Movin' on down....

Above: Martinique at sundown.

Left: St Barths



SPOILER ALERT! At risk of repeating myself and sounding self indulgent I’m SPOILING the blog by beginning this with a little whining of sorts. This blog is about our travels but also about our life as we travel and therefore…I tell it like it is. Or …like I’m experiencing right now. Some people want, or need, to know how it really is. So…if you don’t want to read the rant jump down a bit to RANT DONE. =) And if you continue to read here…thanks for listening.

Sometimes this life isn’t the greatest. Often times this life isn’t the greatest! It sounds glamorous and romantic and like a dream come true (and it is)…but oft… it’s not ....in the real world. Everything seems to be a hassle.

Has∙sle (noun): a source or the experience of aggravation or annoying difficulty.

EXACTLY! Hassle > doing the dishes…usually in cold water. (Which I’m trying to do now and which prompted this rant-like carrying-on). Hassle > because you have to try to SAVE water, you therefore are always recycling the dishwater. Yuck. Hassle > taking a shower…99% in cold water. Hassle > getting the laundry done…most often in only cold water. (Sheets and towels need HOT water!) And so… laundry doesn't get done often and...you wear clothes over and over until someone starts to look at you funny. Hassle > getting…cold water!

Hassle > lugging groceries from the store; particularly a case of beer. Randy has to carry the beer. =) We have collected a random selection of bags to use for our groceries, which really work great. And are necessary. A lot of the stores don’t have bags to put groceries in. If you have to get a lot of stuff…they get heavy. And the store may be a mile or more away from where you can park the dinghy. (Hassle > trying to find a place to PARK the dinghy.) Or you may need to get on one of the local buses that are hot and crowded with people so you have everything piled on your lap. I need to find a folding pull cart to help us. I should have already bought one as I’ve seen them here or there, but it never seemed important at the time. When you’re trying to lug your groceries back to the dinghy, then to the boat…it’s important then! (UPDATE…I found one! YAY!)

Hassle > finding what you need at the store. Makes me miss the wonderful grocery stores at home. I’ve been trying to find Velveeta Cheese for a few islands, now. Just an odd thing that I want to have on board. I use it for a really yummy dip when we have guests over for cocktails… 'sundowners' they call them in the cruising lingo. Always need to have snacks on hand for that. And Velveeta can last for years! I should have purchased a case when we were in the states. And corn tortillas. I find flour, but not corn. Silly things but I want them. =) Marc used to bring over his CheeseWiz as a munchy. Love that! Creative dining.

Hassle > finding a bank to get cash and then figuring how much you need (you may not find an ATM handy at your next spot. So glad they have ATMs now!) Must figure out what currency you need and what the dollar is worth in that country.

Hassle > getting in and out of the dinghy, getting wet on the way, trying to look nice, but failing by the time you get where you’re going. My legs carry an assortment of bruises most of the time from dinghydom.

Hassle > trying to find an internet source. Hassle > trying to call your family, because you need an internet source. Glad to be traveling in this day and age of internet!

Hassle > watching your power usage all the time. I know it’s a good thing to do anyway, but essential on a boat running on its own little power source. I believe I mentioned before that now we have replaced most all our inside lights with LEDs (my cousin Deb will be glad to hear that!) so we can use them freely at anchor and not eat in the dark with candles. Well, maybe not freely, but we can use them. And candles are nice, but on a boat…sometimes not the best. In Puerto Rico we bought more power: one more solar panel and Hank…our Honda 2000 generator.

Hassle > of constant repairs… Randy’s job. Always working on the stainless. Salt water makes for rust. Trying to keep ahead of maintenance.

Hassle > cooking, when the boat’s rolling all over the place….

You get the picture. And I’m sure you might be saying… 'what is she complaining about? They are in wonderful warm places having a lifetime of experiences…and she’s complaining?!'

Is it worth it? Absolutely! I wouldn’t change this experience for anything. But it does get to me once in a while. (Can you tell?) If we were to do this, perhaps, for six months…then take a six month break…and do six more months, where everything is shiny and a new experience again….maybe it wouldn’t hang there so ominously how much a hassle it all is. =) As it stands right now it’s been 9 months since we’ve been off the boat. It will be a year by the time we fly home for a break in August. I just like a little more convenience. Like being plugged into a marina with electricity and water and TV reception!

As a result…Ran and I have decided we aren’t cut out to do this forever. Our kids will be glad to hear that. =) Some people do. And we actually thought we might want to carry on. We continually meet people, more so as we get into these southern islands, that are living/have lived this lifestyle for many, many years. Only taking short breaks from the boat. Traveling to wonderful places, always living on their boat. Most, not in marinas. They may change their boat, but they continue to travel from island to island. Some find an island they like and stay for months or years. Then decide to travel on. Some just decide to stay anchored out in one island permanently. Most of these I’ve found are men, by themselves. That might be telling. =) It’s definitely a cheap way to live, on the hook, but it’s not exactly luxury living. It’s just not easy. I’m not opposed to ‘not easy.’ Sometimes ‘not easy’ spurs me on. But Ran and I miss our family. And I just plain like convenience! This life is really interesting. LOVE the adventure. LOVE the challenge (sometimes.) LOVE meeting the people. LOVE seeing the new islands we land on. LOVE the experience of sailing on the water and overnight excursions. But it’s not what we want to do for a long, long time.

