Promenade Sail Dive Charters Blog

Miss Heather is recouping well from her jelly fish sting yesterday, but is a bad patient and won't do as she is told! I am like a mother hen apparently!! Glad she is feeling better though!

Well to finish yesterday, there was a swim from Cooper to Salt Bay, pre swim Hopper emerged in these ..............





they all flew across the channel at a rate of knots and to reward them I made bushwakers, which 6 pitchers later they decided they all rather liked! It was a quietish night last night, some had a hard day I think!

This morning they were all up bright and early, it was a trip to the Baths for the swim there, a favourite swim every trip, then there was a tourist trip in to look around, great picture of them all by Heather



There was encouragement for people to pose for pictures on the beautiful beach, but no takers, so Hopper thought he would get them in the mood!







No takers after that!!!! It was then decision time, off to Mountain Point for a beautiful swim, or Happy arrrrrgh with Beans, it took the group 2 seconds to decide and we are at Beans!

Kerry here:

Time for me to pull together a few things for a blog post from my end of things on Promenade! Some of this I had posted on my personal blog, but I know not every one reads that. It is probably back down to my friends and family now! Which might actually keep me in less trouble....
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I received an email from someone who was diving in the BVI and found a camera at the bottom of the sea. When he salvaged the memory card he could see guests on our boat and is trying to get the pictures to them. What a nice person! He is going to send me a picture so I can see whether I recognize them or not...
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I found this fabric on a couch. I absolutely love it and think it would be perfect for the couches on Promenade as they have to be recovered this summer. Does anyone know it? I have been looking on line but not found anything that matches the colors yet....

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I have been shopping for the boat. All the small wares "stuff" that is constantly being replaced. Nice to be spending someone else's money other then my own! I could get very used to that. We have sheets to towels to beach towels, to glasses to electric whisks and everything in between.


With more to come. Two other items that are showing up new on Promenade this spring are:

1) A tender! God knows it is needed! The one we have, although it has a newish motor, has been ferrying around charter guests for about 9 years. It looks like crap. It leaks. It has been patched, and patched...It should be into STT any time now, and in the next month it will have the engine and console switched over and put in and then we will be all nice and pretty again.

2) A new icemaker. I am not even going to tell you the saga of the icemaker now today, as that would go into the realm of a rant, and I have way too much work to do to allow myself to get sidetracked that way. Lets just say that an icemaker was ordered in November. It has come and gone and at this point in time, 3-4 months later, the wrong ice maker is sitting on the dock at Palm Beach, not a nice new installed one sitting in the cockpit. "Soon Come"

Bruce has also been busy putting together a cruising guide that could be printed off and given to potential guests. One of the brokers had been asking for it for someone who does not use internet. Apparently our answer of go to the website was not happening. So, he very quickly and nicely put together this one in PDF format. I am sure I will find other uses for it, and best of all, I did not have to do it myself! Now, if he just worked on my logo's for my SaildiveBVI site....

It was an afternoon swim around Pelican Island for our swimmers, then a cocktail hour heading in to the Bight, a second cocktail hour at Willy T's, this was a sneeky ploy by the crew to get the guests off the boat as we had a few birthdays and wanted to put up balloons and banners. The guests did well and at 8pm I was starting to wonder where they all were and what all the wooing was about at Willy T's, Rich came on the radio and warned me they were heading back for dinner and our group was indeed the cause of the woo's and the reason being all the girls got the tattoos, heres the girls with there tatoos!



Looks like they had fun, in fact so much they went back after dinner too!

Heres the birthday cake



Rich gave me this picture of Hopper and Fitzy which I thought was too funny!



