Day 24: Les Saintes to Guadeloupe

So today is our 24th day on the boat.  We are headed back toward Antigua and intend to give ourselves a little cushion time so that we can get the boat back on Friday at noon.

Last night we had the worst storms of our trip yet.  They say they don't really get thunder and lightening storms in the Caribbean, just rain.  But about 3 am this morning it was lightening, thundering, blowing, whipping and raining like crazy.  It was more than a bit unnerving to realize you are a lightening rod in the middle of the bay.  Mom, Linz and I were all awake because Lindsay was pretty scared and water was leaking through my hatch onto my head, making it a tad difficult to sleep.  It got pretty stuffy inside, too, with all of the hatches and doors closed.

We have a canvas Bimini that leaks when it rains.  It collects water to a point, then dumps it all over the side onto the hulls with a loud crash.  When you are sleeping underneath in the hulls, it sounds like elephants parachuting onto the boat.

It rained for hours.  The sun comes up about 5:30 and it was still storming.  About 6:30 Dad decided to make good use of the fresh water and started brushing off the deck.  It gets covered with salt water and is very slippery.  And it also gets kind of a white haze all over the windows (like cars do up north from salting the roads in winter), so we need to clean it with fresh water now and then.  Good use of resources.

When he finished, he got out the lemon joy and showered in the rain on the back of the boat.  Thankfully he kept his shorts on - no naked guys allowed on Raindrops!!!

Mom, Linz and Grant headed ashore to buy  pain chocolat,  jambon et frommage sandwiches, rhum, et provisions (that just means groceries).  This is probably the last time we stock up on food.  I got a few more hours of sleep and updated our blog.  :-)

We had a great sail across to Guadeloupe.   We saw lots of flying fish which are incredible to watch.  Unfortunately they are so hard to catch on video.  They seem to come out more in the big waves and the camera can't find their gray bodies against the moving water. 

Wind was consistently about 16 knots all the way to Guadeloupe.  Usually when we come on the Lee side of an island the wind drops because the land is blocking it.  But for some reason, today the winds started gushing around the southwest peak of Guadeloupe and we had 30 knot winds.  It was kind of like the effect you get in Chicago between all of the tall buildings and feel like you are getting whisked away.  This was all just in time to pull into the little narrow channel of the Basseterre marina.  Thank God we didn't try this on day 2 or 3.  It was crazy, but Dad drove the boat like an expert and we made it safely to the little fuel dock aside the huge boulders with crashing waves.

We pulled into Basseterre marina to fill up on water - yea!  Water is something we seriously take for granted at home.  It will be so weird to let the water just run while we soap up and wash our hair.  Hmmm.

As I write this we are headed either back to Pigeon or onto Deshaies.  The wind has almost vanished.  It had been a strange wind day.

Some people asked us to post pictures of inside Raindrops.  So I'll try to post some here.(Salon with nav charts, navigation station, kitchen, girls' berth, Grant's man cave, Mom & Dad's berth & their storage, bench and head).

Day 23: Ilet de Cabrit, Les Saintes

This morning, we snorkeled around our boat. There was a very cool reef not too far from us. We saw tons of starfish that lined the ocean floor - and even held one!  We saw 2 spotted moray eels swimming in and out of the rocks and coral.  Dad got them on his underwater video camera which was pretty cool.  There were lots of other species of fish.  We used to get all excited about seeing "Dori" from Finding Nemo but now they've become commonplace.   We were saying the same thing about the beauty of the islands, too - we are starting to take it for granted.

We pretty much hung out, read, slept, and had a lazy afternoon.  Mom and Dad went ashore and hiked to the top to see Fort Josephine which is appropriately just across the water from Fort Napoleon that we visited last week in Terre de Haut.  After it was used as a fort, the French used it for some time as a women's prison.   It is all in ruins now and they don't even have tours or anything.  The only thing Mom and Dad saw on their hike were a bunch of goats, lizards and hermit crabs, but great views of the islands from the top.

