Dream’s first charter of the summer went very well and we were lucky enough to have a day off to enjoy Cavtat, a little town right at the southern end of Croatia, where we did a little wakeboarding and enjoyed the beautiful weather. In another few days we’ll be heading back towards the western Med.

Cavtat is only a few miles from Dubrovnik which has an amazing old fortified port. We were there at the same time as six cruise ships so there were thousands of tourists making it a little crowded to say the least.

We pulled into Venice yesterday after four days sailing from Barcelona.

Despite nasty weather for the last day the trip went well, and it is a great feeling to have completed my first stint as Captain without any problems.

The last few weeks have included a lot of travelling. Firstly from St Maarten up to Bermuda, which took about three days. Then from Bermuda we crossed the Atlantic to Gibraltar, stopped to refuel and made our way up to Barcelona where we’ll be for a week or so. This was the first crossing I’ve done as Captain so it’s good to have made it over smoothly.

Vix has now left Dream and is in the south of France where we are planning to base ourselves for the next year or two.

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.

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.

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.

Well we are back in the Bahamas again. We have been seeing a lot of Atlantis this autumn, but by the end of the week we will be heading south to St Maarten & St Barths for Christmas and the New Year.

We have been in Ft Lauderdale for the last two weeks catching up with bits and pieces that needed doing on the boat, and enjoying the chance to see old friends.

I have been learning to kiteboard whilst we are here, though the wind is not cooperating as well as it could. I am going to try and take a few photos over the next week or so, and will hopefully get around to posting them here soon. Though maybe not until I can do it as well as this guy kiteboarding in Squamish.