Sail Crossroads

2007-07-10T15:04:00.000-07:00

Our journey on Crossroads has officially ended and we are now back on land in Memphis. It has been a month of changes with firsts being replaced by lasts and water by grass. We cleared Crossroads through customs and ourselves with immigration for the last time when we re-entered the U.S. Our last dinghy ride was in Key West and our last sunset and sunrise at sea were on the way to St Pete. Our trusty dinghy has been exchanged for two cars – not as much fun, but our butts stay dry now.
Entering Tampa Bay under the Sunshine Skyway bridge and thereby leaving the open ocean was the official end of the voyage for me. It was not quite the emotional experience I had expected. I think we were both just too tired from the 48 hour trip up from Key West. It was easier than when we left 18 months ago. We have both learned so much. Of course there are always surprises – we hadn’t planned to share the channel under the span with an outbound freighter, but it’s roomier than it looks from a distance.
Crossroads is on the market with Bill Browning Yacht Sales in St. Pete and Michele and I have already found a house in midtown Memphis. Things have been moving so fast that hitting the ground running is too slow to get it all done. For the last year and a half our world has moved at about five miles an hour. We couldn’t help but use that speed when calculating arrival times while driving the rental truck up from Florida. It would just come to us: 78 miles to Mobile – that’s an overnight trip, no, it’s about an hour now. Life in the fast lane.
I will have my photography business started in the next few weeks, so that and the house should keep me busy. Michele is already back at work and is readjusting rather well although driving is a little scary for both of us. I hope our fellow cruisers that are returning to land are adjusting well and those still at sea are having a blast. If you are in the planning stages of your own adventure; make your plan, pick a date, go! Someday never comes.
Thanks for reading,
Glenn

…and for Crossroads,

Weve been through some things together

With trunks of memories still to come

We found things to do in stormy weather

Long may you run.

Although these changes have come

With your chrome heart shining in the sun

Long may you run.

”Long May You Run”
-Neil Young

Reflections from our Journey

2007-06-16T07:49:00.000-07:00

As I start to reflect on our journey I realize we have sailed to 18 countries/territories with 3 primary languages being spoken, French, Spanish and English. By the time we return to St. Pete we will have sailed over 4,000 miles. I think if we had realized how far we were going we might have gotten overwhelmed, but one day at a time, one island at a time anything is possible. I am sure it will take years to process the trip as a whole.

My friend Margaret sent me this quote “the real voyage of discovery consists not of seeing new landscapes, but of seeing with new eyes." I hope that when we return to Memphis we will continue to look at life with a fresh perspective and keep much of what these two years has taught us.

I am sure that when we leave Crossroads on Tuesday, I will cry like a baby. Crossroads has been a wonderful home for us for the past 2 years.

Crossroads has taken us safely to far shores and given us a lifetime of memories.
Crispy Cracked Conch in the Bahamas
Climbing waterfalls in the Dominican Republic
Carnival in St. Maarten
Exploring lush Jungles in Dominica
French wine and cheeses on Martinique
The wonderful people and nutmeg ice cream in Grenada
Watching a massive leatherback turtle lay her eggs at night on a beach in Trinidad.

Love,
Michele and Glenn

Congratulations note from Moonrise...

2007-06-16T07:45:00.000-07:00

To the brave salt soaked crew of Crossroads:

You dreamt of adventure, and rather than allow it slip through your fingers like grains of sand to be lost or coated with excuses of why we could not, or we almost did that’s, you saw it through to fruition.

Great times, bad times, yelling at a wind that knew nothing of mercy, praising a moon that gazed over you like a lover with a secret. You wrapped your tenacity in sea salt and welcomed it all without reluctance, for that is truly what sailors do. We are proud to know you and welcome you back to port.

Love and respect,
Don and Kimberley

back in St Pete

2007-06-07T16:06:00.000-07:00

A long, boring and uncomfortable passage finally got us back to Saint Petersberg, Florida today. Don and Ruth Phillips (Glenn's folks) and Randy from Bill Browning Yacht Sales were on the dock to greet us as we closed the circle on this amazing adventure. We now have a fast 10 days or so to make the boat presentable and move off. Then it's pack up the rental truck and hit the highway for Memphis (via Gulfport of course). We can't begin to process the end of this trip as we have had very little sleep the last two days, so we'll leave it there for now and reflect more later.
see ya'll soon!
glenn & michele

Key West photos

2007-06-02T15:05:00.000-07:00

A few quick shots from Key West, FL
We're having too much fun to write.

Glenn with the original SpongeBob

Michele and her cousin Marty (who is lucky enough to live here)

M with our boat-friends Kim and David s/v Amanzi

Hallelujah Key West!!!

2007-05-30T10:25:00.001-07:00

We arrived in Key West yesterday afternoon at 4:00. We left Nassau Sunday morning at 8:00am telling our good friend and dock master, Vincent, goodbye. When thinking about this passage I think of it in four legs the first being the "Tongue of the Ocean". We were sailing into the tongue of the ocean making 7 knots with 25 knots of wind behind us. The seas were high - maybe 6 to 8 feet. I was feeling a little green but we quickly got our sea legs and were excited about our progress. We made it the northwest channel light 2 hours before we had planned, giving us plenty of time to sail the next 60 miles on the banks. The second leg of the trip we continued to make good time even with a direction change, we had a beautiful night sail across the banks in 10 feet of water. The waves were only about 2 feet and the almost full moon made for a lovely evening.

We got to Gun Cay around 4:00 am and dropped the anchor so we could have daylight for the cut leaving the Bahamas and starting our gulf stream crossing. We awoke with the alarm at 6:30 and radioed into our weather guru Chris Parker telling him we were ready to cross the gulf and asking if he thought it would be an ok window. He said we would have 15 to 20 knots of east wind and the seas would be about 6 ft. I asked if waiting a day would help any with the seas, he said no it would be the same. Oh well, it wasn't the best weather window but at least he said we should not have any squalls. So we begin leg three of our passage, sailing across the gulf stream. I had a knot in my stomach, we were both ready to get this next 10 hours over with. Most of the day was not that bad and was definitely nothing like the trip we had going across the stream last time. I think the word for the day was tedious, not scary but very tedious. Our speed really slowed down in the apex of the stream and we could feel the strong current going against us. We finally made it to the other side and started our way down the Hawks Channel(what I would call our last leg of the trip to Key West). It was so much calmer in the channel and we had another beautiful night of sailing in 10 feet of water. Again, the moon was amazing. The next day we realized we were going to make it into Key West by that afternoon so we decided to sail on and pass Marathon. Marathon was our default plan. We really wanted to make it into Key West for several reasons but I guess the most important reason was that Key West was our first destination when we started our journey. It was symbolic to come back to Key West and celebrate being back in the good ole U.S.A.

Key West has a strong tidal current and the anchoring is not great- plus you have all the wakes from the excursion boats. Anyway- we had already decided we would spring for the mooring fee so that we would be in the calm harbor and not have to deal with the wakes, etc. The bad news is that we had to sail through a narrow channel with the strong tide going against us. At one point we were actually stopped, motoring straight into the wind. Glenn did an amazing job of working us through the channel. Hallelujah! I thought- now just one more hurdle to jump through before we could crash and sleep.

The moorings in Key West do not have a line on them. Our dinghy is lashed on our deck, so it is not available to help with the tie up. So I motored to the mooring while Glenn lassoed the ball (thanks Jeff, it worked). The wind was blowing so hard and we still had to get our dinghy off the boat and put a secure line on the mooring ball. My nerves were shot. I was yelling at the wind to stop and yelling at the stupid mooring ball for not having a line on it. It was not a pretty sight. As usual Glenn was calm as a cucumber. He admitted later how stressed he was but he did not show it. I think the last hour of our 56 hour passage was the most challenging of all.

Glad to be home, well almost,
Michele

And We Wait... Nassau

2007-05-25T09:48:00.000-07:00

[N25d04:51, W077d19:11]

As you know, we were hoping to leave the Bahamas for Florida last Monday, but we turned on our 6:30am weather forecast with Chris Parker and he said, and I quote, “the weather in the Bahamas will be horrendous for the foreseeable future”. Needless to say we were pretty depressed. We decided to make the best of it, after all we are in a marina - a rare luxury with hot showers and endless electricity. We made our project list and discussed what we wanted to see of Nassau. I must say the week has flown by. Glenn has completed a ton of projects that had been slated for after we returned to the States and I have been busy with lots of little odds and ends.

Wednesday we took a stroll down to the straw market, (not a great one) however it was a beautiful day. I know this is very confusing due to the fact that we are stuck here waiting on better weather, once again it does not squall all day but it is windy as all get out, blowing 25 to 30 knots. This is not a bad thing when you are touring on land as it actually keeps it much cooler.

Yesterday, we took another stroll back to Atlantis (the huge hotel, mega marina, etc, it is truly out of this world). We packed a picnic using our last can of stuffed grape leaves from the French islands and an apple and cheese. We went to the Cloisters built in the 12 century in France and brought to the Bahamas in 1969. Wow- we really felt like we were in Europe. We had the whole garden and grounds to ourselves. It was one of those special days we will come back to many times when we are back at work.

Nassau again

2007-05-19T09:08:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Nassau yesterday after a very calm motor sail through the yellow banks. We are in a marina waiting to see what develops with the possible low. Our dreams of doing a 48 hour passage from Nassau to Key West may not be possible the weather is changing day to day so we may have to take smaller hops to get back. Hope to leave for Bimini Monday morning.

Norman Cay, Bahamas

2007-05-17T12:46:00.000-07:00

We left beautiful Warderick Wells(Exuma Park) this morning with a mix of emotions, excited that we could move however, very sad that our vacation in the south harbor of Exuma Park was coming to an end. We also knew that after leaving Exuma Park we are, what you might say in delivery mode. We hope to stop in some really nice spots on our way home but at this point we will be trying to move. We arrived in Norman Cay about 1:00 just missing a really nasty squall. We did get some nice rain but no wind.
We are excited that we get to have happy hour with our friends from Mei Wenti this afternoon. Norman island was well known in the 70's and 80's.Carlos Lehder's used the island as the base for a very profitable cocaine smuggling operation.
Very little remains from those days except the airplane that rests in the middle of the harbor. We hope to snorkel on it today.

[N24d35:464, W076d48:759]

Frustration in Paradise: Warderick Wells

2007-05-14T08:41:00.000-07:00

If you could see this harbor we are anchored in you would think it was crazy that anyone could be frustrated. Most of you know when I get my hopes up it is very hard for me to shift gears. This trip has tested my patience many times. Now that I know our trip is coming to an end, I am starting to think about all things that need to be accomplished in the next 7 weeks. I start work the first of July. Before July we need to get to St. Pete, redo the teak work and other boat projects, pack, get a U-haul move back to Memphis, find an apartment and buy a car and unpack. Crazy! The thing is, I know it is all possible with the help of our great support group of family and friends. When I think about what we have already accomplished in the last two years my head spins.

I am trying my best to take advantage of the beautiful surroundings and enjoy what may be my last time on a deserted island for a long, long time. The harbor we are currently in and have been in since last Thursday night is protected from all sides, so this week of squally weather should not be a problem. We are glad to be alone (as we had hoped) in the South anchorage, however, you also know how social I am, so after a few days of R&R I am ready for a conversation with a fellow cruiser. All of our buddies are now North of us or decided to stay south in the islands. I think Glenn is also a little frustrated with the prospect of waiting another week for good weather. I hear him hammering away on some project as I type. We all have our ways of coping.

On a happier note, we want to tell you about the incredible snorkeling on this island. We saw the biggest lobsters we have ever seen - all in a no-take zone of course. This is, after all, the Exuma Land and Sea Park. We also saw beautiful fan coral and a nurse shark. The beaches are amazing. I think I will go back to my book. I am reading “Wicked” - about the wicked witch of the West, very interesting. We have no shortage of good books and good food, so I don’t expect to get any sympathy for being stuck on this beautiful island.

Bahamas

2007-05-10T11:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we left the beautiful Emerald Bay Marina. We were sad to leave the wonderful hot showers but very excited to leave the surgey marina. We motor sailed 40 miles with extremely calm seas and no wind. We made it to Black Point by 4:00 that afternoon. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the famous Lorraine's cafe. (Fried Grouper and the fixins) Black Point is the largest village in the Exmas after Great Exuma, a very clean, nice settlement. [N24d06:206, W076d24:263]

We awoke at our 6:20 alarm clock to hear our weather report. Chris told us all about Subtropical storm "Andrea" (how appropriate). We wanted to assure you we are feeling no affects of this storm. In fact it is dead calm. We left the beautiful harbor of Black Point at 8:00 am. We motor sailed to Warderwick Wells, one of our favorite spots in the Bahamas. We had no wind at first, then we had a nasty squall with 30 knots. Thank goodness that passed and we made it into the South harbor where we are very excited about being the only boat in the harbor. The squalls seem to be gone for now and it is another beautiful day in paradise. We will stay here a few days and let Andrea pass by and then head west.
[N24d22:332, W076d36:785]

We want to wish everyone (who is a mother) a happy Mothers day this Sunday!

Love, Michele and Glenn

Whoo! What A Ride! - guest blog from Jann & Gail

2007-05-07T11:47:00.000-07:00

That’s the best way to describe our arrival aboard Crossroads. We arrived in Georgetown at 10:00pm. It took two trips in the dingy, in the rain, in the waves to transport four people and five pieces of luggage to the boat. Everyone and everything (except for the computer) was soaked with water. Once aboard we were immediately hit with pitching and rolling enough for us to question the wisdom of two weeks aboard. Many pills and seabands later we were fine and emptying our bags of goodies for Glenn and Michele. Michele kept promising this would be the worst night because we would move to a calmer anchorage, and of course she was right.

Our first three days in Georgetown coincided with the annual National Family Island Regatta. What fun it was to watch the islanders sail their native boats with big sails and colorful boats. The crew use long boards for counter balance and move them from side to side for each tack. The crew slides up and down the boards for ballast looking like crabs scuttling on the beach. After some straw market shopping, grocery shopping, and bread buying from Mom (local bread baker who sells from her minivan three days a week) we hoisted anchor and moved to the leeward side of Stocking Island.

Stocking Island is a beautiful island just off Great Exuma. This calmer anchorage is where we stay for the majority of our time. Here we swim off the boat, kayak, yoga on shore, watch beautiful sunsets, and shell hunt. We have left our hectic American schedules behind and are now operating on Island time.

Michele and Glenn are great hosts. We eat great food and enjoy wonderful cocktail hours with them. Many of their cruising friends have also come to Georgetown and we spend the next four days getting to experience the strong friendships formed with other cruisers. Delilah arrives with fresh Mahi Mahi to share. What a treat!! They were thanking us for delivering their new computer from the States, but the fish far outweighed the delivery. We now understand what “potluck” really means to cruisers, no green bean casserole for this crowd! One night we all went ashore for a potluck that would rival any Indian restaurant. Curry dishes were everywhere. We ate until nothing was left. We have many good recipes to try at home.

Before their friends head north, Glenn fixes his famous bread pudding with Mom’s coconut bread and we count fourteen aboard Crossroads, a new record! We feel blessed to have met so many of their friends and hope we will see them in Hardy one day.

As Jann and I head home tomorrow we will never forget the special times we have shared with Glenn and Michele. We are thankful to have husbands and children who were supportive of our adventure. We are especially thankful to Glenn and Michele for their hospitality and sharing a piece of their dream with us.

Whoo! What a ride!

Jann Christensen and Gail Theiler
(two of Glenn’s “big” sisters)

Georgetown Family Island Regetta

2007-05-02T09:08:00.000-07:00

Gail and Jann shopping and shelling

2007-05-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

Back to Conchville—

2007-04-25T14:21:00.000-07:00

Abraham’s Bay on the island of Mayaguana is one of those great anchorages that has free food lying around on the bottom- conch! Calling our harvest “conch hunting” makes it sound more challenging than it is. “ Conch gathering “ is more accurate since they are about as hard to catch as a pumpkin on the vine. The trick to conching is finding them and finding them large enough to keep. We use the same sizing rules as the park area of St. John, USVI uses: nine inches or bigger is a keeper.

We took the dinghy about a quarter off a mile to windward of the boat and slipped over the side with our snorkeling gear. The water was about seven feet deep with a slightly grassy sand bottom, perfect for conch. Michele and I picked up about 6 keepers in thirty minutes and Delilah found four in half that time. (Jill found a real monster). The easy part was done, now to get them out of the pretty shells and prepare them consumption.

Conch was removed, trimmed, skinned and pounded in assembly line fashion and we all got pretty good at our jobs. Jill took some back to Delilah to make conch salad, which is sort of a cevichi-type dish. The rest went to Crossroads to become yummy conch fritters—it was time for a big potluck. The crew of five boats (10 people) enjoyed a massive dinner.
Jamie brought a delicious Thai peanut pasta dish, Louise brought a yummy appetizer and Lisa brought brownies and Mexican corn bread.

Thanks to the crews of Delilah, Mei Wenti, Carapan and Endra for a memorable evening of fantastic food, great company and lots of sailor stories.

Glenn

Beach Combing at low tide - or - The hundred-yard dinghy drag…

2007-04-25T12:48:00.000-07:00

We read that the beach combing was great on the south and east beaches of Mayaguana and since we were to be there for a bit, we decided to check it out. Lots of interesting stuff - both man made and natural washes up on the windward beaches. Hamburger beans, (sort-of flattened buckeye-shaped seeds) make their way across the Atlantic from Africa and all sorts of fishing nets, lines and floats wash up on shore. I was searching for the Holy Grail of beach combing; the glass ball fishing float and Michele wanted Hamburger beans and a good walk.

We set out from Crossroads in our dink late in the morning with a bit of water, a couple beers and a granola bar. A break in the inner reef allowed us to power into the shallow, sandy area that leads to the shore. I tipped the outboard up for shallow running and when that was churning the sand on the bottom, we got out and waded the last fifty yards in foot-deep water.

It has been a long time since we have had to worry about tides. The islands of the Windward and Leeward chains don’t have much tide and the water is usually quite deep until you hit the shore. Not so in the Bahamas, and Mayaguana is in the Bahamas. Forgetting this and the fact that the tide drops over two feet here, we pulled the dinghy to the shore and dragged it up out of the water. We took a nice long walk to the east towards town and checked out a wrecked Bahamian racing sloop on the shore. All the fishing floats were foam or plastic but we did find one hamburger bean. I noticed that the water was receding but assured Michele that it was about to turn and start flowing back in. At least we didn’t have to worry about the dinghy floating away. We returned to the dink and had a little picnic with the meager supplies we had brought. It was hot sitting on the inflated side tubes of our “car” drinking the last of the water and watching the ocean getting farther away. We were now fifty yards from the water and I was sure that the tide should be coming back in soon. As we had no desire to drag our heavy boat across fifty yard of sticky sand-clay mix, we took another walk (the other way) to give the tide time to return.

This walk was, for me even longer than the first one. We found some interesting French fishing floats made of aluminum and some nice green plastic ones from Spain, but no glass- does anybody still use glass? Michele headed back to the dinghy but I pressed on, hopeful that my glass float would be in the next pile of nets and junk… or the next one. I finally gave up and headed back to Michele with my treasures of the sea and one more ‘burger bean. It was after 3:00 as we sat on the sides of our inflatable boat 100 yards from the water, and waited. Hot and thirsty we waited for the water to crawl back towards shore. An hour later we couldn’t take it anymore and decided to start slowly dragging the dingy out toward the water. At least we would be doing something. Our sandals and the boat stuck in the soft clay-sand mix but we managed to pull a few feet at a time. We stopped to rest a lot and eventually got into an inch or two of water. This made the going a bit easier and soon we were floating the boat as we waded along side. With the tide now actually coming in and with us pulling out, we were able to get in and finally drop the motor down when we were 100 yards from shore. We were glad to return to Crossroads for water and shade after our five-hour beach combing expedition. Sailors—watch your tide tables!

