Thanksgiving thoughts...
As I think about this time of year, I reflect on the fact that last Thanksgiving we were sailing. We weren’t actually on Artemis then; she was still on passage to the BVI - only arriving in early December 2022 ready for our first sail in January of this year. We sailed on a Lagoon 52 instead, and we enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner ashore at the Bitter End Yacht Club. It was a fun week. You can read about it here…. We were very thankful to have that time with some family and friends!
Our next visit will be in a few weeks, just before Christmas. My wife and I will be there with my parents - first trip for them, both afloat in a sailing cat vsiting the BVI. I am excited to see how they enjoy it, and I am thankful to be able to share this with them.
Side note: I have been putting some thought into how best to manage getting on and off Artemis for our older passengers. We are thinking more use of alongside berths (Bitter End Marina, Scrub Island etc) or dining onboard than running ashore in the dinghy - but it will be good to see how this works. I will post a report after the trip to offer any perspective for others contemplating the same thing.
After this trip in December I’ll be heading south again with a few old school friends sometime in the New Year. This same group, more or less, first went to the islands together back in 1988. The number of boats on the water, and the number of hulls those boats have (!), have changed since then - but you know what hasn’t changed much? The taste of a Painkiller and the fun you can have with a group of mates when drinking them. Yup. That hasn’t changed much. I am very thankful for that too.