When we left Antigua it was +31C. Edmonton was -43C. A drop off over 70C does not go unnoticed. We were cold!!!
We had a great Christmas getting caught up on some snuggles with our grandkids. We also had our 'almost annual' Christmas Carol Sing with over 40 friends at our house. It was wonderful to see everyone. Our friend Bev played piano and we all sounded terrific, at least we thought so after a few drinks. The next day we motored off to Revelstoke Ski Resort for a weeks skiing with the family. We stayed and enjoyed the Halcyon Hot Springs & we played nickels (a card game) til late each night.We returned to the boat in Antigua mid January to prepare for friends Dick & Jo Ann Sherlock who were joining us for a week. It was a week where we felt we were tied to a white tornado. We did 7 islands in seven days. They arrived a few days after us and the next morning we left downwind for Nevis. The seas were a bit higher then we all expected and I'm afraid none of us enjoyed the wallowing about. Especially Sharen who spent most of the voyage in bed with a bucket near.
On arrival to solid ground Sharen made a miraculous recovery and we toured around to see Montpelier Resort where Princess Diana had stayed with the boys shortly before she died. It was beautiful. Nevis enjoys life without cruise ships and although the customs and immigration is a bit archaic we enjoyed the island. We then sailed off to St Kitts and avoided a terrible rolly anchorage by going into the Marina. 
Here is a picture of Dick breaking the 'no beer until we get in' rule. Next door was a huge crewed sailboat with a group of passengers who seemed to be way too old to be partying as hard as they were. It was funny to hear them remark that 'we' looked bored.
We sailed on to Statia where Dick & Jo Ann hiked to the top of the volcano mountain called the Quill. Sharen & I quit half way. We had lots of excuses really, we are not near as fit.We had a wonderful sail to St Barts. This is the home of Jimmy Buffet and we were disappointed to have missed a festival he had put on a few weeks earlier. We did the island tour and saw some of the homes of the wealthy and famous and then moved the boat to Anse de Columbriar. (Columbia Bay). We hiked a bit and Dick snorkeled the coast line.
We shared the bay with "Limitless" which we learned was owned by Victoria Secret and is the 11the largest ship in the world.
Dick had suggested we try Ilse Fourchue, a small island stop on the way over to St Martin. It was very interesting and of course a peak we could scramble up. Our final sail was somewhat eventful. On the way to St Martin, Dick's hat blew off and landed in the water. 
We watched as it was caught by our fishing line. Unbelievable. How lucky is that?! We decided to pull the dinghy instead of stowing it on deck. Bad idea. We encountered some bumpy seas and our dinghy rings snapped and the dinghy floated free. A bit of an issue as I had to swim thru these large seas to get it. I had a difficult time pulling myself into the dinghy but was able to after about four attempts to scramble aboard. The next issue was getting the dinghy line to Dick on the boat and then getting myself from the dinghy onto the sailboat when the stern was crashing up and down 4 plus feet. All ended well and we arrived in Simpson Bay in advance of a period of unsettled weather. We toured Fort St Louis with its beautiful views, in Marigot, St Martin. 
This photo of Sharen & Jo Ann shows the exclusive large yacht marina where Ron Joyce (from Tim Horton fame) kept his new motor yacht "Destination Fox Harbour Too". Behind that is Simpson Bay where we waited out the weather for 10 days after Dick & Jo Ann left. 
We were disappointed to have Dick & Jo Ann leave us.
We dressed for a final meal together ashore and discovered Dick and Sharen were perfectly color coordinated. Dick is a great sailor and it was great to have him fix, adjust and instruct me on a number of things that were on our ever growing list. Jo Ann and Sharen had a great time in the galley preparing some wonderful evening meals.The next day we took the ferry to Saba Island as the weather was too awful to sail there and they do not have a good anchorage. This is a knoll in the ocean. The villages are neat, beautiful and clean.
All roads are switchbacks and treacherous. Our tour guide told us they change brakes at least 3 times a year. We hiked to the top of the mountain. 3000 ft. 
Absolutely awesome views. This is a picture of their airport. It is the world's shortest commercial runway. We stopped in at Scouts Hotel for a great meal and a well deserved beer after our hike.We met a number of wonderful sailors while in Simpson Bay who had crossed the Atlantic in this year's Atlantic Race for Cruisers (The ARC). We discovered that most of this group had a 500 Gig hard drive for movies. We purchased one and the crew from Meander, a family from Australia, copied theirs onto our drive. Now we have over 400 movies. We have also learned how to hook it up to the on-board stereo system for surround sound. My problem now is staying awake for a whole movie. Sharen seems to watch the last half of them by herself.
