AUSTRALIA DAY ...... JAN, 26TH 2013 .........

Talk about throwing a party ..... A cruiser's party at that ...... No written invitations, just 'word-of-mouth' by going around the anchorage in the dinghy ........ Although by far the greatest effort was made by that lovely Aussie couple from Melbourne down-under on their yacht "MISTRAL" who sailed all the way from the BVIs to attend the celebration ...... Now that's doing it right mate! ........ And this photo above was taken early, when only half the people had arrived and the 'shenannigans' were only just beginning .......



There is little Princess "Sophie" already holding court ..... It takes a little 'gin and tonic' to get the older ones to get the show on the road ........ Although Laurie had a wonderful pink rum punch prepared ..... Yummee stuff ....







Now here's that gorgeous Aussie " Jacqui " from Mistral who led her husband Peter into a trance by getting him to bake a bunch of 'Sausage Rolls' ..... This is a national dish that goes well with beer, billy tea and bangers ...... The ones they bought over had little Aussie flags on them .... You know, the toothpick kind .... They all disappeared faster than a sparrow's fart .... The Aussie flags and the sausage rolls .....





And so the evening wore on with kids playing 'Catch me if you can' on dinghies ..... And cruisers playing the same thing with cruising stories ......





You know how you take hundreds of photos and then wonder what you're going to do with them ......



Now isn't that just an awesome map of AUSTRALIA ...... It is one of the best I've seen in years ..... Despite it being just a temporary tattoo, it took me days to slowly remove it .... The tattoo that is .....



Sophie having her pre-party bath in the sink ............ The last of the cruisers left by 1.30am (I think) and by morning all was peaceful and serene like 'yachts on a painted ocean' .... Quite a few yachts anchored near us for the party to no doubt avoid the "drink, drive and drown" ........ Back in Australia, which is seventeen hours ahead of us, most are back at work .... We, on the other hand will just sleep a little more, methinks ......

PRINCESS " SOPHIE's" VISIT ...............

So we returned from Florida to our winter Paradise in CULEBRA and watched this classic beauty drop its anchor. It is obviously on its way to Antigua for the new year's Classic Yacht Rally ......... Florida was wonderful but cold.... Colder than we need to be ... But we have a plan to bring the queen's daughter and grand-daughter out to Paradise in the new Year ...



Lauren-Anne had not seen the new yacht " Southern comfort" except in photos and this was kind of an awakening ..... " Just like a real house Mom, with views" .....



I mean you have to educate them while they're young, right? ...... Show them the ropes and teach them where the dinghy throttle handle is, and important things like how to mix the gas/oil ratio in the outboard fuel tank..... And then take them to places in the dinghy that are worth seeing, like the bay and Flamingo beach ...... Pay attention Sophie ......





And back on board again to discover more things ....... But not before having studied some free roaming pigs ...... And of course the left over tanks from 'war games' ..... Several weeks later live shells were found next to this ' work of art ' .....The children collected and carried the 'ammo' back on the ferry to the mainland ...... Their parents went ballistic when they saw their children's " beach treasure " ...... The Army's demolition units have now moved in to comb the beaches once more ...... Culebra and Vieques were once firing ranges for the US military ......






Lots of campers come to CULEBRA ....... Some stay for more than six months like this guy from Michigan with his own beach entrance .... And here's how it's done ...... You buy your tent, camping gear and sleeping bag from WALMART and if it all costs more that $50.00 then they will ship it to you for free ...... You arrive at CULEBRA, go to the Post Office and pick up your WALMART package and go camping on the beach ....... Six months later it will be all worn out and next time you do it all again ..... I bet Mark Twain would have appreciated the 'WALMART-TAKE-ME-CAMPING' offer ......



Look ..... There goes that high speed dinghy grandma, the "Queen of Florida and the Bahamas" ....... And a not-so-high-speed pelican sitting on a neighbour's bow rail ....... You may have to add an 'h' to the 'sitting' part ......



But from time to time our beautiful anchorage gets some ferocious weather ...... Then again it never lasts for long .....



