Now to continue with our passage from Curacao to Trinidad, a voyage we were making because that's where all the friends we'd made in Curacao were going. The few times I've been seasick have all been after we sat in port for a while and then started sailing in moderately rough seas. The trip from Bonaire to Las Aves was one of these times. I really had to struggle to stand watch, and, to top it off the heat exchanger on the starboard engine sprang a leak so we were once again down to one engine.

If you're wondering why we use our engines so much in addition to our sails, remember the prevailing winds in this part of the world are the trade winds that blow from east to west and we were traveling from west to east, directly into the trades. Of course purists would then inquire why we didn't tack. Our catamaran is not easy to tack plus we like to know that we have ample time to reach our next anchorage before dark; hence we run our engines.

Another navigation note: at this time we were using a combination of paper charts and a cruising guide written by Chris Doyle to get our waypoints for our GPS. We also have an autopilot that we frequently use so that we don't have to constantly be at our helm located at the rear of the boat and totally exposed to weather. We've since added electronic charts and now have our GPS hooked into our autopilot making it even easier to sail the boat. Of course when we're on watch we're in the cockpit at all times keeping a lookout for other boats, oil rigs, etc., and with radar on at night.

At this anchorage we put down 2 anchors to make sure that we kept our distance from the mangroves and the mosquitoes they contained. Even so we had quite a mosquito barrage that night. When we attempted to raise the anchors the next day, we discovered the chain of one had wrapped around the other. Worse, while trying to sort it all out, we drifted into the mangroves. Fortunately the boat was unharmed and we were able to get the chain straightened out and raise the anchors.

We motor sailed on to a second anchorage in Las Aves and finally met up with the many species of boobies, large birds that make the islands their nesting ground. The boobies made a real weird sound that reminded me of a Steve Reich (American minimalist classical composer) piece of music. As there were no mosquitoes here, we figured the birds must eat them or scare them off somehow.

Charlie determined that the heat exchanger was OK but there was a leak in the water exhaust system so we turned the engine off once again on our passage between anchorages in Las Aves.

The next day we motor sailed on to the first of 3 planned anchorages in Los Roques, another island group belonging to Venezuela. Unlike Las Aves, Los Roques is populated and even has an airport on one of the islands. Both engines were running now so we had no trouble reaching the anchorage early enough; however, that night the anchorage became rough and we had lots of rain making sleep difficult.

After a small problem raising the anchor the next morning, we continued on to the second anchorage in Los Roques where I snorkeled and saw my first starfish. While listening to the daily weather report, we hear that in 72 hours the waves will increase due to swells from storms in the area so we decide to skip the third anchorage in Los Roques and go directly to Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela. In addition to the weather, Tiki my little male cat who had eating problems on the way to Curacao, was once again very thin and needed to go to a vet.

And so the next morning we set out for Puerto La Cruz, a two-day sail. We arrived there without incident on November 5 and docked at Bahia Redonda. Several of the people we'd met in Curacao were already here as was Fred's boat, but not Fred, who was in Merida, a Venezuelan town high in the Andes, for an intensive Spanish course. Linda and Jerry were there also.

A sad note - Fred died suddenly a week ago in Trinidad. He will be missed.

To be continued.

Bonaire is a desert island with cacti similar to Curacao. There are a couple huge white mountains of salt which we passed on our way into the anchorage at Bonaire. These salt mountains attest to Bonaire's lively industry in salt mining. There is a flamingo sanctuary near the salt flats but these birds kept their distance when I tried to photograph them.

The capital, Kralendijk, has an array of Dutch architecture stretching along the waterfront facing onto the anchorage. A lot of the town reminded me of Willemstad in Curacao, but much smaller. Just outside Kralendijk there tiny houses on the waterfront which had once been slave quarters. We toured the island and stopped at the donkey farm where they take care of some of the stray donkeys on the island. We also had some great barbecue chicken and pork at a small restaurant that was only open on weekends.

