Happy Birthday Kathy!!  This has become tradition now as we celebrated her birthday at Hopetown in Abacos last year.  This year we met for dinner at Maho Bay Campground, and later had cupcakes on her boat.  Hopefully this will become an annual event! 

  Notice how neat Kathy’s boat is!!

A great thing about the sailing community is meeting new friends.  A few weeks ago we met Salida (Liz and Craig from California) and Dawn Dancer (Jim and Roxanne).  Fine Line and Makai met been sailing with Dawn Dancer since Georgetown Exumas, and knew Salida from their marina in California.  Dawn Dancer hosted a pot luck on their Dean catamaran, with the biggest cockpit I have seen, and the next night we all went out to Myetts for dinner and dancing and had a great time.  We went back to St John to pick up mail, and Salida, with some friends from California, came over and we met up with them and Makai at Woody’s for the World Famous Happy Hour.   Happy hour from 3 to 6 pm is famous for $1.00 well drinks, and we did drink well!!  Page and Jim were Liz and Craig’s guests from California and they were very nice, and we had a great evening just talking and laughing.  Dawn Dancer and Fine Line have already headed toward St Martin so we will probably make the crossing with Makai and maybe Salida.  It’s nice to be back with boat friends again!!

Kathy getting Jim up to dance and Roxanne dancing with Tristan

  Liz and Craig on Salida

We spent a great Mother’s Day in White Bay, Jost Van Dyke.  This time the cruise ships weren’t there and the harbor returned to its charm.  It was Reggae Sunday, and every bar/restaurant seemed to have someone singing, and we strolled the beach, listening to the music.  We were moored outside of Ivan’s Peace and Love campground. Later that day the kids played on the tire swing and hung out on the beach.  I got a chance to read a book which I hadn’t gotten to do in a while.  Later we all snorkeled with the turtle family hanging around our boat. The water here is such a clear, sparkling, beautiful light green fading to dark blue that it’s irresistible.  You have to jump in.  Ivan’s bar, with its hundreds of seashells arranged into signs and pictures is equally irresistible.   There is always something interesting happening on the beach, at night, at Ivan’s.  Last time we were there, about midnight, a group of campers were playing drums. It wasn’t annoying, it fact it sounded good. This time, Dan woke me up about 11:30 pm and told me to look toward Ivan’s.  There on the beach, the people who were on the catamaran moored next to us were juggling these long sticks that had flames coming from both ends.  This was accompanied by techno music also coming from the shore.  It was quite a show.  The person juggling was very good.  I couldn’t understand why you would come on vacation and bring flaming sticks. 

I asked Dan, “Are they circus people?”

I mean really, who brings that kind of stuff on vacation?

 I would loved to have watched more, but I was just too tired.  I had another treat that night when I again woke up and could see the Milky Way perfectly framed through the hatch above my bed.  It had been some time since I had seen it so clear as now it came up earlier in the morning, rather than in the evening.  I went up on deck to get a better view. Tristan was up using the bathroom so I pulled him outside and we watched it for awhile. We sat for a few minutes, looking for the stars we hadn’t seen in awhile, then drifted back off to bed.  A perfect ending to a perfect Mother’s Day.