He drove down to check on the boat this morning and got to Kemah around 3:00pm. He met up with some of our boat neighbors, and they waded out to the boats to see what the damage was. Cannibal was in GREAT shape! The worst damage to the boat was a surface scratch from a neighbors boat bumping ours. None of our mooring lines broke, and he can’t find any damage. Praise God!!!

Bad news: the piers in the marina are totally gone, and there is floating debris everywhere. He said there is part of the dock stuck under our bow and he is going to try to move that out before the tide goes down. Unfortunately, some of the other boats in the marina did not fare so well… some broke loose, some were sunk, some of the pilings broke which caused the boats tied to them to slam around a bunch.

Looks like it we’ll be getting new piers—–someday! I’m just extremely thankful to God for sparing our home.

Cannibal is “home” in Kemah, Tx at a marina for a few months. We will be in the process of transitioning back into “normal” life. Currently, we are in OKC picking up our boys, our dog, and our truck. We really like the marina so far. The pool is right by the boat, the restrooms/showers are nice, the other liveaboards are nice, there are a few other doggies… I think it’s going to be good.

Now it’s time to raise ministry funds and acquire a vessel large enough to carry supplies to missionaries. We have plenty of items ready to go… we just need God to provide the ship and the funds. John will be working on raising funds and booking speaking engagements, and looking for a ship. Vacation is over, its time to work!! You can keep up with the ministry progress at www.sevenseasministries.us!

Ok, we get up before the many roosters that roam the streets to make sure the boys are at the airport 90 minutes before take off. Since Garrett is under 16, he is considered a child and therefore an unaccompanied minor. For some reason, that one year jump to 16 makes you instantly an adult! Wow. Anyway, since Garrett was going to have “like, my own personal servant” (those are his words), we were told he had to be there early. Their flight was scheduled for 6:20am (because the airlines can’t stand to have those nice even times like 6:15 or 6:30–it’s always 6:27 or 7:23… but I’m getting off track), so that meant we had to get them there by 4:50am! That’s early, folks!

We got in the dew covered dinghy and headed over to the dock, anticipating the $16.75 parking fee. We got there and the place is completely abandoned. There isn’t a sole in sight…not even in the parking lot guard house! How do we get the car out if there is no-one there to open the gate? Now we’re thinking we may have just spent a lot of money on a rental car trying to avoid paying a lot more for a taxi, and now we may have to pay the taxi as well if we can’t get the car out!!!! But wait. Oh, joy! The gates are up. Not only that, but the ticket collector man isn’t there in his little house, so we don’t have anyway to pay the tremendous parking fee (which could feed a family of Haitians for a WEEK). Oh well…we must go.

We arrive just in time to be 90 minutes early, just like we were told. I think Continental doesn’t realize that things operate a little differently in Key West. The only people anywhere near the airport when we arrived were the security guards. Hmmm. We tried to check in with the little computer thingy, but it wasn’t on yet.

In a few minutes we see an employee-like person turn some things on, so we figured she was getting things set up and would come over soon to help us. There are only like 3 or 4 ticket counters there: American, Continental, Delta…that’s pretty much it. So we noticed that the little computer checker was now on and working. We type in our little numbers, but it told us to go to the counter because we had an unaccompanied minor. We wait some more. We watch the Delta employees come in and light up their ticket are. Then around the corner, we here the American counter coming to life. Passengers on those airlines start to arrive. No employees on our side though. It’s now about 5:30. The girl we thought was an employee was actually just another security guard. She noticed that we had been waiting a while, but didn’t say anything. We asked her what time the employees normally arrived. She told us that the Continental people had to work overtime last night because they had a flight that left but had to turn around because of engine problems. Since they were there til after 11:00 last night, they probably wouldn’t be there until 30 minutes before take-off.

OH.

That isn’t something you want to tell the mother of two boys who have never flown before. It also doesn’t make the boys very happy that they had to get up at the crack of dawn so they could wait on the employees who told us we had to be there 90 minutes early.