Bonaire is known for its diving and we took advantage of the opportunity. Since we had originally planned to do dive charters, our boat was (and still is) equipped with a gasoline powered air compressor and 10 dive tanks. We still have the compressor but gave a couple tanks away and lost 1 to rough seas. One day we dove at a site called the Small Wall. What you want to do when diving a wall is descend, swim against the current for a distance then end by drifting back with the current to your starting point. Charlie, my life partner and intrepid dive instructor, determined the direction of the current. We left our dinghy on a dive buoy at a suitable point and proceeded to drift dive the wall, admiring the incredible selection of fish and coral as we went along.

We then turned to drift back to the dinghy and found ourselves swimming against the current. Finally we surfaced only to find that we were near shore, not near the dinghy, because the current was actually going in the opposite direction. Taking off our fins, we walked quite a distance still carrying our tanks on our back, over to a dock near the dinghy. Charlie then snorkeled over, retrieved the dinghy from the mooring, and brought it to the dock so we could load it with our dive equipment and return to the marina. A very long afternoon.

We dove again several more times, mainly at Klein Bonaire, a small island just off the coast which provides protection for the main anchorage located between Klein Bonaire and Bonaire itself. We made some of the dives with other couples.

After the usual round of dinners and parties, we left Bonaire on October 31, headed for the westernmost group of offshore islands belonging to Venezuela, Las Aves.

To be continued.

On October 14, 2001 we left Curacao and finally started cruising with just the 2 of us, plus 6 pets, on board. First stop was Klein Curacao, a tiny island 15 miles off the southeast point of Curacao, where I had a hard lesson in how to pick up a mooring ball. We had to make several approaches before I finally got it, but at least I did get it. We've since revised this procedure so that I'm driving the boat while Charlie picks up the mooring ball - works like a charm even in the most crowded bays. There's very little on Klein Curacao except a nice beach. It's mainly used as a swimming and snorkeling destination for boats making day trips out of Curacao.

The next morning we continued on to Bonaire where we again had to pick up a mooring as there's no anchoring there because the island is in a marine park. This time, however, we had help from the husband of a couple we met in Curacao who came over in his dinghy and handed me the line from the mooring ball so I could secure it onto our boat.

We moved into the marina the following day because the mosquitoes feasted on us during the night despite our best attempts to screen them out, with screens on every hatch and porthole as well as one on the entry door. We have since added another screen across the end of our berth and supplement that with mosquito coils.

Traveling with pets can get really adventurous at times. Once we were docked in the marina, we went ashore to tour the immediate area, leaving the salon door open and Star in charge of the cats. We returned to discover that Star had taken himself for a walk and was nowhere to be found. The boldest of the cats, Sadie (short for Mercedes) was lying on a mat outside the cabin. We finally found Star quite a distance from the boat and ushered him home.

Since Sadie was the only cat who might wander around the boat and possibly take herself ashore, I decided to introduce her to salt water. Now we had life preservers for each of the pets aboard so I put Sadie's on her and took her down the steps off one side of the back of the boat and sprinkled some salt water on her. The next thing I knew I was holding an empty life preserver and Sadie had zoomed all the way into the salon. She never got curious about salt water after that.

To be continued.

Now for a brief run-through of what had to be one of the longest 2 1/2 month stretches of my life. I say longest merely because so much happened during that time that I can't believe we were in Curacao for such a short time.

First, this was our real introduction to the cruising community. When we left Connecticut I had no idea that people lived on their boats and traveled on them all over the world. I also had no idea that cruisers would turn out to be some of the most interesting, courageous and warm-hearted people I have ever met.

They came from all walks of life: one couple was in banking; Fred, the singlehander on the catamaran was in construction; the husband of another couple had been an oil company executive; the wife of another couple was a chemist; another singlehander was a retired commercial pilot. We also met Jerry and Linda, who are now here with us in Green Cove Springs. He's a retired Navy Seabee and mechanic; she's a nurse - two valuable skills for cruising.

In addition to the endless round of potluck dinners and happy hours, we toured the Westpundt area looking for good dive sites; we rented an old beat-up car that was cheap but took us on our many errands; we discovered Mambo beach where on Tuesday nights you can lie in lounge chairs on the beach and watch a free movie on a big screen; we took our dog Star to the vet and finally got his paw straightened out; we went to the movies in Willemstad several times; we had the boat taken out of the water for a week to repair the damaged keel; we had several business meetings; we took the boat sailing twice with our new friends aboard; and finally, we started the lengthy residency process (you'll recall our objective was still to set up a dive charter business).