We met Pat Morin and his family on their boat 'Island' from Montreal. They had planned to leave for the BVI's a day before the winds and seas calmed. They had only the government (NOAA) weather. Our weather router was suggesting a day later. I promised I would print our weather out and we would drop it by. They moved out of the lagoon to a very rough anchorage in preparation for a 3 am departure when we finally caught up to them. We returned to have some ribs and a beer at the St Martin's Yacht Club and were amazed to see Island and crew slink back in when the draw bridge opened. They were somewhat thankful to us and insisted we join them for snacks and a beer aboard their yacht. They left with us the next day under much calmer skies and seas.One other memory of St Martin will stay with us for ever. We were ashore shopping and when we were ready to dinghy back to the boat a huge squall came over. It lasted til past dark.
When it was over we dinghied back to our boat and.... NO BOAT!!! Our boat was gone. Trying not to panic we asked other boaters and no one seemed to know. We searched for about 15 minutes before we found it dragging towards these multi-million dollar motor yachts. It had dragged about 200 to 300 feet past 4 anchored sailboats. We were very lucky it did not collide with another boat. We jumped aboard and motored back to our spot and re-anchored putting out much more scope then normal. Needless to say we did not have much sleep the next few nights frightened it might happen again.We left at midnight for an overnight sail to The BVI's. This was something we looked forward to as sailing in the dark is very interesting. On leaving we were chased down by the Coast Guard who came along side but I guess we looked pretty harmless.
In the BVI's we were very happy to have our good friends Ross and Grace McCurdy from Halifax, join us for 12 days. Sharen & I had introduced them over 40 years ago during university days and they were in our wedding party. We parked the boat in Village Cay Marina in Road Town, the capital of the BVI's. We thought it best to spend a few days in a marina until Grace became accustomed to life on water. 
She suffers from motion sickness. We were all amazed at how well she took to the sailing life. We sailed off to The Bitter End in the North Sound of Virgin Gorda passing Necker Island, the private island of Richard Branson of "Virgin" everything fame. 
The Bitter End and the North Sound is one of the of world's nicest spots. It is gorgeous. We dinghied up to a beautiful resort called Biras Creek. We thought we might have dinner but when we found out it was $85 per person plus drinks we thought we would just settle for a drink in the lounge and eat on board. The view was terrific. A few days later we sailed to Peter Island, a beautiful exclusive island we had visited about 4 years ago. 
As we approached we saw what looked like a giant submarine anchored off. It turned out to be "A", a 370 ft long personal motor yacht owned by a 37 year old Russian. We are sure he came by every dollar he has honestly.We journeyed to Jost Van Dyke. We anchored off Green Cay which was suggested to us by Keith & Rosemary Hamilton who we met at Village Cay on their gorgeous new Oyster sailboat Carpe Diem. They were also from Halifax and live in Ross & Grace's neighbourhood. We sailed onto Great Harbour to check out of the BVI's and see Foxy's Bar and were thrilled to see Foxy himself. He is an institution and is responsible for most of the preservation of Jost Van Dyke. He is also one of the best entertainers in the world.
We said good bye to the BVI's and sailed onto the island of St John in the US Virgin Islands.
Following the lead of another boat we anchored outside of Cruz Bay where we needed to check into the US. We were amazed to find this other vessel to be RIA owned by Robert & Frankie from England who we had spent sometime with in Grenada last spring. We grabbed a quick beer together before they had to leave to meet their daughter who was coming in from England for a vacation with them.We spent a rolly night in Caneel Bay on St John. It was too late to go anywhere else by the time we finished dinner. The next morning after a relaxed breakfast, beautifully prepared by Sharen & Grace, we left for Crown Bay Marina for a few days to get reprovisioned and to enjoy some time ashore. We were saddened to learn of the death of Carol who we had met last year. She had managed Crown Bay for over 20 years. Hearing of a classical recital being performed at a private residence on Water Island we joined in, hoping no one would ask who we were. We enjoyed a wonderful evening. It was on a very interesting property owned by an equally interesting character, Alex Randall, a professor of communication at the local university, along with a number of other endeavors.
The property not only has a home large enough to accommodate 50 plus seated guests but also several rental homes. At the ocean peak of his estate is a swimming pool and a roofed open air sun house where everyone gathers to watch the sun go down each day. The evening was beautiful and we were pleased to contribute when they asked for assistance for the musicians. They were terrific. It was a great evening.The next day we motored off to Honeymoon Bay where we watched the weekly movie on a sheet hung between two trees while eating popcorn and drinking beer on the beach. We sailed over to Flat Island, off St Thomas, to snorkel the reef in the lee of the island then returned to Honeymoon Bay for another rolly night. Ross and Grace departed for Florida and we departed for the Spanish Virgins and Puerto Rico and back to Edmonton to attend to some business issues and to steal a few more snuggles from the grandkids.
