Encore Adventure

After an uneventful five-hour passage from Iles Des Saintes, Guadeloupe, we arrived at St. Pierre, our first anchorage in Martinique. It’s a small town on the northwest side of the island that in 1902 was transformed from the “Paris of the Caribbean” to the “Pompeii of the Caribbean” by the massive eruption of nearby Mt. Pelée.  

 Above: After the 1902 eruption killed  30,000 in St. Pierre.  Below: St. Pierre & Mt. Pelée today....

The galley of our boat is in many ways the heart of our cruising life, in the same way that our kitchen was the center of living at home. Food takes on a special significance because I believe a “well-fed crew is a happy crew.” Cayuga has a wonderful, well-designed galley with a four-burner stove oven, a refrigerator, freezer and adequate storage space for all the equipment we need to prepare and serve our luscious, nutritious...

Sunsets are an important time in our life on the boat. Over time, as we have developed our cruising routine, taking time to stop and experience sunset each day has become a part of or ritual. Having this daily touchstone seems necessary to me, in part, because, as we move around to different locations every few days or weeks, our environment is constantly changing. 

At sunset, we make ourselves a drink or pour a glass of wine a...

Having rounded the northern end of St. Martin, we had nice wind for close reach to St. Barths where we headed for Gustavia harbor to check in.  Note that Cayuga's Yanmar diesel hasn't missed a beat since I fixed a clogged fuel tank pickup tube in mid-ocean in November.  And, to make sure that wouldn't happen again, we got a tank cleaning after arriving in the BVIs.  However, lack of fuel isn't the only thing that can disrupt m...

After Mike’s passage with his three dedicated and skilled crewmembers from Hampton, VA to the British Virgin Islands, I joined him in St. Thomas, the largest and most developed of the US Virgin Islands. We needed to make repairs on the dinghy outboard motor and I was exhausted and burned-out from work-related stress, so we took a leisurely approach to adjusting to our new cruising lifestyle. 

After a few days of  getting...