My words haven't been with me lately....that and the distraction of this great town of St Augustine and the huge amount of works we have done on board. We have had Skip Reynolds fully employed to install all the new you-beaut electronics. I had the job of being up the mast installing the radar in high winds and rain today...warm rain. Thats the job for the little guy.

Oli insulated the new DC refrigeration, Mark replaced bilges with automatic ones and retired most of the dodgy electronics. We have had rigging fixed and even cleaned the carpets. One more large job to do is lifting the port engine to fix an oil leak in the sail drive and a small job of wiring the solar. Then we will be able to stow the tools, clean the boat all in time for Jules arrival.

I meet Jules in Miami on Monday to have a much needed catch up after 3 months on the road. We plan to drive the Key Lago and the back up here. That will take a week...then...... we sail. Yep thats what we are here to do. Not sit in a marina, but to hoist the sails up our 63 foot mast and head offshore.

Charlottes is primed to come join us in April. She would have turned 18 without me and it will be the longest we have ever been apart. I so can't wait to see her, hear her guitar and voice. I would have achieved my aim of being in a lovely boat in the Caribbean and having both my kids on board. Charlotte and boyfriend Dakota will be in for some exciting sailing. We had expected to be much further south for there arrival but now should still be in the Bahamas.

And again an interruption to this blog...as a result of Marks surfboard blowing overboard I had a to dive for it. A well meaning motor boat tried to pick it up but almost took out the new Ooroo signage in their effort. . Not a nice thing to do in a marina...swim that is. Got to look about for floaties.

Now showered, with beer in hand and Oli's beloved Radiohead playing out of our kick arse stereo I can relax. Now.....all those people who know me well......yes I can relax.

Oli takes possession of his surfboard via a very nice surfer chick who will drop it off in an hour or so. It's my meager 21st birthday gift to him. That and a sail across the pacific. What will be the ultimate location of his July 10th birthday? Will our oven handle a cake, will we even be able to sit down and enjoy it. It's the not knowing that is the reason for this journey. Do we even know ourselves?

Well this has been a bit of an all over the place Blog....sorry about that. But at risk I am about to continue that theme but telling you all a bedtime story. If you fall asleep reading it then it served it purpose. Charlotte edited my awful gramma and spelling. Its my first attempt at writing since primary school. It's also a story theme that I use to tell Oli and Charlotte as kids. Until know they have never been written. Sleep well.


