Monthly Archives: January 2013

Our last day in Dominica, the kids had plans for the beach.  The five of them packed food and drinks, their machetes for coconut water, materials to make shade, a vhf radio (their hailing name was ‘kids on the beach’) and off they went in the dinghy.

Roy loves to climb coconut trees and the coconut is a good place to use the machete.  But that was it for Dominica, we had a great day at sea on Sunday.  As usual we motored for an hour, because the winds are light in the morning and the island blocks the trades.  Once we passed the end of the island the wind picked up to 25kts and Makai flew the 25 miles to Guadeloupe at 8 kts. Then we spent the rest of the day in flat waters alternating sailing and motoring depending on the wind.  The land made such crazy wind patterns that we managed to all points of sail (360 degree wind shifts) on our way north. Our plan is to head for Deshaies at the top of the island and then over the next week back track to the Saintes.  Why this crazy plan?  Because of Birthday Parties.  Feb 6 Genny turns 10 and Feb 7 Shane turns 10.  Since Shane’s boat, Orion, is on a different schedule than us, we decided to do a little back tracking.

Finally, Roy has decided to get serious with fishing.  First order of business is to clean out the tackle box.  He put all the lures designed to catch a whale in a ziplock for later and made a list of things to shop for.

Of course this town doesn’t have any place that sells fishing gear, so like most cruisers, he made do with his rust little fake fish, it worked.  We had fish for dinner!  We also made plans with Wind Shepherd, Ginny and John, to come teach us about fishing and the Virgin Islands. John spent quite a long time with Roy and even brought him a few lures to us get started.  Thanks!

I’ve been pushing the kids to get through with school work quickly so we can see the sights.  Every morning the roosters start squawking just before the sun comes up.  Here’s one of those squawky yet beautiful birds.

In Martinique and along the coast in Guadeloupe we can see these mausoleum cemeteries.  I was interested in checking the mausoleums out because we saw them in New Orleans in November.

There is a web site about the New Orleans mausoleums that gives some great history on this burial style.  Of course in New Orleans above ground burial is practical because the water table is high, digging just a few feet down produces a mud puddle.  The mausoleum burial style came from the Mediterranean region of Europe where the rocky land made digging difficult and building a better idea.  Since the Spanish and French “creoles”, which means colonists, populated  the Caribbean as well as New Orleans, that’s why we see these interesting cities of the dead.

After dragging the kids up the hill to the cemetery, we got to rock hop along the river.  We could have spent the day there building dams and swimming in the pools.

The walk back along the path is all jungle.

Who needs playgrounds when you have banyan trees.  The kids spent quite a bit of time swinging from the new growth.

Everyone had to improve on their showmanship each time it was their turn.

Luckily no one remembered Tarzan, the sound of the jungle came from the birds and not three little Tarzans.

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Even though we are extremely limited with French, our little knowledge of Spanish helps us with some of the words.  When we see  jambon et frommage, everyone gets excited for Ham and Cheese sandwiches. Unlike Mexico where it just costs a few pesos to spend the day at a pallapa eating tacos and beer, lunch paid for by Euros is too expensive for us,  I’ve been dreaming for a lunch at a cafe, so we stopped for a few pastries. We had another affordable and tasty meal at the beach the other day.  While everyone was having fun in the sand and splashing around at the beach, I ran over to the grocery store and picked up a baguette, cheese, ice cream bars, a few sodas and beers.  Everything but the ice cream is price controlled.  I can’t find any documentation of this fact, but I’ve been told that bread, meat, cheese and alcohol are a deal in the French Islands.

The next day we went up to the Jardin Botanique De Deshaies.  Check out the link for more pictures and information.  Marie took a picture of every plant, so I spent the morning whittling our pictures down to the ones posted here.

We had a great time at the botanical gardens.  Koi fish are always entertaining.  Fifty cents for a little cup of fish food kept the kids entertained for a half hour.

Right after the Koi pond is the lorikeet forest.  At home you buy a little cup of nectar for $3 and the birds ignore you.  Here, the nectar is fifty cents and the birds are fighting over it as the nectar is being dispensed from the machine.

This whole experience was exciting, yet a little Alfred Hitchcock -ish.

When the lorikeets were behaving themselves the experience was pleasant.

But when they’re swarming all over you it’s a bit creepy.

The rest of the park was a beautiful stroll along windy paths.  Around every bend was some beautiful exotic plant.

