New Spot

New Spot, originally uploaded by captainjay.

Well we got moved in the new place and found a new spot to hang out. Sibs is right down the street from where we live. We met our neighbors so its been a great evening.

Last Day of Walking

Well today is my last day of being able to walk to and from work. Since we are moving in our new place this weekend, it's back to driving; dropping Jay off in the morning and then picking him up in the evening. With traffic it will be at least a 30 minute drive each way.... could be longer if there are cruise ships in port. I've really enjoyed walking....it's quiet, beautiful view, no traffic, and not to mention good exercise.

Deb

Moving Truck

Deb has rented a pickup truck to take some of the wear and tear off of the Celica for the weekend to get our stuff moved up the hill to the house. We don't have any furniture to move but with all the boxes that we shipped present and accounted for plus the suitcases and carry ons and the odds and ends that we have purchased since we arrived on island it should take a couple trips to move everything in. Then we have to clean up this place a little and get settled in. It should be a hectic weekend. Did I mention I will also be working since I took off last weekend to go play with our friends.
Jay

Moving On Up

We met with the landlord last night. We have the keys to the house and will be moving in this weekend. Wo Hoo! It will be nice to unpack the boxes we shipped and get settled. It also will mean a new morning routine and a little different drive but I am sure we can adjust. Pictures soon come.

Jay

Walmart Online

Since I didn't know any better. Or maybe just because I am stubborn I set up a Wal Mart On line account last week and ordered some cheap shorts to work in. I went through the set up process and ordered the shorts. I received a confirmation email and have been tracking them for five days know. According to the shipping info they are currently in Puerto Rico and it appears this is actually going to work. After I did it I was told by several people that it couldn't be done so this must be something new from Wal Mart. The shipping is done via a system called Smart Post from Fed Ex. Apparently Fed Ex handles the package all the way to your local Post Office. It appears in the case of the VI's it is to the hub in Puerto Rico. So five days to PR, we will see how long the remaining leg takes. If it works out well then it may make some of the little things easier to get. I will say the one trick when setting up the account was that you had to pay with a credit card that had a "confirmed billing" address that is the same as your shipping address. I had changed the address for one of our credit cards prior to leaving the states so I flew through this process.
Jay

Meade's Safari Taxi St. John

I thought I would pass this on. We have used Abba Meade on several occasions while on St. John to move a large group of people around the island without rental cars. He is very good about picking you up someplace at a given time then picking up to take you back at a given time. He has always been on time and never ripped us off. On Sunday he took us to Skinny Legs from Cruz Bay via the north shore road with several stops for pictures, rest rooms etc. Dropped us off for lunch then came back and got us a couple hours later for $25 a person. Yes, I know rental cars are cheaper but if you are having a large day his 18 passenger safari is much safer and you can all travel together.

His phone numbers are: 340-643-6246 (Cell) and 340-779-4779 (Home). Tell him Deb and Jay from St. Thomas sent you.

Mini St John Vacation Slide Show

Here are some shots from this weekends trip to St John and the BVI's.

Beach Bar Again

Beach Bar Again, originally uploaded by captainjay.

Well it is Sunday and we are on St John so you know where we are at.
Jay

Food Porn/Skinny Legs

Food Porn/Skinny Legs, originally uploaded by captainjay.

Special Burger Today Pepper Jack Cheese, Bacon and Onions.

Wohoo
Jay

Bikini Shots (per request)

Here's the group hangin' out at Pirates at the Bight on Norman Island. We had an awesome day yesterday. More pics to come.

Deb

Made it back safe

Made it back safe, originally uploaded by captainjay.

We're back to Cruz Bay alive and well having drinks at the High Tide thanks to Captains Tom and Cleve (not pictured) with Ocean Runners. Had an awesome day and ready for a good dinner. We hit all the high spots....Sandy Key, Norman Island, Willie T, Jost, Soggy Dollar....

If You are going to drink....

If You are going to drink all, originally uploaded by captainjay.

....all day you have to start early. Getting ready for a big day on the water with our friends from home. We rented a boat and captain from Ocean Runner on St. John. Should be a large day.

Quiet Mon

Quiet Mon, originally uploaded by captainjay.