THE SANDCASTLE STORIES
“The First Discovery”
By Richard “Dad” McLeod

Oli and Charlotte had spent hours in the sand pit at the back of the garden, and what a beautiful garden it was. The sand pit was huge...well, doesn't everything look huge when you’re 7 and 9 years old? And the sand within it’s wooden confines was as white as snow, but very dry in the hot Australian summer. It was December and the lawn was brittle brown but the roses and fruit trees looked wonderfully alive.
Oli had run the hose from the tap near the house and filled up three big buckets with cool water. "This is how we build a great sandcastle...” Charlotte watched as he turned on the tap...”add a little water to the sand to make it strong like the house...and drink a little as well!"
"Yeah...we can't make a good sandcastle if we die of thirst" said Charlotte.
Charlotte and Oli were right...it was very hot. Dad made sure these little builders had hats and sunblock, but he really didn't need to. Charlotte learned from the previous summer...she was so badly burnt that she cried herself to sleep for nights on end! Oli remembers it so well. "Don't be a baby Charlotte. Just because your redder than the belly of a black snake, it can't hurt that much". But he knew that it hurt, he just liked to talk tough sometimes, so he wasn't going to let that happen to Charlotte or himself again.
Charlotte new exactly the sandcastle she wanted to build. She had a wonderful imagination. She stated by drawing a large circle in the sand and dug a big hole in the middle. "This will be the dungeon here,” she said. They then placed spikes from the rose bush around the hole and covered it with leaves.
"That will keep the bad guys inside alright," noted Oli as if talking to himself. He did that a lot, which Charlotte liked, because sometimes he would say something really stupid and she could have a good belly laugh at him.
They then mixed the water and sand in a bucket. When the sand was like mud they turned the bucket upside down on the circle that Charlotte had drawn. They did this 8 times. These were the turrets of the castle. From the top of the turrets the soldiers could stand with their bow and arrows to defend the king and queen who would be all tucked up inside.
Between the turrets they made smaller walls of sand and water, sticking small sharp sticks about as long as their little fingers into the top of the walls to stop the bad guys climbing over. They made a gate out of two pieces of wood from dads shed. Already everything looked so real.
Charlotte cut holes in a shoebox for doors and windows and put them in their rightful places. After all, the king and queen needed a palace...and what a palace it was! Their mum had all these expensive shoes, and they came in the most wonderful cardboard boxes! This one was gold and silver in colour, and had stars on the side that were purplish pink and big words fittingly spelling out ‘Windsor’. “The real king and queen have a castle called that!" Charlotte was happy with her creation already.
They finished off by adding a small mote around the outside and used some more wood from dad’s shed as a bridge. It was a drawbridge that could be lifted by imaginary ropes to allow the soldiers to cross. No one would ever swim in the mote because it was full of crocodiles...well, they imagined it was anyway.
When finished, Oli was all covered in wet sand and Charlotte looked like she had been freshly showered. How is it that some girls always look so squeaky-clean? She was actually really dirty but she just didn’t look it. They stood back and admired the sandcastle. "It's so magical!" Charlotte was in awe.
“It's so real!" Oli added, and what happened next was truly mysterious. Charlotte said the magic words...although she didn’t know they were magic yet.
”I wish we could live in there...”
That was when the magic started. The sandcastle started to grow! Or was it that Oli and Charlotte started to shrink? This would freak out most kids...but not these two. As it happens, they were in fact shrinking! The water buckets were now like rainwater tanks and the garden hose looked like a massive tree trunk curled up and twisted on the sand. The castle itself was so large that Charlotte and Oli were eventually standing in its shadow. Charlotte, as cool as a cucumber, breathed a sigh of relief. "It's nice to be out of the sun!" Oli, on the other hand, was speechless.
“That’s a change,” thought Charlotte.
Usually, this garden would be full of lots of amazing animals...most of them cute and cuddly. But when you’re only 5cm tall they can be seriously scary! Oli saw it first..."RUN!" he yelled, and without another word they hightailed it to the drawbridge with a huntsman spider in hot pursuit. When you’re big, a huntsman is bigger than your hand and scary. When you’re small it's like being chased by an eight legged spaceship! Huntsmen have sharp fangs, which Oli knew only too much about. When he was younger and sillier, he mischievously picked one up so he could hide it in Charlotte’s lunchbox. Of course, it bit him, and of course, it hurt! The drawbridge was down but as they approached, it stated to lift. There were soldiers on the other side and they didn't want this Huntsman turning them into lunch either! Oli and Charlotte ran even faster...and at the last minute, they jumped.
Charlotte gripped the drawbridge’s edge like a spider-monkey (speaking of spiders!) She was dangling with her toes just above the water, her hat now slowly floating towards the water like a feather in the wind.
“Your hat!” Yelled Oli. To his horror, it didn't even make it to the water. A gecko snapped at it in mid-air before disappearing below the murky water. Oli grabbed hold with one hand and swung himself to the top of the fast rising bridge. He just loved to show off! When he saw the gecko rise in the water he went white...now is not the time to be a smarty-pants. He grabbed Charlotte by the hand and they both clambered over the now upright drawbridge and down the other side to safety. Or so they thought.
