Hi everyone,

Sandy here...it's been awhile since writing, so I will bring everyone up to date.

We closed on our boat last week, then spent the next two days enjoying it. What a wonderful experience!! We picked up some food and other provisions, pulled out of the marina in Road Town, BVI with our boat broker (Todd) and powered over to Nanny Cay marina to fuel up, top off the fresh water tank and pick up our dinghy. We sat at the fuel dock and a squall came through, leaving a nice, fresh breeze to enjoy. Remember, it's been really muggy, so it was refreshing to cool off. Anyway, Todd waved goodbye and Karen and I set off. It was already about 3pm and we decided to motor the 5 miles across Sir Francis Drake Channel to Norman Island. This is the island thought to be the inspiration for Robt. L. Stevenson's novel "Treasure Island"! We spent our 1st night aboard there, in a bay called "The Bight". We took the dinghy to shore, had drinks on the beach, and admired our boat among the other 30 boats at anchor. The slight motion of the boat rocking is pretty soothing...not sure what it will be like to try and sleep with the boat "rocking and rolling". Our first morning aboard was spent stowing all of our gear, discovering that there wasn't enough room to stow all of our gear, trying to figure out what to do with the extra sweatshirts, heavy coats, foul weather gear, etc. Did I mention it's hot and muggy here? We also snorkled for awhile and discovered that lounging in the cockpit of our boat is great.

Later that day, we set SAIL from Norman Island and proceeded around "The Indians", past the southern side of Tortola, around the East end of Beef Island and then motored into Trellis Bay. We hooked onto a mooring ball (a floating line attached to a heavy weight on the bay floor). We had a nice dinner and settled into the evening. The boat has a number of really cool features...one is a fresh water shower nozzle on the transom that allows a person to shower up on deck...after it's dark ;)

The next morning, we flagged down a fellow boater that was taking his dinghy to shore. He gave us a ride and even took us to the airport in his SUV. We needed to fly back to St. Maarten (SXM) to pick up the remainder of our stuff...why, I don't know, because we haven't the room to stow the things we already have on the boat. Anyway, the trip back to SXM was uneventful.

We have since met some wonderful people here at the apartment complex and had a wonderful meal with them. Today is the first time in a week that we've had reliable internet sufficient to post to the blog and check emails.

We hope to pick up all of our dive gear at the local scuba shop and do a 1 tank boat dive this afternoon. We will take as many good pics as possible and post them, along with the recent boat pics, on the next blog.

Using muscles I didn't know I had!

Hi, this is Karen....Today is Sunday and I thought I would write a quick blib in our blog. Friday we did an extreme Zip Line, and I used muscles that I didn't even know I had! It was wild!!! The bridges and ropes and ladders we had to walk across, and climb down were crazy! I'm sure you would not see anything this intense in the states....too many law suits there! Had a great time, but I am still feeling the pain two days later!!!! Arms, abdomen, legs, ankles.........I must be really out of shape!

Mom and Dad Brown's 50th Wedding Anniv.

We boarded Carnival's "Splendor" in Long Beach, CA for a week of fun celebrating Mom and Dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary. Our 1st port of call was Puerto Vallarta where we enjoyed a nice meal at Pipi's...mmm...guacamole made fresh at your table. Next, we met our friends, Guillermo, Mireya, and their daughter Bella for more fun in Mazatlan. We ate at one of our favorite restaraunts there, Aree Lulu's. Our last port was at Cabo San Lucas. There wasn't much to do there, as the weather was very hot and wind/waves eliminated any water activities. The scenery was sure nice.

On board, each evening's meal was a special treat, with a photo banner of an event in the lives of Mom and Dad dating, graduating together and finally the wedding. Along with each banner was a gift relating to their times together. Each night, one of the party offered a toast to them and shared memories of their lives together. (Even the boys gave their own toast) The only sad memory of the cruise was that Ken and Sue's oldest, Drew, was unable to attend because of commitments at college.

Tillamook, OR Air Museum

Here are some pics of our visit to the Tillamook, OR Air Museum. It is at the Tillamook airport and housed in one of original blimp hangers built in 1944. As you may have noticed from the one photo, these hangers were built entirely of wood framework. This hanger is the only one left standing due to the other being burned by arson. It is a freestanding structure almost 200' high and almost a 1000' long. It was designed to hold 9 blimps that were used to patrol the coastline from Northern California to Canada in WWII.

Most of the museums's aircraft are still maintained and flown occasionally. We really recommend a visit for any military or aviation enthusiasts. It is really cool!

While in Tillamook, you can visit the cheese factories. You are also only about 1 hour drive to Portand and also McMinneville, OR, where there is another aviation museum and where the "Spruce Goose" is at. Another hour north and you are at Jim and Sue's place.

Brother Jim's 50th Birthday party, with lots of friends and relatives to enjoy! Held at Jim and Sue's home in Battle Ground, WA. They have a lot of extra room in their home now that Aimee and Tyler are in their own homes. They're probably lonely for company...

