Hello Folks,

Been awhile, but you know things be happening down here in the Caribbean. A belated season's greetings to all and I hope everyone's New Year has been good so far. How them resolutions holding up so far? Tired of fighting the crowds in the gym yet; don't worry it will start to thin out again in a couple of weeks. I think a gym right after New Year's is kind of like church on Christmas Eve, lots of folks you don't recognize showing up making things a bit crowded. Anyway, back to the world of SeaSparrow.

Some may be able to recognize the location of SeaSparrow based upon the lead pic and if you guessed St Maarten you would be right ... sort of. We are actually now in Jolly Harbour, Antigua but we spent so much time in St Maarten this blog will be written based upon that location. The photo depicts Maho Beach where we also visited back in March when we were in St Maarten for the Heineken Regatta. This is the place where the planes land almost right on top of you and take off such that you can be sand blasted by the plane's jet wash. We arrived in St Maarten on the 9th of December after another great sail up from St Kitts, which gave us several days to spare before Jessica and Dustin were due to arrive.

I discussed Sint Maarten in an earlier blog the last time we visited but it really is a neat place. As a reminder it is one island that is divided up between two countries - The Netherlands side or Sint Maarten, and the French side - St Martin. What is neat is that you can travel freely between the two countries without need of passport or clearing customs once you have checked into one side or the other. The only thing you can't do is take your boat from side to the other without the hassle of clearing out of one side then clearing into the other. Sint Maarten is also home to some of the most expensive yachts in the world and many of them were there this time as well. Here's a couple of shots of the super yacht "Venus" build for Steve Jobs of Apple fame. This yacht cost approximately 100 million euros and is massive. Unfortunately for Mr. Jobs he died before it was completed and he never sailed in her. Just goes to show once again health is more important then money as this guy had all the money in the world but in the end ...




We had about a week with Dustin and Jessica before Jordan was due to arrive so we took a small trip from St Maarten to St Bart's, which is about 15-20 miles away. Part of the trip's purpose was to turn Jessica into a sailor with the first task learning how to handle a line. She was a quick learner and actually relished some of the rough weather we went through on our short journey - maybe a natural sailor in the making.



While in St Bart's we spent a couple of days on mooring balls in small coves that allowed for some snorkelling and hiking.


Not sure what this big fella was under the boat.

St Bart's is a playground for the ridiculously wealthy and the capital of Gustavia is where the many super yachts tie up right downtown. We walked the entire town and captured some pics to try and give you a feel. Couldn't quite find a yacht in my price range that I was happy with so decided to let it slide this time.



Following our St Bart's excursion we sailed back to St Maarten on the 20th of December in time to meet Jordan who was due in that night. The next order of business was to decorate SeaSparrow for Christmas then let the festivities begin.



Debbie took the kids to Maho Beach so that they too could experience the feel of the planes. Here are some shots typical of how folks look while at Maho Beach. Here it comes and there it goes.



Debbie also opened up the SeaSparrow barbershop. When your on a boat you gotta be self-sufficient.
Leave a little on top.

Put a little on top.


On Christmas day we cooked a turkey onboard and it just fit into our oven once I completed a series of chest compressions on the bird. The CPR didn't bring the turkey back to life and it definitively came out with most if not all ribs being cracked. Jessica went home on the 23rd in time to go back to work over Christmas and the boys stayed until the 28th. The remainder of their time was spent hanging out in Sint Maarten and relaxing while meeting some of our friends from other boats.



Even though we are a long way from home and the only ice around is in the drinks, those of you who know me also know I'll find a way to watch the World Junior Hockey Championship. We had several bars put the games on for us and I am pleased to say we didn't miss any of the tournament this year. Awesome performance by the boys in reclaiming the World Junior gold. Dominating performance as they never trailed once the entire tournament although I will admit to some tension and a few curse words towards the end of the last game against the Russians. All's well that ends well. Go Canada Go.



Our plan after spending Christmas with the boys in St Maarten was to then make our way to Antigua to meet our next visitors who will arrive at different times over a two and a half month period. We figured no problem as our first visitors were due to arrive on the 25th of January, which would give us nearly a month to travel the 90 miles to Antigua. You should know by now when I say no problem there is usually a problem. The problem as always is the wind. They have this thing called the Christmas winds down here that usually start to blow oddly enough around Christmas. These winds are very strong in the range of 20-30 kts. They also come from the east, which isn't good if you're in St Maarten and are trying to go to Antigua. Bottom line you don't go from St Maarten to Antigua when the Christmas winds are blowing. After waiting for about two weeks a small weather window appeared to open up for about 12 hours that would allow us to sail overnight on the 9th of January. We quickly finished final preparations for sailing and exited the Simpson Bay Lagoon where we were anchored and caught the 4pm bridge opening. Here are some shots of us leaving the lagoon and sailing past the St Maarten Yacht Club.



We had a good sail down to Antigua with the winds holding such that we sailed for about 9 hours and motorsailed the last 6.5 hours. It was bumpy at times but all things considered not a bad ride. Lucky we jumped through the weather window when we did as it is doubtful we would have made it on time to Antigua to meet Dennis and Francis on the 25th. Another lesson learned in that we poorly planned our route to meet our visitors this year. We shouldn't have planned to come back east to meet folks but rather just continued north and west picking people up along the way. There is always more to learn on SeaSparrow.

As mentioned we are now in Jolly Harbour, which seems to be a great place. We will stay in Antigua until about the third week of March then head back to Grenada for an eventual return home on the 15th of April. We will meet our guests here in Antigua and spend our time sailing around the island as it looks like a great place to sail with lots of nice anchorages and small towns to visit. The entire island is only about 15X10 miles so we should know this place pretty good by the time we leave. We are kind of looking forward to the opportunity to hang out in one place for an extended period without any need to get to one place or another by a certain time. This will be the first time since stepping onboard SeaSparrow that we don't have to look at the weather windows everyday to get from point A to Point B within a certain timeframe. Not sure what we will do but between boat maintenance, sundowners and visitors, things will continue to be busy I have no doubt.

Talk soon.

Jeff