LIFE: Part 2

Current Location: Vernon, BC, Canada
Current Position: 50 15.36 N 119 17.39 W Click to view map.

So now with the big 60 approaching,  it is with great excitement that I can reveal that it has finally arrived…

She has been christened Sally, after the red MG Midget that I owned when I had just graduated from University.  Since that time I have had a series of ‘practical cars’ – mostly ones that can either carry a windsurfer, or tow a boat, or go off-road for camping, kayaking or skiing, or carry building supplies.  Actually, even the original Sally had a custom built rack to carry a windsurfer!

But now we officially a ‘two car family’, and I am so excited.

Having unpacked her, Ceu and I drove her to the local dump. That elicited some comments, including ‘If you really don’t want it, I will take it off your hands’ from a guy in a big truck. 

No chance.

Actually, the reason for the trip to the dump was to get her weighed (840kg = 1820 lbs) so that we could get her registered. After that she was driven straight to our underground parkade in Vernon, where she is now waiting out the winter until next summer, when we will finally get to drive her.

Meanwhile we are now in Portugal, visiting Ceu’s family, and will be heading back to Trinidad on November 2nd to rejoin Life Part 2. But only for a month, as we will then return to Canada for the ski season.

So difficult to fit everything in (cue violins).

Current Location: Chaguaramas, Trinidad
Current Position: 10 40.74 N 061 38.34 W Click to view map.
Distance sailed since last post: 332 nautical miles. View the map of our voyage track here

As I prepare some new photos from our travels 2019, I get reminded that I must finish catching up with last year. 

We said goodbye to our friends in Antigua and stayed a few more days to see the Antigua Classics race, that’s always fun.

But I forgot to mention on my last post about Antigua, sorry Phill, we had to put you to work on your holiday!

We had to give you a taste of fixing boats in exotic places!

Our windless started to skip while trying to anchor in Barbuda. So the men took it out and had to get their hands dirty, and FIXED it.

 

Dominica

We love this island for the rivers, rain forest, and great hikes. They have the world-renowned hike to the Boiling Lake. The second largest boiling lake in the world. First being New Zealand. We did a smaller hike this time. We’re here on a short visit stop. We did Boiling Lake hike on a previous visit 8 years ago. Plan to do it again next season, 2019

This is 7 months after hurricane Maria. It was sad to see.

The crews were busy fixing the power lines, many roofs have been put on their houses and I hope next year when we return, the beautiful trees have more leaves on them

 

 

Martinique

May 1st at 6:30 Am, we left Dominica to French island of Martinique and early in the afternoon we were anchored in St Pierre, north end of the island.

We had visited this nice place before but had not yet ventured to do this hike:

 

The next day Noel and I and our friend Nick went hiking Mount Pelle. Headed to town and waited forever for a bus that never showed up. Decided to hitchhike up to the base of the mountain. Less than 5 minutes later a nice lady who is from Paris but is now a local there,  picked us up and knew exactly where we were going. She says she picks up tourists there all the time. She did not accept any money but took the chocolate I offered her.

 

 

Mount Pelle is a very steep hike. The altitude is 1397m. We started at about 700m at the base of the mountain. Coming down, wow..straight down from the top, to sea level. Halfway down the mountain,  this scenery changed to bamboo and all shaded tropical jungle.  Ended up at a different village where we got a ride back again to our port.

Here we are scrambling up the mountain with our friend Nick.

We enjoyed the sweaty hike and magnificent views.

 

The next day we hiked again but just a short 3 km to visit the De Paz Distillery. It Was a fun visit along with with our friends Jessica and Nick, and their 3 kids, Asher, Alex, and Sophia. Free entry and lots of Rum tasting. Did I say we were hiking back? lol

The Distillery is situated in a beautiful acreage above the town of St Pierre at the foot of Mt. Pelle. 

 

 

Historical Diamond rock

 

The Diamond Rock as we sail past it on a very calm day. 

Here is another sad site where many battles happened and lives were lost between the French, British, and Spanish. 

It was a naval post for the British in 1804 during the Napoleonic Wars. They thought if they occupied “the rock”  it would allow the British to effectively control the shipping approaching the ports on the western side of the island.

 They blasted the wrock to make space to set up the battery and hauled up everything to the summit of the wrock. They had sleeping areas in caves around the rock and drove out the bats by burning bales of hay. Seems it should be called the “blood rock”

As it looked then….

I took a picture of the posted information. Hard to imagine this kind of life and death on the Rock that is now just a nesting place for the birds.

 

It was also here on this Rock that in 1830 a Slave Ship crashed, claiming the lives of many.

Noel and I took a long walking excursion to The Anse Cafard Memorial site in Southwest of the island.  This Memorial sits up o a hill just above the sea with panoramic views. The 20 statues here memorialize an 1830 incident where a slave ship crashed into Diamond Rock Mountain, killing much of the crew, and the slaves shackled in the cargo areas. Statues are facing the sea, to where the lives were lost and probably facing Africa where they were first sold and taken away. This glimpse into the past, the faces of these slaves, it’s a very moving place.

 

We switched from being a tourist to fixing boats in exotic places! Time to stay home and catch up! (supposed to be recuperating from these hikes, such sore thighs, and calves…) Back to work!

Our floors were really starting to show it’s wearing especially entrance way and galley. But last season when we arrived on the boat, it was even starting to get mildew around the cabinets.  We sailed to Martinique, where we purchased the flooring, and we started the installation. Hard work, with much cutting and cleaning up. But very pleased with the results.

Before and after… well, actually, after, before and after.

 

As usual, we enjoy the French islands. We headed down the coast with a few stops in some cute fishing villages and enjoyed some good snorkeling around as well.  And of course, we stocked up at the grocery store. Cheese, wine and vegetables on the top of the list, before heading to St Lucia.

 

St Lucia.

We were excited to pick up our nice new seats for our cockpit. We had picked out the fabric and left foam and measurements with a seamstress in town.  We like St Lucia, but we actually just stayed the day as we have visited much here. My outdoor living is now more comfortable with new cushions.

 

The Pittons. Leaving St Lucia in a squall but it soon cleared up.

 

We are off to the Grenadines. St Vincent and Grenadines make up one country. 

May 2018

At 7:45 we left to Bequia, North of the Grenadines. Expecting about 20 kts of wind. Passing along St Vincent bigger winds,  big waves, and tides. One of our lower shrouds came down. One of the stainless steel fittings at the top broke, due to corrosion. And it was only 7 years old. Don’t like stainless steel for critical applications.