Photo ops everywhere.

At the end of the day we met with friends.  Ginny and John came and shared all kinds of great information on the Virgin Islands and fishing.  We also met Steve.

Eric is on a Leopard Cat forum which people with our kind of boat share information.  Yesterday Eric saw a thread where someone asked about dive compressors, another guy said Makai has one, the first guy asked where Makai is, and then Steve said Makai is anchored in the bay right here in front of my house.  Wow, this is a small world.  So we invited Steve out the boat for a tour.  He’s comparison shopping on Leopard Catamarans.  Steve treated us to Guadeloupe rum, limes and sugar drinks.  His Uncle married into the family Rhum Bologne distillery family.  We’ve been noticing this ‘agricultural’ rum at the last few islands.  Agricultural rum is made by fermenting the sugar cane where as the normal industrial rum is made with molasses which is a by product of sugar production.

We’ve been here for almost a week.  We arrived on Sunday at 7am and met up with the ‘gang’ – Orion, Cape, Fawkes, Heymead.  The kids have been separated for something like 3 days so they abandoned ship before we had the anchor down.

There are a group of local guys in the bay who do river tours and supplement by servicing the yachts in the bay with fuel, water, laundry services, bringing mechanics out, and just about anything you need.  On Sunday, they have a big BBQ on the beach to fund their project.  Woweee! what a great time.  BBQ chicken, rice, salads, music, dancing and rum punch.  Be careful of the rum punch, they serve it in small cups for a reason.

The next two days we had rain until mid afternoon.  I started feeling like we weren’t going to see any more of Dominica than what we could see out the window.  Marie decided she needed a shower so she went out washed up.

Luckily the sun did come out in the afternoon and everyone swam.  Topaz is starting to get comfortable here.  This is a classic Teak (Our first faithful pup that cruised Mexico with us) pose.

Teak never slept in the dinghy but she did crash on deck after hours of swimming.

After school the kids play ‘king of the kayak’, swing from the end of the boom, head off to the beach and do whatever.  Roy got our a marlinespike book and made a rope ladder to climb out of the water to the end of the boom for a higher jump.

Then there is the ‘Sundowner’ issue.  It seems that every night we either have a planned sundowner or we’re hanging out, someone serves cocktails and then we’re waiting to watch the sun go down.  The other day Makai comfortably hosted 16 adults from three different countries and 5 kids for cocktails, followed by 6 adults and 9 kids for dinner. I’m very happy to host the party!

Dominica has protected their natural resources by making national parks.  Of the many beautiful bays on this island, there are only 2 you can anchor in.  The rest are parks and you can only use with a guide or walk in and snorkel off the beach.  Yesterday we took the kids across a one mile trail lined with trees, mangroves, crabs, lizards, and plenty other plants and animals I can’t identify.  The end of the trail opened up to the Cabrits Marine Park.  The kids spent an hour making homes for the hermit crabs.  Roy picked one huge one up and it dropped out of it’s shell.  We were all mortified about how vulnerable the poor thing was.

The water had great visibility.  Unfortunately, we weren’t on the reef, but the kids found enough fish to keep them interested.

Lion fish are beautiful but pack a painful sting, recently they’ve been taking over the reefs.  They’re from the Indo-Pacific region and were thought to be released from aquariums during hurricanes in the 1990s.  They have no predators and have a voracious appetite.  The invasion  brings an open season on these beautiful fish.  The guides and naturalists say to please take a spear and kill any lion fish you see.  They’re really serious, but we don’t really have a spear and they’re beautiful spines and too long to use a knife, so we just admire them.

Marie is my little swim pal.  She holds my hand as we snorkel around.  Snorkeling is fun she prefers to roll in the sand and then shake like a puppy before rinsing off in the water.

Savannah and Shane from Orion are enjoying the snorkel trip too.

Friday was the river trip. One of the cruiser friends was nice enough to organize all the boat boys into taking us on the trip together.  The guide in charge suggested 6:30 am, YIKES! what was he thinking.  We went to bed early, slept in our clothes and set several alarms.  At 6:30 the sun wasn’t even up, and it was pouring rain.  About 7:30 we were picked up with water bottles and oatmeal cookies for breakfast.

The Indian River was used in the Pirate’s of the Caribbean movie where the Jack Sparrow, Will Turner and their crew went to seek out Calypso the voodoo queen.  It’s now a national park that was once fished with dynamite but is now protected and thriving.

