Dominikan Republic - Luperon Bay

This is a very friendly little township and wow its fun to do some shopping. We bought some fruit yesterday; a papaya, mangoes and

pineapple and all we paid was $ 1. We went to the bakery and bought some bread and some buns; a bun cost roughly 3 cents. We ordered a coke for 50 cents a bottle, I believe we can spend some time here without breaking our account too much. People are poor here and trying and offering everything to make a way of living. The first day we walked around, one lady showed us around town and helped us out and did cut Julia's hair. We paid her for her help.

During the day locals in their little dinghys are coming alongside our boat and offer to wash and polish our boat, they try to sell us fruit, vegies and fresh water. As I said before the way of living is so different here, but we kind of like it. This container down below is the customs office. First the customs came on board to check whether we had any weapons or drugs on board and we had to pay some money and donation to the navy. The next day we had to check into the country and in one container we had to pay $ 10 and in the container next to it we had to pay another $ 10, for what we do not really know ......

22 hours passage to Dominikan Republic

Leaving Grace Bay had been a hard decision to make, but the weather window came and we had to take advantage of it. We lifted the anchor at round about 6.30 at night and left the peaceful Bay of the Turks and Caicos at 7 pm. I quickly made something to eat for dinner and then we sent Julia and Carlos with some books to bed.We knew that this would be a long passage and we had to sleep in stages. I said to Sven that I would go to bed myself and that he had to wake me up in a few hours so that I can take over. The passage was ok , but at some stage it got quiet rough again, however we felt safe all the way. Luckily the children slept in the next day and did not wake up until 9.30 and so most of the journey was over by then.... 8 more hours to go. Julia and Carlos did great most of the day and when we finally spotted some land in the distance we were all relieved. At 5 pm in the afternoon we came into the harbour of Luperon..... We were blown away by the different vegetation that greeted us in the Dominican Republic, green and lush bush surrounds the harbour. We are greeted with a warm welcome and everyone helps us to find a good mooring, we also found out that all sailors ( about 25 boats) are meeting for Karaoke that night. This was our chance to meet most of the yachties that are anchored in Luperon Bay in one hit, so we went and had a wonderful time and met lots of other people that are living the same lifestyle that we are living at the moment. However there is one difference, most of them have been waiting in Luperon Bay for the "next weather window" for the last two or three years. Why? The people are very friendly, its really cheap to live here and its different to all the places that we have been to yet. We have decided to stay here for a few weeks (at least three) to recover from the long nights that we had. We also would like to pick up some spanish language skills, unfortunatley Julia and Carlos cannot go to school here at present as the children here are on their summer school holidays. What a shame that could have been a break for all of us, never mind! We will still enjoy ourselves and are have some fun .

Not every day is a sunny day on the boat

I remember a few years ago a friend of mine had asked me what I was doing all day. She did not had any children at this stage and I had a 2 and a 3 year old, just finished building our house and designed and worked in the garden. I was gob smacked at that stage, because honestly I was not quite sure…. I knew that I was busy all day, but could not really say what I was doing all day. I feel the same at the moment, we have got the luxury of having time all day, or put it that way, we do not have to go to work or mow the lawn anymore, but we are busy all day every day. Since we have boarded our Sailing Boat in Norfolk Virginia we have been busy repairing, fixing or renovating something on our JUCA. If it is not the motor or generator it is the water maker or the floor. It might be one day the Air Condition or trying to figure out the Navigation system. Cleaning and tidying the boat up is a daily task, as is the education of Julia and Carlos. But the biggest thing to fix was yet to come and of course it came at a very inconvenient time.
We were so tired after our ordeal yesterday and all we wanted is to have an early night. I was just about to get ready when I heard Sven calling for help. Our toilet is blocked and we needed to unblock it. Oh no, so we dismantled various hoses to detect the problem, we emptied 10 buckets of shit out of the tank still , we could not find the problem. The time is ticking slowly away and we are sitting virtually in shit until midnight…finally we thought we found the problem and after another hour of cleaning up we are ready and went to bed. This messy business continued for another day, until we really dissolved the problem for good and we finally got to relax and sit in the sun and enjoy the surrounding of Sapodilla Bay to its fullest. I said to Sven that this was probably the worst thing I ever had to get my hands dirty with, but he reckons there are worst things and once you have done it you realize it that is not too bad at all …… I don’t know I still have the smell in my nose as I write this

