Anguilla

Sandy Island

One of the most gorgeous beaches in the world!

The sail to Anguilla was perfect....that is until we reached the northern tip of St. Maarten. After passing islands, the wind gets strong and the seas get big, so things were a bit "active"! After we rounded Anguilla heading to Road Bay where we were going to check in and anchor, we were sailing directly into the wind so our little Aldebaran pitched up and down each wave and collected a good deal of sea spray! Once we arrived, you can see from the pictures above what was waiting for us.

Anguilla is a quiet, laid back island with more gorgeous beaches than we have ever seen. Road Bay is where we checked into the country and where we anchored for 10 days. There is not much there, just a nice beach and top notch restaurants all along the beach. No stores, no banks, no buses, just restaurants and bars. In back of the beach is a salt pond that was once used for producing salt for export and is now used as a fish hatchery. We took a walk around the salt pond and came upon Pyrat rum factory that is owned by the people who own Paul Mitchell hair products. It is a small factory, but the rum is delicious, even though we sampled it at 9:00 AM, or especially since we sampled it at 9:00 AM!

On one of the last days we were there we toured the island with friends we met, who have a boat just like ours, and discovered as many beaches as we could. We ended the day with a Roti from the local Roti Hut (an Indian style burrito filled with potatoes and chicken with curry). Yummm...

Anguilla had the most beautiful, clean water, sea turtles and friendly people. Visit if you can!

Holidays in St. Maarten

Thanksgiving

Carol, Niki (from another boat), and Elli (restaurant owner) prepared a traditional American Thanksgiving feast for other cruisers staying in St. Maarten for the Holidays. We had over 35 people show up and we prepared more than enough food to feed them all. Jon was the official turkey carver among all the other things he did to help make this meal a success.

Christmas

Carol and Jon on Aldebaran II.....all lit up for Christmas!

Diana and Elaine (Carol's sisters) flew to St. Maarten to spend Christmas with us. What a treat! Diana, Carol and Elaine pose on Aldebaran next to our Christmas tree.

Spending the Holiday season in St. Maarten was great! We were able to have our Thanksgiving dinner since we prepared it for other cruisers, and that meant a lot to us. The funny thing was that most of the people who joined us for the dinner were from countries other than the United States. They were curious about our Thanksgiving holiday and the food we traditionally prepare. It was fun watching them try to figure out what everything was!

Both the French and Dutch sides of the island celebrate Christmas in a big way. Since Diana and Elaine joined us here for Christmas we rented a car for the week and explored the island. As we drove around at night, we discovered several houses all lit up. Some were beautifully decorated and others were a mishmash of decorations and lights. It made your eyes buggy trying to look at all they had in their yards and make sense of the "theme" but at least they were in the spirit of the season! One night while we were driving around Marigot, on the French side, we came across a group of people singing Christmas Carols (Caribbean style) as they wandered the streets, and then on the Dutch side we discovered a Kazoo band playing Christmas Carols! Now THAT was different! It seems they love their Christmas Carols as much here as they do in the United States....in fact, they are STILL playing them!

The best part of the Holidays was having Diana and Elaine visit us. We were missing everyone at home, and having family here made it truly feel like Christmas. They brought homemade Christmas cookies, a little tree, and lights for our boat. It could not have been better. We packed the week with going to the beach (even in the rain), looking for shells, taking a dinghy ride, going to the beach at night to watch a giant fire ball, shopping in Phillipsburg, going to the street market in Marigot, playing games at their hotel, and so much more. It was a Christmas we will always remember.

Now it is 2010. On New Year's eve fireworks were going off everywhere...in Marigot, in Phillipsburg, and several places in Simpson Bay. You could see them all from where we were. At the same time when 2010 arrived at midnight, the Mega yachts were blowing their horns and flares were being shot into the sky. It was a great way to bring in the new year!