SailMakai

The one thought I had over and over while leaving Jolly Harbor is, we didn’t have enough time.  Up until now I was pretty much done with the previous islands.  There were inland jungle trips that we missed because of Topaz, the kids and the expense of the guided tour.  But Antigua had beaches and islands that I would have loved to swim around and kayak along.

Oh, well, maybe something up ahead will make me forget what I missed.  I mean, look at this water.  An artist’s color pallet couldn’t do it justice.  The colors change when a cloud passes over and it’s shallow sandy bottom produces little upwellings of sand on the surface.

The 30 mile sail north to Barbuda was perfect.  Fifteen knots of wind, zero seas, and Makai sailing along with 6-7 knots over the ground.

We anchored at the North West side of the island along a strip of sand and mangroves that separates the Caribbean Sea from Codrington Lagoon.  This lagoon is the home of a frigate bird sanctuary that rivals those in the Galapagos.

We’ve been spending our days wandering up and down this 12 miles of deserted beach.  When the water washed back off the shore, it exposes pink coral sand.

We wanted to say HI to Erica, a fellow Disney friend who lives in Utah!

One day at bible study, we were studying Gods love for us.  I asked, “How do we know He loves us?”  The answer given compared the love given to a child.  When we love a child, we do things that makes them happy.  Grandma, makes them cookies, Grandpa takes them fishing, Mommy buys them t-shirts in their favorite color, and Daddy reads books.  God shows us his love by giving us the humming bird that swoops around on sweet flowers, towering  red rocky HooDoos in the desert, and God is showing me his love with this great family, great boat, and the pink beach in Barbuda!
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I’ve taken numerous pictures here where the subject is simply COLOR!

Even boat work is pleasurable when I can look out at the water.

The beach here is pretty steep with quite a shore break.  The dinghy wouldn’t be happy about landing on this beach and we wouldn’t be happy about dragging it up away from the surf, so we’ve opted to use the kayak.  Topaz  has to swim to shore and it takes two trips for the rest of us to get in.  We could all swim, but it’s pretty uncomfortable to spend the day with crusty salt on your face and hair.

Topaz is having a blast running free and diving in the surf.  We walked over a mile in each direction and never came across another person.  There is a hotel on the beach in front of us, The Lighthouse Bay Resort.  The place doesn’t look like much to speak of, but after further research, it’s way out of our league. There is a helicopter pad in the back,  9 rooms at over $1000 per night, and a friend emailed Eric warning him about having a beer at the beach bar, their bill was $20 US each.  So far we’ve only seen one couple at the hotel, I’m sure they’re having a peaceful time.

We’re having a strange south wind right now, the next two days are supposed to be light winds barely reaching 10 kts, so we’ll wait for a bit more wind on Tuesday night and do an overnight sail to St. Martin.

Yep, I’m 48 now.  While Genny was taking her dive class I realized I got my divemaster card when I was 24, half a lifetime ago.  Over the last few days we’ve been trying to decide what special thing we should do for my birthday.  Maybe go to a nice beach for the day, that’s not special we do it every day.  How about cocktails with friends, nope, we do that every day too.  Let’s see, we could go snorkeling on a tropical reef, another daily activity.  After we went through the list of fun things, it was decided I should spend the day laying in this hammock under a tree.

Can you see me sitting still for anymore than 5 minutes?  I laid there just long enough for the picture.  Instead I spent the morning doing things I like to do.  Get the schoolwork out of the way, breakfast, waxed a part of the boat that’s been bugging me, and then went snorkeling.

For mother’s day I usually request Eric spend a romantic day with me cleaning his garage.  Since it’s mother’s day and it doesn’t touch the bank account, he usually complies.  Today I asked him for my birthday to clean out a pile of stuff on the chart table.  He looked mortified that I would do that to him.  I think the pile is half as high now, because we went snorkeling with Topaz instead.

There is a grassy shoal, about a quarter acre, with coral heads here and there right off the stern of our boat.  We take Topaz over there to do her potty in the morning.  Orion says she’d doing her Jesus impression.  When you look out there in the middle of the bay, all you see it Topaz running around on the water.

