After a beautiful overnight sail of 108 miles from Saint Martin, we were anchor down in the main harbor of Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, capital of the USVI, at 1:00 in the afternoon.  There were a total of 6 cruise ships in that day, 4 in the main harbor and 2 more we saw later when we moved near Crown Bay Marina.  Despite all that, the town is a sleepy little place, with open air safari buses (1 dollar), clear turquoise water in the harbor, and people who say hello when they pass you on the street.  Our first concern was to get checked in legally, so we raised our yellow "Q" flag (technically it means quarantine, and vessels are required to fly it when entering a country for the first time until they are cleared), put the dinghy in the water, and went off to the customs and immigration office.  It couldn't have been easier.  We filled out 2 pages of boat and personal information, showed our passports, our documentation, and our clearance document from Saint Martin, and we were done.  No fees.  No hassles.  The smiling officials welcomed us to the US, told us where to find free wifi, and gave directions for using the bus.  We were happy.   We hear it is not so easy if you are not a US flag vessel, and that must be true because we have seen very few international yachts here.  We hope this is just rumor and not fact, because it is a shame if restrictions are keeping the boats we've know around the world from coming to this beautiful place.

We met Andy and Dianne in February, 1999, in the Bahamas and cruised off and on with them until November when we sailed west for the Pacific and they continued cruising in the Caribbean.  Now, 13 years later, they are still living aboard, but now on a mooring in Saint Thomas where they are both enjoying good jobs and sailing on the weekends.  We traded emails all the way across the Atlantic and were eager to get together again, so we anchored right next to them in Elephant Bay.  They filled us in on all the cruiser info--free dinghy docks at Yacht Haven in town and at Crown Bay, near our anchorage;  how to ride the open air one dollar safari bus, how to get connected with phone and internet on the boat, where the good grocery stores are, and so forth.  It is such fun to see friends again after so long.  We always say cruisers never say "good-bye", only "see you somewhere, someday". 

On Sunday we left the "big city" feel of Saint Thomas and sailed the 6 or so miles over to Saint John, which is almost totally a national park.  Words can't describe it, so just absorb this photo of our boat (the closest sailboat) moored at Maho Bay.  As a national park, there is no anchoring allowed, but the moorings are just $15 a night, with half price for those over 62!  Tomorrow we are going to do a morning of volunteer work in the park with the Friends of the VINP, so we will have more about that in the next post.  We hope all of you in the US are enjoying the Martin Luther King Jr holiday.

We made landfall on Wednesday, 28 December, and fell into paradise.  Well, a lot of people say that about the Caribbean, but lately a lot of people also talk only of how overrun it is with people, and boats, and thieves.  We weren't at all sure what we would find.  After all, the last time we were in Saint Martin it was June of 1999 and that was a long, long time ago.  What we have found is a place where people are smiling and friendly, and genuinely so.  If a store doesn't have what we want, they walk out front to show us the way to find it somewhere else.  For a yachtie, the 2 large chandleries are bigger and better stocked than anything we have found anywhere else in the world—and we have shopped most of it for boat parts!  We couldn't imagine a place we could walk in and find all 5 new AGM batteries we needed, charged and in stock, and then to also find in the same store the 6 new Aero6gen wind generator blades we needed.  Next door is FKG rigging and welding, and they made the new pole for the wind generator in one day, and the work in excellent.  Just yesterday, we stopped by the canvas and sail loft called Tropical Sail Loft.  Ernst can do our canvas replacement in early February, he has the material in stock, and he didn't even want to take a deposit, just a handshake.  Contrast that with the person we "talked" with via email in St. Thomas, who did not have the material but could get it quickly at extra cost, does not use the gortex thread we wanted but could substitute, could get the good quality clears we want but again at extra cost.  And couldn't say when she could do it.  Needless to say, at this point our plan is to go to the USVI early next week, enjoy the national park on Saint John's, and stay there through the end of the month when Mary Ellen, Harry's sister, will come for a visit—and then we'll sail back here. 

Warm days, warm nights, dinner and breakfast in the cockpit; a beautiful anchorage with lots of boats but lots and lots of room;  fresh mango, papaya and avocado; French wine and Caribbean beer.  It just doesn't get much better.

Next week we will sail to Saint Thomas in the USVI, see how hard it is to check into the US with a yacht these days, and see cruising friends from 1999. 

