St. Maarten - December 18-23

St. Maarten is an island half Dutch and half French. We sailed into Simpson Bay Lagoon where many sailboats are anchored and many more megayachts are docked. We had a number of repairs to make on our boat as the crossing from Norfolk the previous month took its toll. One of the most important things to do was to get a new dinghy. The glue holding the pontoons to the base of the boat has been working loose and can no longer be repaired. However, it turned out that there were no dinghies to be had--sold out--of the size we needed. We were stunned. With Ray & Lou, Mike's brother and sister-in-law, arriving for Christmas we surely needed a decent "car" to get around in. Fortunately, two were due in shortly after Christmas, so we put our money down not wanting one to be sold out from under us.

We also needed things like batteries, so we spent the days before Christmas mostly getting our boat "fixed." On the 23rd, there was a dinghy drift where 25 dinghies hooked up to float in Simpson Bay Lagoon singing Christmas carols. Great hors d'oeuvres were passed around too. We ended up at the cruisers' hangout for food and drinks. Lots of fun.

Tortola/Virgin Gorda - December 14-17

We stayed at Norman's Bight a bit longer than we'd planned because of the threat of Olga. Moved on to Tortola's heading to the west end for continued protection just in case. Spent several days there renting a car one day to see the island. One day on advice we hitched a ride with a neat couple--yes, there was a Colorado connection. It turned out Betsy currently living in Montana and Rick from Seattle could tell we were yachties when they saw us materialize out of the mangroves with our backpacks...What does that say??? Anyhow, they gave us a ride to Road Town, the main city on Tortola and filled us in on how things work on Tortola. Later we rented a car to see for ourselves. Tortola is a beautiful island with an interior of mountains and spectacular views. Although we could not get to Cane Garden Bay, an old haunt, by boat because of the weather, we drove there and were surprised to find that it had not changed a great deal. Stanley's Welcome Bar, the scene of a lot of partying, thirty years ago, was still there as was the local rum distillery--now basically a museum for tourists.

From Tortola, we sailed to Virgin Gorda to prepare for the crossing to St. Maarten, which would take approximately 14 hours. We joined forces with 4 other boats heading there on Monday, December 17. Steve, on Clear Day, hosted a net so that we all communicated at regular intervals to ensure all were safe. We had been hearing Steve over the SSB radio checking on the weather for the crossing. We were happy to see him pull into Virgin Gorda shortly after we did.

Our crossing on the 17th and 18th was okay, but the wind and waves were on our nose the entire making it less comfortable than we would have liked.

Hassel Island, St. Thomas; Tortola, British Virgin Islands

Just a quick post to let everyone know that we are in Fat Hog's Bay in Tortola, BVI. We are power-challenged currently, so we're making the most of the little power we have. Our plan is to leave Sunday as the weather should be better and head for St. Martin. Hopefully, we can rectify the power situation when we get there as there are competent, reasonable repair facilities there.

Just a brief recap of our last few days. Mike got his HAM license while in St. Thomas which means we should be able to get free email more regularly.

We met a couple from Michigan, Karen and Jason from YOLO, a PDQ 42--a BIG catamaran., with whom we hung out for about a week.

We were anchored at Hassel Island, a pretty place with goats roaming the hillsides, a beautiful beach and great scenery. We were constantly watchiing cruise ships coming and going as we were just outside Charlotte Amalie, the capital city of St. Thomas, and seaplanes landing and taking off.

Had a little diversion of a beach party at Honeymoon Bay on Sunday, Dec. 2. Then after a brief stop at Charlotte Amalie, we sailed around the eastern end of St. Thomas to Red Hook Bay for one night; then over to St. John.

Stayed in St. John for a couple of days anchored in extremely rolly, but beautiful Caneel Bay--a bit of a long dinghy ride from Cruz Bay, the center of town. One day we rode the bus to Coral Bay. The ride was a rather exciting one as the streets are narrow and very steep. The bus driver who seemed a little angry would lay on her horn as we rounded blind bends to alert others coming our way. Somehow we got there and back safely.

Coral Bay turned out to be the site of an American ex-pat community with full-time liveaboards enjoying paradis. Everyone seemed to know each other.

