Homeward

Hi, everyone we are in Atlanta, Georgia and will fly to Montreal Tuesday morning, from there we are renting a car! We are determined to get home. Yes, our flights were canceled because of the snow! However even a San Juan flight from St. Maarten was canceled too! What? Volcanic ash problem there in San Juan.

See ya

Friday here in St. Maarten

We said our goodbyes to Traci and Dave last night at the Sunset Beach Bar that is very popular because it is at the end of the airport here. The idea is you can see planes landing and taking off constantly. And I mean the END (or beginning) of the runway. Signs everywhere telling you how dangerous to get close to the fence because the exhaust from these mega jets can cause harm or death... the wind power takes a section of the sand of the beach away. Anyways, lots of people here taking pictures of them with a plane coming in for a landing right above their heads. Dave and Traci left this morning at 4am for Virgin Gorda, the closet island in the British Virgin Islands... it is the longest sail yet and they wanted to arrive in the daylight. They are well, (if Brandi and Kara, their daughters are reading). The three of us went shopping but did not buy much, went out for lunch and will have dinner in our hotel/villa.

Thursday morning, as James and I were walking along the road to meet Paul at Customs and Immigration (we picked up our laundry and went to the bank).... we walk over the well known bridge that opens and closes for large boats... to Simpson's Harbour (Yacht club). This bridge has designated times they open for incoming boats and then again for the outgoing boats. We got to the bridge right when the crossings went down. Well.... what a sight. A beautiful sailboat... the largest I've ever seen in my life, the ones I only view in the glossy yachting magazines Paul gets. This sail boat had to be over 100ft long, tall and was "squeezing" through the opening. Staff had their fenders on both sides to inch their way through. Yacht club staff on their boats would help "bump" them in position. Paul and Dave saw from the other side and we from one side. During this whole time all cars are stopped and not just for that one yacht but many more. It is a traffic jam during this time. We had to meet Paul at
Customs because we were leaving Daruma and entering St. Maarten on our own now. We would be leaving by an airplane. In the Caribbean they like to account for everyone. For example, when we were in Montserrat, we never did check in, we got their too late and we left first thing in the morning, well, the next island wanted to know why our last stop was so far away, Dave just said we were sailing the whole time. We didn't like Montserrat and wanted to leave.

I will attach photos one at a time because they do take a lot more time, James will talk to friends tonight and be on this computer tomorrow I'm sure. There is a time change (we are Atlantic) so he remembers that.

Paul and I have lost weight, so I jokingly want to take pictures of us asap before we come back to our diet back home.... but.... anyone who knows me, I've been drinking diet pepsi (or in a pinch, diet coke) for years, probably 2 a day! Well, no more, water is good for me. I've kicked the habit. I don't want that stuff anymore. I do still like the white wine though. And the chocolate is delicious down here, ok it is good anywhere.

This will be my last blog, but Paul may come along and add stuff. But stay tuned for pictures.

Sunset in St. Maarten by James

In Statia's old fort

Now in Sint Maarten

Sunday in Statia was just a relaxing day snorkeling and walking the village. It is a small town with a lot of history. We traveled up the “Old Slave Road” to see the fort built in year 1629. It was good to get out and walk. The roads were all paved and the village well maintained. There are at least 8 ships here in the harbour at one time with a good many tug boats. These ships are here to drop off and pick up.... seems like petroleum, since many tanks way upon the top of the island.

Monday morning bright and early we headed onward to St. Maartin (the Dutch side). We are sitting here outside of Simpson's Bay.

This is our last stop with Dave and Traci. We booked our flights home for Sunday. We are getting a hotel for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights here right on the beach. James says he is looking forward to a warm shower, I've reminded him I've been on the boat 2 weeks longer than him. Paul and Dave went ashore to get one sail repaired and then James and I will go ashore and drop off laundry.

There are billions of dollars worth of mega yachts sitting here amongst us little catamarans. One yacht even has a sailboat on their back deck beside their helicopter pad. Dave always jokes and says it is Mel Gibson's yacht as he is known to have one. All these yachts have numerous staff maintaining the exterior and interior (we have the binoculars on them). Our little Calypso in Prescott may be the biggest boat there BUT it would be on top of some yachts here as a “toy” boat. This is the capital of mega yachts on this side of the ocean (Monaco on the other).

