For stories of our travels, please select a topic from the list on the left and click on it.

During the year 2003 we sailed the Caribbean waters during the winter months, sailed back to the states for the summer and returned south once more when winter approached. April of 2004 found us retracing our passage northwest. This time we took a more leisurely pace and spent time exploring the Exuma Keys as well as Turks and Caicos.

One of the great thing about cruising is all the wonderful things we discover as we move from anchorage to anchorage: beautiful sunsets, towering mountains, charming little homes on the hill, a variety of fish, flora and fauna and the occasional horse that goes swimming by!  Yes, that's right. A beautiful race horse out with his trainer for some cool exercise swam by as we were anchored in Red Hook, St Thomas.

Here, Shearwater is nestled into Bahia Tortugas (Turtle bay) on the Island of Culebritta. This photo was taken by Phil von Stade from the abandoned fortress a top the mountain on the island.

As February began we set off for Puerto Rico via Culebra. It was a delightful down wind sail. Shearwater loves her spinnaker with the birds flying high. We settled into the Puerto del Rey Marina near Fajardo. Provisioning in Puerto Rico was a delight. It is a lush, diverse country and we fell in love with the landscape. One day we rented a car and took off for the rainforest. Along the way we stopped to see waterfalls and had lunch at a pleasant little restaurant looking out over the valleys and out to the sea. Take a look at our Puerto Rico Page.

Our Charter guests MaryAnne, Phil and Devin von Stade flew into San Juan to sail with us. Visit the von Stade's page to see what a great vacation they had.

We found Puerto Rico so pleasant, we decided to stay a little longer after our guests departed. The rain forest was so intriguing we spent another day exploring. On our way back to the Virgin islands we stopped by Isabel Segundo the capitol of Vieques. Check out more Puerto Rico.

Saturday, March 1, 2003 we arrived in Sint Maarten, Netherlands Antilles, ready to take on the racing world at the Heineken Regatta. Our crew, Brian & Karen Beaver and Jack & Sally Bailey flew in on the following Tuesday. With only two days to practice we were off to a quick start. Our guests are experienced racers from The Palm Beach Sailing Club. We counted on them to show us the ropes. We learned so much about our boat and sailing in general. A great time was had by all and we came in 4th every day of the race. Visit our Heineken Regatta page for pictures and story.

Half of the island of St Martin/ Snt Maarten is French and the other half Dutch. It is a grand island to sail. After the regatta we decided to sail a clock wise route around the island, stopping at Marigot, Grand Case, Ill Pinel, Orient Bay, Oyster Bay, Phillipsburg and back to Simpson Bay Lagoon. We met great new friends along the way visit our St Maarten and Tintamarre pages.

After a great fourth place finish at the 23rd St Maarten Heineken Regatta we sailed to Saba and St Barth before returning to the Virgin Islands by early April. Look at Saba, St Barth and St Maarten for stories of our adventures.

Sailing in the Caribbean is wonderful, but, it is even nicer when we can share it with family and friends. We were delighted to have Rebecca Bell and her friend Erin Weichbrod with us. It was fun catching up with what is going on in their lives and taking them around to all the fun hot spots. True to form, they closed all the bars and woke cheerfully the next morning. Come again soon. We've posted a page for Rebecca's Visit.

June and July found us in the Gulf of Mexico. After our visit to Cuba, we ventured westward directly to Galveston and Houston, Texas to visit our Kids and Grandchildren, Justin, Nicole and Jacob. In August, we attended the Marine Technical Institute in Ft Lauderdale for two weeks.

Click on one of the headings to the left to see some of the stories.