We took a tour of Montserrat and got to see the volcano. It has quite the history, it started growing in 1993 and first exploded in 1995. It continued exploding on a regular basis until 2010.  The whole south half of the island was evacuated and people were not allowed to return to their homes. The homes we're covered in ash, in some places 10 meters deep.  Due to overcrowding and the lack of housing the population went from 12,000 to a present day pop. of 4,500. We saw a movie of the volcano and how it grew and the explosions over the years. It was fascinating. On the tour we stopped at a hotel, the pool had been filled up by ash.  The ash in the rooms was so fine, I found an old brochure in the office.  At the moment we saw smoke coming out of the top to the mountain, but their have been no eruptions lately.  We had a beautiful day for the tour and it was great.

In the next two pictures I am sitting by the hotel pool, it is full of volcanic ash

Monserrat

We are in Montserrat after a boisterous sail over yesterday.  We didn't leave Antigua until after 11 in the morning so wanted to hurry to check in with customs before they closed and we had to pay overtime.  The winds co-operated blowing 18 - 22 knots and the boat took off averaging about 6.5 knots.  There were 2 1/2 meter seas so a roily fast ride was had and we cleared customs with 15 minutes to spare. At the moment we are in the Montserrat Public Library checking our mail. It is very hilly here, we hope to take an island tour in the next few days and see the remains of the exploded volcano, it blew it's top in 1995. 

Montserrat on approach, see the volcanic ash at the far end

Barbuda

We sailed up to Barbuda which is just 39 miles north of Antigua a few days ago.  It has a very small population of only 1500 or so and it is quite isolated.  We stopped at the southern tip along this gorgeous beach. It just went on forever, people sail that turtles were nesting a few miles up.  We have had some great snorkelling lately.  On one foray we saw turtles, rays, lobsters and an octopus.  While we were in Barbuda we saw quite a few spotted rays, they were gorgeous about a meter and a half across. I also saw a squid one time when I was out by myself.

Yesterday we were anchored in a very shallow area surrounded by patches of coral.  We were alone with another boat, RCLouise.  We first met the couple in Tahiti, they sold their boat in NZ and went back to the States.  Last year they bought a brand new boat from France and are planning on crossing the Pacific again with it.

We sailed back to Antigua today and found our buddies from Sal Dorago anchored about 300 meters I front of us.  It was great to see them again and we plan to spend some time here with them.  On the way over we saw a whale, I am not sure which kind but it was flapping it's huge flukes and I managed to get a shot of it.  

English Harbour from the west side of the harbour

We are in Antigua at the moment, in English Harbour.  It is quite a famous naval spot, it is a very well protected harbour and during the Napoleonic Wars in the 1800's the British based their Caribbean fleet here and repaired their ships here.  They restored the buildings in the 1950's and Nelson's boatyard is full of beautiful old stone buildings.  Nelson was based here for 3 years when he was still a Captain, he was in charge of enforcing the trade laws.

We have been busy walking around the hills in the area.  There was a great display of bromeliads when we walked up one hill. 

There is a 600 mile sailing race starting on Monday, they have only 4 days to complete the race so there have been so very large racing yachts checking in to the harbour.  A few of them have been out practising so seeing their Kevlar sails flashing along the water has been entertaining.  

English Harbour, Antigua, in the foreground, from the east and Falmouth in the background, 

The winds and tides where we are anchored are quite lucky.  At times boats are facing all positions on the compass.  We had one come in and anchor to close to us.  I was too nice to tell them to move and they left their boat and went to have supper.  We started swinging around and actually touched them once, then Barry got in th dinghy and whenever we got close he would manoeuvre it between the two boats and stop them from touching.  It was getting pretty old by the time they showed up at 9:30, I hope they had a good dinner.  We are going to stay to watch the start of the race in Monday morning then we will move further up the island. 

Guadeloupe

We did get our dive in at the Jacques Cousteau Reserve, it was very good, with lots of fish and a variety of coral, we also saw a turtle which was great.  There is an underwater statue of Jacques and we got to rub his head as we flippered by.  We left the next day and went to an anchorage 8 miles up the coast to enjoy the Carnival parade.  There were representatives from all the towns in this part of the island and we enjoyed the bright colourful costumes and the outlandish hats that the participants had.  Their wild gyrations were accompanied by bands with lots of drummers.  Some of the drums
 were the blue 50 gallon barrels that water is stored in. The drummers beat on these so hard it felt like
the sound was coming through your chest.  They must have practised a lot, otherwise I think their
arms and wrists would have given up long before they reached us.

We went for a long walk up a nearby beach and found a protected turtle hatching area. We took an hour and a half bus ride into the capital Pointe-a-Pitre with another Canadian couple from a boat called Peace and Plenty. Gaudeloupe seems to be the poorest French Caribbean island we have been on and the capital reflected that

 It was quite run down, with lots of delapitated buildings and there was garbage in evidence most places. We managed to safely negotiate our way into and out of a red light district on our way to the marina to check out the chandleries. 

We sailed the 8 miles back to Pigeon Island where the marine reserve was and had some geat snorkelling there. I would say one of the snorkels was in the top five.The other attraction was a very handy laundromat! We are backup at the north end of Guadeloupe and hiked up the hill to visit the botanical gardens. It was great and Barry took some super pictures, I hope these will help to brighten up your Canadian winter.  We are going to checkout today and head for Antigua on Monday. We were going to go to Monserrat first but looking at the routes decided that Antigua was the smarter sail. 

