The Cruise of Alisee III - Emails to Friends and Family
1.
Caws Cruise 1 - Oxford, MA
Caws Cruise 1 - Oxford, MA Dear friends and family,
Now I have only 5 minutes (took me 15 minutes to write the addresses!!) left at this library to let you know that we are still alive and well. After spending a month in Oxford, MD, a beautiful small quaint town, we sailed in a gale to Norfolk, VA. Took us three 10 hours days (nothing like going to Sucia in four hours which used to be a big deal ), we touched bottom three times but never ran aground (yet!!).
Tomorrow we are heading south on the ICW and should be in Beaufort, NC in about 5 days.
Girls are doing fine, Jenny misses her friends a bit and probably her teacher!! Quite challenging to become a second grade teacher after spending 5 years at SFU. Emmanuelle is as happy as can be, talks about her friend Tania everyday...
But we are surviving, all in the same boat. Greg has been working hard commissioning the boat (what a job it is!).
We have been blessed with the weather so far. About five hours of rain in 1 month and a half! I'm still wearing shorts and tee-shirt if you can believe it.
Thank you to all of you who have sent us an e-mail. It is great to know we have wonderful friends back at home. We have not forgotten you.
I'll try to write more regularly now and when the web site is up and running I'll let you know. We are having problems finding a computer that can handle it. Those libraries in the US are useless
!!Love to you all and come visit,
The Caws! :) :) :) :)
PS: graham, could you please send me Phil and Marlene's email please.
2. Caws Cruise II Oxford, MA to St. Augustine, FL
Caws Cruise II Oxford, MA to St. Augustine, FL Dear friends and family,
A little note from St Augustine in Florida. The trip is progressing as planed, the ICW was quite hectic in the South of SC and in Georgia where we had to be on the lookout for shoals all the time I was freaking myself We ran aground only once and two motor boats came to our rescue.
This particular channel at low tide had only ½ foot under our keel
We arrived in Florida in a storm, 30 knots wind and could hardly moor the boat in the slip Greg changed himself to Captain Bligh as he saw his vessel being crushed against the wood pole but we made it; no damages and Greg is back to regular charming Greg
We enjoyed Charleston, SC a lot. I visited a good friend of mine there, we celebrated American Thanksgiving and I did a lot of Xmas shopping. Went to Starbucks everyday to get my fix and boy was it good
We are off tomorrow to Daytona Beach and on Monday we are heading to Disney world for a week. After if we have any money left we will keep on travelling
Yes the US is expensive all the same price but in US dollars so if you get lured to a job in the States beware. We/I do miss Canada and Canadians, you all and my family in Canada and in France as Xmas is around the corner. Having said that, the memories we are collecting are amazing and really worth the efforts.
Many of you have send us e-mail and please do not hesitate. Some of you have asked for an address:
PO Box 24 Wardner, BC V0B 2J0
Just remember though that it is easier for us to get e mail as snail mail goes to Greg's parents first and then sent to us.
With regards to visiting, here's a little update. Claude is coming Dec 21 to Jan 8 and then Lynn and Lauritz should be with us from Jan 15 to Jan 30. We are planning on being in the Bahamas in Feb still. If you want to do some sailing, think about the end of February, we could use an extra hand to take the boat to the BVI.
If you don't get our card before the Holidays, we wish you all the very best,
Love from us all,
The Caws'
PS: please send me a quick e mail (just two words will do, or more of course if you wish) to let me know whether you received this e-mail. Some of you didn't get it last time. Graham, I did add Phil and Marlene. Did they receive this last journal? Who knows what I did? let me know if you see them,
Love to you all,
3.Cath Caws Cruise III St. Augustine, FL to Marsh Harbour, Bahamas
Cath Caws Cruise III St. Augustine, FL to Marsh Harbour, Bahamas Hi everyone,
Here is our latest letter and an article we wrote for the Bluewater Cruising Association. Hope you're all well.
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Dear friends,
Most of you have probably received a Xmas card and some pictures by now and we do hope that you did not feel obliged to write back. As you know space is limited on the boat so e-mail is the best way to stay in touch as long as we can connect. We are currently in Marsh Harbour, Abaco, Bahamas and our friend, Claude, who came to spend Xmas with us left only this afternoon. It has been wonderful having him on board and his sailing experience was a true asset considering the little adventures we've had in the last week.