Glenn

Passage, passage, passage- I just want to sleep more than 3 hours, Please!

2007-04-25T12:45:00.000-07:00

This is one of those blogs that I know we will not get a lot of sympathy for, but here goes my rant about lack of sleep. Glenn and I love to sleep and boy we can both sleep, 10 hours with out any problem. When we are on a passage and only get to sleep 3 hours we can just hear the other one saying- oh no please don’t make me get up and take my watch.

I know it was just a few short months ago that I wrote a blog about the magic of the night watch, and don’t get me wrong, there are nights that I love the time at sea. That is when the sea is calm and the wind is good.

In the last month Crossroasds has traveled 730 nm, some of them quite rough. This is quite a haul for a boat that only goes about 5 knots. We did all this traveling in 4 hops: one 24 hour from Culebra to Boqueron, Puerto Rico then a 46 hour hop from Boqueron to Luperon, D.R. going across the “Mona Passage, then 180 nm (40 hours) to Mayaguana, Bahamas then another 40 hour- 180 nm hop to Georgetown, Bahamas.

Looking back, I can see why I was bummed out about leaving the Virgin Islands. After all, for 6 weeks we never had to go more than 20 miles at a time from the British Virgins to the U. S Virgins to the Spanish Virgins.

Glenn and I have never minded doing passages but for some reason these last four have made us extremely tired. Maybe we are out of practice from the 6 weeks of short distance sailing but I know I am happy to be at anchor for 2 weeks and I’m really looking forward to coming home and sleeping through the night without taking 3-hour shifts.

Michele

guest blog by jim fain

2007-04-25T12:35:00.000-07:00

The mostly Dominican passengers were singing a peppy tune in Spanish as we began our descent into the Santo Domingo Airport. Perhaps I would have understood the song had it been about beer and food. The gleeful crowd erupted into joyful cheers and clapping for the successful landing of the plane. I would only later realize that cheering when one has been successfully conveyed in a motorized vehicle in the Domincan Republic is a natural response much akin to the thanks one would utter after successfully swimming in pirahna infested water with a bloody nose. It was a sunny Wednesday before Easter in the predominantly Catholic country. The inspection of the rental car was a litany of minor scrapes and dings that should also have forewarned us. With Tammy at the wheel we sallied forth into the Zona Colonial section of the city. As far as we can tell these are the rules of driving in the DR. Use all available space for going in your direction if two lanes can fit three cars and a scooter so be it. Honking is use for the purpose of stating here I am and I'm coming through. Lights and stop signs are arbitrary and must be observed only in major intersections with lots of cross traffic, otherwise just honk your horn and breeze on through.

Santo Domingo's Zona Colonial which is probably the oldest city of European descent in North and South America is a picturesque place. Where else can you get a Presidente grande from a little corner shop next to a 500 year old church ruin? The architecture is a beautiful mixture of stone colonial buildings and pre 50s concrete art deco which of course loves Carribean pastel colors. It is quite a mixture of varying degrees of wealth. The place we stayed opened right on the street and the tunes would be going at night at the little place on the corner where we bought Bohemia grandes and the elderly man hung out on the corner rubbing his thumb and forefinger together indicating he was a money changer. I also saw a REAL Dominican, an actual Domincan Benedictine friar complete in the homespun robe, rope belt and thong sandals, Y'all thought I pulled up his robe to see his thong underwear at first didn't ya. The food, Presidente, Bohemia and Brahma were all quite good in Santo Domingo comparable in price to a reasonable and good Memphis restaurant. In fact Memphis is kind of like a third world country in some respects to a New Yorker which is probably why they tip so well they are thinking haha I paid that! for a meal and drinks! You go into Gus' fried chicken and can get the best fried chicken in the world cheap and 40 oz beers that cost the same as at a quick stop. Although I guess you can also go up a few blocks to Chez Phillipe in the Peabody and plunk down a nice chunk a change while you negotiate your bazillion dollar purchase of the Grizzlies NBA team (currently for sale I believe).

I digress from the island, from Santo Domingo we battled through the buzzing swarms of scooters with one to five people on them, the belching vans with people hanging off the sides, battered taxis that make ski bum cars and hooptys look like rolls roycesand all the other cars from 70's toyotas on up to brand new beemers and landcruisers. It was good friday and traffic was stiff as we headed across through the mountains to the other side. The Holiday weekend had the slow down brigade out and ambulances and emergency vehicles all over the place. We stopped at a little place and had a six dollar meal of pork chops, plantain and fish stew and Presidente grande that was worth about six bucks. But it had nice friendly rural atmosphere.

From there on into Luperon and Crossroads. There we met another cruising couple Steve and Kim from Lilith Fair or Phylithflide no, wait a minute Anthyllide. It gave us a real taste of what their lives are like down in the Carribean. We even got to help a little with Glenn removing their self steering unit which they sold to Anthyllide which incidentally is an aluminum boat. We partied down and did some merenge on Saturday night and then went on to Miramar and San Isabel (where the first European settlement was and Cristobal Colon landed) Why did we change his name anyway? If we used his actual name that holiday could have become another eating holiday like Thanksgiving or New Years Day. Think about it people would assume a holiday with the same name as part of your intestine must be an eating day. Colon Day. I like it. Well I guess fat America doesn't need another eating day. What is it with changing proper names anyway? Why do we call Suomi Finland? Why do we call Espana Spain?

Anyway, the Hotel Miramar had a great Easter Sunday brunch and an interesting museum of artifacts from the pre European invasion residents. Lots of emphasis on reproduction and fertility. From Luperon back into the mountains and a stay in Jarabacoa at the Gran Jimenoa. Beautiful scenic hotel on the river. Glenn and JIm went for a mountain bike ride and Michelle and Tammy went for a horseback ride. Got to see a nice waterfall and some trash. Saw the country villas of the wealthy on down to the barely held together. Glenn and I had to work on the bikes a little before riding. I'll tell you a bike I sold for $25 was better than those bikes.

We made it back out to the airport and finally saw a crash. A scooter hit one of the phone card sellers right next to us. I was happy to drop the rental back at the airport with no new damage. All in all a relaxing trip (other than the driving) where I put on about five pounds (of Presidente and Bohemia)
-jim

Bus ride to Santo Domingo—

2007-04-25T12:25:00.000-07:00

Our original plan was to spend a month in the Domincan Republic however, with the weather and other circumstances we had to change that to a two-week visit. The first few days were filled with getting the boat ready to be left in the Luperon harbor while we traveled in-land to meet our friends Jim and Tammy. They rented a car at the airport and we took the bus to meet them in Santo Domingo. I was amazed at the variety of the crops that are grown in the DR. While leaving the small rural town of Luperon we rode through rolling hills and beautiful lush valleys. We saw rice fields, tobacco, orange groves, corn, bananas, coffee, chocolate beans and many coconut palm trees. It was so diverse it was amazing. With it’s wide variety of topographic and climate conditions the DR has the richest plant life in the Caribbean.

One of the sadist scenes on our bus ride was the realization of how much trash there is in the country. The bus driver’s assistant was picking up the trash in the bus and putting it in a small wastebasket. For a quick second the bus stopped and the man tossed the trash on the side of the road by a beautiful green hillside of sugarcane. I gasped out loud. I could not believe that only a mile down the road was a bus stop and he could have emptied the trash in a trashcan there. This was a real eye opener for me and I started noticing many people throwing trash in the rivers and on the street.

Many of you know, I once put a student out of my car and made him walk home for throwing trash out the window. I really hate litter. It made me think of the U.S. in the 70’s and all the T.V. commercials we watched that discouraged littering. I know it is possible to educate and change habits but I wonder how long it will take for the DR to realize how much the trash affects the country. They really need the crying Indian here.

The people in the D.R. are some of the nicest folks in the world and are very helpful and gracious. On the way back from our stay in Jarabacoa (the mountain village with beautiful waterfalls) we took the guaguas from La Vega where Jim and Tammy dropped us off to head back to the airport. A guagua is a van-like public taxi that is very cheap and loaded with many people and sometimes with chickens and other interesting items. In order to get back to Luperon we had to change guaguas 4 times. On the second change I was distracted and left my nice small backpack with our books and my prescription glasses in the top compartment above my head. As soon as we got on the other van I realized it and got off to try and catch the van. Of course it was gone. A nice young man about college age saw my distress and he went in search of a guy with a radio since his English was better than my Spanish. We tried to find it but had no luck. I had given up and was getting back on the van when I saw him coming toward me carrying the pack. I got off the van and gave him a big hug and a tip. He did not ask for a tip, but I was so happy to have the bag back that I was happy to give him one. This is just one example of the kindest we saw in the country. Every bus stop we got off someone was there to help us find our next guagua. My idealistic dream is for some great student like our good friend Megan Murphy to come to the DR and help educate them about the trash situation because that is one of the only drawbacks to this country.

Michele

Georgetown, Bahamas

2007-04-23T07:06:00.000-07:00

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We made it to Georgetown, Bahamas this morning at 9:00 after a 40 hour passage from Mayaguana. We had much calmer crossing than our last two have been. We left Mayaguana at 5:00 pm Friday afternoon. I was a little nervous, I really prefer to leave for a passage earlier in the day, we motor-sailed for about 5 hours then the wind came to the beam of the boat and we had a beautiful sail the rest of the night, we lost some of the wind the next day but the seas were very calm. The wind picked up and
we sailed again and had another dark and starry night. We got into Georgetown, dropped the anchor and went to bed. We were very tired.

We are so happy to stop and stay in Georgetown for a couple of weeks. Glenn's sisters; Jann and Gail will arrive here on Wednesday. We look forward to their visit. We will send photos soon. Happy Birthday to Don Phillips.

Michele and Glenn

Mayaguana, Bahamas

2007-04-16T10:47:00.000-07:00

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We made it in yesterday morning to Mayaguana after a two night, one day passage from Luperon, Dominican Republic. We had a great first night, but the next night was really, really rolly and rough, yuck. For once we were going too fast and had to stay outside the reef cut at Mayaguana for several hours to wait for good sunlight to see the reefs. We were exhausted, Glenn went to bed at 3:00 in the afternoon and didn't get up until 6:30 this morning. I took a nap, then went over for dinner on the boat Delilah, who we had not seen for several months. Dean made his homemade pizza crust and I met several of their new friends.

There is a strange series of colds front hanging out in the Bahamas causing north west winds. We will keep you posted, but we have been told we can not leave here to travel up to Georgetown until this weekend. We have another two night, one day passage to get to Georgetown.

We have many photos from the Dominican Republic as well as a guest blog from Jim and Tammy Fain. We would love to share these with ya'll, however, as Mayaguana is one of the Bahamas' out-islands, internet service is not available here. Once we get to Georgetown we will have a ton of stories and photos to post. Thanks for waiting.

Michele and Glenn

The Fast and Furious....

2007-04-01T17:07:00.000-07:00

We finally left Boqueron after waiting for 10 days for good weather. Our forecast was for light and variable wind the first day and night and building to 15 the next day and night. Well, let me tell you what we got; light and variable for the first few hours and then by 10:00 pm that evening we got 27-32 knots of wind, with sloppy 10 foot seas. It rained through the night and waves were crashing over the bow. Crossroads was handling this mess much better than the crew was. Moving around the boat or just sitting required a great deal of effort in those rough conditions. We were flying, making 8 knots with a double-reefed main and half the jib rolled up (not a lot of sail).

By 6:30 am we were exhausted and wondering if we should duck in some where and wait or keep going for Luperon, DR. I called Chris Parker (our weather guru) using the single side band radio and asked if this mess was going to continue or lighten up. He assured me it “ should” lighten up. Fortunately, it finally did and Glenn let me sleep for 3 full hours. I was a new person expect for the million bruises I gained on the passage. We made it into Luperon 7:00am, right on schedule after our 46 hour crossing. (250nm) This was 4 hours faster than our East bound trip last year. Yeah!

We were so happy to be back in the Dominican Republic and in a very calm harbor. We did not even mind that we spent most of the day clearing into the country with 6 different officials. We slept like rocks that night for 11 hours. Monday we check in with the last two departments who were not open on the weekend – talk about homeland security.

[N19d53:924, W70d57:220]

Crossroads Book Review

2007-03-25T12:27:00.000-07:00

Below we will list some of our favorite books we read on our journey. We read hundreds of murder mysteries and adventure novels most of which where sufficiently entertaining but not necessarily notable.

“Life Expectancy”- Dean Koontz – what a ride. This book has a most interesting premise that keeps the reader dieing to know what’s going to happen next – then not believing what does happen. Very creative and fun
to read.

“The Hope” and “The Glory”- Herman Wouk- he also wrote "Don’t Stop The Carnival”, which gives an excellent glimpse into life in the Caribbean. “The Hope” a historical novel that tells the first twenty years of Israel’s existence, with the history of the Six-Day War and gripping accounts of romance and love. “The Glory” rejoins the story of Israel’s journey with the history of the Yom Kippur War and Camp David. He continues the life struggles of the characters introduced in “The Hope”.

“White Hot” – Sandra Brown- A murder mystery set in Louisiana, with as many twists and turns as a game of twister.

“The Lord is my Shepherd”- Harold Kushner- The Twenty-Third Psalm has always been a scripture that gives me hope. Kushner gives his insight on each verse.

“Embarrassment of Mangoes”- Ann Vanderhoof- Ann’s story of her travels through the Caribbean with her husband on their boat Recita is the closest we have found to paralleling our trip. She weaves in lots of great recipes and funny incidents. When we met them in St Maarten she was working on a second book with more great food.

“Caribbean” – James Michener- Big book, small print. It is a series of historical fiction stories that flow together to give the reader a feel for the history of the Caribbean. Michener takes you right up to present day to help understand the current situation here and appreciate the accomplishments and failures of the past.

“Spring Moon”- Bette Bao Lord- This historical novel spans the Chinese history with many rich love stories and insights on the culture of China.

“The Namesake”- Jhumpa Lahiri- This novel follows a family recently moved to the United States from Calcutta. It gives a great account of the immigrant story with the first generation wanting to have a better life for their family, the second generation wanting to lose the identity of India and become more “American”.

“The King Is Dead” - Sarah Shankman - Very funny book that weaves in barbeque, Elvis impersonators and murder in a “Crazy In Alabama” kinda way.

Still in Boqueron, PR

2007-03-24T11:58:00.000-07:00

The weather has changed yet again preventing us from sailing to the Dominican Republic. We could have left today, but didn't know about the weather change until 9am and then we found out u.s. customs was closed and we need clearance from here to enter the Dominican Republic. So here we sit. Boqueron is a beautiful beach harbor, however we are really ready to get to the DR. So, we will clear out Monday and head west on Tuesday or Wednesday or so. Things are much more lively here on the weekend than during the week. Boqueron is a weekend get away spot for the people of this end of PR. During the week most of the shops and restaurants are closed, but now things are jumping. The beach is full of people, the water is full of jet-skis(yuck) and the streets are lined with food and beverage vendors. It feels like a small tourist town in Florida. We will make the best of it and perhaps rent a car on Monday with the crew of Exit Strategy and see some stuff near here.

Guest blog from Randy and Hayes

2007-03-22T10:48:00.000-07:00

Working out a visit on the Crossroads seemed to be a lost cause for the McPherson’s. Different Spring Breaks, me an overworked, underpaid educator trying to carve out time for the trip, a reluctant wife (she really didn’t want to pump her poop…(you have to have been on the Crossroads to fully appreciate that one) and a voyage that was fast coming to an end was working against us. But earlier this year things fell into place. My 19 year old planned a trip to Malibu with his girlfriend, Karen (my spousal unit) decided to sacrifice and work things out for Hayes (11) and me to make the trip. I took vacation and he skipped school and we finalized the plans. They say to fully appreciate the good you have to experience the bad. Our trip down was the bad…no it was a trip from hell.

Friday, March 09, 2007. Day 1

We first were delayed in Memphis for an hour because they broke the pilots seat. I kid you not. In Miami we kept getting delay announcements. They had lost the crew that was to take us on to San Juan. This is American Airlines and they can’t find a pilot! After bringing in a group from Orlando we thought we were getting underway but noooooo! After going through all the checks they made an another announcement that we had unbalanced fuel. I guess that is important because we sat in the plane for another hour. At this point we had lost three and one half hours.
Logistics, I discovered, are more complicated when you are meeting someone on a sailboat. Michele had found us a contact that would drive us from San Juan to Fajardo where we would catch a ferry to Culebra where Glenn and Michele would meet us for a short hike and then a dinghy ride to Crossroads. We found our ride, Henri, easily at the airport. On a good day it is about an hour’s drive to Fajardo and we had less. Henri was game to try (what choice did we have) so off into the night we went. The last ferry of the day, Culebra II, was sitting at the gate when we arrived. Henri ran to the ticket window to get our tickets but he was told the ferry was gone. We tried to argue with them. We even showed them the ferry, the very large boat sitting in the water by the dock could hardly be missed. The ticket agent disagreed in spite of our pleas and soon he was correct. The ferry left us with our bags, nowhere to stay the night and no way to contact Glenn and Michele. Henri tried to find us a nice place to stay. Then Henri tried to find us a decent place to stay. Then Henri found us The Guest House. We had officially entered the Twilight Zone or a B grade movie, take your pick. Padro was the non-English speaking proprietor who told Henri the price for a bed for one night was $45. That was at least twice what it was worth but having no other choices we laid the cash down, Pedro held up two fingers and tossed us a key while pointing upstairs. Henri waived good bye and our last connection to our impressions of the real world drove away. I had remained calm, cool and collected for Hayes (one of my better acting jobs). I kept telling him everything would be OK and think what a great story this would be in 30 years. Then we saw the room. I’ll spare you a description other than to say it would never be mistaken for the Ritz. The TV had two fuzzy stations and Hayes watched a monster movie made in Japan and dubbed in Spanish for a while before falling to sleep from exhaustion. It was only 9 pm by then but our day had started in Memphis at 4:30am. The night was filled with the sounds of barking dogs, strange birds I could not identify, and what Hayes is convinced was the music from an ice cream truck that seemed to come around every hour or so all night long.

Day 2

Not wanting to miss the ferry. We rose at 6am reorganized the luggage for our walk (sorry no taxis would come into that neighborhood). The streets were narrow and it was hard to avoid the periodic homeless lying asleep in the bushes or the dogs and chickens that wondered by as we made our way to the docks while dragging our luggage behind. Arriving nearly two hours early we found a few hundred locals and a few tourist waiting in line to board the Culebra II. As we approached the last leg to the window we heard a cheer! It was the group who got the last tickets on the ferry. I tried pleading with whomever spoke or did not speak a word of English. Finally, I convinced them to let 50 more people on the ferry which should have gotten us on. A last minute bum rush by some locals left us at the gate once more. Luckily, I had befriended some locals who gave us info on Flamenco Airways, a charter that would fly us to Culebra for $25 a head. Two guys from California, Gary and Fernando, joined us along with our locals. The ride over in the 10 passenger Islander was very bumpy but also gave us our first view of the islands that almost made me forget the past 24 hours. The 15 minute flight gave us a picturesque view of a natural harbor that we would soon enjoy.
Landing brought a cheer from everyone in the plane but also our next disappointment. We had no way of contacting Glenn and Michele and there were no taxis available. Luckily Michele found someone to loan her a cell phone and we finally made contact. She met us at the airport and after a short walk to the dinghy, we finally got our first look at Crossroads.
Over the next few days we spent time in Dewey harbor (named after Admiral Dewey), ate at Momacita’s and the Dingy Dock restaurants, spent some time sailing, visited Culebrita with the old light house and one of the most gorgeous areas I’ve ever seen called the Jacuzzis, and spent time conking and kayaking on and around Conk Island in (what was the name of that harbor)? Hayes received lessons in navigation, piloted both dinghy and Crossroads like a natural.
Heineken sponsors a series of races throughout the Islands and we hit on one of their weekends. There were lots of boats of all shapes and sizes and a concert in Dewey that brought out tourist and locals for music and libations.

