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

SPLASH!!!!

FINALLY - all the standing rigging replaced and we splashed the boat. Captain Mike expertly steered Ka'imi through very narrow channels to the FKG riggers where we had the new roller furling installed and then spent the night on their docks. It was great to finally be in the water, and our biggest joy was being able to use our own bathrooms and not walk through dirt and fiberglass city to relieve yourself and take a cold shower in muratic acid rinsed showers.......they don't know what Drano is here they use Muratic acid to clear the drains - however - that doesn't work so you end up with really white feet.


The next day we left FKG's dock and Captain Mike took us back through the narrow channels and we finally anchored in the lagoon at the Witches tit. We got the Main Sail and shade cover on then spent a very relaxing evening enjoying our new home, playing backgammon and realizing what a great life we have!!!!!! The only problem we had at FKG was when they asked for the sheets to finish installing the Genoa Sail....Mike looked at Kim very puzzled - that was a big mistake, cause Kim had the deer in the headlights look. Finally after a couple of uhs - Mike finally asked what a sheet was, just before Kim was about to grab the bedsheets. Their lines - the ones you use on the sails - need to read up on our terminology I guess....
Captain Mike in the dinghy checked out the snubber line and took a couple of pictures of Ka'imi finally settled in. The last pic is a view from our cockpit. We are doing very well, taking a couple of days off to relax, though we still have to run errands. Then we'll start working on things above the water line, and in a couple weeks take off for our first shakedown cruise, most likely Anguilla. We're looking forward to New Years and maybe we can even stay up till midnight this year on New Years Eve - since were sooo relaxed. Till the next time - Happy New Year to you, cheers from Ka'imi

Christmas Day

We had an excellant Christmas. We took the day off and went to the beach. It was a beautiful day!!This was Captain Mike enjoying the plunge, he needed a day off. All boat projects were finished so the day really was relaxing.

Kim took her wine and stayed in the water most of the day, and the Captain looked on.


If anybody was wondering where Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer was this year, she was here in St. Maarten - we found her. After spotting Rudolph Kim had to find a phone to make her Christmas phone calls. The only problem was we forgot our new zip code so we couldn't charge them to our card. Kim had to call her mom collect and relay messages to everybody. Sorry Kris and Linda that I couldn't call and Happy Belated Birthday to Linda, Kim's sis.

Merry Christmas from the Caribbean

Merry Christmas
Well, were still in the boat yard, but at least the Captain has had a cup of coffee. The good news is we are set to go in the water this Thursday, the 22nd, so by Christmas we should be anchored off in the lagoon. We have made friends in the boat yard, and have a wide variety of animals here. This is our neighbor cat. There are many other cats and dogs wandering around, so we have lots of company. We've completed alot of projects and are waiting on the completion of the rest. The dinghy davits are repaired, we've bleeded the fuel from our new tanks to the engine, we've sanded the bottom and will put the first coat of bottom paint on Tuesday, we will get the rest of rigging to the riggers on Monday so the new rigging and new roller furler will be ready to go on Friday morning. They are putting us in the water on Thursday, and will leave us in the bay overnight so we can get the motor going alright. We have been working from dawn to dusk, so we decided to pay a local kid to polish the hull, wish we'd thought of this before :) he's only charging $100 to do the whole thing. We could of saved some achy muscles on the boat bottom sanding if we'd known it would be this cheap.We are still waiting on the guy who manufactured our fuel tanks to finish some stuff for us. He also has to come out and fix the batteries. When we load tested the batteries we found out that when they replaced the tank and put the batteries back in they did it all backwards, this explains why our battery voltage wasn't reading right.Happy Birthday to Kristopher (he's the one on the left), Kim's son, he turned 27 on December 14th!!! He's still living in Hawaii, and Kim misses him alot. Happy Birthday Baby!!!
All our love to our family and friends and we wish you a very Merry Christmas. The next time we write, we will probably, officially be boat people :)