Here we go again, Tropical Storm Chantal is bee lining through the Caribbean and it's a wake up call for the crew of Independence. Time to head north to our bolt hole in North Carolina! We did our last charters last week, a great Independence Day on Independence and one last go with repeat guests on Saturday so we leave with memories of great Virgin Island sailing.
Our big family news is the wedding of our son Paul to Jessica, we definitely gained a great daughter and think her family feels the same way about their new son. There big day, June 26th, dawned overcast and rainy, thunder claps and lightning and lots of wind made for an interesting trip over to St. John, us on Independence and the rest of the guests on the big catamaran Kekoa. The ceremony was to take place on the beach at Hawksnest on St. John with the reception at the Oppenheimer House on the other end of the beach. Paul and Jess must have pull in the right place because the sun came out just at the optimum moment and everything went off without a hitch or a rain drop! Check Paul Stoeken's Facebook page for some pictures, note the very cute little girls blowing bubbles, they would be Marisa and Lea our grand daughters and they were bubble (not flower) girls!
This season has been so much fun, I was sad to see Leah leave at the end of last season and we were delighted to welcome her aboard again, this time as a guest visiting from San Diego where she and her husband have settled for the time being and she is teaching. Andy Roberts signed on right after we got back and has been wonderful to work with, he has promised to come back next season unless he gets lured back to Africa where he has worked in the past. Fingers crossed that won't happen!
We have had quite a few of our guests write wonderful reviews of their day and post them on Trip Advisor, it is awesome to get the feedback and to know that we are providing some great memories and equally as awesome is the number of inquiries we get from those posts, so a big THANK YOU to everyone who took the time.
We are planning, weather permitting, to leave St. Thomas on Sunday, July 14th, and should be at sea for about ten days. We will have no internet until we get to our berth at Wilmington Marine Center in North Carolina so if you don't get an answer to a question about sailing with us or you just want to check in I promise to get back to you as soon as I can. We will be in North Carolina until the end of September and then plan to spend October in Bermuda and be home and sailing in St. Thomas again before the middle of November.
Have a great summer and come on down next season and come sailing with us on Independence, we'd love to have you aboard!