The water is shallow, warm, and clear.  I went back for Roy and the camera.  He went right to work fishing. We found several lobster in little hidey holes, unfortunately they were only the size of a shrimp.

Roy loves fishing.  He’s been loving this anchorage because the Bar Jack fish that hang out under the boat are 12+ inches long, and there’s usually a barracuda following them around.  Today the barracuda came up and grabbed Roy’s fish, took off with it and finally ripped it off the hook.

Conch were also easy to spot and easy to catch, they don’t move too fast.  Roy thought we should try some for dinner.

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When I lived in Hawaii in the late 1980′s we brought home a conch one time.  Someone had the bright idea to put a fish hook in the meat and hang it until the snail let go.  Well, that never happened.  That conch hung out in the back yard attracting ants and flies until the day we moved.  This time we decided to google the problem.  Did I ever say how much I love to have internet at remote anchorages?  We quickly found a youtube video to show us what to do.

I was a little disappointed by how little meat came out of that big shell. Google also provided a conch fritter recipe that was very tasty.  I think we’ll leave the conchs alone until we find bigger ones.

While the kids ran around the boat like wild animals, the adults went to the beach for cocktails.  Today is our last day with Orion and my girlfriends, sisters Nancy and Anita.  They are staying in Antigua for a few more weeks and we’re pushing on to BVI to meet our much anticipated guests.

Boo Hoo, we’ll miss them.  We made all kinds of plans for them to come visit in the Bahamas next year, and us to join them at Rocky Point in Mexico when we go home.  Lucky for us, they live in Arizona, only one state away and we pass through there every summer on the way to Colorado.

Notice I’m wearing a new bathing suit. I decided to get dressed up for my birthday, I guess this is my ‘Birthday Suit’.

Anita is a fabulous cook, she made jalapeno cheese bread with candles, and spaghetti with meatballs, and garlic bread.  Genny made a Funfetti cake and I made Tortuga Rum Cake.  Unlike our days in Grenada, we eat very well now.  I guess I’ll have to start my diet tomorrow

The buzz from the mega yacht crews in the marina is that Green Island is where they take their day off.  Friday we set off for the 10 or so miles to the east.  Orion, came out of the harbor, put up their mainsail, cranked up both engines and was there in about 2 hours.  Makai cut the engines at the mouth of the harbor and sailed to the waypoint in about 5 hours.  The trip is all up wind, our track below shows that we made it in 12 tacks.  It wasn’t so bad, we usually sail along nicely at 7+ kts, there were other boats out there tacking as well, Roy was fishing, we listened to music, and didn’t use any fuel.

Wow, this place is gorgeous.  The anchorage is huge, rather deep with very shallow shoals all over the place, a dozen or so free mooring balls, and quiet beaches.  I saw this sandy little point and as soon as I could, Topaz and I  swam for shore.

It wasn’t long before we were joined by the rest of the crew.

The got to work collecting debris from the beach and setting up camp.  Sticks and lines made up the boundary, an old sail is their shelter, and this big hose is their telephone.

In the late afternoon a few people showed up with kite surfers, it was interesting to watch them put it all together.  Saturday morning, was another story.  All day long kite surfers were being shuttled to the beach.  It was a kite surfer mob scene.

The mega yachts were coming and going, dinghys would take the surfer out into the bay and let them go.  This bay has an outer reef that breaks the Atlantic waves and swells, but no land mass to slow down the trade winds.  We found out our quiet little beach is a destination for kite surfers.

While the kids were busy with their ‘projects’, Eric, Topaz and I went out to bird island.

Wearing good strong sandals, we walked around the perimeter of the island.  Sometimes on very sharp jagged rocks and some of the time in the water.

It’s amazing how the island 30 miles south of us has a tropical rain forest, and this island is all cactus.  How does the cactus know where to send it’s seeds?

Years of conch fishing often produce these piles of shells we see all over the islands.  I rarely see live conchs while I’m snorkeling, I need to do more research on where all these shells come from.

Back at goof off beach, the kids are always developing some new skill.

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Right around the corner Eric and Topaz found a beach without kids, kite surfers, or wind.

