Well in the 48 days since we last posted so much has happened! We went home to England for Christmas, got snowed in and felt soooo cold, we all got colds/flu but besides that it was great to see everyone again. We flew back into Antigua on Dec 5th and our friends, Don and John joined us on Jan 8th, unfortunatley Dave got really sick with an infection the day they arrived. We kep expecting him to get better but when he didn't I took him to hospital in Antigua where he was immediatley admitted and put on IV antibiotics, he spent two days overnight and then a further 2 days as an outpatient , he is still on antibiotics but is close to being being back to normal. As you might imagine it was quite an experience and we will put more details on the latest blog page. So as he was feeling better we thought it was time to move on and today we had a great sail down to Guadeloupe, so we're just chilling for awhile and plan to go in for some authentic french food tonight!


December 1st - Going South

I can not believe Christmas is this month, it always seems such a long way away when the weather is hot! The extent of my shopping so far is a couple of visits to ebay when the wifi is strong enough! Really looking forward to coming back and seeing family & friends though. So leaving St Maarten tomorrow and will then island hop down, probably via St Barts, Eustachia and Nevis and hopefully arrive in Antigua on sunday/monday. Once there we've got to sort plans for Molly whilst we are back, either to leave her in Antigua or get her back to the BVI to stay with Lincoln. In the meantime she spends her time getting fatter, swimming and playing on the inflatables!

November 27th Enjoying the French way of life

So we spent a windy 10 days in St Barts and we have now come back to St Maarten, tempted by the great shopping and french sophistication! We are anchored on the French side in Marigot Bay something we haven't done before but it is quite sheltered as there are still some big winds and seas doing the rounds. We decided to go out for dinner on thursday - the first time as a family for ages, and the kids banned laptops(!!) so we went to 2 places we have been before and do good food and both were doing a thanksgiving buffet!!!! which none of us wanted so we ended up in a sushi bar - fab food and a great nite, my kind of thanksgiving meal!

November 16th - Back in St Barts

Anyway we are now in St Barts, holed up in our little bay, at Anse de columbier, nothing here except us the turtles, and quite a few remorra fish who are very happy to consume anything you care to throw their way.
We have spent a lazy morning swimming, teaching and writing emails, even though I can't send them until I go into town later today. Life is also now at a much quieter pace, all the jobs seem to be under control on the boat (famous last words..) , most nooks and crannies and stainless steel have been cleaned and polished, the only thing outstanding is we haven't yet attempted to get the water maker going, also the hull needs a good scrape again, our final 10 days in  Sea cows left us with a layer of mud and weed on the antifoul, Jordan will be busy with a scraper over the next week!  Last night we were in bed again for 8.30.. the evenings and sundowners start too early I guess, either that or we are just getting old and boring!!   Not sure how long we are going to stay here, it's my birthday on Friday and I'd kind of like to stay here until then as there is such great restaurants here... Dave continues to be amazed by how much my life is dictated to by good food/restaurants.... but I guess it's too late to change now! I have started doing more exercise though, 5 laps around the boat in a morning before breakfast, and an exercise session on the trampoline in the afternoon, much to the kids semi amusement/disgust.. but I am feeling a little better because of it.
The kids, specifically Indy, are still coming to terms with leaving the BVI, she felt like she had put some roots down there so has been unsettled by leaving, just when I thought she was happy with sailing again! But her nature is such that she doesn't stay down for long and is now focused on coming home for Christmas, balancing everyone's views on where to go, what to do etc and keeping everyone happy can be quite difficult when you're the mum!


November 13th Arrived in St Maarten
We had a good trip down here, unfortunately the forecast Northerlies did not materialise, what a surprise! and we ended up motoring the whole way again, we did have a slight angle (c30 degs) on the wind though and kept the sails up which helped I guess and the seas were comfortable so no complaints, we arrived in St Martin on Friday night and checked out yesterday morning. We got the laundry done, visited Jimbo's for their famous happy hour 2 for one margaritas and did some shopping; pop and beer is v cheap, about $5 for a dozen cans, and the choice in the supermarkets is good so we have had smoked salmon for breakfast and last night we had pates, cheese and Palma ham with lovely French bread - fab! 