Another couple arrive to check in 30 minutes after we did, so they could be there the requisite hour before take off. About 10 minutes later another passenger comes to get in line. I saw him outside chug down the rest of his beer and throw away the bottle just before he walked in the door (I hope he’s not the pilot.) He’s not. He staggers over to the que line, but soon discovers he’s at the wrong airline, so he staggers over to the other airline counter.

At 5:45, an employee shows up. He looks very official. He starts turning on the computers at the Continental station. He looks like he’s going to begin helping us (we’re first in line). We get so excited, like a puppy waiting for you to set his newly filled food dish down so he can start chowing. Then, to our dismay, the guy disappears. I guess it was about 10 minutes later, the real check-in lady arrived and began our process. Just about that time, a Policewoman asks for the owner of the silver convertible parked in front to identify themselves. Oh, yikes!!! That’s us! She was just letting us know that in two minutes, our car would be towed. (so–it’s a rental–he he he). While John finishes check-in, I go move the car—but where? I didn’t bring my purse. I don’t even know where my purse is. I haven’t seen it since we left the U.S. That means I don’t have my driver’s license, and worse, I don’t have any money to park the car anywhere. I figure I’ll just circle till their done. Then the very nice Policewoman asks me if it’s a rental, and since it was she told me to just pull into one of the slots where they keep their cars. Great idea! So I parked in the slot that we pulled it out of. Easy breezy & “free”zy, and she didn’t seem to care if I had a license or not. It’s Key West, they’re very forgiving here. Back to the counter.

The boys got their boarding passes and go over to the point of no return. I noticed that they didn’t have anyone helping them find their way (which they charge you $100 extra for). My motherly instincts kick in. I’m not letting them go through security and not know what to do next. I jumped up to go wait on the other side with them and make sure they get on the right plane safely. These are my babies. Oh no! I can’t go! I don’t have any identification on me because I don’t know where my purse is!!!!! I have got to make a note to find it. I made John go back to the ticket counter and get them to give him a pass to go back. He did. Just so you know, the girl at the counter should have seen that Garrett was an unaccompanied minor and needed an employee to “guide” him, and/or give the adult dropping him off a pass to go to the gate with him. But we’re in Key West, and apparently, that’s asking a little too much.

Well, they’re off. And we’re hungry. McDonald’s breakfast anyone? Do we dare risk it? Why not? This time, it’s the drive-thru for us. The only incident is when I asked for straws and she said they were in the bag, but I only found one straw, not two. She shot me a pair of evil “you’re a stinking liar, chic” eyes and very gruffly handed John another straw. After we had eaten everything and were stuffing the trash into the bag, I found the other straw. Oops.

It’s only 6:30. We all want more sleep, but where do we park the car until we’re ready to go exploring? The city streets! Most of the streets are marked off for the residents and you have to have a permit to park there. We did finally find a street in front of a condo construction site that looked tow-away free, and it was only a few blocks away.

After a nice long rest of the morning’s sleep, we headed off for a bookstore. Kimi and I both bought several books for our upcoming Gulf crossing. John drives us all over town to every marine supply store there. We wait in the car and read–with air conditioning. Once we had been to every marine store, we drove almost to Marathon to see what the other Keys looked like. Lots of mangroves. We saw a couple of iguanas that looked like they were trying to hitch a ride on the side of the road. We stopped in Big Pine and ate Key Lime Pie. Then we decided to head back to Key West to turn the car in before the last shuttle ride–just in case they forgot what they promised.

Oh, earlier in the day, we got a call from a man at the airport wanting me to identify the man picking them up as an approved adult. It was John’s dad, so they let the boys go with him. Turns out, when the boys arrived in Tampa (their first stop), they couldn’t get on the next plane because they didn’t have any paperwork at all. Evidently, the Key West employee did the check in process all wrong (Now there’s a big surprise!!). The employees in Tampa have their act together and got the boys all fixed up, and even gotten them a personal attendant. It was smooth sailing, er um flying, from there. Here’s what I learned: don’t book your kids on a flight with three change overs for their first flying experience without you, and don’t ever go back to Key West.

