Welcome on aboard SV/ JUCA

Our philosophy is to live in peace and harmony with each other and to have lots of fun doing it! We practice compassion and unconditional love and experience that there are no mistakes only stepping stones while we grow on our journey.



We have sold our house in August 2009 and moved from Mangawhai / New Zealand to Norfolk/Virginia to board our Sailing Vessel Juca in January 2010.



Juca is the name of our beautiful 60 foot Morgan, and the name is a creation of the first initials of our amazing inspiriations, Julia and Carlos.



I hope you all will enjoy reading our blog and following our travels around the Caribbean.



Sunday, November 27, 2011

Welcome Home

"The Eagle Has Landed" the famous words of President Kennedy when they landed on the moon. This is how we feel when we arrived in Auckland yesterday morning at 9 am, its great to be back!

Friday, November 25, 2011

Flying Home for Christmas

When I woke the children this morning, they complained that they did not have a single day since arriving in the states, where they could sleep in. All I could say, “Welcome back to the real world, you better get used to it, the days of sleeping in are over.” However the excitement of going back home to New Zealand is great and so their tiredness is soon forgotten. They jump out of the bed and into the shower and are ready to go with their luggage in their hands. To my surprise there are no hick ups this morning. We reach the airport in time, have got plenty of time to check in, the luggage is getting checked through to New Zealand and before we know it, we are sitting on the plane from Orlando to Los Angeles, which is a five hour flight. We had to wait 10 hours for our connection flight to New Zealand, but I had allowed plenty of time in between flights, just in case! This time round we were lucky and had a very relaxing, but boring time on the relatively small airport in Los Angeles. Never mind better this way, then racing all the way! We were all happy when we finally boarded our plane that would bring us safely back to New Zealand. New Zealand watch out here we come.

Thanksgiving in Daytona

Today is Thanksgiving in the States, which is a public holiday and we have been invited to celebrate this day with Aletha’s and Eric’s family in Daytona. We got up early this morning to make the most out of our day. We had organized a rental car at 8.30 am and wanted to be in Daytona the latest by 10 am. The guy from the rental car company picked us up in time, but did have to pick and drop off another client and so we were in for a little ¾ hour tour around Orlando. By the time we signed the paper and were ready to leave it was already 10 am, so that meant we had just lost an hour with our friends. Luckily we had also rented a GPS and so there was no problem finding Aleatha’s and Eric’s house. The kids were so excited to see each other and while the adults had a chat, cup of tea/coffee in front of the Christmas tree, they happily played outside in the garden. It had been sunny today, but the air was a bit chilly. This kind of weather reminded us a bit of Christmas time in Germany; hot drinks in front of the Christmas tree. For lunch we went for a drive to Eric’s sister Renee for the Turkey lunch. They were really nice and we had an awesome meal, once again we had far too much to eat and had to be rolled home again. The rest of the day we chilled and relaxed at Aleatha’s and Eric’s house. We all had a fantastic time and it was very hard to leave that night time; not knowing when we would see each other again. However I am very positive it will not be too long before we can hang out together, hug each other again, and spend time around the table talking about anything that comes into our mind. Thank you Aleatha, Eric, Chase and Reese for having us and being our friends.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Adventure Island - Universal Studio

Two days of madness in Orlando's famous Disney World. We have survived it and I can say that we have done it, seen it and can cross it off our bucket list to see and do! This time round we divided our trip in two days. Remember two years ago we did 17 hours madness non-stop, this time round it was a bit more civilised. I have to combine those two days, because when we came back home last night, I was not able to write my name or think clear enought to make sense on paper.
However now I have to go to bed and to keep you posted I will continue the story tomorrow!
By the way ....have you heard or did you already know that we will be back in New Zealand by this coming Sunday......! Yeah we are soo looking forward to it. We have just bought a car today which will be delivered to the airport on Sunday ....good old "Trade Me" is having us back and was very helpful in this mission. Our new car will bring us safely back home to Mangawhai!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Our first day in Orlando

