Week 6 : Barbuda and St Marteen

Morris Bay, Antigua (on our way to Barbuda)

It’s like a Buddhist Monk Exercise;
 “How to let go of material possessions gracefully"

This is what we have been working on not by choice mind you, but by necessity as we have had a record breaking week in loosing things ! It started off with a big blow: the loss of our much beloved Paddle board the source of hours of fun for the kids and Meghan's new found independence (she had been using it as her way to get away on her own to explore nearby reefs), we were so upset when we woke up one morning and found that it was gone, even after frantically looking for it for an hour with no luck, it was most definitely gone ! It was a combination of errors which led to its premature release into the wild. Mark and I both assumed (incorrectly)  that the other had brought it in for the night and, of course, it was the ONE time when I had not used my trusty “bowline” knot to keep it attached to the boat, so we had to find our peace with it being gone! I’ll be honest; it took me a few days, but now we just wonder of what adventures our cherished friend will live on the big blue sea. Oh the places it will go! The creature it will meet !!! If ever you are vacationing in this part of the world and you see a yellow and grey inflatable paddle board roaming free or on a beach somewhere please let us know, as we would be happy to find out where it ended up!

Within a day of loosing the paddle board, and still dealing with the loss, we were faced with many other, albeit less substantial, material losses; A nail brush, a decorative pillows favourite blankets, a stick of deodorant, a favourite pair of shorts, etc...all went "missing". We think that these mysterious disappearances were mostly, if not all due to hurricane Matthew and the boredom of not having a paddle board to play on. When it got to be too much and we'd reached a breaking point, we just had to take a deep breath and realize that the universe was trying to teach us a lesson "Let it go! These are not the important things in your life!" Ok, okay, I know... I get it now ! Thanks Universe !

Beautiful beaches do help to put it all back into perspective however. First in Antigua, we anchored in Morris Bay, North of Jolly Harbour. We were the only ones there. The kids and MC enjoyed exploring the deserted beach. Meg even buried a treasure for us to find (more “Treasure Island” influences !) 

Then on to Antigua’s sister island; Barbuda. It is hard to describe the beauty of Barbuda without having you think that I must be exagerating or without sounding like a travel brochure, so let me speak plain : Described as being probably the most beautiful beach in the Caribbean and one of the ten most beautiful beaches in the world, ”11 mile beach" in Low Bay really delivered ! The clearest, MOST blue water, perfectly white sand bottoms and not a soul in sight ! We only had to share the 11 miles of this beach with a lone pelican, and we did not mind at all!

Aurora, safely anchored in Low Bay

Ghost Ship returns! On on arrival in Barbuda we were somewhat amused to see that “Aurora*” was anchored nearby, phew, they made it ! Later on in the evening Mark had a chance to meet the owners ( at a beach bar) When he introduced himself and explained his role in  trying to rescue Aurora a few weeks ago, they were so grateful and said:  Well then you are NOT paying for beer tonight!” Luckily the anchorage in Barbuda seems to be much more solid, no more ghost ships in the night !

 

Barbuda sight seeing:While on Barbuda we rented a car and as we drove around, we encountered dozens of free roaming donkeys and sheep We also visited the “Highlands” , cliffs which stand about 110 feet high, yes it is a very flat island!) which we reached by climbing up through a cave !  What an adventure ! We also did a 1 1/2 h hike to see a great sink hole also known as Darby Cave....in which we were able to climb down to see a whole new little ecosystem! Above the sink hole was dry and desert like in the sink hole (which was about 75 feet deep) we found a cool and damp environment with many palm trees and other vegetation, quite a site !

