Saltair Afloat

Fun in the USVIs

Tue, 07 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

We had not planned to go to the USVIs, but after struggling to find good places for Saltair to anchor in the BVIs, we followed our buddy boat Happy Sees - Shannon, Ed, Everett (9) and Sierra (7) - to the USVIs and have been delighted by the natural beauty and wildlife diversity of St John.

Saint John is the smallest of the three main US Virgin Islands (Saint Thomas and St Croix are the other two). The United States purchased the U.S. Virgin Islands for $25 million from the Danish government In 1917, during the First World War. It was intended to prevent expansion of the German Empire into the Western Hemisphere

Most of the island’s coast is a National Park (Virgin Island National Park) and many bays have well maintained moorings that boats up to 60ft can use (for a nightly fee). At 57 ft Saltair is under the limit (whew) and there are not many other cruisers, allowing us to stay in many of the bays we read about and wanted to explore.

No anchoring and secure moorings in the NPS allows the seagrass and coral to thrive and the sea life has been amazing. Turtles with remora fish attached, schools of blue tangs, french angelfish, trunkfish, barracudas, squids, rays - including a spotted eagle ray - to name a few. We even spotted a sand shark lying in a deep valley. Some bays have a dinghy dock or some dinghy moorings close to the beach allowing us to go to shore to explore inland and hike.


The mongoose is actually not native to the Virgin Islands, but was brought here in the 1800s to control rat populations on sugar plantations	Sharksucker on a green turtle. A member of the Remora family, sharksuckers do not attach permanently, they scoot around easily. They are attached by a suction disc on their head. They eat ectoparasite on the shell of the turtle.Most turtles we have seen in the USVIs have at least one!	French angelfish - This is the first place we saw these underwater.

Our shore visits so far included Annaberg, a former sugar plantation exploited by danish settlers and worked by slaves, the NPS visitor center in Cruz bay where the kids took their oaths as junior rangers of the Virgin Island national park, the waterfall at Cinnamon Bay where petroglyphs and artifacts indicate a Taino presence on Saint John from about 700 to the late 15th century and Ram’s head trail.

Seth and Everett working on their underwater world junior ranger booklet

Seth, Everett and Sierra taking their oath as Junior Rangers of the Virgin Island National Park


Photographs of the signs in the NPS Visitor center in Cruz Bay

The wildlife is quite diverse and plentiful, wild donkeys, goats, deer, mongooses, birds, bees, lizards, iguanas, dragonflies, spiders. Vegetation was lush and tropical forest like on the Reef bay trail and stark and desert like on the Ram’s head trail with hundreds of cacti on the hillside.

A few pictures below from the Reef Bay Trail from Lameshur Bay, a 3 hours hike (in and out) to the waterfall and petroglyphs

Sandbox Tree, also known as possumwood, monkey no-climb, and dynamite tree because its fruits explode when ripe

These little lizards were not shy

Everett, Shannon,Sierra, Seth, Guillemette & Ed at the Waterfalls Sierra checking out the Taino petroglyphs

Hello!

See the little blue spider hanging out?

The bays in which moored have had beautiful turquoise water and little traffic. Seth, Everett and Sierra have been spending lots of time in the water, playing on Happy Sees pop-up dock (a large inflatable dock) or snorkeling. The boys accompanied Ed in some of his lobster hunts and were quite thrilled to find two lobsters, a small one that eventually got released and a very large one that ended up on the grill.

Lounging on the back of Happy Sees in great Lameshur Bay

Above: Ed grilling a large lobster, below: ready to eat

Saltair and Happy Sees in Lameshur Bay

In Saltpond bay the boys also went on a night snorkel with Ed and were a little spooked by the large tarpon fish following their lights. Their eyes glow in the dark and while completely harmless they are quite large.

Getting ready for the night snorkel. Thanks Ed!

Most nights we have dinner together or gather to play games. Coloretto, No Thanks, Code Names and Werewolf have been the most popular so far (Special thanks to Timo & Hilari for bringing some of these games onboard).

Here are some highlights from our hike to Ram's Head

Walking by the saltpond

Views of the bay from the trail

Turks Head Cactuses - it gets its name from its 'Red Top' as it resembles a turkish fez hat

The entire hill was covered by hundreds of Turk’s Cap Cactuses.

Growing on a rock on Ram’s Head Trail

Top of Ram’s Head Trail

On most hikes we find lots of treasures, we do not take any with us, just pictures! Here are a few of our favorites

Last picture is Shannon giving Seth a much needed little trim!

Operation Aquarius

Sun, 05 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

As part of my boatschooling, I was assigned some creative writing. This is what I came up with.

5532 meters under the sea lies the Aquarius undersea base, also known as the International Sea Station (ISS 2.0). Aboard are about 100 people from around the world, three families, and a load of submarines, ranging from the size of a fingernail to an airliner.

Everyone is doing their regular jobs; kids studying, scientists sciencing, commanders commanding, and engineers engineering. A perfectly normal day, until the loud boom. It wasn't actually that loud, but it was for the crew members of the ISS.

The kids heard clearly, while a few others heard it a bit less clearly. Since the base command tower is in the middle, Bob, the 53 year old Jamaican commander, was unaware until all the kids came rushing in. They all started talking at once: “there was a loud–the BOOM was not that loud–yeah but still” “everybody STOP!” said Bob, “Alysi, what exactly happened?” he says as he rushes over to the screen with the cameras. “We all heard a faint boom and rushed up here as soon as possible” Alysi explained as their teacher enters the room, panting.”Which direction did it come from?” Bob asks. “I don't know” Trestin, Salpha, Alysi, and James, respond all at once. Soon the scientists from the southern end came rushing in, doing the exact same thing as the kids.

