A Waterfall and Beach for Every Day of the Year..

December 29, 2007


Well we hauled up anchor on Boxing Day and sailed away from Martinique in search of some more beautiful sights. Next island up, Dominica, the nature island.


"Luke – While we were sailing we saw a big brown thing, it turned out to be a big turtle that was floating at the top of the water. When we got closer it lifted its head up and then dived down. "




Dominica (A waterfall for every day of the year)


The Nature Island – It is said “If Columbus came back today, Dominica is the only island he would recognize.” We arrived in Roseau, the capital city of Dominica and were, once again, greeted by the never ending boat boys. Jason was quick to offer the usual of fruits, veggies and of course a tour of this beautiful island. So off we went with Jason’s cousin, Moses Jr. and his brother Israel (I’m not kidding!) to check out the rain forests and waterfalls of Dominica. After a nice easy walk through the most amazing rainforest yet we came across the waterfall that we had been waiting for. From way up came a steady stream of fresh, clean, salt free water flowing down into a pond that we were able to swim in. Dominica, being an island with many high mountains and valleys attracts many rain clouds that produce these beautiful waterfalls and of course with rain comes the rainbows. It is said that rainbows can even be seen during the night when the moon is bright. We had to do some rock climbing and traversing to get to these places but once we dove into the surprisingly cool pools everything was perfect.



On our way back from the falls Kiana and I spotted a tree that looked rather familiar, a plant that I had missed terribly over this Christmas season, a poinsettia tree. So nice to see growing wild.









"Cole – On this tour Moses Jr and Israel took us to a local restaurant that was kinda like a cross between a buffet and a fast food restaurant where you could look and see what you wanted and then they would put it on a plate and you could either stay and eat it or leave. I had chicken that seemed like it was slow cooked with rice. It was really, really good. I like going to local restaurants because the food is good."


Jason our boat boy was forever fishing, we never saw him catch anything but he tried continuously. On the last day he was disappointed to hear that we were leaving because he wanted to take the boys fishing, maybe he thought that they would bring him some luck.


Moving north from the capital city and all of the rain, we then anchored at a small village called Portsmouth where we took a river tour on the Indian River. The Indian River is part of a national park which means that we were unable to motor up the river to check things out. Martin was our man (Providence was his boat name) to row us up the river and to teach us about the incredible Bloodwood Trees that grow here, the root system on these trees was unreal, seeing and walking amongst them was like being in a Harry Potter book where the trees almost come alive. Along this river the trees were like a canopy that hung over top of us and below us were the huge mullet fish that gently swam around probably knowing that they were protected from fishermen.


Portsmouth also brought with it a beautiful beach with some palm tree swings that the kids took full advantage of. It is always fun to see the local kids (being Christmas vacation there were a few of them) down at the beach enjoying their beautiful backyard playground, our kids always learn so many tricks from them. They spent hours swinging from these simple ropes into much too shallow water and enjoying their skim boards. We find ourselves constantly saying that if we were back in Canada our government would have guard rails around such things.


New Years Eve and Day found us on the Island of Guadeloupe, being the exciting group that we are we were in bed at around 10 pm unable to stay awake to bring in the new year. Like Grandpa at the lake says “8 pm is sailor’s midnight.” We therefore celebrated on New Year’s Day with a bottle of bubbly. We unfortunately had not much time to spend on the island of Guadeloupe, but we did take a beautiful New Years Day stroll down a sidewalk along the waters edge and found some street vendors selling none other than delicious snow cones in your choice of flavors; Mint, Lemon, Fruit Punch, Pomegranate just to name a few. They make these snow cones by scraping a huge block of ice with a special scraping tool and then filling a cup with the cool ingredients. We were also on a mission to find our captain a new pair of sandals as one of his went overboard on our latest passage. The French English barrier is one that is hard to overcome, we could use Coach Norm and his clan to come down and help us out. We finally found a pair in his size and a salesman that could not understand how we could be Canadian and not speak French.



Leaving Guadeloupe we had a decision to make, go northwest to Montserrat, Nevis, St.Kitts, and Statia or head straight north to Antigua and Barbuda. Being the head teacher on the boat I insisted on doing both. Go west to the island of Montserrat to see the active volcano and then head east to Antigua and Barbuda.

