So happy to be going home!

May 26, 2009 – St Thomas

We spent our last week in Bequia. The boat was starting to feel a little small, okay, make that WAAAAYYYYYY small. And to say this as nicely as I can – I think that this is an experience only to repeat with people I really know very well and really love very much. It is small space to share with the foibles of people you don’t know very well. The last week is a bit of a blur as I spent a good portion of it with high levels of anxiety, ready to be off the boat and ready for it to just be Ryan and me again.

The last week almost was spent in Bequia as it quickly came to pass that our only option for rejoining St. Thomas to catch our flight home was to take multiple puddle jumpers starting in St. Vincent (immediately north of Bequia). I was happy to stop with all the crossings - I do get seasick and without bonine, open water is just no fun.

Bequia was a lovely little island – I could actually see going back there for a little dive vacation. We did very little diving – only 2 dives, but they were positively gorgeous. Their reef is very healthy and we got treated to some nice creatures – a group of 9 juvenile drums, the Flamingo Tongue bush that Ryan found – it was the bush from whence all Flamingo Tongues sprout, I’m sure – 22 of them in all on the same bush. Both dives were fairly shallow and I practiced my wide-angle shots – I like the effect of the surface in pictures.

Tonight we are back in St. Thomas – were our adventures began. This morning the dinghy dropped us off on Bequian soil at 6:15. We caught the 6:30 ferry for Kingstown, St. Vincent. A cab took us the 5 minute/$40 EC to the airport where we waited for 5 hours. I asked if we could hop the earlier flight (it was 7:39, and I wanted to get on an 8:05 flight) only to be told that I needed to arrive earlier. I told the guy that there was no earlier ferry. So we waited for 5 hours for the flight we were scheduled on. We paid $40 EC each to leave the country. We went through our first security check point and I near died laughing when after taking my bag apart to scan each piece of photo equipment separately the nice lady then got treated to the bag with all of Ryan’s scuba gear. Ryan started explaining what everything was as I’m bent over double trying not to pee myself. We took the first puddle jumper to Barbados.

We got off the plane in Barbados, went through security again, did a lap of the airport, came back to the gate we’d just been through and got back on the same plane we’d just disembarked, hosted by the same stewardess, to continue on to Dominica. On the Dominica leg we were offered drinks and each of us got a juice box. We landed in Dominica, but got to stay on the plane this time while they disembarked the Castries passengers and loaded up a few more passengers. And we were off again to Antigua. Kimberly the stewardess – we’re on a first name basis by now – said to push the button if we wanted to “purchase” cocktails. I pushed my luck and asked for another juice box.

In Antigua, we got off the plane, showed a Liat employee our boarding passes and passports, went through security again (was told to take off my flip flops for the first time and my water bottle that had made it through 2 security checkpoints was confiscated – it’s like the closer you get to American soil, the more security gets stupid). We circled the airport twice looking for food and found two junk food vendors. Having already devoured a tube of Pringles, I was after real food. On lap three, Ryan found a “real food” counter and we each got a slice of pizza and some fruit. I’d just gotten about half way through my slice and was handing Ryan the other half that our names were paged to report to the gate.

And it was time to go again. I was randomly selected for a bag check and a very stern woman who took her job entirely way too seriously ordered me to open my bag while she proceeded to take about 5 minutes trying to get latex gloves over extraordinarily long fake finger nails covered in all kinds of intricate swirly designs. She poked around my bag and with a wave of her hand dismissed me. We got on a plane bound for Anguilla. Did the same in Anguilla as we did in Dominica and finally got to St. Thomas as I’m 15 pages away from the end of my book. I’ve been telling Ryan all day that I have more plane time than book left.

As we waited in St. Vincent this morning, the one sparkle in an otherwise dreary prospect of a morning was free wifi! So we did get online and found a hotel in St. Thomas – the Best Western Carib – 200 yards from the airport – walking distance. Not great reviews, but the price was on the lower end, if still way more than either one of us was hoping to spend, and it was walking distance from the airport which meant no mean surprises with cab fares. And the room is way nicer than the reviews announced though the hallways and reception are awful and dingy, so I’m guessing it’s in the process of getting a face lift. It’s a great king size bed, so boy can stay on boy side of bed and quit kicking me all night. I’m going to take two sleeping pills and sleep until my eyes open and then grumble, roll over and sleep some more. Our flight tomorrow is at 2:40, we’ve requested late checkout and 2 minutes later we’ll stroll into the airport and repeat it all over again!

Good night and good luck!

More new islands

Bequia to St. Vincent to Barbados to Dominica to Antigua to Anguilla to St. Thomas. And now we sleep. Well first we eat and then we sleep! And then tomorrow we start all over again.

St. Lucia to Bequia

May 20, 2009 – Leaving St. Lucia

The diving here was superb. Walls and colorful reef structures and lots and lots of fish. Visibility so-so – lots of particles crapping things out.

