Dominica Highlights 15*34.770N 61*27.690W

Olivia hunting for food on the beach.


Nearing Dominica

What a great time we've had here. Even though we have survived rain, rain and more rain, it's still be a beautiful place to experience and one of the last unspoiled natural tropical rain forests in the Caribbean. Our first few days were just hanging around Portsmouth in Prince Rupert Bay. As we work our way south, Dominica is the first island that has what have been termed "Boat Boys" These are not boys at all, but rather full grown men coming from a variety of backgrounds. They are guys who come out to meet you in their small wooden boats as you near the island and they basically lay claim to you and become your personal valet/tour guide while you're here. They will do everything from arrange tours to getting fresh fruit or bread, taking your garbage or whatever else you need...for a small price. Some even paddle out to the boats on surfboards to sell Mangoes, coconuts or passion fruit they've just picked. While some seem a little questionable, most are very hardworking, respected locals trying to earn and honest living. Our guy was Albert and we just loved him. He's a certified tour guide and has been here all his life. He's been doing tours on the Indian River for 28 years, so we were thrilled to do this trip with him...and he didn't disappoint. We learned more about the river than we thought there was to know and any question, no matter how seemingly insignificant, he was able to answer. The river trip meandered up as far as boats can go to a bush bar that served "Dynamite Punch" and sold it by the bottles - yes, we definitely took a bottle back to the boat. Crazy stuff. Many of the scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean II were filmed there and you can sure tell how much the islanders care about preserving this pristine environment.

Incredible vegetation in the jungle.

Grass hut near the Bush Bar on the Indian River.

The Amazing Indian River.


Buttress Roots on the trees.


The following day we had more rain and the cabin on the boat gets pretty small you're stuck inside for days on end, so we got together with Charlie, Maureen and their kids Beth and Brenden from Kamaloha, threw some snacks, beers and towels in a bag and found a great stretch of beach that no one was on. Just as we were pulling into the beach, we spotted Susie from Spirited Lady hanging out with one of the locals and she invited us to hang out there. The kids had a great time playing in the soft, black, sparkling sand and the locals entertained us with their talents. "Shorty" lives in a hut on the beach and rents Hobie Cats for a friend. He showed us how to peel, split and roast coconuts on the beach and Andrew made each of the kids the most beautiful little birds out of palm fronds. It turned out to be the best rainy day we've ever had.

Back in a previous post, I may have mentioned one of the great books I read that really inspired us and helped us learn what we might expect on this trip. The book is called "An Embarrassment of Mangoes" and is written by Canadian author Ann Vanderhoof, and is about how her and her husband Steve did what we are doing and basically put their lives on hold for 2 years in the late 90's to explore these warmer waters (they have since packed up lock, stock and barrel and are now out on Receta indefinitely). It's a great read and I brought it with us on the boat mostly for all the great Caribbean recipes made with local ingredients one can find through the island chain that she has included in each chapter. Anyway, we were just delighted to discover that they happened to be anchored in the very same bay we were in about 6 boats away! I couldn't stuff my book into a baggie and jump in the dingy fast enough over to their boat, Receta! We were thrilled to meet Ann and Steve and excited to learn that she has written a second book called "The Spice Necklace" that will be released this June. I'm now the proud owner of a personally signed copy of "An Ambarrassment of Mangoes".

Personally autographed by Ann Vanderhoof!


The best part of our trip to Dominica was visiting with our new friends Stanley, Gail and their niece Chenise (sp?). Ron's brother and sister in law hooked us up with some friends they have that live here. Stanley is a native of Dominica and Gail is from Canada and has been married to Stanley for 18 years. While they now call Dominica their home, they spent several years on Vancouver Island also. They kindly invited us to their hand crafted "treehouse" up the Layou River on the edge of the jungle. So... we rented a beat up, right hand drive jeep, drove on the left side of the pot hole laden road and braved our way into the mountains. I don't think words and/or pictures can ever describe the heart stopping, stunning beauty of the environment they live in. They live a very simple life without electricity or running water, no fridge or washer and dryer, no TV or internet...and they lack for absolutely nothing. Their adorable home is both comfortable and spacious enough for their needs and their land provides them with more food than they could ever use including mangoes, grapefruit, breadfruit, bananas, guava, passion fruit, limes, cherries, and that's just some of what grows above the ground! Very near to their home is a spring in the rocks that provides the cleanest, purest drinking water we've ever tasted. To support their lifestyle, they process cocoa bricks (that make the most heavenly cocoa tea) from the plants on the island and demonstrate their many other talents to some of the cruise ship passengers that pass by their way in the mountains. I had a few moments to sit quietly alone in the yard and it was hard not to be moved at the sight, sounds and smells of the environment that provides for them, entertains them and soothes them. They were such wonderful, gracious hosts and Gail prepared a local chicken, rice and fig (fried green bananas)meal that was truly one of the best meals I've had since leaving home. Gail and Stanley: if you're reading this, thank you once again so much for your kindness and generosity - we can't wait to see you again on our way back!!

