Hello all,
We are now just leaving Vancouver for Aruba having spent a wonderful Christmas with my Mum, the children and the Grand kids. It is all a blur but we had a great time and the weather was ok. I had to scrape the windshield on the truck a couple of times to get rid of the ice but otherwise all was very nice. It is hard to leave the family and I will add more info when we get to Aruba but now it is time to board the flight and do the all nighter to Toronto and then down south.

Happy New Year to everyone.

We are now in Aruba having spent three days in Curacao. It was a surprise with city being so much bigger that we thought. All very Dutch with the buildings right out of Amsterdam except without the canals. We had a good time but rather too short as we had to get to Aruba which we did this afternoon. We now have cleared in washed the boat and have Kilkea II med moored beside some big power boats in the harbour. We went out for a quick dinner and now after a busy day it is time for bed. Tomorrow evening we leave at 18.00 for Toronto and a short overnight then on to Vancouver on Sunday morning!!! Hope the old body holds up.

We wish all our friends and fellow cruisers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

All is well with Kilkea II and we departed at 13.45 for Los Roques which is one of the out islands of Venezuela or should I say a whole bunch of islets that cover an area of 14 by 20 miles. They are for the most part very low sandbars with lots of mangrove on them all. The charts are not good for this area and we have to navigate with the use of drawings in a cruising guide and using our eyes to avoid the numerous coral heads.

We arrived here Monday morning around 09.00 and had a good sail with the wind behind us all the way at around 15 to 20 knots. We used just the genoa out on a pole. The stars at night were wonderful and the moon rise beautiful. Sailing at night is a great experience, as with most people we all live in cities and forget to look up and even if we do the lights block out the beauty of the universe.

We spent the day just relaxing and swimming which is the first real time we have had to do this since arriving back from Canada. We were going to leave today but have decided to spend another day doing nothing.

It was an ideal day with swimming and reading and relaxing.

Next morning we left for the Aves arriving there around three in the afternoon. Good time to arrive as we had to negotiate our way through a lot of reefs and had the sun to our back which makes it much eaiser to see all the corals and shallow spots. This is another reef of mangrove swamp and full of birds. Here we were behind a reef that gave us protection from the waves but the wind was up blowing in excess of 25 knots which is rather tiring. We spent the night and left in the morning for Bonaire arriving here in late afternoon. Again good down wind sailing but a trifle more wind than we would like as it was up around 30k for a time.

Bonaire is a clean small Dutch island that is very European in nature and quite a change from any of the other islands we have been to. The weather has been windy still with the odd rain shower coming thru. The weather is supposed to improve a lot on Tuesday so may stay until then. We have managed to have a couple of great dinners out and a far cry better than most any we have eaten at in the Caribbean.

Heading West

Another busy week. Managed to get the out haul on the mail boom repaired but the gear looks a little suspect so have ordered another from Amel. Also we have a new cockpit table made out of teak which works very well.

We left Trinidad at 4.45 am on Tuesday and had a good sail 80 miles up to Grenada arriving at 16.45 the same day. Boats really do not like being laid up and we found another problem with the forestay furler and thought that we may have to go to Guadeloupe to get it fixed but with the help of Mike on White Bird we got it apart and found the problem and fixed it. So now we are ready to go with no know problems.

On Thursday we did a tour of Grenada which is know as the Spice Island. It is amazing how many plants are usable for making teas and eating. We bought some nutmeg nuts and will bring some home for Christmas. Last night we went to a Pan and Parang at the cultural center. It was great with all the Christmas music played on the Steel Drums with the Caribbean beat.

Today (Saturday) we will leave around noon for Los Roques islands over by Bonaire and should take us just less than two days. It is always hard to leave a place as we have made some good friends in this part of the world. But they are staying in the Caribbean and we are moving westward. It is also hard to fathom that three weeks from today we will be leaving Vancouver to come back to the boat in Aruba and that is 500 miles from where we are now.