Lindsay and Grant went ashore and met the pottery guy, Erik, the only person who lives on the island.  There must be a story with him somewhere, but we don't know what it is.  He was super nice.  He makes masks from local clay and he lets kids make little pots on the pottery wheel.  He painted Grant and Lindsay.  Sounds a bit creepy, I know, but it was pretty cool.

Last night turned out to be really windy and gusty in this anchorage, so we decided to head across the bay back to Terre de Haut for the night.  That will put us in good shape to hit the French bakery first thing in the morning before we head North to Guadeloupe!

On our way over, a big gust blew Mom's favorite Steamboat hat into the ocean.  It is amazing how quickly it disappears in the big waves.  It was like a man overboard drill - Dad turned the boat around and we all kept pointing at it until we got close enough to grab it.  Grant dove in, got Mom's hat and saved the day.

When we got to Terre de Haut we realized our friends from Four Winds (the Catana boat with little Nino) were there.  Everyone else went over there for a visit and enjoyed seeing the layout of their boat.  It is fun to dream about what we like best in hopes that we may someday get a boat of our own (at least Mom and Dad like to dream).  I stayed with our boat to let the engines run and batteries charge.

We had dinner at a great place called "Restaurant".  Ha, ha - seriously, we looked everywhere for the name and that's all it said on the outside sign.  It was a great local place right on the water.  The waves were so choppy, we thought for sure we would get doused before our meal was over.  Mom and Dad ate some kind of local fish, a fried banana thing and some kind of potatoes.   We kids had ribs, salad and fries - the first time we've had fries since we hiked the Quill in Statia.   They were awesome.  But we also realized that we need to stop eating them so often at home!  Our waiter was great and was excited to try to practice his English on us.  He wants to go to the music festival in Austin, Texas (whatever that is).  To him Texas / Georgia - same thing.  Mom kept making us order in French and say please and thank you - but we finally convinced her that we were helping him by speaking English.  You would have thought we were painted blue or something - the other people in the restaurant were so excited that we were Americans and kept telling everyone else in the place we were from "Georgie". 

We got home for the night just as the waves and wind were picking up even more, so we were glad to be back to the boat for the night.

Day 22: Dominica to Ilet Des Cabrits, Les Saintes

Today we sailed back to the Saintes, but we sailed to a different place than before. The sail was only about 2 and a half hours. We hit our top speed of 15.3 knots. We moored at a small island that only has one permanent habitant. Apparently, this guy makes pottery. The beach was very nice and covered with day sailors from the main island.

We had a scarring experience. You know that Friends episode where they watch the Ugly Naked Guy in the apartment across the street- well, we had our own ugly naked guy, and we didn't need binoculars to see him.  We were swimming around the boat and this other guy was swimming around his boat- not a problem. He was probably in his early sixties and was watching us swim. Soon after, he got out of the water. He was completely naked. He started rinsing off on the back of his boat so lucky us, we saw front and back... Welcome to France!

Day 21: Dominica

Today, we had a relaxing catch-up day. We hing out at boat all day.  Swam, slept, read, and rested. It was great to relax. It was fantastic to do nothing for a day.

We will head back to Les Saintes tomorrow.

Day 20: Dominica

This morning, Lindsay and Grant swam over to our friends' boat to try to find the kill switch to the dinghy.  We were sure it would be a futile effort because the wind and current were very strong last night, so it could have drifted pretty far from where Dad dropped it.  To our surprise,  they found it right away with their snorkel gear and were able to dive down 10 feet to retrieve it.  They said the red chord was really obvious against the green sea grass on the ocean floor so they found it almost immediately.