Rough Ride - Lesson learned

Our plan was to sail to Crocked Island to anchor on the North west side at French Wells. On our way down there we changed our mind and decided to go further down south. We should have checked the weather before changing our sailing route. I suppose the main reason was that the wind was not exactly in our favour and came directly on the nose. Juca was pounding through the waves and at 5 in the afternoon we arrived at a little inhabited Island…Plana Cay. Luckily we were able to anchor there for the night, the anchorage seemed safe and we had a relatively quiet night. When we got up the next morning we Warren’t quite sure whether to stay or to move on. We liked it were we where and decided to stay for a couple of days. A few hours into the day we changed our mind, because if the wind would change we would have been quiet exposed, so we left at 11 in the morning and aimed to be at Mayaguana Island early afternoon. Again the wind was on our nose and Juca was pushing through the waves. Julia and Carlos handled it very well, I was unwell most of the time. When we finally arrived at Mayaguana Island we discovered that the anchorage there is not very good. However we did anchor and let the dinghy into the water and went to check out the Island. We were hoping and in need to get hold of the Internet to check the weather report. Once we had arrived on the Island, we found a tar sealed road and walked on it until we found a house. This was adventure pure and I felt like an ancient explorer. Walking along this deserted road, Julia hoped to find maybe a Starbucks or Internet Café somewhere … that was so cute! After half an hour walk we saw an older couple sitting outside in their garden. We waved and asked if they have a computer by any chance  … of course they did not, but they knew someone in the little settlement of Betsy Bay that had access to the Internet. They offered us to use their car to drive to the little hotel at Pirate Wells. Even though they did not know us they trusted us, mind you where were we suppose to go with the car on that little island and a population of 50 people  They give us the keys to their car and off we go to find the Internet, however Anna the old lady came along for the ride and some excitement. Would you believe it, we found the hotel with 18 rooms and used the Internet to check out the weather. The weather report did not look too good and we quickly decided to hurry back to the boat and to look for another safe anchorage for the next few days. We wanted to sail around to Abraham Bay to the East of Mayaguana. However once we were there the wind had picked up and we were too scared to go into the little bay and it was already 6 o’clock getting dark. I asked Sven if JUCA would keep us safe and when he answered yes, I said lets go and make the passage across to the Turks and Caicos. He was not too keen to sail during the night in bad weather and strong winds, but we were kind of trapped and had to move forward. We sent the kids to bed and I secured everything on deck and put everything down below and off we went. Luckily it was pitch dark and I could not see the high sea and big waves, otherwise I would have not been as confident. The weather and sea got worse and worse, and we had 7 hours in front of us, we had calculated that we should be at the Turks and Caicos at around 4 in the morning. We huddled together in the cockpit, I was so tired, but happy that the children were asleep and safe in their bed and I did not need to attend to their needs in weather like that. It was a long and stormy, wet night. As we got closer to the Turks and Caicos the sea became calmer and I went down below to make us something hot to drink……. At 4.30 we set anchor in 4 metres of water… I was very relieved and sooooo tired… all I wanted to lie down. We did not have too much mess to clean up down below, just the fridge went open and everything was rolling around on the floor. That was quickly cleaned up and then we finally fell asleep at around 5 am….. I woke up when I heard someone calling out…..it was 7.30 in the morning and the police had come to check us out and to let us know that we cannot stay where we were (Turks West) we had to go to the port of call to check into the Turks and Caicos. It took us a while to get our head around where we had to go and at 10 am we left to Sapodilla Bay to check into the new country and to find a new safe anchorage for a few days to sit out the bad weather.

Georgetown to Long Island

So far we have been pretty lucky and seen the ocean most of the time from a calm beautiful side, but last night it all changed, but let me start from the beginning. After leaving Staniel Cay, we made our way to Georgetown. We had heard lots of nice things about this settlement and Elisabeth Harbour is suppose to be the place for sailing boats. We were all looking forward to it. I was hoping for some fresh provisioning and laundry facilities and Julia and Carlos hoped for some Children to play with. After an uneventful ride through the Exuma Sound we arrived at Elisabeth Harbor. It was getting late by the time we got into the dinghy to check out the township. Oh… it was not what we expected. We walked around Lake Victoria and bumped into two old friends from Staniel Cay, but apart from that there was not much on offer for us. That night we decided to leave Georgetown early in the morning, to sail to our next destination…. Clearance town on Long Island.
Long Island gave us that pure Island Life, that I had imagined since we had started our journey….We anchored nice and safe in the bay of Long Island. We woke to Coconut Palm trees, white beaches and blue water. We took it easy and went for a swim after breakfast and walked along the Island, harvested coconut and drank the milk right there and then under the beautiful palm tree. It’s beautiful and nature pure.

We all had a good time. In the afternoon we checked out the little settlement, Clearance town. It had a pool and a nice clean bar and we ended up watching the basketball game Boston against Chicago… what a game. By the time we got back to the boat we were attacked by Mosquitoes…. So we had to race back to the boat, locked all the windows and got our mosquitoes spray out….. and hoped for a quiet night. After a few days we decided that it is time to leave the Island life and move on to our next destination….Crocked Island.

Exuma - Staniel Cay

Every time we believe the beauty of the Islands cannot be topped we are strucked by more beauty, each Island is unique and more beautiful. We are anchoring on a mooring in Staniel Cay, opposite the Thunderball Cave. The movie "Thunderball" with Sean Connery has been filmed here in 1964, long time ago, but I am sure nothing much has changed on this island. The population here is 82 ... you better get on with your neighbour, not much to choose from.

