Hello everyone!
I wanted to send a bunch of pics with this email but I can't get a connection long enough to do that, so will send them next time. We arrived in St. Lucia late Sunday afternoon, the 12th of July. We left Dominica early Thursday morning. I got my bothersome tooth pulled the day before, in a beautiful seaside dentist’s office. As you know, having a tooth pulled is not a pleasant experience, but I will say this was the most amazing extraction I have ever had. Brett sat with me in the waiting room, listening to the waves lapping the shore, the fresh sea breeze wafting in the windows... it was hard to believe this quaintly decorated room with comfortable couches was a dentist’s office. Even when I was ushered into the next room, it was hard to be nervous. A beautiful black woman (the dentist) pulled on some gloves, her assistant threw some music on the CD player and I closed my eyes and let things happen. In between jiving to the music, she froze me completely and gently tugged my tooth out, all the while speaking in a soothing voice, stopping in between and massaging my cheek, and admiring my short, spiky hair... it was a far cry from the Adam Dental Clinic back in Yellowknife! The price was right too, only $150 EC, which works out to about $55 U.S. About 2.7 Eastern Caribbean dollars make one U.S. dollar.
Thursday morning dawned and I was feeling pretty good. We decided to pull up anchor and head down island to Roseau, the capital of Dominica. Once we got going though, the weather was so perfect, we decided to keep on going and head for Martinique, a day sail away. We arrived in the bay there just before dark. The next day we got our dinghy in the water and headed to shore to find customs. As this is the slow season in the Caribbean, most places in the marina were closed, and we couldn’t find customs. We picked up a few things at a small grocery store, some more yummy bread from a French bakery, and headed back to the boat. The next morning we decided to go down island to le Marin, which is supposed to be a great marine centre. Again we were graced with a beautiful sailing day, so we headed instead for St. Lucia. The swells were pretty big, but we were travelling at just the right angle, heeled to starboard we were screaming along at 8.5 knots. I base all our travel times on six knots (on the conservative side) so instead of a five hour sail, we arrived in St. Lucia at 3:00 in the afternoon.
This was our second sail where nothing bad happened! How amazing to travel and be able to enjoy the sailing experience, without any major disasters! Hopefully, the worst of it is behind us...
We checked into the Rodney Bay marina here, which is a huge, gorgeous marina. We were amazed at the low rates so decided to stay a few days and take a rest from travelling. We will be here until Friday or Saturday, when, weather permitting, we will head for St. Vincent and the Grenadines. We are getting closer to our stopping point of Grenada, which feels good. Here we have fresh water, shore power, and shopping and restaurants close by. We finally got our pile of laundry done as well. My washer has a leaky seal that needs replacing before we can use it again. We will try and get the part ordered and sent to us in Grenada.
One of the photos we have attached is of our floating fruit vendor, a tiny little boat with a mast of sorts and a half-assed roof of palms to give him some shade. This is all topped with flags from various countries and various signs of wear and tear. Well, we had to look twice when after we arrived in the marina, he appeared out of nowhere and asked if we wanted to buy some fresh fruit. He put together a fruit basket for us, the basket handmade, and filled with bananas, mangos, star fruit, passion fruit, prickly fruit, grapefruit and some sticks of sugar cane. We have enjoyed all of it, except didn’t care much for the prickly fruit, it tastes as bad as it looks! He has since returned and sold us fresh leaf lettuce, tomatoes, cukes and the like. Hey, everyone’s got to make a living!
Another great bonus about being here... there is a Spectra Water Maker dealer here and we got our water maker rebuilt. This is a major plus as we have not, up until now, been able to find a dealer anywhere near us, and would have had to pay mega dollars for duty and shipping. This guy fixed our unit, and tested it, and it is producing six gallons of fresh water an hour.
The boys have been enjoying the swimming pool here, they swim every afternoon after their chores are done, and then go to the bar next door called “Bosun’s”, to play a few games of pool. Greg and I join them there for happy hour, and Greg plays a few games with them while I sit and relax, looking out at the view over the harbour. Greg has been working on the exterior of the boat. When we were in Ponce, he picked up a few gallons of this amazing cleaner that takes off rust. He cleaned up the boat with that, and then put on some blue paint, and the white lines on the sides. She looks much better, and at a distance, even looks like a regular boat : )
We are off in a few minutes, going down the island to Soufiere and the Pitons, a national marine park for a few days, to do some snorkeling, swimming, sight seeing and R & R.
Love and miss you all.
The Dutch Dreamers
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