4th of July - Cruiser Style

First, the cast of characters - all new friends we have met since our arrival in St. Lucia.

Kenny and Kathy - from the catamaran sailing yacht "Mer Soleil" - have been living aboard for three years, and sailing mostly in the Caribbean. They still have business interests in the U.S.

Lisa and David - from the monohull sailing yacht "Star Stream" - Lisa is a licensed boat captain, and David is a retired airline pilot (TWA and American Airlines). They live aboard their boat full time, but maintain a small condo in Florida. They have two doggies aboard, Katy and Spencer.

Jan and Jeff - British couple from sailing yacht "Wine Down". Jeff is a retired RAF pilot, and Jan is a retired Nurse. They have built a home in St. Lucia, but also maintain their boat in the Marigot harbour. JULY 4th IS THEIR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!

Doreen - owner/operator of the Chateau Mygo restaurant in Marigot Bay, she also has numerous other business interests and properties in St. Lucia.

Ben - Captain of the motor yacht KATHLEEN M - a terrific guy, with an amazing store of boating knowledge and lore.

Troy - Dockmaster of the Marina at Marigot Bay - he's the man who keeps the whole marina running smoothly, and the cruising community happy.

The play - we decided among us that we should create a traditional American 4th of July celebration that everyone in the harbour could enjoy. Complete with hot dogs, ribs and bratwurst on the grill, red, white and blue table decorations, and if possible, FIREWORKS!

The plot twist - since we knew that Jan and Jeff's wedding anniversary also fell on the 4th of July, it was decided to include a special recognition for that, too. But that part of the celebration had to be kept secret from the two of them until the surprise was sprung on them at the party!

Planning and preparations were underway for days. Kathy and Kenny made shopping forays into Castries (the capital city) looking for the raw materials. Red, white and blue paper plates, napkins, and tablecloths were among the items they came up with. Kenny made music CD's of great tunes to play at the party. Kathy and Susan crafted a sort of mock wedding veil for Jan to wear, and an ersatz tuxedo vest and bow tie for Jeff.

We spent one evening with Kenny and Kathy creating table decorations - candle holders in red, white and blue.
Walt, Kenny, and Kathy making table decorations
Kathy (aka Martha Stewart of Marigot) and her creations

The menfolk try to help...Walt and Kenny hard at work

At last, the party was planned. Invitations were out. The beer was cold, the tables were dressed, the music was playing, and the food was abundant.

Walt and Susan in Party Mode

Jan and Doreen

Troy (left) and Ben enjoy a cold one!

Cruising couple from Chicago - Augie and Sophie, plus unidentified party-goer

More party animals

Grill Master Jeff at work

At last, it was time to spring the surprise on Jeff and Jan. With long-distance help from (Yvonne and Sierra), Susan, Kathy, Lisa and Doreen had worked out a choreographed dance and lip-synch routine to the 50's tune "Goin to the Chapel...and we're gonna get married", complete with little bridesmaid's bouquets. The dance routine was a hit!

Susan and her "Pips" serenading the happy couple...

Jan in her veil, and Jeff in his "tux" are congratulated on 28 years of marriage, while the "Pips" wail on... (Kathy is at right)

The happy couple enjoys their first dance to the marvelous tune "Only You". Very romantic!

They were great sports! And the Pips are still singing in the background...

Jan and Jeff - truly a lovely and loving couple

Dancing to "Willie and the Hand Jive"

Pips' behinds - from left, Doreen, Lisa, Kathy and Susan

Opposite view from left - Susan, Kathy, Lisa and Doreen

At 9:30pm, several of the menfolk fired off a few rounds from our marine emergency flare guns in lieu of fireworks. Yes, we had obtained permission from all the proper local authorities. But it was still scary doing it in such a small bay. We were lucky nothing was ignited that shouldn't have been...

By 11:30, the place was cleaned up, and the revelers mostly asleep. A great time was had by all!

St. Lucia - Von, Sierra and Clay visit KINGDOM

Susan's sister Yvonne, niece Sierra, and Clay Davis joined us in Marigot Bay, St. Lucia for a couple of weeks. We had a wonderful time with them. It was like a mini-vacation for us, since while they were here we didn't do any maintenance work on the boat.

We spent pleasant afternoons at the pool, swimming, reading, and playing "Bananas"
Von and Sierra enjoyed kyaking in the Bay

Clay enjoyed fishing (or trying to fish) from the boat, the dock, and the dinghy.

One day, we went zip-lining in the rain forest. This is Susan making a transit...

Susan, all geared up. Note the lovely hairnet... On the left is our friend Kathy Walker, whose husband Ken joined our zipline group. Kathy preferred keeping her feet on the ground.