We did four dives here – two Monday, two Tuesday with a local divemaster named Chester – really nice guy – had been to Monterey, but opted to dive only into the aquarium, so at least he got to see a leopard shark! We saw seahorses on just about every dive.
The last dive we did yesterday had it all – you couldn’t look at a sea fan without finding a ton of flamingo tongues, seahorse, lots of drums, a little jellyfish, a turtle and a cabbage looking nudibranch! No pelagics yet though. Ryan did see a small stingray on one of the Saba dives and we did see quite a few sharks in Saba, come to think of it. I guess I should rephrase that and say what I really mean – no spotted eagle rays yet! Oh, and if Poseidon wants to throw in a couple whales and a whale shark while he’s at it, we won’t complain.

The diving was leisurely – 10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. starts which got us done about 3:00 each day – then about an hour to sort through the dive gear and rinse it – I would do that while Ryan tended to the compressor and started filling tanks. Chester would pick us up at the boat in the morning; we’d load gear and tanks, go do a dive, come back to the boat, change out tanks and go off for dive two. He had a fairly small boat – fiberglass hull with an engine on the back. Good for backwards rolls, a bit tall to heave ho your butt back in. One dive one, I was the last one out and it seemed like everyone was sitting on my side of the boat and I commented that I was afraid it was going to keel over with my heave-ho’s to get in. Nope, but made it super easy to get in. One dive two, I was again the last person out and the load on the boat was evenly spread out and I commented that I liked it better when everyone was sitting on the same side of the boat.

Warren and Mickey’s youngest son Cass arrived on Sunday night. He’s just finished his first year of college and will be here to help them take the boat out of the water in Trinidad in a few weeks.

Monday night the boat battery wasn’t recharging as it’s supposed to. Mickey noticed this when she went to get ice cubes for her cocktail and her ice had melted. Ryan spent some time on the phone with the mechanic in Trinidad then spent a good hour or so in the engine room fixing it.

Yesterday morning, while waiting for Chester, we were boarded by Marine Police. Very cool and laid back – not at all the same experience as getting pulled over by highway patrol. He filled out some paperwork on the boat and on the crew, all smiles. Asked me if I was an American citizen which was odd as he was holding my American passport as he’s asking.

Now we’re off to Bequia where I should have the opportunity a plenty to upload this. Guidebook says that internet is everywhere in Bequia, should even be able to get wifi on the boat.

St. Lucia

May 18, 2009 – St. Lucia

St. Lucia is paradise island. What a contrast after the cosmopolitan feel of Marin. We came down in two stages – not sure why, but it was very leisurely. And quite frankly the open water portion of the trip was hellish, so by the time we were in the lee of the land again I was so grateful to stop. Next crossing – I’m back on the bonine. During our first crossing Ryan told me to be grateful that the roly polies were front to back and not side to side. The meaning of this was completely lost on me until this crossing. Side to side roly polies are a whole new adventure in queasiness.

We spent the first night in Rodney Bay. There’s a large marina there and a bunch of resorts. Again, I did not find it very interesting. Yesterday (Sunday) we sailed down to the Pitons – just about to the south of the island. Thus far every crossing has been motor sailing. Yesterday, for whatever reason, the mood was striking Warren that we should just sail. So we did and it was lovely and peaceful.

Until we hit some gale force wind that pushed the boat sideways so the rails were in the water and everything’s leaning so much that you’re just about standing on the walls. Then it’s a mad dash to get into the boat into the wind, then get some of the sails down – those sails hold so much wind. It happened to me once when I was alone on watch and everyone was sleeping and THANK GOD Mickey was just napping upstairs and it woke her up (probably the being thrown against the back of the seat she was napping on). Suddenly the gale just laid into us and we were on the rails. It probably wouldn’t scare me so much if I really understood the mechanics of this boat – especially the biggy – how much leaning is too much leaning? At which point does the keel not counter?

We are moored between the two Pitons – Gros Piton and Petit Piton and it is heaven. The Pitons are two large hills, mountains – to give you a reference point – Petit Piton makes me think of Half Dome. And Ryan made the comparison to El Capitan. But all of it is lush. We took a walk yesterday and I complained that Ryan was trying to get me all the way to the top of Petit Piton, but it was good to get off the boat and get some exercise. After getting pulled over by the Marine Ranger who wanted to make sure we weren’t trying to avoid him, we tied up dinghy at the dock of a resort built by Hilton. The beach is manmade with pretty palm umbrellas over cushy deck chairs. The rooms are colorful villas snaking up the side of the hill that we walked up.

Martinique

May 16, 2009 – Leaving Martinique for St. Lucia

To say that I didn’t much like Martinique may be unfair, but of all the places we’ve been so far, it’s definitely my least favorite. It was a contrast to all the cute little colorful villages we’ve visited thus far. We anchored off of Marin, all the way at the southern end of the island. It reminded me a bit of the Cote d’Azur (the French Riviera). There were many apartment buildings, many more cars and while it remains rather small, had more of a city feel to it. It is a huge marina, catering very much to yachts. I was also surprised by how very French it is. I expected that since it is a marina, catering to yachts, it would have a greater variety of nationalities.

