Pirate in the Caribbean

  An Epic Ocean Sail to the Grenadines We pulled up the anchor in Sainte Anne, Martinique at 2:30 a.m. and headed out into the night under motor with the mainsail raised. Fortunately there was a glorious 3/4 moon which bathed the Caribbean Sea in a beautiful blue hue and sparkled like diamonds on the waves.  As we came around the lee of the island, the winds began to build and we were able to pull out the jib in 14 knots of winds.  We had a fabulous sail, moving along at 7+ knots.  We reached the top of St Lucia at twilight, with the lights of the island suggesting that islanders were getting up and ready for their day.  St Lucia is clearly a popular cruise ship destination.   We sailed by 3 massive cruise ships all headed into port that morning. Even though they passed quite close, our timing was perfect.   We did not have to alter course to avoid them or hail them on the VHF radio to make sure they saw us.   Under the lee of St Lucia, we were ab...

  Martinique is a Fantastic Island to Meet your Guests We made our way down to Le Marin, Martinique where we stayed at a large marina for a few days in order to prep the boat for the arrival of Roger's sister Pamela and her husband Ross.  With some boat cleaning, laundry and grocery shopping, we were ready for our guests.   A slow leak in our inflatable dinghy had been bothering us since we picked up the boat in Antigua.  We had to inflate the dinghy every few days, so we took the opportunity while at the dock, to find the source of our problem.  We put soapy water over the entire surface of the leaking hull, while it was overinflated, and looked for the spot that started bubbling with the escaping air.  After 30 minutes or so we were about to give up, when voila, tiny bubbles.  Fortunately, a local repair shop was able to put a patch over the leak and we were good to go again!  Roger and I were lucky to be there during a Carnival parade and had t...