We're here at the QuietMon and thought we would share the moment. We were at Woodys earlier (for the first time) and had the shark bites. Oh my god they were on fire, but great!! More to come......

Woody's Almost Live

Woody's Almost Live, originally uploaded by captainjay.

We are on St John hagging out at Woody's.....anyone see Kenny?

Howl at the Moon

Well we are taking the weekend off. We have eight friends from home that came in yesterday. They are staying on St. John for a week or so. We will be joining them this evening and crashing on thier sofa. Tomorrow we are renting power boats to go to Jost. So, it will likely be a live iPhone posting weekend with "The People Your Parents Warned You About"
Jay

The Rest of the Packages

Well over the last two days all of the remaining packages have arrived. That put the parcel post delivery time between three and four weeks for all of the packages. These for for the most part over-sized/nonstandard size packages shipped via the cheapest route possible. Although we haven't unpacked everything yet, since we are moving into the house at the end of the month, it appears that everything made it OK.

Walking to Work

Well I've been walking to work for the past two days and love it! It takes less than 15 minutes to walk to work (all up hill) and less than 10 to walk home. It's quiet, no dealing with traffic, or parking, or listening to the brakes squealing! I'll be able to continue until end of next week, after that we move and then it will back to driving.

Brakes for The Island Car

Well the brakes are squeaking (more like screaming) on the car. So instead of paying double normal retail for brakes here I am trying to order better rotors and pads and have them shipped from the states. We will let you know how that works out. I also set up an account with WalMart last night and ordered some cheap shorts to work in. We are testing different places to order things from on line. Deb had good luck with Lands End with quick shipping, a week via priority mail. With WalMart there was no way to see if they use parcel post or priority so it will be interesting to see how long that takes.
Jay

Hull Bay Hideaway

Well the weather just never really came around yesterday to go to the beach. So we gave our friends a tour of the island. We took them to Red Hook and had lunch at Molly Malone's. Then we stopped by the beach at Sapphire for a little while. Then we went back to Hull Bay in the evening to see the Fiddler play at Hull Bay Hideaway.
Jay

Day Off

Well Deb and I are both off today. We have some friends from the states that came in yesterday so we are off to the Beach. They want to go to Magens so I guess we will have to pack a cooler and rough it :)

Jay

Weekly Recap

Well another work week came to an end and was as productive as the first. Still getting acquainted with the University’s systems, but making great headway. Had my new hire orientation with the benefits coordinator and "wow" what awesome benefits!! 21 vacation days, 14 holidays, 15 sick days, plus 2 weeks for the Christmas/New Year holiday. Medical, dental, free tuition at the University for the employee and their family and awesome retirement....the employee contributes 8% and the university contributes 14.5% for a total of 22.5% and you get to choose whether you want to contribute to the Government Employees Retirement System (GERS) or with TIAA-CREF. Unbelievable!

Jay still likes his job. Being out on boats all day, how could you not. He had to work today, which is probably going to be the case for most Saturdays, but they are going to try and give him Sundays off so that we can have at least one day off together. Since he was working, I took another Saturday morning walk. (see picture above) This time I walked to the University and back and then down to Brewers Bay beach. It's up hill the entire way to the University and it took 18 minutes. But coming back I found a shortcut down a bunch of stairs and paths and it only took 9 minutes. So I'm wondering if I should be walking to work instead of dropping Jay off, then coming back to the University and then back to pick up Jay and then back to the University. I may try it Monday and see how it goes. We only have two more weeks at the University and then I'll have to drive, so I should try it while I can.

Speaking of driving, we used our first tank of gas. It took 12 days to use 12.7 gallons and drive 195 miles. It cost $49.30 to fill up. That's right.....$3.88 a gallon and I'm only getting 15.5 miles per gallon. Crazy!

Some friends from home are coming in today so we'll be going to dinner with them tonight. It'll be fun playing tour guide. Next week a big group of friends will be coming in and staying on St. John for 10 days. We plan on going over next weekend and crashing at their villa!! I can't wait to see them!

Deb

The Boxes Have Started Arriving

Well a little over three weeks since we shipped the packages from the states. We sent all but one of them parcel post. We have now received the one priority mail package and six of the parcel post ones. Twelve of the original nineteen to go.