What it did have was a café/bar right next to the dinghy dock that had free wifi (well free with a cup of coffee and a croissant). So Ryan, Warren and I spent a few hours there both mornings reconnecting with the world. Ryan and I are realizing how much we depend on the internet for quick access to any information. We’ll be watching a movie and want access to IMDB (that’s what we do at home – it’s why it takes us so damn long to get through a movie).

I finished Angels & Demons last night. I enjoyed it the most of his books (though haven’t read his first one yet). I think I’ve made amply known my feelings about DaVinci Code (ahem, bullshit)! But this one was good. Though I suspect that part of my enjoyment of it came from my lack of knowledge of Illuminati and Vatican history. I did go to wiki Illuminati the other morning while we were on the internet and after reading the first sentence it became very clear to me that I needed to stop reading if I was going to enjoy the rest of the book. He takes HUGE liberties with history. Yes, I did feel that Langdon’s superhuman survival of what? 3 or was it 4 death experiences was a little over the top, but I suspended my disbelief and let it go.

But back to Martinique…

And the diving SUCKED! It became so apparent why marine reserves and conservation and strict fishing laws are so important. While Ryan and I whine about having to pay to dive in places like Saba and Dominica and St. Lucia, I’ll happily pay if it means that some sort of guidelines are in place to conserve the reef structures. I’m not sure that one really needs to have something to do with the other, but certainly Martinique is a prime example of what a mistreated reef looks like. It made me sad more than anything. You can tell that the reef was working hard to have a chance but was just being pushed back by human stupidity.

And fishing. We did a dive yesterday and we saw a fishing trap right there plopped on top of a reef – fuck the coral and sponges that were sitting underneath. Martinique has apparently had a few world wars between divers and fishermen and what we’re seeing is the compromise, I guess. I understand that fishing is an important part of the economy in societies that make their living off the land and sea, but surely there are ways to regulate it so that it is minimally invasive to the reef. And that really didn’t seem to be the case here. We’d read in the guidebook to be aware not to start the third world war and leave any fishing equipment alone, but really I just wanted to move that damned thing onto sand.

Oh, we saw a dead sea turtle at the surface - we approached it thinking it was a mooring, stared at it for a while then it came to me what it was - headless, legless, but very much a sea turtle. From the looks of it, whether it died of natural causes or not, it had had a good long life.

And now we’re off again – en route to St. Lucia.

May 13, 2009 – Open Water

It’s 4:30 in the a.m. and I’ve been up for an hour and a half.  I thought that this silly getting up at strange hours was going to kill me.  I’m such a big baby when it comes to sleep.  But I’ve found that my sleep schedule is so completely messed up anyways that getting up in the middle of the night after only a couple hours of sleep isn’t so bad.  Can’t be too tired.  Didn’t do anything yesterday but read 300 pages of Angels and Demons.  I don’t like the sailing days too much for that reason.  We don’t do anything except watch the ocean, watch for dolphins or whales and read.  Nothing to expend any energy really.  Haven’t tried running laps around deck yet, but I’m pretty sure that would be a good way to test out our new “man overboard” system.

So we’re off to the south end of Martinique.  Not sure why we didn’t dive Dominica, but that’s what happened, and we’re off.  Diving’s free in Martinique and apparently there’s three dive sites in the immediate anchorage area where we’re going.  This will make Ryan and me happy.

I’m not sure how Warren just gets up at these crazy times, but for Ryan and me the sound of the bugle is unmistakable – it’s the thunderous coughing of the diesel engine starting up.  Then it’s up and get about 45 minutes of actual work – get the sails ready, pull the anchor and stow the anchor, pull and stow the fire hose we use to clean the anchor, chart the course on the old trusty nav system.  Then one man takes watch while the other three wait.  And that is how I’m coming dangerously close to running out of books to read well before this trip is over.

When we’re stationary there always seems to be something to do.  There’s always something to fix or a deck to clean or a meal to be fixed or dishes to be done or diving to go dive or a cute little village to go explore.  But the sailing/motoring is freakishly boring.  Until the dolphins come.  Then it’s a couple minutes worth of hoopla – everyone running to the bow – yay dolphins.  And then it’s boring again.

I don’t remember if I mentioned, but the first night Ryan and I did first watch – that’s the night that I was sick – oh and my sea legs have grown in nicely by the way – completely off the bonine now.  Anyways, the first night we saw a strange light ahead in the distance – so far away that it wasn’t making a bleep on our radar.  It was a cruiseship and it was more than 20 miles away and there it was like a beacon in the distance, lighting up its path.  We saw one in Roseau yesterday and it’s no surprise you can see those things miles away – they’re larger than a football stadium.

Pulling into Les Saintes we also had lots of boats and windsurfers around, so that made watch a little bit more interesting.  Otherwise it’s sit and watch the horizon.  Sit and watch the radar. Sit and watch the nav puper and make sure you’re on track.  Push buttons on the auto pilot system if you’re going off track.  Sit and watch the horizon some more.   Lather, rinse, repeat. I’m not minimizing the importance of the job, I’m just commenting that it’s freakishly boring. And the thing is that you don’t want it to get exciting.  If it gets exciting, you’ve fucked up something fierce.  Or whales have appeared and that hasn’t happened yet either.

