That's Amora

That's Amora, originally uploaded by captainjay.

My kidnappers are staying at Amora on STJ. So nice!! What a view!!! Jay is on his way so we have the Carib chillin'!!

Beautiful Day

Beautiful Day, originally uploaded by captainjay.

What a beautiful day on Jost. Sorry Jay had to miss it. My kidnappers let me have a wonderful day!

Kidnappers

Kidnappers, originally uploaded by captainjay.

Well, the rednecks kidnapped me and made me come to Jost. I know.... Poor me. I just got got the ATT signal so I can do live posts. I think I hear a painkiller calling me!!

More to come........

Friday Beach Picture

Sandy Spit. Yes it is a real live Corona Commercial location :)

Jay

We should have gotten our friends that are on St. John to send me a live pic from yesterday to post today, but I don't think they ever made it to the beach! I think it was a shopping then sit by the pool at the villa day. Sounds good to me. :-) We're meeting them in Red Hook for dinner tonight so maybe I can post a group shot.

Have a great weekend!!!

Deb

Going Sailing Next Week

Well Deb and I are going sailing next week from the 4th thru the 9th. We are chartering a 45 foot Jeanneau from CYOA and we are going to go play tourist for a few days. Should make for some interesting posts. We have only been on one overnight boat trip since we got here and have only been out boating a hand full of times so we are looking forward to some quality time on the water.

Also, the first batch of the "Rednecks" showed up yesterday. They stopped by Hook Line on the way to St. John to say "hi" and of course get a post flight cocktail or two.

Jay

Red Necks in the Caribean

Well it's not the whole sixteen together again, but some of the original Red Necks are arriving today. Rob, Teresa, Mike and Lisa along with a couple of newbies. They are staying on St John for ten days or so. Then next week another seven of the original sixteen will be here as well. When you add Deb and I to that list it is most of the original group so I thought I would use this blast from the past video again before Jimmy's lawyers block it like most of the videos that I have put on YouTube.

Unofficial Drivers Manual

Unofficial Driver's Manual of the Virgin Islands copyright 1998 by L. Leonard

A friend of ours loaned us his copy of the Unofficial Driver's Manual of the Virgin Islands when Silvia was studying for her drivers license. This book is absolutely hilarious. It contains all the unofficial "rules of the road" in the Virgin Islands. It's a work of fiction and for entertainment purposes only of course, but cracked me up because it's so true!! I'll have to find out more about the author and whether you can obtain a copy or if it was just written for fun and given out only to friends.

I've always said that the traffic laws here are regarded as suggestions and not laws. No speed limits, no turn signals, no stopping at stop signs, stopping in the middle of the road to talk or pick someone up is perfectly acceptable, parking anywhere regardless of signs. You name it. Just don't talk on your cell phone while driving. They take that one seriously. I know from experience!!

Another Fine Mess

Well this article was in the paper a day or so ago Year-long Project Reroutes Centerline Road Traffic . This closure make the road in front of Kmart and Pueblo at the Havensight intersection one way for a year, a year, even on island time this is unbelievable. The new traffic pattern will have you going up past the Domino station and turning right to go past the High School and the Hospital to make it to Raphune Hill, do not attempt this route between 3:00 and 6:00 PM it will be a nightmare. The road is already clogged when school lets out. Ad to that the evening traffic trying to go home to the country and it really will look like :Little Manhattan"
I come from a state were road construction is insane. Normally you tear down one mountain to fill in a valley to build a road and I have seen four lane highways take shape faster than that. This is a half mile long two lane road. The biggest part of the project is the box culvert that will feed the rainwater, run off and god knows what else into the Ocean. This intersection is in the heart of the Cruise Ship and shopping areas for St Thomas and the closure comes at the peak of high season. Some times you just have to shrug it off here and go have a beer because god knows you can't change these things.

Here is an additional article in the other paper. The local businesses are not very happy about the traffic pattern.

Island Apartment with a view

I helped a friend move out of an apartment yesterday that had the best view! It's overlooking Magens Bay with the BVIs in the background. Absolutely beautiful! It's in the St. Peter area (by the Great House) which is really nice. Two bedroom, one bath, deck, parking, unfurnished... $1200 a month.
Hmmmmm...

One Year On The Rock

Well believe it or not today is our one year anniversary on St Thomas. Where has all the time gone? It does seem like it has flown by.

Jay

Friday Beach Picture

This one was borrowed from Virgin Islands On Line, it is at Spring Bay on Virgin Gorda. Here is a thread that has some really great pictures if you need more of a fix today.

POST YOUR BEST PICTURE!

Office Space

Well after almost one year on the job I finally got my own office. One of my coworkers left for another job (which means there will be another job posting soon) so I was able to move out if the cubicle I've been in since I came here. We were sad to see her leave but I'm glad to have my own space.

