Sail on Sail Pending

Located on the Southeastern coast, this adorable small fishing village is a must visit stop for any cruiser or visitor to Gaudeloupe. 

The small bay is protected by a large reef and was very a protected and comfortable anchorage even with Southeastern winds. 

As soon as we drive our dingy into the marina, we could tell we were going to like this town. The marina Boardwalk is lined with quaint little French cafes, restaurants and shops. When we explored outside the marina we were welcomed into a working fishing village along a protected bay,    

 that is full of Caribbean colors and atmosphere. 
  The fisherman are working on their boats, nets, and traps.   

 
The fishermen are also selling their fresh catch of the day at the daily fish market. We can’t just window shop here!! We purchased 2 big Marlin Steaks for €10,00.  

Just a short walk up the street and past the church was the lady’s produce and spice market. 

 
Local women came here every morning to sell their fresh fruits,  

 veggies,  

 and home grown and freshly ground spice mixes.  

 
We only spent two nights anchored here but could have explored this town even longer. 

It’s our 6 month anniversary!!

Here is a quick run down of our past 6 months!!!

We’ve sailed just over 1500 miles and have anchored off of 31 different islands within 6 different countries. 

We have used the engines just about 200 hours and burn a little less than 1 gallon an hour. 
The islands we’ve visited are:

United States Islands: Puerto Rico, Culebra, Culebrita, Cayo de Louis Pena, St. Thomas, Water, St. James, St. John, St. Croix, Buck. 

French Islands (known as French West Indies, F.W.I): St. Martin, St. Barth, and we are just about at Guadeloupe 

Dutch Islands (known as Dutch West Indies, D.W.I): Sint Maarten, St. Eustatius

British Islands (known as British Virgin Islands, BVI’s): Jost Van Dyke, Little Jost Van Dyke, Tortolla, Norman, Peter, Copper, Beef, Guana, Marina Cay, Anegada, Virgin Gorda, Sandy Spit, Sandy Cay, Necker (known as British West Indies, B.W.I): Montserrat 

Island Countries of their own: Antigua/Barbuda including Long Island

St. Kitts/Nevis

…………

What we Miss From A Land Home and What We Enjoy More Now.

What we miss about living on land: Our dog Bentley, but we know he is being well taken care of and getting extremely spoiled by Grammy and Pop Pop. We do miss our family, but they come to visit frequently. 
What we enjoy more living on a boat:

Everyday is an adventure!! 

We enjoy spending time together as a family and learning each other’s strength and weaknesses. We are learning how to work together as a team instead of individuals. (BTW, this was a learning curve and took awhile to understand)  

We love that everything we do is outdoors. We love being able to jump off the back of the boat into an endless swimming pool, swimming or kayaking to the beach and hiking. 

We love that we are living minimally and that our family is taking up a very small environmental footprint. 

We love being unplugged!!! We have not watched a tv show (except the first half of the super bowl) or any news since mid October 2015.

We love meeting like minded people who also think that life experiences are more valuable than possessions.

We love trying new foods and meeting people of other cultures. No only on the island’s we visit, but also from the cruising friends we meet along the way.

We love that we have more time for friendships. When we were working and running kids to different activities we didn’t have time for friends. We have met some of the most amazing friends cruising and have time to spend with them. Unfortunately, we usually end up going different directions, but not all the time. We know we’ll cross paths again. We’ve made more friends in 6 months of cruising than we made in 20+ years of living in Central PA. 

…. and most importantly, I love that the happy bubbly Kristie is coming back.  I am a completely different person than when I left PA, six months ago.

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If you have any questions that you would like to ask us about living minimally, off the grid and on a boat, just ask!! We’ll do a question and answer blog in the future. 

Here are a few pictures from our last 6 months.  

USVI’s and BVI’s

St. Martin/Sint Maarten/St.Barth

St. Eustatius (Statia)   

St. Kitts / Nevis

Monserrat     

Antigua     

Barbuda  

Cheers from all over!! We love this life. Thank you for following along!  

We hired a local tour guide to take us to the Frigate Bird colony in the Codrington Lagoon. There were 1000’s of these magnificent birds.  

The white birds are juveniles. 
 
The males have a red pouch that they inflate to attract females.  They will also do a little dance and sing to impress the lady’s.  

It was the very end of the mating season and there was only one poor guy left, waiting for a mate. The females are the ones who choose a mate and he was just sitting there waiting and waiting. He reminded us of being the last one chosen for a team in gym class and we felt really bad for him. 

Once the males have been chosen and have mated with a female they fly away to another colony and mate again. The Frigate Bird colonies are located in only 3 places. The males will fly from Barbuda, to The Galápagos Islands to Key West and then back to Barbuda. The females stay in one location and take care of the juveniles and teach them to fly and fish. 

Frigate birds weigh only 3-4 pounds each but have a wing span of over 6 feet, which makes their glide ratio huge. They will glide miles with only one flap of their wings. 

Here is a video of sitting in the middle of the colony. Click this link

The day after we toured the Frigate Bird Colony we decided we’ve seen enough of Codrington and want to check out the anchorage on the Southern side of the island called Gravenor Bay.  This secluded Bay was absolutely spectacular!!!

