April 19 – Georgetown, Bahamas.

Coming back to the Georgetown area, we are surprised at its spectacular, stark, un-self-conscious beauty. No wonder it is the final destination for many cruisers, some who stay right through the hurricane season, and others who come back year after year from their homes in the eastern US. The bright turquoise water and white sand beaches of Elizabeth Harbour are so brilliant that I keep reaching for my sunglasses – only to find that I am already wearing them. Georgetown cruisers have a very active social life, with games, sports, concerts, Bible studies, and other social events organized and announced every day on the radio net.

We have been to town today to check in ($300 USD!!), pick up our email, and get groceries. Then we moved the boat across the bay to another anchorage near Volleyball beach and a new little resort that has free internet. We walked through the resort to the beach on the other side of the island, a vast expanse of sand and blue, with nobody on it, where we swam in the clear water and gentle surf.

Later, we went to our first dinghy-drift, twenty-five or so dinghies tied together, drifting in the breeze, sharing hors d’oevres (how do you spell that?), stories and laughs. When the pod of dinghies needed repositioning, a couple of boats would start their motors and push in the right direction. It was a fun way to watch the sunset and get to know some other cruisers here.

Tomorrow we will decide whether to stay for a while and leave the boat here while we take a quick trip home, or if we will hurry with the boat to Florida and fly home from there.


Thursday, April 20 – We dinghied to the internet spot today (note the view!), got the first flights we tried on American Airlines (a miracle!), made arrangements to leave the boat on a mooring ball in a hurricane hole, and expect to be ready to leave for a two-week trip home on April 26. That gives us five days to enjoy this lovely place, and for Cliff to get a few coats of much-needed varnish on the toerails. When we return in mid-May, we will have to move fast to keep ahead of hurricane season, which officially starts June 1.

April 15 - 19, 2006 – Turks and Caicos to Georgetown, Bahamas

We hit a bad patch of weather in the Turks and Caicos. We had hoped to leave early in the week, but a cold front closed in and we had to stay put. One day I (Orma) drove the rental car into town to do some grocery shopping, and was inside a store when the Skies opened. After waiting forty-five minutes (these islanders have attitude, and they’re not about to help you carry your groceries!) I ran to the car, threw in the groceries, and made my way back through the flooded roads to Sapodilla Bay. Cliff picked me up in the dinghy, and we were both good and wet by the time we got back to the boat.

While I was away, Cliff watched a dramatic scene unfold, as the police boat came by towing a Haitiian sloop packed with refugees trying to escape to a better life. Hundreds of Haitians arrive every week and most are apprehended and sent back, but many escape into the bushes where they eke out an existence until they are caught or somehow get legal status to stay. The TCI citizens (Belongers), who guard their island ownership fiercely, are feeling quite threatened as they begin to be outnumbered by these desperate souls, who have nothing to lose.




We left Sapodilla Bay the next day in a rainstorm (bad timing!) to motor back to Caicos Shipyard and Marina to fuel up in preparation for the next transit. With the stormy weather, Sapodilla was becoming uncomfortable anyway, so we decided to stay at the dock for a couple of days. There is nothing attractive about the shipyard, and we were glad to leave there on Saturday morning in the company of Eva and Keith on Seaview.

We traveled just a short distance (3 hours) that day, to West Caicos Island, where a Ritz Carlton resort is under construction. We had happened to pass by the development office earlier in the week, where one of the marketing guys told us that their marina basin is finished, but the docks are not built yet, and suggested that we drop in to take a look. We were happy to leave the rough water on the west side of the island and enter the narrow channel into the empty and flat calm marina. On Saturday afternoon of Easter weekend there were no workers around and we had the place to ourselves. Eventually a watchman came by in a boat and tried to get rid of us (“They don’t like no-one coming in here!”), but fortunately we remembered the name of the developer, and there was no more hassle. Keith and Eva also came in, and after a visit with coffee and cookies in the cockpit, we all had a wonderful, quiet, dark night.