We also rented a house, an event in itself. Ideally, we wanted a house either with a dock for the boat or located somewhere in view of the boat. There was no Multiple Listing Service on the island so we had to go to several different agents to see what they had available. Finally we settled on a large house with several fruit trees in the backyard but no view of the boat. The entrance door was a split door that opened individually on the top and the bottom, so you could close the bottom portion, leaving the top open. Like many houses, this one had bars on the outside of all the windows and outdoor florescent lights that went on automatically at night to deter thieves. Our yard was completely enclosed with an electric gate at the end of the driveway. The windows all had different key locks on them; the house came with a set of 10 keys. The first night in the house, the 5 dogs next door barked so we couldn't sleep much; the second night was better but the 5 dogs at the house in back of us now barked a little; finally, after we spoke to the neighbors who had the first group of 5 dogs, they removed the female dog which was in heat, and the barking ceased. Charlie never did get used to the cold showers, though; very few houses in Curacao have hot water heaters.

On 9/11 our lives changed forever. That morning we were standing in line at the phone company in our 3rd attempt to get phone service to the house (we had the retired pilot, a local resident, with us this time and were successful) when I heard people saying the Papiamentu (the official spoken language here) equivalent of "Oh no!". I turned to look at the TV monitor which was tuned to CNN and saw smoke coming from the first tower. As I watched the live broadcast, to my horror the second tower was hit and then both towers came down one by one. Remember I was born and raised in NYC, and this to me was an unconscionable act of destruction to my home town on a scale I could never have imagined. All I remember of the remainder of the day was going to the marina and Linda asking me if I wanted to watch more of the broadcast on their TV, which I did gratefully. I was depressed for days. In a marvelous show of solidarity our neighbors at the house flew a U.S. flag at half mast.

Naturally this event affected tourism and the possibilities for our business. Charlie suggested that we go cruising instead of trying to start the business and I agreed heartily. The next day I made the necessary phone calls to get the 40' container full of our household belongings off the dock in New Jersey (it was set to sail to Curacao the next day) and back into storage and to complete several financial transactions.

We had to take the boat out of the water again to repair a bilge leak and have the prop on the port engine balanced. Next we moved out of the house back onto the boat. This time the cats were allowed the run of the boat since it was just going to be the two of us. The cats were much happier even though it meant they had to deal with Star. Before we left, Charlie, a PADI licensed Scuba instructor, taught the husband of one couple we knew how to dive so I got in a few dives along the way at a site commonly known as The Tugboat (yes, there's a tugboat sunk there) - the fish and coral were magnificent. We also had a barbecue for 20 people on our boat and discovered that while our cockpit really held 12 people comfortably, 20 was too many.

Next - the joys of cruising.

Finally we continue with our arrival in Curacao. After we docked we met the couple on the boat across the dock from us as well as Fred, a singlehander on a Fontaine Pajot Bahia 46' catamaran, whom we would meet again from time to time over the next 4 years.

Our crew left the next day to return to South Africa, and Charlie and I gave the boat a much needed cleaning. The boat across the dock left for Cartagena, Colombia, and I had my first experience with how it felt to say goodbye to cruisers I'd developed an attachment to in a very short time. That's one thing you learn to do while cruising since you're always meeting people only to go your separate ways sooner or later. It was hard at first but it does get easier, especially when you realize you'll probably meet up with them again somewhere.

On the following day we took a minibus into Willemstad, the capital of Curacao, anticipating checking in with Immigration, getting a cell phone, and renting a car. We accomplished the last two, but Immigration told us to return the next day. That is no small feat considering that to get to Immigration you need to walk from the bus station over the Queen Emma pontoon bridge that connects the Punda section of Willemstad with the Otrobanda section across the waterway, and then walk another half-mile along the Otrobanda waterfront until you reach the building housing Immigration, which is marked in Dutch, the national written language.