The dark spots (in the picture above) are small reefs.  

When we arrived, we were the only boat around. We had the entire anchorage all to ourselves!!

Our first day in Barbuda the Security Guard at the airport told us about a dock that was near here where the fishermen brought their Lobsters to sell. So, as soon as we anchored Rich headed to the dock. He came back with 2 Lobster, a Grouper and a Snapper all for $100EC or $40.00 USD   

The water was the clearest that we have seen yet. The anchorage was so peaceful that we decided to stay a second night. We spent the extra day snorkeling, kayaking and just enjoying the tranquility of the water and privacy. In the late afternoon, a fishing boat came by selling more Lobster.  So, Rich purchased several more and we spent the remainder of the afternoon cooking and cleaning lobster to fill up our freezer. 

 This was 100EC of Lobster about $40EC.  We boiled them… 

… and cleaned every bit of meat out of them to put it in the freezer. 

We absolutely LOVED Barbuda and this little bit of unspoilt paradise is on our list of islands to come back to as we travel North next year. 

We anchored between Tuson Rock and Low Bay.   

As soon as we were assured our anchor was set, we decided to go and explore the town of Codrington with Kevin and Barbara from Escape Claws. We all jumped into our dingy and headed for the beach. Codrington is not located along the shore, as most other island towns, it is located directly across the Codrington Lagoon. This meant we had to drag our dingy 150′ up over the sand dune, into the lagoon, and then drive it 2 miles across the lagoon. Whew!! That was a workout!!

Once we got into the town we walked to the Tourism Department to get a map of the town. 

  
All of the buildings were surrounded by fences to keep the wild horses and donkeys, who roamed free, out of the yards. 

The school.  

A few sites around town.  

The water front  

As we were walking, we heard a man’s voice talking over a very loud speaker. We started following the voice and wound up at King’s Bar.   

The voice stopped, but very loud music continued. King got us each a cold Wadadli (the local beer) and explained that what we were hearing was the town cryer giving everyone the local news of the day. King said, “It’s like what you know as a radio station but you can’t turn it off and you can’t turn it down.”  It was the island’s special way to inform the people what is going on. 

King proudly told us that 80% of the people on the island now have a tv with cable antennas and can get news from all over the world. He pointed out the antenna’s on a few houses with cable, which really didn’t look like 80% of houses, but maybe only 20% of the houses we saw. 

We were also told by King, that a star from Hollywood called Robert Deniro just purchased the K Club and is going to build 60 condos along this stretch of beach. Now, this surprised us, because we have read that the Native’s of Barbuda do not want outsiders coming onto their island and destroying its natural beauty. So, we asked King how he felt about this? He said that Mr. Dinero promised to first build a trade school to teach the locals the trades needed for construction and since that the Barbudians can be the ones to build these condo’s, he was ok with the future plans. Here is a recent news artical about Robert DeNiro’s plans. 

 Link to news artical

The palm tree lined, 11 mile beach from Low Bay to Palmetto Point was more stunning than anticipated. The creamy pink sand was as soft as baby powder, but was mixed with small pink shells.  

 We walked and walked and walked along this beach. Notice how small  Tyler’s shadow is.   

Next up in Part 3, is our tour to the Frigate Bird nesting area and Southern Barbuda. 

No, I did not spell that wrong. Barbuda IS the Last Unspoilt Paradise, exactly as it states on the sign at the Tourism Department.

A little after 8am on Sunday, April 3rd, we left Jumby Bay, Long Island  which is just off of North side of Antigua. The sun had to be high enough to visually navigate our way through the Hourseshoe Channel, so we could head North to Barbuda.   

It was a beautiful 4 hour sail. When we were still 2 miles from the coast of Barbuda, we could see a beautiful white sand beach that stretched the entire length of the island!!   

We anchored off of the beach at Coco Point, on the Southwestern side of the island. This 4 mile long beach was spectacular!!   

There was a small resort called CoCo Point Lodge that looked like a very relaxing place to stay, for anyone wanting to visit Barbuda by land. We dingied ashore to walk the beach and check out the resort’s beach bar. The walk along the beach was nice, but the resort was all inclusive and only catered to their guests. Bummer!!!

So, we had to move our dingy farther up the beach away from the resort and we walked along the beach some more and stumbled upon this blue building, which is the security guard for the private airport. 

Rich and Tyler asked the man when the next airplane was due to arrive. He said, “No plane today, mon. Maybe tomorrow”   

Here is a picture of the Control Tower.   

The man in the blue building is the Security Guard, Air Traffic Controler, and all around general information giver. Rich learns a lot about the island from him. It’s always great when you get local knowledge about an island. Here are some pictures of the airport.   

Along this beach is also a, now deserted, resort known as the “K  Club” where Princess Diana would vacation with her boys. Here are some pictures of the beach. 

  
There is an extensive broken reef that extends along the shore of the K-Club out about 1/2 a mile. It’s very easy to snorkel from the beach and there are so many reefs it would take weeks to view them all.   

