I know, it's been a long time

Hi family and friends.  I know it's been a while so I thought I better post something so everyone knows I'm doing well.  We're in the Caribbean now and island hopping, so we changes islands every 3 or 4 days.  Now, one might think that should allow for more frequent updates but so far it hasn't been any easier to find the time and the Internet connection at the same time.  We've actually been very busy doing fun side trips, much more so than any of the other islands we've visited so far.

This is a sea turtle sanctuary on Carriacou.  There is nothing there but this incredible beach and the one hut.  It's a 2 hour hike to get there and it is really beautiful.

We just arrived in Carriacou, for the second time, yesterday.  We came back here because the Danish tall sailing ship is also in the Caribbean and they agreed to meet up with us in Carriacou.  We left Antigua on Monday to run back down here.  Today I toured the Denmark.  She's about 30% bigger than Picton Castle and she carries around 80 trainees between the ages of 18 - 25.  I mentioned before that we had a lot of really nice Danish sailors who all had sailed on her.  Only one of them is left on Picton Castle now but he was sailing on the Denmark until 2 months before he joined Picton Castle in Bali. Pictures to follow, hopefully.

Last weekend we were in Antigua for the Antigua Classic Boat Regatta and I really enjoyed that.  The ship was able to borrow a 40', wooden Carriacou Sloop for the races so I got to crew on her in one of the 4 races.  We also took the Picton Castle onto the race course for race 3.  It was a perfect chance to get some great photos:

I'm not aboard on this shot because I was on watch.  This is the boat, crewed by the off watch on Saturday, race 1.  I crewed on her on Sunday.

On Monday I was on Picton Castle and got a few nice pictures:

This was actually a pretty new yacht built to look like the classics and it was really lovely.  Note the size of the people to help get your perspective of the size of this Schooner.

Here is another beautiful schooner but this one is smaller and older than the one above.  There were around 40 classics racing and they were almost all amazing.  I have 200 pictures.  I found several that I would be perfectly happy to own!

This little one is our 23' longboat, built in the 1920's, sailing in a 34 mile race in the Caribbean.  I requested a spot on her crew but didn't get selected.  They, along with the Picton Castle, only did half the race.

It was great fun racing again and it got me excited about the up-coming racing season in Chicago on our new sled, RedHot.  It was also really fun sailing with the fleet on Picton Castle.  It was a truly marvelous weekend!

So, as you can see, it's hard to find time to blog and I know I've fallen way behind.  I guess we'll have to fill in the blanks in person!

In the mean time, we're departing tomorrow for Aruba, possibly by way of Bonair.  I hope that is the case because I would love to go diving in Bonair.  The trip is winding down to the end, we're scheduled to be in Lunenburg on May, 23rd, one month from today.  We still have a couple thousand miles to sail but the time is flying by.  I'll do my best to get something posted from Aruba.  I hope you're all having a great spring!

Life Changing Experience?

The Picton Castle web site says that sailing aboard is a life changing experience.  Now, I'm not done with my voyage yet so maybe there's more change to come; however, I don't feel like I've changed that much.  What do you think?

Around October 1st, 2014

November 30th, 2014

December 10th, 2014...OMG, I'm 53!

January 1st, 2015 with Via who is from Tonga and has been aboard for 18 months now.

Early February, 2015, in Luderitz, Namibia

Late February, 2015, at St. Helena.  We were looking for Whale Sharks to snorkel with.  The tour captain threw out a line and we hooked a nice Wahoo but it got away.

Around March 15th, 2015, while we were waiting for Neptune Rex to come aboard and initiate all us Polly wogs as Shell backs because we had sailed across the Equator.

And, later that same day, after I was initiated as a Shell back.  Part of the process was a seriously raggedy haircut which, for some reason, I didn't think to get a picture of.

I had decided a little while ago that I wanted to snorkel and dive as much as possible while we were in the Caribbean.  To get a good seal on my mask the mustache had to go.  Interestingly enough, a female shipmate mentioned that if I shaved the mustache and left the beard, "her people would never speak to me again!" so it seemed necessary to take it all off; however, it wasn't necessary to take it all off at once so I made a small change every couple of days before we got to Carriacou.  This is beard V2.0

Tried to fancy up the Mutton Chops.

March 31st, 2015 in Carriacou with Agnes who left today from Grenada.  She's a Canadian who has been living and sailing tall ships in Iceland for the last couple of years.  This is the Biker look for me.

About 2 hours later that same day, just before leaving to go snorkeling.  And:

This is pretty much what I look like today.  This was taken April 1st, 2015, with Dkembe, who also left us in Grenada.

I noticed that I seem to be wearing the same shirts in a lot of these pictures.  Please don't worry, I never wear the same shirt for more than 2 weeks before I wash it!

Anyway, I really don't feel like I've changed all that much!