The Winner - Hands Down

The entire Caribbean is incredibly beautiful and each island is really so diverse from the ones on either side, but now that we have arrived in the British Virgin Islands, I have to say that it's without a doubt, the most beautiful part of the Caribbean. Maybe it's because it's our 4th time here and familiar or that the waters are so incredibly blue and crystal clear. Maybe it's that there is no swell and the sea is so calm and flat between islands. Who cares...we're here and we're happy!!!

We made the 4:30 bridge opening out of the St. Maarten lagoon on Friday with some of our friends bidding us farewell from the yacht club deck and set one (just one!) course of 300 degrees straight for the BVI. We hoisted the sails and set off with a bucket of chicken and a freshly made pasta salad for the 85 mile crossing. We were both pretty excited to be experiencing our first all night crossing and we weren't disappointed. We had agreed on three hour watches at the helm, but neither of us could sleep on our 3 hrs off. One would think that this would be a very boring experience, and perhaps it is after many nights, but we were so happy to be enjoying the very particular kind of peace that comes with a calm night crossing, that it was stimulating in it's own way. The highlight for us both (Olivia was sound asleep on the floor of the cockpit) was the indescribable night sky. We've been in lots of dark places where the stars are brighter than usual - camping or boating - but nothing has ever come close to what we saw. The stars are more brilliant and plentiful than we ever could have imagined. That is a sight that every person should experience at least once in a lifetime. We were simply in awe.

As we were approaching the island of Virgin Gorda, Ron went up to the bow to stretch his legs and just at that moment, a beautiful big dolphin and her very young calf jumped out of the water at the bow and gave us the coolest welcome we could have asked for. She was playing with her baby and frolicking in our bow wake for a good 5 minutes before venturing off. After checking in with customs on Virgin Gorda, and very nice swim and snorkel at the famous "Baths", we ran into our friends Jim, Linda and their daughter Jennifer from Opus. We said some quick hellos, had a light dinner and were off to bed to catch up on some much needed sleep. Yesterday we fully explored the incredible caves at the Baths with our friends and then we all sailed up to the Bitter End which is the northern most part of the BVI. We shared a terrific dinner and good company with the Opus crew aboard Exodo and today we off to explore more of the island itself. We may never leave here....

I guess it means we're officially on "Island Time"

Having some R&R after a tough morning of home school.

"Island Time" means that it will happen when it happens - no timelines, deadlines, or guarantees. Aside from sporadic internet access, I don't have a better excuse so here is my best recollection of the past 2 months. So much has happened and I really wish I had taken the time to make some notes each day because one day just blurs into the next here and yet any given day can be so vastly different from the one before or after it.

After hurricane Tomas, we stuck around Bequia for a couple more days and Ron helped Herve, the owner of the wrecked catamaran untangle his mast and get his boat sea worthy enough to get it back to their home port in Martinique. We sailed north just ahead of Herve so we'd be in radio range if he got into trouble. The weather report was for average seas and winds, but once again, we got more than we bargained for. We were excited that our friends Patrick and Sheila were meeting us in Antigua in mid-November, and we had no more time to waste so we had to make tracks if we wanted to get there before they did. This particular leg was going to be approximately 50 nautical miles because we wanted to sail right by St. Vincent and on to St. Lucia. We hadn't heard from our friends Ken and Diane in St. Lucia since the hurricane and also learned that the south of St. Lucia had really extensive damage, so we were quite worried about them. We set off early in the morning in calm seas and 15 knots of wind only to be quickly in the midst of 8-10 foot seas and 25-35 knots of wind...and that was in the lea of St. Vincent. We had anticipated a 4-5 hour trip from Bequia to the north end of St. Vincent, but instead it took us 8.5 hours of rough seas. We just started out into the channel between St. Vincent and St. Lucia and it got a lot worse quite quickly. The captain decided that it was going to be too much for an already tired captain and crew to try to cross the channel, so we turned around and sailed two more hours back down St. Vincent to the first place we could anchor and be protected from the sea. The Island of St. Vincent is a very poor one and has a reputation of some danger and theft. There are really no "cruiser friendly" anchorages and it was a very anxious feeling to know we would be in a harbour without the usual group of other cruisers that offer a sense of safety. St. Vincent had also suffered quite a lot of damage from the hurricane, and desperate times can sometime cause people to do desperate things, which added to our sense of discomfort. We anchored in a small bay called Wallilabou which was the one of the main shooting locations for Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3. They even still had the small museum at the dockside that displayed all the shooting schedules, cast photos, costumes, etc. There were only two other boats in this small bay - one was a transiting catamaran and the other was a 45 ft. Benneteau high and dry up on the rocks and beach from the storm. As we were about to set our anchor, we were quickly met by several boat boys in fish boats, canoes and even rafts, eager to sell us what little fruit they had and offer to collect our garbage. It broke our hearts to see the desperation in these people so we bought what we could from each of them and donated a bag full of clothes that we no longer wore or needed. On shore, we met some of the locals that were hard at work cleaning up the damage and saw for ourselves again how powerful mother nature is and how incredibly resilient these people are in the wake of such adversity. The few people we met were kind, helpful and welcomed us warmly. That night I slept under brilliant stars in a beautifully quiet anchorage with a real sense of sorrow and guilt not only for having, but for having been afraid based on nothing we had experienced firsthand.

