Merry Christmas from The Islands Mon!

Storyville at the end of the rainbow!

We will celebrate Christmas this year in St. Thomas.  We sailed over from Puerto Rico on an overnight crossing without any problems.  It was Luna’s first sail and she is a great sailor, if we could just get her to stand her watch instead of sleeping all night!

We are currently in Charlotte Amalie which is a very busy harbor.  I counted 6 cruise ships here yesterday!  We spent the last several days anchored in Brewers Bay which is a beautiful bay near the airport. We shared it with just a few other boats, the beach is beautiful, the water is clear and fish are jumping everywhere.  We decided yesterday after sailing into Charlotte Amalie that we would much rather spend Christmas in Brewers Bay so we will head back there tomorrow morning.  We just wanted to get a little Internet and some laundry and shopping done before hightailing it out of this busy harbor. 

I’m looking forward to my first beach Christmas.  I will definitely miss my family, but at least I got a get in a recent visit and got to celebrate Sismas with my girls.

 We are also happy that we finally met up with Steve on Alternate Latitude.  I’m not sure that we will be with them for Christmas but we have plans to meet up with them in the British Virgin Islands for a full moon party and to ring in the New Year.  We are really looking forward to spending some time with Steve and Deb and exploring some of the BVIs.

Life is good on Storyville, it will be a simple Christmas this year but one that I hope will remind us both of the real reason for the season!

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Luke 2:11-12

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests. Luke 2:14

Luna won't wake up to take her watch

Troy Was Busy

While I was back in Texas visiting family and friends Troy stayed in Puerto Rico on Storyville.  He kept busy with several boat projects.  Boat projects tend to make a mess of the boat and it's just as well that I was gone for most of these.  Troy did such a great job and he had Storyville nice and neat when Luna and I got home.

Not only did he complete these projects, he also did the routine maintenance, cleaned and painted several lockers and storage areas and fiber glassed some compartments into the space beneath the aft berth.  What a guy!

Compressor for the new Engel refrigeration

New cold plate - Yay, refrigeration that only draws 2.5 amps!

Luna helped with the Engel installation

New spot for Luna under the settee

I think she likes it!

New faucet in the galley

New faucets in both heads!

We also bought a new solar panel that we will install sometime in the next few weeks and we are getting another natures head composting toilet for our forward head that will need to be installed.  The work is never done.... just ask Troy!

Sismas

Caden, Kayla, Caleb, Westyn, Kylie

One of the reasons that I am enjoying our cruising so much is that I am blessed to be able to travel back to Texas to see my daughters and their families.  In fact, as I've said before, the only downside for cruising, for me, is that I miss seeing my family and seeing the grand kids grow up.  It happens so fast. We were just here for a visit in July and they have grown so much in those few months that it's hard to believe.

Troy and I have a blended family and we are fortunate that our daughters have all loved each other from the day they met back in 1996.  We are also fortunate to have two beautiful nieces that love them just as much.  Since they all have other families and some of them are married now and have additional family gathers to attend during the holidays, they decided years ago to create their own tradition called "Sismas". Each year around Christmas they get together for their own Christmas celebration with each other.  I love that they have kept this tradition alive, especially now that their families are growing. 

Since I am home now, they decided to have Sismas even earlier than usual so that I could be there with them.  I love these girls so much!  The only thing missing this year was Troy or, as he likes to be known among his grand kids - Super Captain Pawpaw!  We missed you last night Pawpaw!

Welcome to the family Bryant and Westyn

Zada, Amy and Bobby

Tory and Danny

Shawn

Time to open presents!

Tory and Luna

Let's have some cake!

Having a sister is like having a best friend you can't get rid of. You know whatever you do, they'll still be there. ~Amy Li

How do people make it through life without a sister? ~Sara Corpening

Home is Where the Boat is

Storyville at anchor with our neighbor Pipe Muh Bligh

If you follow this blog then you know that I am in Texas visiting family for Thanksgiving while Troy stayed behind on Storyville. We've been out cruising for two years now and we have been so fortunate in those two years to be able to visit our children and families back home in Texas several times. When we left on Storyville I wasn't sure how often we would be able to come back for visits, due to questions like: a) where would we leave Storyville? and b) could we afford flights back to the states from the islands?  Fortunately, we have discovered that there are many places that we can safely leave our boat (depending on the time of year) and that there are many friends who will happily look after our boat while we are gone.  We have also discovered that flights back to Texas (if planned far enough in advance) have not been so expensive that they break the bank.  My youngest daughter even commented the other day that she was happy that she had been able to see us more than she expected to.

