The new anchor is down and seriously doing its job. I had to power forward for fear of it ripping the windlass right off the deck. As we sit with coral reefs 3-quarters around the boat, we're back to the life of cruising we left a few years ago. The passage from Virgin Gorda to Anegada is 15 miles. We were here in 1 hour and 15 minutes. It was nuts! Tom said, while were cookin' at 11.5 knots, "Hmmm, feels like we are going kinda slow." He and "The boys" must have really rocketed down here from Newport for him to be saying that, don't you think? After passing a bunch of other boats, we finally just giggled.it's like we got our own toy from Santa. And speaking of St Nick, he successfully found "Zen" and her "Christmas tree" of white lights yesterday. The kids were up at 7am and the parents were down by 8:15a for a nap. Grin! Lots of smiles and surprises. After a day at Bitter End, we went to Saba Rock Resort for dinner. We befriended a family from St Louis the night before and saw them again on Christmas. The subject of "The Pursuit of Happiness" , the lesson of hard work and gratefulness was discussed and felt by all. Paradise, family and teamwork makes for a beautiful holiday. Some huge fish swam just a few feet from our dinner table, captivating sight. After dinner, as the moon rose so brightly it resembled the sun, we dinghied back to "Zen", taking it all in.

The kids are learning innumerable boat rules while also enjoying new found freedom. Every meal onboard is cleaned up by Cammi and Cole. Cleaning is not all that simple. Scraping food overboard, conserving water, and adhering to a system is mandatory. Not having a full time chef, at-the-ready is a new concept. Both, especially Cole who cooked his own egg sandwich, have learned to cook for themselves. Appreciating the use of propane, the time to clean, etc makes for very pliable palettes. What originally rec'd a turned up nose, is now being accepted without a 2nd glance. The kids have also discovered they can watch a movie, after figuring out how to use the inverter or DC outlets, into the late evenings, well past their parents' bedtime. Totally different than home! It's all a compromise, I guess. No matter what, the photo shows exactly how things are going w/our crew members.