Hi Y'all,
I left you with the knowledge that my computer had crashed,well after a new hard drive and no operating system I'm back.
Here we are in the oldest city in Colombia, founded in the 15 hundreds by Bolívar. This is also where he died. His body hair is in a grave in one of the churchs here. Other body parts are eleswhere.
The beach area is full of the statues of indigenous
Indians and all are naked. The strees are crouded with people and there cart full of stuff to sell. They set up in front of the stores and block most of the sidewalk, it's pretty neat. We have gone on 1 tour sofar to the lost
city of Taironaka. It's about a 2 hour drive
from Santa Marta and all along the road

are the vegie stands with the freshest
stuff you can find.













Well here are a few photos I hope you enjoy.

This is a photo of the Indigenous Indians that live in the real Lost City. They spend 2 to 3 days of walking down from the Village to spend a 5 to 7 day Vacation here at the replica and hope to pick uo a few pesos.

The little gold looking thing is part of there religion and that to is a replica, the real one is solid gold and protected. After I found that out I got getting a new sail boat out of my mind.



In there huts there are two doors,one for the men one for the women. If the women go in the wrong entrance they get tied up and not fed for 3 days. Now they know how to treat a women.

You can see the hammock in the hut, they are for the men, the women sleep on the floor.

See Y'all Down the Road

Mike & Karen

Computer Zapped

Hey Y'all
This is just to let you know that my computer crashed and I lost everything in it. I know your first thought also, surly he had it backed up but no I did not so not another word about it.
We are in Colombia and are enjoying the city of Santa Marta. We have gone on 1 tour sofar and the photos are still in the camera(didn't lose those) but I will not down load until I find a new computer. We are going out today to look. Well I just wanted to keep you informed of why we haven't post until now, didn't know the blog address. See Y'all Down the Road
Mike & Karen
PS. If there are any misspelled words it's not my fault, Spell Check come up in Spanish so everything is misspelled.

Hey Y'all, just a little update and a couple of shots of the anchorage here in Curacao.

This morning we are leaving here and on our way to Colombia. This should take no more than 5 or 6 days but who knows.

Karen and I met several couples that that are heading the same way, so we will have boats in front and back of us.

There really isn't anything else to tell y'all about except rain and more rain. We haven't done anything but get wet while shopping and getting ready to leave.

I have decided that sailing is 10% sailing and 90% shopping to leave for the next place you are heading. Most of the shopping is for food for some reason, honestly Karen and I don't eat that much. Ok that's about it,I'll post as soon as we get to Colombia.

See Y'all Down the Road

Mike & Karen

Curacao

Hey Y'all, Karen & I are in Curacao and have been for a week now. These photos are of the harbor in Willemstad. It's nice and colorfull and crowded every day because they have 2 cruise ships a day here untill april.

Ok we have found nothing here inCuracao to do, there are no sites or even forts for Karen to drag me to. It's not a easy place for cuirsers either.
These photos of that weird looking sail boat are from Bonaire. Karen & I went on a glass bottem boat and sun set sail while there. Just thought I'd throw these in the mix.

Here is an Enlish ship that curise these waters. Makes Carnaval look like a step child.

We are in an anchorage called Spaanse Waters, It's the Dutch way of spelling spanish, go figure.I think there is 1 more photo here someplace of the anchorage but I can't seem to find it. Hell maybe it will show up later.

Wer are planning to leave Wed. or Thurs. for Santa Marta, Colombia and stay for a week or two and then on to Cartagena for Christmas.

Karen cooked Thanksgiving dinner yesterday and we piged out,only thing it was chicken because the turkeys were $50.00. I think I would have chocked if she had bought one.

Ok thats about it for now hope everyone had a Happy Thanksging and if I don't post before Christmas ( but I will) have a Merry Christmas.

See Y'all Down the Road

Mike & Karen

Bonaire and stuff

Hey Y'all,

Here we are in Bonaire having a good time. We are snorkling and diving al over the island.I'm going to try to load some photos, but this new format in my blog and everything is in Dutch I don't know if it will work

These photos are of the salt mine here. If you notice the pink color of the pond thats the shrimp that live there. The pink shrimp are what makes the Flamingo pink. They eat the shrimp and absorb the pink color. In the states it's the Roseta Spoonbill that turns pink after eating the shrimp.