Jay

Valentines Day at Tickles

Valentines Day at Tickles, originally uploaded by captainjay.

We spent Valentines Day at Tickles Dockside Pub with our favorite
bartender Lindy.

Happy Valentines Day

Jim From Marina Cay Missing

Jim who works at Marina Cay in the BVI's has been missing now for two days. He and his wife Allison used to work at The Soggy Dollar/Sandcastle on Jost so many of you may have met them over the years. Yesterday VISAR and or the Coast Guard found his boat off of Jost overturned. They still haven't found any sign of him. The BVI papers say that the search will continue today. I have heard Coast Guard annoucements about the search. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and searchers. The wind and seas have been up the last week or so and it doesn't look like we are going to get much of a break in them.

There is a thread on Travel Talk Online about it. You can read it here http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=bvi&Number=790191&page=0&fpart=1

Also take minute to look at VISAR web page. These guys go the extra mile as volunteers and they do take donations for equipment and supplies. http://www.visar.org/ They came out and took one of our charter quests to the hospital last week after she became ill and by all acounts did a great job.

Jay

Food Cost's in De Islands

Well one of the best things to happen to food costs here has been the Cost U Less store. This store is similar to Sam's Club or Costco. Although some items like milk are a lot more expensive than in the states there are a lot of items that are close to the same. The store is a bulk store with large quantities so it's not one stop shopping. For smaller or specialty items you still have to go to one of the grocery stores, like Food Center, Super KMart, Pueblo, Marina Market or Gourmet Gallery.

Here is a list of some current prices for normal items.

One Gallon of Low Fat Milk $5.89

2 Pack of 1LB (2lbs Total) Mexican shredded cheese $8.99

Bag of Frozen Boneless Chicken Breasts (6lbs) $17.99

Boneless Pork Cutlets 4 Pack $4.21

Extra Lean Ground Beef 1.5 lbs $6.54

Honey Wheat Bread $2.49

English Muffin 2-Pack Frozen $4.99

12 Pack Diet Coke Cans $3.88

Egg Beaters 2-Pack 8 Oz Cartons $3.79

Yellow Onion $0.59 lb

Tomato $2.99 lb

Green Bell Pepper $1.09 lb

Limes $1.69 lb

Orange Juice from Concentrate Pasteurized 2 QT $3.99

Spaghetti Sauce One Jar $3.29

48 Oz Smucker's Grape Jelly $3.49

Tricolor Rotini $1.59

Fettuccine $1.69

Angel Soft TP 12 Rolls $4.99

Sparkle Paper Towels 8 Rolls $7.99

Weather

Weather, originally uploaded by captainjay.

Just saw the weather forecast for back home. Brrrrr. So I thought I would give something to help warm everyone up. It's 75 and sunny with a little wind at 8am with a forecast of 82.
Deb

Shipping and Lessons Learned

Well one of the smarter things we did prior to leaving the states was to put Deb's mom on a checking account and leave her a book of checks. This enables her to pay for minor repairs at the rental property, and from time to time buy us stuff and ship it to us. Since we are still on insurance from Deb's old job, she went this week and picked up a couple of prescriptions for us as well as some other essentials that are either hard to get or expensive here. Put them in one of the flat rate priority mail boxes and they will be here in a week to ten days. That's the smart stuff. As for the twenty odd boxes that we shipped prior to departure. They were almost all shipped parcel post. Three weeks ago and the first one hasn't shown up yet. It's nothing that is critical but if we had it to do over again I think we would have paid the roughly ten dollars a box ($200) total to ship them priority as they would all be here by now. So on the live and learn front that is the lesson for today.
Jay

Tahiti Open

Tahiti Open, originally uploaded by captainjay.

Here is the hole that VIOL sponsored at the Tahiti Open on St John. By
the way Deb and I are on St John with Ruth and Ron doing the day off
thing.
Jay

Fat Turtle

Fat Turtle, originally uploaded by captainjay.

Had dinner at Fat Turtle tonight. We had tuna tempura and blackened snapper....yummy!