Montserrat – the Island with the active Volcano! Now this was a field trip that we will never forget. In 1995 the Soufriere Hills Volcano erupted destroying the capital city of Plymouth. The population here at the time of the volcano was 10,000, many from the US and Canada who were here for some beautiful peace and quiet that the Caribbean offers. After the volcano erupted the majority of people moved away leaving only 4,500 people living on the north end of the island. It is amazing to see how one island can have two totally different landscapes in such a small area. The volcano with its grayness and bareness is on the south side and on the north side is a beautiful green luscious landscape. Sailing past the swallowed up town of Plymouth was definitely a surreal (a word that I seem to be using often now a days) feeling. Houses and more houses, stores, hospitals and schools half buried in lava & ash and now deserted. A whole city just empty of everything. How quickly people’s lives and businesses were turned upside-down and they were forced to start over somewhere else. Technically there is a 2 mile exclusion zone off of the end of Montserrat where you are supposed to stay clear, but with a captain like ours we needed to get closer. In the summer of 2003 the huge volcanic dome collapsed and now the volcano shows signs of settling down to sleep, although with all of the smoke still pouring out it sure seems like it is far from sleeping.


"Kiana – The Volcano on Montserrat was smokin’.(hahaha) There was a town buried under lava and ashes. We were able to see this better than most people because we sailed closer then we were supposed to (opsie!). Seeing the buried houses made me thankful that I do not live near a volcano. When we got to where we were heading (Little Bay) it really didn’t seem like there was much around to do. Dad said that on the other side of the mountain there was a beach. So we hopped off the boat and tried to find our way around a construction zone for a half an hour and when we finally found the path we hiked for another half an hour on a steep path over the mountain. We found a long beach with soft sand and great water and we had it all to ourselves. We didn’t get to stay there for long because we had to save time for our long hike back before dark. When we got back to the boat the boys decided to try and get to the beach with the dinghy and found that it was a 2 minute ride. Oh well at least we got some exercise. TaTa for now folks. "



"Cole - This volcano was a lot different than I thought it would be. I thought that it would just be a small mountain with a small hole at the top of it, but it turns out that it was a huge mountain with smoke coming out of the top and houses half covered with lava. I would have liked to see the hospital that was worth 28 million dollars but it was covered with lava and we were not allowed to walk within a mile of the town. We also hiked over a huge hill and on the way we saw donkeys, goats and wild pigs. Once we got to the beach it turned out that we could have gone on a two minute dinghy ride instead of walking through prickly bushes. We had fun at the beach. "

Sailing straight east when the wind is also straight from the east is not a pretty task. So the captain made a decision, motor from Montserrat to Antigua. Motoring proved to be not as boring as we had all thought, due to the fact that when we are sailing we achieve approx. 8-10 knots in speed compared to approx 5 knots under motor, our fish hooks were not quite a blur to the fish. 6 hours of motoring, 7 delicious fish to stock our freezer. 3 Barracuda, 3 Tuna and 1 Kingfish, how delicious fresh Tuna sushi is. (i-Gen guys, sorry it just won’t keep that long, you will have to come down to try it out)



Antigua & Barbuda (A beach for every day of the year)

I can honestly say that I am in beach heaven and it is killing me to leave the beaches here. I would have thought that we had already seen the best of the best but I was wrong. Barbuda wins the beach contest by far. 11 Mile Beach is the name and that only begins to describe what we came across, 11 miles of beautiful pinkish white perfect sand, only one other sailboat in sight, a hotel that has been closed down (one that we later found out was a special spot for Princess Diana) and fresh coconuts, plenty for the taking. Then we forced ourselves to pick up anchor from this beautiful spot, sailed around to the west side of the island only to see a 13 mile beach in the same state. I really am in heaven.

"Tyler – Barbuda has a 13 mile beach. When we went there, there was absolutely no one there just like on all of the other beaches in Barbuda. When we came in on the Kayaks, with all of our clothes on, me, my mom and Kiana went in the yellow one and Dad Luke and Cole went in the orange one. We in the yellow Kayak came ashore perfect, riding a big wave perfectly onto shore, but when my dad, Luke and Cole tried riding the wave, Luke and Cole got a bit worried so they jumped out, luckily dad had his camera in a bag, because after that the Kayak looked like a surf board. It flipped and took dad with it. I laughed really hard. "

