I arrived safely in St. Vincent last night following a
grueling 20 hours in airports and on airplanes!
The islands are beautiful - they are more like small
green hills rising out of the ocean. Chris and I
stayed in a nice flat a short walk from the beach -
Life is excellent!
Later tonight we will be taking a ferry across the
bequia channel to the island of Bequia, where we will
be meeting up with the crew from the Kathryn B.
Chris wants me to say... "hi guys!"
Our next charter week begins the 8th of April -
corresponding with the annual Bequia Easter Regatta.
So the next few days will be spent relaxing in island
paradise - and catching up with one another.
I am sure that more will follow soon!

Love you all...

Kelli Mae
and
Christopher

---

Hey there friends and family....

Well the last few days have proved to be an
interesting time for Chris and Kelli... We are now
crew members of a new boat - the Saga - and headed for
the Antigua Classic, a sail regatta and show.. not to
mention a raging party! Hopefully in Antigua we will
catch a boat headed for the Meditteranean. If not, we
will help deliver the Saga to Prince Edward Island.
Either way, we are both overwhelmed by freedom and
possibility.
A few notes on the island... Bequia is beautiful -
everything they tell you about the islands and more.
The water is so clear and crystal blue that Kelli
keeps thinking that she's riding a dinghy across a
giant swimming pool. Coconut palms lean over the
white sand beaches and the mangos are better than any
we've had before... Not to mention the perfect rum
and pineapples...
Life is good!
Kelli still can't believe that a week ago she was
leaving overcast southern california. She feels like
she has been here forever... of course, the island
people can easily spot her as new by the excessive
number of bug bites and fair skin. She can't wait to
be browned and beautiful. On a similar note - Chris
is now using sunscreen on a regular basis... (Dan -
please make a special note of this!)
This afternoon we are going to have a portrait done by
Baillar - a french canadian artist who has lived on
the island for 15 years.
We wish that you all could be experiencing all of
these island delights with us.
Until Next time:
Chris and Kelli Mae

---

Dear Friends...

Well we have arrived at our newest home base... the
lovely desert island of Antigua - After a wonderful 8
days of sailing and exploration it was nice to take a
real shower and have the opportunity to do some
laundry.
For those of you who are keeping track of the path of
our adventure.... we left Port Elizabeth, Bequia on
April 7th and headed past St. Vincent to St. Lucia
where we anchored for the night in Marigot Harbor.
This enchanting little harbor has a great history...
first, Admiral Nelson had the English fleet hide in
the harbor to escape pursuit by the French - they
actually covered their masts with Palm frongs
disguising their ships as large palm trees... and it
worked - more recently, Marigot harbor was used as
the set for the original movie Dr. Doolittle. The
next morning, we set off for the island of Martinique.
We had another fabulous sail and anchored for the
night at the foot of Mt. Pelee. THough we did not go
to shore in Martinique we did read up a bit on the
history of the island... the birthplace of Josephine -
Napolean's companion - and the sight of the great
volcano eruption in 1902. From Martinique, we headed
north to Dominica - one of the poorest islands in the
Caribbean. There we spent another night before
sailing north to Guadelupe.
Guadelupe was an experience in itself. A french
colony, GUadelupe is like a tiny piece of Europe
transported to the Caribbean. Needless to say - we
all had an interesting time brushing up on our French.
Antigua is bustling these days as everyone is
preparing for the Classic which begins this week. The
boats in this harbor are amazing. We're talking big
money from the eastern United States boats... we're
talking boats that We have only seen in magazines.
We have been having a delightful time! Our traveling
companion, Kurt is full of stories and good humor.
Kelli has provided entertainment by reading Harry
Potter - and Chris seems to be in a constant battle to
catch a fish! (none so far unfortunately!)
We hope all is well back home and we love you all.
More will follow when we know which way the wind is
taking us!
Kelli and Chris





Dear friends -

Much has happened since our last report... While Chris
was off delivering a stardust boat, Kelli ran into some
french sailors that we met while in Bequia. Oliver and
Simon are officers on a French Square Topsailed Schooner
called Bel Espoir. After speaking french for 8 hours, several
tit punches (an intense rum drink... thats pronounced like
"tea" by the way!) and a delicious meal on the boat - They
returned Kelli to Saga with an invitation to race with them
the next morning. Though we did not manage to join them
the next day, we both sailed with them in the final tall ships
race against a huge windjammer called Star Clipper and an
American boat that dropped in for the day, Westward. THe
participation of Westward in the race brought us great delight
as Jesse Schaffer, former captain of the Californian, is serving
as second mate on board. So we had a delightful reunion with
a friend from home. Overall - our experience sailing on Bel
Espoir was highly amusing. CHris observed that the crew
seemed like a group of boys who happened to find a tallship
and were just kind of running around and pulling on lines to
see what they did. They reminded Kelli of monkeys swinging
in the rigging. It was definitely a cultural experience.