Sails down and motoring to Bequia where we hope to find someone who will fix it.

Adding time to our journey, which means we will now arrive in the dark. Oh well, it’s a nice big anchorage, easy to get to. Plus our friends are just sailing ahead of us, they will save us a good spot??

Arrived Bequia at 19:45 at Tony Gibbons beach. And we caught NO FISH.

Next day we did find someone who welded our part at huge expense and it was good again. 

A few days later we left for Mustique, next island North of Grenadines

Unique Mustique

Unique in many ways, it is super clean and well manicured.
Very peaceful, barely any traffic, they ride Golf buggies except the maintenance crew.
No bling bling and a laid back atmosphere. No security anywhere, no barbed wire fences and barred windows and doors.
No advertising hoardings, or people selling you stuff you don’t want. No noisy water skiing or jet ski is allowed.

This is a privately owned island, developed into holiday homes for the wealthy. The late Princess Margaret loved it here. She built a beautiful house, in her 10 acres property, given to her by her friend, Colin Tennant who bought Mustique in 1958.

On this posh island, they charge you to visit. You are also only allowed to anchor in Brittania Bay. A minimum of 3 nights for 80 US. 

 

 

 

 

 

2 charming boutiques line the front street along the beach. Golf buggy parked here.

 

 

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the whole Middleton family are regular villa renters here.

 

You can hike or bike on this beautiful island with nice shady paths everywhere. The island is 3 miles long and 1 mile across. Noel and I walked it all. We hiked the North end, more rugged paths along the sea, on the first day. And the next day we did the south end and all through town.

Their mansions are scattered all over the mountain hills with tennis courts and pools. Some, their lawn stretches out all the way to the beach. Manicured yards, lots of flowers, luscious shrubs and large trees. We ended our walks with a refreshing swim with the turtles right off our boat. Ohhh they were soo cute. We enjoyed this spot right in front of their famous “Basil” Bar. At the time was being renovated, so it was closed, but Noel and I had been there before and No…didnt see any Stars there. Although on our last day in Mustique, Noel and I decided to splurge and go for a drink at the bar at the fancy and secluded Firefly Hotel overlooking the ocean and Brittania Bay. The bartender was super friendly and told us about some of the stars he has met here, most recently, like the week before, Kelly from Kelly and Regis, who was there with her Trainer.

We walked below this Mansion, who we were later told belongs to Felix Dennis, founder of Maxim magazine.

 

 

Many tortoises along the roads…

What’s also nice about this island is that has remained unspoiled. With only a small little village, near the sea, and just over a hundred villas scattered throughout the hills, 2 small Hotels and the many unpaved roads.

 

Famous people like Mich Jager, David Bowie, Bryan Adams Raquel Welch, own or have owned here. These houses above, back on to the beach. Most of these are available for rent when the owners are not around.

Everyone on the Island is very friendly. After all, half the people are the maintenance workers and they never know who they talk to, could be their Landlord or some VIP  guest. 

We came across the workers living quarters while exploring the area. They have their own little village. There are no mansions, but decent and very clean.

We left Mustique for a short 13 NM sail to Canouan. We caught a small barracuda, but we let it go because we were not sure it was safe to eat, due to ciguatera. 

 

Canouan

The island looked quite dry on this side, and not as nice as we expected. We anchored in nice turquoise waters in front of Tamarind Hotel.

We did do a hike to the North end of the island and came into this place that was more green and lush with open gates and we kept going. A minute or 2  later we got stopped by friendly security. 

It was this beautiful “Pink Sands Resort” with private cabanas and apartments scattered in the hills hiding amongst luscious trees and blooms that we never saw anywhere else on the island. We have since heard that it was built by Trump, and still expanding it, said the security guard. The beaches are calm protected by the reef ahead.

We kept on exploring the island on foot. At the south end, we walked through a huge new marina development, with many apartments being built. Some of them already painted nicely in pastel colors.

It’s now May 28th and moving on from Canouan. A very short jib out only, and much care on navigating took us to Tobago Cays. It’s a group of small deserted islands and a Marine Reserve Park surrounded by Horseshoe Reef. Well known for the good snorkeling turquoise waters and just beautiful scenery. We saw a beautiful spotted Ray just under our boat and some nice colorful fish. Here we swam with the turtles, took the dinghy out to the reef for more snorkeling and we even saw a nurse shark. 
One evening we joined in a local barbeque at the beach with the locals along with our friends Jess, Nick and kids. They also came over and played games. for the rest of the evening. We have been buddy sailing together with this nice family from the US the last few weeks and we have had some good times together at sea and shore excursions.

We loved our next spot in Mayreau, Salt whistle bay anchorage. We hiked up the hill over to the other side of the island and visited Saline bay beach. Beautiful beach, but we found it a bit smelly from the salt pans right behind it. It does have a proper town with restaurants and grocery shopping and a Church. It was a hot Sunday morning as we got up to the hill. They were having their Mass and I stood at the door for a minute and joined in one of my favorite verses. Noel was outside with a funny smile on his face. OK, Ok, I’m coming ( I was just cooling off in the air conditioning! ) Yes, visiting Churches is great to cool off too!

Our next anchorage was in Union Island, just a short 45-minute smooth sail. Anchored in beautiful Chatham bay. The nice long beach was mostly wild, with only a small charming Resort and restaurant. It was so nice and peaceful, very calm waters even though some big wind gusts there. Free internet from the Resort.
We had some interesting snorkeling there. Huge, massive schools of small fish and we were swimming among them all..Pretty cool.
We moved along further up the island and tried to anchor in the town of Clifton. It was difficult to find a space to anchor. Some boats were on mooring balls, some were at anchor and all around too shallow, there is a big reef around it. So we picked up a ball and went ashore. Nice colorful front street but a bit smelly. The anchorage was close to the town and was quite rolly. We moved around the point to Frigate Bay where was peaceful and not busy at all.
From our anchorage, we took the dinghy ashore into the sleepy town of Aston to start our hike to the top of the mountain and then to another side of the island. It was hot, but the beautiful views from there are amazing!

 

As we approached the sea on the other side, we came across this beautiful and cozy Resort. We couldn’t help but stop and enjoy a much deserved cold drink in this charming place. What a gem! 