"Luke – In Barbuda we went for a walk down a beach that was really long and had nobody on it. There was a really nice hotel that was deserted. We found 9 coconuts under a coconut tree that we broke out of their outer shells and then we walked back to the Kayaks. We put them in the Kayak and then dad went back to the boat to get us some cold pop, but when Cole tried to pull dad out over the waves he got smoked by the Kayak and hurt his head. We lost one of the coconuts in this accident and dad fell out of the Kayak for the second time. That was one of my favorite beaches. "

On the island of Antigua we anchored off of a beach where there was a beautiful hotel/resort of the obviously very rich. Provided to all of the guests were luxurious beach loungers with thick foam cushions which were covered with a thick beige towel and rolled up for their use were 2 more thick beige towels (which were all collected and cleaned every night) and they were served bottles of water or whatever they wanted to drink by an employee who walked up and down the beach…..and then there was us on our well used beach towels laying on the beach with our little cooler. At our anchorage here the kids spent hours diving down and collecting many starfish which are an amazing creature. They had to put them upside down on the boat or else the starfish would suction himself on to the boat. Cole also had to watch what his starfish was suctioning on to…….

Pushing forward to the island of St.Martin we were amazed once again. Mega Yacht capital of the Caribbean for sure. The size of some of these boats is absolutely incredible; with the size of some of them I would love to see what these people’s houses look like.

While waiting for the captain to clear us into customs, the kids and I decided to take a bit of a walk and what did we find but a McDonalds. In we went for a delicious ice cream, fries and half an hour of watching tv, which they conveniently had hanging on the wall, I didn’t realize how much I was missing that silly thing. For supper we decided to go out to a restaurant, but this was not your normal restaurant, this one was definitely for happy, sun burnt, drinking tourists. Man what our kids are learning now that they can get into places like these, they really are having the time of their lives.


St.Martin was a great place to shop, it is a duty free island which simply meant that prices were finally reasonable. So Kevin stocked up in the sailboat shops and scuba shops (2 new scuba tanks were purchased) and the kids and I in the souvenir shops. Even though St. Martin seemed like a lovely island we were anxious to get going as we knew that one more day of sailing would get us to the BVI where Grandma and Grandpa from the lake were awaiting our arrival.

January 10, 3:00 am we hauled up anchor from St.Martin and headed west for one of our longest passages in our 7 months of sailing, to the BVI (British Virgin Islands). What should have been a great day of sailing turned into another day of great fishing. The winds were just not howling in our favor and we were forced to motor and restock our fish freezer once again.




Kiana Swinging



Cole on the skim board

St.Vincent, St.Lucia, and Christmas in Martinique

December 14, 2007

St. Vincent was a different island, we still have mixed feelings about whether we really liked it or not. We stayed at a marina here called the Blue Lagoon where we were unable to just jump into the water for a quick cool down swim, it was somewhat dirty, thankfully because we were paying for a mooring ball here, we were able to use the swimming pool and shower facilities at the marina.



St. Vincent has a volcano called La Soufriere which rises to about 4,000 feet. We decided to take a tour to the top of the volcano and check things out. Absolutely amazing, about 5 hours of hiking (there and back) up a mountain and through an unbelievably green rainforest, Leslie our tour guide was another great person with an abundance of knowledge about his island. He is a local grandfather with 2 kids and 2 grandkids who hikes up to the top of this volcano 3-4 times a week. It was a challenging hike and would definitely keep a person in great shape. Bamboo has my vote for favorite plant/tree, they are amazing they grow so perfectly straight and are incredibly strong. The locals use bamboo as supports while building their houses until the cement supports are completed. The first hour and a half was total rainforest and then as we gained altitude the air became cooler and the forest became a lot less dense until there was not much more than grass growing. We came across a lava river bed that was quite a site to see, the lava cooled and became amazingly smooth. The kids were amazed at all of the volcanic rock around them, trying to crack them open to see what they could find inside, hoping for some precious gems of some sort. Quite a few pieces made it home with us in shorts pockets for family and friends to see. This volcano was last active in 1979 and Leslie our guide, who has lived on this island his whole life, was here to witness it, how neat/scary would that be? A bit of a disappointing arrival at the top of the Volcano, we were surrounded by thick, wet clouds that refused to clear away. We were unable to see the complete rim around the volcano but were able to see down inside where there was a pool of sulfur water. The winds were so strong that Leslie made us sit down so that we would not be blown several hundred feed down in to the crater. We were so wet and cold that our visit at the top was quite short. (I was not too impressed with the short visit as I was still huffing and puffing from the hike up). During our hike a couple of ‘local’ guys who actually live up on this volcano and do some ‘ganjia farming’ in the rich volcanic soils, as Leslie called it, passed us with only bare feet. These guys live up on the mountain for months growing ‘weed’ that they then carry down to sell in the local towns. I am very sorry to tell you all that Kevin has also picked up a bad addiction to Hairoun, he consumes at least 6 350ml containers a day and is always searching for a local dealer. (It is actually pronounced Hi-roon and is the local beer in St. Vincent). Kevin is collecting beer from each island to share with his beer buddy Devin who will be arriving in February. On every island each brand of beer is carefully sampled and only the best brands are allowed into Kevin’s collection. On our descending hike, our kids turned into Tarzan and Jane and began swinging from the vines in the forest. Well they were more like George of the Jungle as they were not the most graceful swingers. How FUN. On our return to Leslie’s van we arrived to a disappointing sight, obviously sales in the drug business are not as good as we thought, one of the mountain men broke into his van and stole his sunglasses and to Kevin’s total disappointment our locally made chicken Rotis lunch. Rotis are a local dish that is made up of chicken, potato and a curry mixture that is wrapped up in a flatbread of sorts, it is really good. Poor Leslie who is such a positive man, was so frustrated with these guys. We did get to visit the local police station so that Leslie could file a report for his insurance, so that was kinda cool.