We will do some duty free shopping here (prices are pretty good) and just relax before we head home. Friday and Saturday airfares were more than double so we will head home on Sunday. Of course, James knows there is snow and is rushing to get back to snowboard!!

Here is a recap... began in Grenada, Union Island in the Grenadines, traveled to St. Vincent, onward to St. Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, Guadeloupe (where we picked up James), Montserrat, Nevis, St. Kitts, Sint Eustatius (Statia), now Sint Maarten. Now within those islands we may have been at more than one port. Daruma will continue on Friday to Virgin Gorda, part of the British Virgin Islands, continue onto the southern part of Puerto Rico, Over to Punta Cana, Samana and Luperon, Dominican Republic, From Dominican Republic to Turks and Caicos, From there to the Bahamas and then to the southern tip of Florida to enter a waterway up to near Naples, Florida. This the final stop for Daruma for awhile.

We so enjoyed the journey we had with Dave and Traci and thank them immensely for inviting us along. We have all learned a few things about sailing, navigating, cultures of different islands and then of course, living in close quarters for over a month.

St. Kitts

Today is Friday and we enjoyed our visit in Nevis. We are now in St. Kitts. We arrived at lunch time and spent some money to spend the night here in the marina in Basseterre. We have topped up our water and provisions. Two cruise ships are sitting here and the stores here are amazing. I only bought a bathing suit for James, a special hat for him and a pair of shorts for me. One cruise ship just left and boy do they honk their horns. Last night's Barracuda for dinner was pretty good. It is a very firm fish and took no time at all to fry up. The rice with it was firm, some organic healthy stuff that took so long to cook and still was not nice and soft. We shopped for groceries today and it was like being in America now. We bought sour cream, salsa and pasta sauce which was not around in the other islands. Also bought some Oscar Meyer turkey slices... mmmmm! James bought himself “kraft dinner” for lunch today. The prices here are expensive though.

Traci and I went a second time alone to the Ram's grocery store just to pick up a few more things that we couldn't carry the first time, including drinking water (the water we bought from the marina for our tanks has some floaties). Packed to the gills, this store, we were probably 10th in line for the checkout and many were behind us. Traci and I waited patiently and lo and behold, we arrived for out turn, the cashier says she is on break and everyone go to another line!! What the #$@!*&! The two men from India that were behind us were furious and said if this was India that cashier would be fired. So, they left their cart full of food and left. We just moved to another cash. As we waited patiently there and now we are 3rd in the line, that other cashier comes back and a swarm starts at her cash. She doesn't come up to us and say hey... come and be first at my cash, no no no. Our new cashier, says just right after us that she is closed, we just exhaled and said whew! It is an experience. Everyone brings their whole family to shop and socialize in the grocery store. We went back to the boat and had actual showers in the marina's washrooms. No hot water BUT unlimited fresh water, no washing with salt water and rinsing with the rationed fresh water. I stood under the shower so so long... and used a hand dryer to “blow dry” my hair for the first time in 3 weeks. When I get home a warm shower will be luxury. Dave and Traci's boat's hot water tank is broken, it is normal for most boats to have hot water, but no problem, water is warm. My friend Lyne would even be in the water (hair and all!). This water is clear blue and warm, warm, warm! We walked into town for a dinner. We went to a grill place not far from the marina, but we did walk too far the other way and saw some sights! I mean all the locals celebrating a Friday night by eating at food stands, with bands and music playing. Our dinner was great, Paul said it was the best snapper he has ever eaten. Christmas music is played everywhere and it seems odd to us as we have been conditioned to associate Christmas with snow.

Saturday morning we left about 8:30am for St. Eustatius (Statia, for short). This island was only 20miles from St. Kitts, but we had to leave as the sailboat in front of us at the marina was leaving and we were blocking them. We were leaving anyway, they beat us here to the island though, friendly race. This island is full of history and ruins one can see from the water. Unfortunately, we are flying our “Q” flag all day and can't check in. The customs office is closed until tomorrow at 8am. So, no shopping at all the duty free stores they have here.... the whole island is duty free, a big shipping and trading station. Right now as I type this there are 7 oil tankers sitting offshore waiting to come in. The snorkeling here is awesome. I will go soon, but James and Dave went and saw hundreds of fish near the shore reef (not by the boat Lyne, it is clear around the boat, no weeds, just sandy bottom). Dave brought up a conch, and the conch inside was gone but a mini octopus was inside the conch, so cool.