“Found it!” exclaims Bob, “no, No, NO!”. “What is it?” says practically everybody in the room. “The O2 generator” says Trestin, as he had somehow slipped through the crowd and looked at the screen, “well, it's pretty much Apollo 13 all over again, except this time with negative altitude”. A few people laugh sarcastically at his dark humor, but most simply ignore him. “Yeah well your negative attitude combined with our negative attitude is gonna kill us all”, responds Alysi. “Alright everybody, let's get back to our stations before we kill ourselves dueling. I‘ll let you know what the plan is after I have discussed it with the second in command”, declares Bob,”oh! and try to stay calm”. To most people “try to stay calm” are a madman's words (especially when you are at risk of asphyxiation) but to the members of the ISS this means that they need to try to conserve oxygen by staying calm and breathing a bit less rapidly.

Soon everybody was back to their regular jobs, kids studying, scientist sciencing, commanders commanding, and engineers engineering. But it was no longer a normal day.

Everybody was waiting for the announcement that would save them. Everybody was hoping that they would get to be the hero. Everybody was hoping that the gym would reopen.The ones that weren't in the command tower, they were very, very well informed about what happened by their friends that were.

Soon Bob declared over the intercom that he and some of his fellow engineers would go in a sub to scope out the issue while everyone else was to continue their regular tasks.

When he left, the kids were there to say bye, as they had already finished their homework. They watched him board and depart. As soon as they were out of sight Trestin and Alysi dashed away to the cabins. Salpha, despite being the most recent to join the ISS, had found some shortcuts and realized where they were going, and was able to follow Trestin and Alysi. When she followed them inside Trestin’s cabin (after a good amount of convincing) she saw that they had his TV plugged into his laptop.

Trestin quickly turned it on, then opened an application labeled camerave. Once on the application, he selected three different devices: Bobby cam, Bobby bug, and Sub cam. They had set up cameras so that everyone could know if something had gone wrong! She would later realize that this was not actually the reason why. Soon they could hear and see everything that was happening to Bob. They learned that he had found a gap, that he had made it through to the next “level” as Trestin called it. As soon as they learned that he was stuck and needed a sub to look through a small gap, but didn’t know how small it needed to be to make it inside, Trestin took his laptop from the table and sent the link for “Bobby cam” to Bob and his sub crew via their version of messages named “Marine Messaging”.

They soon heard Bob and his companions chuckle and curse, saying “you tech Trestin! I know you can hear me and if you don’t respond about where you hid it so I can shove it in the hole I will be angry at you!!”. Trestin then plugs a microphone into the laptop and presses the “unmute” button. “For the record, Alysi hid it, and I did the rest, so you should really Marine Message her” Tristan says through the camera. Bob responds, “aaaand… What are the odds that she is with you along with James and Salpha?” “Fine,” admits Trestin, smirking. He hands the microphone over to Alysi, who says, “check your neck”. One of the few places that’s invisible to you when in a suit, your neck. Bob grumbles a bit about kids outsmarting engineers as he reaches up to grab the small camera. All they could see after that was the hole getting bigger and bigger until it engulfed the view from the camera. They could faintly see a sharp corner at the end, that could potentially lead to the generator. “We don’t have any drones that would work for that” explains Bob. “Well”, Trestin starts, “I could put a propeller on a snake drone and send it out on a cargo drone”. Bob responds, “go for it”.

The three of them rush to the robolab, one of the largest parts of the base, it has large cargo drones for carrying stuff outside, base carrier drones for carrying stuff around inside, snake drones that are small exploration drones, and regular exploration drones. There are many others but these are just a few. Trestin starts ordering them around, “Alysi, grab me a 500 RPM motor and a two millimeter prop. Salpha, you grab two red snakes, and one blue.” He says as he picks up a base carrier drone and sends it off to another part of the base. He clears out a workbench and grabs three pop out control fins and mounts them on the blue snake as well as the propeller and the motor. He grabs a cargo drone with a dropout bay underneath and puts the blue snake in. The base carrier drone he had sent off before now arrives with a big red box inside. Salpha and Alysi gasp, “explosives!”, They exclaim. “Oooh”, they say. Trestin was making explosive snakes to make the hole bigger! Once complete, he puts the red snakes in the red box and puts it inside the cargo drone. He also asks Salpha to grab a bigger and more capable exploration drone, putting that in the cargo drone too. He seals it up and puts it in the air lock, as Alysi grabs a remote and rushes to the control tower. Salpha and Trestin soon follow.

Bob asks for status and Trestin responds with, “Alysi is sending the cargo drone out. Once it arrives, it will drop four drones and four remotes. The blue remote will control the blue snake, the red ones will control the red snakes and the yellow will control the yellow exploration bot. The red and yellow drones are in the back of the cargo drone.” Bob replies, “why the red and yellow drones?—oh” he says as he looks inside the cargo drone and sees the big red box, “how did you get it?”. “I may have hacked one of the base carrier drones” replies Trestin with a mildly suggestive tone.

They can now see everything that’s happening (this time legally) from the control tower screens. Soon they see a small flash, followed by another a bit later, through the tower’s 360 windows. Bob soon requests a few more explosive snakes. Trestin tells Alysi to get a drone to send a load of explosives to the robolab and Salpha to grab some cargo bays, wind up propellers and nosecones.

