December began for us still moored in Barton Turns Marina, with more visits to the local towns, one highlight was in Lichfield where the city came together for the switch on of the Christmas lights. It was a great day - very festive and it seemed that the local towns and villages had all descended on the city for the occasion.
The next few day were spent preparing for our holiday in the Caribbean. We had opted for a cruise with Tui cruise line visiting a number of the Windward Isles.
We flew from Birmingham and have to say that Tui were really well organised, we dropped our bags at the airport and were reunited with them in the cabin on the cruise ship. It was also easy for us as once we boarded the plane in the UK we were taken care of right to the point we arrived at the ship.
Our first day was spent at sea before we arrived at ST Martin, we were the first boat to arrive on the island since the devastating hurricanes in August and there was a fair amount of damage still evident, the locals had clearly worked hard to tidy up the town and were very happy to see tourists returning.
I noted as we left the port that evening, that there were very few lights on in the town so clearly there are still problems to be resolved.
The next day we visited Tortola, one of the British Virgin Islands and again we were the first boat to visit, we had a tour round the island and our guide pointed out that all the greenery we could see had grown since the hurricane as most of the vegetation on the island had been stripped. Even when presented with views of the damage, it is still difficult to imagine how bad it must have been and it is a credit to the locals to see how they have overcome the difficulties they must have experienced.
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| Evidence of the damage |
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| Recovering Vegetation |
Each island has it highlights but our favourites are St Lucia, Antigua and Martinique. For anyone thinking about doing this sort of trip we found the land and sea trips to be the best as you get a bus trip around the island followed by a sea trip back to port, on the sea portion there was always opportunity to go snorkelling or to a beach.
We called into the museum in St Johns, Antigua and spotted an engine used on the sugar plantations, this was built by the Hudson Engine works in Leeds in 1946.
We really enjoyed the holiday and would love to visit some of the islands again.
Being in the Caribbean on the run up to Christmas was a strange experience with Christmas trees and music everywhere and in 30 deg heat. The islands embrace Christmas in the same way we do with competitions for the best lights etc.
We had had some work done on our boat whilst we were away and I was concerned that we may had suffered some damage to the boat due to frost, fortunately we found all was ok on our return.
The cold was not as much of a shock as we expected and we soon got the boat warmed up and back to normal.
We had a quick trip back up to Yorkshire to collect Scruff, she had be staying with Anna and family for the last month and we are truly grateful for their help.
We are now back on the boat for Christmas before we travel down to Bristol then onto Aylesbury then back to Leeds for New Year.
Following this we intend to be on the move again heading down the Coventry Canal to explore Coventry and the Ashby Canal.
We would like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and Prosperous New Year.
Richard and Lucia
