A new year, new resolutions...I'm not normally a 'resolution-making-kind-a-girl', but realised I haven't written anything in quite some time.
And I miss it. You might not, but I do...so there it is - I'll try and get a few blogs up soon about what we have been doing the second half of 2013: our trip to Bermuda, Bermuda and all the fun to be had in the Triangle (girls, it even has shoes in it! Real shoes! not flip flops, not boat shoes, no the real McCoy, with heels and a fancy name inside and all!), our fantastic return to New York (more shoes, but this time as memories), the cruises through Long Island Sound, Newport, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Sag Harbour and The Hamptons, following the America's Cup in Annapolis and drifting around the Chesapeake Bay, an amazing kite trip to Brasil and rather full on sailing trip back to the Caribbean via Bermuda. It's been a good summer and the year has ended well with fireworks in St Barths.
For now, we've had our first trips over Christmas and New Year's and are now anchored of Saba Rock in the BVI's - still an unforgettable place to sail and play; especially now that we know how to kite and even managed to get some kite time in behind Saba Rock, Prickley Pear and Eustatius in between getting the boat ready for our next trip: a full on kiting trip, where all that will matter is getting the boys to where the best kite spots are. Now all we need is wind!
Well, I guess it's true what they say: you get into the Bermuda triangle and you disappear!
Or at least, that's what it must have looked like to all of you with no blogs coming from Pure after we announced we'd be sailing to Bermuda....
We had a brilliant Caribbean season, starting down south in St Lucia and Martinique, before dropping further south to spend some time in the Grenadines, with some of the most beautiful spots that we know. Turquoise waters, rimmed by white and pink beaches, framed by green palm trees and an azure blue sky with some puffy white clouds. When you get lucky, you might see a little candy pink Carriacou sloop complementing the colours in your Kodak moment...
We got lucky not just on the pink Carriacou but also managed to get the first beginnings of our kite surfing down while waiting for the guests to arrive in Union Island! Quite a nice spot to do so too! (some would call that the understatement of the year).
The boat is a beehive of activity tonight as our last crew member, Doug, has just arrived from the States, and banter goes back and forth. We are now our full crew of seven and are on the dock in Las Palmas; not a normal dock, though that we expected to be on by tonight, but the reception dock...we arrived here yesterday, one day ahead of the start of the ARC, the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, or so we thought...turns out the start of the Cruising divisions of the ARC has been postponed by 2 days, so where we expected to have plenty of dock space all to ourselves after the departure today of 238 boats, only 34 yachts (27 racers, 7 cruisers) started, leaving the other 200+ clogging the docks and the restaurants in Las Palmas.
Lucky thing that we had been cheeky enough yesterday to just park ourselves up on the reception dock of the marina office and with a bit of sweet talking in Spanish, they let us stay the night...and now another one...guess we'll be here tomorrow night as well. We had a pretty straight forward trip from Palma, where we left last Sunday after several days of crazy preparations. It was a relief to get out on the water and away from land! We did some wicked sailing the first night, with 30-35 knots on the beam and just aft of the beam, but the fun didn't last long and we were soon back to motorsailing. Relaxing at least.
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