Stormy's Corner

Selling used books online

I love books so when I stumbled across a blog post about creating your own online used bookstore, I read it and then googled some more and then read some more.  Supposedly there are people that scout for books at estate sales, thrift stores and used bookstores and then sell those books online.  Sounds kind of fun.  Spend all day looking at books, find treasures and sell them.

What I can't figure out is how they make much money.  Let's assume you want to make $50K/yr.  You'd have to make $2K/wk which means you'd have to sell 20 books a week at $100 profit (how many of those can there be??) or 200 books at $10 profit (still not a lot) or 400 books at $5 profit (most likely.)  That means you'd have to find 400 books/week!! 

How many estate sales and garage sales would you have to go to to find 400 books worth $5 used?  Even if you found two $100 books and 100 $10 books, you'd still have to find another 160 books that were being undersold by $5.  That's a lot of books.

It sounds like a better hobby than a career.

5/1/07

So I thought about this some more and realized that I was wrong because I forgot about inventory.  From what I've read, you can assume 30% of the books you list sell in the first month and that each month you sell 10% of your inventory.  That makes $50K/year much more realistic.  Here's the logic:

• To make $50K/year, you have to make $1K/week.
• Assume 4 weeks/month for simplicity reasons.
• If you find $4K/month (in profits, regardless of what the books sell for), you'll sell $1200/month of that.
• You'll put the remaining $2800 into your inventory.
• Assuming your inventory has $28K in profit, and you sell 10% a month, you'll sell $2800/month of that.  And the stuff you found this month that didn't sell will replenish that.
• So you:
  • found $4000
  • sold $4000 ($1200 of what you found plus $2800 from your inventory)
  • maintain an inventory of $28000

So all is good.  And finding $1000/week in profits sounds hard but much more doable than my original assumptions.  Assuming you work five days a week, you can find 20 books a day for a dollar that will sell for $11 or you can find 2 for a dollar that will sell for $101.  Not easy but perhaps possible.

 

If you were Teddy's friend, you knew it each and every day

www.flickr.com

Frank's asked a couple of times when I'm going to write an "Ode to Teddy."  I haven't been able to write it because I miss her so much.  And I'm not sure I could do her justice. But if there's one thing about Teddy that should not be forgotten, it's her greetings.  She said hello with her whole body.  She barked at everybody that came to the door.  But once she identified you as a friend - and that might happen when your car pulled up or it might happen once you stepped into the house - she would go into full greeting mode.  She'd squeal with delight, spin in circles, dive between your legs, roll over onto her back and wiggle, and then jump up to give you kisses.  It didn't matter whether you'd been gone for five minutes or five months - you got the same elaborate greeting.   If we happened to be waiting for someone somewhere, she would watch for them.  (She knew most of our friends by name and I could tell her they were coming.)  When she spotted them, she'd immediately start a high pitch squeal/whine and start crouching down on her front legs and spinning.  If I let her off leash, she'd beeline to our friends in an all out sprint, miss them by an inch, turn around and do the Teddy greet - see above.  One of my friends nicknamed her Twirly Girl and I thought that name was particularly accurate. If you were Teddy's friend, you knew it each and every day.  Friends of Teddy, feel free to describe it in your own words!

Should the drinking age be lowered?

I have to agree with McCardell, the president of Middlebury College:

He notes that 18-year-olds have a right to marry, adopt children, serve as legal guardians for minors, purchase firearms from authorized dealers, and are trusted with the vote and military responsibilities. So, he says, it is not unreasonable to think that they can, with proper preparation, be trusted to drink.

Our laws restricting things dependent on age are just a little out of sync. 

Note that the drinking age is 21 in all 50 states because of the federal law that says the states lose 10% of the highway money if their drinking age is lower than 21.  That age is not based on any research that we suddenly understand how to drink responsibly at the age of 21.  I think there's ample evidence that many people have a problem drinking responsibly after the age of 21, so maybe we should spend more of our highway money on things like better public transportation that might prevent drunk driving instead of just trying to delay it until people are 21.

What's your best excuse?

I have a standing weekly appointment with someone and 80% of the time she calls to reschedule.  I thought I'd share some of the excuses.  I believe they are all real - I just can't believe they all happen to one person!