During the day we visit the Thunderball Cave and feed the fish. We do take pasta packed up in a water bottle with us... and would you believe it as soon as we open the bottle we are surrounded by millions of fish, what a feeling, what an experience for all of us. To take a break from snorkeling and swimming we take time out to visit the swimming pigs ... I did not know that pigs can swim. There a really funny as they come up to your boat and want you to feed them, some of them are quiet aggressive and we are worried that they might jump ship, so we are careful and try to trick them for some good pictures. Julia has got the pleasure a couple of days later to go with Ellen from Canada to see and feed the pigs again and this time she is lucky and is feeding the little piglet.....

In the evening we do enjoy the athmosphere and dance to the music of the Staniel Cay Yacht Club and having the pleasure to meet interesting and exciting people and to enjoy their company....

Then again its time to say goodbey and now we are heading towards Georgetown...

Fort Pierce to Fort Lauderdale

The journey down to Fort Pierce is easy, the sea is calm the wind is good and the sun is bright up in the sky, we can even take our jacket of and enjoy the warm weather. Dolphins play in our wake again, this time even I can enjoy this… I even manage to make us all some lunch…… things are brightening up for me….Just before sunset we are arrive at Fort Pierce. We check in and having an early night again… we might stay two nights here.
9th February 2010 we get up early and there is no wind, the sun shines again but the air is cold, we have enough of cold weather and are now getting itchy to make our way to Fort Lauderdale. We are set and all ready to go at 9.15. We don’t want to hang around Fort Pierce for another day and decide to motor the ICW down to Palm Beach. As we motor down the ICE we pass one beautiful property after the other. They are all well maintained and as we hear later, here is the area where Tiger Woods has bought is property for 44 million, bulldozed the house down to rebuild a new one. This is the area where rich people hang around, to enjoy their hard earned money  Again the ICW is planted with lots of bridges, they are either draw bridges or fixed bridges, we have to monitor the tide and water line each time we come across a fixed bridge. Everything goes smoothly until we come across the last bridge before we enter the harbor of West Palm Beach ….. bang…. A big crash and pieces fall down…. We have hit the bridge….. oh no…. luckily we did not hit with the mast, all we lose is our tri colour light and our windex… however very annoying and a usense… another $ 1000 to be spend to fix something… but could have been a disaster….. We do settle in on the fuel dock for the night and have a very early night again… still in disbelief that we had to hit the last bridge before we arrive at our destination……
10th February 2010 Again we are ready early; and leave West Palm Beach at 9.15. Today we want to make it down to Fort Lauderdale. We have enough of the ICW and as the weather is good and the wind in our favour we decided to sail down to Fort Lauderdale. The weather condition is perfect this morning; 15-20 knots wind, the wind comes from North West and the sun shines. We calculated that it would take us no more than 5 hours to arrive in Fort Lauderdale, that meant we would arrive in day light, what a treat. Once we came out of the harbor we set the sails and went down the coast. We made between 8-10 knots over the ground. We had to keep close to the shore, so that we would not get into the Gulf Stream. If we would have come into the Gulf Stream, that would have stopped us by 4 knots. It was an easy trip, probably the best trip we had since we had left Norfolk. We had no major incidents during this leg apart from the happy faces of everybody as we approached Fort Lauderdale fast. We saw lots of flying fish and the dolphins played again around our boat, which was a lot of fun to watch. Full of excitement I took too many pictures to get the right one. Sven had spotted a sail in the far distance and tried to catch up to it. He turned the Autopilot off and every wake is taken to our advantage to maintain the speed of nearly 10 knots. Just before Fort Lauderdale we got him and passed him as we enter the harbour. Yeah; we have finally made it to Fort Lauderdale; its 2 pm, it’s still daylight. It has taken us nearly 4 weeks; 800 nautical miles south, lots of challenges in regards of weather, running the sailing boat and settling into a new life and a new routine on our sailing boat JUCA.

The sun still shines, but the wind is very cold. The harbor is busy and we have to find our way to the River Bend Marina. Ford Lauderdale is amongst water channels and surrounded with beautiful houses and gardens. It is absolute fantastic to move around, but very stressful and took all of Sven’s concentration to navigate the boat around those channels, which I didn’t even know they existed. It reminds me a bit of Venice; lots of houses seam the edges of the water channels. The water channels are deep, but some areas are not wider than 50 meters. We had to pass a lot of draw bridges and we thought that we probably been the biggest boat that has come through there, but once we went around the corner we saw that we were mistaken  We have to pass a lot of draw bridges and everything runs smoothly until we get to the Davies Street Draw Bridge. We have been warned that the bridge master is one of a kind sure enough he lets us sit in front of the bridge for at least 15 minutes.
The wind is pushing us to the side and it’s hard for Sven to hold the boat steady as we wait. We turn from side to side and around in a circle, the energy on the boat is tight and then the bridge finally opens up. I am sure that we are the biggest boat every entering those channels, but get proven wrong. As we move through the channels, big buildings line the sides of the channels and we pass big… no huge motor yachts, we are one of the smaller boats around  Amazing. Then we finally arrive at the River bend Marina where Frank and Sabine wait for us. A big hallo and once we secured the boat to the dock, we exchange news and stories. Frank and Sabine are two Germans that had been living in New Zealand for a year. They have bought there boat “Sea Dreams” at the same time when we bought our boat “JUCA”.

