On our first trip out from the States we made a plan with our friends Joe and Cheryl to meet each other in St. Lucia in February of 2013. Our original plans had been to be well south of the Virgin Islands by early 2013, but a series of events found us still in Virgin Gorda facing one last opportunity to make a longish direct passage to St Lucia. <\/p>\n
On February 3, 2014 we headed east from Virgin Gorda into weather we knew was less than ideal. As we reached the open ocean we found strong headwinds and steep seas. We decided that the plan of beating into weather for 3 days to reach St Lucia in time was unwise; we made a “U” turn and scooted back to the Virgins. While Joe and Cheryl graciously accepted our news and tempered their disappointment with a couple of extra days at a fine St Lucia resort, Mary and I continued our slow amble around the north east Caribbean. Eventually we would travel a couple of hundred miles further to Antigua, decide we wanted a different boat, sail to the US, purchase our new ECHO, spend a summer on the Chesapeake, and eventually make a long passage from Florida back to the Virgin Islands to pick up our path where we left off. Although as we have headed south from the Virgins we are once again experiencing the excitement of new islands, it still feels as if we are somehow back tracking. On 25 May 2015, as we finally reach our previously aborted destination of St Lucia, 15 months and a few thousand miles later, we feel ourselves rejoining the glowing path of our dreams as it stretches out in front of us. A milestone!<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t