You can only go up the river with a guide.  Our guide Alexis rowed us up stream and told us stories about the Caribes that were originally vicious cannibals but now are thriving on a reservation, stories about how he used to live off the fruits of the river and how he now loves and respects the river enough to be a guide and conservationist.

Alexis pointed out trees, plants and animals.  Talked about how all plants were leveled by hurricane David.

We felt very comfortable with Alexis because he met us at 6am last Sunday morning as we were entering the anchorage, and we usually see him cruising around the anchorage most every day.

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At the end of the river trip, there was a short walk through the jungle.

Alexis pointed out plants and animals along the way.

The kids were excited by the baby iguana.

I liked the fresh ginger root he dug up.

There are the coco pods

When you cut it open the seeds are covered by a sweet meat and the inside is supposed to be roasted and ground, but if you bite the seed, it does taste a bit like coco.

The trail was lined with all kinds of fruit, like these grapefruits.  There were also passion fruit vines growing the way we would with grapes.

Here is a jumbo okra.

Alexis is chipping the bark off of a cinnamon tree.  He says the bark grows back and the harvest keeps it healthy.

Bananas of course. The smaller ones are eating bananas and the larger ones are plantains for cooking.  We haven’t explored those recipes yet.

At the end of the trail there was a little bar that served fresh passion fruit juice and coconut rum.  Apparently, all the old folks credit their health with the coconut.  The oldest person who ever lived came from this part of Dominica and lived to 128 years old.  So I went out and bought plenty of coconut products.  Roy got another machete and started providing his friends and family with refreshing coconut drinks at the beach.

Alexis and the other guides also made these beautiful origami palm frond birds.

One thing that sticks in my head from when we chartered a boat in Tonga is that the coconuts on the ground all sprout into a new tree.  The same thing happens here.

At the end of the trail we all had gooey, filthy, muddy, slimy feet.

Nothing a little water and cleanser can’t fix up.

We had a wonderful night crossing on Saturday night.  St. Pierre, Martinique to Prince Rupert Bay, Dominica is about 55 miles, so we figured it would take about 12 hours, best leave at night to be sure we arrive in the daylight.  The first hour was very light wind so we motored up to the top of the island where wind picked up as it shot through the 25 mile channel between Martinique and Dominica.  With a full jib and double reefed main we shot past that channel going 8 kts all the way in about 3 hours, at this rate we would be in the anchorage well before daybreak defeating the purpose of the night crossing.  As luck would have it, the wind died so we plugged along and 1 or 2 or 3 and sometimes 5 kts arriving at 7am.  Perfect!

We’ve made friends with a group of boats that are mostly going in the same direction. Some boats stop at an extra anchorage or stay longer at one place than another.  Sunday several boats we’ve made friends with all showed up  in the bay.

We get a different experience each place we go.  Here in Prince Rupert Bay there are a half of a dozen or so guys in ponga style fishing boats that provide yacht services like hauling water or fuel, taking your trash out and getting your laundry done.  They are also river guides and give tours.  In Dominica, there are restrictions on where you can anchor, no SCUBA without a guide, river exploration also requires a guide.  We’re next to the Indian River which was featured in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest.  All this can be provided by one of these guys for a fee  Oh, well, it all works to provide jobs for the locals.  Last night they put on party at the beach.  BBQ chicken, rice, veggies, KILLER rum punch and juice for the kids.  After you are full and tipsy, they moved the tables for dancing.  The whole evening was a blast, the kids played freeze tag with about 16 other boat kids ages seven to 16 years old.  We even met a college kid visiting her parents before going to Japan for her next semester.  Midnight came quickly and it was difficult to get anything done on Monday morning.  Eric worked on his project list, the kids got through Math and I gave up on anything else for the day.

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Sounds like a Jimmy Buffet song!  I originally called this post Wrecks, Volcanoes and Rhum, but the title above sounds better.

Martinique is in the Hurricane zone, so there are plenty of boats left to rot on the rocks and shoals.  Martinique also has a large population of local French boats that are forgotten on a mooring or at anchor.  The wreck must be more expensive to clear away than to leave it as a reminder stormier days.

Eric and I left the kids with Orion, our kid boat friends, and took Topaz to investigate the shipwrecks and tour the harbor.  Grand Anse D’Arlet is lined with restaurants, a few private houses and small hotels.

