Iles des Saintes

Thursday, May 16 - Monday, May 20, 2013

If you've never heard of "the Saintes" before, don't be too surprised. It's one of those tiny places that has no big resorts and few swimmable beaches, so it doesn't get much notice. Being only five miles from Guadeloupe at its closest point, most visitors to the Saintes are day-trippers ferried in from Guadeloupe's south coast...and a few cruisers. Just about any cruiser we've met who's been here absolutely loves it. The locals are friendly (and speak more English than in mainland Guadeloupe), there are tons of yummy spots to sample the local cuisine, and the anchorages are relatively calm and roll-free. Made up of a cluster of islands, the Saintes has only one real town known as Bourg des Saintes, situated on the island of Terre d'en Haut. Here is where you'll find groceries, internet, boutiques, and people-watching of all sorts. Leave the main anchorage in Bourge des Saintes, and you may find a few other boats enjoying the peace and quiet - but little else.

We certainly had a wild ride getting to the Saintes from Pigeon Island. The forecast called for 14 knot winds with 5-foot seas. Instead, we had 6 knots on the nose and oil-slick seas for the first 10 miles. As we approached the southern end of the island, Island Dream called us on the VHF to warn us of gusts near the point. We began getting knocked over by 25-30 knot gusts, and soon had 26 knots of sustained wind. Coupled with 6-8' seas and waves crashing in the cockpit, the short trip between mainland Guadaloupe and the Saints really wasn't what we bargained for!

We eventually arrived in the main passage and got a call on the radio from Pa'la O'la. Gary and Barbara had been hiking up to the Battery, and saw us come in. They gave us the run-down on the mooring balls (11 euros per night for a boat Pipe's size; required if you want to be in the harbor nearest town), and told us that Blackthorn Lady was also here - a great surprise since we'd expected them to leave for Dominica the day before. We found a mooring ball near our friends, and settled in for some lunch and wi-fi on the boat. An evening pass by Blackthorn Lady turned into an impromptu happy hour catch-up (thanks, Jackie & Ian!), so we never quite managed to make into town as planned.

Friday morning, the six of us rented mopeds to tour the island. The morning started off with more excitement than we really expected - or needed - when the employee in charge of getting our moped started it up, gunned the gas, and lost control of it. I (Stacy) had just come out of a store across the street, and managed to stop the rider-less moped with my leg. Ouch! After a few choice words from our party and an ice pack strapped to the goose egg on my shin, we mounted up for our tour. With "Blue Leader" Barbara in the lead, we made our way up to our first destination: Fort Napoleon.
Built in 1867, the fort is on a hilltop north of town. You can walk around the fort's perimeter for some spectacular views of the Saintes, Guadeloupe, and Marie Gallant. Inside, the fort holds a museum full of old photos, model ships, and stories of the Saintes' history. Fort Napoleon is well worth a visit to anyone coming to the islands. Fair warning, though: the cruising guide describes this as a relatively easy walk from the anchorage; in truth, it's on top of a very long, very steep hill. Just saying... :-)

The next stop on our moped tour was the Baie de Pompierre, a beautiful protected bay on the east side of Terre d'en Haut. With a small entrance and land nearly all around, the bay seemed like it would make a perfect anchorage for a few boats. Sadly for cruisers, the government decided that as this was one of the island's prime swimming beaches, Pompierre would be off-limits to marine traffic and all of the "pollution" boats bring.  (I know, fellow cruisers, I'm not EVEN going there.) Oh, well... You're welcome to visit the beach, whether by foot, by scooter, or by shuttles that pick up tourists from town. There are gazebos with picnic tables up and down the beach, and you can bring your own lunch or pick something up at a couple of roadside stands near the park entrance.

The rest of the day took us to every side of the island, with stops at Grand Anse on the east coast (no swimming allowed thanks to breaking waves and a dangerous riptide), Anse Rodrigue (beware of little brown "gifts" left by wandering goats) to the south, and an overlook at Pain a Sucre to the west. Lunch was an adventure in itself, thanks to our first try (the Yacht Club) being closed, and our second try (Case aux Epices) being much too pricey for our tastes. (25 euros for lunch?) We finally ended up at Le Mambo, a reasonable spot in town that has great breakfast and lunch but is particularly known for its pizza. We "settled" for some fantastic mahi mahi and goat curry, since the pizza ovens don't get lit until 7pm!