 As you can see Karen is still with me, for you people in KW that worry about her. We rented this scooter last Sunday and road all over the island, It's a small island. Yoy can see how nice the water is here.

 Karen wanted to let everybody know that there is still phone booths in the world, so look close and see some of the last.

 This is taken from the side of the boat on the mooring. We are sitting in 30 to 40 ft. of water and look at the fish and the bottem.

 Karen feeds the small sargent majors in the morning and they kind of remind me of piranha on a feeding frenzy.O.K. folks I know this is not very long but we are leaving to go do something else and I have to leave. Now all y'all go to work and Karen and I will play.

See Y'all Down the Road

Mike & Karen

   .

Well we are here in Bonaire. this is the first thing you see coming around the point. It's the sait mine on the southern shore. We left P.R. Sunday at 8AM and was anchored here at 8 AM Wed. So far we have not explored anywhere except to find phone and internet service.

I do wake up every morning and drink coffee with this fisherman. I don't see him catch anything but bait, at least that is the size of bait I use.

This is clearest water we have been in since we left Texas and really like to see the fish under the boat.

OK this is just an update and

We Will See Y'all Down the Road

Mike & Karen

Putting on Stores

Hey Y'all
Karen and I are making trips to the grocery stores and filling up our freezer and making sure that there is plenty of alcohol and cigars on board. It looks like Saturday is the target day. Karen won't let me leave on a Friday or on the 31 of October. The reason for the 31 October is when we left Texas that morning I ran into an unlit channel marker and put the first scratch in the paint so that date is completely out of the question.
Mike and Jon left a comment on the last posting and all I can tell Mike is that the ports that we will stop in are as we get close to them is when we make that decision, but the first stop is Bonaire in the port of Kralendijk and the next is anybodies guess.
Jon we have been following you everywhere you go but thanks for the update. As of Sat.( or when that little low down by Trinidad gets out of my way) we will be posting when ever we have Internet. So keep watching.
See Y'all Down the Road
Mike & Karen

Cat & Generators

Hey Y'all,
I guess since I have had a couple of inquires about the cat, here is the storey. Two weeks after she started to live with us and ruling the roost, she decided to take a midnight swim. Being way past Karen & my bed time we did not here the splash. So she must of swam to the land that is about 40 feet from the boat and started her new life without us. At least we hope so.
Now for 13 years I have tried to find a generator that would fit in somewhere in this boat. Well I finally found one. It now sits in the stern of the boat and is very quite. Our batteries now stay at full charge. This next week I will hook up the air con. to the inverter so during the real hot days and nights we will stay cool.
We have about 25 more days here in Pureto Rico, and we plan to head to Bonaire. Karen has got over her fear of putting her face in the water after at least 39 years. She has started snorkeling!!!!!! Now about 15 years ago I taught her SCUBA and certified her but she freaked out in an Atlantic dive so I would not let her dive anymore. Bonaire has some great snorkeling so we'll go there first before we head to Colombia.
See Y'all Down the Road
Mike & Karen

Hey, anybody out there.
Karen and I have been doing plenty of maintenance and now are installing a GenSet in the lazerette. We plan to leave here in Nov. after hurricane season. The sail to the ABC Islands will take about 4 days and then from there to Colombia. We'll start getting on the Blog at least every week or so just to get y'all back in the habit of watching us on our journey.
See Y'all Down the Road,
Mike & Karen

Hey Y'all,
I know you want more than I'm putting in here but there is just not that much to tell you. I stuck in Puerto Rico for this hurricane season. The VA has changed my Medications and I have to stay for check ups. I'm not happy with this but nothing I can do about it.
Here is an update for you, we brought home a 6 week old kitten yesterday. She is a feral and scared. This morning at 0245 Karen is on the deck checking out the kitten and she decided to go for a swim. Now as most of you know cats don't like water. All I heard was Karen telling me in a rather loud voice that the cat was in the water, now I'm asleep so I jump out of bed and go looking for the damn cat. Found the little fool swimming down the starboard side heading for the stern. I jumped into the dingy and could not find her. Finally I looked to the bow of the dingy and there she was hung up under the boat so I put my hand and arm in the water and that was all it took.I had cat latched to my arm and nothing was going to shake it off. Well everything so far is O.K. I'm sure my arm will heal up in a week or two. O.K. photos will be coming soon of the young Lioness. See Y'all Down the Road
Mike & Karen

