Christmas and Stuff

Well, here we are with another year under our belts (does the rope we use to hold up our pants qualify as belts??) It has been a good year although there have been ups and downs just as there would be if we were home.

I have mentioned to Cheryl that I will have to be careful that I don't let my "damn, we are selling the boat" mood slip over into my gratitude for all we have experienced this year.

Although we didn't put as many knots on the boat this year as we did last year, mainly because we didn't sail to the ABC's and up to the Leewards, we still managed a goodly number of sailing days. I think probably we are up around the 3500 nm mark for the 2 years and considering we had never sailed before I guess that is pretty good.

So - our year. We were blessed with lots of people again this year. We started with Holly and Joe in Antigua, then Jason in April and Judy and Ivor in May. We also were able to hook up with Julie, Graham, Alex and Amelia on Artemo in St Lucia. Unfortunately we never did get a chance to sail with them for any distance. Best laid plans...........

That reminds me of some realizations I have been having about where we have gone and where we have not gone. Cheryl and I had many discussions when we were in the ABC's last year about whether to go west or to stay in the Caribbean for another year. When we made the decision to stay in the Caribbean for another year and sail to Antigua and meet with Artemo and Holly and Joe, I was okay with that. By myself I likely would have been leaning toward continuing west but Cheryl leaned more to staying and taking all things into consideration we decided that staying was the better thing to do.

The reason I mention this now is because this blog is a retrospective in a sense and I now find myself struggling with the decision I was part of then. I know, I know, "Accept the things you cannot change' - and you can't change the past etc etc but I will definitely have to work on this!!!

So, onward - we made ourselves consciously more social this year, culminating in the Grenada Carnival where we shared the good times there with a number of couples we had met over the last two years. Another huge social event was the Canada Day celebration at Clarkes Court Bay where we shared a meal (ours was free because we had the best Canadian costume) with over 100 other cruising Canadians. We also became net controllers for the Coconut Telegraph and that was definitely a broadening of our social circle. We both still find that we are quite happy sharing this experience with each other most of the time though and we definitely did not become part of the "happy hour" crowd.

We are both glad to say that we made friends that we intend to keep in touch with when we are back in Canada - I would be remiss if I didn't mention Sue and Maurice on Strider in this intent - great folk!!!

What else - well, we have found ourselves much better sailors than we were when we started but the funny thing is this realization kind of dropped on us out of the blue - actually when we were checking our sailing times here in the Virgin Islands versus our times last year. It didn't seem that we consciously recognized "oh, we're doing this or we are doing that better". Who woulda thunk it!!!

Highlights of the year

- becoming a grandparent (me again and Cheryl for the first time)

- having a chance to go home and see the new granddaughter

- having Jason come down and visit

- being able to share that visit with the crew of Artemo

- having Holly and Joe come for a visit - meant a huge amount to us Holly

- having Judy and Ivor visit

- meeting lots of new people - see above

- we also have to include our sail from Curacao to Antigua, even though it was last year. Although it was tough sailing we can both look back with pride on the fact that we did it!!!!

I think the overall second place for highlight of this year is having the health and (relative) clarity of mind to be able to have these adventures

First place goes to being able to do all of this with each other.

I guess it wouldn't be truthful to paint the whole year as stress free. Our major stressor was of course our acreage - actually not our acreage but the tenants who lived on the acreage and this stressor is one of the main reasons we are coming home early. We also had the ongoing expense of sailing to contend with - but a very positive slant to that is although this whole experience has required a constant and very steep learning curve, we have both been up to the task. There is not very much that we would be unsure we could handle now, be it on the boat or at home. We just hope it doesn't cost as much at home as it does out here!!!

Now on to Christmas.

We decided that since we spent last Christmas on the hard (at the villa with Rob and the Perry's) added to the fact it will likely be our last Christmas in the Caribbean, that we would do it up tropical style. About the 16th we decorated the boat, including our little Christmas tree, tinsel and snowflakes. We have seen a number of the bigger boats with the outsides decorated too. We did some Christmas shopping in Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas and Cruz Bay, St John and of course Cheryl did her pre-christmas thing in September.

It is now Christmas Eve day and we were net controllers for the Coconut Telegraph today so were able to wish all our friends the joy of the season. We are at an anchorage where we should be able to get fair wifi tomorrow so we can be in touch with family at home. We are hoping to go snorkelling today for a while and maybe again tomorrow. Our stockings are hung by the porthole with care and there are presents under the tree. We are both focussing on the fact that we will have this Christmas together even though we will also both miss our families very much. We are also trying not to let the fact that Cheryl leaves on the 31st and I stay until ???? interfere with the gratitude that we both feel for all of the joy that we provide for each other and that we get from our family and friends.

!!!!!HAVE THE HAPPIEST CHRISTMAS EVER!!!!!