• Looking for son's dog that was stolen.  (They found the dog.)
• Granddaughter slipped on the ice and broke her nose and has to be taken to the emergency room.
• Car got stuck in the snow three times on the way.  (We had lots of snow this year in Colorado!)
• Babysitter didn't show up.
• Has a court date.
• Daughter had surgery yesterday and is throwing up violently today and needs to be taken back to the doctor.
• Has meetings with teachers.
• Has jury duty.
• ... and then the normal "I'm sick."

What's the best excuse you've heard or used?

Photo "The Dog Ate My Homework" by mygothlaundry.

Drugs or no drugs when giving birth? And why all medical sensors should be wireless!

Here's my post on how people do not agree on what "natural childbirth" is or should be and how all my problems could have been solved with two little wireless sensors.

I was firmly against drugs during labor unless I changed my mind during labor.  (How's that for a decision! But having never been in labor, I didn't figure I could really decide till I was there.)  You would not believe the number of people that acted like I was crazy and tried to talk me into drugs!  I'm not a big fan of pain and I wasn't going drugless to be natural or tough or to prove a point.  If you could give me drugs during labor that would take away the pain and still let me walk around, I probably would have opted for them in the beginning.  I believe that vaginal births work better if women can get up, walk around, use the birthing ball, or just find the sitting or standing position that works best for them.   When I'm in pain, I don't lie flat on my bed - when my stomach hurts I usually hold it and curl around it.  Look at any kid with an injury - they don't lie flat on their backs - they curl around the pain.

I knew the minute I accepted drugs I would be entering into a spiral that would end with me trapped in bed.  And I was right.  Once you get any drugs, you have an IV going into you and they want to keep you attached to the machine that monitors you and the baby.  So at that point you have two machines/stands that have to go everywhere with you plus at least 3 cables and tubes coming out of you.

Here's how it happened for me:

• My water broke,
• Caleb was in distress,
• They made me lie in bed while they figured out what was distressing him,
• I wasn't allowed to move - not even sit up, until they figured it out,
• They attached a sensor to the top of Caleb's head with a wire that came out and attached to a machine next to me,
• They put a balloon like thing in the uterus next to Caleb to time the contractions more accurately, with a wire that came out and attached to a machine next to me,
• Caleb had the cord wrapped around his neck and sometimes he wasn't getting enough oxygen,
• They inserted a catheter into me with a tube that came out,
• At which point I gave up on any notions of "natural" and I asked for an epidural,
• The epidural doctor gave me a hard time about changing my mind from no drugs to an epidural,
• The epidural meant I had yet more tubes attached to more machines,
• I threw up because pain killers make me sick, so I got some anti-nausea medicine which I think meant another tube but I'm not sure,
• I fell asleep because the anti-nausea medicine makes you drowsy. 

So I had a vaginal birth.  Was it natural?  Not really.  Would I have had it any other way, i.e. less drugs or cables?  Not with the cord wrapped around Caleb's neck!

BUT, I think it would have all been different if the sensor they attached to Caleb's head and the sensor that timed contractions had been wireless.  Then I wouldn't have been attached to any machines, and assuming Caleb reacted well, I could have still moved.  Why don't they make wireless sensors when we have wireless phones, wireless computers, wireless copiers, wireless garage door openers?  I don't know.  My theory is that the people designing the sensors never bothered to interview the women in labor, the users, about them.  The nurse tried to tell me they didn't have wireless sensors because the heart is an electro-magnetic organ and that would some how interfere with the measurements.  I pointed out that even my heart rate monitor is wireless!

So I wasn't trying to be "natural,"  I was trying to have the easiest, quickest and healthiest birth.  I think taking drugs and lying on your back makes it harder and longer.  I think a C-section makes the recovery a lot harder.  I think staying at home makes it more dangerous.  (We wouldn't have known Caleb was having difficulties.) 

And I think medical device manufactures could help everybody by developing devices that take advantage of technology and deliver the best experience for their users.

Is life too easy in the Peace Corps?

My cousin Kelsi is in the Peace Corps and people have been giving her a hard time that she's got it easy.  She's really been enjoying the Domican Republic and writing some great stories about the country and the people there.  Having been in third world countries and a lot of Carribean countries, I don't think it she has it easy.  I'm really glad she's enjoying the good parts.  In her email today she shared one of the negative sides for the first time:

The first thing I saw when I got to my house in La Cienega was the hugest rat I had ever seen being chased by the family dog.  I about started freaking out on the spot, but since it was the family´s first impression of me, I held it together as much as I could.  They reassure me that there are no rats in the house, but I have the dog and cat sleep in my room just in case.

