Fruitful Paradise

 This is a piece of land that looks like a pancake from a distance. Marie Galante is considered flat but still has an elevation between 300-600 feet in various places. It is densely green and the trees and bushes seem taller than other places. During the couple of hikes we did, many sugar fields were observed. Our guest, Nico, cut down  some sugar cane sticks, peeled away the hard skin, to chew and suck on the fibers full of sweet water, just like the locals do. In addition, we saw many fruit trees that had fruits ripened and ready to be picked. Fruit trees are everywhere and before picking any fruits, we always make sure it’s not on someone’s property. Here in Marie Galante we were lucky to find random lemon, banana, papaya, mango, and coconut trees and we collected many of them. 

In Marie Galante, you also see tons of pigs. Almost every mango tree has a pig tied up underneath. Then there are oxes and cows! We have not witnessed so many pigs, oxes, and cows in one single island. The pigs seem friendly and some of them walked toward us like they needed petting! We saw big and small pigs, white, black and spotted. Some of the sugar cane transportation on the island is still on ox carriages. Watch out and make sure you are not in the way because these ox are so big that they could crush anything in their path. Moreover, I found my bamboo stick that was misplaced last year. We use to have a stick that was used as an extension for the outboard handle and dinghy depth finder. Now we have attained a new one made in Marie Galante!

                                                  As a cruiser and traveller, you see the most beautiful beaches on these Caribbean Islands. Some of the islands are surrounded by long white beaches and some have very few beaches. In Basse Terre, which is the mountainous part of Guadeloupe the very few beaches have dark sand. In Marie Galante beaches are more white and soft and long. Based on experience, low elevated islands have beautiful long white beaches and higher elevated islands don’t have as many and they are smaller.  

I mentioned that it’s difficult to connect with locals in the French Islands if you don’t speak French. We finally got to connect with some locals through Nico. Apparently, Guadeloupe has a large Lebanese community. In Point a Pitre, many store fronts are owned by Lebanese that have been settled here for over 50 years. Nico got to talk to some of them in Arabic and we were able to socialize. After all, we are all the same and different languages and cultures should not separate us! Our differences should be attracting us to one another and this is the beautiful part of Earthlings!

Right now we are in Dominica and going to explore this attractive land for the next couple of weeks.

Love from a fruitful paradise

Please check out the photo album of Guadeloupe on the fb page!

Guests Aboard

This lifestyle is unique and I feel very fortunate to live it. Very often, I wonder why aren’t more people living their lives this way? I wish more friends and family could join us, at least for a little while. But land life is keeping everyone so busy and tied up that flying to the Caribbean appears worlds away! Company aboard is great and I would like to share this experience with others! We haven’t had anyone visit since Dominican Republic (April 2011), before the last hurricane season. In the Virgin Islands, Tony stayed aboard for a few days but he already lives in the Caribbean, has a sailboat, and has been a cruiser.
Nico is our current visitor, a long time friend from Chicago. He contacted us a few weeks ago, bought a one way ticket and will be here for a few weeks. That is ideally the best way to visit us. For most of our friends and family it has been difficult to coordinate when and where to meet because they want to buy airfare a couple months in advance. Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly where we are going to be then. We can usually  predict 2-3 weeks in advance where to meet. When friends want to come visit, they can choose either the time or the location, not both. When you choose the time, we will be able to tell you 2 weeks prior to that where we are going to be. If you choose the location, then we’ll tell you 2-3 weeks before we get to that specific location.

Most people can’t take a lot of time off from their jobs! If you really want to experience Earthling lifestyle, you have to come here at least for a couple of weeks. Then you will be able to experience passages to new islands, hiking, fishing, snorkeling, camping, and so forth. Last year, two of my friends flew in to Miami and we sailed to the Bahamas together and they flew out of Nassau. During the 3 weeks visit they got to experience the full-time live aboard lifestyle.
Having a guest aboard is also nice since they become crew and take certain responsibilities. Nico cooked breakfast this morning and he made dinner the other night, which was delicious. Having company is great since Kelly and I don’t have to keep each other entertained all the time! 

