It has been an exciting, crazy year…and it is only mid-April. The madness started at the end of 2021, when we made a life-changing, yet impulsive, decision. After being struck by lightning in 2020 and having close calls with hurricanes from 2015 to 2018 aboard ¡Pura Vida!, we decided that we no longer wanted to […]
Posts with the France tag
Going Dutch (and French)
The unusually smooth sail across the infamous Anegada Passage belied the chaos we encountered upon arriving in Simpson Bay, Sint Maarten. We were tired from a sleepless, all-night sail, and just wanted to drop the anchor and rest, but it was the final regatta day, and hundreds of boats, both competitors and spectators, were crisscrossing […]
Champagne Life on a Beer Budget
We learned five dangerous words in St. Lucia: “Put it on our tab!” We said this way too often to the gregarious staff at the swim-up bar at the Capella Resort in Marigot Bay, St. Lucia. No, we were not paying high-end prices per night to stay at this opulent place that boasts of “unparalleled […]
A Beginner’s Guide to French Wine
Over a year ago, when friends, Lauren and Brian made it to Martinique, I found myself drooling over every Facebook and blog post they wrote. We were still in Puerto Rico, with limited options for good wines, bubbles, and fancy food stuff at the grocery stores. I poured over every word, eager for my chance to indulge. When that […]
The Island of Gastronomic Decadence
After a smooth sixty-mile sail from Dominica, we arrived in a modern-day Pompeii of the Caribbean, Saint-Pierre, Martinique. The Saint-Pierre harbor is extremely deep, except right along the shoreline, so we had to get unusually close to the beach to anchor. The harbor is also littered with wrecked ships that burned and sank during the […]
Vive La France!
Saint Martin, French West Indies, is unlike any other island we have visited up to now in our travels. The island is not large, but it is half French and half Dutch. We arrived on the French side just after dawn, and were treated to a dazzling sunrise with birds singing in our rigging as […]