RMS Rhone & Virgin Gorda

When you’re in the BVI, it’s obligatory to dive the RMS Rhone, a Royal Mail Steam Packet Company ship that sank in 1867 and was split in two by the force of a devastating hurricane. She’s 310 feet long: the bow section is in eighty feet of water and the stern in thirty so it was a good dive for Jamie.

Jamie and Chris dived the wreck and came up waxing lyrical about the visibility, the fish, the lobster, the coral and we decided to return with full bottles so I could see it too. Alex and Chris snorkelled over the wreck so Alex got a glimpse – he’s dying to do his open water too.

We then went to The Baths on Virgin Gorda, a collection of giant boulders that look like a giant flung them together but are actually the result of volcanic activity. It’s a great snorkelling spot – when it’s a bit calmer. We all found it a bit rough but dutifully snorkelled around a bit imagining how pretty it would be...


Pics: Sailing and Eating

Tortola: Soper's Hole

After our remora experience we sailed for Tortola and Soper’s Hole. This is a very pretty anchorage with pink, green, yellow and purple buildings in the marina and some lovely houses nestling in the hills surrounding the bay. We moored easily, explored the marina and had an expensive, execrable and slow dinner.

When we returned to the boat, we were slightly concerned with its close proximity to our neighbours, but we were moored to an immovable buoy, so we just shortened our line to the buoy. We had a couple of anchor alarms – they tell you that the boat has moved more than you should expect – and we dismissed them as GPS errors. Finally, we believed our eyes rather than the buoy and decided it was wandering.

By this time it was dark, there was no possibility of anchoring because the harbour is too deep, and the harbour was full. We had to get underway to avoid collision, so we cast off and started to sweep the sea with our Big Bertha torches to detect unlit boats and a hopefully empty mooring buoy. There were no available buoys but plenty of tension. Finally the skipper made a decision to tie to an empty private buoy on the basis this was an emergency and we would leave first thing in the morning. In the event, the owner of the buoy didn’t materialise, the mooring was strongly anchored to the sea floor so we didn’t move and everything was OK.

Really no Mora!

From Jamie:
Moored up in a bay in St John. Dad and I were talking about the baby fish that were swimming next to the starboard hull. I went inside to start school when I heard Dad scream.
“Jamie! Quickly! Alex! Quick come look at this in the water! It’s there!” he cried pointing to the right.

From Alex:
I dashed to the stern when I heard Dad call. He told us to go to the starboard, then to the port, then he said to come down to the dinghy (which I wish was a rib) so I rushed down and I saw what I thought was a shark! I nearly screamed but I managed to stop myself.

From Jamie:
Sharks! The words swirled around my head. Could they really be sharks? A sudden urge to exit the dinghy and get back on the boat flooded through me but I managed to stop myself. After that Dad quietly put the waterproof camera under the water and started filming. One of the creatures was just acting relaxed and cool while swimming back and forth between the hulls.

From Alex:
Mum accidentally dropped some spaghetti in the sea so instead of just swimming round the boat they were charging at the food which was right beside the dinghy. I was scared to death.

From Kim:
There were about 4 of these fish. They were around 3-4 feet long and they really looked like sharks when they were feeding!

From Jamie:
... suddenly it raced towards the camera and Dad snatched the camera back in to the dinghy. Our hearts were now pounding. As the creature came close we saw that it had what looked like a bootprint on its head.

From Alex:
Dad said they were remora.

From Jamie:
The boot print was its suction pad. But the fins weren’t quite right.

From Alex:
I got off the dinghy onto the boat.

From Jamie:
Finally the worry was over although I must say I’m not keen on swimming in this bay ever again because the fins were not remora fins but the tail was not a shark-like tail. So we’re still not sure what they are.

From Chris:
I checked out the creatures on the Internet and in the National Parks Office and they are remora – although not a very common kind.

St John: Hawksnest Bay

After some school and some swimming – Alex and Jamie decided to go seek stingray too – we moved around to the north of the island to Hawksnest Bay. This was another spectacular bay with purportedly good snorkelling. We arrived in time for a quick dinghy round the bay and sunset.