Trestin and Salpha rush down again. Trestin grabs a massive cargo drone and assembles some explosive drones as Salpha puts them in the cargo drone as they come. Alysi takes command of the cargo drone from the command tower and sends it out. Soon, more booms resonate throughout the base and more people rush to the control tower. Alysi quickly says over the intercom, “everything is fine, we are exploding a path to the generator”. Trestin and Salpha soon come up again.

Bob says that “we built it too well”, the anti explosive metal was resisting the explosives (as it should) leaving only “a kid size hole”, as Bob called it. Salpha quickly responds, “kid size, you said it was kid sized”. Bob hesitates before responding, “ask your parents”.

Alysi calls the biggest base carrier drone, Salpha climbs in the back, while Trestin and Alysi climb into the sides. The drone lifts into the ducts above, and whisks them away to the engineer’s workshops, where their parents all worked. The parents all gathered, and discussed the matter thoroughly, “they might as well try”, one of them said. In the end they did say yes, hesitantly though and said that James, Salpha’s lazy big brother, should be informed. The drone soon took them back to the control tower to look at base cameras to see where James was, his cabin, playing video games on his laptop. As usual. They intercommed him with the speakers in his cabin, and laughed hysterically as he leapt into the air from sheer terror. Then he said, “of course I will come!”, slightly offended. They met him at the submarine bay where they suited up partially and grabbed some materials to take in the sub. Trestin quickly raced off to the robolab to grab some parts and made a robot that came with them. Once aboard, the sub raced off towards the Bob’s sub at full speed.

Bob greeted them from outside, “welcome to ground zero”. Looking at the wreckage, James went green, “I, I, I think I, I might stay, you know just to supervise, if you get what I mean”. “You mean you’re an underwater chicken”, Salpha replies. “N,n, no I just want to be the backup in case you, you mess up”. “Yeah right” says Trestin as he assembles a drone with underwater boosters, and power tools. “Alright! Let’s suit up” declares Alysi, as she puts on her fishbowl helmet, and her titanium exoskeleton. Trestin and Salpha soon join the skeleton fishbowl club as well.

The airlock opens and they all emerge with giant reinforced fishbowls on their heads. They use their boosters to propel themselves to the generator, and go through the first hole, then the second. When they made it through to the generator, they noticed that it worked, it was making bubbles! This wouldn’t be so hard after all! But when they looked up and saw that the roof was slowly rising from all the collecting bubbles, they decided to do this as quickly as possible. “Okay, all we need to do is connect it to the rest of the system. Looks like there was probably a clog in the pipe making the pressure rise and explode. The base end is there and the generator end is there, Salpha, can you go get some tubing?” “Sure” Alysi grabs a hacksaw and starts cutting the jagged part of the base end, while Trestin does the other one with an angle grinder.

Salpha comes back with the pipe and they cut it to size, mount it, and pack up.

On the way out, after they shove the tools inside the drone they had brought, and had confirmed with Bob that the O2 was online, a large piece of metal plating falls on Trestin. He starts to push up on it but can’t. He was stuck! “Help” he called to Alysi, who came back and grabbed an angle grinder and tried to cut at it. The blade was not sharp enough to make more than a scratch. Instead, they attached all of their boosters to the ends of the piece and turned them on. Slowly, the piece began to rise, soon Trestin was pulled out and they turned off the boosters. They then left and went back to the sub. But when the airlock slowly started to drain, Trestin's leg started to hurt more and more. When he stepped out into the inside, he collapsed from the pain. Salpha said “ he must have broken his leg!” Alysi tells the pilot to get back as soon as possible.

When they get back they load him into a base carrier drone and send him to the med bay.

“There”, the doctor says, “that it’ll take a few days to fully recover”. “I should have done my side of the cutting quicker!” Trestin exclaims, “otherwise the bubbles wouldnt have time to make the piece fall!”

The next day, the party began. There was cake, and even beer (for the grownups, obviously)!

When the kids were told to have the first slices, James stepped up first, thinking that they had meant him. Bob told him that he was going last, after all the grown ups, everybody started laughing. And he stormed away to his room to play video games.

The end!

RMS Rhone

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The RMS Rhone was a Royal Mail Service (RMS) steamer that sunk in the British Virgin Islands (BVIs) on the 19th of October, 1867, when hitting Black Rock Point, Salt Island. She was moored alongside the RMS Conway in Great Harbour, Peter Island (we are here now!). When the hurricane hit, they transferred passengers from the Conway to the “unsinkable” Rhone (sounds a bit Titanic, doesn’t it?). They both left the harbour to get to open seas, but the Rhone’s anchor got snagged on a coral head and cut away (we dropped a stern anchor last night, not quite sure how we would get it up. Fingers crossed it won’t join the Rhone’s anchor!). This small delay was enough to make the hurricane smash her against the rocks, leaving her there to this day. Yesterday, we stopped by Salt Island, and dinghied to the wreck to snorkle it. Turns out, its a massive ship. The propeller was about three and a half meters wide. That’s a bit more than twice my height!

Eclipse

Sun, 07 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The end of the world is coming for us all, and I thought I might write about it.

In 2044 there will be a total eclipse crossing the US. Not to mention the one tomorrow, April 8, 2024. YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS IT!

A solar eclipse is when the moon passes in front of a certain massive star that we orbit, making a shadow that you are hopefully inside of (if you guessed the sun, congratulations! You win the exclusive rest of this blog). There are two kinds, a partial eclipse (a partial sun covering), and a total eclipse (a total sun covering). The path of the total eclipse is called the path of totality. The umbra (sun covered part) is about 110 miles wide and in the shape of an oval.

