Still in Dominica

Hello all, finally found an internet cafe so we can share some pictures. We are doing great and having a wonderful time. Since leaving Nevis we have visited Guadeloupe, The Saintes and Dominica. We sailed overnight to Guadeloupe bypassing Montserrate because we had a wind change and layed anchor at 6:00 AM at Pigeon Island Anchorage in Guadeloupe. The Jacques Cousteau marine park is here around Pigeon Island with a very small town. We could not check in here so we went down to Basse Terre to try to check in at the Marine Rivere, however, they were closed - we were told by another cruising couple we met in Nevis that is was really hard to find a customs office open in Guadeloupe and checking in and out could be very difficult, it's true!!! We didn't want to stay at the anchorage in Marine Rivere because we were anchored on a shelf with a huge drop off and the shelf was not very large, so we decided to sail to the Saintes a group of Islands just off the coast of Guadeloupe to try and check in---we could not---surprise, surprise. We needed to find someone to fix a stanchion on the boat so we sailed back to the main Island in an achorage called Pointe Pitre and finally were able to check in. The anchorage was outside the main harbour, on a little islet which was very pretty, but the other side of our view was a big city and lots of industry...so we provisioned, made some phone calls and went to a little anchorage around the corner called Grosier to wait for a weather window to head back to the Saintes where we were told we could check out with the Police. Grosier was very nice for a couple of days, quiet until the weekend. It is a local hangout and on Sunday the little bay was filled with power boats, day sailors and jet skies. We enjoyed our stay there and left for the Saintes when the weather was right. We only stayed overnight at the Saintes and left the next morning for Dominica. The Saintes were very pretty, but there anchorages were very crowded.
We had a great sail to Dominica and arrived in 6 hours. The landscape is so beautiful here, it is all green everywhere. We came in Portsmouth and anchored in the secluded part of the bay on the south side. We were greated by and Indian River Guide, Martin on Providence (the name of his boat) who would arrange for the tours on the Island. The Indian River Guides will also help you arrange to get your laundry done, take your garbage and other services. Martin arranged a land tour for us, with Jeffrey as our guide, it was an all day tour with some hiking and swimming. The island of Dominica has every spice, fruit or vegetable you would want, as well as excellant fish, teas, coffee and cocoa - and plenty of it. On the tour Jeffrey showed us various spices, such as Bay Leave, Cinammon, lime leaves, nutmeg, lemon grass, vanilla, just to name a few. We even got to take some leaves back to the boat. We stopped at a little hut on the way that was the local bay leaf distallery, the local farmers bring their bay leaves here, crush the leaves and slowly burn them keeping the oil to bring to the refinery in Roseau, the capital of Dominica. A large use of this oil is for mens aftershave lotion. Our next stop was a cold water sulfer springs. This part of the island is the oldest so the water has cooled and it bubbles up very cold, still good for ailments though so Kim took some and and washed her face, she looks 20 years younger :) There was a very strong sulfer smell there and many ponds. Jeffrey showed us all kinds of different plants such as the sensitive plant that closes when you touch it, many beautiful flowers and one special plant that allowed you to tatto yourself. Kim got here first leaf tattoo....The interior of the islands has many individual farmers whose farms lie on very steep hills. The farmers are very hard working and grow bananas, grapefruit, mangos, papayas, provisions-which are root vegetables, cabbage, and many many more. We stopped along the way and bought some fruits and vegetables from a local farmer who had just picked them. They bring them to a little hut and sort them out and package them to bring down to the town market or for export. We traveled down the coast and saw the location where they filmed Pirates of the Carribean 2 then went inland again to take our final hike to a fresh water pond and take a swim, it was so refreshing, crystal clean water. We just moved to the north end of the anchorage which is closer to town and a dock so we can go ashore more often. The internet cafe is here also. We have a tour tomorrow with Martin to go up the Indian River, which is supposed to be very beautiful. He rows you up the river under a canopy of vegetation with lots of birds and a little hiking on land, we will share pictures of that later. That is all for now, we are waiting for some mail then a weather window to start heading south again. Would love for anyone to leave comments on the site and to hear from you!! Cheers Mike and Kim
For Robin: we couldn't upload the pics on yahoo...but here they are.

