Well, after not so subtle dissing of Roseau in my last post, we had an amazing day today. We did a "tour" with Sea Cat, and we had a blast! We started off just "liming," because a cruise ship was in town, and we didn't want to go anywhere where we might end up lost in a cluster of cruise-ship-people. (I know ... we are prejudiced. It's sort of like hiking up Mt. Washington and confronting clusters of people who drove, took the bus or took cog-railway to the summit.) Also, Heidi really hurt her toe two days earlier on our crossing from Martinique ... maybe even broke it … so we wanted a relatively “easy” hike/tour. Anyway, we were just driving around, waiting to see what might emerge. We actually stopped for a rum punch at 10:30 AM!!! Not our usual approach to things, but the excuse was that Sea Cat (Octavius) needed a "warm up" after an arduous drive into the rain forest, where it was actually ... raining! Prior to that, we had stopped to do a few really cool things, like picking some fresh grapefruit and squeezing the juice onto some freshly cut sugar cane and sucking up the lusciousness as best we could. That is really hard work ... really. Then, all of a sudden, after the rum punch, Sea Cat had an epiphany ... the Aba Ravine Cyrique! We HAD to try this! It was an incredible “hike” down an almost vertical trail (truly vertical on a rope ladder at one point) to the sea, where a “magnificent waterfall cascading from 130 feet off the cliff directly into the ocean” awaited us. We could stand on a rock at the “bulls-eye” and be showered … no, pounded … by a torrent of fresh, cool water. After alternately swimming in the warm Atlantic Ocean and then rinsing off in the fresh, cool torrent for a quite awhile, we had to climb back up the almost vertical trail to our “tour bus” (it was only Heidi and I on this “tour”). This is where it really got fun! It was like rock climbing but with true “buckets” for hand holds (the myriad 1 ½” diameter airborne roots of the trees). Yes, we had to use the ropes off and on, and the rope ladder for sure, but the climb back up was really exhilarating!

As if that wasn’t enough, we HAD to stop at the Emerald Pool on the way back. While we were afraid we’d run into lots of cruise-ship folks, we actually arrived at the pool all alone! We of course went for a swim and were then joined by several folks from that “cursed cruise ship.” We actually had a wonderful chat with a couple from Denmark, who, when I confessed while standing there soaking in my “bathing suit” (aka underwear) that I’d forgot our towel, offered up their “cruise-ship-towel” for our use. No more cursing cruise ship people!

So, back to OUR “cruise-ship,” Centime. But first, on the way out in the AM, Sea Cat took us by a another boat from Maine in the same mooring field. We ended up having dinner together this evening, and it was a blast!

An incredible ending to an incredible day. We even got our propane tanks filled, and now we can actually head up to Portsmouth tomorrow (today?? - Wednesday – 12/12) and wait out the nasty winds and seas for our next crossing to The Saintes, Guadaloupe, on Friday.

See you then!