St Croix – St John

We were sad to leave St Croix. I think everyone had a good time on this island. Our next destination was another US Virgin Island, St John which as a stop-off before Tortola. The crossing was a bit bumpy but we arrived in good time to moor at Little Lamshure Bay. The idea was to find anchorages like those in Greece where the kids could jump off the boat and swim. However there was some degree of apprehension because of our previous exciting underwater adventures involving stingrays. Chris persuaded the kids to go swimming with him over to an inviting looking beach having sworn oaths that there were no stingrays in the bay. The visibility wasn’t great because of the rough weather, so it was slightly unnerving when two stingray shapes were indeed spotted emerging from the depths. Kids back on board, Chris and I went stingray hunting and found one of them: fabulous creatures they are, so graceful. This one had two “friends”, small fish who followed him around (he was small, so we think it was a him). It was a lovely bay – so relaxing we forgot to take a picture of it.

The Simpsons in St Croix

The day did not start auspiciously. What was supposed to be an early start to refuel the boat in preparation for leaving early the next day turned into breakfast at midday and a decision to hire a car.

To Alex’s delight, we hired an orange Jeep and went to a rum distillery, a sugar plantation and the botanical gardens. Sadly the botanical gardens were shut, so we headed up into the rainforest to a place called the Domino Club -- just past Springfield(!) -- that has a beer drinking pig – hence the title of this blog. In fact, they have two. The pigs are massive – about 3’6”at the shoulders with impressive teeth – and drink cans of no-alcohol lager which you hand to them carefully. Their eyes reminded me strongly of Sam, my flatcoat. They appear to love the visit and the petting, love the beer and love the attention, but I can’t help feeling there’s something wrong with the whole concept...

Buck Island, St Croix

Buck Island is a small island that’s been designated a national park because of its turtles, pelicans and coral barrier reef. We had decided to take a half day trip to try to give Alex more of a chance to see some really great underwater life and have a good snorkel.

Naturally, the wind was not being kind and the conditions even inside the reef were ... interesting. Alex did snorkel – all credit to him because I found it taxing and he did see a turtle underwater – wahoo!

In the afternoon, Jamie and Chris went diving while Alex and I did some school and played on the beach.

Hotel on the Cay, St Croix

It’s Sunday so it’s brunch!

After a truly satisfying trough at Rum Runners on the boardwalk which runs along Christiansted shore, we took the water taxi across to a small cay in the harbour which has a lovely beach. We spent the afternoon with a newly acquired floating ball and a Frisbee. It was so hot, even I went in the sea all afternoon!!!!

We had a great time with other kids, great sand and nice sea.

Cane Bay, St Croix

When Jamie said, as we sat in the saloon early on Saturday morning, “Is that a cow?” I thought she’d lost it entirely. But there it was, a snort very like the cows’ we’re used to on the Common, just outside the window – that is, in the sea. I went to investigate, eagerly anticipating a great discovery of a new species of sea mammal, to see a horse swimming across the bay – accompanied by a human. It seemed they were having an early morning swim...

St Crucans have a neat concept called Mardi Croix based on the New Orleans counterpart with floats and partying. We heard about the event quite late in the day but went anyway because Cane Bay, where it was held was supposed to be a good snorkelling spot. So in typical fashion, we missed the floats and the weather was too rough for good snorkelling...

However, Chris had some interesting Gumbo which didn’t give him food poisoning, we had a good time listening to a rock/country band, shared a taxi home with some interesting people and managed to find a great supermarket.

Top and middle pic: the boyz are back in town

Bottom pic: who knows what’s back in town!

Christiansted, St Croix

After naps, we hit the town – and found a micro brewery for which we had a free pint coupon!! Heaven.

To explain: St Croix is one of the US Virgin Islands and is therefore the US. This means that customs and immigration is way more rigorous and time consuming, but food is more affordable and they have the concept of microbreweries and this means brown and amber ale as well as good ol’ lager beer. You can see the priorities of the cruising adult family members: accessibility, affordability and good beer.

St Kitts – St Croix

It was not nice in the anchorage today: the winds were in the 20kt+ region and it wasn’t even possible to dinghy into the town to “clear out” with customs for much of the time.

