Honah Lee 2

French territory …  We are in wine, cheese and baguette heaven. We have arrived in St Martin. So great to be able to speak, read and understand French. Did love to practice Spanish but sometimes when it was technical it could be very challenging. But let’s back it up a little….. It’s been a busy month or so…. We left Puerto Rico after being there for over  2 and a half months. It was great but definitely time to move on. We then went to USVI. Still US territory but very interesting. The island of St Thomas used to belong to Denmark and was sold to the USA for a mere 25 million dollars in 1917.  The buildings have retained the beautiful old European architecture and all the streets have Danish names. We spent a few weeks there and just a few days on the island of St John. We decided to skip the British Virgin Islands because it is very expensive and also time is running out. We have to be further south for the next hurricane season. It’s coming up again. Seems like it just...

  Living on a sailboat…. When we left Canada in the fall of 2019 we had basically no experience sailing except for a few weekends at the Hamilton Yacht club where we got our beginners certificate. We did our navigation course. and joined a small sailing club in Ottawa… Fast forward to February 2022…. We motored and sailed the boat from Canada to Puerto Rico via USA, Bahamas, Turks and Caicos and the Dominican Republic. It’s been quite the adventure and such a learning curve. So now to give you a little insider information; living on a sailboat full time. We do love living  on the boat but it can be quite challenging at times. It’s not like in the TV commercial when the lottery winner comes up into the cockpit, holding a cup a coffee, still in jammies, hair all nicely done, with the husband behind the wheel after a night watch looking refreshed and all smiles. The reality of it is you probably didn’t sleep much, the wind was howling, the waves high, didn’t secure stuff properly...

  It’s not always  easy… As we were leaving the Marina after getting our repairs and bottom paint done, our friends released our lines, got off the dock….No engine power.  Come back friends….we need you 😳 We managed to return to the dock without hitting anything. Scary moment because there are  big boulders in the water, with waves crashing all around. 😱 Called the mechanic and hauled out again. So frustrating. Luckily he was able to fix the problem while the boat sat in the straps. The propeller wasn’t put on properly. Jeez!!!  5 hours later, we were back in the water ready to take off again. Of course by then the winds were heavier and the swells bigger. Oh well that’s part of sailing. ⛵️ We were heading for Puerto Rico.  We crossed the Mona passage which is known to be treacherous. The Mona has some of the deepest water, 5 miles deep near the Puerto Rico Trench and it meets shallow areas which can create chaotic seas.  Thunderstorms are a threat r...