And on to today, an exciting morning, the group went off for a short swim this morning, some were a little slow moving today, it wasn't at 7:30 either, Fitzy came back and Heather our swim guide had got stung by a jelly fish and wanted a ride back in the dingy, it turned out to be one of the nastier jelly fish and wasn't just a little sting, we get them sometimes here but very rarely, it had stung her arm good, so it was straight to the vinegar, which kills any tentacles that might still be on the arm, you should never try to remove the tentacles before doing this, the venom also causes muscle contractions, which she was having in her abdomen and were quite painful, she was then whisked off for a hot shower, most stings are protein based, so hot water kills them too, then all manner of antihistamines and sting relief and pain killers, a quick nap later and she is all good again!





We moved over to the Rhone and first there was some ab exercises





then every one went for a swim / snorkel there, some were inventive with equipment

The shots game came out last night and as always a few did ok and a few didn't, "I don't like that one!"

Picture removed as Emma feels it didn't make her look hot enough!

Fitzy was a gent and did some for other people, but then threatened us with a pole dance, apparently he has won competitions in this particular sport!



Some had to do the rude shot even though they weren't playing because they couldn't keep their hands to themselves



or they were too inquisitive, the rules are simple, if you touch it, its yours!



Not another!



The crew didn't escape either



but some looked fine with it all!



The shots game was a lot of fun, after dinner, the boat turned into a disco and a good night was had by all



It did mean swimming wasn't quite 7:30 as planned this morning, but a little late, off they all went and saw eagle rays feeding!!

We found this picture of Richie that Heather had, which i believe is Rich taking the micky out of Simeon.......



A sail found us at the Indians, some went for a snorkel and some went for a dive, Princess stayed aboard to cook lunch and was rather proud of her bread, so thought she would take a picture of it, cheese and onion bread plait



Heres some of the dive pictures from Richie









I am being entertained by my dive guides / deck hands who are busy doing the dishes and random impressions, porky pig was good Heather!

It was quite a night last night, the weeks worth of red wine was drank in 1 go and Hopper introduced the group to dark and stormys, and then went to bed, Rich was happy to be bar tender for the group, it was quite a late night.

Every one was perky this morning and the swimmers were off bright and early



It was a great swim in Great Harbour as always and there was even enough energy left for a play afterwards





Thought this was a cute picture!



I even got to vinegar Fitzy's thighs, he managed to get a few stingers from the water, there are 2 cures for stingers - vinegar or urine, I have never vinegared a mans thighs in speedos before (and certainly not the alternative!!!!) No pictures!

The group went to explore Peter Island and walked right over to the Crows nest on the west end of Peter Island, quite a walk / jog, while they did that, me and Heather, my partner in diving crime, went for a sneeky dive, we had to check her camera was ok for filming the swim strokes this afternoon! I wanted to do the Fearless wreck, but the mooring buoy has disappeared so we did the shore line instead, we saw an enormous lobster running around, barracuda, found numerous towels with 1 pin attached and then we saw a manta - pictures thanks to Heather!









Wow and for Heather this is the second time she has seen one here this year, thats just cheeky, how exciting, we squealed and hugged under water we were so excited!

We met back up with the group, had lunch and off they go again with there swimming, a hear a nasty rumour that there might be some cocktail hour game tonight.............

More exciting news, I have a holiday booked - yeah!!!!! Miss kerry has to come back to run a charter in April and me and Richie get the week off, yeah!!!!! We have debated long and hard where to go and finally decided on Peurto Rico and we are going to nap a lot!

The rain never stopped yesterday, it rained all day, all night and was still raining this morning! Keeps the grass green I guess!

Last night we went into town and met up with our friend Bill, who had a tale to tell about his boat and a bad day he had, one of those everything stops working and he has a bad back to boot, so not a good day for him, he arrived to the restaurant and looked like a drowned rat!

When we got back to the boat we had stow aways on board, we knew them so we let them stop! They were in fact the ring leaders for Swim Vacation! They had been tip toeing around so as not to wake us up!!



We kept trying to dry everything off this morning, eventually the rain stopped. I made home made soup and bread for lunch to warm every one up, seemed to do the job! We set sail and headed to Little Harbour, always one of my favourite spots, Hopper was straight to action and a catalogue pose



before swimming the line ashore, doing his best Hasslehoff impression!