Getting to St Croix took a little more planning than we’ve been used to. It’s about a 20 hour trip at pessimistic speeds, but 18 if the wind is right. We need to make sure we get there in the light so we can see the reefs surrounding the island; we need to set a slightly longer course than our usual straight line to avoid shallow banks in the pitch dark – there’s no real moon to speak of; and we needed to make sail changes to suit the wind.

I was on the 1-4 watch. I had a John Grisham to listen to but the soporific effects of Stugeron were marked. It was hard to keep awake – quite unlike my previous experience. It was quite dark: there was starlight and a light on the horizon from St Martin, but, unlike Greece, there was a feeling of being totally alone. There were no large boats showing up with their “AIS signatures” and nothing on the radar except the occasional squall.

Jamie accompanied Dad at around midnight to look at the stars and share the watch experience. Alex was wakened for the dawn watch.

On the way into Christiansted Harbour, we had a visit from a pod of about 30 Atlantic dolphins. They sported around the boat, leaping, daring crossing in front of the bows, turning on their sides to watch us – fantastic. They decreased their numbers till there were only about 7 diehards. We had their company for about 20 magical minutes, the longest visit so far.

By the way, if there are any helm designers who read this blog – consider the need for shorter people to rest their feet while on watch – I feel like a child on a large dining chair and my body feels pummelled at the end of 3 hours.

Top pic: Brimstone Hill Fort from the sea

Bottom pic: Chris explaining how a preventer works

Totally Turtle

We did some school this morning – but not a lot.

In the afternoon, we dived on a two reefs: Paradise Reef and the Hot Springs. The conditions weren’t as good as the previous day and we all got very wet on the way out to the dive sites.
Chris, Jamie and I dived Paradise Reef and Jamie had her first view of a free turtle under water! It was a Hawksbill and sat very still for pictures and then showed off its swimming moves as well. We had another sighting on the way back to the boat, and this time, he held himself vertically in the water and gently back-flippered to stay in place. The dive reminded me of a dive we did in the Red Sea called The Japanese Tea Gardens: the corals and sponges made a very pretty garden backdrop to schools of fish, angels, damsels, squirrel fish, lobster, durgon, jack, wrasse and barracuda. Jamie buddied with the instructor for a while and saw a field of garden eels popping up and down as they reacted to the current.

I was too cold for the second dive. Jamie and Chris experienced hot underwater springs, the usual suspects and some squid as well as two large grey angel fish.

Fantastic diving. And we’ve decided to make a break tomorrow for the Virgin Islands and St Croix.

Top pic: Jamie cradling a fish

Bottom pic: The turtle!

By the way, you can double click on the photos to make them bigger!

St Kitts: Basse Terre

It seems strange to report that school was good today, but we really did seem to hit our stride a bit – I’m sure we’ll take backward steps too. The kids did some individual maths and then we all investigated capacity and ended up estimating how long it would take to fill a 275 ml mug with a 5 ml spoon. Jamie performed the experiment to Alex’s great amusement. We also did some work analysing good book openings and then writing some of our own. There was great competition to come up with something really engaging which then turned into an improvised and then scripted play in rhyming couplets. Excellent fun.

In the afternoon, we dived on a wreck in the Basse-Terre Bay. It was a good dive: calm conditions, lots of life, a big box puffer, a big Barracuda and the first time Jamie. Chris and I have dived together. We were able to do this because Alex had a companion on a good dive boat who took him snorkelling too.
A good day.

St Kitts: Island Tour

We really enjoyed our island tour even though one attraction was shut and one was shutting as we arrived.

Cruise ships roam the Caribbean putting into ports in packs. Today was not a cruise ship day, so the independent tourist attractions tend to shut early or not open at all. Our visit to a batik workshop in a botanical garden was restricted to the garden for that reason. But we still loved the garden, the views of the volcano and the old sugar mills. This was in large part because of the enthusiasm of our taxi/tour guide who wanted to point out every single different species of palm tree that ever lived.

We also visited Brimstone Hill where the British built a tremendous fort to protect its sugar interests. The steepness of the hill to the fort, the sheer scale of the buildings and the size of the guns were incredible. Chris speculated that they would have used block and tackle to hoist the guns up but, in the main, the fort was built by African slaves in appalling conditions.

