Family Fun on the Beach

Today we threw in a Family Fun Beach Day. We played in the water until our skin got really soft and we could have been mistaken for a fish! We built sandcastles in the soft sand and I believe I must have been a designer for architects in one of my previous lifes.We caught a variety of differents little fish and made our own beach aquarium and observed the behaviour of the fish in their new environment....no worries once we went home we gave them back their freedom. In the afternoon we visited the local fish "jump up" parties they have on Wednesdays, the music was so loud that it was really hard to get our order across the counter. Sven chose the lobster dish and I went for the conch dish....what can I say it was reasonable and a delicious meal. Julia and Carlos were not really hungry and had their meal on the boat later on. In the evening I treated myself to a cacoa tea.... a local speciality. You have to grind the cocao stick, blend in a cinnamon stick and anis star and add milk and honey....voila... it is ready to drink and very delicious.

Rodney Bay

We have been here in St. Lucia now for a whole week and I took the opportunity to take a rest from updating the blog and doing anything apart from schooling and having fun in the sun. We have met up with old friends as well as meeting lots of new, nice and interesting people and socialized nearly every evening in the Rodney Bay Marina. From five o’clock onwards other sailing families meet in the marina and there are lots of other children running around, keeping Julia and Carlos company. The weekend evenings were a bit noisy, if not to say loud. There are two villages on the island who host night street parties, known as “jump ups”, one of the village happen to be right in front of our anchorage. Yeah…..the noise at night was nearly unbearable and lasted till three in the morning, it felt like that we had anchored right in the middle of the biggest and loudest discotheque in a big city. In our guide book it says, “that tourist and locals alike enjoy the carnival atmosphere, where the pulsating heat of reggae and soca music permeates the air.” I can totally confirm that and Sven had the pleasure to experience it live. We were warned before that this is definitely not a place to take children, so I picked the short stick to go home with Julia and Carlos. I wonder if it is my turn next Friday!
Today we went with a local bus to visit Castries, which is a big city nearby. Luckily the bus stopped right outside the Marina and it cost only EC$ 8 for the four of us. You have to divide this roughly by three to get the US dollar amount. In Castries we went to the big daily market. A variety of fresh vegetable and fruit greeted us and even though it was not the cheapest, we still indulged ourselves with fresh fruit and veggies. After a bit of sightseeing and a meal in the balcony restaurant we went home and feasted on our fresh fruits, yum yum! The rest of the day we spent swimming and relaxing on our JUCA!

Holiday in St. Lucia

We are on holiday for the next week and enjoying what St. Lucia has on offer for us and the children!

YEAH .....we made it to St. Lucia

We have arrived in St. Lucia, one year later than planned, but never mind, what counts is that we have arrive safe and sound and that we are here now....we had quite a bit of a swell, but we made it in 3 1/2 hours from Martinique to St. Lucia. Its 5 o'cklock in the afternoon and we just anchored. The best next thing to the inviting clear water is the free WIFI in the harbour on the boat.....thank you St. Lucia you are just placed yourself on my best ten spots in the Caribbean.

BBQ on the Beach

Yesterday we met up with Norbert a German sailor from Hamburg and Caroline and Urs from Switzerland. Norbert loves to fish and got out that morning and caught a big bowl of Sardines. Luckily he likes to share so he prepared the fish, and invited everyone for a meal. Everyone brought a bottle of red wine and some salad along and we had a wonderful BBQ on the beach. We introduced roasted Marshmallow to Urs who had never eaten roasted marshmallow on the spit. Delicious! Julia and Carlos played on the beach and found lots of interesting things and played amazingly together. Julia got bitten by a crab and was peeved off for a while with the crabs on the beach. However it did not take long until you saw her again chasing crabs along the beach with Carlos. When Julia and Carlos went to bed that night they mentioned once again what wonderful and special experience the BBQ with Norbert, Caroline and Urs was for them.
Today Sven went into the little village today and tried to rent a car without any success. The weather and swell had settled down so we decided to sail around the corner towards the most southern anchorage of Martinique, Le Marine. It took us 2 hours from anchorage to anchorage and we settle down next to our friends from Calabra where we enjoyed a drink or two while the sun disappeared on the horizon and settling down for the night.

History of Martinique

The Carib Indians called Martinique; Madinina – Island of Flowers. Martinique is the largest of the Windward Islands and apart from a few short spells under the British, has been French since it was colonized. Christopher Columbus sighted Martinique in 1493, but did not land until his fourth voyage in 1502. The Carib Indians opposed the settlements of Europeans until 1635, but Napoleon was incensed by Martinique, as his beloved Josephine grew up in Martinique. A strange quirk fate links Josephine and Martinique to the Battle of Trafalgar. In 1902 Martinique put itself once

more on the map. At that time, a little town called St. Pierre, with a population of 30000, was known as the Paris of the Caribbean and was the commercial, cultural and social center of Martinique. The volcano Mt. Pele gave plenty of warning and minor rumbling began early in April in 1902. However a new Governor at that time could not cope with the huge responsibility of evacuating Martinique’s most important city and the fear of suffering financial loss and ignorance, the people of St. Pierre stayed regardless of the volcano activities. A committee was formed to monitor the volcano and to assure the people that there was no danger despite the people that have already died in the previous torrent of volcanic effluent. On the 8th of May at eight in the morning disaster struck. The side of the volcano facing St. Pierre glowed red and burst open, releasing a giant fireball of superheated gas that flowed down over the city, releasing more energy than an atomic bomb. All that remained were smoking ruins and an estimated 30.000 people burned to death, leaving only two survivors in the town. Today ruins are still present from this disaster and a museum shows the history of St. Pierre and the eruption of Mount Pele. Today an estimated 430000 people are living in Martinique today.

Martinique

Its 4 o'clock in the morning and we are leaving for Martinique to find a safe harbour.......we made really good progress and where faster as expected. At 2 o'oclock we only had 11 miles to go as we came to the south end of Martinique. However as we came around the southside of Martinique the weather had turned really bad.....we tried to beat the weather as it was only 11 miles to go, but the wind blew against the current and the swell had turned into high mountaints..and it was not worth the risk....we had no choice but to turn around and we found a safe anchorage just a few miles back where we came from. Though we did not quite made to Le Marin in Martinique, but we found a safe anhcorage just a few miles before that. The little Bay where we are anchored to wait the weather out is called, Grande Anses d'Arlets. Its beautiful and quiet here and you would not think that there is shit weather out there. Now we are nicely tucked away from the bad weather.

Swimming Classroom

Lately we have been moving a lot and our opportunities to sit on the table to do our school have decreased, so I am always worried whether Julia and Carlos learn enough and if I do expose them to sufficient learning material. While I was watching them today doing their math and reading in the cockpit, I realised that they learn every day all day even though we might not be sitting on a chair and a table. How cool is it to have a cockpit as your classroom, and doing your homework while sailing between all these beautiful Islands. Learning is always apparent whether it is snorkel and swimming lessons, studying marine life, history, social study, knitting and sewing, languages, science, observing the weather, admiring the night sky and the stars, geography or shouting out your timetable into the wind as loud as you can or getting comfortable in the cockpit reading your chapter book. Looking at Julia and Carlos, they are at ease and enjoying their teaching style at the moment. So I have come to an agreement with my mind to be at ease as well .....no worries, everything will be ok ...... as long as we are having fun doing it.