When the yellow and orange dots are in the water it can only mean one thing.....





After a warm up and play, it was off for the serious swim





It looked a bit cold when they got back, so we had some hot chocolate pre cocktail hour, all was good then



Cocktails did there job, dinner was had, now lets see what the night may bring........

You can also follow the adventures on the swim vacation blog too and have double the fun! http://www.swimvacation.com/SwimVacation/Trip_Blog/Trip_Blog.html

Bit late with my blogging, yesterday was a bit hectic to say the least! We sailed down to the Rhone, where there was snorkeling and diving



Another sail down to the caves, some work was done on the way



and then there was more snorkeling and diving! Got to love these shorts



Then a night out at Willy T's, I hear it was a pretty quiet one!

The boys were mostly quite spritely this morning, it was a quick breakfast and off to the airport, a sad farewell as always, we always look forward to these charters!

The boys left some great comments for me to share with you:

"Lisa & Rich, Great few days, food great as always, wonderful. You guys make it a truly terrific time"

"Lisa & Rich, Thank you so much...... for putting up and providing a very high quality trip in all aspects, I salute you both"

"Rich & Lisa, Thank you for a great trip, really enjoyed it! You both do such a great job, I couldn't of asked for it to be any better. I hope and wish you both well and hope to have the pleasure to have you aboard next year, keep up the great job and always stay the way you arrrrrrrrgh!"

Thank you boys, too kind!

So today, big clean, some of our long distance swimmers arrive tonight, can't wait to see them all again! and probably the jerk van for dinner, yum yum.

Kerry here:

Some of you might have noticed that I had had the comments turned off on this blog lately, that is because even with anti spam methods turned on, we were getting hit with hundreds of automated comments per hour, really a pain, and we have had to rely on people mostly commenting on Facebook.

I am going to turn them back on today and see how it goes... I wish people would find something better to do with their time then RUIN the internet for everyone!
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Next, we need some charters on Promenade after the end of May this summer. The yacht is wide open for business so what are you waiting for? You don't want the yacht to have to paint and varnish and you get yucky old maintenance photoes for months on end again do you???

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Anyways, for about a 8th time or so, SWIM VACATION is arriving on the yacht on Sunday! Just received an email from Heather that the guides blog was starting up again!


You can follow there blog all week at this link.

A bonus week, blogs coming from every which way!!!!

Heathers email says:
Tomorrow I leave for another SwimVacation - an open water swimming adventure in the British Virgin Islands. I am a swim guide, team photographer and marine naturalist.

For one week we will swim along lovely coral reefs, along side of turtles, rays and huge schools of fish. We will likely swim about 15 - 20 miles over the course of a week, and we'll be blogging every night.

AND she already has the first blog entry up!!

Another busy day today, first stop the Baths, on the way over there was work, here they all are with there phones busy texting away!



At the Baths, the men explored!



It was then off for a sail, men gathered to assist with the pulling up of sails.......







A sail took us to North sound, which is where we anchored next to Bransons new cat, very pretty it is too!



we had some beach and snorkel time and then out came the Predator, off they went



We don't normally ride it on the line, but what ever works!



Make sure the pants are secure!





getting cocky!



with the inevitable result



The kite surfing competition is on at the moment, shame there is no wind, so not a lot of action, but this is where it will be



There might have been a silly game at cocktail hour and the boys are set to explore the Bitter end this evening, I have an appointment with Jack Bauer and "24"!

So a very speedy clean up today and we are off again, the boys were all very good and held out to board the boat, I had found them in the bar at the end of the dock earlier which was closed, apparently this changed, so things improved and they were quite happy!



We only know 1 of the guys on this trip, but he is a fellow Brit, so should be fun!

