the ecstatic Wall's about their new family addition.....

yes it's a girl that's been jumping around in Samantha's belly.....I though she just had indigestion or gas, but it was confirmed when I fronted up to meet her whoopi goldberg, lookalike, dreadlocked gyno and the ultrasound that doesn't lie!

So after evicting Jamie from his old room, I repainted to prepare for our much loved new entry into the world.

so the question is whether our little girl will inherit her mother and grandmother's bluewater instincts?.....time will tell but she'll be sure to be a water baby ......

here's Laura also gently caressing Samantha's belly.....

maybe Samantha ate too much and she needs her belly rubbed?

I hate the attention, but Sammy sweetly surprised me with all the fam for a great night out in FLL.

we had nearly no wind on the way back round the bottom of Abaco and across the banks....it was either a full on squall or zephrs of variable wind.
Here we are entering the basin after a frustrating couple of days....wish I could turn around and go back but hurricanes and large swells force us to retreat to the safety of the mainland....

nothing beats fresh sushi and ceviche, nothing....and with fresh tuna it just melts in your mouth. Here's a manageable little catch perfect for two.

or summer crabs as they're known in the off season, but the season is now open and it's a free for all. Here's a couple of nice lobbies for dinner......

a resident of Little Harbour for >20 years, Richard has carved a cute little beach bungalow out of the salt scrub right on the windward beach side. Home also to his two cats, it's the perfect bachelor pad!

a jovial Richard and I after a couple of bottles of vino.....

Richard and Sammy after we feasted on Creamy Lobster Pasta, real baguettes, fromage and tart au tin......a little slice of France in the Bahamas!

nice view from the highest point in an otherwise mostly flat Abacos

the oldest working fresno lighthouse in Bahamas....when it works!

thanks to Samantha's mum for shouting us dinner at the club.....

cupcake for a cutie

when the mossies don't drive you down below at dusk, this is the view from the cockpit...............

sorry I can't show you the next shot, but I'll let your imagine figure it out....

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island style......

amazing what you find on the beach.....

conch fritters and guiness.....my new diet!

the scenery from my new lounge chair

thanks to Sun Microsystems for making it all possible......!

back on the boat again and not spilling your coffee disturbing the peacefulness of dawn sailing.....

after 6 months of life getting in the way, we're finally back on the boat and heading out again, this time to the Abacos to play for a couple of summer months......

what is that thing on here finger?

after 3 brutal weeks of sanding, grinding, bogging, sanding some more and then painting, here's Kipona ready to get splashed sporting here new bottom and boot stripe.....that should keep her slick for a couple of years....

exhausted with burning calves and knees giving out we're pleased with ourselves for having done it in a day. After sleeping it off tonight we're off tomorrow to Milan for a day before back to Florida.

the view from the sea gives you a better idea of how these villages are nestled neatly in the valleys and inlets.

with our ferry arriving, we grab a quick bevvie before heading back to our village.

with our last village closing in the distance it was a good chance to rest the calves and cool off in the Med, even if we had to rock hop to get in to it..

looking back to our village Monterroso in the distance, we're almost at the end of our trek just before our calves give out!

the train line in the Italian side of the Med runs quite literally along the coast....

a village along the cinque terre typical of the spectacular country we hiked through

our hiking destination was a long way off on the horizon but the pain was worth it!

the 10km hike from our village along the cinque terre takes you up each of the 5 cliffs and down to into each village, along the way through vineyards and olive groves. It's a spectacular trail but hard work!

you pay for your spot but once there, you can stay the whole day. The best things about stone beaches...? No sand up your bum!

Monterroso is the only of the 5 cinque terre villages to have a real beach, even if it's stony. The closest bay was our favorite spot and, even though we had to fight to get in there as it's mostly reserved for locals, once there the grey/green water was heaven.

Sammy is so sweet and after a candle lit muffin for breakfast and the cutest chihuahua card she tipped off our mediterranean front restaurant of my advancing years.