We watched the Easter sunrise from the marina, then started out on a long passage from West Caicos to Rum Cay in the Bahamas. We said goodbye to Keith and Eva, who were headed a different way, and motor-sailed all day and into the evening, seeing nothing but deep blue water and clear skies. The seas were beautifully calm, so we were able to read, Cliff wired some speakers in the cockpit, and I gave myself a guitar lesson. With the new cockpit speakers, we could listen to music and story tapes to help pass the time. In the late evening, the lights of another sailboat appeared, and there was “Doubletake” again, our traveling companions for yet another night passage, as when we were en route from D.R. to T.C.I.

It took twenty-seven hours to get to Rum Cay, where we tip-toed through the coral heads and into a lovely anchorage, tidied up the boat, had a quick swim and a shower, then crashed for a couple of hours of sleep. Later, David and Pam (Doubletake) picked us up in their dinghy and we all went to shore for a Bahamian lunch of chicken, peas and rice, and salad, provided by the ladies of the Baptist church as a fundraising event. Rum Cay has a population of about 100, so there was not much to see in town. We walked around for a while, but it was very hot and we were all too tired to stay long, so it was back to the boat for an early supper and a good night’s sleep.

Once again it was an early start the next morning for the 50-mile trip to Georgetown, Bahamas, in order to arrive with good light at our reefy, shallow destination. With our new GPS we were able to exactly retrace our route to leave the Rum Cay anchorage safely, even though the early morning light wasn’t too good for spotting coral heads. We had another day of motoring, with a little lift from the sails, but this time we were in sight of land all the way, and other sailboats passed now and then, heading east in much better conditions than we had six years ago on this particular passage. On days like this, having the end in sight seems a mixed blessing.

April 6, 2006 – Turks and Caicos Islands Again

The trip from the Domican Republic to TCI was as pleasant as it had been miserable going the other way over five years ago. The weather was very calm, so we motor-sailed most of the time. As we rounded the point, we were able to call Moonbeam III on the VHF to tell them how well the motor was running. Our first stop was at Sand Cay, 30 hours away. Through the night we watched a lightning show over the DR mountains. As usual, Orma dozed while Cliff watched. Sometime in the night was saw a boat light in the distance and watched as it maintained a parallel course through the long hours. As dawn broke, we saw that we had a companion sailboat heading for the same destination. We spoke briefly on the radio to “Doubletake” out of Boston, who had left Boqueron PR to sail directly to TCI. It was nice to have the company for the last part of the trip to Sand Cay, and after we had all had a chance to have a sleep, we went to their boat for drinks and a visit.

We realize now that we are back in the Atlantic, that there is nowhere in the Caribbean with crystal clear, turquoise blue water like TCI and the Bahamas have. There is no need to go further south for beautiful beaches! The bottom at 50 ft. depth was easy to see. Sand Cay, with a long, white beach, surrounded by turquoise ocean, was exquisite.

To arrive at Sapodilla Bay, Providenciales, in good light, we left the anchorage in the dark at 4:00a.m., crossed the Turks and Caicos Passage, and arrived on the Caicos Banks at 8:00. The water here is very shallow – from 6 to 8 feet – and studded with coral heads, necessitating a close watch even on the charted routes. But the water is so clear that it is easy to see anything in the way, and it was so calm that it hardly felt like we were moving. Orma took advantage of the time to defrost the fridge and do some cleaning.

It was fun as we approached Provo to note the changes and see the development occurring along the shoreline, but Sapodilla Bay looked much the same, and it felt like a homecoming to return to this familiar area.

It is now Monday afternoon. We rented a car for three days and have enjoyed cruising the island, seeing old friends, and revisiting the places where we spent a good part of three summers. We attended Bethany Baptist on Sunday morning, where we received a warm welcome.




There is an amazing amount of development taking place along Grace Bay, with luxurious condos filling in almost every vacant space. Fortunately, the beach is not private and there are beach accesses every quarter mile or so. Everyone tells about the real estate boom, and the mood seems quite upbeat, but we do not regret our decision to return to Canada rather than become permanent residents of the TCI.

