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Hi Everyone Hope this email finds everyone well, we’ve had such a great season so far it’s hard to imagine how many of our friends and family are enduring much colder conditions way up North… That said, we’re planning on heading a little further South! We absolutely love the Virgin Islands, there is truly no place like it on Earth… the weather is always beautiful, the islands are always beautiful, and the sailing is excellent! We recently discovered Cane Garden Bay which has an absolutely beautiful white sand beach lined with Palm trees and protected by a reef that breaks the big waves coming in from the Ocean… we spent a couple days there! The beach is dotted by clubs and beach bars just feet from the surf that all have live bands and their own character. After that we found Great Dog Island… out in the North side of the chain, and it has beautiful coral reefs spanning the entire South coast that we snorkeled over for hours and took some great photos! We’ve just completed a couple back-to-back charters and we’ve had a wonderful time with everyone we’ve had aboard… such a diverse mix of personalities, yet everyone has been so much fun and easy to get along with, we really feel privileged to be dealing with the people that this type of holiday attracts! We have a bit of time to ourselves before our next guests arrive so we figured it was time to mix-it-up a bit and see something new so we are heading to St Martin tonight. We’ll be heading out in the wee hours of the morning at about 3am so that we can arrive before dark tomorrow… showing up at a new island in the dark is no fun! We’ve heard great things about St Martin and Sint Maarten (the Dutch side) so we decided it was time to check it out for ourselves as it may be the last time we have available before we head back to Bermuda enroute to Georgian Bay, Ontario in May. The weather forecast came in showing a lull in the otherwise strong headwinds that are the normal for trips to St Martin from the Virgin Islands, so we immediately pulled anchor and headed to Virgin Gorda Sound. We had a fantastic sail all the way up here today averaging 6-7 knots and just settled in front of the Bitter End Yacht Club, one of the finest clubs in the Islands to prepare the boat for the battering to come, lol. You remember how much luck we’ve had with weather forecasters in the past… we’ll see how this one does! Lol It feels strange to be gearing ourselves and the boat up to head off shore again. This is usually only a 12-14 hour journey (in cooperative weather!), not much compared to what we have done in the past, but we have gotten used to just island hopping around the BVI’s and this requires an over night passage. We have to get out the jack lines and stow a lot of things and generally be ready for rougher seas. It will be exciting to see all the islands we have heard and read about for so long. I understand they are completely different to the Virgin Islands and the thrill of discovering new lands is exciting to feel. I am hoping it won’t be too rough and we are there before we know it. There is finally a new picture slideshow published on our website for you to check out so you can see all the new islands we’ve been talking about over the last couple months. You can view them at www.WindInMySails.com/ShipsLog/index.htm and follow the link. Hope you like them… we should have some more new ones shortly as we encounter some new cruising grounds… we’ll keep you posted! Take care all, Terri and Rick |