Flamenco Beach is a top 10 rated beach that features a mile long stretch of pristine fine, white sand. Vieques and Culebra were used by the US Navy for “live bomb” target practice for 50 years until 2003. The Navy turned the majority of both Islands over to the US Fish and Wildlife Service so there is no commercial development on the beaches. As you walk down the beach, you sudden upon a few odd sights. US Army tanks, slowly rusting away but that have been lovingly painted but local artist in the native style. Just beyond the fence that sections off some of the many Mangrove trees, we are told that live ordinance still lies buried just deep enough to discourage any entrepreneurs from turning the park into a tourist trap.

The weather was perfect. Temps in the low 80’s and a constant breeze kept the days warm and the nights perfect for sleeping. No week on a sailboat would be complete without a squall so Glenn ordered up a small one just so we could see a little rain and feel the boat rock in the wind. Our days were filled exploring the sun-drenched islands and the evenings spent watching the sun set, tasting the latest concoction whipped up by Glenn and Michele and battling through a card game before retiring to bed. Each night we fell asleep gazing at the stars through our hatch and woke to the sun peeking over the gently rolling ocean.

It is easy to see how people fall in love with the stretch of ocean beyond Florida southward. Life is casual and relaxed. The scenery comes straight out of an episode of Travels of the Rich and Famous, and there is just enough adventure to remind you of the tall ships that sailed the waters centuries ago. I regret it took me so long to see it and feel blessed to have shared it with Hayes, Glenn and Michele. Thanks for putting up with us.
Randy

Culebra to Boqueron –

2007-03-20T11:39:00.000-07:00

[N18d01:240, W067d10:599] Boqueron, Puerto Rico

We had an eventful 24-hour passage from Culebra. We started off making great time, six to seven knots, and we really thought we might have to slow down so that we would not arrive in Boqueron in the dark. Ha! Famous last words! We sailed fast from 9:00 am to 6:30 pm. We were even making really good time during the windward leg. Then, we turned to parallel the south coast of Puerto Rico and the wind died. The wind had been blowing from the South, so the island was not blocking the wind - it just went away. Theoretically, we should have had nice trade winds but nooooooooo it dropped to 5 to 10 knots with rolly seas. The sails were flapping which annoys me as much as a rollly anchorage. When our speed dropped to 2. 8 knots Glenn said, let’s fire up Carl (our engine) and motor sail for a while. We dropped the forward sail and plugged along at 5 knots with rolly beam seas. Needless to say we did not get a lot of sleep while motoring all night on this passage.

We did however catch 3 fish. Of course, the first two were Barracuda, which were carefully removed (watch those teeth) and tossed back but the third was a Wahoo. Once we were anchored, Glenn made a delicious dinner baking the yummy fish with fresh vegetables. It was a great way to end a tiring passage.

Visit with Hayes and Randy… Spanish Virgin Islands…. Culebra..

2007-03-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful visit with my nephew Hayes and my brother-in-law Randy. I was proud of both of them but I will brag a little now about Hayes (11years old). They had a rough start with delayed airlines and missed ferries, but they took it in stride. I gave Hayes a quick lesson in dinghy driving. He picked it up like a pro from pulling the starter cord to steering and maneuvering it.

We started the exploring out by going to Flamingo beach on the north side of Culebra. Hayes ordered a banana smoothie where he got his first Spanish lesson for the trip. The lady making the drink said agua o leche (water or milk) Hayes looked up with this clueless expression. Then we ordered a pollo (chicken on a stick). I think this was Hayes favorite meal of the trip.

Hayes was interested in our navigation equipment perhaps because it looks like a big computer game. Glenn gave him a quick lesson in buoy’s and aides to navigation, which he absorbed faster than I did. He was amazing at remembering nautical terms. He was eager to stand behind the wheel and actually sail Crossroads. Once again, with a quick lesson he was making 6 knots with the sail tell-tails flying perfectly. We sailed from Culebra to Culebrita on a beam reach with 15 knots of wind. Once in Culebrita we gave Hayes his first lesson in snorkeling. While the reefs were not the best we had seen he did get to see some pretty fish.

Conch lesson 101- Hayes was very interested in learning how to clean conch. Glenn took him to what we renamed as Conch Island with tools in hand to remove, trim, skin, and beat. Hayes helped by using a hammer and chisel to knock a slit in the shell to get the critter out and with beating the conch meat to tenderize it. Then aboard Crossroads we finished the process by boiling, dicing, mixing with batter and frying into yummy conch fritters.

Thanks to Karen (my sister) to loaning us her husband and son for a wonderful week in the Spanish Virgin Islands.

Michele

Culebra, Spanish Virgin Islands

2007-03-04T06:42:00.000-08:00

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We arrived in Culebra Saturday afternoon after an extremely boisterous sail from St. John. Thank goodness it was only 30 miles. We saw the wind indicator hit 40 knots. That was a first for Crossroads. We had 10 foot seas from the stern. We have much to share from our month in the Virgin Islands. We have had some difficulty with our blog lately. Please get a cup of coffee and take your time reading the next 5 entries. Thanks to Ken Hamric for taking care of the blog issue.

Michele and Glenn

Saying goodbye is never easy . . .

2007-03-03T06:40:00.000-08:00

We knew the day would come when Crossroads would continue to sail north and Dragonfly would have to go south. I have had a wide range of emotions lately due to the realization that we are heading back to the U.S., but it really hit home when we had to say goodbye to our good friends Jeff and Una.

We first met Jeff and Una in January of ‘06 in Marathon, Florida. Glenn and I were in our dinghy going by their boat when we noticed they were from Nashville, TN. We stopped and I said hey, we are from Memphis. Since, that day we have shared a ton of great memories and been through a lot with them. They are staying out cruising longer, so they need to start heading back toward the southern islands.

Leaving good friends made me reflect on the wonderful memories we shared. It also made me realize that this journey we have been on is starting to come to an end. I have mixed emotions of goodbyes and new beginnings.

Last November, our friend John Heeren visited us; he said, “make every day count, live everyday to the fullest”. I think on our journey north I have tried to do that. Sometimes it’s difficult when you are in a rolly anchorage or in 10ft seas but every time I see a turtle I think wow, that is so cool and every time I see dolphins I think, well I won’t be seeing those this time next year. However, I am also excited about seeing and being with friends and family. Believe it or not we are really excited about spending Christmas with family this year and I can’t wait till I can call up my best friend Joyce on a regular basis again. Glenn is really excited about the opportunity to renovate a house in midtown and believe it or not I am excited about going back to work. Most of our cruising friends think I am crazy when I talk about being excited about going back to work, but as you know, my work with Facing History is much more than a job, it is also my passion. Today, we are just excited about being in the Spanish Virgin Islands. We have a week to check it out and find all the great snorkeling spots so that when Randy and Hayes come to visit this weekend we will be ready to share another great week in paradise.

Michele

St John, USVI

2007-03-01T06:33:00.000-08:00

[N18d20:504, W064d42:670]

It is hard to explain the beauty of St. John. So many people talked about the outstanding views from here that honestly, I was afraid I would be a little disappointed. How can an island live up to everything I had heard about it? Well it did. We have been here a week and I wish we could stay another month. It is really nice to be back in the good ole USA.
I have really come to appreciate the well laid out hiking trails and markers. After only being here a day Glenn and I hiked up to the top of the Bordeaux Mountain. We were one of only 3 boats in a beautiful harbor. This was really the perfect get away after the crowded but beautiful BVI. Later that week we sailed around to Coral Bay where we met up with Dragonfly. This was a way cool little harbor, a bit rolly but the restaurants were awesome. We listened to a band at a restaurant/bar called Skinny Legs with Dragonfly and two couples on a Charter Boat. One of the couples is a boat broker in Annapolis and the other is from Tupelo, MS. Wow! What a small world. We also ate at the Donkey Diner, “kick a** food” and yummy pizza.

Glenn and I went snorkeling for Conch. Yes, believe it or not, it is Conch season and you can catch two a day per person as long as they are 9 inches long. Boy, we had forgotten how hard it is to clean a conch. We spent the next two hours trying to clean the conch so that we could make conch fritters for Jeff and Una. The hard work paid off.

Recipe for Conch Fritters:
1 Cup and ½ of cooked conch meat, diced
1 egg
1 onion, chopped
½ red bell pepper, chopped
1 clove of crushed garlic
1 tsp back pepper
2 cups of flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp of salt
1 tsp limejuice
1-cup milk
Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Drop spoonfuls into hot oil. We served with a dipping sauce consisting of mayo, Worcestershire sauce and little hot sauce. Very tasty!

One last comment on St. John, Glenn and I were out in the kayak and a dolphin came up only 10 feet from us. Very Cool!

Michele

Good times with Don and Kim and Dragonfly/ BVI

2007-02-28T06:25:00.000-08:00

We have been looking forward to our visit from Don and Kim for several months. It is hard to believe that it has been a year since we told them goodbye in the Bahamas.

Don and Kim stayed in a hotel in Cane Garden Bay for the first week of their visit. This gave us an opportunity to take both Dragonfly and Crossroads out for day sails, yes believe it not we went pleasure sailing. This also gave us a chance to use the blow dryer, real shower and blender in the hotel room, items that Una and I had not had the luxury of using in some time. However, after a few days of the crowded beaches at Cane Garden bay, the slightly rolly anchorage and loud music we were ready to spring Don and Kim from their hotel and sail to Jost Van Dyke. We shared a delightful Valentines evening at Harris restaurant in Little Harbor a favorite spot of Glenn and mine. We had a splendid lobster dinner, first with split pea soup, then the salad and garlic bread course; followed by the lobster with garlic butter, bake potato, fresh vegetables and beans and rice. We were so full I thought we might have to sleep at her restaurant.

The next day we took off for our longest sail of the week to Virgin Gorda. We are not used to going to windward since most of the way back we have been sailing downwind, but we did our best to sail to windward and then motored. We arrived at Gorda Sound and were happy that the spot we wanted to anchor off Prickly Pear island was not crowded. Una made her delicious spaghetti that evening and Jeff and Don played guitars. The next day we went on a lovely hike with excellent views and then we rented 3 Hobies and went sailing for fun. It was my first time to go out on trap (trapeze harness). That evening we grilled brats and burgers and had a private picnic on the beach at the Sand Box restaurant. They close at 5:00 so we just kinda took over their space; we watched the stars and had another wonderful night in paradise.

The next day the gang went snorkeling and I stayed at the restaurant at Saba rock and did emails. We moved over to Leverick Bay so we could do laundry and get water. That evening we fried snickers aboard Crossroads. Yum! Yum!

Sunday we sailed down to the baths, boy that was a disappointment, it was Disney Land, yuck! Way too many people for us, we blew out of there and went over to Marina Cay, a very cool little island. Our time with Don and Kim was going quickly and we had so much more we wanted to do. Oh well, we decided to stay another night at Marina Cay and chill out. The weather had been perfect for their visit so I guess that fact that we had nasty weather for their last day was not the end of the world. By the time we arrived at Soper’s Hole all the mooring balls were full and it is too deep to anchor there. We ended up getting a marina slip and with the northern swell wrapping around it was the rolliest night any of us have ever spent in a Marina. We said our goodbye the next morning bright and early as Glenn dinghied them to the ferry dock. A good time was had by all.

We want to say a special thanks to Don and Kim for bringing a silly amount of peanuts and granola not to mention a ton of other goodies.

Michele

Brown Dog/ guest blog

2007-02-24T06:18:00.000-08:00

The following are the creative writing assignment guest blogs from our guests Don & Kim of Moonrise:

The rain returned after midnight, it came hurrying down the steep hills like a vagrant anxious to pass through a sleeping town, being swept along on a warm Caribbean wind that left the boats in Sopers Hole Marina tugging at spring lines and cleats like a corral of unsettled Mustangs.
It was not yet 5am and I awoke hourly to the rhythmic creaks and moans of a boat that sat safely in a slip but protested this comfort for want of an anchorage, which remains a cruising boats true place of rest.
As the night sky returned to a wallpaper of stars I padded in bare feet past the rows of tethered sailboats grateful for what remained of the night and its solitude. I needed time to reflect on our two weeks of friends and salt water before catching the ferry to St Thomas to begin our travels back to Oregon.
At the end of the pier I discovered a dry place to sit and watch the water dance along the hulls and torment dinghies that seemed intent on separating their painters from cleats.

“Rainy night.” A voice said from behind me.
“After two weeks of great weather and sailing its best that I don’t complain.” I tossed the words over my shoulder not bothering to look back.
“You must be heading home...”
“Yep, my wife and I our heading back this morning to Portland.”
The voice moved along side of me stretching fully and volunteering a dramatic yawn to the sky.
“Ahh, the Pacific Northwest sounds nice...lots a trees out there.” The voice found a seat next to me and shook the chilling sea breeze from his shoulders.

It took a moment and I know I blinked my eyes hard enough to be heard, which is why my early morning companion was kind enough to relieve me of my burden.

“Oh yes, I’m a dog. Well a brown dog I guess. And I talk too. That is to say we all talk when we want to but I admit I’m a bit chatty at times.”
I thought about my use of medication and rum for a second before saying anything.
“Oh well, that’s alright, I am too.” I said, “Chatty that is.” I cleared my throat and tried to act natural the way people do when they want to blurt out “Holy crap!”

“A brown dog over on Cane Garden Bay told me that the six of you had quite a time. Is it true you were wearing a women’s bathing suit in public?” His ears pricked forward when he laughed his dog laugh and I had to repress the sudden urge to pet him.
“Its nothing to me, but people might get the impression you’ve been neutered.”

“So all the dogs talk to one another?” I asked.
“Sure, why not. You know its a telepathy kind of thing, something you two leggers haven’t picked up just yet.” He rolled over and exposed his pink belly and said, “Hey, be a pal, how’s about a quick rub.”
“Oh sure... Glad to buddy, or whatever your name is.”
“Oh we don’t bother with names so brown dog is fine.”

“In fact, the other brown dogs have told me that you guys had a great time in the Caribbean. Snorkeling, hiking, sailing, playing on Hobies, drinking and merry laughter to all hours on the beach at Prickly Pear.” He rolled from one side to the other flopping his tail about as he spoke. “Right there...scratch the ribs for me.”

“Well the beach cats actually told us that... But, you know, were cool.”

“What about the goats, did they add anything?” I asked as he sprung back to all fours.

“Man that was a good belly scratch, thanks a million. Goats, ha, no way. Those guys are just as dumb as a hammer.”
He leaned in as if to insure he had my attention. “The reason you see goats standing on top of things all the time is they are like...lost. They will climb up on something and get stuck there. Idiots. Nice enough once you get past that goat smell, just not too smart. Then with the baaa baaa stuff half the night, which incidentally means absolutely nothing, they just do it. Compulsive nature I guess.”

I rubbed his ears and he smiled. “Now you’re getting it.”

You two leggers are learning but it’s tough being plagued with a thumb. Throughout history its the thumb that has been your problem.” His brow furrowed and he seemed to give his words serious thought. “Dogs don’t shoot or stab anyone. We cant, no thumb. Never built a bomb or wrecked a car, never stole an election or told a lie. Again, no thumb. I have often felt a great amount of compassion for the two leggers and the cards that nature dealt you. Maybe evolution will eventually allow that silly thing to fall off.” His gaze fell out over the water and he settled on his hindquarters. “Oh dear, I am sorry, there I go being chatty again.”

We sat quiet for a moment and I rubbed the top of his head and ears and there was only the sound of the sea and the occasional thump of his tail on the planks.

“See how easy this is?” he said. “As simple as finding shade under a table or a scratch on the belly. Live for the little joy. That’s my advice. And try not to let your thumbs cause any trouble.”

Brown dog stood and sniffed the breeze. “Going to rain again.” he threw back at me as he trotted up the dock.
“By the way,” I asked, “we wondered if dogs have souls?”
He stopped to sample something that only his nose could see before looking up.
“Now you’re just being silly.” he said with a hint of a British accent before disappearing behind the dark store fronts.

I stood and stretched as the rain began. “I bet Glenn has the coffee on.” I smiled and headed home.
Don

Kim’s highlights from her vacation….

Beach
Sun
Books
Barbeque
Pizza and American Pie
Blender drinks
Bikini Man
Fresh coconut
Dinghy rescue
Brown dog
Day Sails
Snorkeling
Swimming
Sand Flies on the Beach
Hamburgers and Brats
Star-gazing
Bloomin’ onion and conch
Hobie racing
Turtles, Stingray and Barracuda
Island Hikes
Kayaks
Sunrises and sunsets
Happy Arrrr
Spaghetti dinner
Margaritas and Enchiladas
Fried Snickers and Fried Plantains
Sausage Balls
Guitars and Cigars
Hammock
Shopping
Cinnamon coffee
Sausage Biscuits and Gravy
SILLY amount of Peanuts
Rock Climbing
Mast climbing
Sailing in a storm
Laughter
Tall tales
Southern food
Southern hospitality
Life long Friends
Loved it
Love you!
Kim

BVI - not chartering this time

2007-02-20T11:09:00.000-08:00

I have long looked forward to returning to the British Virgin Islands on our own boat so I could wave at all the Charter boats and say “Na-na-na, we’re on our own boat and your just pretend cruising”. Well, I didn’t actually say that, but I thought it to myself sometimes. The best part about being on our own boat in the BVI was the pacing. There was no need to rush to a new anchorage everyday in order to “see it all”. We spent our first week in Gorda Sound. A week. That’s the length of an entire charter vacation and we wasted it in one place. A vacationer would have moved every night and sometimes once or twice during the day. I just don’t enjoy anchoring that much. We did, however have time to enjoy the beauty of Gorda Sound. The Sound is like a big lake formed on one side by Virgin Gorda and on the others by a group of smaller islands and reefs. The water within is calm and clean. If the entire BVI’s were just Gorda Sound, it would still be a great cruising ground. We hiked up hills for dramatic views of the islands and wondered at the limitless number of colors of the water. The snorkeling was also great and we could swim from the boat to a very nice beach to sit on chairs under an umbrella and watch Crossroads bobbing at anchor. Great place, go there!!

One final observation from the BVI – listening to the guest of a crewed charter boat anchored in front of us. The caption was pulling pairs of them behind the dinghy on an inner tube. This was high adventure. They whooped and hollered and screamed. Discussing their experience after their turn and talking the reluctant ones into giving it a shot, I heard, “ unbelievable”, “exciting”, and “A once in a lifetime experience”. Wow, and I thought I knew how to have fun. I think I‘ll go scrape barnacles off the bottom of the boat.

Glenn

guest pre-blog from Don Wood

2007-02-05T10:02:00.000-08:00

Our friends Kim & Don from the boat Moonrise (now dirt dwellers) will be joining us here in the BVI later this week. Don sent a note as they look foward to reuniting with us and the sea.

The Crew of CrossRoads and their friends,

Glenn understood as a young man he was going to sea in one form or another. Indeed, it was sewn into his easy nature, already woven into the fine stitch that cast a shadow he would not see for decades. We make turns that redirect our lives and position our destiny, is it ordained? Does it arrive with us as a birthright delivered onto the world another burdened soul with a puzzle to complete before the sand escapes the glass? I often wonder. These great pages you have written in your lives could not be mere circumstance and quest for vanity. No, its your fabric, the "cut of your jib" as they say, that makes you press on and enjoy people, life and the sea. If I seem remorse, it is because Kim and I were only able to enjoy all of you so very briefly. I like knowing that adventurers and non-conformist exist. Everyone is born with a voice that whispers to them, very few listen. We are past excitement when we think of our up coming visit.

My last sail of the season was on Lake Erie to deliver a boat to Sandusky Bay in sustained winds of 40 knots from the north. As you might imagine it appealed to my nature and tempted me like a harlot. Tonight has been spent in front of the fire with egg nogg spiced with rum and tomorrow an evening planned at the theater for a one man performance of "Its a wonderful life" Here, just minutes from downtown Portland, it is. After an afternoon of visiting art galleries and waiting for the train I stood looking at the full-faced moon. "Right now ChickenFoot is sitting under that same big moon," I said. "I know." she said comforting, "I know." "I have become to myself a piece of difficult ground, not to be worked over without much labor." - SAINT AUGSTINE. To me, the quote is linear and ageless.