Yvonne and Clay, geared up for zip-lining.

Dinner at Doolittle's in Marigot Bay. We were joined by our friends Kathy and Ken Walker, and by Ben Fisher, another friend who is Captain of the 95' Motor Yacht "Kathleen M"

Doolittle's happy hour list

Von and Sierra playing "Bananas" at the swim-up bar

Another day, we took the boat south a few miles, and anchored off the beach at the foot of the Piton's. This is one of the most beautiful anchorages in the Caribbean. It is a small bay, set between two massive volcanic cones. There are a couple of very exclusive resorts here, with fine restaurants. Also, a small beach, and two excellent shallow reefs perfect for snorkling. Von, Clay, Sierra and Susan spent a lovely afternoon snorkling, and then we headed back to Marigot Bay to arrive before dark.

Ready for Snorkling - The water is a crystal clear blue, and perfect temperature.

Clay and Sierra adjusting their snorkel gear.

Walt, Sierra and Von playing Bananas at the swim-up bar

The pool at Discovery - olympic size with swim-up bar

Von kyaking in Marigot Bay

Poolside refreshments - pizza, fries, and umbrella drinks

Sierra and Von poolside

Molly

Typical Marigot Bay sunset

The facilities of Marigot Bay Marina, and the Discovery Hotel provide us all we need for hurricane season; Clean water, serenity, security, and beautiful surroundings.

Martinique to St. Lucia

Thursday, May 28, 7:30am
We weighed anchor for what we thought would be an easy 40 mile run to Marigot Bay, St. Lucia. The day started out sunny and with short seas. By the time we were 5 miles offshore, in the passage between the two islands, we knew we were in for a very uncomfortable ride.

You will notice there are no accompanying photos with this blog entry; we were too busy hanging on...

Our rhumb-line course was Southeast to St. Lucia. Unfortunately the current and 25-knot wind was creating a solid 10-12 foot set of waves directly abeam our course. In addition, the waves were coming at very close intervals. I tried every point of steering near our course, and only succeeded in severely bouncing the contents of the boat around the salon, breaking lamp bulbs, and toppling side tables. Even our sofa came adrift, and was marching across the salon. The salon floor was covered in glass shards from the broken light bulbs.

I finally yielded to conditions, and ran a sort of tacking course Southwest, which at least put the oncoming waves to port and astern the boat. This course gave us relief from the pounding, but took us about 1o miles out of the way. Once we were in the lee of St. Lucia, the wind and waves abated somewhat, and we could steer almost directly East toward Marigot Bay.

This is literally the first time we have had to run a significant tacking course to get where we wanted to go. It added two hours to our passage, but it taught us another lesson in seamanship. Better to run than be run over! Comfort over speed!

Just to make things really interesting, our starboard engine quit just as we were about to enter the harbour at Marigot Bay. The starboard fuel filter was clogged, so I had Susan idle the boat in circles near the harbour entrance, using the port engine only, while I changed the filter and re-primed the stalled engine.

We finally tied up at the marina around 3:30pm. I was able to clear St. Lucia customs and immigration just before they closed.

Martinique

We spent five days in Fort de France, shopping for groceries, and a few items from the excellent chandlery there. We would have had a couple of boat maintenance items done in Martinique, but we were unable to surmount the language barrier. We called several service companies, but the people answering the phone spoke only French. By Wednesday, May 27th, we finally gave up, and moved on to this lovely village and anchorage of Grande Anse d'Arlet, which lies about 7 miles south of Fort de France.

We spent only one night here, and left Martinique early the next morning.

We did like Martinique, and plan to return sometime soon for a week of exploring inland. There are a number of interesting historical sites, beautiful anchorages, and at least nine rum distilleries on Martinique.

Dominica to Martinique

Friday May 22nd
We bid farewell to Dominica, raising the anchor at 7:30am, bound for Martinique. It was an easy day of cruising, and we arrived at Fort de France, Martinique at 3:30pm.

Since we have already posted pix of Fort de France, taken on our trip northward, we won't repeat them here. Instead, we will show you some of the photos taken on this trip.

This is a view of Scott's Head, at the southern tip of Dominica, and it's bay. This small bay contains a fishing village, and is off limits to cruising boats, as it is a protected fishery.
Two views approaching Soufrier, Dominica, with the mountains and volcano shrouded by rain clouds

Two views of the village of Soufriere, Dominica. Note the old cemetery near the waterfront, and the church above.

Molly's tyical cruising nook - until the water gets rough

Molly on Walt's lap, in the pilothouse

More Dominica Pix

During Gayle's visit, we decided to take the boat about 15 miles down-island to Roseau for a few days. Roseau is the capitol of Dominica, and a good place for provisioning. We took a mooring ball near Sea-Cat's dock, from which we could take our dinghy into several of the local docks for shopping and sight-seeing. Sam took a few days off to go with us aboard KINGDOM. We returned to Portsmouth for Gayle's return flight.