With the end of classic - arrived the commencement of race
week... THe festivities began with a Cavalier rum party on a
local beach! Needless to say, both of us consumed as much
free rum as we could in the designated three hour time frame
- and spent the rest of the night participating in crazy beach
activities. CHris and Jonah took third place in the drunk man
triathalon - a relay that involved swimming, paddling a boogie
board and drinking shots with too many liquors to count! After
this first moment of glory - CHris rose to even greater heights
by assembling a world class tug-of-war team that made it all
the way to the finals before sadly collapsing into a sand pile.
Meanwhile, Kelli was on shoe and shirt watch (more difficult
than it might sound)! THe evening was excellent... when we
stumbled back to our room - we found that some how we
managed to acquire two free bottles of rum! Of course, after
a night like that - we weren't able to touch them for about four
days! The next night - we went to another beach for another free
rum party - this one sponsored by Mt. Gay. Needless to say -
we kept begging the bartenders for coke without rum... but the
rum pours quicker and freer than the coke... so we were out of
luck! We did manage to acquire two of the much coveted Mt.
Gay rum - ANtigua sailing week baseball caps - that are rumored
to sell for over $200 in the US! The parties continued all week -
as did the search for a new boat. After passing our resumes (or
cv's as they are called here) out to nearly every boat in the
harbour, schmoozing in bars and generally talking ourselves
up... we have accepted a position on a 47 ft Oyster called Kiwi.
The captain, Alex, seems to be an excellent and solid sort of
bloke... And so here ends our adventures in both Antigua and
the Caribbean. We will be departing tomorrow morning for Jolly
Harbor (another bay just around the corner...) - Monday we will
depart for Puerto Rico in order to provision... then its on to
Bermuda, and finally - across the atlantic to England. Needless
to say this is quite an exciting proposition. CHris is foaming
at the mouth for the opportunity to get back out to sea... and
Kelli is doing her best to mentally prepare herself for her first
crossing... Woo Hoo!

We hope you have all enjoyed the epic saga of our adventures
in the Caribbean... the next chapter...

Schooner Bums in Bermuda!
Love to all

Kelli and Chris

---

You know what they say about the best laid plans...
Approximately 36 hours before we were set to depart
Antigua, headed for Puerto Rico on Kiwi, we were
informed that the boat had been sold and wasn't going
anywhere! We made one final sweep of the docks in
English Harbor and Falmouth looking for paying work -
and discovered a virtual ghost town devoid of any
work!
Fortunately, a few weeks before we had made the
acquaintance of a couple, Rudy and Faith, who were
sailing their 46.5 ft sloop Boundless to Portugal with
a fleet of boats in a rally called ARC Europe. When
they found out that we had been kicked off of Kiwi -
they asked us to join them on their adventure. And
what an adventure it proved to be!
We set sail from Jolly Harbor, Antigua headed for St.
George's, Bermuda on Thursday, May 10th. THough the
ARC is really a cruisers rally, it is structured as a
race. We were the third boat over the crossing line,
and in the first few hours of the race managed to
establish ourselves in the front of the pack. Sailing
was beautiful on Thursday and Friday - as we continued
on our journey to Bermuda we lost sight of the other
boats in the fleet as we spread out into the vast
ocean. Saturday morning the wind just stopped. And
we mean stopped - it was blowing at less than 1 knot!
The ocean around us was as flat as a mirror! Kelli
was amazed (never having seen such a sight) at the
serenity, as well as the color of the water. Of
course, at that point we were over 300 miles from land
and there was over 7 miles of water below us! The
calm continued through Monday afternoon. And then -
the wind slowly began to build. By Tuesday morning,
4:00 am, we were in the middle of a squall with wind
approaching 30 knots, seas rolling around 12 feet, and
rain! We reefed our sails and headed through it. The
only problem was... it didn't end! By Wednesday
morning, the winds were consistently 35 knots with
gust up to 45 knots... (qualifying the storm as a
gale!) and seas reaching about 15 feet. It was a
crazy ride! The weatherman that we monitor on single
side band identified the storm as a cold front -
giving us a whole new perception of the weather
report!
Mid-afternoon on Wednesday, we emerged on the other
side of the front... the difference was like night and
day! All of a sudden the winds dropped to 20 knots,
which felt like a calm breeze compared the 45 knot
madness, and the seas calmed to about 10 feet. The
wind was distinctly cooler than it had been on the
other side.
We arrived in St. George's Harbor, Bermuda at 8:00 on
Thursday morning - 7 days from our start in ANtigua.
SInce then we have been busy making repairs and
improvements on the boat and preparing ourselves for
the next leg of our journey to the Azores. This next
sail should take us just over 2 weeks. We set sail
tomorrow, the 23rd of May. FOr all of you who are
interested, our progress can be monitored on the ARC
website, www.worldcruising.net - once again, we are on
the boat Boundless. We report our position once a day
- and it is updated on the site.
Today - we are headed out to explore Bermuda on a
motor scooter. Chris is driving and Kelli is hanging
on as hard as she can.
We hope all is well with all of you - and we will
continue to update you on our crazy adventure when we
arrive in the Azores.
Chris and Kelli

---

Dear Friends...