Our aim was to buy our boat, the boat we’ve always wanted, and sail it home to where our family and friends are. And we’re doing that and living a lifetime full of experiences along the way. We won’t look back and say, ‘we should have done that!’ Something we will talk about and relish for the rest of our lives. Stories we can share with our grandchildren. Let our kids and grandkids know that there’s a lot of life to live and only a short time to do it. So go for it!

When we say we’re headed home, cruising people (that’s the name they give those of us who live on boats and sail from place to place) often say, ‘but your boat IS your home!’ That’s true. And we love this home. But ‘home’ to us is close to our family and friends and plugged into a marina. =) And there’s something about the familiarity of a home town or at least a home state or at least a home coast! I miss that. I miss the connection. By the time we get back to California I think it will have been about 8 years since we’ve been permanently ‘home.’ Five of them living back East in Virginia. That’s way longer than I anticipated we’d be gone. I like grabbing life as it comes and taking advantage of opportunities. And that’s certainly what we’ve done. Moving back to Washington DC for a stint back there, retiring, buying the boat of our dreams and sailing it home. Check that off our Bucket List. But it’s time to go home.

We plan to continue to live on our boat when we get back, happily plugged in at our yacht club marina in Alameda. Perhaps we will make more excursions of the shorter variety, there are wonderful trips to take just around the Bay, and we want to get our grandkids sailing… but now we’re headed home.

RANT DONE. Again…thanks for listening! =)

When I left you on our last post we were waiting for our son and daughter-in-law to arrive for a visit. That’s the best; sharing with family and friends.

We were so excited for Skip and Kim to arrive. We wanted to show this life to our family so they can see what it is like, at least a little bit. And we hadn't spent much time with just Skip and Kim, so this was very exciting for us.

The weeks prior to their arrival seemed to go… so.....slowly. You know how it is when you're excited to have someone come visit or when you're going to visit them? We tried to stay busy working on boat projects but knew they would be much easier when we moved into the marina. There we would have unlimited power and water; essential cleaning tools.

We hung around Caneel Bay (St John, USVI) awhile prior to heading into the marina to prepare the boat for guests. To keep our so-called 'budget' inline, we didn't want to go into the marina too soon. Staying on a mooring ball or at anchor is hugely cheaper (grammar gasp!). Seeing parts of the world and traveling from a small private boat gives you a unique perspective and is fairly inexpensive if you don't buy t-shirts and hats at every stop (which Ellen is wont to do) and if you don't eat out all the time and order the foo foo drinks (which Ellen is wont to do.) This all considering your boat is ship shape and large expensive repairs aren't needed, knock on wood.

Caneel has been one of our favorite spots. Not that it’s the best anchorage in the world, but it’s very convenient and it’s pretty there and if Ellen wants to get a foo foo drink and break the budget we can dinghy in and spend too much money on one drink. =) And look at the beautiful view. It’s a good location, easy to get to Cruz Bay, St John and easy to get to some of our favorite anchorages, plus RedHook where the marina is on St Thomas where we will pull in. We found a good mooring ball that’s strategically located so we get decent internet coverage and isn’t too roly, most of the time. We liked Cruz Bay. Found a good optometrist there to fix Randy’s sunglasses. They worked very hard to repair the screws on the frames that the optometrist in Oregon said could never be fixed. So now Randy has 2 great pair of prescription sunglasses. It’s just one of those little towns that you felt comfortable in and were able to find needs in.

Because we still had a few days to wait until we headed into the marina, we buzzed back around to one of our favorite anchorages, Maho Bay. Such pretty anchorages there are in the Virgins. We relaxed there and went exploring ashore to their camp ground we hiked up to. Neat place. Very rustic.

Now it’s time to go into the marina at Redhook and prepare for Skip and Kim. We wanted to do some big time cleaning and laundry. Nothing like having guests come visit to get things done around the ‘house.’

All is ship shape and we left for the airport so excited to see the kids. We left too early. We weren’t sure how long it would take to get there because the airport was on the other side of the island. We had everything done so we left giving ourselves plenty of time. Our taxi driver asked when the kids were arriving and whistled when he realized how long we’d be waiting. Oh well…we’ll just have a drink and relax while we wait. And we brought our books to read.
We were practically the ONLY people at the airport. Good grief. It was night, the plane wasn’t due in until 9 something. NOTHING was open. There were a few people working, but not many. So we sit…and wait…and read our books. I had enough time to literally memorize all of the advertisements that were rotating on the signs all around the airport.

Finally they arrive! Yay! It was so good to see them walking toward us down the hallway. Yay! Off we go. Back to the boat to get them acclimated to life on the water. Skip had been on our boat in Virginia but Kim had no idea what to expect. We gave them a quick briefing and relaxed and talked. So good to see them! I miss them just writing about it!