Our next couple of days were spent moored at Ilet a Cabrit, a deserted island less than a mile from the town anchorage. The mooring field was full thanks to a three-day holiday weekend (Whit Monday is a national holiday here...it's good to be French!), but we were able to grab the last available ball. This spot was perfect for some down time; there were no ferries, no shopping, and no internet. We enjoyed beautiful sunsets and even managed to do a few boat projects. We find we're much more productive when we don't have too many distractions!

We spent our last evening in the Saintes with Pat and Darnell on Island Dream, who had joined us after picking up Pat's cousin, Celest, in Guadeloupe. Darnell hosted a Mexican night potluck (one of our favorites!), which made prepping Pipe Muh Bligh MUCH easier for the 20-mile trip down to Portsmouth, Dominica.

On a different note, we've purchased a month of wi-fi from a company which has towers in the Saintes, Dominica, and a number of other ports down-island. It seems to be working well so far (hence so many new blogs), so we hope to post again from "the Nature Island", Dominica. Cheers!

Please enjoy more pictures of the Saintes here.

La Belle Guadeloupe

Monday, May 6 - Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Ahhh, Guadeloupe...what a lovely jewel of an island. Okay, so Guadeloupe is actually two distinct islands, shaped like the wings of a butterfly and separated by a narrow river between them. The western island, Basse Terre, is filled with spectacular rain forests, waterfalls, a gas-spewing volcano, and plenty of hiking opportunities. Grande Terre, the smaller of the two, is better known for its white sand beaches, rolling hills, and sugar cane fields. And the fact that the mountainous island is called "low land" and the flat one is called "large land"? Well, we'll just assume that had something to do with the French wine and local "rhum". :-)

As luck would have it, we arrived in Deshaies, Basse Terre's northernmost port of entry, in the middle of a downpour. (Why is it that whenever it rains, it happens when Rene is either dropping or raising the anchor? Poor guy!) We'd left Montserrat at 6:30am for the 38-mile passage to Guadeloupe. Winds were below 5 knots, and the sea was a giant oil slick. We had clear blue skies, other than the cluster of clouds that always seem to hover over the mountain peaks in this part of the world. Montserrat was no exception; we couldn't distinguish the rumored gas plumes from everyday clouds around Soufriere's peak as we passed along its eastern shore.
Regardless, there was no mistaking the volcano's active past; we could easily trace the ash flows along the hillside, along with the remnants of homes and businesses that had been destroyed by eruptions in 1995 and 2008. Even now, there remains a 2-mile maritime exclusion zone around the southern half of the island, and the only safe anchorage is at the north-western corner of the island. Still, we've been told that Montserrat's northern half is well worth a tour.

But back to Guadeloupe... One reason we were in such a hurry to get here was that we had a number of buddy boats we were anxious to see. We anchored next to Barbara and Gary on Pa'la O'la, who we hadn't seen since early in our stay in St.Martin. Two hours later, Anne Bonny did a fly-by as they arrived in the anchorage. We hadn't expected to see Chris, Denise, and Christian for a few days, and were thrilled about the early reunion.
We spent the next morning checking in (all online - got to love French customs & immigration) before wandering through town. Deshaies' claim to fame are its botanical gardens, which are said to be some of the most beautiful in the Caribbean. It was on our list of to-do's, but first we had one more "road trip" to make: John & Jolanda on JoHo were on the north side of Guadeloupe and would be leaving in a few days. We wanted to get up there to see them before we had to say goodbye again.

We, along with Anne Bonny, left Deshaies Wednesday morning for the 20-mile trip to Baie Mahault. The first half of the trip took us along Guadeloupe's lush coastline, while the second half led us into a protected bay surrounded by mangroves. We could see green pastureland above the shores of Grande Terre, giving us a glimpse of Guadeloupe's split personality. We were soon anchored next to JoHo; other than a couple of permanently-moored local boats, we had the bay to ourselves. Heaven! The first order of business? A celebratory beer on Anne Bonny. The second? Rental cars!
We'd expected to spend a couple of quiet days in the bay exploring the town and its river, but JoHo thought a tour of the island might be in order. What a perfect idea! Since Thursday was a holiday on the island, we focused our attention on the always-open national park.
We drove along Basse Terre's east coast and into the island's interior, where we hiked up to the second falls of the 350-foot Carbet Waterfalls.
Being in the heart of the island's rain forest, we enjoyed massive ferns, elephant ears, birds of paradise, and a thousand other tropical plants and flowers. After the hike to the falls, we followed a separate trail to the "cistern", which we thought would be one of the swimming ponds we'd read about. The 45-minute "medium" trail started out well, but a possible wrong turn (which is still up for debate!) soon had us grasping for tree roots and branches as we made our way up a 60-degree incline.
45 minutes later and still no sign of a cistern (but plenty of harsher terraine), John and Rene finally made the call to turn back. We were disappointed not to be lounging in a pool cooled by a falling waterfall just like in the travel brochures, but we had more exploring to do.
Back in the cars, we rounded the south coast going through Trois-Riviers ("three rivers") and Vieux-Fort (literally "old fort"), stopping long enough to see...you guessed it...the old fort. From there, it was lunch at a roadside family spot followed by more twisting roads up to Bains Jaunes ("yellow pools"?). On the plus side, this gave us our much-needed chance to cool off in a natural pool. The drawback? A sign warning of the possible presence of fatal ear- and nose-entering parasites if we put our heads under water. Oh, well...with only 100 cases per year worldwide, we took our chances and stayed in the pool...neck-deep!