 Earthling is also like a school. When first time sailors come aboard, they have a lot to learn. This starts with getting in and out of the dinghy, especially Earthling 8.8, a hard dinghy, which is very unstable! The other knowledge to gain is nautical/boat terms. You will also learn how to sail, how to maintain a boat, how to anchor, how to troll and fish, and basically how to live aboard. You will also adapt to our sleep schedule, which is going to bed early and waking up early.   

Having a visitor aboard can also have its downsides. For instance, we can’t predict if our guest is going to have a problem with motion sickness or not!  As a captain it feels terrible to have a crew/guest that would be sick during a passage. The person’s experience might be worse than expected! The average space per person becomes less on the boat, especially when you live on a relatively small boat. For us, it’s easier in the small space since we are used to it. But our guest might be cramped in this limited space. The level of privacy is definitely reduced and it’s important to be comfortable living in a minimum amount of clothing. Sometimes I wish we were cruising on a larger boat where I could offer a full size berth with closet space, head, shower, and at least a door for our guests. However, the way we live right now makes it more cozy and communal. Our accommodations might be a challenge for our guest, such as the lack of unlimited running water and electricity. We shower in the salt water and rinse off with the 5 gallon solar shower, which should be enough for 3 showers each. Also, all electronics get charged during the day when the sun is strongest and the batteries are full.

There is a time and place for high maintenance and Earthling is not the place!!    

Right now we are in Marie Galante and we are planning to sail to Dominica within the next couple of days! 

Love from Marie Galante

Passage Venteux

Terre de Haut Island, The Saints

The French Islands in the Caribbean have more of a European culture than the other Caribbean Islands. What’s interesting is that Guadeloupe and the other French islands are still 100% under French control and you actually enter the European Union even though you are not in Europe. Furthermore, if you don’t speak French, you might have difficulties to connect with Locals.

We have already visited Basse Terre, which is the capital and the second largest city in Guadeloupe. We explored Basse Terre on a Sunday, which means everything is closed and the city looked like a ghost town. The streets were empty which gave an opportunity for all the graffiti to stay out. The graffiti is beautiful on the walls here and we were able to experience a couple of locals that were spray painting a new white wall.
Luckily, Fort Louie was open on Sunday and the view from the top of the fort is absolutely magnificent. Fort Louie is just a 10min walk from the Marina and it’s a place worth to visit, in addition there is no entry fee!

The last few days, it has been blowing around 20 mph, with wind gusts at 35+mph. So windy that the wind generator shuts down. The passage from Basse Terre to The Saintes was only 10 miles but we were washed over a couple of times. Iles Des Saintes is a group of small islands off the southern point of Guadeloupe. The highest elevation is a little over 1000ft. We hiked up there to a tower where you have a 360 degree view over all The Saintes. The pictures we took from here look just unreal. The airplanes  were flying lower than us to and out of the airport!
The main transportation in The Saintes used by locals and tourists (who are mostly French) are scooters. Furthermore, you see lots of goats free roaming on the small streets, and beautiful birds flying from tree to tree. Another interesting animal that is free here, are cats, they just come right up to you meowing and wanting attention. Kelly hopes that one of these days one will follow us all the way back to the boat. 

We had to be on schedule and sail to Point a Pitre to pick up our friend Nico that flew in from LA. Traveling on a schedule sometimes can be challenging. Cruisers dislike very much to have a schedule! The weather was not in our favor. An hour into the passage from The Saintes to Point a Pitre, we got hit by the first squall, where winds were recorded over 30 mph for a few minutes. Luckily, the mainsail was double reefed before the anchor was up, but we still healed over heavily and did a high speed of 8.7 close haul. She was washed over several times in the 8-12ft swells. Then, we hit a second squall. At this point, Kelly was scared for the first time with tears in her eyes. After that, the winds came down to 18-20.

