Christmas Eve in Paradise

I imagine all our Canadian friends in Canada this Christmas Eve, the fire is burning and you have a mug of hot chocolate or a hot buttered rum  to keep you warm.  You may be doing some last minute shopping for stocking  stuffers or your Christmas  dinner.  The snow is glistening on the evergreen trees and the lights on the Christmas tree are sparkling.  Let me tell you about our Christmas Eve in paradise.  The day started with us driving in a rental car to get our port lights or windows that need replacing on the boat.  These are the same windows that we ordered in Trinidad but when they came they were the wrong size.  That was three months ago.  We had them sent back and ordered the correct size they were not in stock so we had to wait and would be leaving Trinidad before they would arrive so we had them forwarded to Martinique. They got here before we arrived and since we were not here to pay the duty they shipped them back to the States.  We requested they ship them again and found out that we had to pick them up from the airport.  We managed to find the Fedex office , then the customs office and then after paying 29 more Euros we finally got out windows,good, mission accomplished.  

We hadn't done laundry since we arrived so Barry took the laundry in the car to the next town where we he had to return the car and did it. Well it is Christmas Eve and there were no buses or taxis and he must have looked really scuzzy because  no one would pick him up when he tried to hitchhike, so he called me on the radio and told me to come and pick him up..  I spent 49 minutes in the pouring rain, with lightning no less, putting away across 4 miles to get him, then of course there was the return trip.  The only bonus in the whole trip was that I saw Santa Claus gliding by on water skis at the Club Med located between the boat and the dock where Barry was waiting.  I think that was even stranger than seeing Santa four wheeling at the end of a parade in New Zealand.  

I don't think  I will ever forget this particular wild Christmas Eve.  We did spend the night playing Scrabble and cards so it wasn't a total loss of a day.   Hope you had a great Christmas Day, I hope to get a swim in sometime here in paradise.

Merry Christmas from Martinique. 

We are having a good time here with my Mom.  She is 85 years young and still ble to climb out of the dinghy and into the boat.  The other day we went swimming off the boat and she was able to pull herself out of the water and climb up the ladder into the boat.  I hope Barry and I are as spry at that age, she is really something.  Mostly we spend the days on the boat, swimming when we get too hot or head to shore to pursue the shops when we get bored.  It is great having family here for the holidays.  We have our Christmas dinner planned, we found a turkey roll in a store the other day.  Much to our chagrin we discovered we cannot buy propane in Martinique, we have to have European connections for our tanks, so Barry is in a panic that we are using too much propane and will run out.  We will have to sail back to St. Lucia, only 25 miles, to fill up our tanks.  Hopefully we will be able to wait until after mom is gone as she is not a geat sailor.  She did really well sailing to St. Anne from Fort de France the other day.  We gave her sturgeon a whizz sea sickness medication and then a wrist band that sends electric current to your nerves and I am not sure which one worked but Mom did not get sick on either part of the journey down,  We did it in two stages, the first about 7 miles downwind and the other a 12 miles bash to windward that took us 5 hours.  

I should go and see if I can find a super market and get some ingredients for Christmas dinner, here's hoping you all have your turkeys and they are awaiting their stuffing.  

Our Canadian visitors

We are currently is Martinique and my Mom has joined us for Christmas.  Since the last blog we have had Barry's cousin, Lucy and her husband Mark on the boat for four lovely days.  That was in the last island St. Lucia.

The intrepid sailors manning the helm trying to live up to their billing as helmsman. 

The Pitons on St. Lucia , we moored right between the two.  P

We spent our time with Lucy and Mark sailing and snorkelling.  Each day we would sail a little way down the coast and find a likely spot and then hop in the dinghy and go to find a good snorkelling spot.  We all had a great time, the highlight being one evening as we were watching the sun go down we saw the elusive green flash. It is only the fourth time in seven years  I have seen it and Lucy tells me the date was 11/2/13, pretty awesome. One night we stopped and moored between the Petit and the Gross Piton, massive volcano type hills.  It is a world heritage sight and very beautiful.  It was wonderful to have them on board and continue our acquaintance that was started last summer when we dropped in on them in Ontario. Thanks for coming you guys. 

We are currently anchored in Admiralty Bay in Bequia , which is one of the Grenadine islands.  We took a ferry over to St. Vincent  and took a tour to explore the island a little.  It is very hilly , almost mountainous to an old prairie girl.  We went way up in the hills to see a botanical garden and then took in the views from an old English fort.  We have to catch the ferry back in half an hour so will try and get a few pictures on. 

We had a great dive in Bequia yesterday, a great reef with lots of sponges and lilac, purple and golden  coral, it was great.  Barry's cousin Lucy will be joining us in St. Lucia for a week so we will head up there on Thursday, probably.  I will have to get the head looking better as most people need moreroom than just enough room to put your feet down.  We had a sundowner party the other nightand had 2 other Canadian couples aboard., all of our buddies have headed for the Panama Canal so it is time to make some more!

Kingstown, St. Vincent