31-32. It's Not Rio…But It’s Pretty Awesome!

Many of you know our ultimate goal on this trip was making it to Rio for the Olympics.  Getting a later start than we had originally planned and having way too much fun on our journey south meant too much ground to cover and too little time to get there.  For a very long time now I’ve been holding out hope that we would just leave the boat somewhere and travel to Brazil anyway but after much consideration that proved to be very cost prohibitive.  So here we are in St Lucia instead and when it comes down to it, it may have worked out for the better.  (That’s not to say there weren't a few tears while watching the opening ceremonies on a screen instead of feeling the boom of the fireworks firsthand.)  But after those few moments of disappointment, I could look around at the faces of my fam and feel the thankfulness overflowing in my heart.  We are having an amazing journey to places we may never see again and making relationships with people who have changed our lives forever.  So we will gladly cheer on Team USA from various tiki bars in the southern Caribbean!

Now to recap the adventures of the last two weeks :)

Before leaving Dominica we bought some fresh tuna from a street vendor.

Looks a bit shady, right?  But you can't get more fresh than swimming a few hours before it hits your stomach and it made the most amazing sushi!

Our sail to Martinique had some rain,

some sun,

some fishing

and some fun!

We anchored in St Pierre, a beautiful little French town on the northwest coast of Martinique.

    Can't beat the view from my galley port! -St Pierre, Martinique

The locals host an amazing produce market every day and even more vendors on the weekend.  We bought local cucumbers, lettuce, tomato, green beans, carrot, avocado, peppers, lime, and some spice packs of chili powder, curry and a mix we used in a great chicken and rice dish.  I can't believe we didn't take any pics of the market but I think I was too busy supervising Andrew’s negotiating, French numbers are not his strength ;)

St Pierre is not far from the Canal des Esclaves / Canal de Beauregard and was on Andrew’s list of “must sees”!

The canal was built by slaves to bring water from the mountains down to the coastal towns for plantations and distilleries.

Work on the canal began in 1772, taking 17 years to complete and it was used as a water source up until 1956.

Words will not be able to do it justice and I’m not sure the pictures even depict how extraordinary a feat it must have been to build, bringing rocks up the mountain on their back, with sheer faces to work on and fall off!

But the views are unparalleled!

 

    Resorting to selfies to prove I'm here too!

The hike is fairly simple.

A slow and steady incline but flat easy path along the cap of the canal wall.

A fear of heights might have been challenging but you know I live with dare devils.

The top of the canal wall is 18-24” wide and sometimes the only place to stand on the sheer mountainside.

We hiked for 1.5 hrs to the falls at the start of the canal

where we could jump into the very cool pool at the base of the falls for a bit of refreshment before heading back down the mountain.  

There is a beautiful little restaurant about 20 minutes from the top where we enjoyed/ inhaled a vanilla creme brûlée, chocolate creme brûlée and coconut flan so fast that I didn't have a chance to snap a picture!

 

It was the perfect day for a hike

with bright sunshine, the occasional sprinkle to cool us off

and we made it back to the boat just before sundown.

We loved our stay in St Pierre but needed to make it further south.  Once the dinghy was hauled and secured we remembered we needed some ballyhoo for fishing bait so Sky offered to swim ashore to get it at the market.

The locals thought she was so cute that they gave her the ballyhoo for free.

    Pulling into Fort de France, Martinique.

Fort de France is a large city with a beautiful park on the bay.  

    Abby is anchored just above Paige.

We played, enjoyed McDonald’s fries and free wifi and had some great provisioning at a proper grocery store before heading on to St Lucia.

    Local kids training for the sailing races that were the following weekend.

The first and probably most popular bay on the north of St Lucia is Rodney Bay.

The shores are lined with resorts and restaurants.  Legend says the British hid their entire fleet here from the pursuing French by tucking into the bay and tying palm fronds to their masts.  It is a great hurricane hole with lots of amenities close by.  We enjoyed tying up to the dock for a few days of A/C and were pleasantly surprised to meet a new kid boat, Time Chaser.

    Girls with Time Chaser crew.

