Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
As we start writing this, it is definitely not beginning to
feel a lot like Christmas here.
Milvina is anchored in about 2 meters of aqua coloured water in Aruba.
Neil is off taking a kitesurfing lesson while I am doing the
pre-Christmas thing. Once we leave
here it will be very busy till Derek, Michael and Claire then Becca arrive for
the holidays. (We were in Cartagena
by the time we finished this)
Neil has to return to Canada in December for another
injection into his eye. It is big
on the ugh factor but it does not hurt
at all and luckily the treatment for his central retinal vein obstruction is
working and he is keeping his eye sight in his left eye.
We started 2018 in St Lucia and spent the first few months of
the year cruising the South East Caribbean islands.
Watson and Wiz Leslie, roommates from 50 years ago, joined us
for a couple of weeks fun. The
photo shows the Rodney Bay anchorage from one of the many delightful restaurants
in the area.
Relics abound of the colonial days when Brits, French, Dutch
and others cruised the region in wooden ships taking pot-shots at each other.
Some of the old buildings are restored and offer interesting tours.
The forts with heavy guns at the top of cliffs are a testament to the
ingenuity and brutally hard work of the pre Victorian sailors,
Like all the Caribbean islands, Martinique has a turbulent
history. Some irate locals tried to
destroy this statue of Napoleon’s wife, protesting her alleged support for
slavery. They succeeded only
in pulling her head off. It has
been preserved as a historical landmark.
The head is reputedly in a government warehouse.
Next island North is Dominica, a former British colony.
It is desperately poor, but we found the people welcoming and friendly.
We arrived about 5 months after the island was devastated by hurricane
Maria. Like many yachties, we
helped with reconstruction of a charitable kitchen and other buildings.
Some of the locals have worked hard to rebuild, while a lot just sit
around, effectively living off their hard-working brothers.
Dominica has several beautiful waterfalls, and we visited
some of them, and swam in their pools.
Access to many of the falls requires a hike, and we were impressed a how
hard the locals had worked to rebuild the trails after hurricane Maria downed so
many trees.
There is less visible wildlife on these islands that we have
been used to in Scotland, but lizards abound.
They move like some of the reptiles in Jurassic Park, but are fortunately
much smaller.
We spent a week or so on the main island of Guadeloupe which
was enjoyable, but not so interesting as Martinque.
Azura is a spectacular vessel.
Effectively a five-star hotel afloat.
Although the passenger accommodations are exotic, we sailors were more
impressed by the technical features.
The bridge is like the Starship Enterprise, with fingertip controls for
handling the huge ship. Like other
cruise ships, passenger desires dictate that they sail to ports built for the
much smaller ships of yesteryear, so manoeuvring into the dock is often a
challenge. Azura’s bridge is 50
metres wide. The photo looking
across it cannot show it all, because it is along, graceful curve.
Antigua is much drier than the islands to the South that we
had been visiting, so it lacks the lush jungle greenery and spectacular
waterfalls. On the other
hand, hiking is more pleasant in the low humidity, so we covered a lot more
ground on foot.
The annual Classic Yacht week in Antigua was in full swing
when we arrived, so there were some beautiful old wooden yachts there to
participate in the racing. The
smallest yacht in this picture is about the size of Milvina.
Derek and Neil went diving in the typically clear Caribbean
water. A couple of remora had a
look at us, but kept their distance.
Gary and Leslie Bryan joined us for a few days and introduced
us so some of their very hospitable friends, made when Gary had lived on Antigua
years ago.
The roof beams are still showing in this picture because the
eruption generates a pyroclastic flow of steam, dust, sand and rocks, which was
not as hot as lava. The flow was
faster than lava flows we have seen on TV,
but not hot enough to catch fire.
Most of the population left their island but about 5000 remain, living in
the undamaged north end by agriculture and tourism
When we sailed back to Antigua, we learned that we had not
complied exactly with the ambiguous instructions on the new on-line system for
clearing out. This resulted in
being summoned to the capital for an idiotic 2-hour tongue lashing by the
assistant director of the immigration department, who suffers from verbal
diarrhea. It was a waste of a
morning, but Helen and I burst out laughing as soon as we got out of sight of
his office.
After Derek left, Heather Tyler joined us for the 500 mile
voyage across the Caribbean to Bonaire. With
a strong fair wind we had a fast and uneventful trip.
The island is a pleasant semi-independent part of Holland, with stunning diving and snorkeling conditions. Anchoring is prohibited, to protect the coral, so we picked up a mooring in 10 feet of water on the coastal shelf, with our
The locals enjoy festivals, and we were lucky enough to be
there at the right time for the one in the village of Rincon.
Like may boats in Bonaire we were head for Curacao, a days
sail to the West to lay up for the hurricane season and go home.
Time
seemed fly by as we worked on things around and in the house.
Helen’s Mom has a very nice apartment at the Manoir in Knowlton and
everyone is very helpful and caring.
Frank, her companion for 14 years, died last December at the ripe old age
of 102. Because of the caring of
the staff at the Manoir, he was able to spend his last days in peace with Mom at
his side.
After a couple of weeks at home we became foster parents to a
pair of orphaned baby racoons. They
were lots of fun. Initially they
played with us like puppies, living in a small cage we built, mostly for their
protection from predators at night.
Derek and Becca drove across from Calgary for a visit while
the wee guys were still very friendly and had fun with them.
Michael and Claire came for a week shortly later, so we had a
good time with them too.
After that we headed west to BC to see Michael and Claire who
had moved to Comox on Vancouver Island.
Quite a change from living in Vancouver but they love it.
They have bought a 26 foot sail boat and Neil was able to help Michael
with an engine problem it had – it felt right at home digging into the engine
compartment!
Claire’s parents had invited us to use their ski chalet at
Mount Washington. The hill must get
masses of snow in winter as entry is on the second floor and they tell us in
winter you want straight in the snow is so high.
There are great walking paths in the valley floor – the swamps areas have
board walks – great for the environment and for super easy walking!
As summer turned to Fall, the racoons became wilder but still
came along at nights to eat dogfood we put out for them.
Neil
left for Curacao soon after we got back.
He was sweating buckets as he worked in small spaces to get the new
watermaker and refrigeration system in stalled.
A three-week project soon stretched to 5 weeks but he finally got them
done and into the water before I got there.
Helen arrived in Curacao in early November and we launched
Milvina to join the Ocean Cruising Club
OCC) Western Caribbean Rally, better known as the Suzie Too Rally, after the
very competent volunteer organiser Suzanne Chappell on the yacht Suzie Too.
We had a week on Aruba, a day to the west of Curacao, but found it overly
loaded with hotels and jewelry stores and trinket shops catering to cruise
ships.
Early December saw us in Santa Marta in Colombia, which we
found fascinating and enjoyable.
The massive fort of San Philippe has stood guard over the
city for four hundred years.
After Christmas, we plan to sail West to quiet and
undeveloped islands in Columbia then Panama
We want to wish you
all a very merry Christmas and health and happiness in the New Year.
Helen and Neil