When everyone is finished for the day, they do a pretty good job of playing games.  Sometimes they draw, other times it’s dominoes, cards and sometimes board games.  Roy made a snow globe with sand and an old rum bottle he found on the beach.

Sunday morning on our way to breakfast on Orion, we spotted something new on the reef.  The channels in this bay aren’t marked with buoys, you need to have electronic charts and good sunlight over head to see the edges of the shoals and reefs.  Saturday evening, this very same boat ran into the shoal we’re all moored next to, he quickly reversed and got off the ground.

Sunday morning was a lesson to all of us in the anchorage about being hard on the reef.  First of all, the boat  attacked this narrow channel when the sun wasn’t yet high enough to see the edges of the reef.  According to our chart plotter, his AIS signal shows him next to the exit of the channel.  So he made it all the way out, but was still to close to the edge and the next wave came and plopped him right up on dry land.  For hours two different power boats pulled and pulled on him and eventually he was dragged off and was towed away, probably back to Falmouth or English harbor.

So the boat on the reef was our first bit of excitement.  After that Topaz was barking at the water and Roy spotted the fish she was barking at.  He scrambled around and got his line in the water and quickly came up with these bar jack fish.  I’m getting nervous about ciguatera poisoned fish.  According to my research, there’s no way to determine if the fish has it, no way to cook or prepare the meat to prevent me from getting it, and no way to cure yourself from it.  Apparently the toxin colonizes in coral beds and accumulates in large predatory fish that feed off reef fish.  Tuna and Mahi Mahi are safe because they eat squid, flying fish and other open ocean fish that feed off of plankton instead of the reef.

I called a local guy over who what coming to get a load of kite surfers off the beach, and he said it could be poisonous, so we opted to catch and release for the sport of it.  And what a sport it is!  These bar jacks swim fast and fight hard.  There is usually a half a dozen hanging out under our boat every morning.  On this morning, Roy had one on the line, then we all saw a much bigger white, silvery body with black trim circling around his fish on the line.  With one snap, it bit clean through Roy’s line and took off with the fish.  Yep, we’re pretty sure it was a shark!  All the kids and I started squawking, Eric was the only sane one and yelled to us from where he was on Orion, to pull Topaz out of the water.  I’m sure the shark sensed the fish’s distress and came by for an easy bite.

Just when we were about to have a quiet evening at home, we met a family at the beach collecting wood.  They invited us for a full moon bonfire.

Apparently this is a Caribbean tradition, or just another excuse for a party.  Either way, lets go!

According to Cruising World, the full moon party in Trellis Bay, BVI  is fantastic. I just looked at my calendar to see which of our guests will be there for the party on March 27 and April 25, and can you believe it, both dates are gaps in our guest schedule!

On this evening it was just three families around a camp fire.  Everyone had a great time and we met a new family with cool new stories.  I don’t have all their facts straight, but they are Brits who worked on and crewed boats from Main to Trinidad and were based out of Antigua for several years.  Now the kids are in school back home and are visiting the Caribbean for a holiday.

No more goofing off, we need to do some exploring, our time in Antigua is rapidly coming to a close.

We took the dinghies to the other side of Green Island.  The anchorages are really small and the reefs very big.  There is even a wreck laying on it’s side to remind us of this.  These hazards also make the beaches more secluded.

Lately, Topaz swims or tromps through the shallows for about 8 hours of every day.  No naps like she’s used to during those same 8 hours at home.  She’s skinny as a rail and we’re currently giving her double rations.  But in the evening, she wanders around looking for someone to put her bed out.  She is so happy here, all the worry, stress and expense to get her here is all worth it.

After over a week of busy SCUBA lessons, it was back to business as usual.  First off,  we were out of food.  Bailey’s is up the road at the far end of the bay and next door is a yummy milk shake shop. The kids played on the airplane teeter totter.  I’m sure Genny took the helm and flew them somewhere and the trip probably came with a tour as well.

We also spent some time relaxing at the beach. The sand is a bit coarse, but beautifully white with warm clear water.  We’ve been warned about the manchineel tree that grows along the beaches through out the Caribbean. In some places they paint a red band around the tree, other places they don’t bother, but on Pigeon Beach, a sign is posted. The sap from the tree can make your skin blister, eating the apples can kill you, and the smoke from a burning tree can cause blindness.  These trees have quite a history as Carib and Spanish torture tools.

