Summer Time

Summer is the perfect time for little excursions. We just returned from a little trip to St John where we wandered around town and ended up having coffee and some yummy baking at our favourite spot at Mongoose Junction. The ferry trip is a mere 20 minutes - and always enjoyable. Max usually decides on whether we sit upstairs outside or down below in the a/c. Today was a bit hot and we forgot to fully sunscreen ourselves so hid below.

Last weekend was St John Carnival – with the parade, festivities rolled in with some July 4th fireworks. We didn’t go over to see it this year – but heard some reports from George who is the tennis instructor at the yacht club who is an active participant in one of the Carnival troupes . He showed us pictures of his highly elaborate costume with huge wings and feathers weighing something close to 100lbs! Try imagine parading around in a costume like that for a few hours in about 30 degrees heat and humid summer conditions.

Julian is in Toronto right now staying with my sister Alex, her husband David and their son Nicholas who is a year older than Julian. Julian flew back with them after the Scotiabank Regatta which both boys raced this year.

This year’s Scotiabank Regatta had over 80 children sailing Optimists. The children range in age from 7 -15 years and came to the event from different islands in the Caribbean as well as parts of the US and Canada. This was Julian’s second Scotiabank Regatta following some other regattas he raced this year including one in Tortola in May. The boys had three days participating in a racing clinic where they got some on and off the water instruction and practiced race starts and mark roundings. Alex, Mark and I were out on a friend’s boat to watch the racing over three days which was a lot of fun. – and pretty impressive remembering the ages of many of these children.

The whole regatta was a fun event with evening dinners and entertainment including crazy pyro dancing juggling entertainers. There was an opening event International parade at the beginning of the regatta where all the racers walked with their flags – including Nicholas who was enthusiastically waving the Maple Leaf and representing Canada.

Julian is sailing in Toronto with his cousin at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club’s sailing program for four weeks. Julian is having a great time but has reported back to us that the “water is cold”. He is also having a great time with his grandparents who are visiting Toronto this week. We all miss Julian while he is away on his first trip away from home.

Meanwhile, back on the rock Max has become a well-known personality at the yacht club. It constantly amazes me what Max manages in any given day – extra snacks from the bar – meals from sailing instructors – he bats his eyelashes and flashes his toothless grin and has everyone catering to his every whim. Max has a six-week sailing camp and is quickly becoming a confident little sailor. We live very close to the yacht club right now which is great for summer camp and activities.



We are still trying to buy a house and recently came very close. The transaction, however, could not be completed due to issues with the title, survey and dispute between sellers and neighbours. At the 11 ½ hour we were in mad-rush mode to find a place to live as we had to be out of rental that we have given notice on – and did not have a house to move into. After a bit of rusging around, we managed to find a good place near the yacht club for a while until we figure out our next plan of attack.

On the business side of our lives, we are busy, busy. Today, however was lovely. We managed a nice day as a family where actually didn’t work and had no emergency power issues. A very rare day indeed! The power utility on the island has been terrible and seems to be getting worse. The number of people who have come to us in the last few months who are fed up with rolling blackouts and outages has been very interesting. We are definitely keeping busy and we are only just getting into hurricane season.

On the recreation side – after all that is WHY we moved here – we have accumulated a couple of boats so far this year. After a lot of looking – we purchased a Sea Cat 25 – with twin outboards from South Carolina. After boat surveys and getting it shipped here, we had some engine work, new fuel tanks replaced and some other boat work completed. Like everything here – it took a while.

Now you see it

Finally in May we got her in the water, and that weekend managed one trip to Tortola when we took Julian to his regatta. A couple weeks following this trip and after some significant rain fall, we discovered the hard way that one of the automatic pumps was not doing its job – resulting in that hull filling up with water and then flipping the boat over.

Now you don't

Yes – there is nothing quite like showing up at the yacht club trying to find your boat in the mooring field – only to discover it has rolled over. The boat, previously unnamed is slowly collecting a variety of very fitting new names that will be put to vote. The mini-disaster , however, has not been as bad as expected as engines were salvaged.

Julian also acquired a boat this year. For his ninth birthday, Julian became the proud owner of an Optimist sailing dinghy which he promptly named “Optimus Prime”. Unlike the previously mentioned boat, this little tub with its little sail gets off the beach and out for a sail at least twice a week for sailing lessons and sails. Julian appears to be better at keeping his priorities straight - and his boat upright.



Hopefully we’ll manage a few more excursions and boat time this summer. This time of year is harder for us to take off and be away from the demands of generators but there are always those little day trips to make us feel like we have escaped the routine...even if it’s just a morning coffee in St John.

Dinner with Alex when she was visiting St Thomas

Back to the Blog

It's Sunday morning and after a run and three cups of tea, I have managed the motivation and courage to tackle our outdated blog. Seeing that my last update, however, was some seven months ago, I will no doubt jump around from story to story like I am changing channels on the TV. We have had a number of family visits over the past five months. In November last year, my parents were visiting with us for a couple of weeks before we all flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico to board a Celebrity ship for a seven-night cruise. The cruise that took us to St Martin, Antigua, St. Lucia, and Barbados was a lovely way for the three generations to travel together. We explored the ports together by hiring a car or taxi and then explored the various points of interest.

Returning to St Martin was fun with a drive around the island, stop at Orient Beach, croissants and cafes in Marigot and lunch and shopping in Phillipsburg.

Antigua, is a big destination for sailors where there is a huge race week in the Spring. The island is pretty with some typical Caribbean architecture combined with old churches and scenic vistas. The weather was a little unsettled the day we arrived so we enjoyed a taxi ride and tour where we saw a few of the island highlights. St Lucia which had been hit but Hurricane Thomas just a few weeks before our visit was lush and volcanic with acres of banana plantations and vegetation. We did see some of the area that was impacted by the storm and heavy rains as we drove up some incredibly steep roads. We also went to the University which was situated high in the hills with some incredible views.

Barbados is a beautiful island, much more developed with a larger population (around 250,000 people). We had a highly informative (and chatty) driver take us around the island for the day. We visited the oldest church on the island, past all the resorts on the west coast and then over to see the beautiful beaches and vistas on the east coast. We had a great time walking along the beach and finding shells. The onboard experience was fun for all of us. Among many great memories, Julian and Max in the formal dining room is among my favourite. The boys rose to the occasion getting quite used to having their chairs pulled out for them and all the attention. Julian ordered escargot EVERY night to start - and Max requested his regular tomato salad.

Going to see the shows was fun and the boys enjoyed the music and dancing.

Then it was Christmas which was filled with school concerts, parties and family events. Max's class did Humpty Dumpty and Julian had his first year of doing carol bells. Over the Christmas school break, Mark's parents came to St Thomas. Despite Mark and I having to work, the boys got to spend a lot of time with their grandparents swimming and doing beach outings. We took the ferry over to St John and explored some beaches and trails in the area. St John is a beautiful place to explore with 2/3 of the island a national park. We visited Cinnamon Bay - which has trails and a National Park Info Centre. More recently, I had the opportunity to be a parent chaperone with Julian's class to visit this beach and park. There was some very interesting history here and the students had the chance to do a "dig" and then sift through the sand and debris to find artifacts.