That night we attempted to take the dinghy across Spanish Water to Sarifundy's, the main cruiser watering hole located on the other side of the huge bay. Needless to say with all the many inlets, small islands and shallow areas in the bay, plus not knowing exactly where we're going, we end up returning to the marina and decide to try again in daylight.

We had better luck the next day and were able to check in with Immigration and Customs. By the way, these are not near each other: Customs is on the waterfront in the Punda section, but at least now we had a car, which we had to switch because the first car had a tendency to stall and fill the interior with exhaust fumes.

To be continued.

To fast forward for a moment to our current stay in Green Cove Springs, FL, a few more reasons why I won't be ready to be land based anytime soon.

First, another cruising couple who are friends of ours arrived yesterday before noon, having sailed all the way from the southern Caribbean as we had done last year. Unlike us, though, it looks like they're going to sell their boat and move back to terra firma. For now we have 2 boats here with friends on them and a third scheduled to arrive next month.

Second , the shuttle launch. Last night while watching TV a small picture of the shuttle suddenly appeared in the lower left of the screen, and we rushed out into the cockpit. Looking a bit to the southeast we saw the huge, incredibly bright flame of the booster rocket as it pushed the shuttle upward at an amazing rate.

I then remembered the binoculars and used them to follow the shuttle for almost a half hour as it appeared to arc over to the northwest. Because the St. Johns River is about a mile wide here, we have a great view of the sky in almost every direction, making it easy to follow the shuttle's path.

I'd seen one other launch last year but the shuttle disappeared behind clouds shortly after liftoff. This time I could see it clearly for a long time. I don't know why these launches mesmerize me so, but I'm completely fascinated with them. I think it's one event that's better witnessed in person than viewed on TV. I hope they do a night launch before we leave here. Also, if you get the chance, the Kennedy Space Center is a must do. We went there last year, and I was astonished at how much there was to see.

Finally, today we had speedboat races on the river. All types of racing powerboats participated, but I'm drawn to the larger, exceptionally fast ones powered by very loud inboard engines and sporting very fancy paint jobs. Apparently there was a mandatory checkpoint at the town dock because all the boats had to slow down and check in here. They waited a few minutes then took off again at high speed.

Our boat is pretty well insulated for noise but when these puppies started coming into the checkpoint, I definitely knew they were there as the roar of their engines vibrated our boat. These boats were worth my leaving the air-conditioned salon and going out into the midday heat to observe them through binoculars. Since the town dock isn't far from our pier, I was able to get a good look at the boats as they zoomed past, rooster tails and all. If I'd gone down to the end of the pier, I would have had a closer look, but it was just too hot for that.

If I lived on land I would probably have missed all of the above. It never ceases to amaze me how much the scene from our boat changes day to day. If we need a break, we just walk the pier and the floating docks, as we did today, and see what new boats have come in. I consider myself lucky indeed to live this crazy lifestyle.

It's a good thing most of the really bad hurricanes seem to hit in August and September because we were still in St. Kitts and it was now July 30. We toured St. Kitts and then came the Showdown with our crew, especially the gal, whose attitude had been growing progressively worse. In addition to a misunderstanding over their pay for the week we had charter guests aboard, the crew also believed it was too risky to go directly to Curacao, now the current plan, because of all the problems we'd had with the boat. We made a deal with them over the money and compromised the float plan by saying we'd sail south then west so we'd be near islands in case anything broke.

Oh, if I'd only known then what I know now, we could have saved the money we spent on this deal and headed directly to Curacao from St. Kitts. However, you need to remember that Charlie and I had never sailed this boat with just the 2 of us. Even on our test runs in Long Island Sound we'd always had other people aboard to handle lines, sails, etc. and I was still new enough to sailing that I didn't feel comfortable sailing with just the 2 of us.

To be fair, even after sailing "Blue Star" over 17,000 miles, we still take crew on for any passage over 3 days and 2 nights because even with just one more person on board, we can do 3 hour watches, which translates into 3 hours on and 6 off. For us, anything less than 6 hours off is just too tiring. Before leaving St. Kitts with our now less disgruntled crew we did make a quick check for other available crew but no one materialized.

