Happy Holidays to all,
This has been an exciting year for us. You can read the events of the last year at this blog site (in reverse chronological order), or you can read though the condensed version in this entry. Last December we purchased a sailboat and spent the remainder of 2005, January and most of February getting ready for an extended trip. While working on the boat we were delighted to have friends; the Rosenkrans family, Marshall Neeck and Donna and John Buckley visit us. It was fun to share our new life with our friends.

In late February we sailed from south Miami to Grand Bahama Island. It was an overnight trip and everything went as planned. We had carefully picked the weather so the seas were very light and the wind favorable. We spent the next three and a half months sailing and exploring in the Bahamas.

The plan had always been to spend the first winter as a shake down trip and return to the states to fix and upgrade equipment on the boat in preparation for the big trip to the Caribbean and south from there.

We returned to the US in late May and landed in South Carolina. We visited with several members of Hunter's extended family in South and North Carolina and were treated like royalty. Hunter's Mother even traveled to see us and the boat. Hunter's sister, Brooke, and niece came to visit us and our nephew Reid joined us for a few days as we went through the Dismal Swamp. Ed and Betsy Whitaker visited us while we were in Oriental and it was a treat to spend a day with them.

We did our boat upgrades and repairs mostly in Oriental, NC. The boat was out of the water for four weeks and we lived aboard during that time. It was hot and we worked very hard each day and earned our evening ice cream. I attended a yoga class four times a week with a very talented instructor. We were pleased with the work and started moving north.

In September we sailed to Urbanna, Virginia to meet Sam Sawkins, a potential crew member. Sam crewed for my sister in 2000 and came highly recommended for his sailing, fishing and culinary skills. We spent two pleasant weeks in Urbanna getting to know Sam and his wife Ginny. We were in Urbanna when tropical storm Ernesto passed thorough. We were fine, but it was a tense 12 hours.

We explored the Chesapeake Bay and enjoyed a visit from Holly and Norm our friends and neighbors from Yosemite. We spent three weeks in Annapolis. Hunter worked on the boat and I worked at a marina as a dock hand, or as a friend said a "dock Dolly".

On November 8 we set sail from Hampton, VA to Tortola, British Virgin Islands with about 70 boats as past of the Caribbean 1500. We arrived in Tortola 11 days later. Sam Sawkins and Bob Oakes joined us as crew for the passage and we felt so fortunate to have two skilled and compatible folks aboard.

Well, that is all history and here we are in the Virgin Islands living and traveling on our sailboat, Arctic Tern. It is a very different lifestyle and I have tried to share it with you in the entries of the blog site.

It has been a bit more challenging to keep the site current as WIFI gets more difficult to find. We spend most nights at anchor, so we are a dingy ride distant from services such as WIFI, grocery shopping and laundry. Grocery shopping is much like a treasure hunt. You never know what goodies you will find and where and if you can locate the things on your list. We have been trying the local fruits, vegetables and cuisine whenever possible.
Yesterday we rented a car with some friends and toured the island of St. Croix. I was in heaven at the Botanical Garden and we all enjoyed the tour of the rum distillery and the samples after the tour. We visited a new National Park Service site called Salt River Bay. It is the location of the landing of Columbus in the United States as well as a prehistoric site.

I am writing this from St. Croix, USVI while sitting in the cockpit of our boat with my morning coffee watching and listening to the town wake up. Later today I will go into town to an internet caf� to download this onto the blog site.

Our immediate plans are to visit Buck Island Reef National Monument and continue to explore St. Croix. We will return to St. John for Christmas for a Christmas dinner with fellow Caribbean 1500'ers and pick up Nani on the day after Christmas. Nani will be with us through the New Year. During her visit we will explore Islands and locations in the US and British Virgin Islands that we yet to see or want to return to. That is the plan.


Happy Holidays and Happy New Year,
Devi and Hunter
SV Arctic Tern