We had SUCH a good time. The weather wasn’t as good as Randy and I wanted, but it didn’t matter. We headed out to some of our favorite places. First to Sandy Spit on Jost Van Dyke. Our last visit there was so beautiful and warm and calm. But of course this visit was not. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t nice enough to spend the night. We donned our snorkel gear and swam around awhile, but then decided to go on to Norman Island and spend the night at The Bight. The kids didn’t have a long time to be with us so we couldn’t waste valuable time.

It’s nearly always nice at The Bight. As long as you can get a mooring. And we found one. In a good spot. We got all snuggled in and opened some beer and relaxed. Talking about all kinds of things. That’s so fun. Randy noticed a couple of guys trying to anchor in the middle of the mooring field. Oh, oh…that’s not going to work. Following the lead of another friend of ours from another mooring experience, Randy went forward to tell them they were not supposed to anchor in the middle of a mooring field, there’s not enough room. There are plenty of places to anchor along the sides. They weren’t happy with his interference and said so. “We did NOT pay $25 for this mooring to worry about running into you in the middle of the night because you’re anchored too close! Now MOVE!” said Randy with a few expletives added in. A few expletives back…and they moved. Well that’s ONE way of having your new daughter-in-law get to know you! =)
We donned our a-little-bit-nicer attire and went into the Pirates Bight for dinner. It was a beautiful evening. After dinner we headed over to the Willy T for drinks. Skip was trying all the fancy drinks: Painkillers, Bushwackers. I think he preferred beer. But you need to try them while you’re there. It was a fun evening.
The next morning we had a nice breakfast in the cockpit and went over to the Caves to snorkel. It was sort of a windy, choppy day but not bad. The good thing about that …there weren’t many people there. This is the place I mentioned in my last post that we snorkeled and a big load of people were dumped off at one time by a catamaran. That wasn’t fun. Getting elbowed while you’re trying to enjoy the ocean life isn’t what I had in mind. This time it was perfect. Just a few of us there. And it was spectacular. We saw more and the sea was clearer. And Kim spotted a turtle eating on the bottom! So cool! What a fun day. I could do that over and over again. But it had to come to an end.

It was still early in the day so we decided to head over to Sopers Hole on Tortola to have a late lunch with Terri and Lyman our buddy boaters from the boat Sans Cles. I wanted the kids to meet them. And they could do a little shopping there. After lunch we unfortunately had to head back to the marina in anticipation of their flight home early the next morning. Too short a visit! We did dinghy over to Latitude 18 for a great dinner and some nice entertainment.

Up early and put the kids in a taxi for their ride back to the airport. Pooh! =( Too short a visit but so fun. It’s so good to spend close, quality time like this with your kids. I need more.

Now it’s time to get going. We have been in the Virgins a long time. We pointed the boat back to Sopers Hole on Tortola to do a 72 hour check-in/check-out of the BVIs. That should give us enough time to get down to Gorda Sound and head out the Anegada Passage to St Martin. We did our check in/out and headed to Coopers Island. We wanted to try to get to the Baths on Virgin Gorda before we headed out. We spent the night on the mooring at Coopers and got up early to head to the Baths. But it was not a good day. Very, very windy and the mooring was very choppy at the Baths. We decided not to stay. We weren’t comfortable leaving our boat on the mooring in such choppy seas. Oh well, you can’t see everything. We headed on around to Gorda Sound and anchored off of Prickly Pear where we had been before. This gives us great spot to get going to St Martin.

Because we had the kids visit we hadn’t been traveling with Terri and Lyman the last week or so. We caught up with them at Gorda Sound to make our future travel plans. Randy and I wanted to start going more quickly down the islands. Terri and Lyman wanted to go to Anegada first. So we decided to meet up in St Martin. Terri and Lyman have guests coming aboard in St Martin, but we told them we would wait there so we could see them one more time before we start going faster. We have been with Terri and Lyman since May 2009, so it’s going to be very hard to say good bye to them. The good thing is, they live in Portland, OR so we know we will see them again.

Just as our 72 hours was about up…who should appear at our anchorage in Gorda Sound but the immigration guys! Holy Cow! First time of all our travel that we’ve had them come to our boat. Fortunately for us, we had done the 72 hour in/out. And we had planned to leave that afternoon for the overnight to St Martin. Whew!

About 3pm we up anchor and head down the Anegada Passage, passing Richard Branson’s Necker Island as we go out. What a spot that is. Imagine owning your own island! He was hosting a whole slew of kite boarders that weekend apparently. Fun to watch them.

The weather was perfect, but there was no wind. But that’s ok in this case. We would be going against the wind anyway. So we motored with calm seas, a beautiful sunset and a beautiful full moon. Nice.

Early morning arrival in St Martin. We are now in the Leeward Islands. We put down the Virgin Islands Cruising Guide and pick up the Leeward Islands Guide. We decided to go to the Dutch side, St Maarten. There is also a French side, St Martin. We anchored in Simpson Bay. There is a lagoon inside this island but you must pass under a bridge at appointed hours to get inside and find an anchorage. For a couple of reasons, we decided to stay outside in Simpson Bay even though it was pretty roly. The main reason was the race. While we were there the St Maarten Yacht Club was hosting the Heineken Regatta which was spectacular. We discovered that the yachts came out of the lagoon and into Simpson Bay everyday to practice, and the finale of the race was next to where we were anchored. So much to see. And there were some very large yachts anchored out where we were. Always something to see when you live on a boat. Your back porch is a window to the world. We did put up with some big roly seas, but I thought it was worth it.