The next day, we unanimously voted to have a lazy beach day. (Having been to Guadeloupe before, John and Jolanda knew how tired we'd be from the hikes and planned accordingly.) We crossed the river into Grande Terre and made our way through the capital city of Pointe-a-Pitre to Le Gosier on the south coast. We enjoyed gorgeous views to the water below, but even the stairs to the observation decks had our thighs and calves throbbing after the previous day's hike. (Note to self: you've got some work to do before you try those hashes in Grenada!)
Next up was a short drive to Sainte-Anne, a touristy spot filled with spice markets, souvenir stalls, and a beautiful white sand beach. The crystal blue water called our names, and we stayed so long that we ran out of time to go around the rest of the island. We finally packed up our gear in order to look for another beach and lunch further east, but eventually came right back to our new favorite spot at Sainte-Anne. By then, most of the lunch places were either closed or out of food, but we managed to find a boulangerie that still had fresh baguettes and a shop that sold rotisserie chicken. Our impromptu picnic was a hit as we sat on our beach towels, toes in the sand.

Saturday was a day of temporary goodbyes as Anne Bonny headed to Dominica and JoHo went back to work. Sunday we made the return trip down to Deshaies for another reunion: Island Dream finally arrived from Antigua! Pat and Darnell had had a fabulous time enjoying the parties, races, and camaraderie at the Antigua Classics Regatta while we dealt with our outboard issues (jealous? me?? ha!), so we were anxious to catch up with them again after nearly a month apart.
We hosted Mexican potluck night on Pipe with Island Dream and Pa'la O'la, and Pat and Darnell joined us the next morning as we left for Pigeon Island. After a couple of days snorkeling the Jacques Cousteau National Marine Park, it was finally time to leave mainland Guadeloupe for the Saintes. We plan to spend a few days there before moving on to Dominica. Dominica is supposed to be THE most beautiful island in all the Caribbean, with a hiking trail for every day of the year. Between that and the 4-5 buddy boats we're hoping to see again, it should be quite an adventure. Til next time...

Guadeloupe is such a beautiful island that we have more pictures than we could possibly fit in a blog. If you'd like to see more, please click here. 

Bye-Bye St. Martin, Hello Nevis!

Wednesday, May 1 - Sunday, May 5, 2013

We've done it! We've finally left St. Martin, which has been our longest-running anchorage second only to Luperon. As much as we loved St. Martin, we've been excited to get back into blue water (St. Martin's Simpson Bay Lagoon is perfectly protected from waves, but the water is a not-so-lovely greenish-brown) and explore some new islands in our own boat. We left through the 9am Dutch bridge in Sint Maarten on Stacy's birthday, and enjoyed a beautiful sail to St. Eustatius, a.k.a. Statia. Statia is supposed to be a gorgeous Dutch island, but we've also been warned that the anchorage is miserably rolly. Just imagine trying to sleep while your bed does 30-degree rolls from the left to the right. Oh, yes, and don't forget the sound of the mooring ball slamming into your boat at 2 o'clock in the morning as the wind dies. And here you thought sailing was all about what you see on glossy magazine covers!

