a family journey at sea and a rite of passage...: 2013

Monday 30 December 2013

Passage making with Elizabeth

Funny faces under the trampoline tent

Our new trampoline tent, creates a great reading room

Elizabeth and Kara at the helm

While Christmas shopping we had to take a photo of this add
on the French side of St Martin

The children's drum band putting on a Christmas show
outside the library in Marigot, St Martin

Smoke billowing from the active volcano on Montserat
which last erupted in 2011. We sailed up to the exclusion zone

Eerie... the ghost town of Plymouth,
Montserat after the 1997 eruption

View from the fort at St Kitts

From the Brimstone Hill fort at St Kitts with Dutch St Eustatius in the background

Santa managed to climb down the mast and squeeze through the front hatch, gee he's good...

Travis happy to pull in a Little Tunny on the passage to the BVI's

At The Baths, Virgin Gorda, BVI's, apparently one of the most spectacular travel
destinations in the Caribbean.... we agree!

Beau trying to bump E off the paddle board on Christmas Day

Gorda Sound, British Virgin Islands... our boat is the most distant one in the photo...
Sir Richard Branson's Necker Island is also in the distance

Spectacular scenery....on a walk with our Aussie friends from the yacht Remi De

Getting down to business... plotting our course across the Caribbean Sea, 1000 Nautical Miles to Panama

Monday 16 December 2013

Trinidad (bordering South America) was the southernmost country we visited in the East Caribbean. We had some major work done on the boat in prep for the Pacific next year. Since Trinidad we returned to Hog Island, Grenada and reconnected with our friends before picking up Elizabeth, from Perth (Western Australia), and setting sail on a northern pathway to the British Virgin Islands. Here are some pictures from the last month or so...

We looked after Charlie in Grenada for a week while the MacDonald Family flew away... Sonia and the kids loved the daily walks and cuddles with Charlie. Here, Sonia is transporting Charlie to the beach for a walk!

Beau's 12th Birthday Breakfast with Pippin angling for the crumbs!

Beau's Monster Pancake Birthday Cake...

Sunset Anniversary 1st December at Fort Rodney, St Lucia

While we went out for dinner in Bequia, Elizabeth and Kara decorated a lovely
wedding anniversary cake - 23 years!

Travis and Beau riding the swells in "Mini Mo" out to the turtle sanctuary in Tobago Cays.

Elizabeth swimming with the turtles in the marine park. The turtles feed on the sea grass close to all the yachts.

On the Waitikibuli Trail in Dominica - we did most of Segment 12, not many kms but lots of elevation!!

The kids handled the walk with relative ease!

After the walk on the eastern side of Dominica, stretched out in the sun - relaxing

Iguana on a wall in Les Saintes, Guadeloupe

Laurie's 50th Birthday dinner, Les Saintes

Relaxing in front of a movie at the end of a hectic day

Monday 2 December 2013

Movie Stars!!!

Beau and Travis, cool in front of the camera

Notice the cameraman on the roof!

Sail past after we launched

Believe it or not.....in Chaguaramus, Trinidad, we were head hunted to star in a government tourism documentary! So, we indulged! The owner of the boatyard put our name forward at a committee meeting and the next thing we knew we were being driven around the island with cameras following our every footstep - literally! We were filmed at the local golf course, shopping mall, movie town, the bank, and sailing on the yacht. They even interviewed us but had to retake one section because Kara was yawning! We explained to her that it was important to look engaged not bored, especially because we were getting paid! She didn't quite get it at the time but her face lit up when after the last shoot I came back to the yacht with a bunch of US$100 notes to share around! The sailing was supposed to be mellow but we got caught in some 30 knot gusts giving them some dramatic footage. Not that we've seen the footage, that comes out sometime before Christmas... stay tuned and we will post the link.