Do not even think that today went without any stress or hickups. Here was the deal!
I booked us into a hotel with a Universal Studio Vacation Promotion. To get the great Super Saving Deal, we only had to attend a Timeshare morning tour to stay in this beautiful hotel and would receive 4 Universal tickets as a gift for our willingness. Yeahh right, I know I should have known better, but it sounded to good to pass. However we got sucked in big times and this will be my lesson for life, never ever will I attend anything with timeshare ever again.
The first eyeopener happened already when we arrived in our hotel room, it was a shitty, old, rundown hotel, with ripped sofa, running tap all night, big marks on the carpet......don't even want to know! When we went down to the reception the next morning, no ones knows anything about the tour or timeshare..ups...the alarm bells are ringing big times! One friendly lady behind one of the desks, reckons that it must be another hotel that we are suppose to do the time share tour. Problem number one, we had to attend the tour to receive our tickets, that had already paid for, wrong move! Problem number two, we did not have any means of transportation to get to this hotel, so we had to order a taxi, which cost us mega bucks as you can imagine! Problem number three, the room was not even near the money worth that we had paid, so we had to find this timeshare presentation. Problem number four, we could not get hold of any person where I had booked the Vacation Package. Problem number five.....Sven... by than he was so mad.... not that I was any calmer!
Off we went with the taxi to the hotel where we were suppose to be at 9 in the morning. By the time we arrive at the hotel, which was an half hour trip away, it was 9.30 am. Lucky us, that hotel did not know anything either about a timeshare promotion, they had worked with the company half a year ago, but the hotel got sold in the middle of this year and so they had moved on. Howeve we were kind of lucky as the ladies behind the desk felt for us and they managed to bring light to our mysery. We had to take another taxi to drive a few miles further ...hoping that this time it would be the right place. BINGO! Half around Orlando and US$ 75 later we had found the place we were suppose to be 2 hours ago. by that time Sven was steaming, and had to be told to calm down otherwise she would call the security to remove him from the premises! They told us that we could attend the lunch time presentation, but all we wanted were our tickets and go back to where we came from. No go...no presentation, no tickets....stuck.....we had already learned that this kind of scam happen all the times and in america it is called "bait and switch" and we told them if they would not return our money back than we would bring it to the press and that they could talk to our laywers....and then we left! By now it was lunch time and another US$ 75 later we tried to calm down in our room. While we rang Visa to report the incident and to stop the transaction, we received an email from the company I booked the package with, to confirm our booking and to explain the details of where we have to go and where the timeshare presentation would take place. At the same time it knocks on the door and the hotel management is informing us that our room reservation had just been just cancelled and that we need to vacate the room, if we are not willing to pay! PAUSE.......I just needed to take a deep breath in to evaluate the situation ....it all felt like we are in a cheap, bad movie scene. We explained what had happened to us and I could virtually feel the bad energy leave the room.....We got it all sorted in the end, stayed in our room and paid for it ourselves, paid for our own tickets, and hoping to get our money back from Visa. What a nightmare after nearly two years of sailing in the beautiful Caribbean and only tried to be ripped once in a while off in a relaxed environment. What a shock to the system this morning..... there is no doubt about it anymore, we have landed back in reality!
NO WORRIES! Nothing can stop us to have a good time anyway and what can help much better then being surrounded by friends. Our friends Aleatha and Eric came with their two sons for a visit. What a delight it was to see them again and our morning nightmare was soon forgotten. We had a blast and we took the opportunity to went to visit Downtown Disney with them. The kids were thrilled to be reunited again and they enjoyed each others company. For dinner we went to the Boston Lobster Feast restaurant and overate on seafood. The Seafood Buffet was amazing and we all enjoyed the different combinations and ways the seafood was cooked and presented. We rolled out of the restaurant and did not have to take another meal for two days! What beautiful memory we created that afternoon and that evening. Thank you Aleatha, Eric, Chase and Reese for making the effort and coming to see us for the afternoon in Orlando. We will see you in Daytona for Thanksgiving. Already looking forward to spend a whole day with you.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Goodbye St. Martin ...... Welcome Orlando

