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

S.O.S

For all the fisherman out there we need some help. Doesn’t this look like a tasty fish snack. We can’t catch anything. 

Since the fish on the reef potentially have a disease called cigaterra you can only eat the fish off shore like tuna, mahi, and some snapper. So we are trying to troll between the islands. We have now travelled from St. Maarten to St. Bart’s, stopping at lIe Fourche on the way. We are closer to catching a fish by hand while snorkeling then we are with our pole. St Bart’s is very French...we are underdressed and stand out like tourist with our Jimmy Buffet T-shirts and flip fops. Funny, but I find 4 inch heels to be impractical on a sailboat.

We hope to do a short hike today and scuba dive in a small cove. Then tomorrow we will hike to a fort and enjoy the afternoon at shell beach scavenging. The pursuit of shells and sea glass have become an addiction. On Thursday we will have a 30 mile sail to St. Kitts’ which will provide another opportunity to drag our lure through the water.

FYI, S.O.S. Is not really an acronym although some say it stands for Save our Souls or Save our Ship...we have changed it to Save our Sushi. The letters were originally used only as morse code. JK

Birthday at Sea

Sunrise over St. Maarten the Dutch side

Happy Birthday Grandpa and Adam

The things that wake you up at night are different on a boat. Once we have chosen a place to stay we put out an anchor. Seems like a pretty easy scenario. . . . However, when the wind starts blowing we become concerned that the anchor will not hold well and the boat will go floating  a) into other boats  b) onto the rocks or reef or c) we float out to sea. So every little noise seems to wake us up. It could be a rope hitting the mast or deck. It could be a wave slapping against the hull. Might even be a “coke” can rolling side to side in the cupboard. Either way, sleeping takes a little getting used to. 

Adam turned 9 years old in the middle (well not quite) of the ocean. Last night we crossed from the BVI to St. Maarten. This means a sail of 90 miles through the night across the Agenda passage. The wind, waves and current are typically against you when going the direction we needed to go. This caused a little apprehension in the captain and crew. (The noises out there at night could mean several other things). Many of our fears were alleviated as we took on captain Kim. CK is a very experienced off shore sailor and was willing to go with us. We all wore off-shore life vests and harnesses. It would be difficult to find someone at night in the ocean if they fell off the boat. We made it. The sail was beautiful under a sky filled with stars and a full moon. The lights from the cruise ship were very bright and looked like a small island. Do not want to land on that island. From here we will continue south visiting several small island countries along the way.   BK

Drift wood

We went to a really cool spot where we got to ride scooters. Mom was very scared! Then we went to a really cool bar and they had magnifying glasses. We burnt letters into drift wood. This one is mine.           AK