Day 188- Brittania Bay, Mustique

We've spent the last week exploring Bequia and Mustique.  Both are part of the country St. Vincent and the Grenadines.  We were drawn to the Grenadines by descriptions of small isolated islands with beautiful crystal clear water.  Bequia was busier than we expected with many yachts and tourist shops.  It still surprises us how different the islands can be from one to another.   The feel of Bequia was very different from St. Lucia and certainly not like the French islands.   Bequia has many small local businesses, no big stores or franchises like St. Lucia.  Mustique, on the other hand, is a private island, and reminds me a little of a tropical Carmel, CA, with a small number of large villas. It is owned by a company that seems to control most of the businesses and the employees that are brought in to work here.  The movie Truman Show came to mind as we walked around.   The anchorages tend not to be as protected from swell so we're trying to get used to rolly conditions at anchor.  We celebrated Remi's 8th birthday.  The cake was successful though it almost over flowed the shallow pan a few times before I got it into the gimballed oven.  Julia from, sv Arwen, introduced the girls to a great German party game, involving rolling dice, getting dressed in hat, scarf and mittens, while trying to unwrap a chocolate bar that has many layers of paper on it.  Pablo found a bar that was willing to turn on the Steelers-Broncos game last week and now has also found a spot to try to watch the Patriots play tonight.  American football is unheard of down here and kind of a curiosity when on.  Locals are friendly and want to know what it is all about.

The birthday girl

Trying to get a the chocolate!

The view from Lisa's, our favorite hang out in Mustique

Day 181- Rodney Bay, St. Lucia

Initially we were going to by pass St. Lucia and go directly to the Grenadines but are once again unexpectedly glad we stopped.  In fact, we've decided to stay a few extra days.  There are a lot of cruisers here so we've had a chance to catch up with old and new friends.  This is the first place we've been to with such a high concentration of cruisers.  There even is a local cruisers radio net every morning where people make connections, sell items and plan events.  Very entertaining and interesting.
Rodney Bay is a bit of a zoo, which is fun in limited doses.  We are anchored in front of a Sandals resort and watch the people attempt a wide variety of water sports all around our boat.  There are water skiers, windsurfers, paddle boarders, para sailors, hobie cats, jet skis and paddle boats.  The entertainment value is high.  Many American franchises seem to be represented at the mall and the grocery store is just like Shaws at home except for $9 bags of corn chips.  We found the bustling local fruit market in Castries, the capital city, more to our liking.
Below are a few rainbow photos.  We've seen a lot of these as it rains often.  The rain is nice in some ways, it rinses salt off us and the boat but also requires us to close up the boat in a mad rush regularly.

Low rainbow in Martinique

St. Pierre rainbow

Rodney Bay rainbow

Remi got her horse back riding fix; the horses here like bananas instead of apples and carrots.

And Mia even got a turn to ride when the horses went for a swim

Day 178- Le Marin, Martinique

The free wifi access has been very limited in Martinique. I kept assuming that good wifi was around the corner and I would post a blog with photos but have given up on that. We explored 5 different towns/anchorages in Martinique. St. Pierre had a wonderful fruit and vegetable market where we got avocados, pineapples, carrots, papaya, mangoes and what we thought were potatoes. When I cut into them they were rock hard, and basically just cracked. I boiled them like a potato and they remained rock hard. When I have internet access will have to research what they are and how to cook them. They look just like small new potatoes, if anyone knows what they are let me know, so that I can use them before they go bad. Grande Anse D'Arlet was my favorite anchorage. We spent two days swimming and snorkeling in crystal clear water and playing on a beautiful beach. Le Marin, a major yachting city, was a great place to provision for food and boat supplies. It may be the most modern place we see for the next month. Leader Price, a big supermarket, even had its own dingy dock! We're underway to St. Lucia and it is getting a little too rolly for writing. Really hoping we'll have better internet access in the next few days.
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Grande Anse D'Arlet