We took a tour of the island with Anselm who also works with Lawrence of Arabia. It was an interesting tour. The island is beautiful. We hiked to a spring pool with a waterfall that we were able to swim in. It was very refreshing to swim in fresh water again! If you've seen Pirates of the Caribbean, you've seen Dominica. The water wheel fight in the movie was filmed in Dominica along with many other scenes.
We had lunch at local place on beach. The cool part of our lunch was meeting Peace Corps volunteers from US who are here working in an elementary school. The were very nice ladies and interesting to talk to.

After lunch, we visited Native Carib territory. We did some shopping and bought some cool handmade bracelets and necklaces.

When we goy back to the boat, there were crazy strong wind gusts - 38 knots.  Our anchor was dragging so reset it twice.  it was so gusty we were worried it might not hold through the night. We finally picked up a mooring ball so will be much more secure.

Mom and Dad went to BBQ hosted by PAYS guys while we stayed on boat for dinner. Mom and Dad met most of the other boaters in the anchorage.   They are from all over and most are heading to Grenada to wait out hurricane season. It was really cool to talk to them.

Day 19: Les Saintes to Dominica

Today we woke up about 6am in preparation for our big sail to Dominica.  We convinced Dad to wait until after the boulangerie opened so we could load up on pastries and baguettes before we left.  Linz and Grant took the dinghy ashore and came back with pain chocolat, eclairs, and baguettes.  Amazing.  We could definitely live on French bread, cheese, and chocolate!!!

Today was our best sail day yet.  We had HUGE waves with rolling seas (according to wind guru weather they were on average 8-12 feet, which is pretty darn big when you are in a little boat on the ocean).  We had a straight beam reach to Dominica and made it there without any tacks.  We hit our top speed yet - 13.7 knots.  We had one reef in the mainsail and 3/4 jib with 20-25 knots of wind. Dad said it was definitely ocean sailing conditions.  Amazing to think that the last time that water hit land would have been in Africa.  Makes the world seem such a small place and the ocean, on the other hand, very vast!

To give you an idea of the sail over, the waves were splashing over the deck of the boat.  We had to close the front hatches because salt water was pouring into the cabin.  In spite of the heavy seas, we all felt great.  I guess because the waves were coming at about a 45 degree angle across our bow, they didn't make us toss and turn so much and the ride was more predictable.  Whereas on our agony sail day headed to Guadeloupe we had rolling seas but the waves were coming at us head on so the boat dove with each wave and it was much more uncomfortable.  We were out of sight of land for a little over an hour before we could make out the silhouette of Dominica in the distance.  We couldn't help but think about the two people our friends Al and Rochelle had rescued years ago.  With the waves so big and the wind gusting, it is a miracle that they even saw the young men in the water that day.  After about a 3 hour sail we approached our destination at Prince Rupert Bay.  When we arrived we were greeted by a pod of about 15 dolphins - the first we've seen on our trip.  We have video but I don't know if it will let me attach it here.

So if you have been to Dominica, you know the boat boys there are notorious.  When my Mom and Dad were here years ago. A young boy about Grant's age now paddled out to them on a surf board about a 1/2 mile out.  Today's conditions probably kept the young boat boys in close to shore, so we were met by Raymond who cut another guy off to get to us first.  They are so desperate for tourist income and depend on the boating community to support them.  We had agreed to go with the first guy so the rest would leave us alone, but Raymond and Titus got in a major shouting match over who would take care of us.  Dad was very diplomatic and told them to work it out and let us know who to deal with for our stay.  We really thought it was going to get ugly - even people on other yachts were yelling at them to calm down and work it out. 

A couple of years ago, crime started to become a problem in Prince Rupert Bay.  A guy named Jeffrey who goes by Sea Bird was smart enough to realize that their livelihood depends on tourists, and if the harbor is not safe, the tourists will not come.  He started an organization called PAYS of boat boys (now they are really boat men) who agree to a certain etiquette system and also patrol the bay for security infractions.  As it turns out, Raymond was not a member of PAYS; he was a tour guide looking to make a few extra bucks.  We really wanted to support the PAYS group because they are trying to do a good thing and make an honest living, so we ended up going with Titus.  Titus works with Lawrence of Arabia.  He took Mom and Dad to customs and arranged a tour with Anselm for tomorrow (also part of Lawrence if Arabia ' s group).  They all have crazy names, I guess so people will remember them and ask for them by name next time they come visit.