Shooting and crew schedule from the Pirates of the Caribbean scene.


Some damage from Hurricane Tomas on St. Vincent at Wallilabou.


The next morning, we shoved off to much calmer seas and good wind but the direction of the wind meant we would have to sail past Vieux Fort in St. Lucia and on to Mariigot Bay and hope to get a taxi or bus to Vieux Fort to try to reach Ken and Diane. As we were nearing the south end of St. Lucia, we heard a call to us over the VHF from a boat we hadn't heard of before and when I answered the radio, I was thrilled to hear Ken's voice - they had gone down to the docks and borrowed someone's radio to try to reach us. While we were worried about them, they were just as worried about us. What a relief it was to hear from them! We were saddened to hear that there was loss of life in St. Lucia from the water and mudslides caused by the storm. Ken had been busy working with the Red Cross assisting in locating survivors and recovering bodies in some of the harder hit areas. He spent 25 years with the Canadian military and I can't think of a more capable or caring person for the job. The south of the island was cut off from the rest because roads and bridges were completely washed away so we altered our course to head back to View Fort and made it just before dark. We were so happy to see them and Diane opted to spend the night with us and sail up to the north end with us the next day. We headed up the next day to Rodney Bay at the north end of the island and had a great visit with Diane along the way. We were also looking forward to finding our friends Karen, Mike and Samantha from Mischana that we hadn't seen since April. We were happy to pull into the calm and rock solid docks of Rodney Bay and were happily greeted by our friends standing on the dock yelling "There goes the neighborhood!" After tying up and hugs all around, I couldn't wait to go shopping - here there are wonderfully stocked grocery stores (with fresh milk!!!) and we were out of just about everything since supplies were scarce in St. Vincent and Bequia after the storm. We also quickly learned that the entire island of St. Lucia was completely without running water as the pumping stations were still until 12 feet of mud and silt. Stores still had limited quantities of water, but were charging 4 or 5 times the normal price. Luckily, we had just filled out water tanks when we left Bequia, so we were ok for a couple of days.

After a restful day in Rodney Bay, we continued our trek north to Martinique and were treated to a fantastic sail in near perfect conditions and just when we thought it couldn't get any better, we were approached and entertained by a huge pod of dolphins dancing in our bow wake and jumping over each other seemingly just to please us. We arrived in LeMarin, Martinique and were very excited to meet up with our friends Henrik, Mariola, Lala, and Mischu from the boat LaLa. They have opted to spend the year in Martinique so Lala and Mischu can attend school after 3 years of homeschooling on the boat. We spent a few days visiting and stocking up our bulk items and wine cellar and we were also able to meet up with Herve and were glad to see that he was safely back at his home and now dealing with his insurance company. He and his wife invited us to their home for some hospitality en francais, but we had a good weather window to continue north and needed to make up some time.

Dolphins at the bow off of St. Vincent.


Showing us some tricks!!

The next 4 days through Martinique and Dominica were calm and uneventful and we made such good time that once we reached Les Saintes in Guadeloupe, we treated ourselves to a few days there as it was one of our favorite anchorages when we traveled south. The waters heading into Les Saintes were so calm and so still it was creepy. We felt like the entire sea had simply stopped moving and lay completely flat. What an incredible contrast from the raging seas just a few days earlier.

Another 2 days sailing and an overnight stop in Deshaies, Guadeloupe and we had Antigua in sight with 2 days to clean the boat and get ready for Patrik and Sheila to visit us from Victoria. They are seasoned sailors so they were really looking forward to spending their vacation sailing with us and making a few passages with us as far as St. Maarten. Sometimes we need to be careful what we wish for....

The day they arrived, the winds and the seas picked up so we just enjoyed a few extra days in English Harbor - also a favorite place of ours. We tripped around and did some snorkeling and just enjoyed the great company of our guests while we waited for better weather to sail. We knew we wanted to get to St. Maarten, but didn't know if we were going to make a straight 70 mile shot to St. Barts, or head more west to St Kitts which was 50 miles, so we sailed around to Jolly Harbor which is a better jumping off point for either destination. One crumby weather day turned into another of waiting, but it sure gave us time to hang out, explore, visit and play dominos and Patrick taught us that with a little Tequila, dominos will work better if you wink at them!