 

 

Across from Union Island, just 2 miles away is Palm Island. Another Paradise

 It is a small island occupied mainly by a Resort, but you can walk around the beach and all outside the premises. We enjoyed the gorgeous shallow turquoise beach. We dropped our anchor and our friend Nick and Noel did some windsurfing here. Jess and I and the kids wondered our way around the Resort, into the Resort and got sent out of their gardens by a friendly guard. We were not aware of all this private stuff. But I guess we missed the “No trespassing sign”
We did our checking out of the Grenadines across from here, in Clifton.

In another hour we were on the little island of Petit St Vincent. Just a quick stop to check it out. Turned out to be a private island, taken up by a very nice Resort. Beautiful beach and very luscious hillside make these scattered stone cabanas very private. We wondered ashore and walked along the beach, visitors are also allowed to use their Restaurant, Spa and boutique shopping. We left after lunch for another short sail

Carriacou

A 4-hour sail takes un into Cariacou where went ashore and check in at customs and immigration.

We anchored in Hillsborough. Big bay, quite bouncy. A decent town with a black sandy beach. A grocery store but very expensive. Don’t plan to stock up on groceries here!
We stayed here for a rolly night.

 
The next morning we moved across to visit this beautiful deserted Sandy island. A nice walk and good snorkeling there.

 

 

Mid-afternoon we moved back to Paradise beach in Cariacou. What a gorgeous beach with shallow turquoise waters. Also very protected and calm waters. For the night, we moved around the corner into the nice Tyrell bay. A lot busier than we expected, drove around for a while to find a space. A few bars and Restaurants along the beach. We had a nice pizza at Lazy Turtle, very cute Restaurant. At this Bay, we met other Canadians, Toronto, and Montreal.

The next morning Jess and I went noodling. A noodle water class at the beach. We met a lady who teaches and was very good. It was a surprisingly fun and good workout

But here we had to say goodbye to our nice friends from SV Ventus. 

We have been buddy sailing together for the last 2 months. We sailed, we played games, snorkeling and we explored ashore together. Nice hikes, bushwacking, visiting the towns, we really enjoyed their company. We will miss them. The kids are so sweet. We met them first in Marie Galant just before heading to Guadaloupe. When we got the next anchorage on little island, Petit Terre, there was Nick to take our line and tie it to the mooring ball. How helpful, since there was so much current at this place. We sailed together since, up to Dominica and back down to Carriacou, from the beginning of this blog. Sad to depart without them.

 

They plan to stay here in Cariacou for a while longer, but we must move on…..

Grenada

Beautiful day, calm seas, 12kts wind on Port. Gliding along at 7kts.
Our plan to stop at Dragon bay to dive the not so deep water statues. Flamingo Bay right near it, had signs for No Anchoring Allowed. We took a mooring ball at Dragon Bay. It’s very deep to anchor.
We picked up our snorkeling gear and took the dinghy and tied it to a mooring ball at the site. It took us a while to find the statues. It’s a big area and they are not all together. Shortly after going around looking and looking, a tourist boat showed up and anchored. There is our clue. 

Unfortunately, they did not pick a nice spot with clear waters. The water is pretty murky both times we snorkeled here. We still loved it.  These pictures do no justice! There were some pretty fish around as well, and even a nice spotted ray.

 

The Correspondent, a sculpture of a man sitting at a desk fardown below the surface

 

The Nutmeg Princess. Too bad, the pictures are hazy.

 

The Circle of Children was a beautiful complete statue. When you got close, the coral growth could be seen. It was stunning as we looked at it from many different angles. 

 

Christ of the Deep stood on the bottom with his arms spread wide. 

 

We stayed for 2 nights. From this bay was easy to catch a bus to visit Concord Falls.

From the bus stop was a nice steep hike, but not too far.

Lots of shade on this hike provided by  cocoa trees, nutmeg, star fruit and pomegranates

 

 

 

 

Arrived at the first waterfall and had a refreshing swim.

Noel and I ventured up the mountain, different vegetation and more rugged terrain, and narrow path. We were treated to 2 more Falls where there were no tourists, no one, just the sounds of Nature, birds and the crashing 2 waterfalls one after the other into the nice pools. Another refreshing swim and a picnic.

 

The next day we went to St Georges and anchored out in the bay. We took the dinghy ashore and did some provisioning.

 

Our next stop was a few miles down the coast, where met up with an old friend and went ashore for the evening. Nemrod Pub is a great hangout for the locals and sailors. It was Karaoke night and a great time was had by all.

The next day we took the bus at this pub location to St Georges, where we took a different bus to Grand Etang. Here we ventured on another hike, to Mt. Qua Qua. It was very pleasant with lots of shade and great views.

 

 

 

 

Does it look like Noel really wants to buy the cocoa bean? or flowers? We are tired, waiting for the bus, let’s go home

Hot and sweaty, we made a detour… to the Brewery

Noel is very happy to find an English Pint. |Yep, they actually brew real English Bitter here. What a way to end the day

 

 

Grenada is a friendly and beautiful island. They also have a large yachties community here. Popular during Hurricane season and beyond. They have activities planned for each day of the week and if you have kids this is also the place to spend Hurricane season.

And speaking of Hurricane season, it is approaching, it is now the end of June. We are departing Grenada this evening to Trinidad where we will leave Life Part 2 all tucked in. It is an overnight passage, so we can arrive there the next morning in daylight.

We look forward to always going home and visit the family, and of course, downhill skiing. Looking forward to more adventures and a next Season 2019

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Current Location: Islet du Gosier, Guadeloupe
Current Position: 16 12.1 N 061 29.6 W Click to view map.
Distance sailed since last post: 130 nautical miles. View the map of our voyage track here

A bit of an update. .

It was fun to visit once again some of our favourite spots in St Lucia and Martinique. After some maintenance and home improvements along the way, we were happy to go explore new places.

I was tired of having a very messy house…

One cabin full of tools evrywhere

One table full of wires and all kinds of electronics. Looking for instructions. Thanks Google. Another cabin was full of binders spread out with manuals for every part in this boat. Pictures missing because, Noel did something to the sim card on the phone, he forgot I had pictures in it.

Sewing was part of my job in between beeing his assistant when he needed the wires being pulled and tucked under very difficult areas. 

Thank goodness after a good swim I could still find MY safe areas he is not allowed to bring the mess.

