With only two months left in our journey, we have made the decision to head back north up the BVI. Although we will miss the Grenadines, we chose to go north to get some boat maintenance done. We also don't know where we will be leaving Windancer at the end of the trip and wanted to explore options in the BVI and perhaps Florida.

In the last week we have travelled back from Dominica to Guadeloupe, two days in Antigua and then to her sister island, Barbuda which is a long, low island about 30 nm north of Antigua.

The island only has 1700 inhabitants and is beautiful with soft whitish, pink beaches. We anchored off Coral Point with 4 other boats. The water was clear, the snorkelling good and the beaches pristine.

On our second night there, after Connor was dinghy fishing and caught a yellow tale snapper, John said it would be very cool to see a shark come eat the snapper we had hooked over the side of the boat. Suddenly I heard a 'phwish' sound and looking over my shoulder, saw a fin. With heart in my throat, i glimpsed again and to my relief realized that a dolphin was swimming beside our boat in 10 ft of water. It hung out a bit and then headed back to sea. A close encounter of the good kind.

The next morning we left at dawn to make the 80 nm to St Martin. Before noon we hooked 5 and brought 4 barracudas on board. They are a pain to catch as we always release them, but you have to be very careful or they can take your finger off. We were skunked the rest of the day, but enjoyed our downwind sail and arrived at 6 pm in Marigot.

Back to the land of French bread and awesome chandleries. We are making our way to Anguilla in the next few days before heading back to the BVI, our home away from home.