We took the dinghy inside to the lagoon to provision and get on the internet and go to Budget Marine and Island Water World, the big chandleries. We took the dinghy over to the French side which was very quaint with bistros. It was very hot that day and we stopped for a beer at one of the bistros and had the best Stella Artois beer from the tap. So cold and refreshing. When you’re hot, that’s when beer tastes best.

We visited the St Maarten Yacht Club now and then and mingled with the racers just a bit. Of course having Heineken beer. Low and behold….Ran and I are sitting at the yacht club having a beer and we spot Igor!! Igor whom we met in the Dominican Republic! Unbelievable. He was crewing on a race boat. That was fun. It’s such a small world.

We stayed at St Martin for a week wanting to see Terri and Lyman before we departed. They came in just as the regatta was ending. We spent some quality time with them and then had to say goodbye. They were waiting for friends to visit and Randy and I had decided we wanted to move a little faster. A gloomy wet morning Ran and I pulled up the anchor but not before giving a sad, sad goodbye to Terri and Lyman. We will miss them terribly. As we drove off the anchorage we went by their boat and Randy blew the conch horn. I think I cried most of the day. We had gotten to be really good friends.
But on we go to St Barths. On to a new experience.












It only took us 3 hours to St Barths but it was a gloomy trip. Just as we pull in, though, the sun started shining and we saw a whale spouting. Cool. And it smelled like flowers. How lovely. There was the weirdest looking yacht anchored outside the bay. We later learned that’s it’s called ‘A’ and is named after the man and woman who own her, whose names begin with A. They are Russian. There are some very rich Russians with yachts around. But this yacht was really different. Like a space ship!

I had been waiting to go to St Barths. This is where Jimmy Buffett supposedly wrote Margaritaville at the Le Select bar. I read all his books and of course love his music and lifestyle, and he spent a lot of time in these waters. My sister-in-law told me all about St Barths years ago when she had gone. At that time it all seemed so far away and mysterious. Little did I know that one day I would be sailing my own boat into St Barths. Go figure.
What a quaint little town. I loved it. I wish my daughter Lacey had been with me. We would have had a great time there. Of course we would need an unlimited credit card. Very expensive. But very classy. We checked into the country using the French computer. It’s actually a neat way of filling out the forms. But you have to be careful because some of the keys are in different spots on their computers, for some odd reason. And the French don’t use the English language much on their forms and signage. Everywhere else we go has an English translation…but not the French. But they were very nice. We had croissants and cappuccinos and wandered around the town walking up and down the hills and into the neighborhoods and we had a wonderful lunch with a wonderful glass of wine, overlooking the harbor. We didn’t stay long. Only 2 nights.


Now on to Nevis. I like to keep moving. I like stopping, too, but there’s something really neat about picking up anchor and traveling on to the next spot. A new adventure. We left St Barths at 0430 and arrived in Nevis at 1245. We took a mooring at Penney Beach. Nice anchorage, but a little roly. Pretty island though. We checked in at the Police Department which was a hoot. I guess the normal person wasn’t there so another official looking gal looked through their desk to see how to stamp the passports and figured out how to do ours. OK! Whatever it takes. They were really nice. We filled out all of our paperwork at the customs place but needed to go to the police department to have our passports stamped.
It’s always a new adventure going through customs and immigration at each spot.




While we were at the local spot for customs/immigration we decided to reserve a taxi to take us around the island the next day. Sarge was our driver. What we have discovered on our island treks is that there is a lot of the same stuff. Different island but old forts and old sugar plantations. They’re really neat though. Not sure it was worth the price of the cab ride. We ended up going to a lot of resorts that were made from old sugar plantations and are of course gorgeous and very exclusive. We didn’t get to see the monkeys. We didn’t get to a couple of other spots I thought we should see. But we did get to go around the island. We also walked around the area near our boat and saw some wonderful old churches. Interesting thing about Nevis is that Alexander Hamilton was born there. An interesting story. And of course Horatio Nelson was there. Horatio was married there. It’s kinda cool to think you’ve sailed the same waters as some of these famous people.


We spent 4 days in Nevis then up early and on to Antigua. Jolly Harbour will be our first stop there. It’s a nice protected area, but I was disappointed in what they had to offer. Often on these islands there are a lot of places that look like they were ‘hopping’ at one time but now you see a lot of them closed up. This was the case here. The mooring was nice and calm, particularly after the roly one in Nevis, but the town didn’t offer much. We did provision and filled with fuel and water at a decent price. We also had our laundry done…at an ok price. And they did have hot water! While in Jolly Harbour we ran into some people we met in Deltaville…Roy and Doon from New Zealand. Before we left Virginia they had their boat at Deltaville. Again…so fun to run into people you know…in this small world of ours. We spent a nice evening with them.