Tuesday,March 6th

We left St Lucia to Martinique. Hopping up the coast and staging ourselves to depart to our destination: Guadaloupe. We left after lunch, with a nice sunny afternoon and 18kts of wind. We put 3 fishing lines out and got tired of cleaning weed off the lures. We were just about to give up, it was sunset and about to arrive at our anchorage, when we caught a really nice mahi mahi. What a surprise, with all this sargassum weed. This fish is so tasty! I put away my stew that was going to be dinner, and voila! fresh mahi mahi instead.

In the mean time we had the beautiful Adele classic yacht, pass near us with full sails up What a beauty!  We anchored in the nice small town, Grand Anse in St Lucia for the night and she was anchored just behind us as well.

Next morning, March 7th

We left to Martinique. Not much wind in the lee of the island but it filled in a bit later and we were doing a nice 7kts average. Anchored in St Pierre for the night.

In the morning it was so nice and peaceful there we decided to spend the day and get started on our kitchen floors. We had found these nice vinyl tiles in Fort de France, and thought they would be perfect to replace our tired looking floors we have. Of course one day was not enough and we wanted to see the full results so we stayed 2 days instead to finished it. It takes a long time to put down , because of the many cuts in confined areas. I had to crawl into the locker and lay there to unscrew the legs from the coffee table  we had to remove.

We are very happy with the results.  Hard work and messy but worth it. Gotta keep up with the Joneses, so that means maintenance and home improvements in exotic places. We need 2 more days to do the starboard side now, but no rush!

Ok time to move on to Guadaloupe, France

Friday March 9th

We woke at 3:30 (alarm was supposed to go off at only 5 am) and thought why not leave now? it will definitely give us a nice early arrival in Guadaloupe.

What a beautiful morning. With calm and smooth waters along the lee of the island we enjoyed the sky just covered with stars and many constellations. As we got into the open sea up the Dominica channel, the waves did get a bit big, but not too bad just, long swells. Wind 18 to 22 kts close hauled.

Sad to say we did not catch any fish. Too much weed again. We do not remember this problem in the Caribbean 7 years ago, but now it seems to be everywhere. In fact, later on someone told us that even 3 years ago there was no weed. They had heard that it had something to do with the deforestation in Brazil. Who knows?

At 2pm we anchored in Grand Bourg, the biggest town in Marie Galante, French island, and part of Guadaloupe. It was quite rolly there so we weighed anchor and moved a bit up the coast to the next small sleepy town of St Louis.

That was a busy anchorage and very calm. Good dinghy dock and a really cosy cafe with good Wifi. The next day we tried to check in, but there was no place to do it. We took the bus to Grand Bourg and they were closed, its Saturday! Pa ni pwoblem, as the they say in French Creole, they are very laid back about checking in and out here in France. We took a long walk along the beautiful town beach and part on a main road to get to touristic site of an old sugar mill and estate. At one time they housed up to 300 slaves. Interesting place with a nice museum, park like setting and a nice walk.

Marie Galant is a nice quiet laid-back island, very small but yet a few nice beaches and walks to explore. We enjoyed that and stayed  for 2 days. No photos from here because we switched sim cards on the phone when buying internet and Noel erased all, forgetting I had pictures in it. Normally, I use my camera, but left the battery in Canada.

Monday March 12

Had a nice 17 Nautical miles sail to the main island of Guadaloupe, and anchored in the nice town of St Francois.

And this is why we like to makes sure to arrive at a new destination in daylight. The reefs extend way out, and you are coming in with lots of wind and waves in different directions.

To add to the excitement in the channel you have to figure out from afar if this rusty thing is a buoy that needs a coat of red paint or what??

After anchoring ahead, we took the dinghy to the Marina.  The check in, at the Capitanerie was an easy 10 minutes. Free of charge, instead of the usual 5 euros, so we gave it as a donation to the Search and Rescue fund instead.

Next, we did the usual running around to buy internet, sim card.

Nice Marina lined with many shops and Restaurants. Behind it you find many places for car rentals and many stall selling you day trips to the islands of Petite Terre and Desirade. All amenities are within walking distance, including the market with nice fruit and veggies and also the fish market where one can buy the fish off the fishermen in the morning. Right here by the Fish Market is also the Bus station, that is always good to know. We were on a hunt for the usual upon arriving in a new place. internet, sim card.  Success with Orange.

Next day, Tuesday 13

Took a short bus ride, about 10 km to this really nice peninsula called Pointe des Chateaux.

 

Didn’t realize till we got there how busy and popular and touristic it is. Buses unloading and picking up tourists, souvenirs stalls and a yummy, delicious stand of coconut sorbet. This amazing limestone peninsula is a natural historical and agricultural reserve.

Besides having nice beaches,most of them protected by the reefs, it has hiking trails and a view point, and more than 200 species of plants and many species of migratory and nesting birds.

 

Wednesday March 14

Isles de la Petite Terre
At 10 am we decided to leave our anchorage in St Francois and sail along to Sainte Anne. Picturesque coast with small cliffs and very nice beaches. Once we were out of the anchorage, however, we realised the waves were actually not so bad. So we decided to motor for three hours dead upwind to the two tiny islands that make up Petite Terre. Here we are, arriving in this paradise . I am hurrying to take this picture before the captain starts to tell me to find a mooring ball and watch our depths!!

This is a nature reserve with abundant iguanas ashore, and stingrays and many other fish in the water. There is a bar to cross to get into the anchorage, which is exciting when there are breaking waves over it, but it turned out to be straight forward. We just line up for the deepest part, motored fast against the current, and so we were in.

Once inside we were greeted by Nick, of Ventus, whom me had met in Marie Galante. He grabbed our lines, passed them through the loop on the buoy, and passed them back up to us. Now that is the easy way to tie up to a mooring!

It is a popular destination for day cruises, both on huge sailing catamarans, and also motor speedboats. So during the day the moorings are all taken up. But they leave by 4pm, and then the place is all ours .

What a beautiful place to wake up in the mornings!  between 2 deserted islands. This one on our port side no one is allowed to go ashore. And under our boat there were huge tunas, 2 rays and a turtle. 

One evening we had a big barbecue on shore, above photo, along with Nick, Jessica and their three children, plus Stephane and Laura plus their three children. American flag and Swiss flag. The kids had a great time, and made smores that they shared with us. Haven’t had those in years! Beer was drunk, food eaten, and conversation made. A good time in our own private island!!

