Catching up

Hi

Must speed up about our comings and goings:)

Still no Internet on the boat so always hanging around bars for Internet…not bad but getting expensive. In us Virgin Islands at the moment, in st,Thomas and it’s a beautiful place. We have done the sightseeing from old ruins to pirate museum to the old cobbled stoned alleyways.fab place!

As we worked our way from Martinique to st.martin we had some bad weather with lots of wind and big waives but nothing to drastic.but the sail from there to bvis was horrendous, yet again.the forecast was the usual 15-20 kn but in reality it was 45 plus smack from behind which made sailing rather difficult. The sails were banging and it was rolly and I was willing the journey to be over and done with.
In the morning we arrived at virgin gorda to check in. No problem. We stayed in bvis for a month sailing to north of it and saw the famous Necker island with helicopters coming and going. Had a great Christmas at the beach and yes, we did cook the full roast dinner. With beef as we like it better!
Then on Boxing Day Chris started on the generator. The boat was a mess and dirty but it had to be done. We were at the beach playing for full 3 days while poor Chris slaved away….and got it done. So pleased to say that generator working,water maker working AND wind genny also done. Hurrah!!! I think we are getting sorted. Of course the list grows anyway with little things.
We went to Tortola as well and I have to say that bvis didn’t impress me at all. Very expensive, lots of anchorages with empty charter boats, bouys to pick up instead of anchoring at £30/night and not that many beaches. On the good side was Norman island which Treasure island book is based upon and apparently there is still pirate treasures to be found! We did grope around willing us to find a diamond but nooooo. Great for the kids though.
Also in bvis you get charged $4/pp/per day for just being there which is crazy so our month there would cost us around $600 so time to go. As we went to check out somebody looked after us…..on a Friday, end of a day the immigration didn’t look properly at the paperwork and charged us $ 9.00. Phew. We are trying to save money at the moment so it was a blessing.:)))

Yes,saving up a bit as this lady of a boat knows how to have the best and the new things…she will simply not work,gives up and we got no choice but bow to her greedy needs and pay up!

Anyway, off we set for us virgin island to st.thomas by passing st.john as its a marine park. There you can’t anchor at all and you have to buy a permit so being an a budget we couldn’t afford to go there. Great downwind sail, glorious sunshine and then you remember: this is why we are doing it! ( until next shit weather hits)
So here we are,catching up with the news to you, and we really like this place. No money to pay when checking in and no money to pay while we cruise here. Great. Charlotte Amalie is the capital and full of history and the pirates stories goes on.
Bought the pirate flag,yes not legal to fly it but hey, everybody else have it so why not us:)
Schooling going well at the moment but had to come down on James quite hard few times as he started going bananas about it. But we are covering other things with him as geography and different cardinal marks for navigation which he likes to do. Maths lessons are going great so Chris is pushing him on that one and he loves it. Charlie knows his alphabet and numbers so doing geography and map reading with him as well. Alice? Well the poor girlie is still only saying about 5 words but communicates very well with facial expressions and different levels of screaming….and we hear her VERY well!!!
Having a relax day today,tidying up to get ready to go tomorrow to Culebra. One of the Spanish Virgin Islands on our way to Puerto Rico. Hopefully things are getting even cheaper as we could do by pulling in on money for another month. But we are loving it for the moment and beach days are always cheap as you bring your own food and drinks!
Cathing up soon.

Xxx