Nov 6th
It was Great to meet up with John & Don again, they arrived back in the BVI on the 5th and their son Ryan and his family arrived the next day. Unfortunately the weather was bad for the whole of their stay so I don't think they saw the BVI at it's best. John & Don are sailing down island with us in January, so looking forward to meeting them again in Antigua.



Oct 31st - Great to have some friends on board.
Well we arrived in Trellis Bay yesterday and dropped John, Halina & Lauren off at the Airport, our first guests of the season. We had a great week with them, a few problems with swarming mosquitos, probably as a result of all the rains they had earlier this month, and considering John was not looking forward to the sailing - we had a great week, which included dave's Birthday, he was 21 again whilst they were out with us so it was nice to have friends to celebrate with. Back to Sea Cows Bay for a week or so now to finish a few jobs before we start heading South. Kids getting ready for the big halloween party at Nanny Cay tonigh. The great weather we had whilst John & Hal were with us looks set to break and lots of rain and possible storms forecast for the coming week.

Oct 15th  - Back onboard!

Back on boat and back to boating life.... sweating, no make up, god how i wish I'd lost the weight  before i got back here...

All in all boat ok, a few issues to sort.... forward port head motor seized ($300), i didn't plug electrical hook up cables in properly when we got back yesterday so they arced (we wondered what the burning smell was??), and blew up with excess running of air con around 5pm lat nite! So cables melted, and no aircon last night for first night back, kids VV unhappy! Dave just off to chandlery to buy new adapter plug for end (c$200) and we're hoping it didn't do any damage to the boat end of the connection!

Boat covered in thin layer of mildew, wipes off easily but lots to wipe! my white bedding has odd red stains on them... some kind of mold, dinghy completely flat and a forest growing under boat, so off to a bay in the next few days for a family snorkel and scrape! ( kids VVV excited at prospect....)

Went to cheap burger bar for tea last night, (didn't help weight issue but figured I'd earned it with all the heaving and puffing of loading and unpacking and clearing up). It has also been great catching up with our old frineds, Lincoln, Sonia & family and Boss and Courtney.

So as you can see our adventures and spending have started, in saying all that - it is really good to be back, the weather is superb and flying in over the islands, with the crystal seas and white beaches made my heart happy and the boat is slowly coming back to life, we also took ripped sail bag and genoa to sail makers yesterday for minor repairs to damage done by us last season, they should be ready today and so will spend today sweating and hauling... and praying Dave can fix air con!  Off to do 200 press ups and a 10 mile run

Sept 30th - Where has the summer gone!

So after being thoroughly chastised by friends and family for neglecting the website we decided it's time to update and start posting the minutiae of our daily lives again! Before coming back to the UK, we had John, Zig, Connor & Jenny and my Mum and niece come and stay with us, this was great fun, even if my mum ended up staying a month because of the Iceland ash cloud... Dave wrote much of this up at the time but we forgot to upload it - so it is now posted under Mar-May 10 blog.
We have spent the entire summer back in the UK, arriving back mid May for Jordan to do his GCSE's. These he did and passed successfully, I am not sure who was more relieved given it was also a test of our teaching abilities! The summer has been spent with family & friends and we have packed in as much as we can, making the most of our time here. The children went to the USA for a month and Dave and I visited lots of places in the UK we/or I had never been before including the Lake District. Dave did actually keep a daily diary of month and this is posted as "The Great British Summer", you can also see all the pictures on our picassa link.  We also had the priviledge of having our Grandson, Arron, whilst his brother Thomas was in hospital, as you can imagine we took loads of pictures and you can see those by clicking here.

We are now making plans to return to the BVI and Seas the Moment. Flights are booked for Oct 13th, Jordan has an interview for the Merchant Navy on the 12th so we are keeping our fingers crossed he will make an impression of the right sort... Whilst we have been away Lincoln has done a great job looking after STM, it has been a really active year for hurricanes, and we have spent many sleepless nights watching and tracking the storms on the net, in particular Hurricane Earl went through in August, bringing 110 mile winds to the islands, as STM had been left in the water this year, we were very worried but she came through it unscathed Thank God!