It reminded me of a hotel in Honduras where I was sitting at the pool and two rats tried to climb up on my chair.  I pulled up my feet and let my friend continue to sleep in the other lounger.  What else could you do?  I certainly wasn't going to go anywhere while they were there!  I wish I'd had a dog!

Worst first day ever

This 17 year old plumber torched a $12 million dollar mansion on his first day of work.  60 firefighters couldn't keep it from burning to the ground.  He's going to have a hard time living that one down!

Do you have a worst day ever story to share?

Caleb can too wave!

Last time Caleb waved a month ago I had a hard time convincing people he could wave since when you wave, he's so busy studying the person waving, that he can't wave himself.  So when he started waving again, I ran and got the camera.  Here you go!

There's also one of him giving me a high five:

Five Easy Ways to (Maybe) Discover What You Are Meant to Do With Your Life

Pamela from Escape from Cubicle Nation has these five questions she recommends answering to find out what you should do with your life.  I answered them for fun and then I debated posting them here as they could be a bit personal but I thought it would be fun to see if you guys can figure out what I'm passionate about by reading them.  Your ideas are welcome!

What is your favorite movie?  Pelican Brief – she solves a mystery, writes a brief, it gets noticed by important people, she’s in New Orleans – my second favorite city, trying to hide – I like the challenge of how you would hide, trying to right a wrong.   My next favorite would be an action movie - any of the Tom Clancy movies with Harrison Ford, or that one where Harrison Ford proves he’s innocent of murdering his wife because a one man arm did it or the Saint or that one where they track nuclear weapons to New York City.  Action all the way.  With a challenging mystery that the main character solves.

What are your favorite channels on television?  Channels?  Frank tapes all the shows with the DVR.  All I know are the names of my favorite shows – not even what day they come on!  ER and Gray’s Anatomy would be my favorites although they tend to get a bit soap opera-ish.  I also enjoy watching CSI with Frank.  If there’s anything else on … well, I’ll never know if I like it unless Frank tapes it and says I should watch it.

What kind of art museums are you attracted to?  Art.  Hmm.  I liked seeing all the dinosaurs at the Smithsonian.  Does that count as art?  If I had to pick an art form, it would be photography.  There’s a photographer here in Colorado who has studios at the airport and in Broomfield and he takes amazing pictures of wildlife.  But I like pictures of people best.  They don’t have to be people I know but those are the best ones.

What kind of music do you love? Country music.  Time Marches On and Any Man of Mine and the one about the girl (as the boy grows up) are probably my favorites.

What kind of outdoor environment makes you the most happy?  Summer.  Sitting outside at a restaurant in downtown Fort Collins.  Preferably with friends but alone is still fun as long as there’s lots of people around and lots going on.  Sitting on the Ramblas in Barcelona rates pretty high too.  As does the River Walk in New Orleans.  And parts of New York City and San Francisco.  Busy, hot cities in the summer.

So what do you think?  Do you know what I should do now?

Do you think marathon runners are crazy?

I always thought people that ran marathons were crazy but it turns out that humans are built to run long distances - that's how we used to hunt.  Humans hot, sweaty, natural-born runners explains how our ability to run long distances gave us a competitive advantage.  We can run longer (although slower) than all other animals.  One of things that allows us to run long distances is the fact that we can sweat.  We can lose the excess heat while we are running - all other animals have to stop and pant to cool down.

So I guess I should stop thinking all those marathon runners are crazy - sorry Dana and Dad!

By the way, the article said the other two animals that are distance runners are dogs and horses.  So see, I really wasn't torturing Teddy all those years!  (I knew I wasn't but I had friends who thought otherwise.  She loved our daily runs although I'm sure she would have preferred walking.  More time to smell the roses - or to roll in stinky things.)

Photo by Hugo*.

Are you passionate about your ideas?

As this inventor of a toothpaste squeezer tube says in the NYT:

“If you’re not boring the pants off people,” Mr. Robertson said, “you don’t have enough passion.”

I'm not sure I'm boring the pants off people but I've definitely gotten some strange looks.

How to make your own website with Squidoo

I found yet another cool web service.  This one lets you create your own webpages: Squidoo.  The idea is that you can create a "lens" or a webpage around any topic you want.  They make it easy but allowing you to add lists of links, lists of Amazon products, text, or pictures.  If the website makes money, you get to say what you want to happen with the money.  You can take it in cash or donate it to any number of charities.  Mine is currently going to the Covenant House, a shelter for runaway kids that I volunteered with.