It wasn't their sandcastle anymore! A soldier not much taller than them stood with a crossbow aimed menacingly towards them. It's funny the thoughts that go through one’s mind at a time like this. Oli was thinking, ”hey! I own you. I made you!” while Charlotte was wondering why his uniform of old sheets and tin foil looked so home made, and why the cross bow looked so very real.
“Come with me,” he said in a kid-like voice, which reflected exactly what he was...a kid. Oli and Charlotte looked at each other and then back at the soldier, and after some thought they decided to do as they were told...for once.
The castle was truly beautiful in a medieval sort of way. The turrets were now solid stone. The castle doors, which stood meters above their heads, slowly opened. Inside there was so much activity. Snails pulled carts along narrow streets. Stalls were loaded with barrels and sacks to sell. Bare foot Soldiers marched in columns and were all dressed like Oli and Charlotte’s captor. Women and children wandered around just like in real life, except for one thing. They were all the same size! Listening to them talk was really funny. Mums, dads, soldiers and kids all sounded just like them...like children!
The place was alive, and another kid now accompanied the little soldier. Oli and Charlotte could tell the new kid was the boss because he stuck his little chest out as far as it would go and tried with all his might to make his voice sound deeper. “Who are you and what are you doing in MY castle!” He bellowed.
Charlotte hoped that Oli wouldn't give a silly answer like, "we were just looking for the lolly shop, “or “what...this isn't our school?” So she got in first.
"I'm Charlotte and we come in peace" Oli looked at her in a ‘that-was-a-lame-thing-to-say’ sort of way. She glared right back at him.
“We are here because we built this place and a huge spider wanted us for lunch,” said Oli, a little annoyed that they didn’t give he or Charlotte credit for creating the home in which they live. Instead of thanking him, the tough little soldier stuck his chest out even further (if that's possible) and demanded they be taken to the dungeon. Not a very friendly place it seemed.
When they arrived in the dungeons, Charlotte realized she had designed them better than she thought. The rose thorns looked incredibly sharp and the leaves were like steel. There was a heavy door with chains and locks and beyond it was a windowless, dank space as small as Charlottes bedroom and as dirty as Oli's. 
 Charlotte was furious. “Those...those KIDS can’t do this to me!” Anyone who knew her would know better than to make her angry, as Oli had learnt when he put that snappy spider in her lunchbox. If she could only bring those emotions on now it would surely help them escape.
The thing about sandcastles is that they are – well - made from sand, and remembering that fact, Charlotte formed a plan. "Dig" she whispered towards Oli. And he did, which was probably the first time he ever did what his little sister told him to do. Although he didn’t show it, he was now getting a little scared himself.
Oli had already dug a small hole in the sand when he suddenly stopped in his tracks, fear spreading across his face. “What is it?” asked Charlotte, noticing his skin turn pasty white.
“The sand is moving!” he shrieked, and with that he jumped backwards, almost into Charlotte’s arms. She started to giggle, but not long after her smile withered as she saw what Ollie had seen. Slithering out of the hole was a massive worm!
It was huge! As round as Oli's waist and longer than both of them if one was standing on the other’s shoulders. It came towards them, slowly and threateningly filling the dungeon and pushing Charlotte and Oli back towards the corner. It was very dark, almost pitch black, but Charlotte remembered that earthworms live beneath the ground and can't see. The worm moved quietly past them as if not noticing the two kids, shivering in their little boots. “Go away!” Oli squeaked, holding on tight to his little sisters arm. Charlotte liked seeing this side of him...he wasn’t so tough anymore. All of a sudden, as if it had heard what Oli had said, the worm slithered through the sand wall opposite and disappeared into the ground again. Suddenly confident again, Oli shouted in the direction of the worm, “That’s right you stinking worm, I’m the king of this dungeon!”
“Let's follow it!” Charlotte said, enthused.
“You’re kidding me” said Oli, shrinking down again.
But Charlotte wasn’t kidding. She was smart. As the worm disappeared it left in its wake a small tunnel. The only problem was, Charlotte remembered learning that earthworms eat the sand as they travel and poo it out behind them. Yuck! This was NOT going to be fun. They slithered and slimed after the worm. It was hot and smelled like sand after a rainstorm. Better than smelling like poo.
“This may just work!” thought Oli, and in less than ten minutes the worm had made it's way into another room.
Now Charlotte looked really dirty. The room was unlocked but equally dark, and as they opened the door, the worm continued into the wall opposite to resume its sandy journey to, well, who knows? Just like the worm, Oli and Charlotte had to keep moving. They made their way to a door on the other side of the dark room. Oli pushed at it and it opened without a struggle.
The light was blinding, but as their eyes adjusted they realized they had made it outside! They could see the castle just a short distance away and figured that they could hide where they were until dark. But Oli's belly was rumbling, and he wanted to make a break for the outside world before he missed his lunch. Charlotte remembered making a door at the back of the palace, and she also knew that she built the walls smaller at the back. The thing is...when you make a sandcastle, you tend to make the part you can see better than the part you can't. They headed that way.
