Travels All Around

We left Ambition at Nanny Cay in BVI on Dec 19^th and flew back home to be with our family for the holidays. We took a taxi from Nanny Cay to Sopers Hole – West End of BVI. From their we took the ferry to Charlotte Amalie – about a 45 minute ride. Another taxi to the airport at St Thomas US Virgin Islands. Almost the equivalent of Trains Plains and Automobiles! A classic film!

We arrived in Montreal late evening and the welcoming temperature was -22c – Maryse asked me if it was too late to change our plans! It was FREEZING COLD!!!

Back in the house we were a little lost – there is more space in one room than the whole boat! “Where are you?” was a common heard call!

Our living room looked like an Amazon warehouse with cardboard boxes piled up everywhere – Christmas gifts mixed with boat parts! Maryse set to work wrapping the gifts for the kids and grand kids. We bought the Christmas tree and set it all up with decorations. Maryse also got so busy shopping as we had dinners and brunch’s planned for family. Oh my it was so hectic in comparison to our slow island time lifestyle onboard Ambition.

Maryse was sent on a treasure hunt Christmas eve – after a hunt through the house she ended up back where she started – SHE SAID YES when I asked her to marry me! Both very very happy!

Santa Claus made his first appearance on Christmas morning with Cedrick and Clara – it seams that Santa had forgotten a few gifts when he passed during the night. The chocolate cupcakes and milk were delicious!

Santa made another surprise visit to the Mant family Christmas party and succeeded in making ALL the little girls cry! Good thing Cedrick was rock solid! Great Grandma was also good!

Clara and Cedrick are doing great....

Eliane is not to sure of Santa yet ....

Abigale is not comfortable either....

Madison is in starfish - get me out of here mode

Great Grandma seems ok with the whole Santa thing....

Both Maryse and I ended up with wicked colds or maybe it was allergies to being in cold weather – slowed us down a little in our social visits but we felt hat all would be good when we got back to hot humid and salt air!

After freezing rain, rain and snow it was time get back south and back on board Ambition. It was a repeat in reverse of the trip north. A few shots from St Thomas and the US Virgin Islands. 

The Disney Cruise Ship

St Thomas

The Homestead in USVI

St Thomas

Ferry Selfies.....

We were back on the boat before darkness set in – soooo good to be back on board.

Being back on board was not with out its issues ..... check out these photos...... the bottom had no growth when we left - look wa=hat 3 weeks in the warm wares with minimal bottom paint looks like....

This is gross.....

The green beard is not cool.....

I think we are becoming a reef!

I think we are raising little fish in there......

Ok this is down right embarrassing

We were hauled out of the water on Jan 10^th to have the bottom cleaned and repainted. The REALLY UGLY side of sailing stuff.....

Attractive no?

Salad fixings.....

All the Green Hair gone! YYYEEESSSS

Ok now we are ready to make Ambition pretty again.....

I had brought the paint with me from the US. After discussing with the folks down here I told them that I had the Petit Hydrocoat water based paint for the bottom. Well …… I thing their comments was Hydrocoat is like offering up chicken wings to the barnacles and grass! They love eating that stuff! Rather humiliating experience when your choices are laughed at but I have a thick skin and was ok with the challenge. So if I forget my $125 per gallon Hydrocoat what it the paint that will really fight back against the beasts of the Caribbean??? Turns out it is SeaHawk Island 44 with tin which has been outlawed by the EPA in the US for years. To boot they sell a tin booster for the paint! Ok so now I was planning to use 2 gallons of my cheap chicken wing paint – now with the high performance stuff I am up to 5 gallons at $375 per gallon!!! This better be good!!!

Once it was painted it does look good and time will tell how well it performs over the long run – we should be good for more than two years.

While Ambition was out of the water we installed two keel coolers to help the refrigeration systems be more efficient and use less battery power.

As a last minute decision we opted to have the hall washed and polished – wow it looks fantastic! We ended up paying here $550 for exactly the same work that was done in Canada but cost $2500. Who says the Caribbean is expensive!

Friday is launch day and we will head out of the marina immediately – we really need to get out and find an anchorage in a quiet bay as we await the next weather window to sail from BVI to St Martin. The challenge is that our course is almost due east and the prevailing winds are also east! To add to that there is a 1 to 1.5 knot current that runs east to west as part of the Gulf Stream to contend with. Anyway it is only an 80 mile ride and we will find the right time to do that in the next week or so.