Off we set and Richie has the boys to work straight away with the sails, or at least contemplating it



and here they are in action



Our sail took us to Marina Cay to see Michael Beans, I have a big sense of de ja vous, wasn't I just here? No dancing for me tonight at Beans though, had to stay home to cook for the hungry hordes when they get back! We didn't win the conch blowing this week, but it was a gallant effort by all accounts. They were indeed hungry by the time they got back

We had a great last night at Michael Beans Pirate show



some one felt we should all have a painkiller shot!



our guys won a lot of the shots through out the night



we even won the conch blowing contests, it was his second time winning, here he is getting knighted King Conch!!



They even made me dance much to my horror, my thoughts………



So it was a sad farewell this morning, a good time was had by all, we waved them off, had a speedy turn around and we are sat waiting for our new group to come on board this afternoon, who knows what mayhem that will bring! Wish us luck!

There was some inventive dish drying this morning, I have no idea



The boys headed into Bitter end this morning for a walk around and a bit of a shop. It was then on for a cruise past Necker to see if we could see Sir Richard Branson, we didn’t see him but we did see his new boat, I didn’t think it was big enough to be his



Till a moorings cat was right at the side of it and then you got a real picture of its size



A little look at those plastic palm trees, they sure do last



On to Eustasian for some Predator action, the first 2 brave souls





Which quickly became 1 brave soul



Only 1 more volunteer......



We tried to find our conch blower for tonight's visit to see Michael Beans



It was taken quite serious and even got down to timing the blow, but will it be enough to win the rum?



After the exhausting predator, the bimbo mat was tried out and predator technique discussed!



It is now on to see Beans

A big day today, we began with a snorkel at the caves, we thought one of the moorings boats was coming to join us for breakfast, if they had got any closer they would have been on the swim platform, Rich asked if they wanted a cup of tea, but they said they were good!

The boys did a great job with the dishes



And the snorkeling was good too





A motor took us to the Rhone, where we had more snorkeling action and some more diving



The seas are really flat and calm today and very clear, every where you go you can see the bottom, its beautiful, the Rhone was crystal clear, shame about how many divers we had to share it with though!

Lunch on the hoof, fishing lines out and on to the Baths, I told you it was an action packed day



the boys went off exploring at the Baths



cute picture, over kill do you think?



We got our selves a new Captain, who did a mighty fine job



He steered us to the Bitter end where we spent the night, there might have been a silly game at cocktail hour and a bit of poker to keep them entertained after dinner!

So what is happening on Promenade? A delayed blog due to no internet, but nothing new there! Bruce has gone back to the US for a week or two to sort some of his stuff out there, so it was bon voyage to him yesterday morning.

Me and Rich are off for the 3rd round with our corporate men! They were all quite excited and turned up early yesterday morning, so we settled them in, off we went and put them all to work



We got a “volunteer” to be the rope swimmer for the week and a fine job he did, here he is poised for action



After lunch I took some of them diving which was a lot of fun but a bit hectic!

A cruise yesterday evening took us to Norman and the infamous…… Willy T’s, I am sure I have just been here! I will look for your bikini bottoms Jenn!! Haha!

The boys did some work on the way down



And we saw a water spout, only seen them before in Cayman, my first one here, was quite a good size to as it was all the way down on St John



The boys headed off to Willy T’s after dinner, it was fairly quiet there last night, I guess its full moon to, so people could be off at the Full moon parties!

It was a very sad morning waving off our group, they have entertained us well this week, they left us some great comments in the guest book which I thought I would share with you all

"I am almost at a lose for words........almost a year wait for the sail of a lifetime - and worth every second! As beautiful the scenery, as blue the water, as white as the sand - your hospitality will be what I most remember. I consider you dear friends for life. Many, many thanks"

"Thanks for a wonderful trip, one we won't forget. I'm sure you won't forget us!"

"Unforgettable trip...... except for the parts that are a bit hazy! Thanks so much for your hospitality! We had an amazing time!"

"Thanks for the memorable trip! You will always have a place in our hearts knowing we were engaged on your boat, We hadf an amazing, breath taking adventure"

You are all to kind guys!

So on to the big clean, the restocking and awaiting our corporate men for tomorrow!