We sailed south for a day and a half down to about the 14th parallel, then on August 1 we changed course and headed directly for Curacao. The engines behaved themselves on the downwind run: they were mostly turned off. The generator, too, ran beautifully.

Finally on August 4 in a driving rainstorm, we reached Curacao. We had to wait for the weather to clear so we could see the narrow entrance to the huge inland bay called Spanish Waters. Once inside we tied up at Seru Boca Marina where we'd made reservations before leaving Connecticut.

We were now supposed to rent a house and start a charter diving business. But that's not quite what happened. Unbeknown to us the adventure had just begun.

To be continued.

It's now July 26 and we were still in Nevis repairing "Blue Star". Charlie and the male member of our crew removed the bracket containing the broken bolt and took it into town to be drilled out. The generator seemed to be working also so we've made progress today. To reward ourselves we took a longer tour of the island with a local named Almond who had extensive knowledge of every plant on the island. While touring we saw a house on fire and a long time later we saw the fire engine slowly making its way to the fire. Life is definitely in the slow lane here!

Our progress slowed the next day as the generator only ran for 1 1/2 hours and there was a major power drain somewhere on the boat. Charlie spent all day finding a piece of 1" radiator hose for the port engine. It never ceased to amaze me how even the simplest errands could take so much time in some places. We also took delivery of a new outboard, Yamaha Enduro 15 hp, for the the dinghy which actually cost less than it would have in the States. We took another break and went to Culturama, a local event consisting of many speeches and no music.

Port engine was finally fixed the next day. The generator still had a problem which Charlie believed was due to an air flow problem. It ran fine as long as the locker it was in was open, but stopped when the locker was closed. We got more fuel and thought about leaving but big seas in the weather forecast would keep us in the area for a few more days. We decided to make the short hop to St. Kitts the next day for a change of scenery.

That night was one of several "Hell Nights" we've experienced. As a bad thunderstorm was approaching, I went forward to close the hatch to the cabin where the cats were (yes, they were still in the fifth cabin which can only be accessed from the forward deck) and hit my nose hard on the compass as I returned to the cockpit. Amazingly the nose looked OK, it just hurt a lot.

In the early morning during another storm, our mooring line broke, so we moved to the next bay and set out 2 anchors. As soon as there was a break in the weather we moved over to St. Kitts and anchored. We kept an anchor watch initially due to the stormy conditions, but the storm finally subsided and we were able to get some sleep.

To be continued.

Continuing the saga of our shakedown voyage, you'll recall that we'd finally left Tortola for the last time and were in our way to Saba, a Dutch island south of Tortola. On the way one of the mounting bolts on the port engine broke so we shut that engine down. Then the starboard engine started heating up so we lowered the rpm and kept going. We were also towing the dinghy with only one rope but would add another when we got to Saba. I told you we were really novice sailors. Also I have a theory that the engines talk to each other and conspire to see which one can give us the biggest headache. Our progress was down to 1.1 knots.

The next day we fixed the bolt on the port engine so it was usable once again. Our speed increased to 4 knots since the starboard engine decided to run normally also. We finally arrived at Saba, which looks like an enormous rock sticking up out of the ocean as you approach it, and picked up a mooring ball. The island and surrounding water is part of a marine sanctuary so no anchoring is allowed. After a long, rough dinghy ride we made landfall with Star, the dog, on a deserted pebble beach.

A couple of years later we toured Saba and discovered its wonderful alpine charms. It's very different from any other Caribbean island we've visited and is one of our favorite places. On this first visit, though, we figured that while the island might have great diving, it didn't seem to have much else.

We left Saba at 6 AM the next morning headed to Nevis. We finally had over 8 knots of wind so we made good progress. The generator still had problems but we figured we could fix it in Martinique. Somewhere on the way to Nevis we lost the motor off the dinghy. At least we still had the dinghy itself. Arrived in Nevis in early afternoon and toured the island. Our plan was now to go to Montserrat and then Martinique.

The next day we started out for Montserrat but the new bolt we had installed on the port engine broke. Unable to drill it out, we returned to Nevis to fix it. On top of everything else our problems with the female member of our crew continued to worsen. At this point Charlie and I decided that if we could get the boat fixed we would head straight for Curacao.

To be continued.