I'm making a sausage pasta sauce for tonight's dinner and James was able to buy “Zebra Cakes” down here in St. Kitts, the ones we can buy at Giant Tiger (well, I don't buy them, but James has seen them). The store here even had President's Choice brand name goods, their pasta sauce tonight. We may head to St. Martin, the French /St. Maartin is the Dutch side.

Nevis

We are here in Nevis and doing just fine, having a day without traveling. There is a story about the fishing lures we put out every day we travel. There is a green huge one and and a pink “girlie” one. We've had two bites on the girlie one and lost both fish. On our way from Montserrat to Nevis I suggested we spray WD40 on the girlie one. Now you are probably thinking has Shannon gone crazy. Well, Traci and I read someone else blog where they were never catching anything and they were told to put WD40 on the lure …. and sure enough they caught something. What do we have to lose, so I insisted we go ahead and spray the pink girlie lure.... What do you think happened? Yes, we caught a barracuda. That's right our very first fish. Now, Paul, Dave and James says it had nothing to do with the WD40 we sprayed on it. I'll let you all out there be the judge, but I will spray another time to see what happens. And you know I will keep you posted.

We are anchored with a few other boats right across from the Four Seasons Hotel (which is under renovations) The hotel has a reef so off we go to the reef to snorkel. It was pretty good, saw lots of cool fish and Traci and Dave saw a sea turtle. James collected some sand dollars and other shells. The big dock here in town is not that sturdy so we are not going there for water. We need to top up our water as our tanks are low now. We always have emergency water stored elsewhere. We are heading to Basseterre, St. Kitt's in the morning so we are hoping the dock there is good for us to get water. There are cruise ships there all the time, so a much bigger port. It is only about 10miles away. (2hrs traveling time)

I did laundry today, yes, we do wear clothes once in a while. … the towels were bad. I use fresh water from our emergency area and did clothes too. They dry in between all the rain showers which last about 6 minutes. James has brought the rain with him, it never rained so much since James arrived.

We will fry up the Barracuda tonight for dinner, I'll let you all know how it tastes... we always have Jiff peanut butter as emergency food hahahah!

We have heard all about the weather in Ontario. Maybe school was canceled. I know James wishes he was snowboarding right now, but we made him come! James is learning how to sail and use all the instruments. Dave and Paul have him doing all kinds of rope handling, including putting up the main sail. He told me no pics of him yet, until he is tanned.

Hi From Nevis

Volcano in Montserrat

Deshaies to Nevis

Monday we journeyed to Deshaies (pronounce De hay), last stop in Guadeloupe. This was a quaint little village. When we arrived, we did some swimming and then went ashore to check out the grocery store there. The power went off inside the store, so we had to wait a time to get our vegetables/fruits weighed and to use the cash (Mastercard with my chip, earning air miles even in Guadeloupe). We were anchored with many boats and many Europeans. We do forget these Europeans just walk around their boats nude, even working on their boats... with power tools!! With our Canadian Flag flying they must know they will not discover us topless or naked.... Paul and Dave did mention they see mostly men fully nude though. A y9ung man named Harold came by late afternoon and asked if we wanted fresh croissants, plain or chocolate filled in the morning? And maybe a baguette?..... well, how could we say no to that? We were leaving shortly after 7am so they were promptly delivered to us around 6:45am all warm and delicious! What a treat! He went around to all the boaters and sold many a croissant! Off we left for a rough day of sailing to Montserrat. This island has an active volcano on it and sure enough it is burping smoke big time. We captured some great photos. We had to sail 2 miles off the coast as the town of Plymouth and basically ½ the island is off limits. The other ½ is nice and lush green. It is sad to see the whole city of Plymouth under dust and ash, since 2006, it is interesting to see first hand as we sail by (with our binoculars) to see a whole city like that (it used to be the capital). At home we get the weather report daily, here they get the volcano's status report. As this volcano was burping smoke like crazy. A helicopter is flying overhead to give predictions I assume to all the rest of the island. We are flying our “Q” flag but probably won't check in (and pay the $$), we will just stay on board and leave for Nevis in the morning. We don't have access to the internet here either. Dave is lucky to hone in on unsecured internet but not here in Montserrat.