My very Best to all of you and wish to see you soon!

Former captain of the sailing vessel "MoonRise",

WhiteTailed Jack

The Magic of the Night Watch….

2007-02-05T09:58:00.000-08:00

I know it sounds crazy, but I really do enjoy my night watches. Of course my sleep is interrupted but the closeness that I feel to the ocean and sky is amazing. I noticed on the way back up that I started thinking about how few night watches we have left. Most people would think that’s a good thing, but I really enjoy my time alone at sea. To give you an idea of how Crossroads does a night crossing, I will walk you through the get-ready of the passage, then the actually passage.

I get pretty anxious the day we are getting ready to leave a harbor for an overnight. I am not sure why, but I do. As soon as the anchor is up, however, and we are out at sea, I feel relaxed and at peace.

The get ready: Glenn puts on the jack lines (lines on deck that we can clip into with our harnesses), ties everything down on deck, removes sail covers, checks the engine and oil, etc. I secure the stuff down below, stuff towels around things that clank, make sure our ditch bag is readily accessible and make sandwiches.

Glenn and I don’t like to spend a lot of time down below while underway. We have been very fortunate so far and have not gotten seasick, but we don’t want to press our luck. I usually make up some mac and cheese or something that I can heat up quickly and we keep lots of snacks in the cockpit. Now for the music, I love to listen to my ipod (thanks FHAO staff) while I am on my 11:30-2:30 watch. I sing along while, of course, Glenn is down below trying to sleep. I cannot carry a tune in a bucket, I mean I am bad and Glenn swears I don’t know half the words to the songs I am singing. If it is a calm night and we are actually getting to sail, I usually prefer to hand steer so that I can dance with the steering wheel. Of course if it is really calm and we have to motor then I let Ray (Charles - our auto pilot) steer the boat. So far I have been lucky on our night passages. From Trinidad on, Glenn was had most of the squalls on his watches while I was down below sleeping like a baby.

I usually get sleepier earlier than Glenn so he is on watch from 8:00-11:00 PM. We have little transition time when we talk about anything that happened on our watch, then I take the 11:30- 2:30 and Glenn takes the 2:30-5:30. I get to watch the sun rise during the 5:30-8:30 shift, which is another cool thing about a night watch. Glenn gets less sleep because we are usually arriving at our destination by 7:00 or 8:00 AM so he gets up to assist with our entry into the harbor. I grab some pop tarts and a Diet Coke and we have hobbit first breakfast before we get in. Once we get our anchor down and feel secure about our position we usually have hobbit second breakfast and go to bed.

Michele

Arrived in the British Virgin Islands

2007-02-02T10:56:00.000-08:00

[N18d30:209, W064d22:193]

Wednesday night we had a calm motor sail from St. Maarten to the BVI. The moon was almost full and the sky was fabulous. I really love my watch on a night sail it is truly a spiritual experience. We anchored in Gorda Sound very near the spot we anchored 9 years ago on our honeymoon. Yesterday, we moved over closer to Prickly Pear island to get out of the highwinds and chop predicted for this weekend. Wow! It is so cool to be here in our own boat.

Crossroads anchored off the beach at Prickly Pear island, BVI.

Michele

St. Maarten highlights

2007-02-02T10:36:00.000-08:00

It is hard to believe we were in St. Maarten for almost 3 weeks. We really enjoyed our stay and can see how people spend months on this island. The first week we were there we had squalls every few hours for 5 nights. We got really tired of the wind and the wet dingy rides. The great thing about being in the sheltered waters of the lagoon was that we were close to an awesome yoga studio, movie theatre and hair saloon - all things that I had really been missing. So, even though the weather was dreadful the first week, I still enjoyed all the luxuries of St. Maarten.

When we arrived in St. Maarten, Glenn did his usual survey of the island and found a local bike shop and they told him about an upcoming 5k-10k run. Jeff, Una and I walked the 5k and Glenn ran the 10k. The race ended at a beach where they provided fresh pastries and coffee, a beautiful setting and much tastier than the cold bagels we get after some of the Memphis runs. We decided to blow off projects for the day and go to one of St. Martin’s 32 beaches. Jeff led the way in his dinghy and we found Mullet Bay, a beautiful beach on the west side of the island. We had a blast watching the children body surf the waves.

The second week we had wonderful weather and decided to hit more of the beaches. Glenn and I walked to the Simpson bay beach just a few blocks from our boat. This was a great way to spend a few hours after running around doing boat projects.

One day Glenn and I really wanted a long hike and thought we could hike to Orientale sometimes called Orient beach. Well, the trails are not marked as well as they are in most of the French islands. Three hours later we were hot and tired and had been climbing killer hills to the top of Pic Paradise but we were no closer to finding our way down to Orient beach. We decided to head back to the boat and take a bus to the other side of the island another day. After all you go to Orient beach to people watch (if you know what I mean) so you really need the full day.

Small world… Glenn and I were having lunch in Marigot eating one our favorite, French style thin crust pizzas, I looked around and saw Jackie Fishman a Facing History Teacher from Charlotte. She and her husband were there on vacation. We had another small world connection about a week later. We received an email from our good friend and webmaster, Ken Hamric. He told us that his business partner and wife were in St. Martin on vacation. We left Wayne and Susie a message at their resort telling them that we would be at the Simpson Bay Yacht Club that evening. We arrived a little after 5:00 pm, we saw a man, we later learned was Wayne, waving his arms and standing next to a friend of ours from the boat Dreamtime. We hung out for a while then we decided to go eat at their favorite restaurant in Marigot. The next day Wayne and Susie brought a sack of fresh pastries to Crossroads where, over lunch we discussed our trip and their dreams. They had a car so they graciously offered to pick us up on Sunday and go to Grand Case for ribs before they caught their plane. We really enjoyed the food and company, Wayne stopped on the way back to view one of the prettiest coast beaches we have seen on our whole trip. (Cupecoy) The waves were spectacular!!! Thanks, Wayne and Susie for the island tour.

We were extremely excited to meet Ann Vanderhoof and her husband Steve. Ann is the author of one of our favorite cruising books, An Embarrassment of Mangoes. We have encouraged our families and friends to read this one as it gives a wonderful glimpse into the cruising life and so many of their experiences parallel our own. We had heard that Receta was in St. Martin, so when we saw their boat we dinghied over to introduce ourselves. We were leaving soon so we invited them and Dragonfly over for happy hour. Earlier in the day while doing laundry Ann was also doing hers so we really had a chance to get to know each other. Ann is also something of a gourmet, so the book is filled with yummy island recipes. That evening, we had them aboard Crossroads for appetizers and stories. They were impressed with Jann’s buffalo chicken dip and even asked us to email the recipe. In the photos, Ann is signing our copies of her book and she and Steve are looking at our post-Katrina pictures of old Crossroads and our marina in New Orleans. . If you have not read her book, it is a must read. She is also writing another one about Caribbean cuisine and culture.

We left the next day for an overnight sail to the BVI.

Michele

St. Maarten stuff

2007-02-02T10:29:00.000-08:00

Our return to St. Maarten was made to feel like a home coming, as it meant returning to Shrimpy’s. Shrimpy’s is one of those special establishments that can truly be called a cruisers friend. They bill themselves as a tapas bar, so the menu isn’t very extensive. (We had the fish and chips once and it was good.) Their main focus seams to be to provide the cruising sailor with what they need. For starters, they have a big neon sign that faces Simpson Bay Lagoon where hundreds of boats are anchored. From the road you would never find the place. On the street side there is just a two-foot sign to lead you down an alley next to the grocery store. They don’t seem to want to compete with the two hundred other restaurants and bars that vie for the land tourist’s dollars. Instead, Shrimpy (the owner) provides a place for sailors to hang out, use the free dinghy dock and check emails with free wi-fi access. They also house an excellent laundry service, used boat gear store, book swap, Sunday gear swap meet and also offer water and even boat bottom cleaning (which explains why you will often see the proprietor in a wet suit). If someone is anchored in the lagoon, you will eventually see them at Shrimpy’s. No one seems to mind the 4 inches of water that run across the floor when it rains really hard or that Shrimpy (the dog) sleeps on the bar. When we needed a bit of sewing done and the sail lofts were too busy to look at it, Shrimpy recommended and then called a small canvas shop and even arranged to for her to meet me, at Shrimpy’s of course. He even let me lock my bike to the rail outside for the three weeks we were in the lagoon. In short ( no pun intended) Shrimpy is there for the sailor.

The hard-core mountain bikers in St. Martin get an early start on their mid-week training rides. They meet at 6 AM when it’s still nice and dark. That meant a 5:30 dinghy ride for me at a time of night that squalls sweep the anchorage about every hour. I waited for the rain to stop, then headed for Shrimpy’s Tapas Bar where I was keeping the bike. A fifteen-minute ride on pothole filled, unlit streets got me to the Texaco station where a dozen other riders were about to take off. They were mostly twenty to thirty somethings, obviously rode a lot and were all training for the thirty-five mile race around the island. The race sounded like fun until about thirty minutes into the ride when we really started to hit the hills. They don’t call it mountain biking for nothing here. The group pretty much kicked my butt, although I did notice that they had more low gears on their bikes than I have. One muddy stretch leveled the field a bit, but they left me behind on the next set of hills. I was mostly able to keep them in site and had a fun two and a half hour tour of the south end of St. Maarten. Man, I need to ride more!

Glenn

A Year at Sea...

2007-01-22T08:27:00.000-08:00

December 21st, 2005 we sailed Crossroads literally in to the sunset and under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge out of Tampa Bay. That was the official beginning of our travels. We have covered many miles of ocean and visited a chain of beautiful islands but mostly we have met some really great people. This was brought home to us a few weeks ago as we had a small 1-year anniversary party aboard Dragonfly. Jeff and Una gave us a wonderful photo collage of some of our closest sailing friends to remind us of all the great times we’ve had. They also presented us with a 4-roll pack of plumbing-friendly toilet paper in honor of all the not-so-great times. We laughed, we cried, we toasted with Champagne.

Glenn

When I think back to the scary feeling I had this time last year it amazes me how far we have come, and then there are still days when I feel just as green and scared as I did a year ago. I thought we would have more time to lie in the hammock and make homemade bread. I did not realize how social the journey would be. When I think about the friends we have made over the past year it blows me away. I know without a doubt we have made life long friends. I am sure that 25 years from now we will still get together with Kim and Don from “Moonrise” and talk about the gulf stream crossing. (Oh what a night!) Every time we see phosphorescence in the water we will think of Jeff and Una from “Dragonfly” and remember that beautiful night in the Spanish Virgin islands and Christmas in Antigua. I am looking forward to going to Boston for my job and reuniting with Jill and Dean from “Delilah” and reminding Glenn and Jill about the day that Dean and I were the only ones to take the correct trail on the Hash in Grenada or the horror of the boat work on our boats in Trinidad. I will always be beholding to Gary from July Indian for diving down on our stuck anchor in Staniel Cay. I can imagine meeting up with Cliff and Melanie from “Cliff’s Note” in DC and going shopping and talking about the waterfall trip in the Dominican Republic.

I think it will take many years to really process a trip like this but I know one thing for sure we have met some wonderful people over our journey and I will miss them a great deal.

Looking back on the day we left St. Pete 12-21-05, I recall being mixed with emotions. I was both excited and scared. The thought of leaving the comforts of St. Pete with the Public’s grocery store and shopping malls, yoga studio, washing machine, showers, etc. I am not sure how long it took me to adjust to the life of cruising but now it is hard to imagine anything else. Oh don’t get me wrong, when we return to Memphis I will be loving the washing and dryer and large refrigerator. But I will dearly miss the open water and the freedom of being at sea.

I continue to be amazed at how many people helped us pull this dream off. We could not have done this without our Memphis community of friends and family.

Thanks you for sticking with us on our journey…

Michele

Happy New Year's 2007

2007-01-15T05:53:00.000-08:00

Recently our niece Lauren and her best friend Emily spent 10 days with us on Crossroads. To be honest, I was a little worried. I mean, after all, 10 days in a small space could seem like a very long time. Instead, we had a ball and the time flew by.

On New Year’s Eve day we started by visiting artist Nancy Nicholson at her studio. She showed us the steps she goes through to make potter’s clay from the hard clay lumps she digs up. It was great to see an artist at work and she was kind enough to show us paintings and pottery pieces that were not on display at her gallery in town.
The girls were also excited because earlier that day they had a “Dr. Phil sighting” on one of the mega yachts. Later that day we joined Dragonfly and took Mr. B’s cab up to Shirley Heights for a sunset view, barbeque, and steel drum concert. The view from the old fort at Shirley Heights is hard to beat. We could see the inner and outer anchorages of English Harbor as well as Falmouth Harbor where Crossroads was anchored. Believe it or not, after all that it was just 8:00 pm – still 4 hours to go to make it to midnight. We headed back to the boat to get ready for New Year’s Eve at Nelson’s Dockyard. This turned out to be a great venue to people watch in a very diverse crowd of cruisers, yacht crew and locals. We settled into a spot and quickly starting meeting people. The first in our cast of characters was a guy we named “Spinnaker Jim”. He was wearing a black wig and the remains of a spinnaker that was torn in an Atlantic crossing. He reminded us of our good friend Jim Fain. We thought the guy was going to be a little crazy, but as it turned out he was one of the more focused, sane guys we met all night. Most of the people we met were young and male, I guess due to the magnetic attraction of our 18-year-old guests. Everyone thought Glenn and I were Lauren and Emily parents. I know it’s a compliment, but we are used to being the cool, young aunt and uncle and becoming the parents put a different spin on things. We danced and watched the fire works over beautiful English harbor. It was a great way to bring in 2007.

New Year’s day we made a big breakfast and the girls went for a kayak ride. That afternoon we took the girls on a hike where they saw their first baby kid goat. Glenn made his yummy chili for dinner (ground beef, not goat). Needless to say we all crashed early. Tuesday we slept in and went in to town for our big shopping excursion. We loved the gallery that Nancy owns but were having trouble deciding what to buy. Glenn and I have been looking for “real” art throughout our journey. Strangely enough, we have not found much amazing art, mostly the “paint by numbers” looking un-original stuff. At Nancy’s gallery, Glenn and I could have bought a million things for our next house. So with our Christmas money in hand we bought pottery and art.

We left Falmouth harbor later that day to sail to Carlisle bay - big mistake. It was windy as all get out and the waves were huge. We only had 5 miles to go but boy was it a rough introduction to sailing for Emily. We had a rolly restless night and left for Jolly harbor early the next day. We decided to take a mooring on the inside to guarantee that we would be in a very calm harbor. The girls quickly took off for the beach. Friday the girls and I took the bus into St. John’s and Glenn rode his bike in and met us for pizza. St. John’s is the cruise ship harbor so there are lots of shops and sights to check out. Saturday was the last day of the girl’s trip, so they opted for an easy day on the beach. Our stay in Antigua was one of the highlights of the journey for me. I loved sitting on the foredeck of the boat at night watching the stars with Glenn and the girls. We spotted Orion and Cassiopeia and watched a beautiful full moon light up the harbor.

We want to give a special thanks to Jann and David for lending us their daughter and sending all our favorite goodies. Glenn is extremely grateful for the supply of honey and peanuts. I am very thankful for the lifetime supply of mucinex and People magazine. One day we hope to repay your kindness.

Michele

Guest Blog from Lauren Christensen

2007-01-15T05:47:00.000-08:00

My trip to Antigua was the trip of a lifetime. Being with Glenn and Michele and being able to see their dream in motion (literally) was something I will never forget. So much of their experience, as well as mine, was not just where you are but whom you meet along the way. I loved meeting their sailor friends: Jeff and Una, as well as Melanie and Cliff, and how hospitable they all are toward each other. Not only did I meet fellow cruisers but also some very interesting locals.

Within the first 24 hours of our trip Michele had taken us to see a local artists gallery. Instantly I feel in love with her work and not only met her but was invited to her house to see her studio and how she works. She explained every step of the process from digging the clay herself on the other side of the island, to pugging the clay, and finally glazing it. Her name is "Nancy Nicholson" and I defiantly recommend a trip to Antigua just to see and purchase her work.

I also got a very realistic view on what living on a boat is all about. Glenn and Michele were very hospitable and wanted us to feel at home. Unlike a home on land there are "procedures" to life on a boat. Our first lesson was how to use the potty, followed by a small lesson in water conservation. To Emily and I using the least amount of water possible turned into a game. We learned how to brush our teeth in a cup and not to stack dirty dishes (why make the other side dirty if its not already). It turns out our efforts worked because for 4 people in 10 days we used less than one tank of water! Emily and I also scrubbed the "green beard" along the water line, scraped barnacles off of the bottom, and cleaned the dingy. We sailed in 30-knot winds with 6-foot seas and experienced a rolly anchorage.

Living on a boat and being detached from the crazy pace of my normal life really helped me to prioritize what is important to me. Glenn and Michele have demonstrated that following and achieving your dreams is truly possible and I am grateful that I was able to experience a small portion of this with them.

Lauren Christensen

St. Martin/ 1-13-07

2007-01-13T09:37:00.000-08:00

[N18d02:44, w63d05:69]

We arrived in St. Martin last night. Wednesday we had an awesome night sail to St. Bart's. We sailed the whole way from Antigua, great winds and calm seas. The best night sail we have had to date. We quickly did St. Bart's with the rich and famous. Due to high winds we decided to sail to St. Martin and anchor in the lagoon. Nice calm harbor! Yeah! my favorite. We will spend the next couple of days updating our website.

Michele

Christmas ‘06 - Island Style

2006-12-28T08:44:00.000-08:00

Christmas in Antigua is pleasantly low key when compared to the frenzied three month build-up to the holidays in the U.S. There are decorations here, but not too many. There is shopping, but not that you would notice. Actually, the whole thing seems to run about three days. Our merry little Christmas on Crossroads was laid back and easy with good friends and good food.

We started our holiday celebration with a cookout on the beach with six other boats. Burgers and dogs were savored and then out came the guitars for caroling. We sang as the sunset and the beach gradually emptied. “Silent Night” sounded pretty with the gentle waves lapping on the beach for background.

Christmas eve brought more traditional activities - cooking and last minute trips to the grocery store. Michele and Una worked all day preparing a full-on Christmas feast with all the trimmings. We had a whole turkey, Michele’s Mom’s cornbread dressing, garlic mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, gravy, corn pudding, and Grandma Phillips’ spice gumdrop cookies - yum! After the feast we leaned back and watched “White Christmas” on Dragonfly’s wide screen laptop. The movie woke us up enough to leave the boats and head ashore to catch a choral group caroling over at Nelson’s Dockyard. Then it was off to our beds as visions of sugarcane danced in our heads.

On Christmas morning we awoke to find that Mr. Claus had again found and delivered presents to Crossroads (he must read the blog). Michele and I made a quiche and home fries for breakfast, since we couldn’t find pork tenderloin. Mid-day found us back at the dockyard for a fundraiser champagne party and cook out. Hundreds of locals and sailors
toasted the season among the 300-year-old dockyard buildings and the mega yachts.

Well, that may have sounded like a busy couple of days, but that was it. A quick, busy, fun island Christmas.

Glenn

Merry Christmas from Falmouth Harbor, Antigua

2006-12-23T08:49:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Antigua last Tuesday after our best sail yet!! We sailed 42 miles making 6 and ½ knots. Yeah! Last Thursday, Crossroads celebrated her one-year anniversary. Soon, we will post a write up with more information about our anniversary celebrations.

[N17d00:965, W061d46:404]

A Day At the Races...

