Pirate in the Caribbean

  Heading South and New Friends Our plan this year is to head southbound to Guadeloupe and then Martinique where we will meet up with Roger's sister Pam and her husband Ross in late January. Many cruisers follow a rule that states guests can stipulate pickup date or country but not both. The reason is, safe travel by boat can be restricted by weather. We however do not adhere to many rules so we are picking them up on the 28th in Le Marin Martinique. They will sail with us through Martinique and then down to St Vincent and the Grenadines.  The Grenadines is one of Roger's favourite places on this planet, so he is looking forward to sharing these magical islands with his sister.  After dropping them in St Vincent, we will sail north again making our way to the British Virgin Islands where we will spend a month before hauling the boat out at the end of April for hurricane season. While we had lots of time to get to Martinique, we were keen to start our voyage instead of b...

Pirate Returns to the Caribbean After spending the past 2 Christmas seasons in the Caribbean, we decided to mix it up and stayed at our house in Marco Island this year.  We were joined Christmas Day by some good friends for a delicious rib roast dinner with Yorkshire pudding and all the trimmings.     Several days later, our friend Jimmie B, kindly dropped us off at the Miami airport - a 4 hour return trip - thank you JB!  We headed out on a plane bound for Antigua where Adventure I had been 'on the hard' for the past 8.5 months.  Pirate was greeted at the airport by Dr. Edwards, the local veterinarian, and her entry was approved.  We were able to find a dog friendly taxi who transported us down to Jolly Harbour where,  thanks to all Roger's hard work, Adventure I was already in the water at the dock waiting for us to arrive.  In early December, Roger had flown to Antigua and spent a week getting the boat ready for our next adventure.  E...

Heading Back to Antigua  We left the dock of Nanny Cay in BVI at 8 am in the scorching hot sun, and little breeze.  Pirate had ‘done her business’ - twice.  It was as though she knew she would not be able to go over the next 26 hours.  Maybe it was the preparation for the trip...  Deveaux, the local BVI government veterinarian, dropped by with a health certificate for Pirate.  He charges $10 for this, which is 1/10 of what most islands charge. Pirate gave him a ‘rasta’ which is the command she learned to provide a traditional Caribbean fist pump rather than a typical paw shake. Fortunately for him, but unfortunately for boaters, Deveaux is retiring this year, so we are unlikely to meet up with this lovely gentleman again. I made some egg bites, banana bread and baked chicken for grab as you go meals and snacks.   Meanwhile, Roger filled the diesel cans, propane tank and topped up the water tanks.   We also bought some jugs of water as unfortunatel...

Who Turned Off the Wind? If there is one thing you can count on in the British Virgin Islands - besides the beach bars, the sun and friendly people - it’s the wind.  So when our long time sailing friends Felicity and Seth decided to join us in the BVI, we were looking forward to sailing with them on Adventure I.  However the wind gods had something else in mind. After meeting our friends at the Nanny Cay marina, we headed out the next morning for the Baths.  Fortunately we had enough wind that day to get a bit of sailing in, with Felicity at the helm of course.  The Baths are a crazy formation of huge granite boulders where the sea washes between the rocks and shafts of light play upon the water creating a dramatic effect. There are beautiful beaches on either end and a cave system through the boulders which connects them.  The relatively lower winds meant a yellow warning flag at the Baths, so we tied Adventure I to a parks mooring ball, just a short distance f...