Where
are We?
Going Back to St.
Lucia in January 2004
Jan-6, 2004
Having a Baby is
Distracting!
It's been months
since we updated this section of the site. We're going back on the boat
now & have our tickets. Ross will fly down January 20th to get the boat
ready and Carla with Baby Jane will be coming down Febuary 4th. First
we're going to sail back down to the Grenadines then turn around and head
north to Miami via BVI & the coastal route along Hispaniola and through the
Bahamas. We plan to arrive in Miami around the middle of May and truck
Ellos to Seattle then sail her the summer up to Alaska.
April-9, 2003:
Īles des Saintes
It's a tourist
trap, but oh what a beautiful one. Fabulous Fort Napoleon on top of a steep
hillside and a little shopping street of boutiques and restaurants in the
adorable town below. Just south of Guadeloupe this handful of tiny
islands was strategically important during the Sugar Wars. We're
anchored out and not really doing anything, although we did go snorkeling
yesterday and Ross saw an octopus.
Mar-28, 2003:
Anse Mitan / Forte de France, Martinique
Ah
the French! We arrived in Ste. Anne 3 days ago and have reveled in the
food and drink of the French ever since. Today we made the 4 hour reach from Ste.
Anne to Anse Mitan. What a paradise Martinique is! Being
Americans we don't understand the specific political status here but for all
intents and purposes Martinique is France - just relocated to the
tropics.
Here the people drive Peugeots and Renaults, eat baguettes, talk fast in
French,
refuse to admit speaking English and smoke constantly - just like in France! Anchored out we
can swim to the beach, the food is fabulous and bathing tops optional. This is the indolent, intoxicating and hedonistic Caribbean
we've been seeking. Nothing to do but lay about, snorkel and spy on
our naked neighbors with high power binoculars. It is fabulous.
Mar-21, 2003:
Rodney Bay, St Lucia
We're working our way North up the
Windward Island chain. St. Vincent fades into the horizon as the shape
of St. Lucia emerges before us. Two distinct mountains dominate the
view and we know we are looking at the Pitons, featured in nearly every
postcard of Lt. Lucia. Forward thinking about coral and the
environment has created a Marine Management Area and prevents us from
anchoring here. So we pick up a mooring buoy directly between these two mammoth
guardians.
As we cleat the mooring lines we see familiar
people ashore. We are meeting our friends Mike and Lisa
Bainter here and Mike is eyeing us from the beach, we and give
him a sweeping wave to let him know he's found the right boat.
We've been here for four days, enjoying the
best food we've had in the Caribbean. Pineapple is perfect and the flaky
croissants and crust baguettes nearly convince us to drop anchor for
good. As a result we haven't seen much of the island unless you count
the inside of several bakeries.
Mar-9, 2003:
Grenada, West Indies
Grenada is known as the spice island and certainly lived up to it's name. A third of the world's nutmeg is grown
here and a visit to the spice plantations that dot the island reveal
spice drying, sorting and preparation that hasn't changed in
centuries.
Cocoa beans dry in the sun while sun hardened
natives walk through the massive trays dragging their feet to turn the
beans. Baskets of mace rest in a gently moving stream cleaned by the
passing water while branches of clove and allspice trees sit in the dim
light of the factory waiting for nimble fingers to pick the ripe
spices. Nutmeg pods are peeled by hand; the soft covering is used for
jams and jellies, the fire red mace flowers are put to various uses
including cosmetics and seasoning while the nut is ground into nutmeg.
A quick sniff of a drab brown bark curl reveals cinnamon.
Go back in time and visit the Clarkes Court
Rum factory. Mounds of sugarcane await processing in the steam driven
plant. Most of the equipment from the conveyor belt that moves the
cane to the pressing and grinding area to the bus sized flywheel that turns
the car sized gears was manufactured over 100 years ago! A team of
state of the art engineers keeps everything in working condition while a
uniformed guide educates us to the rum making process. (Ross was
taking prolific notes here).
A drive through the Grand Etang Preserve mist
shrouded mountains tops and lush tropical forest, banana plantations and a
crater lake. Our guide assures us that the preserve is home to monkeys
but they were too shy to show themselves during our visit. Perhaps
you'll have better luck when you come to the spice island.
Feb-16, 2003:
Chaguaramas, Trinidad
We arrived in Trinidad on December 16th, 2002 so
today marks our two month anniversary as visitors in this country. The
more time we spend here the more we've come to appreciate it.
Chaguaramas is a wide, protected bay about
thirty minutes drive from Port-of-Spain, Trinidad's largest city and
capital. It hosts several marinas and haul out facilities and every
yacht service a cruiser could need. (And we've needed just about every
one of them!) Located just south of the hurricane belt, Trinidad has
become the place to store your boat during the Caribbean hurricane months
from June to November. As a result, a yachting community has sprung up
and many people return to their boats in December and spend the entire
winter in Trinidad.
Trinidad and Tobago (pronounced ta-bay-go),
known as T&T, comprise the southernmost Caribbean island nation.
Two separate islands, governed together since emancipation from British rule
in 1962. The population is comprised mostly of Blacks and Indians, descendants
of slavery and indentured servitude from Trinidad's sugar cane past.
The main religions are Christian, Hindu and Islam and the language is
English spoken with a patois making it lyrical but sometimes hard to
understand.
T&T is home to hundreds of varieties of
birds. Seventeen different hummingbirds make their home in
T&T, along with the national bird the Scarlet Ibis. A visit to the
Caroni bird sanctuary, a huge mangrove swamp laced with canals and lakes is
a sure way to see this national bird. At twilight up to ten thousand
of these bright red birds, slightly smaller than our familiar Canada goose,
with a distinctive long curved bill, flock to the swamp to roost for the
night. White Egrets and Blue Herons, in slightly lesser numbers add to
the amazing show. On our visit to the swamp, we also saw Caimans
nearly concealed amongst the mangrove roots, a sleepy anteater and a boa constrictor
high in the trees sleeping off its previous meal.
During World War II Chaguaramus was a US
military base. Now, the marinas, chandleries and service facilities
are part of a national park. Impenetrable jungle rises up beside the only
road to and from Port-of-Spain. At night the jungle is alive with
screeches and calls from the darkness. On occasion we've heard the
calls of howler monkeys and every morning jungle parakeets fly over with their
Psycho like cackle.
T&T is one of the worlds largest
suppliers of oil and derricks and rigs dot the seascape. A trip to
Pitch lake, a 114 acre lake of asphalt is on our agenda where we can see
bubbling tar and bits from the earths past in its depths.
No conversation about Trinidad would be
complete without mention of Carnival. Trinidad is home to calypso and
the steel drum (here they call it pan) both of which play an integral part in carnival
celebrations. The carnival season begins on January first as the
remnants of Christmas fade away. Over the next two months, fete's (parties)
and Mas Camps, (Masquerade Camps) rule the Trini social calendar becoming
more frequent, louder and longer as Carnival nears. The culmination is
Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday when hundreds of thousands of
costumed revelers representing their "camp" or band, accompanied
by pan bands hundreds of drums strong, take to the streets of Port-of-Spain.
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Carla
Ross
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