Just want to show you how our world in CULEBRA, PUERTO RICO contrasted with our Florida trip and our quick visit to St. Augustine where we all had a family Christmas lunch together ........... This is a quick throwback to last year ......



The guy with the two 'Bichon Frise' in the stroller was a passer-by and is not related to our family ..... He may just be too lazy to walk the dogs .... Could be from Georgia ...... That " Who let the dawgs out " thang .... Bichon Frise are sometimes known as "Bitch and Frizzies" ...... The breed has been around since the Renaissance and are known as 'Spanish water dogs' ..... Thought you needed to know that ....



So now we are into January 2013 and fast approaching January 26 which is "AUSTRALIA DAY" ...... A sort of '4th July' thing ....... We managed to round up, locate or otherwise entice with free beer offers, at least nine Australians and lots of other 'wannabies' to a party to be held on "SOUTHERN COMFORT"....... 'Wannabies' are not a sub-species of 'Wallabies' though after the party they could well have been ..... More about the party in the next blog update .............

DID WE JUST SLIP UNDER AND DROWN -------- NO, ... NOT REALLY .......

It has been almost six months to the day since we did our last entry on the blog with "Cold Cucumber Soup" ....... Now that soup was good, really good, but that's not the reason it has taken us six months to get back to things ..... It was 'the things themselves' that has taken us six months before we could finally get back to doing a blog update ......... Sorry about leaving you hanging out there, while we did 'our thing' in tropical paradise........ Still, then again, if you were half-smart you'd have bought yourself a yacht and done the same things ...... We did have a very nice one ' For Sale ' ...... "Did have" ...... ARITA has now been sold to a wonderful sailor from 'Snow' country up North ...Much more about that later ...... But first we need to do a little catching up ......... After the Cucumber soup we took a little diversion back to Florida for a family Christmas trip ..... wait a minute .... There was 'The Queen's Birthday' celebration before all of that ..... How could I forget .... Let me slip out from under that marvelous Caribbean rum haze ......




That was in December when the world above us to the North was feeling the frostbite ...... Hence the igloo on the icing ..... But here the rum flowed freely thus acting like the perfect " ANTIFREEZE " .....





And it would be wonderful if I could remember half of the names of all the Queen's admirers and subjects ...... Five months ago that might have been possible ...... They all had fun ..... That much I can remember ....



Big party supporters have been Harry and Linda on the sunset catamaran "KUHELA" (above) and our sister-ship owners Mark and Willie on "LIAHONA" who, before sailing south, said to me " Check out your impellor before you run the engine ...... Well, kind of speaks for itself now doesn't it ..... Thanks Mark ..... The impellor pushes the cooling saltwater through the engine ..... The one on the right does .... The one on the left that I took out, not so much ......



So there we were in the middle of December with iguanas none the worse for wear and a fluffy bird's nest parked amongst the red hibiscus ...... Yes this is paradise in winter .......... Thus a trip north to Florida, cold winter Florida needs planning for ...... You know, shoes and socks, trousers ..... Goodbye speedos .....



Oh, ..... I found those missing impellor fins stuck in the oil-cooler heat-exchanger .... And the "Queen's" bags are packed ready for seeing her grand-daughter "Sophie" .... That's "LIAHONA" our sister-ship in the background ..... AVIS is waiting for us in Jacksonville at the airport ..... Better start to get ready .....



And the iguana thinks he ought to come along for the ride ..... Little does he know he's going to need 'long johns' for Florida .... After all, check out Laurie in Florida winter gear .... We are talking southern Florida here .......
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Where even 'SANTA' has had a bike accident and the latest cars are now softies ..... 'Bubble mobiles' .... Obviously we have been away for awhile ...... I didn't think 'SANTA' was allowed to drink and drive ...... Bet there's lots more shocks in store for us ..... OK, I need to think some more and work on RECALL ...... There'll be more very, very soon .... Promise .... If I can get used to all the things I didn't know I missed ..... What if someone sticks a pin in those bubble cars?...... Bubble cars and blow up bikes.... What's next?