Our Atlantic crossing was all downwind, so in the Cape Verde Islands we decided to try going all the way without the main--and we did!  This photo was taken on the way from the Canaries to the Cape Verdies, but on the Atlantic crossing we even left the cover on the main.  We weren't the fastest boat to cross, but we probably were the most comfortable.  Probably through sheer luck--but we'll take it--we made the whole trip without any strong winds, squalls, or even rain.  Only 17 1/2 days after leaving Mendelo we were anchor down on the French side of Saint Martin.  With knowledge from the cruiser information network, we knew it was free to anchor in the French side of the lagoon, with charges for anchoring outside and even higher charges to check into the Dutch side.  So we anchor French, and mostly shop Dutch.  Easy. 

Here are more photos from the crossing.  We will do another blog post in a few days about our time here in St. Martin.  No more yotreps reports until we get underway again.

We briefly have internet in the Cape Verde Islands (we decided not to go straight to St. Martin after all) where we have been enjoying ourselves since last Sunday afternoon.  We plan to leave again either Saturday or Sunday.  We try to post our position on the internet using our boat-based radio connection.  It doesn't always work, but if you want to find us just use google to search "position, AB0T".  That is Jane's ham call sign and the 0 is a zero.  It will come up with the link to our position report.

Merry Christmas to all!  We'll post again from the other side of the Atlantic.

The boat is provisioned, the chores are done, and we have explored our 4th Canarian Island.  So we think the time has come to head west.  On the map is an approximate path, but of course it will change depending on the wind and weather.   Right now, we are planning to go directly to Saint Martin, but we may decide to stop in the Cape Verde Islands if the trade winds are not settled enough.  We won't be keeping up this blog at sea—no internet out there for us!—so you can check on our progress by going to YOTREPS.  The address is http://www.pangplin.co.nz/yotreps/reporter_list.php    Our boat will appear on the first page under my ham call sign AB0T with the boat name Cormorant beside it.  Click on it and a google map of our latest location will come up, along with a very brief note about how we are doing.  The total distance is just over 2800 miles, and it should take us around 3 weeks.  Keep writing us your news along the way for sure.  Some we can get at sea and the rest will be a very big welcome back to the Americas for us when we reconnect.  So please do write; send those Christmas letters.

We have been here in La Gomera since Monday, and we are very glad we decided to stop here.  It is really still a very local place, with tourism an important part of the economy, but no big group tour hotels, no international airport, and no English grocery stores.  People are Canarian and they speak Spanish.  We spent one day riding the bus across the island and also rented a car for a day with other cruisers.  No volcanic activity has occurred here in over 2 million years, but the island is circular and still looks like a large single cone, but with dramatic cliffs and valleys created by erosion.  In the center, at the top of the island, is a large national park with forests of laurel and related species in the cold cloud forest.  It is wet all the time, with lots of lichens, mosses and ferns along with the local pines, laurels, and small spruce looking trees.  One of the major activities here is hiking, but we contented ourselves with the bus and car.  The hikes are steep and slippery, so we opted to preserve our bones and muscles for the crossing.  No "Bataan death marches" this time. 

Today is full of all the last minute jobs.  I did three buckets of wash this morning, enjoying the luxury of unlimited water out of a hose (no laundromat here )  Harry has been up the mast to check all the shrouds and blocks and lube the mainsail track.  Now he is making a new antenna for the AIS because the one we have is in the way of the wind steering sail when we go downwind—which we will on this passage.  Tomorrow morning we'll make a quick trip to the market for fresh apples, carrots, mangos and avocados.  Then we'll be off.

Don't forget to write, please.  Use the same address you always do, and we will get it.

It is Thanksgiving Day here on La Gomera island in the Canaries.  As of yesterday morning, we had no idea how we were going to celebrate this wonderful American holiday.  Now, we have all 3 American boats in the marina getting together, and in the spirit of the holiday, a couple from Scotland are also coming.  As you can see, I made a pecan pie and some cornbread last night.  Today I will try to transform the cornbread into stuffing for a rolled turkey breast.  They do sell turkey here, but it has no skin or bones!  Hopefully the internet ideas I found will keep it moist enough.  If not, there is always gravy.  Pete on Norna is making a stuffed chicken with his father's recipe, Janey on Tsolo is doing yeast rolls, I am also making some balsamic green beans, and the Scots will bring a surprise.  It should be lots of fun in the tradition of Thanksgiving.  And we are truly thankful.

 At the last update, Dale had just left from Tenerife.  On her last day, we set the camera up on a rock and got a good, happy photo of the 3 of us which we wanted to share here.  After a few days, we decided it was time to get on to La Gomera, so on Monday morning we made the 26 mile trip to San Sebastian de La Gomera.  This is the other traditional jumping off point for the Atlantic crossing, besides Las Palmas.  Columbus left from here on his first trip.  The marina is full now, with probably half the boats planning to cross and the other half winter live-aboards.  We have met lots of people and the atmosphere is that of a true cruiser marina--so fun for us. 