We bought an entire Key Lime Pie from a place in Key West that is actually a Christian owned establishment (at least they had a scripture up on the wall). We needed some yummy-ness for the upcoming Gulf trip that we were not looking forward to.

Stay tuned for the next post on the Gulf trip! I’m too exhausted to tell you all about it, now.

I will tell you that we are in our little marina slip all safe and sound. Tomorrow we rent a car and drive to Oklahoma. I will try to post about the Gulf trip sometime tomorrow evening. Good night.

We called around to find out what it would cost to take a taxi from the dinghy dock to the airport to drop off the boys. It was $37.50! So, we called around to find out what it costs to rent a car for a day. Turns out, we could rent a car for 24 hrs for the same price. Great! Now the only problem is how to get to the airport to get the car. They have a shuttle service. Great! The guy at the desk told us to call 30 minutes before we needed to be picked up. No problem…

We arranged the whole car deal online while in Marathon, Fl. We had to get up at 7:00am to move the boat down to Key West before the last shuttle service pick up time of 5:00pm. It was a stretch, given the freaky west winds when they should be southeast, but we made it to the anchorage by 4:00. Just enough time to get the dinghy launched and motor over. We called Dollar Car rental to dispatch the shuttle at 4:15 at which time they said the van would be here in 30 minutes and it would have a Dollar Car Rental sign on the outside (this is a key point later in the saga). 30 minutes lapsed and we decided that this is Key West, they’re probably on island time, so we gave them another 15 minutes before we called, although they had our cell phone number and should have called us if they would be delayed. We assumed that since it would be a long distance phone call for them to call us, that we would just call them.

While we waited, I became the official tourist photo taker. (We were standing in front of this post that had little signs in all different directions that pointed the way to various locations and how many miles away it was. It seemed to be a popular tourist attraction and everyone wanted to have their picture taken in front of it.) During our wait, we also happened to witness two fairly obvious drug deals. However, in Key West, I believe that if you’re a pirate, and/or dressed like a pirate, or wish you were a pirate, the laws about illegal drugs are more like guidelines. AND… we also got to see our neighbor from our last visit who has the pirate-like eyebrows tattooed on his forehead—we are once again neighbors. grin. It was a very entertaining wait.

In between photo sessions and drug deals, I called Dollar back to tell them we were still waiting, and they said it would be 15 more minutes. No problem. After 1 hr & 30 minutes passed, we called again—only this time I made John call: “Oh, he left 10 minutes ago, so he should be there soon.” (Yeah, right).

Meanwhile, back at the boat: I failed to mention that Travis and Kimi stayed on board while the rest of us went to pick up the car. We weren’t going to be gone long, and Travis had my cell phone and could handle any problems. But what could happen? Well, he calls us while we’re waiting to tell us that the anchor alarm kept going off. (The anchor alarm tells us if the anchor is dragging, which, if the anchor drags your boat can end up crashing into another boat.) There are numbers on the screen that tell how far out the boat is from where the anchor is so as long as the numbers aren’t bigger than the amount of chain you have out, all is okay, its a false alarm. That seemed to be the case, so we didn’t worry too much. Still, you naturally think, “what if it does drag. Is Travis capable of resetting the anchor, which means starting the engine, raising the anchor, moving the boat forward, dropping the anchor again?” Travis knew enough to let out more chain, and that seemed to settle things down. It had been raining and the wind had been howling, so the boat was swinging and moving alot. Things calmed down, and it there was no cause for alarm. Plus, if the boat was dragging, there are always friendly sailors that come to the rescue. In fact, one of our neighbors dinghied over to tell Travis that its a good idea to set two anchors. (Hey, thanks.) Anyway, while there was no real problem, it added to the frustration because we should have already been back to the boat by now.