Squidoo did make it really easy to create a web page that looked pretty good.   It was a bit slow though - my first "lens" doesn't have everything on it that I wanted on it because I lost patience!  Check it out, it's on audio books:  Listen for Fun.  Then create one of your own!

Will our current corporate culture change?

Escape from the Cubicle Nation by Pamela Slim has a podcast by Dr. Srikumar Rao, Columbia and London Business Schools, author of Are You Ready to Succeed?  My favorite quote was:

I don't have a work life and a personal life.  I have one life and either it's working or it's not.

If you are the same person at work and at home and if you are unhappy at work or at home, you'll likely be unhappy both at work and at home.

Pamela thinks the corporate environment is so broken that so many people will start leaving to start their own business that corporations will have to change in order to keep people.  Maybe I'm a cynic but I think it's much easier for people to go into work everyday and collect a paycheck than it is for them to dream up a business model, quit and run a business.   I think corporations and the current corporate culture is around to stay for a while.

One of the reasons that many small business owners are not successful is because they want to do what they love, not run a business.  For example, massage therapists go into massage because they like massage therapy and want to help people and then they discover that you have to run your own business.   Giving massages is not the same as advertising, making business cards, renting an office, scheduling clients, etc.  Running a business is a lot of work.  If you just like writing code or giving massages or fixing cars, you might not be willing to quit your job to start a business of your own.  You might spend a lot less time actually writing code or giving massages.

Free 411 calls

I have to admit I'm guilty of calling 411 a lot more than I'd like.  You're driving around and you need directions to a store or you want to call a restaurant and what do you do, you call 411 for the number.  Then you get your cell phone bill and realize you paid a dollar a call!  Well now there's a free 411 service if you are willing to listen to a 20 second ad.  I found this on Real Simple:

800-FREE-411

Another solution is to keep a phone book in your car. 

Would you rather be dead?

My vet says my dog would rather be dead.  Actually, he didn't say it like that and he's a great guy but he does really think I should euthenize her.  I don't agree.  As of yesterday she was still walking around, following us everywhere, tail wagging.  Not her usual self, but she still wanted to be a part of things.  Today I'm not so sure.  She slept most of the day and she had to be coaxed out to the car to see the vet.  But he assures me she's not in pain, she's just extremely uncomfortable.  So how do you decide whether she's so uncomfortable that she'd rather be dead?  Personally, I think she'd rather be alive.  Am I making the right decision?  Nobody can know.

As for what's going on - Teddy was diagnosed with kidney failure last September.   The vet gave her two months to two years to live and it looks like it's going to be within the next week. She's down to 35 pounds - from 75 pounds a year ago and she hasn't eaten anything for the past week.  I'm going to miss her!

Which would you prefer, more money or more friends?

I just read a very thought provoking article, Why Having More No Longer Makes Us Happy by Bill McKibben.  The author argues that pursuing more wealth worked well in the past when we didn't have much material wealth but now that we are a relatively wealthy nation, pursuing more and more wealth is making us less happy not happier.   His main points are:

1. We are pursuing more and more wealth because it worked in the past,
2. We are spending less and less time with family and friends,
3. We are busier and more isolated,
4. And it isn't working anymore.

He points out that if you are rich in relationships and poor, more money might make you happy, but if you are poor in relationships and have plenty of money, a new friend will make you much happier than more money.  If you are a peasant in China with lots of relationships and no money, a little money can go a long way towards making you happier but a sixth person living in your house won't.  On the flip side, if you are an American living in a 2000 square foot house, another friend might make you a lot happier than the money for another coffee maker.

He argues that in the pursuit of wealth, we've lost our community.  We spend less and less time with family and friends and more and more time isolated: commuting, working, watching tv, surfing the internet.  And yet studies show that it's social networks (the real ones, not the virtual ones) that keep us happy and even healthy.  Robert E. Lane, a Yale political science professor writes that "evidence shows that companionship ... contributes more to well-being than does income."

One point he made that really struck me because I can't tell you how many people told me that college was going to be the best years of my life and I kept asking, "Why?  Does it go downhill from there?"  Apparently it does if you look at the quality of your relationships.

Why do people so often look back on their college days as the best years of their lives? Because their classes were so fascinating? Or because in college, we live more closely and intensely with a community than most of us ever do before or after?

