Colorado for Hurricane Season

Cruising around in the little Papaya!


A small sample of our Mermaid's Message of Hope jewelry!

We finally decided to head back to Colorado for the very active hurricane season. After putting Aldebaran II on the hard in Grenada for a little rest, we took off for Colorado to enjoy the dry, warm air, and take advantage of all there is to do in Fort Collins.

We spent time taking lots of rides in our little Audi TT Roadster, going to farmer's markets, traveling to California for meditation retreats at the Chopra Center, visiting with family, doctor's checkups, hanging out with friends, and launching our new sea glass jewelry business called Mermaid's Message of Hope!

While visiting the beautiful islands of the West Indies we discovered sea glass on some of the beaches. The "gems" were so beautiful that we decided to create one-of-a-kind sea glass jewelry and that is when Mermaid's Message of Hope was born. The response to our jewelry, and the message each piece holds, has been incredible. We were able to take our jewelry to several home parties and nearly everyone who came took a piece of the sea home with them. Everywhere we go people want to buy our jewelry when they see us wearing it, so the message is clear that this little business is on it's way to being a success. Even as we ready ourselves to return to Grenada we were invited to participate in a jewelry show next weekend!! We are so excited about our jewelry and the good energy it provides for everyone. We have been keeping good records of where each piece of sea glass came from, so when we return we will be able to give some of the profits from our jewelry to educational or environmental organizations on the islands.

We are now looking forward to returning to our home on Aldebaran II. Only 11 days from now we will be there! Please check in on this blog and join us for our next adventures as we sail around the Caribbean and continue our hunt for more sea glass, meet new people and old friends, swim with sea turtles, and explore the islands.

Carriacou

Carriacou Sunset

Fidel Productions...a container boutique on Paradise Beach

View of Sandy Island from Paradise Beach

Jon in front of a boat being built on the beach in Windward

Bequia

The Pitons as we sailed away at dawn

The main street of Bequia

Admiralty Bay anchorage

Bequia waterfront

Dinghy dock in Bequia ("Sparkle", our dinghy, is the yellow one)

The morning we left to sail to Bequia was peaceful and calm. The Pitons had a deep bluish tint in the early dawn sky and as the sun started to rise behind the mountains it cast bright gold rays behind the billowing clouds. It was an incredible sight. We had a long day ahead of us because we were passing the island of St. Vincent and heading straight to Bequia – a 10 hour sail. St. Vincent has a recent history of crimes against yachts so we decided to not take any chances.

As with many of our recent sailing days, this day brought us perfect wind and seas. When we were sailing in the lee of St. Vincent marveling at the beauty of the island, and commenting on what a shame it was that most of the yachts just pass it by, we spotted another large pod of dolphins heading in the opposite direction. The young dolphins were jumping completely out of the water! We tapped the side of the boat and about 10 or so came over and swam along with us for a short while. Before long they headed in the other direction to join their pod again. What a blessing!

We were excited to arrive in Admiralty Bay, Bequia since we had heard so many great things about it. But the next morning on the weather report we heard that a possible tropical storm was heading our way, so we knew we couldn’t stay long to explore. Hurricane season was definitely here, and tropical waves were already arriving every three or four days. Our time in the Grenadines was going to be limited this year!

We took the one day we had to go ashore and see what we could see, get a few groceries, and visit the fruit and veggie market. The market was a hoot! We got there and were immediately surrounded by the Rastafarians who have stalls there, and boy were they pressuring us to buy from them! We chose some tomatoes from one man and then others wanted to know what we were going to buy from them. Each one kept trying to steer us in the direction of their stall and then to their friend’s stall, telling us we needed to buy something from their friend. So, we bought one thing from each one…tomatoes, avocados, cucumbers, and even a shopping bag made locally out of a chicken feed bag. By the time we escaped the market we were friends with them all!

Bequia is a tiny island, but there were tour bus/taxis everywhere. The competition was fierce. We wanted to visit the whaling village where it is still legal to take a whale, and the turtle sanctuary, but there was not enough time. Instead we wandered around the streets of the tiny main town past the schools, the cemetery, local restaurants and markets, while we shared the streets with goats, chickens, and dogs. What a quaint and peaceful village!

The next morning we sailed out sadly on our way to Union island for a quick stop-over, and made a promise to ourselves to spend more time in Bequia next year.

St. Lucia

Gregory delivering fruits and vegetables

Dolphins!

The Pitons

Moored at the Pitons

Our special meal at Harmony Beach Restaurant, Pitons

Our sail to St. Lucia from Martinique was so much fun. It was one of those “perfect day for a sail” kinds of day. We cruised along at about 5 knots the entire way until we approached St. Lucia, then all of a sudden the wind picked up and our speed kept climbing. The sails on Aldebaran were perfectly trimmed and we were flying along…for us, anyway! When we approached 6 knots we started to get pretty excited, then 6.5 knots, then 7 knots!!! We were high-fiving as we got up to 7.6 knots. Unheard of in our boat!! Wow, what fun.

As we got anchored in Rodney Bay and started to settle in we saw out the back of our boat a pirogue approaching with a thatched roof and flags of all types flying, and the driver honking his horn to get our attention. Gregory introduced himself and offered every kind of fruit and vegetable we could imagine finding. We bought bananas, grapefruit, oranges, limes, mangoes, cucumbers, and sour sop (which he called sweetsop). He was so “happy for our purchase” that he threw in an extra mango and some limes. He promised he would be back on Monday with something special. It turns out he came back every day with “something special for us”. Gregory kept us well supplied.

