Visiting Friends

Saturday January 5th was moving day. It was time to get all of our stuff on Pegasus. There is a picture of the start of this process. As she always has, Pegasus absorbed all of our worldly possessions. After we left the hotel we spent 2 days anchored in the lagoon of St. Maarten. We were waiting for the right weather window to head south-east to Nevis. And it was rather uneventful just getting stuff ready

to sail and starting home school. We could not swim as the water in the lagoon was very polluted but Cameron did find a new perch on Pegasus. On the third day we weighed anchor, departed St. Maarten and set sail for Nevis. The wind was strong and we speed along and decided to head to the leeward side of the island of St. Kitts. We did not go to St. Kitts because the island is very touristy. After the better

part of the day we were all done in and realized we were going to be short of our mark. To avoid having to worry about entering a new country in the dark we threw up the quarantine flag and anchored off of St. Kitts. The next day we sailed 1 hour to Nevis. Cameron snorkeled for a while off the boat and even thought it looked barren he saw a few fish and sea stars. One of the reasons we had Nevis on

our list of destinations is that Kathleen and Austin met a great family from Nevis when they circumnavigated a few short years ago!! We were welcomed to Nevis by Steve and Irene and they brought us to their home a ways up the old volcano (the Monkey House) for a great afternoon catching up and cooking up a great barbecue for us. It was great to see them after so many years and Cameron and Alison enjoyed spotting monkeys on their property but had the best time playing with their dog, Sylvie. On Thursday we decided to try snorkeling off the Four Seasons Resort in Nevis. There was a little man-made reef as part of their buffer to keep dinghies away from the beach. It was a great first experience for the kids with a variety of animals. There were a wide variety of fish including Blue Tangs, Rainbow Parrotfish, and a small Sand Shark. The coral on the other hand was a bit on the sparse side with the only large corals being Brain coral and purple and red coral. Alison was thrilled to see a giant urchin, rainbow parrot fish and a small sand shark. On the negative side things here in the anchorage are a bit rolly and a water taxi crosses between the islands every hour. Got us thinking about next steps and whether we should head further south-east or head north-west (toward the Virgin Islands).

Bid Dad catch up: OK back to St Maarten for a sec. The local rum, Toppers, was… actually excellent. We tried the spiced version which I would normally stay away from… It was super smooth and kind of delicious. To wrap up ST Maarten. Burger blah, Rum excellent. Now here in Nevis: Big TY to Steve and Irene. Great to catch up with you two and appreciate the dinner/hospitality! Awesome time reminiscing about our time together during our mutual circumnavigations. Burger wise in Nevis – had a cheese burger at Sunshine’s beach bar on Thursday. It was awesome - definitely a 10 – highly recommended. Rum wise have not found a local version yet though still looking…

Alison: I still miss my friends and my class. I loved meeting and playing with Sylvie and snorkeling, when I saw the giant urchin, my mind was blown that they got that big. Today, getting to Sunshine’s, I got dumped in the water and had a bathing suit full of sand. Then, at Sunshine’s, all I wanted was a rack of ribs and a strawberry smoothie but they didn’t have either one and then they didn’t have calamari. My actual lunch of peach smoothie and mahi-mahi and French fries wasn’t so bad!