West Palm Beach

We left the Bahamas at the same time as Andrea, and had a great sail all day.

Andrea sailing alongside us to the States, here he is on the aft deck of Lo Espirito de Stella in his wheelchair.

Land Ahoy, approaching Palm Beach as a cruise liner leaves, just as the sun was setting too.

Brett and Teresa from Seismic Wave, and the crew from Zeepard on No Rehearsal for one of our good party evenings.    

Celebrating 11 years of wedded bliss with a bottle of the best stuff!                  

'No Rehearsal' and 'Our Rose' anchored off West Palm Beach.  It's a wonderful anchorage, just off the main street and shops just across the road from the boat.  A convenient trolley bus service that takes us to the nearest Publix supermarket and retail shopping.  The town has a wonderful feel to it.

Today was the last saturday market until October, and it was extremely hot out there.  This is a stall selling air plant orchids, beautiful.  A yellow one was very tempting!

So I am finally up to date on the blog, so good to have a Starbucks about a hundred yards from the boat!  To sit in the air conditioning and sip a latte too.

Georgetown, Bahamas

The night before we headed off from the DR to The Bahamas, we anchored off a resort island in the Bay of Semana.
Whilst we were sat having our sundowners, two small local fishing boats spent about two hours laying a net, and retrieving it.  Such hard work and after all that, not one fish was caught.  We really felt for them, so Daryl decided that a cool Heineken might help, they were thrilled!

Cheers!

My hunter/gatherer strikes again, a beautiful Mahi Mahi, caught en route.                                                                                

Meeting up with our good friend Andrea on his catamaran 'Lo Espirto de Stella' in Georgetown was a real treat. He always seems to be around when we have caught a big fish!

Waiting for gas refills in Georgetown can take all morning, luckily there is a watering hole across the road for a cold one and a chat, but after waiting about two hours, we gave up.

Daryl and I organized a dingy drift.  We tie all the boats together and drift down the bay, excellent fun meeting other cruisers with a glass of wine.

We love our citronella candles in the evenings, designed to repel bugs!  Well I suppose if they are in the candle they are not biting us!

R and R in the DR

From the British Virgin Islands, we decided to head straight to the Dominican Republic.  We had not stopped before, but had heard good reports, so heading to the recommended Puerto Bahia marina in Semana on the north east coast of the island.

Great sailing to the DR with our favorite sail the G2, easy to put up and always as easy to snuff.

Daryl, as usual, managed to get us the best spot in the marina, right alongside the pool, bar and restaurant in this beautiful marina.  The island is a lush green and we were keen to head to town and see what that was like.

Relaxing  by the pool!  What a hard life.       

At the market in Semana, this must be parts of the biggest Calamari I have ever seen, comparing to the ladies arm!
(Sorry can't seem to get the photo the right way up!)

The local shoe store in town, there were a lot of traders using vehicles as shop windows.  The town was interesting, but rather rundown and poor.  It seemed like a different country from the marina, which is a gated community with fabulous houses and landscaping.  You could visit the marina and get a completely false impression of the character of the island.

The British Virgin Islands

After checking in at Gunn Creek in the BVI's we headed to our favourite anchorage, just off Eustatia Island.  Wonderful clear water for swimming and snorkeling, and within easy reach of Saba Rock for sunset painkillers too!

In Norman Cay, there is a bay where all the boats put an anchor down and then a line ashore.  This is the view off the back steps of our boat, such clear water that it looks like six inches deep, rather than six feet.

Also cruising in this area were a Swedish family on' Elin', great people.  They crossed the Atlantic in their small boat and now will return home, planning to buy a larger boat sometime in the future for more cruising.

I was in touch with a school friend who said that she was also this area cruising on a boat.  As the internet connections were rather patchy, we decided to head for their last known anchorage in Trellis Bay and try and find them.

And find them we did!  'Feelin Good' is a gorgeous 82' Bruce Farr design, built in South Africa,  and owners Art and Tracey were pleased to show us around there beautiful boat.

Celia and I celebrating our reunion with a glass or two of wine on 'No Rehearsal', so good to catch up again.

St Maarten

Well, I have finally got to a civilized island that has Wifi, so I shall endeavour to catch up on all our news in the next few days!

After a great time in NZ, we fly back to the boat at the end of February.  The new sails from Doyle arrived about two hours before us and with Justine from Auckland arriving the very next day to fit them, it was a bit of a photo-finish!

Justine working on the mainsail, fitting all the batten furniture.  We had just one day to fit the new Genoa, boom bag and then the Main,  but it all went like clockwork and luckily not too much wind that day.

Daryl and Justine enjoying a cold beer at the end of the day.                                                                                               

The Coppercoat all finished now and looking great, managed to get five coats on in total.                                                                                                            

Another good job done.  Daryl with Vincent and Vivian the painters,  who did a great job on the anti-fouling.    

Hurray, back in the water again.  What a relief!  St Maarten is a great place to get work done, but it always takes more time than expected and  our patience was running a little low by the end of our stay.  The very next day, I checked out and we headed north to the British Virgin Islands and a bit of well earned relaxation.