THE SILKYNESS OF CORAL ...............

Some of us are luckier than others ...... Not that we are jealous of the double rainbow falling on the yacht "GOOD TIMING", for it couldn't fall on two nicer people ...... And good timing too, just when Gabriel and Wanda are trying to sell their house and move on board full time ....... you have to be really special to have multi-coloured light falling on your solar panels like that .....



And another classic yacht " VIRGINIA" spends a night in our anchorage ......Beautifully built in wood ......... Our very own 'beautifully-built- in-wood' yacht "ARITA" receives more that 300 hits on the website a week but no-one has put forth a serious offer ..... We've had offers of course but none would be considered serious ...... " I'm a casual laborer and I earn good money ... Could I get the yacht and pay it off over six years?" .... We did however hear from a guy in Pennsylvania who seemed genuine and we invited him to come and look at her ........ Nice yachts are always 'females' ..... Obviously there are no yachts that are not nice ......



This is "ARITA" during our last four years of cruising .................



Friends from Florida continue to arrive ....... Here's John and Maryanne who have a very nice 'AMEL' and are ready to go cruising as soon as the loose ends are tied up ..... As you can see it doesn't take Maryanne long to get 'local' .... Of course we take them to our favorite sites ......



The view from the climb to that historic lighthouse on CULEBRITA is spectacular in color ...... Reefs all around and a good reason for a lighthouse .....



And of course the view from the top of the lighthouse is even more spectacular .......



This partially submerged reef has caught many a yacht ..... Mostly at night of course while sailing into CULEBRA .....



And of course we took John and Maryanne to the 'Jacuzzi' which this time was a lot wilder with big breaking seas and the main rock pool simply not doable ...... But the side pool is just the ticket .....



No rest whatsoever for the wicked ......Send them off paddling our kayak ...... 'To go smell the flowers' ...




Smelling the 'Turk's Head' cactus is not recommended ..... And then on to the little island of 'Luis Pena' to do some snorkelling and swimming .....



And just like that, a perfect mermaid drops her scaly fins and walks ashore with both legs ......



On closer inspection that mermaid turns out to be the "Queen of Florida and the Bahamas" ...... No disappointment there whatsoever ..... John and Maryanne are underwater with the camera capturing wonderful corals and shells .....





Just look at the live coral on the left ...... Silky velvet coral .......... So very beautiful to see and, to see it alive .....



And so after four days John and Maryanne flew back to Florida, excited and keen to get their yacht "PURA VIDA" ready to go to set sail and see more of what this beautiful cruising life has to offer .....

FRIENDS MAY COME ...................

Being somewhat stationary in CULEBRA PR, while doing repairs on "SOUTHERN COMFORT", while at the same time having our other yacht "ARITA" available to be sold, has given us the opportunity to invite friends to come for a visit ....... The beautiful spots we have here can thus be shared with them and we have become very useful tourguides ....... 'Tourguiding' can however be exhausting work, and the "Queen of Florida and the Bahamas" needs to take a break whenever and wherever she can ............



The beach at 'Flamenco' is beautiful even on a cloudy day and we took our friend Joe Murphy there for some well deserved R & R .... Joe is our sailing buddy whose wife recently passed away ....... Life is tough .....



You cling to life when all seems lost, a bit like this tree on a cliff face ............. Thus all the more reason to give Joe the time of his life in CULEBRA .......



Joe has always had smallish traditional sailing boats, and so with this 'change of life' he contemplated buying a bigger one .... Say 30 feet .... Well, for 10 days we did our darnest to talk him out of that ..... I mean what are friends for ..... Joe wants to finally do some serious cruising and he talked about installing watermakers and solar panels and self steering gear, we both said " JOE, You need to go bigger" ..... Sleeping on "Southern Comfort" for ten days and nights kind of helped that process along somewhat ....



We took Joe to the 'Jacuzzi' on Culebrita, that small island close to CULEBRA for a quick dip in the rock pools ..... While consolidating on the "Get-a-bigger-boat, Joe" plan ....



The place really is exotic with its barren volcanic cliffs and blue water waves breaking into liquid pools ..... And then onto a nature walk amongst the thorn trees to the top of the island, with its historic Spanish lighthouse ......





And in the distance lies the island of ST. THOMAS in the USVIs ..... Only 18 miles away as the seagulls fly ....





Not all wildlife is as tame as these island birds ,,,,,,, There are wild goats on CULEBRITA that we have seen, but only ever in the distance ...... And ths land crab above did his darnest to blend in and disappear .....



If we seem to be a little more pre-occupied with 'flora and fauna' it is probably because we don't have a lot of the so-called 'normal' things ..... This, for example is our local cinema ..... A steel container with twenty seats and air-conditioning ..... Which somehow still manages to get the current movies .... The whole show is run by volunteers who also run the library ..... That's the town from the hillside ..... There's not much of it ..... With the local airport and runway in the foreground ..... I mean, what more do cruisers really need ....



One of our local vegetable markets and then there's a boatload of Aussie visitors all from Melbourne, Australia ..... All 'rellos' of Peter and Jacqui on the Aussie sloop " Mistral " .... Who anchored alongside us for another round of get-togethers .....



Which of course brought on another round of Peter's exquisite Australian (but really French) cooking, as we devoured one delight after another smothered in 'Duck Fat' ....... That's Peter on the left totally engrossed on the evening of the "Superbowl", American footballs premier game night .... The massive bulldog took a fancy to Peter ..... Probably something to do with the 'Duck Fat' ...... Lovely people, great nights ..... Going to miss them when they leave .....

By now, you probably have the impression that we do nothing else but have boat parties ...... Well, that's not true .... We only pull out the camera when we do have them, and we put it away when things get, you know ...... happy .... Speaking of which we received an email from Joe ..... He cancelled his deposit on the 30-footer and bought a 'Hans Christian' 42 ft. instead .... Pictures of 'Happy Joe' below .....



Way to go Joe ........ Now that's a cruising boat with that traditional look ...... "Go see the World me ol' mate" .... Go point that bowsprit in the right direction and let her rip ......