Brimstone Hill is so called because there are sulphur springs in the vicinity which bathe the area in a less than sweet smell. There are also fabulous limestone cliffs that have been thrust up through the volcanic rocks during earthquakes. You see both the volcanic rock and the limestone in the local buildings including the fort.

We also saw the site where the English and French massacred the Caribs (at night), where the current prime minister lives (the third one) and where the Atlantic and Caribbean meet. And we chatted about the upcoming elections and issues for St Kitts and Nevis.

Then it rained. Heavily.

Antigua -- St Kitts

We were all nervous about the passage to St Kitts. It was 62+ miles, 52+ of it without possible landfall. Most of our sailing in the Caribbean had been in 2-3m waves upwind close hauled or on a reach so we were crossing them rather than going with the waves. Because I’d never been sick, it was thought I wasn’t really seasick, just terrified! On talking to Beth it became clear that inability to think or operate and lack of are a form of seasickness and Stugeron should help. Jamie and I took the Stugeron and combined with the downwind sailing and low winds, the passage was much more successful. Chris cooked bacon and scrambled eggs for lunch and I even managed to wash up on passage. We had a big fish nibble on our line, but unfortunately lost him – next time!

Another anxiety we shared was getting out of the harbour. This manoeuvre requires everyone to do their jobs efficiently. Alex was nervous about his: he was to slip the starboard stern line while Jamie slipped the port line, I pulled up on the anchor and Chris used the engines to avoid boats and mooring buoys. It’s important that the line comes back into the boat quickly and doesn’t get fouled round the props. In fact he performed superbly and we got away without shouting or incident!

We left Antigua at 07:00 and arrived in St Kitts just before 18:00 with just enough light to anchor.

The downside of Stugeron is the drowsiness. Once we had anchored, I slept for the next 12 hours.

Pics: Saying goodbye to our friendly diving Pelican in Antigua.Saying hello to Nevis and St Kitts.

More Museum Madness

This week has largely been taken up with the museum project and finding resources, pictures etc for it.

On Thursday we went to Jolly Harbour via Fig Tree Drive which goes through the Antiguan rainforest – quite tame compared to our previous experiences. On the way we managed to get a perfect picture of a beach showing the various sections – dunes, middle and upper beach – required for Alex’s topic. We managed to get some mediocre pictures of mangrove trees for Jamie’s but nothing we were happy with. However, on the way into English Harbour where we’ve been staying all week (dah!), we saw some perfect examples so Jamie and Chris went off in the dinghy to snap them.

Friday was exhausting. We spent the whole day in the workshop of the museum preparing the displays, cleaning the drawers, printing, laminating, sticking and arranging. It was very satisfying at the end to take pictures of the kids’ work and feel we’d contributed something to such a world famous site.

This week Jamie has become so proficient at driving and docking the dinghy that she is now allowed out in the harbour on her own. She drove us over to a restaurant last night and as we docked we saw the most enormous fish in the torch light. We eventually decided it was a tarpon, and as we were tracking its progress, we woke up a sting ray – so beautiful.

Congrats to the kids – they worked well in quite difficult hot and stuffy conditions. We really pulled together as a family and it was just like the old days when Chris and I did museum exhibits for a living!!

9-11/02/09: Museums and Authors

We met the curator of Nelson's Dockyard museum who gave us full approval to update the Environment exhibit and access to the library and the museum’s display resources. The kids picked a topic each: Jamie chose the mangroves, Alex the beach. They spent time in the museum deciding what to do, time in the library and the internet researching the topics and time on the computer writing captions and fun facts and true/false questions. What an opportunity!

We also met an author called Beth Leonard who was interested in interviewing “cruising kids” for an article she was writing for a magazine. Chris was soooo excited! She wrote one of the books he planned the whole trip around and he couldn’t wait to meet her and talk to her. She interviewed the kids, took some photos and passed on some great advice about seasickness. Beth has circumnavigated the globe a couple of times and has a wealth of wildlife pictures that she uses to lecture to schools around the world. We were privileged to have a private lecture and saw fascinating pictures of icebergs, dolphins, whales and orcas, sea lions and elephant seals -- males fighting, females fighting, pups as they grew at an extraordinary rate over just 3 weeks. Amazing. However we also saw some of the weather they faced around Cape Horn, so I think we’ll be satisfied with the pictures!

