This past week we headed over to Tortola to visit our friends on Windtraveler and Wherethecoconutsgrow to hang out and celebrate a couple of birthday parties. The funny part about it is that, even though we have a sailboat of our own, that is not how we got there. Instead, we took the Tortola fast ferry over. We realize how silly this may come across but we have our reasons for leaving our boat sitting pretty.

A fun part of riding the ferry is the “ferry hair”

 

Boat babies unite

 

Ever since we came on to the Charter Caribe dock at the end of last sailing season we cannot seem to get off of it (other than a short stint in the St Thomas mangroves that we did to wait out some hurricanes). And for us that is not necessarily a bad thing. We have never quite been “dock people”, mostly because we couldn’t afford it, and because we had a huge fear of pulling up to a dock (too many things can break if you do it wrong!). We would use docks only as a last case resort if we needed to fill up our water and fuel tanks. But ever since we cozied on up to our friends’ dock we are sort of loving the change of pace.

This was our home for the 2 weeks we left the dock

 

   Being in St Thomas for almost a full year had never been the plan but there is a large cruising community here, and my husband the skill collector, is in high demand. We have friends coming out of the woodwork asking for his time and knowledge. So even though we never thought we would spend an entire season docked, it has been working for us. While Eben is pluggin’ away, either on our boat or on others, the girls and I have become quite accustomed to the fun things to do in St Thomas and we are loving the easy access that dock life is giving us. ie. Step off the boat, on to the dock, into a safari taxi, and off on our next island adventure. It has changed up our homeschooling routine greatly and has helped keep us all motivated in that department. It is also way easier for Eben if the girls and I are out of his way while he works on our boat.

   Another reason we are still tied up rather than floating around the islands this season is because we have made ourselves some really good friends here and are enjoying their company greatly. It’s nice to stop being nomadic for a little bit and enjoy the pleasures of being slightly more still. It has given us the time to nurture these relationships and has given us friends that are now fully a part of our lives.

These guys will never get rid of us!

   Lastly, the reason that holds many people back from taking off sailing, including us this time, is that our boat actually is not quite in shape to untie the lines just yet. We recently got a new windlass from Quick, and a new 65lbs anchor from Mantus, but our old anchor chain does not fit the windlass (it was stainless long link) and our new anchor is just a bit on the heavy side for Eben to be hauling it up and down manually. Without being able to anchor, we don’t feel it is the safest nor the smartest decision to head out like that. Add to that situation that we are still super excited to get our outdoor decking installed (by Eben) and that being on the dock is ideal for doing that, means that we will be here a while longer. And we are happy with that.

This is how we used to raise anchor, we are trying to remedy this.

 

   The combination of friends, projects, and money has meant that we have decided to forgo another month of sailing to get work done instead, but even in making that decision, we are still SUPER STOKED that we get to be doing all of this while living in our floating home, in St Thomas, USVI. A beautiful, little piece of paradise. We know we are a little less attractive to friends that wanted to come visit, given that we are stagnant, but we are being mighty productive. With only another month and a bit to go before we are flying back to Canada for a little while, we feel like time is going to fly by and these projects need to get done, so here we will stay.