2006-12-23T08:45:00.000-08:00

This is backtracking a bit, but during our time in Martinique I never got around to writing about our arrival. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed a lovely sail from St. Lucia. We picked out the outer channel markers of Cul-de-sac Marin on Sunday afternoon and headed in. As we looked into the distance to find the next markers, we saw a whole bunch of brightly colored sails. From where we were, they looked like wind surfer sails but they were square on top--- strange. The mystery was solved about a half mile later when we could tell that they were traditional island sailboats, racing. Actually, they were racing right at us, side by side across the entire channel. I picked out a gap to pass through the pack and was heading for it when a motor powered race committee boat approached to wave us off. We turned hard to port and hit the gas (diesel) but I think a few racers still had to maneuver around us. We would have caused less of a disruption if we had stayed where we were but it is hard to hold your ground when people are yelling at you frantically in French.

The race passed by and we reentered the channel and proceeded into Marin. We anchored Crossroads at the edge of the channel and watched the boats head back towards town. Much to our delight, they rounded a mark near the beach and headed back out- a two-lap race. Now we would really get to see some action, and from front row seats. The boats were about 30 feet long with a square fore and aft sail on bamboo spars. They carry a lot of sail for small wooden boat but are able to counter the boat’s desire to flip over with movable ballast. The ballast is in the form of crewmembers that climb out on wood planks that stick out on the windward side of the boat. When the boat turns so that the wind is on the other side (tacking), the crew and boards are shifted to the new windward side. I’m glad we just have a nice big chunk of lead under our boat.

The Sunday traditional boat races add a lot of color to the harbor and its great to see islanders participating in sailing.

Glenn

Dashaies, Guadeloupe

2006-12-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Dashaies (pronounced Day-hay)yesterday at 9:00 am after a 21 hour passage from Martinique. Overall, it was a great passage we sailed half the trip and had to motor-sail the other half. I was lucky and had awesome winds on my 12:00-3:30 AM watch, I enjoyed the sound of the ocean and watching the falling stars, it was quite magical. Glenn came on watch at 3:30 am, by then we were behind Guadalupe and the winds died so, he had to tolerate the engine. Today, we enjoyed our last French baguette for a while. We plan to head to Antigua tomorrow for Christmas and New Year's. Our niece Lauren and he best friend Emily will be arriving on the 27th of December. Yeah!

Michele
[N16d18:37, W061d47:80]

CrossRoads Bistro Tour

2006-12-13T07:39:00.000-08:00

guest blog:

CrossRoads Bistro Tour
St. Lucia Island
November 2006

The wheels of our American Airliner barely skimmed the blazing asphault of the Vieux Fort runway as we simultaneously glanced at each other with cocktail grins. We’d been up since 4:ooAM and we were confident Glenn and Michelle had a great adventure in store. We would not be disappointed.

Well, the euphoria didn’t last long as our rental car delivery peddled up to the baggage claim. “Is that it, cause I’m pretty sure I reserved a whole car.” There were four of us and the rental clerk to transport in a car built for me and my luggage. Glenn spots the bar and proposes he and the girls hang out while I see what can be arranged with our transport. How’d I miss out on the first round, uh, I mean first two rounds.

Hey, where’s the steering wheel? Oh crap, I think we might be in trouble. Driving in St. Lucia is on the wrong side of the road driving from the wrong side of the half-car. Did I mention a big adventure earlier? OK, I can deal with this, no problem. Wait, you mean to tell me we share the road with live cows, sweet. If one gets hit, fresh meat for all tourists.

So we breeze down the road to check out the windsurfing site and our villa. The winds are fresh and the sun toasty as we enjoy what would normally be a brisk winter day, but we are in paradise. Sorry suckers! This is really it. Nothing but blue skies and a week with two of our favorite people.

Our first view of the boat is delivered as we blast out of a small harbor in the rocket propelled dingy. When Michelle drives, the dingy has two speeds, docking and hold on to your hat. What a beautiful pic. The boat is nestled in the corner of a large bay against a backdrop of lush, forested cliffs. The turquoise waters reflect off the hull and we are both slightly dazed by her size and the reality of the Phillips’ voyage. It’s a fantastic sight.

Unfortunately, Crossroads was anchored in a large harbor that included a somewhat sketchy fishing and freight area and turned out to be quite distant from our prearranged villa. Coupled with the actions of some enterprising local youths who liberated our gas line from the dingy and then tried to charge us $50 to buy it back. (Little did they know we were guests of Captain Glenn who conveniently plucks his spare gas-line from the mothership, foiling their scheme.) We determine we’ve seen enough of Vieux Fort within about 2 hours.

We depart the industrial city of Vieux Fort for the unspoiled and scenic Northwest Coast. One of my first observations as we hit the highway is that they don’t really have highways here. The road more resembles the alleys of midtown Memphis. My second observation is that there are no speed limit signs, (my pearly whites breakout). Being a guy, I decide “why not” and rapidly accelerate to a nice even 100 KPH. “It’s my vacation, I do what I want.” Man did the adventure get exciting after that! Michelle, I barely ran off the road two or three times, you have to admit it was pretty damn exhilarating. You should have seen your face in the rear view mirror. Wait a minute, I’m having a flashback, that’s why I ran off the road that second time. It’s OK, one eardrum is all any salesman needs and old timers all say stereo sound is over-rated.

Where was I, oh, half way to Marigot Bay. So, I guess the island must be a rainforest with all these ‘nana trees. Wonder if its gonna rain while were here? We soon learned that it can rain every 20-30 minutes in a rainforest. Turns out that’s a great way to keep the heat down and the frequent showers soon became welcomed.

Marigot Bay turns out to be one of Glenn and Michelle’s favorite anchorages when they were on their way South last winter. They thought we’d like it too and they were dead on. The resort Marigot Beach Hotel is only accessible by a small ferry. There are no roads on that side of the bay and the road coming in is maybe half a road. Luckily we have the dingy, though its only about 100 feet from the dingy dock to Crossroads. We look out over her proud hull from the balcony of our 2nd story room and ponder what the poor people are doing.

The title of my little report is Crossroads Bistro for a reason. Glenn and Michelle are routinely cranking out the best cuisine of the trip. From the blueberry pancakes and sausage gravy to the full blown Thanksgiving dinner, they’re preparing unbelievable
meals from an abundantly stocked 4’ X 4’ galley (kitchen for you landlocked Memphites). We keep hearing about the friends they’ve made on the voyage and its soon obvious to both of us why their friends are hanging around. I suppose it’s a little more like stalking when their newfound friends actually follow them from the Bahamas to Trinidad. My only question is, “Do you ever get to eat dinner on Dragonfly?” Just kidding Jeff and Una, you guys are great and we’re glad you’re there to look out for our friends, and vice versa. That goes out to everyone crossing paths with Crossroads.

Like those coveted bottles of fine wine, our trip crescendos rapidly through the last days. We’re sad to have to leave, but we have many vivid visions to reflect on as we make our journey home to the awaiting thermal shock. The most important of which are the smiles, stories, and chapters grown over the course of lifelong friendship. Some people like to say, “those were the good ole days.” To me, “THESE ARE THE GOOD OLE DAYS,” This is the time we’ve been working for. Enjoy your life, enjoy the people close to you, and never forget to tell your friends how you feel about them.

Glenn and Michelle, you guys are the best. Congratulations on Living the Dream!

John and Elizabeth Heeren
Memphis

Bonjour, Winter in the Caribbean

2006-12-07T08:04:00.000-08:00

Bonjour,

Michele’s daily French Diet: One baguette, smoked Gouda cheese, Brie, pain au chocolate, and a glass of red wine. Strangely enough I seem to have lost a little weight on this diet.

Once again, I don’t expect a lot of sympathy for the following rant but here goes. For the past two weeks it has rained several times a day, sometimes a dozen times. I know, I know - at least it is 84 degrees. I can usually deal with the rain and have even gotten used to the hatch drill. However, for the past 10 days we have had extremely high winds, so high that you feel you shouldn’t leave your boat because the anchor might drag. Yuck! Last week we were in the lagoon at Marin, Martinique. We thought we had a good hold; the wind had blown for 3 days at 20 knots with 30-knot gust. Glenn and Jeff decided to go to the hardware store and Una and I planned to stay on our boats in case the anchor slipped. I was really looking forward to having the boat to myself. I love to putz, clean, rearrange, etc. while Glenn is off the boat. About 10 minutes after they took off I was down below, when a huge gust of wind blew and shook the rigging. I went up on deck and sure ’nuf the boat had slipped back a little. So, I turned on the engine and watched and waited to see if we might drag again. We had a lot of anchor chain out so it should catch and dig back in, but you never know. About an hour later Glenn and Jeff returned and Glenn and I re-anchored. No big deal, much easier this year than a year ago but it still makes you a little nervous about leaving your boat and going ashore. So, while we don’t have snow and ice in the Caribbean we do have high winds and rain and squalls that tie us to our boat.

On Monday Glenn and I moved Crossroads about a mile or so from Marin to St. Anne’s. Many people spoke very highly of this anchorage and we were ready for a slight change. We could not really leave Martinique yet because of the weather forecast and we were hoping to see our friends Jill and Dean from Delilah before we headed north again.
The day we moved the wind direction changed and was coming from the south, well that makes this anchorage rolly. Yuck! I was very depressed. The next day the wind shifted again and came from the east, which was much better. Glenn and I decided we needed an outing and some time off the boat. We decided to go hiking on this great trail hugging the coast. We packed our bag with our fresh hot baguette and cheese, sausage and bottle of red wine and headed off for our hike/ beach picnic. It rained all day; I don’t think I have ever been so wet - everything we had was soaked and sandy. We made the best of it, every time it rained we would jump into the ocean and body surf the waves. Later that afternoon when we decided we were not going to get a clear sky, we finally loaded up our backpack and headed back to the boat in the rain. By this time Glenn and I were laughing about how drenched we were and how much fun we had in spite of the weather.

Au revoir

Michele

St. Lucia-Visit from Friends..

2006-12-02T07:56:00.000-08:00

While sailing into Vieux Fort harbor of St. Lucia, Glenn caught his first fish. It was a mahi-mahi, 2ft long. We ate two yummy dinners out of the fillets. We spent the next day clearing customs and checking out the area in anticipation of the arrival of our friends.

We had a wonderful visit with our friends John and Elizabeth from Memphis. They came bringing gifts and goodies. It felt like an early Christmas. We were overwhelmed by their generosity.

John and Elizabeth are excellent windsurfers; we drove to a beautiful beach on the south east side of St. Lucia. The beach was spectacular but the wind was very weak. They took it stride and we made the best of a rainy week.

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving meal aboard Crossroads; we ate roasted bacon wrapped chicken topped with fresh pineapple. The dinner also included, sour cream-garlic mashed potatoes, stuffing with cranberries, vegetable casserole and Glenn’s delicious bread pudding. Yum! Yum!

Guest blog coming ....

Marin, Martinique

2006-11-27T14:08:00.000-08:00

[N14d27:86, W060d52:64]

Yesterday, we had a glorious sail from St. Lucia to Martinique. Yeah! We had 15-20 knots of wind on the beam. Crossroads loves a beam reach. We were making 7 knots of speed. (very fast for us)

Thanksgiving was a delight, we shared the week with our friends John and Elizabeth. We will post photos and stories soon.

The Way It's Supposed to Be....

2006-11-15T08:27:00.000-08:00

We have been anchored in the Tobago Cays for a week now and it is just about perfect. The Tobago Cays are a half circle of small, uninhabited islands and a half circle of beautiful reef. In the middle of the two half circles is about the nicest anchorage we have been in yet. The reef protects us from the waves coming in from the Atlantic but leaves us fully exposed to a wonderful breeze- the east trade winds. We are in ten feet of crystal clear water with a bright white sand bottom. It looks like a swimming pool. We can see the bottom clearly even by moonlight. The color of the water ranges from light swimming pool blue through blue-eyes blue right on to deep-water cobalt. Hours have been spent just starring out at the water. The five closest islands have also drawn our attention. Each has a small beach for sitting and reading all day in the shade of the coconut trees. It really does feel like paradise here. And to think, we almost left a couple days after we got here due to some grim weather predictions that finally turned into a cloudy day, clean decks and 45 or so gallons of fresh water in our tank. That day was also the first time we had to run the engine to charge the batteries. The solar panels had taken care of that on all the sunny days. This is what we left our jobs, families and friends and sold our house to do. Ahhh, nice!

Glenn

Leaving Grenada

2006-11-10T09:15:00.000-08:00

At the helm aboard Crossroads we have a computer-screen chart plotter. This shows us a view of a chart with a "you are here" symbol at our position. Last Saturday, as we sailed away from Grenada, I watched our ship-blip move farther and farther north, away from the island. It was hard to scroll up and drop Grenada off the bottom of the screen - forever.

We have visited some great places thus far on our trip, but I was always ready to move on by the time we left them. Not so with Grenada, I could live there. The people are friendly, industrious and seem happier that most islanders. The scenery is stunning- everywhere I looked, I wanted to build a house, just to sit and enjoy the view. I did a lot of biking on the island and Michele and I ran two hashes, so we really got to see a lot and we met some terrific people. I don't know what makes a place feel like home, but for me Grenada has it. I look forward to returning one day, the easy way - by airplane.

Glenn

Tobago Cays, St Vincent/Grenadines

2006-11-07T13:14:00.000-08:00

[N12d37:83, W061d21:39]

We arrived at the Tobago Cays this morning.(not be confused with Tobago of Trinidad and Tobago). The Tobago Cays are a beautiful set of islands in St. Vincent. The aqua blue water is a welcome site after being in a marina for so long in Trinidad. As soon as we anchored, I was happy to volunteer to check the anchor, I jumped off the boat and swam in the wonderful clean, salty ocean. We actually hung our hammock today, we haven't done that in months. We are looking forward to taking a break from navigating and boat projects.

Michele

Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou

2006-11-05T05:48:00.000-08:00

[N12d27:37, W061d29:24]

Yesterday was a sad day for us, we had to leave Grenada. It was by far our favorite island. On our last day in Grenada we had our Grenadian friends Susan and Frank out to the boat with their three kids. Later that evening we went "liming" with Frank.
(Liming means hanging out or talking) We hope to see them again one day either in the states or in Grenada. We motor sailed to Carriacou and spent a windy night in Tyrrel Bay. We plan to snorkel later today and reconnect with our friends on Dragonfly and Delilah for Lasagna on Crossroads. Tomorrow we will sail to Union Island and then to the Tobago Keys in the Grenadines.

Michele

Divali in Trinidad

2006-11-02T11:12:00.000-08:00

The Saturday night before we left Trinidad, Glenn and I attended the Hindu Festival of Lights known as Divali.

Divali signifies the triumph of light over darkness, good over evil, justice over injustice and intelligence over ignorance. During Divali, thousands of deyas (small clay pots, filled with oil and wicks) are lit at dusk throughout the country. The food was amazing; we were served a traditional Hindu meal. As we walked the streets looking at all the lights, the individual families gave away sweets in front of their houses. It was a wonderful way to see entire families walking the streets in traditional dress. It was a great night and it was very interesting to see how another culture celebrates one of their largest holidays.

Peru - Machu Picchu

2006-10-31T11:52:00.000-08:00

Glenn’s Inca notes:

We (Michele and I along with Joyce and Sue who joined us a few days earlier) boarded the bus with ten other trekkers and left Cuzco early Sunday morning. We rode for two hours through beautiful, mist-shrouded farmland. The land here looked much more agreeable to growing crops than what we had seen when returning from our jungle tour. The houses were also nicer and most even had glass windows. We made a brief stop in Ollantaytambo (we called it O town) for breakfast at a hostel and then drove on to the check in at the trailhead. We all showed our passports and tickets were stamped, recorded and passed through. Only 500 people a day can start the Inca trail and that includes porters and staff. Our group had 14 trekkers, two guides, and 21 porters. A cable and wood suspension bridge allowed us to stay dry crossing a roaring river and we were off on our trek. The first few hours followed the river up stream through gently sloping terrine. This “gently sloping terrine” had us huffing and puffing in no time. The stops we made for history and nature lessons were greatly appreciated. As we left the river valley the trail got steeper and the rest stop for lunch came at a time we really needed a break.
The porters had dashed ahead of us and set up cooking and eating tents. We were served a full-scale meal at a table, with a tablecloth and stools to sit on. No sandwiches on this trip. Fully stuffed and rested, we set out on the trail again. Three more hours of hiking on increasingly steeper trail brought us to our first nights camp. All of our campsites were on land that had been at one time terraced for farming. From here on, that was the only way to have a flat place to grow food or pitch a tent. Our tents were, of course, already set up and waiting for us and we were informed that a “happy hour” of coca tea and popcorn would start around 5:30 with dinner to follow. There were even bowls of warm water outside each tent for washing up. Dinner was another huge meal with tons of carbs. In Peru rice is served with pasta in it and, watch out, your stir-fry is on a bed of crisp French fries. We carbo-loaded at every meal. Three meals a day began with hot soup or porrage before moving on to 6-8 other dishes served family style to us trekkers. Bedtime rapidly followed dinner and Michele and I struggled to get comfortable in mummy sleeping bags.

Day two dawned early since we had a long way to go before the next camp. After breakfast we were introduced to our entire staff (who had by then already broken camp).
None of the porters spoke English and many only a bit of Spanish. We got on just fine by smiling and saying thank you when they blew by us on the trail with their awkward 50 lb. burdens. They carried the tents, bags, tables, chairs, cook stove, propane bottle (the big kind like on a BBQ grill), pans, dishes and all the food for the 4-day trip. They had a tough job, which they seem to remain cheerful doing.

We hit the trail around 7:30 for the start of our “challenging” day. The first day had been
Billed as “easy” but we were challenged by it. All were wondering how challenging the 13,800 foot Dead Women’s Pass would be. It would be challenging. We made a mid-morning pit stop to regroup and refuel on chips and snickers bars sold by locals who live up there somewhere. Way down in the valley behind us we could just see the roofs of some buildings near where we spent the previous night. In the other direction the pass looked a long ways off and up. We had already climbed up hundreds of Inca stone steps that vary in height from about 4 to 20 inches. No 7-inch standard here. We geared up in warmer clothes since it had grown windy and colder and was looking like rain. The misty rain came and went and the trail and steps got steeper as we climbed and climbed. As the Inca’s steps got steeper, our steps got shorter. Each step we took moved us foward only the length of one shoe. Every ten to twenty steps we would stop to admire the view and try and get our heart rates and breathing back down to somewhere near normal. It had gotten challenging, but the views were quite dramatic. We stopped often to make sure we didn’t miss anything. We finally reached the summit just as the clouds closed in and another light rain began to fall. The view was now nil, so after a quick group photo our guide encouraged us to begin our decent before the weather turned ugly.

The knee jarring decent quickly got us out of the clouds covering the top of the pass and into a beautiful valley. We were able to move a bit more quickly now and after a while we could even breathe better. Walking down steep, uneven steps was still challenging, but our hiking sticks really helped us balance. We descended through beautiful alpine meadows with nice flowers and even a deer that stood next to the trail and watched us pass. It was much better than going up but we were really beat when we finally stumbled into camp for a very late lunch. At this point I had either altitude sickness or the beginning of the bug that I was still fighting when we returned to Trinidad. I felt lousy and went to bed.

Day three on the trail was up and down hills all day. We went over another pass, but not as high as the day before. We stopped at two fairly large Inca complexes and had more lectures on stonework and plumbing. It was late in the day when we reached camp and we were really ready to be there. Actually we were ready an hour or two earlier but we did cover a lot of ground that day (10 miles). The extra special thing about that night’s campsite was the pleasant dose of civilization—hot showers!! Boy did the tents smell better that night. If only we could have left our hiking shoes outside.