Sailing days are good days to work on the tan.  I like to lie out on the “roof” of the navigation cabin near the hatch so I can still chat with Ryan.  I’ll take my book up there.  Ryan makes fun of me because the sailing lingo hasn’t sunk in with me yet.  I’m still more of “heh, there’s a piece of rope, pull on it.”  Hey at least I’m onto starboard and port and I know whether to increase or decrease the numbers on the compass depending on which way I want to go.

May 12, 2009 – Roseau, Dominica

Twice now we’ve seen dolphins.  The first time I completely forgot to write about it.  Not sure why, it is one of my biggest thrills.  And today again.  They didn’t stick around long, but they’re so fun to look at.

May 11, 2009 – Iles des Saintes

As you can see, bacon goodly distracted me!  Dishes followed bacon and scrubbing the starboard side of the hull followed dishes.  Mickey and Warren had already scrubbed the port side while Ryan was lazing around watching X Men and I was lazing around writing.

Then it was time for some diving.  We decided to explore a different area that had been recommended for diving – Pain de Sucre, a little lumpy bit that sticks out of Terre du Haut. The challenge was anchoring the dinghy.  There was a bit of a current and I couldn’t find a good spot to anchor.  It was arbitrarily decided by the fact that I can’t drive the dinghy in a straight line that I would be the one bopping like a cork looking for anchorage, and I was pooped before we even started the dive!  We finally got the thing anchored – it was less than ideal in that we were really close to reef structure, but we gave it plenty of rope and I took care to make certain that no part of our chain was anywhere near delicate organisms.  Still wasn’t thrilled with it though.  The dive was really really pretty – tons of sponges and corals over a reef made up of boulders.  And again it was teeming with fish – a bit like diving in a fish bowl.  Saw quite a few champagne bottles that had obviously been tossed of ships after a bit too much celebrating. The current made it a bit difficult to take pictures, but right at the end of the dive Ryan did find s a good looking scorpionfish to take pictures of while we waited out our safety stop.

The afternoon brought another dive to Squid City across the way on Ile de Cabrit.  We took Mickey and Warren with us and they snorkeled while we went looking for squid.  As beautiful as the coral reefs are, I have almost more fun sitting in the sand for minutes on end waiting for a jawfish to pop out of his hole so I can snap his picture.  We had a great little dive doing just that.  Ryan has a new goal in life – to photograph up close a garden eel – they’re very skiddish and duck their heads back in the sand everytime he exhales, so really hard to get close!  We’ll let you know his progress as he works on growing a set of gills.

Towards the end of the dive, Ryan made a new friend with a little eel who would not leave him alone.  He looks a bit like a sharptail eel, but is not (Ryan argues with me that it’s same same, but it’s not).  I’ll post a picture and if any of you would care to look it up in your Humann book for us, I’d greatly appreciate it.  Then he dove into the sand and wiggled his body all the way in and he was gone.

We returned to the boat, washed dive gear and went into town to throw out the garbage and get ice cream – bless the ice cream shop for being open on Sundays.  They have a passion fruit sorbet that is exquisite – just like biting into the fruit – love it! And I picked up some chocolate cake for desert. 

While Mickey and Warren prepped us another great dinner of rib-eye on the barbie accompanied by a bunch of different veggie sides (the relish of red pepper, jalapeno and onion was my favorite), Ryan and I filled tanks and put away dive gear.

All in all quite a busy day for what was supposed to be a lazy Sunday day of rest!  Today we’re off to Dominica where the diving is supposedly spectacular.  Or, let me rephrase, it’s the latest Caribbean hotspot for diving.  It’s only 20 miles if I remember correctly, so will by far be the shortest crossing we’ve had so far and the easiest if Poseidon agrees. 

First we have to go into town and check in and check out with the “gendarmerie” at the “Mairie.”  And I’m hoping to pick up some fresh baked croissants and “pains au chocolat” for breakfast.  And of course, can’t leave the island without another delicious baguette.

May 11, 2009 – Portsmouth, Dominica

The people of Dominica are lovely, welcoming and eager to talk about their island.  It is splendid, lush and has quite a history.  And a few amusing tidbits of local color…

What I learned today:

A mountain chicken is a very large frog and Domincans eat the legs (they taste just like chicken).  Ryan first told me this and I thought he was pulling my leg, much like when he first told me about turducken and I thought he was just trying to see how gullible I was.  So I had to check with Alexis, our tour guide who took us up the river that was in Pirates of the Caribbean.

When you catch a mountain chicken, don’t hold it close to your face or it’ll pee in your eye and it hurts like hell when it pees in your eye.

Domincans will eat just about anything.  If they can catch it, they’ll eat it.  And most of it taste just like chicken unless it’s wild pig in which case it tastes like old gamey bacon.