The next day we watched as more and more boats sailed into Rodney Bay. One particular boat caught our attention….it was “Receta”. Even though we had never met the people aboard Receta, we knew the boat’s name because the woman aboard, Ann Vanderhoof, is the author of “An Embarrassment of Mangoes” (listed on our book list). Both of us read and loved her book, we even make her recipes, so when we saw them arrive we were quite excited at the possibility of meeting her. Later, when we decided to go exploring we stopped in the Marina to check out the restaurants and stores and get some cold water. We spotted Receta in the Marina and decided to go introduce ourselves. It was so fun to meet Ann (Steve was below doing some work), and of course we got her to sign our book!

Rodney Bay is a good place to get some work done on the boat, so we took the opportunity to have our SSB radio reception sorted out. With that completed, and our water and fuel tanks full we decided to move south towards the Grenadines…….but not so fast! The morning we were to leave Jon came down with the most dreadful symptoms I have ever seen. Oh my gosh…Dengue Fever. It was horrible. He had a high fever and the most excruciating pain in his back and legs. He had no sense of taste and he was so sensitive to light. I did a lot of research online and discovered that there is nothing I could do for him other than keep him hydrated and comfortable and to watch him carefully. No aspirin, no Ibuprofen, only Tylenol. After two days of this, his fever finally broke in the night. I knew that if it was really Dengue Fever the fever would return with a rash on his torso. Sure enough a day later it started again. Finally after a week he started to get a bit better. But it took at least 3 weeks to be back in full swing.

One week after Jon became ill; the marina threw a BBQ party with 2 nights free in the marina, so we took them up on it. It turned out to be quite a party and we had the opportunity to meet so many great people. Then the morning after the party while listening to the morning cruiser’s net on the VHF radio we heard the announcer tell us that it was trivia day! The questions that day were…..1) what did 100,000 self-conscious women purchase 200,000 of in 1980? Well, of course Jon knew that one….breast implants! So we called in and got it right along with one other boat. Now, to see who wins….2) Who sang the song “Puff the Magic Dragon”? The other boat did not call in and we called in with the answer….Peter, Paul and Mary! Right! Aldebaran wins!!! So we got a night out at H2O restaurant with dinner and desserts free!

Finally, the time came when Jon was strong enough for us to head south. As we left Rodney Bay it was pouring down rain. We took our time leaving and as we headed down the coast of St. Lucia it began to clear up. Just about that time we spotted some dolphins! Oh my gosh, we have been waiting all year to see dolphins and they were EVERYWHERE!! They would swim alongside the boat and then surf our wake. They would jump out of the water and criss-cross back and forth in front of our boat. We were squealing like children with glee! As we watched them they would come up next to us and turn their eyes up towards us to look at us, and then take off. We would tap on the sides of the boat and they would come up close to us again! We never wanted them to leave!

Our next stop at the south of the island was the Pitons, famous for their unusual beauty. We called Benny at Harmony Beach to see if he had any moorings available near his house and restaurant, and he told us hid did and would be waiting for us. When we arrived we were awestruck by the beauty of this area. The mountains – Pitons – jutted straight up out of the sea. When we neared Harmony Beach we saw Benny’s son waiting for us at the mooring ball. He was standing on his sea kayak. Benny Jr. helped us to secure to the mooring and then asked if there was anything we wanted to do that afternoon. We told him we were hoping to eat dinner at their restaurant (it looked closed up, but thought we would give it a try). He asked us what we wanted to eat….Creole chicken, Creole mahi mahi, or pork. I ordered chicken, Jon ordered mahi mahi.

Benny Jr. picked us up at 6:30 in his water taxi and delivered us to the restaurant. We were the only ones there and Jennealyn, the daughter, waited on us as Mom cooked the dinner. Since it was the end of the season we were the only two at the restaurant. Just the two of us. We enjoyed a rum punch as the sun set and toasted to our special night out and one year on Aldebaran II! When Jennealyn brought our dinner out to us we were shocked at the amount of food on our plates. We had our chicken and fish, and then there was rice, a salad of carrots and cabbage, sweet potato, chrystophene, fried plantain and breadfruit. To top off the evening we had ice cream and a healthy dose of mosquitoes! Jennealyn sent us off with six mangoes and a few ginger mints. Safely back at our boat, we prepared for an early, early departure to Bequia the next morning.

Martinique

St. Anne Waterfront

Community fishing in St. Pierre

Martinique lady selling peanut brittle and peanuts on the street

Anse Mitan Sunset

Our friends Renate from Emerald Seas, Kennedy from Far Star, and Tom from Jade

posing on the wall of Canal de Beauregard

Carol hugging the wall on the canal walk


Jon walking up the road with the 25% grade before we knew we were going the wrong way!