We spent Xmas in Palm Beach as the north wind would not stop blowing. Finally on December 26th it turned to east and to south/south east on the 27th so that we left the marina at midnight on the 27th. First we had to run about 5 miles of the shallow ICW in pitch black. Claude would be at the bow with the flash light to find the markers, I would navigate and Greg would steer the boat. So far, so good, we made it to the Lake Worth Inlet and entered the Atlantic Ocean. First we had to cross the breaking waves and the pounding of the boat woke the girls up. We moved them to our cabin, they thought it was fun. We never saw the last marker but knew that we were heading the right direction. The depth increased and so did the wind. The 15 knots forecast turned into a 25 to 30 knots wind but thank God it was from the south. The good thing in the dark is that you don't see how big the waves are. Greg and Claude were in heaven. We soon had the main up with two reefs and then the genoa. Soon enough I started getting sick, like real sea sick and just could not lie down to sleep. I became completely useless on the boat and thanked God that we had Claude. Both guys could eat, sleep, drink and every time they came out with yet another sandwich it would make me even sicker! Around 9 am finally we had crossed and entered the Bahamian water. The colour changed from dark blue to turquoise blue, a true marvel. We had another 40 miles before Walker's Cay where we would clear custom. The wind settled a bit and slowly my stomach settled too.
By lunch time I was alright and finally fell asleep. Around 3 pm we could clearly see Walker's Cay island and naively thought we would clear customs soon. Well we had not checked the tide and to our demise we ran hard aground about one mile from our destination. There we were in the middle of the channel and the wind decided to pick up again. Walker's Cay has no tow boat so we had to spend the night and wait for the tide to rise. We managed to settle the boat as the wind gusted to 45 knots. We could feel the hull pounding against the sandy bottom. Around 5.30 pm Claude went: Guys, the dinghy is gone! He quickly stripped and started swimming towards it but the night fell and the current was against him so he swam back as we all watched our brand new inflatable dinghy heading to shore. By that time, I had had it. "Get me back to Vancouver!"
After a troubled night, none of us could sleep really, except for the kids, we managed to slowly make it to Walker's Cay and to our surprise we found our dinghy waiting at the marina for us. The entire marina had followed our adventure and had watched us anchored in the middle of the night. All were worried and quite a few people called us on the VHF. We soon forgot our misfortune and adopted the casual, laid back island way of life. The girls made friends with the other kids and spent their days running around catching lizards and hermit crabs. New Year's Eve party was a blast, we had limbo dancers and fire eaters, music till midnight.
We left Walker's Cay on January first and arrived to Green Turtle Cay on the afternoon of the second. We quickly jumped in the dinghy and went to explore Gillian Bay beach, a beautiful spot with sand bars, turquoise water and soft, white sand. The next day we went for a stroll in the narrow streets of new Plymouth and the girls and I spent the rest of the day at the beach.
We left GTC yesterday to be in Marsh Harbour for Claude's flight. Again as we decided to go the wind decided to tickle us. Actually it is the depth that is the scariest especially when you find yourself in two foot of water in the middle of a channel. Well we are now anchored, all is quite and we are not in a rush, let me tell you
!Hope you had a wonderful holiday. You may want to check our website (aliseeiii@homestead.com), it is not great, just a start but you will find some pictures of our first month on the boat. If it works I will try to post this journal directly in the web site so please go and check it regularly. I will still send you a little up date whenever I can.
Cheers for now,
Catherine
4. BWCA Article Semiahmoo, WA to Marsh Harbour, Bahamas
BWCA Article Semiahmoo, WA to Marsh Harbour, Bahamas Dear fellow cruisers,
Greg, my husband, our two daughters, Emmanuelle (4) and Jennifer (7), and I, Catherine, have started a trip on October 1. Unlike most of our BC friends, we have decided to start on the East coast of the US and therefore we had our Beneteau 43 Sloop trucked by Joule Yacht Transport from Semiahmoo Marina to Oxford, Maryland. We made this decision because it would give us much more time to familiarize ourselves with the boat, keep us close to 'civilization', allow us to visit all the history of the East Coast, have a 'canal' experience, and to psychologically prepare ourselves for going offshore.
We met the boat after spending a few days visiting Washington, DC. All went well with the boat but it took us quite sometime to get everything back on board! We spent a lovely month in Maryland; Oxford being a quaint little historic place where we could relax and enjoy the friendliness of a town nestled amongst corn fields, red and yellow forests. Fall in Maryland is indeed beautiful. Late in October we left the friendly Crockett Bros. Boatyard (a highly recommended place to commission your boat by the way) and headed towards Portsmouth, VA. We sailed down the Chesapeake Bay in 30 to 35 knots wind but since we were running it was fine. We spent Halloween with family in the Norfolk area and went to visit Liza and Andy Copeland in Deltaville.
A week later started our leisurely cruise down the Intracoastal Waterway, our 60 foot mast providing some initial excitement as we passed under our first of many 65 foot bridges. We would average 50 to 60 miles a day and found some lovely places to anchor. Since we were slightly behind the rest of the flock it was never crowded. We enjoyed Beaufort, NC (the home of the Beaufort Scale) and stayed at the city docks. Beaufort is a place not to missed for sure. It also has a very good nautical store right across from the docks (Scuttlebutt's) where we bought all the charts for the rest of our cruise. From there we went to visit Cape Lookout and found beautiful shells. Beaches were pristine there and only inhabited by pelicans. Soon enough we had dolphins following our wake in the ICW and the landscape became more of a southern one with palmetto trees growing wild along the banks of the river and Spanish moss draped from humongous oak trees. We spent another week in Charleston at the City marina (not a good one really, lack of showers and facilities) where Greg took time to install more equipment and I visited a good university friend.
