right now we’re in Culebra. in two days we’re going to make a three to four day overnight passege from Culebra to Turks and Caicos. Nothing much is happening we’re about to have dinner.
Browsing Posts published in March, 2011
Right now, we are in Culebra, an island off the coast of Puerto Rico. Nothing much is happening. We’re just hanging out and swimming, snorkiling, and having fun in the sun. We are going to have a 3 day over night passage in a few days, from Culebra to Turks and Caicos or, as I think of them, turkey and cake flavored Cherios.
We have had a great stay in St. Martin. We moved from the lagoon to the Fort St. Louis Marina to be closer to our friends from Starbound.
Because we have some good cruising friends here (Bonzai 1 and Starbound), we have been quite busy (hence the lack of blogs). Our social life has been quite busy with dinners, evenings out, excursions, etc. We also met up with a bunch of other Maine boats (some were South going Zax and others were North going going Zax….I guess that Maine going Zaxs are the best kind of Zaxs so it doesn’t matter what kind of Zax you are, as long as you are from Maine)
Starbound arranged for a group of us to sail on the wooden schooner Charlotte built by Nate Benjamin from Vineyard Haven. We had a great sail and really enjoyed sailing around St. Martin. Nate was here to pick up some close friends that had chartered the Schooner the following day.
It turns out that a close family friend, Tanya Bokat, her husband David and daughter Eva were part of the group that was chartering Charlotte. Tanya was walking the dock when she noticed Indulgence and said hello. We were able to sit for while and share some old stories and talk about our families.
Our dad’s were the best of friends…sadly Dr. Bokat died this time last year and my dad died a week or so later on April 1st. I think that they had something to do with this chance meeting.
We are planning on heading North on Wednesday with an overnight sail to St. John. It will tough saying good bye to our friends, but other adventures still await us.
yesterday night we went to tropicana for a friends birthday dinner for 14(10 grownups 4 kids). when we got to tropicana, we saw a table set for 14 but no one in sight, so we wait around 20 minutes, then my dad and i get in the dinghy and drive out to are boat to get a radio and a walkietalkie. when we get back -surprise,surprise guess who’s there – all thepeople. the rest of dinner went really fast, but finaly, the best part of all-THE CAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we ate that then since we were really tierd we went back to the boat and fell to sleep qickly
Right now, we are in St. Marten, a french island. So, we have good bread and, hallalulia, internet. Also, we have friends with kids. One night, we went with our friends to the weekly Tuesday night thingamajig. We went to cafe Palmos for dinner, had a paper airplane contest, did a lot of acrobatics, and eventually ended up spying on our parents. After we were captured, we headed back down the road to get to their rental car. When we were about half way there, we started hearing the hooters and honkers as I call them. So, here come these women, with not much more then colorful bras and underwear on, parading down the street and shaking their butts. When we finaly got to the car, it was pouring. So we used the old pile in method from the old days.
We had an uneventful sail from Barbuda to St. Martin. We have been quite busy re-connecting with friends and boat projects. As we mentioned in previous blogs, we really enjoy St. Martin. We’ll be here for a while waiting for a weather window to for an overnight sail to the USVI.
We are about to leave on an overnight sail to St. Martin….it should be a nice sail as the winds are moderate and will be slightly aft…hopefully a nice downwind sail. We should be arriving shortly after sunrise tomorrow. We will have a couple more of these as we travel North West towards the Bahamas. Our plan is to spend April and May in the Bahamas.
We are excited to be heading back to St. Martin as our friends from Bonzai 1 and Starbound are there. We are looking forward to nice French meals with good friends.
A picture is worth a 1000 words……
11 Mile Beach Barbuda
Barbuda flaunts pink sand around its borders. It’s not screaming pink, mind you, but has a subtle very pretty pink tinge if you look at it properly. It’s lovely. One of the cool things about cruising this area of the world is the unusual natural phenomena that I’ve been able to see, most for the first time in my life. Here are some, in no particular order, as well as where I saw them:
Double rainbow – I’ve seen these before, one large arc over another smaller arc, but they were larger, clearer and lasted longer when I saw them frequently in Tortola.
Extremely bright psychedelic rainbow – surreal colors that both John and I agreed looked like the kids had drawn it with magic markers. Seen inPrince Rupert Bay, Dominica.
Moonbow – I had no idea that such a thing was possible until I saw one in Dominica (Prince Rupert Bay again). No colors, just an ethereal white. John claims silver.
Green clouds – caused by the reflection of the waters around Antigua and Barbuda. Somthing right out of the Emerald City. Beautiful.
Green flash – of sailing lore and a much sought after experience by tourists. If you have a cloudless sunset and are patient, the sunlight actually does turn emerald green for a second prior to disappearing over the horizon. I’ve caught it a few times, the best was in Nevis.
Natural hot tub – right next to the cold Layli River, Dominica. You must swim across the river to get in the hot tub (hot water heated by volcanic activity under the earth) and then after you are toasty, jump back in the cold water and swim back.
And of course, the active volcano on Montserrat was very cool, even from a couple of miles away.
Here we sit off the best beach in the Caribbean with virtually no one else around (4 boats spread over a mile along “11 Mile Beach”) and we have one of the best WiFi connections in the Caribbean.
Tomorrow we are off to see the Frigate birds.