Mount Pelee, the volcano in St. Pierre

When we left Dominica to sail to Martinique there were three of us leaving at the same time; Emerald Seas, Far Star, and then us. It was pretty typical seas and winds for between-island sailing. The seas are usually choppy and large for awhile, and then calms somewhat, only to build again when nearing the next island. This day was no different. With 20+ knots of wind we were all sailing at 5 knots or more. We messed around with the trim of our sails so much in the beginning that Emerald Seas and Far Star quickly left us behind. Before long we were in the groove and moving towards Martinique at a fast pace. All of a sudden, our stay sail came crashing down. Jon had to go to the front of the boat to pull it in and tie it up, and discovered that the ring at the top of the sail broke. Without our stay sail we slowed somewhat, but still made good progress. Then we noticed that our depth finder was not working. This is not good when it comes time to anchor because we need to know how deep the water is and how much anchor chain to put out. We figured that we would call our friends when we arrived at our anchorage and they could help guide us to a good anchor spot. So we continued on…..

When we reached Martinique and sailed into the lee of the island, the wind and seas calmed down. We decided to put away our sails and turn on the engine to motor in the rest of the way. As we were motoring, the engine rpm’s kept slowing and then speeding up again……oh no…..please just get us into the anchorage!! Well, this happened over and over and we hoped we would be able to make it into the anchorage at St. Pierre just ahead about a mile. But no, the engine decided it had enough and just quit. As we bobbed around we considered raising the sails again and sailing back out as Jon checked the fuel filters. But it was calm so we decided to sit where we were and check it out. Sure enough, the fuel filters were clogged. Quickly Jon changed them out and we tried the engine again……it started! Ok, so that is 3 things gone wrong, we are done!

We reached St. Pierre and called our friends to let them know our depth finder was not working, however, as soon as got in close it began to work again. Evidently, it was just so deep between islands that the depth finder just stopped reading until it got shallow again. Whew!

St. Pierre lies at the foot of Mt. Pelee Volcano and has an interesting history. In 1902 St. Pierre had a population of about 30,000 and was known as the Paris of the Caribbean. It was the cultural, commercial, and social center of Martinique. In April of 1902 the volcano began rumbling and on May 2 a major eruption covered the city with enough ash to kill some birds and animals. Later that day a planter went to check on his crops with a group of workers on a large plantation. A torrent of volcanic mud, lava, and boiling gasses completely buried the estate. Many people had been killed in and around St. Pierre, but people still stayed there. Why?? Well, the new Governor of Martinique was overwhelmed at the idea of evacuating everyone, and plantation owners who were afraid of suffering financial loss convinced him to sit tight. So a committee was put in place to monitor the volcano and they enlisted the support of the local paper to tell people that there was no danger. A few people left, but the majority stayed, and on the morning of May 8, 1902 the side of the volcano facing St. Pierre burst open sending a giant fireball of superheated gas that flowed down over the city, releasing more energy than an atomic bomb. An estimated 29,933 people burned to death leaving only two survivors in town: a cobbler who was in his cellar and the famous Cyparis imprisoned for murder in a stone cell. Even the many ships that were in the harbor at the time burned. The city still has many ruins, and many new buildings share at least one wall with a ruin. It was amazing walking around the ruins in town at the base of the majestic looking volcano and trying to visualize the disaster that happened to the city.

The anchorage in St. Pierre is near the town dock which is right next to the market where farmers sell their fresh vegetables and fruit . On some days you will even find the local fishermen selling their catch of the morning. Most of the town business is near the town dock, so it was very convenient for us! We even decided that while we were in St. Pierre we would tackle our laundry duties. This was one place that even had its own Laundromat! We took our laundry, soap, and Euros into the Laundromat and attempted to figure out how to work the machines. Since we don’t know any French it was quite comical. A woman who was doing her laundry finally took pity on us and with great theatrics demonstrated how to use the machines. We got the first loads started and Jon left to go get some more change at the nearby store. Carol had just settled in to watch the clothes sloshing around in the washers when Jon came running back in and said our boat was moved and it looked like some of our friends were on it! So he took off running to get the dinghy and get out to the boat. Carol waited and watched from the beach across the road. Sure enough…….our boat was dragging its anchor and was drifting away! Our friends saw it and took their dinghies out to rescue it. By the time Jon got there, they had released some more anchor chain and stopped it from drifting. Time to re-anchor! Jon moved it to a more secure area and with several more attempts finally found a place where the anchor held better. Geez!

With our laundry finally done and our boat secure it was time to relax! But not so fast…..our friends Jim and Renate on Emerald Seas had another idea. They convinced us that we needed to all go hike the Canal de Beauregard in the mountains south of town the next morning. The canal was built by slaves to bring water around a steep mountain to supply the distilleries of St. Pierre. We read about it in the cruising guide and since Carol is afraid of heights she really wasn’t so sure she wanted to do it. But they talked us into it, saying that there were only a few places where it was really steep. So, Carol gave in and decided to go along.