Deb

Work Zone or War Zone?

....Or plumbing island style.

The efficiency apartment downstairs is having drainage issues. So the plumbers have been here a couple of times. Last week they showed up opened the septic tank and left for a few days. They came back yesterday and apparently are trying the trial and error method of finding the offending pipe. At one point yesterday one of the workers was holding the the other worker upside down in the septic tank to try to look in the pipe that feeds into the tank. You just can't make up stuff that funny.

Jay

President Barack Obama Day

Gov. John deJongh Jr. has proclaimed Tuesday "President Barack Obama Day" in the Virgin Islands and has given government employees the day off to watch the historic swearing-in ceremonies in Washington, D.C. (source: St. Thomas Source) Of course this doesn't apply to university employees, so we're at work today, but I have a feeling there will be lots of "sick" people calling in today. There is a lot of excited people here in the islands and they want to be able to watch this historic event and be a part of it any way they can. The University has set up several televisions on campus and has given us a two hour lunch so that we can watch at least part of it. But with the stipulation that offices have to be covered so some people will need to stay behind and work. They have also asked us not to try to watch it online due to bandwidth issues the University has been experiencing which will have a "negative impact" on those people trying to get some work done, good luck with that! :-)

(Picture taken from my wall calendar)

At the Beach Bar

At the Beach Bar, originally uploaded by captainjay.

We are hanging at the Beach Bar listening to some Sunday Jazz with the forum group. It was a wonderful day!!!

Beautiful day on St. John

Beautiful day on St. John, originally uploaded by captainjay.

It's a beautiful day (finally after the cloud cover burned off) so we decided to head over to St. John. Too late in the day for a beach day, so we stopped by Quiet Mon on the way to the Beach Bar for some Sunday Jazz and to meet up with Ruth and Ron from St. John Spice. :-)

Johnny cake

Johnny cake, originally uploaded by captainjay.

We had a fish fry yesterday at the university and they fixed johnny cakes to go with the fish. They are so good!! It's basically a sweet dough, rolled out to about 4 inches, and deep fried. Yum! They sell them here at all the street fairs or any kind of event that has food vendors.

Real Friday Beach Pic

For those of you not a Buffett fan, here is a beach picture that I borrowed from Walker's site as well. http://www.bvipirate.com/ It is of Walkover Set Point on Anegada, BVI.

Jay

Friday Beach Picture, Sorta

Well this picture was taken by the BVI Pirate web page and message board. It is Jimmy Buffett's Yacht taken at Anegada in the BVI's this week. Jimmy is cruising the area and actually played at the Anegada Reef Hotel this week just for fun. Here is the rest of the story.

Jay

Edible Arts St Thomas

Well if you are in the market for a special cake, wedding, anniversary etc then Ed "the Baker" is your man. Ed owns Edible Arts in St Thomas. His clientele are mainly the restaurants in St Thomas; he makes a lot of the desserts for them, including my favorite Key Lime Pie, which I have eaten at several restaurants including Bella Blue and Hook line. But he sells to individuals as well. He makes greats deserts but as you can see by the cake topper in the picture is also very good at specialty/decorator cakes. This one was done for a birthday party for the founder of Seaborne Airlines. The cake topper is made entirely from sugar.

You can reach Ed Buffkin at 340-626-5432.

Jay

Forum Peeps

Well, we're coming up on our one year anniversary of moving here (next Saturday) and our friends on the forum (Virgin Islands Online) started a thread congratulating us. I thought it was pretty cool so I thought I'd share it here since some of you aren't forum members.

Here is the opening post from the thread "Congrats Mrs and Captain Jay"

Congratulations Very soon it will be 1 year for them livin the life most of us dream about Here's to Jay & Deb (raising your favorite drink) for having the guts to do it and for helping many of us enjoy our short stay in paradise (traveler22)

Follow this link to see the rest of the postings: "Congrats Mrs and Captain Jay"

Guava Tart

I was introduced to another local food that is really yummy....Guava Tart. A tart is basically like a pie but the crust is slightly different, a little more dense and more sweet. The guava fruit is very good and can be found in several local dishes. Put them together and......Yum!!

Sunday Brunch at Hook Line Sinker

Well, we decided to stop by Hook Line Sinker for their Sunday brunch after our dive with Admiralty. Yummy!

It's been raining on and off all morning and there was a little bit of chop out so Admiralty decided between the chop and some inexperienced divers, they would take us to Flat Key and Easy Key. It's better protected than some of the other sites so it would be easier on everyone. There is a really nice reef there, lots of coral and fish. We also saw a turtle, a lobster and a small eel. I tried out a new BCD since I'm not real happy with mine and it worked out pretty good so I need to decide if i'm buying it or not. I also want to get some different fins. I have some trouble getting mine off if there is any chop at all so I need to get ones that slip on vs the ones with a strap and booties. I hate spending money on more gear since we don't go very often but maybe that will give me a reason to start going more often!

