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

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

Well, we’ve licked our wounds for almost two weeks now so I guess it is time to share our passage story :)

Many of you may have seen Andrew’s account of the engine breakdown on the Abby Singer Facebook page but I will give you the “cliff’s notes” here.  We left you last week just as the engine had died and we realized we would be sailing the rest of the way to St Martin.  No problem, we do live on a sailboat - right?!  

    Last you saw us.

Sailing started out quite nice.  We colored pictures, read our books, ate the soup in a cup I had planned as our main meal and made it through the night smoothly.  

About mid-day we could see land, unfortunately that was about the same time the wind died as well.  Let me tell you, there is nothing more frustrating than seeing where you want to be but bobbing around trying to keep your sail full, moving at a whopping 1-2 knots!  The afternoon felt endless!  Everyone was trying to keep their spirits up but watching hours tick off the clock and no time being reduced on the “time to destination” window was agonizing.  

Andrew tried several attempts at getting Abby started by bleeding the lines, re-seating seals and anything else he could think of but she was not having it.  The closer we got to land, the stronger the east wind pushed us off.  We would sail for 45 minutes or so and turn to tack and make minimal progress up wind.  Everyone in the caravan that had left BVI was anchored and set and calling on the radio to find out how we were doing.  The sun set on us and we reckoned with arriving in an unknown anchorage in the dark.  Friends in our destination gave us accurate descriptions of where we were headed but you just can't make sense of it in the dark.  Even when the bay came into view we still needed 3 or 4 more tacks to clear the rocks on our starboard (right) side.  And wouldn't you know it, just as we turn for our final approach, the wind shifts, blowing us out of the cove!  So add 2 more tacks to gain more ground.  It was the day that wouldn't end!  But our amazingly diligent friends on Aqua Vida & Singing Frog jumped into their dinghy as we entered the bay at midnight to make sure we arrived safely at anchor.  They guided us in and helped us set the anchor properly.  They even delivered a home cooked meal of spaghetti complete with a fresh French baguette from a proper French bakery - our sailing family is truly one of a kind.  So our 19hr trip ended after 31 very long uneventful hours at sea.  And we awoke the next day to beautiful St Martin.

To check in to St Martin is all computerized and very easy, just fill in the blanks, but I did feel like a dumb American when I didn't know how to find “United States” in the French drop down menu :) Luckily the guys working the counter were gracious enough to to help me and one of our first purchases was a French/English dictionary.  We quickly learned that St Martin had all the resources we would need to get the boat back in tip top shape and do a few other projects as well.  

But first things first, must have latte & yummy pastry to start the day right.

The project of polishing the fuel and locating the blockage that had caused all our drama was lengthy but never out of Andrew’s scope and the girls kept busy by discovering some of our neighboring sealife 

and using the boat as their play gym.

 

Andrew got acquainted with our fuel tank and smelled of diesel for days.

We did squeeze in a few sights and some yummy meals among all the work.

    Large barge squeezing through a tight bridge

    Local sail school for kids

     My crazies at Pineapple Pete's

And the girls got to do a bus trip all over the island with friends from other sailboats.

    This horse follows his master around like a puppy, no lead lines or anything.

Before we knew it, our boy’s birthday was upon us!

We loved on him the best we could and tried to let him know how much he means to us, but it is hard to put “everything” into words :)

 

    Birthday fun!

And if that wasn't enough celebration for us, the locals had a Billfish Tournament at our marina on Father’s Day.  It was quiet the weekend!

Why are we at a Marina?  Good question.  

The wind was predicted to kick up pretty strong over the weekend and we wouldn't be comfortable at anchor so what do we do?  Start another big project!  

Our salon (living room) floor has been plywood since we left Jacksonville.  One of the last projects we did at home to get the boat ready was replace our main water tank, which required us to cut our beautiful teak and holly floor.  It was painful to see it go but the water tank was a necessity; it allowed us to put an all new battery box in for powering the boat and freed up lots of storage space and we hardly notice it any more.  But to make good use of our time here and with some good deals cut by the guys at Island Water World, it was the perfect time to beautify Abby.

     A tiny hatch under the galley (kitchen) floor said "do not cut", 

     You know Andrew had to cut it!

Now she is looking better than ever!

Things learned aboard this week:

There are a lot of reasons to celebrate Andrew Paul Howell; Birthday, Father’s Day, but the best reason in my book is because he’s one of a kind and he’s all mine!

Our girls are so good!  Our already very small home is a lot smaller when we have a big project going on down below.  All of the seatee (sofa) cushions get moved to and from the girl’s bed every morning and night to keep them out of the way and the doors to the cabins are all kept shut to keep the dust or fumes or whatever out of them while we work.  They have found ways to entertain themselves and stay out of trouble, mostly :) and have gotten along remarkably well.  

 

Yay for good girls!

Our time in Saint Martin wasn't particularly exciting but very productive!  Excited to head on south and get back in the water, doing what we love.  

But sad to say goodbye to the beautiful pastries!

We’ll keep you posted.=

27. Exploring We Will Go - Montserrat and Antigua