had a double rainbow


The next morning we were off to the Chikuzen..yes, we did every spectacular dive in the BVI this week!


Where we did find a very large Lion Fish


Looking up at the boat..


Amberjack and Margot on the wreck...


Oh yes, a gorgeous turtle that I am sure felt cornered!






We were too busy watching the turtle to do more then glimpse the lion Fish beside him or the Eagle Ray that swam right over us....

We had "formal" night on the boat..We were a good looking crowd if I say so myself!



Ah, yes, the video just finished uploading...

Our last week on Yacht Promenade in the British Virgin Islands

So...Michael Beans Show and Leverick Bay..I decided it was a night off for the crew

We went to the show and then out for dinner...I made Bushwackers before we left the ship in order to facilitate the good cheer and participation at the show..It worked. We drank quite a few pitchers!
Michael brought out his conch to call the cows home....


But what we found was Betsy the Beanstalker!


AND she got a new shirt personally signed...


Even Margot was shaking her clackers...helped along with by a few bushwackers as she is of the opinion if you have seen Michael Beans show a couple dozen times, you have probably seen it enough!


I just happen to have a short video clip of it...

Margot swaying to Michael Beans music at Leverick Bay..

Apparently a fairly good time was had by all....




I had wanted to try out the restaurant upstairs there for awhile now, so tonight was the time....


It was the first night playing by John Peacock, who is Irish and who apparently used to play in VI many years ago, and after like a 20 year absence, is back. This was good, as it definitely was not somewhere that you could get in and out quickly. We waited 1 hr and 15 minutes for our food, but our guests danced while waiting...


The place is very nice, the service is good, and the lamb chops and Sea Bass drew raves from all our table. I had the steak, and fine, it was not as good as mine!!!!


There might JUST have been a bit of a dance party when we got back to the boat that night...


Some of us might had just had a bit of a glowy feeling....!


Loved being on dock for the night, so easy for everyone to go back and forth... and really impressed with how much more improved Chef's Pantry is every time I go there, so I am sure we will be doing this more often...

And if that wasn't enough, Felix received a coupon for 15% off dinner as a Dinghy Captain at the Michael Bean show for everyone!

and a short clip of this...

DInghy Captain Felix receives a welcome coupon for a dinner discount for us at Michael Beans and Leverick Bay...

The last week or so has been a blur of cooking, diving and flat seas...This is a 11 day charter so we seem to have days to spare~!

We have sometimes dove three times a day! Right now we are sitting at White Bay on Jost, and all the guests are off playing so I am hoping I get the time to spend a couple hours catching up on emails and blog entries!

So, mostly I have diving pictures...and many diving pictures at that! Random through out the week, here goes...




Margot looking at one lone starfish at Salt Island...


A nice big peacock flounder at Salt Island..


I have been seeing a bit more of this ragged type sponges then I ever have..perhaps they are diseased?


No margot, the lobster cannot come home for dinner...


Light rays on the water, still at Salt Island..


A random meal thrown in there somewhere, looks like it was seared tuna night...


I don't remember where I took this picture, but it had to be on Blonde Rock. I believe that is about the only place that I get silhouettes like this...


Lion Fish on Ginger Steps..


this was diving in the shallows at Ginger Steps..






And one little turtle in the distance there...


Next dive was the Vagabond, up on Fallen Jerusaleum. This really is turning into quite the spectacular little dive! Usually good viz, lots of life and this time there was 3 Nurse Sharks...


I was so busy trying to point out another Nurse Shark to the guests that I practically tripped over this one...


Randall and Tonia...




Lion Fish under the Vagabond...


And a couple pictures in the shallows here...




hmmm...another one looking up at the boat. One would think that I had enough of these now wouldn't one?


And my two girls...Margot and Lisa



This all seems so long ago, I am not sure what is happening to me, I seem to be getting further behind in posting pictures..Maybe I just take too many of them

Next stop was Michael Beans show at Leverick Bay!

We had a very busy first two days..5 dives, 5 islands..never mind the fact that yesterday morning in the galley I made Bruschetta, bread, ice cream, BBQ ribs, buns, you get the picture...


The ribs are damn good when you don't eat until 830 cuz you went to Marina Cay for cocktail hour


Said Marina Cay pictures..






Said Eric Stone..Betsy says "he is not beans!"


Betsy and Vicki looking like they have gotten some sun!




On our way to the parrrrttttyyyyy


Whatever is he telling me here????

Out on the water one more time..We left dock about 11 AM Monday and headed straight to Blonde Rock. No wind, no swell meant we might actually get a dive in there. And we did.