Cape Canaveral- excitement early in the morning

6th February 2010 it’s a sunny day and the wind is good. We leave Loggerhead Marina at 9.40 in the morning. At 10.30 we have passed all the bridges and we were off towards open water… the sea awaits us. Just before midday we leave the inlet of Daytona. The wind is strong up to 30 knots and cold but still pleasant. The weather changes during the afternoon and wind rises up to 45 knots, the sea gets choppy and we experience our first storm. It is too windy and too cold to sit outside, so I have to go inside and my faith is sealed… I get seasick as soon as go down and have to lie down….later on Carlos joins me ….. then someone calls out…. Julia is seasick and vomits…… all I can do is to help her as much as I can to get her out of her clothes and then she lies down next to Carlos and me… we try to ride the storm out under deck…. The men do fight their way through the rough sea …. Apparently they were happy and it was fun to see how well the boat moved through these high seas ….. you have to listen to their story another time…… 
They have to pass Cape Canaveral first before they can tack and cross over….. the movement of the boat has changed… I can tell my tummy is not happy….. and then it’s all over we are in the harbor of Cape Canaveral and everything is calm again and I have to go outside to help…. Its dark and we have to find our way through the harbor following the lights. We can already see the space station from the harbor entrance, we are all full excitement. Everyone is happy to be back in calm water and that we made it in time for the space shuttle launch. After we have settled the boat, we have dinner and go to bed early… as we have to get up early in the morning…. The alarm clock will wake us at 4 am.
7th February 2010 we got up early we waited for a while, but nothing happened. They postponed the launched; apparently the weather has to be right in three points of the States (Florida, California and Arizona) so in case they need to abort the space shuttle launch that they can land again. We went to bed and once we got up again we hired a car and went to have a look at the Kennedy Space Station. On the way to the space station we had to stop on the side of the road to have a look at our first wild alligator! It took us all day to go look at the Kennedy Space Station, it was not only interesting for the children; even we learned a lot. We met an Astronaut, we went into a flight simulator, looked at all the technology and history of the space station. Apparently they will close the space station down, as Obama has not included any money in his budget for this operation, nearly 7000 people will lose their job.
8th February 2010 we got up again at 4 am to witness the launch. We waited for a while and were just about to go back to bed, when all of a sudden the horizon lit up, an amazing rumbling disturbed the peaceful morning and then we saw the space shuttle shoots up into the sky…. Wow ….. fantastic…… what an experience !!!




We go back to bed ……. after breakfast we are getting ready to leave Cape Canaveral making our way to Fort Pierce.

Daytona and new friends

26th January 2010 we have arrived in Daytona Beach. It’s pretty warm and everyone is very friendly. The harbor master offers to take us for a ride into town if we need to do some shopping. I take him up on his offer on the same day; I look at some computers, because we have promised the kids a laptop to help with the school work and we visit a couple of other stores and then he takes me to Wal-mart, where I get everything else that is on my shopping list. I am very happy. While driving he fills me in on the history of Daytona. Very interesting; as we zoom past the racetrack I hear about the history of this famous racetrack right in the middle of town, I learn about the union of the white and black people, after the white business quarter has burned down to the ground back in 1920. He tells me that the usual population of Daytona Beach is 160 000, but in high season the population rises to nearly 2.5 million people.
We are staying in Daytona longer than expected. We are getting our motor fixed. The diesel pump, filter and pipe system and tank valves had to be replaced, not an easy nor cheap task, but had to be done and with the help of two friendly guys, on the 12th days we are ready to leave the harbor. While the guys were busy fixing the engine, we enjoyed the live music and happy hour. I did entertain and educated the children. We were lucky and met a few nice people in Daytona; Dolly, Aleatha and John with Scoop. John and his dog joined us nearly every day for a cuppa and breakfast. Dolly was so friendly and took us to the Dinosaur and Sugar Mill Park, to the race track, to one of the largest lighthouses of the States and went shopping with us. Julia and Carlos have started with their homeschooling program. We do math, spelling and read a book every day, and if we don’t do that we go out and learn about lighthouses, dinosaurs etc. One highlight in Daytona has been our visit to the Museum of Art and Science. Here the kids explored hands on how to bake and serve Pizza, how to build a roller coaster or a race track including a race car. We watched an awesome laser show and in general we all had a great time that afternoon. We had gone with the taxi to the Museum and were lucky to have met Althea there and her two boys Chaz and Reese. Wow, we got on like house on fire and she was like an open book about homeschooling and told me a lot about it that afternoon. She has been homeschooling her oldest boy for the last 2 years and boy did she knew a lot. I listened very careful to be able to take every word in. Her passion left a spark of passion in me. I will have to investigate this subject a bit more to get a deeper understanding of it. She offered to take us home and Julia invited her for a cuppa onto the boat  and we ended up having dinner together. What an amazing afternoon, I wish Aleatha and I could have had more time together.
In actual fact the whole day was very eventful. In the morning during fulfilling my duty as a boatwife  (cleaning and tiding the boat, schooling was finished for the day), Carlos came running back from the swimming pool and told me that a few ladies were having a yoga class in the lounge. I went there to have a look. The 6 ladies that Julia got friendly with the day before had booked the room for a private yoga session. I joined in and ended up doing a Yoga Nidra (deep relaxation) for them. Wow it was very exciting and nurturing for both parties…. I knew what I had missed the last few weeks and I was grateful for this opportunity.
Finally the day has come and the wind comes out of the right direction and we take this opportunity to leave Daytona to go further down south, towards Cape Canaveral. The plan is to be in Cape Canaveral on the 7th February around 4.30 in the morning, to see the launch of the space shuttle. The weather in Daytona has been a mix of windy, sunny, rainy, cold and warm days, we hope to escape this weather pattern the further south we are going.