If you are in the path of totality, YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS IT! It is a thrice in a lifetime experience. Your shadows will get really vivid and sharp. If you are standing under a tree, you might find crescents on the floor, and if it is cloudy, the clouds may disappear. You will get cold if you have no jacket.
BUT, that is only in a total eclipse. The sun will effectively turn off (over the course of an hour).
And if you are lucky, (uninformed) people might even start screaming. =)

Are you wondering, “what should I take to this marvellous experience?”
The answer; legs, arms, eyes, toes (you can leave your feet as long as you are wearing shoes), and hands.
Also you should bring eclipse glasses, Which you should only take off if in the case of a total eclipse, when you can only see the corona (not the beer, or the park. It is the sun's atmosphere). eclipse glasses protect you from harmful UV rays.
Another fun thing to do is to poke a hole in a paper plate or piece of cardboard and use it as a pinhole projector. Like the crescent trees, it will create a small shape of the sun on the ground.
This can be a substitute for the eclipse glasses.

The path of totality for the April 8 2024 sun covering phenomenon comes up through Mexico, enters the US via Texas, and exits through Maine, and ends up in northeast Canada.
For those of you in San Francisco, the eclipse will peak at 11:10 with 50% sun.
For those of you in scottsdale, the eclipse will peak at 11:20 with 70% sun.
For me in Sint Maarten, the eclipse will peak at 3:30 with 3.5% sun. =(

Click here to see when the eclipse will peak near you.
Click search in the top right corner, type in the city you are in, and click “moon and sun”, then, “eclipses”.

Disclaimer! Depending on where you are you might not even notice it so please do not be disappointed or blame Mr. S F Spiegel. Thank you for your cooperation, and for reading this blog.

Sint Maarten

Adam — Fri, 29 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

How do you write a blog update when you haven’t updated the blog in almost two months? Trying to answer that question is one of the reasons that I haven't written in so long. A few weeks became a month, which became two months. So much has happened. Fortunately, Guillemette and Seth have already shared some of the details. I’ll try to fill in a bit more here.

So what have we been up to? In a word… life. At this point we’ve fully embraced the cruising life. We’ve been on our own on board since our last visitors departed in late January. We hang out in an interesting place until we have a reason to move, which can be any of our sense of growing boredom with a place, coming changes in weather or a need for us to be somewhere to do something boat work-related. We’ve tried to spend time with other family boats and have grown close to a few families, but there is a certain transience to our life and we frequently find ourselves saying goodby to great people, not knowing if or when we will see them again.

Life has both good times and bad. On the not so fun side of life, we spent the first few weeks of March battling a pantry moth infestation. It started with a few random moths spotted somewhere in the boat but over time those spottings became more and more frequent. Eventually we realized that we had an infestation when we also started seeing the caterpillars and their cocoons. It became an instant biology lesson for Seth as he did the research for us as to how to eliminate them. We double bagged all of our dry goods and had daily cocoon-hunts. We even discovered a new use for our microwave oven – microwaving linens and dry packaged food to kill larvae and weevils! And we became quite adept at using the handheld vacuum to suck up moths mid-air. After a peak daily moth count of well over 30, with persistent bagging of food and cleaning of containers we were happy to find our daily count falling and we’ve been moth-free now for more than a week.

I am feeling grateful for the wonderful people that we’ve been able to spend time with and the interesting places and fun experiences that we’ve had along the way. Thank you to Valent and Epiphany, two other family boats. And when I think back about the past few months, some of my highlights were Dominica, Iles des Saintes in Guadeloupe, the Memorial ACTe (Museum of Enslaved Peoples) in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, Antigua’s English Harbor and Pigeon Island, and Saint Barths.

Boat work has been a continuing theme for us and has unfortunately driven much of our schedule. In February Saltair was hauled again by Hallberg-Rassy, this time in Martinique, for yet another attempt at repairing the seals on our rudder bearings. While the HR team was here, they also tackled a list of smaller warranty-related and even some non-warranty issues for us. The HR guys are boat-builders, not riggers, so unfortunately they weren’t able to tackle our rigging-related problems. To address those, we started speaking in early January with Stan Pearson, the legendary founder of Antigua Rigging and he spent several hours on the phone with us trying to diagnose the source of our mast noises. We had booked an early March date with him in Antigua, but when we arrived for this appointment we were shocked to learn that he had sadly passed away the week before. His team was in shock, as was much of the Caribbean sailing community. Given the complexity of our projects, we opted to move on and booked in with FKG Rigging in Sint Maarten for early April.

We were otherwise enjoying our time in Antigua but a coming change in the weather ended our time there. A cold front was forecast to pass north of the islands, causing a several day period of westerly and northwesterly winds. This was to make our 75 mile scheduled trip to Sint Maarten an upwind passage so rather than risk being late to our rigging appointment, we opted to head to Sint Maarten early and moved to a marina inside the Simpson Bay Lagoon. We’ll be in the Lagoon for about two weeks in total and are making good use of the dockside time, getting a lot of cleaning and other maintenance work done.

Our other continuing theme has been boat schooling with Seth. For us, schooling is a 3-4 hour block of time in the morning broken into roughly 45 minute sections taught by either me or Guillemette. We have school most days that we are stationary without off-boat plans, which practically means roughly 20 days per month, about the same as a regular school. We have been iterating on our teaching techniques since embarking on this adventure last June and seem to have recently found a reasonable approach, although we certainly have gained a more comprehensive appreciation for professional teachers.