The fourth morning we were up at 4:00 for a quick breakfast and a short hike in the dark to the final trail checkpoint. We stood in line with the other trekkers as it got light and waited for the checkpoint to open. After checking through we hiked to the Sun Gate which is where we were suppose to wait for the sun to blast away the clouds in the valley to reveal; ta-da, The Lost City of Machu Picchu. Didn’t happen. We waited a bit and then gave up and started down to a lower spot to get our first glimpse of the city. We stopped at the top of the terraced slope and after a few minutes the clouds did indeed thin, the sun broke through and Machu Picchu was revealed to us. Wow!! They picked a really dramatic spot to build a city. The hillsides were terraced for agriculture making the city look even bigger than it actually is. Small mountains stick up where the buildings end and also from the bottom of the valley. Everything is very steep and either jungle green or stone. We descended into the city and got our guided tour, which pointed out the amazing stonework and the assumed purposes of the various buildings. In general the better the stonework, one more important the structure was. The best were the temples followed by royal residences. It was amazing that hand cut stonewalls survived 500 years of jungle growth and earth quakes and still fit perfectly- with no mortar. We spent the better part of the day exploring and photographing the ruins on our own. Hopefully the pictures will tell the story here. Hiking the Inca trail to Machu Picchu was a fantastic, once in a lifetime experience and was well worth doing.

Glenn

Hog Island, Grenada

2006-10-26T15:57:00.000-07:00

Yeah! We are back in Grenada and loving it. We had a great overnight crossing Monday evening. More to come. We hope to update the web with Inca trail photos.

[N12d00:13, W061d44:57]

Manu jungle tour, Peru

2006-10-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Jungle…Manu National Park

I was not sure what to think about the 7-day /6-night jungle tour. We booked our tour in July with SAS travel (South American Sites). The guide Fernando, the assistant guide Joel, the cook or should I say chef, Wilbert and Pastor the boat driver. They were awesome and let me say they give a whole new meaning to the word courtesy. I think as a whole Peruvians are very courteous but these young men were amazing. We are accustomed to doing everything for ourselves so it was a difficult at first to sit back and enjoy this luxury.

My first reaction to the jungle was not so great. It was hot, humid and buggy. I was really longing to return to the nice hotel with a bathtub in the cool crisp mountain town of Cusco. I wanted out badly. Sunday was much better because we spent 7 hours on the boat chilling out on the beautiful Manu River. The food was amazing. Wilbert was a superb chef. No chance of losing weight this week. They use a ham radio at all their base camps and solar panels to charge the radio batteries. We took a little hike when we arrived at the camp. Oh my goodness, we saw monkey’s as soon as we were in the woods. The coolest thing we saw was a mother spider monkey crossing a tree branch and she extended her tail out for her baby to walk across on. It was soooooo cool!

Monday we took a short boat ride to a nice hiking spot and a beautiful lake Otorongo.
We saw several black and white caimans on our way. Caimans are small alligator looking animals. We started our hike and saw so many different kinds of monkeys. I could not believe how many were playing and eating just above our heads, swinging from tree to tree. Then we went to the lookout tower so we were as high as the monkey’s in the tree branches and they came over so close you could almost touch them. I could have stayed there all day. Amazing! After lunch we took another boat trip to a local shaman village. On Tuesday we took another boat trip to the beautiful Salvador Lake. We saw tons of Giant River otters, we were watching from a wooden catamaran. We could have watched them for hours but when it warms up they go away.

Glenn’s notes:

The Manu River looks like the Wolf River in Memphis except its twice as big and has no trash. We saw lots of fallen trees in the river. Our dugout had to be maneuvered carefully to avoid the shallows and the floating logs. The trees along the shore were old growth and huge. We looked at one kapok tree that is thought to be over 600 years old. That would put it here before the Spanish. Then we saw an ironwood that was even older, but not as large since they grow slower- very hard wood.
Our tour boat is a 38ft. dugout with cedar side planks. It is equipped with 50hp outboard (and a spare), a 55gal drum of fuel and a row of nice comfortable bus seats down each side. The whole boat is only about 5 ft. wide in the middle where the seats are with a narrow isle up the middle. The isle was handy for Joel “the bow thruster” to run forward and pole us off the shallow spots. All in all it is an efficient way to travel the river with up to a dozen guests and 4 staff. Our tour was under booked and should have been canceled but the company honored our reservation and ran the tour just for the two of us. The seven-hour boat ride on day two was really very relaxing and fun. We were able to kick off our shoes and let the guys do the work. A full-on lunch was served underway- no sandwiches on this trip. We had stir-fried rice, salad and a yummy cold chicken/potato salad- and complimented by a few beers I bought before we left the settlement at Boca Manu. It was a great way to spend a day on the river.
Back tracking a bit; due to the under booking of our trip we were flown from Cusco to the Boca Manu airport instead of starting by van and riverboat. The flight was great! Flying out of Cusco, everything was brown and red when viewed from above. The town is way up in the Andes and there isn’t a lot growing in the red soil and rock around it. Most of the buildings are adobe walls with tile roofs, all red. Not far away we saw a lot of terraced farms on the hillsides. The Inca’s were experts at this, carving level spots into the hills and then bringing in the perfect mix of topsoil for farming. Once clear of the mountain peaks, we started descending to the Amazon basin. The Amazon River is not here, but this area all eventually drains into it. Suddenly, things got green, real green. We flew over miles of dense forest with occasional rivers snaking through. It looked like a great area to explore by canoe- if you could get there. As we flew lower in preparation for land we could tell the trees were huge! I know the pictures would not show the scale but I had to shoot a few anyway. We were the only passengers on the 12 seat Cessna plane so we could see the “Airport” in front af the plane as we landed. Grass. It felt like we were going way to fast to land, but they got us down with no problems. It was cool to land on grass and taxi to the thatch roof pavilion that served as the terminal. It had everything a modern airport needs: radio, scale to weigh passengers and cargo, wheel barrow for moving luggage and a guy with a baby howler monkey on his shoulder. (I guess it’s a great way to meet chicks). A path through the jungle took us from the airport to the cruise ship docks. The riverbank had steps cut into the dirt to walk down to the motorized dugouts that serve as tourist boats. The boats are made in Boca Manu, our first nights destination. There is an eight-hut lodge facility in the village that serves as a hotel for tour groups. The rooms were wooden platforms with thatch roofs and canvas and screen walls.

Fernando, our guide took us on an evening hike into the jungle to an oxbow lake to observe wildlife. On the way there we passed through a fairly primitive village (25 people, one last name) and Fernando paid their leader 20 Peruvian soles ($7) to use their lake. SAS travel keeps a catamaran on this arc of a lake. The lake was left behind when the Madre de Dios River changed course by cutting off a corner and leaving that curve landlocked. The catamaran is two dugout boats (like our tour boat but smaller) attached together by a wooden deck. Those who have been to the Phillips cabin in Arkansas and have enjoyed the “party barge” will recognize the design.

Michele again:
It is hard to remember the last few days of the jungle tour. I do remember the Madre de Dios River (The Mother of God River) I can see why they named it that. We traveled upstream for two full days. It was so tricky, I was glad I was not steering and I was happier that we had the 50hp engine and spare with us. I will also never forget our 9-hour truck ride back to Cusco. We thought we were going to return to Cusco by SAS van. Well, for some unknown reason we returned in a Toyota pickup truck and we shared the backseat with Wilbert our cook. Oh and one very important detail I almost forgot, the road was dirt and extremely bumpy.

For you bird lovers here is a list of all the birds we saw in the jungle: Neotropic cormorant, Anhinga, White necked heron, Fascinated tiger heron, Refuscent tiger heron, Agami heron, Great egret, Snowy egret, Jabiru, Wood stork, Roseated spoonbill, Horned screamer, Muscovy duck, Orinoco goose, Black skimmer, Yellow billed tern, Great billed tern, Yellow headed vulture, King vulture, Osprey, Roadside hawk, Barred hawk, Spotted sandpiper, Sand colored nighthawk, Amazon kingfisher, Ringed kingfisher, White winged swallow, Giant cowbird, Grey tinamou, Blue and yellow macaw, Chestnut fronted macaw, Scarlet macaw, Blue headed parrot, Tui parakeet, Pale vented pigeon, Russet-backed oropendola and the national bird of Peru, the Cock of the Rock. Wow that was a lot of birds.
For you Monkey lovers or Monos in Spanish we saw 8 different species: Saddleback tamarin, Night monkey, Dusky titi monkey, Squirrel monkey, Brown capuchin monkey, Black spider, Red howler monkey and the Common woolly monkey.

a great trip!

Friday the 13th / YIKES

2006-10-13T13:10:00.000-07:00

Well, we thought we were going to get Crossroads back in the water today. Ha! We were in the travel lift being lowered in the water when Glenn went down below to check things out. He found a leak in the rudder shaft. Oh happy day! The good news is we discovered it while in Trinidad the bad news is we are back in the boat yard. Glenn is recoving from his travel bug!

Michele

Back From Peru

2006-10-11T11:18:00.000-07:00

We returned to Trinidad late Monday evening. We had a wonderful time in Peru, we will be sharing photo's and stories very soon. Crossroad is still in the boatyard, she will splash on Friday. Glenn is sick with a travel bug, once he is up and going again we will post many Inca stories.

Crossroads did survive a 6.5 earthquake in Trinidad. Wow! And we thought we only had to worry about hurricanes.

talk soon,
Michele

Hanging out in the Venezuela airport

2006-09-20T11:42:00.000-07:00

We will be a little out of touch for the next 3 weeks while we are in Peru. Today we are spending 12 hours in the Venezuela airport waiting for our flight to Lima. We left Crossroads this morning at 4.30 and will arrive in Peru at midnight. CRAZY! It is really not a long flight however, there are very few flights from Trinidad to Peru.

Glenn and I ate lunch at a resturant called Memphi's and spent $75,560 Bolivares. Can we say monopoly money or what? We hope to catch everyone up and post lots of photo`s when we return from Peru. I tried to post some of our photos from our recent visit to Tobago but the server was down in Trini.

Michele and Glenn

Bottom Jobs and Fabric shops

2006-09-05T10:50:00.000-07:00

The rain went and away and sun came out, ouch! I continued stripping and scrapping the teak and Glenn sanded and painted the bottom of the boat. This was tons of fun for Glenn wearing a bunny suit and a respirator in 100 degrees. I think he drank a gallon of water a day to stay hydrated. We took a break from the projects and went to Port of Spain to go fabric shopping. I have never ever, ever in my whole life seen so much fabric. We bought fabric for two Hawaiian shirts, a sundress and a swimsuit. A couple days later I took all the fabric and examples of what we want to a local seamstress, she will bring our new clothes back in a week. Check out the photo of Jill and Dean in their bunny suits.

Glenn's B-day Party on Dragonfly

2006-09-05T09:59:00.000-07:00

We had a party for Glenn’s a birthday party on Dragonfly. We made homemade pizza, and sangria. Check out the costume party with Glenn, Jeff, Una, Dean and Jill. We enjoyed a yummy cake baked by Jill.

Market in Trini

2006-09-04T11:34:00.000-07:00

Our first week back in Trini a tropical wave hit Tobago. The results for us were a week of rain. It rained all day every day for 4 days. It is muddy under and around the boat as we are out of the water and in the boat yard. We are living aboard in our “tree house” boat that is ten feet off the ground.

One of the highlights of the week was going to market. Every island that we have been on has a market, but Trinidad has the largest by far. We went on the shuttle with Jesse James and 7 other cruisers. Yes- you heard me, his name is Jesse James. Meeting Jesse is worth the trip to Trinidad. He runs a taxi/ tour shuttle but that only begins a description of Jesse. He is the rescuer for us cruisers. Jesse is one of the most altruistic people I have ever met. The list is endless in the ways he donates his time, talent and taxi for blood drives, his cell phones for the night watch patrols, etc. I really could go on and on about the kindness he demonstrates to the cruising community.

Back to the market, Jesse gives us an hour there. I was overwhelmed with all the fresh produce and fresh fish. I sent Glenn to get the shrimp and tuna. I starting buying produce like crazy, fresh mint and parsley, tomatoes, avocados, lettuce, limes, plantains, mango’s, and bok-choy just to name a few. I had no idea what we would cook but we were going to have fun with great fresh produce. Meanwhile our friend Jill was standing in line for our doubles. Doubles are a bit like a small roti. It is small flat bread with a curry chickpea mixture and hot spices, wrapped to make a delicious snack.

Saturday afternoon we spent the day with our friends Steve and Rhonda on V’ger. We first met them in St. Pete. They have been ahead of us most the way down so it is nice to finally be on the same island with them. They are staying at the Trinidad and Tobago Yacht club. TTYC is the yacht club for the local boats and V’ger is about the only cruising boat there. We grilled hamburgers and caught up on our stories from our visits in the states.

Sunday was filled with projects and cooking. I experimented with cooking the fresh shrimp, I sautéed butter and garlic in a saucepan and cooked the shrimp, and they were sooooo sweet and good. We will save the rest of them for our potluck tonight where we will grill the shrimp and tuna. I made a chocolate cake for Glenn’s birthday.

Reunion in Trinidad!!!

2006-08-23T13:33:00.000-07:00

The trip home was filled with mixed emotions. We were overwhelmed by everyone’s kindness. The dinner parties, the brunch and the home cooking in Henderson and at the cabin were all delicious and fun filled memories. I only hope we can repay the generosity one day. Even with all that and nice big beds to sleep on, I was still longing to get back to Crossroads. I am not sure I can really verbalize the sense of peace I find living on the boat, but it is really nice. I think Glenn may have been more realistic about all the boat projects we would have to complete when returning to Trinidad. Needless to say he enjoyed his time on the mountain bike more than stopping leaks on Crossroads.

We arrived in Trinidad on Monday evening around 8:00. Randy had graciously taken us to the airport at 6:15 am. It was a long but uneventful day and in this day and time that is a great thing. Our friends on Dragonfly and Delilah were waiting up for us. We shared stories of our visit and they caught us up on the marina gossip.

Michele

family visit photos

2006-08-14T10:53:00.000-07:00

Here are a few photos of our visits with family. Included are Michele with her siblings and folks on their front porch, Glenn's family keeping cool in the Spring river and Glenn building a sailboat with his nephew Jordan.

FYI - all photos on our blog can be viewed larger by clicking on them.

USA visit

2006-08-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

Two weeks in the USA down, three to go. We have had some great visits with both of our families, starting with a trip to Henderson, TN for a big get together with the Maness clan - like Christmas without the snow. Great food by Doris and fun was had by all. Then we were off to Hardy, AR to the Phillips cabin on the Spring river to do it again with the other family. More great eats and fun in the river with the kids. With all this great food, diets can't be far a way - that or shopping for bigger clothes.
When not traveling (in my sister's car - thanks, Jann & Lauren) to family eat-fests we have been staying with Michele's sister and family - thanks, ya'll. Next week and the following one we will house sit for friends so we will be out of the McPherson's hair for a bit.
We have both worked-in visits with friends and co-workers and even a bit of exercise. I have been able to do the Wednesday night runs in Midtown and have even gotten in a few mountain bike rides (thanks to Tony & Tammy for gearing me up). We were delighted to a ttend a multi-birthday party at the Kirkland's home with our sailing buddies from here. Lots more yummy food was devoured including Ken's bacon wraped shrimp and two deserts. Stuffed again! It has been great to see all the old faces and places here in Memphis, but we miss our floating home. Crossroads is waiting for us on land in a boatyard in Trinadad.
We fly back "home" on August 21st and will spend a couple weeks doing boat projects. In September we really go on vacation - to Peru! We are booked on a 7 day Amazon jungle/nature tour and then after a few days rest we start on the 4 day Inca Trail hike to Machu Picchu. Hurricane season is a great time for side trips since we can't really do much traveling on the boat right now. We decided to do the Peru trip this season because we won't have this much vacation time when we go back to work next year. Did I just say work? oops, pardon my language.
-glenn

Trinidad/ We made it!!!!

2006-07-10T13:53:00.000-07:00

[N10d40:80, W061d37:88]

We left Grenada Saturday afternoon at 4:00 and sailed 85nm to Trinidad,arriving Sunday morning at 10:00. We had perfect sailing conditions with a beautiful full moon and 18 knots of wind (Just what Crossroads loves), until the middle of the night. At 2:00 am when Glenn took over after my shift we had a squall with 30 mile an hour winds and a wind direction closer to right on the nose - as usual. The wind stayed in the 20-25 knot range for the next several hours, making the ride a bit lumpy for those below trying to sleep. We were making good time though with speeds over 6 knots. We entered the cut around 9am against a 2.5 knot current and managed to get into a slip at Corral Cove Marina a day earlier than our reservation. Two tired sailors called it a night at 7:00 and slept like rocks in air conditioned comfort. We fly to Memphis this Saturday for a month visit, we are looking forward to seeing everyone. Thanks for all your support. We are extremely proud that we made it to Trinidad, there were days I wondered if we would really get here.

Thanks,
Michele and Glenn

link to guest blog

2006-07-06T07:52:00.000-07:00

Last friday we went to Gouyave for their weekly fish Friday. Jill from Delilah has a nice write-up on it and her husband Dean wrote about the Hash run we all did the next day. They write real pretty so jump to: http://svdelilah.blogspot.com/ for their text and here are a few more pictures. Are we getting lazy or what?

Some Tourist Stuff

2006-07-01T09:52:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the best way to get an overview of the latest island’s attractions is to dress up like a tourist, grab your camera and do the all day tour. A dozen boats got together and chartered a 25-passenger van to tour Grenada for the day. The van is owned by a man named Elvis, although the king himself did not actually guide our tour. Our guide was great and explained a lot of history and interesting sites along the way. He also has a theory that most of the animals on the island are brown. We would get the usual tour stuff: “On your right is the island’s land fill” along with: “and on your left a brown dog… and goat, also brown”. A black and white dog with some brown on its face also counted as a brown dog.

Stops along the way included: an old spice plantation, nutmeg pressing house, chocolate factory, rum distillery, lunch and of course, a waterfall. The spice plantation had a brief lecture on processing spices but no real tour. Our herb lecture in Dominica was lots better but he had more time and a smaller group. The nutmeg house was more interesting since it is still in operation. Nuts are purchased from farmers, dried, shelled, sorted, sized, tested and packed for export all pretty much by hand. Not much has changed there in the last hundred years. The chocolate factory was a very small operation with solar power running antique machines from all over the world. It was like a working museum that actually produced a product. A delicious product! Another working museum was the Rivers Rum Distillery. A waterwheel powers the sugar cane squeezing machine and the juice flows down an open concrete trench to the boiling vats. It is then hand-dipped from vat to vat until it flows to a series of big stills that would cause a hillbilly’s heart to leap. The heat for boiling and distilling comes from burning the dried, squeezed sugar cane as well as some wood. And the end product… paint thinner. The stuff was pure alcohol, moonshine; a tiny sip was more than enough for all of us salty sailors. They do not export. The waterfall was small but pretty and featured a Rasta guy that we were supposed to tip for jumping off the top.

We saw a lot of hurricane damage from the past few years and learned what a “Jenny house” is. They are small, two room wooden houses provided for temporary shelter after hurricane Jenny struck the island 50 years ago. They seem to hold up rather well and have even survived big storms since.

The Elvis tour bus dropped us back at the yacht club and 24 sailors returned to their floating homes, tired and a little bit better educated on the beautiful island of Grenada.

Glenn

Serendipity

2006-07-01T09:50:00.000-07:00

The other day I was headed off to the chocolate factory with the crew from Delilah and Amanzi, or so we thought. We decided to stop by the office of tourism to check our directions while Kim and David of Amanizi said hello to someone they knew that works there. So we said our hellos and we are off to the chocolate factory when we heard Danny from the tourism office yelling to us on the sidewalk to come back. He told us of a sociologist; Jane Belfon who is sharing the history of Grenada with a group of his staff. He invited us to the seminar. Jane was an amazing speaker! She was just what I had been looking for. We discussed the history of carnival; former slaves started it as a stress release. The slaves watched as their masters hosted huge masquerade balls. The wearing of the mask during carnival has a much deeper meaning than just dressing up in a costume. She said you can hide behind a mask and do anything you want. So this tension release with paints, masks, drums and dancing has evolved from the history of slavery. She also talked about how the history of slavery was passed down orally, “each on tell one” (c’est qui tend parlez l’autve ba tend do demandez l’autur - for you French speakers.)