The Portsmouth coastline is speckled with wrecks, the victims of past hurricanes.  There was one that was particularly interesting (or maybe amusing is a better word) – it was a pleasure vessel, much like the one we’re on, but motorized.  The crew left to go party at Big Papa’s forgetting to turn off the stove.  Hours into their partying, flames engulfed their vessel which they promptly abandoned in Portsmouth Anchorage.  Some years later, a hurricane came by, picked it up and plopped it on the beach.  Another big ass boat just about blocks the mouth to the Indian River. 

Dominica exports much of the fruit consumed on other islands and exports its bananas as far as the UK.

A banana plant has a life cycle of 9 months during which time it matures, grows naners and dies.  Still not altogether buying that one.

May 10, 2009 – Morning – Iles des Saintes

It’s been a few days since I’ve written.  Let’s see: we’ve been from Montserrat to Deshaies, Guadaloupe (overnighted there and never went to shore); then we continued on to Iles des Saintes where we’ve been since Friday afternoon.

Yesterday we did a complete clean of the boat – inside and out – scrubbed the decks, took out the rust stains, got rid of the salt, did laundry, cleaned the heads and the rest of the inner guts. 

We are in an anchorage off of Terre du Haut, just outside Bourg des Saintes.  It is a cute little village with lots of colorful structures.  A combination of French and Caribbean influences.  The church is the focal point of the village; the town hall, “Mairie” is a bright yellow house sporting the regular accoutrements of French flags and and seals sporting “Libertee” “Egalitee” “Fraternitee.”  Suddenly salivating at the prospect of some fine French tasty treats, we went in search of supermarkets and bakeries.  While we did restock our dwindling chocolate supply and find an excellent ice cream shop, my dreams of pates and desserts and yogurts of the old country have been pretty much shattered – staying optimistic that we might fare a bit better on the larger island of Martinique.

There is diving around, so Ryan and I went exploring.  Our map indicated that one could do a dive to about 60 feet off of a buoy between our port and the little Ile de Cabrit across from us. We dinghied out there, but neither of us were feeling quite right about it as it seemed more to us to be a channel marker than a buoy set up for mooring and diving.  On top of that, it’s in a fairly busy boat channel and I wasn’t feeling too froggy about coming up in the middle of a boat channel in the event we lost the mooring line.

We continued on to the Ile de Cabrit and found ourselves a perfect little area to dive.  Actually, it was more of a snorkeling sight as 15 feet was the deepest we got on the little reef structure we poked around on for a good chunk of time.  It was teeming with life though and the biggest treat of all was a school of market squid.  They were so cute and little and sparkly with their little ruffly skirts.  And then they inked themselves!  (The irony of it was that as I was setting up my camera, Ryan asked me if I was going macro and I said “No because we’re going to see squid.”)  When we got back to the dinghy I told Ryan I was never eating calamari again.  What was Warren making for dinner? Gumbo with sausage, shrimp and squid! Squid friend not food!

Oh, we saw TONS of garden eels too sticking their little heads out of the sand.  They’re skiddish though so getting any pics of them is right near impossible. 

We left our little reef and ventured into deeper waters (a whopping 30ish feet) and found a fish jail.  I say it was a lobster trap, Ryan says it’s a fish trap.  Either way, it was obviously lost, abandoned, but it was full of fish who had found their way in, but couldn’t find their way out.  I handed Ryan my sea snips, expecting him to cut through chicken wire with them to free the fish.  He was able to make a small gap in a spot where the chicken wire had be patched with fishing line, but the hole wasn’t very big and fish are dumber than all the sand in the ocean, so freeing them was a challenge.  I tried lifting the trap so the opening was at the top.  We tried each going to the opposite sides of the hole to scare them into the direction of the hole.  But as I said they’re dumb!  After some time Ryan wrote to me that they’d figure it out eventually. Still not sure if he really believes that or was just humoring me.  I want to go back today with a set of wire cutters so we can make a proper exit hole.  There were a couple parrot fish in there that were looking a bit pale like they were on their way out.  There was also a puffer fish and a couple trunk fish.

Now I have a bone to pick with Ikelite!  I was setting up my rig yesterday and the exact same thing that happened to one of my strobes in the Philippines happened yesterday.  The stupid piece that holds the battery to the strobe is broken.  And I don’t even know when it broke – probably when I took the strobe off because it was already in the bottom of the suitcase when I noticed yesterday that the strobe wouldn’t go back on.  I suspect that it was already stressed when I took the battery pack off and just fell without any indication of breaking.  Now the question is: how am I going to get Ikelite to fix it before we go to Thailand!  Guess I’ll have to email Mike and see how he can help.  But I’m pissed because yet again, I can’t take full advantage of the practice time that I have.  Damn their black hearts!  And I can’t even blame it on German engineering!

I smell BACON!!!!

May 6, 2009 – Nevis to Montserrat

We were aiming for Deshaies, Guadalupe and missed!  Seas were bad, we were slow and Warren didn’t want to get to Deshaies in the dark so we went to plan B and stopped in Montserrat. 