Now we are ready to head to English Harbour. We check the weather and decide to get up and go. We head out and turn left. Everything seems ok but it’s a bit breezy. We go along down the island at a pretty decent pace and start our turn toward English Harbour. To do that we poke our heads out at the southern end of the island and it’s blowing like crazy! We have our engine running, our main sail and staysail up and we are only doing 1knot!! OK…this ain’t gonna work! We decide to turn around and try it again another day. It’s not that far and we have time and we would have been ready to kill someone by the time we got there if we had continued against the wind and seas like that.

Off again…next morning it looks much better weather wise. Trying again to get to the other side of Antigua and English Harbour, where Lord Nelson held court. This day we got there likety split, no problem. I liked it much better. Very quaint and charming. Nice anchorage. Neat little town to walk to. Lots of historic buildings here. We stayed at English Harbour for 5 days. Igor and Caroline were there with the Conch Pearl. They brought the Conch Pearl from the Dominican Republic to Antigua. The Pearl is owned by our friend Neil whom we met in Rum Cay in the Bahamas. We traveled from Rum Cay to the DR with Conch Pearl but Neil peeled off and went to the Turks and Caicos. That’s where he met Igor and Caroline and they traveled together later to the DR. Neil brought the Pearl to Ocean World where we were staying and hired Igor and Caroline to clean her up and take her on down the islands. They got as far as Antigua, but the Pearl needs some extra work I’m afraid before she goes much further. It was fun seeing Igor and Caroline again, though. Not sure what their future plans will be.

In English Harbour we hiked up to Berkeley Heights to a great area for a Sunday night BBQ. Quite a hike up hill but well worth it. The view was spectacular and the ribs were fabulous! Not to mention the steel drum music and wonderful people we met there. The hike back down in the dark was a bit more of a challenge but we made it fine. Thanks to my Indian scout Randy.

One of the spectacular highlights we experienced while at English Harbour was the event of the Woodvale rowing competition. We didn’t realize what this was until these row boats…very modern and well equipped row boats…started trickling into the harbor under much fanfare. We later discovered they rowed from the Canary Islands all the way to Antigua! The first guy that made it in had been rowing for 75 days! And they came in for days after that. A couple of women teams, too. And some that were single handed. Amazing. It was quite something to see their boats and to think about what they had done in seas that had to have been much more of a challenge than what we’ve been through.

The weather looks good and we’re ready to head on down the islands. We’ve decided to do the next few islands more quickly. We will just anchor out at the next island and not check in. Then we will leave first thing in the morning. We want to quicken our pace a bit. And these islands seem to be the same in a lot of ways. Interesting but the same. Same relics of churches, forts and sugar plantations. We decide we don’t need to see them all. The next island down is Guadeloupe. It was nice and still the morning we departed Antigua. We motor out beyond the island and there’s a wonderful wind out there and we sail the whole way to Guadeloupe, doing 6 knots mostly which is pretty good for our boat. Nice. We pulled into Des Haies at a sweet, quiet anchorage. As we are stowing après sail things a skiff approaches and asks if we’d like baguettes in the morning. Oh man!! Of course we do! But…we are leaving too early. Darn it. We enjoy a wonderful sunset, briefly flying our Guadeloupe courtesy flag along with the yellow quarantine flag.


Up early, early and we’re heading to Dominica. We are bypassing the Saintes, just below Guadeloupe, which are fabulous islands according to friends who have been. We hate to miss that but we just don’t want to take that much time. Our goal now is to get over to Panama by late May early June. Originally we were going to head to Trinidad and leave our boat there for the hurricane season. But we have decided to step it up a bit and get closer to home before then. So Dominica is another island we just anchored off.

First into Prince Rupert Bay. We had big winds along the way and sailed half way but had to turn into the wind to approach the island. I lost my favorite Island Packet hat along the way! Darn it! Randy wouldn’t turn around for it. =) I thought we could practice our man overboard drills. Oh well. I have a zillion other hats but that was my favorite to wear while traveling. I have a clip to put on it, but obviously I didn’t use it. Got settled into Pr Rupert Bay and were immediately approached by boats wanting to sell things. But we didn’t need any of their wares. Again we put up our quarantine flag and the Dominica flag and watch the beautiful sunset. It got a little chilly that evening.

Next day we did a short sail down to Roseau, Dominica for overnight. Again anchored off shore. Again we were approached by boats selling things. And ‘Did you pay for the mooring?’ which we had to take there in Roseau. ‘No we haven’t paid.’ ‘I’d be glad to take the money for you.’ ‘Thank you. That would be nice. Would you please bring us a receipt?’ ‘No problem.’ Never saw him again, as you probably guessed. Roseau was not the greatest spot we had anchored. Not a pretty shoreline and the fellow in the skiff made us uncomfortable. Oh well…we are leaving manana.

Up early, early again and off to Martinique, destination Fort de France. It’s a nice, still morning. Had a big but short squall along the way. Found a great spot to anchor along the pretty city front. Again I could smell flowers as we approached the island. We are now in the Windward Islands. Close the Leeward Guide Book and open the Windward. We are makin’ time.