The Highlands of Barbuda

Stalagtites

Inside the sink hole, Darby Cave, Barbuda

Darby Cave

Frigate Bird Sanctuary:We could not miss a chance to go and see these birds up close and personal. We have been admiring  the "Magnificent Frigates" since Dominica, so graceful in the air !  We heard about this sanctuary, which was featured in National Geographic, and hired Jerome for Codrington to take us there. He told us all about how the Frigate birds find mates (the male blowing up a large red pouch in his neck), and how the males took care of the egg. How the female does the fishing and feeding and how the males all leave after mating season to go to Central and South America (Huh, typical!). He told us how these birds, with very large wing span for their body mass, are excellent in the air, scooping up fish while in motion, but not so good on their feet. In fact, if they ever fall into the water they have a great deal of difficulty in getting back out, and may be stranded to the point of exhaustion. Jerome told is that it was not uncommon for two frigate birds to come to the rescue of a fallen comrade, picking them up and bringing them out of the water.How cool is that?! 

Magnificent Frigate Bird, Colony, Barbuda

Pink Shells, Barbuda

"Official" is a relative term here in Barbuda

Donkeys on the road in Barbuda

Goat hides drying in the sun

A boy and his horses

Night Sail: We left at 9:30 pm on Saturday night from Barbuda to sail to St Martin, an 80 NM trek. We decided to try a night sail to get everyone accustomed to the crossings overnight, as they are sure to become more frequent and for longer periods of time... soon. (We are planning on sailing directly from the Virgin Islands all the way to the Grenadines the first week of June). We had quiet winds and no change in direction, so it went well, although no one slept very well, which is to be expected on the first night : it takes some getting used to. Mark took the first and longest shift, while MC took over for the 3:00-6:00 am watch. It is lovely to see the transformation from the absolute darkness to the early morning light. When it was light and the stars disappeared again for another day, MC realised that we had picked up a hitchhiker sometime in the night: a bird--We are not sure what type it was yet- sitting on our outboard. He stayed until 7am before flying away again in the sunlight. 

St Martin & St Marteen

We thought we’d arrive in St Marteen by mid morning, but because of the weak winds, we didn’t anchor in Simpson Bay until 2:30 pm, just in time to Captain Mark to clear us in to customs and immigration before it closed and us all going onshore for dinner !  

St Martin is also known as St Maarten because it is both Dutch and French. Each nation occupying about half of the island. We are on the Dutch side, as this is where the goods and services we are looking for are. It has been a scheduled stop for Captain Mark for over a year now..as he planned on buying our life raft and many other essentials here because they have an excellent chandlery and prices.

We have been here for a day now, and so far St Maarten has been a very happy place for us! We definitely feel like we are back in western civilization, giving us a little break from all the exotic and "out of the way" places we have been to.  Provisioning is cheap and it seems that we can find everything we need and more, including an inflatable paddle board (!!!) which turns out, is an essential in our family !

Simpson Bay is a pleasant anchorage, we are very near a few resorts. The kids and MC visited a floating playground today after school.....and as an added bonus, the large international airport’s airstrip ends right on the beach near the bay where we are anchored, which is great for Meg’s science unit on flight, she gets to observe jumbo jets as they land and take off, right beside us !

Matthew's "setting the table" program

Food, food beautiful food ! 

My eyes actually bulged right out of my head ( I actually felt the optic nerve stretching!) when we walked in to the grocery store today. They have EVERYTHING !!!  MORE than everything, things I had never seen, a grocery store from HEAVEN ! I was trying to control my impulse to start running down the ailes pilling stuff into my cart frantically. I only did this in my minds eye, I had to FOCUS & stay on task (and on budget), “what did I need for dinner tonight ?” But still, a part of me wanted to load up and fill a train of shopping carts and find a way to store it all on board, somehow.

Once we got over the initial shock of the abundance and choices before us, we started to have fun, every now and then an exclamation : "Oh my Goodness they have Boursin Cheese” !  “ Look  ! Apple Pie !” while Meghan was busy reading aloud the 20 odd types of Oreo cookies they had in stock, I was salivating in the cheese and crackers section !!!  We walked by the deli and Meg says to me “ Smell that meat !” It was like we had not eaten in a month ! The selection was overwhelming but with some measure of discipline, we walked out with only our two backpacks filled but determined to be back soon to stock up !!!  I realise that we have come full circle: from the beginning of this blog celebrating the freedom of being free of material things, to becoming an voracious consumer in St Marteen, what can I say? A girl's gotta eat, and feed her family !