South of Charleston, the Georgia and Florida ICW became more of a hair-raising experience because of its depth (or lack of). We made it to St. Augustine, FL in 5 days though and ran aground only once! A passing 60 HP boat pulled us off. That night we phoned and signed up for BoatUS (think BCAA). Note that south of the Chesapeake our Rogers cell-phone worked fine. As we were cruising south, the weather turned colder as many cold fronts came rushing through the entire southern States. Greg got confused as he thought south meant warmer. We left our boat for a week in Daytona Beach (at the Halifax Harbour Marina, a very good facility) and escaped to Disney world. It was magic for the girls and there we found warm weather. Our last stop on the ICW was West Palm Beach where we waited for a south wind to cross the Gulf Stream. We waited for ten days and on the 27th did the crossing. (Yes, Santa Claus did find our boat).
The Gulf Stream's forecasted 15 knots turned into a 30 knots, south-east, but it was to be expected. We had an old friend, a good sailor too, who did the crossing with us which was good because I (Catherine) became very sea sick despite the precautions I had taken! The girls were fine and slept through it all. In the centre of the stream it was 29.5 Celsius. Having left at midnight, at about 9 am, north of Memory Rock, the depth went from many thousands of feet to about 10, and the bluewater turned turquoise, at last the Bahamas.
After a full day of sailing, in the entrance channel to Walkers Cay we ran hard aground one mile from our destination. We had to spend the night because the channel has extended sand banks which are treacherous. Of course that was the night a full gale showed up with 60 knot gusts. Our 20kg Bruce (that's Mr. Bruce now) held us rock solid mid-channel and we thumped a bit when the tide went low again at 4 in the morning. Many people could see us from the Cay and we received many assurances that aid was just a VHF radio call away. We cleared customs in Walker's Cay on the 29th of December and found our new dingy which had blown away the previous night. The customs officer had spent the previous two Xmas's in Montreal and Toronto. We spent a wonderful New Year's Eve there with a special kids party, limbo dancers and fire eaters, a band and conch fritters and steak and New Years Bubbly! It was a wonderful mixture of black tie, Hawaiian shorts, kids, visitors and locals. We are now anchored with about 37 others in Marsh Harbour, Abaco, after spending a few days in beautiful Green Turtle Cay. The weather here is cold for the season (24 degrees air, 19.5 water (brrr!) and the locals are making snow jokes), the weather changing all the time, winds being unpredictable and you do have to be patient and wait for moderate winds. The biggest fear is the depth, typically 2 to 4 meters MLW with 1 meter tides. Do read your charts and be extra conservative with your route planning. All services and facilities are available here including: FedEx, 7 days a week groceries, haul-out and many chandleries, marinas at 50 cents per foot, Internet at US$20 per hour, phone at US$2.00 per minute, FM news, 8:30am VHF68 weather and cruisers net. Our costs have been about what we would spend in Vancouver given that the states is expensive and we used marinas about half the time.
School is going well with Jennifer's BC correspondence school, now on day 50, . It's challenging being a Mum and the teacher too! Emmanuelle does her 'school', colouring and playing Barbie. Dad fiddles with gadgets and keeps the boat in ship-shape (including the dishes). We haven't run into any BWC cruisers yet but we fly our burgee high. We have met few cruisers with children although all families make a special effort to allow the children to socialize. Visiting friends help provide familiarity and a chance to share our adventure.
We will write more later as we move south. In the mean-time we send greetings to all of you and wish you all the best for the new year.
The Caws'
5. Caws Cruise IV Marsh Harbour, Bahamas to Georgetown, Bahamas
Caws Cruise IV Marsh Harbour, Bahamas to Georgetown, Bahamas Dear friends and family,
While Greg and I were sipping our coffee under a clear, blue sky, we thought we'd update you on our whereabouts.
We've been in the Bahamas for two months now. In Marsh Harbour, Abaco, we waited for Lynn, Lauritz and their 1 1/2 Braden and after all of us got sick from conch salad (!), we headed to Hope Town on Elbow Cay. It was a very short sail there but a tight fit in the channel where we had about 10 inches under the keel at high tide...lovely. Lauritz did a great job at the bow guiding Greg through while Lynn and I prayed in silence. The bay has moorings so we picked one and for 10$ a night we didn't have to worry about the anchor. A pretty good deal, we figured. Hopetown is a lovely, little village with pastel collared homes, millions of cats and curly-tailed lizards. There the beach on the Atlantic coast was beautiful, barren, pristine. We had it practically to ourselves. Jenny had her first experience snorkelling and was quite impressed. I saw three sharks as well, which did not impress me much. I didn't say anything to Lynn! She will know when she reads this letter but now she is safe! We later found out that there were lemon sharks, known to eat French and Canadian women only
We had planned 4 days there but on the day we were about to set to sail to great Guana Cay, the north wind woke up and in the very protective anchorage we had over 30 knots. So we stayed put and enjoyed each other company, cooked great meals and played scrabble! We returned to Marsh Harbour on the 26th of January and spent the night at the Abaco Beach Resort, a great marina with full facilities and great, hot showers. Our friends left the next day and the girls sure missed little Braden.