Anyway, we were wide awake and rolling when the sun came up Thursday morning, so we dropped our mooring lines and motored the 35 miles from Statia to Nevis. With only 5 knots of wind on the nose, the waves were almost non-existent. Trust us - when you can do dishes, clean the galley, and take a shower on a crossing without getting queasy while down below, it's a good day! We arrived in Nevis around lunch time, and wandered into Charlestown to clear customs and immigration. After one of our most efficient clearings-in (Luperon, take note of these guys!), we walked around town to get our bearings. Happy hour found us at one of the thatched-roof beach bars, run by Patrick and frequented mostly by locals. (FYI: it's the first tiki hut south of the Four Seasons, outside of Lime Beach Bar.)
We wandered over to Sunshine's Bar, Nevis's version of Jost Van Dyke's Foxy's. Sunshine himself wasn't there, but we enjoyed one of his infamous "killer bees" (think "killer rum punch"). Sunshine's was actually the big draw for our going to Nevis, as Stacy had been there on a Windjammer cruise 16 years before. Just like Foxy's in the BVIs, Sunshine's has grown over the years thanks to its reputation among boaters and tourists. It's now the largest bar/restaurant at Pinney's beach, and you should really go just to "say you were there". Admittedly, there isn't much left of the cozy little beach bar with the picnic tables and sand floor from 16 years ago. If you want someplace to grab a cold beer, chat with the locals, and bury your toes in the sand, go pay a visit to Pat.

Saturday, it was time for some new scenery. We'd read about the Yachtsman's Grill, which our Doyle guide said was run by an ex-boater who was extremely friendly to cruisers. Best of all, it was supposed to have a POOL that we could use if we ate or drank there. Score!! We moved a mile or two up the coast to the next mooring field, and dinghied to the Nelson's Spring complex that had a beach-side pool resembling the one in the ad from the cruising guide. One problem...after hauling our nearly 200-pound dinghy up the beach and out of the surf, Rene went to make sure we were at the right place. Surprise! This was the place where the Yachtsman's Grill used to be...until it re-opened three months ago at its new location down the beach. No worries...we heaved the dink back into the surf, motored a half-mile down the beach, and went through the motions again. (Note to anyone coming to Nevis: the Yachtsman's Grill is in the southern complex amidst the new pale yellow condos...NOT the white ones with green roofs to the north.)
We wandered into the Grill, talked to waitress Tallah, and found that yes, they did still have a pool in the back for us to use; yes, they'd be happy to bring drinks to us poolside; and of course, we could even have lunch served at the pool if we preferred. It was official. We had died and gone to cruiser heaven! After staking out a couple of lounge chairs on the palm-covered island at the center of the pool, we waded in to meet Tallah and our cold bevvies at the other end. We then swam under the bridge that connected the "island" to the main walkway, and soon saw a familiar face: Hugh, a young fisherman from South Africa whom we'd met at Patrick's bar, was taking the Yachtsman's chef out to his truck to show him a couple of gorgeous mahi mahi's that he'd caught that morning. Mahi was soon added to the blackboard of lunch specials...talk about getting it straight from the sea to your table!

After lunch and some internet, the Yachtsman's owner, Greg, sat down with us for a chat. Greg has been in Nevis for a few years now, but spent a lot of time cruising the Leeward and Windward Islands prior to opening the restaurant. He grabbed a cruising guide from his shelf, and went about showing us some of his favorite anchorages and restaurants down-island. We really enjoyed talking to him, and have told him to expect a few of our cruising friends to come in for a visit over the next week or two. (You know who you are!)

As much as we wanted to stay a few more days in Nevis (I can't believe we're missing the Booby Island Race!), the weather dictated a hasty departure. We plan to stop in Montserrat overnight to break up the 70+ mile trip to Guadeloupe. Given the volcano's destruction of the southern half of the island, the only tenable anchorage is at the northwestern tip of Montserrat. Northerly swells are supposed to begin on Monday, meaning we have to be there and gone before then. We're already planning a longer return trip to Nevis after hurricane season, so we'll save our tour of the island and its inland beauty for next time. Cheers!

BTW, for those of you who think we spend too much time talking about good food, wine, and beach bars, you're probably right. Still, we have to give a special mention to the Lime Beach Bar behind Pat's tiki hut. A number of locals and tourists alike recommended it for dinner, and the Lime certainly lived up to its reputation. Their West Indies curried shrimp had just enough spice, and their jerk-glazed mahi mahi was perfectly cooked. Prices weren't unreasonable, and you could even enjoy the sunset before dinner from their roof-top seating area. For cruisers spending only a night or two in Nevis, it's tough deciding where to go for dinner. :-)

Feel free to view more pictures here.

Another Stroll Through St. Martin/Sint Maarten

February - April, 2013
So the gauntlet has been thrown down! A special thanks to Deana on Storyville for guilting me into blogging again. :-) She's called a few of us out for not writing much lately, so hopefully everyone will take her good-natured taunts to heart and get some posts out there. It's always fun to see what our friends have been up to, and other sailor's blogs provide both entertainment and useful tidbits to the rest of us out here on the water.