On our way here, it was the roughest yet. I took ½ a gravol and Paul had to take one too. James was fine. We see a sailboat way off in the distance without its sails up. We checked to see if they were in trouble because it was windy enough to sail.... but it turned out that there was a person kayaking in front..... training for the Olympics in this rough weather?? The sailboat was following it behind and can't go faster than the kayak. Anyway it was a sight to see and we will remember it. Who kayaks out in the water with 8 foot high waves?? We had delicious homemade pizza on some pita bread we bought. Everyone made their own with custom toppings. We are eating well. We are all well and hope you are all too.

Wednesday morning we left bright and early for Nevis (part of St.Kitts island). That journey required some gravol again. We are sitting here and enjoying the best anchorage .... we will sleep good tonight. We will spend two nights here and enjoy the town and some snorkeling. We are resting a bit since the last few days have been busy traveling.

James is Putting Up Sail

Extra pic

James is here in Guadeloupe

Saturday morning we did various chores around the boat that needed to be done. There are 3 heads (washrooms) and one toilet needed work on it before James uses it, so that got fixed and in working order. I put sheets on James bed... top sheet is optional down here. James was arriving at the Pointe de Pitre airport at 3:50pm so Traci and I went and did a final provisioning at the grocery store at the marina. The prices here are in Euros (French island). So, items can be expensive. The wine is cheap! Anyway, off we go with a big shopping cart (we were the only ones with one), French and Europeans only use a hand basket and buy for a day or two. Cashiers down here actually sit down while scanning, well, along come Traci and I and this poor girl at the cash exhales very loudly and had to stand up to scan everything. We were sure loaded down. I have a handheld VHF radio (I took my course last winter), so I call to Daruma and tell them we are ready to get picked up by the tender. Paul and I got changed and refreshed to get a cab to the airport. The Pizza place here at the marina called a taxi for us. James arrived with no problems.... mind you there was 3 other flights that arrived within a 15min period, so customs was busy. James arrived with his red duffel bag with duct tape to keep it secure. He arrived tired as he did go to his hockey game (start time 10pm) on Friday night. We arrived back at the marina and had take out pizza to take back to Daruma. It is Sunday evening right now and we headed up Guadeloupe to Anse a La Barque, just a little hideout with calm water. There is great snorkeling here, Dave and James already went, Paul and I will in the morning. The water is so warm here and so blue. We sure have enjoyed this island, the people here are so friendly and nice. This is an island we want to come back to in the future in our own boat.

When we know we are going to be sailing all day, we get ready, I thought I would share what we go through to get ready. We had to go through this with James. We make lunches in advance and have them handy as it is usually too rough to go down to the galley. We close all hatches, port windows, lock shut all cupboards, if you don't lock cupboards things are on the floor. Stuff usually on the kitchen counter gets put into the sink. We all go to the bathroom before we leave, it is rough to go while sailing. Anything we want handy, like a camera, sunscreen, water etc bring out with us to the cockpit. It is not always like this but usually some time during the sailing day it can be and one must be ready. It wasn't very rough today but Tuesday will be as we will head to Montserrat.

Thanks for you all reading the blog, we have no email today (Sunday), so I will send this blog as soon as we have it.