Something I read recently said that the number of friends we have drops off dramatically after our 20s.  Recently, I've realized that I really miss the number of friends I had in my teens and 20s.  I did things with large groups of friends several times a week if not every day.  Now we are lucky if we squeeze something in once a week.  And even when you have time (like when I was on maternity leave), your friends likely won't have time!

So think about it.  Increasing the time you spend with your friends and extended family will do more to make you happy than a raise at work.  And I'd even argue it'd make you happier than winning the lottery!

Are you always hot? Or always cold?

Cognitive Friday got some interesting data about who is always hot and who is always cold.  As most of us would have guessed, women are much more likely to be cold than men.  (As I type this my hands are freezing!)  Thin people and young people are also more likely to be cold. 

One related theory I heard is that women have a much smaller range of "comfortable" temperatures because their bodies need to be able to regulate a fetus' temperature.  I no longer believe this one because the one thing I really loved about being pregnant was always having warm hands!  So obviously I was much warmer when I was pregnant than when I'm not pregnant.

Cognitive Friday also discovered that exercise didn't change people's answers at all which surprised me.  I wonder if you could measure muscle mass if that would coorelate to feeling warmer like being overweight does?

Do you fit the data?  If not, how are you different?

Videos of the kids

Here's a video of Caleb trying his bouncy swing for the first time! 

I finally started playing with the video function on my camera and Anita has helped me with editing them.  So here's my first video blog post.

How to share a video on a blog

Here's how to share a video on a blog:

1. Capture a video.  I use the video function on my camera and then upload it just like I do my pictures.  One tip: make the video twice as long as you think it needs to be.
2. Edit the video.  Anita uses Windows Movie Maker that comes free with Windows XP SP2. You might need to:
   1. Shrink the video.  Anything larger than 4-5 MB will take a long time to upload.
   2. Rotate it.
   3. Combine videos.  The one of Caleb in his bouncy swing is actually three videos.  (If you watch closely, you'll see him bonk his head on the door frame and then it cuts to the next video!  He didn't get hurt - it didn't faze him at all - but it worried me enough to stop video taping!)
3. Upload it to YouTube.com.  You'll need an account.
4. Once you've uploaded it, YouTube will give you the code to paste in your blog.  Under "Edit Video Information," at the bottom of the page, there's some code in the box called "Embed HTML."

Do rich people make you uncomfortable?

Do rich people make you uncomfortable? 

I've been surprised lately at how many people say they don't like rich people.   For example, I have massage therapist friends who won't work on wealthy people  (How's that for a business plan!) because they find rich people's concerns and troubles just too far removed from what they consider reality.  Another example.  I have a group of friends that raise guide dog puppies and they are great people.  I never realized that they were all  pretty wealthy until I invited a friend to a guide dog puppy party and he said he had nothing in common with them.  I tried pointing out all the things they had in common (dogs, kids, houses, location, hobbies) and he just couldn't get over that they were in a different socio-economic group therefore they must not have anything in common!

I wasn't raised in a rich family but it was rich in experience.  Every year I become more aware of how diverse my experience was.  I have a friend who also grew up overseas - she's lived in several different countries and met lots of people and she's very outgoing.  I thought that meant she'd be comfortable in any social situation.  So I was surprised when I took her to a country western bar and she was extremely uncomfortable - it was a culture she had never experienced before.  She didn't dance (even though she loves dancing) and she won't go back. 

Growing up not only did I meet farmers as well as city people, I also met rich people as well as poor people.  (And for the record, despite the stereotype some farmers are very wealthy.)  I have friends who have more family money than I'll ever have unless I win the lottery and I have friends that barely make it paycheck to paycheck.  My dad even used to invite this homeless woman to a cup of coffee every day.  So I never knew that people in different socio-economic groups make people uncomfortable.   I never considered them different than me - they might have different problems or different priorities because life has dealt them a different deck of cards but they were still people very much like me!  It also helps that I know millionaires that wear jeans and drive old pickup trucks and people driving brand new cars that live paycheck to paycheck.

I think people are uncomfortable with rich people because they believe that money will solve all their problems.  And if money will solve all their problems then rich people must not have any real problems. Neither is true.  Money might enable you to buy clothes and activities for your kids but it won't teach you how to be a good parent.  Money might buy you the right clothes and entrance to clubs but it won't buy you good friends.  Money might give you time to spend with your spouse but it won't make you a good partner.  Money might enable you to go to med school but it won't make you a doctor.  Money can't live your life for you and while it may make some things easier it won't solve all your problems.  If you were rich, you would still have problems and they would not be trivial.