Patrick, Sheila and Olivia - passage from Antigua to St. Kitts.


After 5 days, we had good enough weather to head out so we packed up and made off for St. Kitts. It was a little rough on the way over, but Sheila took it like a trooper and Patrik was having a great time on the big seas. We got into St. Kitts just in time to stretch our legs and find some dinner before heading off to St. Maarten the next morning. Some days, you wish you just stayed in bed....

At 7 am the next day, we headed out for what we hoped would be a 4-5 hour sail in fair seas and wind. What we got was 12-15 foot seas and 30-35 knot winds! It was without a doubt, the biggest seas and roughest conditions we had been in yet. It was one of those passages that you simply had to find a spot to sit and don't move for the duration - not so easy with a 5 year old. The conditions were way beyond being able to use the autohelm so the boat had to be entirely hand steered. Exodo has a very high freeboard but still there were times when we had the rails in the water. Olivia sat on my lap like a trooper and didn't start heaving until 8 hours into a 10.5 hour sail. I can hardly describe what it's like to sail up a wave and feel like the boat is standing on it's end and down into a trough to where the nose of the boat is burried underwater and you're staring into nothing but a wall of water that is to become the next wave to go over. My tolerance and motion threshold have come a very, very long way throughout this journey, and I'm glad to say I still have not given in to the big "bucket" but I am in no hurray to repeat those conditions and time sooner or later. We all were so happy to be in the lea of St. Maarten that we didn't even mind that we missed the bridge opening by 30 minutes and had to spend the night out of the lagoon. Patrick and Sheila were hoping to do some sailing, but I know it was a little more than they bargained for also. They are definitely the heartiest guests we could have had for that trip and have some great stories to tell as a result. Sheila barely uttered a word the entire trip, almost exploded her bladder, I'm sure and wins "Best Poker Face" - hands down.

Patrick and Ron having a swim in a squall in Antigua.


Sheila watching the squall head west.


Sandcastle queen.

Time flies out here and certainly more so when you're in beautiful surroundings with great company and their time here ended all to quickly for us and for them. They say you never really know someone until you live with them, or travel with them and I sure feel that we got to know and love them both a whole lot more. Olivia has two new best buddies and has asked me to add "Let it go, Patrick".

Coming back to St. Maarten really felt like "coming home" for us three because this is where we started from. We have some really great friends living here that have become more like family and I know will always be in our lives in some form or another. It was great to see them all again, and pick right back up where we all left off when we set sail from here in April.

Two weeks of downtime allowed us to make a few repairs, clean up, catch up on some school work for Olivia and get ready for our dear friends and charter sailing buddies Jen, Ed, Drayson and Courteney that were coming from Victoria to visit us through Christmas. We were so excited about this visit because we were a little bummed about not being at home for Christmas and their visit was just about the next best thing. While Ron and I both missed being home to see our own families at Christmas, we always spend part of our Christmas with these dear friends so we felt honored that they would choose to spend their Christmas with us St. Maarten style. True to form here, Del and Mike hosted Christmas dinner and not only welcomed our guests with open arms, but also had gifts for all the kids and went a little overboard with Olivia. Three days tied to the dock at Turtle Pier did little to help the older kids get their sea legs as they were a little sea sick on our sail to St. Barts. We still had a great time there touring the island, snorkeling and enjoying their company. Having them here also gave us a chance to really be on vacation and enjoy a lot of the local sights and beaches we haven't seen yet. Standing on Sunset beach at the foot of the runway when the 747's land never gets old and neither does challenging the 6-10 foot waves in the water at Mullet beach. We also learned that you can get 8 people into a Hyundai Atos and still have room for a couple more! We miss them already!!

Santa comes to the Caribbean too!!


Checking out a blowhole near Mullet Bay in St. Maarten.


Courteney, Jennifer and Olivia playing on the beach.


The Lum family snorkeling at St. Barts

We are sad that our company has all gone home and now that it's January, we are really feeling like we're on the final leg of the time I have left from work. The next few days will be spent doing chores and repairs in preparation for our longest passage yet. We have a great 3 day weather window this Friday so we're heading off to the Virgin Islands which is one of our all time favorite places ever. It's a 90 mile crossing and will be our first over nighter, so we're both pretty excited about it. We have chartered 3 times in the British Virgin Islands and loved it every time, but it will feel different to be there on our own boat this time. We can't wait to visit familiar places and explore the U.S. and Spanish Virgin islands which are both new cruising grounds for us. Stay tuned for the next leg of our great journey.

Pics to follow.