We prepared our departure from the Abaco and on the Saturday we set sail to Little Harbour. We anchored off Lynyard Cay where we found another great beach littered with shells. We met another Canadian boat that was going to cross to Eleuthera the next day as well. We had a bonfire on the beach and watched the sun set slowly behind the horizon. It was a lovely night. Early the next day we lifted our anchor and set for Royal Island, Eleuthera. We had a great sail with full main and genoa, music in the cockpit, warm wind and sun. Sailing about 5 miles off the coast, we surfed the big Atlantic swells. The colour of the water was a deep, ink-blue and we will remember this forever.
The anchorage off Royal Island was perfect, protected and good holding in sand. We only spent the night there and since the weather was fair we left early the next day to be in Nassau mid-afternoon. We had our best sail yet, in 18 to 20 knots on our beam. Arriving in Nassau in a boat was quite something, from about 6 miles away we could see the giant castle like hotel off Paradise Island, the kids were excited! We called the harbourmaster on 16 and were allowed to proceed in. Nassau is a big city, busy, infested with crawling tourists who have their 4-hour off the cruise ship to explore the straw markets. It was hot and humid to say the least but the two days spent at the Paradise Island Resort that boasts the biggest outdoor aquarium in the world was something out of this world. A particularly stunning feature was the Dig, an underwater site designed with a labyrinth of corridors and rooms that make you feel like Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom. We blew three weeks of our budget in a week in Nassau but it was worth it.
We left Nassau on February 3rd and headed towards Allan's Cay, Exuma. Allan's Cay is famous for its iguanas that live on the beaches, a micro Galapagos. It was just amazing to watch them. The pristine beaches were literally crawling with those prehistoric beasties and the girls had a blast watching them. We had to explain to them that they are not pets and that we do not chase them as they are protected animals. We spent a week in Allan's Cay as the anchorage was superb, the water was warm, aqua blue, sand bars, great diving and so on. There we met Essensia, a family from Michigan with whom we shared meals, afternoons on the beach, diving excursions, and so on. Their water-maker had broken so we would make water for them and in exchange they'd give us delicious grapefruit, lemons and cheese. Our next stop in the Bahamas was Warderick Wells Cay in the middle of the Exuma land and Sea Park. We anchored off Emerald Island and literally thought we were in Paradise. What a site it was, clear water over white sand, tons of pristine beaches, beautiful diving, and so on. Because we were in a Park, no one can remove any thing from the land or the sea, a complete no-take zone. As a consequence the reef is alive, dense with fish, The girls became avid divers there and would spend hours looking for their new discoveries in books. Jenny knows more about reef creature than I ever did...A great learning experience. We loved the place so much that we stayed there until we completely run out of food!
Next we sailed to Staniel Cay where again the diving was great off Thunderball cave, huge cathedral ceilings with rays of light penetrating the water. This underwater cave was named after the James Bond movie filmed in 1964. It was a perfect spot for Emmanuelle to look at fish because there were no current in the cave. In Staniel Cay we met Essensia again and Passages, friends from the ICW. We had our nicest meal with Essensia there: freshly caught lobster, snapper and home-made brownies.
Now we are in Georgetown where we came to meet Michelle, Greg's sister, and Steve. Georgetown is a very busy place, too busy in fact. About 400 boats are anchored off the town! (think trailer-park?!) However there are beautiful places to explore, good hiking on Stocking Island and good diving here and there. Yesterday we rented a 17 foot Boston Whaler and explored various dive sites. The best was the last one, an underwater cave and a blue hole where the fish would swirl around in the current.
What's next? Well, on Thursday Claude is coming back and Greg and he will do an easting: sail out to sea and down to the BVI. As I am not ready to be at sea for 10 days, I am flying to meet them with the girls. I will take advantage of my stay in Miami to buy items that we can't find around here or that are completely over-priced.
Our next hello will be from the Caribbean. Hope all is well with you.
Cheers to all of you. We think of you often and wished we could magically send you the most stunning part of this trip.
Catherine and all.