Our time has come to leave St. Martin! Today is our last day in the Caribbean and oh what wonderful time we had, however you should always leave when you are enjoying it most. Thats what I have been told anyway, so we will stick with that for now.
I got up fairly early today to pack my last bag with the last few items that I have found last minute and we still needed while in St. Martin. Sorry Ralph, but I took all the money that was hidden underneath the matrace, but to my horror I had discovered that I had lost my most important Memory stick with all my important documents on it. In my panic I made Sven go back to JUCA one more time, before they were leaving to Puerto Rico, unfortunately I had no luck, I must have lost it while moving staff off the boat. Not a good start for the day!
Just before nine o'clock I went to the St. Martin Yachtclub to wave goodbye to JUCA, our home for two years! Ralph and Eddie were taking the nine o'clock bridge opening to leave to Puerto Rico, "JUCA's"new home port. She was so beautiful as she was approaching the bridge from the distance..... kind of majestic and patient was she sitting in the water! The bridge opened and she passed me showing off her pride. I was waving goodbye, when the tears that I had been holding back were streaming down my cheeks. Even while I am writing this now, I can feel my eyes filling up with new tears. "JUCA" has been a wonderful home for the last two years and I will miss her dearly as well as my life on the ocean.
Before going back to the place we were staying at, I met up with a few friends that I have made in St. Martin, for a final farewell. Then it was time to go and to gather my belongings, my family and to make our way to the Princess Juliana Airport.
The emotional excitement and stress for the day was not going to end just yet. Luckily we had enough time at the airport to sort out our US Visa, which we did not have. Luckily we were able to do this over the internet. Jet Blue did not let us check in unitl we had applied for the VISA, do you know how much time it can take to fill out a few forms when you are under pressure.....forever! I filled in wrong dates, wrong names and passport numbers and had to start over and over again, finally I managed to fill in the needed forms, paid US$ 129 and we were allowed to board our plane to Orlando, via Puerto Rico. Finally on the plane we could lean back and relax our relatively short flight to Orlando. Now our Sailing Days are officially over!!! What a day!....... Filled with excitement, emotions and a bit of mental stress...welcome to the real world!
Without any more mishaps we managed to land in Orlando that night and organised a taxi to our Hotel. Despite the short flight we were all pooped, when we finally dropped all our clothes and fell backwards onto our beds in our room. We all jumped under the hot shower....aahhhhh....what a luxury...a hot shower before going to bed and nice, crisp, clean; white linen were greeting us afterwards..... good night and sweet dreams.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Countdown in St. Martin...

A little update on our current situation. We have been in St. Martin now for over a week and so much has happened and so much was there to do. However we are now in our final steps to fly out of here in three days.
When we arrived last Thursday we were totally exhausted and all needed an early night and a good night sleep, without any movements. I prepared myself mentally for a busy week, packing, tidying up and saying goodbye to our two years of sailing with JUCA. It is not saying goodbye to JUCA, it also means saying goodbye to Eddie who has sailed JUCA with us up from Grenada. It turned out that a sailing companian has become a friend. He is very easy and fun to have around. Thank you Eddie for your help and companianship over the last week, we have all grown very fond of you and you will be missed very much.
The next day we got up and felt very refreshed and full of energy after a restful night. Sven and Eddie went to check us all in on the French side, while I was cleaning and tidying up the boat and schooling Julia and Carlos. When I finished I looked outside and just realised that a big Catamaran was trying to tie up to us....I just thought to myself ..."What the ...." is going on and stomped outside to look into the smiling faces of Kim, Brian and Rayne Duff.....our friends from Trellis Bay....what a surprise and that was the end of a productive day....we celebrated our reunion and partied all day until the early morning hours. Unfortunately Kim had to leave the next day, but it was sweet and short and made the most out of it; totally enjoyed their company for the time being.
The rest of the week we have been busy packing up all our belongings.....40 boxes later (mind you they were little ones) I could not believe that we had accumalated so much staff again. I had already given so much away and still had to pack so many things. Next time round I will only move with a suitcase and what I can carry with my other hand ;) However, yesterday we finished packing and dropped off all our boxes at the shipping company located on the French side. Now it is on its way via France to New Zealand and we will be reunited with our personal items again in a couple of months. I bet by the time it will arrive, half of it is not needed anymore. Never mind it is what it is and we took what was important to us in the moment of packing.
The rest of our time here in St. Martin we can now enjoy to the fullest and embrace our last days in the Caribbean....a beautiful time is coming to an end another door is already opening up for us....