Work Recap

My first week at work went really well. Everyone was very friendly and gave me a warm welcome. I was given an overview of the different systems they use and then was given the rest of the week to read and ease into learning all their systems. They use an application that a lot of universities are using called Banner. It's Oracle based, which they have running on a UNIX server. The user interface is web based, but they run extracts and reports by using SQL Plus scripts on the UNIX box and use VI for an editor (which I know really well). Our department basically is support for the Banner application, adding new users, running/creating reports, implementing new modules of Banner not yet utilized, automating a lot of their manual processes, etc, you get the idea. I think I'm really suited for the job, even though I won't be doing much developing (code writing) I'll still be using my developer skills.

Friday we picked up lunch at a really good bbq place in Havensight. I need to get their name and number. They take to go orders over the phone and several of us put in an order and then went to pick it up. Most of the week everyone is busy and just eats lunch at their desk, but Friday was more laid back and it was nice to having lunch with the whole group.

Jay goes to work before me and gets off after me, so it works out nice with just having one car. I drop him off, go to work, then when I get off, I go pick him up. There is a pretty cool restaurant/bar at the marina where he works, so if he has to work over a little bit to finish up a job, I have a cool place to hang out to wait.

Yesterday Jay had to work so I just hung out at the apartment. I went for a really nice walk down to Brewers Bay beach, then up a really big hill and then back to the University. It was 82 degrees and sunny and I was sweating my buns off so I decided to come back to the apartment to cool off. The view was beautiful; I think I will make it a part of my regular weekend routine. (see picture above)

Deb

Another 15 Minutes of Fame

Well we are almost famous again. A couple of weeks ago we meet some friends at the Beach Bar on St John for Sunday Jazz and some Tuna Down. Jeff from On-St John stopped by and of course Ruth was there and Captain John and Sue Brandi and the ever present Kirk. Well of course Jeff had a camera or two with him so we are on their web page again. Here is the link.
http://www.on-stjohn.com/

Jay

TGIF

TGIF, originally uploaded by captainjay.

Well its Friday and its been a good week. Here's a picture of the view from the University. The picture doesn't do it justice; the view is absolutely beautiful!
Deb

Well a package or two have shown up. It turns out seven to eight days for Priority Mail to arrive from the US. Deb had ordered some new work clothes from Lands End and one of the boxes we shipped prior to leaving both made it in eight days. The bulk of the stuff that we mailed down were sent parcel post which can take weeks by all accounts. They were odd sized boxes, over sized in a lot of cases so time will tell how that works out.

Deb's planning to do a post tomorrow going into more detail about her transition into work. As for mine it has been good so far. This week has been a little slow at work but the today through the weekend looks to be very busy so we will see how it goes as the pace picks up.

Jay

The Rainbow

Well there really isn't a good reason to post this picture except we think it is cool. It was taken yesterday morning from the deck of the apartment. You see more rainbows here than any place I have ever been. If I go back through our pictures from old vacation trips down here there will almost always be rainbow pictures from every trip. As Buffet says "Were the sun shines through the pouring rain".

Well back to work today for me. We are trying to work into a daily schedule, work, eat, sleep etc. just like in the real world. It has taken a full two weeks to get adjusted to the time. Starting work has forced us to adjust. Deb actually got a full nights sleep last night. Tonight is the premier of Survivor so since Deb is an addict, I mean fan we will be having a nice quiet night at home this evening to celebrate our two week anniversary in De Islands.

Jay

More Work Sorta

Well by a weird quirk of scheduling I had yesterday and today off. Actually the person training me at work had them off so by default so did I. So I ran errands, store, bank etc. and Deb continued her orientation and training at work. While checking the mail yesterday I saw the signs for the Mardi Gras celebration at Tickles, see picture below, and the "Fiddler" was playing. I had been told about him by a friend on a previous trip down. He play at Latitude 18 on a regular basis during the season. It's a very entertaining group. We only stayed for one set since Deb has to work today. I will be cleaning up around the apartment a little and running a few more errands then back to work tomorrow. The picture is of Deb's office.

Almost Live From Tickles

Almost Live From Tickles, originally uploaded by captainjay.