Grenada was governed by the French from1650-1763. In, 1763 the English took over and governed the island. In 1779 the French came back and in 1783 the English came back. In 1994 Grenada declared its independence. Therefore the language has evolved over the years with a broken English and French influence. Actually their language is a fascinating piece of their identity. Because of my work with Facing History and Ourselves, I loved this seminar. When it was over we went to eat Roti’s at the Nutmeg restaurant and discussed the seminar. For you chocolate lovers, we didn’t make it to the factory that day but we did go the next day.

I want to encourage all of you to visit our friends website: www.floatingclassroom.com
Kim and David (Amanzi) are using their website to connect the classroom to the Caribbean. They have lesson plans, with cross-curricular connections to Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies.

Michele

A Glimpse of a Week in Grenada

2006-06-29T12:17:00.000-07:00

Grenada is a nice change from all the other islands. It looks a lot more like a little town in Europe than a Caribbean island. It is an extremely friendly island. The lagoon where we are anchored is calm but crowded. I guess every harbor has a list of positive attributes and a few negative ones. St. George’s Bay it is calm (no rolling) and has several dinghy docks all close to marine stores or really nice grocery stores. It is also surrounded with great restaurants and one of the best features is the free wi-fi accessible from your boat. That is a first for us. The only really bad thing about this harbor is that you cannot swim from your boat because it is so protected the water is not clean enough to swim in.

Last Monday we toured the town with Raggy Chap and Cliff’s Note. We finished the day with nutmeg ice cream but of course Glenn stuck to his favorite rum raisin. The next day we did boat projects and grocery shopping and that evening had Highland Light over for Happy Hour. Doug and Lisa are cruising on an Endeavour 42, which is like our boat but two feet longer. They have been to Trinidad so we picked their brains for information. Later that evening we met Raggy Chap and Rhiannon at the Yacht Club for dinner. Wednesday brought lots of rain. Glenn worked on the steering cable all day and had so much assistance from other cruisers at one time I thought the boat would sink. Later that evening we went to dinner at the Horny Baboon. We had a huge group with a great mixture of cruisers that we have known for the whole season and a few we just met. (Raggy Chap, Delilah, Cliff’s Note, B’Sheret, Highland Light, Scooter and Rhiannon)

The next day Jill (from Delilah, Boston) and I took the bus to Spice land mall to an awesome grocery store. When we got back our friends on Amanzi had arrived. Kim on Amanzi is an excellent cook and brought us vegetable roti’s for dinner. Friday morning consisted of boat projects for Glenn and laundry for me. That afternoon we went to the market. It has all kinds of spices, fruits and vegetables. Later we stopped at the Nutmeg restaurant for ice cream and yes we got nutmeg and rum raisin again. Yum! Yum! Later that evening we had Delilah, Amanzi and Cliff’s Note over for grilled hamburgers and fried green tomatoes. Kim is Canadian and David is from South Africa so neither of them had ever tasted friend green tomatoes. Glenn did a superb job of frying and I made a dipping sauce to go with them with mayo, worcestershire sauce and sriracha hot chili sauce. I also made a huge pan of brownies to celebrate Jill and Dean’s (Delilah’s) anniversary.

Saturday, we were on a mission to get to Art Fabric - a very cool shop that makes beautiful batik fabrics and clothes. We picked up Melanie - our fashion consultant and Katarina (11 yrs old) and headed to the shop. We had a great time trying on clothes and getting feedback from the women in the shop. They are extremely direct. Later that evening we watched the new Jimmy Buffet movie, “Hoot”. It was great fun watching it on Escape Velocity. Bill and Nina have a huge catamaran with a wonderful deck that could probably have 20 people on it. We really enjoyed watching this cool movie outdoors with other Buffet fans from Raggy Chap and Cliff’s Note. Glenn made fried plantains and Bill made a ton of popcorn to munch while we watched the movie.
Sunday- Glenn and I broke down and finally got skype. For those of you like me that have not heard of skype, it is a way to talk on the phone by using your computer. We had not signed up for this before because most places that have wifi in the Caribbean don’t have great bandwidth so we thought skype would be a waste. We changed our mind and decided to give it a shot. When I tried to call Joyce it was very strange, you speak and then you have about a 10sec. delay, then she speaks and you have another 10 sec. delay. Our friends that love it say this is not always the way it is. So we will see. Later that day Glenn ran his first official run with about 50 runners. The Olympic day run was supposed to start at 3:00 in the afternoon. HOT! HOT! It of course started a little late (Caribbean time). He got a free t-shirt and a certificate handed to him by a Grenadine Olympic runner. Later that evening we made homemade pizza with Delilah and Amanzi.

More as it happens…

Riding the "Wave" (6-12-06)

2006-06-21T08:12:00.000-07:00

We survived our first tropical wave (the things that hurricanes are made of). We rode out the high winds and squalls on a mooring in the nicely protected harbor of Port Elizabeth, Bequia. The anchorage is well protected from any wave action but the hills to the East actually accelerate the winds. On any given day, the “Bequia Blast” would run through the harbor with 20-25 knot winds. We wondered what would happen when the wave caused the wind to really pick up.

The wondering ended around 5:00 Monday afternoon (6-12-06) as the first squall swooped down from the hills. Crossroads heeled over 10 degrees in the first blast of wind- big lean for not having any sail up. Then the rain came. The wind driven rain was so loud we couldn’t even hear the 35 knots winds screeching in the rigging. We stood in
the cockpit behind the protection of the dodger and watched the visibility drop to a boat length. We could not see the shore or town and could barley see the boat in front of us. Should we do something? What? So, we sat and nervously watched the storm, wondering what we would do if the mooring chose now to break.

I had run two lines through the mooring line and back to the boat - one to hold us and one to take over if that one broke. I also ran a line from the boat to the mooring itself (a rather large engine wrapped in chains). This last line was back up in case the mooring line couldn’t handle our boat sailing back and forth in the storm.

Every thing held. That squall passed and we were able to sleep fairly well with only occasional high winds and rain. Until 5:00 AM when we had another squall come through. It was a lot like the first one but not as scary, since we had already done this once. It passed in an hour or so and the rain settled into more of an all day pace.

By now we figured the decks were clean enough to eat off of so we opened the water fill caps and plugged the deck drain to let some free water flow into the tank. That afternoon the wave had about blown itself out and Michele was able to take advantage of the nine inches of fresh water in the dinghy to do some cleaning.

It looks as though the next couple of waves will pass way to the north of us. We’ll be tucked in Grenada before another one comes through.

Glenn

Happy Father's Day from Grenada

2006-06-18T16:05:00.000-07:00

[N12d02:48, W061d45:31]

What a day! There were times today when we had no wind or engine we were going .5 knots. Our engine decided to act out today. We finally made it to Grenada. We are in a very safe and protected anchorage. We will be in the Spice Island for a couple of weeks. Tomorrow we will find out what is wrong with our engine and make sure it is in tip top shape before we sail to Trinidad.

Random Thoughts on Paradise

2006-06-12T15:49:00.000-07:00

I noticed the other day that I haven't written a reflective piece in a long time. Honestly, I've been in a bit of a funk lately. I know, I know you are probably thinking how can you be in a funk when you are in paradise. I am going to try and put into words what I have been thinking. Those of you that know me well know I would rather speak than write this. I also thought it important that we share some of the rough times as well as the good times. I assume you want a realistic view of our journey. So hear goes with my thoughts: When we started this journey on December 21st by leaving St. Pete we were filled with excitement, wonder and lots of butterflies in our stomach and, yes a good ole healthy dose of fear. We were so green we didn't know anything about our boat. We were honestly too busy learning the boat, the weather and navigation to even think about home (sorry). I guess that was a good thing. Then we had the challenge of the Bahamas. Boy, that was not an easy place to start our trip (reversing currents, small, narrow entrances with rapids, reefs and lots of shallow water). To top it all off we had the northerly cold fronts that brought extremely high winds. We kept saying, "let's just get to the Dominican Republic and we will figure it out". We had options; we could turn around and go home, we could stay in the DR for hurricane season or we could go south to Trinidad.
By that time the Caribbean sailing class of 2006 was most definitely formed. We were a tight group of cruisers heading south together; we hiked, did waterfalls, ate, shared stories and treated each other like family.
So we sailed on to Puerto Rico and stocked up on all the US goodies we could possibly find. We loved getting so many boat projects knocked off our list at the Ponce Yacht Club. So again filled with excitement and surrounded by our class of 2006 we sailed on for the southeastern Caribbean islands.
Glenn and I have discovered that we prefer to see fewer islands and stay a little longer at each one. Saying that, we still did not have the time at each island that I thought we would. I guess the biggest disappointment about the trip so far is the lack of opportunity to meet the local community. The highlight is without a doubt meeting the cruising community. I think we will have a much better chance to really get to know the local communities in Panama and when we head back up the western Caribbean.
I was really looking forward to the lower Eastern Caribbean - basically from St. Martin down to Grenada. The islands have a much more dramatic landscape. But with the month of May came the heat and the rain showers. I would not mind rain, in fact I would love it if it would rain hard enough to clean the boat or shower outside but noooooooo it rains about 5 mins, just long enough that you have to close all the hatches. Crossroads has 4 overhead hatches and 16 side windows for a total of 48 latches, so we spend a lot of time latching the hatches. And of course these 5 min. rain showers happen several times during the day and about 3 times a night. So you just out of bed and do the hatch dance. With the rain and heat also come the rolly anchorages. I can handle a lot of things but a rolly-a anchorage gets on my last nerve!!! It is also exhausting to move every day or so. We have to prepare the boat for sea and take the dinghy engine on and off every time we move, I know, I know - cry me a river.

May also brought great things, our first visitors. Ken and Becky's visit was so helpful for us. More than they will ever know. It was so good to be with home folk and share our new life with them. It was also a great treat to get goodies from the states; sundried tomatoes, dried blueberries and a copy of People magazine! I was so deprived of pop culture I did not even know who won this year's Oscars. Oh my! I wanted everything to be perfect for our guest. I guess that's when I realized just how much control over things we really have (like, very little). We got a marina in Guadeloupe thinking it would be easier to get on and off the boat with luggage. Well French marinas are very different, they don't have a finger pier so you have to crawl over the bow of the boat to get on. It would have been much easier to get on from the dinghy. We also had some of the rolliest anchorages that we have experienced to date. This made it difficult to cook and hang out on the boat. Ken and Becky were real troupers about it.

On our own again, we moved on to another beautiful French island, Martinique, and yes the first two stops on that island were also rolly. I thought I might be going crazy, I didn't want to stay on the boat because it was so rolly but I didn't want to stay in town because it was so hot. I longed to be back on the boat, go figure! Finally, we arrived in Merin, Martinique a beautiful well protected harbor, no rolls, great breezes and the best chocolate crepe I have ever had. Hallelujah! I think I like cruising again. We stayed there 5 nights! Yeah! , We didn't really want to leave but we needed to go south. Marigot Bay St. Lucia was also a very nice harbor and we could swim from the boat. We decided to skip St. Vincent because of time and stories we had heard about dangerous harbors (pirates of the Caribbean). That gets us to Bequia in the Grenadines. Bequia has a ton to offer for the cruising community. It has a calm, safe and clean harbor, nice beaches and lots of restaurants. We will stay here until the wave passes. It is due to hit the Eastern Caribbean on Tuesday night and should not be a big deal. You just don't want to be underway while a wave is in the area. I have gone on long enough but I want to finish by saying that today I am happy to have my health, a beautiful view from our house and a nice breeze. Glenn and I are very fortunate to be living our dream one day at a time. Thanks for listening.
Michele

viewer mail

2006-06-10T11:35:00.000-07:00

We have gotten a lot of emails (but very little sympathy) in responce to our post about the island internet access. Thought we would share one (slightly edited) with the rest of our readers:

Put A COCONUT ON EACH EAR AND YELL. Hummpph, paid three Euro for thirtyminutes of slow internet usage on a French keyboard and din't even say where the blue eyed hammerheaded heck you were !How in the bloody blazes can we live vicariously if we don't know what youre're doing on a day to day basis? We know it's tough scraping salt off yourstern while consuming free lobster and it's a real bummer rechargingyourselves in front of the fire station but don't get snippy with us that'sgot 14 gigs tied up in a map of the bloody drooled all over Caribbean dreamyand wooly minded Sea trying to imaging cramming daily mal de mar pills andcarving salt sores from our imaginary feet and forcing more conch down ourthroats, and, and, and, AAAAARrrrrrrggggggggthhhhh !!!!!!!!!!(Excuse me, sometimes the quiet of the studio gets to me... but, DON'T GIVEME YOUR GRIEF, I'M STILL HERE, HERE,HERE !)I know, I know, don't worry about us. Just straighten your anchor, haveanother French pastry, another bottle of wine, watch another volcano blow,motor on to another island, watch another sunset, eat another barnacle,climb another waterfall, and... NONSENSE ! Stood too many underway watchesand never had computer. Bang out what happened on the last island and dumpit when you get to the Next. Then, your mother will be happy. Get on south, enjoy, and don't let the landlubbersbug you. Fair Winds

another:
I wanted Glenn to know even in jest I have to shudder when I see a reference to Al inventing the internet. He was serious when he said it and it was the first sign that he had lost his direction and most of his mind.

never thought ya'll took this stuff so serously.
-glenn

Bequia,

2006-06-09T15:47:00.000-07:00

[N13d00:40, W061d14:42]

We arrived in Bequia yesterday at 4:00 PM after an extremely exhilarating motor-sail. We left St.Lucia at 4:00 am, and started our day with a 2 knot current going against us. Yuk! That killed our boat speed. We had high winds, very high, sometimes in fact we saw 33knots on the wind indicator. At one point in the day, we saw a pod of about 30 dolphins. I have never seen that many at one time. Very cool. As we were coming into the harbor at Bequia, after a very long day of boisterous winds our engine would not start . I was steering under sail and the wind was very fluky at the entrance of the harbor. Glenn ran below to bleed the injectors and thank God it worked. Meanwhile, our friend Jeff called on the radio , all I said was "can't talk - no engine". So Jeff quickly put his engine on his dinghy and came out to rescue us. By that time Glenn had fixed the problem but it was a very nice try from Dragonfly.

Bequia is part of the Grenadines just south of St. Vincent. We plan to stay here a few days waiting on the upcoming wave to pass. It is a very safe enclosed harbor.

Michele

Marigot Bay, St. Lucia

2006-06-08T06:07:00.000-07:00

[N13d57:98, W061d01:42]

We arrived in St. Lucia Sunday at noon; this was our fastest sail to date. We had a 20-mile an hour wind on the beam. We sailed up to 8 knots. We traveled 32 miles from Martinique. Wahoo!!

Coconut Telegraph

2006-06-05T15:25:00.000-07:00

I am sure that when Al Gore invented the internet he had no idea how it might trickle down to the islands. To be fair, all the countries and territories we have visited even third world types- have been on line. It is only a question of what line they are on and how they follow it.

As Americans we have come to take high speed internet for granted. One can pop into any coffee shop, library or hotel and zoom, your on line. Not so out here in the islands. We have found ourselves in curious circumstances while trying to "stay connected". We have shared the floor of an electronics store with eight or ten other cruisers all trying to use the same feeble connection. It was slow but at least it was only two bucks a day. Today we paid three Euros (about $4) for thirty minutes of slow internet usage with a French keyboard. Why would they move four letters to different places? In Louperon, DR we used Spanish key boards in the Verizon office. There is a special, secret combination of keystrokes to get the "@" thingie-can't send email without it. We have used the internet in bars, restaurants, a hotel office and even under a tree in front of a fire station. The second bit of local knowledge passed on to new boaters entering a harbor is where to get on line (the first is where to take your trash).

So, if we are slow to answer emails or update the site, it's not for lack of trying. Well, some days it is.
Glenn

Merin, Martinique

2006-06-01T14:20:00.000-07:00

[N14d27:87, W060d52:32]
We arrived in Merin, Martinique on Tuesday. We were so excited to be in an anchorage that didn't roll. It is a big enclosed harbor with hundreds of boats and marina's. We had yummy pizza for lunch today. We were excited to reconnect with Dragonfly and Delilah. The wine and cheese is so inexpensive in the French islands, we decided to have a wine tasting, so we would know which $2 bottles of wine to stock up on. The fresh breads and brie are out of this world. We hope to sail to St. Lucia this weekend. We will miss the French islands.

Martinique

2006-05-28T14:39:00.000-07:00

[N14d44:42, W061d10:64]

We arrived in St. Pierre, Martinique at 2:00 pm today. We had an exciting sail with 20 knots of wind on the beam. Crossroads was sailing along at 8 knots. I think this is a record for her speed. Glenn got a touch of food poisoning last night. Needless to say he was happy to stop today and go back to bed. St. Pierre lies a the foot of Mt. Pelee volcano.

Guest Entry: A Wonderful Visit

2006-05-28T05:24:00.000-07:00

We just returned from a wonderful visit with Glenn and Michele and they asked us to share our experience. We flew into Guadeloupe last week to join them on Crossroads for a few days. Our trip started with the challenge of coordinating flights with their sailing plans because their schedule can change at the last minute depending on the weather. We finally came up with a plan and booked our flight two weeks in advance. We arrived in Guadeloupe and took a cab to the marina where Michele met us. We were surprised to see her looking very tan and blond! Glenn was waiting for us on Crossroads to welcome us aboard. It was so great to see them after seven months. It was our first time to see Crossroads and it is a beautiful boat! Of course they were very gracious hosts making us feel welcome, making room for us and all our things, and making us wonderful meals aboard Crossroads.

We sailed from Guadeloupe to the Saintes and finally to Dominica. We had many wonderful experiences along the way like having crepes at a French restaurant overlooking the marina in Guadeloupe (wishing we’d learned French), sitting in a beach club in the Saintes listening to one of their friends play guitar and sing (Jimmy Buffet songs of course), and hiking to Victoria Falls in Dominica (with our Rastafarian guide). But we would have to say our best times were sailing and spending time on the boat with Glenn and Michele. They have truly made Crossroads their home and it is so comfortable. They have also become very creative in coming up with new recipes with local food. We particularly loved Michele’s chicken salad and Glenn’s fried rice. And of course their special fruit punch always hits the spot! We enjoyed the food so much we asked them to add a recipe section to their website.

We were so glad to meet their friends from Dragon Fly, Wasabi, and Delilah (yes, we have learned to speak in “cruisingease” – calling people by the name of their boat.) They were all so nice and it was great to see how they have so much fun together and look out for each other along the way. One evening as we were telling Glenn and Michele how great is was to get away from all the stress back home, Michele shared with us that it is not that different living on the boat because they stay so busy. She went on to say “for example, we have so much planned every day I get stressed when I’m late for happy hour on Dragon Fly or late for yoga”. Of course we all got a big laugh out of that! Seriously though, even though every day seems to bring a new friend or a new adventure for them, life on the boat is a lot more work than they have been letting on. We thought we would share some pictures to show how hard they really do work every day.

In the past five years we have sailed with Glenn and Michele on two charter trips in the Caribbean. Both times they talked of their plans and dreams of buying their own boat and sailing the Caribbean but it always seemed so far away. It was wonderful to see them finally living their dream and we were so happy to have a chance to share it with them for a few days. We would like to thank them for our wonderful visit and wish them much happiness, good weather, and calm anchorages as they continue on their journey.

Ken and Becky Hamric

Visit From Ken and Becky

2006-05-27T09:29:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful visit with our friends Ken and Becky from Memphis. We had five wonderful nights on Crossroads with many laughs, good times and wonderful meals. If you have never had the pleasure of eating Becky's homemade spaghetti, you are missing out.