Topaz has a place on the bow.  We clip her off to one of the lines we lift the dinghy out of the water with.  It’s just long enough to see everything but not long enough to leap out and head for shore.

The water is so clear here you can look down on the snorkeling spots before jumping in.

The kids from 4 boats had a swinging good time on Cape.  My kids had a difficult time warming up to making friends.  They acted as if they were scarred from moving away from their old pals.  Roy didn’t want to make friends knowing we would separate somewhere along the way.  Soon enough he decided to join in.  We’re getting used to the ‘coming and going’ friendship with Orion. We have similar plans through Dominica, Guadeloupe, and Antigua.

Genny used silicone sealer as glue and sea glass to make this little masterpiece.

Back in the old days when the French and the British sea battles determined who would rule the Caribbean, the British hauled cannons up this rock and HMS Diamond Rock was born.  Martinique was also the home of Napolean’s Josephine, she was raised on a sugar plantation.

Marin is a huge yachting center for the local sailors.  Sunday is usually a quiet day in the islands, most shops and restaurants are closed.  Martinique has these unique little race boats. The internet calls them Yole race boats.  The guy in the back not only steers but paddles with his rudder.  The crew hangs off poles extended over the sides, dragging their feet and paddling with their hands.  We enjoyed the race as the boats sailed around us as if we were just another obstacle.

We took a Sunday drive around the bay, the wrecks are always an attraction.

Our marinas back home give each boat a finger off the main dock to tie to.  This is your personal walkway with cleats to side tie the boat.  The marinas here “med moor”, fastening the bow to a line anchored in the mud and the stern to the dock.  These boats have only a few inches between them, just enough for a few fenders.  We never witnessed someone parking their boat, but that would have been interesting.

After a crazy day of provisioning, I took the kids to a tiny beach on the point.  It looked like a hotel restaurant was around the corner so we tried to be quiet and play in the soft sand.

The bay is lined with mangroves.  In some cases it looked like either the boats were anchored in the mangroves, or maybe they had been there so long the mangroves grew around the boat.

There were also boats that sank at anchor still sitting there on the bottom.

Mangrove rivers are fun, this one reminded us of Mexico.

Before going back out to our favorite snorkeling anchorage, everyone got hair cuts.  Topaz was first, then Eric and Roy.

 
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When the sailing is good, we read science and history underway.  The kids find some place to flop, Genny’s bed is right below this hatch and she likes to flop there.  We just read about whales and seals, looking forward to the reef fish chapter.

Topaz has a favorite corner too.  He has to always be tied up because she seems to think she can swim to shore faster than we can get her there.

So far, it’s rained most every day.  The rain rinses the salt off the boat and keeps us busy opening and closing the hatches.  I’m not sure if it’s the location, season, land formations, or some other reason, but the east side of Grenada brought us huge down pours several times a day, the east side of the island brought lighter sprinkles for a shorter time, and Martinique has occasional misty rain to produce beautiful rainbows.

We had a fun sail from the southern part of Martinique to St. Pierre at the northern end.  The wind would zip us up to 8 kts and then die down to 1 kt.  It was variable like that because we’re on the leeward side of the island protected by the trade winds.  This side is also protected from the seas and swells of the Atlantic side.

Today the kids are learning about foreign currency and exchange rates.  Before we left California, the dentist wanted to pull one of Marie’s snaggly front teeth.  It eventually came out, but now the other one is snaggly.  So I offered the kids 10 dollars to get it out.  The kids quickly asked if that is 10 Euros or 10 Eastern Caribbean dollars, I offered our current local currency. 1 Euro = $1.30 US dollars and 1 EC = about $0.30 US dollars.  Today we’re using Euros and tomorrow it will be ECs.  The tooth isn’t out yet, but they did spend a day taking turns wiggling it for her.

St. Pierre is one of those with a history of being wiped out by a volcano.  In 1902 it was known as Paris of the Caribbean with modern conveniences like electricity, running water, street cars, theaters, etc. The surrounding sugar plantations brought in wealth and trade. In the months prior to the towns destruction Mt. Pelee had been spitting ash and volcanic mudslides wiped out a few plantations.  The Mayor consulted with scientists that assured him the town was safe.  At 8am on Ascension Day as all the kids were on their way to church to make their 1st communion, a river of exploding gas came out of the mountain and blew up the town and all the ships in the bay.  29,999 people were killed, the only survivor was Cyparis, a prisoner. After his ordeal he toured with Barnum and Bailey Circus recounting his experiences.