Yes, we're back in St. Martin/Sint Maarten, anchored on the (cheaper) French side and playing on the (safer, more fun) Dutch side. It's always good to come back here, where marine stores are plentiful and - thanks to an abundance of mega-yachts - supermarkets and wine shops offer anything you can imagine. Having missed the St. Martin Heineken Regatta last year due to weather, we made sure to give ourselves plenty of time and arrived in mid-February. We soon fell into the same routines as last year...showarmas at Little Jerusalem, where Abraham and Cathy greeted us like long-lost children; happy hours at Barnacles, where the bar staff may have changed, but was even better than ever; and the usual cruiser get-togethers for open mic night, musical jam sessions, flea markets, and the like. We planned to stay until mid-March, at which point we would head for Antigua and the next big regatta week. Oh, how plans are made in Jello!


First of all, a note about the Heineken Regatta. It's a great week of sailing during the day and partying at night. Our friend Runyon from Ghost came down to stay with Island Dream, and we spent most of our time watching the regatta with them. The five of us crammed into a tiny Hyundai and followed the yachts in the around-the-island race, stopping for an ooh-la-la picnic lunch of brie, foie gras, salami, and baguettes (and, of course, a bit of wine) on the French side. At night, we joined the revelers at the Heineken-sponsored parties. We still haven't figured out how the race teams can party all night and still manage to perform the next morning. Maybe that's why the races don't start until after 10am. :-)

The festivities continued a week later when friends and sailors-to-be, Damon and Marcie, came down to stay with Deana and Troy on Storyville. We always love to see them, and had a great time watching them fall effortlessly into the cruiser lifestyle. Living in a 300-square-foot space and obsessing about weather and water/energy usage - albeit in beautiful places - isn't for everyone, but Damon and Marcie will be perfect at it. (We promise, guys - we'll even have our guest room in working order the next time you visit!) The only downer to their visit was a break-in to our rental car while we were visiting Phillipsburg. Shame on us for not having downloaded the regatta pictures...or the pictures of the KLM 747 landing over Maho Beach (thank goodness Rene still has some on the big camera)...or any of the other 250 shots, ALL of which disappeared with our stolen camera. Damn thieves!

St. Martin also gave us an opportunity for some boat work. Rene did a complete reorganization of the lazarette and cabins while Stacy flew back to the States for a family visit. Sint Maarten Sails also did a fantastic job designing us a new bimini and dodger (it even matches up with our existing side panels - thank you!), and Darnell from Island Dream went above and beyond the call of friendship when she helped Rene clean the boat after a double bug-bomb that was supposed to (but didn't quite) rid us of some obnoxious powder post beetles in our walls. BTW, if anyone has any info on how to get rid of those little bastards once an for all...HELP!

So about leaving for the Antigua Classics Regatta... a few days before we left, we had our outboard serviced at Island Water World. We'd bought the engine there last year, and wanted to have it checked out before continuing down-island. Everything checked out fine, until it seized two days later. First we were told we'd blown a head-gasket, and oops, sorry, we were 11 days out of warranty. Crap!! Once they opened the engine up, however, they realized that we had much longer-term damage that indicated we may've had a leaky valve from the start. The shop fought with Nissan USA to treat it as a warranty issue; IWW wanted to give us a brand new engine, while Nissan wanted to re-build it. Multiple phone calls later, Nissan USA finally got on board with a new engine...only to be told by Nissan Japan (home office) that it wasn't going to happen. It took two weeks to come to a resolution, but we finally reached a compromise that got us a new engine and even a new warranty. A HUGE thank you to Brad (maintenance) and Erwin (store manager) at Island Water World for all their help. If not for their support and constant back-and-forth with Nissan, we would've been stuck having to pay full price for a new engine.

And now for the real excitement: once we leave St. Martin, we'll be in virgin territory as far as our boat is concerned. There will definitely be more pictures - and more blogging - as we travel down-island towards hurricane season in Grenada. Til next time...