I have been using the Khan Academy tools to teach English math and have recently started using their tools for physics and English. Guillemette uses a variety of tools to teach French, French math and a range of other topics. On the English math curriculum, Seth (a sixth grader) completed the 6th grade math curriculum in December and he is now roughly halfway through the 7th grade curriculum.

As I write this, it is my birthday today and I have been using the opportunity to reconnect with many friends and family that have been wishing me well throughout the day. This is a bittersweet birthday for me as it is the first without a greeting from my father, who passed away in December at the age of 94. My father was a huge part of my life and he had an outsized influence on me. He had a calm, steady demeanor and was the model of resilience, never complaining and always finding the opportunity to laugh and enjoy life, even in the face of increasing physical discomfort as he got older. He was a self-made man, finding professional and financial success as a menswear executive, a career that started in his early 30’s. Not bad for a guy who dropped out of college at nineteen. I was incredibly proud of him. He was an awesome father to my brother and I and a wonderful grandfather to Seth. I think of him often and miss him dearly.

We’ll be in Sint Maarten for the next few weeks, hoping to get our outstanding warranty work list reduced somewhat. Then we’re off to the BVIs for a bit, before returning to Sint Maarten in mid May, when we will take on two new sailing friends for our trip to Newport. We’ll spend the summer in New England — hopefully lots of time in Maine — before we work our way down to Annapolis in September and then back to the Caribbean in November. We’re still planning on crossing the Pacific next year, picking up from our plans from last year.

We take so many photos… here are a few of my favorites from the past few months.

Fun day exploring Marie-Galant, a small island off of Guadaloupe, by rental car.

Bouillante and Pigeon Island, Guadaloupe.

Iles des Saintes, with Guadaloupe on the horizon in the background. From Fort Josephine.

Fun hike up to the old watch tower with the Valent and Epiphany crew!

Game night!

Hike to Pompierre Beach

Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadaloupe. Memorial ACTe with Saltair at anchor out in front.

Guillemette working her vegetable-buying magic in the Pointe-a-Pitre market.

Beautiful botanical garden in Deshaies, Guadeloupe.

Saltair sitting pretty off the beach north of Deshaies.

For those sailing geeks... we think we've found a good solution to our downwind sail challanges (see our January blog post). We've spliced a low friction ring into our pole foreguy which allows us to effectively sheet our genoa when sailing wing-on-wing. We had a good test sail on the downwind run from Antigua to Sint Maarten.

One of our pantry moth friends...

Warming up on a hot teak deck after a swim!

Even after you bring the boy to the beach, he tries to bring the beach to the boat!

Nonsuch Bay, Antigua

Lots of beautiful hardware in Falmouth Harbor, Antigua

Jolly Harbor, Antigua

A fond farewell from the crew of Valent as we left them in Jolly Harbor, Antigua

We miss you dad!

Marie Galante, Les Saintes & Guadeloupe

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Our title is a bit misleading as Marie Galante and Les Saintes are dependencies of Guadeloupe administratively. They are however very distinct islands and each worth a visit.

We sailed to Marie Galante from Dominica and anchored in Saint Louis, a lovely bay in front of one of the three towns on Marie’s Galante, Saint Louis, Grand Bourg and Capesterre. Nicknamed “la grande galette” for its roundish and very squat shape, Marie Galante is small enough to explore in a day. Like most places, one could stay in each bay or area and explore a lot more but we really enjoyed our one day drive around this very green agricultural island full of sugarcane fields and home to three rum distilleries. We toured one of the three working distillery ‘Habitation Bellevue’, had a delicious lunch at Dantana Cafe in front of the beautiful Capesterre beach and visited ‘Habitation Murat’ a former sugar plantation turned into an Arts and Popular Traditions ecomuseum which brings together three centuries of Guadeloupe sugar history during colonial times.

Highlights from Marie Galante

Lots of Bromeliads growing on trees in Marie Galante.

Habitation Murat - Outdoor Medicinal Garden - Note the garden itself is poorly kept but the sign was very interesting.

Seth next to a wood scooter. Toys have come a long way.

Dantana Cafe

Seth donated to the school fundraiser for a trip to neighborhing island Dominica

Farm worker just unloaded his load of sugarcane at distillery Bellevue - his tractor is still on the scale (see below) and the empty weight is on the upper right corner of the picture above. A couple sugar canes from his load were pressed to be tested for sweetness . Based on the quality the price per lbs will be set. He is waiting to be paid.

Pressing a sample of sugarcane below.

Checking the vats

School safety! Slow down!

Le trou du Diable (above) and a sugracane field (below)

Our next stop was ‘Les Saintes’, a real ‘coup de cœur’, probably one of our favorite stops this winter. Unlike its flat neighbor there are lots of small peaks and valleys and magnificent views and vegetation. Goats and roosters roam everywhere and you can hear them all day! Valent and Epiphany joined in the fun exploration of Fort Josephine (ruins) , Fort Napoleon (great museum) and the hike to the highest point, Le Chameau. We spent several nights there, initially on a mooring in front of town and then in the little bay by the ‘pain de sucre’ which was more protected for the conditions.

Sunrise in Les Saintes

Spectalular View of the Island from 'Le Chameau'

Hiking with Happy Kids from Saltair, Valent and Epiphany after the rain stopped
Cute baby goats at Le Chameau, the highest point on the island - 309m/1004ft
Views (above and below) from Fort Napoleon

Beach landing at the base of the trail to Fort Josephine

We reluctantly left Les Saintes to make our way North. A one night stop in Point A Pitre was plenty of time to do a little shopping. Adam found a guitar and we replenished our fresh produce at the colorful outdoor market.

