TWO YEARS OF MAGICAL MOMENTS........................

TWO YEARS OF SAILING IN PARADISE....................... Two years of doing this cruising blog, wherever and whenever we can find INTERNET, and each day more beautiful than the next......................... IN LOVE WITH LIFE ITSELF....................A bed is now a 'bunk', a kitchen is now 'a galley' and the toilet is now 'the head'.......... And a toilet problem can now truly be called 'a head-ache' ............ But life is still beautiful.....................And it is hard to surpass 'The Islands of the BAHAMAS' for sheer natural splendour and unspoilt beauty...................You can double-click on any of these photos to enlarge them, and then grab them for your screensavers..........I guess you know which one is mine........................



Water and sky that flow into one..................Each reflecting the other, for the sky over the shallows, reflected in the clouds, is a magical aqua-green .....................And the 'Dancing Queen' and a 'Myriad of Maidens' dancing the 'Maypole' move as smoothly as 'The swimming salty porkers' at Stanial Cay............And all the while the pure pink-white sands ease and wind their way, like a silk-smooth tapestry, through the cays and island chains.....................



ARITA'S WITH BOW AND ANCHORS GLIDES OVER THE AQUA-BLUE.................

But true-blue MAGIC takes place annually in Georgetown, EXUMAS, when all the major Islands send their best sailors and their own hand-built traditional wooden sloops, to race for no more than " BRAGGING RIGHTS " ........ A battle far greater than the America's Cup ............... And skills passed down over generations, far more challenging that money simply cannot buy.............



When the gun goes off, the crew raise the sail and simultaneously raise the anchor.........................If it all works out as planned...................And if you can keep your vessel upright, with its enormous sail area, you get to cross the finish line just in front of "ARITA" with all its celebration flags up..............

And after a year in the BAHAMAS we sailed on to the land of HOPES AND DREAMS, and the realities of a life without.............For in the eyes of these Cuban school girls, in a window-less classroom, we saw the unspoken words....................Time that stands still, while the stone walls carry "Revolutionary Art".......................And people do their best to make things work....................The contrasts are enormous, and heart-wrenching, for music and the soul of people is everywhere, and lives on, despite the lack of so many things.................Things we generally take for granted..............



Take a ZEN moment, and count your blessings, before we sail on to Haiti and the millions of hands reaching out with a " GIVE ME, GIVE ME"...............Barren, tree-less hills...................Desperate millions, born into poverty and destined to stay there...........



A BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY, ...... A magical cruise 'In search of palms and paradise', and finding in the middle-ground, some incredible stories of ordinary lives................... So, for those of you that have followed our journey and our ARITA BLOG, comment or send us an email sometime, just to let us know ............ I think they call it 'FEEDBACK' ........... We are coming to the end of hurricane season here in PUERTO RICO, and will shortly continue our journey further south through the Island Chain to Trinidad and Tobago and on to the Central Caribbean and beyond...................