Here the kids met up with Orion for more kid adventures, mischief and mayhem.

Topaz also met a dog friend on the Catamaran Kazio.  We had great time visiting with this interesting family.  They’re from Spain, last lived in Switzerland, grew up in the D.C. area and French Canada and have 2 little girls who speak French, Spanish and English and had lots of great stories.

Yesterday we had a huge adventure on land. Touring the ruins and a grueling hike to a rum distillery.

Touring ruins can be boring, so we enjoyed and ice cream treat while looking at the foundations left behind by Mt. Pelee.

Below the family poses in front of the Cyparis’ prison cell that saved his life.

Are we there yet?  The next adventure was to drag the kids about a mile uphill on a road that runs through a cane field with a few houses and minimal sidewalks to the local distillery. The tour showed us how they pressed the sugar cane, fermented the juice and aged the rum in oak barrels.  The fresh white rum has a higher alcohol content but lacks the flavor of the aged rum.

Here’s a clearer shot of Mt. Pelee in the back ground.

Everyone collects something. Some people like shells, thimbles, spoons, trivets, stuff like that.  I’ve started a rum collection. So far have samples from Grenada and Martinique.  I’m most excited about the rum in a box!  Come visit us for a tasting!

We’ve been in Martinique for about a week. The wifi here has been difficult. One bay required a trip to McDonalds, another one had us at a restaurant on the beach, and today I thought buying some time for 12€ would save me from that 40€ lunch bill. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work very well. Oh well.

Last week we spent January 8th celebrating Marie’s birthday with shopping, browsing and strolling around Fort de France. I was amazed how many clothes shops they had packed together in this town. I did notice that the cars drive on the right side of the road, In Grenada they drive on the left side, also, the driving seems to be a lot safer here. In Grenada the drivers are always speeding into oncoming traffic as they swerve to pass cars or zip around parked cars and pedestrians.

You’ll never again burn up generic viagra all available resources attempting to pay for your fragrance interest again. Why bile moves into the stomach? If we understand that, it may levitra online from india explain the healing actions in the bile reflux. Thus, taking viagra canada samples http://opacc.cv/documentos/CV%20de%20Francisco%20Albino.pdf steps to prevent and control your ejaculate to last longer in bed. cialis online from canada Why are so many people dealing with infertility in the United States — that’s roughly 10% of those trying to conceive. Tuesday was a wonderful sail 15 miles across the bay and a bit south. Grand Anse D’Arlet is a vacation bay. Another difference between Martinique and Grenada is the people. Grenada is 95% or more English speaking black people where as in Martinique I’ve seen more French speaking white people here than black people. The people on the beach look like French people on holiday. It’s mostly retired couples with a few families with small children. Back to the bathing suit issue, most men wear speedos, women of all ages and sizes wear bikinis, a hand full of women are topless, several men on the boats cruise in and out of the bays completely naked. Luckily, are getting used to this situation and its less shocking.  We did get to do some of the best snorkeling I’ve seen in a long time. The coral, sponges, fish, plants are plentiful and colorful. This bay is home to many sea turtles, and garden eels right in the anchorage. Actually we’re all on free moorings which makes sense to protect the bottom from anchors. Roy and I tested out the SCUBA gear again and had a great dive. We stayed through Saturday and made some new friends. Shane (10) and Savannah (12) were daily playmates, we went to a couple of cocktail parties and came back with great information on destinations, dive locations, and made new friends too.

Sunday we moved to Marin. This is a major yachting center. There is a huge 600 boat marina, plus moorings and anchored boats. The waterfront is lined with stores or mangroves. Then in the late afternoon I took the kids to the perfect beach on a sandy point. We came to Marin for a few boat parts and provisions. One day of shopping is enough to break the bank, so tomorrow we’ll head back to Grand Anse D’Arlet for more diving. A few days later we’ll go to St. Pierre at the top of the island, then skip up to Dominica next weekend.

Here’s Genny going down to investigate one of the many local sea turtles. We’re on a mooring ball in about 25 feet of water. The bottom is sand and some type of sea grass. The area under our boat is also home to  garden eels that stick up about 6 inches out of the sand. There are dozens of them, when you swim over them they retreat to their hole and come back out after you go by. While the snorkeling is great along the sides of the bay, after last night’s conversations, Roy and I decided to do some diving.

