A New Season

Aaahhh... we finally arrived on Tortola!  What a relief to find all is well with Green Flash.  Fortunately it was one of the lighter storm seasons.

It took us a day and a half to get to the BVI.  Our flight was cancelled out of San Juan, Puerto Rico to Tortola because of heavy rains.  We had to spend the night there.  After all that travel, it was so nice to have Albert, our taxi driver, there to greet us.  By the way, Albert is Iris's husband.  Iris was in my first post and is the lovely lady that drives us around Tortola to do our errands. 

When we got in his van and saw the pillow on the floor we really had a good chuckle.  I had changed out my pillows in my salon the last time we were here.  I passed the old set on to Iris.  They were a little faded for Green Flash, but  I was so pleased to see she had put them to good use.  I love that about the islands.  

Hubby and I checked into the hotel at Nanny Cay and right away headed to Green Flash in the yard.  Of course, we were so happy to see she had fared well through the hurricane season.

It was going to be a mad rush anyway, but losing a night in Puerto Rico didn't help matters.  So... to say the least... we were feeling a little stressed and wasted no time in getting right to business.  We had to have her spit and polished by Thursday morning for the boat show.  I got right to the cleaning and unpacking.  Hubby had his own list of "to do" items, which were many.

They say the two happiest days of boat ownership are the day you "buy the boat" and the day you "sell the boat".  For me, it's the day we take the boat "out of the water" and the day we put the boat back "in the water".  Either way, this is so true!  There is always excitement that comes with getting the boat back in the water and beginning a new charter season.

We were assigned a great "front row" spot for the boat show.

There is always something bigger and better!  This year it was Orion.  She was a beautiful 90 foot custom Catana, which is the same make as Green Flash.  It looked a lot like Green Flash but much much bigger and better. 

When I saw this galley I had serious yacht envy.  They had just prepared lunch for some brokers.

Somehow within a couple of days, we got from this stage... 

to this.

And the show begins!  

This was the 32nd Annual BVI Charter Yacht Show.  There were about 75 boats entered this year.  As crew we spend four days showing our boat to crewed yacht brokers who book yacht charter vacations.  About 100 brokers attended, coming from all over the world.  It's fun to see brokers we have worked with in the past but also meet the new ones.

On top of showing our boat for four days, there are evening events.  It's such a great time for us to mingle with the brokers but it's also our one time of year we all get together as crew.  Usually we are sailing past each other or waving across the anchorage.  There were a lot of new crew this year so it's nice for them to get to know others and learn tips from the veteran crew.  

A new event this  year was the "Crocker Beach Olympics".  Crew and broker if you didn't get it.  This was a fun night with lots of crazy games. 

There was team racing with a bumper between their legs and tug o' war, with the French boats against the South African boats.  

The frozen t-shirt contest was a new one to me.  You had to defrost the shirt and see who could get it on first.  The anchor throw on a bungee was another interesting twist.

Brokers took pies in the faces.  Emily from VI Sailing was such a sport!

Our final evening we were served a nice dinner.  How nice to have the tables turned and "be served".  The Premier of the British Virgin Islands, Dr. the Honourable D. Orlando Smith, spoke to us.

The evening concluded with boat and culinary awards.  I hope to get pictures from the culinary contest and share them in my next post.  It's great to see the quality of food these charter chefs are putting out.

There is such a sense of freedom leaving the dock.  Now we get to focus on what we are really here to do.  I can't wait to pick up our charter guests today.  For me it's all about the people and sharing my food and the beauty of the Virgin Islands!