Just back from 10 wonderful days aboard Gaiamar. First a shameless plug. After 15 trips I now have my two favorite boats. Gaiamar for a mono and Jeannius for the cat lover (boats only) in me. Gaiamar was absolutely fantastic, sails well, great accommodations, well kept, everything worked, and absolutely nothing gave up the ghost and quit working. She is a gem! TMM is doing a great job!

The weather was the absolute best I’ve ever had for sailing in the BVI. Winds upper teens to twenties every day. Two tropical waves that added a little spice to the trip, including one the last night that made Coopers a whole lot of fun. Thank goodness for A/C to keep it cool during the hatch drills.

The normal highlights; The wonderful people both ashore and afloat, White Bay, Randy at Neptune’s Treasure, great snorkeling, the Beach BBQ at Leverick, climbing to the top of Gorda Peak, Lee Bay, and the great sailing.

One special highlight! The greatest dog hustle I’ve ever seen. At White Bay down by the One Love we see this black lab with a red collar romping with the day trippers…getting buried in the sand….having a great time. Next, we take the dink down to Ivans, and we see a black dog swimming out to the boats. I alter course to check this out and there he is about 50 yards from shore up on the back deck of a 4700 sitting down with his paw up. Of course the crew is rushing to find him something to eat. I think I want to trade lives!!!!

The not so highlights. Watching the anchoring and mooring follies, (Whatever happened to SLOWLY…ya know 10 tons of inertia…”coolness” is really defined as having the boat speed reach zero at the ball, not how hard you can back down) The crewmember from hell that needed to reside down the hawspipe in the chain locker or Davy Jones’ locker, and believe it or not….a boat with A/C. To A/C or not A/C….that is the question….or controversy among the crew.

So the planning begins for next year! 365 and counting.

Goin to come back.