We did, of course, do lots of snorkeling. Such a shame that one is fighting through the floating sargassum weed all the time. Definitely wasn’t like that in 2010. And all the coral was dead. But there were some good sized fish. We swam with turtles, stingrays, tuna, grouper, surgeon fish, sand tile fish, blue tang, sergeant majors, angel fish and even a group of three squid. Many others that we recognised but couldn’t name. We also saw a small lemon shark swimming along near shore, as we were walking on the beach.

Friday 16th March, we upped anchor and headed, once again, for Sainte Anne. Of course that meant crossing the bar again, which seemed to be even bigger waves than on the entry. We watched Ventus leave before us, and they smashed through half a dozen breaking waves, their boat pitching up and down like crazy. But with some good timing we found a pause between waves, and only smashed through on breaking wave – which gave us a good soaking.

And so we were on our way in sunshine, with a 10kt following wind, making for a very smooth crossing. The fishing lines are out, and we are busy catching lots of weed again. All part of the fun.

Headed for Sainte Anne. On this coast the attraction is the beaches. Lined with palm trees,turquoise shallow waters protected by the reefs and good snorkelling. The small town is filled with vendors, souvenirs, restaurants,water sports and all that kinda stuff geared for tourists. Club Med is here too.
We stayed one night here, it was quite rolly. Got together in the evening with the other 2 boats at Ventus, hosts Jessica and Nick, for some drinks and Mexican train game.

Saturday, 17 March

6 NM away from St Anne, we are anchored between the town of Gosier and this cute little island

 

During the day is busy with tourists coming in and out by water taxi, but by evening is very nice and peaceful again. We had a nice little walk there to the lighthouse at sunset.

As we approached the anchorage, it was nice to see 2 boats we previously met in St Lucia and paid a little visit. They gave us a tour of their beautiful new Lagoon 450. 

Today is Sunday and most places are closed. Time to do some work!  I had most of this  post ready just had to upload a couple of the last photos.

Busy working on our flooring today. Drinks tonight at the Canadian boat, Leanne and Andrew from Sunshine coast, together with an American boat.

Staying another week here in Guadaloupe, looking forward to do some hikes and explore some waterfalls. Headed to  Antigua end of the month.

Current Location: Rodney Bay, St Lucia
Current Position: 14 5.4 N 060 57.74 W Click to view map.
Distance sailed since last post: 23 nautical miles. View the map of our voyage track here

On Wednesday we finally had our new forestay and furler fitted, and we managed to escape. Enough of boat maintenance for a while.

We had a wonderful sail across to St. Lucia. Beautiful blue sky. A pleasant force 4 wind on the port quarter. And we were joined by dozens of dolphins for at least an hour. There would be at least 10 swimming alongside us, weaving in and out of our bow wave. So cute. And there were dozens of other ones a bit off to windward. Never seen so many at one time.

We also had five fishing lines out, but seemed to be catching nothing but sargassum weed the entire time. You just finish cleaning one hook and you have to go to the next. Sometimes it fouls even as you are lettting the line out again. Still, the sky was blue and the sun was shining, so who cares?

And then just as we were arriving in the dark about about 7:30pm we caught a yellow fin tuna. We were just 10 minutes from arriving in the bay, so I started to bring in the lines. As I was pulling in the first line, Snap! the quick release on another line (the one with the killer lure on it) released. “Fish!” I yelled to Ceu, and it was all action. And that is why that lure is called the ‘killer’.

This fish was caught in the same area as the last few. It seems that just off Pigeon Island is a great place for fishing. We do have a photo, but it is on our phone, which I don’t have with me right now. And we left our camera charger back home, so we are rather limited on photos at the moment. Sorry about that.

It turns out that that fish was actually quite tough. Never knew that fish could be tough, so it wasn’t great as a steak – but it did make wonderful fish cakes. The remainder we will make into a fisherman’s pie or something like that.

And so now we are in St. Lucia again, just for a few days while we get some upholstery done. 

Then next Tuesday, or thereabouts, we will head off for Gaudeloupe, which we have not yet visited. Proper cruising, finally 🙂

Current Location: Le Marin, Martinique
Current Position: 14 28.08 N 060 52.51 W Click to view map.
Distance sailed since last post: 23 nautical miles. View the map of our voyage track here

Yep, (almost) all is working now. We needed some different scenery, and we desperately needed to stock up on cheese, salami, and wine, so we sailed across to Martinique. Hand steered, as it turns out the autopilot is still not working. You press the button for ‘auto’ and it immediately starts to turn to port (left), so that is not too useful!

Still, hand steering for the 5 hour crossing is no different, actually much easier, than highway driving from Vernon to Calgary, especially in winter conditions. So it is not a big deal really, we are just too spoiled. It was hard on the wind with 20kts true and 3 meter swells, so a nice lively sail. Then we had to beat for the last 6 miles. The way back is always easier as it is downwind.

So here in Le Marin is an excellent electronic engineer with a great sense of humour. Last year when he fixed something for us, he asked if we wanted the 10,000 mile, 20,000 mile or 40,000 mile repair. I reminded him of that and he said he has a good stock of jokes – but sometimes needs to be reminded of them so that he can recycle them. I said he was very ecological, doing all that recycling.

Anyway, his flight to Paris yesterday was cancelled because of Parisian snow, and we caught him at the right time this morning – so now he is working on our project as I write this.

While he does that, it is off to Leader Price for the cheese and wine. Martinique really is more like France than the Caribbean. Much more organized and sophisticated than St. Lucia. 

The carnival starts tomorrow. We were here last year for the carnival, and did it to excess, so we might pass on that this time – or maybe we will just go and see it for a day. Then, since everything is closed during carnival week, we will probably just sail back to St. Lucia.

The round tuit list is getting shorter. Using up my Round Tuits at a great rate now, so life is good.

