Moondancerx's BIG adventure

MoondancerX’s Big Adventure     Resumed after a 3 year hiatus in St. Vincent.   Since our arrival here in May 2012 many changes have taken place, the biggest of which of course is that Tony and I are no longer married.   We’d been working for 3 years with Barefoot Offshore Sailing School as Sailing Instructors – separately and fairly constantly.   Tony has gone to live in Nova Scotia with his new family and after 1 year on my own in St. Vincent it came time to move on. MoondancerX has sat so quietly on her mooring ball with very little input from me, other than my attempts to keep her brightwork looking half decent and  some attention to her canvasses. So – preparation for my journey to the Bahamas, why here – I’ll get to that.   The date I’m writing this is December 4 th 2015 The decision to move on was difficult to make – to start anew in a totally foreign (to me) country where until I made friends...

As you can see our little Value Village tree is back out of the closet and hanging in place after a 2 year break.  It still looks good, does the job.  Last year we were crossing the Atlantic, and even though I did cook a Christmas dinner which we ate out of deep tupperware containers, the gimballing of the tree might have been a bit much.   We'll not be aboard Moondancer this Christmas - not sure which Barefoot boat we will be aboard, but that's where we'll be.  Originally were both booked on separate boats with 2 different groups of people who didn't want to spend Christmas at home, but preferred to spend it learning to sail in the Windward Islands. So now by the grace of Liat, our monopolizing uncaring for its customers airline one of those groups' flights were cancelled resulting in the cancellation of their Christmas plans.  So that either meant that one of us would stay home alone over Christmas - or we both go on the same boat.  Tha...

Alot of water has flowed under the bridge since the last post - or it would have if there was a bridge. We've been with Barefoot since May of this year and have gone through their 'slow' season which really was quite busy - we've been home to Canada for 6 weeks, seeing our families and friends. I was lucky enough to have my arrival at my daughter Mary's home coincide with the birth of Isaan, her second child and my third grandchild.  During that visit I had some quality time with Mary's first-born, Mission, a lovely little boy who is almost 3.  Now I understand what happens in a Grandmother's heart - it tops many of the other things I have going on in my life. Tony and I are both working alot now - I got my cross-certification to the American Sailing Assoc. as an instructor teaching levels Basic up to Bareboat Skipper and Catamaran Skipper. Tony is also teaching a more advanced course - level 106. This is good work, we are both sailing on several diffe...

Please note that I've gone back to WEBSHOTS as a way of showing the majority of our photographs. It still takes too long to upload them to the site and any suggestions as to a better site would be greatfully received. In the meantime I've posted the most recent pictures on Webshots, click on the link at the side. We're back in Bequia, on board Moondancer - we've provisioned for the week, cleaned half of her bottom (we'll do the rest today), the St. Vincent coffee is brewing (its very good coffee) and I can sit around our cabin half dressed as the only person who'll see me is my husband - and he doesn't mind. We really like Bequia - to be more accurate I should say that we really like Admiralty Bay in Bequia, because quite honestly we've seen little else. We have what we need here - a quiet anchorage which is mostly very comfortable - NOT rolly as it has been for the past couple of days. The water is usually very clear and the snorkelling and divin...

Having just looked at this site for the first time in months I realise how time has flown by since the last entry. We've been very busy since we left Antigua. We spent a bit of time in Sint Maarten where we tried out for a week with Tradewinds, a charter club where we would be operating their catamarans as Captain and Chef - I thought I could be that Chef person until I actually saw the job in action. Though we liked the company I knew that I would not be happy in that job. In early May we heard of a charter company/sailing school further south in St. Vincent who needed instructors. Looking back on my records I found that we had applied to them when we first arrived in the Caribbean with no response, but the school director of that time was leaving and our timing now was right on. They asked us to come down to them as soon as possible, we did and we've been working regularly since we arrived. To be more accurate I should say that Tony has been working since we arriv...

"A bear, no matter how hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise", unfortunately that's the only line I can remember of that particular A.A. Milne poem, but the gentleman in this picture knows the whole thing. Actually when we first met at an apre Middle Sea Raceparty in Malta he joined a small group of us, myself, a woman called Sarah whose married to John Ross; Malta's leading Yacht Surveyor, two men who had just completed the middle sea race; a stock broker and a banker and we all stood around reciting children's poetry. Clive Carrington Woods, an ex British Naval Captain, now Captain of a beautiful 'superyacht'. We met again in Sint Maarten a couple of weeks ago, went out to dinner and had a really fun evening, and just to prove that he could I suppose, he got up in the morning and went out and bought this steed that he's riding. I suppose it takes some physical ability to stay on one of those things, so I suppose he's taking a lea...