For those of you going to St. Martin, here a few more of our favorite spots:
- The beach accessible from Barnacles: cross the street and keep walking west til you hit sand
- Maho Beach: always worth a trip to watch the KLM 747 fly in on TUE, FRI, & SUN
- Mark's Place: for melt-in-your-mouth ribs; in the parking lot of the Grande Marche between Simpson Bay & Phillipsburg
- Soggy Dollar Bar at Palapa Marina: for great mega-yacht watching and dollar beers
- Rancho: the Argentinian steakhouse next to Palapa, for a fantastic meal out
- Golden Apple: if you're dying for some good Chinese; cross the street at Barnacles, go straight to the next block & turn left
- Skip Jack's: for that extra-special seafood meal out, with its own dinghy dock just past the Dutch bridge

Feel free to enjoy more of our pictures of Sint Maarten and Carnival.

Lazy Bones Strikes Again!

February 8, 2013


Just call me "Lazybones"!

One of our goals when we first began cruising was to maintain a blog of our adventures for family and friends. We were actually pretty good about keeping it up during the first two years. I (Stacy) would write, and Rene would play photographer and photo-editor. We posted often enough to keep ourselves and our family happy, and friends would occasionally give us a friendly prod if we went too long between entries. Somehow, blogging began to fall by the wayside during our third year. We'd still post, but our posts might go out 2-3 months behind the actual event. We blamed it on bad wi-fi, spending six months in the same place, and maybe even too many happy hours...anything but laziness. Now that we're approaching our fourth anniversary of cruising, I decided it was about time to revisit our blog site. Know what? The last entry was for St. Martin in 2012. That was almost a YEAR ago. Where has the time gone, and what the heck have we been doing all year?? We've spent time in some gorgeous places with great friends, but somehow we a) have managed not to blog about ANY of it, and b) even worse, have taken almost NO pictures. Our friend Deana on Storyville has become the unofficial photographer of the group, and we keep telling ourselves we're going to get copies of her pictures. (Deana has also been blogging MUCH more regularly, so I often steer people to her blog to see what we're up to. Go to www.love2sail.blogspot.com for a great read!)

Besides the usual "eat better, exercise more" New Year's resolutions, I set two new ones: "use the four-year-old, never-been-used pressure cooker more often", and "start blogging again". I've done surprisingly well with the pressure cooker - how can you not like something that inspires more dinners with friends? (Keep in mind, most recipes call for 3-4 pound cuts of meat. Do Rene and I really want to eat corned beef and cabbage leftovers for a week?) The blogging, on the other hand...well, you get the idea. Sooo...here's a brief synopsis of life on Pipe Muh Bligh over the past nine to ten months. We're about to head into new territory (a.k.a. the Leeward and Windward Islands), so hopefully that will inspire me to post updates more often.

And if you want to see more photos or details of what we've been up to, you can always check out Storyville's blog. "-)

Pipe Muh Bligh's Top Five List, May 2012 - January 2013:

- A visit to Anegada, BVI: with a max elevation of only 28 feet, it's known as "the drowned island". Its breathtaking views...and exorbinant prices...made us feel more like we were in the Bahamas than the British Virgin Islands.

- A "highlights" tour of the BVIs: enjoying sundowners at White Bay in the shadow of the exclusive Peter Island Resort (after the real guests are gone, of course!); swimming along the picture perfect beach at Sandy Cay; trying not to lose our swimsuits at Jost Van Dyke's "Bubbly Pools"; and enjoying dinner at our favorite restaurant in the BVIs...Foxy's Taboo on JVD.


- A cruise around the Spanish Virgin Islands: technically part of Puerto Rico, the national wildlife refuge of Culabrita and her big sister, Culebra, offer great snorkeling and plenty of perfect beaches. Culebra's great if you're after good meals, fun bars, and a ferry to Puerto Rico. Culebrita is the place to be if you want...nothing. There's an old lighthouse at the top of the island, but that's it. No bars, no restaurants, no hotels, no grocery stores, NOTHING. With free mooring balls available to cruisers to protect the reefs, the Spanish VIs are a must-see!

- Yet another hurricane season in Luperon, Dominican Republic: catching up with old friends and making new ones; visiting S/V Sand Dollar's new home at 2500 feet; motorcycle rides along the coast; listening to Troy and friends play on Saturday nights at Jerry's; and, of course...Lifestyles, Lifestyles, Lifestyles! (At $12 per-person-per-day for a beachfront, all-inclusive resort, you really do have to go three times...)

- Downwind sails: what more can we say? Some people (including ourselves at times) thought we were crazy to go back to Luperon after making it as far south at St. Martin. After all, we were actually closer to that other hurricane hole, Grenada, than we were to the Dominican Republic. But still...being able to sail wing-and-wing with the wind instead of against it was incredible. It made all of the easting we've had to do since then worth it. (Well, almost!)

Cheers!