The Fiddler is here for Mardi Gras. It's a rough life here in the Caribbean.
Jay

Employment In De Islands

Well we both started yesterday as you know. Both went well. Deb got a warm welcome at her new job. She is still suffering from a nagging head cold. Most of her first day was taken up with paperwork, orientation, and setting up her work station. There will be a ton of training for her to do as she gets up to speed on the schools systems. As for me I jumped right in and put in a full day. We took a boat to dry dock for bottom paint, moved another boat around and did some periodic maintenance on another boat to get it ready to go out on charter. I have to say working in a marina in the Caribbean definitely has it's perks.

By the way the picture is at Honeymoon Beach on Water Island at Heidi's Honeymoon Grill. Taken the last day of fun before starting work.
Jay

The Mini Vacation is Over

Work starts today for both of us. Deb has her first day at UVI. I am starting at CYOA Yacht Charters in French Town. So today we start reversing the cash flow. So far all we have done is spend money so it is time to make some. We will post more about the whole work in paradise thing as time goes on. We will also continue to post the fun stuff, which after all is why you move here in the first place.

Boat Day

Well one of our friends is leaving on Sunday to get back to the real world and run his business, and Deb and I both start working on Monday so we decided to play a little. We rented a boat for the day and went running around. We had originally planed on playing around St John but the with Swells up out of the North East we decided to run around the Leeward side of St Thomas instead. We ran over to Buck Islands,(the St Thomas one) grabbed a mooring and hung out for a little while. We munched on some snacks that everyone had brought along and had a few cocktails. Then with a rain squall coming our way we jumped up and went around to Honeymoon Beach on Water Island. I am reluctant to even mention this beach because it is one of those places around St Thomas that hasn't been over run. It is a beautiful spot and the food is always good at Heidi's Honeymoon Grill. We hung out here for a couple of hours, had a great cheeseburger and a few more cocktails. Then we cruised up through the harbor around past French Town and past the Marriott. Then it was back on plane running behind the Caneel Ferry to let them break up the surf for us. The last stop was at Christmas Cove on Great St James, another small unspoiled island between St Thomas and St John. We did a snorkel there; Karen was the first person in the water got to swim with a large turtle for a while and Deb saw a nice ray.
Here is a little slide show. Most of the pictures are at Water Island we were having so much fun we forgot to use the camera most of the day.
Jay

Breaking News

Lion In Da Sun guys have doubled the size of their fleet. They have added a second boat and Matt and Josh will both be running charters. As to who gets to run which boat I guess they will work that out. Here is a sneak pic of the new boat. Matt says updates to their web page including the new boat "soon come" http://www.threeriversprovidernetwork.com/aboutCharter.html

Our new landlord

Our new landlord, originally uploaded by captainjay.

Jay hanging out with our new landlord Shelba at Honeymoon beach on Water Island. The water is beautiful, sun is shining, had an awesome lunch of champagne and liver pate. Life is good.

Deb Drivin In Da Islands Video

Well we have tried three different time to upload this. In one of those great islands mysteries the Internet connection is faster and a little more stable this morning than most so we tried again and it worked.

By the way this is a blatant rip off of the Guys at http://www.on-stjohn.com/. They do the jeep cam on a regular basis. I will say up front it is not the quality of their videos. We have neither the budget, for equipment or the years of experience that they have.

Enjoy.

Cable TV Woo Hoo

Well back in the real world Cable TV may not seem like a big deal. We have been here a little over a week and it finally got fixed yesterday sometime. We actually had already figured it wouldn't get fixed in the foreseeable future so Deb's very happy as a new season of Survivor is set to start next week.

We are boating today with somefriends so we will try to put up some nice water pictures later.

Jay

Gone Macho Nachos

Gone Macho Nachos, originally uploaded by captainjay.

Macho Nacho

Macho Nacho, originally uploaded by captainjay.

A little food porn from the Green House in St Thomas.

The Real Captain Jay

The Real Captain Jay, originally uploaded by captainjay.

It's been a long week and we've got a lot done. Man are we tired!!!

Posting Comments

By the way this is another picture of Trunk Bay on St John from Last Sunday.

I changed the settings for posting comments yesterday. I didn't realize that the comments were restricted to Google users only. Apparently this was the default when we set up the Blog. I have changed it so that anyone can post comments. The won't show up immediately as it is set up for moderation by Deb so that we can keep any spam or offensive comments off the web. So post away.
Jay