Happy New Year's From Dominica

Porthsmouth, Dominica. If you look carefully, you'll see Cat Tales in there somewhere!


A typical dinghy dock. This one is at Big Pappa's Beach Bar and Restaurant where we gathered for a hike.


Denis, Arlene, Alex and John heading home after a hike and happy hour at Big Pappa's Beach Bar.


Laurie picked up a couple of items the other day. The 6 little cans of v8 juice were 28.00 EC, while the rum was only 14.00 EC. Divide by 2.65 for the US dollar.


We see the most fabulous sunsets down here. The wind blows from the east which puts us on the lee side of all the islands facing the west at night! Happy New Year everyone!

Merry Christmas from Martinique

Christmas eve, we decided to host 3 couples for pot luck snacks and drinks.
We met John and Alex from the boat; 'Free Spirit' for the first time at this very moment you see on the photo below! When they arrived at Cat Tales, complete with these unique Santa hats, I liked them instantly. They're involved in the morning ham radio net that Denis from 'Tiger Lily II operates. We all tune in daily at 7:45 and Denis, a retired meteorologist, talks to a select few and discusses the weather as he sees it. When sailing, it's ALL about the weather and making safe passages from one place to another.





Here is Kristen and Terry from 'Silk Pajamas'. It's not easy to get Terry's picture, but I managed to get a great one on Christmas eve!



I had to say something pretty cute to get Denis and Arlene from 'Tiger Lily II' to smile like this...it's a little phrase I picked up from Terry to help get people to laugh while taking their pictures!



The usual division of male and female happens once again, and the gals are all together for the evening on one side of the cockpit and the boys in the other half! Boats are small, and female bonding is important!!



Here it is, Christmas morning and what do we see???


Well, gosh and by golly, it's actually Denis and Arlene, our Canadian friends from the boat 'Tiger Lily II' delivering their traditional sticky buns. We are honored to have received sticky buns 2 years in a row and are happy that we've become part of this fun tradition!



Christmas dinner today was at noon at a local beach bar. It exceeded our expectations and provided us with a nice breezy spot with comfortable chairs for the 10 of us to indulge on snacks and buffet 'drinks' for starters. Then we moved to the big table where we could make trips to the salad and dinner buffet. We were then served after dinner drinks along with dessert and espresso coffees. We couldn't have imagined anything better! Merry Christmas!!


We've waited for the winds to die down for 9 days now and it's finally time. We will pick up anchor and head out of this bay tomorrow along with everyone else! We expect it to be like a highway out there with boats moving north and south! We'll be heading north, but we're a bit undecided just where we'll go. The destination at this point is Dominica,which could take 3 or 4 days. After that, we're expecting the winds to go crazy again, so we could get storm stayed there while we hike the island...who knows??

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Love Dawn

Storm-stayed in Martinique

Merry Christmas from Laurie and Dawn to all of you!


Laurie and I were planning to head further north, heading towards the USVI's, but the wind has been blowing like crazy and you'd have to be crazy to go out in that. It's been over 30 knots with high seas. Instead, we have found ourselves hiking around a bit. Yesterday we walked an hour from St. Anne to Anse de Saline on the southernmost part of Martinique with Terry and Kristin from s/v Silk Pajamas and enjoyed a swim and a nice meal once we got there. Laurie of course could stay there all day because of all the beautiful bodies lying on the beaches. The French aren't much into doing laundry and wear as little as possible! Today, we did a bit of a hike up the prayer stations of the cross and caught a great view of the bay below us. Of course, that earned us another lunch out and a nice cold beer! Storm stayed...the hell here never ends!

Since we're here in Martinique waiting for the windy weather to die down, we've decide to join a group and go to a restaurant for Christmas dinner. this is how the restaurant looked today when we dropped in to check it out.


Christmas dinner menu:


Just how does a boater get ready for Christmas!

