At Sea: May 4, 2011

It has been a very long time since I last wrote…I have been bowled over by Lauren and Rob Dehaan's aritacruising.blogspot.com. I have been so out classed by them that I got into a blog funk. But, I realized that there a few people that simply want to know where Linda and I are, so, here goes again. BUT, PLEASE do go to Rob's BLOG for details missed here and Lauren's PICTURES! He and she have the gift…fabulous!!

Since last I wrote back in P.R., we buddied up with Debbie and Rick Lehto of Miss Heidi and set sail for parts unknown to us, but not to them. Via St. Thomas and the northern BVI to gain an edge on the mostly easterly wind, we headed SE to Majors Bay, St. Kitts. This was a long and arduous over-night trip where we couldn't keep our course because the wind veered a little SSE forcing our course further S. We crossed the Saba Bank – a shallow area which pushes up the wave heights – at night in 5-6' choppy seas ending up 38 nm S of our target anchorage. The book said we should make the first tack the longest, but not how to compute the next tack. Anyway we motored into the wind the final leg to Majors Bay where we met up with Miss Heidi and spent the night. Next morning we sailed windward of Nevis and Montserrat down to Deshaies, Guadeloupe. Montserrat is stunning with its perpetual steam vents and mud flows that buried an entire town. In Deshaies we rented a very expensive car and went S to Basse Terre where we had a very French lunch overlooking The Saintes. On March 23 we checked in to Antigua at English Harbour to await the arrival of the Vaughn family (Marnie & Mark and our grandkids, Kyler, Dalton, and Parke)r. We had a fun time with them for 9 days of fishing, snorkeling, sailing and their favorite, swimming with the stingrays. We stayed for the Classic Race week after they left and then the following week's just plain old races, "come one come all". We also had the boat hauled at North Sound Marina for a bottom job and work on the port rudder which had developed a wobble: seems the key had either slipped out or had not been replaced when we had work done on it in P.R. We also took a side trip N to Barbuda, a flat and uninteresting place famous for its frigate rookery: woo, woo!

Today we are headed back to Culebra completing a wobbly circle. We have just passed windward of steaming Montserrat and Redonda. I can see Nevis with St. Kitts behind. Once again we are heading for Majors Bay for sundowners (G&T for Linda; R&T for me), dinner and some sleep. From there it is a 165.6 nm shot past Saba (missing the bank this time) to Dakity, Culebra, Puerto Rico. At 5 knots we should get there in 30+ hours.

We are planning a trip back to the good olde U.S. of A. on the 16^th so we can share a car to the aeropuerto with Debbie and Rick. We could be in Orlando for up to 2 months if Linda has her knee worked on. It's been giving her trouble for a couple of years and has now progressed to the "maybe it's time" stage. Only the doctor (and Blue Cross) can tell. We'll be staying with our dear friends Jackie and Duane Williams who have offered to nurse Linda if need be. We'll activate our phone again: (772) 559-9375.