Our sail was so fast that we ended up hanging out all day and swam by our boat.  Dad saw a Catana boat in the harbor and atarted salivating because he has read a lot about them but has never seen one up close.  He just jumped in the dinghy and drive over to meet them.  Turned out they are incredibly nice people from Switzerland and have a little boy named Nino who is about two years old.

After a bit they all came back to hang out on our boat.  We invited the couple we met in the Saintes to join us also since Jackson and Nino are roughly the same age.  It was a bit of crazy babysitting - all new hazards I'm not normally used to dealing with like automatic winch switches,  trampolines - oh, and of course the ocean! Buy their parents were super calm and appreciated us taking the kids off their hands for awhile so the parents could talk.  The coolest thing about Nino is that his mom is French and his Dad is American, so Nino speaks both languages.  He is only two, so he doesn't speak either fully yet - but it is incredible when you ask him something in English and he replies in fluent French.   He doesn't really distinguish between the two languages.  Buy if you ask him to repeat what he said in English, he does so perfectly.  Really cool.

After our cocktail/socal hour on our our boat, we did sort of a pit luck dinner on Matt & Jenny's boat.  We brought grilled chicken, salad and wine and they made risotto.  Their boat is the same brand as ours but a 48 foot boat compared to our 40 foot boat.  It is just the 3 of them now, but they are meeting 2 other families and will have 12 on board later this week.  Their boat was a palace - literally a floating condo.  We couldn't believe the difference that 8 feet made in the width and the interior accomodations.  It was really fun to see another layout.  There are things we like better about our boat and some we like better about their's.   It was just really fun to see a different setup and compare.

Our excitement at dinner was Dad dropped the kill switch for the dinghy.  Thank God it was Dad who dropped it because we never would have heard the end of that one.  I guess we will dive to find that in the morning.  Lucky for us, it is only about 10 feet of water!!!

Day 18: Guadeloupe to Les Saintes

The Saintes are a small grouping of islands just off the southern coast of Guadeloupe.   Everyone speaks French here, but they do have a few more tourists so more people seem to try to speak English at least.

We had intended to rent motor scooters today, but the minimum driving age to do this is 25.  So we ended up with a cute little blue electric car instead...more like a glorified golf cart (actually everyone thought it was cute except for Grant who was mortified).

The streets are super narrow and they don't have curbs - the edge just drops off into the gutter about a foot below.  When 2 cars try to pass it is pretty interesting, even with such little cars.  Most people drive scooters and whip in and around cars, pedestrians, and obstacles.  Mom was convinced we would flip the thing but we survived.

We explored the entire island starting with Fort Napoleon.  They had a museum in the fort - everything was written in French,  but we got the general idea.  It was interesting to read about the same battles we read about in Antigua and St. Kitts from the British point of view and now get the French side of the story.  Of course the fort is set at the top of a huge hill.  It was so windy up there we thought we would get blown off the mountain into the sea below.  You could lean forward and feel like you weren't going to fall because the wind was holding you back.

Our favorite part of the island was a little beach called  Marigot on the Atlantic side of the island.   It was filled with palm trees and would make the perfect setting for a Coppertone sunscreen commercial.  We bought some jambon et frommage baguettes (that's ham & cheese on French bread) and sat at picnic tables to have our lunch in this incredibly beautiful setting.  The waves crashed in against the rocks, wind was whipping through the trees and the sand almost stung our legs, but otherwise it was really nice.

We explored all of the beautiful beaches, including one labeled a nudist beach (took us awhile to figure that one out), but lucky for us no one else was there.

