Author: Tom Grimmett

If there’s anything close to New York City down here, it is San Juan… and I mean that in a positive way! We had thought St Martin was a huge, bustling metropolis, but San Juan blows everything else away. It is a massive sprawling city, and the purpose for the multitude of power plants on the southern coast clearly made sense now!

We rented a car for two days and, with my Dad and June, drove from Ponce into the San Juan area. It was reassuring to know that Karen had not lost her New York driving skills, as she blasted us down the expressway, honking at anyone going too slow in the fast lane – clearly her inner child was coming out!

Continue reading “San Juan Ep. 51”

There’s just something special about being back home – at least the familiarity of U.S. soil one enjoys by visiting the US Virgin Islands. After our stressful overnight of dodging unpredictable thunderstorms, we welcomed the calmness of the harbor and the American-esque scene ashore. I had built a long list of errands that would be easiest to do in a place so connected to U.S. products and services, and we spent several days in Christiansted checking items off the list. The US Postal Service serves the USVI’s with their normal domestic US rates, and we took advantage of this fact to send out many packages to points back home. In fact, we did so many errands in the first three days in Christiansted, I have a hard time recalling what we did for pleasure – such is the downfall of a well connected island! While I can write about the joy we had in finding ‘Cost U Less’ a Costco-type store here that is a boon for a family of four trying to re-provision a sailboat, I don’t think you’d understand our excitement! However, here’s a picture of the net result… our loot ready to load aboard Hermes (name for our dinghy!) and then onboard Thalia.

Continue reading “Buck Island Stew, Take Two Ep. 50”

We had some special guests aboard Thalia this week – my brother Todd and his daughter Julia. Todd, along with his wife Molly, live in Sacramento, CA, along with two additional boys. Given the distance – and they currently hold the record for the longest travel to be onboard with us! – they couldn’t all come together. Regardless, we had a very enjoyable week with the two of them; it is always fun to show someone else the pleasures of cruising in the Caribbean!

Continue reading “Just Plain Fun, No Fooling Ep. 47”

It is hard not to feel a little sense of competitiveness with your fellow Caribbean 1500 ralliers. After the rum punches and prizes were dispersed in Tortola last November, many boats like us hung out in the BVI’s for weeks – and gradually months. But a handful of more adventurous souls – in particular, one boat whimsically named ‘Over Margaritas’ for how the young couple had met and discussed their mutual sailing dreams – pointed their bows south for the 3-4 day voyage to the bottom of the Caribbean chain. On the morning SSB chat, these folks raved about places like the Grenadines for it’s isolated beauty and crystal clear waters. At one point, Karen and I had contemplated this same strategy whereby you sail to as far south as you dare and slowly make your way northward through the islands. But, how, I wondered, did these southern adventurers really know that the beauty they were experiencing was that much better then the tremendous sights we were taking in at places like St John, Jost van Dyke and Virgin Gorda? Afterall, they had skipped over those sights in their pursuit south. On what basis could they rightfully gloat about their seemingly advantageous setting? We now know!

Continue reading “At One With Mother Nature Ep. 46”

It is hard to believe that some cruisers skip over Dominica in their travels through the Caribbean. Yes, at one point there was a greater risk of crime to boaters anchored here, but the locals have dealt with this swiftly. And, there’s the ever-present signs of poverty throughout the island – pothole ridden roads, street side gutters with strange smells emanating forth, and rusty tin roofed huts scattered throughout the hillsides. But it doesn’t take much money to live the simple, healthy life here. The air is clean and the water so pure and sweet that the local brewery – Kubuli – could piggyback on the marketing techniques of Coors ‘pure rocky mountain spring water’ jingle. And, as Karen wrote about last week, the interior grows such seductively smelling fruits and vegetables, it is no wonder that this island boosts so many inhabitants over the age of 100. Let me tell you, it wouldn’t take much debating if Karen were to suggest we settle down for our golden years here – in a tin-roofed hut with no electricity and just fresh fruits and vegetables to live on!

For now, we settled on a 10 day stay here. After a week in the northern port of Portsmouth, we moved down to the southern end of the island, to the capital – Roseau. Despite the inherent crowds of a capital city, including the presence of two cruise ships, the sights and sounds did not disappoint us. Villomee, Arctic Tern and Asseance were with us to enjoy the scene, while our good friends on Heaven Won’t Wait had to head north to St Martin to collect visitors. With the abundance of fruits and vegetables throughout the interior, it is no surprise that each town has a bustling open-air market. Here’s the scene in Roseau.

Continue reading “Double the Pleasure in Dominica Ep. 44”

If the quantity of pictures are any indication of the amount of fun one has when traveling, then this week is near the top with 135 shots taken! Trying to figure out how to edit them down is a problem I don’t mind having!

After circumnavigating the island of Antigua last week, we were fortunate enough to rendevzous with good friends from the Carib1500 rally — Arctic Tern, Asseance, Villomee and Heaven Won’t Wait. This was the largest gathering of rally boats that we had see since leaving the BVI’s, and what fun it was! Through a stroke of good fortune, we all ended up in Jolly Harbor, Antigua. Bob and Linda from Villomee were nice enough to have everyone over for appetizers on the first night. It was a good thing, as, even though their boat is 47 feet long as well, it has an immense, canvas-enclosed cockpit that can hold an army of sailor friends who will jump at the first mention of “Hey, why don’t you stop over a little later today…”!

Continue reading “Deshaies Dash Ep. 42”

We left off on last week’s update in Basseterre, the main town on St Kitts. After having done the touristy stuff in that area, we headed to the southern end of St. Kitts for a well recommended anchorage named White House Bay. While we didn’t find a single house on the shoreline, white or otherwise, we did find remnants of an old dock which presented itself as we landed the dinghy. We took this opportunity to get another workout for our muscles by walking around a rather large salt pond. Now, we’ve run into several salt ponds on this trip and you might ask why it is called a salt pond, how did it form and why do we care, anyway? A salt pond is a body of water separated from the open ocean by a narrow stretch of land, over or under which the seawater can flow into the pond during heavy seas or storms. If you ever take a swim down here, you’ll notice right away, as all of us did, that the seawater here is very salty – you wonder sometimes if you are caught fish being laid down in the salty hold of a trawler, awaiting a trip to the market! Well, this seawater offers a great chance to make salt – on purpose or not. As the pond heats up under the ferocious rays of the tropical sun, the water slowly evaporates and leaves a more and more concentrated salt solution behind. Eventually, wind-driven flakes of salt crystals blow ashore and these can be cleaned and dried again to produce the salt we all call ‘sea salt’ that goes into grandma’s great cooking. Here’s a chart of the salt pond we ‘circumnavigated’ on our hike.

As you can see, there are actually two salt ponds, and these are narrowly separated from the ocean by a skinny beach.

Continue reading “Never Say Never Ep. 41”