We had a few land trips planned.  Luckily we didn’t have a car to fill up.  Every three days or so the gas station runs out of gas.

Instead we hired a taxi to take the 11 of us to Shirley Heights for the Sunday sunset party.

Shirley Heights is part of Antigua’s 18th and 19th century British Military history.

According to the Antigua National park website

“This military complex, within a short distance of the Dockyard, is not named after the fairer sex, but after Sir Thomas Shirley, Governor of the Leeward Islands, who strengthened Antigua’s defenses in 1781. Britain had lost all her West Indian colonies (including North America) at this time except Antigua and Barbados. Much effort, therefore, was put into Antigua’s defenses  mainly because of the island’s great sugar producing value and the important Dockyard.”

Roaming around the grounds there are plaques describing the buildings. This site is now used for tourists to enjoy the beautiful view.

The lookout is located on the point that over looks English and Falmouth harbor on one side and the open ocean to the east and south on the other side.

English Harbor is directly below the lookout while Falmouth is just beyond the strip of land.

The Sunday night event includes a steel band early on and then reggae later.  The also sell yummy looking BBQ dinners and of course rum punch.  The outside grounds are lined with vendors tables full of trinkets.

Inside the lookout building is a bar on one side and tables on the other.  Marie found a Mardi Gras costume for a photo op. Since we arrived early, the tables in the bar were empty so the kids set up their activities.

You know moms always taking pictures of the kids.  We have Marie, Roy, Kyle, Jacob, Shane, Savannah and Genny.

We’ve been so close with the Orion boat that you would think we were sharing a camp site.  Captain Nancy takes care of the technical aspects, Chief Cook Anita does the provisioning and cooking (the best food comes from Orion), and they both keep the operation moving and the kids on track for school and entertainment. You can check out their point of view on our excursions at www.crewaudacious.com  .

As time went on, the grounds quickly filled up, the line for BBQ was all the way down the side of the building and there wasn’t any seating.

So we decided to eat closer to home.  The taxi returned us to the dinghy dock and The Mad Mongoose, a favorite of the mega yacht crews, is right across the street.

After a few months of eating only what comes out of my galley, this dinner was greatly appreciated.  Kyle had the lobster special.

Genny and Marie opted for chicken and fries.

Savannah ordered coconut shrimp.

Roy, Shane and Jacob had wahoo.

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Eric and Anita had burgers, Nancy ordered quesadillas and I was treated to West Indian Curry.

Monday morning is back to school lessons, NOT!  We went on a history tour of Nelson’s Dockyard instead.

The British military found that English harbor is well protected against hurricanes, and built Nelson’s dockyard to provide a way to service the fleet without returning to Europe.

The tour guide told us it took the men six months to perform this careening, three months for each side.  She also said the men we’re paid a pint of rum or gallon of beer a day.  I wonder if a few shillings instead of rum would have gotten this job done faster.

Today’s math lesson is on telling time, we have analogue, digital, or sundial.  Feb 18th is also the beginning of the big race, Caribbean 600.  We saw the crews posing for their departure photos.  The harbors are also giving us flags of the world recognition practice.

I think I heard Genny saying, “Hello, Elena, how many stuffed animals do you have?”

The next stop on our tour is the museum.  While Eric got all the facts …..

the kids and I skipped around to the more interesting displays.

We learned that the sailors were paid daily wages in rum.  The rum was often distilled using lead lined tubes, so they got lead poisoning.  Few people came out of the hospital alive because as well a techniques like blood letting, they also used rum as a cure.  On August 21, 1740, British Vice Admiral Edward Vernon decided that the sailors should have their rum watered down, so he ordered that they should be given grog.  They took that same pint of rum and added water to it.  I don’t see how this reduced the amount of rum in them at all.  Vernon often wore a coat made of grogram cloth, he was nicknamed Old Grogram and his watered down rum ration was called Grog.