While waiting for customs to open, we met some more cool people today.  One couple from San Francisco is traveling with their 2 year old, Jackson.  He saw our little blue car and went nuts.  He is adorable and loves the sailboat.  Another guy is retired and sailing a beautiful monohull - we were admiring it in the harbor, so it was fun to meet him.  He just heard us talking to the other couple and realized we were Americans so came over and joined us.  That's pretty much how things work.  Everywhere we go people are so nice and just want to find find each others' stories.

We stocked up on more French cheeses, wine, beer, rum, Orangina (our new favorite soda) and about 8 more jugs of drinking water.  Tonight we ate at a little pizza place called Blue Moon.  No one spoke English there, so we took a gamble at what we ordered not knowing for sure what to expect,  but it all worked out. 

We sail to Dominica tomorrow.  We will definitely miss the French bakeries!

Day 17: Guadeloupe

We slept like rocks last night in the marina.  The showers were a bit sketchy, but the running water was amazing!

This morning we walked a mile into the "city" of Bassetwrre, one of the main cities in Guadeloupe. We went to the local market which was amazing.  This is how most of the locals buy their produce, fabrics and other items.  It was fun to watch mom and dad try to communicate with the people in French. One lady was awesome and she kept giving dad samples of some kind of fruit liquor until he finally bought some passion fruit rum.  We also bought a coconut and cucumber.  They seem to really appreciate when we try to speak French to them even if it is kind of jumbled.

After town we finally cleared customs at a "station" in a local restaurant.   It was a family run place and a boy there who was about 16 was incredibly helpful.  Try speaking French to people who can't speak English, and double that complexity when you try to clear customs and port authority because they need to know all the specifics of the boat (like gross tonnage, length at the water line, engine capacity, and stuff I know they don't cover in high school French class).   The boy has been in an English immersion program at school in Guadeloupe.  He was so excited to speak to us in English and he was incredibly helpful to his parents who were trying to enter our information for customs.  When he saw that we had US passports his eyes lit up - he was so excited and told us he had never seen a US passport before.

The highlight was we got ice cream cones at their restaurant which were awesome!!  We had to he back at our boat by noon to get fuel and leave for the Saintes.

Getting fuel was interesting.  The catamaran takes diesel.  The dinghy takes gas.  We needed both.  In French, gazol is diesel and sans plombe is unleaded gasoline.  The diesel had brown handles and the gas had green handles, which is the opposite of the US.  We were really nervous that we were going to put the wrong type in the boat.  But it worked out ok.

The best part was that we got ICE!!!!  OMG the things we take for granted!  We miss ice more than anything!  We also met some people from Canada that we've been sort of traveling along the same route but we had not met until today.  They were really incredible people - an older couple who have lived on their boat for 10 years.  The wife teaches classes at a college in Canada via the Internet.   Ten years ago they were sailing from Dominica to Guadeloupe when they found a small fishing boat that was in trouble.  People in Dominica try to transport their produce to Guadeloupe to sell at the market, but it is really far.  They had a small boat that got swamped by a big wave.  Two of the Dominican people drowned and they rescued the other two.  They are hoping to reunite with the two survivors in Dominica in a few weeks (they haven't seen them since).  It continues to be the people we meet who make this trip such an incredible experience.

We headed to the Saintes and are staying here for a few days.  They are a beautiful group of islands off the coast of Guadeloupe.  Mom and Dad were here almost 20 years ago with their good friends the Kolebucks....long story (that they didn't share with us before going on this trip), but they were anchored where we are tonight and took the dinghy out.  They intended to go "just around the bend" to explore a bit and hit a fish trap.  The prop on the dinghy got stuck and fell into the water.  The engine was useless and they started drifting out to sea with a few cruddy paddles that didn't fit the oar locks. They paddled like crazy against the current to reach a deserted rocky island in the distance where they spent the night.  They were rescued by the French coastguard the next morning.  Had they missed that little island (see the photo below) the next island they would have hit going wi th the current would have been Belize several days (weeks?) later.  Good news is they survived, and their friends Paul and Meaghan got engaged that night.   Perfect, right?  They have not been back since so it was kind of a big deal to sail past the deserted island today.

