Subject: Log 12/15
        Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1999 09:15:54 -0500
        From: W2LSI@cho.win-net.org
        
        We are in the British Virgin Islands! It is Wed morning. We will meet Jaclyn, Stacy
        and Rob on Sat. We are on Jost Van Dyke. They will arrive Saturday afternoon on
        at the East end of Tortola. We plan to anchor in a harbor on Tortola tonight.
        
        We have been doing well. Our trip from St. Thomas took about 3 hrs. We traveled
        in the lee of St. Thomas most of the way. We are still traveling mostly East into the
        prevailing winds. The open water passages are still a little rough but we don't have
        much open water amongst these islands. Customs and Immigration tend to be no
        problems just time consuming. At the end of the Government dock on Jost Van
        Dyke they have 2 decorated Christmas trees to greet voyagers. It is hard for me to
        believe that it is only 10 days till Christmas. The daytime temperatures are
        generally in the mid 80's and drop to the high 60's with a nice breeze at night. At
        dinner on St. Thomas last Sunday we saw a little football, the Jets beat Miami, and
        some commercials with SNOW. It just didn't click.
        
        There are many boats decorated with various lights and designs. We will put our
        lights and banners up when we get to Trellis Bay on Beef Island. We also see real
        Christmas Trees being transported out to boats on Dinghies. I don't think we will
        have a tree this year. We saw some for sale in a supermarket on St. Thomas. A 6'
        tree cost $40. Really not bad when you think about how it had to get here.The
        stores are all decorated so I guess everybody here is ready for Christmas except for
        me. Oh well. I expect that to change quickly when we do our decorations and the
        kids arrive.
        
        We are really looking forward to having them with us. It will be different to have
        three more people on the boat again. Faith and I are getting comfortable living
        aboard with just the two of us. With five all of the systems will see higher
        demands. Food and therefore trash will increase significantly and space will again
        become a premium. We still can't wait!!
        
        Since Stacy is the person who logs these onto the Web Page we will not add any
        logs until after the New Year. Then we'll start keeping an update of our travels
        again.
        
        So, Faith and I want to wish each of you a very merry Christmas, a safe and healthy
        holiday and all the best for the New Year. God Bless you all!
        Your friends, Faith and Rudy