6.Caws Cruise V Georgetown, Bahamas to St. John, US Virgin Islands
Caws Cruise V Georgetown, Bahamas to St. John, US Virgin Islands Dear friends,
Well the guys made it safely to the BVI. They had fairly good winds, a few gusts to 50 knots and overall a roller coaster ride all the way through. Although I felt like a complete wimp, I was fine on terra firma waiting for them! The girls and I left Georgetown on March 2 after Claude arrived. We left the Bahamas feeling like we were leaving a part of ourselves behind. We had had such a wonderful time in the Exuma! We will not forget the Bahamas as this is also where we met our good friends Jeff, Kelly, Cara and Marc who were travelling on Essensia. As it turned out, Essensia followed Alisée on the way to the BVI and so we all met again in Road Town, Tortola. The girls and I had a fine time in Miami and we stayed in a nice hotel in South Beach. After two months in the Bahamas, we found Miami very crowded and very big as you can imagine. On March 7, we flew to Tortola and waited patiently at Hotel Castle Maria for Greg's arrival. The hotel was far from having the allure of a castle and sleeping was difficult for me with roosters starting their parade each morning at two! I just couldn't wait to return to the boat, our home. Since Greg and Claude had to stop in San Juan, Puerto Rico to change the prop, they arrived two days after their expected date. The girls and I decided to rent a Jeep and during the weekend we explored the many beaches of the island. We particularly enjoyed Long Bay Beach, a mile long white-sand pristine beach where the body surfing was first-class. We spent three days in a row there and the girls managed to meet many kids. They are at a stage now where they can make friends in a flash. The beach is a favourite activity for them. Jennifer is learning to surf, dives very well and has become our expert in tropical fish. Emmanuelle can swim like a fish now, can dive and do the backstroke. Jessica, you would be impressed! With the sand and whatever she can find, Jennifer makes some beautiful sculptures as well, and thus uses her imagination to its fullest. When Greg and Claude arrived in Road Town, we stayed at the Village Cay Marina so we could easily provision and wash the boat, which had salt everywhere. Imagine salt crystals around every single hatch! The routine of the live aboard quickly came back and the girls were delighted to sleep in their bed again. The marina had a swimming pool so after school the girls would run there and spent their afternoon in the water. On March 15, our friend Peter Jarvis arrived with his two children, Sarah and Andrew for spring break. We all settled and each of us found a spot on the boat. I believe we did well, in that heat, 8 of us on the boat! We sailed a lot with Peter starting with Trellis Bay on the east side of Tortola. There we rafted for the night with Essensia and had a fun and late evening. The next morning we all sailed to the Baths, Virgin Gorda. The Baths is a famous spot where huge granite boulders create many grottoes and natural pools. The diving was also good and we saw many stingrays in particular. We all like the Baths and so decided to stay for two nights there. On the Monday, we left the Baths to go to Coopers Island and to dive over the wreck of the Rhone, a ship that sank during a hurricane in the early 19tth century. The next day we sailed to Peter Island and anchored in White Bay. We had to set two anchors as the ground was very marginal. During the night the wind picked up and the next morning the anchorage became quite rolly as the wind came directly into the bay. We took the time to go explore the island a bit though as there was a road that allowed us to walk to the other side. The scenery was spectacular as we hiked up to the top of Peter Island. We came back just before lunch and quickly set off as the wind was really gusting by then. We sailed to Norman island, which is said to be Steveston's Treasure Island. Well we did not find any treasures but the swim and dive at the Bight, a cave near the water edge, was great fun. We did a final trip to the Baths before returning to Road Town on the Friday and Peter left the next day. We spent another two days at the marina and sailed over to St John in the USVI. Most of the island is a park run by the US and we were quite impressed by the cleanliness of the island compared to Tortola. St John also boast some amazing beaches and many bays to moor and the moorings are free, what a treat! We spent two nights in Caneel bay and rented a car for one day to explore the island and go visit the Annaberg Sugar Mill. We moved the boat to Francis Bay on Tuesday and have really enjoyed this anchorage, quiet and beautiful. Today the guys decided to set up the windsurfer and they had a blast racing across the bay. We also spotted three sea turtles around the boat, which was a big, plus for the girls. Tonight we celebrated Claude's birthday and took him out to the Maho campground restaurant, a very fine place. Tomorrow we shall sail to Jost Van Dyke and as soon as possible cross the Anegada Channel to be in St Martin. Within a week or so I should have updated the web site so please go for a visit and leave us a note there. We love to read your comments! Cheers to all of you and have a nice Easter Holiday,
The Caws'
7. Caws Cruise VI - St. John, US Virgin Islands to Dominica
Caws Cruise VI - St. John, US Virgin Islands to Dominica Dear Friends,
Our cruise south goes on as smoothly as could be. We left the Virgin Islands and headed to Anguilla first. Our crossing of the Anegada channel was quite uneventful except for the wind on the nose which obliged us to motor sail to avoid having to spend 5 days tacking hundreds of time
We anchored in Road Bay in Anguilla and enjoyed our stay very much. The girls met local kids on the beach and had a blast. As for us, we relaxed, swam a lot, caught up on e-mail, ate well, read a lot, and so on...the typical hard cruising life...