Using the local bus system we also visited the local market in the capital town of Kingston, these markets are where the locals shop at and are off the beaten path where the cruise ship tourists are not taken. They are always fun to visit as they are loaded with all the fun fruits and veggies and breads to buy. I will never complain about my work load again, these local farmers haul all their ripe fruits and veggies into the market on a daily basis for other locals to buy, whatever does not sell they haul home just to be brought back tomorrow. There were also about 5 different hardware stores in a 2 block space and if you can believe it not one of them had a steak knife, maybe if we had called it a Chicken Roti knife they would have had one. Next on our agenda was a trip to the Botanical gardens. We were given a quick tour of the gardens and of course our favorite thing here was the talking parrots. The kids had them talking like crazy…Hello…Morning… They are a rare and protected bird in St. Vincent and were wonderful to see up close. The gardens themselves, although they had some interesting trees and flowers from around the world, were not kept up as well as we thought they would be. After visiting the Devonian Botanical Gardens so often, we had high expectations I guess.















After heading out of the Blue Lagoon marina we were off to Walliabou Bay on the north side on St.Vincent. Now this is where the filming of “Pirates of the Carribean” took place. Definitely a large part of 1 and smaller parts of 2 and 3 were filmed here. Disney left different stage parts behind taking down anything of value I am sure. It was so neat to be able to climb and stand where Johnny Depp had once been. One of the local bar owners, where a large portion of the props remain, sells copies of a picture that he took of Depp where it shows him drinking a beer and smoking a joint , I am sure Johnny would be happy about that. Saturday night on our boat is movie night, needless to say Pirates of the Carribean 1 was the request for this Saturday and sure enough we saw all the parts in the movie, it sure caused us to watch the movie in a different way, a lot more exciting. The boat boys here in Wallilabou Bay are sure proud of their area and are quick to let you know that they played a part in the movie, mostly fishermen.





















December 18, 2007


From St. Vincent our next stop will be St. Lucia. Now St. Lucia brings us a bit of extra excitement as we know some people on this island that we are going to meet up with and tour around with. Vicki and Doug from Regina, SK, whom we met this past summer out a Wabamun Lake (Liz and Harvey, Liz and Vicki are sisters, who own a cabin beside Kevin’s parents out at the lake graciously introduced us and the rest is history) own a house here and spend their winters in luxury on the beautiful island of St.Lucia.
A HUGE THANK-YOU goes out to Doug and Vicki who opened their beautiful piece of heaven to us and welcomed us with open arms. This was the first time on our trip that we were able to go into a home on one of the islands, they are amazing in that because all of the islands are incredibly hilly they are all built on stilts of some sort. Well Liz and Doug’s house is no exception; up high on a hill with their gardens in their yard and fruit trees wherever you turn I can sure understand why they come back winter after winter. Just imagine cleaning up your summer garden in Canada just to turn around and plant another one here, only add a mango, grapefruit, lime, orange and coconut trees to the mix. Nothing beats fresh fruit from your own fruit trees and Vicki and Doug had our mouths watering in no time. Huge mangoes served up still on their peels, with a facecloth to catch all of the juices running down our faces. We were kept busy eating fresh fruit, and also had a quick lesson on the Canadian method of extracting coconut water from the coconut, Vicki is amazing with the drill. Thank-you again for your hospitality and amazing produce that came home with us, I don’t think the delicious mangoes and oranges made it 24 hrs on our boat.



