Hey there sailing blogs fanatics! I know, I know – I’ve neglected this child of mine so badly that I wasn’t sure if should even start writing again, but then I look at the logs and I am amazed again – thank you for your continuing interest! I’ll try to not to disappoint you and I’ll give you right away some juicy bits on the few young lives you have been following.

Johannes, my first mate, who in late days of August few years back so bravely plunged head-first into this crazy sailing adventure of mine – has plunged himself into another, altogether different trip of his life – he got married this year! Last time we saw each other was back then, in the Exumas, both waving frantically – me from the beach at Wedrick Wells, and he aboard some stranger’s boat, which minute by minute was getting smaller and smaller. We were both facing each other waving and waving and waving, all chocked up, till all I could see were tiny sails floating steadily over the banks. Johannes was heading back to Nassau to catch his flight back to Germany. That’s the last I saw him, but not the last I’ve heard from him – we were exchanging emails from time to time and from them I first heard of his marketing business venture back in Germany, and then about him meeting his future wife at the business seminar. He got married on the shores of Nova Scotia and sadly I was on a different continent when that was taking place, but I’ve enjoyed receiving from him his wedding photos with the backdrop of a lighthouse and rocky Eastern shore of Canada. Once a sailor, always a sailor…

Tobi, my scrumptious, chirpy bird got herself a better sailing deal – after cruizing for a half a year on a boat with Johannes I was lot more experienced skipper, but then I myself wasn’t prepared for the 220V of Tobi. This girl would jump overboard without much of a warning, to chase baby dolphins in the attempt to join-in on the fun. Then she somehow convinced me to head off for Cuba. We have had lots of really great adventures, some bad mishaps and oodles of happy, care-free days. Just to bring up some of those adventures again, once we were hit in a dead night by another boat and that was absolutely terrifying, another time we had continuous encounters with drug runners in Rugged Islands, then Tobs got hit by the boom and subsequently we were both sitting on a dentist chair of a VERY pregnant Cuban dentists, then we were facing Cuban military and running off from the Cuban navy base because Tobs would sneak her laptop onshore when she was told not to. Tobs, Tobs. Full of life and very restless – she hasn’t changed much, except, if that’s possible she got even more restless and edgy. She moored herself in Montreal where she is studying journalism and running a student paper which for better or worse consumed her life completely and entirely. Her school paper is her obsession now and I have no doubts she is on a fast-track to a great career. We’ve hooked up for a quick dinner just another weekend when she was in Toronto on some school paper conference. It was a very quick meeting, since Tobi always is frantically squeezing dozens of conflicting appointments, wanting to see everyone, not having time for everybody and always feeling bad about it. It took her few minutes to dial down, but it was great to hear her palpitating heart sharing a bit about her life now.

Wow, this has turned up to be quite a hefty post. I actually came by here to share few words and say what I have been up to last year and what ever happened to my sailing plans. It looks, my friend, like this would have to wait for another post, so stay tuned for the next blog entry. Thank you all who are visiting this site and to those who wrote me, even though I didn’t always had the time to respond. It’s encouraging to see people still visiting this sailing blog even though it did became a ghost ship for awhile.