The floating playground in Simpson Bay, St Marteen

Week 5 : Guadeloupe and Antigua

Tuesday April 29 2014

Ghost Ship in the Night- DesHaies, Guadeloupe

Excitement in DesHaies (Guadeloupe) on the first night, we got to see a GhostShip..!!! Ok,well maybe it wasn't an actual ghost ship, (I do let my imagination run wild at time), but it was pretty intense and exciting

Let me start at the beginning:

While anchored in DesHaies, at around sunset, some poor souls’ boat  had dragged its anchors (both of them!) and pulled ours as well, but at first we just thought that our anchor had dragged on its own and so we moved to deeper waters and away from other boats, then at around 9pm there was a “Securité”  call which came over the VHF radio warning other boats that a boat was adrift, with no one on board, it was quite dark and we could see lights from other boats as everyone was watching the “ghost ship” go by. It was  very eerie, seeing it drift by, sideways, right beside Amelie, in the dark gloomy night,  no sign of life on board. Mark tried to call the boat on the radio (who’s name was “Aurora”), with no answer , so he put the dinghy in the water to go help the few other sailors who were trying to save the boat from ending up on the rocks, by the time Mark got to the boat, it was already out of the bay in about 70' of water, heading into the great wide open, there were two French guys onboard, gesticulating excitedly  as they tried to communicate that : “Dis is not hour boat !!!” & that  they had hopped on to try to save it, they had tried to start the engine with no luck : the battery was dead ! 

Everyone present decided that  the best course of action was to let out all the chain that was on board ( to try to slow it down” as much as possible), and that seemed to stop it from drifting any further although it was pretty tenuous hold with the wind, but at least it had escaped an early death along the rocky shore of the Bay, or drifting aimlessly into the Caribbean Sea, we felt so bad for the owners who might of been out at a restaurant or bar, sipping drinks, laughing and having a good time, totally oblivious to what was happening. I can’t imagine the feeling, it must be awful, returning to your boat in the dark and finding that it is no longer there !!! UGHH !

Turns out that is pretty much the way it seems to have happened... as we saw a lone dinghy racing out of the bay at about 9:45 pm. Mark hailed them and pointed the light to where their boat now was, (still in sight), and they must have caught up with it, funny thing though, they never did bring Aurora back into the bay, we never saw them again, (and there were no distress calls over the radio) Perhaps they were just a wee bit too embarrassed to stick around and face everyone the next morning, and decided to do a night sail to their next destination , a little early.

So this weeks lesson is : This reminder for us to never forget the importance of being extra vigilant when anchoring, and always making sure that we don’t drag !  

Botanical Garden : 

On Thursday Meg and MC went to the Botanical gardens with our Austrian friends from S/V “L’Avenir” while Mark and Matthew hung out on the boat and made sure that the anchor didn’t drag!  

These were the most beautiful gardens we have seen in the Caribbean!  Really outstanding! Meghan especially enjoyed feeding the parakeets and seeing the larger Macaws. Given our company we had  the opportunity to learn two new german words !  Papaguy (parrot) and Colibri (hummingbird)  this last one being the  same in french too (so it might be cheating...) but still, wow, Botany and German all in one day !  And these aren’t even part of the grade 6 curriculum ! 

Visiting the Botanical Gardens in DesHaies

Meanwhile back at school.

School, in my opinion, is going very well. In Science Meg has been leaning about the scientific method as she tests the various parachutes she built. I have to say that she really showed a lot of resiliency and patience as there were quite a few obstacles on launch day. We were in another very “rolly” anchorage and the boat was lurching back and forth and the landing strip for the parachutes was very narrow , but she got her results after many, many trials, and we are now investigating Hot Air Balloons and Density. 