We get many questions from family, friends and acquaintances about our cruising lifestyle.  Questions like "Where do you go to the bathroom?" - "Do you ever leave sight of land?" - "Are you afraid of storms?".  I was asked a different question yesterday though: "Do you ever miss your home?".  Here is my answer to that question:

My home is Storyville, and yes, I miss her when I am gone. Do I miss having a house on land? The answer to that question is "no".  I love our boat and our cruising lifestyle so much that I couldn't imagine living any other way at this point in our lives, and I think, no, I'm pretty sure, that Troy feels the same way.

Storyville has all the comforts of home for us, and as long as Troy and I are both there and happy and healthy, then this is where our heart is.  I guess it must be true, home is where the heart is - and our heart is on Storyville!

Every house where love abides
And friendship is a guest,
Is surely home, and home sweet home
For there the heart can rest.
~Henry Van Dyke

Where thou art - that - is Home. ~Emily Dickinson

Luna

Storyville has a new crew member.  Her name is Luna and she's just adorable.  She is a bundle of energy and I've been trying for two days to get some good pictures of her.  She's just too fast! Either she's sleeping or she's moving at the speed of light.  I tried all morning to get a good picture of her, but she's just too fast for the camera. I hope Troy and I can keep up with this little ball of energy once I get her back to Storyville.  I see lots of trips to the beach in our future, but that's a good thing. 

She's smart too.  She's just 9 weeks old and she already has the puppy pad figured out, mostly anyway.  As long as she's in the same room with it she will use it, let it out of her sight and she forgets that it exists. 

We thought long and hard about the responsibilities of having a dog on the boat and we finally decided that the pros outweigh the cons.  Every cruising family that we spoke to that has pets (dogs or cats) say the wouldn't do it any other way. We are looking forward to welcoming Luna into the family and sharing some salty adventures with her! She has no idea what adventures await.

How can you not love this face?

 

Dinner time

Nap time

Meet the cat

I think she will make a good guard dog.  Look at those teeth! 

Happiness is a warm puppy. ~Charles M. Schulz

My little dog - a heartbeat at my feet. ~Edith Wharton

Time to Start Packing

I am flying back to Texas in a few days to spend Thanksgiving with my family and to pick up our newest crew member, Luna.  Troy will stay here on Storyville in Salinas, Puerto Rico.  I sure will miss him but he will be left in good hands with Stacy and Rene and our other cruising friends. Stacy promises to feed him Thanksgiving dinner!  He has some boat projects planned for the time while I'm away, so hopefully he will stay busy and he won't miss me too much.

I can't wait to see my family, my daughters and sister and aunts and nieces and grand kids and mom and mother in law and sister in law.  I have such a wonderful, large family and it really feels good to get to spend a little time with them all.  I'm also looking forward to fitting in some time with friends.  I feel truly blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life.  Definitely a lot to be thankful for.

Troy and I also feel so blessed and thankful to be living our dream of sailing in the Caribbean.  What a life we have!  We are really looking forward to exploring the French islands on the way down to Grenada in the next several months.  And I'm looking forward to blogging all about it.  Thanks to our new Wirie AP, we have been able to pick up Internet in almost every anchorage. Even some of the more remote ones.  Hopefully we will continue to have luck with that as we head down island.

This is Luna, she's a Border Terrier and she's gonna be the best little sailor dog ever!

Happiness is a warm puppy. ~Charles M. Schulz

One ship sails east and another sails west
With the self-same winds that blow.
Tis the set of the sail and not the gale
Which determines the way they go.
As the winds of the sea are the ways of fate
As we voyage along through life,
Tis the act of the soul that determines the goal,
And not the calm or the strife.
-Ella Wheeler Wilcox

South Coast of Puerto Rico

We've been enjoying some little anchorages on the south coast of Puerto Rico for the last several days.  Now we are back in civilization in Ponce, the 2nd largest city in Puerto Rico and are looking forward to checking out the malecon tonight.  We got to do some of the things we've been missing, like swimming and kayaking.  I took a kayak trip through some mangroves where the water was crystal clear and I saw all kinds of interesting sea life hanging out in there.

We saw a manatee in La Parguera! It's the first one that I've ever seen and I've been looking since the day we arrived in Key West.  I couldn't get any pictures of him, he was just hanging out in the anchorage and swimming around, but it was still exciting.  I have also been watching for whales and now that we saw the pilot whales on our crossing from the Dominican Republic, I can cross that off my list too.  I am still hoping to see some bigger whales, and, of course any other manatees that cross my path would be a welcome sight.

La Parguera was a cool little community with these awesome floating houses.  We same some similar ones in Key West, but I love the way these were just tucked up in the mangroves with a boat dock on the front porch, or even a boat garage. 

Keep your feet on the deck, your hands on the tiller, your eyes on the horizon and your beer in the fridge!  ~B.E. Marshall