The next morning we all met to catch a bus up the mountain to the beginning of the canal. The bus curved around the steep mountain road…up and up and up….and finally stopped at an intersection in a tiny village. Jim went in to a restaurant and asked for directions to the trailhead. The men told him to go up the hill to the right so we all trudged up the hill on a road with a 25% grade. It didn’t seem right, but we just kept on going until we reached an observatory at the top of the hill! When we got there we knew we had been deliberately mislead….not surprising since the French are not at all fond of foreigners. So, we walked back down the road and took another turn. We decided this time we would ask a little lady in her empty restaurant if she could tell us where the trail started. She was very sweet and motioned to us where to go since we did not speak French and she did not speak English. We all decided to buy a beer from her and sit for a minute to cool down after our hike up the hill. She watched us for a few minutes and she was clearly concerned about these 6 hot people sitting in her restaurant sweating profusely! Next thing we know she is delivering Pringles on a plate for us and telling us we needed to eat them. We all ate the Pringles, drank our beer, thanked the sweet lady and moved on up the road. We walked through this village that was so sparkling clean that it looked unreal. FINALLY we found the beginning of the canal. There were signs in French with clear pictures of people falling off the wall and the word DANGER over and over! Still, we marched on through a tunnel that was collapsing (did we have a death wish or what?) and onto the wall. The wall was 18” wide and on one side was the canal that was about 2 feet deep and 2 feet wide and on the other side was the drop off to the country side below. On and on this trail went and it was not just a few times that it dropped straight down it was over and over!! Needless to say, Carol was freaked. She didn’t say anything, she just went Zen and kept on going. Jon and the others were not bothered. They just kept stopping and turning around on that 18” wall high up the side of the mountain to discuss the scenery!! People would come from the other direction and we had to find a place where we could all pass each other. There were a few places where the trail would get a little wider and that was a relief. We ate lunch on one of those wide spots overlooking the farms below (Carol tried not to look).

Finally we reached the end of the canal. We still had a LONG way to walk back to a town where we had to find a bus to get back to St. Pierre. We wandered through farms and fields of sugarcane and just when we all thought we could not go another step we staggered into the nearest town. We found a little store and all the locals were very amused watching us buy cold drinks to guzzle down. Then we found a bus stop and figured one would be along any minute to take us back to St. Pierre. No bus. Finally a woman who spoke English told us no more busses were coming that day. Just when we were planning on hitchhiking back a “Taxi” (more like bus, but they called them taxis) showed up and we were on our way back. Exhausted we stumbled back to our dinghies and back to our boats at the end of a looonnnggg day.

When we left St. Pierre we sailed down the island to Fort de France, the capital. We checked in and then were told that the next day was a holiday (every French island we visited was having a holiday!!). It was also the weekend, so we didn’t get to see much of the city. We sailed over to Anse Mitan because we were told it was like a little Disneyland. That would be nice! Well, it was definitely a tourist destination for people from Martinique, but like every other day on the French islands, most places were closed. We continued sailing south the next day and stayed in a little bay about half way down the lee side of the island. We anchored near a few boats close to shore and thought it was a great place, except for the fact that a giant cockroach flew onto the deck of our boat. Jon did a great version of the Mexican Hat dance as he quickly ended the life of that cockroach!!

We moved on the next morning to Le Marin, the boating capital of Martinique where we replaced our anchor chain, got the stay sail repaired, and purchased a few more things for the boat. Then we moved over to St. Anne before leaving our last French island in the Caribbean to sail to St. Lucia. St. Anne is a beautiful little town except that everything was closed – again – so we didn’t get to visit many places. The French islands are a mystery to us! The businesses open late, close 3 hours for lunch, and have more holidays than any place we have ever visited. They won’t speak English even if they know English and friendliness in not generally their strongest trait. Still, they have such beautiful islands, so we are sure we will be back!

Dominica

Danny, our "boat boy" and Indian River Guide

Danny, peeling sugar cane

The Jungle Bar

Spanney Falls

Cooling off in the pool at Spanny Falls

Banana Man

Crossing the river (one of five times) on our hike to Victoria Falls

The group eating lunch at Moses' Rastaraunt after hiking to Victoria Falls

Carol and Moses in his kitchen

The sail to Dominica was, as they say, boisterous! We had 20+ knots of wind with rough seas the entire way. Wet, salty, and crusty once again! As we finally rounded the corner into Prince Rupert Bay at the town of Portsmouth we saw friends anchored in the bay. We called them on the radio to let them know were heading in, and Jim on Emerald Seas said “oh good, we will tell Danny to come visit you”. We didn’t know who Danny was, but we had heard about boat boys so we suspected he was “their” boat boy. As soon as we dropped the anchor and with the engine still running here comes Danny paddling his surfboard towards us and at the same time here comes Antonio in his boat. They arrived at the same time yelling at each other about seeing us first….. “first come – first serve” and “I saw them first”! To settle things down we bought some fruit from Antonio and told him that our friends had arranged for Danny to work with us, so Antonio collected his money for the fruit and drove away disgruntled.

Dominica has a good group of young men who provide yacht services for yachts. They will help you get fruit, bread, and ice, take your laundry, act as a water taxi, and take you on island tours. They act together in the group called PAYS which provides security; help maintain dinghy docks and work together to make sure yachts have a good stay. Most of the time the boat boys who approach you are a member of PAYS, but occasionally you will get someone who is not (like Antonio). It is a good idea to deal with those who are members so you get the best service. There were some who would come by our boat wanting us to buy something and while they were talking to us they would be checking out the boat and everything in it, and not looking us in the eyes. That was a bit unnerving, but we were sure to lock up tight when we were away and we never had any problems.