While we were in Roseau, Gayle arranged for two days of SCUBA diving with the local dive shop boat. Sam, Susan and I stayed aboard Kingdom.

The four of us did go down to Champagne Reef in the dinghy for an afternoon of snorkling. Champagne Reef is so named because there are volcanic steam outlets among the reef formations. This looks and feels like you are swimming in a warm glass of champagne. The water, of course, is crystal-clear. The fish were amazing in their variety, and we saw eels, as will as a colorful school of squid. Unfortunately, we did encounter some tiny jellyfish, nearly invisible to the eye. We all were stung, but Sam and Susan were hit the worst. We were told later that these were "String of Pearls" jellyfish, and that they had been blown in from offshore by a recent storm. We had not encountered these before in our dives there, or anywhere else in Dominica. We were also told that the the only antidote to their stings is the urine of a certified dive-master. Hmmm...

Sam and Walt prepare the lines for mooring off Roseau.

Sam took us into the mountains on a rain forest hike. This is the entrance to the Morne Diablotin national park trail.

I have no idea what this plant is, but Susan says it is a "Birdnest Antherium"

Along the trail, we observed lots of bromeliads, including orchids growing wild. There are also two rare species of parrots on Dominica, one of which lives in the rain forest. We spotted a pair far up in the forest canopy, but they fled before we could really photograph them.

The scale of these trees is enormous. It is impossible to photograph one of these in its entirety. The trunk of this particular specimen is easily 30 feet in diameter. It is like being among the giant redwoods of California.

Happy hikers - Sam, Gayle, and Susan

This lone lightning-ravaged tree is actually perched on the edge of a cliff, overlooking a deep river ravine. But the forest canopy is so high and so thick, it decieves the eye into thinking this is just a little dropoff. Note the giant bromeliad at the base of the stump.

Sam took us on another interesting (and Very Challenging) hike. We started at the top of a mountain spine, and hiked (actually, slid, slipped, and fell) down a trail that led us downward about 1000 feet to the Chaudrie Pool. It is a lovely swimming hole formed by a waterfall at the bottom of a steep ravine.

This is the starting point for the trail down to the Chaudrie Pool. Note the cloud-covered peak in the background. Believe it or not, the Dominicans consider this upland to be "farmland". They grow bananas here, and plant terraced vegetable gardens.

At the Chaudrie Pool, we found another specimen of the Dominican Mountain Crab. This one is bigger, and appears ready to defend his territory from all comers.

I swear, these guys are so bright and colorful, they look like they're made of plastic. I was fascinated by them.

Molly needed a good nap after the hike through the rainforest, and then down the mountain to the pool. I had to carry her up and out - she slept peacefully the whole way.

One of the greatest swimming holes I've ever been in anywhere. Very cold, very pure water.

Sam, checking his phone messages at the bottom of the ravine. Good thing there were no urgent ones...

Old guy

Gayle, fiddling with her camera after our swim.

Chaudrie Pool - need we say more?

This is a view of Prince Rupert Bay from the Cabrits Peaks. One of those little white spots down there is our boat.

A last, larger view of Prince Rupert Bay. One of our favorite anchorages in all the Caribbean.

Dominica offers great natural beauty; friendly and hospitable people; great diving among incredible reefs, and a large, comfortable harbour. What more could a cruising couple ask for?

Exploring Dominica

We spent nearly a month in Dominica. Where did the time go?

Well, first off, our friend Gayle Danner came to visit, so we had a few days of preparation prior to her arrival, cleaning her stateroom, stocking the boat, and planning activities. We met with our friend, local tour guide and boatman, Lawrence Roberts (aka “Lawrence of Arabia”, aka “Meggy”) to renew our friendship with him and his crew. We arranged Gayle’s airport transport, and talked over possible hikes in the interior, as well as dive sites. Lawrence, his partner “Uncle” Sam Haynes, and their longtime friend Andrew took excellent care of us all during our stay.

Gayle arrived on Saturday, May 2nd. Since she had travelled so far in one long day (Phoenix/Atlanta/Peurto Rico/Antigua/Dominica), we allowed her a day to rest up, which also allowed her luggage a day to catch up with her. Sam tracked down her bags, and delivered them from the airport directly to our boat.