Meg learning about density

Homework

  

Reading "Treasure Island"

We are enjoying our novel study R.L. Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” which we are reading out-loud (& in character) everyday.... and we are both learning a ton about the Iroquois Confederacy in Social Studies.( I must have been "absent" that week back in my school days, it’s pretty fascinating stuff!). Meghan is just whizzing through Math too….an excellent pupil ! 

Matthew is also doing well. We are working on many programs : Setting the table, Verbal Imitation, Tracing the letter A (which he is really enjoying because he has to follow an Airplane (on his iPad) to trace it) ...and he is really applying himself! He also does some independent work (drawers of tasks  that he must complete on his own) he loves this !  We also sing songs to help him with his pronunciation and I am happy to report that he is doing very well with many of the many programs he was doing at school before he left and which the staff were so kind to help me with before we left.  He is enjoying playing some matching games with us in the evening and is learning his daily routines onboard very well, especially taking a fresh water shower after swimming in the ocean as he has to do this 10-15 times per day (!) He has been doing it independently as he knows he is not allowed down below if he is “salty”. 

One month  anniversary !

We have survived living onboard (and more importantly: living together) for one month ! Whoo hoo ! In honour of this anniversary I decided to give you an idea of what a typical day might look like for us, in case you were wondering (read:  hopefully will not bore you to death) 

A Day in the Life of Amelie:

The following is a typical school day when we are at anchor.

06:00 Sunrise & "Our alarm clock", aka Matthew, is up and asking for a "snack" (literally first words out of his mouth). I ask him to wait and stay in bed just a FEW minutes more, and he usually complies, as Mark and I try to get a few more minutes of sleep.

07:00 After a few more requests for food from Matthew, we are now up, Matthew is “dressed” (bathing suit) & has applied his deodorant (his program) and is  “sun-screened” up for the day, as he is usually already in the water by this time having eaten breakfast ahead of everyone else, MC tidies up the cabin for the day and makes breakfast for everyone else..

 07:45 Meghan is up, getting dressed having breakfast , her room is tidied up (for inspection) and she probably is trying to get at least one of her chores done before school starts. Mark is up and turn the generator on, gets a load of laundry started and perhaps is checking the engine or the weather or, some pilot forum on the internet if we have wifi. Sometimes, Mark takes Matthew for a hike (we hope to make this a “run” in the future)

09:00 School starts: Mark hangs out with Matthew as he swims (gym) and MC and Meg do some Math and Language Arts

10:00 MC and Matthew work on his programs while Meghan does some individual work. There is a snack thrown in there too. Mark does odd jobs around the boat which are always abundant.

11:00 Meg and Mom work on Social Studies and Science and Mark and Mathew might go in to “town” to run some errands. 

Mark prepares lunch. 

12:00 School is done !  We have lunch and get ready to go on an expedition,some snorkelling  or just for a swim to cool off. 

13:00-17:00 Busy doing all the stuff we have been writing about in the blog or not, some days we just putter around each doing our own “thing”.

18:00 MC usually has dinner prepared so that we can enjoy it with the sunset. 

18:30 Mark and Meg “discuss” who’s turn it is to wash dishes 

19:00  It’s already pitch dark outside now. Prepare the boat for night time: tidy up outside, bring the outboard up and then haul the dinghy out of the water (for safety reasons)bring in the water toys,in and the clothe off the clothe line take a moment to stop and admire the constellations or the “Cheshire Cat” in the sky (thats what Meg and I call the moon bcs in the Caribbean the crescent moon looks like a giant Cheshire cat smile)

19:30 Have a family games night, or just a giggle fest/tickle fest with Matthew, perhaps some guitar playing , or we watch an episode of Friends or, on special nights ,watch a movie. 

21:30 Go to bed and get rocked to sleep by the waves and the dancing stars..

So as you can see,  our reality is not that exciting. We do this 5 days a week, while trying to get as much as possible out of the places we are visiting and, yeah,it is pretty great, but  does it always go smoothly?? Hell No !  Does it all go sideways sometimes ?? Hell Yes !  I could write a novel about all the times when school has been interrupted for the most unusual circumstances, like the time when the Math books were practically thrown overboard in the excitement of seeing whales on our Port side (see last video), yeah, in our class we stop for marine mammals !!! It also pauses for sea sickness or “Nudist Ned’s” Antics, there are so many potential and interesting diversions and so we just have to go with the flow.

