May 2005

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Tuesday May 2, 2006
We left for St. Barts today. It was just 15 miles, so no big trip. We picked up a mooring and we are looking forward to checking out this little island. This is supposed to be the island of the rich and famous. Maybe I will bump into Oprah!

Thursday May 4, 2006
Well, yesterday was great! We shopped, dined and drank all day. We ate at a fabulous French restaraunt that had the best food. We are really enjoying our stay here! There are almost as many dogs in the restaraunts as people. Really cool.

Saturday May 6, 2006
Another day of shopping today. This island is so different from any other we have seen. Clean, little crime and the people are so wonderful. I would like to buy property here, but of course, it is sky high. I guess I should just enjoy it while I can.

Tuesday May 9, 2006
We knew this had to come to an end sooner or later. We had to leave here or run out of $. We decided to go all the way to Guadeloupe instead of stopping in St. Kitts. We leave today at 1 PM. It is about a 20 hour trip so we should arrive Wednesday morning sometime.

Thursday May 11, 2006
We are in Guadeloupe and we are staying at what they call a "marina." However, there is no electricity, no water and even no dock. I mean the actual dock we are on is condemned due to lack of maintenance. It is made of concrete and it is falling apart and half gone. So, even though we are in a marina, we still have to take the dogs for a walk by dinghy. Unbelievable, huh? This is not a tourist island so hardly anyone speaks English. We are having a hard time communicating even though we purchased a French dictionary and I tried brushing up. We are not impressed with this island and we will leave tomorrow. We plan to go to The Saints (a small group of islands south of here).

Saturday May 13, 2006
We arrived at The Saints and are anchored in front of Bourges de Saintes. It is a beautiful little island. Clean, friendly and lots of doggies. Unfortunately, we hear that a tropical wave is on the horizon (1200 miles away) and should be here by Tuesday. So we are planning the best place to be when that hits. The winds will not be that bad, but we still need to be in a protected anchorage. We could stay here, but if we do that, it would mean that we would be here for at least a week. We feel the best thing to do is make our way a little further south because if the tropical weather is already starting up, and if something should pop up... we can dash into VZ. So I think tomorrow, we will go to Dominica for overnight, then to Martinique where there is a very good protected anchorage. We plan to be there by Monday to get settled. We will come back here and spend more time on our way back. Hopefully, by then, I will speak some French.

Monday May 15, 2006
We arrived in Martinique today. We made an overnight anchorage in Dominica, but did not see the island. We are anchored here at Trois Islet which is southeast of the main island. It is a quaint town and quite unaffected by tourism. We really like it and the dogs have a great park to play in.

Tuesday May 16, 2006
We expect the tropical wave to hit tonight so we had to change anchorages. The new anchorage we went to, Anse Mitan, was rolly due to the ferrys, but was protected from the winds. We were set and ready and waited most of the night for the wind to pick up (expected 30-35 kts.) but they never came.

Wednesday May 17, 2006
The tropical wave moved by us to the south and we were not affected. Good news for us.

Friday May 19, 2006
Left Martinique and went to Dominica for one night, then on to St. Lucia, then St. Vincents.

