Changes and Flexibility

Well, for those of you who read Castingoff's blog, you already know a bit of what I am going to tell you but for those of you who don't, here is the latest skinny on our tentative plans for the next little while. First I guess I better rehash a little of what our plans had been. We are in Bonaire at the present moment and intended - and still intend - to go to Curacao. We had planned to meet with Rob (son Rob) at a place we had agreed to share for Christmas. Hopefully this will still happen. In the meantime, the Perrys and Artemo were to sail down to Curacao as soon as their boat was complete. After Christmas we (Artemo and Mystic Journey) were going to head for Cartegena, Columbia, then the San Blas Islands of Panama and then to Panama. In actual fact Cheryl and I had agreed that this particular journey was to be taken "one step at a time" in that if we got to Cartegena and decided not to go further west, so be it. This was to hold true for all the ports we landed in and in fact still holds true for this whole adventure we have embarked on. Julie et al were aware that we are not committed yet to going out the canal and that we are decision making as required when required.

So now - there are a couple things that are part of our new decision to stay in the Caribbean for a while longer. First, when the Perrys made the decisions regarding their plans that they did, both of us - the Perry's and the Thomas's - were aware that if we (Cheryl and I) held to our plan of continuing west we would lose our chance to sail together, something we had all been looking forward to. Julie, in examining their options, came up with the suggestion that we postpose our trip, meet up with them somehow, and spend time exploring the Leeward and Windward Islands next year. They had really not had a chance to do this when they brought Artemo from Antigua to Grenada due to time constraints and although Cheryl and I had taken some time when we came down, there is still lots we had missed. A second aspect of the decision was in part due to a bit of caution on our part. As I said, we have not committed to passing through the canal and heading for the South Pacific. Cheryl has said all along that she would be happier with a bit more "mariner experience" before heading out for a 3-4 week voyage that will put us in a place that, although beautiful and tropical and exotic, would be extremely hard to take a bus home from.

So this is now our plan for the new year. We will be in Curacao until at least the 26th of December. That is when Julie, Graham and the kids head back to Grenada to put the finishing touches on Artemo and set sail for northern climes to meet us. If Rob is able to make it to Curacao, he has said that he too will likely leave on the same day. After that we will head northeast towards the British Virgin Islands or the US Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico or St. Kitts or wherever the winds are most favourable to take us. I will put a proviso in there.

We are having email discussions with someone very special to us who is considering coming to meet us in Antigua and stay for 10-14 days. We are praying for that to happen. I won't tell you who it is because I don't want to pressure these special people. (Well, actually I do but won't!!) If they can make it to Antigua, it will likely be around the 3rd of January so if that is the case, we will leave Curacao in time to make a 5-6 day sail to Antigua and meet them. Otherwise, we will be leaving in time to meet the Perrys in the northern Leewards - likely Antigua but possibly St Maartens, sometime in January. If we are up that far anyway, we might as well do some boat parts acquistion in the cheapest place possible.

Now, what does this all mean to you?? It could mean - so what, but it could also provide an opportunity for all of you we spoke to about visiting us during our travels. We have relatively firm committments from some people to come down and visit, BUT there is still a lot of time and a lot of room on our boat. So for those of you to whom we extended an invitation to visit and who haven't thought of taking us up on it - last opportunity to do so in the Caribbean in 2009. The invitations are genuine. We would love to see you and have you share a small part of this adventure.