Here's a link to her photo gallery: http://bethandevans.smugmug.com

Bubblemaker!

Diving today! Alex’s first under sea adventure. He was great. The sea wasn’t mill pond calm and the boat didn’t make for an easy entry or exit, but Alex just coped and enjoyed the experience, the fish and the distinction of being such a young diver!

Chris and Jamie also managed a dive, but there was a big swell and it was pretty exhausting – it was pretty exhausting waiting for them on the boat!

We had a great lunch in a little cafe on the side of the road that had a Sunday lunch barbecue going on. Simple food but delicious.

In the afternoon we went to Galleon Beach to see a Cricket fun day with Curtly Ambrose and footle around on the beach.

Museum, Stingray City and Devil’s Bridge

During our visit to the museum in the Dockyard, we saw that the children’s interactive room could do with renovation, so we called the curator and asked if we could possibly work with the children on the Antigua’s Environment exhibit. Dr Murphy was extremely positive, so we went across to the museum and started to work out what was there and what we could do. We did a deal with Jamie and Alex that redoing the exhibit meant we didn’t have to do school!

In the afternoon, we went to Stingray City! A boat took us out to a floating dock next to a shallow enclosure which contained about 50-60 stingrays. We were briefed on how big the stingrays are (big!!), how to hold them and how to do the “stingray shuffle” to avoid stepping on them.

It was quite unnerving. Although the rays are nominally enclosed, they can actually swim away and they choose to stay there because they get fed. So as soon as we got in the water they knew it was "lunchtime" so they swarmed, brushing against our legs and swimming underneath them. Once you get used to it, it’s amazing to watch these graceful creatures swoop and glide. We had the opportunity to hold a ray – but you had to relax or they would thrash and swim away. Chris fed one with a squid and was amazed at the suction – we were warned about “love bites!”

Devil’s Bridge was our next destination. This extraordinary natural formation is constantly bombarded by waves even on relatively calm days because of the 3,000 mile fetch from Africa to Antigua. It has natural blow holes which shoot water high into the sky cued by the sound of breathing from the rocks. Nature in action!

Alex’s Birthday and Presents!

After opening presents and cards and contemplating being 8, we had to move the boat from one part of the marina to another which involved a quick trip out of the harbour and into the swell of the Atlantic. One of the highlights was electronic birthday cards sent by Grandma and aunties which were very funny and silly -- perfect!

A birthday lunch with a fantastic birthday cake and ice cream was followed by a trip up to Shirley Heights. From Shirley Heights you can see English Harbour, Nelson’s Dockyard and Falmouth Harbour. We spent a pleasant afternoon talking to cruise ship passengers and tourists, exploring one of the trails, looking at the fauna and flora and some gun emplacements.

Nelson’s Dockyard Antigua

More school this morning.

In the afternoon, we went to the museum at Nelson’s Dockyard. The Dockyard has been restored to its former 19th century glory architecturally but is now a tourist destination full of cafes and gift shops for visitors to the island.

It’s called Nelson’s Dockyard because the Admiral was stationed here during its heyday. He was actually extremely unpopular because he strictly enforced the Navigation Act which stopped Antigua from trading outside British interests. Many other commanders “turned a blind eye” to illicit trade with the US, French and Spanish, but not Nelson.

We spent an hour in the museum learning about Antigua and sailing conditions in the 18th and 19th century.

From the museum we visited the island’s capital St John to check out the provisioning (and buy a birthday card and cake!)

Basse Terre – Nelson’s Dockyard Antigua

A long day’s sailing. We set off at around 6am and arrived in Antigua at about 3:30. 2-3m waves. Glad to dock.

Domenica to Guadeloupe

The met was inconclusive so we decided to go anyway. Chris visited a doctor about his ear Jamie and Alex did some school, we had lunch and got ready to go. While preparing to set sail we saw an extremely large turtle -- three times. Each time we called the kids who came roaring up from below (silently) but he’d already dived below. They got very fed up with us.