April 4, 2006 – A Friend in Need

With a forecast for improved weather, we decided to move from the very grubby anchorage in Samana to a beautiful little island, Levantado, about three miles offshore, to use the watermaker, clean the propeller, and stage for our passage to the Turks and Caicos.. We had noticed this island with its beautiful beaches on the way in, and it looked like it had a good anchorage on the eastern end, off the beach, protected from the prevailing winds. Two Norwegian cruiser families we met in Samana had departed Saturday for the same destination, so we knew we wouldn’t be alone for the first day at least.

Because the engine had been running a little too hot, Cliff had boiled out the heat exchanger, hoping that would solve the problem, but by the time we had motored to the island, the engine was boiling. We arrived in time to say goodbye to our Norwegian friends, who told us it was a lovely spot, but “pretty rolly”. We had no choice but to drop the hook and roll with the punches – or waves, in this case -- and get to work trying to fix the overheating problem.

While the engine cooled, we took the dinghy ashore to this perfect little tropical island, and were surprised to find it gussied and groomed. We soon realized that it was a cruise ship getaway island. The lawns were mowed, the walkways paved, the beach raked, and there were numerous little beach huts and shops scattered throughout. The final give-away was the huge buffet dining area back in the trees. We were alone in the anchorage through the dark, rolly, rainy night, but Monday morning arrived shining its sun on the beautiful tropical palm-lined beach. Except for local fishermen who rowed or sailed to the nearby reef to cast their nets, the day was quiet until the Norwegian Sun anchored a mile or so off, and the local boats ferried passengers ashore.

Cliff spent Sunday afternoon and all day Monday sweating in the engine room, trying to figure out what was causing the overheating. Several times we thought we had found the problem, only to be disappointed when we tried out the still-overheating Perkins. Finally, by Monday night he was “cautiously optimistic”, and we lifted the dinghy and motor and prepared for a daybreak departure.

On Tuesday morning we started out before dawn, motored two or three miles, and were dismayed to see the engine almost at boiling point again. Obviously, we couldn’t start out on a long passage to the Turks and Caicos, so once again we turned around, hoisted the sails, and limped back in to port.

We considered going back to Isla Levantado, but decided that because we may need to hire a mechanic or find some parts, we should return to Samana. As we approached the anchorage, we saw a catamaran with a Canadian flag, and who should it be but our friends, the Tueles, on Moonbeam III. Not only is Captain Ron a ferryboat captain, he is a licensed helicopter mechanic and has a great deal of experience with diesel engines, and he loves getting his hands dirty in the engine room! So Donna, Alex, Janessa and I went to town while Cliff and Ron spent the day in the engine room, cleaning, checking, and flushing out everything in sight. Meanwhile, Donna and the girls gave Orma some much-needed help with the blogspot at the Internet Café.

It was Ron and Donna’s thirty-second anniversary, so the guys washed the grease off and we all went out for Chinese food. The meal was a bit rushed, as the men couldn’t wait to get back to the boat to run the engine, and PTL, after the final trial at 10:00pm, it ran cooler than it has for the last two years!! Finally we could get on our way the next morning. Ron and Donna left the harbour at 3:00 a.m. to travel along the coast to Luperon, and we pulled out at 6:00 a.m. to head north to the Turks and Caicos.

March 25, 2006 – Across the Mona Pass to Samana, Dominican Republic

Cliff worked hard for a couple of days installing the new GPS, but finally we were ready to travel. The weather window was forecast to hold for another day, so we decided to cross to Samana, on the east coast of the DR, a 24-hour trip, rather than go all the way to Luperon, a further 16 hours along the north coast.


The south wind and calm seas gave us a wonderful sail for the first 11 hours, but at about 9:00pm the wind dropped and we had to motor through the night. We had a fabulous, easy, dry trip, and dropped anchor at St. Barbara de Samana after 143 miles, tired, but pleased to have the Mona Pass behind us.

The Samana harbour is enclosed by a graceful, arched walking bridge that connects a small park to the mainland. An imposing hotel under construction on the hill overlooks the bay. The town was razed by the Trujillo dictatorship and 1949 and rebuilt in 1972 around the waterfront. The waterfront is attractive but poorly maintained, and the water is filthy, thick with garbage and mud. One dinghy dock is almost too high to climb on to from the dinghy, and the other is alongside the commercial boats, requiring a scramble up and over to the government dock.