Eric took us in the dinghy a short way around the corner of the bay to join the dive shop’s boat for some bottom time. Roy and I really need some practice.

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The colors were gorgeous, these pictures don’t seem to capture the beautiful colors. There were reds, purple, orange, and green plants and sponges. Huge schools of fish all around us. Nice visibility, 80 degrees down 35 feet, and plenty to look at.

Roy even brought a science experiment. He wanted to fill a bottle with air 35 feet down and see what happens to it as it rises and the pressure decreases. I think the top wasn’t on correctly, so we don’t any any results to report.

Dominica is our next island and we are not allowed to dive without a local guide.  We can’t anchor anywhere near the marine parks either. This is all to provide jobs for the local dive companies and it will unfortunately keep us out of the water as well.  So, next week we’re coming back to this place and dive some more!

Finally, friends for everyone. On Tuesday we moved to Grande Anse D’Arlet. It was a great sail downwind, took about an hour. This bay has been the best so far. The water has beautiful visibility and is teaming with life. The beach has soft, white sand and a sandy bottom in the shallow water. The sides of the bay are lined with reefs with plants, sponges, coral and colorful fish. Wifi is a stretch, there is one restaurant with an unsecured network, but very low power, so it’s hard to get in the anchorage.

We were only anchored for 5 minutes before the kids were in the water hooting and hollering about the turtles they saw on the bottom. Eric went off in the kayak and met the family on another Leopard Catamaran. They are from Arizona, spent several months last summer traveling in a motor home, and then chartered a catamaran in the Caribbean for 7 months. Their crew consists of Shane (10) and Savannah (12), their two teenage brothers, mom and their aunt. Wow, those are incredible ladies to embark on this adventure.

The kids have been meeting up after their school work and swinging off the boom, and the spinnaker halyard.

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Last night we met on their boat for cocktails. There were 5 kids on our boat for a movie and 4 teens on ‘Cape’ for their movie. Cocktail hour is where you learn all the important tid bits. It was a great time with Silverheels from Toronto, Cape from Great Britain  and Orion from Arizona. We discussed diving, traveling, electronics, provisioning, and the differences between countries and cultures.

The sisters have been dreaming about going to Paris. Barbie and Disney paint a romantic picture of everything French and my girls have been sucked in. Now, everyone is excited, a French Island is about as close as they are going to get to Paris for quite some time.

For several months now, Marie has been counting down the days until her birthday. The girls were all excited to celebrate on a French Island.

Genny put together all the festivities. They played pin the tail on the pony and Genny decorated with streamers. We got Marie a teddy plaid teddy bear. Teddy Bear was the first word the girls learned on their French program, and plaid is a ‘traditional’ pattern in Martinique.

We spent most of the day shopping and browsing through the streets. There are hundreds of shops along the streets of Fort de France, most of them are clothing shops.

Marie picked a caramel crepe and strawberry ice cream for a treat. The crepe was so, so, I guess I was looking forward to one filled with apple pie filling and topped with powdered sugar like my grandmother used to make.  She’s not French so her yummy desert was nothing like the flat slab of goo they make here. Few people speak English here and while I can get by shopping with Spanish, I can’t get anywhere with French. Luckily, any English speaking people around took pity on us and helped us order.

I thought Grenada was expensive, this place is even more pricey  At the produce market, I got two bags of fruits and vegetables and spent about $50 Euros/$60 US on a watermelon, a few cantaloupes, salad fixings, and stuff like that.

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This market also had vendors selling vanilla beans, spices and plaid souvenirs.  When I have better wifi, I’m going to look up this plaid thing.  They don’t call it plaid, it’s some other word, but all the tourists wear it like aloha shirts in Hawaii.

Even though McDonalds was fresh in their memory, we had pannini for lunch today.  I feel it’s my duty to present everyone with local foods when I can.  In Grenada it was funky sweet potatoes and callaloo, here it’s pannini sandwiches and a cheese tray I would die for at home.

While everyone was resting in the shade I ran into the supermarket to stock up on a few of their less expensive and French subsidized items. This load of baguettes, wine, and cheese was less expensive than the produce, but not by much.

Since it’s Marie’s special day, she wanted to drive the dinghy home.

Time to make a wish, but the breeze kept blowing out the candle.