I liked Martinique. It was very French which I loved. The check in on the French islands is Simple Simon. Nice. The great thing about the guide books we use is that they tell you where everything is in the islands. For instance, they direct you where to check in. In Fort de France, we checked in at Sea Services, a chandlery on the main road. It is owned by folks that speak perfect English. Excellent. And they had good wares in their shop, including St James apparel which I love. Ciarla, who is from Canada originally, even let us collect a FedEx package there at her business. So nice and so helpful. Because our health coverage is Kaiser we can only receive 90 days of medication at a time. This is not helpful when you’re traveling around like we are. But we like our health coverage and don’t want to change so we put up with having to receive a package every 3 months or so. You can get medication easily in Martinique, and some other countries, so we both have stocked up a bit on what we need in case there’s a delay in a package being received wherever we are. So our daughter Lacey packed us a package to receive in Martinique.

When Randy and I were in St Maarten we decided to buy an unlocked iPhone to use. a/ we can use it to get internet when ashore, b/ we can buy a local sim card to make local calls which comes in handy if we are in a port for a long time. In Martinique we set off to find a sim card for the area. We found Orange, which is a cell store there and on other islands. Of course not many speak English (constantly surprises us when the main business on these islands is tourism) so we had to find someone we could communicate with. We found a very handsome young man that spoke pretty good English. Excellent. However, $80 USD later…we figure we bought the wrong thing. Oh well! We also thought it would be cheaper when calling home. In St Maarten it was. In Fort de France it was not. Oh well…live and learn. Back to Skype.

There was not a good internet source from the boat in Fort de France so we had to find internet cafes. We have a booster antenna on our boat and can often find unsecured internet sources that don’t require passwords from there. But there were none to be had in our location in Martinique. So we packed up our computers and took them for a dinghy ride into town. We found a little bar upstairs on the main road that had internet. Beer and email go together. We found an even better source a few days later. It was a wonderful bistro a little off the beaten path that had a great, secure internet and wonderful salads! And, of course, beer.

We stayed in Martinique at Fort de France for 5 days. The plan now was to head to St Lucia, then Bequia, the Tobago Cays and on to Grenada. We started out early, early which we like to do. We got past the island and had really great wind and were sailing along beautifully. We were making good time. ‘Hey, El, since we’re going along so well…want to just keep going?’ ‘Sounds good to me!’ So we decided not to stop in St Lucia, not to stop in Bequia and not to stop in Tobago Cays. We went all the way to Grenada in one fell swoop of a trip. We weren’t able to sail the whole way but we had the great full moon and the seas were good. I know we missed visiting some nice places, but that’s ok. We are on a boat delivery trip.

We arrived at the bottom of Grenada, Prickly Bay, at 1100 the next morning on the 3 April. It’s very dry here! Not what we expected at all. I thought it would be lush and green. It seems that many of these islands are having a drought. We found a good spot to anchor. We decided to rest all that day and check into the country the next day, Sunday. We are now at the end of the Windward Islands!

The customs and immigration folks were wonderful here. As you know from previous postings that is not always the case. But these guys made us feel so welcome and glad that we are there. After checking in we went over to the little outdoor restaurant there to see about something to eat. That’s when we met Beryl and Claus. They had just arrived after sailing from South Africa for 53 days straight! They had 50 something feet catamaran. Oh my! Beryl was having a hard time being on land. I guess so! And she was so fun and smiley and laughing a lot. I would have been ready to kill someone after 53 days at sea! I later told Randy…I’m changing my attitude. I need to be more glad. =) What an inspiration she was in only the short time we had known her. Needless to say we spent some wonderful days in Grenada with Beryl and Claus.

We learned to take the bus in Grenada. Had to get downtown to the chandlery and to the store and to explore. We didn’t do too much exploring. Seemed like we were doing more chores than exploring. But the buses were a hoot. ‘Look for the little buses with the ONE on the front. That’s the one to take to town and get back here.’ OK. We walk up the street a bit to the rotunda and find the bus. They are like a really small van with a million seats packed inside. There is a driver and there is a guy that sits near the sliding door and hangs out trying to find more passengers. The holler at anybody they see that might possibly ride in their bus. Some were very aggressive at finding passengers. Quite the trip. They pack you in there and you hope they understand where you want to get off. And it’s hot. The worst was when Ran and I went downtown to where the cruise terminals are to the outside market. Looking for fresh vegetables, fruit, and then went to the regular market for some extra stuff we needed. We bought our wares and then had to tote them down to the bus depot. Not a short trip. Then they piled us on the little bus. We had to stack everything on our laps, hoping not to crush the fresh bread we bought. Thank heaven I’m not claustrophobic and they had windows to open. I was really glad to get off that bus, even though we had to walk another half mile or so back to the place we parked our dinghy. Our arms were falling off by the time we got there. So we stopped for a beer first. =)

On some of the islands where we have been there has been a cruisers’ net on the VHF radio. This was the case here in Grenada. The other instance was in Georgetown, Bahamas. It’s actually quite a good thing. Every morning at 7:30, or whatever appointed hour they choose, on a particular channel…for Grenada it was 68…they broadcast what is going on in the area that cruisers might be interested in. They ask who is new to the area, who might be leaving, do you have anything you need or want to get rid of, they give you the weather, and the businesses around announce any news they might have…like happy hours or specials in their restaurant or tours they are offering of the island. It’s very helpful. You can put in a ‘query’ if you need to know, for instance, where to get water or fuel or have you laundry done or if anyone is heading the direction you are going and want to travel together or if you want to go together and rent a car, etc. Often, too, the cruisers group does things for the island people, like volunteer in their schools or do a cleanup of their beaches, etc. It’s quite a nice idea and comforting to know there’s help if you need it.