We left Anguilla to sail south to St Martin and chose to anchor on the French side in Marigot Bay. The anchorage was a bit rolly but close to town. We rented a car in order to explore a bit the island for a day and go visit some friends in Orient Bay. We had a lovely evening at Britta and Stuart and being invited for dinner was such a treat. However we did find St martin too touristy for our liking but the best thing was the provisioning at Match, the food store on the French side...we were like kids in a toy store: camembert's, pâtés, baguettes, fromage blanc....we realised how much we had missed good food! When the boat was full of food it was time to leave! We headed straight to Isle Fourche, a small islet a few miles off St Barth. We loved Isle Fourche for its anchorage, nice water, good hiking and snorkelling. Unfortunately for me, I ran my head in the boom on the second day and could not enjoy any of it. Greg sewed me up with strips ...there was no way he was going to stitch my forehead as I did not feel like looking like Frankenstein for the rest of my life
I was lucky that Greg did an excellent job and 6 days later my cut was healed. We spent about 4 days at Ile Fourche and then sailed down to Gustavia to clear custom in St Barth. Gustavia is the nicest harbour (so far), very clean, very French, very colourful. It boasts excellent restaurants as well and so we indulged to lobster one night since we can't catch any of those beasts! Our evening at the Route des Boucaniers was delightful and our best food out so far.
St Barth offers other nice anchorages and decided to go back north to Anse des Colombiers. However before that we had to sail back to St Marteen (the Dutch side) to get propane as the French islands cannot fill American bottles! What a trip we had. Left at 6 am, sailed to Philipsburg. The guys took over two hours to find propane as the place in town had ran out. They had to take the bus, walk miles and so on...they came back tired, sweaty and ready to leave this dirty city. On the same day we sailed back to Anse des Colombiers and were pleased with our choice of anchorage. It was a lovely bay, a lovely beach for the kids. We swam from the boat to the beach and explored the island a bit thanks to a trail which took us to the other side to another beautiful bay. We just loved St Barth but again we had to leave and go explore more islands. West we went to Statia. We had a beautiful sail on a broad reach with Cap Horn working to its best. Statia was a very quaint little town worth seeing for its beautiful stone buildings and charming inhabitants. However the bay is not well protected and the boat was rocking and rolling like never before...so much that at 11pm Greg decided to set an aft anchor. It helped us a lot to get a bit of sleep but the next day Claude, Greg and I looked like we had partied all night! For this reason we were happy to leave after a nice visit in town. We stopped in St Kitts and stayed one night in the marina (for only 25$, a bargain). The best thing there was free, clean water...the guys and girls decided to do the laundry in the kids dinghy while I went shopping. We also went out for dinner at Totts, a great little pub ran by a young English couple. The food was good and the atmosphere very friendly. The next day Greg and I went to explore the town a bit (Basseterre) and had a lovely time. We found a good bookstore and so could provision for Jenny
!From St Kitts, we headed south with the wind on the nose again, to Nevis. There we anchored by a lovely beach bordered by swaying palm trees. Like often, the beach was only used by us, the girls collected more beautiful shells and we picked up 15 coconuts in the forest. We left Nevis to sail down to Montserrat and there had an interested guided tour of the damages done by the volcanic eruption in 1995. We sailed away on the Sunday early in the morning and arrived later in the afternoon in Deshaies bay, Guadeloupe. Back on French territory, we anchored as close as possible to the bakery! Greg and I celebrated our anniversary with fish, stuffed crabs and bananas flambées and two days later we met my parents at the airport in Pointe à Pitre. The girls were beside themselves with joy when they saw them and hopped in the taxi with them to go to the hotel! While Claude and Greg went to Antigua for Race Week, I stayed at the hotel in St François and enjoyed a week of no cooking, no cold shower, no head bumping
!And here we are now, sitting in a nice anchorage in Dominica. We did a major provisioning in Guadeloupe so we are self-sufficient for at least a month! I hope to put more pictures on the site soon so remember to keep checking, it will go under Caribbean 2.
Cheers to you all,
The Caws' Crew
PS: Happy birthday to Braden Mamen and Erika Taylor and Happy Mother Day to all of our friends who are mothers too.
8. Caws Cruise VII Dominica to Chaguaramas, Trinidad
Caws Cruise VII Dominica to Chaguaramas, Trinidad Dear Friends,
As some of you already know, we have reached our final destination on this cruise, Trinidad. Trinidad is a good place to leave our dear boat Alisée and ensure that she will not fly away to sea or shore in a hurricane! We are below 12 degrees North latitude, the magic number
!When I last wrote, we had arrived in Dominica, the last of the leeward islands. Dominica was a lush island, very green where we enjoyed a beautiful river trip up the Indian River with a very friendly guide, Sam. He took us through a gorgeous tapestry of bright green foliage at a slow pace, in a colorful rowboat. The beaches in Dominica are nothing to speak of so we stayed in Prince Rupert Bay for three days only. On Mother's Day, we sailed south to anchor in Roseau in order to shorten our next crossing. The anchorage however was far from ideal, in 40 feet of water next to a rocky shore. We took the girls to the hotel swimming pool in order to celebrate Mother's Day a bit and Greg cooked a delightful meal for me. We left early the next morning and headed to St Pierre, north of Martinique. The trip was fast as we had 30 knots E/SE wind. Emmanuelle was seasick early but felt better soon.