I could have booked a hotel downtown, but of course we wanted a cute Casa at the top of a hill overlooking the town and away from the hustle that is touristy Monterrosso. Here I am dragging our expensive new luggage up the rock path to our BnB that was to be our home for the next week. Every night after a day of sightseeing and me full of red wine, we had to trek uptown and then the 90 steps from the road to collapse at the top. Next time we'll have separate baggage!

make no mistake, it really does lean and not just a little bit.

most of the cathedrals we visited needed artificial lighting to hide their eeriness. I can only imagine what it must have been like when catholic priests roamed the corridors and heathens were hung or worse, all in the name of religion. I doubt I would have lived a long life in those days!

no points for guessing the location of this one....the acoustics of the baptistry on the left were as good as any opera house and of course the famous leaning bell tower that you can climb the stairs to the top if you're game. This was a short train stop on the journey from Florence to Monterrosso.

on the famous bridge over the river in Florence we stop amongst the tourists to snap a romantic sunset shot on our last day in Florence. Overall it's cute and the shopping is great, but it's a bit touristy and expensive. If we were to return, renting an apartment longer term makes more sense and we'd explore a bit further, but with only 3 days this time we'd seen the highlights.

despite the overall shabbyness, you can't help but marvel at the architecture and attention to detail in these buildings in a time when construction was measured in 100's of years Here the entrance doors to the Cathedral.

The duomo's in Italy comprise a square with a cathedral, separate baptistry and bell tower. The exterior is covered in white and green marble and is quarried from famous hillsides in the area. I've got to say though that it needed a clean and our experience in Italy was the attractions were not as well maintained as in France. Here is the baptistry on the left, the cathedral with famous dome in the middle and the bell tower on the right.

you could almost hear the clip clop of hooves on the cobblestone streets as reminders of a bygone era when horse and carriage ruled the streets instead of today's Vespas. When candles were lit to mark your villa and you tied your horse up to the rings at the entrance. A time when men were gallant and women were agreeable or they risked being sent to the nunnery....oh to relive those times.....

the rolling tuscan countryside is home to Chianti and Super Tuscan (solid cabernet) wines and walled fortified medieval villages. It's lush but also hot under a tuscan summer sun.

the Uffuzi houses a mindboggling array of Gothic and Renaissance Italian art...most of it is religious as the aristocracy competed to have the most extravagant art hanging in their villas. After a while all the scene's of virgin mary and the murdering of babies get a bit tired and make you start to question how such violence was undertaken in the name of religion........

after rushing to drop off our rental car in Nice and just making our train to the border at Italy, we travelled through Columbus' birth town of Genoa and then changed in Milan for the fast Eurostar train to Florence. Another history lessons begins.....

No visit to France is complete without a culinary photo and I've had a lot of fine meals in my time but this was the best I've had in recent memory. The starter you see here was a kind of duck bruschetta with lentil tart and arugula greens followed by a medium rare filet topped with creamy foie gras and sauteed mushroom with a balsamic, red wine and pan juice reduction. As the menu was all French I probably don't do the translation justice, but it was mindblowing. A fitting end to a wonderful 10 days in the South of France.

I love this photo of Samantha....she looks such a French beauty.....

it wasn't all party and we did get in some sightseeing while the boys were off at the Remy Martin wedding of the year, the whole reason we're all in St Tropez in the first place. Here is Sammy atop the historic village of Ramatuelle with the vista of St Tropez and St Maxim in the background.

the most famous handmade leather sandals come from here. At US$150 a pop Sammy only window shopped, but Fred indulged in a pair that suited his style....

a day when we could drag ourselves out of bed to venture downtown in the daylight.

as we are the last to leave Club55 again, the moon rises over a perfect Mediterranean

This is a sailing blog after all (not facebook) so I thought I should include at least one sailing shot. Here the whole beach rose to watch as a big reefed down schooner charged toward the beach on a windy day before tacking away beside a sistership. Hoots and horns rang out in appreciation of the spectacle of seamanship as I thought about how Kipona might fit in anchored off the beach here? Maybe next season......