The south side of Montserrat is completely off limits – there’s a two-mile maritime exclusion zone around the southern end of the island due to volcanic activity from Galway’s Souffriere volcano.  Plymouth, the old capital, is in ruins and they are building a new capital at Little Bay where we are currently anchored off of Rendezvous Bluff.

Warren dinghied into port to clear customs and give the island its fee.  Ryan and I went diving. We were both getting itchy being surrounded by water and not diving.  While the Cruising Guide to the Leeward Islands does tell us that there are some hotspots for diving in Montserrat, it does not tell us where those hotspots are.  So we donned gear and giant-strided it off the boat, took a bearing to Rendezvous Bluff wall and started swimming.  Mostly it was muck diving – not much to see though we did find a couple very small eels and a flamingo tongue type thing.  The flamingo tongue was completely out of his element and quite suicidal – nothing within a nautical mile to camouflage him.  He took a wrong turn off a reef somewhere and hasn’t found his way back.

I made burritos for lunch and we went diving again and I spent the next 75 minutes regretting my burrito.  First 47 minutes of the dive I was bored off my gourd.  It was hairy rock upon hairy rock.  Lots of little fish though, but they won’t sit still long enough for a picture and I was sporting a macro lens.  Then Ryan’s keen eye found a shy sharptail eel (see pics, or google it). After trying to photograph him I stumbled upon an octopus, then Ryan found his buddy and I spent the next thirty minutes hopping between the two taking pics of octopus eyeballs.  Some of them quite nice, see pics!

Waiting on dinner – chicken friend pork with smashers and peas – a real diver’s dinner!  Ryan and I will find another movie to fall asleep to as we finally finished Sum of All Fears on night 3.

Plan was to spend the night in Montserrat and keep going tomorrow, but we all need a full night of sleep and Warren and Mickey want to see what conditions look like in daylight before we take off.  Determination will be made in the morning whether we end up in Deshaies tomorrow or stay here.  If we stay, Ryan and I need to find something more colorful to dive.

May 5, 2009 – Saba to Nevis

The engine started early.  Ryan must’ve gotten up and I lazed until 5:30 only to get out of bed and stumble upstairs to collapse on the seats upstairs and nap until 8:30 when Ryan woke me up by opening the fridge to the avalanche of clanging soda cans.  He was tired so I made breakfast and relieved him of watch.  We rolled into Nevis about 2:00 after a slow crossing. The seas were roly poly, wind in our face mostly.  

We dinghied into Charlestown, capital of independent Nevis and walked around and found the internet.  Mostly struck by how dirty it was – trash everywhere.  Oh and I proclaimed Nevis Land of the Chicken.  There are chickens everywhere and we even saw a mama chicken with 12 little chicks in tow.

May 4, 2009 – Saba

Diving Saba really is quite spectacular.  We did another two dives today and both were just world class diving.  First dive to a site called Shark Shoal, so named because fisherman used to go out there to shark fish. Deep deep dive down to 120 some odd feet.  Just about “landed” on a turtle, so not a bad way to start off this dive.  Could have used a bit more bottom time.  Treated also to Black Tipped Reef Sharks circling around.  Ryan got some nice video of those.

Again, the topography was just stunning with massive barrel sponges – one of which had been “slid” on by a stupid diver – thought he could hover over it while his buddy took his picture, but unfortunately for the sponge his buoyancy control just wasn’t that good and he landed butt first on the sponge and slid down it.

Seas were rough and I was first off the boat, volunteering to be their current tester just to get off the damned boat. 

Surface interval again in Fort Bay, during which time the seas actually did calm down a bit making our ride over to Man O War Shoal a bit smoother.  Man O War Shoal was named during pirate times.  It sits between Diamond Rock and the end of the island and is a very shallow area.  When attacking vessels would come a calling, the Saba-ians (???) would try to lure them through this area so they would scrape out their bottoms. 

Warren and Mickey went into Fort Bay to access the internet to get conditions report for our trip to Nevis as it was time to bid Saba fairwell and continue south.  We were planning an early departure and 46 miles to Nevis.   Early dinner of chicken cordon bleu and Ryan and I watched our second installment of Sum of All Fears.

St. Thomas to Saba

May 3, 2009 – Saba

First day of diving.  We’d stopped off at the two dive shops to get rates and see if they’d pick us up at the boat and settled on Saba Deep – staff seemed much friendlier and they were willing to pick up at the boat.  For us it’s easier – it’s one transfer of gear as opposed to three (from boat to dinghy to shore to boat) and quite frankly I’m perfectly happy to reduce the number of chances I have to drop my very expensive camera rig into the ocean.

Our first dive was to a series of pinnacles west of Saba and just west of our mooring.  The crew settled on Third Encounter, a site that goes down to 100ft, circles a pinnacle.  It was a little lackluster, though we did see a nice little nurse shark hanging out at the edge of the reef and our ascent and safety stop were accompanied by a very decent sized barracuda who came right up to Ryan and I and yawned and both of us missed the photo op!

