A few days ago, Lorna and Brian suggested we take a bus from the marina towards Castries and walk from the round-about on a flat but busy road out to the Orchid Propagation Farm. We put the word out and within an hour, we had 12 cruisers piling into a van (called a bus here). There were only a couple of locals on the bus at the time and when the last one got out, she was heard saying, "Get me off this crazy bus"!! We had all been laughing and everyone kept handing me their cameras to take pictures of the group. In the picture below, only 8 people are visible. Denis (our weatherman) from Tiger Lily with Maria and Steve from s/v Aspen are in the front row. Brian from Peace and Plenty, Michele from s/v Tarentela, and Laurie from Cat Tales is in the next row. Sitting in the back are Lorna, also from Peace and Plenty, and Arleen from Tiger Lily II. Up front with me were 3 more cruisers! 2 EC dollars a head makes for pretty convenient travel. (Divide by 2.7 to get CAD)
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| 12 of us on the same "bus" heading for the Orchid Propagation Farm |
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| Orchids in full bloom! Beautiful!! |
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| Our guide did a wonderful job telling us the different stages of development of the many types of orchids produced |
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| The greenhouse had state of the art climate control. When the temperature reached 28 degrees the shade panels automatically closed to keep the hot sun from baking the tender plants. | | |
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| A few mornings ago, we had torrential rains followed by beautiful sunshine. This is Silk Pajamas on the left with Kristin and Terry on-board! |
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We had a bit of excitement walking back from the farm, when a young local man attempted to snatch a purse from one of the women in the back of our group. She refused to let go and the young man was quickly chased off by Laurie. He ran right out of his flip-flops and disappeared like a young "Ben Johnson". We contacted police, but no one showed up or called. The woman ended up with a scratched elbow since he actually took her to the ground and drug her on the pavement with the end of her purse. He picked the wrong gal to play with that day!
Tomorrow we're planning to sail to Martinique if Denis tells us in the morning that the weather is suitable. The winds have been howling and the seas might still be a bit too wild, so we'll decide in the morning. They're calling for rain on Monday and Tuesday. Besides Denis, we use Wind GURU to help us make a decision:
http://www.windguru.cz/int/ When you're on this page, click on 'spot menu' and choose Caribbean and then choose Martinique and then Martinique again. The site is designed for kite surfers, but it gives us a nice indication of the winds on the windward side of the islands which helps with the passages between the islands.
The Round the World ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) began their journey around the world today at noon. Over 30 boats were moving around in the bay until the start gun fired and they were off. We could see them head south towards Marigot for about an hour. They will take a turn WEST towards Panama this afternoon and will be sailing for days and days before they see land again. I'm glad I'm just considering this little trip to Martinique to pick up wine and fancy cheese!
