04/05/2011, Dominica
Kalin and Jesse left today - they will spend the last night at a hotel close to the airport - ready to fly out Wednesday morning..
We on the other hand have now "only" 3 weeks left to make it "back" to Trinidad..
I won't go into any details but having Kalin and Jesse on board was not without
"issues" but in the end it was all good and we all had a good time.
On Sunday we did a long day tour to see a couple of waterfalls with swimming holes and hopefully parrots ... unfortunately the parrots where 'put away' because of the heavy rain and the taxi drive turned out to a bit long for all of us ..
The tour guide/ Taxi driver, brought along his wife /girlfriend ?? She just would not speak to us at all ?????
Still, Dominica is a wonderful island with astonishing tropical plants ..
| Jan 25th - May2nd 2011 |
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04/01/2011, 15 51.98'N:061 35.23'W
As usual we don't seem to find time for the blog when we have friends on board.. so here is a short recap of the last few days
We did give the boat a good cleaning in Martinique before we went to the airport on march 26th ?? -we actually managed to be on time on the correct day and not late ... they just were about to leave the airport building when we arrived by taxi - PERFECT TIMING !!!!!
The next day we sailed up to Pigeon island where we spent a full day snorkeling (well the only person snorkeling all day was Jill)
Smart ass Georg tried a new approach when jumping in the water from the boat = lets first throw in the mask then jump after it catching it floating on the surface .. great idea - just the mask didn't float and ended up in 12m(40ft.)! of water - it took us some time to locate the mask in the mist of all that coral - Kalin finally was able to reach it with the help of our mooring pole..
Then we moved further up north to Deshais where we visited the botanical gardens (see picture)
We did spend two days in The Saints -did our mandatory walk up to the fortress before we sailed the 20nm to Dominica on Saturday.
The crossing had the winds on our nose at 20-25knts - we actually managed to put the rails into the water at the end will both main and head sail reefed :-)
Now we don't have to fake French anymore :) but there are no more baguettes and croissants :(
Lots of bio-luminescent, hiking to be done, and springs to see! Dominica has 9 active volcanoes!
| Jan 25th - May2nd 2011 |
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03/21/2011, Deshaies , Guadeloupe
Today we had a beautiful 74nm day sail from Nevis to Guadeloupe. We arrived in Deshaies at the north west end of Guadeloupe just short before 4 PM (we did have to get up at 4Am)
During the sail we passed Montserrat - (see picture) on the north end (to be sure we didn't get any of the ash on our boat ..)
The biggest task this week, is how to clean the boat .....The "only" accessible marina is in the capital and that is a buggy place .... we'll figure it out ..
Next stop on the List is one of Jill's favorites - Pigeon Island = great snorkeling
| Jan 25th - May2nd 2011 |
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03/20/2011, Charlstown Nevis
We checked out early in the morning in town (very easy procedures)
The "town" seemed empty as everybody was in church - but customs was indeed open.
10:30 Am - now what ???
Lets see if we can find some monkeys Jill said... (breakfast would be nice too Georg said)
We asked a Taxi driver at the ferry dock and he mentioned an old sugar mill for breakfast. Scam artist we first thought as he tried to sell it way to hard ...- but we did it anyway ... while looking for an ATM Jill checked with some locals to see if we could meet up with a guide to do some hiking - and it worked - he promised to be at the ex sugar mill by 11:30 Am..
The Restaurant (ex sugar Mill) turned out to be a wonderful place with astonishing gardens (breakfast was great also -Eggs Benedict ..yummy)
Promptly at 11:30 the guide showed up and we started walking up the hill ( as it turns out you really would not need a guide - but he was fun and easy going-& well worth the money)
After about an hour he had to turn back as he had another commitment ( they kind of squeezed us into their schedule) but we kept going up to a look out
- everything was great - but NO monkeys
On the way down we saw a few monkeys in the trees but way to far away to take good shots ..
So we went back to the restaurant (me for a beer - Jill for checking out the gardens) -
Guess what - as soon as Jill disappeared I saw a monkey not 20 feet away..
I could not get a good shot of it so I had another beer ( maybe that's what draws them out ???.. long shot but nothing to loose :-))
As it turns out there were lots of monkeys within the restaurant property and Jill did get the chance to take some decent shots of them...
To make a long story short - it was a great day !!!!
| Jan 25th - May2nd 2011 |
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03/19/2011, Charlstown Nevis
We have arrived in Nevis ( It's only a 10Nm run from St Kitt's)
We will need to check out tomorrow morning for our Monday 4am departure to Guadeloupe
Weather forecast looks great with winds way to the north at +-15knt just the way we like them when heading east ....
| Jan 25th - May2nd 2011 |
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03/19/2011, St Kitt's
I think we had enough of St Kitt's, therefore we'll move on this afternoon to Nevis
St Kitt's did not impress us to much - it's pretty much ruined by the cruise ship industries.
The Picture was taken in the cruise ship shopping area by a guy who forced the monkeys onto Jill and then wanted US$20 for him taking the shots .....He did get some money for it (5 EC =2-1/2 US$)
PS: I'm not sure what the monkey on right is actually looking for - food ?? are we starting to smell like people that would carry live food with them ??
- I sure hope not :-)
The government seems to pour all their money into the cruise ship dock area ( shopping stores) and that's about it.
Hopefully Nevis will be a bit more attractive :-)
| Jan 25th - May2nd 2011 |
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Anyways, Thxs Candi! Yes, they were trying to groom me:)
It was a shock ....as I was taking a photo of some musicians (Georg was walking away and did not know and could not 'protect' me) this intense pushy rasta guy scam artist came and put monkeys on me and grabbed my camera, took some shots. Georg noticed and came over as he was trying to get money. He told Georg that I asked him to do this and he said I knew a photo was $20!!?? I did not see him, ask him, speak to him... my camera was in my hand taking a photo of something else.
He was way too pushy but the monkeys were cool even the biggest one who bit my finger!
Lots of monkeys here -wild and without shirts:)
