Nadine and I are back up in Calgary Canada until mid summer. We left Squiz at Varadaro Carib Marina in Aruba. It is easy for us in Aruba but we expect to continue our travels after our second grand daughter arrives in the fall.

Hi from Squiz!

We are still located on a mooring ball maybe 40 meters from the shore line and the capital of Bonaire, Kralendijk. Major cruse ships arrive here almost every other day and these visits double the population in the in town. The diving here is great. The coral is spectacular and some of the best diving is right off the stern of Squiz. We have volunteered for the Marine Park to dive and pick up tyres and other debris off the reef after hurricane Omar hit here last year. It did significant damage. There are numerous happy hours on boats and on shore and lets not forget Dominos on Sundays. We are learning Dutch and have enjoyed our time here. We were parked in front of "Dive Friends" dive shop for a few weeks and you could view our daily activities on the Web Cam. We attempted to do as much as possible on the front deck such as cleaning and water proofing our Bimini top, but because better mooring locations became available the decision was made to move. We can now shower on deck with impunity.
In the infinite wisdom of the Government of Bonaire, and the Dutch Government they are now enforcing the time allowance for staying on the Island as well as in Curacao. This year visitors are given 90 days in a calendar year. This is not what we understood when we arrived from the beautiful Los Roques and Aves de Sotavento islands. This is forcing boaters like us into changing plans. Some are beating into it back to these islands or sailing on to Columbia. Unfortunately the passage to Cartegena is rated in the top five worlds worst areas to cross. The window for sailing South West is either in May but far better in late October or November. We had planned to leave Squiz in Curacao over hurricane season but this plan may now change. As of this writing we have less than 30 days to decide what we should do. We must take into account that Squiz does not motor to weather very well, so we are apprehensive about returning to the Roques and Aves and for safety reasons we don't really want to return to the mainland of Venezuela. Aruba may be an option but there is no haul out or ship yards there. Anyway we will let you know which way the wind takes us.
We have met a lot of great people here and its surprising how many Canadians there are in the mooring field. This area is kind of a "chicken harbor" for sailers. Either you sail West to Columbia and Panama or head north to Purto Rico and work you way back into the Leeward and Windward Islands if you don't wish to return to the States. We are getting ready for another dive this morning so we will update our status later.

Welcome to Flin Flon, located at 54�41' north latitude and 101�41' west longitude, close to the geographic centre of Canada, and at about the same latitude as Belfast, Copenhagen and Moscow! We enjoy a subarctic climate with a yearly average of 115 frost-free days. Official records show that our lowest temperature was -45.6�C, recorded on February 4, 1974

Sick huh? we are staying at a fishing lodge

Yup the real deal, small log cabin nestled amongst the trees overlooking a snowy lake! very picturesque and very cold. -30 at night -22 during the day or colder if the wind picks up. there is however a very lovely hot tub located in the middle of a big field across from our cabin which we frequent every night!

A 747 goes to wind much better than Squiz! so we fly home and arrive in St Lucia on Feb 3, 2008. Look forward to seeing all our friends.......and the warm weather!