Back to the waiting game:

Now, 2 hours later (yell-Regis style-when you read that last part), we were still waiting! John is pretty mad by now (we all were). He calls again. They guy said that his driver said he went by there but didn’t see anyone. He said he would send him back. We told him that we had been watching the street diligently for the whole 2 hours, and that there hadn’t been a single van stop at the place we told them we would be—which, by the way, is a very popular, very well known, very common place–there was no way that you could live in Key West, or work there and not know where this place is. There had been no van that was even a remote possibility of it being our shuttle, and there was no way we could have missed him if he even came within the vicinity. hmpf. We wait.

About 20 minutes later, I saw a woman at the corner of the street a block away talking to a man in a black van and pointing in the direction we were at. Yep, our driver. He drove around slowly, then drove around again. He finally stopped and rolled down his window (a tiny bit) in his UNMARKED, NO SIGN IN SIGHT, COMPANY CAR and asked if we called Dollar/Thrifty Rental. We walked over to this unmarked van, hoping, and sure enough it was our ride. Aparantly, the “sign” was on the guys baseball cap logo which we should have seen through the tinted windows from 50 ft. away. The guy barely spoke English, and obviously had no idea where he was or where he was supposed to be, although he was very nice and seemed to commiserate with the fact that we were told to “look for the sign, but there no sign, you looking and looking but no sign, aye.” Each time we spoke with the office, the guy told us to look for the van with the Dollar sign on it. Can you say “M I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N ?” Anyway, we got to the airport.

The guy at the desk was apologetic and offered us a free upgrade to a convertible (it was raining outside). We told him that we would rather he just give us the cheap car for free or give us an extra day for free. He said he wasn’t authorized to do that, that his manager was the only one that could. Naturally, his manager got off at 5:00, which we would have been there before then if the shuttle had been on time. However, at the time we were asking that, the other girl working there was on the phone with the manager to ok the upgrade. When the desk guy said he couldn’t give us a free day without his manager’s approval and that he was already gone, I said, “But wasn’t she just talking to him? Could you call him back and ask him?”

“Oh.” pause. “Ok.” But alas, it was a no go. Either the upgrade or cheapo. We took the upgrade.

Now, the problem was that since it was now 7:00pm and not 5:00pm, to get the full benefit of the 24 hours we paid for, we would now have no way to get back to the boat because their shuttle service ends at 5:00pm. We had to ask them to call Mr. Manager again to find out if they were going to provide transportation for us at 7:00pm tomorrow evening. He said ok. Ordeal complete. We took a deep breath and went to find the car. It’s nice.

We get the car and head to McDonald’s since it was so late and nobody had eaten. It starts to rain. We go inside to order because we just didn’t think we could deal with ordering through the drive-thru and having to risk them messing up the order for our very particular, special order family. We go inside and have a wonderful order clerk experience. She nailed it perfectly. Where we messed up was in assuming all would go well from there. While we are waiting for our order, we are becoming chilled to the bone from the air conditioning (we are used to our 90 degree cabin). We start to shiver, but it didn’t take long to get the food. We leave, but failed to check the order before we left. (Foreshadowing).

If you’ve ever been to Key West, you are probably aware that there aren’t a lot of places to park a car without paying a lot of money. If you’ve never been here, that is the case, especially in the downtown historic district, which is where we were. We had to pay $16.75 to park overnight! Wow. That’s half of what the car cost!!! What are ‘ya gonna do?

We get the car parked and John accidentally bumps the car door onto the car next to him. Ooops, happens all the time-no big deal, right? Wrong! There was a lady sitting in the back seat (the door that he dinged) with her very cute, one month old, infant son. She rolls down the window to tell him that he just banged her car. She then gets out to look at the tremendous damage (sarcasm-sorry). There was a tiny scratch that was surface only. I said, “it should buff out, no problem.” She agreed that it wasn’t as bad as it sounded. John apologized a bunch and told her how cute her baby was. It’s all ok, and we were free to go.