We also visited ‘Memorial ACTe’, a Contemporary museum offering historical exhibits on the Caribbean's slave trade & indigenous people. The visit is guided by an audio tour and interspersed with contemporary art. Devices and photos are discouraged to allow for a focused experience. Highly recommended.

Our next stops were along the western coast of the island, one night in Bouillante with a quick swim in the ‘hot spring river’, followed by a few nights at Maladendure Beach near the underwater Cousteau Reserve at Pigeon Island. Fantastic snorkeling, great sundowner on the beach with a family kids of similar age to Seth and a delicious meal at Cht'i Gwada with the Valent crew. The food was excellent and we enjoyed chatting with the owner, a Frenchman who had spent 10 years in London before opening his own place.

Our last stop in Guadeloupe was Deshaies, a beautiful sheltered bay. Unfortunately (or maybe not) the anchorage was extremely crowded and for the first time we could not find a good spot for us. We ventured to the next bay north, Grande Anse, a long white sand beach with palm trees and turquoise waters…it was completely deserted and we anchored in this beautiful setting right off the beach. From there it was about a 10 min dinghy ride to Deshaies. The highlight for us were the botanical gardens tough many visitors come to see it as it is the filming location of the British show ‘Death in Paradise’
Lorikeet Parrots.

Next Stop: Antigua.

Dominica part two - The Boiling Lake Hike

Guillemette — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

After our first long day of hiking and swimming we were all a little tired and sore when we gathered bright and early at 7am for the iconic hike to the Boiling Lake. Kids were particularly quiet in the van as we drove back to Titou Gorge, the start of the hike. We were prepared for this 8 mile, 3000 ft altitude gain challenge with lots of water, snacks, a packed lunch and our 'swimming costumes’ as the British say.

Our local tour guide is very well known and liked in the sailing community. His name is Octavius Lugay, but like other yacht helpers sometimes referred to as ‘boat boys’ who assist sailors with moorings, diesel, ice, and tours on the Caribbean islands. He goes by the nickname ‘Sea Cat’. Over time, his success has allowed him to expand his business to hire a few people to help on the water while he takes his customers on tours. He shared the story of his nickname which I really like, since I’m bilingual: Octavius led first to Octopus then to ‘Chatrou’ the local name for octopus. ‘Chatrou’ sounded like ‘chat d’eau’ (Cat of the Sea) in Creole and eventually became Sea Cat. His logo reflects the history of his nickname. One of his daughters, Chelsea, who is starting to work with him in the business, accompanied us on the hike.

The first section of the Boiling Lake trail was relatively easy going, hiking through a tropical rainforest of tree ferns (7 types of tree ferns can be found) and thick greenery. log steps were embedded into the trail to help get a better grip on the muddy ground. The trail slowly gained altitude and we had a chance to look down into Titou Gorge as we passed by. Our first rest stop was aptly named “Breakfast River” where Octavius pulled out some bananas and the kids explored a little. From there the going was definitely going to get tougher: The next section of the hike was quite a climb to the top of Morne Nicholls at an altitude of 3,168 feet where a small landing “the circle” provided a welcome rest and spectacular views. Chelsea pulled out some delicious homemade juice which rekindled our bodies and spirits. I have to admit I was starting to wonder what I had gotten myself into.
From the top you can see for miles in every direction. The clouds of steam from the boiling lake in the distance, the forest and peaks of Morne Trois Pitons National Park – a UNESCO World Heritage Site – and the Valley of Desolation just below, where we were headed next.
Resting at the circle - from left to right : Chelsea, Octavius, Suzie, Abi, Matt, Seth, Lucy, Sophie, Lydia, Freya, Guillemette, Will and Adam.
Desolation valley is right around the corner….can you spot Seth,the little blue dot near the bottom?
Scrambling down
Vegetation is giving way to the landscape of desolation valley
After descending what felt like thousands of stairs, we reached the hardest obstacle yet – steep drop-offs down muddy banks to reach the Valley of Desolation. As Adam said, had we not had a guide we would never have imagined the path we took to be the trail! As we descended into the valley, vegetation gave way to volcanic rocks and steaming rivers. The acrid smell of sulfur was everywhere. While we scrambled down under Chelsea’s guidance, Octavius had gone ahead and set a bag of eggs to boil into one of the holes…. Nice touch and great snack! Most of us applied mud masks to our faces.
Hard boiled eggs
Chelsea applying mud to Freya’s face
Seth’s face mask

Desolation Valley is an ever changing landscape. We had to be particularly careful crossing the valley. The air around the area is hot, steamy and moist, vapor and gas escape from bubbling and boiling sulfur-water pots, small geysers, cracks and holes, and a small stream that runs through and beneath the terrain. Tiny invisible sprays of steam could easily burn an ankle or foot…
Crossing a boiling stream

The beauty and eeriness of the landscape was fascinating and I almost forgot my weariness as we approached the last section before reaching the lake.
Dark green moss next to the whitish stream.

From Desolation Valley you can see the steam from the boiling lake just beyond the next morne, but that last stretch required a lot more scrambling up and down rocks, streams, ridges and waterfalls. Some areas had ropes to help hikers navigate particularly steep rock scrambles. We passed a couple waterfalls, but chose to save the swimming for the return trip.
When we finally reached our destination, the trail opened onto a wide ledge about 100 feet directly above the lake where we could rest and have lunch.