Wikipedia has a good article about the Rum Ration.  I was shocked to see that the British Navy didn’t abolish it until 1970 and the New Zealand Navy continued Rum Rations until 1990. Splice the Mainbrace was the order given to reward the crew.  I love wikipedia, follow the link for more information.

Ok, on to the next controversial subject, figure heads.

I spared you all from the nude figure heads figuring offences would be made.  Women were not allowed at the dockyard and of course they were bad luck on ships.  But the bare breasted figureheads were thought to tame the sea.  The kids we’re not amused when I offered to go topless on our next passage.

Then last few days in Falmouth Harbor were getting a leak patched on the dinghy and modifying the cover to fit better.  Over time the preshrunk canvas shrinks even more and the cover no longer fits.

And of course the afternoons are filled with wild kid antics. It’s amazing how long a few pumps from a bottle of shampoo can occupy five kids.

We can’t forget math, otherwise we won’t advance to the next grade in the fall.

Roy got to scrape the propellers.  His tools are a scuba take and regulator on an extra long hose, weights, and a wire brush.

Then of course there’s the sextant lesson.  If the gps and chart plotter goes out as well as the gps and charts on our iphones, we can always take a sun site.  I think this is the method the captains of the hundreds of sunken ships used in the old days for navigation.

We’ve been here for about a week, some people are bored, and some are exhausted.  Eric and Nancy have been working on her alternator, Genny, Savannah, and Shane have been slogging through hours and hours of SCUBA elearning, Kyle and Jacob have been trying to catch up on school work, Nancy, Anita, and I have been supervising the kids and ;Topaz, Roy and Marie have been skating through the week on their own.  For Orion’s side of the story see www.crewaudacious.com.

Our biggest issue this week is wifi.  We can get bursts of wifi at the boat.  If I compose and email and press send, sometime during the hour it will go.  The SCUBA elearning requires streaming video, so everyday we would have to take the kids to a hostel, the dive shop or the bar on the pier and use their wifi.  In fact that’s were Nancy and I are spending this morning trying to get our blog posts out.  You all get two today

As the kids were preparing for their first dive Nancy and I figured it would  be a good idea to ‘blow some bubbles’ and test out the equipment.  We have two complete functioning sets of gear, this summer we’ll be in the market for a few more pieces and parts.

The next morning Anita used the gear to do a beach dive with the class.  The kids learned to put their gear together, clear their mask and regulator, checked out their weight system and buoyancy, and get comfortable breathing off the regulator.

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Saturday was their first boat dive.

Fun was had by all. Don, the instructor from Extreme Marine Scuba, has the yellow fins, Genny is in the center with blue fins, and Savannah has the pink snorkel.

They performed their skills and then toured around a bit.

We dove just outside the harbor from our boats.  Don picked up and dropped us off at our boats.  One more dive on Monday and they should be certified.

Now that the work is almost finished we’re making our plans for a little fun.

After the birthday celebrations, its time to head north.  Today’s sail was perfect.

The wind and seas in the channel are typically greater than those in the lee of the island.  The channel from the Saintes to Guadeloupe is only 10 miles, then we have another 15 to get to Dehais at the north end of the island. Luckily on this day, the seas were flat but the wind stayed with us and we zinged along.  We even had a glimpse of 10 kts.

We were buddy boating with Orion and had the opportunity to take pictures of each other.

Thanks to the crew on Orion, Nancy, Anita, Kyle, Jacob, Savannah, and Shane for the great pictures.

Half way up Guadeloupe is the Pigeon Island anchorage with my favorite grocery stop.  Savannah and Shane wanted to come with us for the rest of the trip, so we prepared for them to jump ship.

With fenders out, Makai and Orion came close enough for the kids to transfer.

I wasn’t worried for the kids as much as the boats bumping each other.

Now that we captured Orion’s youngest crew members, we could head off to the grocery store while Orion continues on to Dehais.

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The beauty of shopping at the Pigeon Island Anchorage is that I can push the shopping cart right up to the dinghy.  After doing a little math, we figured how much noodles, sauce, flour, milk, coke and juice we needed to get us through to Miami.  I’m very happy to be finished lugging those heavy items.  The girls helped me push this heavy, overflowing shopping cart to the dinghy, then they took it back to Makai while I loaded up at the second store.

