All packed up and ready to have work done by the marvelous people at Rodney Bay, IGY marina! Met with Kenny, the canvas guy (deplace sailing window covers), Edwin, the new marina manager to give us lots of estimates (will need a 2nd job to do all the work that needs to be done), John, from Regis for solar and freezer work, and Egbert from Volvo for sail drive work.

When completing the temporary import paper work today we had a special treat where the customs guy actually walked back to the boat with me to verify our inventory. Not a big deal except for the fact that everything was packed up and stored and had to be unpacked for verification.

Just a few last minute things to do then off to catch our cab. If we make our very short connection in DFW we should be home by early Tuesday morning!!

Stay tuned as we will post all of our photos in a few weeks in the photo gallery.

Great sail!!!!

For some reason, I could not sleep last night so I was up enjoying the cool early morning breeze at 330am when I spied a strange occurrence. Of course I did not have my glasses and I did not want to want to wake Wayne so I strained to see what was going on…I grabbed our super strong binoculars and still could not tell what was what, but it appeared a catamaran had saddled up to a major super yacht. I waited until dawn, grabbed our super long lens for the camera and watched as the yacht crew woke up and scrambled to get fenders out, then the cat people woke up and grabbed their incredibly small fenders (why bother honestly) and decided Matt needed to be a part of this folly. So, I woke him up just at dawn and he watched the “folly” of the separation and re-mooring. It was an interesting morning, full of excitement and activity.

After everyone woke up, several hours later, we made a plan for Kimberly and I to go ashore. Unfortunately, I forgot how incredibly boring the mainland is with no shopping and most places closed due to the fact that it is Sunday. So, we walked about 1.5 miles one way, swapping street sides for the side walks. We went to the bank and it was closed, even the 24 hour ATM, we walked to a new store, just opened a few days prior to our arrival and we picked up a 6 litter bottle of water and 2 6-packs of beer. The bummer thing was that we had to walk the 1.5 miles back to the boat with our new loot. We ended up stopping at a beach bar for a drink and Kimberly’s Pina Colada was HORRIBLE, but my banana cow was scrumptious! Back to the boat with the help of Rafi a local boat boy, to find the men/boys swinging from the make shift boom swing.

Matt decided to fix our lazy jacks that broke on our trip over and check out our steaming light which was about 25′ up our 70′ mast.

A few hours later, a local in a man in a home made boat was selling his jewelry and we had to buy something as he rowed this tiny boat from shore, had to continuously scoop water out from a leak, and hand carved this jewelry. I bought a necklace made of from the black pearl tree seed that is incredibly soft and matched a sweet bracelet I bought. I am sure they will both break after the first wearing, but they are pretty and super soft to touch.

Matt and Wayne made a fabulous pork chop dinner with corn, peas, garlic bread, and sausage. it was so yummy. After dinner, dishes, clean up and what not, we are all in the cock pit enjoying the beautiful diamonds in the sky – more stars than we’ve seen all trip!

Just a few more days of 2012, I am so grateful for my family, friends, new job with an amazing company, new friends and co-workers,, and amazing opportunities afforded to me on a daily basis.