After a surface interval at Fort Bay, we headed out for dive two.  Much back and forth between Mike and Bob with respect to dive site selection.  Where do you wanna go? I don’t know, where do you wanna go?  What do you think?  This went on for quite some time until they finally decided on a site fairly close to Fort Bay.  But the current was ripping, and with seven divers, both dive masters were going out so no one to be on boat and follow bubbles.  This lead us right back to square one and another series of “Where do you wanna go?” “I dunno, where do you wanna go?”  The final decision was Diamond Rock (Saba’s Bird Poop Rock) which I’d been eyeballing since we arrived sure that it would be fun to circumvent that thing on Scuba.  After the first dive I was really rather Meh on Saba.  It was okay, viz wasn’t great (not that good viz means great dive – heck we’re used to Monterey where you can have a fantastic dive in 15 foot viz so long as a harbor seal comes to say hi), but the life wasn’t anything super special and the reef formation wasn’t either.  But this dive was fantastic.  Beautiful reef structure, lots of sponges and corals and some cool critters to look at.  I did get an elusive glimpse of a turtle. Ryan got some pics of a squirrely drum.  And some nice eels came out to say hi as well.

I was able to finally get my camera wet again (with memory stick inserted this time).  Here beginneth the learning curve of underwater digital SLR photography.  Hoping to get lots of practice in the coming weeks.

Dinner tonight will be another feast – a combined effort.  Salmon on the Barbie, creamy polenta and sautéed spinach.  Tarte aux pommes for desert.

Fell asleep to Sum of All Fears.

May 2, 2009 – Saba

Our arrival into Saba came around 12:30 (lunchtime 12:30).  Approaching the mooring area, we took down the sails and motored our way to the anchorage. 

Saba is a rock sticking straight out of the Caribbean Sea.  It is vertical up.  It is not a gentle slope.  From our vantage point about 200 yards from shore, I can turn to the right and see to one end of the island and I can turn to the left and see clear to the other end of the island. Indeed, it is 5 square miles with an elevation of 3000 ft – no diving and hiking! 

We are moored on the leeward side.  There is quite a bit of water movement, so the boat is rocking from side to side, lulling us, but the view is quite spectacular.  Our other option would be right out of Fort Bay, the town on the southern side, but it is quite noisy down there.  But at least we’ve stopped and I don’t feel like I’m gonna be ill any more.

Warren, Mickey and I dinghyed into Fort Bay to go give our howdies to the local authorities. Fort Bay is two bars, two dives shops, marine park offices, a generator (responsible for all the noise) and the harbor master.  We visited five of the seven. 

You can’t dive Saba without a local guide.  That’s the rule.  What I’d like to know is what the penalty is for breaking the rule, because quite frankly, the rule sucks.  We’re moored, there’s no current to speak of and there’s a dive site right underneath our keel and they’re telling Ryan and I we can’t go down there and take a looksy?  Crap!

The rest of the afternoon gave way to idleness.  I fell asleep on deck in my book. Ryan read indoors.  All the while Mickey and Warren went back into Fort Bay to book our diving.

Dinner was at 7:00.  Bavellini Bolognese.  I made the Bolognese and it was excellent.  Early to bed until I awoke at 3:00 in the morning and started writing.

May 1, 2009 – St. Thomas

The boat was anchored in Yacht Haven Club, a Rodeo Drive-esque , upscale American tourist oriented type place.  It was an outdoor shopping mall sporting your usual high end shopping mall fair – Coach, Tommy Hilfiger, Louis Vuitton, etc.  Obviously designed to appeal to the cruise ship crowd only interested in shopping.  Only difference from home is that here it’s duty free. All of this, of course, set in very much of  a third world type setting – decrepit houses, etc. Warren and Mickey told us that it was by far the fanciest place they’d anchored and warned us not to get used to it.  That was just fine by me.  And for those of you who know Ryan, I’m sure you can see he’s not the Louis Vuitton type.

Having shopped at Cost U Less, Costco’s Caribbean cousin on Thursday to stock up on vitals, Mickey and I spent the majority of the morning organizing the galley and wrapping veggies so as to maximize their shelf life.  My dreams of a big spacious, cabinet filled kitchen are obviously not met in the galley even of an 80 footer.  We then secured the boat in preparation for our sail, which includes making sure all the port holes are locked, “nailing” down just about everything that can be “nailed” down.  As I discovered later, shit goes flying!

In the meantime, Ryan was like a pig in a pigsty, having been assigned the tasks of changing out one of the fuel filters and running the compressor to fill the banks.  We have four 50 liter banks from which to fill the tanks before running the compressors again.  I have yet to find out what that converts to in cubic feet, but they’re big-ass tanks, as vague of a description as that might be.   I think that we need to start getting used to meters and liters anyway.  Ryan was always jealous that I’d gotten to play with all this working at DD’s and I have to say that I was a little jealous of him today.

