WE ARE ON OUR WAY

"HAPPY ARE THOSE WHO DREAM DREAMS AND ARE READY TO PAY THE PRICE TO MAKE THEM COME TRUE"

Our last day in St Maarten

Our last day in St Maarten

Our last day in St Maarten

I felt more emotional when leaving St Maarten than on any part of our trip. After 4 months we were finally ready to be set sail when the 4pm Simpson Bay Bridge bridge opened to let us out from the sheltered lagoon into the big wide ocean.

The space where we spent the last month

Refueling and setting off

Throwing off the lines

Tony was there to throw off the lines and after refueling we made our way to the exit of the lagoon. We all felt a little excited, a little nervous and I was swallowing a little heavy as we waited to exit. At exactly 4pm the traffic stopped, the siren sounded and the bridge lifted, only for us. It was wonderful to see our friends Carol and Greg waiting at the St Maarten yacht club to see us off and everyone at the yacht club waved as we passed through.

A happy Capitano

Leaving through the Bridge in Simpson Bay

We're out!

Anchored in the bay before we left

We anchored amongst the other yachts in the bay on the other side and planned to leave at 3.30am the following morning. After an early night and all our preparations done we woke at 3am and left. As soon as we started the engines Stephen realised the autohelm wasn't working, but that wasn't too much of a problem. We hoisted the sails in the dark and it was pitch dark as soon as we left the lights of St Maarten. There wasn't enough wind and after 2 hours we were making little headway so decided to take the sails down and motor. Well this was not to be......the one motor was dead AND when we tried to take the sail down it stuck near the top of the mast and we couldn't get it down!! All this in the dark and rather a big swell. We decided that there we're just too many things going wrong for comfort and decided to return to our familiar bay in St Maarten to get them sorted out. The problem was that we couldn't continue with the sail up and only one motor so at first light Michaela went up the mast to get the sail down. I was helming and Tayne and Stephen winched her up, I couldn't watch as my poor child was hoisted right to the top of the mast in a rolling sea. I so admire her for her courage, she is so brave and willing to do anything to help out and I don't know what we would've done without her on this trip. It's so amazing how the parent/child roles are reversed as your kids get older.

We limped back to St Maarten, made a few calls, got some help and it turned out that the problems were pretty minor. Carol and Greg took pity on us and invited us all to a much needed lunch at the yacht club and then Greg kindly helped us fix the sail problem. We are so grateful to have their help and they have been such good friends to us.
Everything was sorted out and we did an exact repeat the next morning, but all was fine this time. We had good wind, the sea was flatter and our heads were in a better space too.

Sails up and we we're off!

We headed for the BVI and spent a great day out at sea, Stephen tried to fish (losing some tackle and only catching one little fish), we did washing, watched movies and slept. As we saw land ahead for the first time in 12 hours we were treated to a beautiful spectacle of pods of dolphins riding our bow wave, we could hear their whistles and they jumped in the air and showed off.

Checking out the AIS

Some of us washed the clothes....

.....some of us slept and watched movies

We watched dolphins playing

.....and we finally saw land!

At sunset we anchored in The Bight, in a bay full of yachts, we counted 38 catamarans. Willy T's is here, an old ship on the beach that has been converted into beach bar. It sounded very festive but we were too exhausted to think about going there.

Anchoring in The Bight, BVI

After an early start the next morning we headed to Cruz Bay, St John, in the US Virgin Islands to clear in. We raised our American flag with pride! What a beautiful island, reminding us of the Med.

St John, USVI

Raising the American courtesy flag

We sailed across the channel to Redhook, St Thomas with great excitement as this was where we were fetching Damon and Cas later in the day.
We hired a car, did shopping in Tutu and headed for the airport in Charlotte Amalie. We couldn't wait to see them and at long last they arrived......a few tears and so much happiness when we saw their faces after all this time!!!They were so exhausted after 4 days on the move that they felt quite ill and couldn't even eat the special dinner we made for them.

Such a happy day! Damon and Cas arriving in St Thomas

Wow, what an amazing feeling to have all our children in one place after a year of us being in different parts of the world! So much happiness in our new little home in the middle of the Caribbean!!

Card games on a rainy day

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