St Pierre is where in 1902 Mount Pelée erupted, killing the entire 30, 000 inhabitants, except one lucky prisoner, Cyparris, who was locked in a cell made of very thick granite. The old St Pierre was the Paris of the Caribbean at the time, boasting a beautiful theatre amongst other amenities. The new St Pierre was entirely rebuilt on the remaining foundations and believe it or not the volcano is not extinct. It sleeps ironically, towering over the little town. Why did they built at the exact same spot, never ceases to amaze me! The girls were quite impressed by the museum, the old jail, the remnants of the theatre and for the next few days Emmanuelle drew volcanoes after volcanoes erupting in every possible way
Again the anchorage in St Pierre in deep water was not great, quite rolly in fact so we quickly headed south to anchor in Anse St Anne, a nice little town where we found a good patch of sand to hook our Bruce anchor, in only 8 feet of clear water. There we could easily swim to the beach for our daily exercise.
The dinghy dock was in excellent shape and with the girls we enjoyed diving from it. The only drawback in Anse St Anne was the evening party for the senior citizens at the local hotel. All the songs in French reminded me of family weddings only 30 years ago
Poor Claude could hardly bear it, but we can't find peaceful paradise everywhere.
>From Anse St Anne, we could catch a ferry and across the bay we visited Fort de France, probably the nicest capital city in the Windwards. We particularly enjoyed the library building, La Savane Park with its giant coconut palm in the middle. Josephine, Napoleon's wife, was not well liked in Martinique so her statue in the park had its head cut off (not with a guillotine though). I believe the girls must have asked me hundreds of questions about poor Josephine! On May 19th, we sailed south to Rodney Bay, St Lucia and I swear it was our best sail ever. We averaged 7 knots in a 25 to 30 knots E/SE wind and even caught a beautiful tuna just off the coast of Martinique. In Rodney Bay we stayed at the marina to recharge the battery properly and do some business back home. We caught up on e-mail and I managed to add more pics to our web site. The marina had a nice swimming pool so the girls were happy. Being in a marina give them some freedom and so they love it. We went to Radiant beach on the Sunday and had a nice lunch by the pool. By then we were anxious to find more peaceful anchorages similar to the ones we had in the Bahamas so we decided to skip Marigot Bay and Soufrieres. Soufrieres has a bad reputation now and we had just met people who were robbed during the night in Marigot Bay, in their boat while they were sleeping...not a lovely thought. So we sailed south and anchored off Vieux Fort and early the next day we headed south avoiding completely St Vincent. We arrived early in the afternoon in Bequia, which is the most northern island of the Grenadines. Bequia was lovely and we had a great spot right by Princess Margaret Beach, a beach which we basically had to ourselves. What a treat. On one side the girls found some caves where Jennifer could also practise her climbing skills. In Bequia we swam a lot, relaxed, started to leave slowly again. Jenny and I would start school early and finish early so we could fully enjoy the beautiful waters. We had one lunch at the Gingerbread House, one of the restaurants right on the water and there the girls could swim and jump from the dock while Greg and I enjoyed our meal. Next door was the Whalebone restaurant where tables and seats are made of old whale bones, Bequia being a former whaling station. On the 26th, we left Bequia to head to Salt Whistle Cay, on Mayreau Island. We had one squall to 38 knots and Alisée was just flying at 9 knots. The sky quickly cleared up and about half an hour later, a pod of about 30 dolphins came playing around our bow, jumping, flipping and giving us the best show we have ever had so far. The girls were just beside themselves with joy. The dolphins stayed followed us for about 10 minutes and slowly vanished in the deep blue sea. We had lunch at South Glossy Bay in Canouan, anchored in white sand and admired the two colors of blue dividing the shallow from the deep water. For once it was a straight line (see our website). We sailed in the afternoon to Salt Whistle bay on Mayreau Island. Soon after checking our anchor, we swam to shore and enjoyed the quietness of the surroundings, the carved white sandy beach, the swaying palm trees and the warm water. The beautiful sand invited us to build an intricate castle with many tunnels which soon were washed away by the gentle waves. On the 28th, we celebrated my birthday in style. Jennifer declared it was a public holiday so no school (any excuse is good) was done! In the morning we hiked to Saline Bay to explore the little (bare) village and the beautiful bay below. We lingered a bit and had lunch at Paradise Island restaurant. The local beer Hairoun was good. On the way back we stopped at the church, a beautiful wood structure, and went to visit the local school. I offered to donate most of Jenny's school books and the grade 2 teacher eagerly took my offer. Later in the hot afternoon, Jenny and I hiked back to town and felt we had done something real good. For my birthday, Greg had decided to organize dinner on the beach and he prepared the most delightful beach barbecue I ever had. The food was awesome (tuna we had caught earlier) and the scenery was just unbelievable.