The palace was open and inviting. Oli and his rumbling belly lead the way while Charlotte kept a sharp lookout for soldiers. They crept through an amazing array of cluttered rooms. You could tell that they had really nice stuff inside, but the mess was astounding. "This entire castle looks like a kiddies play room" Charlotte said as she tried her best not to sit down and start playing. It was no time to be a kid, that's for sure.
Peaking into one room they saw a couple of messy looking kids dressed like a prince and princess. Unlike in fairy tales, these guys we're not the sort you would fall in love with at first sight. In fact, they reminded Oli of warty little cane toads! Food scraps sat at their dirty little feet and broken toys littered the floor. An unmade bed was hardly visible under the weight of dirty clothes.
Suddenly, the two sets of puffy eyes turned and spotted them. It was time to run again. The prince and princess struggled to find their feet while they tried to yell, croaking like frogs instead. The food that they had stuffed into their mouths fell out in yucky lumps. Charlotte and Oli let out a chuckle as they ran past the slow, lazy, muted kids.
Running towards the back door, they could see freedom only meters away. The wall was lower and didn't have as many sharp sticks to slow their climb...but they were now clearly visible from the turrets.
The alarms were raised and bells started ringing. Surely this was the alarm to bring all the soldiers out in hot pursuit of the little escapees? They could hear much commotion all around the castle, along with cries of fear, but why weren’t they being chased?
Whatever was happening elsewhere in the castle was distracting the soldiers! “Score!” yelled Oli...they had an easy climb to safety. The slow moving prince and princess hadn't even bothered to chase them, but Oli and Charlotte were positive they would tell someone the direction they had gone soon, so they climbed.
The sand was dry like soft rock, allowing them to make toe holes effortlessly, and the wall had a gentle slope, making it easier to climb. The sticks at the top we're loose, so they pushed them out and over the other side of the wall. All that was left now was the jump down the other side, which looked scary, but Oli and Charlotte threw themselves into the air without a second thought. They were free, or so they thought. Up until now, they had forgotten about the mote.
Charlotte led the way around the castle, making sure they stayed in the shadows of the walls. When they were in sight of the drawbridge, they could also see what the warning bells were for.
A scorpion with a razor-sharp, poisonous spike in its tail had scurried across the drawbridge!
“Why is it that scurrying animals are always the most sickening?” Charlotte thought as they watched it in horror. Oli was thinking the same thing. It was shiny black and had dark holes for eyes.
“Gross,” he said.
A split second later, the soldiers attacked. Arrows filled the air and came raining down on the scorpions armored back. It didn't slow. A very brave soldier went to meet the scorpion with nothing more than a spear and shield. The scorpion was ruthless. With one slow flick of its tail the soldier went flying through the air. "The drawbridge is down!” Oli said, “let's skedaddle." And they did. Once on the bridge they turned to watch the fight. Out from the castle’s main door came a very distinguished knight, riding yet another scurrying animal...a rat.
“Ewe!" said Charlotte, screwing up her nose, but although the knight was riding a rat, she couldn’t ignore that he was brave. The rat charged the scorpion with the knight holding on tight to a long lance. He hit the scorpion at full pace, the lance piercing its shell. With the pain of the blow the scorpion spun around, hurling the knight to the ground only meters from Charlotte’s feet. The scorpion approached the knight, its lethal tail cutting through the air, ready to strike the now defenseless knight. It's funny how things this serious seem to play back in slow motion. Funny, but no one was laughing.
Charlotte saw an opportunity. The lance was still sticking out of the scorpion’s side, which provoked its intent on injecting its poison into the knight. Without thinking, Charlotte pounced on the lance, pushing it further into the scorpion’s side. Oli, realizing her plan, joined in to add strength to the task. The scorpion wasn't happy. It spun and heaved and scurried out of control, it's legs buckling with the effort and pain. And then the tail struck.
The spike missed Charlotte by inches and imbedded itself into the wooden bridge. Oli went for the lance again, assisted now by the upright, but still slightly groggy knight. The scorpion tried to turn but was held back by the imbedded lance, and it slowly began to fall sideways. Oli and the knight, using all their strength and might, pushed the lance one final time. The scorpion fell from the bridge.
“Splash!” It appeared from the bridge that there were more than just child-eating geckos in the water. The mote bubbled and churned as the scorpion slowly succumbed to the frantic feeding frenzy below. Oli and Charlotte found each other, both looking dirtier and hungrier than ever. Everything was still and quiet.
Suddenly, the silence was broken by a very familiar and cheering voice.
"Oli, Charlotte!" It was their dad, calling from the house. "Lunchtime!"
The two grubby kids started to grow, the shadow of the castle receded, and the hose resumed to its normal size, along with the bucket, that started to look just like a bucket should. And the sandcastle, well, it was simply a sandcastle.
"Let's eat!" said Charlotte, making her way inside.
"Dad won't like that you lost your hat!" Oli called after her, his tummy churning as he imagined what their dad had made them for lunch today.
“We can go back tomorrow and find it...”
“Oh no we won’t!” Oli protested.

But both he and Charlotte knew they would be back...there was more to be discovered within the sandy walls of their new-found world.


THE END