I completely forgot the best story while we were in St. Croix. We were there for the Super Bowl. Andrea is not a sports fan at all and Phil doesn't watch a lot of American football, but we talked them into joining us at a place called You Are Here to watch the first half. The bar had a few squares on their pool that were available so I bought four for mart and me and Phil said to pick out one for them. We stayed through halftime and then went home for our beauty rest. The next day, Phil said he thought he had the final sc numbers. I laughed as I thought he had flipped them, but we went back to the bar to check. Let's talk about the unfairness of two Brits winning $450.00 dollars and they could care less about the super bowl. And I picked their square.

Bonus info...the owner is originally from cleveland! Kind of obvious from the decor!

When last seen, our fearsome threesome were headed north. First stop, St. Croix. We sailed with light winds, and our cool tie-dyed spinnaker. 91 nautical miles took us just under 24 hours. We anchored in Christiansted. I really liked St. Croix. We rented a car with Anastasia and spent two days touring the island. We made it to the easternmost point of the U.S. Probably not where you are thinking, but on the island. There is a memorial to Mo Udall at the site. Not really sure why, but it is named Udall Point. We also drove to fredrickstad. There we did a bit of shore snorkeling. Andrea has gotten me all fired up about collecting shells and sea glass. I am an amateur in comparison to ms. Eagle eye. We did a tour of the Cruzan rum factory which was pretty interesting. How many rum factories can you visit...the best was the two free drinks at the end. Cruzan is best known for its flavored rums. There must be 15 or so. I had a creamsicle which tasted just like you thought it would back when the milkman would come by and we could buy just one. Can't remember the second, but I am sure it was equally delicious. We also went to the botanical gardens which are located on the site of an old sugar cane plantation. There were cool ruins and some buildings still intact. Found the grave of an ancestor, Sarah Heyliger and while going through the list of owners, found the plantation had been owned by de Windts at two different times. We are everywhere! Sadly, Lily had to stay in the car. No dogs allowed. Don't worry, it was fairly cool, early in the morning and she was in the shade.

We spent a day at Buck Island which is part of the U.S. Park service. Again, no dogs allowed, so Lily stayed on the boat as we swam and snorkeled. Back to St. Croix and after ten days we left for St. Thomas and Charlotte Amalie. We ran into friends on Marilyn, White Wing and Simple Life. Our first night we ventured to Frenchtown for pizza at the Pie Whole. It was not a nice night, teeming rain on our way back to the boat, very dark with little visibility. Best part was Andrea wearing a plastic bag on her head though we were all drenched. The next morning as Mart was wondering the boat he noticed two new holes, one in the front of each hull. Couldn't have happened by another boat dragging down on us because the holes were different heights above the water line. We think someone in a hard skiff was in a really big hurry to get home and out of the rain and hit the starboard hull, took flight and hit the port hull. And they did not leave a note! Mart has had the opportunity to watch fiberglass work being done on the boat, both in the boatyard and when Hernando fixed the port hull after his boat dragged onto us. Good thing he paid attention. He did a fine fixing job.

We hung around for a couple weeks and then it was time for me to go home. I spent five weeks in the states doing my driving tour and meeting Brennan Mandell Kelly, born February 10. He is the cutest, sweetest most expressive baby ever...just like all your children and grandchildren. Loved being in Boston with the Kelly's! Can't wait to go back this summer.

I left marty to fend for himself in St. Thomas. Going to try to post pictures now. I will be back to bring you up to speed soon. I promise...

We were very ready to leave Antigua, lovely as it was. But nothing like Barbuda. Only a twenty mile sail and we anchored inside the reef in Spanish Point. The waters of Barbuda are so clear and the beaches basically empty. Though we were anchored off resorts the whole time we were here, there were always more boats than hotel guests. Many of the hotels are very welcoming, but others basically post signs saying no yachties, thank you very much. One would think that the hotels on the beaches, or there bars would be receptive to anyone wanting to push a bit of cash towards them. It isn't flourishing here in the Caribbean so I really don't get it. I am still having a battle with uploading pictures, and we have a lot. But be patient, I just need a little better wifi...We spent three days in Spanish Point and then moved around the next point to Cocoa Point. Such original names, no? More boats, but Lily and I spent an afternoon at the beach and no one even walked past us. Marty, Andrea and Phil were snorkeling, but sometimes, Lily and I need to spend some quality time together, digging in the sand and swimming.

We have been without a working wind instrument, one that records wind speed and gusts and let's us know. The new instrument was just one of the myriad of things I brought back from the stated in October. Anyhow, mart went to the top of the mast and replaced the old one. It's only been about a year and a half since we had a working readout so we must not have missed it too much, but it's nice to look down and actually see what is happening, wind wise. We moved once more in Barbuda to a place called Low Bay. It was much the same but the resort didn't want us to visit them. So, Andrea paddle boarded and walked the beach looking for treasures. She is really good at it too, she finds amazing things! I read a lot and swam with Lily and we pretty much just relaxed and marty did other small boat jobs.

After a week, we were ready to move on to Statia. Marty was here on his solo sail from Saint Martin to grenada. Statia is one of the more historic places down here. At one point in the mid eighteenth century, an ancestor of mine was the governor. This was during the golden age of Statia when Britain was at war with France and those upstart Americans were causing trouble for Britain. Statia was owned by the Dutch during this period and while those other countries wouldn't trade with each other, everyone came to Statia to trade. The water front had many warehouses and up to 200 boats would be anchored in the deep water harbor. You could get anything here up to and including slaves. In its heyday, there were about 27,000 permanent residents. Later in the 1700's the number was down to 300.