The weather changed dramatically as a front moved in, and we have had some heavy rains and windy,cool, drizzly conditions all week. We are safe and comfortable, though, and the extra days here have made it possible for Cliff to install a propane solenoid and cross off a few more projects on his job list.

By choosing moments between cloudbursts to dinghy to town, risking life and limb climbing over fishboats and up onto the muelle (dock) to go to the internet café, Orma has been able to get her journal (15 months’ worth) up to date and almost ready to publish on the blogspot. From now on, we hope to post short weekly updates and avoid any more marathon sessions at the computer!

March 19-25, 2006 -- Boqueron, San Juan shopping, and Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico

Boqueron can best be described as “funky”. It is a small town on a long beach, whose chief purpose is to be a weekend party place. The narrow main street is lined with the usual restaurants and t-shirt shops, and with open stalls selling oysters and clams. Fortunately, were anchored far enough out that the party noises didn’t keep us awake at night.

The weather has been benign, so there are many cruising boats taking advantage of it and arriving from the west, across the Mona Pass. We shared time and stories with a number of them who are looking for info about points south, where we have been and they are headed. A South African couple gave us some fresh mahi-mahi they had caught on the way across. We enjoyed several visits with Peter and Connie on “Justoo”, from Kelowna. This seemed like a particularly nice bunch of boaters, and we wished we were all traveling the same direction. We did bump into one couple, Elizabeth and Ken on “Jade Moon”, whom we had known in Puerto la Cruz, who are going our way. They will be a week or so ahead of us, but we may catch up to them again in the Bahamas.

We arranged to rent a car for three days for the reasonable price of $120, which included a pick-up and drop-off from Mayaguez, the nearest city, about 40 minutes away. What a treat to find Wal-Mart, Sears, Penny’s, etc., in the Mayaguez Mall, and big supermarkets for stocking up on groceries. We were disappointed in the fresh produce, but everything else was great. We ate lunch and indulged in the salad bar at Ponderosa, and enjoyed practicing our Spanish again. Most people here speak English, but Spanish is Puerto Rico’s first language.

The closest West Marine store is in San Juan, so we drove the distance over excellent toll roads and freeways, enjoying the mountainous Puerto Rico scenery en route. It took us a while to locate the store in the maze of on-ramps and off-ramps, and necessitated a stop at the huge Mall of Las Americas, much to Cliff’s chagrin. We didn’t linger there, though, as it was Cliff’s turn for a shopping day. His shopping days are much more expensive, though, and we left West Marine with a new GPS, cockpit stereo speakers, new spinnaker sheet, and more.


Our final day with the car was spent touring more of the countryside, and finding our way to the Arecibo Observatory, the world’s largest radio-telescope. Of necessity, it is located in a remote area in the mountains accessed by small and winding roads, so it is surprising when you arrive to be greeted by such a massive complex. Photos don’t really do justice to the scale of the place. Suffice it to say it looks just like it did in the movie “Contact” with Jodie Foster, or “Gold Eye”, the James Bond movie.

March 13–25, 2006 -- Culebra and Vieques, Puerto Rico

We left St. Thomas early in the morning, in hopes of catching the remains of the night lee (the offshore calm that results from the cooling of the land), but to no avail, as the wind blew strongly and we had a another rollicking sail across the 24-mile channel. We entered Ensenada Honda, Culebra, Puerto Rico, very carefully, paying close attention to the buoys and ranges marking the channel. The quaint little town of Dewey, Culebra, as well as having a large and very sheltered bay, has the advantage of being a convenient place to check in with US Customs and Immigration. A short walk to the island’s airport took us to the Customs office and a pleasant officer who stamped our passports and sold us a new US cruising permit ($19USD), good for a year anywhere in the US.


After a showery night, up and down closing and opening windows and hatches, we headed out to Vieques, 22 miles to the south. Again, the seas were challenging. The captain keeps promising it is going to get better!