Rich people are just people too.  When you consider what money can do to someone, you might even consider that the rich are people with more problems than average.  They can't blame lack of money for not accomplishing something in life.

Wear your shoes on a boat or else!

Or this is what happens to your toe! 

(Note that I didn't wear shoes at all from Monday to Friday - not even to restaurants.  Lucky it's not my toe!)

Frank loves his new Keen H2.  A lot of people on the sailing forums swear by them!  Too bad he wasn't wearing them!

10 things you need to know about sailing with kids

We recently got back from a trip to the BVI with our six year old.  Here are 10 things you need to know about sailing with kids.

1. Find a life jacket they love and make sure they wear it whenever the boat is moving.  Jacob liked his a bit too much - we had to convince him to take it off when swimming!
2. Find fun things to do when anchored like jumping off the side of the boat or tie a swim float to the back of the boat and let them try to lie on it.  They can also snorkel to check the anchor.
3. Find fun things to do when sailing.  They can help steer, coil ropes or just play checkers and Uno.  This one was the most challenging to us.
4. Lots of snacks.  We couldn't believe how hungry our kiddo was but when we stopped to think about it - he never stopped moving!
5. Explain ahead of time that there may be times when you can't talk to them and you need them to sit still and stay out of the way - like when you are trying to navigate a tricky passage or when a big rainstorm with a huge gust of wind suddenly hits you.
6. Tell them where you are going and what they will find there.  Have them practice saying names like "Anegada" and "Jost Van Dyke."  Explain the things you are seeing.  Practice spotting mooring balls and other types of boats.



7. Realize that when they are very tired, injuries are much more likely to happen.  One day after a long day at the beach, Jacob managed to fall off his seat and hit his back on the wheel and his stomach on the seat.  Half an hour later he fell down the stairs hurting his back and slamming his front on the floor.  Tired kids get clumsy and boats aren't kind to clumsy people.
8. Schedule lots of time for their favorite activities and realize they may not be what you think they will be.  Beaches - playing in the sand - not swimming or snorkeling turned out to be Jacob's favorite.  (Also remember that kids tend to get really cold snorkeling for more than 30 minutes at a time.)
9. Be sure to explain how the head (i.e. the toilet) works and double check a few times that they are doing it right.  Jacob was really good about remembering not to put toilet paper in the head but it took him a few days to figure out to pump with water before pumping all the water out.
10. Don't forget the peanut butter!  Jacob requested a peanut butter sandwich everyday.  Ham, turkey, salami and pepperoni just didn't cut it.

And, unlike this picture, you probably shouldn't let them run on the boat.

A BVI beach that you should not miss

White Bay, Jost Van Dyke, is a great beach that meets just about everyone's beach expectations.

• Lots of white sand for those who just love to play in sand or sunbath.
• Almost nobody on the east end for those that like to have a beach to themselves.
• A great view for those that like to just sit and enjoy.
• Lots of beach bars on the west end for those that like to play with others.
• A water trampoline for those who really like to play.

Highly worth the trip.

Wild anchorage at Jost Van Dyke!

On Wednesday, March 28th, we sailed from Anegada to Jost Van Dyke.  It was a long slow sail but we more than made up for the lack of excitement later that night!  A couple of other boats got their anchor chains fouled up and ran into us!

When we pulled into Great Harbor at about 2:00pm it was so full of sailboats that I briefly considered turning around and going back to Little Harbor but we all wanted dinner on shore and to see Foxys so we looked for an anchoring spot.  First, we raced two other boats for the best looking spot.  We lost.  Then we headed for the second best spot and a guy yelled at us that his anchor chain was under there so stay away.  That was a little strange as we were looking at the stern (back) of his boat and boats tend to pull away from their anchors so the anchor chain is always stretched out in front of them.  So we looked around and it looked like every single boat was facing a different direction.   A bit scary.  But we persisted and found another good spot.  We anchored and the guy in the catamaran next to us tried to tell us we were too close but we showed him which way our anchor chain was and he must have decided all was good because he didn't say anything more. (Note that his boat was facing a different direction than ours - something that's not supposed to happen when everyone is at anchor!) 