Saturday May 20, 2006
Well, before we left, lots of people asked about pirates. I suppose last night was proof that they do in fact exist. We had heard that St. Vincent and St. Lucia had lots of crime and we knew to lock things up. Up until yesterday, we were traveling with our buddy boat, Conch'd Out, and it was a safer situation. But since we have the dogs and dogs are not allowed in St. Lucia, we had to leave our buddy boat and head for an island that allowed us to get the dogs off the boat. Conch'd Out wanted to see a little bit of St. Lucia, so we went on ahead and told them we would meet up with them in Grenada in a few weeks or so.
Last night, we got to Chateaubelair anchorage in St. Vincent and upon arrival, it looked fine. There were only 2 other boats there, a bit of a concern, but we just blew it off and decided to just be aware. Before going to bed, Larry got the flare gun out, loaded it, and decided he would sleep in the salon to check outside periodically throughout the night. We had heard that sometimes people board your boat either by swimming up to it or by small boat and get aboard to steal things. Larry and I settled down with a book, me in the aft berth and he in the salon. At about 10 PM, I heard a noise in the cockpit. I told Larry and when he opened the hatch to check it out, there was a man standing right there... not 2 feet away. Of course, we were both frightened at first, but Larry immediately went into overdrive. We secure our hatch with an iron bar and since Larry had that in his hand, he started beating the guy with it. Larry retreated for a minute to grab the flare gun. When he did, that is when we realized the man was armed with a machete. He started swinging the machete down the hatch and stopped only when he saw the gun. Larry warned him to jump off the boat or get shot. I, in the meantime, began looking for the pistol we had hidden. When he saw that Larry had a gun, he tried to hide behind the dodger. Larry walked halfway up the compainionway and warned him that if he did not run, he was dead. We then realized he had a buddy in a boat waiting at the transom. He wanted to get back to him so he chose not to move fearing that Larry would shoot him. Larry finally convinced this man to retreat and he joined his buddy waiting in the boat and fled. Larry went into the cockpit with the pistol, that I had now located, and with a spotlight to try to see where they had gone, but they had disappeared into the darkness. Larry shot the gun once into the cliff behind the boat, just to let them know we had a gun. We were afraid of their return and thought if they knew we were armed as well, it may deter them from coming back.
It was a harrowing night for all of us, and we admittedly are shaken up from this whole thing. We understand a lot of things better now. These guys did not care if we were home. Their intent was to steal from us or worse. They were armed and they were counting on us not being armed (evidently they did not see that we from Texas). It certainly has changed the trip and we will handle lots of things differently. Hopefully we learned a few things, but Larry's quick thinking and courage pulled us through a horrible situation. So, the morale of the story is... be aware... there are pirates in the Caribbean!

Sunday May 21, 2006
We left St. Vincents at first light and sailed to Carricou which is a part of Grenanda. We anchored in Hillsboro and it is a horribly dirty, nasty town. We are both very shaken up about this whole thing still and are discussing ways to better prepare ourselves. We are a bit nervous here due to the fact that the anchorage has very few boats in it.

Monday May 22, 2006
We finally slept and tried to rest up, but we are emotionally spent. Luckily, our friends, Cheers, came in and we moved to Tyrell Bay. It is a less rolly anchorage. Cheers came over for Happy Hour and we told them about our "event." They were amazed that it had actually happened to someone they knew and further more, they realized, it could very well have been them. They are talking about all the things that they will do differently from now on.

Tuesday May 23, 2006
We sailed to St.George's, Grenada where Island Dreamin' and V'ger are anchored. Both of these guys are our Texas friends and once again, it is good to be with people who care about you. Everyone is amazed by our story and agree that we handled it the best way we could at the time. But we are amazed at how much it had affected everyone else. So many other boats, even some we barely know, tell us that now they are locking up, loading their flare guns and placing them within reach and making sure that other safeguards are in place on their boats. They all know that it could have been any one of them and they are so supportive.

Wednesday May 24, 2006
After much discussion, Larry and I have decided not to continue to Venezula. We certainly are not finished cruising, but we will finish up our cruising in the good old US of A! Prior to the attack we had discussed our disappointment in the Caribbean. The people are very unfriendly on many islands and the crime is so high that it is simply not worth it to travel there. Sometimes we were so uncomfortable leaving the boat, that we could not enjoy the islands that we visited. So since hurricane season is so close, Larry has booked me and the girls a private plane back to the states and he and crew will bring the boat straight back to the Chesapeake area. There was no need to put the dogs through that grueling trip of 10 or 20 overnighters in a row. I will be visiting my sister in Chicago until Larry returns and then we will hook up and resume our cruise. We enjoyed the East coast while we were there and there was so much we did not get to see. We plan to ride out the hurricane season in Baltimore again, but travel around a bit and enjoy the wonderful things the Chesapeake has to offer. We would love to do the Maine thing, but do not know if we will be able to do that this year or not.

Saturday May 27, 2006
My plane is scheduled to come in on Wednesday and the girls and I leave on Thursday, the first of June. Larry, Al and John are sailing AJ back to the states. Al is a great guy we met in the Bahamas and John is Al's brother-in-law. They are all good sailors, so I won't worry so much about their safety. I will leave Thursday morning and the guys will pick up the hook shortly there after. I fly to Florida, then drive to Chicago to visit with my sister.

Read June logs