The last hour to Dehais, all the kids took turns at the helm.  Our track looked a bit like a zig zag stitch, but everyone had fun driving Makai.

After one night in Dehais, we’re off, heading for Antigua.  The morning we left Dehais, Guadeloupe was like rush hour on CA-405 North.  At 7am, anchors were raising, mainsails were hoisting and boats were coming and going.  Dehais is the northern most anchorage on Guadeloupe and a perfect departure point to head to Antigua.

The trades were blowing their usual 20-25kts, with a reef in the main, Makai can do 8-9kts comfortably.  The traffic was heavy with boats of all sizes and shapes all around us on the same course.

As always, Roy was posted on a sugar scoop waiting to catch a sea monster.  He spends all of his free time searching for new lures and crimping together rigs.

There’s always an adrenaline rush when he says “I got something”.   I think it’s Mam coś in Polish, and I have to say pokaż mi, “show me”.  These are our fishing with Jim and Ania in Canada words.

Today it was a small tuna.  Experienced fishermen would not have kept it, but Roy said if it was stupid enough to bite, we should eat it.

Roy got out the cutting board and fillet knife, within minutes we had dinner chilling in a ziplock in the refrigerator.

Here we are in beautiful Antigua.  Mega yachts everywhere and occasional cruise ships. This one is the Maltese Falcon.  The bay is also getting ready for the Caribbean 600 yacht race. Every day we watch the race boats come and go.

February 6th, 2013 is Genny’s 10th Birthday.  She got a new shirt, necklace, puffer fish, jewelry box and wallet.

The kids we’re doing their usual stuff.  Playing with Savannah and Shane, going back and forth between the boats.  Then the party started!  Dolphins!

The kids all raced around collecting their snorkel gear, we even picked up a 12 year old girl from the French boat next to us.

For about an hour the kids chased a mother and baby dolphin around the anchorage.  The dolphins would go to the bottom and poke around in the weeds, then zoom up between the kids and give everyone a thrill.

One of the kids was close enough to touch, but the dolphins usually stayed at least 5 feet away.  They entertained us with rolls, jumps, and tail slaps.

Mary from Restless Heart said, “Some kids get clowns for their birthday, Genny and her friends got to swim with the dolphins.”

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We had the usual crew, and our new friend Paola, over for pizza, giant cookies and a movie.  Genny had sparklers on her cookie.

February 7th, 2013 is Shane’s 10th birthday.  Eric and I took all the kids to the beach and snorkeling. They always have fun sifting through shells or making hermit crab habitats. The snorkeling was fantastic, Eric and I saw damsel fish protecting their eggs, eels, shrimp, schools of fish, coral and a pretty dog on the beach.

Orion put on a great party.  Anita is a fantastic cook.  They had Paola’s family over, there were interesting conversations about travel and adventures on this side of “the pond” and the European side of “the pond”.

Both kids requested pizza for dinner on their birthdays, Makai pizza on Wednesday and Orion pizza on Thursday.  Left over pizza for breakfast for two days, yummy. Shane had Black Forest cake and ice cream, very civilized

Backtracking about 25 miles brought us to Les Saintes to meet up with our pals on Orion.  Genny took the helm for most of the day.

Roy monitored the fishing pole, no luck today.

Topaz’s ears flapped in the breeze while looking out for birds and boats.

The anchorage is actually a mooring field with deep water spaces for these cruise ships.  Guadeloupe is in the back ground about 10 miles away.

The man from the mooring service came by and practiced his English.  He told us about how much he enjoyed his family vacation to Miami.  I think he went other places too, but I didn’t really understand.  He also took orders for a morning baguette delivery.  When we get to an new anchorage there are two concerns for us.  1. do we have wifi and 2. where do we get the baguettes.  As far as the wifi goes, they are on the hot hot hotspot network which we paid the monthly fee for.  We arrived on Superbowl Sunday and sat out front with our “voice over ip” phones making calls to family in the U.S.  Unfortunately, that was the last time the wifi was that great. Monday and Tuesday the island lost power for most of the afternoon, and the wifi has been flaky ever since.