The journey continues - St. Augustine to Daytona

23rd January 2010 St. Augustine is an inviting little town and we are going to take a stroll through the city. We love it. The sun is shining, lots of people, shops and restaurants everywhere. Music is playing on every corner of the inner city. In St. Augustine you can find the influence of the Spanish history. The streets are small and cute, the houses are very original and lots of cathedrals and churches. St. Augustine is the oldest civilized city in the Unity States, 444 years of history. We took a ride with the horse cart through the city. The driver is very informative and we enjoy to find out more details of what has been going in the last four hundreds year. We are having Paella for lunch and a game of Mini golf, Julia and Carlos enjoying themselves. The next day we are going to explore the old fort, which has protected St. Augustine for centuries, because of its clever design. It has never been able to be defeated; the only way to take it over would have been to starve the people in the Fort  …. What a discovery after 400 years… We are having the best ice cream ever and visiting 2 chocolate factories, of course we are trying to compare to Mangawhai Bennett’s Factory… But won’t go into further details! We absolutely love it here, but we have decided to move on tomorrow, to go to Daytona Beach and on to Cape Canaveral, where the US space station.
The story of St. Augustine is a long and exciting chronicle of a city that has existed for 444 years. It is the longest chronicle of any city in the United States. St. Augustine was founded in the sixteenth century, in 1565, gradually strengthened its settlement in the seventeenth century, survived several international wars in the eighteenth century, entered the United States when the peninsula of Florida was acquired in the nineteenth century and commended modern development in the twentieth century. St. Augustine, founded on September 8, 1565, was settled only sixty-nine years after Santo Domingo (1496 in today’s Dominican republic), and counts to the oldest continuing European settlement in the World. In fact, not many other cities in North of South America are older than St. Augustine. Perhaps some twenty-five communities can claim an earlier origin of all the thousands in existence and most of those cities are located in the Spanish Caribbean, first discovered by Columbus and in Mexico, where precious metals were initially found and mined in great quantity. On September 8, 1565 the city was founded by Pedro Menendez de Aviles and named St. Augustine because his fleet had reached the Florida shores on the day of the festival of San Augustine.
25th January 2010 the sky is overcast and we have decided to leave St. Augustine today. Ups… we just discovered that the draw bridge will be under construction for the next week and won’t be open again until next week! We do not want to stay that long, so we decided to motor down the ICW to Daytona Beach. The bridges in there should be 65 feet high and as our boat measures 65 feet on high tide…. we should be able to make it. We continuously have to watch the tide in the channel as some spots are quiet shallow, especially 20 miles south from St. Augustine is a shallow spot. As we are leaving St. Augustine at 11.45, the sky is opening up and a blue sky is greeting us. There is a slight breeze and with the tide going out we are making good way down the ICW. The ICW is quiet tight and Sven really has to concentrate as he navigates the boat around little corners and small channels. Everything is going smooth until 10.40, all of a sudden …. Wumps….. the boat is coming to a stop. We are stuck in the sand. The kids are excited as everything inside the boat has left its place; the fridge has sprung open and everything inside is now lying around in the boat. Concerned and a bit nervous, Sven is getting the boat out of the situation and we are on our way again. He is now even more concentrating until the next excitement hits us; the navigation (GPS) in the cockpit upstairs has shut down. The water level is really low and at 2.44…. wumps….. we are stuck again in the sand, this time Sven is handling the situation with ease and seconds later we are free again. We are passing a couple of draw bridges where we have to call the bridge master and he then opens up the bridge. That is quiet fun to watch when you can see how the bridges open up and close again once we have passed through. At 4.56 we are passing our first fixed bridge, they are high, but as we came, we hoped that the measurements are correct …. The closer we come the more I hope …. And then we are going underneath the bridge… first it looks like we are hitting it….. but we are just scratching…. we hear the sound of our antennas touching the bridge. Hui, that was close on the next fixed bridge, a couple of people are working on the bridge, and as we are going through they are telling us that we have got 3 inches left before we would have touched the bridge!