We ended up staying in Grenada for almost 3 weeks. Our next trip was to Bonaire and it was going to be a 3 or 4 day trip so we needed to watch the weather closely. While we were waiting a young man approached our boat in his dinghy with 2 little kids. He had heard we were heading to Bonaire. They were going that way, too, and wanted to travel with another boat. We like that as well, especially on the longer trips. We chatted a bit and decided on a date to leave. What a lovely little family. The Vrenkens. Roel is Dutch but lived in France. He is a teacher. Isabelle is French and she is a doctor. Tessa is 7 years old and Yoan is 22 months. Though they are from France they now live in New Caledonia! Roel has sailed for many years and found the boat he wanted in Europe so they are taking it back home to New Caledonia. In France, when you have a baby you can take 3 years off and still get your job back. You don’t get paid for the time off but your job is there when you return. So they are taking this time to travel home. There life in New Caledonia sounds fascinating. Not sure if it will happen but it would be wonderful to visit them there. But I’ll fly…not take our boat.


We leave at 0800 on 22 April after filling with fuel and water the day before. We will be able to sail for the first time most of the way, if not all of the way. The wind and the seas will be behind us. We will sail wing and wing, which is having your jib sail out on one side with a whisker pole holding it and having your mainsail out on the opposite side. With the wind at your back this configuration allows both sails to fill full of wind. It’s not the easiest configuration to set up but it’s worth it. We scooted along very nicely. Randy made a preventer for our mainsail. If the wind makes a shift at all the mainsail can let go and jibe (swing to the other side.) This is not what you want to happen. Roel’s boat, Quic en grogne, is longer and faster so he had to hold back a bit so we could stay together.

It took us 3 days to get to Bonaire. We did pretty well, sailing along. But Randy worked hard to keep our sails full. We did have some problems and of course they all happen at night when you can’t see. But they were minor…just annoying. It’s a sail position I like, but when the seas are big…as they were many times…it’s VERY roly. Good thing we had everything nailed down below. We did have a time in the middle of the night when the winds got big and the preventer broke. WHAM! Sounded like the whole mast had come down! I was down below trying to sleep. Woohoo! There’s never a dull moment when you’re sailing. Well…that’s not true. There are tons of dull moments when you’re just drifting along. But you know what I mean.

We saw some neat stuff on this trip. We saw the green flash which was amazing! It occurs just as the sun sets on the water. I thought it was just a myth but it’s true! I didn’t take a picture but I found one online. We saw some Portuguese Man o War floating by…looking like bathtub toys. We didn’t know what they were at the time but found out later. Weird looking and not very big for being such mean things. We had dolphins playing beside us for quite awhile. Dolphins are the best. They have such fun. They jump and dive and race with your boat. Unfortunately it was after dark, but we had a full moon. I was hoping they would make phosphorescence but they didn’t. Dolphins just make you feel good and we hadn’t seen some for awhile.

We arrived in Bonaire, tied to a mooring, at 0645 on 25 April. We actually arrived around 0300 but hung around outside as we were not familiar with the area. We follow the rule of not going into any new area in the dark. The mooring was along the city front. Kralendijk (don’t ask me how to pronounce it) was the name of the town. The water was crystal clear. I just love that. That’s what I loved most about the Bahamas. The water there was spectacular. We could snorkel from our boat and see more fish and coral than when we were in the water in the Virgin Islands! Loved it.

We stayed in Bonaire for a week. The first night we were there we were invited for drinks and wonderful, majorly yummy Korean hors d’oeuvres on a catamaran, Slow-Mocean two moorings down from us. Blake, Sunny and Eileen. They noticed our Seattle, Washington hailing port on the back of our boat and invited us over. Fun! They are from Seattle. Nice people. Then…to top it off… Roel and Isabelle invited us over for dinner to have a fish they caught on the way. No…we have not caught any fish yet. No…we are not trying very hard. Yes…we should try harder because they’re so good! Not sure what recipe Isabelle used but it was like sashimi. Soooooo good. Good food, good wine, good people. Love this part of this life. A nice way to start our stay in Bonaire.

The highlight of Bonaire….the Harley ride. So fun! Roel had stopped by the boat and said he had found a place to rent Harleys. Do we want to go with them and tour the island? Are you kidding? YES! Randy went downtown and reserved one for us. Roel had to reserve a trike because they had the whole family. What a fun day! We drove all over the island and ended up at a perfect beach where they do a lot of sail boarding. We had some of the best calamari and a wonderful salad for lunch. The beach was perfect for the little ones as there was a nice shallow area where they could play. The sand was like powder. It was a long, hot, fun, fun day. Randy and I had always wanted to rent a Harley and ride. Now we have done it!

