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A N U A R Y 2 0 0 1
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Taio correspondence from sea -
January 2000 - February
2000 - March 2000 - April
2000 - May 2000- June
2000 - July 2000 - 2001
Update -
2002-03
View photos from their visit to the Port Of Rochester.
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December 28, 2002 Hi
gang the last day running to culebra from anageda passage, past the bvi and usvi, under square alone in twenty knots of trade wind, brilliant sunshine, was so ineffably (always wanted to use that word) perfect it can hardly be imagined. saw very little sea life on the trip but, inevitably, the last day in the atlantic a huge performing troupe of dolphins came to welcome us to the caribbean. i think it was the cirque du mer. they were even more playful than usual and did lots of single leaps out of the water, then two leapt side by side simultaneously, then four leapt side by side at the same instant. i just about went nuts with the sheer glee of it all. do they practice this stuff? who decides, ok rashid, mary, moishe, line up beside me, we,re gonna to do the old quad leap in front of this biped nutcase and make him wet himself? from nova scotia to bermuda, there were no dolphins, very little sea life then a big black dolphin got under the bowsprit just outside st george,s. good morning, my name is arnulfo, i,ll be your pilot today, welcome to bermuda. i always go and lay on the bowsprit with my hand hanging down to within a few inches of mr or ms dolphin. one day i,ll get one with cataracts, he,ll think it,s a herring and i,ll be a singlehanded sailor. for those of you without bowsprits: you poor pathetic creatures, what were you thinking? anyway, the water outside bermuda was as clear as glass and i realized for the first time that dolphins actually swim at such an angle that they watch you very intently. this big guy was right on his side staring straight up into my eyes. i don,t know what the deal is with dolphins but i definitely get the feeling that they know exactly what is going on, that there is some strange meeting of the minds. the truth, of course, is that they,re just big cod too witless to evolve gills and if you jumped into the water with them, they,d probably tear you to bloody strips. just kidding. we had a fabulous 6 weeks in bermuda. our friend gill had a potluck farewell dinner/christmas tree decorating party on our last night with us, china moon and our friends glenn and ulrike on bird of passage. i did the lights and julianna did the decs. we love her, she is a great kid. all three boats left the next day, along with two others, and that emptied the anchorage. there were a couple more trying to get to bermuda but we were pretty well it for the season. we kept in touch off and on via vhf radio, range 20 miles. funny thing after 900 miles and lots of fun and games we all ended up going through anegada within a few hours of each other. talked to glenn and ulrike near the virgins. they diverted to ponce, puerto rico for dental work. hadn,t been able to contact china moon for 2 days but as we sailed past norman island, bvi, who calls from jost van dyke but the mighty silverfish. so everybody is safe amd sound. as we approached culebra we got a call on vhf from vince aboardcompanera which had come from canada via bermuda with us. they had been in culebra for a week and vince, worried about our apparently tenuous grip on life, had dutifully hailed us twice a day to see if we were still alive and out there somewhere. we were very touched. culebra is a small island off the eastern end of puerto rico. quiet, friendly, few tourists, few yachties. very cool. tomorrow we take the ferry to isla grande, the big island to you monolinguals, to get stuff for our christmas dinner. we had 4 thanksgivings this year, all with full turkey dinner and pumpkin pie. one was in error, the classic cock-up on the catering front in fact, but tasted just as good as the others. tragically,
due to shipping difficulties, we won,t have sarah,s Famous List
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