Pre-Caribbean photos

Central Oregon trail ride: Brother Jeff in a natural spring bath, brothers Jerry and Jeff with Gene in the background, me on a horse (almost natural looking) and brothers Jim and Jeff with Dad looking over part of this great country of ours.

Our good friends from Boise,

Tom and Krista, who hosted "cousin eddie and ruthie" on more than one occasion passing back and forth. They are in the process of finishing a wonderful home for themselves. It's been a lot of work...I know...we've "been there"!

Sandy here…It’s the 9th of October. I will have to catch everyone up to date with the computer, then cut/paste to the blog when able. We’ve had unreliable internet service since arriving on St. Maarten, so have had a difficult time updating everyone via phone, email or blog. I will talk about this a little later.

I flew down to Tortola on Tuesday, spent the night on our friend Todd’s boat, then got up the next day to inspect “Miss Ann”, the sailboat Karen and I are in the process of buying. It is a 2002 Beneteau 361 two cabin cruiser. It is still undergoing it’s phase-out inspection from the “Footloose (Sunsail)” charter boat company. This is an inspection designed to identify any deficiencies the boat may have and correct them prior to returning the boat fulltime to it’s owner. This is done whenever a boat gets too old for the fleet of charter boats at their company. It has been a great opportunity for us and we are really looking forward to using it. I met some nice people while down there, and discussed with them our plans. Without exception, they said of all of the places to have a sailboat and use it with our plan in mind and our level of experience, the Virgin Island area is the safest and most desirable in the Western Hemisphere. Needless to say, I had a great time even though it was just for the one day.

On the other hand, Karen’s time wasn’t so cool…literally! The power was intermittent for most of the previous evening and following day. This, of course, meant the ceiling fans and air conditioning were out. It also ruined her plans for watching “chick flicks” all day. The real kicker was when the battery died on the laptop and couldn’t be charged. This meant the internet and communications were down, again. Of course, the “icing on the cake” was when I asked “what’s for dinner” when she picked me up at the airport. I was only kidding, of course, but the look I got was pretty “awesome”! (like, shock and awe)

The weather still has been holding to the upper 80’s and high humidity. It tends to cool down overnight to the lower 80’s but the humidity doesn’t really change. We are told this all starts to change by the end of the month.

We went over to the French side this morning to walk around the marina area in Marigot. It is so odd to hear everyone speaking French. Most people on the Dutch side speak English. I believe that most everyone can speak all three languages, but it appears the French choose not to. Anyway, we had a real nice walk and then had brunch at one of the French restaurants. The display of different foods, breads and desserts behind the counter was fantastic. We really had a hard time choosing. Karen had an interesting crab salad…I chose a sandwich that had a number of different European cheeses and sliced, salt-cured meat of some kind. I also had what I believe was tiramisu with strawberry filling for dessert. The food was “killer good” but we weren’t sure of what the stuff was because, of course, nothing was labeled in English. Later this evening, we walked to an espresso café down the street from the apartment and each had a bowl of sausage/vegetable soup. On the way back, we stopped at a small corner bar, listened to some live music and had a beer. Karen was able to get at least half of her beer down. Most of you already know that she really doesn’t like beer. We topped the evening off with a movie on the DVD player.

Anyway, it’s time for me to close. I think of all of you often and remember the good times with you. Please take care of yourselves, spend time with each other, forgive the wrongs and enjoy life…and have some dessert. Hey, it works for me!

May GOD keep you in his loving care,
Sandy

P.S….this is Karen
May tomorrow be a perfect day, may you find love and laughter along the way, may God keep you in his tender care, ‘till He brings us together again….Good Night Everybody!
(This is for brother Ken who sang this to us every night, when I was little, as he walked up the stairs to bed! Borrowed from Donny and Marie!) Love you!
　

The last few days, we've enjoyed lots of pleasure reading, shopping for groceries (food prices are about 50% to 100% higher than in Billings), driving around looking at beaches and other interesting stuff. One favorite we've discovered is looking for coconuts. Noooo, we aren't so poor yet that we are scrounging for meals.

There are a lot of marinas with boats to look at. Many of the marinas fill up with mega yachts (both power and sail) starting in November. It appears that only Fortune 500 types can afford these, to the tune of values above 10 million each.

Note: Sandy wrote the above paragraphs but did not finish so I (Karen) am sending what he has so far. I just dropped him off at the airport. He is flying to Tortola to meet with the surveyor to do a sea trial on our boat. He will be home tomorrow.

Here are some pics of St. Maarten activites we enjoyed this week:

We found a coconut, and a machete and voila...fresh coconut to eat!

These are two pics of Mullet Beach, a 15 minute walk from our apartment.

Here are some recent photos to view: Karen and Sandy down to about 55' on our 1st boat dive in St. Thomas, Karen enjoying a fruit smoothie at "Rosemary's Cafe" in Saint Martin (French side), Sandy pulling in a barracuda (inedible, because of potential disease) between the islands of Anegada and Tortola.