While cleaning the cupboard, I remembered seeing good old fashioned sparklers. Everyone was impressed.  Thanks Rodney and Jane for leaving the fireworks!

It’s time to make our way north. Yesterday we had a fun sail the few miles up the coast from St. George’s to the dive site at Dragon Bay and back. Now we’re all ready, pumped, excited to become real sailors and do some sailing. It was a hard beat to weather, Makai zipped right along with the waves pounding on the hull. The normal method for sailing to a destination that is located in the direction the wind is blowing from is to tack back and forth gaining a few miles each time. As we tacked away from the island, the wind and waves increased and Eric decided he needed to tie the kayak down better. Unfortunately, a fender was left untied. It didn’t take but a few waves and gusts of wind for the fender to fly off the deck. Luckily one of the kids saw it go, so we proceeded with a man overboard drill. One person is the spotter, keeps his eye on the target, the skipper starts the engines up and whips the boat around. After a few passes, I managed to grab it with the boat hook.

The ride got worse and worse. I guess we had some confidence from the previous day so no one took their seasick medicine. That was a big mistake. Three of the crew barfed and the fourth really wanted to. The captain has the advantage of being in charge and having the best seat in the house. Those two factors greatly reduced his susceptibility to sea sickness, so he didn’t really notice conditions deteriorating. Finally, we tacked back toward the island and after 4 hours only gained 10 miles. With 20 more miles to go, we decided to crank up those engines and power straight Carriacou before the sun went down and the crew mutinied.

The waves NEVER look as big in pictures as they feel in real time.

Carriacou is a little island about 10 miles long and 5 miles wide. The anchorage off the little town of Hillsborough didn’t seem to afford much protection from the crazy wind we had out to sea. The next morning we moved to the moorings off of Sandy Island which is a marine park, it was windy there too.

Sandy Island is just a strip of sand. In recent times, all the trees on the island died and the beach started washing away. During Hurricane Ivan coral was ripped out of the water and piled along the beach which saved the beach and created tide pools. These coral piles protect the island from washing away. Locals have planted some trees and plants to help the island hold itself together as well.

We all had a great time on the beach. This is a destination for the charter boats, I met some ladies from Los Angeles who hired a catamaran and a skipper, it looked like fun for a vacation.

When we weren’t splashing around at the beach, Eric and I were discussing how we were going to make the next 120 mile passage to Martinique without repeating the issues we had on the trip up to Carriacou. We looked at wind and wave maps, read the sailing instructions on our charts, read from “Passages South” by Bruce Van Sant, and in the end decided that we weren’t any more prepared than before our research. First of all, our three weather reports had conflicting information on wind speed and direction, so that was no help. Then Passages South seemed to say we should hug the coast then follow the curve of the wind as it shoots between the islands. That might work, but the small islands of the Grenadines didn’t seem to offer much protection from the wind and waves, and in order to hug the coast we would have to motor into the wind.

Oh, well, let’s just go now, the conditions looked as good as anytime. We went into town, Eric checked us out of the country with Immigration and customs and the kids and I tried to use up the rest of our Eastern Caribbean currency. We got 5 loaves of delicious french bread, a big bag of apples, Top Ramen, at the bank changed the rest of our EC dollars to Euros and went back to the boat to prepare for our 120 mile journey.

Yuck, that’s all I can say is yuck. I guess the good news is that we made 120 miles in 18 hours on a starboard tack. The boat did 8-9 kts on a double reefed main and handkerchief of a jib all night long. The invisible waves in the dark would hit the side of the boat and ker-sploosh over the bow and sometimes into the cockpit. More good news is that we were pretty warm, the bad news is that we were very wet and tired. More bad news is that we ended up 25 miles out to sea and had to bash our way to the island or tack all day long, so we bashed. Everyone kept pumping themselves up on Dramamine, NO ONE COMPLAINED! WOW! We saw a lot of flying fish and even caught one in a cleat and I found another under the cockpit table. Now that the passage is over, everyone is happily getting settled in. A few nice rain storms came and cleaned the salt off the boat, Eric made some water and did some salty laundry in our little washing machine. The kids and I took Topaz to the beach so as not to bother Eric’s work, he said it was a good thing too. Roy saw a really cool iguana in a tree, we heard a drum marching band practicing, a great teriyaki chicken dinner, early to bed
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Eric and Roy calculated the proportion to dilute muriatic acid using fractions and estimates to clean the heat exchanger for the refrigeration  I got the sisters caught up on some homework, then we all went to town. We’re anchored off of Fort De France, the capitol. Martinique is a French Island and, yes, everyone speaks French. I’ve read that they are on a European economy and that the town is booming.