A day at Trunk Bay

A day at Trunk Bay, originally uploaded by captainjay.

We spent the day at Trunk Bay. It was gorgeous and not that crowded. Of corse there is no AT&T coverage there so I couldn't do live posts. We are on the car ferry back to STT so I finally have Internet and can do a post. It was a lovely day and tomorrow we have a dive scheduled with Admiralty Dive Shop.

For those of you that don't know, Trunk Bay has a deal that you can buy a family pass for $15 that is good for one year. The cost to get in normally is $4 per person. So as a couple, if you plan on going to Trunk at least twice, it's a better deal to get the pass and then you can go as many times as you want. If you're a family, then it's even a better deal. They have a nice shower facility so even if you go to one of the other beaches you could hit Trunk at the end of each day for a quick dip and a shower. Can't beat that!!

St. John here we come

St. John here we come, originally uploaded by captainjay.

We're taking the car ferry over to St. John for the day! Yea! We're going with Silvia, her mom and a friend who are in visiting. There are three barges running again so no waiting at all. It was so nice to just drive right up to the ferry and leave in just a few minutes. Last time we took the car ferry over there was just one running and it took forever ( remember Mike having his own little party in the parking lot? :-)

Stay tuned for updated from St. John!!!

Friday Beach Picture

By the way I stole I mean borrowed this picture from Gromit from the VIOL forum. You can view some of her other shots at the link. This one is of Drunk Bay on St John. Not your typical sandy north shore picture but beautiful none the less.
Jay

Posts, Postings, or the Lack There Of

Well we have taken some criticism lately for the lack of posts. I hate to say that we are out of material as that just isn't possible here, but sometimes day to day life and work get it the way of putting out good material. It would be pretty boring if we just posted every day tasks over and over again.

It would look something like this. We got up at 6:00 Am had cereal and juice for breakfast, watched the news, took a shower and went to work. Some days you can add a stop at the dumpster in French Town to drop off the trash. Worked for eight hours or so. Had a few beers at Hook Line went home made dinner went to bed and tomorrow we do it all over again. Of course the weather is here and we wish everyone was beautiful. The reality is that not everyday is painkillers and bathing suits in paradise. We hold down jobs and some days life gets in the way of entertainment

We will continue to post as frequently as we can and when we feel we have relevant and or fun material, but this is a Blog for fun not a commercial venture and some days it just isn't at the top of the priority list.

Jay

Driving in St. Thomas

Well, I've been out driving around Charlotte Amalie and getting lost! I've decided we need to find a new way home in the evening after sitting in traffic for almost an hour yesterday!! We have found several ways down the hill in the morning, but going home in the evening we only knew two ways and the one we normally take goes through downtown Charlotte Amalie. Yesterday there were six cruise ships in and the traffic was absolutely crazy! So with the help of some friends I think I found a new way. It took me a couple of times of going around the block but I think I got it!! :-)

Netflix

We finally decided to join Netflix. Several people that we know here on the island use it and have been very happy with the service. We joined on Christmas day, got notification the next day that our first two movies shipped and we received them on Wednesday (well at least that is when I checked the mail, they could have been there earlier). We mailed them back on Friday and got notification yesterday (Tuesday) that they received our two movies and shipped out the next two. So it seems so far that the mail has not been an issue.

Beach Pic

Beach Pic, originally uploaded by captainjay.

Well, I guess I've really been slacking lately with my posts. I'm at
the end of my two week break and I didn't get anything done that I
wanted to. The weather hasn't really cooperated for any new beach pics
so I'm reusing an old one from Jost Van Dyke.

Enjoy!!!

Gifts from Croatia

Gifts from Croatia, originally uploaded by captainjay.

Silvia brought me back some great gifts from Croatia. Some Italian
coconut almond treats, hot chocolate, spices and other goodies as you
can see. It was so sweet of her to do that. I saw pictures on her
facebook of her eating the hot chocolate and it looked wonderful. It
looks more like pudding than a drink. I had to use google translator
to be able to read the directions and the translation was pretty funny.

Happy New Year/Anniversary to US

Well last night was our 10th anniversary and of course new years eve. Deb and I both got new bling for the anniversary. Deb bought me a new wedding band, as I lost mine several years ago working on a boat. I bought deb a shipwreck coin from SOS Antiques in St Thomas and even got a "locals" discount. We had dinner at Craig and Sally's in Frenchtown, thanks John. The food was very good. Then we went to the Marriott for their New Years Party. It wasn't exactly what we had expected. It was a little low key and the band was a couple of Karaoke singers with a drum machine and a keyboard. We opted not to do the madness at Yacht Haven, if we had a do over we probably would have done the Yacht Haven Party. We did see the fireworks and had a good time.

Well Happy New Year to All.

Jay