The sun is shining into Beowulf’s pilot house and our thermal underwear is stowed for the first time since we arrived in Newport. Beowulf is ready to sit at the dock for six weeks while we return to the office for a bit of catch up and work on another book project-after which we’re going to take a look at the cruising scene in Maine.

Thinking back on this past winter in the Caribbean there were some definite surprises for us. First, we really enjoyed cruising in that part of the world. The locals we met were almost without exception friendly and happy to have us as guests (and customers) on their islands. The sailing was better than we’d expected-with lots of fast reaching between the islands. The boat watching was awesome, there’s a bit of sailing competition for those so inclined, and lots of places to visit, restaurants, and reasonably well stocked grocery stores.

Yes, things are a bit expensive. To our way of thinking, probably a bit more costly than the South Pacific-excepting French Polynesia of course.

The short time we had in the Islands just wetted our appetite for more, so we’ll be going back next winter for another taste. And if the rumor that Mari Cha III is coming back for the Guadaloupe-Antigua race turns out to be accurate-we’ll have our hands full defending our record from this years race!

We’ll review how the systems and rig have worked out this past season in later comments on SetSail.