Happy Father's Day 2013

My Daddy and Me 2009

St. Martin to Grenada

     After nearly two months here, it was time to move on. St. Martin is nice and has many amenities but we needed to begin our southerly migration. There is a small part of me that has been missing south Florida lately and I'm sure if Roxy could talk, she would say the same. However, another hurricane season out of harm's way is in store for us. 

     We finally made the trip to Guadeloupe - it took longer than prior trips because the winds were not as strong and a little out of the wrong direction (weather men always get it wrong!).  We spent some time in the same old spots, then decided to try somewhere new. Boy, am I glad we did!  The people are SO nice and go out of their way to help you!  

     Pointe-a-Pitre is on the southern coast near the mouth of a river that divides the island in two. About the only negative about this anchorage is the big boat wakes made by ferries and pilot boats. The place reminds me of Jacksonville, FL (on the St. John River). We spent enough time there to get our hydraulic cylinder for our autopilot repaired. 

     We sailed to Martinique from Marie Gallant, a small island 20 mi south. Landing in St. Pierre once again - love Martinique!!  The weather continues to hold on for us so we moved south to an anchorage we had not seen before:  Grande Anse d'Arlet. Beautiful spot - and lots of turtles. 

From there, we went around the corner to Le Marin and St. Anne on Martinique.  The anchorage at St. Anne is very pretty and a dinghy ride gets you into a very bustling yachting center.  We stayed a couple of days to get some things done like kitten vaccinations and airplane reservations.  Then we were ready to go.  Oh yeah, we got a kitten!

         BINGO – the kitten found us!  We were walking back to the dinghy from the place that did our hydraulic work and I heard a noise that I thought was a bird.  We looked back across the street and there was a calico kitten yelling at the top of her lungs – and boy could she be heard a long way!  We were afraid to leave it there because it acted like it was going to follow us across a busy street.  Darrell said, “go back and get her”.  I did, reluctantly.  To my surprise, she wasn’t wild like I fully expected.  She made the dinghy ride back to our boat fine and is now in the process of training us.  She is about 2-3 months old and attacks anything and everything.  Roxy is “tolerating” her pretty well.  The cat box training had its ups and downs but we have that ironed out now, too.  She has been a barrel of laughs thus far! 

The weather continued to be favorable for travel so we left with Celtic Rover for Grenada.  This passage took 25 1/2 hours to make but it was lovely weather and seas.  On June 7, we arrived in Carriacou.  As you may recall, this is an island of the country of Grenada just north of the main island.  After one night there, we decided to head on down to Mt. Hartman Bay, Grenada. This is where we will leave the boat and animals while we fly to TX for a visit.  

We made it back on Saturday afternoon.  We are much earlier in the season than we were last year.  Hence, there are quite a few unoccupied boats here and very few cruisers in the area right now.  They will be along later.  

Sorry there has been such a long interval between posts.  I will try to keep up better this summer!  Have a great summer.