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.

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....

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.

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.

Our last day in Grenada

Whisper Cove Marina

It is official - JUCA is sold