Friday, April 28, 2017

Sailing by...

Dolphins have not been a part of our trip thus far. We spotted them twice in a particular bay in the BVI,  but at no other time nor place. Crossing from Martinique to St. Lucia gave us another glimpse of these wonderful creatures. I was at the wheel when I noticed some strange breaking of some of the waves. I looked closely and it was a pod of 8 - 10 dolphins. They approached the boat from the side and then turned 90 degrees to swim alongside Rhapsody. They were darker than I expected and swam just under the surface parallel to Rhapsody. A few jumps in the air, but mostly just swimming along beside ud. Gracefully,  with power and speed. And then they were gone. Just a quick "Hello, how are you? Welcome to our world" and they were off to other waters.


Monday, April 24, 2017

Finishing up Martinique

Our pace has definitely slowed down and we are no longer rushing from island to island.  This is a good thing. We have spent over a month in Martinique but it is time to move on now. These are some pictures of our last few days in Martinique.

Traditional Martinique sailing boat, now used for youth instruction.

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Veggie plate for you...

Cheeseburger, cheeseburger,  Pepsi, Pepsi, Chips (transcript here) had its Caribbean counterpart in a small restaurant on the west coast of Martinique.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

A Gorge-ous Hike

What are the top rated activities in _________? This is a frequent Google search for me. When I typed it in for Martinique I got several lists of different recommendations and on each list was "Gorges de la Falaise", a walk through a Gorge and up to a waterfall. It sounded very appealing and something I thought would be a good thing to do with my brother, Nathan, and his daughter, Hannele when they were here. The guide book I have said it was a three hour hike, so we made the decision not to include it in their itinerary since we had several other places we wanted to go and this would take a larger chunk of time than we were willing to allot. We were able to do some other hikes and tours, but did not make it to the Gorges de la Falaise.

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Marinas - Bah!

I understand the need for going to a Marina, and I am usually very happy to get the things accomplished while we are at a Marina, but I do not like staying in a Marina. It amazes me that people stay at marinas for weeks, months or even permanently. I know that there are reasons to do so, I just am not happy when we have to. Marinas are noisy, and crowded, I can't swim in the waters, there is no breeze to keep the temperature down, and we get to pay for the privilege.

Sunset view off the stern at the Marina vs...

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Met the Bloggers

St. Anne, Martinique 

Learning the Cruising life. This is something that we have been working on for quite a few years now, beginning with the seed of the idea in 2010 in Costa Rica and sailing school in 2011. A great deal of the initial research and learning was done online. Websites about sailing and cruising were helpful, but I really enjoyed reading the blogs of people who were out experiencing cruising right now. One of the blogs I discovered early on was written by and about a Canadian couple who began cruising in 2010, Mike and Rebecca Sweeney and their blog Zero to Cruising. Mike has been posting almost daily since 2008 and the beginning of their dream of cruising. I stumbled across their blog in 2011 and have been reading it ever since.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Family and Bananas



One of the joys of cruising is getting to set your own pace. Moving from island to island as you are ready. Unless you set a schedule.  Some schedules can have dire consequences, while others can be just mildly annoying.

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Friday, April 7, 2017

Cat on the loose

Ok, it wasn't a catamaran,  it was a trimaran, but the title flows better with a cat. In my defense I thought it was a cat at first!

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Begin with a waterfall and end with a waterfall

Waterfall to waterfall. We began our day at the waterfall of Emerald Pool and we ended with the double waterfalls of Trafalgar. Both of these falls are very popular destinations for the cruise ships crowds, but we timed it perfectly.  We were at the Emerald Pool before the crowds arrived and we hit Trafalgar after they had returned to the ship. Both areas were empty which made them oh so much more enjoyable.





The left hand falls of Trafalgar