Me and Maria
This entry will serve as a bit of a coda to the whole blog. Not because we are leaving the cruising life but because the increasingly long gaps between entries might give that impression. Parkinson's has been slowing me down to the point I only get one or two minor tasks done a day. What with maintenance, provisioning, sailing and laundry and naps there is precious little time to edit pictures and write these entries. Fortunately, nothing happens very fast on a sailboat and that is just my speed. We are still enjoying the sailing life in the Eastern Caribbean. We still plan to keep it up. I also plan to make new entries from time to time but as cruisers always say: "My plans are written in sand - at low tide...."
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| Karl and Yuki
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| Practicing the Dinghy Dive
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Our first trip after putting the boat back together in St. Lucia was up to Antigua where we were to meet Karl and his family for their Christmas vacation. We island hop our way up the island chain: St. Lucia to St. Anne, Martinique. St. Anne to St. Pierre and St. Pierre, Martinique to Portsmouth, Dominica. This was shortly after hurricane Maria passed through as a category 5+ storm. Officials clocked winds as high as 225 MPH devastating this small island nation and later going on to destroy Barbuda and Puerto Rico. Many cruisers were collecting donations and transporting water, tarps, flashlights, roofing nails and helping to clear the bottom of the bay of corrugated roofing metal. By the time we got there, the road to the capital was passable and we thought the best thing to bring was money. There were only 3 other boats in Portsmouth and only a couple of the PAYS guys had operating boats. Maria's winds were that of a jet at takeoff speed (as experienced when standing on the wing!) Cars, roofs, trees and whole buildings were blown away.
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| Anna waves
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| Grandma instructs
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The island was brown with all the trees having been stripped of limbs and leaves. Passing along the coast, the once green island looked like a massive jumble of match sticks poking from bare mountains scarred by long brown mudslides and dotted with bright blue tarps on village roofs. Normally no one goes hungry on this very poor island because of its very rich soil but Maria had blown away all the crops. Bananas, grapefruit, avocados and mangoes are all gone. Some ground crops which grow quickly had begun to come back but tree crops are still not there. Since Dominica exports to the entire chain, shortages were common north of Martinique. Everyone had a story to tell of their experience and seemed pleased that someone from outside wanted to hear it. "How did Maria treat you?" was answered by tales of the terrific noise , the dark and the fear. "How is your family?" was fortunately usually answered by "They're fine" (there was surprisingly little loss of life) "How is your house?" was usually met with a matter of fact "Oh, it's gone". All their possessions were blown away or rain-soaked and they were more concerned with how brown their beloved Island was. A hard working and resilient people.
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| Mouth of the Indian River |
Isle des Saintes, Guadeloupe is the next island group north. Although only 25 miles north of Dominica, it was not badly damaged and all seemed normal - aside from the lack of fruit and vegetables. This pattern held as we left Guadeloupe for Antigua. Antigua was chosen for its beaches as the site of our Christmas get together. Things seemed normal on Antigua but its sister island of Barbuda 30 miles to the north was scraped clean and all its inhabitants evacuated.
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| Up the Indian River (4 mo post Maria)
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| Indian River, Dominica
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Mostly we have been enjoying the French islands and shorter day sails. Its been fabulously windy. The Christmas winds set in early and are still blowing. Plenty of power available for projects and we are therefor enjoying new, periwinkle blue curtains. Queen Emma is looking quite good and we are content.
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| A content lizard
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| Martin (Providence)
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| Memories of Martin and Dominica
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| View from Calvary Hill Sainte Anne, Martinique
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| French attractions
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| Susie in the Saintes
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