Several times that night I got up and went up top in the rain to check things out.  I had just returned to bed at 3:30am when I heard voices!  I jumped up, ran up top and discovered that there were two sailboats 10 feet from us drifting into us!   I yelled for everyone else to wake up and started the engine.  Then I realized the engine wasn't going to do us any good as we were attached to an anchor that probably ran underneath one of the boats.  By this time Bill and Frank were throwing fenders over the side just in time to keep us from crashing into the boat next door.  Turns out they had decided to pick up their anchor at 3:30 in the morning (don't ask me why) and in the process of picking up their anchor they dragged it across another guy's chain and they ended up dragging him towards us.  But neither one of them could effectively manouver away because they were attached to their anchors and to each other.

The first boat, the one that moved, ended up taking its dingy around and lifing its anchor and the other guy's chain into the dingy and untangling them and then they went off to anchor somewhere else.  At which point the second boat (the one that had been dragged) was way too close to us - standing on the bow of our boat I could almost touch their stern.  They didn't want to move but I stood there and stared at them long enough that they decided to pull up 20 feet of chain at which point I decided that I'd have to be happy with that and I went back inside, changed into some dry clothes and tried to go to sleep.  (Note that we couldn't move without them moving because they were directly windward of us which theoretically means that our anchor chain was running right under their boat.)

All of this in the pouring rain!

Belle from Cow's Wreck

Belle and her husband own the Cow Wreck beach bar and they are very popular with the yacht chartering crowd.  Here's a picture of Belle talking to Bill.

The next picture is Belle's son-in-law Alex.  He has a masters degree in music and teaches at the local school.  There are 250 people living on Anegada and 30-40 students in school.  Alex says the education system in the BVI is excellent and the government works hard to ensure that everyone is gainfully employed.  I didn't see anyone begging or living in poverty and the BVI is not a cheap place!

Anegada!

Monday the 26th we took off at 10am.  (Right after our dinghy was fixed for the second time.)  We sailed directly to Anegada - I got a bit nervous at the end as we didn't see the channel markers right away.  Anegada is surrounded by reef and there is only one channel in - if you don't make it through the channel, you ground your boat.  We ended up anchoring in only 10 feet of water!

It rained most of the time we were in Anegada but we still had a fabulous time.  The beaches were gorgeous, the snorkeling was good and the beach bars were fun!  We stayed two nights.  The first day we went to Loblolly Bay which was by far the more popular destination.  Great snorkeling and an awesome beach.  The next day we went to Cow Wreck beach which was even better.  It was even more beautiful, there were only about five other people there - on a beach over a mile long!, and Belle who ran the beach bar and restaurant was a great cook and very friendly.   It's called Cow Wreck because a boat carrying a load of cattle crashed on the reef and their bones are still there.  We didn't see the cow bones but we did see a shark, a ray, and lots and lots of conch and crabs.  Jacob put a live conch in his sand castle until Frank explained that it would die out of the water.

The night before we left Anegada the wind blew like crazy.  I was getting really worried that it was going to be a rough sail the next morning.  I needed have worried ...

Bitter End Yacht Club

After the Baths we sailed to the Bitter End Yacht Club on the north end of Virgin Gorda where we grabbed a mooring for the night.  Our dinghy broke again (this time a wire that need to be replaced) - again, they fixed it quickly when they opened up in the morning.  Luckily there was a water taxi at Bitter End that we used to go back and forth to the resort for the evening.  It was free but they asked for tips.  (People in the BVI are very open about telling you when they expect a tip!)

We had dinner at a pub like place on Bitter End and Jacob got a hot dog - the one and only place that we found that served hot dogs in the BVI!  (We had made reservations at the Bitter End restaurant but on discovering that the average dish was $50 we decided to head for the pub.)

If I were to go there again I'd grab one of the Saba Rock moorings - they were right next door and they gave you free ice and water with the mooring.

The Baths - one of the most beautiful spots in the world

On Sunday, March 25th, we sailed from Peter Island to the Baths at Virgin Gorda.  It was a long but really good sail.  We had to wait about 30 minutes motoring around waiting for one of the day moorings as they were all full and the water was pretty deep for us to drop anchor in.  Then we dinghied everyone to shore and Frank took the dinghy back out to the dinghy mooring (about half the way to the boat) and swam in.

Jacob loved the surf on the beach and we all enjoyed the caves - Jacob, Frank and I had a great time on our own personal "rock slide" - a big rock about 7 feet tall that Frank hoisted us up onto and then we slid down the far side on our bottoms.