It starts to rain.

Our dinghy is wet from the rain. The food is getting wet. We are wet. We sit in the wet dinghy and it rains a little harder. We get to the entrance of the channel and the motor dies. It starts up again, though. We proceed and it dies again. We’re wet, freezing, and pretty far from the boat. I remarked that God was punishing us for getting fast food. Garrett laughed at me. The motor died again. At least it stopped raining now.

We make it to the boat, open up our food bags. Discover a missing sandwich. The fries are cold and the drinks are watered down. Who cares! It’s fast food: yummy, greasy, unhealthy goodness!

The boys packed their bags. We all took a shower. Lights out (we have to get up at 4:00am to get them to the airport). Now my story is all told. It has been our pleasure to endure these small trials for the express purpose of providing entertaining reading for our subscribers. THE END.

Other exciting news: Travis threw out an 80lb. line as we approached the Great Bahama Bank and caught a HUGE mahi-mahi fish (aka dorada, aka dolphin–but not the porpoise kind.) John was able to get 3 meals worth of meat for our family of five. That’s a lot of fish. I fried some of it for Father’s Day and it was delectable, which made “Father” very happy, as well as the rest of us.

We are in Marathon, Fl. We arrived yesterday…pretty tired. We have been doing nothing while here, except recovering from strange sleep patterns from the watches, and trying to keep cool (that’s not working so well).

On the way to Florida, we stopped in Great Inagua, Bahamas for the day to make water. We also did some beach combing. Great Inagua is home to Morton Salt plant and a national park where hundreds of pink flamingos hang out. We saw one pink flamingo and a couple of dog sharks swimming by our feet as we waded through the water to get closer to the flamingo. Some day soon John will post our lame pictures of the bird…we did get him in flight, which was cool.

We left Great Inagua before dark and headed back out into the vast ocean. We sailed for 8 days straight, which is the longest stretch since our initial Gulf Crossing.

It looks like there will only be 3 of us crossing the Gulf from here (John, Me, Kimi). The boys are going to OKC on the 19th so they can attend youth camp for a week. They are going to stay in OKC after camp and wait for us to come get them. That means that John and I are the only people to stand watch. (pout)

Naturally, since we have to get across the Gulf, there is incredibly freakish weather right where we need to go. On the way out, it was terribly windy & stormy, but on the way back (when we desperately want the wind to blow as hard as it wants) there is an unusual high stalled out that has created a dead calm for the next 6 days!! Imagine that? So John, Kimi and I will wait for better winds and hang out in Key West till we can’t stand it any longer. We really don’t want to spend the fuel to motor across—not to mention that it will be super hot with no wind. Hopefully, things will return to “normal” and we can get home by the end of June.

Home, by the way, is going to be Watergate Yachting Center in Clear Lake Shores, TX. At least for a few months (maybe 6) until we figure out what to do with ourselves. We can hardly wait to be hooked up to shore power so we can run the A/C. It’s been incredibly hot these past few weeks, reaching up to 90 degrees inside the cabin!!! That’s hot, boys and girls! The marina also has a swimming pool (no more salt water), a playground, BBQ grills—heaven! We will also be getting our doggie, Buddy, when we go to OKC to retrieve the boys.

One day, while trying not to go crazy from boredom (passages can get really boring if there isn’t anything in the water, or any other traffic to entertain us), we were all sitting on deck thinking of all of the things that we can’t wait to experience again someday when we live in a house again. Things like: ice, a refrigerator that opens to display all the goodies inside (& some with ice in the door), a self draining shower, ice, a toilet that flushes by simply pushing the handle once, air conditioning, water-without having to make it, a real bed that’s wider than your shoulders, DOORS (for privacy), a freezer (with ice & ice cream), a bathtub (with or without ice), a garbage pickup service (no ice necessary there); not to mention the availability of Sonic ice, Sonic drinks, Sonic slushies, Whataburger… Ahhhh, America—the land of massive fast food and excess everywhere!