O.K. folks we are still in P.R. and I don't know when we will leave here. I'm ready to make a 6 or 7 day run to Columbia but the V.A. are not cooperating. Right now we are adding solar panels on the boat. At the moment I have 4 panels and have 1 more on order, should get here this week and then I'll be putting in 460 watts and about 25 to 30 amps. After this I won't have to run my generator or engine hardly at all.
It seams that being here we have taken advantage of the grocery stores here. Our freezer is so full that i can't get anything in it and the refrigerator is over stuffed also. Along with too much food on board I have gained a small amount of weight. Sitting here with no sailing the meals Karen cooks are getting larger and larger. I'm sure the beer has nothing to do with it.
We had some new cushions made for the cockpit and they don't fit, had them made in Florida and there is no way I'll send them back. I guess I'll bite the bullet and have some made in Columbia if I ever get there. I'll try to post more but it is boring here and not a lot to tell y'all.
See Y'all Down the Road'
Mike & Karen

Well it's me again with not a whole lot to say. We are still waiting on the VA and sitting here in P.R. I did purchase 2 more Solar panels to add to my free power. I have been working on that about a week and should finish in a day or two. Karen finished all the varnish yesterday and celebrated with several rum & cokes. We have about 20 or more coats and we don't have much burning from the sun. Probably will not have to varnish for two years now.
When we Finlay finish here if it's not too late in the year and no hurricanes in the Caribbean we will head to Columbia and stay down that way during hurricane season. After the season we will head north up Central America. Well I guess that's about all I have now,but will keep y'all kind of up to date.
See Y'all Down the Road
Mike & Karen

Hey y'all miss us. We have had a rough 3 weeks, to start with in January we had to buy a new inverter/charger and with this new one our Honda 2000 would not work on the charger part. Well for 3 1/2 months I have had to use the motor to charge the batteries. Not only does it cost a lot of money to buy fuel it puts too many hours on the motor. Looking for a larger Generator I finally found one built like the Honda and it was a 3 1/2 KW, that was plenty of power,Ha Ha. It took about 4 weeks to get here to Puerto Rico, so this last Monday it arrived and everything was good. I got it back to the boat added oil and gas fired that mother up. Boy it worked for an hour and we shut it down to go to movie night at the marina. (Little Fockers is a good movie by the way.) the next morning here we go I start it up and started charging, everything was good. Three hours later it shut down, I thought we ran out of gas. We went out and opened the fuel tank to find plenty gas. I fired it back up and 30 seconds later it shut down, this happened every time I fired it up. OK here is where it gets complicated. I purchased this on Home Depot. Com and this is Puerto Rico and this is Home Depot Puerto Rico. Called HD.com and here is the answer, no problem just take it back to any Home Depot and get your $ 1000.00 back, so we rented a car and drove to Ponce picked up this little object put it in a basket, rolled it in the store and here is the red lights. The little lady said we don't do that. Anyway another lady showed up and about 2 hours later she called us on the phone and said everything was set to give our money back. Happy days are here again. Anyway purchased a regular genset and so far it works OK, a little loud but who cares. This should keep y'all up to date with our trials and tribulations. See Y'all Down the Road Mike & Karen

Hey Everyone,
I guess you wonder what's happening. We are still sitting in Salinas PR. waiting to get this V.A. thing finished. They are going to put me on disability and give me money so I'm sticking around for a while.
Karen & I did fly to Grenada last week to look at a boat, but I guess I offered to little and he sold it to another buyer. This guy offered full asking price without a survey. Now that's stupid for anyone to buy a boat without one. I guess one is born every day and sometimes two. I am not one of them.
Nothing really to tell y'all so until there is See Y'all Down the Road.
Mike & Karen

Been waiting for the first comment to be put on the blog just to see if anybody looks at the damn thing. Karen and I have been working on the varnish work on Drifter and just about finished. We have made several trips to San Jaun to the V. A. and just almost finished with them, so we will be leaving here and heading to Lureron in the D.R.

It seems that Geraldo Rivera owns an island here in Salinas and brings his children here to the marina in his half a million dollar launch. He told me that he flies back to the states every 2 weeks to film his show and then returns here. Must be nice to own your on island.

Karen finally went to get her hair cut and got out of the chair with none left on top.