It was beautiful motoring down the ICW, the weather is sunny, the breeze a bit cold, but right and left the sides are lined with beautiful houses and gardens, everyone has got their own dock and all the boats and jet skis are on lift able docks. Lots of birds are around, most o f them we don’t know and Julia and Carlos are watching out for Dugongs and crocodiles  Its getting late and we are in need of a place to stop, that does not seem to be an easy task. We are approaching low tide and the water level is getting to low, so wherever we are trying to get out of the main channel, the water level is too low and we are in danger to get stuck again. Its getting late and dark and we still haven’t found a suitable place. We are approaching the lowest level on low tide and at 6 o’clock we are stuck again… now it becomes crucial to find a place to anchor for the night. We assume that the ICW are not very suitable to anchor at night for big ocean cruiser!! At 6.30 we are dipping the anchor for the first time into the water, we moved as much out of the channel as we possibly could and trying to settle down for the night. I am preparing some dinner and Sven is constantly checking whether the boat is all right and whether we are moving or not. As we are just deciding to settle down for the night (8.30) we hear a boat approaching, we are asked to move our boat as we are blocking the channel and it is too dangerous where we are. All over again, lifting the anchor, getting stack a couple of times before we finally (9pm) sitting with the nose in right direction and lowering the anchor line and position of the boat. We are having a quiet night, no motor noise, no seasickness no problems, just Sven getting up and down like a jojo to check on the boat…… I can live with that 
26th January 2010 we are getting up early and it’s still dark outside, but we have to move the boat. At 6.30 am we are lifting the anchor to keep going. Everything is going smooth and everyone is in a relaxed mood, but Sven said that he had enough going down the ICW. We can see high rise building; we must be close to Daytona Beach. We are approaching our first fixed bridge with a nearly high tide, the antennas are scratching against the bridge again, a few miles down the track the second fixed bridge for the day, this time we have to anchor (8.30 am) in front of it, as the water level is just 64 feet. We have to sit for an hour to wait for the water level to drop and than we are arriving in the Loggerhead Marina in Daytona Beach (10.30 am). Julia and Carlos are excited because they have a swimming pool and a spa pool. Usually Daytona Beach has got a population of 120.000 people, but from next week on the population will rise to 2.5 million. Daytona Beach is the capital of events for the United States Daytona 500 race, Harley Davidson bike week etc. We also find out that Florida has had the coldest winter since 1971; they had ice and snow, which has caused the death of dugongs/ Manatees and tropical fish. We do remember seeing lots of dead fish floating on top of the ICW.

Pounding along the East Coast of the US.....

21st January 2010 we arrive in Charleston at 10.30 in the morning. It’s raining and it’s still cold. I hope we are reaching Florida soon, we are all sick of the weather. We are fueling up again to see how much fuel we have used since we have left Wrightsville. We are all having a shower and then scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast. It’s cold and rainy so we are putting the heaters on to dry out the boat and to keep warm. The kids doing their homework and I do the washing in the meantime. We are all having a rest and a lazy day. In the early afternoon we are heading into town to have something to eat. This marina is providing a shuttle bus into town on every hour. That is very convenient. We are ending up eating at the Babba shrimp restaurant (out of the Forrest Gump movie with Tom Hanks). In the meantime the rain has stopped so this gives us a chance to explore the town by foot. We walk through some cute little streets, with a French touch, very expensive shops, lot of shops are selling antique furniture. In amongst Louis Vuitton, Dior etc, we are finding Starbucks, yeah! Sven’s Dad did not know that ordering a large cup means half a liter of coffee, so he ends up with half a liter of cappuccino; his facial expression was really funny. We are all having an early night, as we are all pretty exhausted from the three nights before.
22nd January 2010 we had a quiet night in Charleston. Mega Marine is a nice marine, but it is very cold her. Klaus (Sven’ Dad) has problems with his knee and it is still not much better. At 10.30 in the morning we are leaving the port of Charleston heading towards St. Augustine. The kids have been playing happily with Playmobil and I must say that I am very proud of them how they manage the journey so far. We don’t hear any complaint or winching and they move around on the boat as they have never done anything else in their life. Today we have seen a group of dolphins swimming along in our wake of the boat. The kids thought that was pretty cool, I cannot comment on this event as I was lying sick in my bed again. This time I am a bit better prepared, I have bought myself some ginger tea as well as fresh ginger roots, which seems to do the trick, I don’t feel as bad, even though I still cannot run around on the boat., the wind is coming from the north, so we are setting sails for the first time and making good way. Everything is going good and the atmosphere seems relax, the man are happy to be able to sail and that we are sailing with 10 knots along the coast down south; even the water temperature is climbing up to 16 degree C. We are sailing through the night again and when we got up in the morning, the sky was clear; a beautiful sunrise was waiting for us. The air is cold as the wind is coming from the north, but the sun is shining, that makes us all feel a bit better. We finally arrive in St. Augustine at 10.30 in the morning of the 23rd of January 2010; St. Augustine is the northern part of Florida. So here we are hoping for good weather.

