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 […]
Posts with the Sailing tag
Wai’tukubuli – Tall Is Her Body
How can you not love the original name of Dominica? The Amerindian settlers, who called themselves Kalinago, and were later labeled Caribs by European colonizers, gave the land a name fitting her grand form. She does make quite the first impression! The designation, Dominica, derived from Latin for “Sunday”, the day the Europeans first […]
Karukera — The Island of Beautiful Waters
The forty-two mile sail from Antigua to Guadeloupe was fast and bouncy. The trade winds were steady from the east, but with fluctuating intensity anywhere from the mid-teens to gusting well over thirty knots. The seas were around eight feet and hitting us just forward of broadside. As usual, ¡Pura Vida! loved the high winds […]
Antigua’s Bottom and The Shirley Heights Death March
We thought we were, pretty much, done with Antigua after exploring the north and west coasts of the island over a three week period. We thought wrong. We knew there was much more to enjoy, both in and out of the water, but our goal was to get to the south coast where we could […]
Revelry and Relaxation in Antigua
Our arrival in Antigua (pronounced “an-TEE-ga” – the u is silent) heralded two major events, our first trip back home since departing the mainland almost two years ago, followed by a visit to ¡Pura Vida! by one of our favorite couples. All the excitement aside, we had to prepare to leave our home unattended at […]
The Islands That Brush The Clouds
The plan went to hell as we violently wobbled with the rhythm of a metronome for an entire night at anchor, and our possessions flew from shelves to join a gyrating melee on our salon floor. Upon departing Saint Martin, we had ten days before our scheduled flight out of Antigua to visit the U.S. […]
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 […]
10 Must-Sees and Off-The-Beaten-Path Anchorages in The British Virgin Islands
We like people. Really, we do. We especially enjoy meeting and socializing with other cruisers and island locals, but typically we are happiest when we are able to drop the hook in the more isolated corners of the archipelagos we visit. Seeking this kind of seclusion is what led us to spend months in the […]
Parades in Paradise
Although we are always saddened to miss Mardi Gras in New Orleans, we were excited to arrive in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, a week before their “Mardi Croix” celebration. (“Tuesday Cross”…We are aware that makes no sense.) Finally, after a year and a half of cruising, we could dust off our capes, crowns, glitter, […]
Questioning Everything
Since we sailed away from land-life in August 2015, we have gotten quite a few questions from friends and family. We realized by some of the questions being asked that we were taking a lot for granted about their knowledge of what we do, and how strange our aquatic life may seem to our […]