This is the view we have in the evening during sun downer and that dear folks is about all I have to tell you. We are still having a good time but I can't wait to get back under sail again. This sitting in one spot for so long gets boring. I just hope when we get to Guatemala we have plenty of places to go and see. O.K. until next time See Y'all Down the Road Mike & Karen

Hi Y'all,
I know you think we have forgot y'all out there but we haven't. There is just nothing going on but work. Karen is doing all the varnish work and I'm watching. She is putting on anywhere from 6 to 10 coats on everything, and I'm watching. Now I don't want you to think that's all I'm doing is watching because that's not true, I'm also telling here if she is doing a good enough job on the varnish.
We are sitting at the dock in the Marina De Salinas waiting until I get all this V.A. crap out of the way and then we will get back on the anchor.
I promised a recap on 2010 but just haven't gotten round to it. I will in the next day or two start on it. We just got the Internet back to working at a decent speed and I hope it stays this fast.
We are looking forward to leaving here for the D.R. and Luparon but we still enjoy the P. R. and the people we meet here.
Karen has got excited about an other boat that I found in the B.V. I. it's a 47 Gulf Star Sailmaster. She has priced tickets to fly there so we can look at it and maybe get a survey while we are there. I'll let y'all know what happens. This boat will be more comfortable for us in our later years plus be more comfortable in heavy weather.
O.K. so now y'all know we haven't forgotten you out there but we really haven't anything to report. See Y'all Down the Road.
Mike & Karen

Well it's been awhile but I do have an excuse. Now I know one of you don't want to here it but here it is. Being on a boat there are certain times when water gets inside and sometimes your computer may get in the way. when that happens every thing gets messed up and some keys don't work. Well this happened to me and I could not type in my password. So if a extra U or IU shows up just let it pass.
O.K. we left St.Maarten on the 8Th and went to Virgin Gorda in the B.V.I.s. There was no wind to speak of so it was a motor sail. We arrived at about 1500 hrs and went to a mooring ball.
The next morning we checked In and went to the Baths. This is a volcanic island and what happened to the round boulders was the soft layers of lava, after a few million years wore off and you get this great bunch of holes and caves. If you ever get a chance to go it's worth it.

After we left the Baths we hightailed it to Jost Van Dyke and the bar Foxy's as most of the people that been there will tell you It has not changed since It opened. We spent a couple of days there and left for Calebra( on of the Spanish Virgin Islands) It was not what we left In 2002 last time here. There are no cruisers anywhere and most of the shops and beer joints or closed down. That's really bad news for those who like to drink a beer or 12 a day.

We left Calebra and had a pretty good down wind sail to Salinas P.R. So here we sit for the next month or so while I get registered with the V.A. and start receiving meds. from them. In the next week or so I'll give a recap of the last year of where and whats happened to Karen & I & Drifter. See Y'all Down the Road.

P.S. Mike I hope this satisfies you for a few days.

Mike& Karen

Well here we are in St. Maarten & St. Martin. We hope everyone had a happy New Years Party and didn't get to for in to the bottle.
As you can see from the photos St. Maarten is the home of the mega yachts. Over the holidays the number of them went down to about 45 at the docks, after the 3 Rd. of January they started to fill up again. This is just an estament but I would guess there is a 1/2 Billion dollars worth here at the moment. Some are too large to get into the Lagoon and have to stay on anchor out in Simpson's Bay. The largest yacht that can get in here is 320 Ft. Stephen Spielberg's yacht is too large and so is the ugliest yacht in the world. That's the one I put in the blog from Guadeloupe.

Oh by the way the second ugliest yacht in the world is here also and I included a photo down below. Maybe some of you space age folks won't think so but Karen & I do.

We are just sitting here for the last 17 days waiting on a new Inverter/ charger from Marine.com now I'm not going to tell you how P.OD. I am about this wait, because I don't want to burn the keys up on my computer. Their excuse is the blizzard and FedEx would not pick it up. I just won't order anything from them. They normally have the lowest prices,but I cut off my nose to spite my face if I wait somewhere on them again.

There really not too much to do here unless you like to go to rough beaches or shop so we just work on the boat. Boy after 17 days there is not much left to do. We have caught up with a years worth of thing that we have put off. The only thing left is the %$#*&!@# Inverter/ Charger.

Well I'll wish you all a Happy New Year and SEE Y'all Down the Road

Mike & Karen