It was as pretty as it normally was, a bit not great viz, but still nice looking under all the overhangs..


Bazza is doing an open water referral for two this week, so he actually had to do two dives yesterday! I have totally given that up, and handed all that over to him, whether he wanted it or not! Interferes with me taking pictures


After our dive we tucked ourselves into our corner of Salt Island by Manhead point, and it was as pretty as it always is...


But really? How can you get much prettier then this????


We all enjoyed relaxing after our play afternoon...


And enjoyed seared tuna before all falling into bed, and most of us had a fabulous deep sleep....

I have now spent about 48 hours trying to upload a smallish (123 mb) video slide show of the charter we dropped off yesterday. Sigh...Not happening.
I have spent 3 hours trying to update web things and answer emails this AM, also not happening.
I am going for the "I will write this and it will get uploaded at some point in time" method now.. Video may not get posted until April!

On the plus side, while waiting many minutes on end for a simple page to load I did all the accounting that I had laying around!!!!
We have just a sleep over tonight on the boat, so we will pull onto dock about mid afternoon, Dora will clean the rooms and we will be off on an 11 night adventure this week. I certainly hope the wind cooperates and we can get out to some nice dive sites I have keenish divers...

A few last random pictures from charter this week. Their third time on board, and we had a fabulous week...The last time they brought a billion children, so it was much quieter this time...


Cane Garden Bay...


On Full Moon night...




We had an absolutely fabulous last day at Salt Island. The visibility was wonderful, the seas were flat and we spent the entire day playing under and on the water there. Not to mention on land as well.


Fish Trap in the shallows...


Snorkeling down the shoreline..






We found quite a few lion fish on the dive, (always is here) but the eels are getting quite well trained to eat them now!


These are the two that got away, apparently I suck at spearing!


We also had great success with Goliath Groupers on the wreck of the Rhone...




And then just an arty shot, looking up at Tommy and Susie...


Thanks guys, third time on board was great with you!..and I loved spending 24 hours at Salt Island...We did not leave until almost dark last night and had a night sail over to Baugher's Bay...

Sitting here at Muskmelon Bay, Guana Island listening to Tommy play music on his guitar..No other boats, and nice and calm. What a good day!
We have tried fishing this week, but it has been dismal...a couple barracuda. No surprise, being around Full Moon...


Our version of the Super bowl included phones, tethering, and sling boxes...It was a bit pixelated, but our guests were happy!




We have been night diving, but the life at night...has been sadly lacking too!


I even let Bazza take my camera in the water, only because he wanted all my stadium lights, not because he wanted to take pictures!


Night time over Soper's Hole...I had my tripod out but there were really too many waves to be using it...


Trying some arty shots again...Cloudy murky water out here with the weather though...





Still love the silhouettes though...


First certified dive for a couple of my divers...they are keen now!


We are even turning Felix into a diver! He loves it...


The boat tucked into the stupid break walls they put in (ruined) Money Bay for..


Finally managed to get a picture of a pilot fish that followed me in my mask the entire dive looking for protection.....


Next dive just happened to be Santa Monica Rock


Where we had a friendly little turtle...






Another night shot of the boat....


Seafood Scampi night...




They were happy campers! Then we sent them off to Bomba's for the full moon party last night...

Gosh there were only 6 of them! We seem to have a bit of luggage and this does not include dive gear....
PS: I really enjoy having the small numbers on the boat, there seems to be so much ROOM on it!


And what was the first thing our guests did? Well of course they set up their IPADS!


And...played "words with friends"! What else would you do? In their favor, they have been on the boat before, so they did not have to stand on ceremony either.


We settled in, had some food....notice, a new buffet table cloth....K Mart special people!




Checked the chart to see how we were possible going to fit everything in that they thought they wanted to do...


And we were off sailing...


The guests found the trampoline for the sail..




I found a bit of a nap, I usually manage to the first afternoon and when I woke up we were tucked up in Money Bay with Ricky Bobby onboard...


Dinner of seared tuna tonight, (it was very good too!)


Followed by a cake for Birthday Bubbles...


Complete with gifts...



Then we had to put up with Felix wiggling his little finger and toe and doing the Caribbean Male version of dancing with all the women swooning..those pictures will have to wait!

Swim Vacation has only 3 spots remaining on each of their winter trips on Yacht Promenade.
March 18th to March 24 and/or March 25-31 ( I am sure Hopper will give you a deal if you book the two weeks back to back..won't you Hopper?







Swim Vacation's site for booking a spot onboard