We introduced Gayle to the interior of Dominica via the Indian River. Lawrence rowed us up the river to the Bush Bar. It was raining torrentially nearly the entire way. Once there, after a few rounds of Dynamite Punch, we hardly noticed the weather. This was Molly’s first land excursion in Dominica, too. We ordered lunch, which was chicken, accompanied by jungle-grown “provision”, which basically are root crops such as dashine, yams, etc. Delicious!
One of the guys climbed a coconut palm tree, so Gayle could have fresh coconut. She was shown how to crack and peel the nut, and I think she ate most of the meat of an entire coconut all by herself.Coincidentally, a hundred or so students from Ross University Medical School showed up at the Bush Bar while we were there. Seems it was some sort of beginning-of-semester outing for new students. It was suddenly like Grand Central Station in the middle of the damn jungle! It was fun though. We played dominoes.

The following day, Gayle went with Sam on a guided tour. We didn’t go with her, since Susan and I had done this particular tour on a previous visit. The itinerary included the Carib enclave on the eastern shore, a wonderful lunch overlooking the ocean, and a hike to Emerald Pool and waterfall. Sometime during this tour, Gayle fell in love with Dominica, and with Sam.

Next day, we went SCUBA diving. As we were gathering our gear that morning, I discovered that my dive bag containing my BCD (Buoyancy Control Device), regulator, and octopus were missing. The last time I had used them was in January, at St. Martin, to clear a driveshaft that had been fouled by a crab trap line. I stowed the gear, and had no reason to check on it since then. As it happens, that is also where Carol and Teffany signed off our crew list. I hate to think that they may have taken it, but no one else knew where it was stowed. I will probably never know.

Anyway, I was able to use rented replacement equipment from Cabrits Dive Shop, and we really enjoyed the day’s diving in Douglas Bay.

Diving in Dominica is “world-class”. The island boasts some of the healthiest reefs in the world. An amazing variety of soft and hard corals are inhabited by an incredible array of fish and crustaceans. I cannot begin to name all the species we identified, but we saw several varieties of moray eels, which fascinated me. Susan and Gayle both saw seahorses, which are some of the rarest finds. Susan and I both learned to relax into the dive, move slowly, and conserve air, which allows for more “bottom time”.

On this dive, we met a French Canadian couple, Pierre and Celine, who are highly skilled underwater photographers. She was using a video camera, while he shot still photos, focusing on the tiniest organisms he could find. They provided us a CD copy of some of their shots, which we will try to include here. Inspired by them, we’ve decided to try to acquire some sort of underwater camera, so we can share our experiences more fully.

We took a day off to rest, and then dove again in two more nearby locations. Again, we were completely enchanted by the experience.

A day-by-day account of our activities in Dominica would probably be tedious to read we will simply recap some of the highlights of our treks to national parks, waterfalls, natural hot springs, rivers and mountains via pictures. Sam was our tour guide and driver throughout. His knowledge of the island, its flora and fauna, is encyclopedic.

Pirate's Roost restautant, overlooking Scotts Head Bay - Sam points out the sights to Gayle and Walt
A dusky view of Scotts Head Bay fishing village

Walt, Gayle, and Sam - We stopped here at the end of a long day of hiking.

This is a hot-spring-fed pool in one of the national parks. Dominica has several semi-active volcanos, which supply hot water to these pools. They vary in temperature, and in their mineral content and sulpherous aroma.

This was near the end of a day of hiking, and the hot spring was fabulous for our tired and aching muscles.

At first I thought this was a plastic crab, but then he moved! This is a Mountain Crab, which we found at an altitude of 1500 feet, on the trail to Trafalgar falls.

Isn't he cute? These guys remind me of the alien character in Steven Spielberg's movie, "E.T."

This is Gayle at the foot of Trafalgar Falls, the highest waterfall in Dominica. There are actually three separate waterfalls coming over the precipice, about 50 meters apart. But the canyon is so narrow here, we couldn't find a vantage point to photograph them all in one frame.

One of the three falls of Trafalgar Falls.

Old guy and falls...

I'm including this shot (even though it is dark), in an attempt to show scale and perspective, and the height of the falls in relationship to human size.

Gayle and Sam, hiking the trail to Trafalgar Falls - the easy part...

Lunch is served! Maria is a fabulous cook. We each ordered different entrees, and each was excellent.

Gayle and Walt, waiting for lunch to be served. Maria's roadside restaurant is perched cliffside over the river canyon that is formed from the flow out of Trafalgar Falls. From this vantage point, we lost count of the number of different tree and flower varieties we could see while dining.

Susan, Sam and Gayle. This was taken at the overlook above Roseau, the capitol city.

This only one view of the majestic panorama overlooking Roseau. At the base of the hill is the Botanical Gardens. Beyond them is the old city cemetery. This shot is not close enough to make out much more than that. You will just have to come and see it for yourself...

Susan and Gayle.

Gayle at the Bush Bar, a mile up the Indian River, near Portsmouth.