Encore Adventure

St. Lucia has some incredibly spectacular vistas, but the most amazing by far, are the Pitons — two volcanic spires that rise startlingly up out of the Caribbean out of nowhere. They are designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and their bases are fringed with protected coral reefs. They even have a beer named for them!

We needed to get stocked up on a few things so it seemed like the best place to stop for a few days w...

A fellow sailor who we met at St. Pierre told us that if you took a mooring or slip at Marigot Bay Marina in northwest St. Lucia,it came with guest privileges at the adjacent five-star Capella Tropical Resort.  Always looking for a bargain and needing some laid-back luxury, we settled in there for a few days of rest and relaxation.

Our vantage point at the marina offered the perfect perspective for...

If there's a perfect anchorage, it would have to be Deshaies, a small, picturesque fishing village in the northwest corner of Guadeloupe. I say this because it has the perfect combination of attributes that make up the optimum cruising experience for me: a good French bakery, rigorous hiking trails (to walk off those croissant calories), excellent snorkeling off the boat, accessible WiFi, and a healthy local economy where fish...

We happened to be in St. Martin during the annual Carnival, which was pretty cool.  Near-naked gyrating butts in every direction!  After several days of gorging ourselves on French pastries, we moved north to the bay off Grand Case, known as St. Martin's restaurant row.  We rented a car for a couple of days and did a land circumnavigation of the island, including lunch at Orient Bay along with the requisite strolls up and down...

If the streets are filled with people celebrating the holidays, where do you find space to have a parade?  The folks in the city of Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas, USVI found the answer: take advantage of the 1/2 mile long seawall along their main street.  The water is deep, so the boats were close enough to throw candy to the spectators.

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...