The evening we arrived, we told Danny we wanted to take a tour up the Indian River. He said to be ready at 8 AM the next morning and he would be by to pick us up. We weren’t exactly sure what that meant since he was on a surfboard, but we were ready at 8 AM! Danny and his brother Lawrence (otherwise known as Lawrence of Arabia) pulled up in Lawrence’s boat a few minutes before 8 to pick us up. He dodged the waves at the entrance into the river and then pulled up to the dinghy dock. Lawrence jumped out and Danny pulled the engine up and arranged his oars. You are not allowed to use your motor on the river, so Danny began to row. He took his time and pointed out birds, trees, land crabs, etc. as we went along. The river was running slow since rainy season had not started, so we slowly moved along dodging tree limbs and roots. We reached an area at a narrow part of the river where a dock was on the side of the river. We stopped and followed Danny up to a really cool bar (called Jungle Bar) and a few guest rooms in the jungle. The woman who runs it greeted us and her two small children ran around and around us as we walked along sampling sugar cane and spotting parrots high up in the trees. Before we left, we had some juice and a rum drink as we listened to some Reggae music. After hanging out for a while we rowed back to the mouth of the river to pick up Lawrence. Our tour lasted about 2 ½ hours.

Later that day we needed to check in with customs so we headed out in the big swells to find the customs office. We checked in shortly before they were leaving for lunch so the reception was a bit “chilly”. As we were finishing up, the woman told us we had to go to immigration at the police office in town. Our timing must have really been bad, because they send very few people to immigration. That was even more obvious when we arrived there. We told the man who waited on us that customs had sent us there to complete our check in. He seemed very perplexed and asked us what he was supposed to do! We said we didn’t know but asked if we could have our passports stamped. He said “Oh, you want your passports stamped? Ok, I’ll stamp them if you want me to”. He was very nice as he fumbled around trying to find his stamp and sign our clearance forms. So much for immigration!

We met up with all our friends that evening and decided we should rent a van and go check out the island that National Geographic named the “most environmentally sustainable island in the Caribbean. The next morning Lawrence picked us all up and took us to the town dock so we could get a van. After renting the van, Jon (the designated driver) had to go back to the police station to buy a local license. Finally, with license in hand and careful instructions from the car rental attendant (“stay on the left side of the road, don’t pick anyone up, and don’t give nobody nothin”) we were ready to hit the road. The first thing we noticed is that there are NO straight roads in Dominica. We wound around and around, up and down steep hills and curves as we made our way around the island. At our first stop on top of the volcano, a van pulls up to sell us fruit (we just broke rule number three, I think). We bought bananas and grapefruits and shared them before taking off again. We drove through unbelievable countryside where people were farming on the side of steep hills. Dominica grows just about everything that you find in the Caribbean. In fact boats full of women leave every week to sell their fruits and vegetables in markets in St. Maarten, St. Kitts and other islands with little agriculture. Our next stop was a tiny town where a visitor center was located. The center was created to share information about the Caribs, fierce warriors who predated the Europeans. The Europeans began to massacre the Caribs and the ones remaining were given a territory on the windward side of the island. This center sold books and small handicrafts including Oil of Ojai. This oil is used by locals and is good for just about everything that ails you. Of course, we bought some.

We wandered across the street to a small market that had a tiny family restaurant on the back patio overlooking the water. We ate a yummy lunch of roast chicken, rice and peas, dasheen, plantains and beer. Full and satisfied we continued on our journey. We meandered along the east side of the island and then came to a fork in the road. One road goes over the island to the other side and one continues to follow the coast. It was already late afternoon so we decided to go over the island. We all kept talking about wanting to hike to a water fall, so when we came across a sign that said Spanney Falls, we had to check it out. We paid to walk to the falls in a tiny bar/store at the head of the trail and took off on the short walk. Spanney Falls was a surprise to all of us! It was the most picturesque waterfall you could ever imagine. The water tumbled down about 100 feet through a crevice into a beautiful, clear pool. There was a mist coming off the falls and plants grew all along the walls surrounding the pool. The walls created a little box that made it feel like we had discovered a hidden treasure. We all jumped in and swam around in the clear, refreshing water for a long time until we just had to leave so we could make it back before dark. We were gone all day and only covered half of the island. There was so much more to discover!

The next day we sailed to Roseau, the capital of Dominica, on the south end of the island. When we arrived in the bay we were met by Pancho and his three children in his boat. He welcomed us and then helped us tie onto one of the mooring balls he owned. After settling in, we took off in our dinghy to explore the area. We decided to go to a dock at a hotel so we could walk to the street and see what we could see along the road. As soon as we tied our dinghy up we heard a man yelling “HELLO, HELLO” and then saw him walking quickly down the dock to where we were. He said his name was True True and he was selling calabash bowls and mangoes. We bought a calabash bowl that he made from a calabash gourd and quickly made a new friend. Later we saw that he lived on the beach under some trees near where we were in the bay. His bed was a platform on top of huge boulder. I’m glad we bought the bowl.

In the morning we wanted to explore the city, even though we saw a cruise ship in port. We made our way through the gobs of people walking around and the locals selling everything you could imagine. The town was so crowded that we decided to head back to the boat. As we were leaving we discovered a coffee house called Rituals. We went in to have a look and cool off. When we walked through the door it felt like we had walked into a Starbucks! We ordered a blended mocha and a sandwich and sat down to watch CNN on TV. We were a little in shock, but it was sooooo good.

We relaxed on the boat the rest of the day and that evening our friends wanted to know if we wanted to go to KFC!! Really?? Well, of course we couldn’t pass that up, so we headed into town again. We wandered through the local market with hundreds of people selling fruits and vegetables and finally got to the KFC. We definitely stood out in the crowd. We gobbled up our chicken, cole slaw, fries and biscuits (no mashed potatoes and gravy) and felt like we had a “very American” kind of day! Heading back to our dinghies, we passed through the market again and since it was Friday night the local party was beginning. Music was blaring and everyone was cooking and eating fresh fish that was caught that day. It looked like everyone in the entire city was there!