The next day we sailed 14 miles North along the coast, around Palmetto Point and anchored inside Tuscon Rock along Low Bay Beach. Here is what the ChrisDoyle Crising Guide says about this stretch of the island.   

It was a scenic sail along a completely deserted, pristine creamy pink sand beache.

With the winds out of the South, it was a leisurely downwind sail and we sailed wing on wing almost the entire way. If every sailing day was like this, everyone would be out here doing this!!!  It was an absolutely the perfect sail. 

Part 2, we’ll explore the town of Codrington and the beach of Low Bay. 

Monserrat is known as “The Other Emerald  Island” or “The Emerald Island of the Caribbean” and is the only country outside of Ireland where St. Patrick’s Day is a National Holiday. Here’s a picture of Barbara and me with our new friend Keith (the man in the middle) and his friends. 
 
The Irish Heritage of Monserrat dates back to the 17th century when Irish Catholics were persecuted in other Caribbean Islands.   The entire island is decorated in green and the week long celebration is the biggest celebration of the year for this tiny island. Every store, school and government office is closed and the entire island comes to the town of Salem to celebrate. There are food venders, parades, and everyone is dressed in Green!! 

They have a St. Patrick Day  Queen and Princess.  

There is not a person from this island who is not dressed in green and each costume is more elaborate than the next. 

 
This is a special masquerade dance to celebrate their slavery ancestors and mocking their owners. 

Click on the link below to read a good artical explaining the history of the dance. 

History of Masquerade Dance
 
 
Here are some links to learn more about Monserrat’s Irish History.

Irish Central

Sun Sentinel article 

If you enjoy celebrating St. Party’s Day, and want to celebrate at and Irish Island…. You have more than one option. I can’t imagine that Ireland celebrates this day much better than their Irish relatives in Monserrat!!! 

Video of our day

Part 2, Touring the devistation. 

The fury of Mother Nature’s can be brutally destructive, but at the same time create something amazingly beautiful.   
In the picture above we are standing on top of 20+ feet of lava and ash. This is where the golf course was located before the first eruption. We are standing facing the volcano. Everything between here and there has been buried. New plants are starting to grow in the nutrient rich volcanic soil. 
Over 200 yards of volcanic run off has stretched into the sea and has formed a beautiful new black sand beach.   See the picture of before and after the volcano from Chris Doyle’s book in Part 1. 

 The white rocks on the beach are so light that they float.    

After walking along the new beach, we stopped by a house along the road that was built on top of the ash. George told us to take a closer look at the house. What we were seeing was actually the second floor!!!    This two story house was a very large, fancy home that bordered the golf course. It is now completely buried to the 2nd floor. 

Next we drove into the restricted area that overlooks the capital city of Plymouth.  

 
The brown area is the capital city. Ash is still falling and the only thing you can see are rooftops on top of the ash.  

Notice the helicopter in the photo. The Soufriere Hills volcano is currently the most researched volcano in the world.   

The gully in the center of the picture is an area that has been washed away by rain and rushing water. It’s over 20′ deep. You can also see, in the above picture, how much smoke and ash are still in the air.  

The hillside in the distance is full of buried houses.  

This house had a bolder fall from the sky and go through the roof.   
This house was burned by the heat.  

We pulled into a posh hotel that overlooked the beach. Before the volcano it was one of the nicest hotels on the island. The fancy tiled driveway has been cleared off to show the detail that a guest would expect as they were pulling into the resort. 

  In this picture below, you can see a big hole in the roof where a boulder landed. Tyler is walking down the steps into the main lobby. 

The lobby was covered in several inches of ash. The adding machine was still on the counter.   

The office behind the main lobby still had a desk and papers around.  

The main dinning room was just around the corner from the lobby. 

Plants were starting to grow in the ash. The ash was several inches thick. This is the area off of the main dining room where the boulder crashed through the roof. 

 The terrace and patio around the pool overlooked the ocean.   

The deep end of the pool was 9′ deep. It is now filled with ash and plants are growing.  

Notice the ladder going into the pool on the right side of the picture below.  

We went into a couple of the hotel’s rooms.      

When we walked out of the hotel rooms, George told us to look back. We were walking through the second story. The first story was completely buried!!! See the picture below.  

 The view of the volcano and the town of Plymouth from the hotel put everything into a different perspective. The feelings and emotions we felt were overwhelming. 

Viewing the destruction of the hotel close up and then seeing that same distruction, looking over thousands of buildings, as far as your eyes could see was unimaginable. It’s very hard to describe. Those roof tops we were seeing ARE people’s homes, businesses, local bars, restaraunts, children’s schools, playgrounds… The entire town covered in 10-20 feet (or more) of ash and after 20+ years it is still falling over the town. 

The entire city is buried in ash. This isn’t Pompeii and a city buried 2000 years ago. This is today and this is home to the people of Monserrat. 

The people from Monserrat are some of the friendliest people we have ever met. Everyone we passed said hello or have a nice day. Most people asked us if we were enjoying their island. We felt very safe there too. Everyone asked us if we would be back, and our answer was always, YES! 

I encourage anyone who can visit the Island of Monserrat, to do so. You will not be disappointed.