Large Catamaran Ferry

Iles de Saintes, Guadeloupe, pics

Many Hobie Cats

Carnival Criuse and Small Cruise Ship

More Pictures

Iles de Saintes, Guadeloupe

Thursday morning we woke and headed in to Portsmouth, Dominica. Paul dropped Traci and I off, with me loaded down with some laundry (2 loads). We got that started then walked the town looking for various things we needed. We were able to buy 2 lures for the guys so we may actually catch fresh fish. We were able to buy a plastic lawn chair, as Paul needs one for his back. The people of Dominica are so friendly. We were happy to be ashore. We left Portsmouth after we stopped at the cruise dock to top up our drinking water. We headed to Iles de la Saintes (part of Guadeloupe). The voyage was a rougher one than usual. This island is so quaint. You would think you were in a small French village.... but unfortunately we could not go ashore. We flew our yellow “Q” flag but an American couple told us we can't check in because the fax machine at the customs office broke down. The customs office faxes all info to their headquarters. So we stayed afloat and enjoyed a nice meal. The rain came again and up and down closing hatches. Paul and Dave worried the anchor may drag and we slip away and hit another boat, but no, we were good. This island has many windmills (the futuristic ones) and they are noisy 24/7. At first we thought they were bats coming out at night, but no, this morning we heard the noise again and realized those windmills make a lot of noise. Iles de la Saints homes and buildings all have red roofs, it was so uncanny... so clean and splendid. There were about 10-15 small hobbie cats scooting across the water... some small sailing club. Very European. The ferries are amazing. Futuristic ferries that we watch on discovery channel shows. Friday morning, we left for Bas de Fort (which basically is Point de Pitre, capital of Guadeloupe). This voyage was rough too but I prepared myself by taking ½ a gravol. We arrived today about 3:00pm. This is where we grab a taxi and head to the airport Saturday for James to arrive about 4pm. After Dave checked us in at customs, we went ashore to the marina there to get pops and different food items. Traci and I will go ashore Sat. morning to a huge supermarket a little further away and less expensive (Euros here). We need to provision well again as the next few islands are very small. …. and James eats a lot hahahaha! This island is very metropolitan and opulent. There are many high rises, shipping facilities, commercial districts and the marina is full of boats of all sizes (imagine Paul in a “candy store”). I made a nice pasta dinner and Traci is excellent with garlic bread in a frying pan. So we will rest good tonight, no rain we pray. We will stay here Sat. night too and I will keep everyone posted. Unfortunately we could not hook up to internet tonight. We did earlier just for a quick email to James but that was a flook of some kind, can't get it again. Bye for now.

Dominica

Here we are in Rousseau, Dominica. We arrived Tuesday about 4:00pm. We were able to hook onto a mooring ball as it is over 100ft deep here. There were two cruise ships here for the afternoon but sailed away at sunset. We will attach a couple of photos as they were all lit up. On the top deck of the Carnival was a big screen t.v. I looked through our binoculars and saw what they were watching.... I believe promotions of the next port. On our way here to Dominica we saw a small pod of whales, probably only 3 or 4 small ones. We left Rousseau this morning early (Wed.) for Portsmouth, Dominica. Dave was uncomfortable in Rousseau. Portsmouth is great here. On our way to Portsmouth we saw more whales and a turtle that stayed on the surface for a long time. Traci and I went ashore after Dave went to customs. Dave stayed with the little boat. Everyone was so friendly and we found a launderette.... I didn't realize how excited one can be to actually see a washing machine and a dryer!! This launderette opens at 8am and we will be there before then. This woman will do the laundry for 2$ Eastern Caribbean currency a pound.... which equals about 75 cents a pound. I washed our sheets by hand today and they dried in no time on our journey to Portsmouth... but I have dirty clothes...! While our clothes are busy with the machines, Traci and I will pick up more ice, go to the market and get some fresh veggies. We did buy some bananas and soursop (goolgle that) from a fruit seller that comes to our boat on their little wooden boat. We are on schedule to pick up James. We have a short day of traveling to Guadeloupe tomorrow to Iles des Saintes and spend the night there. On Friday we head to Point of Pitre to pick up James on Saturday at the airport. So all is good here! It is raining like crazy right now and it hasn't rained for days so I'm sure the islands need it.

St. Pierre, Martinique

Paul's Update

Hello everyone, I have not posted as promised so I thought I would give you a quick synopsis from the beginning. Our flight down was uneventful until we reached Barbados. Our luggage was to be transferred from US Air to Liat Air for us, we went through Customs and Immigration and on to the Liat counter to check in and get our boarding passes. The nice people at Liat then informed us that our baggage would not be transferred and that we would have to go back through customs and pick it up ourselves. We found our baggage but no scuba tanks that Dave had paid $100.00 US each to have shipped. We made a claim for the tanks and ran back to the Liat counter. By the time our luggage was checked it was 5:00 pm, our flight was to leave at 5:20pm and we still had to go through security. After security we ran to our gate to find out that they were in the process of taking our luggage off of the plane, we would have to wait until tomorrow for the next flight and probably repay for the flight. We were standing there feeling very upset when a young fellow came running across the tarmac, they were letting us on after all. What a relief!!!!! We arrived at Daruma around 9:00pm had a dinner of trail mix and a bottle of wine that the previous owner had left for us, then turned in for the night after what turned out to be an exhausting day.