Ken and Becky made a promise several years ago while chartering with us. They said, if we got our boat and they visited us they would put us up in a hotel. They knew we would appreciate the endless water and electricity. Boy, did they deliver! We just spent two wonderful nights at Jungle Bay Resort and Spa (www.junglebaydominica.com). Jungle Bay has 30 rustic cottages set into the jungle mountain side over looking the ocean. Check out their website, I am sure you will want to visit Dominica. Yesterday, we had an awesome hike to Victoria falls. Ken will be adding photos soon. Thanks for everything, Ken and Becky.

So now all of our rechargable devices are recharged and so are we. Crossroads patiently awaits our return. Tomorrow we will head for Martinique (more French pastries).

Michele and Glenn

Dominica

2006-05-25T04:55:00.000-07:00

[N15d17:24, W061d22:62] We arrived in Dominica today and anchored in Portsmouth Harbor. We plan to do more inland travel tomorrow in Dominica. This is an amazingly rustic, beautiful island.

Michele and Glenn

Martin, our guide on the tour of the Indian River in Portsmouth.

The Saintes

2006-05-21T18:26:00.000-07:00

[N15d52:12, W061d35:20]Fortunately we were in Guadeloupe on Saturday when the volcano blew in Montserrat. Ken and Becky arrived on Saturday, we have been having a ball with them. We left Guadeloupe on Sunday after eating fresh French pastries. We are spending a couple of days in the Saintes before sailing to Dominica.

Michele and Glenn

Gaudeloupe

2006-05-15T14:07:00.000-07:00

[N16d18:35, W061d47:84]

We arrived yesterday in Dehaies,(pronounced Day-hay) Gaudeloupe. We had a very rough motor sail from Montserrat. I was not a happy camper.(poor Glenn) The best part of the day was seeing a whale. Very cool! This French island is sooooooo beautiful. We are surrounded by mountains and a quaint little village with delicious French pastries. Happy late Mothers day to all our friends and family that are mothers.

Michele and Glenn

Montserrat

2006-05-13T14:42:00.000-07:00

[N16d48:094, W062d12:40]

We are in Montserrat, this beautiful island has an active volcano on the south end of the island. We have black ash all over the boat. Yuck! We passed by the island Redonda and looked for the dragon but did not see it. We plan to sail to Guadeloupe tomorrow. We will post photos when we get to Gaudeloupe.

Michele and Glenn

Nevis

2006-05-11T12:48:00.000-07:00

[N17d09:20, W062d37:85]

It is great to be back in Nevis. We came here on a charter trip about 5 years ago. We only spent one night and we longed for more time on Nevis. Alexander Hamilton was born on this island. Nevis has a population of 12,000, is quiet and peaceful. Tomorrow we plan to explore the island by bike. More details and photos soon.

Michele

Wayne eating traditional fair

Gary from July Indian gives the other guys good luck lures

St. Kitts

2006-05-10T16:46:00.000-07:00

[N17d17:34, W062d42:69]

The Caribs called St. Kitts "fertile isle." Columbus renamed it after his patron saint and nowadays it is known either as St. Christopher or by the abbreviated St. Kitts. We are excited to return to St. Kitts. We arrived yesterday at 3:00 PM, Glenn went to customs and cleared us in and we went to dinner with our friend Brian. The anchorage was sooooooooooo rolly I thought I would scream. Glenn and I woke up at midnight and we both felt like we were sleeping in the middle of a see- saw. Bright an early this morning we motored over to White house bay. This is a much nicer spot. We scrubbed the bottom of the boat all day, dirty job but you got to get those barnacles off the bottom. Yuck!

michele

St. Barts

2006-05-08T13:26:00.000-07:00

[N17d55:49, W062d52:14]

We are anchored in beautiful St. Barts in the Columbier bay. This bay was originally owned by the Rockefeller's. We arrived yesterday and snorkeled from the boat. It rained all night accompanied by high high winds and lightning. We plan to take a hike today and check out another French bakery.

Carnival in St. Martin

2006-05-04T10:45:00.000-07:00

I think when you see the photo's you will see how much fun we had at Carnival. They were celebrating the Queen's birthday.

St. Martin

2006-05-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

[N18d02:50, W063d05:49]

We decided to skip the Virgin Islands. This was a really tough decision as we were really looking forward to going back to the British Virgins for their beauty and easy navigating. Thanks to Katrina, we are about a month behind schedule so we had to skip something. We really want to see St. Martin, St. Barts, Nevis, Guadeloupe,Iles Des Saintes, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, The Grendines and Grenda. The good news is, these islands are all very close together. Our insurance says we have to be as far down as Grenada by July 1st. Our hurricane goal is to be in Trindad by July 1st. We think this will be another rough hurricane year and we would rather be farther south then Grenada.

We arrived in St. Martin yesterday at 8:30 am after a 26 hour passage from the Spanish Virgin Islands. We were traveling with Dragon Fly, July Indian and Wasabi. We had a wonderfully calm motor sail. Dolphins played in our bow wake for a long time. It was so cool! Our friends Cliff and Melanie from Clift's Note met us in the harbor as soon as we went under the bridge at St. Martin. We were so excited to see them. They showed the whole crew their favorite French pastry, sandwich shop in Marigot. Yum! Yum! I have been longing for French pastries. After the yummy lunch Glenn and I went on a extremely technical hike with Cliff and Melanie. Oh my God! We thought it would be great to walk up to a scenic view; four hours later we were beginning to wonder why we did not bring a map and GPS with us. We got a little concerned when it was 5:00 pm and we were very lost in the woods. We finally found our way out, we were on the other side of island in the Dutch territory. We took a taxi back to our dinghies. I think it goes without saying we slept great.

Michele

Spanish Virgin Islands

2006-04-28T08:54:00.000-07:00

[N18d05:50, W065d27:38]

We arrived at Vieques this morning at 8:00 am. Vieques is sometimes called la Isla Nina (daughter Island)- referring to it's relationship with the larger island of Puerto Rico. We had a beautiful night motor sail from Ponce. This evening we plan to visit a bioluminescent(phosphorescent) bay. They say the water splashes up in a burst of millions of lights as if fireworks were sent up from the depths. They say as you glide through the water you develop and eerie glow and when you resurface, thousands of sparkling lights remain on you for a brief moment. We can't wait. We will tell you all about it.

Michele and Glenn

Two weeks in Ponce, Puerto Rico

2006-04-24T16:30:00.000-07:00

Photos from Old San Juan

We never dreamed we would stay two weeks at a marina in Ponce. We originally planned to leave Boqueron a couple of days before all our friends so we could get a head start with some projects - like having our mainsail re-cut while in Ponce. We left at midnight on April 10 planning to sail all night to Ponce. We had no idea what a frustrating night we had embarked upon. The weather was supposed to be light, maybe 10 to 15 knots. It is also suppose to be much calmer at night, they call it the night lee. Ha! Once again none of this was so, we never saw a night lee. It was blowing 20 to 25 on the nose. We were making a whopping 2 knots of speed and at this rate we would arrive in Ponce in about a week. Yuck! The waves were a short, steep chop and very confused. So we endured a very tedious motor sail and decided to stop the next morning at Playa Santa – about half way to Ponce. We got into Playa around 9:00 A.M. and slept all day. Our friends from Dragonfly arrived later that afternoon; they had also endured a rough ride. We piled into their dinghy and went in search for a restaurant. We walked a while and found a lovely little family owned restaurant. The owner Rosie was a trip!

We left the next morning at a bright and early 3:00 a.m. and once again had a rough, slow motor sail into the wind. We arrived at the Ponce Fishing and Yacht Club around 1:00 pm. We were happy to be connected to shore power and have an endless supply of water. The next day we rented a car with Jeff and Una. We were so excited to be in U.S. territory. I never thought I would be so happy to see K-Mart and Sams. It was a little overwhelming to go into the Super Walmart - rows and rows of produce and food. Remember, we are more accustomed to being in small islands in the Bahamas where the town has no fresh milk or produce. The other weird thing about being back in U.S. territory is seeing all the familiar fast food places, but no one speaks English. We have decided we must learn Spanish.

Friday morning I taught my first yoga class. Crew from four other boats wanted to practice yoga so I said I would give it a shot. It was awesome. It was not as hard as I thought it might be. Everyone taking the class had practiced at least once and they were all in good shape. Practicing with a group made me realize how much I miss yoga. This marina turned out to have a beautiful setting for a yoga class. We were over looking the ocean to one side and the mountains on the other. We have practiced there several times since. That evening I organized a potluck. It was easy because you can just tell 3 boats and they pass the word around to bring a dish and before you know it you have 30 people and lots of yummy food. I think this potluck had the best food yet. One boat brought freshly caught mahi mahi with mango salsa. Gary and Linda from “July Indian” brought a beef tenderloin. We had 4 tables of food.

The next day we decided to take an excursion and drive to San Juan. Glenn and Jeff were excited to be able to spend their West Marine bucks - Una and I were excited to go to the largest shopping mall in Puerto Rico. We were in search of cool cotton sundresses. Oh my! This mall was sooooooooo big I got lost 4 times. It had 3 ½ floors and had everything you could ever want or need. After three hours of power shopping we headed for Old San Juan. We saw tons of children flying beautiful kites on the grounds of the fort. It was amazing. The fort went on for miles and miles and you could really spend a week just touring the old town. The streets had a very European feel and looked like an old part of Italy or Spain. We thought we might get a hotel room and tour a little more the next day, however everything was sold out due to the holiday weekend. So we returned to the boats late that evening very tired and broke thanks to West Marine and the mall.

Sunday we cooked hamburgers and invited our friends from “July Indian” over. It was one of those great spontaneous days that turned into an all day and evening event. Jeff from Dragonfly came down and said they were also grilling burgers, so we told them to bring their stuff over and join us, We had a couple of extra burgers so we asked Bob and Jane from “Scooter” to join us, several hours later we decided we should probably order a few pizzas. What started out as a midday cookout turned out to be a 7-hour get together. Crossroads was entertainment central.

Ponce has provided excellent opportunities to get a ton of projects completed. I had no idea how many projects we still needed to do. Glenn replaced the anchor windless; hopefully this will make it easier for him to pull up the anchor. I might even try it. Ha! We are getting our main sail re-cut; it was too long on one side for this boat and it could not be flattened to allow the boat to sail to windward. We hope this adjustment will help us. We are also getting risers made so we can modify our companionway stairs. The previous owner changed these steps into a ladder. Very Steep! Glenn installed our water filter and so many other little projects that I can’t even begin to mention them all. So while we wait for our sail and stack pack we are enjoying the swimming pool and luxuries of being hooked to the shore power.

Ponce, Puerto Rico

2006-04-17T10:40:00.000-07:00

We are staying in Ponce (pronounced pon-say)the second largest city in Puerto Rico. We decided to treat ourselves to a marina.
It is great to be back in the U.S. we are a little overwhelmed by the super Walmart and Sams. We rented a car with our friends Jeff and Una from Dragonfly. We will add photos and more details regarding our travels to Old San Juan.

[N17d57:87,W066d36:99]

Reflections from the Mona Passage

2006-04-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

The Mona Passage

I have been worried about the Mona Passage every since our Gulf Stream crossing. We read about the horrible thunderstorms that build up off the coast of Puerto Rico and hit you, whack -right in the middle of the passage. Yuck! I was so worried about this one I even asked our sailing mentors John Hutson and Wyatt Nichols to join us but the timing was not good for them to leave work. So, we prepared all we could and again waited for the perfect weather window.

On April 5, at 7:00 am we left Luperon with mixed feelings. In many ways we were wishing we could spend two more weeks in the DR but we knew this weather window was too good to pass up. We also had that nagging feeling of the need to be in Grenada before the end of June for Hurricane season.

We are a very slow boat so we left two hours before the rest of our fleet. This was going to be the longest passage on our journey. Everyone talks about how much easier an offshore passage is after the first 24 hours. They are right. You are actually tired enough by the second day to really get some sleep on your time off. I had prepared a lot of yummy food so we could just heat things. I made potato salad, smoked sausages; macaroni and cheese and bought a roasted chicken. Of course I had the regular PB&J's prepared for emergency. The seas were so calm Glenn actually went down below and made a hobbit "second breakfast", a yummy breakfast burrito. Hobbit first breakfast was a pop tart.

We arrived in Boqueron, Puerto Rico around 10:00 am on Friday morning. We spent the rest of the afternoon clearing in with customs. It is great to be back in U.S. territory.

miramar

2006-04-09T09:59:00.000-07:00

Glenn and I returned to Miramar for wonderful relaxing second honeymoon. The saying goes… a picture says a thousand words. As you can see from Glenn’s photos, words cannot adequately describe the beauty of this place. It was a tropical paradise. We hung out by the pool and read all afternoon. Later that evening, Lisa (the owner) brought out a lovely meat and cheese tray with a glass of wine. We were the only people at this resort. We had a wonderful lobster dinner. It rained hard that evening, we slept great.

The next day we started with a yummy European breakfast. Lisa brought a tray of breads, cheeses and meats. That was the first course then she brought a huge omelet and French toast. If that was not enough she brought a local fruit called guanabana, it tasted a little bit like a banana but the consistency was more like a pear. After the big breakfast we decided to go for a hike. The owners are from Belgium. Lisa’s husband is multi- talented like someone else we know and love. He is the chief and has an extremely artistic way with masonry; all around the grounds you could see evidence of his work. Stonewalls, a castle tower that concealed a water tank. Glenn loved this of course! After the hike we got in the pool for a cool down and read in the shade looking over God’s beauty. We were sad to leave but we knew we had to get back and get things ready for our departure the next day.

Mona Passage

2006-04-07T16:41:00.000-07:00

We made it! we arrived in Puerto Rico at 11:00 am and have been clearing in with Customs all afternoon. We are very tired. We had a wonderful 50 hour motor sail from the Dominican Republic. We will write more when we are not so tired. We just wanted to let everyone know we are in Boqueron, Puerto Rico and doing great.

[N18d01:31, W067d10:78]

Easy Rider

2006-04-03T12:18:00.000-07:00

I Don't Want a Dill Pickle

I just wanna ride my motor-cycle (pronounced so it rhymes with pickle- Arlo Guthrey)
Sunday Michele and I took off with Jeff and Una (from Dragonfly) to see a bit more of this part of the country. Just to change things up a bit, we rented a couple of small motorcycles and took off for a town called Isabella. I'm not really a motorcycle rider. We have rented scooters a time or two on vacation, but I 've never really logged anytime on a real bike. Not that you can call a 100cc Yamaha a real bike, but it did have gears, clutch and a very not-bicycle breaking system.

Jeff gave me some quick instructions about the one down, three up shifting thing and we were off. There were a few tense moments getting out of "downtown" Luperon as we dodged other motorcycles, trucks, people, dogs, and donkeys. Soon we were roaring through the country side at a breakneck speed of about 40 kph(+/- 25mph). I felt pretty much in control at speeds that I could normally make going down-hill on a bicycle. The views of the rolling green hills and ocean were spectacular.

Forty-Five minutes of uneasy riding brought us to Miramar, a lovely hotel where we stopped for lunch. The hotel has beautiful landscaping.(although a rather long, rutted gravel drive), a pool and 15 or 20 rooms with million-dollar views. We checked into getting a room for our anniversary- 1,000 pesos a night ($30 US)- What a deal! Lunch was served in the open-air restaurant by the pool and was a meal to remember. This was our first meal out since Key West that featured wonderful sauces matched with perfectly prepared dishes. Michele had fish, Una Shrimp, and Jeff and I had beef tenderloin. All were excellent. The bill for the four of us with wine, bottled water and an ice-cream desert was 1700 pesos ($53. U.S.) We will be back!

After lunch we checked out their on-site museum of pre-Columbian artifacts from the surrounding area. They have a room with thousands of pots and vases, vessels and shards some of which were found there on the grounds. Then it was back to the saddle again for a short ride to a not very old church. Nice replica of a church, built in the late 1400's and still in use. From there we rode to El Castillo, the site of the first permanent settlement in the new world. It was interesting but historically disappointing since all the actual remains of the original settlements were bulldozed in an effort to "clean up" before a visit from the Pope. Then it was the time to get the bikes back to Captain Steve's Place before they turned into pumpkins at dark.

The ride back was easier on me since I had gained some confidence in handling the motorcycle. It was even kind of fun, until we saw the cows. Cattle trucks haven't really caught on in the Dominican Republic, so when you need to move your cows from one place to another you use the road, the whole road. There were cows from one shoulder to the other. We stopped to take pictures and figure out how to get through. Cars were honking and nudging their way past and a few locals had zoomed around through people's yards on their motorcycles. I was hoping that the cows were headed for the next driveway and I could just wait, no such luck. Jeff got past following another motorcycle through a lawn. I waited for a car to clear a path and puttered along the shoulder to the cow-free road ahead, what a relief.

We gassed up the bikes and got them back to Steve's in useable condition before dark. I could finally relax and have a beer since I skipped the wine with lunch. Whew, almost as nerve wracking as sailing.

Glenn

All Creatures Great and Small

Last Tuesday was our 8-year anniversary; we made big plans to stay at a beautiful hotel. Mira Mar is a beautiful estate with a nice hotel and restaurant with a spectacular Ocean and mountain view.

Well that was the plan, but the little parasites of the Dominican Republic liked me and decided to make my anniversary week one I will not forget any time soon. I will spare the details. The local cruisers turned us on to the drug of choice for this creature. So I have been taking a lot of Quizol and am feeling much better. Glenn did a wonderful job taking care of me all week. I felt like I had the flue and a bad stomach virus. Apparently this bug is not uncommon for this area. Many cruisers that have been living here for 10 months have dealt with this many times. YUCK!

Good news, Glenn and I plan to go to Mira Mar on Sunday and spend the night.

Michele

waterfalls

2006-03-30T10:43:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday was adventure travel day. We went waterfall climbing with the crews of five other boats. A series of twenty-seven cascades along the Rio Bajabonico provide a challenging and beautiful day trip from Luperon. We arrived early by van to avoid the crowds later in the day. Everyone was surprised to be issued lifejackets and helmets. Helmets! Safety equipment is unheard of in Third World Countries. What had we gotten ourselves into?

The ascent begins with a pleasant hike through a lush woodland and the trail fords a few shallow streams. We quickly reached a primitive ranger station/ bar and where instructed to give up our eye wear unless we were really blind. It sounded like we were about to loose anything that was not tied down. Now everybody into the water to swim to the first waterfall- a chute carved into the rock by water with a drop of about 15 feet. With help from our wonderful guides (2 guides for our group of 11) we made it up waterfall number 1 then scrambled, swam and climbed our way up 6 more. Waterfall seven is a turn around point. The guides asked how many falls we wanted to do-were we up for all 27? The climb up from #7 involved pulling yourself up a step rock face on a rope with knots tied in it. Four of our group decided they had had enough. The rest of us decided to press on and see how many we could manage.

We continued up six more beautiful falls as jungle-like foliage and rock cliffs blocked out most the sunlight. The stream flows over smooth rocks surfaces carved over time into amazing grottos and slides. At cascade number 13 the trail broke off into the woods for a series of switchbacks up and over a small mountain. At the base of the hill we regained our breaths and rejoined the river. At this point, the guides in formed us that this was number 27- end of the line. We celebrated by jumping off into a small, deep pool, of now colder water.

This jump-off of about 12 feet turned out to be good practice for our decent. One down, twenty six to go. We stayed with the water on the way down so we got to see the scenery we had missed when we took the trail. We soon learned that jumping off a waterfall is a lot easier than climbing down it. We all got accustomed to leaping from 15 feet into a deep spot about the size of a hot tub. Some of the falls had an option of jump or slide. Everyone tried both - you get a good dunking at the bottom either way. Soon we rejoined our comrades at the ranger station . They took pictures of us jumping off the last (or first) waterfall- what fun!

The van then took us to the town of Imbert where a restaurant put out Domincan style buffet for us. Chicken, beef and pork served with beans and rice, salad, fruit, friend plantains and ice-cold cerveza Presidente- We ate and ate.

After lunch we were taken on a quick drive through Puerto Plato and a tour of the Brugel Rum factory. Then eleven tired gringos were taken back to Luperon to return to our floating homes.