We finally made it safe to Marina Bas Du Fort midday Tuesday. Earthling has not been docked in a marina for 3 months. There are several tasks to do when in the marina. Batteries had to be equalized on shore power, scrub and rinse entire boat, water tanks had to be filled, we had to pick up a guest, and do some provisioning. This is the first time I’ve done a Mediterranean-style docking and it could have gone smoother. The dock lines were too short and space to pull in was tight. It only cost 25 Euros for us and it included; water, electricity, shower, and wifi. Shortly after we were docked, “Lucky Luke” came in to dock next to us, he pulled in stern-to and as Alexander was trying to fit his 47’ Bavaria into the tiny spot, his wind generator hit ours and it broke two blades. That was an unfortunate event. However, a good friendship started. Alexander was very kind and he right away offered to cover for the damages. Later on that evening we were invited aboard “Lucky Luke” for drinks and dinner. On our port side “Area 51” is docked. On the starboard is “Lucky Luke” looking for the Daltons and he found a Dalton on Earthling!

Love from Passage Venteux

Passage Venteux=Windy Passage

View the Guadeloupe photo album on the fb page

Bad Boy Dinghy Ride

ATTENTION: Don't try this at home! 

Earthling under full sail from Antigua to Guadeloupe. The trolling line got caught on the dinghy and George bravely or stupidly had to go aboard and untangle the line while under way. A true dinghy cowboy!

Mountainous Guadeloupe

This land is mountainous, green, and beautiful. There are hundreds of rivers and waterfalls here in Guadeloupe. We had the opportunity to hike up one of the rivers all the way to the waterfall. Deshaies was the first port of entry for us. As we entered the anchorage in Anse Deshaies, we saw a Canadian sailboat waving and they looked like they knew us. It’s Easy Listening said Kelly! We met Michele and Al in St. Martin a couple of months ago. It is so exciting to see people you know even when you think you are far away from your friends. We rowed over to Easy listening right away to see them, since they were leaving the same evening to St. Kitts. As we approached their boat, our oar breaks in half! Luckily they offered to tow us back to Earthling before they set sail.

So far, the highlight in Guadeloupe was the hike in the Riviere de Deshaies. This river is full of small and big boulders. Stepping from one boulder to another, becoming tricky at times. Some were wet and slippery, so extra caution was necessary. It is fascinating to see how water finds its way through rocks and creates small creeks and pools. The sound of water running between these rocks was breathtaking and peaceful. The water was so clear and clean that I was thinking to bring our jerry cans and fill them up! :-) The four of us, Mike, Rebecca, Kelly, and I were as excited as little kids exploring this river. We hiked for 3.5 hours up 400 ft in the river till we got to the end, a gorgeous waterfall hidden behind 2 very large boulders. We got to take a fresh shower under unlimited high pressure water! If you ever get the chance to visit Deshaies, pack your backpack with snacks and lunch, put good shoes on and hike up this river, it’s certainly worth it!     

Sailing on the leeward side of Guadeloupe can be somewhat annoying and challenging. There are hills and mountains and the wind gets flukey by the time it hits your sails. Under the couple small passages we made here, there was no wind at times and within a few minutes the gusts were blowing 25 MPH. Our friends on “Zero to Cruising” broke a block during one of these gusts. You have to be careful to not get fooled by the weather prediction or light wind. The wind can tunnel its way between the hills and hit you much stronger than you expect it. I kept our genoa reefed and looked for the wind on the water rippling, before it hit us. Motor sailing would be best in these kind of conditions.

Right now we arrived in the capital of Guadeloupe, Basse Terre. Tomorrow, we are sailing to the other major city Pointe Pitre to pick up our friend Nick that is flying here to spend some time aboard Earthling.         

Love from Guadeloupe