On January 22nd we arrived in the tropics at Mayaguana, Bahamas (the most southern Bahamas Island). We had a two-day passage sail to get there. We sailed through breakfast, lunch and dinner. I got to sleep at the fly bridge. We saw the sunset while the boat was moving. We eventually stopped at 2:00 in the morning and I moved down to my bedroom. While I was sleeping, we moved to a new anchor spot. Once we got to our new anchor spot, we got to go for a morning swim. The water was crystal clear. The water was nine feet deep. We could see sand dollars, fish and conch at the bottom. Chance was a lifeguard. Caper was a Champion swimmer. We had to tie him to the boat, so he would not swim too far away from the boat.

On January 23rd we went to explore the island of Mayaguana. We walked on the island and met a Police guy and his son. We explored Abraham’s Settlement on Mayaguana and checked out the beach. We did not stay on the beach because the dogs got sand spurs on their feet. I went into one of the little stores, which was in a lady’s garage. She had dogs and the dogs were crazy protective and scared of our dogs. The store didn’t really have much. All we got there was eggs and an orange Fanta. Thank goodness for the Fanta, I was dying of thirst that day.

From Jan 27-Jan 30 we made our way from the Bahamas to Puerto Rico. We stayed in Puerto Rico for only a few days. We rented a car and checked out a few places (and a brewery) while there, plus grocery shopped and bought new phones for internet. We then had a 1-day sail to the USVI.

On February 8th we went on a hike in St. Johns, USVI. We hiked up what used to be a Danish road they used to get from one settlement to another. It was a strenuous hike to the top of the hill. We went so high up to the top of the hill that we had a really good view of Maho Bay. We got to do it with Kent and Kathy Meredith of s/v Wind Ensemble. It was a long hike to me because I was already tired. The name of the hike was Mary Hope Trail.

On Feb 10th Me, Mom and Kathy took an island taxi to Trunk Bay on St. John’s where we went snorkeling and hung out at the beach. What was neat about the snorkel is there were markers that told us what the fish were and it was a national park, so we had to pay to get in. Afterwards, we took a taxi back to Maho Bay and ate at the beach bar with Dad and Kent. We then went back to the boat and danced along to Abba music. We had Kent and Kathy over for dinner.

On Feb 17th Mom, Dad and I went on a hike to a Sugar Mill Plantation. We saw the ruins of the old factory, windmill, cooking and boiling areas as well as the slave headquarters. In the early 19th century the sugar mill was the only way to get sugar in the USVIs. At the time they would have slaves working because they found the work a whole lot easier if the slaves did it. The sugar cane would go through the windmill and into the boiling room where it would go from copper kettle to copper kettle. The slaves would then cook it in the kitchen and bring it to the people who own the plantation so they could sell it.

On Feb 23rd we went motoring from the US Virgin Islands to the British Virgin Islands. We stopped at Tortola to check into Customs. The British Virgin Islands restaurants do not cater to pet dogs because they do not believe in pet dogs or friendly dogs. The dogs they know and have on the islands are not usually pets but wild dogs and they are not always friendly. They are scared of dogs because they have never been around dogs very much. Caper and Chance had to be checked by the local vet to see if they were friendly and healthy. One of the restaurants we wanted to eat at on the patio in Tortola said no because we had the dogs. After Customs we moved over to Cooper Island. There we got a mooring ball instead of anchoring. We went to the island and it was very touristy like the shops and the restaurant are all stuff that you would see in a tourist town and the environment was really pretty, especially the view of the water. The restaurants on Cooper Island were nice and they let us be there with the dogs.