We've spent the month of January in Antwerp and we'll stay here through February. My knee should be good to go by then. Daily physical therapy sessions are successfully increasing my strength and flexibility. If I want to walk around town I have to go before my sessions because afterward I'm pretty tired and sometimes sore. Standing and walking slowly for long periods just didn't seem like smart things to do just yet. All the same, I really want to visit the zoo and some museums soon.

The weather, which Lonely Planet's site says is wretched this time of year, has been surprisingly nice. Rainfall seems less than previous years and blue skies seem more frequent. The majority of the days, though, are still gray. Some days the cold wind howls which is a good reason to come back and have a nice warm bath.

Walking has always been one of Jim's favorite pastimes. Mountains, coastlines, cities ... he likes them all. Antwerp is a good place to walk with several options for varying routes. There is a path along the river in the city, there is the tunnel under the river to the Linkeroever (Left Bank) with more open space, and there are unlimited choices through the city. Accompanied by his iPod he goes for a brisk walk everyday for a couple of hours.

Jim had a nice lunch with some his past work colleagues last week. Hearing the successes of Eastpak and Kipling make him happy. They have incredibly competent teams of very nice people.

And that's it. That's what we're doing here. Not too exciting. We are both getting a bit stir crazy and are ready to get back to Tenaya.

Our friends, Bob and Liz, are taking care of Tenaya in our absence. They stayed aboard her while Liz sanded, oiled and varnished the interior of their boat Yanina. Bob avoided most of the labor by working on a book. Well, that's his story. We can't wait to see the lovely Yanina with her renewed interior.

You can see photos of Bob and Liz and Jim and me in Rod Heikell's Birds of Paradise sightings in Yachting Monthly's February issue. The article is about his trip from Greece to Gibraltar with a few stops along the way. One was Almerimar where we all met. He and Lu are continuing on across the Atlantic. Bob and Liz will follow next season while we head east. See Bob & Liz's website