Gratitude!

Ah the Caribbean, it has not disappointed us with its warm, blue waters and plenty of sunshine.  We have already enjoyed a visit from wonderful friends from back home, which took us all from Barbados to the Grenadines and St. Lucia.

Yes, this picture is real!  Unbelievable colours and scenery!

Is this not what you think of when you think Caribbean?!

The girls are better than me at free diving, love seeing their confidence build in the water.

We have the best friends in the world who are willing to come all this way to visit us! 

Never can have too many sunset pictures.

We are beyond fortunate to be living this life!  Darryl and I have now travelled through 26 countries in our time together (hard to believe we have known each other now for 20 years!).  Twenty six countries that all offer different cultures, landscapes and experiences, but the one thing they all have in common are amazing people.  People from such different backgrounds, whether they are sailors or not, and all of them have stories and experiences they share with us that enrich our journey.

The tough part of the nomadic lifestyle is saying goodbye and not knowing whether our paths will cross again.  Since we have been over here in the Caribbean we are beyond fortunate to have met up again with four boats (s/v VA, Element, Rafael and Escapade) we knew prior to the crossing, plus two brothers who finally managed to hitch a ride across the Atlantic who we had met in Las Palmas.  As the saying goes, a cruiser's sailing plan is written in sand at low tide, so is bound to change.  So all the more miraculous it is when paths cross again with a fellow cruiser.

We never tire of meeting new people along the way.  Darryl literally lost me for three hours the other day when I got talking with a Canadian couple on their boat who have countless inspiring cruising stories.  We are now in Martinique and thanks to friends (s/v Escapade) we met in Las Palmas and have reconnected with here, we were introduced to a French couple who are scuba dive instructors and dive masters.  Despite the language barrier, (boy, do Darryl and I ever need to break out the Rosetta Stone and work on learning French again) we managed to enjoy three wonderful evenings with all of them.

We have countless examples of serendipity in our journey, but our experience yesterday was one I will never forget and demonstrates perfectly the generosity of those we meet!  Darryl had decided awhile ago he wanted to complete the first level of PADI dive training, but wanted to wait for the warm Caribbean waters to learn.  During the Atlantic crossing he completed all the course material and exams, but he was waiting until we were standing still for a bit in Grenada to complete the practical portion of the training.  I was on the fence about it as I was such a wimp when I first learned to snorkel (clearly I have a hang up that people are not meant to breath with their faces in water!) that I figured diving was way out of my league.

Bring things forward to yesterday, when the couple offered to take Darryl and I scuba diving just to get a taste of it!  They generously allowed us use of their equipment and took us one at a time for a dive.  They were so patient and calm, especially with me who played my usual mind games that I am going to die when required to breath with my mouth below the surface.  And next thing you know, I was fully submerged and touching the bottom (we are talking about only 3 meters here).  It was exhilarating to conquer that fear and best of all...LOVE it!  So I guess I need to catch up to Darryl and get some course work completed!!!

D taking a stab at this whole diving thing.

Check it out, I am not hyperventilating and clawing my way to the surface!

Whether it is conversing with a man on a beach who is trying to sell me a necklace (yes I bought it darn it!) but at the same time discuss the beauty the ocean offers us all, or through lots of charades and laughter to share a meal with other cruisers who generously share their time and expertise to help me conquer a fear and discover a new passion.  These encounters we continue to have is what keeps me excited to see who might stumble next into this journey of ours.