 

 

Current Location: Rodney Bay, St Lucia
Current Position: 14 5.42 N 060 57.67 W Click to view map.
Distance sailed since last post: 1 nautical miles. View the map of our voyage track here

People say that cruising is actually better described as ‘fixing boats in exotic locations’. We can attest to that. Since we got back three weeks ago we have been steadily working through a huge to do list. I don’t know my the list is so long this year, but it is. In fact, here is the list as it stands:

1. Windlass not working – fixed. There were two broken wires, plus a dodgy connection between them, plus the main 200 amp breaker switch on the battery seems to have started to trigger at around 50 amps. don’t know why that is, but I suspect that it was this that has caused many of the other electrical issues below. That means that whenever the windlass has to work a bit, it was tripping the master breaker switch. I have just bypassed it. We still have a 300 amp ordinary slow-blow fuse in place, so it is still protected.
2. Anchor light not working – fixed. This entailed a climb to the top of the mast. It looks like the LED just burned out from being on continuously for the past 4 years or so. A new fitting cost about USD 300.
3. Navigation light not working – bulb burned out. I replaced it with the tricolor that I took from the top of the mast (the anchor light). Although the anchor light part of it has died, the red and green still work fine, so I have moved them to the bow where, hopefully, they will last forever, as we don’t use them very much.
4. Main halyard chafed through. We did get a short sail in – we went down to Marigot Bay and back again. On the return trip the main came tumbling down as the halyard had chafed through. Really annoying as I failed to inspect it when I was up the mast just the day before removing the non-functioning anchor light. Had I done so, it would have been a simple matter to shorten it by a foot. Instead we then had to reeve a new halyard down the mast which actually went surprisingly well. I used the boom lift as a hoist instead of the halyard as I normally would. Incidentally, the chafe was NOT on the part of the rope on which I depend when I am being hoisted up the mast.
5. The zipper on the front of the cradle cover had degraded in the sun and needed replacing. There were two options – take off the whole cradle cover (a huge job), or find a way to sew on a new zip with it still in place. We did the latter – just balanced the sewing machine on top of two rubbermaind containers and with one person holding the machine and the other sewing, we were good to go. While we had the machine out, we also replaced another zip on the bimini side panels, and Ceu sewed us some new curtains for the starboard cabin.
6. Dinghy inflated tubes are leaking air. Not fixed yet. We need to take the engine off, paddle it ashore, and try to find the leak. In the meantime we have to pump it up every two days or so.
7. Both inverters not working. Don’t know why. We are now using our small backup 140w inverter which at least allows us to run our laptops. /li>
8. Autopilot control panel had a short in it. Managed to find someone ashore to fix it, but it took him all week to get it back to me. It just needed a varister to be replaced. No charge for that, so that was nice.
9. Zinc anodes on the props need to be replaced. This is just normal maintenance every couple of years. Yet to be done. Involves getting out the hookah diving gear, at which time we will also clean the bottom of the boat, which is in a very sorry state.
10. Kill switch on the dinghy was broken, had to get a replacement and fit it, which took about three hours to achieve, in the end.
11. Dinghy painter had to be replaced. That, at least, is a quick job.
12. We have some padding around the spreaders that protects the spinnaker halyard from chafing. That padding needed to be replaced, so that was another quick jaunt halfway up the mast.
13. Engines need an oil change. Maybe will do that tomorrow.
14. The accent lighting in our salon consists of two strips of LED lights, which all seam to have died. I think we can get replacements in Martinique, if we ever get there.
15. The starboard engine alternator is not charging. Don’t know why yet. Needs to be looked at, which will probably be a full day job.
16. The port engine starter battery had died. Now, here is the rub. When we returned to the boat, the house batteries were also low, and the master breaker was tripped. That means the batteries are disconnected. But the solar and wind are still providing energy for the circuit, so in the daytime it is not obvious that the breaker has tripped. Also, this leaves the wind generator with no real load on it, which can quickly result in high voltages. My suspicion is that it was these high voltages that maybe burnt out some of the electrics. In any case, it is not a good situation to have the master breaker remaining off with the wind still on. Which is why I decided to bypass the breaker for now.So, we couldn’t start the port engine because of the low battery and, while we could start the starboard engine, it wasn’t charging anything, so that didn’t help much. And we needed to go and fill up with water! With a new starter battery for port, we were back in action again.
17. While hoisting me up to fix the anchor light, the bracket on the front of the mast got pulled of. So then we had to find someone to straighten that and rivet it back onto the mast.
18. The car FM radio that we use for playing music off our ipod also had died. We bought a cheap replacement. But that too didn’t work and had a short in it. so now I have another replacement that, hopefully, will work. But each time it means a few hours to buy it and install it.
19. Our chartplotter/vhf radio is on its way out – the high power radio no longer works. While in Canada I bought a Raspberry Pi which is a barebones mini computer, and also a new VHF radio. Together these will replace the chartplotter. I have installed the Raspberry Pi and our fancy new movie projector that Josh bought us, but have not yet done the VHF radio. I will do a separate post on our new home theater!
20. Our course computer, which works in conjunction with the autopilot needs some fixing too. This is not new, and it mostly works, so we aim to do that in Martinique.
21. One of the toilet has a crack in the plumbing, so I have a new fitting (for USD80) that I need to install.
22. I did, however, replace the hinge on the bathroom cabinet door that had corroded to bits.

So know, instead of wondering what we do all day, just take a look at the list and you will know. Actually there were various other jobs not on the list. Bear in mind that even a simple job usually takes at least an hour, and more if one has to go ashore to buy a part. Today, for example, I spent the entire day fixing the windlass connections and moving the old tricolor to replace the burned out navigation light on the bow. Everything always takes twice as long as you would expect. Plus I caught a bus to replace the car radio that wasn’t working. Oh, and we had to pick up the cockpit table from Elvis who was refinishing and painting it. That involved our fifth dinghy ride to the boat yard.

Well, that is the ‘fixing boats’ part. The exotic locations part is St. Lucia, where the water is warm, the locals are friendly, and the rum is cheap. And I did get in a couple of days of windsurfing.

Ceu’s ankle, which she sprained while skiing, is still not great, so she went to the physio today. We also went to the Digicell store to try to get our internet working better. Still seems to be very unreliable. Most of the time we have trouble just sending emails, never mind trying to skype.

Anyway, that is where we are at. We hope to go to Martinique in the next day or two, so that we can continue fixing our boat in a different exotic location 😉

Current Location: Rodney Bay, St Lucia
Current Position: 14 4.34 N 060 57.48 W Click to view map.
Distance sailed since last post: 0 nautical miles. View the map of our voyage track here

Yes, we are back. After a very pleasant 6 months in Canada, including canoeing, hiking, an Alaska cruise with my Mum, and skiing, we are now ready for another season of Caribbean cruising.

Aye, it is a tough life. The sun is shining, the water is warm, the rum is cheap and the fishing is great.
Well, it will be when we get to it. At the moment we are still doing some cleaning and fixing of a few things, so we haven’t got out sailing just yet. But the sun IS shining, the swimming is great and the rum, well, you know about the rum already.

