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Greetings From Rick
& Terri Aboard 'Sophisticated Lady'!!
Rick, Terri & Ashley at the highest peak of Tortola visiting SkyWorld Restaurant First
off, we'd like to wish everyone a belated HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Yes, we know, it's
been quite a while since our last update... we can always tell it's been too
long when we start getting letters asking "have you taken us off your mailing
list?? We don't seem to getting the updates anymore", and "Hey... where'd you
guys go??", loll Yes, we're still here, we just got incredibly busy and every
time that happens, the first thing that goes to the backburner is emails. We
also suffered a computer crash recently and lost some of our emails, so if
you've been waiting for a response from us that never came, chances are we lost
your email so please just resend to us.
There's been lots going on in
our lives since last we wrote... we actually managed to squeeze in a holiday
back in Canada to visit our family and friends and enjoy a little down time
after a busy start to the season. Of course I am loving spending some quality
time with Madison in Toronto, and Rick has been enjoying seeing his boys,
Brenden and Justin, and just hanging out doing as much fun stuff with them as
possible!
Over
the Christmas Holidays we had a very cool and unexpected phone call. Those of
you who read our logs will probably remember the day we found a bottle floating
in the middle of the ocean. We were on our 9 day off shore journey from
Virginia to the British Virgin Islands and the water was strangely calm. Rick
and I spotted a green bottle floating nearby and turned the boat around and
scooped it out of the water. I had visions of a long lost message and when we
saw how old and encrusted with creatures it was, our imaginations ran wild.
Alas, though the cork was intact and the inside dry, there was no message. We
decided to write a message about our journey and who we were and send the bottle
back on its way to unknown shores.
Terri throwing our message to the World back into the Ocean
As we sat under the Christmas tree, our cell phone rang and it was Marko calling from the Turks and Caicos Islands. He had found our bottle one morning while combing the shoreline. He was so excited about finding our message that he picked up the phone and called us to say hi and tell us all about himself and how he found it! Our message had traveled over 500 miles and now we had a new friend on another island. How cool is that in this day and age of electronics that a simple note in a tiny bottle can still reach out and touch someone. It makes the world seem like a much smaller place and distant shores not so distant. 2007 is
shaping up to be a big year for Wind In My Sails Inc... we are currently in the
process of acquiring a second boat to have available for charter in Ontario this
summer, and in the Caribbean next season. We have signed on a couple of new
hostess/chefs, and a new captain and are still going to be signing up some new
couples to possibly work with us on a 3rd boat later this year! If you happen
to be an experienced sailing couple who could stand to work on a sailboat in the
Caribbean for 4-6 weeks with your expenses covered, get in touch with us and
we'll discuss it further with you personally!
Another
big event for us this year happened after the completion of the last Caribbean
1500 Cruising Rally we participated in. After winning 3 awards in the Rally
this year, we were also offered the honor of participation in affiliation
with Steve Black and The Cruising Rally Association. We will offer services as
their new offshore training vessel to help some of their future Ralliers gain
the offshore sailing experience they need to participate in a Rally without
having to hire a captain to manage their boat for them. This was a fantastic
offer and we are very proud to have been considered for this position! You can
now even find us on the Cruising Rally Associations home page at www.Carib1500.com
!
Steve Black of the Cruising Rally Association Presenting Us One of Our Awards Last November We'll
be offering two passages this year in the form of our new Offshore Sailing
Adventures... the first will be a two-week Caribbean circuit being offered in
March that will take us from the BVI's straight South to the Island of Dominica
(where they filmed the Pirates of the Caribbean). After spending a couple of
days there we will overnight passage up to Antigua where will do some
more exploring before changing crew for the second week of the Adventure. The
second week will take us from Antigua up to St Maarten/St Barths, possibly
including Anguilla, before heading back on the overnight passage to the BVI's...
kind of like a 2-week holiday/offshore training exercise all wrapped up into
one! Lots of experience will be offered in the form of offshore passagemaking,
overnight sailing, provisioning, maintenance and sea, etc... in addition to a
lot of fun exploring each of the islands we'll be stopping
at!
Hiking through the mountainous terrain of beautiful Dominica The
second voyage would be starting in early May and will see us heading from the
BVI's straight north to the beautiful island of Bermuda... this island was one
of our favorites last year and was incredible to see during May when the entire
island was in full bloom! After a stopover there we'll take our next weather
window out to head across the Gulf Stream and back to the Statue of Liberty in
New York City Harbor... the challenging part of the cruise!! If you've been
looking to increase your experience with offshore sailing before attempting your
own voyage, one of these could be perfect for you! You can find more details on
our new homepage at www.WindInMySails.com
.
As all of you probably know, Rick and I are always keeping our eyes open for new and exciting adventures to offer. We are now very proud and happy to be able to offer exclusive yoga retreat holidays on "Sophisticated Lady", in addition to cruises for groups of Women. Imagine the feeling of the warm sun on your face as you enjoy a private yoga class on the beach surrounded by palm trees and turquoise waters. We have signed on a wonderful and talented yoga master , Melanie Camp, who travels the world hosting yoga retreats in places such as Kilimanjaro, Costa Rica and Fiji. She is excited to sign on board to offer her retreats with us nestled amongst the spectacular Caribbean Islands.
So far our season in the Caribbean has fully booked up for our crewed charters. The only thing we have left is the two weeks of Offshore Sailing Adventures that are scheduled for mid-March and there is limited availability for those so contact us soon if that happens to be something of interest to you! Aside from that, we only have limited cabin space available for our last 'Share-the-Sail' Adventure in the British Virgin Islands. They are very similar to our all-inclusive charters, but less expensive for guests who don't want to book the entire boat for themselves, and would like to actively participate as crew onboard to learn a little more about our lifestyle, and living aboard a sailboat in the Caribbean... all-in-all still a great way to spend a week and much less expensive than an all-inclusive charter! You can find out more about some of our new offerings by checking out our newly updated website at www.WindInMySails.com or emailing us directly at sailing@WindInMySails.com with any questions you may have.
The website has just undergone a major update again, including a brand new home page that even has a link with some of our favorite Calypso music for you to enjoy while you browse... let us know how you like it! Thanks again for all your wonderful emails, sorry we've been negligent in responding of late, but feel free to send us a note and we'll do our best to get back to you personally! Take care till then!!
PS...
we've had a lot of enquiries about when we were finally going to update our
Ships Log online for people that have signed on halfway through some of our
adventures... You'll be happy to know that the Ships Log is finally updated and
you can now find all of our log entries there from day one of our traveling
adventure... almost 20,000 sea miles ago!! Here's a direct link to the
Ships Log for you:
www.WindInMySails.com/ShipsLog/index.htm Enjoy, and we'll look forward to hearing from you!! Cheers,
Rick & Terri 'Sophisticated Lady'
Wind
In
My Sails Inc. |