The lake rests at the bottom of a large sinkhole-like basin. It is a flooded fumarole, located in the vicinity of a volcano, which emits steam and gasses escaping from molten magma below. High rock walls surround and create the basin. The lake's grayish-blue water is easily viewed in its perpetual rolling-boil state which looks like a giant pot of water cooking and steaming on a stove. The basin's water is replenished by rainfall and two small streams which drain into the area. The water then seeps down to the magma and is heated to the boiling point.

After lunch and some rest it was time to start the long hike back. I was very impressed with Sophie (and all the other kids) who had memorized and nicknamed the different parts of the hike: the cavern, the eggs, the mud, the hard part, the thousands steps, the circle, Breakfast River, the big step, the natural AC (at the ridge where wind and shade cooled us off). Breaking it down into smaller chunks made it sound more manageable! We stopped a number of times to rest and swim in different waterfall pools.
Swim in the “Cold” pool. Unlike its name suggests it was pretty warm and great for sore muscles!
Seth climbing up the waterfall to the hot pool “the Cavern”. Water was hot tub warm!
Kids hanging out in the “Cavern”

When we finally arrived back at Titou Gorge after a long day we gladly went for a swim in the cool water. This was probably one of the most difficult hikes we have done between the terrain, the elevation change (close to 2400 ft), and the length (about 9 hours including stops) but it is also one of the most interesting and rewarding as well. Doing it as a group was really special as we were able to talk and share with different members of the group and we encouraged each other during our tired moments. The kids, ranging from 7 to 12 were bounding ahead most of the time and had a really great time. While adults rested during our stops, kids kept exploring, swimming and climbing!

Dominica, a hiker’s paradise - part one

Guillemette — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

We left Martinique on February 20th to take advantage of the wind and had a beautiful sail north to Dominica. Wind on the beam, 12 to 18 knots, calm sea… Saltair sailed happily.

Upon arrival in Roseau, we picked up one of the last moorings maintained by Sea Cat which unfortunately was a little too close to shore. The bay is very deep with a sharp shelf and anchoring options are limited. The night was very calm and we were able to move to a different mooring the next morning. The anchorage was not particularly nice, someone was burning trash nearby and the acrid smell lingered all night and was very unpleasant. To make the matter worse we were swarmed by mosquitoes at dusk and had to close up the boat quickly.

In contrast, we had an amazing time ashore, we reunited with two other family boats, SV Epiphany and SV Valent, and packed in a lot of hiking together. The first day, after checking in, we walked around Roseau, the capital of the commonwealth of Dominica. Roseau is still recovering from hurricane Maria in 2017 as evidenced by the many rundown buildings. Signs of economic improvements are seen downtown where the cruise ship terminal has modern docking and waterfront facilities. Cruise ship stopovers have increased and Dominica is emerging again as an attractive ecotourism destination thanks to its abundant mountains, rainforests, freshwater lakes, hot springs, waterfalls, and diving spots. As we walked by the cruise terminal, where a massive ship was docked we had a nice chat with one of the local tour guides, “Majestic”, a mother/son team trying to get some extra business. By the time cruise ships arrive, most people are already signed up for tours but local guides still gather in the hopes to find a last minute client. She was really hoping to have us as clients but we had already scheduled tours with Sea Cat, our boat boy. Feels weird to call Sea Cat a boat boy as he is approaching 60.

The crew in the botanical gardens

We wrapped up the evening with a walk through the botanical gardens and up Jack’s Walk, a steep and winding half-mile trail to the top of Morne Bruce. Despite the extensive damage to the gardens from Hurricane Maria, there are still some mature banyan trees, century palms, an impressive baobab tree and colorful bushes. In the late afternoon many locals were enjoying the park, some sitting on benches, some playing cricket and many others working out on Jack’s walk. A small group of women was training together, reminding me of my little workout team back home. As we slowly climbed to the top many islanders were running up and down the steep trail.

Sign at the top of Jack’s Walk - excerpt: “The path leading up the cliff from the botanic gardens to morne Bruce is called Jack’s Walk. It was a shortcut for soldiers going to and from Roseau and their barracks on the Morne Bruce Garrison. It was named after the British flag, the flag of the United Kingdom, the Union Jack, which flew from a large flagpole on this site. [...]. To enter [...] from this side a soldier would walk past the Jack hance the name.

Suzie and Abi

Beautiful flowering trees in the botanical gardens.

The next day we met Octavius, known as Sea Cat on his dinghy dock at 8am for our first day of touring the island. Eleven of us settled in the minivan on the way to Middleham Falls, our first waterfall hike of the day. We made quite a few stops to either buy or pick up (literally off trees and bushes) some local goods. We drank some fresh coconut water and scooped some of the jelly inside, sucked cacao beans, smelled ginger, turmeric, lemongrass and cinnamon and tasted local chocolate. Sophie (SV Valent) drinking the fresh coconut milkLucy (SV Valent) showing the inside of the cocoa pod. You can suck on the flesh surrounding the beans but don’t eat the beans, they need to be roasted first.Adam with the last crumbs of chocolate. Not surprisingly as the kids descended on it before I could get my camera out!