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

St. Barts

Hello all,were here in St. Barts arrived Saturday overnighted in Corossol next to Gustavia, checked in then Sunday we went to Ile Fourche and Island off St. Barts with nothing on it, were here tonight and all is good, don't know where we'll be tomorrow but we'll update with pics when we get to an inhabited island with an internet hookup...maybe....cheers Mike and Kim

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Anguilla to Marigot Bay

First off HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY to my (Kim's) sister-in-law Sheri... Sorry I couldn't call....We've been here in Marigot Bay, the French side of St. Martin for about a week. We've been doing some minor repairs and taking care of Kim's toe before we head out for St. Barts. We got the water maker (knock on wood) running and producing quality water now, so that is going to be a big time saver - no more water runs with jugs or going to the dock in Ka'imi for water :)) It's great were making our own water from sea water, and it could run on just the wind generator on windy days, which makes Ka'imi pretty much self sustaining!! The first picture is of Sandy Island, a little island off Anguilla - not much there, just sand and a palm tree - cool. The second picture is the view from our boat one morning, rainbows are quiet common and this one was just incredible, you can't really capture it on film. We watched it while drinking our coffee and considering how damn lucky we are. The rest of that morning we watched the little bait fish hanging around the boat. There are flying fish in the Bay too, we see them in front of us when were riding in the dinghy.

We took a walk up to Fort Louis an old fort here in Marigot. It was very picturesque at the top, not much left of the Fort but the views were incredible. It was Sunday and on the Islands Sundays are very quiet days. Not much is open and most of the locals are taking the day off at the beach or at their homes. There just very mellow days, with little or no tourists around. So it was very deserted when we went to the fort and you have to walk up back alleys and through a graveyard and peoples back yards. On our way down, we saw a local guy running up towards us. Mike was looking through this deserted building and Kim was a little way past that looking at another building. The guys runs past Kim and stops at a locked gate right before Mike. Mike came down to Kim and we started walking while watching the guy (he looked slightly strung out). He disappeared for awhile then got behind us and as we got to the street he ran past us. When he was in front of us on the sidewalk he pulls out the 8-10" blade kitchen knife from the inside of the back of his pants and puts it in his back pocket (big back pockets), then takes his shirt off and wraps it around his waist and went walking on.....we just stood there wondering if we hadn't just almost been mugged????? Makes you wonder and be a little more cautious...

Besides that we are doing great, were waiting for a weather window to go to St. Barts. Kim's foot will be just like new in four months--in the meanwhile she is being careful not to stub it and she can go swimming in one more day :)))) Here's a picture of it after the doctor looked at it and zapped a hole it in to release the pressure, with the weapon a solid stainless steel wench handle - it's heavy. If you have a weak stomach stop now and don't scroll down to the picture. She crushed it on the sail back from Anguilla, the seas and winds were high and she was using the wench (with a non locking wench handle) to tighten the reef line in the main when the wench handle came out of the wench and a wave hit the side of the boat throwing her off balance and - SLAM - with all her might on the end of her poor little toe :(( after that lots of @#$##@#$$%^%$##)*&^&* and MIKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE... The toenails gone now and she is on the heal.

Cheers for now

Mike and Kim

Happy Valentines Day....