Lots to experience from Norfolk to Wrightsville....

When we finally arrive in Norfolk, we are tired and hungry and it’s late, and oh my goodness I had forgotten how cold wind can be. The weather in Virginia/ Norfolk has been the coldest for years, and it’s not very pleasant, but it is pleasant to be united with Sven again. We are loading or entire luggage into little trolleys and bringing them to the ship, getting everything and us on board and uiiii it’s different than what I imagined. I don’t try to think too much I am tired and all I want to do is go to bed and have a sleep.
Norfolk is the biggest Marine Harbour in the US. Right opposite us are two big Navy Marine Supply Ships, one is leaving a couple of days later, we assume it’s going down to Haiti to help after the devastating Earthquake. Norfolk is not very inviting, but we have to stay here a week or so for the weather to calm down before we coast can leave down south. We have decided to ask John the previous skipper of the boat to help us to sail JUCA down the to Florida, which will help us to get to know the in and outs of the boat. Sven’s D has also arrived; we get familiar with the boat and then the weather finally allows us to leave the port of Norfolk. We have done the shopping for food supply in one of those big supply shops nearby. I started off with one trolley and by the end of the shopping trip I had five trolleys in tow and the bill came to US 1500, I nearly dropped dead - I think that was my biggest shop ever. When we arrive with boxes and boxes of food at the boat, the next questions arises, where to stow it all, but I was surprised after a little bit of pushing and shuffling and the food supply disappeared behind all the cushions and seating arrangements.
Here are few technical details of JUCA. She was built in 1982 and designed from Morgan in Florida US; the Boat type is a schooner (Morgan), its 60 feet long. We have got a 135 HP Perkins Diesel that will bring us from A to B if there is no wind in sight. We can store 700 liter of fresh water and 2500 liter of fuel.
18th January 2010 at 4.15 pm we are leaving the port of Norfolk and heading down to Wrightsville. We have decided against the Inner Coastal Waterway (ICW), as this is quiet shallow in a lot of spots. This morning there is not enough wind to get the sails up, so we are motoring down the coast of Virginia. Everything is going well until the sea is picking up a little bit and I am starting to get a bit funny in my tummy. The noise and smell of the motor doesn’t really help the situation. Julia and Carlos are doing fine, and Klaus, Sven and John are doing great too. It’s very cold outside, so I cannot even sit outside to watch the horizon for my tummy to settle down, so I am going down into bed … here it is a bit better, but I try not to move my body or my head too much, the boat is doing enough movements. Here I stay until we reach Wrightsville. I sleep a lot, I don’t eat anything and the rest of the crew has to cook their own meals, there is no chance that I can even stand the thought of handling any kind of food or drinks. I try coke, yak….. Bammer haven’t got any ginger with me, so I suffer in silence. I am seasick, but luckily I don’t have to vomit. We are going through the night and day and another night…. And then finally on the
20th January 2010 we arrive in Wrightsville at 6 in the morning, I survived and I believe that the worse things are over and I immediately feel better. Getting slowly out of bed and ……everything is ok…. I feel good. Its Julia’s birthday today and we are all singing happy Birthday to her. We are going to buy some muffins and candles later on in the shops, as well as a DVD for afternoon entertainment. During the night we had a few problems with the fuel pump so we need to get some spare parts as well and we are also fueling up. I quickly go and have a shower before heading off to the Marine shop and the café for breakfast. Oh no, I am underneath the shower and the shower is moving, my head is spinning, but I am on land, well apparently now I am land sick, lucky me…. my body had been adjusting to the boat movement . The marine is offering a courtesy car, what a luxury. Hopping into the car and driving along the highway I try not to move my head to fast, even in the restaurants, everything moves, the tables, the chairs and everything in on the lean, I would laugh if I wouldn’t be the one with the squeeze head. They tell me, I will get use to it, usually it takes a week  We are filling our tummy and our fuel tanks and at midday we are leaving Wrightsville towards Charleston. The weather is sunny, but very cold. The sea is calm, but we are still under motor as the wind has been coming out of the direction we are heading the whole time. We are motor sailing all day and night until ….