The girls have been missing friends since parting ways with our buddies Aqua Vida and Take Two!  They disappeared to the pool with their new friends while Andrew got us checked in and I got us settled in.  Having an Island Water World marine supply within walking distance is pricey, yet productive and Andrew can always find a new project.  It’s even better when he can find good local help to handle one project while he works on another!

Andrew tackled a new refrigeration system while Vision refinished all our teak hand rails and trim.

He worked tirelessly for 2.5 days, to get done in time for us to leave in good weather, and had a smile on his face the entire time.  He even introduced Andrew to a new fruit, sweetsop, and gave us the biggest mango we’ve ever seen!

It wasn't all hard work though.  We took Time Chaser out on the Hobie cats for Andrew to do a little sailing instruction while the kids had one of their own to go crazy on!

 

The girls and I snuck away for a movie night.

     Secret Life of Pets!  Note the cows in front of the theatre.

And we had a great night of Indian food with our friends from Alley Cat.

    My crazies working on their best Zoolander looks.

We haven't gotten to experience much of St Lucia’s natural beauty yet but we are enjoying ourselves and can see why some people stop here and don't even continue south.

Things learned aboard this week:

Having a destination is important but experiencing the journey is what life is all about!  Had we not planned on Rio, we could very easily still be at our home dock in Jax, working on various boat projects.  Having a goal/ deadline is what got us off the dock and for that I am thankful.  But I would not sacrifice the places we’ve been, the things we’ve learned or the people we’ve met over the past 7 months to be in the Olympic village right now; and I think that says a lot because I really wanted to be there!  So don't get so caught up in pushing through to the end result that you miss out on the awesome that is happening right here and now.  As my friend Tanya says, “Take a cookie when the plate is passed” because you may not get this opportunity again!

We are getting our first taste of the beauty that is to come in St Lucia.  We’ll keep you posted!

33 & 34. Happy Birthday, Abby Singer

23 & 24. Goodbye, BVI!

    View from Hog Heaven, Virgin Gorda.  

This weekend is “dance recital week" back home, our favorite time of year!  The girls and I spend all year honing our skills and working on routines to showcase what we love.  As many loved ones as we can sucker into coming to the performance are treated to the best show in town.   Tonight I would have everything packed from spare tights, extra bobby pins and plenty of makeup, to costumes of all sizes and colors and all the lineup sheets and anything else we would need to make the day run smoothly.  We would get to bed as early as possible to wake up with the sun and head to the theater to claim the perfect spot in front of the mirror and have one final rehearsal before the show begins.  Instead, tonight we are on the open water between Virgin Gorda & St Martin.  Our last night passage was way back on April 19, heading into Culebra, PR.  We have been so far and seen so many things since then.  Even this week we did things we’ve never done before.  So, even though we are sad not to be back in Jax where the anticipation is stirring and we wish all our family at Scott Jones School of Dance the best of luck; I can't imagine not being here and having this adventure with my family.  This year the twinkle of lights in our eyes are the millions of stars in the dark ocean sky and the only glitter we need are the tiny bioluminescence dancing on our wake!

    Anegada sunset

Our trip to Anegada was perfect!  We originally hadn't planned to even visit this beautiful little island in the northeast Carribean, but I am so glad we did.  

    Dance party on the way to Anegada.

We anchored at the back of the mooring field and took a long dinghy ride around to the southwest beach for some kite surfing and beach fun.  

Andrew did a few tutorials with the kids and had a great little session, even in light wind while the kids were quick to make their mark on the sandy shore.  

    Castles and holes and moats, oh my!

The fun continued as we ventured to the northside of the island to the Anegada Beach Club, 

via their free shuttle, to a perfect piece of paradise.  

A sweet swimming pool,

complete with beach bar 

and a beautifully unpopulated beach that stretched out endlessly.

Andrew was able to work on kite handling with the oldest Take Two boys before wearing himself out jumping and rolling and freaking out the snorkelers that were unlucky enough to to be in his wake :)

 

They even had strong enough wifi for me to video chat with all my family- bonus!

