Traveler's Prayer

Port Louis Marina St. George's Grenada

We were blessed this morning by the congregation of Our Lady Queen of Peace of Belmont St. George. They were very welcoming and even gave the boys an Easter bag. For all visitors they share a bookmark with a "Traveler's Prayer" on it. Since we know many of you are traveling for spring break, we thought we would share it with you.

"O Almighty and merciful God, who commissioned your angels to guide and protect us, command them to be our companions from our setting out until our return; to clothe us with their invisible protection; to keep from us all danger of collision, of fire, of explosion, of fall and bruises, and finally, having preserved us from all evil, and especially from sin, to guide us to our heavenly home. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen


....we thought this seemed particularly fitting.

Things we've learned

God is Great

How to conserve

Yoga and fishing are harder than they look

More things sink than float

Kids can sleep through anything

The rings on a clam tell how old it is

How to make rum, chocolate, coffee, and...rum

The 10/20 rule. Boyd and Evan are comfortable with 10 knots of wind and 20 degrees of heel more than Adam and Joan.

The shells are sculpted differently on every island

We should never be teachers

Never say "once in a lifetime trip"

Dont judge a sailor by his knots

500 miles on a boat takes alot longer than in a car

Guests on board

For the past week we have had some guests on board. The Dunnum family from Colorado. They have two boys thirteen and fifteen. It meant that we got to go out to eat which was a break from mom’s cooking for a change:). We even got to go on a zip line tour through the rainforest. I think this was the best part. They would hook you up and then you would fly over the jungle. Many times you would land on a platform 100 feet in the air on a tree!! There were twelve zip lines and some of them had small hikes in between. The longest one was 800 feet long! 

At the zip line we met a “rapper” guy named “Winnie”  and taught him how to make rice crispy treats after we shared ours with him. He thinks he is going to sell them and make a fortune. We think he will either A: not be able to make them, B: make them and eat them all himself, or C: just laugh with his friends about “those dumb Americans”. 

We stayed in Marigot Bay a few nights and enjoyed their big rope swing. We invented a game where you would have to swing across the water and back without touching it. We would take turns and the first one to touch the water loses. There were some times when I was hanging upside down and my head was an inch from the water.

We left the Dunham’s left yesterday at a beautiful resort overlooking the Pitons and continued to the Grenadines. Today we went to a sea turtle reserve. It was really cool because we got to touch all the turtles.      EK

Guests on board

As you can see by the quality of the photos, the Dunham's are here! Having a great time and enjoying the company.

Mishaps

Look close, Pancho pulling Evan and Adam on his surfboard

Just a few notes to make everyone aware that life is not all sunsets and sailing. We thought our readers might enjoy hearing about a few of our mishaps. I am going to talk about dropping the coffee pot. In the morning after Mom and Dad have their three gallons of coffee, Adam and I have to clean out our fifty year old coffee making thingermagiger. It has a lot of parts that look like they are attached but are not… When I bent down over the back of the boat the most important piece fell off. In my clothes a made a brave attempt to save it by half jumping half falling in the water to save the coffee maker. It started to sink and was too deep to retrieve. Once it was gone I realized that I had my iPod in my pocket… I immediately jumped out, dried it, and put it in a big bowl of rice (hoping this would suck the water out of it). After a few days I took it out. Unfortunately it is broken from the salt water. This really stinks for me. The good thing was my dad was able to use the scuba tanks to retrieve the coffee pot. EK

Another day we went to a beach called shell beach. There were shells everywhere. It was a great place to swim. When we were leaving I got a little distracted and forgot my sunglasses. I realized it when we were a half a mile away and my dad and I ran all the way back. By the time we came back they were gone. AK

It is always a little disconcerting to leave the boat and not be able to see it anchored safely in the harbor. The wind changes a bit from time to time. It can blow stronger or even change direction. Recently, after leaving the boat to go into town and feeling like our anchor was secure we realized it was not. As we were walking back to our dingy and looking out towards the boat we realized the wind had changed 180 degrees. Needless to say, this had dislodged the anchor. We watched it drift slowly past a neighboring boat, missing it by what seemed like inches, and then slowly continue towards the open ocean. I am not particularly fast but you should have seen me do mach 5 down the dock, hurdle into the dingy, land perfectly upright, start the engine on the first pull and race to our home floating away.  No harm, no foul. All is good.       BK

We were just settling in on one of our first passages when we noticed the dingy had come untied. Fortunately we noticed!!! It gave us an opportunity to practice a “man overboard drill” and turn the boat around in fairly strong winds and seas to rescue our dinghy.