The update you have all been waiting for... with
baited breath...

We departed from Bermuda on a day when the sun warmed
our shoulders and wind filled our sails. We on
Boundless had decided to follow the rhumb line course
(a straight line from point a to point b) only to be
led north following the wind. However, approximately
one day into our trip, the wind died... We spent the
next few days motoring on glassy seas heading south.
In order to avoid heavy weather, we were advised to
backtrack by a ham radio operator, Herb, who provides
weather information and advice to sailors in the
Atlantic. This process caused us to sail for 24
hours, about 120 miles back south, heading in the
wrong direction. But better safe than sorry.
Throughout the rest of our trip we zig-zagged north
and south in an attempt to avoid the supposed 40 knot
winds that lay north of 35º lattitude.
Our Atlantic crossing settled into a pleasant
routine. We stood watch from 3-9 both am and pm, so
life became very cyclical. Time is perceived
differently while crossing a large body of water. The
sun rises and sets over the ocean, and days pass
without any contact with other boats. It is easy to
lose track of the passage of time.
While on our crossing we spotted plenty of wildlife.
Pods of dolphins played in the ships wake, turtles
did their best to avoid us, and we even managed to
spot one whale. After days of throwing out a fishing
line, and reeling it back in at night empty handed...
Chris caught a world record... 10 lb marlin...
Considering the marlin is on the brink of
endangerment, we released him to continue his life
swimming in the atlantic, rather than cooking him for
dinner.
We arrived in Horta, on the Island of Faial in the
Azores on the 7th of June, concluding a 15 day passage
through blue water. We were ecstatic to see land
again, and managed to jump ship just after making
landfall in order to explore this new land. Our
initial experience with the Azores was one of delight
and amazement. Everything here is so green! The
archipelego islands are volcanic, resulting in
extremely fertile soil. The result is land that is
bursting at its seams with plant life.
The buildings in the Azores have a strong European
influence, marking a definite change from the
Caribbean. The sidewalks are made of black and white
stones, handlaid in intricate designs and pictures.
The waterfront wall of Horta is decorated with
paintings done by sailors who have stopped in port
throughout all of history. According to tradition and
history, it is very bad luck to pass through Horta
without painting your ships´logo on the wall. Like
good superstitious sailors, we added the Boundless
logo along the sea wall.
While in Horta, we became frequent customers at
Peter´s Cafe Sport. Peter´s is well known to sailors,
not only as a friendly stop and watering hole, but
also for its history. During his historic
circumnavigation, single handed sailor Josh Slocum
stopped at Cafe Sport while in Horta. Naturally, we
made the pilgrimage and even acquired a few patches
and a Cafe Sport flag in remembrance. We also
discovered a neat local restaurant where you cook your
own food on stones heated to several hundred degrees,
as well as a wine that we are both enthusiastic about
identifying as our favorite. Hopefully we will find a
store that imports it when we return to the United
States.
We continued our exploration of the Azores with a
day sail to the island of Graciosa. The most
significant experience that we had on this island was
a hike down into a volcanic crater with a sulphuric
lake in the bottom. We joined to crew of a boat
called Persistence for a day sail to the island of Sao
Jorge, best known for their immense wheels of cheese,
and birds called Cory´s Shearwaters that sould a bit
like Fozzy the Bear. Waka - Waka - Waka... Our
island adventures concluded with an over night sail,
once again with Persistence, to the island of Sao
Miguel.
We are currently in the bustling city of Ponta
Delgado on Sao Miguel. This is the largest city in
the Azores, and boasts having the only recognized
university in Portugal that is not on the mainland.
We have been passing our time wandering around a
shopping mall, overwhelmed by all of the neat stores
in one convenient location. Clearly a sign that
either we have been in too many third world countries,
or we have been out to sea for too long. In either
case, we have decided to conclude our adventure and
head back towards home. We have both missed you all
too much, and look forward to all of the parties
inevitably celebrating our return.
We will be leaving tonight on a flight from Ponta
Delgado to Boston, MA. Once in Boston, we will make
further travel plans. Needless to say, our adventure
isn´t truly over until we arrive back in beautiful
Orange County...
We hope that all is well with all of you, and we are
looking forward to our arrival back home with great
anticipation.

Peace
Chris and Kelli