Once on the trail to Middleham Falls, a two hour hike, Octavius pointed out ferns, trees, lianes and flowers. Particularly interesting were the blue wax flowers, wild coffee and wild tobacco with its very large leaves. In the rainforest where the ground is mostly compost, trees send out air roots and buttress roots to help the tree grow tall in wet soil and windy areas. The kids had fun hiding behind some of the very large buttress roots! At the end of the trail was the waterfall which can be viewed from a wooden platform. We changed into our ‘bathing costumes’ and went for a refreshing swim. It was still early in the day and we had the pools to ourselves. Back at the trailhead, Octavius cut up some passion fruit in half and added some brown sugar for a sweet tangy treat.Swimming in the pool at Middleham FallsOctavius preparing the passion fruit treats

Next stop was Titou Gorge, made popular by the movie ‘Pirates of the Caribbeans’. Titou Gorge is actually a short swim to the base of a waterfall through a series of natural "rooms and ponds". The undulating sides of this deep, narrow gorge were formed as molten lava cooled and split apart. Light filters down the high cliff walls making it particularly scenic. If you’re curious about where in Pirates of the Caribbeans you can find Titou Gorge scenes, watch the second movie in the franchise- Dead Man’s Chest. Captain Jack Sparrow himself tumbles down the gorge in a cage made of vines.

Adam floating in Titou Gorge. You can see how deep and narrow it is.

We picked a shaded riverbed for our lunch stop before driving to Boeri Lake, one of two freshwater lakes in the Morne Trois Pitons National Park, "Boeri" is Dominica's second largest lake and is located at about 2,800 ft elevation, in the crater of an old volcano. Octavius dropped us off at the base of a steep ridge trail going through and above the cloud forest, a small section of the ‘Chemin L’Etang’ trail. Views and vegetation were spectacular. This section of the trail was quite steep thankfully it is well maintained with lots of steps and rope railings as it ascends and descends sharply. It was quite the warm up for the next day! Each step took concentration and we had to keep reminding ourselves to look around at the luscious vegetation. I particularly enjoyed all the bromeliads on the trees.
Kids eating lunch perched on rocks in the river.
Impressive ridge trail above Lake BoeriMatt (SV Epiphany) and Adam on the trail

We finished the day at Trafalgar Falls, the famous twin waterfalls. We arrived late afternoon after most visitors were gone and had the place almost to ourselves. Most of the group climbed up the left waterfall to a hot water pool and Octavius coaxed a couple to climb even higher. It was not for the faint of heart. Little did we know that the hydroelectric plant was being worked on and that the water level and current was much higher than usual making the hike to the hot springs a lot more challenging.
Clambering the rocks to go up to the hot spring. Coming back down was even more treacherous!

By the time we cleaned up and met for dinner we were all wondering how tired and sore we would feel the next day as we had already scheduled the Boiling Lake hike for the following day and had a rendez-vous at the dock at 7am.

Next Blog - Part two - The Boiling Lake Hike

Saint Pierre, Martinique

Guillemette — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

We spent a couple days in Saint Pierre, Martinique before heading to Dominica. The history is really interesting and we wish we had a little more time to spend in the science museum before we had to head out to catch a good weather window.

Late afternoon arrival in the Bay of St Pierre (Rade de St Pierre)

Saint Pierre, in the North of the island used to be an important trading and cultural center, sometimes called 'the little Paris". The entire town and its inhabitants were wiped out in 90 seconds during the volcanic eruption of Mount Pelée on May 8, 1902. Out of around forty ships anchored in the bay, only the Roddan escaped the pyroclastic flows. In the city, an estimated 28,000 people perished, with only 2 survivors. What did not get destroyed during the eruption was burned in the ensuing days.

Ruins, a rooster and very large leaf.

Today it is a small touristic town with interesting ruins, the old fort, the jail where the prisoner Cyparis survived and the theater and a couple museums, the 'Memorial de la Catastrophe de 1902", newly restored in 2019 and worth the visit and the CDS, "Centre de Decouverte des Sciences de la Terre". We visited the latter on a Tuesday when a government team was educating visitors on the local risks, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and the measures one should take.

Great museum with a good self paced audio tour (included in the admission). Audio tour offers 3 levels of narrative: 100 level for children, 200 level for artifact description and 300 as testimonies. Very innovative.

The Science museum is about a 20 minute walk from the center of town. The film is really well done!

An entire exhibition dedicated to puzzles! We will be back next year!

While we are quite familiar with earthquake preparedness as residents of San Francisco, we learned more about the Caribbean plate motion (subduction) and its impact in the region.

We learned a lot from the almost hour long film at the museum, both on the volcanic eruption of 1902 and the volcanic formation of the islands . The next island to be added will be near Grenada where Kick'em 'Jenny, an active submarine volcano continues to rise slowly. Note that we went close to Kick'em Jenny and noted the 1.5km exclusion zone on our charts!

On the walk back through some ruins we saw a beautiful cat...

One more cat picture....

Final sunset on the way back to the boat

Seven Sisters Hike - Grenada - written by Seth

Saltair — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The seven sisters waterfall is an iconic piece of Grenada. From the drive up the mountains to its wonderful spices and bathing it is definitely a must do.

The drive to the seven sisters is always a challenging and rewarding experience. First you need to call a local cab driver that will take you there without a moment of bad music while telling you about the island. Then you have to negotiate the price of your 45 minute rollercoaster. It’s not very far, but it sure is steep and windy, making it a long drive. the worthy destination at the end cancels the pain of the journey.

If you get one of the amazing guide you will learn about all of the local spices and sample the smells of the famous spice island. Just beware of the mud patches after it rains.

When you finally arrive at this paradise you’ll be glad you brought your bathing suit. As you wade into the freezing cold water your body will go numb, and as you get closer to the torrential downpour of water, you will find increasingly more powerful current to swim against. And if you are brave enough (I wasn’t) you’ll be pounded and potentially bruised by the waterfall. All in all swimming in the falls is a fun experience that most people will love.

In conclusion, the Seven Sisters waterfall hike is a very fun and educational experience for all ages that you will certainly enjoy and learn about the amazing spices of the famous spice island.