Leaving Mangawhai / New Zealand

The day has come and our last days in New Zealand (Mangawhai) have arrived. Packing; packing; packing was on our list. Thank you to everyone who has helped me to get everything done, I have really appreciated your support. Or last days have been very memorable thank you Eva for accommodating us for the last 12 days and giving us a home in transition, thank you to Kyoko for your endless support, thank you to Anita for our picnic in our living area while cleaning up, thank you Tahe, Susan, Sue and Helen for your help ( mentally as well as physical) and there are so many more to name, thank you all for a lovely yoga class on the beach; thank you… thank you to everyone for their friendship and support over the last 19 years that I have been in Mangawhai.
The morning of the 12th of January 2010 has arrived and we are getting ready to go to the airport. I am a bit overweight luggage wise  and I have got one bag too many… no worries we will see what they have to say about that at the airport. The trip seems long to the airport and we are just making it in time. There is a long queue to the counter and here we go; 164 kilo and one bag too many and there seems to be a problem because of the name difference of the airplane ticket and the boat purchase letter that allows us to enter the States with a one way ticket . Luckily I have got my marriage license with me, just as Kyoko had recommended the night before. Ok, after a bit of waiting and discussion the result is that I have to pay $ 200 or repack my luggage to six bags, time was short and we had 5 minutes to decide. All right, Kyoko and I ripped the suitcases open and started to repack. I feel like we are on a reality show, how quickly can you repack your luggage at the airport. A few things have to stay with Kyoko at the airport and we have to decide very quickly what is most important to take, all kind of thoughts are rushing through my head and clothes are flying from one bag to the other and than its all done and no turning back... Now we have to run, it’s time to race to the departure gate; everything has been a bit of a rush…. I hardly have got time to say goodbye to Kyoko, I can feel panic settling in, the tears are running and I wave and then we lose sight of Kyoko, Marine and Dylan. When will we see them again, there is no turning back, just looking and walking forward.
We are sitting in the plane to Los Angeles. As we are lifting up into the air I look down onto Auckland and New Zealand; my home for the last 19 years and I am saying good bye….. taking a deep breath in, lifting my head and look into the faces of my children that show pure excitement and ready embrace to the new adventure and lifestyle that we are heading towards. No time for sad thoughts….. what’s on the Food and TV menu, that’s what count at the moment. The flight to Los Angeles is 10 hours and easy. Than the journey drags on a bit, as there is no TV and nothing to eat on the plane from Los Angeles to Dallas and from Dallas to Norfolk. Carlos is complaining about the service.
When we finally arrive in Norfolk, we are tired and hungry and it’s late, and oh my goodness I had forgotten how cold wind can be. The weather in Virginia/ Norfolk has been the coldest for years, and it’s not very pleasant, but it is pleasant to be united with Sven again. We are loading or entire luggage into little trolleys and bringing them to the ship, getting everything and us on board and uiiii it’s different than what I imagined. I don’t try to think too much I am tired and all I want to do is go to bed and have a sleep.

Exuma - Waderick Wells Cays

Our intention is to follow the wind, but sometimes we do have to be flexible, if the wind comes not out of the direction we want to go, we either have to stay longer where we are or we have to motor to the next destination. That's what we did, when we left the Highborne Cays to got 30 miles further to the Waderick Wells Cays. The trip was peaceful and uneventful, but we were blown away by the sight when we moved around the rocks and entered Waderick Wells Cays. The world seems to get more and more beautiful the more we dive into it and emerge on the other side. The colours unbelievable, even if I wanted to I could hardly find any words to describe the colour range of the water, every kind of blue that you can imagine or have ever seen in magazines or colour charts - unreal!

Waderick Wells Cays harbour is offering us our first challenge in anchoring on a mooring. The Captain is approaching the mooring as you as the first mate has to catch the boje and then tie the boat to it. You might have guessed it already, the first time round I missed it, but second time it worked fine and we had a safe anchoring spot for the next few nights. We are sitting in a channel, and to starboard and port side you have got sandbanks. This time we did not wait long and once we checked in with the harbour authority, we put on our swimming gear and jumped right into the inviting water. It was low tide and we were be able to stand next to our boat, it felt like the boat was standing in the backyard, really weird. Our first night here in Waderick Wells Cays we made to a special movie night. I made some popcorn and we watched a funny movie, that I had picked up on the straw market in Nassau " It's not a Diary, its a movie", we all enjoyed it and had a good laugh.

Waderick Wells Cays has lots to offer. Lying on the beach is a humongous blue whale skeleton that got stranded there in 1985. They have got a Nature trial just like the one in Bimini, we explored it right the next day. Here in Waderick Well Cays Julia and Carlos learn lots about the Coral Reefs , Mangrove Ecosystem,the Queen Conch the Bahama parrot, the Bahamian Boa Constrictor. Julia already decided that she would like to become a vet doctor for animals ( these are her own words).

Carlos and Julia have got some new friends. There are these tiny little birds, that love sugar. If you put a little bit of sugar on your hand, they will come and fly onto your hand and eat the sugar out of your hand. The Park ranger here told us about this and the children love it. While snorkeling today, Sven found a little octopus in a conch shell. Sven did hold the conch shell in his hand and we were be able to watch the little octopus for a while moving in and out of his home. There is so much to see and learn, and that does not just apply to the children.

The swimming is fantastic, the snorkeling a la carte, the weather is a dream and the water is amazing, we even got Internet here, very slow, but good enough to emerge out of Paradise for a second to keep family and friends up to date with our adventures. Now I am diving back into Paradise, for some sweet dreams and we will probably catch up with you again in Georgetown or nearby.... good night and love and a big hug to all of you.