The next morning we motored to our final destination where we would be hauling Kyros out of the water for the summer months onto the hard. We spent a few days cleaning and getting the boat ready for storage. It is time to head back home for the summer. We have had an incredible winter on the boat.

This six month journey has taken us to many beautiful places, we have crossed paths with some amazing people and have really been able to kick back and relax. The days have turned into weeks, weeks into months and it is hard to believe that our six months has come to an end. We look forward to getting together with friends back home to share our stories and photos. We also look forward to the opportunity to sail the ocean blue again in the future and get a chance to catch up with some new cruiser friends that we have met along the way.

We made our way between Nevis and St. Kitts and were on the leeward side of St. Kitts when the wind picked up. We finally could sail!! We sailed the last hour of our eleven hour trip, Marc was thrilled!! We arrived in Basseterre and walked around town. There was a cruise ship at dock, so the area was busy with tourists, but was a very nice clean town. Headed back to the boat for a very rolly night at anchor.

During our crossing Marc caught and released two fish. We were finally going slow enough for the fish to get a chance to grab the line. The first one was a mahi-mahi, the second was a tuna, they were both quite small so we decided to release them and give them a chance to grow a little bigger for the next fisherman who outsmarted them.

It was time to make our way to St. Kitts our last island destination onboard Kyros for the season. We had planned to leave early in the morning, maybe 6 or 7am, as we had a long sail ahead of us. However at 3:30am a very nasty mosquito decided to have an early breakfast from my eyelid. I am not sure if you have every had a mosquito bite your eyelid, but it has happened to me twice in the last four months and is terrible! The first time it happened we had to stay on the boat for a full day to wait for the swelling to go down so that people didn't think that I had an abusive husband. This time I put vinegar on the bite right away, yes it stung a lot when the vinegar made its way into my eye, but it was better than having a swollen all day. Needless to say I was wide awake so Marc decided we might as well get up and hit the open seas. Anchor was up and we were headed out at 4:00am.

There was no wind to speak of so iron sails it would be. I curled up on the salon sofa, and Marc held the helm. After a few hours Marc noticed some lights in the distance but was having trouble determining the direction the boat was heading, or what kind of boat it was. I heard a funny noise and all of a sudden the port side engine stopped. Marc headed to the engine compartment and I took over the helm. The lights were heading right for us; it looked like a very large boat, it was so dark outside, all you could see were a few lights. We turned on the starboard engine and made a hard turn to avoid whatever was coming towards us. Turns out it was a very large sailboat - thank-goodness Marc had not fallen asleep. During our entire sail we saw only three boats, two of which were on a collision course, what are the odds??

Marc decided to leave the port side engine until the sun was up to take a closer look at why it stopped. The rest of the day was more of the same - No Wind!! Blue skies, warm sun, whale spotting in the distance and only three boats in site on an ocean as calm and flat as a lake. Next thing we know the starboard side engine stopped. Things were not looking too good; no wind, no engines and a long way from shore! The problem turned out to be a V-belt, which Marc quickly changed out. Marc tried the port side engine and it hummed along just fine - we have no idea why it stopped, which is a little bit concerning, but we will deal with that later.

On Sunday we headed up to the top of Shirley Heights for their weekly BBQ. We could not believe how many people we found up there. They have a steel band play from 4 to 7pm, and then another band from 7 to 10pm. There was an $8/person cover charge for the bands. The views of English Harbour and Falmouth Harbour are spectacular with some pretty good sunsets.

I am not quite sure how I drew the short straw to have to clean and prep the bilges on BOTH sides of our catamaran for her six month storage. You would think there are two people on board, it is only fair that we share this nasty job and each do a hull. Well Marc is still trying to recover from his dingy accident back in late January and cannot use his wrist very much. I will have to remember this the next time we are getting the boat ready for storage and both of his wrists are working at 100%. It is hard to believe that it is almost time to head back home. The time on the water has flown by so quickly. It has been an amazing experience!! We have visited some incredibly beautiful places and have met some of the most interesting and wonderful people.

We have found a wonderful restaurant here in English Harbour. If you are ever in this neck of the woods you must try it!! It is an Italian restaurant called Paparazzi and is located on the water front. Thursday night they have half price pizza and pasta. And Tuesday they have International night where they offer up to a seven course dinner from a different part of the world. The restaurant is owned by a Canadian couple from Montreal, and the service is the best we have seen in the Caribbean. This week they featured Japan and it was delicious!! We were very disappointed to have missed their Brazil night last week.

One thing that we try to do while traveling is to take the local bus instead of taxis. It is a good way to see the countryside and save a ton of cash. A couple days ago we were waiting at a bus stop in Antigua in the middle of no-where. (We had stopped to visit the Chiropractor, who was born in Calgary). A young boy, maybe 8 yrs old, walked up to us and under his breath said "white people sure look different". Marc said pardon me and again under his breath said "white people look different in the real world". He was a little shy and did not want to offend us, but was merely making an observation. There are some things that we take for granted and it is obvious here that the locals do not have the same opportunity that we do.

The next morning we headed to Freeman Bay in English Harbour at the south end of Antigua. We missed Antigua on our way south so this would be a new island stop for us. We purchased an EPIRB in St. Martin in January but they were not able to revise the registration from the US to Canada. One of the only locations in the Caribbean that could make this change was in Antigua so we thought we would stop and get this taken care of. We have spent most of our time in Antigua on the boat getting her ready for storage. We have ventured off the boat a few times and what we have seen really love. There are some good hikes and diving here, but they will have to wait until our next visit.

After five days in Dominica we made our way up to the north end of Guadeloupe. We arrived in Deshaies after a seven and half hour sail. We experienced some crazy winds along the way, but were ready for them this time. The anchorage had 35 knot winds blowing through the valley, which made anchoring a little tricky. We went ashore to check into customs and tour the village. When we arrived we found out that it was a holiday so most of the shops and other businesses were closed. It was really a charming looking town; we hope to make it back on our next visit. After having dinner on the boat, we were getting ready to head to bed when I noticed that our anchor had dragged. So in the dark, we picked up anchor and reset it a little further forwards. We turned on the anchor alarm and I took the first anchor watch, as we did not want to get woken-up by crashing into the boats behind us. Two hours passed and we had not moved, so at 1:00 am I decided to crawl into bed, with the timer set to wake me up in one hour. Marc and I took turns getting up throughout the night to make sure that we were not dragging a second time. The anchor held this time, but neither of us had a good night's sleep.