Another dinghy mishap I had involved a flying fish. I was quietly painting my dolphin paint by number after everyone had gone to bed. (one of those items you like on vacation but would never use at home...this may become a Christmas gift…:) I heard a flopping sound on deck. My first thought was “flopping pirates?”, then “kids messing around in bed?” Then I realized a flying fish had landed on deck. I first wondered if we could eat it, but then realized I was not strapping myself to the stern again this late at night to filet it. Also, they are a beautiful fish with iridescent delicate wings. We are all fond of them because we have flying fish races while sailing. Take turns and count how long they stay in flight. The person with the longest flight wins! My second thought was that I must save it! I scrambled up to the deck and tossed if over, only to have it land helplessly in the dinghy. Since we have all become quite nimble climbing all over the boat, I was able to jump into the dingy and save the fish just in time.         

We are currently at the south end of Martinique working our way towards St. Lucia. We will be having our first overnight guests, the Dunham family, meet us there on March 21. Yeah!         JK

Closet Crafter

First bath since ? Tubs heated by volcano

I have discovered that I am a closet crafter. I want to play games and cards with the kids, but I would really rather do crafts. Whenever we find a treasure, I want to take it home for display or make it into something. When at a market I see souvenirs and think ...I can make that. Have you ever bought a souvenir on vacation that you thought was the best thing ever only to realize at home you have no idea what to do with it or that you could never really wear it in the real word? I am certain this will happen with all my stuff, if it actually makes it home. I have no fear that customs and immigration will confiscate them like our Guatemalan coffee. It is my husband who constantly says “we can't take that home you know”.  In attempt to make him more empathetic, I  encouraged him to paint one piece of driftwood. Apparently he is not as sentimental as I am and feels no attachment to it. He also doesn’t tolerate the smell that some of the sea creatures exude after time.

Adam however, has inherited my crafting fever.  As we walk through the rain forest in Dominica, he continually picks up treasures. Finally our tour guide grumpily asked me “what does he plan to do with those?” I replied “Make a hat, a weapon, glue googly eyes on it, but most likely forget it in the back of your van.” As he trudged off I think he mentioned something about ants under his breath.

Later in the day we won over the tour guide by taking his girlfriend out to our boat. She lives on the island but has never been on a boat of any kind. She was so excited she called her mom and sister and took pictures. She would giggle as she described it to them, “….and flush toilets and a kitchen..and three bedrooms.” We enjoyed her company and gained an appreciation for Miss Lyla and the blessings we have. Adam of course gave her one of his bead animals as a parting gift.

We plan to do more land-based touring today as Dominica is revered for its rain forest, waiting for Martinique to dive some more. Martinique is 26 miles south of here and has several sunken ships in St. Pierre harbor due to the eruption of Mt. Peele volcano in 1902.                   JK

Diving and Gaudeloupe

For many days our one “quest” has been to find dive sights. The first and by far the best spot was the 

Jacque Cousteau underwater marine park in Guadeloupe. This “Jacque” guy invented the idea of scuba diving. Scuba diving is different than just diving. SCUBA stands for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. This means that you have a tank instead of a hose going to the surface that gives you air. Jacque thought that this underwater marine park was one of the best dive site(s) in the world. We did two different dives there. The first dive had a French name. It was like Pixcion or Pixconawhattheheckdoesthismean either way I couldn’t pronounce it. The next one was called the coral garden. We learned this due to my dads “great” French skills. The “Coral Garden” was the best dive I have ever done. We saw so many turtles and all kinds of trunkfish and feather-duster worms (yes I have been trying to identify all of the marine life). 

