Jennifer Simms and her two kids and their ocean adventures, random acts of kindness! Read on!

Sweet Candace,

Here is our itinerary:

week of Oct 1-13 : USVI’s an BVI’s

week of Oct 14-27: St Marten and Anguilla

week of Oct 28-nov4: St Kitts / Nevis

week of ct Nov 5 -18: Antigua / Barbuda

week of Nov 19- Dec 2 : Guadeloupe / Montserrat

week of Dec. 3 – 16: Dominica

week of Dec 17- 30 :St Lucia

week of Dec. 31- Jan 13: Martinique

week of Jan 14- Jan 27: St Vincent and the Grenadines

week of Jan 28 – Feb 10 : Barbados

week of Feb 11-24: Grenada

week of Feb 25 – Mar 10 Trinidad

week of Mar 11- 24 Aruba

And last, I would like to invite you both to join us for a week. The first of each of these two week visits will be for friends and family. We hope to charter the second week in each port via the paenny auction. Here’s the website for the 50 ft trimaran we will be sailing on http://1stclassyachtcharters.com/catamaran/opus/

We would love to Pay it Forward in Paradise with you!

So grateful to know you..

with love and blessings,

Jennifer, Charlie and Lexi

Ahoy Mate!! We are here and glad to be back! We just had to go snorkeling today while captain Billy and his fun crew are putting the finishing touches on Opus. The crystal blue water never ceases to amaze me…Lexi got some dog bones form a gal on the beach and if you hold them in your hands the fish will eat from your fingers!!

So I have a meeting tomorrow at 2 pm with Vivian St Juste of the Family Resource Center. I am taking Gary Christianson. He is the guy that I told you has a production company down here. I decided to go for it and pay him to shoot a pilot for us. I think this initial launch is so important for the way we will present this. Maybe we can get some national interest now instead of waiting till we get back. Wouldnt that be wonderful ?? 🙂

So Gary is going to shoot the interview with Vivian and our first acts of kindness here, which we hope to solidify in our discussion with Vivian tomorrrow and make happen by Friday as we are setting sail on Saturday from st thomas headed for the BVI’s to meet David Penn (BTG affilate from Tortolla), and Susan Zaluski and Foxy at the Yost Van Dyke Preservation Society.

We are also going to the closest thing to an orphanage here tomorrow called the Nana Baby Home, which is a place where homeless children (whose parents most likely cannot afford to keep them or take care of their illnesses, or they are simply abandoned) from infants to teens can stay until they find a foster family for them. I think this will be another place we can make a huge difference. I will keep you informed.

So it all begins…we are soooo excited!! The Opus is looking ship shape. Billy has some amazing people helping him do all the re rigging, setting up the solar panels, radar, generator, water maker, scuba gear, maintence, et al….

Our favorite is a crazy Austrailian named Diego who Charlie insists looks just like Jack Sparrow in the Pirates movies…maybe he IS … 🙂

But we love Billy and his new wife Pat. She is such a sweetheart and together they make the perfect team. I just love seeing that…

I’m telling you, this is better than TV !! Whoever wins the auction ,or is brave enough to get on a friggen plane and join us, is going to have the adventure of a lifetime. I should have Gary’s pilot for you within a week or so. In the meantime I will write more soon about our vistit with Vivian and the children at the Nana Baby center.

Best part is, Charlie and Lexi are in heaven…what a dream come true that is!!!

Love and blessings,

Ahoy!!

We are doing our big film shoot today with a woman who has twin five year olds and just gave birth to a new girl while living in the emergency shelter. Bids that Give will likely provide 6 months of housing for her in a furnished two bedroom that you can get here for about $750 /mo. What a gift!!

Then the kids and I are going to go there first and decorate the nursery, hang some $$ from the ceiling (our trademark 🙂 and fill her fridge.

Should be sweet. Charlie and Lexi are growing so much already. It’s like watching roses bloom…

We all sit around every night on the docks laughing and telling stories. Diego is the chief mate helping with all the repairs and he looks just like Jack Sparrow. Lexi likes to mimick him and it makes everyone laugh till they cry.

I promise to send some pics soon. We are just focusing on the pilot right now. Our chances of getting this sold are looking good. Very exciting!!

We have to get another generator before we sail so we will be here in US territory with phone and Internet until mid next week..