Watch this space: we will soon be catching some big ones. And this year I am DEFINITELY going to write my novel. In fact, I just wrote the first chapter today. So there! And now you can hold me accountable to getting the rest of the book finished.

Plans for this season? Pretty undecided at this point. We want to spend a month poking around Antigua, apart from that? Well, we shall see.

PS Ceu wants me to tell the world that she is slaving in the kitchen over a coq-au-vin while I am swinging in the hammock looking at the sunset and writing to you. Life is good.

For the past week we have been canoeing in the Bowron Lakes in mid BC. What an awesome week, even though we had all sorts of weather, including rain – but thankfully no mosquitos!

Meanwhile Life Part 2 was sitting safe and sound in St. Lucia. When we left for Bowron we knew that Irma was on her way to the islands, but the forecast was for her to pass well north of St. Lucia. And we had Simon to look after her, so we were not worried.

But, goodness, we never expected to see such scenes of total destruction through the northern islands. We were just looking at our photos of Barbuda and comparing them with the photos online of the devastation post Irma. Just incredible. It is going to be a long time before those islands recover. And to think we were there just a few months ago. Our hearts go out to the thousands of people whose lives have been destroyed.

 

Current Location: Rodney Bay, St Lucia
Current Position: 14 4.32 N 060 57.52 W Click to view map.
Distance sailed since last post: 214 nautical miles. View the map of our voyage track here

In Barbuda our windlass gave up on us. Well, actually, it was a combination of two things: our anchor chain was rusty and wearing out. It was on our list to be replaced on our next visit to Martinique. And then the gypsy wheel has gradually worn down. The gypsy wheel is the wheel that grips the chain to pull it up. The combination of the two, a worn chain and a worn gypsy was too much, and so the chain would keep slipping.

We did end-for-end the chain, so that we were operating on a less used stretch of it, and that did work better, but even so it wasn’t great. In addition to that, the metal tab, by which the windlass is bolted to the floor, also broke off, making it even less usable. So, in Barbuda we used our secondary anchor.

Thus our next stop from Barbuda was Martinique again. Here we managed to find a second-hand windlass that had a case in good condition. We switched over the motor, as we knew our existing one was good, installed a brand new gyspy wheel and clutches, and bought 50m of new chain.

And so we were good to go – and $1000 poorer. Could have been worse; a brand new windlass is $1700 by itself never mind the chain! 

Can we Fish? You Bet!

Following some new fishing tips from cruisers in Antgua – thanks Jadge! –  we bought some wire leader for our fishing lures. Maybe this time we would stop loosing lures all the time.

And so it was – the sail from Barbuda to Martinique provided us with a fish! And not just any fish – this wahoo, with very sharp teeth that did NOT cut through the wire leader, was 23 lbs (10.5kg) AFTER removal of head and guts! Even now we are still eating it 🙂 My guess is that all those lures that we have lost in the past have fallen prey to a fish such as this – or even bigger. 

It was caught on an 8-inch soft squid with two #10/0 hooks. That is big hooks! It was on a #11 wire leader. We had dubbed this lure ‘The Killer’.

And yet, still we lost a lure. In St Lucia we had bought a 4 inch stainless spoon lure that we have nicknamed ‘The Catcher’. It rapidly paid for itself in Spanish Mackerel but, alas, despite the #9 wire leader, it too vanished. What is nice about the Catcher is that it seems to shrug off all the sargasum weed that is all over the sea. So while the other lures, such as the Killer, need to be constantly cleaned of weed, the Catcher stays remarkably free of it. 

More discussions with fishermen revealed the astounding fact that Wahoo and Barracuda can even cut through the wire leaders! I guess the #9 was just too light, so we bought another Catcher, and installed it on a #12 wire leader. We were worried about visibility, but soon enough we had another Spanish Mackerel on board, so I guess the visibility is not so bad after all. In fact, just yesterday we caught another fish, but even as we were bringing it aboard it was itself attacked by something bigger – perhaps Wahoo or Barracuda – and so we ended up with just 2/3 of a fish. Oh well, that and the previous one were donated to the local beachside grill, as we are still working our way through the Wahoo.

And so, after 5 years of trying to figure out this fishing business, having dragged some stupid lure halfway across the Atlantic in 2011 (until it disappeared) and losing countless other lures along the way, maybe we have finally got there! Finally I have a sense that I vaguely know what I am doing and what lures to put out. And, finally, we have more fish than we can eat, and we can give them away to friends and neighbours. In fact, those two fish we just gave away were, according to the owner of the grill, worth a couple of hundred dollars!!!!!

Almost Time to Leave Paradise 🙁

We are now back in Rodney Bay, St Lucia. It really is nice here. People are friendly, the weather is fantastic (with some occasional rain), the sea is warm, and the sailing is just perfect.

We took some day trips down to Marigot Bay and also to Anse La Raye for their traditional Fish Friday. But now time is running out. We are due to fly back to Canada on Wednesday. We will drop off bags, renew Ceu’s driving licence, and re-establish our medical coverage. And then we fly to Portugal for a month, where Allisen and family will join us for a couple of weeks while we visit with Ceu’s mom who is in a convalescent home recovering from multiple broken ribs from a fall. We, that is what happens when you fall off the terracing while doing some farming at the age of 82!

Life Part 2 will remain in St Lucia, being looked after by Simon Handley, an experienced skipper and charter boat manager. 

We might return for a month or so in November, or else maybe not until after Christmas – after all, we do have some skiing to fit in. And my mum wants to see the polar bears in Churchill in October.

It is a shame to have to leave here, as it really is VERY pleasant. But we have things to do and family to see in Canada.

We shall be back, as the Terminator said.

Current Location: Cocoa Point, Barbuda
Current Position: 17 32.95 N 061 46.18 W Click to view map.
Distance sailed since last post: 32 nautical miles. View the map of our voyage track here

Although we spent quite a bit of time in Martinique we didn’t write much about it, only a few photos of the Carnival and announcing that we had left for St Lucia where Heidi joined us for a couple of weeks.

The French island of Martinique deserves its’ own blog post as well. We had a great time there.The island has a mix of French and West Indian influences. It is a French overseas department. The island has much history, lush vegetation, and nice white sandy beaches and the North  reveals some black sandy beaches due to the eruption of Mont Pelle in 1902.

