The Sailing Life is filled with all sorts of very nautical terms. Given, I'd only learned about sailing and how to sail 5 some odd years ago now (wow, already?), some, ok, many of those terms were were, and can be, and admittedly still are, very confusing. Windward. Leeward. Onward. Crossward. Awkward. Beam. Heel. Reach. Ok, so sometimes I make up some words, much to Dave's dismay!

(As there was some wind being forecasted, a week of it in fact, we had a choice to make as to where we would like to be for that specific week of it.)

And yes, we do need wind to carry-us-forward, and given the distance we still need to cover, and the date to cover it by, in order to stay within the confines of our insurance policy (more or less, wink, wink) our plan was to leave the last in the chain of the Leeward Islands, or more simply put our home at the moment, which was in Îles des Saintes, and head towards Dominica, the most Southern of the Leeward Islands.

These days I've noticed a significant change in our style of sailling. Can't say I'm that crazy about it. Dave tells me it's cause we're now sailing with the tradewinds. I say it's making for a bit more of an awkward ride.

Tradewinds are... well, there's a lot more to this than I can possibly hope to learn (and I always like to learn so that I can hope to explain it later...) but basically trade-winds are caused by hot air that rises from the Equator (and given how hot it's been lately, I think we're getting close), and with the hot air rising the cool air from the North and South (and coming from Cananda, we know it can be cool!!) move in to takes its place and the resutling winds are moved towards the West... because... of the Earth's West-to-East rotation. Sounds simple enough right (and did I really learn all of this in school way-back-when?)

That's more info than I needed to know cause alls I really want to and need to know was were we going to be in for a bumpy ride? Again ? Oh and I don't even bother with "are we going to reef the main" - it's BEEN reefed for the last couple of weeks !!

Oh and one more thing, you know I can't write a post these days without mentioning the big guy himself. Seems that Mr. C.C. himself "discovered" these trade-winds. Another wind effect are the doldrums, where you are becalmed, which basically means there's no wind and believe you me, with only sails to propel you along, you don't want to run into these and consequently out of food and water laying in the doldrums in the middle of the ocean. No wonder there be pirates around! And mutinies. But I wasn't ready to mutiny just yet...

Anyhow, Mr. C.C. and the ships way-back-when used the tradewinds to get themselves from A to B or rather from East to West. The seamen used the trade winds because they could cross oceans but fast and records indicate that C.C. made some pretty fast passages. So "trade" really referred to their track or path but with time, given they brough "stuff" along with them on their track and the word trade took on a different meaning, as in trading their goods...

And we can seriously confirm that with a constant 20-25 knots of wind just forward of the beam, we were sailing along at 7, oh almost 8 knots. It sure makes for a fast-forward type of ride and we covered the scant 20 miles way ahead of our anticipated schedule.

And given these type of winds, the seas were greeting us with 10 foot swells and life with the motion of the ocean is lived at a constant angle. Forward-Ho. Not to mention a bit UGH and awkward.



We left Les Saintes with the sunrise,



before the-trade winds picked up,



watching the magical effects of the rising sun,



We were scooting along, coastward? Onward? Carryforward... to Dominica.

Dominica, also known as the "Nature Isle of the Caribbean" is supposed to be THE most unspoiled, untouched Island. It's also the youngest island, that is still being formed, as evidenced by the world's second largest hot spring, Boiling Lake.

From what we could see upon arrival when we looked forward it was lush, and as we looked heavenward it was mountainous, and on landward just gorgeous, the land of rainbows, and all?



Oh, and I can't leave you be without telling you why oh why Mr. C.C. named this island Dominica. Well, he found the island on a Sunday, and Sunday in latin, is Dominica, and voilà... Told you he was running out of creative juices.

Today was Monday, the day we discovered Dominica. I wonder what we would've named her ?