I will write again soon.

We love you!

OCTOBER 14, 2012

Hi dear Friends,

Hope you are well and enjoying the beautiful fall back home.

We are doing great. We have finished our pilot filming with two charities here. The best experience was the kids and I threw a surprise party for a woman named Latoya, her twin five year olds and brand new baby, Redina (9 days when we met her). We had so much fun shopping and decorating the Family Resource Center with balloons, a cake loads of presents and games like pin the tail on the donkey. Lexi had so much fun with the girls, running and playing…no seperation at all between them. This is the gift I love to see.

And thanks to the generosity of our new family at Bids That Give, we were able to gift Latoya and her babies housing for six months so she can get out of the shelter and back on her feet. What a feeling that was to hear her cry softly and hug her girls!! I will always remember her expression when she said to me in her soft accent, “I asked God for you, and here you are.”

Ordinarily, we would not be allowed to film her because of security reasons. But in this sad case, the father was not the agressor. It was her sister who kicked her in the belly trying to abort the baby at 5 months, so Latoya had no choice but to leave her family home. Can you imagine? There is a huge difference here between a life you choose and a life of forced circumstance. It reminds me of how blessed we are.

And speaking of blessed Richard Branson’s $5 million boat is parked next to ours, the Necker Belle. What a life he has! There are about 30 people coming and going working on the yacht around the clock and he is not even here. Fun to watch the action. We are hoping to connect with him about our project, but not really attached to that.

I love the real life we are creating on the Opus. This is a classic style boat that thanks to capt Billy and his amazing crew, is now ready for the high seas. I just hope we are!! 🙂

As we headed out the marina into the open ocean the other day, Diego whispers in my ear, “do you see that white spreay behind the boat, that is all the BS that isnt real. Now look out on the horizon. That is the present. The here and now. This is where you have to keep your focus.” A true philosopher…and one of the only real pirates I have ever known!

I hope something cool happens with the reality show, but just letting it go to the Gods now (and to Marty, our wonderful reality tv guru!). We are all looking forward to how the pilot our freind Gary here shot turns out. Happy to share it when the time comes.

 As for the sailing we are anxious to get underway. We had to wait out a big storm that thankfully passed us by last night and now we are sailing tomorrow. We will be in the BVi’s for a few days before the long stretch to Anguilla / St Marten, which could take up to 20 hours. We did a test sail the other day and ho magical it is when the engines are cut and there is only the sound of the wind filling the sails. We had about ten friends with us for our inaugural flight, and everyone fell silent when the sails took over…what a feeling!

The kids are having a blast making friends with the gang that has been working with Billy to get the boat ready. Diego looks (and acts when he’s full of rum) just like capt Jack Sparrow. We all sit around on the docks at night laughing at Lexi who is becoming a master at mimicking Diego. I know they will not be the same kids after this trip and I am looking forward to watching their transformation.

MIne too…I miss my life and sometimes I wonder if this was all a big mistake. But then the sunset blows me away or something one of the kids says causes me to stop in my tracks, and I KNOW this is meant to be. Like the storm passing us by last night when the marina was filled to the brim with boats all hunkering down with us, expecting 50 mi /hr winds….nothing….

God is with us.

I think very few experience that first hand, dont you?

We miss you and send our love across the winds to you,

Blessings.

Jennifer, Charlie and Lexi

Hi all,

Check it out: our ad for the Pay it Forward in Paradise charter is LIVE today on the www.bidsthatgive.com auction site and there is already lots of bidders!!

So much has gone into making this possible, and I am so grateful for the magic that is unfolding.

Over coffee this morning looking out over crystal blue waters surrounding the majestic lush hills of Norman Island in the BVI’s, Captain Billy said two really cool things: the first:  “Jen, so much good is associated with this trip that only good can come from it” and the second:  “this sure doesn’t suck”.

Check out the auction and come sail wit us!!! (cause it sure doesn’t suck!!)

We’re off to Virgin Gorda and the incredible natural baths tomorrow, and then on to Anegada, one of the best dive spots in the Caribbean before we head over to Anguilla,which will talk about 20 hours sailing.

We miss you!

Love, us

PS. Charlie and Lexi are outside blowing a giant conch shell like a bull horn. Slightly annoying but incredibly cute!