When we came this way five years ago, most of Vieques was still used as a US Navy shelling range and was not particularly hospitable to cruisers. Since then, it has been returned to civilian use, and the very beautiful bays and beaches are now available to us. Shell-gathering takes on a whole new meaning here, though, and going ashore in the previously restricted areas is not recommended.


We crept into one of these bays after our rough trip from Culebra, thrilled to find absolutely flat water over a multi-hued lagoon, about two miles long. There was not a building in sight, and only one other boat, some distance away. The absolutely calm, quiet, and dark night gave us a wonderful sleep -- but, to quote the guide book, “After munitions cleanup, taking perhaps years, you can look forward to rampant development to spoil these beautiful coves more than bombs could.”


Our next stop was off the small town of Esperanza, where we took a free DNR mooring in very shallow water just off the beach. We rowed the dinghy ashore to explore the town, found free internet at the library, and walked and had a swim at the next beach, a mile-long halfmoon of white sand, where again we saw many groups of college-age kids enjoying a spring break vacation.

We were up before dawn to take advantage of the night lee on the crossing from Vieques to the big island of Puerto Rico, and this time we got lucky. The wind was light for the crossing, and the breeze which came up as we motor-sailed along the shore was behind us.


The south coast of Puerto Rico is very beautiful, with many reef-protected white-sand beaches and wonderfully sheltered hurricane-holes. Our next anchorage was Salinas, one of these almost fully-enclosed hideaways. This cruiser-friendly spot makes it easy to want to stay. We took full advantage of the shore facilities, doing our laundry for $1 per load (compared with $16 Euros in Martinique!), getting a new load of reading material from the book exchange, and finding a sailmaker who did some same-day repairs on our canvas.


We found a restaurant called “The Cruisers’ Galley”, where they had excellent food at great prices, and free internet, where I spent most of a day working on our blogspot. All this with free coffee and freshly-baked cookies, and two big slices of saran-wrapped banana bread to take home!!











Salinas was a friendly stop for meeting other cruisers. We took an instant liking to Gerry and Terri on “Gymnopodes”, from Saskatoon. They were headed south, but we had lunch together and a good visit.





We paid a return visit to Gilligan’s Island, a favorite from our trip south in 2001. The calm, clear water, spectacular scenery, and uncrowded conditions were still the same. As we were there on a weekend, there were lots of families arriving on the small ferry or bringing their own motorboat to enjoy a picnic on the little island park.

We had a wonderful swim in the clear water of the mangrove channels, and swam and walked along a gorgeous beach a short distance away.

Feeling some pressure to get to Boqueron to do some chores and be ready for a weather window to cross the Mona Pass to the Dominican Republic, we stayed just one night at Gilligan’s, then had an easy motoring trip to Cabo Rojo, at the the south-west corner of Puerto Rico, where we turned north and went into the anchorage in the wide bay at Boqueron. As we were rounding the Cape, our 12-year-old GPS gave an incorrect latitude and longitude reading for the first time. It had been giving us a few problems for a while, but this mistake was unforgivable, and we decided the GPS would have to be replaced. It is an integral part of our auto-pilot and radar systems, and an indispensable aid to paper charts for navigation.

March 5, 2006 – The Virgin Islands

We entered the British Virgin Islands through Round Rock Pass at about 0700, having crossed the Anegada Pass without taking a drop of water on the deck -- a pleasant change from the drenchings we've received on every previous leg of the trip north. By 0830 we were happily tying up to the dock at Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbor, to sleep for a few hours before checking in with Customs and Immigration.

The following day, after a good night’s sleep, we took advantage of the marina facilities to have showers, wash down the boat, fill our water tank, get some groceries, and browse the boutiques. Although this is still the British Virgin Islands, it feels comfortable to be back in “american” culture.

Similar to the Gulf Islands in area, the Virgins rate among the best sailing locations in the world. The distances are not too great, the breeze is constant, there are many beautiful bays and beaches, and abundant facilities catering to boaters. It is our third visit here, the first twenty-five years ago, when we bareboat chartered with Rick and Sharon. Little did we know then that we would be back with our own boat!