Change of Plans

We are currently in french st martin ..the weather changed in route to st barths and kims big toe had a fight with the wench handle while reefing the main - the wench handle won!!!! shes fine we,ll head to st barths when weather permits. on a french keyboard - so typing is a challenge---cheers mike & kim

Anguilla

We made it to Anguilla!!!! We checked out of the French side of St. Marten on Tuesday, very little hassle. It was great we just filled out papers, got stamped and all for free, they were veryWe made it to Anguilla!!!! We checked out of the French side of St. Marten on Tuesday, with nice. We left St. Martin at 8:15 am on Wednesday, took a sail up the coast and stopped for lunch at a little cove on the french side of St. Martin. We then headed over to Anguilla, arriving about 3:30 PM. The check in here in Anguilla was also very easy, a few more papers to fill out, but everybody was very friendly. The sail over here was great, the winds were 5-10 knots and 4-6 ft swells. We averaged about 6 knots. The people here in Anguilla a very friendly and the Island is beautiful. Our first day we kinda took it easy, checked out the beach, had lunch at Roy's and met a cat named Tigger. Then of course swimming, right off the boat :). Our second day we took a little tour on our bikes, we thought the Island was going to be flat, but there were a couple of hills -- eek -- very hot. We had a blast and saw a lot of the island. We are waiting for a weather window and then we will head to St. Barths. Maybe Monday...we aren't sure. If the forecast we have stays the same we'll take the route at the bottom of the page.

We're doing GREAT, and hope all you at home are too. We are still working on getting our sailmail going, the SSB Radio is a little difficult, if there are any pros out there, send us an email, we NEED your help!!

Outta Here :))

We finally checked out today and are leaving first thing in the morning. We are heading for Anguilla for a rest. We want to play. Our future updates will be more about the Islands and cruising life, than work so stay tuned and we will update with some good stuff soon. Until then we will be out sailing :) and enjoying.

Final Preparations

We're making our final preparations to leave Sint Maarten....the major work is done and we're finishing up the little things. All the navigation lights are working now, it might have taken us a little longer that we thought, because of Mike's new tradition of taking siesta's....look at that innocent face...back to work. We have the water maker plumbed in but haven't started it yet, cause the water in the lagoon ain't the cleanest. We start provisioning the boat now and we'll set a departure date.
Lots of excitement in the lagoon as the winds have been gusting up to 30 knots. A guy from the boat yard launched a couple of days ago and anchored right next to us. He dragged all night and the next day, at one point we went over and helped him re-anchor. Mike was driving the boat around the lagoon while the guy cleaned the mud off of his anchor and I tried to help Mike by telling him what was in front of him - not good visibility from this guys cockpit. His anchor is a Claw and he swears by it......in our opinion it makes a terrible anchor, but it makes a great channel dregging tool :)
In between the gusts of 25 knots we had to climb the mast to fix all the lights, we didn't think to check it when we had the mast off in the boat yard..lesson learned. So Mike goes halfway up the main mast to fix the deck light and steaming light...he wanted down. He told Kim it was her turn to learn to climb the mast, and she should go to the very top to change the bulb in the Navigation light. Mike likes it better at the bottom. The wind seemed to gust as soon as Mike started to climb, but when it was Kim's turn, calm...we were also battleing the rain that day little squalls would come in, off course only when Mike was up :) So now there's work to do on the Mizzen mast...guess who's going up..yup-Kim.
Here's a picture of our anchorage from the top. The boat you see directly behind us is called Pura Vida - a pure life. They seem to like to run around naked, so sometimes we eat inside the boat. We saw them on the beach on Christmas too...yup naked. Bye the way there like 60, and the son is about our age. Lots of good stories in the anchorage. At night we just relax and watch the sunset, the boats and the neighbors and hope they have some clothes on.
Our first destination will be Anguilla, we're going to take a day sail and have some fun, then go over to Road Bay, drop the anchor - take a much needed break from boat work and explore the island, read some books and figure out our next destination. It's all good here and we wish everyone back home well. Cheers Mike and Kim

The Good Life

Just a quick update..we have wireless connection now, but the connection is slow and unreliable where we are (it's free access at Shrimpy's so we can't complain :) We are now on a mooring. It belongs to someone we met in the boatyard, and they are not ready to go in the water yet, so we traded our air conditioner for it's use till we leave. It's really nice, we have a great view. We are almost there, just a few more projects and we can head out the bridge and start our first cruise. Till later, Mike and Kim