Since we had only explored a small part of the island we all decided it was time for a tour and Sea Cat came highly recommended by the author of our Cruising Guides. So the next morning the 7 of us who had rented the van together met Sea Cat, otherwise known as Octavius, for a tour of the south end of the island.

One thing is for sure, taking a tour of the island is the way to go! Octavius knows everyone and as we drove around the island he would stop about every 15 minutes to let us try herbs, or fruit, or mountain water that we drank from a leaf, or coconut water, or even moonshine! We met people everywhere we went and we ate and drank our way around the island. We drove and drove and finally reached the trailhead for Victoria Falls, one of the more well-known falls on the island. At the trail head there was a little shack with a kitchen and a dining area with a bar. A Rastafarian named Moses came out to greet us. Moses is quite famous on the island and with cruisers. Moses lives on that land and grows everything he eats, and serves, in his Restaurant. He was just getting started on a meal for us that we would eat after our hike to the falls. Shortly after we arrived our guide for the falls showed up and away we went. The hike to Victoria Falls was the most strenuous hike I had ever been on. We crossed the river five times and climbed up, and slid down, boulders. We all helped each other up and over and across as we made our way to the falls. Finally we arrived and were greeted by the most majestic of falls. The power of the falls created a current in the water below and a mist that reached far distances. The guys in the group decided to tackle the falls. They made their way down to the base of the falls and eased their way into the water being careful not to get overpowered by the strong current. After their brief swim we all headed back. Up, down, over and across once again. It was much easier going back since most of it was downhill.

Once back at Moses’ Rastaraunt we were all feeling exhausted and hungry. We were enjoying some local beer when huge calabash bowls were brought to the table. Inside the bowls was the most delicious meal we have had since arriving in the Caribbean. Moses had collected all the ingredients from his gardens and made the most incredible soup. It had lentils, dasheen, callaloo, plantains, herbs, spices, arrowroot, and the list goes on. Incredible! We ate with “spoons” made from coconut shells and every single one of us had seconds! After eating, we all staggered back to the van for the ride back. Octavius continued to stop to show us remote beaches or to explain about certain things going on around the island. Our last stop was at one more falls! We all wandered down the trail through a rainforest to Emerald Pools. One last swim in the most freezing water!! We walked back to the van through drenching rain and Octavius was waiting with fresh mangoes for everyone. Wow, what a day! We arrived back to our boats at sunset overwhelmed by the amazing day we just had. Satisfied that we saw more than we came to see, we all decided to leave first thing the next morning to sail to Martinique.

Iles des Saintes

Incredible sunset in The Saintes

The view from Fort Napoleon.

A french dog!


Lone chicken in the street

Iles de Saintes (the Saintes) is a tiny group of islands just south of Guadeloupe. They are a part of Guadeloupe, so they are still French islands. We had a great time sailing there in calm weather, and to approach the anchorage at the main town we had to weave our way around several small islands. All around these islands we could see boats anchored, some bays only had one boat. Awesome!

When we arrived at Terre d’en Haut, which is the largest island, we again saw our friends anchored in the bay, so we motored around and finally decided to anchor behind them. After settling in once again, a man approached our boat in a dinghy. Sure enough, he was taking our bread order for morning! Yipee….one baguette and two chocolate croissants please.

That night we were invited to meet on the sailing yacht Emerald Seas for drinks and munchies. There were 9 of us from 5 boats crammed into their cockpit! We had a great time as we shared sailing stories and lots of laughs. The next morning the rest of them were sailing on to Dominica and we wanted to stay a few more days to explore the island, so of course a party was in order!

The next morning the other 4 boats with our friends aboard sailed on to Dominica and we headed to shore to go exploring. We hiked up to Fort Napoleon which was built in 1867. The fort had been restored and includes beautiful gardens, iguanas, and magnificent views. After wandering around the fort we decided to go in search of a beach only visited by locals on the other side of the island called Baie De Pompierre. Yachts are banned from anchoring there to keep pollution away since this is a very popular beach with locals. After walking through tiny communities and weaving our way through streets with goats, cows, and chickens we reached the beach. We were excited to see some ladies there selling cold drinks and fish croquettes. The beach was lined with tall palm trees and it was crowded with people lazing away under the trees and in the water. We snorkeled around and sat in the water for quite awhile. Finally we decided to head back and as we were leaving found a FRESH water shower. Oh my gosh!!! Since we use a solar shower on our boat we were in heaven. We rinsed and rinsed, and then we rinsed some more. Then we rinsed our clothes and shoes and then, why not, we rinsed our towels! We walked all the way back to the other side of the island completely wet and loving it.

The Saintes are a great place to wander around. The main town, Bourg des Saintes, which is really a tiny, quaint seaside town, is clean and picturesque. Local people walk, ride bicycles or zip around on scooters. They gather at the bakery, on the church steps or in the square at the main dock and visit as their children play. Chickens are roaming through the streets, and local French dogs (which Carol cannot resist taking pictures of) lay around in front of homes and stores. Since the islands were never agricultural, no slaves were imported. They used to rely almost entirely on fishing. Now the residents make their living primarily on tourism. Many people visit the Saintes by ferries that arrive daily from Guadeloupe.