We feel this time a bit like horses returning to the barn – heading more or less in a straight line, without much unnecessary dallying. In Virgin Gorda Sound we retraced our 25-year-old steps to Bitter End Yacht Club, where we had Orma’s belated birthday dinner. We visited friends of friends who have a home on Little Bay, a beautiful property which has been in their family for years. They were recently offered $16 M for the land, but they are not selling.

After a lovely sail down Sir Francis Drake Channel, we entered Trellis Bay and squeezed into an anchoring spot amidst the myriad of mostly occupied mooring balls available for rent. Most bareboat charterers like the convenience and security of a mooring ball, and don’t mind paying the $25 every night. And there are thousands of bareboat charterers in the Virgin Islands! Our anchoring spot was close to the beach, right off De Loose Mongoose, a little restaurant which beamed free WiFi into the anchorage. For the first time since Margarita, we did emails and used the internet from the boat.

In Roadtown Harbour the next day, we had lunch ashore while we waited to have a propane tank filled, then motored over to West End and took a mooring in the crowded bay at Soper’s Hole so we could clear out with BVI Customs. While we were ashore, a front came through with 30-knot gusts of wind from the west (into the Bay). We had a wet and wild dinghy ride back to Skylark, and an anxious time as the closely-packed boats swirled around in the wind. No harm was done, and things settled down during the evening. We were happy to be on a mooring that night.

Crossing into the US Virgin Islands, we checked in at Cruz Bay and enjoyed a New York deli lunch in a smart new mall. In the USVI we saw many American kids working and/or vacationing. We think many of them were on a spring break from college. Because it was a busy, crowded bay, with many ferries coming and going, we decided to move on. The wind and weather in the islands was NE 15 – 20, seas 6 – 9 ft. in northern swells, so the water was pretty rough off the north side of St. John’s, and the lovely bays there were off limits that day.

We knew that Tom and Carole (Moonrise) were in the area. They are one of the couples we met when we were all heading south down the east coast of the USA over six years ago, and we have bumped into them all up and down the islands and in Venezuela and Bonaire. When we called their name on the VHF, sure enough they responded, and we had a chat on the radiol. Unfortunately, they were in a bay upwind of us, and we didn’t want to go back in the rough seas.
We proceeded on to Christmas Cove, a picturesque, protected, and quiet spot, which we enjoyed as much this time as we had six years ago on our way south. We wonder why the charterers haven’t discovered it – maybe because there are no mooring balls planted here.

Friday, March 10, From the log: “Quiet night in a pretty anchorage. Motorsailed to St. Thomas in a strong easterly (jib alone) to the port of Charlotte Amalie, and anchored off the town. Only one cruise ship in today, but still the town was busy and traffic was fierce, such a change from our first visit in 1981, when the place was just a sleepy village.”

We spent two more days in Charlotte Amalie, watching cruise ships come and go, and browsing in the many touristy shops along the waterfront. Since we are not in the market for gold, jewels, or t-shirts, we didn’t buy much. Internet at an internet café is very expensive here -- $6 USD for 15 minutes – so we picked up our email, but didn’t spend more time than necessary on the net.


On Sunday morning we walked a few blocks to a large church. We arrived at 0940 to find that the service had started at 0900 -- but no problem, as it lasted until noon! We met some friendly people there and enjoyed a lively service. After church we went to a French restaurant for a delicious meal – maybe the best we’ve had on the trip! – then walked uphill through some beautiful old residential areas. Back at the boat, we lifted the dinghy in preparation for an early start in the morning, and had dinner aboard, enjoying the nighttime view of the hillsides studded with sparkling lights, truly a sight to remember.

March 5, 2006 Crossing the Anegada

We are in the British Virgin Islands at last! Cliff was right again, and by waiting an extra week, we had a windless and almost flat crossing of the dreaded Anegada Passage. We left Nevis yesterday morning about 9:30 and motor-sailed on a port tack on a light breeze from the southwest, a very unusual direction in the easterly Trade Winds belt. We reached the island of Saba at about 4:30 and considered stopping for a few hours to break the trip, but in the end we just motored along the coast to have a look, and then continued on.