New pals having lunch together.


Stanley, Gail and Chenise


The "Treehouse"


Stanley demonstrating the process of coco pod to coco brick.

The icing on the cake is that today (May 20th) after 113 days, six countries and nine islands, WE FINALLY SAW DOLPHINS!!! As we sailed in the lee of the island from Portsmouth to Roseau, I spotted one about 30 yards off the starboard side. In the next blink, there were six or so and they were right beside the boat and jumping through the water at the bow! I scrambled down into the boat to grab the camera but as soon as I came up they were gone just as fast as they appeared. The whole sighting was about 15 seconds, but what a thrill! I squealed so much that I jolted Olivia out of her cockpit nap and she even caught sight of one too! Hopefully, that will have been the first of many dolphin encounters ahead of us.


Hanging with my pals

The Flip Side

One of many rain squalls moving towards us from the hills, and a preview of the rainbow that usually follows them.


In reading over some of our previous posts, it occurs to me that I'm really portraying only part of this adventure - the best parts, the parts that we all dream and romanticize about. I think that's because they are all the things we did this for and they're the things that we choose to focus on, but there is definitely another side - the "not so romantic" side.

It's not always an easy go. Even when we were planning this trip, we knew there would be some rougher times, but it's hard not to have visions of laying around on the deck with a cool, fruity drink and the biggest problem being what spf sunscreen to use. Some might envision this as a week long charter cruise or an all inclusive vacation, only a lot longer. The reality is, this is hard work. Harder than we expected even though lots who've gone before us have regaled us with their stories and some truths about cruising as they've lived it.

Here's the short version of the hard parts:
Undoubtedly, the hardest part falls on Ron's shoulders. Not because he's the captain, and ultimately carries that responsibility, but more because he gets all the "blue" jobs. He's logged more hours buried in the engine room than he ever thought he would and I can tell you that if the outside air temp is 85 degrees, it's easily 20-25 degrees hotter in the engine room with no ventilation. On average, Ron spends at least 3 hours each day either in the engine room, fixing the dingy outboard or some other mechanical or electrical issue. Getting parts isn't always as easy as visiting your local West Marine so much time is spent figuring out how to make something work until we get to where we can find some parts. As I write this, Ron is trying to determine why the outboard won't start. Could be the all the rain.

Rain, Rain and more Rain - We are currently in Dominica and it's spectacular, but it has poured rain here for the last 5 days. I know that sounds just like home, but rain here is a whole different story. It comes in 10 minute intervals and as soon as the rain stops, the humidity shoots up and you instantly sweat so much you think it's still raining. We have a 2 gallon bucket sitting on the deck that fills up every six hours. Can you guess how dry my "hand washed with love" laundry is getting on the deck?? We have also discovered we have leaky deck hatches - all of them. We now have trays, towels and pots strategically placed all over the boat to catch the water coming in. My mustang self inflating life vest inflated this morning - INSIDE THE BOAT!! I guess we have a new set of projects to add to the list of things to do in Trinidad.

Grocery shopping is a full day event: Not only are the things we're used to not available, but if you can find a grocery store, it likely has shelves stocked with items from Europe and therefore many are not in English. We've had some pretty interesting meals on the boat. Buying groceries is the easy part. Now you have to lug them all back to the dingy, sometimes by taxi, and then into the dingy and then into the boat. Want to know how often a full dozen eggs actually makes it to safety? Never. Once on board, we have to immediately remove all (and I mean ALL) cardboard packaging and repack items in airtight containers or zip lock bags to avoid vermin or moisture.

The "C" word: Yes we've had a couple of those on board which was always my biggest fear. Cockroaches are actually quite harmless, but yuck, yuck, yuck. We have been neurotically careful about what we bring on board to avoid them. Cardboard is usually the culprit because cockroaches and other bugs love to lay eggs in the crevices of cardboard, especially if it's corrugated. I have probably 50 cockroach motels strategically placed all over the boat, but one of two of the little buggers have managed to get on the boat and elude the motels.

Laundry: In St. Martin, we were spoiled to have a laundry service that washed, dried and folded our stuff for $9 a load and worth every penny. Doing laundry by hand, piece by piece is fun - once. After that, it's just hard sweaty work that takes up a lot of time and deck space.