We’d aimed to set sail around 2:00, but when we went to check out at 1:30 we found that customs was closed and wouldn’t be back until 3:00.  At each port we have to tell customs where we came from, how long we’re staying and where we’re going next.  Some of the islands are a little more laid back than others. St. Thomas being a U.S. territory is under the jurisdiction of Homeland Security so obviously not the most laid back of the lot.  Saba was a bit of a different story.  So we waited for Homeland Security over some sandwiches at a Yacht Club restaurant.

And then we set sail.  Again Ryan gets to have all the fun as he navigated this behemoth out of port and into open sea.  We were on our way at 4:30.  Navigation is made easier by this great little computer program Warren has which allows you to plot your trip with a very simple click and drag type application.  The app plugs into your gps.  You plot your trip and a little boat icon follow your path on the screen, telling you were you are, if you’re on course, etc.  You can then make adjustments based on where your icon is.  Once we were clear of St. Thomas, we put up the sails and switched to auto pilot.  After that the watch began.  On watch your job is to keep an eye for anything you might run into.  Radar helps you with this.  You also need to keep an eye on your trajectory to make sure you’re staying on course – there are no street signs and yellow lines to let you know you’re going in the right direction.

While Ryan and I took first watch which would go until 1:00 a.m. Warren cooked us up a fantastic shrimp stir fry with a coconut milk sauce thing which was delicious and we ate ravenously.  At 8:00 Warren and Mickey were in bed and Ryan and I were left to our own devices.  For me, at about 9:30 nausea set in.  I don’t know if it was the amount the boat was pitching or the fact that in the pitch black of night it’s hard to make out the horizon to keep your eye on a fixed stationary point, but I found that the minute I got up from my corner couch to sit in the captain’s chair or walk around life sucked.  So I let Ryan watch out for obstacles and curled up in my corner couch with my laptop watching season five of Alias. 

Incidentally, the only “obstacle” that made a bleep on our radar all night was a cruise ship that we could see from some 20 miles away.  Eventually it did get within 6 miles or so of us, at which point it did start to look a little more distinctly like a cruise ship.

At around 11:00 I threw up for the first time.  Shortly followed by my discovery that shit goes flying as I opened the “bar” fridge for a soda, they all went flying out and it was a fight with gravity to push them all back in and close the door.  At midnight I threw up again.  Shortly followed by my discovery that my perspective on life was really much better from a laying down position than a sitting up position.  So at 12:30, having heard that Warren was up and mucking around in the engine room, I begged off to sleep and must have fallen asleep rather quickly as it was a huge surprise to reach over and feel a Ryan lump next to me when I woke up certain that he’d decided to stay up and hang with Warren.

To say we got any sleep that night would be a gross overstatement.  At what must have been around 8:00 I decided that life was really still much much better laying down than sitting up and asked Ryan to go see about some anti-sea sick drugs for me.  And I must say that the Bonine did help greatly.  Note to self – taking that early and often for our next crossing.  I finally felt brave enough to get up around 9:30 and the next few hours consisted mostly of sitting in the captain’s chair, staring at Saba willing it to get closer quicker.

So for those of you who don't know...Ryan and I are taking time off - let's call it a year.  We're starting our journey in the Caribbean on an 80 foot sail boat - sailing around and diving.  We go back to the Bay area on May 27th and on June 3rd we will leave for phase two of our adventures - Phuket, Thailand.

We arrived red-eye and not thinking quite straight into St. Thomas after completely uneventful flights.  The flight into St Thomas showed us the beautiful turquoise blue of the caribbean and landed us on a runway that extends into the sea - the pilot actually announces that you will not see land until you touch down - presumably so the tourists won't panic and think they're about to crash land.

Warren and Mickey picked us up at the airport and we went off to the boat to deposit our stuff and get the grand tour. We have a very cozy cabin with a big squooshy comfy bed and I think that we shall sleep quite soundly.  The blunt end of the boat is occupied by living quarters - three cabins and a bathroom, the galley, the pilot room and dining/living area.  Outside on deck there is a grill which I'm hoping will the source of most our meals.  The middle part of the boat is occupied by the engine room which houses the engine, the water maker and air conditioner.  Ryan thinks that the engine is "beautiful."  You'll have to take it from him!  Then the pointy end is occupied by all things diving - the very claustrophobic recompression chamber which houses all the dive gear - it makes a great storage locker.  There's also a compressor and about 10 80cf tanks.

Tonight we spend the night in a fancy pants condo belonging to some friends of theirs. I am recharging my camera battery as I type so that I might send some pix along to show you the spectacularly crappy the view is from here.  So, if you want to drop us a line to say "hello" we should have internet access until tomorrow morning.  After that it will be some time before you hear from us again - probably won't be back in an actual port until May 17th.

Tomorrow we will depart for Saba.  It is to be an 18 hour crossing, probably the longest we will do.  We will leave at 2:00 p.m. and go through the night.  Saba has some great diving so the plan is to stay there for a couple days to enjoy said diving.  In the next couple weeks we will also be visiting Dominica and St. Lucia.

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