The next morning we motored to the Tobago Cays and anchored off Baradal Island in 8 feet of crystal clear water. Finally, now back were we in a Bahamian Paradise, only in the Grenadines! We stayed there as long as we could, swam, windsurfed, even camped on the beach and snorkelled every single day. We loved the Tobago Cays and could have easily stayed a month. Alas we had to leave and so we sailed to Union Island. On the way there we took the time to have a lunch stop on Palm Island following Jennifer's wish. She picked an excellent spot with again an incredible sand strip. We anchored near Clifton Harbour where we were going to clear customs the next day. Clifton harbour is a fair place; the best thing for the kids being the nurse shark tank by the Anchorage Marina
!It was now time to head towards Grenada. We entered by way of Carriacou and cleared in there. We were a bit disappointed at the island, way less quaint than we thought and so we only spent the night and the next morning headed south towards Prickly Bay. We had an excellent sail and again were blessed to have the company of yet another pod of dolphins. We felt so lucky! TogGwen, our French friends, arrived in Prickly Bay a few hours after us and so I swam over to their boat for a chat. They had caught a big tuna which they were cleaning. I invited them for Jennifer's end of school year party and on the Friday we had a great lunch on Alisée. Jenny and I felt so relieved and free to be done with school. It had been a great experience but a struggle at times! I like to be a mom and that's it! Jean-François took us to the airport so we could rent a car and explore Grenada a bit. On the Friday afternoon, we drove towards St George (Grenada capital city) and headed towards the Annandale Falls as we had promised the girls that they could swim in fresh water near waterfalls. The water was not as clean as we had hoped and so Greg and I bailed out! The girls had fun though. We had dinner at Rudolph in St George's and on the way back to the boat, we stopped to listen a steel drum band who was performing at the marina. The girls danced the night away. The next morning we left the boat early for more exploration by car. We started with Grand Anse Bay and had a nice early swim followed by breakfast in town at the Nutmeg restaurant. We strolled in the quaint streets of St George's and did some shopping.
I particularly liked the batik store and although the items were overpriced it was my last chance! We continued our exploration of the rain forest and drove all the way through the Grand Etang Forest Reserve to Grenville on the east coast and then back south to the boat. Around 4 pm, we started to prepare it for the night crossing to Trinidad. We left at 6.30pm, the boat in ship shape, the girls and I properly drugged with Gravol! On my watch from 9 pm to midnight, I admired the moon rise and had time to reflect on the past months. So many wonderful memories were coming back to my mind. Greg relayed me and around 1 am was intercepted and questioned by the Venezuelan Navy over the VHF! We arrived in Chaguaramas, Trinidad around 11 am. The crossing had been great.
We have been here over a week now and Claude left on the 14th. We anchored in the bay until Friday but the water here is not as clear and clean, as on smaller islands and also the millions of cannonball jellyfish (the size of a base ball) do not invite us to swim! We have already had our share of excitement here. We had rented a car for two days to explore the island a bit but on the first day, in the morning we had an accident....all our fault...and so we spent the next two days dealing with that. Luckily enough no one was hurt (but our wallet!) and the vehicle we hit was driven by a real gentleman. We settled the matter privately. This led us to look for a nicer place the spend the last two weeks of our trip here and so we found that the marina here, Crews Inn, had excellent amenities, including a beautiful pool, clean showers, free water...for only 20$ (US) a night. The girls have a video rental across the boat, they have a nice square to bike on and I have an Internet cafe just across as well. Greg and I take turns to the pool and slowly we are fitting Alisée for a long stay here. It is very hot and humid here, always over 30 degrees C. in the boat so the pool is a nice welcome!
What's next? On July 1, we are flying to Miami and on the third to Cranbrook, BC. I am craving for Susan's home cooking, her wonderful pies in particular. Then we are doing a road trip to Dawson City for Michelle (Greg's sister) and Steve's wedding. We hope to drive all the way to the Arctic Circle and of course to Alaska! We just love extremes. On August 1, we take possession of our new home at 1136 Keith Road in West Van. Yes while in Anguilla, we purchased a home via the Internet thanks to the good services of our friend Sean Hulsher. Thanks Sean! Some of our best friends will be our next door neighbours and we know and love Ambleside, so coming back will not be too hard. However we are profoundly sad to leave Alisée behind, we will all miss. But we are coming back home with incredible memories of sea, sun and sail and we do hope to share many of them with you.
It has been an awesome year for us. We found the paradise we were looking for in the Bahamas and the Grenadines, we have met wonderful people and made new friends for life: Kelly, Jeff, Cara and Marc on Essensia and Jean-François and Regine on TogGwen. Claude helped us a lot, and we thank him in particular for assisting Greg in sailing the boat from the Bahamas through to the Caribbean. We will all see you soon; we haven't changed much...very dark...hair discoloured...no, Greg has not cut his hair yet...the girls have become mermaids or just about...as for me...I have become a better sailor... Cheers to all of you,
The Caws' Crew in Chaguaramas, Trinidad June 19/2001