Hot!.....speaking of lounging that is Sammy's second favorite pastime

and so was our days at Club 55, lounging with old friends and new friends

chilled rose from a local vineyard delivered by a waiter to our cabana seems a little extravagant but it just seemed like the thing to do....?

for bamboo and thatch with old sails hung around, it is the essence of shabby chic, but it's a favorite celeb hangout....Here's a bunch of celebs in their own right.....

beach bunnies

sheila's in great shape

our first beach day before we relocated to Club55.

Sammy stylishly dressed for the beach

even though breakfast was often in the afternoon, it was welcomed by the hungry masses needing a hangover cure.... behind the smiles there are serious hangovers (except for Sammy who doesn't drink bless her heart). The eyes tell the story.....

we did this day after day.....it was a complete blur as one day melted into another...the routine was... wake up whenever you can, hopefully before the sunsets again, hit the beach at Le Club 55 for late lunch and aperitivos, home to change for dinner at another fabulous restaurant in St Tropez and then club until the wee-hours....thanks heavens we're only here for ten days...!

The "A" alpha team......brother Jamie is a party starter wherever he goes and these glasses came all the way from Miami just for the occasion.

our theme song for the whole week....it's indellibly printed in my brain, you know one of those songs that when you hear it ten years from now you are instantly transported back in time to that experience. It's not that it's a great song so much as how much fun we had when it was playing. Here's Fred and the gang having a good night!

that's a good motto to live by.......Sammy and Lore hiding behind the strong arm of Lore's boyfriend

trying to keep up with the dancing diva that is Samantha

our small group doubled one night to go hit the club.....nice pins there Sammy!

not to be left out, the girls get in on the cool act. Here's Samantha and Sheila ready to party....

architects, fashionistas, boutique and salon owners....there's way too much talent and good looks here.....I can't compete with that. The boys ready to take on the town.

here's the team fuelling up before hitting the famous club Le Cave du Roy.

a classic provencial villa was to become the scene of much destruction of brain cells over the coming week as Samantha's brother and friends joined us for one of the best party vacation weeks I've ever experienced.

this was the most expensive room we booked for the whole trip....lucky it was only one night! But at only 50metres to the beach down a quiet lane in Juan Le Pins, it was worth it.

I'm an early riser which is good if you want uncrowded beaches and I was surprised at how clean the beach and water was given the summer crowds. It was nice to shake off the city clothes for a first dip in the Med.

I couldn't wait to have my first swim in the Med.

it's easy to swing into the joie de vivre...(forgive me if I misspelled). Here on the fast train planning how to get from Nice train station to the rental car at the airport and then to our BnB in Antibe.

there's something about the light in France....whether it's morning or afternoon or dusk it has this amazing softness to it....no wonder artists flock there to paint. Here's a pretty flower market in the morning light....

choosing a restaurant was a constant battle all over europe.....there's so many great places to choose from that I like to take my time considering the menu and the ambience, but Sammy just wants to be fed or she becomes bearish.....

I don't mind paying for good food, but I get more than grumpy when I think I'm getting ripped off. I was determined to seek out some authentic French cuisine at the right price and I had my way with this one....not only because I could identify with the name, but their duck was amazing as was the whole experience.....I was right on the money here.

so a photo of the most famous church in France to close out our week in Paris.

I loved the food and wine in Paris....as a real foody I appreciated the variety that is available and I've certainly never eaten so much steak tartare and steak frittes in all my life! You can spend weeks in a single arrondissment without eating at the same restaurant twice and what better way to relax after a hard day of church hunting than with a good red, right Sammy?

don't ask me what the statue is but the photo was good....

although we appear to be enjoying the view it's a little claustrophobic going up there and it was packed full of people. So we've done it but didn't enjoy it enough to go back again....

here I am trying to look as if I'm enjoying a baguette after paying 6Euro from some rip-off Eiffel Tower vendor. Sammy loves it when I get like this......and it happened a lot throughout Europe.

