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!!!!!

Francis Bay, St John - USVI (Jason this is the real one!)

Weeee're back!

Had a pretty good sail from Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas to Francis Bay although we sailed to the wind and not to specific waypoints. The difference is - sailing to waypoints you preplan your course and sail it based on setting up legs designed to get you from point A to B to C etc, meanwhile missing things like rocks and islands and all that stuff. You put the course into the chart plotter and the handheld GPS and then go from point to point. That works if you have winds and seas that cooperate. It is also usually used on longer trips.

Sailing to the wind is just what is says. You know where you are going but you get there using the wind to its' best advantage - each leg is sailed using the wind most advantageously. It usually involves lots of gybing and coming about (tacking) and is great for up here in the Virgins where the sailing is kind of line of sight due to the islands being so close. You still use the chart plotter but more as a map of where you are in relation to those rocks and islands you still want to miss!!

Anyway, back to Francis Bay - we were actually heading for Maho Bay, which is a small bay next to Francis Bay that, on the charts, seems more protected. As I said before, all of the National Park anchorages are protected so mooring balls are mandatory. When we got to Maho, we picked up a mooring ball and then of course the first thing we check is to see if we have wifi. Our friend Dave on Daniell Storey had said there was wifi in Francis so we hoped Maho would have it too but no such luck so we moved about 500 yards/metres into Francis Bay and were able to get a fair signal.

Francis Bay has 28 mooring balls and access to 3 beaches, Francis Bay, Maho Bay and what Cheryl and I called Little Maho. It is in the middle and has a path that leads up to an Eco-camp type resort. You stay in little cabins or tents BUT, because it has "Eco" attached to it they are still able to charge $155.00 Us per night. Go figure.

Some of the things we have done while we have been here - walked to Trunk Bay and Cinnamon Bay by accessing Maho beach and going southwest from there. Walked to Coral Cove (they call it Love City because it is a haven for hippies who still believe they are hippies) by heading southeast from Francis Bay beach. It is funny that although they are side by side, Francis Bay beach and Maho Bay beach do not connect over land and the roads that run behind them are different "highways".

We also walked to Watermelon Bay which is part of Leinster Bay on the north side of St John. While visiting these places we accessed the Annaberg ruins - an old sugar mill and Annaberg school about 5 miles away from the mill. The school was set up to educate the children of the ex-slaves who stayed to work when they were supposedly emancipated. There were supposed to be 5 schools set up but only one got used. This was all during the time that St John belonged to Denmark. The US bought St John from them for $25 million back in the early 1900's.

We also saw ruins of another sugar mill at Cinnamon Bay and we would periodically explore ruins that had no name and no way to tell what they had been or who used them. Incidentally, none of these ruins have been restored in the manner that most historical sites we visited down island have been. Local people have done some volunteer work but that was more just brush clearing and rubble removal and putting up signs that say don't climb on the ruins.

Needless to say, all of these walks that Cheryl and I went on were up and down hills that were constructed with no need to worry about snow so of course they were STEEP!! The shortest walk we did was likely 2 miles and the longest about 8 miles so we were definitely getting our exercise. Oh and we visited the "eco-camp" and noted in the mini-store they had there that the crunchy Cheetos (I used to have a weakness but got all better!!) were $7.70 US and when we looked at the same thing in a store in Coral Cove, they were $3.95 US. Eco-camp indeed!!

On these walks we also noted more animal life than we usually have seen on other islands. Of course we saw the usual goats and sheep, chickens and dogs. However we also saw deer, donkeys, pelicans and lots of termite nests. We even saw a row of termites going across the road. Termites are blind and follow each other head to tail. On the trees you can see their trails as raised dark brown lines on the trunk. There was a similar line going across the road. At one point it had been broken open, presumably by the sheep that had run ahead of us, and you could see the termites themselves. We have also seen lots of fish, both snorkelling along shore and beside the boat. Lots of fingerlings in both places. The fingerlings were so thick that at times you really couldn't see beyond the school. The numbers certainly explain why the pelicans are also numerous here. They sort of "jump" off the water, coast a couple of feet and then head back into the water beak first. Then they float and you can see them 'tossing' the fish from their beaks to their throats. Very interesting to watch.

I wanted to do this blog to catch up because we are hoping to do a Christmas blog from Caneel Bay, which we are going back to tomorrow so we will have a strong Wifi for Christmas Day.
So, next blog - Christmas!!!!