Now it’s time to go on to Curaçao. Just a short trip. We departed Kralendijk (I still don’t know how to pronounce it, but it looks good doesn’t it?) at 0810 on 2 May. Again, sailing wing and wing. The seas got a bit big, but at least they’re behind us. No way could we have gone if we were beating into the seas. We had no cruising guide for Curaçao. We had a brief one for Bonaire that included Venezuela, but none for Curaçao. We got online and on our charts and found where we wanted to go and headed out…again with Quic en grogne. BTW…that’s pronounced sort of like this: keek in groi-ña. Roughly, according to Roel, it means ‘others may grumble, I don't care’. It's old French - older than the 19th century.

We arrived and anchored in Spanish Waters, Curaçao at 1500. Kind of breezy in here and very crowded. But we were able to find spots to anchor together. It’s good holding and it’s not roly. Two important things to me. Unfortunately the water is not as nice and clear here as in Bonaire. There are people swimming in it but I don’t think I will. As we got settled, I checked online for an internet source and found one available for yachts. It also had all the information about the area we needed available. That was extremely helpful as we needed to know where to go to check in! We again decided to check in the next day. You usually have 24 hours in which you can check in but you need to put up your yellow quarantine flag in the meantime.




















Up the next day we go off with Roel to check in to the country. We knew there was a bus scheduled to go by near the dinghy dock, and we had also heard of small buses like in Grenada that also stop by. Unfortunately we missed the early morning bus but knew there would be another around 1030. It was now 930. Ugh. Hopefully one of the small buses will come by. They didn’t. We walked up the road a bit thinking we might see one. We did see a couple, but they did not stop. Certainly wasn’t at all like Grenada where they were hanging out of the small buses trying to drum up customers!

We finally get on a large, very nice bus and head into town. We told the bus driver to take us to customs. And that happened to be near the bus station so that worked out well. We asked a few people where it was and along our way we come to the floating market we had heard about. So neat! Boats from Venezuela come in and tie up together and sell the most wonderful fruits and vegetables. I loved it. We decided to buy some on our way back.

First we need to find customs. Finally found it…big yellow building on the water. We fill out our paperwork there, no problem. In the meantime we run into people we had met in Bonaire; the crew from Slow-Mocean and another catamaran that was in Bonaire. They had left early in the morning and were just getting to customs. What happened? They were told to go to immigration first, which was on the other side of the waterway. But when they got to immigration and after waiting in line over there, they were told they must go to customs first! Oh dear. We lucked out I guess and blindly went to customs first. Phew! Now we had to cross over the water and try to find immigration.

They have a floating bridge you use to cross the water but it was being moved aside for ship traffic. Kind of cool! But we were able to take the ferry across which was just leaving. Another lucky move. Across on the other side we again ask directions and walk up to immigration. We had to show our passports to get down by the water where immigration was. Now we wait in line. It is finally our turn and Roel goes first. They are very slow here. They told Roel his whole family must come in. What?! The standard rule is that the captain checks everyone in. Brings in there passports, etc. That way there aren’t a million people waiting around. And there was no problem in that regard with customs. But this lady said he must bring in his whole family. And it must be done today. What??!! Roel is not happy. Randy is not happy that Roel has to go through that. I usually go in with Randy because I have better printing than he does to fill out the forms and I always want to take pictures etc and see everything. But for Roel, he would have to drag in the little ones and put them through what can become a long process. And today was one of those days.

When Randy and I had finished Roel again asked if he could please just get it all done now. They wanted him to bring his family back when they reopen at 2000 which would have been very late and dark. No way. Finally another woman who looked more in charge decided he could complete transaction. Thank heavens. This was the most time consuming and difficult check in we had encountered. Bonaire was a breeze! Now we had to go to the Port Captains office to again fill out paperwork and pay for anchoring in one of their ports. Just a minor fee. But…the office was closed for lunch. We had to wait. Finally…we got it all done and were by now starving.

Roel was concerned that Isabelle was probably worried about us all since it had been so long! But we stop for lunch and a beer. We stop by the floating market and get some produce, we wait at the bus station for the bus back. We make it back to the dinghy dock and finally get back to the boat. My goodness! The good part about the day was seeing the neat buildings downtown and the floating market. I want to go back and see those again. Of course we have to go back anyway to check out of the country. Hopefully that will go more swiftly. I suppose another hassle rant could be added here but I’m not gonna do it. I do appreciate this experience good, bad or ugly. And my self indulgence has been spoken for.

We are now waiting to go on. We want to continue to travel with Quic en grogne. I think we will go to Cartagena and then on to the San Blas Islands. That will be about a 4 or 5 day trip. But we are waiting for weather. Nothing new there! We need a good weather window to continue on. In the meantime we are enjoying Curaçao.

Yeah, I know…this was another LONG post and…yeah, I know I should do them more often and make them less long. Each time I think that’s what I’m going to accomplish. But you never know next time!