We could hang out in The Saintes for a long time, and with so many little anchorages around the islands, we could just keep moving around and trying them all. However, our desire to visit as many islands as possible by June kept us moving along. We will definitely visit longer next time.

Guadeloupe

The tiny village of Deshaises

"Pirate Jon"

One of the parakeets at the Botanical Garden in Deshaises

A rainbow greeted us as we anchored in the tiny bay

Carol's "prize winning" photo taken at the Botanical Garden in Deshaises

Our sail to Guadeloupe was smooth and fun. All around us we could see squalls, water spouts, and storms taking place, but we never sailed through one. The east coast of Montserrat held our attention for many miles as we got farther away. We could now see the east side of the volcano and the dust flying from the winds hitting the ash that had flowed to the sea. We neared the two mile exclusion zone and were thankful the winds were blowing the dust away from us.

We reached the tiny, protected bay of Deshaises (pronounced day-ay) in the afternoon, found our spot to anchor and relaxed while we waited for our anchor to settle into the sand bottom. We were delighted to see rainbows all around and to feel the calm water, in spite of the fact that the wind was blowing hard. That evening a young woman in a dinghy approached our boat. We greeted her and in her best English she asked if we would like to have bread delivered to our boat in the morning! Wow, what a treat. We were definitely at a French island. Of course, we ordered a baguette and two chocolate croissants. At 7:00 AM the next morning here comes our bread, this time delivered by her husband. The couple lives on their sailboat in Deshaises and does this as a small business for the visiting yachts.

Later that morning we put the motor on our dinghy and headed to the small village to check in with customs. We motored up a small river to find the dinghy dock and locked our boat among the other dinghies and fishing boats. We walked to the internet café to clear in with customs only to find out that they were not longer handling customs. Evidently, the Guadeloupe government does not want to charge yachts to clear into their country; however, the café owners need to charge a very small amount to cover their paper and ink costs. The government does not allow that so they are in a constant disagreement. So…..that day we could not check in at the internet café. We decided to leave our quarantine flag up and visit again the next day to see if the story changed. The story did not change, but the café owner informed us that the douanes (customs) officer would be in his office at the top of the hill, so we quickly walked up there and cleared in. Now we were legal, so we hoisted the Guadeloupe flag which is the French flag.

The tiny village includes a few small markets, some restaurants, and some souvenir shops; however, they open late and then close between noon and 3:00. They also close on holidays, some afternoons and whenever they feel like it. So, we never had the chance to really visit many stores! We heard that the highlight of the area was the botanical garden, so we knew we had to go. The walk to the botanical garden was only about 1 ½ miles but it was straight uphill, so by the time we got there we were dripping wet! It was so worth it, though. The walk through the garden took us by ponds full of carp, through a parakeet aviary where you could feed the parakeets nectar as they perched all over you, by waterfalls, parrots and flamingos, and all along the way we passed every imaginable tropical plant loaded with flowers. Before leaving we had lunch next to an area where you could overlook the sea and bay where we were anchored.

We were enjoying Deshaises so much we stayed for about a week. We introduced ourselves to some people we had seen in previous anchorages and quickly became friends. We met on their boats for sundowners and even had a boat book exchange before we split up for a few days as they headed south. We wanted to sail out at the same time but discovered water in our food lockers and decided we better make the necessary repair before it got worse. Jon had to caulk and rebed the chain plates on the deck where the caulking was coming out, and it was best to do that before more rain and waves caused more leaking. With that repair complete, we headed south to Basseterre at the end of the island.

Basseterre was a very strange anchorage, but it was only for one night since the next day we would be sailing to Les Saintes. At Basseterre there was only one other boat until another came in at night. There was a tiny black sand beach where many locals were swimming, but other than that; the area was like a ghost town. A previous hurricane had damaged the marina so there were still wrecked and sunk boats all around. Intermingled were new boats, but no one was on them. Weird. We were glad we weren’t staying long. The next morning as we were leaving, we noticed that the beach was again full of people swimming and some even taking swim lessons. The one other boat was still anchored there and the one that came in the night was gone. No bread delivery here…..time to go!

Montserrat

The capitol city of Plymouth covered in volcanic ash and boulders

Aldebaran anchored in Little Bay, Montserrat

The Montserrat volcano still smoldering

The morning we left to sail to Montserrat was very calm. So calm that the mooring ball we were tied to at Pinney’s Beach in Nevis kept banging against our boat all night since the wind wasn’t blowing hard enough to keep us away from it. We had a sleepless night so we were up and ready to leave early! We were excited to get the chance to go to Montserrat since they have an active volcano that had been erupting for the last two years and the latest spew was in December. Boats near Montserrat during that time were covered in ash and volcanic cinders, so it is definitely not a good idea to be there when she blows! Prior to leaving we were checking their website to be sure it was safe to go and the one anchorage on the island was not included in the exclusion zone, so we decided to give it a try.

That morning we were the only boat sailing towards Montserrat. We met a group of guys on a catamaran the day before who said they were going also, but catamarans are fast, so they were still sleeping in when we left. When we were about half way there we see them off in the horizon behind us. They caught up with us quickly and as they passed, they couldn’t resist shooting off a white flare to signal their victory. Our response was a blast from our air horn……..damn those things are loud!