After the dive we went to a beach and picked up every piece of sea glass on it. My dad and I have a plan to make our counter out of all sea glass. Although we think we should save the sea-glass for the counter, mom and Adam think it should be for making sea-glass mermaids and jelly-fish. Dad and I devised a plan to steal the sea-glass mom used for her mermaid, but I think she got suspicious when one of the blue pieces disappeared.         EK

Today was another short passage. The sail was from Les Saintes (Guadeloupe) to Dominica. This was a great sail of about 20 miles. Adding to the fish stories we "landed" a 30in baracuda. Now if you have seen these fish they are a bit scary. Big teeth, stare at you when you see them snorkeling or swimming. They are equally scary out of the water. Getting him off the hook presented a dilema. As you know our other fish had rigor mortis and was not difficult to remove from the hook.  Solution: stunned him with a little rum in the gills. Settled right down and then swam away in a not so straight path. However I smelled like fish and booze after this adventure. Just trying to blend in. We continue to see multiple flying fish while sailing.  Would that be a school of fish or a flock, they are flying. 

BK

History lesson

Yesterday we got to play with a monkey named Frisky. He was a very funny monkey. He liked to bite and jump on people. While one person distracted him by jiggling a can with rocks in it, the other person dug a hole. Sometimes Frisky would see the person digging the hole and jump off the table spreading his arms and legs out. We stuck a stick in the ground and he jumped on it. It started tipping and he flung backwards. He loved the taste of lemons.     AK

Boyd and I have been enjoying learning about the history of the islands. The colonial period when France, Great Britain, Netherlands, and Spain were establishing colonies, developing plantations, and managing slavery is fascinating. We have been exploring ruins and trying to engage the kids in the history and culture, forgetting that we had no interest in history til well after college.

From Golden Rock Plantation on Nevis Island we were able to take a hike up to the rain forest, tour the plantation ruins, and even cool off in their pool.  www.goldenrocknevis.com.  It looked like a heavenly place to rent a room that doesn’t rock. 

Leaving Nevis at midnight, we sailed to Guadeloupe, which so far is high on our list of favorites. It has a memorial Jacques Cousteau Underwater Reserve as it was one of his favorite diving places in the world. Since he was the pioneer of SCUBA they commissioned  a “bust” of him and sunk it in 39 feet of water. Scuba stands for Self Contained Underwater Apparatus. Evan calls it Super Cool Underwater Bubble Activity.

We have purchased several books that are helping guide us and also give the history of the islands.  The other sources that have become very important to us are Windguru.com and Passageweather.com.                 JK

Let the heavens declare the glory of God

Sunset from Nevis

Fish On!

We finally got dive tanks at a scuba shop in St. Maarten. After much looking we found a place that would sell them to us brand new with air in them. So far we have only done two dives because the island we are at now does not allow you to  dive without a dive guide. 

After some time in St. Maarten we went to St. Bart’s (Barthelemy). This is a French island and we gladly enjoyed some of the french restaurants and cafes. We also went to a French beach… I’m not going to comment on this adventure. After the French beach we went out for my dad’s birthday dinner. We had a hard time finding anything that had food under twenty dollars, but we finally settled on a breakfast place. The only thing on the menu was a panini.  They were pretty good despite the fact that we were across the street from the place with a “cheeseburger in paradise” sign. I personally would rather have gone there but… guatever.

After weeks of trying, we finally caught a fish trolling from St. Bart’s to St. Kitts. I was almost dancing when I heard my dad call “Fish on! Fish on!” When we got him reeled in we realized that we had him on the hook since we left St. Bart’s. According to my parents he has rigor mortis. Which means that he has been dead long enough to turn stiff, or he went into shock because we dragged him at seven knots for about twenty miles with a hook in his mouth. My mom is skeptical that we caught him instead of just hooking him by accident, but the hook was in his mouth, so we think we caught him. At first we didn’t know what to do. So I grabbed our new knife and a tether and we tethered Mom to the back of the boat and made her fillet the fish.                 EK