And as far a fixing things today, Dad got frustrated that only one speaker is working in the boat (it has been that way the whole time, btw).  So he rewired the radio - the speaker wire for the right speaker had never been connected.  We said he deserves an award....which is probably right.

So as we sit here in the harbor at sunset, we are blasting our American Music with our fully functional stereo:  Devil Went Down to Georgia, Dixie (the Elvis version) I Will Survive (Donna Summer),  Bruce Springsteen,  Cindi Lauper, the Village People (seriously? ) and some other awful 80s tunes. Dad keeps quoting Jack Sparrow:"...but why is the rum gone!?!"

Day 16: Guadeloupe

This morning we awoke early ready to head south to Basseterre.  Since we left the crazy anchorage in Deshaies a bit abruptly, we still have not cleared customs, immigration and port authority, so we are actually illegal aliens for now.  Guadeloupe is a French island, so clearing into customs we will actually clear in and out of France.  Unlike some of the small, independent islands like Antigua and Dominique, the French don't really depend on income from customs fees, so they really don't bother with boaters who are visiting their islands for a few days.  Which is a good thing for us.

The plan was to go by the boulangerie (bakery) and stop at the Carre Four supermarche to get a few more things that we forgot at the store yesterday (mainly rum for dad) and then head to Basseterre for fuel and water (we are out of water :(  and low on fuel).  Buy, alas, nothing ever goes as planned.  Yesterday while we were at the store, dad and Grant fixed more stuff around the boat.  Grant noticed green engine coolant coming out of the bilge pump - I don't know anything about engines, but that is not supposed to happen.  So today when. We started the engines we had to make sure they were running correctly before heading out - dad noticed that water was not coming out of the starboard engine which was a problem.  We called our buddy Eugene back in Antigua and he agreed that we could not run it as it was.  So, Dad basically spent all morning replacing the impeller on the marine engine.  We were amazed that he was able to do this.  For Father's Day, Grant gave Dad a coozie that says "Dad.  The man. The myth. The legend." And it plays the Rocky theme song when you press the button.  We had no idea how true that would be on this trip.  He has amazed us all with his ability to fix stuff.  We think he should charge the charter company his hourly consulting rate when we get back because this boat is going to be in much better condition when we return it that it was when we got it!  (And, by the way, he says that he hates fixing all of this stuff, but he said one of his main objectives for taking this trip was to see what it would be like to retire and own/live on a boat, so we think he secretly likes fixing all of this stuff).  But seriously, kudos to dad because he has been amazing.

So we got the engines running and headed out to Basseterre with a brief stop at the bakery and store on the way.  The French know how to do the bakery stuff right!  We got chocolate croissants for breakfast tomorrow and baguette sandwiches for lunch today.  To get to the store, you have to take the dinghy down a little river and tie it off at a local fishing dock - which is a little crazy but sure beats walking.  Yesterday I forgot to mention that on our way back down the river at dusk a swarm of flying fish jumped out at us as we dinghied down the rivier.  It was the freakiest thing we've ever experienced.   Flying fish are f or real, first of all.  Mom said it was like a scene out of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" mivie, but with fish.  Seriously there were at least 50 of them coming right at us and I don't know how one of them didn't jump into our boat!  But today they were nowhere to be found and we navigated the river unscathed.

The trip down the coast of Guadeloupe was beautiful.   It looks like a scene from the Swiss Alps (think Sound of Music) but on the ocean in the Caribbean.  