First stop is the playground in front of the dock. Next stop is McDonalds. Yes, when the crew heard there were Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets in town, they were ready. Everyone ordered up and hours later were still talking about how great their lunch was. It’s a good thing, because 40 Euros = $52 US dollars and that’s how much 4 extra value meals and a happy meal costs here. I did find that they have wifi, so I’m writing this post on my computer at the boat and will go to McDonalds in the morning and try to post it to the blog.

We wandered up and down all the streets lined with shops. Lucky for us, today is Sunday and everything was closed, whew saved a bunch of money there.

On our walk around town we saw a few more Iguanas, church services at St. Louis Cathedral, a really neat library building, the Naval Facility at the Fort, and shopping possibilities for tomorrow.

If this post isn’t long enough, here’s a bit more. While I was typing the above text, we heard the drums again. In a flash the sisters and I were in the dinghy to go over and check out the show. There was a troop of dancers rocking out followed by drummers. They moved from one location to the next doing this dance and drum routine. We could hear them for hours after we returned to the boat.

Recently, Eric got the radar integrated with our navigation equipment.  In the decade before we cruised Mexico, many people sailed through there without a GPS, only charts and various aids to help them determine where they are.  We went to Mexico with a GPS, plotting positions on a paper chart, and a radar to be sure we didn’t hit anything solid.  This time on Makai, we have a display a little smaller than an iPad that overlays the electronic charts with radar and AIS data.  The AIS, Automatic Identification System, transmits our position and vessel information, and also receives the same information from other vessels.   The AIS is required on most commercial vessels, especially the larger ones, and is also a favorite of private boaters.  We saw a private ‘mega’ yacht that had AIS on their yacht as well as their shore boat.

On New Year’s Day, we went up to a Marine Park to do a bit of snorkeling and diving. I found some great information on Jason de Caires Taylor’s website, I’m assuming he was the artist or at least instrumental in the project.  Apparently there was so much reef devastation after Hurricane Ivan, that they needed a plan to rebuild the reefs.  Statues were sunk in this park to attract the tourists and to leave the other reefs time to rebuild themselves. To protect the park, mooring balls were set and anchoring is prohibited.  When we arrived we found that the moorings were very hard to come buy.  There were only 2 white moorings for private boats, and about 4 red moorings designated for snorkel/dive charters. Well, as you might expect the 2 white moorings were taken. After much consideration, we decided to use a red one.  Also, the mooring is in 10 feet of water and very close to a very shallow reef.  This whole situation was quite stressful.

Never the less, we put the gear together and got ready.  Since this was our first dive, we had to find all the gear. The descriptions of the location of the statues wasn’t exactly clear either. I was under the impression they were around the corner in 25 feet of water.  This is pretty shallow, but can get cold, so we put on wet suits.

Since the sisters were just snorkeling, zip zap zup, they were in.  Genny reported that the sculptures were just right out in front of the boat, yippee, we didn’t have to search for them.

I was concerned that we didn’t have enough dive weights to get us down, but we had plenty.  Also, when I looked at my depth gauge, it was only 15 feet and we were plenty warm, could have gone without a wetsuit.

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The kids posed for all kinds of photos.  Unfortunately, because I was so worried about making the dive quick, we didn’t see all the statues listed on Jason’s website.  We did see a long silver fish with black spots that the kids thought was a barracuda, now that I looked it up on google, I think they were right.  We also saw the normal reef fish, some iridescent blue, parrot fish, and cuttlefish (which are new to me).

After a short 30 minute dive, Roy and I went back so Eric could go out for a swim and see the sculptures as well.  On the way back to St. George’s we saw this gorgeous rainbow.  The rest of the evening was very relaxing.  We’ve been reading from a book about land animals, so we switched to the book about sea creatures.  For quite a long time I read to the kids while they cut up old clothes and sewed accessories for Genny’s stuffed dog and Eric laid on the floor with Topaz napping.

Next we’re sailing up to Carriacou which is still part of Grenada.  It’s a small island with sandy beaches, clear water and great snorkeling reefs.  After about a week, we’ll continue on to Martinique.