One surprise is that in addition to all the boats getting ready to cross, there are 17 rowing boats!  They leave on Sunday, Dec. 4 to ROW to Barbados.  Two are going solo, but the rest are 2, 4, and 6 person crews.  What an amazing challenge they face.  We now have a definite date range for leaving, since we want to go before they do.  Such low boats with little lights will be very hard to see, and it would be horrible to hit one.  So we will certainly--or as certain as one can be on a boat--be underway before the 4th.  More soon...

Dale left Monday night and is now safely back home and snug in her own bed.  On the boat, we are slowly finding all the things we stowed away to clear her bed--which is normally our "garage".  We had the rental car for another 2 days, so several trips to grocery stores were next on the list.  People always want to know how we manage food and supplies for a long trip, but the easy answer is that we just buy as much of the stuff we like as we can find room for, and it all works out.  Important things have to be carefully planned for though.  In the photo are 2 liter cartons of no sugar added fruit juice.  During land time I measure how much we use, and for fruit juice, it is 2 liters a week.  Our Atlantic crossing should only take about 3 weeks, but we don't want to have to go grocery shopping right away, and of course we aren't leaving right away either.  So 10 more 2 liter boxes joined our stores yesterday.  The other essentials are toilet paper, crackers and peanut butter, rice, pasta, and as many fresh fruits and vegetables as we can fit in the cool box.  We could easily go several months without re-provisioning, and CORMORANT is just about as loaded as we want her to get. 

We are enjoying Marina San Miguel here on Tenerife and will stay in the peace and quiet for another few days before moving on to La Gomera.  We are getting eager to go now, so it won't be long.

Internet continues to be difficult to find, so again this will be short.  We sailed to Las Palmas overnight, trying all the time to slow down so we would not arrive before dawn.  We wanted to go because any sailor knows that it is the traditional departure point for crossing the Atlantic to the west.  Even Columbus knew this!  The Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, 250 boats strong, leaves from there on Sunday the 20th, so we were concerned that we would not find room in the anchorage, but we were wrong.  All the rally boats were in the marina, so we independent cruisers had plenty of room.  We loved the place, walking all over in the old town to see the Columbus museum and taking the bus up the mountain to wonderful botanic garden.  Gran Canaria is dry and volcanic too but not as starkly beautiful as Lanzarote.

But the calendar was moving on, as it does, so very early in the morning on Friday we raised the anchor in Las Palmas and motor sailed to Tenerife.  Dale has a flight to meet and Harry wanted to connect with an old friend from his Foxboro days who is only here until Wednesday.  After a terrible night at a sub-standard marina called the Marina del Sur, we moved to Marina San Miguel only 3 miles down the coast and are happily settled.  We have rented a car and yesterday drove across the high volcanic canada and took a windy and sometimes cold hike around some fantastic volcanic rock formations.  Luckily we chose the right direction so it was fun and not another "Bataan death march".

Dale has to leave tonight and we are really going to miss her.  She has been such fun, as well as a very valuable member of our crew.  The time has flown by, and she has an open invitation to join us anywhere, anytime.  We will spend the next few days reorganizing our boat and finishing jobs we need to do before the passage.

We left Rabat-Sale, Morocco on Saturday, 29 October, together with 22 other boats.  The "window" for crossing the bar was only about 3 hours, so everyone was nervous about getting through the formalities of passports, customs, and surf in time.  Luckily Harry and Mike had talked with the police ahead of time, and they agreed--for probably the first time ever--to clear boats on the dock and let us leave after clearing.  We were the second boat, and we thought we were free to go.  But NO, we had to go back!  They had been unable to get the drug dog aboard, and we thought they said it was OK.  We had to return to the dock, side tie, and have our canine guest and 2 handlers aboard.  We passed, and off we went.  It was a smooth, uneventful passage, with good sailing wind most of the way. 

On our last afternoon, a tiny bird landed on deck and very quickly made itseft at home.  It came inside, sat on our arms and heads, and as dark fell, it was inside.  We searched the boat the next morning, but it was nowhere to be found.  We were just offshore, so it must have flown home.  It was, we think, a canary!

We rented a car and have explored Lanzarote for the past 2 days.  The first day we ended at the seaside home of friends we first met cruising in the San Blas Islands of Panama in 2000, and whom we last saw in New Zealand in 2004.  Below is a photo of us with John and Steffi.  It was a wonderful reunion.  Somehow, they have not aged a single bit.

We made landfall today just after 1 in the afternoon and are now moored in Porto Calero Marina on the east coast of Lanzarote.  A full post about our check-out in Morocco (quite the musical chairs scenario) and the sail here will follow, but first I will try to finish