Also a few rum destilleries, with a rum route. Its largest town, Fort-de-France, features steep hills, narrow streets and many shops. Their official lunguage is French and the currency is the Euro. We sure have missed all the french products you get here, especially the cheese! 

More on Carnival parade:

 I know we posted many of the fancy Carnival costumes, beautiful ellaborate costumes.These were a bit more plain but got just as much attention. So many guys dressed as women. They were just having so much fun and  were not shy at all to pose for photos. This one got all the ladies having a good time taking photos of him.

The local TV

 

I wonder what the priest thinks of it all.

Noel’s sister and her husband David arrived on the last day of the Carnival.

After enjoying the last day aof the festivities, we set off cruising South.

A stop in Saint Anne, a delightfull town with surrounding green hills, and nice town beach. Here one can stock up with meat and vegetables and also has a  fish market. Supermarket for all your needs and the bakeries with the french breads and pastries. Lots of shops, popular with turists, and a huge bay popular with yatchs.  It was from here that we set off on our La Trace des Caps hike.

 

 

Martinique has such a great diversity of beautiful beaches, mountains and rain forests. We did a hike Les Traces Des Caps, started in Saint Anne that took us all around the South of the island, up the Atlantic coast, past some wild beaches popular with kite surfers, and a variety of landscapes and loop back inland to Saint Anne 

 

Les Salines, claims to be one of the best beaches of Martinique

Beach des Les Salines

 

 

“Martinique’s little desert” Petrification Savanah. Atlantic coast

This amazing landscape,once including fossils, such as petrified wood, this place is now completely desert and rock.

 

 

 

Anse D”Arlet was another favorite little  fishing village, picturesque with a Church right by the beach and a great promenade along the seafront.  It also has some great snorkeling just off the beach, or a short swim from your boat.

 

Anse D’Arlet

 

A nice cruise up the coast this time north, to Saint Pierre. A nice change from  Fort de France, a busy city with cars people and shops.

Nice sleepy charming village  of Case Pilot, South of Saint Pierre

 

The village of Le Carbet, just south of Saint Pierre. The black sandy beaches quite the contrast to the ones we are seeing now in Antigua. 

They also have a square dedicated  to the Landing of Christopher Columbus in June 1502, who landed here during his fourth voyage to the New World and stayed a few days.

They also have a square dedicated  to the Landing of Christopher Columbus in June 1502, who landed here during his fourth voyage to the New World and stayed a few days.

 

 Looking across a picturesque bay with a black sand beach and the striking backdrop of Mt Pelée sunrise and sunsets are a special time of day in Saint Pierre.

Noel and I had visted this place about 7 years ago, but we were happy to visit it again this time with Noels’s sister Mitzi and her husband David.

St Pierre lies at the foot of Mt.Pelee volcano. It used to be the capital of Martinique and a wealthy place with multi milionaires plantatiom owners. Ships came  in to take rum, sugar coffe and cooa. It was the commercial, cultural and social center of Martinique.The whole estate was destroyed in 1902 from the volcanic explosion of Mount Pelee killing all but 2 people from the 30,000 population. Leaving it all burried with mud, lava, rocks and boiling gasses.

 

 

A few ruins still remain. Perhaps the most significant of these is the historic theatre, a magnificent building seating 800 people, in its time the venue held host to theatre and musical companies from France.

Beside the theatre, where the prison formerly stood, you can see the cell which held one of the 2 survivors of the 1902 catastrophe, Cyparis, saved by the thickness of his cell’s walls. Noel is checking it out.

Throughout the town you can see many of the new buildings built on top of the ruins from the eruption. It’s busy with tourists, but mostly on days the cruiseship is in. We took the bus up from town into a village in the mountains for out little hike. When we finished our hike we made a stop at the tourist shop and she informed us there would be no more buses running back to Saint Pierre, but she quickly called someone and he gave us a ride to town. No money asked, although we did give him a tip. Friendly people!

 

 

Basilica Sacre coeur de la Ballata, a short ride up from Fort de France. it was worth a stop on the way to the Botanical Gardens. It’ts supposed to be a miniature version of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Paris. Construction was finished in 1915 The volcanic eruption that destroyed Martinique’s former capital, Saint-Pierre, gave rise to Fort-de-France becoming the island’s principal city, but not without some growing pains.

The thousands of inhabitants formerly living in the outskirts of Saint-Pierre in the north descended upon Fort-de-France in the south, another church was needed.  It has survived 2 fires and it is now in need of some TLC. 

Not quite as decorated as the one in Paris yet simple and peaceful.It was a nice surprise stop, including the beautiful views of Fort de France

 

Botanical Gradens

 Balata Gardens, is one the famous things to do in Martinique. It is a short drive from Fort de France and you can take taxi or bus number 25.  Is a private botanical garden, just north of the city with many begonias, bromeliads, bamboo and about 200 different types of palm trees.  They told us you can buy your bouquets there and they will even arrange special packaging to facilitate bringing your flowers on the plane.

 

 

 After the visit, we set off from there on a hike that took us through some beautiful luscious green forests, with creeks and waterfalls and signs advising not to touch the water.  Not really knowing how long this hike was gona take and where exacly we were going to end up,(map was not too helpfull) we enjoyed the hike very much and were happy when it ended at a main road, with signs taking us to the Basilica, Sacre Coeur for a visit and then took a bus from there to Fort de France.

It was a great day out and thanks to Mitzi for navigating with our poor map!

 

 

We sure had a lot of rain during our visit in Martinique. It’s no wonder everything is so green around here!

Haha…We had much umbrella trouble trying to keep dry! We decided that some tropical showers would not keep us from going to do a hike above Saint Pierre. We set off with 2 umbrellas,which one of them was thrown into the garbage bin as soon as we hit town. They dont get used much so they get corroded. We walked past a chinese store and decided 2 more umbrellas would be a good idea. As soon as we opened them we realized, corrosion does not only happen in the boat, the 2  brand new umbrelas were all rusty too! We were dispointed but were busy having a good time and  a good laugh trying to keep them from flipping in the strong breeze.

 

 

 Update

Wow….I started this blog almost 2 weeks ago and so much has happened since then. Well, since we left Antigua after the racing week , much needed non drinking, non party time was needed. We headed to Barbuda. The land of deserted beaches and peaceful bays. Wow, loved it

Here is a glimpse

Stay tuned for more on Barbuda later