Although most things on St. John's were expensive, we did find Woody's with $1 drinks at happy hour as well as some local restaurants with fried chicken and barbecued ribs--mmmm...good.

On Friday we headed over to Jost Van Dyke and Foxy's, a well-known sailors' hangout. Of course, we met some other charterers there from Colorado. We never cease to be amazed how many Coloradans we meet.

With Tropical Storm Olga beginning to materialize, we headed out Saturday with lively sail to Norman Island, the Bight. There we were able to stay out of the weather dangers, although we had plenty of wind and numerous showers. The swimming and snorkeling were wonderful although there wasn't a lot to do. We were anchored right next to the Willie T., a floating bar and restaurant that played a lot of loud music, which was okay. It was also the scene of a lot of partying.

Met another great couple who had sailed from London, Graeme and Gyllian Mulcahy. Their visiting friends, Jock and Jill, were delightful as well. They were true cruisers who were making their way all over the islands and further. We enjoyed our evening with them.

St. Thomas, Virgin Islands - Nov. 16-30

After 11 ½ days of sailing, we arrived in St. Thomas at 1:30 in the morning. It was great to get here especially having had such an exhilarating journey. Lots of wind and waves that our crew, Jeff and Steve, especially enjoyed. We saw only about five other boats the whole time—amazing.

There’s been a bit of rain here on St. Thomas, much to our surprise. Of course, being on foot with numerous trips to town for boating supplies and other provisions calls for rain gear as the skies are sunny one minute and pouring rain the next. Of course, these trips included a trip to have a brand new inverter/charger repaired as well. This is a large, extremely heavy unwieldy box that had to be disconnected removed from underneath the settee and carried by dinghy to a place that would repair it. (They just don’t come to one’s boat!) So Mike and I struggled with it in the pouring rain getting it into the dinghy then from the dinghy up a very steep hill to the shop. Fortunately, it could be and was repaired in a timely fashion but maddening as we had just bought it in Annapolis for lots of boat units, as we call the big bucks.

While in St. Thomas, we rode the open-air jitneys for one or two dollars, depending on how far you go, to shopping areas too far away to walk. It’s a little dangerous walking here. There are few sidewalks, and if there are sidewalks, they’re narrow and end abruptly. Streets are narrow as well and filled with all manner of busy island traffic. The jitneys are fun. They are a safari-type vehicle with four or five benches that seat about 20 people. They come every few minutes, and you flag them down. Of course, if not careful, you can end up in a taxi or a tourist jitney where it costs at least $4 or $5 plus a tip to get where you’re going. K-mart is the big department store here. Imagine! We didn’t spend much time there, but a couple of things such as a bike helmet for Mike –more about that later—were on our shopping list. The bike helmet we determined would be a handy safety item for times when Mike has to go up the mast in windy, inclement weather. This happened on the passage two days into our journey. One section of the radar reflector way up on the mast fell off. With the winds whipping up, Mike felt if not taken down, the sharp edges of the remaining pieces might rip the sails. We were all a bit unnerved when this had to be done just before a stormy nightfall. After raising him ¾ of the way up our 63 foot mast, Mike swung from side to side in the brisk winds barely missing the mast several times as we all held our collective breath. After finally getting hold of the remaining piece of the sharp-edged radar reflector, he was lowered carefully, battered and bruised but luckily no head damage.

Our anchorage at Cas Cay in Benner Bay was a quiet one but more importantly had great internet access, an often difficult thing to find without lugging the computer to shore. There was also a nice grocery store, the Food Center, where we did some provisioning. Had thought about getting a turkey for our Thanksgiving dinner. Even though turkeys were available, there were no deals like we’re used to in the states.

We decided to go to a restaurant Wednesday night called Buddha Sushi. The meal was outstanding—and that’s a real compliment from Mike who does not like sushi.

Passage Norfolk to St. Thomas, Nov. 4-Nov. 16, 2007

Hooray! We made it! After 11 1/2 days of sailing the high seas--and some were mighty high--we got there. It was an exciting voyage. Lots of wind and waves and a few storms, but with a crew of Steve Olson, an old sailing buddy from Denver, and Jeff Strouf, a new friend and fellow sailor, we had a fabulous trip. Steve and Jeff were thrilled to be out in the ocean out of sight of land braving the elements. Sue was not; but hard to stay that way when fellow crew were so positive and enjoying every minute of the joyride. We had a few bets on when we would arrive, but we all were pretty pleased to have made it by 1:30 am on Nov. 16th. More to follow.