Flowering banana trees in a yard

Beach restaurants in Grande Anse D'Arlet

The anchorage in Grande Anse D'Arlet

Happy New Year

We spent a lovely New Year's Eve with the crew of sy Arwen, a German cruising family. We had a nice view of fireworks from Anse Mitan, a small resort town in Martinique that is described as on the decline, but we have not seen so many people or activity since the states. This is probably more of an indication on the type of places we have visited so far than anything else. After exploring Martinique for the last three days we find a funny mixture of very modern French society and Caribbean funk. For example, lots of new expensive looking European cars on primitive pot holed, narrow roads. So far the prices are not as inexpensive as Guadeloupe but we're hoping to provision in a bigger city and find less expensive markets. We've run into two English speaking locals and are having to rely on our less than stellar French speaking abilities. The wifi access has been minimal so will have to post pictures when it is available again.
After reflecting on 2011, we realize how much we've enjoyed our adventure so far. We've traveled about 3800 nautical miles, through 10 states, 7 countries and have connected with incredible people along the way. But ironically we are only about a 4 hour flight from Boston. Experiencing regular life in different cultures rather than as a tourist in a resort has been rewarding. Though, no doubt, there have been moments when we envy people, with their soft dry towels, taking unlimited showers at a whim and using unlimited power for gadgets. Having to function using the local services, which to us are often set up in a very foreign and baffling manner, has been both intriguing and challenging. Though we're not exactly sure what 2012 will bring our way we're looking forward to more adventures, time with family and enjoyable experiences.
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A squall on the way to Martinique

Fresh fish at the market

St. Pierre market

St. Pierre

St. Pierre

Day 170- Portsmouth, Dominica

Dominica, not to be confused with the Dominican Republic which is approximately 500 miles north of here, is an independent country with British roots.  We had a great sail here from Les Saints with two new Finn friends as crew.  Dominica is noticeably poorer than other islands we have been to and surprisingly expensive.  Upon arrival we were visited by numerous "boat boys", all with catchy nicknames like Cobra, Lawrence of Arabia, and James Bond, selling pretty much any goods or services that we might be interested in.  They come to the boat on anything that floats and we've bought grapefruit, mangoes, papaya, a whole stalk of bananas from them.  The island is known for all the fruit that grows here and the fact that the Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed here. We toured the interior rainforest, saw banana, coconut, pineapple, cocoa, and coffee plantations, went swimming under one of the many waterfalls and visited the Carib territory.  The Carib are the original inhabitants of Dominica, the indigenous people of the Caribbean, their ancestors arrived from South America before Columbus landed here in 1493.  Their features are surprisingly Asian.

Downtown Portsmouth

Indian River

Downtown Portsmouth

More messing around on the beach

Local kids messing around

Hope they don't all ripen at once

Cobra showing us a banana plantation, the blue bags protect the bananas from pests

Laundry day at the river

Carib casava bread bakery

Merry Christmas

Best holiday wishes to all our friends back home and new friends who we've been lucky enough to meet during our journey.

Day 166- Les Saintes, Guadeloupe

We're enjoying exploring Les Saintes.  Actually so much that I've been lax about blogging.  We're spending more time here than in most places due to weather (high swell from storms in the Northern Atlantic) and wanting to have fairly reliable internet access for Christmas.  The island is small enough to walk everywhere, though most people travel by scooter. We've been keeping busy by hiking, swimming and playing on the various beaches, snorkeling off the boat, exploring most of the shops in town, and attending the local Christmas festivals.   Christmas is refreshingly low key here compared to Antigua or the US for that matter.  There are a handful of houses that have a few decorations up. The Christmas festival is the only place we've heard Christmas music.  Locals sang French songs all to the same merengue type beat,  stands sold crepes, fish fritters, and beer.   The locals start drinking around 10 am but not sure that it has anything to do with the holidays.  Overall a great experience and we're feeling lucky to be able to spend Christmas in a place like this. 

The local library

The view from Fort Napolean

Borealis in the harbor

Our favorite place to get French goodies

Picking up the daily baguette order

Spice market