Happy New Year everyone. For New Year's Eve, we had a bonfire on the beach with a couple of the other families. We shot off fireworks and roasted marshmallows. Next we went to a party at the St. Francis Hotel and Marina with all the other cruisers. DJ made it to midnight Nicole wasn't feeling up to par so she crashed early. DJ has made some new friends on a couple of other boats and doesn't seem to be around much anymore. At one moment he is off learning to kite board with Logan from Trek, comes back for food and then is off sailing a Hobbie Cat with Fred from Polika. The kids are really enjoying their time here. Lisa and I have mixed feelings. On one hand it's great because the kids are entertained and have plenty to do, on the other, we don't want to get stuck in one place too long with so much more to see. After being here for six days, we are all ready starting to think about moving on. Originally, we were planning on spending a month or two here. Now, we are thinking of visiting some of the more remote islands once we get some good sailing weather. Of course the kids don't ever want to leave. Don't get me wrong, we like it here but with only one year available to us we want to see more.

Lisa and I started playing volleyball a couple days back and have enjoyed getting some exercise. The one thing that does take some adjustment is all the rules in the anchorage. The majority of the cruisers that are down here have spent so many winters here they have created a mini-USA with rules and politics. We are continuously informed of these rules since we are newbies. They are usually delivered with a nice smile just to inform us of what is expected of us while we stay in their "town". We have been informed of: no throwing scraps overboard, no cleaning fish off of our boat, what kind of firewood we should burn, returning chairs after using them, where to put our garbage, time limitations on where you can leave your dingy, how to hit the volleyball, most of it is complete commonsense. They treat us as children. Most of the younger cruisers joke about it and let it roll off our backs. We all came here to get away from politics and rules. Some of the cruisers have forgotten that. I know it sounds like we are complaining, too bad, then don't read this.