Martinique

hi everyone,

We arrived in Martinique yesterday after a lovely sail from St. Lucia. After clearing customs this morning, we made a trip to Leader Price and stocked the boat with boxes of red wine (9 Euros a 3 litre box)

We are expecting high winds for the next few days, so we may be here for a bit and then will continue northward on our trek to the USVI's.

We have no Internet from the boat this time, so we're here in a Cafe having lunch typing fast before my laptop battery dies.

Lunch has arrived...

St. Lucia

We arrived in St. Lucia yesterday at around 4:30 which is a 12 hour sail. The weather was glorious and it was sad to stop! That's a first that I've said that!!

We will get together with a few old friends here for the next couple of days and then will proceed northward towards the USVI's while visiting islands along the way.

Laurie is now making banana and mango pancakes with what was left after a visit to our outside fruit hammock from our fruit bat friends overnight!

Dawn

Bequia, fish photos and heading out tomorrow...

Although we're now in Bequia, Laurie wanted to share this photo with you.

This picture shows Laurie on a road in northern Grenada that has been slowly torn to pieces by volcanic upheaval just over the last 15 years or so. On each side of this road are what's known as JCB houses. These are very attractive concrete and stucco homes constructed by "Just Come Backs", or local people who have returned from the US or Canada with a little more money than they left with. The JCB homes on this road, however are abandoned with broken stilts and other structural damage. There was also a lake beside the road, but as the ground lifted, it drained down the hill.

We also have to worry about volcanic activity as we left Grenada. We sailed over an underwater volcano, called "Kick em Jenny", which pours out lava at such a rate that it will be an island within the decade. They're not selling options on this land yet though!

Ok, now for the photos to support our past fish stories. Somehow, we didn't get a picture of the 32 inch barracuda, you'll just have to believe us!

Who knows how long we drug this poor thing along! It would seem that something ate him though, and hopefully enjoyed it as much as we would have!



This is a nice sandwich sized fish. We really should have thrown him back, but it was our first catch coming out of Grenada last week and it was quite delicious!


We served this blue runner jack to our friends on Nahanni River. Absolutely wonderful fish!


As we pulled into Bequia, we spotted our friends, Doug and Wendy on "Nahanni River" the catamaran in the foreground. Check out the full moon on the rise on the hillside.


We're in the bay in Bequia at the moment and just a few minutes ago a huge squall came by dumping lots of rain. My laundry was hung on every wire all over the boat, I went running to get it all in (it was actually dry) when a pair of my underwear went flying into the water. Laurie was ready to jump in, but discovered that he had credit cards and money in his pocket. He threw it loosely onto the seat in the cockpit, but the wind was blowing it all over the place. He moved my laundry bag over it to hold it down, but of course while he was swimming to get my knickers, I moved the bag. The windows weren't all shut and it's a bit damp inside. Now, the laundry is in, my panties are rinsed, Laurie is rinsed, his money and cards are safe and the moping is done. The hell here never ends!

We're off to Mac's pizzeria tonight for dinner with a few others here in the bay. We just noticed Garry and Linda from "July Indian" anchoring nearby, so we'll have to get over there and get them invited! We leave for St. Lucia in the morning, early...4:00 to be exact!

arrived in Bequia

The wind was a bit from the north yesterday but we were able to sail 6 of the 8 hours on our way from Grenada to Bequia. We came into the bay and headed for our favourite spot over by Princess Margaret beach and discovered that Doug and Wendy were anchored there waiting for us! If you recall, their boat is called Nahanni River. We'll get together today for lunch and then they will come aboard tonight for fresh fish caught on the way yesterday!

Yes, we were able to land 2 fish; one was a 32 inch long barracuda and the other was a blue runner barjack. We lost a couple from my line because the rings that hold the triple hooks on was too weak. I guess Marden's isn't the perfect place to pick out the best lure. They certainly bit at it though, it was just not strong enough.

All for now...it's time for morning coffee and listen to Laurie talk to all his buddies on the Ham Radio morning nets!