Saba is a small Dutch island which rises straight up out of the sea 3000 feet and has no beaches or flat areas for settlements along the water. Very steep roads climb up to the two small towns, Bottom, which is at about 1000 ft., and Windwardside, which is at about 2000 ft. At a place called Ladder Bay there is a concrete stairway made up of 800 steps, climbing up to the road. We saw a number of young people swimming off the rocks at the bottom of the "ladder" -- possibly students from the ubiquitous American Medical School, located up in Bottom.

As we continued on we were able to make and eat dinner underway, enjoy the beautiful sunset on the Anegada, and even sit inside passing the time playing computer games in the dark. There was no moon, but the stars were brilliant, with the brightest stars making startracks on surface of the smooth, shiny seas. The waves glowed with phosphorescence, sometimes even outlining fish swimming below. During the night the radar showed only occasional distant targets, and Cliff changed course a few times to dodge squalls which appeared on the screen.

February, 2006 -- Nevis

We are sitting off the beautiful little island of Nevis, enjoying the pleasant weather and balmy breezes. Today we have a sizable swell and a partly cloudy day, very comfortable for working outside. Orma has been doing some canvas repair and Cliff is putting a coat of varnish on the handrails and windshield. We are pointing at a beautiful beach a couple of miles long. Right in front of us a coconut grove runs along the beach.

Scattered further along this fabulous beach there are some beach restaurants and then a beautiful Four Seasons resort hotel. Last week there was quite a bit of water activity from the hotel -- waterskiing, banana boating, etc., but this week it is very quiet. We hear that a Ritz-Carlton is planned for this beach as well. A five-minute dinghy ride takes us into the town of Charleston, very old and quaint, where we can do internet, get groceries, and people watch.

There are about twenty or thirty boats, many of them charters, anchored along the beach, as well as two huge private yachts, a small cruise ship (SeaDream Yacht Club), and the SeaCloud II, a sailing cruise ship. We saw in a yacht magazine a listing for chartering the dark yacht in the photo, slightly smaller than the white yacht in the foreground and minus the helicopter. The weekly rental for yacht and crew, not including food and fuel, was $40,000 USD, which we thought was pricey, but not exorbitant for up to 12 passengers. But when we looked again, we had missed a zero and the charter price, exclusive of food and fuel, was actually $400,000 per week!!

There is an American Medical School here (as on many of the islands) and we have noticed many American and Canadian ex-pats who live on the island in big winter homes for wealthy snowbirds. There is also a big new Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) complex, from which we get perfect TV reception when we can stand to watch it. We think Nevis would be quite a nice place to own a home.

Nevisians take great pride in their country, its history and culture. We went inside an Anglican Church, still active, which was built in the early 1600's when it was a British colony, and saw gravestones in the cemetery dated as early as 1647.

The island is very clean -- there are litter wardens and a $500 fine for littering -- and for a population of 9000 we are amazed at the facilities they have -- a beautiful hospital, a nice library (where we did internet and email), a large new old folks home, two high schools, 50 churches, and many supermarkets, shops, and tourist facilities. It is politically a part of the country called St. Kitts and Nevis, but half the population of Nevis wants to separate.

The economy used to be sugar-based, but they no longer farm sugar and are now dependent on tourism and off-shore financial services. Several of the sugar plantations, dating back to the 1600's and 1700's, have been turned into luxury plantation house hotels. Yesterday we took a load of laundry to a place on the beach. Today we went back to pick it up. We were a bit concerned about landing the dinghy on the beach in the swell, but I guess we're getting good at it because we had no problem. The cost to wash and dry two loads was $35 USD. The price seems atrocious, but it is a necessary part of the cruising budget. We hand wash a few items on board, but it takes a lot of water and time and never seems to do a really good job.

We had a fun dinner and games night with the Moonbeam III family on Sunday. They are going to St. Martin now and sadly we may not connect again -- but you never know. We will keep track of them on their blogspot.

We had hoped to be in the Virgin Islands by now, and we actually started out last Saturday, but by the time we got to St. Kitts (2 hours) we decided the wind was too strong to fight all night on the Anegada Passage. Once you leave St. Kitts there is nowhere to stop if the conditions are bad except for the island of Saba, which is very steep-sided and has little protection from the waves. So we stayed overnight in the main harbour of BasseTerre then came back to Nevis, which is much nicer. The weather forecasts since then have still predicted brisk winds and seas, although after the fact it appears there have been a couple of days that would have been good to go. We are probably way too cautious and are going to have to get our nerve up or we'll never get home!