We pulled Raindrops into a marina in Basseterre for tonight.  Shore power baby!  Unlimited water.   Fresh showers (real showers where you can let the wa t we run).  And, toilets that flush.  Heaven on earth - except that the bathrooms were under construction and really sketch.  Because of the construction, homeless people had been hanging out there at night.   The marina fave us a key to our own personal shower and bathroom, so it worked out fine, but Dad stood guard the whole time and actually had to shoo some people away.  A little freaky.

It has been pretty neat to be in Guadeloupe.  They don't get many visitors,  especially Americans.  Hardly anyone speaks English.  It is amazing that Mom can speak to them pretty well in French given that she took it for 6 years what 30 years ago??  But she called the marina and spoke to them on the cell phone and has communicated with them well enough for us to get by.

We are looking forward to a peaceful night at a dock at the marina where we can use all the power we want, let the fans run all night, and not rock and twist around with the waves.  Dad is loving his French wine, baguettes and fuzzy blue cheese (looks disgusting to me).  It was a good day.

(In the photos below if they post, our boat is the catamaran in distance in the center of the picture.)

Day 15: Guadeloupe

Today, we went to Jaque Cousteau park. It is an underwater marine preserve. It was very cool. We saw 3 turtles, schools of angelfish, lots of brain corral, Sargent majors, trumpetfish, spotfin butterfly, blue tangs, Elkhorn corral, and maybe an octopus (not sure about that one).

After snorkling, Mom, Lindsay, and I went to the store. We got a bunch of French cheese, French wine, and other food we needed. While Mom and Lindsay were at the store, I walked down to the laundromat. I figured out how to pay and do the laundry by myself (first time at a laundromat, and everything was written in French, so it was a bit of a challenge).

When we got back to the boat, the sun was setting. Sunset is around 5:30 here. So we grilled sausages and finally celebrated Dad's birthday.

Day 14: Guadeloupe

Last night, we anchored at Deshaies - crowded port with lots of boats. we had a huge rainstorm and it was really windy. Because of this, everybody's anchors were slipping and all the boats were moving. Mom and Dad decided to stay up all night to make sure nothing happened.

Another catamaran lost its holding and bumped into us at 3 am. we had to push off the other boat with fenders (bumpers).  They had to pull up their anchor at 3am in the rain and move.  It took them 4 tries to get the anchor to set.

At 5 am it was getting light out (sunrise is 5:20) and boats were slipping everywhere.  So Mom, Dad, and Grant pulled up our anchor and we left that port and headed south to Pigeon Island.   After we got to Pigeon Island (pronounced "pee jhown"), we all decided to just have a much deserved lazy day. We were all really tired from going 24/7 (why we haven't been updating the blog- sorry!) Mom did laundry and we hung out at the beach and on the floats.

Grant, Lindsay, and I had our first outting by ourselves this morning. We decided we really wanted chocolate croissants. We took the dinghy and went ashore. It was our first time in a foreign country with no parents. It was also our first time in a foreign country alone that we had a language barrier between us and the natives. They speak French here and not many people speak English. It took us a while and we had to talk to 3 people before we found one that could communicate well enough in English to give us directions to the bakery. After walking 1.5 miles, we finally got to the bakery and got our delicious pastries!

Day 13: Nevis to Guadeloupe

So today was our longest sail day. We sailed for 18 hours. We sailed through two rainstorms (first for all of us), reefed the sail in 25 knots of wind (another first), and anchored after sunset (1st).

We left Nevis at 4:30 this morning and sailed until we got to Deshaies, Guadeloupe 18 hours later. Needless to say, it was an extremely long day. Everybody felt sick which just made it that much longer. Luckily, we have 3-4 days to stay here before we have to sail again.

**I had a lot more written, but this stupid phone deleted it all and I wrote an abbreviated version cause I didn't feel like typing it all again**

Day 12: Statia to Nevis

This morning we decided to snorkel. We saw cannons, a submerged sea wall, a school of angel fish, a puffer fish, squid, many schools of fish. It was really cool.