We have not really missed TV, though. We had cable for one day before we left Puerto Rico, and there wasn’t anything worth watching. There is sustainable life without TV—who knew?

I will desperately miss the crystal clear turquoise water and the beautiful reefs and marine life. I will miss the extremely laid back schedule we have had. But mostly, I will miss the water. There is nothing better than being able to see through the water to the bottom, and being able to jump in whenever the mood suits to cool off or play. (sigh). Despite the name, I just don’t think Clear Lake will come anywhere close.

We’re almost there. Yippee!!

The bad news: She’s now a middle schooler, rapidly approaching teenager syndrome (sniff).

Oh, and more bad news:  the sail has not arrived yet and we have no idea when it will.

Oh, I should back up a minute and tell you what Foxy’s is. Foxy is an islander who owns a bar that caters to mariners on the island of Jost Van Dyke. He’s famous in the BVI’s; in fact, there is a rum with his name on it. Actually, it may be a beer, but that’s not important. He’s a “don’t worry, be happy” kind of guy, who also does calypso music/reggae or something like that.

Back to the boat regatta. The boy’s and John got to help crew Raindancer during two of the races on Sunday. There are some professional photos you can view at: www.yachtshotsbvi.com click on “view photos;” choose “Foxy’s wooden boat regatta” and then scroll down until you see Raindancer 1,2&3. There are lots of cool pictures of the boat and my boys (and man).

On Friday night, before the regatta began, the race committee passed out the schedules and routes… so we had to go visit Foxy’s and the little bity town. The Toucans were there with us as well. Mary (mom from Toucan) and I were walking around looking for the place where Foxy was having his boat built. A very large island man asked if we “ladies were looking for a good time.” So we told him that we were actually looking for Foxy’s boat. He said, “Oh, it’s back here, I’ll show you.” So we followed him. Along the way, he asked if we were married. We said yes, so he clarified if we were both married, and if we were sure. We said, “Oh yeah, we’re 3 kids each, married.” That seemed to clear things up for him. After a long walk back behind the open air bar, we found where the boat barn was. It was rather large, but it was on the other side of yard that could have had stickers. Being barefooted, neither of us wanted to go.

Foxy’s bar is open air, and they have a buffet (reservations only, and way at $28/plate, us families didn’t indulge). Pretty much everyone in the anchorage was at the bar. It was an interesting evening. The Toucans got ice cream cones for $3 a scoop, while we walked the dirt road. All of our kids played chase in the dark. There were lots of large hammocks strung between the trees on the shore, so we all lounged in them. I take that back. The kids don’t lounge. They used them as swinging devices; the girls would sit in them, and the boys would see how long and hard it took to make one of them fly out or throw up. Luckily, neither happened, but an islander guy told them the hammocks were for relaxing, not playing, so they came back over to where we were using the hammocks properly.

We had a very entertaining time watching the charter boats try to anchor. Most of them would charge in to the anchorage waaaay too fast, then throw it in reverse, drop the anchor, realize that they would be on top of another boat when they let out chain, pull the anchor up, drive around (way too fast) to find another spot… some boats took an hour to anchor. John enjoyed that alot.

After the boat Regatta, we headed off toward St. John—I think it was the Monday after Labor Day. We saw a neat little beach on a small island, Sandy Cay, so we decided to go check it out. There was a reef close by and the snorkeling was ok. John saw a nurse shark, but it was up in some rocks and wouldn’t come out. Pretty beach, though. We spent the night.

Next stop, St. John, which is largely a US National park. We grab a mooring ball in Leinster Bay for $15. There was a tiny little island by the mooring field that had some wonderful snorkeling. We saw tons of cool fish, and octopus, stingray, lobster, some pretty coral. It was amazing. We swam over from the boat to the island and the water where the boat was moored was really deep, like 40 ft or something. It was creepy swimming, especially since we earlier saw a couple of dolphins mating, and later some sucker fish that like sharks. I’m sure if there were sharks, that they were just nurse sharks, but still. It was creepy to me!