Friday, November 11, 2011

Grenada to St. Martin in 52 hours

What a trip and if we would have not come into a few storms and needed to alter course, we are confident to say that we could have made it in 50 hours. However let’s start from the beginning!
I got up very early on our day of departure. I did my yoga and went for a last walk up to Sharon’s house for a last hug, cup of tea and a last chat. I was in a very emotional state when I left the boat, but felt much better and stronger when I walked back and I was dearly missed as usual on my return. Sven was annoyed because Eddie had been waiting for us at the big Fish and Sven had to call SV “Vanity” to help him out. However everything worked out in the end, Eddie and Sven went to the immigration to check us out. In the meanwhile I got everything inside the boat secure and ready to leave, did some washing and got it dried before we left the harbor, baked a couple of loaves of bread and prepared the Lasagna for lunch. Then it was time to lift the anchor one last time and we sailed gracefully out of Prickley Bay. One last look back and then we are leaving the Island I learned to love and appreciate. Thank you Grenada for your hospitality you surely have got a lot going for you and I promise I will be back one day.
We were on our way to St. Martin. Grenada stays to our starboard side for a few hours and our sailing journey had a smooth start. Luckily this time we were three adults on the trip so our shifts were 6 hours Sven, 6 hours Eddie and my shift was for two hours between 10 and 12 noon. I was very happy with that order, because the smoothness was about to change and the journey became roly poly and very uncomfortable. Most of the time me and the kids were lying in the master cabin, trying to stay on the bed and not to let loose of our inner organs. I still tried to manage to supply the guys with water and even something to eat, which took quiet an effort. At night we encountered our first storm, luckily it was nearly full moon and so the big waves did not seem to be too intimidating. I had bought a few new movies for Julia and Carlos and luckily Eddie owned an I-phone, so they were both occupied throughout the whole trip. Carlos finished all levels of the game “Angry Bird” and he tried to teach me, but I am too slow and have not the right finger coordination for these kinds of games.
The second storm we encountered in the second night, of course at night what else did we expect! We had to alter our course and had to look for shelter just off the coast of Navis. With a broken anchor winch we tried to avoid anchoring, so we did remember this little bay at the top of Navis that had free mooring balls. We took the mooring ball and crashed for a few hours before heading further towards St. Martin. By the time we continued our journey the wind had died down, but the swell still gave us grief all the way up to St. Martin. Once we left Navis we had a race with time. The last bridge opening was at 5.30 pm that gave us exactly 7 ½ hours for 65 Nautical miles to sail to St. Martin. We wanted to avoid staying outside of Simpson Bay, because after all our effort we did not want to drop the anchor right in front of the doorstep of our destination. What can I say; we made it and even had 5 minutes to spare to really inhale our success of making this sailing tripa in such glory of time.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Goodbye Grenada

The day has finally arrived and we are leaving for our last sailing trip on JUCA to St. Martin. the last two days have been quiet emotional for me, but I am ready to leave this morning. I went for a last bus trip to St. George and loved sitting in the bus and enjoying the scenery and the Grenadian people in the huzzle and buzzle. I had my last shopping trip at IGA and experinced the the helpfulness and caring way of the Grenadians. thank you so much Grenada for such a wonderful time, I truly experienced love, light and laugther on your Island.
I am all set this morning, the Lasagne is ready in the oven for lunch, two breads are baked for the journey and the washing is all done; had my last yoga session the deck watching the sunrise and went for a last walk up to Sharons house to have a cuppa with her and talk about staff :) and had fun. Now I have to go and get the yacht ready for our trip...don't worry I will have plenty of time to fill in the spaces in the blog and will post them once we arrive in St. Martin.
Love and light to all and hoping that this last sailing trip will be pure joy and fun, embraching the way of life one last time. I love my life, my family and friends.