{"id":3001,"date":"2018-01-07T15:33:07","date_gmt":"2018-01-07T19:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/?p=3001"},"modified":"2018-01-07T15:33:07","modified_gmt":"2018-01-07T19:33:07","slug":"happy-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/?p=3001","title":{"rendered":"Happy 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy New Year and all the best wishes for 2018.<\/p>\n

We rung in the new year anchored in Carlisle Bay on the south side of Antigua. There is a resort on the beach here that has had bands playing both during the day today, January 1st and yesterday as well as last evening. We sat out on the bow of the boat, under an almost full moon taking it in.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Fireworks above us<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At midnight fireworks were set off from the beach. Our boat was just far enough away to be safe. Every one set so high in the sky just above us. Then we noticed some more fireworks in the next bay over off our stern as well. We were surrounded. It was magical and well worth staying up for.<\/p>\n

So for today\u2019s blog post, I thought we\u2019d add some photos from 2017 that never managed to get posted to the blog.<\/p>\n

The year started with a big problem when one of the four struts holding the roof over our cockpit broke at the weld.\u00a0 But a quick stop at Nanny Cay, some great welding by Nanny Cay, and a lot of Paul labour made us good as new.\u00a0 Not the ideal way to spend the last couple days with Gwyn who had arrived for Christmas, but we found ways to make it good.<\/p>\n

\"Oh <\/a>
Oh oh, no longer holding onto our Bimini (roof) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Can't <\/a>
Can’t work on the boat all the time <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"If <\/a>
If you have to fix your boat, pick a good beach <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Gwyn <\/a>
Gwyn on the way back to Vancouver (can you spot her?) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Next was the visit of our son Keith and his wife Taryl. They enjoyed a week with Paul in BVI in January 2017.<\/p>\n

\"Gwyn <\/a>
Gwyn has left, Keith and Taryl arriving (they briefly met in the USVI) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Keith <\/a>
Keith and Taryl road weary but ready to go sailing <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Heading <\/a>
Heading to the next island <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Keith <\/a>
Keith kicked back with Jost Van Dyke in the background <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Keith <\/a>
Keith and Taryl at Callwood rum distillery – must stop <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Four <\/a>
Four types of rum explained then samples – yum. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"BVI <\/a>
BVI relaxin’ <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Snorkeler's <\/a>
Snorkeler’s view of Blue Sky <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Taryl <\/a>
Taryl following the fish off the stern as we are tied to the rock <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Between January and March, Paul single handed the boat from BVI to Antigua.\u00a0 Love the passage sunsets<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Spectacular sunset<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next I came for a break from work in March and was joined on the boat by my second cousin from England, David Wilce (our grandfathers were brothers). He spent 10 days on the boat, while I left after 6 days.\u00a0 First stop was some relaxing at Green Island and a visit to Harmony Hall.<\/p>\n

\"Now <\/a>
Now this is the life with hammock and book. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Last <\/a>
Last walk along the beautiful path, Harmony House is now private <\/div> <\/div>
\"One <\/a>
One of the many hummingbirds along the path <\/div> <\/div>
\"David <\/a>
David out for a paddle <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"One <\/a>
One of many of the Green Island Green turtles <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Then came Paul’s birthday with a fun toy.<\/p>\n

\"Now <\/a>
Now to demonstrate how to inflate this, Dave the cameraman standing by <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"If <\/a>
If I wave it in the wind it should inflate <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Almost <\/a>
Almost inflated, sorta. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Ok <\/a>
Ok lets put some leg work into the challenge <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"I <\/a>
I think I’m making progress <\/div> <\/div>
\"Gotcha <\/a>
Gotcha now, time to give it a test <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Finally, <\/a>
Finally, perfectly inflated, time for a rest. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"I <\/a>
I say, rather comfy, what. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Paul <\/a>
Paul enjoying the now inflated beach toy <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

After much fun and relaxation at Green Island, Gwyn had to head back to Vancouver so Paul and David met some friends in Falmouth and discovered some great hikes.<\/p>\n

\"Judy <\/a>
Judy and Phil of Rum Runner with David taking a hike break <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Paul <\/a>
Paul and David taking a break with the eastern part of Antigua stretching behind us to the Atlantic <\/div> <\/div>
\"Phil <\/a>
Phil from Rum Runner enjoying the view after a tough hike <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"David <\/a>
David on the precipice to Falmouth harbour at our highest point in the hike <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

And lastly Paul had some great crew, Matt and Chris, from St Croix, who helped him sail the boat from BVI to Hampton, Virginia in May. They had a quick and easy sail to the US. Here\u2019s some of the dolphins they enjoyed along the way. They also caught some fish.<\/p>\n

\"Matt <\/a>
Matt hooked into a beautiful Mahi Mahi <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Chris <\/a>
Chris about to haul dinner in <\/div> <\/div>
\"Matt <\/a>
Matt and Chris enjoying our dolphin escort <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Just <\/a>
Just love passage sunsets <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Hopefully we\u2019ll do better at keeping the blog up to date from this point forward. Meanwhile Happy 2018 everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy New Year and all the best wishes for 2018. We rung in the new year anchored in Carlisle Bay on the south side of Antigua. There is a resort on the beach here that has had bands playing both during the day today, January 1st and yesterday as well as last evening. We sat … Continue reading “Happy 2018”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[35,7,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antigua","category-bvi","category-passages"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/P1017012.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3001"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3058,"href":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3001\/revisions\/3058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svbluesky.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}