The sail to Guadeloupe was 31 miles and we did it in about 3.5 hours – the wind was strong but fortunately the waves weren’t too high. We saw fabulous rainbows over Les Saintes. We anchored outside of the marina at Basse Terre and Chris and Jamie dinghied over to a neighbouring boat to see if the strike was still on. According to the rather Eeyore/Marvin type who was sailing single-handed to the BVI with a failing engine and broken mainsail
it was. So we decided to start early next morning for Antigua. Great sunset.

Portsmouth Harbour, Dominica

We sailed from our overnight anchorage for about 2 hours to the most northern harbour on Dominica Portsmouth. The wind ranged from about 2 to 30+ knots and all around the compass. As Chris said “If you don’t like this wind there’ll be another one along shortly.”

On passage Chris had done some navigation with Alex as part of his schooling and while he Chris and Robbie went off to explore the town and find a doctor for Chris’ ear Jamie and I tackled some schoolwork too. In fact it was probably one of our most successful schooling days so far with Alex finally engaging with his St Lucia project and answering his class emails.

At 4 we went with a guide called Monty up the Indian River so called because until a hurricane in 1974 the last of the original Caribbean Indians lived along this river. The hurricane “mashed” everything up and the Indians moved but the name has remained. Our guide rowed us (7 in the boat) up the river against the wind and pointed out bloodwood trees so named because the sap is red, iguanas, herons, egrets, crabs, mullet, crayfish, hibiscus, mangrove and a boa constrictor. Cool. The river narrows rapidly and the trees form a green tunnel all around you. We met some other people we knew at the end of the trip upstream and spent some time chatting and drinking local rhum punch while our guide made us beautiful models of frigate birds, fish and grasshoppers out of palm fronds. On the way back, we passed the sites of the filming of the witch scenes in Pirates of the Caribbean 2.

We are considering moving straight on to Antigua missing out Guadeloupe but we can’t get a met at the moment so we’re waiting till tomorrow.

Portsmouth Harbour, Dominica

We sailed from our overnight anchorage for about 2 hours to the most northern harbour on Dominica Portsmouth. The wind ranged from about 2 to 30+ knots and all around the compass. As Chris said “If you don’t like this wind there’ll be another one along shortly.”

On passage Chris had done some navigation with Alex as part of his schooling and while he Chris and Robbie went off to explore the town and find a doctor for Chris’ ear Jamie and I tackled some schoolwork too. In fact it was probably one of our most successful schooling days so far with Alex finally engaging with his St Lucia project and answering his class emails.

At 4 we went with a guide called Monty up the Indian River so called because until a hurricane in 1974 the last of the original Caribbean Indians lived along this river. The hurricane “mashed” everything up and the Indians moved but the name has remained. Our guide rowed us (7 in the boat) up the river against the wind and pointed out bloodwood trees so named because the sap is red, iguanas, herons, egrets, crabs, mullet, crayfish, hibiscus, mangrove and a boa constrictor. Cool. The river narrows rapidly and the trees form a green tunnel all around you. We met some other people we knew at the end of the trip upstream and spent some time chatting and drinking local rhum punch while our guide made us beautiful models of frigate birds, fish and grasshoppers out of palm fronds. On the way back, we passed the sites of the filming of the witch scenes in Pirates of the Caribbean 2.

We are considering moving straight on to Antigua missing out Guadeloupe but we can’t get a met at the moment so we’re waiting till tomorrow.

Chillin': Roseau-Castaways

We left Roseau to head for Portsmouth Harbour -- about a 3 hour run. We decided to stop for lunch at a small anchorage called Castaways which was supposed to have some good snorkelling. It was lucky we did. Our ever-so-reliable generator was belching out great gouts of white smoke. Out came the manual and we diagnosed hot exhaust or hot engine. No obvious breakages so it had to be a blockage. Chris finally found a great plug of twigs and weed in a hose. Drama over but too late to go to Portsmouth. We decided to stay at our mooring and had a pleasant afternoon and evening snorkelling, eating and watching Bringing up Baby.