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| Laurie & Brian looking pretty comfortable on a beach at Les Saintes |
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| Laurie does drink Heineken when it's the only beer available and it's icy cold! |
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| How "Not to Anchor"! We were lucky to get the anchor up in the morning. Notice the French Angel fish to the right. |
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| Nasty lionfish! They're taking over the Caribbean! |
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| One of my favourites: a spotted drum |
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| Another nasty lionfish...beautiful though. |
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| This octopus posed for us for a long time! It was hard to leave him!! |
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| A slippery, steep hike in Deshaies, Guadeloupe. This was a tough one for all 4 of us! Notice that Lorna is still smiling as she thinks of cold beer at the end of the trail! |
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| Grand Anse in Guadeloupe. We reached this beach after the hike along with all the beach bars!! Ahhhh...heaven! |
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| Laurie was actually swept up in this large wave! It's amazing he wasn't hurt! |
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| Peace & Plenty (Lorna and Brian's boat) traveling with us from Les Saintes. |
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| Hiking up to look-out tower on Terre D'en Haut in Les Saintes. 1036 feet straight up! There were ten of us and this is just a few in the picture. |
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| The view from the top was AMAZING...the picture doesn't do it justice! |
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| Anne (Cat's Paw IV) and Joanna (Baidarka) from a window up in the fort. |
Cat Tales is presently on a mooring ball off Pinney's Beach, on the west side of the little island of Nevis. Little it may be, but not short. The giant volcano, peaking at over 3200 feet, literally blocks the sunrise! As the cruising guide says, from many angles the island looks like a giant sombrero, with lots of flat plains spreading out from all sides. Indeed, we're very tempted to rent bicycles while we are here and see what we might find. However, an easy calculation suggests that just staying on the main road would make it a 20 mile bike ride around the volcano, and I'd probably have the return of my shoulder problems doing it.
We arrived Wednesday night, the 4th of February, at 5 PM, leaving Lorna and Brian aboard Peace & Plenty in Deshaies, Guadeloupe. The 12 hour sail was a little bumpy and wet in the morning, but after we passed the big smoking volcano at Montserrat, we could angle downwind 15 or more degrees, and the sail became quite pleasant. When we were doing the last 5 miles along the lee of Nevis, we had our jib and boom way out on a beam reach in flat water, and enjoyed stable speeds of 8-10 knots.
Yesterday, we checked in and paid for our mooring, visited a few of the museums and walked about town. The museums have lots of information on the two famous men of these parts: Admiral Nelson, who got married here to a Nevisian girl; and Alexander Hamilton, born out of wedlock but rising to become the man who set up the US monetary system and adorns the $10 US bill. Interestingly, both men got into a little trouble with extramarital affairs.
Cat Tales continues to be providing us with wonderful service. The only failure worth talking about is the loss of a step on the swim ladder. It happened only yesterday, and I have made repairs today. Except for some rather dark marks on my left shin, I survived the failure. It did remind me of Ron Roy, who stood on the same step in Grand Lake when it let go, and, like me, wondered why he didn't bite through his tongue as he went down.
It has been a few islands and a few weeks since we have had reasonable internet. We'll likely adorn this post with a few pictures, and get the computer to a site to post a proper weblog. It looks like a dinghy ride to the 'Sunshine Beach Bar' is in store for the job!
Our time along Martinique, Dominica, Les Isles des Saintes, and Guadeloupe with Peace & Plenty has really been fun. We certainly did more together than we would have done if we were alone; with us showing off the sites, hikes, and attractions that we would not have bothered with otherwise. I suspect the pictures that Dawn chooses will be more demonstrative than what I can write here.
