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.