The Saintes

We are enjoying our time in The Saintes.  We have managed to hook up with 4 other yachts and have been doing stuff with them.  Yesterday the 10 of us tackled the highest hill in the area.  It was 1030 feet, about 300 m to you younger folks.  It was a beautiful day for a walk and the views were magnificent. There was a small fortress at the top and we scrambled up to the second floor and leaned out the window.

If you look across the bay, the day before we walked up the tallest hill on the north side and visited the very nicely restored Fort Napolean that is there.  There was a museum within the fort and I was even able to translated some of the exhibits.  They had
 a mock up of the naval battle that took place just south of here between here and Dominica in the middle 1800's. 

In the background you can see the tallest hill which we climbed as well as the small fortress that is at the top, it is the rectangular structure at the top of the hill.  

An exhibit in the museum, a beautiful example of an antique bed, I just loved the wood, so rich and solid.  I think it would have been too short for Barry though and as I had my doubts that it would fit in our boat I did not attempt to purchase it!! There are a number of other walks we want to take, one to the far side of the island and there is yet another hill to climb.   I searched for good dive sites and apparently on the west side of Guadaloupe there is a Jacques Couteau reserve so we are going to head thereafter we leave here.

Marie Gallant

Who would have thought of an island called Marie Gallant, she apparently was one of Christopher Columbus' ships, but who was the ship named after, something to google I guess! The island is part of the country of Guadaloupe, which belongs to France. Unlike the Islands that used to belong to Britain none of the small French, Caribbean islands have become independent. We still have to fly the French flag in Martinique, Guadaloupe and I think St. Martin, they have the Euro as their currency and we have noticed that the docks in all the small town in the French islands are in much better shape as are
their roads. There are a lot of people here of European ancestry and their custom of topless sunbathing is continued on the beaches here. Seeing an overweight 50 something women bobbling
around in the surf is not appealing but I have to admire their willingness to flaunt the main stream media's idea that being thin is beautiful and any amount of body fat must be dieted, sucked or tucked away!!

We had a great trip over from Dominica, making it in one long tack and we weren't even slammed around too much by the waves.  It was only 25 miles, we can see our next destination, The Saints, more Guadaloupean Islands which are only 16 miles away.

We rented a car and did a tour of the island, we stopped at two ruins of former rum factories, stopped In at a current rum factory, stared at a few 200 year old windmills, checked out a beautiful beach, some great cliffs and an awesome geological formation.  

We arrived at the capital and anchored in the small harbour.  we thought we had picked a good spot but when the ferry came in, it came very very close to use when it was time to back out.

We then spent 3 days at one of the beautiful beach anchorages, the sand was great and our anchor really dug in so no worries about dragging.  

We sailed across to The Saintes another group of Guadaloupean islands.  It is very touristy here and there are lots of yachts, as opposed to about 8 in the anchorage at Marie Gallant.  We neede fresh food, our laundry done and access to the internet.   There is another old fort here to explore, apparently there are lots of hiking paths and we even know 3 boats that are here.   We will probably stay awhile. 

Dominica

We left Martinique a few days ago and we are now anchored at the north end of Dominica.
Christopher Columbus landed here on a Sunday and came up with the original name of Dominica,
Sunday in His language. I guess if Captain Cook could name a series of islands in the Torres Strait north of Australia, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, Christopher is allowed Dominica!

Mom left us on Jan. 9 and presumably is safely back in Winnipeg fighting off the Canadian winter,  I told her to think of us basking in the sun when she was cold (with envy) and when she was lying in her tub soaking in a nice hot bath (with relief) as we shower with our 3 litre container of water.  We had a good sail up here about 55 nm.  The passage between the islands was pretty rough with a 2 1/2 m swell but a bit of a wash tub effect.  The wind was on the beam though and we made excellent time averaging over 6 knots. 

Dominica is one of the poorest Caribbean Islands and thus is rather unspoiled with not a lot of big touristy type establishments. We took a trip up the Indian River which is a world heritage site.  It was very green and lots of big roots along the edge of the river.  Some of the scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean were shot on this site.  There are a lot of hiking trails on the island. 

Today we explored a fort that was built by the British and the French and then beautifully restored in the 1980's.  There was a rocky trail that led up to the nearby peak and we hiked up it.  I hope to do some more hikes in the next few days.  We will probably stay here until next Sunday or Monday, or maybe longer if we find some more good hikes and Barry's ankle holds out.  

85 Year Old Great Grandmother Loses Her Touch

Enquiring minds want to know why an 85 year old great grandmother has had two consecutive failures when making her famous " Grandma Buns".  She is currently soaking up the Caribbean sun aboard her daughter's yacht, Cat's-Paw IV.  Her first catastrophic failure occured Christmas Eve when the buns failed to rise and came out of the oven resembling Canadian hockey pucks. Great minds pondered the question and the failure was attributed to ancient, heat damaged yeast. New yeast was purchased and on New Years Day a second attempt was made.  Olfactory glands were in high gear and mouths were watering in anticipation. Her buns are beloved by the family and friends, the recipe reproduced faithfully by at least three grandchildren. Grandma Buns are produced on every special occasion, they are usually a fluffy, light brown airy delicacy which melt in your mouth. 

On New Year's Day the dough achieved a normal initial rising, buns were formed and an hour later popped into the oven. Alas, pale hard hockey pucks once again emerged. Hair was torn out, wailing was heard from the depths of Cat's-Paw IV.  WHAT could have gone wrong again.

This time the suspect was aging floor, or could it possibly be that villain sea level, or perhaps Grandma is losing her touch!!! A third attempt is contemplated but the baker is hesitant, what if she fails again?Stay tuned!

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