While at Leinster Bay, we toured an old sugar mill plantation, Annaburg Sugar Mill. It was pretty cool. There was a lady baking bread in the original cook house over the original stove. It tasted just like the bread I make. (Yeah, that’s right–I make bread. Not only that, I make pizza dough, and cinnamon rolls. I can’t believe it, either!)

Next we visited Peter Island. We found a very calm little harbor, aptly named Little Harbor. The water is very deep, except right by shore. We had to drop the anchor so close to shore that if we swung we could run aground. We tied the stern up to an old abandoned cement pier. It was awesome. The water was clear and it was so calm. There were several other catamarans, mostly charter boats, but it was so nice that we didn’t care. Although, when we first arrived, a charter boat named Viking Dream was next to us and they were the noisiest people ever. The charter company must give them little viking helmets when they get the boat because they all had them on while in the water having their own olympic games, adults with beer (which apparantly was a feat in itself-how to keep the beef afloat). Thankfully, they left early the next morning and we had peace and quiet. We stayed there for several days, and even then it was hard to leave.

On to Virgin Gorda and the Virgin Baths. This is by far the favorite place for everyone onboard. John and the kids said the snorkeling was amazing. There were also rocks to hike/climb on, and some of the rocks formed little pools (baths?). They had a blast!

After a night there (actually in Spanish Town because you can’t stay overnight at the baths), we left to head back to Culebra. We had heard that Magan’s Beach was beautiful, so we went there. It is rated by National Geographic as one of the ten most beautiful beaches in the world. Perhaps they mean public beach parks, because we’ve seen some that are way better, but you have to have a boat to get to them. It was pretty, though. The facilities are really what make it nice. There is plenty of shade, picnic tables, a concession stand and bar, a gift shop, lifeguards (sometimes), water toy rental… it’s pretty nice. The cruise ship passengers go there from Charlotte Amallie (St. Thomas), so it’s crowded when the cruise ships are in.

Now we are back in Culebra. John just went into town (Dewey) to see if the sail has arrived. I must say, none of us has much hope of it being here. Hopefully, it is here.

What’s the plan from here? Well, it’s time to go home-wherever that is. The plan is to go to Fajardo on mainland Puerto RIco and spend a night or two in a very cheap marina. Fajardo is a great place to get marine supplies and food, so we will provision for the trip home. Then head to Great Inagua, Bahamas; stop off at some islands between Florida and Cuba; catch our breath in the Florida Keys; then (drum roll, please) cross the Gulf of Mexico-gulp! We will head for Texas and tie up Cannibal in the cheapest marina we can find. The boys are planning to attend youth camp with Victory, so we hope to be back by the 23rd of June.

That sums up our experience at Foxy’s and the BVI’s, and the USVI’s, and our plans. I’m not sure how much I will get to post from now til we get home, so I thought I would put all in now. Hope you are all enjoying your summers, and we look forward to seeing lots of you soon!!

We were waiting around in Culebra for a new used mainsail that John bought online. Hopefully, he will write a post about blowing out our main… anyway. He paid for 2 day air fedex shipping, but when we went into town to pick it up we discovered that it would be another 8 days before it got here. Apparantly, when you select 2 day shipping for Puerto Rico, it’s because it costs more to ship it here, but it doesn’t mean it arrives in 2 days. It’s really “ground” speed at “air” price. So, instead of hanging around Culebra any longer, we decided to head for the Virgin Islands. We could see St. Thomas in the distance, and the temptation was too great.

We will stay here a day or two, then head to St. John for a couple of days, then possibly hit some of the nearby BVI’s. After that, the sail should have arrived and we’ll go back to Culebra to pick it up. Then, home (wherever that will be).

We’ve had BBQ’s on a little island a couple of times with several other boats here.

