Happy New Year

Quick update just to say Happy New Year to all our friends and family.

We have been in New York for the past 10 day or so and have spent the time with Scott’s brother Lars and his family, and Scott’s mother who is over from Denmark.  Its been really great and everyone (well Scott anyway) is glad all the X-mas/New Year celebrations are over for another 12 months.

We left St Lucia in a bit of a hurry as there was a mix up with the boat lifting times.  As we did not have a functioning prop Scott was pretty anxious about manouvering into the lift out berth and wanted assistance from the yard.  Eventually we managed to organise escort tenders and got into the travel lift about three hours before we were due to leave for the airport for our flights to NY.  After sorting the boat out, getting power on, cleaning up etc we were an hour late leaving in the taxi from the North of the island.  The airport is in the South of the island.  Luckily Baptiste, our taxi driver, had some Le Mans experience and managed to get us to the airport only 5 mins after the checkin closed and with a bit of persuasion we were allowed to board the flight.

Whats left of our four bladed prop

Touched down in the evening in NY’s JFK airport to snow on the ground and a temperature hovering around freezing.  Kids were thrilled to see the snow and managed to get some sledging in at Lars’s place the next day before it all started melting.  The snow was gone in a few days but there have been some really cold days.

Calley out sledging

Christmas and New Year were family events and it was good to have everyone on the Anderson side together again.  One year we may manage to get both Australian and American families together.  We even managed to have snow on X-Mas and New Years Eve although it wasn’t a tremendous amount.  It’s pretty cold but the cold is a nice change for us after being in the islands for the last year.  We just have to put on all our available clothing to keep warm.  The snow is especially magical especially since we do not have to try and get on with everyday life around it.  Am sure it gets a bit old pretty quickly for the residents.

Choosing our tree

Having been in the Caribbean for the last year its amazing coming to the States and to see the range of shops and what is available in the shops.  In one supermarket isle we counted 47 different kinds of peanut butter!  And that’s replicated across all the food available.  There is so much choice , it’s astounding. It’s also very cheap compared to the islands. In addition, there are people and cars everywhere and most of them seem to be in a rush, not in a bad way but just busy and pre-occupied with their own lives.

So its now New Years Day and we are off into New York tonight for dinner at one of our favourite restaurants -  Tribeca Grill.  The weather is supposed to turn tomorrow with up to 8 inches of snow forecast and temperatures dropping to -17 degC.  We are due to return to St Lucia on the 5th Jan however we may delay as we are waiting for the spare propellor blades to be dispatched from the UK.  In the interim we will probably take a road trip to Montreal which is only about 7 hrs drive.

Hope everyone had a great New Year and are ready for a fantastic 2014.  We will be in the Mediterranean for most of the year so hopefully we will get to see some of you.  Have put together some thoughts on a year of cruising below.

Reflections on a year afloat

When we first joined Dulcinea a year and a half ago Skip (our friend from Newport) warned us that it would take us a year to get to know the boat and he was not far off.  Its not only the boat we had to get to know but also the routine.  Although life onboard has now become normal for us, it seems like an eternity since we started and it is hard to envisage “normal” life at the moment.  

Obviously the last year and a bit has been amazing for the whole family.  There is the tangible side of the trip which we talk about mostly in the blogs; the places we visit, the people we meet, the friends we have onboard and the experiences we have.  We are extremely lucky to be able to have experienced this but even more lucky to have done it as a family. There is also the intangible stuff which does not get mentioned that much.

One of the reasons for doing the trip initially was always to do something as a family before the kids got too old and it was impractical to get away.  I think there is no doubt that this has been a huge success.  We have been together 24/7 for the past year and at times we each in turn drive each other crazy and get driven crazy but generally we have all learned how to cope and are still learning.  The kids especially have just grown in confidence.  At the start of the trip Scott and Sam had a few run ins primarily due to Scott trying to adapt rather than any fault of Sam’s but now they seem to understand each other better.  Sam is growing up quickly and he is indispensable when it comes to helping around the boat.  He still has a lot to learn with the sailing but he is getting there. Main issue is that if he keeps growing at the rate he has done we will need a bigger boat by about April.  Calley probably wants to be a boy more now than when we started.  She is super confident and most of the time a real pleasure to be around.  Even if we had to end the trip tomorrow we have achieved the family goal.  Its hard to know exactly how much of this the kids will remember or be influenced by but I think they must have benefitted from it.

Both Nic and I are amazed to think that we have traveled close to 5000 miles in the last year and are past our midway point.  It was not that long ago we were sitting at anchor in Newport contemplating setting out alone for the first time.  In fact, it was not that long ago that we were sitting in Singapore wondering if this was really doable.  At that point the Caribbean seemed a very distant goal but here we are now.  I think we have had our fair share of luck during the trip and hope this continues for us next year.

So some of the highs and lows.  One of the highlights has been hosting friends and family onboard at various times during the trip - Dan “The-Man-Meggitan” Meggit; Nina and Walt; our other daughter, Beth; the New Jersey Andersons; Atlantic crew member Steve; Mark and Rosie; Gayle and Cameron; and, of course, Peter and Claire (official crew). Although its great with just the family onboard, being able to share this with others is pretty special and we hope that we will see more people next year.  We have the Atlantic crossing coming up and thankfully have a full complement for that.

Also the other cruisers we have met along the way and continue to meet have been great fun and really special people - Windchaser, Magic, Veritas, Bliss, Aeeshah, Talitha Koum, Whistling Cay, Celise Spirit, Rafiki, Troskala, Innamorata.  Because the people we meet are all “in the same boat” so to speak there is an immediate common bond and a camaraderie springs up straight away.  There are very few cruisers who we have met who we did not take a liking to (Beth, you know who we’re talking about!).  The friendships are kind of tenuous as inevitably you part ways pretty soon after meeting and thereafter rely on e-mail contact.  Then there are all our friends we made in Grenada.

The boat has been wonderful.  Dulcinea is a superb vessel both in terms of a living space and as a sailing boat.  We have had some rough weather and seas but she has handled it all and no doubt could take more if required.  She is extremely strong and robust and handles beautifully.  Obviously, as has been commented on, things do break down but this is only to be expected.  Luckily there have been no really critical system failures which we could not get around and this is due in no small part to Heather in Newport who nailed the work which had to be carried out prior to the trip starting.  One thing about the boat being a custom build is that every part needs to be sourced individually which is a real pain in the ass especially when we are floating around the Caribbean.  On a production boat you can get any part number straight from the manufacturer.  But the plus side is that Dulcinea is pretty special and we continuously get complimented on her where ever we go.  The lay up in Grenada was good for us to get some outstanding bits and pieces fixed and to tart the boat up a bit ready for the next year.

The biggest challenge about life onboard for us has undoubtedly been the schooling which takes up an enormous part of our daily routine.  We were very glad to get the first year under our belt but starting at lesson 01 again this year is a bit depressing.  Still we know the system now and are confident we can get through this slightly easier than last year.  

So its onwards to 2014 and our last year of cruising.  Big event this year will be the crossing of the Atlantic.  As mentioned we have a crew of seven to complete the voyage and we are really grateful for their help.