Last week was spent anchored off St Barths for the St Barths Bucket sailing race. We were there with guests from a sailing yacht that was competing so some of the crew got to race with them and the whole week was quite relaxed.

This week we are back in St Maarten catching up on a few maintenance jobs before we begin to head for Europe.

I’ve been enjoying the chance to ride some of the hills here on St Maarten on my mountain bike, though puncture proof tires are an essential as the trails on the island seems to consist solely of thorn bushes and cactus.

From Ft Lauderdale we headed across to the Bahamas, and then down through the Turks and Caicos Islands to the British Virgin Islands.

The BVI’s are a beautiful chain of islands that have some great cruising and very pretty anchorages. We spent a day or two tied up at the Bitter End Yacht Club before heading on to St Barths and St Maarten, where we are at present.

Next week we’ll be heading to St Barths again with guests to watch the St Barths Bucket sailing race.

After spending two weeks in Whistler, Vix and I headed down to Squamish to check on our house there.

Whilst in Canada another house in a property magazine caught our eye, and after a tour with a local estate agent we made an offer. Anyway to cut a long story short now, just over three weeks later, we own two houses in Squamish.

Once back from Canada we had a very busy few weeks in Ft Lauderdale finishing off the shipyard period on Dream and I also completed two computer courses (COMPTIA A+ and Network+). Hopefully later in the year I’ll get the chance to get my MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) as well.

Vix and I are enjoying our final few days up in Whistler. Conditions are not ideal due to warm weather and rain falling yesterday. However we have had a lovely holiday and have done some great skiing.

This photo is of the top of the Peak chairlift on Whistler mountain. This is the highest point and gives access to some of the best black, double black, and triple black diamond runs which are the hardest marked runs.

The Canadian/USA system of marking ski runs is a little different to Europe. In Canada the runs are marked green then blue then black diamond, double black diamond and triple black diamond. Below is a page from a Whistler guide book showing two of the triple black diamond runs. As you can imagine these runs are experts only and I don’t know if we’ll ever reach that level.

After nearly two weeks here in Whistler we have finally got a little bit of fresh snow. Not much, but it is still nice to sit at the window and watch it come down.

As you can see in this picture there is still lots of snow on the ground from the record breaking start to the season.

After a very busy Christmas and New Years Vix and I are having a bit of a holiday and have returned to Whistler for a couple of weeks in the snow.

Unfortunately there is not a lot of fresh snow in the forecast right now, but we are taking the chance to improve our skiing and are hoping there will be some before we leave.

Since New Years we have been cruising the Leeward Islands (St Maarten, St Barts, Anguilla) and will probably head to Antigua (see right) in the next day or two. We only have a few more days of this trip left now before we head north again to Ft Lauderdale and a little time in the shipyard.

I may have posted something similar to this video before but I think it’s worth another look.

Happy New Year. Vix and I are (working unfortunately!) in St Barts in the French West Indies for the start of 2007.

St Barts is a hugely popular destination for yachts especially at New Years when everyone who is anyone (or thinks they are) wants to be seen partying with the rich and famous on this tiny island.

I hope everyone has a wonderful New Years and we are planning to catch up with lots more friends and family in the year to come.

For the last few days we have been cruising the Exuma islands and stopped at Allen Cay to see the Iguana’s which come running out onto the beach looking for food whenever a boat stops by. There are hundreds on the island from baby ones a few inches long to the biggest that are nearly two feet.

Just a few hours south is Staniel Cay, we did some amazing snorkeling in a cave where the James Bond movie Thunderball was filmed. And to keep the wildlife theme of the trip we visited Big Major where there is a family of pigs living on the island, again as soon as you get to the beach they come running and even swimming out to get the tidbits people bring for them.