A lot has happened since we left New Zealand. We had
uneventful flights to Florida, where we went to look for a boat for Denise to
sail across the Pacific to Australia. We saw many boats, but most of them were
not geared up for blue water cruising. After two weeks and a lot of internet
research we decided we needed to go to St Maarten and the British Virgin
Islands. We found a suitable boat in Nanny Cay Tortola after seeing several more
boats. It then took a while to have the boat surveyed and take possession. The
survey showed a number of serious issues, which resulted in negotiating a lower
price. But it meant going to Virgin Gorda Marina to be hauled out and have the
mast taken off. That happened on the 25th March. Nick, Denise's friend and part
owner, had arrived by then and the work started. Of course one thing leads to
another and we worked hard with them for more than two weeks. They were
still waiting for the new rigging by then, with no fixed date for its arrival.
So we left them to it and went home. In the mean time two more friends had
arrived to help with the work and we had moved out into a local
hotel.
Our flight back was a bit of a mission with missing our
connection in San Juan, due to the horrendous queues and the American security
check. We ended up on standby with 3 flights along with 72 other
passengers. We did eventually make it to Miami, where we had to pay for
re-scheduling our flight to London.
It is nice to be back home now. We have friends from
HongKong to stay which is great. We have also started working on our house Elm
Farm to put her on the market. So no change of getting bored.
We also managed to meet up with some of our cruising
friends: Jim and Barbara in Florida and Dick and Anita in St
Maarten.