The day following our visit to Vicki and Doug’s house, Vicki became our tour guide extraordinaire for the day. We had a destination of the St. Lucia Botanical gardens, but in order to get there we had to hop on to a local bus which here in St. Lucia is a little bit different, here they are regulated which means that there is not the squishing in and sitting on knees that we experienced on other islands. What was the same about this bus system were the roads that they have to wind in and out and up and down. The bus trip was just as educational as the botanical gardens themselves. We viewed such amazing sights as banana plantations, local villages, local farming villages and the beautiful Piton Mountains (two mountains which stand side by side with a beautiful anchorage in between them, you can climb the taller of the two). We arrived at the Botanical Gardens just before opening time and therefore beat the daily cruise ship rush, which we were very thankful for. The Gardens here in St. Lucia definitely made up for the gardens in St. Vincent. We saw the most beautiful flowers and plants and trees up close and personal while taking a relaxing walk on beautiful paths that lead around the gardens. It was so nice to see the grounds so incredibly well taken care of. In the gardens we saw some mineral baths that Louie XVI had built so that his soldiers could relax and benefit from the minerals, they have been redone for tourists to swim in, but we did see the original baths. Supposedly if you bath in them they take 10 years off your looks, none of us figured we needed this so we simply admired. In these gardens we also came across the Diamond Falls, these diamond falls contain the same minerals as the baths and therefore have colored the stone wall behind them, an absolutely stunning view. Our tour with Vicki was not over with the bus rides and the Botanical Gardens, she then took us to Milo’s Restaurant in the village of Soufriere. A little local restaurant where they served up an absolutely delicious lunch of Chicken and Fish Rotis with a salad or fries and of course a cold Piton (the local beer on St. Lucia, it is getting harder and harder for Kevin to pick a favorite).
Once again a HUGE THANK-YOU to Vicki for taking a day to spend with us, it was wonderful.
We had one more stop to make on St .Lucia (well there was more than one but we are having to pick and choose as we are on somewhat of a schedule) we had to visit Pigeon Island National Park. This island is actually not an island on its own anymore; it has been attached to St.Lucia, with a couple beautiful hotels on the manmade causeway. Pigeon Island is made up of 2 peaks joined by a saddle ridge that we were able to hike to the top of and across. These peaks were used in the 1780’s as a strategic British observation post to see the next island north, the French in Martinique, who had planned to dispel of the British in the Caribbean. Unfortunately for the French the British on Pigeon Island were watching their every move and when they left Martinique to try to take over the island, Admiral Rodney and his fleet were ready and waiting. The British defeated the French in less than 24 hours and Pigeon Island has not played an important role since. In 1817 a hurricane destroyed many of the buildings here but thankfully there are still enough left for us to let our minds imagine and wander. There is a small museum here which helps to create a picture in your mind and a smaller bar under the museum in some of the old officer’s barracks, where the walls are made of large stone and tunnels lead in and out of the bar/restaurant. We stopped for a quick drink and I had a/one pina colada that sent my head spinning. (That local rum gets you every time.) There were a few old large trees here that kids insisted on climbing, it was not till we wanted them to pose for a picture that they realized that they were full of ants, just look at their faces, they were laughing so hard and were unable to sit still.




Here in St. Lucia we anchored at Rodney Bay, which is a beautiful beach about a mile long. It also has a huge marina that holds hundreds of boats. We are thankful for the large marina here in the lagoon because on our sail over we noticed some stitching coming out in our Jib (that is the sail up at the front of the boat) so we took it down and had the local sail maker sew it up for us. We also found a great Italian ice cream shop here at the marina where I am sure they know us by name. We visited the mall in St. Lucia a couple of times to purchase some Christmas food and gifts to help with our Christmas Spirit. I never realized how Christmas shopping puts one in the mood so quickly; I guess the idea of giving really does go a long way.
Well our time in St. Lucia was very limited but we were able, with the help of some new friends, see the best parts of it and stock up on some Christmas cheer.

