A CAPT. MIKE TIP OF THE HAT: Swann Communications & their Freestyle HD Camera

I've got several video cameras that I use on board BIANKA. From GoPro, Canon Powershot to the one built into my Blackberry phone. They all come in useful for various purposes.  But, one I've been using a lot has been the  Swann Freestyle 1080p HD Waterproof Sports Video Camera. It  is small like the GoPro but, comes with a lot of accessories that that GoPro charges extra for. Things like a remote start and LCD screen are included with the base unit. I also like that it has separate buttons to either shoot video or stills. Unlike the GoPro which requires pushing several buttons to change how you want to shoot. On a recent trip to the Spanish Virgins my Swann stopped working. It seems one of the battery connectors broke. Not sure when it happened but, it was not something I could fix. Since the Swann warranty was for a year I contacted them  for a repair. After getting receiving the shipping information I sent it off. Then the other day I got the package back from Swann USA. It was not the camera I sent to be repaired my camera  but, they had sent a brand new camera with all the accessories. All I can say is WOW that's great customer service. So that's why Swann and their  Swann Freestyle Sports Video Camera get a tip of the hat from Capt. Mike.

Here's some of the video I've taken with the camera. The first is from a recent trip to Vieques:



and here is a timelapse of Dawn arriving on Hook Mountain as BIANKA sat at anchor:

CAPT. MIKE IN THE LEEWARD ISLANDS PART THREE: HEADING TO CULEBRA

It's been many years since I was in Charlotte Amalie harbor St. Thomas. We picked up a charter here on a 44 foot monohull back in the 1980's named Valkerie and another time when we had a weeks vacation on board one of the Windstar cruise ships in the 90's.

We left the St. John area bound for St. Thomas in late afternoon with a favoring trade wind and tied up to a mooring for the night near the old Navy submarine base area in St. Thomas. The area now houses a marina and some cruise ship docks. The shoreline nearby was littered with the wrecks of boats whose owners failed to reason with the Hurricane season and other storms:

The next morning we dropped off the mooring and headed out West Gregerie Channel for Culebra:

We passed Sail Rock. A uniquely shape geological form that is said to have fooled many pirates to appear to be a ship under sail.

They would sometimes fire a warning shot at it. The sound of which would echo off the rock surface and make it sound like return fire. Only when they got closer would they see that it was only a rock and not another ship to be plundered.

Things were moving along nicely as OPUS towed the twenty foot dingy:



We were breezing along when all of a sudden there was a crash at the stern. The dingy had crashed into the boarding ladder and smashed it up pretty good:

Well that's sailing! You are cruising along fine and then something happens not always in a positive direction. Capt. Billy scrambled and was able to save the bottom half of the ladder but, were were never able to quite get it back into shape to use. After about three hours we were in the channel heading into Ensenada Honda Culebra's major harbor:

 After we cleared the reef at the entrance we turned to port and picked up a mooring in Ensenada Dikity.

There were a few boats already there when we arrived:

Including this boat which seemed to have something missing:

CAPT. MIKE IN THE LEEWARD ISLANDS PART FOUR Click here.