Norfolk/Portsmouth, October 30-November 4

We motored the two hours to Portsmouth, where we anchored outside of Tidewater Yacht Marina along with lots of other boats heading south. The weather was beautiful until Thursday, when reports of strong winds were circulating. We decided to move a day ahead of schedule into the marina, Waterside, where we had reservations Friday and Saturday. We were glad we did. Got the last slip available and learned that most of the marinas were full.

Our crew arrives tomorrow-- Steve Olson from Denver and Jeff Strouf from Wausau, Wisconsin.
Steve is an old friend and sailing buddy; Jeff was a guy we met in Oriental, NC who loves to sail and was able to take time off from his job as a firefighter to go with us.

Hampton, VA October 26-30

After Onancock, we sailed in mounting bad weather across the bay to Deltaville. Publicized in our guide books as quite the boaters' town, we quickly learned that the town is a couple of miles away. There was nothing but lots of fellow cruisers waiting out the weather which continued on a downward slide. On Thursday, we decided to head to Hampton as the weather was only predicted to get worse. It was rather chilly, windy and rainy with 3' to 4' waves, however, with following seas, it really turned out to be an enjoyable sail.

We were glad to get into Hampton, where many boats were marinaed (is this a word?) waiting for the Caribbean 1500 Rally sponsored by West Marine. They are leaving Hampton on Nov. 4, weather permitting. However, with the rather steep price, we opted to do our own thing although we'll be following a similar route.

We enjoyed Hampton. We had a lot of running around to do still preparing for our long offshore trek. On Sunday, my cousin, Debbie, and her husband, Dom, who currently live in Richmond joined us for an enjoyable afternoon.

By Tuesday, we decided it was time to head to Norfolk/Portsmouth.

Reedville, Virginia October 21

Forgot to mention that we actually went from Solomons to Reedville, first. Reedville is the home of menhaden fishing, a dying industry. We were warned that it would be a smelly place to stay, but we went anyhow and found it to be very attractive although small and lacking in places to go and things to do. However, we weren't really there to do anything but spend the night. It was a waypoint in our travels south. The fishing boats and dilapidated quonset hut pictured above indicate the state of the menhaden fishing industry here.

Onancock, October 22-24, 2007

After Solomons, we decided to go sailing!!! The weather was right for a change with a good brisk breeze of 15-20 knots. Gorgeous day, great sailing. We ended up on Virginia's eastern shore at the charming town of Onancock. We anchored just off the town dock and enjoyed live music from our boat--but not for long. We dinghied to shore to the music and enjoyed the sunset from Mallard's Restaurant. We decided to stick around for a day since the weather was warm and beautiful and the town delightful. We had a great inexpensive breakfast of a steak and egg wrap at Janet's Cafe. We strolled the town discovering wonderful items for our boat at the Hospice Thrift Store and at the hardware store--an old time shop with everything from nuts & bolts to tricycles to paint--also clams and home-grown vegetables. We bought a dozen clams and steamed them. Delicious. We have lots of experience with all manner of seafood--except clams. We enjoyed them.

Galesville, Solomons--October 18-20

Finally we got away--Hasn't been easy. At the last minute Monday, we discovered we needed yet another part for our autopilot. Had to wait for it to be delivered--only to discover when it arrived, it was not the part that was bad, but a connection! Mike resolved it and we finally were underway at 10 on Wednesday. Arrived 10 miles south at another charming town, Galesville, where hungry swans hung around our boat hoping for a handout. (They seemed to have successful with the boat parked next to us whom we later found were from Grand Junction, CO.)

Left early Thursday for the 41 mile trek to Solomon's. Bad weather's coming but greeted us a tad early with choppy seas, wind and rain. With the wind on our nose, of course, we couldn't take advantage of it and had to motor through pounding waves. Met our friends Vicki and Porter as we motored in together Thursday at 5.