Thursday, March 27, 2008

short updates


Ahoy!

We've been having loads of fun with our best friends, Kay, Gary and Sam as they are visiting St. Kitts! We toured the islands, gone to the beach, snorkled, sailed, sampled Caribe beer from various sources and just enjoyed being in each others' company. Meanwhile. . . .

* Mismo is fine. She is no longer wearing her 'cone head' and is her jiggy self. She's learned two new tricks: Jumping out of the aft cabin through the hatch (springing off of my rump!) to get on deck so no more locking her in at night by simply closing the companionway. Also, we are in the Port Zante marina while our friends are in town and Mismo has become curious about the boat next door. We had to lure her back with the little laser pointer last night so as to not go clumping around on someone else's boat! Reminds us of Gracie the cat who always felt the need to 'inspect the fleet' when we were in a harbor. This shouldn't be a real problem as we go to a marina about once a year!

* We're about to have another northerly swell event' here so we'll stay in the marina until probably Sunday or so. Then it will be off to Nevis, Montserat, Gaudeloupe, and Antigua in that order. Antigua is about due east of us now but that's a tough beat from here so the above way is the way to get to Antigua. Sail to the south of it and then back north.

* Overall I would highly recommend St. Kitts as a sailing or vacation destination. People are REAL friendly and fun. Lots of cabs and prices are not crazy...except diesel = $15/gallon. The goverment shut down the sugar cane industry here about 5 -10 years ago and put 5000 people out of work. They are still reeling a little trying to put people back to work. The only industry left is tourism.

* Still messing with my water pump. I now have access to marina water so I may open all the faucets and just let the pump run to get ALL the air out of the system. I suspect this is NOT the real problem but actually the checkvalves inside the pump but we'll see.

*Check out this site for some amazing art. Stats about US consumption are impressive as numbers but this guy turned those numbers into some really interesting and attention getting art. Enjoy.

* Some pics!

The Atlantic side! You can see why the first settlers sailed around to the leeward side of the island to, well, settle. Soon after the English and French got together to wipe out the Caribes who were already here. 2000 natives were slautered. There is a sign by a ravine where they say the blood ran for 3 days like a river. Nice.







Sometimes life is just a boar. This is the 'pet' named Wilbur at Turtle Beach bar. We had a great day there just laying on beach chairs, swimming and having Maria bring us buckets of Caribe.









A rare photo of Enee Marie under way. Thanks to our friend Gary who got the shot from their hotel as we sailed south to White House Bay. Good example of us sailing with both sails reefed. Plenty of speed (5+knots) and more comfort. New jib for us when we get to Antigua we hope!





No blog entry is complete without a sunset picture so. . . HERE!

Yeah...this is where we live....every day!

Finally. . . GO CUBS!
Opening day is Monday. I'm hoping that they go undefeated for the entire month of March! This is THE year. Really. Hey, I might not have religion but at least I have the Cubs!


Write or leave comments. We love both.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love the picture of Wilbur! How cute..a beach hog :-)

Loyal follower
Jen

Iron Jayhawk said...

I loved St. Kitts! Did you guys have a chance to eat at the Shiggidy Shack? Absolutely incredible.

Monkey Bar next door is great as well. :)

laura said...

15.00/gallon? Ouch! But visiting Wilbur would make it worth while!

Anonymous said...

Hello from Del Mar, we have sunsets here but that last picture is a beauty Scott. Wow! Keep up the good work and reports, If I were your Physics Professor I would give you an Aplus.
Stan and Judy