December 23, 2007




Well 2 sleeps before Santa comes and we are heading for the Island of Martinique. Now this island for those of you who have heard our boat purchase and hurricane story, know is where we purchased our boat back in August. Kevin and I think that we kinda know the ins and outs of this island, even though it is French and we cannot understand a word, know what to expect and can at least rent a car and get around on our own (you drive on the right hand side here). We rented a little 2 door car here and squished all six of us in to the four available seats, still more comfy that the 21 people in the van alternative. We drove along the east / Carribean coast to see what we could find, not really looking for anything in particular just feeling great with our new freedom. Here we found a little village called St. Pierre where in 1902 Mount Pelee erupted and coved the entire town with lava leaving only two men alive, one man was down in his cellar and the other man was a criminal in an underground jail. Here we had some delicious pizza at a little French restaurant and then took the afternoon to enjoy one of Martinique’s beautiful black sand beaches. Now being Christmas eve and all we headed home to locate the man in red on his journeys around the globe (the internet is an amazing thing). The kids were very excited but nervous at the same time as they were told that this Christmas would be smaller due to our location and limited funds for Christmas gifts. Lets just say they said extra prayers that Santa would be good to them.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT.
December 25, 2007




We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year.
Our first Christmas away from family, friends, Christmas parties, snow and everything we know, turns out to be alright, I have always said that as long as Kevin and the kids are with me I will be alright and this just proves it.
How better to explain Christmas than through a child’s eyes……






Kiana – We had a very different Christmas this year in Martinique. Tyler woke me up, It was about 4:45. I was about to yell at him for waking me up so early in the morning but then remembered it was Christmas (YAY!!!). I quickly climbed out of my top hatch (the window right above my bed) and crawled over to theirs and we had we had a 15 minute long countdown while listening to my iPod (the earliest we were allowed to wake up was 5:00). We ran out to the kitchen and woke up mom and dad it took an extra 10 minutes for them to actually know why they were being woken up so when they were awake enough we all started ripping open the many presents we got(thank you!). When everything was open and most of it tried out mom and dad decided we should go for another ride in our car we rented we stopped by a really nice beech. The waves there were big so we were worried that we couldn’t swim because usually where the are big waves there is shallow coral .When the boys went to investigate they found it was just really shallow sand. I was sooooo sad because I had forgot my bathing suitL . We didn’t stay for long any ways and I ended up getting soaked any waysJ. For supper that night we had turkey, ham, stuffing, fresh cranberry sauce, and pumpkin (yummy). Well that’s all folks. kiana


Cole – Christmas day was a lot different here than at home, no snow, no Christmas tree and no relatives but overall it was still fun. We woke up at 5 am our time, 2 am your time to see the table full of presents. We got lots of board games, Skim boards (these are like surf boards you use in the sand and water to ride on like a snowboard), books, clothes and candies. Everything but the books, clothes and candy we are sharing. Then after opening presents we drove to a beach with big waves which we had fun in and then we drove home and had a big supper of Turkey, ham, pumpkin, potatoes, and stuffing. This is a Christmas that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Tyler – Christmas day this year was small. My best present was the Skim boards from Santa. After we opened our presents we got to go to the beach, it was easy to learn how to use the boards but I fell down a few times learning. After the beach in our rental car we went home to the boat and I helped mom make some homemade stuffing. In it we put butter, celery, garlic and croutons. The supper was really good.


Christmas day we spent opening gifts and going on another tour with our sports car, well that is the way Kevin drove it anyways. With new gifts in hand we headed for a beautiful beach on the southern end of Martinique. I wanted to take the kids down to the Marina in the town of Le Marin where we purchased the boat and witnessed firsthand hurricane Dean. We showed them the hotel we stayed in and the damage that was done to the island. It is amazing how the locals all pull together to clean up their town and get back to normal. It has been four months since the hurricane and except for a few stranded sailboats out in the bay things look pretty back to normal, even the palm and coconut trees have grown new leaves and seem to be back to normal. It does help that Martinique is part of France and when it is needed France steps in and helps out, this is very noticeable when you get to the other islands where they are independent and are left to their own devices.
December 29, 2007
Well we hauled up anchor on Boxing Day and sailed away from Martinique in search of some more beautiful sights. Next island up, Dominica, the nature island.



Luke – While we were sailing we saw a big brown thing, it turned out to be a big turtle that was floating at the top of the water. When we got closer it lifted its head up and then dived down.

Diamond Falls

Black Pearl