After we snorkeled, we had to leave our new friends. It was sad to have to leave them, but we have their emails so hopefully we will keep in touch. We had to leave them so we could sail back to Nevis to have a good point of sail for Guadeloupe.

The mooring buoy got stuck between the hulls about 1 am.  Mom tried to fix it with the boat hook and the extension piece fell into the water - that's kind of essential and we really couldn't live without it, so mom had to jump in the water to fetch it.  Who knows what kind of sea creatures are lurking beneath the boat at that time of night!  We ended up having to drop the mooring ball and pick it up again just as it started to pour!  Not fun.

Day 11: Statia (Mark's birthday!)

Today was one of our favorite days so far. We hiked the Quill with our amazing guide Hanna. The Quill is a dormant volcano that last erupted around 400ad. It was so amazing! The Quill is one of only a handful of places in the world where you are able to actually hike down inside of the crater. There were many incredible plants and animals there that cannot live in any other part of the world. We are so lucky to have been able to hike the volcano with a guide that really cared about the forests and knew a lot about the volcano and the plants and animals that live there.

After the Quill, we were starving. We hadn't really had anything to eat because we had to meet up with Hanna at 7 am. We finally found a place that serves a decent burger and fries for a decent price- that's exactly what we were looking for! The burger and fries were good, but the real highlight of our meal was the waitress's son. He was five years old and came home from school for lunch. He was adorable and loved helping his mom. He liked telling us about what he did at school and brought our drinks. He was so cute!

After lunch, we went to see the St. Eustatius Historical Museum. It was a pretty good museum. It told the history of Statia and they even have a special exhibit about slavery right now so we got to see how the slaves lived and what they worked on while they were here. We also went and saw the old fort on Statia. Statia was an old trading post. When a ship arrived at a port, the ship fired a 21 gun salute and the county fired a salute back recognizing the country. During the American Revolution, an American merchant ship, under the command of an American Navy captain, went to Statia to trade goods. This ship, the Andrew Doria, fired a salute and  Statia fired back, thus making Statia the first country to recognize the 13 Colonies as an independent country.

After we got back to the boat, we realized there were three other boats around us that had kids on them. Our parents had met their parents and customs and came over to say hi. These kids live on their boats and just met a few months ago. One of the boats, Day Dreamer, has been sailing for almost four years! Another boat, Discovery, has been sailing for a little over a year. The other boat, Fezywig, has been sailing for about 6 months. We really enjoyed meeting these people and hung out with them for the rest of the night. We went out for pizza with Discovery, then went over to Fezywig for cookies and music. Their kids are extremely talented on their instruments and played their original songs for us. We loved meeting these people and really hope we can keep in touch with them as we all go on our separate adventures.

Funny story (now, not so much then)-
I, Arden, had a horrible migrane headache so I did not go to dinner with everyone else. As you all know, the power goes out in the kitchen/salon area almost everyday- we know how to fix it now, but it is still really annoying. Anyway, I didn't really want to mess with it so I decided to take a shower. After my shower, I felt a ton better so I grabbed a flashlight and some crackers and went outside. After a while, I decided I couldn't survive off of saltines forever so I went inside to make myself some dinner. While I was looking for something to make, I saw a HUGE Roach. I DON'T LIKE BUGS!! I usually make Grant kill them for me. I was all alone on our boat with a giant roach (4 inches- no exaggeration). The stupid thing must have gotten here in a cereal box or something from the grocery store (I now appreciate American health standards so much more). I kept throwing shoes at the thing, but it was the roach that wouldn't die. Eventually, mom came back and helped me get it. The problem was, it was hiding behind the wood on the wall, so I could see its antenna, but I couldn't get it. Mom and I killed the roach, but I like bugs even less now. Fyi- Off bug spray does paralyze bugs!

By the way- Happy birthday dad!

Fyi, Lindsay and I are in the pic of all of us kids in the dinghy...can you find us?