The first morning Dave and Traci went to pick up a rental car and get some groceries, I stayed behind to start doing some work. I started by scrubbing down the decks, but after about an hour and a half I was beat, head pounding and dripping wet. It was going to take some time to get acclimatised to the Grenada sun. The night before while in bed we heard a lot of noise, snapping and popping something like a fireplace crackling. It turns out that it was the barnacles on the hull. The boat had been sitting in the water since the spring so there was about 2 inches of growth on the hull, a combination of barnacles and moss, even feather dusters which we use to pay a lot of money for when we had our salt water aquarium. It took Dave and I between 2 and 3 days to clean the bottom using putty knives, and all of our muscle at times to get the barnacles off. I would never have believed that it could be such a difficult job. As Dave and I continued to work on the boat Traci scrubbed and scrubbed inside the hot boat day after day.
By the end of the week things were coming together and we were waiting for Shannon the arrive, but one of her flights were canceled so we had to pick here up on Friday night. We went to the airport to get her and we were a little concerned when we did not see her flight on the schedule, but she did arrive on time and everything was fine.

We went sailing for the first time on Sunday afternoon and it was a great experience as it was likely one of the roughest days that we will experience, the winds were blowing a steady 28 knots gusting to 35 knots. It teaches you very quickly the power of good old mother nature. ( 35 knots is about 40 miles per hour.) Most of our sailing has been in 18 to 20 knots of wind and we are consistently cruising at about 8 knots. The sailing has been a little difficult as we have been sail very close to the wind, but as we go north it gets easier as we will be heading more north westerly rather then north east. So that gives you a little more information about the beginning of the trip and I will try to add my two cents as Shannon continues to type the Blog.
I wrote this note while aboard Daruma in the bay at Fort de France, Martinique.
Take care everyone, Paul

Martinique

Hi everyone from Fort de France Harbour in Martinique. This island is French and large. Only Dave is going ashore to check us into the country. We arrived Sunday at 2:30pm but everything is pretty much closed on Sundays here. We are anchored about 3.5 miles from where we have to check in so Dave took a ferry over as it is too rough to take our little tender. Dave needs a few boat parts and where we “check in” is actually in a Chandlery, run by a Canadian woman. We will head up to St. Pierre this afternoon and hope to provision. We read about St. Pierre and it looks quite nice with French wines, French bread, French cooking and French men! In France it is common to go topless or nude when sunbathing. It is quite evident where we are anchored. The man showered nude next to us on his sailboat (in broad daylight) and I can tell you he sunbathes with no clothes on. But of course that was only with a quick glance! I spoke to my parents on our Skype hookup and also spoke to home. So it was nice hearing everyone again, James is bringing some things we need down. Just after I hung up from my mom Traci screamed so loud, I didn't understand what happened. It turns out there was a bat lost here on our back cockpit. This poor bat heard Traci (she frightens easily anyway) that the bat flew off scared to death. This morning there was a turtle about 20inches diameter swimming around the boat down below, he would come up for air every five minutes or so, but not long enough for a picture. There must have been something good to eat at the bottom somewhere.

On our journey here yesterday, Paul put the fishing line out and lo and behold I yelled “fish” and Dave is looking around the boat thinking there is a fish jumping somewhere beside us in the water... Paul grabs the rod but we lost the pink girlie lure we were using. It had to be large. Now the story is what could've, would've or should've done to bring that large fish in safely. We had homemade chicken pizza instead of fish, no one complained one bit.

We are in St. Pierre right now, and enjoyed going into town and got a few more groceries. It is not too expensive (Euros) but selection is limited in the grocery store for fruits and vegetables. We were not able to do laundry as the laundromat is in French and some master machine controls all machines... in other words, too high tech and language barrier. Paul bought himself some excellent French wines at a super price. We are heading into St. Pierre again this morning as there is a “market” set up with fruits and vegetables. We will then head to Rousseau, Dominica this afternoon. About 30 miles so will contact everyone there. There is a quite a large marina there catering to the tourists. We will be there Wed. too. Goodbye for now.