But everyone's favorite was the restaurant, The Top of the Baths.  The view was the best in the world, the food was delicious (the jerk chicken was spicy and the coconut chicken was sweet) and there was live music and a swimming pool.  Jacob made friends in the pool and the rest of us enjoyed our meal.  Jacob was quite upset that the half eaten sandwich he left on the table disappeared - this was our first clue to how much he was going to eat on the trip!

Boat trouble at Peter Island

On Saturday, March 24th, we left Norman Island and sailed to Peter Island.  We stocked up on ice at the marina and waited to get our dinghy motor replace by the Footloose chase boat.  The throttle broke and we had two speeds - full speed backwards or full speed forward.  The Footloose chase boat arrived promptly and changed the outboard motor.  Then we headed to a beach in the next bay over and discovered that our windlass didn't work!  The windlass is the motor that lowers and raises anchor - so no anchoring for us!  We backtracked to Great Harbor on Peter Island where we could get a mooring (one of those balls you tie up to) and waited for the chase boat again!  This time the chase boat took longer so we took advantage of the time to swim to shore (after waiting for a four foot barracuda to clear the waters!) and play on the beach.  We had a great dinner on the boat of game hens and the chase boat arrived at about 7pm.  They replaced the alternator belt on our motor and did some other stuff and we were back in business.  That night at Great Harbor we caught a bunch of fish that liked chicken bones!

Snorkeling at Treasure Point

On Friday, March 23rd, we got our boat.  After a hectic three hours of loading all of our provisions onto our boat, Carino, a 433 from Footloose, we finally got off about 3:30 and arrived at The Bight on Norman Island at about 4:30.  We had a great meal of mahi-mahi on board and the next day we went snorkeling at the caves at Treasure Point.

Jacob, who had never been snorkeling, jumped right off the dinghy into 25 feet deep water, came up and yelled "there's lots of fish down here!" Needless to say, he took right to snorkeling.

There are some great pictures of our boat with us sailing at Yacht Shots.  If we'd realized what they were doing we might have smiled!

Finally, the British Virgin Islands!

We arrived at Beef Island airport at 6pm EDT and took a cab to our hotel on Tortola.  It was a long day as we left the house at 3:30 MDT but Jacob still had plenty of energy for a swim and then he tried conch fritters for the first time.

Waiting for the plane in San Juan

We only had 30 minutes in Houston and 60 minutes in San Juan but it proved to be plenty of time to make our connections.  This is Jacob watching all the planes taking off and landing.

Worst airplane food ever

Doesn't Continental know you aren't supposed to microwave frozen pizza?  (This was Jacob's favorite meal though.  I should have given him my pizza as well.)

How Jacob used his windup flashlight to save the day

For unknown reasons, Continental gave away all of our assigned seating on our first flight out of Denver.  The only two seats together that they could give us were in the last row of the airplane.  So Jacob and I sat in the last row and played Uno and checkers.  As anyone who has watched kids not sit still would understand, some how all of the (magnetic) checkers ended up spilling off the table and onto the floor.  After collecting all the ones we could see, we were still missing one, so Jacob crawled behind the seats with his wind up flashlight, and found the missing checker stuck to one of the seat legs.  I'm sure Jacob would tell you that his windup flashlight is an indispensible tool on any trip!

Jacob's first travel crisis

Remember what I said about getting behind children in line in security? Well, I was wrong.  On our way to the British Virgin Islands last week our six year old, Jacob, caught the attention of the TSA security agents.  In his Scooby Doo backpack he was carrying, in addition to the normal treasures, a metal box of travel games, a metal Bob the Builder box to collect treasures in and a wind up flashlight – oh, and a metal bell without the clapper. When his backpack hit the scanner’s screen the TSA agent stopped the conveyer belt, stared at the image for a while and then waved over one of her associates. The second guy stared for a while and then pulled out his radio and called for a third person! The third person collected Jacob's backpack and took it over to the explosive testing machine.  By this time, Jacob was starting to look really worried.  The agent took eveything out of the backpack, much to Jacob's concern, examined it all, tested it for explosives and then took all the contents and the backpack back to the scanner.  Jacob bravely fought back tears and asked why were they taking his backpack?  We got it back shortly after that and the agent explained they had never seen a wind up flashlight or a metal travel games box before.  Jacob is now sure he does not like security and that they take things from you!