Monday we lazed around the boat for the morning, then headed out to explore the town.  The building behind Eric and the kids is the Doctor’s house and office.  It looks like a ship.

After a little shopping for fishing gear, we trudged up steep roads past beautiful houses brightly painted with gingerbread type trim.  Eric spotted a jeep photo op, but then after a closer inspection decided that none of the parts on it were actual Jeep parts.  It looks like a Jeep to me.

Monday had clear skies, it was hot but the sun gave us spectacular views.  Guadeloupe is off in the distance here.  By now everyone is hot, the water is gone, we didn’t know how much further to Fort Napoleon.  As we rounded the bend a beverage shack was a welcome sight, but it was closed.  We met a couple on scooters that said the fort was closed.  Like most things in the French Islands everything closes from noon – 3pm.

This is a birds eye view of the anchorage and Les Saintes.

We tried to line everyone up so they would be the same height in the photo, but attention spans are too short.

Les Saintes were never agricultural because of lack of water.  There are no springs, rivers, streams, or lakes.  The islanders are not of slave descent but instead it was inhabited by French fishermen.  Today the town mainly caters to tourists.  There seem to be several vacation homes, bed and breakfasts and a few hotels.  The shops are all sell souvenirs and many local artists sell their paintings.  Besides rum, I’m also collecting magnets.  This artist had some of her paintings made into magnets.  We also saw a lady with her art on t-shirts and people here and there had displays along the streets.

Take two on Fort Napoleon! Tuesday we gathered up Savannah and Shane from Orion and made the trek up to the fort again.  The British destroyed it in 1809 when it was called Fort Louis and then in 1867 it was rebuilt as Fort Napoleon. After that it never saw battle but was used as a penitentiary, and now a museum and botanical garden.

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…. took turns in each room playing the tour guide.  They went from display to display making up totally fictitious history.  In this case Marie did count the canons, 50 on each side.

Whew, after that history lesson, I found a bench under a tree.  They found a cannon!

It was hard to find any facts about this fort, but one place said there was never a shot fired on or from  it.

The hike up was worth it though.  The views, plants and animals were worth it.  I can’t help but hum Mexican Radio by Wall of Voodoo every time I see one of these guys.

I’m on a Mexican radio
I’m on a Mexican whoa-oh radio

I wish I was in Tijuana
Eating barbequed iguana

Oh, well, that’s another trip.

Later, Genny wanted me to take her shopping for her birthday present.  In her anxious rush, we went back to town too early.  Everything is closed until 3pm.  So we did a little more wandering.  I’m always interested in the cemeteries.  Here all the mausoleums are of a similar design. It’s a white tile rectangular vault with a little shelter on top for pictures, flowers and mementos, with a white cross on top of that. The structures all face the same direction, away from the sea, I’m guessing it’s to protect the shelter from the trade winds.

Genny got to cool her feet in the surf.

The Caribbean Islands have been working hard to preserve their land and sea.  This marine park was named after Jacques Cousteau. It includes a few miles of Guadalupe’s coast as well as the Pigeon Islands just outside the anchorage.  We didn’t have the best visibility, but still had a great time.

The kids love doing underwater acrobatics for the camera.  Marie has taken to snorkeling in her wet suit.

The astronauts trained for weightlessness underwater, Roy, Genoa and Marie would do great in space.

Even though the visibility wasn’t so great, we spot a few exciting animals.  This octopus crawled around.  Those legs move creep along gracefully, pulling his body into tight spaces.
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There were a few places loaded with fish.  I feel silly chasing the school, thinking they are just within my reach.  No matter how tricky or quick I think I am, they can always stay five feet out of my reach.

Eagle Eye Roy spotted this tasty little morsel. It was a classic lobster discovery.  From the surface he saw the tips of the antenna probing out from under his cave.  Then Roy dove down to 10 – 15 feet and there was the little bug, safe in his hole in a marine park.  As long as he stays here he won’t end up in a cooking pot.

These little rocky islands are about a half mile from the anchorage.  All day long dive boats and glass bottom boats head over with French Tourists.  I think the French Caribbean Islands are a popular vacation spot similar to Americans going to Hawaii.

