Dominica

Hello...we are currently in Dominica - arrived yesterday, 3/28/06 from the Saintes off of Guadeloupe. It is very beautiful here, the island is very green and lush. They say that when Christopher Columbus tried to explain the topography and landscape to the Queen of Spain he had to resort to crumpling a piece a paper and dropping it, this showed how the land was laid out. We will be doing a few tours here to see the Indian River and then inland to see a waterfall, not sure exactly what yet, they have guides and we'll find out which tours are good ones. The guides come to your boat and are very friendly. They used to have a problem here with the guides coming out of everywhere and some not so knowledgeable, or honest. The have created an association of river guides now and if you chose one of these, you will do well. They also have boat vendors coming out on surfboards. They will sell you fresh fruit or take your trash, etc. We'll put some more pictures on the blogger as soon as we can get to an internet cafe, were having too much fun right now though :) There is so much to do here in Dominica that its hard to choose, and we want to keep moving to get south where we might find that secluded beach. Life's a bitch :)))

Hi to John and Barbara Bray who are following our site, thanks for relying the messages to Sheri. And a big thanks to sister Linda who has been helping with our mail and taxes and Robin for the camera parts, and both of them for copying our dvd's for the family, you don't how much this helps us.

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Nevis

Hello all, were still in Nevis enjoying it alot. We're waiting for a weather window now to move on. We may go to Montserrat but have heard that there is currently volcanic activity occuring so we may go straight on to Guadaloupe. Monserrat is currently an active volcano with two thirds of the island being in an exclusion zone that no one but scientists are allowed to enter. We heard this morning that there was some activity occuring now which widened the exclusion zone. The report said that at night there is an orange glow visible and in the day smoke and ash travel for miles. If we do go it will be just for an overnight stop and we will go to the port at the Northern tip of the island. Either way if we stay or pass by, we will have to go past the island on the east side so we do not catch the smoke or ash. We'll watch the reports and decide when we get our weather window. The winds are very light right now and the northerly swell is very large so we have to wait a bit. Since our last update we've had alot of adventures. It's very hard to load pictures or even access the site at some of the internet cafe's so we can't update more frequently, but we'll keep trying.
To fill you in, after Marigot, St. Martin, we sailed to Grand Case, St. Martin to spend the night and leave early the next day for St. Barts. We didn't have much time in Grand Case, but it was great - we ate dinner ashore at a barbeque place and enjoyed the town a bit. It is very quaint with mostly restaurants right on the beach. The next morning we sailed to Gustavia, St. Barts overnighted in the anchorage of Anse du Corossol, checked in then sailed to a little Island of the coast of St. Barts called Ile Fourchue. The island is completely deserted with no people or animals on it (just bugs, birds and lizards). It was very relaxing and beautiful. Some days there were only a few boats in the achorage and we explored the island completely. The views were incredible. After Ile Fourchue we sailed over to Anse du Colombier which is on the tip of St. Barts. It's a very protected cove and the only access is by boat or hike that is 1 mile to 1 1/2 miles. This bay was originally owned by the Rockefellers who built a house on one of the hills. The locals usually spend their holidays on that beach to let the Rockefellers know they do not really own it. We took the hike over the hill to another great beach and little town. It was a great scenic hike and the little town was again very quaint.
We left St. Barts from Anse du Corossol at 3:45 AM (Friday, not sure the date) for a somewhat night sail to Nevis. We wanted to get to the Narrows (the inlet between St. Kitts and Nevis) in good daylight and arrived about 10:15. The night sail was very interesting. You can't see much but there are alot of stars. At one point Mike shut off the deck lights and left just the top Navigation Lights (top of the mast) on and it was like a whole new world the plankton glow and illuminate a trail on the sides and behind the boat. We enjoyed it alot and watched the moon come up in about 1/8 full right before the sunrose. It was a very beautiful sunrise at sea. We came into Nevis about noon on Friday and customs closes at 12:00 so we had to put up the quarantine flag and wait till Monday morning to check in. We anchored at Pinney Beach and it's the best beach we have seen so far. We love the people here and the island. We met a couple here Cliff and Orma on Skylark, who taught us Mexican Train Dominoes, they were very nice. We have gone on a bike ride on a bike trail that was very hard to find (a dirt road), we hiked on a path (very overgrown) to try and find a deserted plantation, but the vegetation got to dense for us to pass, visited a fort, and took a hike to see the local monkeys - we were very lucky and spotted alot of them. First when we took the wrong path and then when we got through on the right path - they were right there on the road we came in on. We've met alot of interesting local people, who have all been just great - there are the nicest people on this island. Kim's toe is getting better, but still no toenail :((....

Cheers Mike and Kim