I waited for ages to get this shot without any cars in the picture. Being a roundabout the Arc is rarely without traffic. Here's Sammy trying to look patient.

me getting cutesy with the camera

it's such a shame that Monmatre is a tourist trap. We encountered really poor mime/dance dance acts and muggings in the first 5 minutes we were there. Still it's another impressive example of what can be built with church donations.

this had to be one of the best tarts we had in Paris, and Sammy sampled her fair share! Curbside dining has it's price but it's worth it for the people watching...

remember when Anne Hathaway (gasp, she's so gorgeous!) throws her mobile into the fountain in the same movie after quitting her high fashion job? Well this was it....here's Sammy (gasp she's so gorgeous too!) with a peek of the Eiffel Tower in the background.

the french love their parks and they hang out in them constantly....but most of them have dirt floors which detracts from the experience a little.....finally in luxembourg gardens I managed to find a bit of grass to sit on. Check out the sky....it was a crystal clear summers day.

sammy likes silhouettes and our little camera doesn't do backlighting so well which makes it a little tough....but here is one she managed to capture really well.

it's overwhelming sometimes, everywhere you turn there is examples of fine art with photo opportunities

isn't that just sweet....!

one for the boys....

these were so cool for the kids to play with

cwapes, qwiche and wed wine in the gardens.....all that was missing was a qwassant!

here's a different take on the entrance to the Louvre.....pronounced loovve not loovver for those culturally devoid out there reading this.....You can't escape the culture in Paris....at each of the entrances there was either an opera singer, a cellist, or a violinist....I takes a good whole day to do the Louvre justice so we didn't go in but left a little something for our next paris visit.....

I was in for a history lesson and Sammy was determined to boost my culture lacking consciousness with anything that resembled a church....but I have to admit that I'm now a convert (not religiously speaking of course) to the grand churches of Europe. This is not even Notre Damme, just a church we found when walking the local neighbourhood....

baguettes for every occaasion are de rigeur in France......how cute is our apartment eh, even if you can't swing a cat in it!

yes it's a change in scenery, but there's no escaping the allure of Paris.....tasting a real baguette on the banks of the siene seems so authentic....getting into the swing of things on my first day in France.

Kipona snugged down and ready for the dock as we enter the breakwater into fort lauderdale. The photo is courtesy of Samantha's Aunt Wendy who lives atop one of the highrise condominiums at the entrance.

no cruise would be complete without the mandatory sunset shot,,,,but they don't come much better than this melting sun on the bahama banks.....

the only fish I caught without a spear the whole trip and what a beauty! No doubt that spearfishing is hard work, I'll take a fishing rod anyday.......

after the nasty squally from the day before, sammy takes some time off to relax on deck on a perfect day under the spinnaker.......

mornings are not my best time......

here's sammy being brave at the helm in the face of a whiteout squall and double reefed main as we return up the islands to Nassau

sammy and coral with her boys on our last day at Staniel

sammy can't resist a cute dog and max is no exception

Marty our host allowed me to connect to her wireless to stay online with work....here on the deck at her house....for the boys from Gulf Charters....note the IYT t-shirt....

while they're bottom feeders, nurse sharks can still suck your arm off. Here's Sammy deciding discretion is the better part of valour when one gets a little too close.....

Coral and Sammy getting fearless....better them than me right...I mean someone has to man the camera....?

here's Sammy up close and personal with a Nurse shark

but they sure can swim.....one of our anchorage's main attractions was the swimming pigs.....you can smell 'em a football field length off the beach and they're not shy in coming out to the dinghy for a free meal.....

grab whateve you can to make a noise....whistles, gallon drums and even rocks in a bottle will do!....here's Coral's boys jammin with the locals.....