When we were approaching the one tiny bay where we had to anchor we noticed that the only other boat there was the catamaran that passed us. We anchored near the ferry dock and hung out for a few minutes before checking in at customs. It is not unusual for the water to be too rough to anchor here, so we were glad that the rolling in the bay wasn’t too bad that day. We gathered up our boat papers and passports and headed to customs to check in. Normally customs is located in the main town but in Montserrat there are no more towns, so customs and immigration were located in a metal building and a trailer at the port. The city of Plymouth, the capital, was completely wiped out by the volcano in 1995. No towns have been built since, only communities remain. Plymouth is like a ghost town now. All the buildings are buried to their roofs in volcanic ash and boulders. Before the volcano erupted there were about 11,000 people living on the island, but now only about 4,000 remain. Living conditions became harsh and the volcanic dust made it difficult to breathe. Many lost their homes and businesses, so they left the island.

After clearing in at customs and immigration we decided to get a taxi driver to take us on a quick tour so we could see the island and the volcano. It was late in the day and we weren’t sure we could find a taxi, but we found one dropping off a group who said he could take us on a short tour. As we drove around we were surprised at the beauty of this island on the north end away from the path of the volcanic flow. It is so lush with a main two lane road winding around through the small communities. We drove through the lush countryside and then up a steep hill to the volcano observatory. From there we were able to see the volcano clearly and it was definitely still smoking. We could also see the town of Plymouth and homes along a former golf course that were covered. Two days earlier they had another mud flow from the heavy rains, so the destruction continues. The devastation was so sad to see. The people who remain hope that Montserrat will become a tourist destination and that people will move back again. There are even plans to build a new capital city at the port area one day. Some construction is taking place (funded by England), but they have a long way to go.

When we arrived back at the bay where we were anchored we were surprised to see it was full of boats and all of us were rolling back and forth. No more calm anchorage, we knew it was going to be a long night. As we took our dinghy back to our boat we grabbed a pumice stone from the water. They were floating all around our boat. One was even about 10 inches in diameter!! As expected it was a long sleepless night. Two boats even left in the middle of the night! We hung in there and at daybreak headed to Guadeloupe….our first French island.

Nevis

Shelter and coffee companions.

Houses painted in bright Caribbean colors on the coast next to Pinney's Beach.

Jon warming up with coffee after walking around town in pouring rain.

Nevis is a beautiful island with old plantations, and has one of the prettiest beaches in this part of the Caribbean - Pinney's Beach. We hoped to explore more of the island, but it rained and rained! At one point we put on our bathing suits and scrubbed the deck of our boat. At the same time we collected 4 buckets of rainwater. Enough to do our laundry!

We decided that we needed to at least walk around the main town even if it was raining too much to see much of the island. We came across a grocery store that had a cool little bakery in the corner run by an English woman. We bought bread there, ate some lunch and then continued on our walk.

We were soaked completely through when we found a little cafe in a flooded courtyard. We were thankful that they were open and would make us some coffee. We drank several cups and hung around with a wet rooster and some hens until the rain stopped.

The anchorage was becoming more and more rolly so we decided we would sail on to the next island....Montserrat. The volcano was quiet for now, so we decided to go for it!

St. Christopher (St. Kitts)

Miriam teaching us about wild herbs.

Introducing......Wilbur the beach pig. He even has a children's book written about him.

He seems to be napping a lot these days.

We finally get to touch a MONKEY!!!!

St. Christopher, otherwise known as St. Kitts was a fun island to explore. Carol had been talking about seeing a wild monkey FOREVER! It turns out that there are so many monkeys on St. Kitts that they outnumber the amount of people on the island. They are a real nuisance, stoning people's pets and tearing up the agriculture, so very little produce is now grown on this island. We decided to rent a car to drive the entire island of St. Kitts in search of monkeys!

Our first stop was to get a cold drink on the roadside. We met Miriam there and she taught us all about wild herbs grown on the island. She picked us a huge bag full so we could use them in teas and cooking.

Next we visited Caribelle Batik on an old plantation. They demonstrated how the batik was done and, of course, Carol had to buy a batik shirt! This is also where we met our first monkey! No, it was not wild....it was even wearing a diaper!! The two little boys with the monkey explained that the diaper was so it wouldn't poo all over us. After Carol quizzed them about why they were not in school (it was Easter holiday) we all became good friends. They insisted on giving us a tour around the old sugar factory, and after we gave them some change from our pockets we made them promise to use the money to feed the monkey. They explained that they understood that they had to feed the monkey because it makes money for them. We were pleased to hear that the older boy had high goals for his future. He was saving money to become a doctor.

As we drove around the northern part of the island we noticed a lot of sugar cane fields, old plantations and lots of live stock. When we approached the southern part of the island, the landscape became much drier. When we got to the southern tip we came upon a cool beach bar/restaurant. We ate lunch and then wandered around the area. This is when we met Wilbur. He was napping under some boats. It turns out that Wilbur is quite famous and even has a book written about him. He lets you pet him and he grunts quietly in his sleep.

Still looking for a wild monkey we left to drive back to where our boat was. Not long after we left the beach where we had lunch we saw monkeys running across the road!!! WILD MONKEYS!!!! We stopped the car to watch and we saw about 10 crossing the road one after the other. These monkeys are green vervet monkeys brought to the island by a French man as a pet. Now they are outnumbering the people who live there. Satisfied that we finally saw a wild monkey, we could return the car. After all that, at the next place we anchored our boat, there were monkeys running around the beach. Oh well!