Namani at Sea

Last week, I finally got my B1/B2 visa to re-enter the US legally, after quite an odyssey...

On our frequent visits to the US over the past years I had always entered the country on a visa waiver (i.e. without a visa). Before we left Germany, we checked the US State Department and Department of Homeland Security websites to make sure that the Visa Waiver Program also covers entry by sea, which, according to those agencies' websites, it does. Little did we know...

Some more short video clips taken over the past few weeks...

The first and most recent one of our sail from Anguilla to Culebra with a voice over from Markus
[%youtube*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_39Hsb_bleY%v]

Next the daily ritual of listening to Chris Parker's weather forecast at 7 am over breakfast (this one taken while at anchor off St. Kitts)...
[%youtube*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zadKOYOidvw%v]

We're in Puerto Rico proper now, in a marina on the east coast of the island. We will likely stay here for a week or so to work down the Namani job list again and to have Markus go to the Bahamas to get a visa for the US (that's a long story to be told in some other post...). Nana's mother is visiting for the week so we also enjoy some family time together - recently joined by a manatee that was swimming around the marina one morning (see picture above). "Swimming around" exaggerates the manatee's speed - it was barely moving.

Arrived in Culebra today after a very beautiful and enjoyable overnight sail from Anguilla. Our anchorage here in Bahia de Almodovar (any relation to the the Spanish movie director yet to be verified) is stunningly beautiful - a bit of a combination between Tobago Cays (anchored behind a reef), Tyrell Bay/Carriacou (largely undeveloped bay) and Les Saintes (view of St. Thomas lights in the distance) - and all that shared with only one other sailboat! Off to Fajardo on Puerto Rico's east coast tomorrow, update and pictures to follow...

We're en route from Anguilla to Puerto Rico (or more exactly: to Culebra, an island just east of Puerto Rico) and Papa is enjoying the perfect birthday present - a beautiful night sail, going wing-on-wing down-wind at an easy 5 knots with a poled out genoa and a reefed main... a 3/4 moon lights up the secenery and the wind vane is steering happily again. Next update from Puerto Rico - stay tuned...

Weighed anchor at 0600 this morning off Barbuda and dropped it 69 nm and almost 12 hrs later in White House Bay St. Kitts... a long day, reminiscent of the Atlantic crossing - downwind sailing in big and somewhat confused seas... will likely stay put for a few days until seas subside back to "normal" levels, probably next Monday... stay tuned
PS: Picture above was taken on the beach in Low Bay, Barbuda

To his papa's delight and his mom's dismay Nicky has started to express very specific music preferences aboard Namani. He likes music with a very pronounced drum and bass line to which he will either dance or drum along using one or more of his Lego containers (=3D oversized Tupperwares). His most frequent request is "Time" by Pink Floyd (live version from "Pulse" album). The complete "Nicky's Favorites" playlist on our MP3 player includes also: Spin Doctors: Jimmy Olsen's Blues, Little Miss, Two Princes Crowded House: Locked out Counting Crows: Hard Candy, Mr.

We added some new pictures to the "St. Lucia to Antigua" album in the photo gallery and also to the "Krabbelgruppe at Sea" album - enjoy!

As an aside - it truly is a small world: next to us here outside Jolly Harbour on Antigua we met Baghera and its crew today. They were tied across from in Gibraltar lat October and crossed the Atlantic about a month after we did...

The north swell finally subsided and we left Deshaies this morning for Antigua ... a very nice 48 nm close/beam reach between 6 and 7 knots ... now anchored outside Jolly Harbour from where we had set out for our Caribbean cruising during the first week of January.

Anchored off Deshaies in NW Guadeloupe and will likely stay here tucked away until the weekend as there is some big northerly swell coming through this area over the next day... Not a bad spot to be stuck for a couple of days... will also give us the chance to explore some of the interior of Guadeloupe by car with Jez and Tab ... stay tuned for further updates...