Beautiful weather... very warm, balmy...always sunshine...occasional showers, usually shortlived, clouds make for awesome sunsets, everyday the weather forecasts is the same... 80 degrees, 20% chance of showers, winds 10-15 ESE. Been the same since we arrived a little over two weeks ago. We have really been very busy and enjoying ourselves very much. Our route on the way down was pretty basic, well traveled, and faster than hugging the coast or island hopping. We left Beaufort Inlet, NC - a very popular jumping off place because of the close proximity to the Gulf Stream. Ideally a Northwest wind would have been most desirable to push us quickly across the stream and then East and once "out there" we hoped ride a nor'easter (common in late Fall) on a more southerly track down to the tradewinds, which pick up somewhere around 25N. However... we left on a Southwest wind which kicked up pretty large seas in the stream, those winds became Southeast and then South and howled at up to 25 knots throughout our voyage. This was especially frustrating since we had read in various reliable publications that during November, prevailing winds should be NW down to 30N. We never got NW winds for longer than a day. After the initial rough part off the coast of the Carolinas, basically the wind was all over the place, it would whip up, then back off for hours at a time. It clocked every direction, the seas were usually rolly, except for three random days, not consecutively, when it was completely flat. I liked those days because I could walk around without being flung onto the cabin sole or across the cabin. Oh, and I could eat and cook and go to the bathroom and even shower, all of which was very difficult to do the rest of the time because of the pitching and yawing of the boat. I was even able to bkae bread on one of those flat days. Puff really did handle it beautifully. She is a full keel, heavy displacement, seaworthy vessel, but she is only 32' long. She is a small boat and though her sails balance her well, it can be more than a little uncomfortable on a long, rough Atlantic passage such as ours. It was beautiful and amazing and astounding and humbling. The journey basically kicked my ass, and I have a lot of respect for Brian for handling it so expertly. The stars and moon were friendly and wonderous. Brian caught many fish and Jack the cat caught many flying fish and ate them whole in front of me! Look for many new photos on our website photo album. Sailtrim and sailchanges were endless, trimming the windvane (our mechanical autopilot) was also constant, and Captain B. kept up with these very well and instructed me in the operation of the latter, a new piece of equipment. The Monitor windvane did quite well once we got the hang of it. Not so good in light winds though. In the Horse Latitiudes it was dead calm for almost 3 days, but the seas were still rolling under us. So we had to hand steer, an Autohelm whell pilot would have been great. We were very happy with our new sails from Mack Sails, especially the third reef in the main. We hardly ever sailed without it. The new dodger I made was also a favorite new addition, it kept us dry along with weather cloths I made. I love my Sailrite machine! One new piece of equipment that gave us much trouble is our new whisker pole, it seems to be too small and we need to rig a foreguy and afterguy to use it. We still have not done this. Another problem we had was the water, we stupidly forgot to clean our water tanks out and after we left we noticed the water had red slime in it. Luckily we had a water filter and Brian installed it while we were out, (yes,he's superman), but it only worked a little while, then it clogged. In addition, we had installed a 35 gallon Nauta flexible water tank on each side next to the hard plastic tanks under each settee. Something about the plumbing installation, which I did most of, with Brian's assistance has caused the draw to malfunction. This means we could not access all of our water supply, because we can't get it to pull up the hose and come out of the faucet. We'll fix that sometime... On the morning of the 12th of December, Brian woke me to tell me he could see land. I rushed out to the cockpit and saw Virgin Gorda green through the distant morning mist. I cried. We jumped up and down a took a hundred pictures. We anchored in Cruz Bay, St. John. We have since circumnavigated the entire island, exploring every bay and cay. One of our favorite anchorages is Whistling Cay. A small rock with a popular dive site nearby. Fantastic reef, quiet and we were the only boat that spent the night there both nights, something we have not enjoyed anywhere else so far. We like to get away from the crowds, into the wilderness. We were most pleasantly surprised to hear a familiar sound at night, it sounded like children laughing, bats. We experienced the same sights and sounds at Allen's Cay in the Bahamas and it was always one of our favorite memories. Our second day here we found dome girlfriends of mine that are living here for the winter -shout out to Kelly ans Morgan!- and went to a pig roast at the most incredible house. It was so much fun to meet lots of locals right away like that. The food was delicious and the the mojitos refreshing. We rode there in style of Morgan's and now our friends very fast water taxi. The house belonged to a New Zealander, a kiwi, named Phil. It was stone and doors and windows were huge arches that were completely open to the outdoors. Everything was so natural, the landscaping was beautiful... oleander, bouganvilla, hibiscus, frangipani, palms... I fell in love with the architechture. Phil is a local contractor, he designed it and built it as a "guest house", the main house to be built at a later date. Both of us are catching our share of yellowtail snapper and it tastes sumptious off the new grill! Thanks Pete and Dede! It was Brian's (our) birthday/Christmas gift. We had lobster yesterday! We finally found them! Brian is an impressive sea hunter! I catch fish with a line, but I can't actually do the killing. B. is definitely our provider. We did buy ourselves a Christmas gift, and Engel refrigerator!!!!! Yes, we did! Brian is wiring it all now, I'll let you know how it goes, we just received the package today. And to offset the cost, we are actually working. We are doing a few odd jobs for a very nice friend of a friend, (thanks, Gary). Just a couple of days, but one of our goals is realized, working along the way isn't that difficult so far. This is very important to our being able to continue cruising. We are loving it, we're getting into our groove. Working out the kinks and making time to play as well. After the new year, we hope to cruise Culebra, a Puerto Rican island about 20 miles away, Brian's hoping to find surf there. Then we'll do the BVI's for a couple of weeks, a right after my birthday, my 31st!, we will go down island, mon. To the Windwards! Check out the route page on our website for further info on that. Tune in next time for further adventures!!!!