Pigeon Island anchorage had everything we were looking for.  A great bottom for our anchor to dig into, good snorkeling, a nice beach, easy access to discount grocery stores, and a little peace and quiet.

Everyday boats come and boats go, watching everyone anchor is a boater’s past time.  It’s especially interesting when the wind comes from different directions.  As you can see in the picture above these boats are pointing in different directions.  When the wind is light, we found that instead of the boat tugging on the anchor, it hovered over the top of the anchor with the chain zig zagging underneath and the boat drifting around on top.  The wind always picked up at night and we tugged hard on that poor lonely anchor dug into the sand.

I think it was Friday night, Feb 1st, around 11pm.  We had been asleep for hours, our schedule is way off here, when we heard a crash and the boat jerked.  Eric and I flew out of bed looking for the boat or rock or whatever it was that we smashed into, but there wasn’t anything around.  So, the smart thing to do is check the anchor.  Our normal anchoring technique is to put our 5 times the chain as the water is deep, this keeps the anchor and chain flat along the bottom so as to keep the anchor from pulling out of the ground.  Next we attach the snubber, a line that has has some stretch to it between the boat and the chain to act as a shock absorber.  Well, the wind was so strong and maybe the snubber was getting old but it snapped.  After a few head scratches we put together another one to get us through the night.  Whew, no crashes today.

Other things we do when we’re not adventuring is Genny likes to dress up Marie.

Eric works on his long list of projects.  Today’s project was to install his ‘no smoking fasten seat belts’ sign.  At first Eric took the picture at night and our solar panel displays showed zero amps going in, so I had him re-take the picture during the day to show each set of panels getting a respectable result.  We get an average of 20 amps on all four panels all day because of shading and cloud issues.

Roy has been searching for a pull up bar, we suggested rope climbing.  He climbed about 20 feet up on that blue halyard using his hands only.

Eric supervised the whole thing.

Then when Roy’s foot knocked a wire off the lights Eric just installed on the spreader Roy sat on, Eric had to go up to fix it.  While he was up there he took some interesting pictures.

Like me waiting to bring him down and Topaz swimming.  We have to attach her to the boat because she doesn’t always come when she’s called.

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And of course the most precious solar panels.  Because of these panels, we never have to run the engine or generator to charge the batteries and the refrigerators are nice and cold.  Since we don’t have to use fuel to charge the batteries we’re only down about a half tank on the fuel since Grenada. But as you can see, the radar, wind generator, mast and boom have the ability to shade the panels at times.  On these windy nights the wind generator pulls it’s weight.

Other good windy, stay at home days are good for making kites.

And flying kites too.

Easy discount provisioning is the other bonus for this anchorage.  Eric took me to the dock at the end of the Leader Price and Carrefour markets.  Things like milk, juice and Coke are heavy and a pain to deal with. I was able to get quite a supply and walk the shopping cart right to the dinghy.  Next week when we head north, we’re going to stop and get enough of these drinks to last us until Miami.  Leader Price also has everyone’s favorite tasting box milk for about 1 Euro per liter.  Since these islands don’t have any diary farms, no one sells fresh milk.  I managed to get a few jugs in Grenada, but rarely see it in the market.  This has me wondering how I’m going to provision for next winter in the  Bahamas if I’m planning to stock up in the U.S. before we leave.  I guess we’ll have to have a box milk tasting and then try to order a few cases of the best stuff.

At home my kids bring in all kinds of critters from lizards and butterflies to a bottle full of bees.  Today they were snorkeling behind the boat when Roy saw a shell moving on the bottom.  Further investigation showed that a baby octopus was hiding under it.

He brought it aboard for further observation and built a habitat for it.

In the bigger bucket they gave it different colored shells and rocks to watch it turn colors and invited the neighbor kids over to check it out too.  The neighbors are from Denmark, their dad wanted the kids to play so his kids could get some practice in English.  I love cruising the Caribbean because Americans and Canadians are a small percentage of the boats as compared to Mexico where most of them are from North America.  So far we’ve met people from Denmark, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, UK, Australia, Canada, French all over the place, we’ve seen Austria,Germany.  I have a World Wiki app on my iPhone we use to identify flags.