Marty had met and talked to Gay, the president of the archeology association here, and she was kind enough to take us on a three hour walking tour of the fort, and other restored buildings, of which we have lots of pictures...The lower town has been wiped out over the many years, but a few of the original warehouses were restored and now house bars and dive shops. Everywhere you look there are pieces of history on the ground, pottery, porcelain, glass. Unless it is found nudes turned and in its context, it is meaningless to the archeologists who work year round on various excavation sites. Builders were breaking ground across the street from the warehouses for a new hotel and came upon a new ruin of a warehouse. Obviously building stopped and now the powers that be are working the site to safe what might be buried there. It is one of the. Polestar places I have ever been and I hope we will return before we leave the Caribbean for good.

I am going to work on getting the pictures up. We will be leaving in the morning for St. Croix. Should be a 24 hour sail and we all know how I love those over nights! It will be nice knowing Anastasia is out there with us.

Yes, we are still in Antigua. It really is very beautiful, but I think it's time to git 'er done. We are leaving Carlyle bay once again to return to Jolly Harbour to meet up with Anastasia and push off toward the BVI. We are planning to make a few stops on the way...Barbuda, weather permitting, Saint Kitts, Nevis, and Montserrat, are all close by. It is crazy windy right now so it ought to be a quick sail to Jolly. We will do a little provisioning and I want to hit the book swaps again. Need my reading material! Mart is antsy as we are making water and don't plan to leave until our tank is full. I have been unable to upload any more pictures, but as soon as I can I will. Have some good ones of English harbour that just don't want to cooperate.

Not sure when we will next have a good wifi connection, but we will be back.

Hope everyone had a happy Christmas or a merry Hannakah. Ours was not so great. The only thing that was slightly christmaslike was that we had our traditional breakfast. Missed our children and families way to much to feel festive. But I did decide that no more Christmases alone. Next year we will be with children and family.

We left grenada on November 15th and motor sailed to tyrell bay in Carricou for one night. I wanted to hang, but we will hit it on our way back next summer. Wait for it...another overnight to Saint Lucia. It wasn't too bad or else I am just getting used to it. We anchored in Rodney bay and settled in for what turned out to be about 11days. Marty knew a number of people there with whom he road out the storm in Saint Martin. There were lots of dinners together with Asseca (Marty's spelling, sorry Bev), Rainbow and Marilyn. Rodney bay is the end of the Arc rally and the place was gearing up for the arrival of all the boats by staging a small race from Castries to Rodney Bay. Marty sailed with Bev and crew on Asseca. I stayed on True Colors and watched the goings on in the bay. Lots of big motor boats with flags and whistles.

We left on the 28th. Was that thanksgiving? I think so. We got ready for another over night to Guadeloupe. The seas were about 9feet, but the period was quite long. We needed a double reef but it was not a bad ride at all. We picked up a mooring ball about 2 in the afternoon in Dehaise, Guadalupe. Again the captain said "we'll stop here on our way back". We left at 6:45am and motor sailed to Jolly Harbor, Antigua. We went right to the customs dock to check in and to wait for the vet to check Lily in. So, one month later we are still in Antigua. Happily, I might add.

We met up with Phil and Andrea from Anastasia. We cruised around the island a bit, to English Harbor, Green Island and Carlyle Bay with them. Snorkeling, she'll collecting and trading books! They flew home for Christmas and are due back in a couple of weeks. Marty and I have continued to revisit the above mentioned places and are going to start up the north side of the island in the next day or two to do some looking around. Antigua has 365 beaches...and so little time. We are in Carlyle Bay right now, which affords us amazing wifi, so I could get back in the blogging frame of mind. Don't know when I will have it again, but I will continue to take pictures along the way.

Wishing everyone a wonderful 2015. Aargh...wasn't it just 2000? We will have a new Kelly joining the family in March. Actually, the greater de Windt family will welcome five babies, the first arrived in November in Denver, by May. Our own little boom. Feel very lucky. If you haven't been able to tell, I love my family very much, each and every one. Enough, already...

So, grenada was better than ok for the three months we were there. Mart was actually there almost four. He and Lily brought the boat solo from Saint Martin. Before they left, a named storm ran past the island. By then, smart as he is, marty had moved to the lagoon which was more protected than our previous anchorage. Sustained winds were about 25 knots gusting to 40. All was well. No dragging or bumper boats. He was with friends and I think they took good care of each other.
He stopped at saint eustatia more commonly known as statia. Seems there were a lot of de Windt ancestors there and marty did a bit of research and made friends with the lady who is the historical society. We will stop again on our way through the islands after the first of the year.
The only kind of bad thing that happened in grenada happened to me. Prickly bay, our anchorage had a somewhat funktified dinghy dock. It was floating but precariously anchored to the shore. There was a sheet of plywood joining the floating to the fixed dock. It bounced with the floating dock. I was carrying groceries done the dock, when the sheet of plywood bounced up. I had already committed my foot to a particular spot. The outcome was that the plywood ripped most of my left big toenail off. But I kept on walking. Friends Edith and Louise offered to help, take me back to the boat, come back for the dinghy, etc. but I pushed on. I got back to the boat and was moving groceries from the dinghy to the boat when I let go of the big boat and began to drift away. Not a problem but I had pulled off the kill switch, accidently, and couldn't start the engine. I figured I'd just float around the bay, bleeding, with Lily looking on when Edith came and towed me back to the boat. Marty returned by way of some nice persons giving him a ride just as I had finished unloading the food. I whimpered a little and showed him my gross injury. I do have pictures, by they are not for the faint of heart. I did not include them in the gallery...the ending to the story is two days later, I went to st. Augustine clinic and had the nail removed. Figure a year before my poor ugly toe looks normal again.
We are about to lift anchor and move to another anchorage with not good wifi. When I can, I will continue the saga of our trip north from grenada. Adios...