We miss stuff: I miss fresh milk and I'm sure Ron misses many of his power and hand tools. Olivia misses Jojo and her pals, Kiddie Capers and most of all, Nathan. We miss long daily showers and fresh towels. We miss the smell of crisp, cool air, clean dry sheets, take out food if I don't feel like cooking, a fridge that stays cold, stopping into a grocery store when we want or need to, and most of all we miss our friends and family.

I could list a few more, but you get the picture - it's not always sunshine and tropical flowers, but there are trade offs for everything. For example, an ice cold beer in St. Maarten is $1, the most "to die for" baguettes in the French Islands are $1 and piping hot in the morning. The 10 minute intervals when it's not raining in Dominica give off the most spectacular rainbows you can imagine, the smell of the jungle up the Indian river is incredible and the people we've met, well that's the best part of the whole adventure. And we wouldn't trade any of it - good days and not so good days - it's all what we bargained for.

I think I hear the outboard running...


My mustang inflatable vest that actually inflated because of a water leak inside the boat.


Catching water from a leaky hatch



Raining on the Indian River. They don't call it a rain forest for nothing.

Around Terre de Haut in Les Saintes

Some of the ammo bunkers around Fort Napoleon


The moat around the fort.


Fort Napoleon, Terre de Haut, Guadeloupe


Giddy up cannon.


Olivia and Ron in the dingy


Exploring Ruins



Feeding leaves to the wild goats on Isle Cabrit


Pretty streets of Terre de Haut


The new biker gang in town.

Guadeloupe 16*18.394N 061.47.818W (Updated)

Olivia's Watch


Flying to Guadeloupe at 8.1 knots



The village of Deshaies, Guadeloupe

We were able to leave Antigua on Sunday and were fortunate to have a terrific sail for 42 miles straight south to the French island of Guadeloupe. We had previously has Exodo running at a top speed of 7.7 knots but on this leg, that seemed to be her average! She topped out once or twice at 8.3 knots, but I only had the camera in my hand at 8.1. We arrived at a small picturesque fishing village on the northwest corner of Guadeloupe called Deshaies (Day-hay). According to the cruising guide, this would be our first point of access to clear customs and immigration. Each time we arrive at an island that is a different country than the last one we just left, we must "check in" which means clearing customs and immigration for that country. This involves hoisting a yellow quarantine flag ("Q flag") until you have cleared customs, and then replacing the Q flag with the courtesy flag of that country. As it turned out, it was a national holiday in Guadeloupe that day, so everything was locked up tight, including customs. We spend a great afternoon strolling the streets of this pretty town before making the long trek south and then back up around the point of the island to Pointe a Pitre to meet our friends Liz and Ritchie. The sail down was entirely in the lee of the island so it was very quiet, long and uneventful and afforded us lots of time to stare into some of the bluest water I've ever seen. Once we rounded the southern tip and headed back up, it was a whole different ball game. The next 5 hours were spent dodging rain squalls (one with a water spout hanging down) and trying to sail into 6-8 foot seas with 20-28 knot winds on and off. Not much fun, but "what doesn't kill ya, makes ya stronger".

Once we arrived in Pointe A Pitre, we afforded ourselves a night at the marina and some shopping in town. Liz and Ritchie arrived to spend the week with us and we headed off for Les Saintes which is a small group of French Islands just 18 miles south of the main island of Guadeloupe. The largest of these small islands is called Terre de Haut and is the now my new favorite place. It is the quaintest, prettiest place I can ever recall being at and is the textbook image of what I always dreamed a little seaside village should be. Because we were there mid week and it's getting to the end of the tourist/cruising season, there were very few other tourists and it really felt like the whole island was there just to cater to us. We strolled the beautiful small European style streets, had some fantastic baguette sandwiches and the following day we rented scooters and really saw the island. Miss Olivia just squealed "weeeeeeee, this is fun!" the entire time. There are very few cars on the island and everyone gets around by scooters which is just perfect for the small concrete one lane roads. Part of this trek was a trip to Fort Napoleon high atop a hill on Terre de Haut. This fort has been impecably maintained and is full of the history of the island and the many battles that were fought over it - I only wish that I had retained more than 7 words from my high school french because all of the displays were in French. This fascinating fort is the first place I've ever been to that has an actual moat around it! The moat is now dry and has grass growing in the bottom of it, but it's incredible to be able to see the masonry that went into this place.

The icing on the cake of this ideal paradise is that whatever little private anchorage you are in for the night, a gentleman comes by in a dingy and takes your order for croissants and the most out of this world baguettes and then delivers them to your boat fresh at 8:00 am the next morning. There is nothing like coffee and fresh croissants in the cockpit for breakfast.


View of our boat and the anchorage in Les Saintes from a hill top.


Exploring ruins in Les Saintes


Mom's hair is already curly, so....



Sunset in Les Saintes