You may also be wondering: Have there been times in this first month when I have wanted to start a Mutiny ?! Send the captain off in a long boat?? Hell Yes !  (Hm maybe reading Treasure Island is having an affect on me) but I am sure that the captain would tell you the same.No worries though. It is all part of the “normal adjustment” period. I am sure it will pass hehe, right ??

Seriously though, most of the time, things go quite smoothly and I  am proud of everyone for trying so hard to make this work. I think that when we look back at this first month, years from now, we will recognize it as being our hardest month with lots of attitude adjustments and mind stretches ( to adapt and deal with "stuff" and with one another) as I write this blog, one month in, everyone else is sleeping and I can look back on one of our most successful days as “live a-boards” we all got along (90%) of the time, today, we all worked together and got lots done on board, we seem as comfortable as we can be, Amelie is clean and our routines seem efficient and realistic everyone is healthy and so I can go to sleep content ready for another day tomorrow, but first let me tell you a little bit about:

Antigua

We had no idea what to expect, not having done much reading on Antigua  before hand. We found a very upscale,very pretty island with many options for beautiful anchorages. We also stumbled into one of the busiest weeks to visit Antigua as it just happens to be RACE WEEK here, which is a BIG deal on Antigua. It is very busy, but not in a bad way, just lots going on.

An all ladies team getting ready to race

America's Cup Starting Line

So it being race week and all, we had a chance to “Meet the Trophy” of the Americas’ Cup.Now I must admit that I have not “met” many trophy’s before, but to me, the Americas cup seemed a little bit quiet, a little bit reserved.I mean, for a trophy it certainly did not seem to be much of a party animal, not like, say the STANLEY CUP. I am not judging mind you, just saying...

Still, we did get a chance to get up close to it though and take some great shots with a great backdrop, the trophy came in a giant Louis Vuitton case and was traveling with its two “body guards”, or “men in black” if you like, who were the only ones allowed to “man handle it”, on account of their white gloves you see what a day for me to forget to bring my white gloves with me!! I normally never leave home without them !!!  Oh well it was neat to see all the same, and the view from our lookout was the best seats in the house to see the race from. 

Meg and the cup

America's Cup

A media helicopter did several round, quite low (read: right above our heads!) camera men hanging from the sides (just like in the movies !), all very loud and exciting, especially when they got a little bit too close and stirred up the dust and branches all around the crowd who was trying to eat their $10 breakfast, chaos ensued, plates, papaya and fish flying everywhere, the helicopter pilot must of realized his faux pas, as he took off in a hurry after that, but it was good for a laugh.The kids though it was pretty cool. 

Today, Tuesday April 29th, we went for a little excursion after school. We saw an old sugar plantation and it's mill (designed by the Dutch), a fabulous rock formation called "Devils Bridge" and a BE-A-U-TIFUL  beach on the East Coast called Long Bay where we enjoyed crystal clear blue water, white sands and some good snorkelling. 

Nelson's DockYard

One person, 51 days, to cross Atlantic

Nelson's DockYard

Hummingbird in his nest in our light at the restaurant

English Bay- Antigua, Race Week

English Bay, Antigua

English Bay

Figure heads

Nelson's DockYard

Inside the Old Mill

Sugar Plantation Mill, Antigua

Devil's Bridge

Mom and Matthew enjoying a quiet moment

Long Bay, Antigua

Long Bay, Antigua

A little interesting tid bit for Eric Clapton fans out there. We found out that he has a home right here in Antigua and he actually lives there most of the year. It turns out that he has a very succesful business here, he opened a rehab clinic (called Crossroads), for the rich and famous, and I guess it is quite busy, huh !  It looks like a nice place to hang out, if you need it.

Eric Clapton's CrossRoads