February 22/06 – Under the Volcano (Montserrat)

When we finally had an acceptable weather forecast, we left Deshaises at first light to sail from Guadeloupe to Nevis, past the volcanic island of Montserrat. We chose to sail up the windward (east) side to avoid the ash fallout from this still-active volcano. We must be getting accustomed to winds 15 – 20, seas 6-8, because it didn’t seem so bad this time. We rip-snorted along at 6 or 7 knots, heeled over in big seas, and had a wonderful view of the mountain as it burped and belched. We took a tour on Montserrat five years ago, so we decided not to stop this time. The wind dropped as we reached the island of Nevis, and we motor-sailed the last few hours. We covered 72 miles this day, and dropped the anchor just as the sun set

February 19, 2006 -- New Friends

We have been missing the cruiser friends we got to know in Venezuela and Grenada, but we have made a few new friends on the way north. Unfortunately, though, they are all traveling south! Linda and Peter on Kinda stopped by to introduce themselves when we were in Deshaies. Peter retired as Chief of Police for New Westminster a few years ago. We enjoyed a couple of good visits, a delicious dinner, and evening of cards with them. They are cruising south and are moving their landbase back to Hamilton,Ontario in the summer. Maybe we'll see them when we get to Ontario.

In Dominica, we met a delightful family, Ron, Donna, and cute teenage daughters Alex and Janessa, from Hornby Island. Ron is a BC Ferries captain, taking a six-month leave. They bought a catamaran in St. Vincent, sailed as far south as Tobago, and are now heading north to Miami where they will sell the boat and return home. If you want to read a neat description of their trip, visit their blogspot, www.tuele.blogspot.com. They were also in the Deshaies anchorage while we were there.

February 12, 2006 – Dominica

With an acceptable forecast in the morning, we headed out with double-reefed main and staysail. The sail combination was perfect, even at 22 knots on the deck. We had a boisterous reach in the passage between islands, but Skylark was great and the reward was a quiet sail along the west coast of Dominica in the sunshine. We arrived in Portsmouth harbour at 1630, having done 55 miles in 9 hours. About three miles out, we were met by Albert, who announced his services as our guide, produced his credentials as a member of the Indian River Tour Guides Association, and arranged to take us to Customs and on a tour the next morning.

The Dominican “boat boys” have come a long way from unruly Rastas to trained tour guides. Remember “Spaghetti”, our guide in 2001? Albert (note the cell phone) arrived punctually at 8:00 the next morning, and suggested we do the river tour before checking in, as the river is quieter and there is more animal life early in the morning. We didn’t see any animals, but the thick, colorful vegetation and intertwined tree roots were fascinating. He rowed us upstream about 3 miles, and as we floated back down, we passed boatloads of gringos, looking like a corporate team-building excursion, heading up. We were glad we had gone early to enjoy the quiet and solitude.

34 portsmouth
After clearing in, we moved the boat closer to town, and went ashore for a look around. Portsmouth looked as dowdy as it did five years ago, but the people were still friendly. We walked way down the beach to the Purple Turtle for lunch, then went back to the boat for a swim. Bill and Sharon on Makai (friends from Bonaire and Venezuela) invited us over for sundowners, where we met cruisers from another couple of boats, including a woman doctor who is teaching at the American Medical School in Portsmouth – a compromise with her husband, who wanted to cruise while she wanted to keep working. We also stopped to talk to Jeff and Sue, a couple from Calgary who are just starting out on an old CSY they bought in St. Martin. By their own admission they are complete neophytes -- an accident waiting to happen -- and its going to be a steep learning curve for them.

35 pirateship
We see many tall ships as we travel. They are becoming a popular way to cruise the islands, combining luxury and adventure. We passed this pirate ship, and wondered if it might be a prop for “Pirates of the Caribbean II”, presently being filmed in St. Vincent and Dominica.