We are planning to day trip over to Culebrita tomorrow where there is a lighthouse and baths–jacuzzi-like swimming holes.

John found Otto (our “pet” the auto pilot) some new belts and they arrived two days ago, so we’re happy about that. He got 4 so we would have plenty of spares!

We’re feeling like it might be time to head home soon, so John and I are going to have to sit down and map out a plan for the virgin islands, then figure out which way to go to get home. It’s all downwind sailing from here, so we’re all looking forward to some easy sailing–no more windward ho!!!

Estamos en Puerto Rico, aka America!! Como esta?

Puerto Rico es La Isla de Encanto (Island of Enchantment)! I’m picking up Spanish a little at a time. We have been trying to speak Spanish all the time to get more fluent. I was very proud of myself for ordering pizza to be delivered (there’s a Domino’s here and we have teenagers on board). I had to get John to tell me where we are so I could tell them where to deliver it, but I did it…oh, and after a while the guy on the phone went to get another guy that told me to speak English because he understood. But still, I did it.

Puerto Rico is very much American, but most people speak Spanish. Very few taxi drivers speak English, but John’s Spanish is good enough to get us where we need to go.

P.R is a stark contrast to D.R. Here in Puerto Rico the roads are really paved and there are trash cans everywhere, and it’s very clean. It’s a very beautiful island with mountains and coastlines. You can drive around the entire island in a day.

When we checked in with customs, the agent that came on board had lived in Houston before (near where I lived). His name is Jose Cruz (like the famous Houston baseball player). He’s a very nice man. John gave him our card with his cell phone number on it, so he called John up the next day and brought us some crackers that are only made in his home town (muy delicioso). He also invited us to join him in a trip to San Juan (the capital). We couldn’t go because we really needed to reprovision, find a new auto pilot belt, and take care of some other business. Then he offered to take our family up to his farm in the mountains later this week. We are going tomorrow. He owns 83 acres in the mountains and grows mangos, bananas, oranges… I can’t wait! Fresh fruit.

It’s so amazing how everywhere we go God hooks us up with someone that befriends us. Jose is like family now.

When we arrived here, there was a music/arts & crafts festival going on at the La Guancha (which is a seaside park and boardwalk). We mosied on over and bought some of their wares. It went on all weekend and we could hear the live music from our boat out at anchor. The food is so yummy here! Where we dock our dinghy, there is an open air restaurant and a sardine stand (the sardines aren’t for people, though). There are tons of tarpon that hang out around the dock, so people buy sardines for a $1 and feed them to the tarpon and the pelicans. The pelicans are so tame that you can pet some of them. We also saw two moray eels up under the rocks. There are markers in the harbor here that say it’s a manatee area, but we haven’t seen any yet (the “I haven’t seen whales yet” saga continues. sigh).

Jose told us about the best Mexican food restaurant in town, so we took a taxi with Kalida into town to check it out. It was the best Mexican food I’ve ever eaten. We had soup, fajitas, and Kimi had enchiladas. Then there was dessert!! It consisted of two large flour tortillas fried with cinnamon, sugar and vanilla, with ice cream in between which had bananas and strawberries in it. It was sooo yummy! Right before we got the check the gestapo mariachi band arrived. We called them the gestapo because they stood in front of the door—you couldn’t leave without interrupting them!

Our friends on board Toucan arrived today. We are very glad to see them. We were afraid we had lost contact with them for good. We’re looking forward to touring around with them. They are very adventurous. There is also another boat here that has an American family of 5 on board from Chicago. Their children are extremely outgoing–I think our kids are shocked by it, but their kids are about the same ages as ours.

Next stop is Salinas, Puerto RIco, and then from there we will most likely spend some time in the Spanish Virgin Islands (Culebra). After that, we don’t know. We lost our mizzen board on the way here, so John is looking into the repair. We don’t want to spend cruising time with the boat hauled out, so we’re trying to see if we can carry on without it, or at least while a new one is made. It will all work out somehow.