Come Sail Away...

We finally know what we're doing!  We've been on St. Thomas for about a month now enjoying the beautiful weather and spending time at marinas, looking at boats, and talking to as many people as we can about sailing.  We took a ferry over to Tortola, British Virgin Islands for a day and went to a handful of marinas looking at boats with a broker.  We came pretty close to purchasing a boat.  But, instead of buying our own boat, we're going to be crewing on a 39 foot Catamaran.  The captain has been sailing the Caribbean for over 3 years and owned her own sailing school in Florida, so we're going to be in good hands.  The plan is to island hop all the way down to Grenada, hitting the BVIs, St. Martin/St. Maarten, St. Barts, Antigua/Barbuda, Dominica, St. Lucia and all the rest along the way.  The trip is planned until sometime in April or May...weather permitting.  Hurricane season starts in June, so we'll be long gone by then.  We leave in a few days!!  As always, we're very lucky to have this opportunity and feel like everything is working out for the best.

Here's a taste of what we've been doing while in the USVI:

We rented an apartment for a month on top of a huge hill with a spectacular view and amazing neighbors.  This is the view from our apartment.

A beautiful sunset while on a sunset tour/sail around Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas.

Still smiling!

Luke relaxing in the hammock on our porch.

Sunset from our porch.

Lindquist Beach on St. Thomas.

Magen's Bay, St. Thomas.

Bolongo Bay, St. Thomas.  We've been to nearly every beach on St. Thomas, snorkeling and enjoying the warmth...and just a few rum punches!

We also went to St. John and stayed there for a couple of days.  St. John is amazing, it's mostly National Park land and undeveloped.  The beaches were beautiful and we were able to do some hiking finally!!!

Hawksnest Beach, St. John.

Overlooking Trunk Bay, St. John.

Our campsite at Cinnamon Bay Campground in the National Park.

Hiking through the forest to Reef Bay, St. John.

An old abandoned sugar plantation on the hike.

Reef Bay, St. John.

As always, we hope to have some internet access to be able to communicate and update the blog.  Although, let's be honest, we're terrible at updating the blog!  Happy Sailing!