Now in Sint Maarten

Sunday in Statia was just a relaxing day snorkeling and walking the village. It is a small town with a lot of history. We traveled up the “Old Slave Road” to see the fort built in year 1629. It was good to get out and walk. The roads were all paved and the village well maintained. There are at least 8 ships here in the harbour at one time with a good many tug boats. These ships are here to drop off and pick up.... seems like petroleum, since many tanks way upon the top of the island.

Monday morning bright and early we headed onward to St. Maartin (the Dutch side). We are sitting here outside of Simpson's Bay.

This is our last stop with Dave and Traci. We booked our flights home for Sunday. We are getting a hotel for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights here right on the beach. James says he is looking forward to a warm shower, I've reminded him I've been on the boat 2 weeks longer than him. Paul and Dave went ashore to get one sail repaired and then James and I will go ashore and drop off laundry.

There are billions of dollars worth of mega yachts sitting here amongst us little catamarans. One yacht even has a sailboat on their back deck beside their helicopter pad. Dave always jokes and says it is Mel Gibson's yacht as he is known to have one. All these yachts have numerous staff maintaining the exterior and interior (we have the binoculars on them). Our little Calypso in Prescott may be the biggest boat there BUT it would be on top of some yachts here as a “toy” boat. This is the capital of mega yachts on this side of the ocean (Monaco on the other).

We will do some duty free shopping here (prices are pretty good) and just relax before we head home. Friday and Saturday airfares were more than double so we will head home on Sunday. Of course, James knows there is snow and is rushing to get back to snowboard!!

Here is a recap... began in Grenada, Union Island in the Grenadines, traveled to St. Vincent, onward to St. Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, Guadeloupe (where we picked up James), Montserrat, Nevis, St. Kitts, Sint Eustatius (Statia), now Sint Maarten. Now within those islands we may have been at more than one port. Daruma will continue on Friday to Virgin Gorda, part of the British Virgin Islands, continue onto the southern part of Puerto Rico, Over to Punta Cana, Samana and Luperon, Dominican Republic, From Dominican Republic to Turks and Caicos, From there to the Bahamas and then to the southern tip of Florida to enter a waterway up to near Naples, Florida. This the final stop for Daruma for awhile.

We so enjoyed the journey we had with Dave and Traci and thank them immensely for inviting us along. We have all learned a few things about sailing, navigating, cultures of different islands and then of course, living in close quarters for over a month.