With a chance for the kids to do more kiting and me to do more pool laying, we headed to Anegada Beach Club for a second day.  Just as beautiful as the first w/ the hint of a storm brewing over the horizon.  What we didn't realize was that the storm was right over the mooring field and kicked up winds sustained at 50knots!  Poor Abby was left all alone and so she tried to go on a walk about and almost ended up on the sandy shore behind where we left her.  Some nice local fisherman from Neptune’s Treasure and Jay from Take Two chased her down, reined her in and got her re-anchored in her proper spot.  

    Abby's Adventure

To receive a call at the beach club on the other side of the island that your boat has dragged was quite un-nerving, as you can imagine.  Andrew raced off to make sure everything was alright but they guys had it all under control when he got there.  So, not only does Neptune’s Tresure have the best smoked fish dip I have ever had but they also have some salt of the earth guys working there that refused any sort of payment for their help, just our gratitude.

As if that wasn't enough Anegada excitement, on our way back to Virgin Gorda our engine cut out.  So after an hour of bobbing around in the waves while Andrew tried to fix the problem at sea with no luck, we sailed in through the cut and had the help of a local dinghy to get our hook set again in Leverick Bay.

    Leverick Bay sunset

We really enjoyed being at Leverick Bay.  The girls entertained themselves and stayed out of trouble, mostly, while we tackled some projects.

 

 

    I'm sure work is getting done, never mind the beer under the arm ;)

After multiple days of hard work and Andrew being very productive getting the engine repaired,  jib bags sewn and our new main sheet traveler installed; 

it was time for some new fun!  We headed over to the Bitter End Yacht Club to try our hands at Hobie Cats.  

Having never sailed a Hobie before, we thought we would start with a challenge and entered the Beer Can Regatta.  They had a great course set up and every time you cross the finish line you can grab a beer or other drink of your choice.  We finished second in 3 out of the 4 races we ran and Andrew drank at least a six pack, but who’s counting?  We had a blast!  

So much fun that we had to do it again the next day!  

We got two Hobies and split up with the girls.  Andrew’s was the go fast ride and on mine I operated the sails while whichever girl I had was in charge of steering.  They would zip through the mooring field and into open water and would have to count down if they wanted to turn.  I had Sky first, who did a great job and wanted to push the speed as fast as possible.  Paige just wanted to tip over right up until the moment we did :)  Andrew was so far out of site he didn't even know we needed assistance, luckily a near by charter boat came to my rescue and helped me right it and we were on our way again.  We even got the Take Two gang in on the action and they quickly kicked off the grown ups and were racing girls against boys, some healthy competition.  

While the girls and I watched the feeding of the tarpon at Saba Rock, Andrew actually met the designer of Hobie who was in town on vacation and at the bar enjoying a drink.  We got a chance to thank him for all the fun we had just expereienced.

 

    Feeding the tarpon & Elvis the Eel at Saba Rock

We also rented our own safari bus (fancy name for pickup truck with benches) 

and toured the entire island of Virgin Gorda.  

We hiked to the highest peak.

We toured the abandoned copper mine.   

Enjoyed some local flavor at the Island Pot.  And had our own private bay to play in at Spring Bay.  

    Look closely and you will see the king of the mountain enjoying the view with a beer.

That sealed the deal - Virgin Gorda is my favorite island.  Not to live on, like Culebra; but to visit and vacation to.  It has such a wide variety of landscape and unique features, you can never see it all.  

 

So after soaking every minute out of our month in BVI and even squeezing in one last sleep over, 

    Fort building & fun w/ Sky's latest partner in crime, Kaylee.

it was time to head out.  

   Goodbye, Leverick Marina.  

So we are off to St Martin.  The trip started like all the rest, One Direction on the radio and spirits high.  It took a while to get our sea legs on and a night time passage always turns Andrew’s stomach when he looses the horizon, but all was well.  But just to make sure we pack all the fun we can into this expected 19hr trip, the engine cut out at midnight. 

So ahoy, we sail!

Things learned this week:

We have mad Hobie skills! 

The cruising community is like a weird little family:) Our support of each other is vital.  It is great to feel close to people even when you've known them such a short while and to share a meal w/ perfect strangers and come away friends :)

We made it back to civilization since I was able to post this blog, but you have to check back in next week to see how we made it and if anyone was thrown overboard when our 19 hr trip took 31 long hours to complete!

25 & 26. Boat Work in the Exotic Location of Saint Martin