SteLucie, décembre 2007

Partirons-nous? Partirons-nous pas? Grosse tempête en vue...et comme notre départ doit se faire de l’aéroport de Syracuse, New York, l’un des endroits les plus enneigés des US, il y a de bonnes chances que notre départ soit retardé! Pour éviter à notre ami Peter de se déplacer inutilement - il voulait venir nous chercher à l’aéroport avec une auto de location - nous l’avertissons de notre situation et décidons de lui envoyer une missive sur son cellulaire si nous partons à l’heure!

Bon, bref, nous arrivons à l’heure prévue à l’aéroport de Vieux-Fort (sud du pays)...
mais notre missive pour Peter ne s’étant pas rendue...nous voilà donc à l’aéroport mais pas de Peter et même pas de bagages!!! Alors tout devient soudainement tellement plus facile: nous nous devons simplement de trouver le minibus qui nous amènera à notre destination au nord de l’île à Rodney Bay (Gros Islet) ...sans bagages, çà devrait bien aller!

Grâce à l’amabilité de tous les StLuciens à qui nous demandons des infos, nous réussissons à nous rendre à notre destination sans problème...mais non sans émotions! Le style de conduite des chauffeurs est incroyable: ce sont des routes zigzagant la montagne, à pic et très étroites...qu’à cela ne tienne, la “ride” est digne des montagnes russes de n’importe quel parc d’attraction! Avec musique...évidemment!
Nous arrivons à Castries, la capitale de l’île, à la noirceur et nous devons nous retrouver dans ce labyrinthe de rues achalandées pour rattraper le prochain minibus qui lui devrait nous amener à la marina de Rodney Bay/Gros Islet. On est tellement content de ne pas avoir de valises!!! Un bien pour un mal! Encore là, tout le monde est très gentil, on nous donne les bonnes directions et nous réussissons à nous faire déposer à la marina de Rodney Bay!!!

Nous appelons Peter sur la radio marine et en dedans d’une demi-heure, nous célébrons nos retrouvailles avec lui en buvant nos premiers bières Pitons au Café Olé!!! L’ambiance y est très spéciale puisque les voiliers qui avaient participé à la course transatlantique ARC (Iles Canaries - SteLucie) viennent d’y arriver. Il y a des gens de tous les pays, des voiliers extraordinaires et beaucoup de monde heureux!!! Nous sommes un peu tristes à cause des bagages perdus mais on nous a promis de les délivrer demain à la marina! (Et Delta a tenu sa promesse...sauf que ne faisant pas confiance au système, je suis quand même aller faire des courses au Rodney Bay Mall...bah! Il faut bien encourager l’économie locale!!


Pigeon Island

Notre première visite officielle (!) sera celle des environs du mouillage, soit le fort de Pigeon Island et Signal Hill. C’est donc en sueurs que nous avons gravi les chemins menant a l’ancienne base de la marine britannique ...position stratégique qui leur permettait un point de vue sur l’Atlantique











et sur la mer des Caraïbes ........Cette premiere journée qui se devait être une
journée
d’acclimatation à la chaleur et au soleil se termine au très pittoresque resto-café du parc de Pigeon Island “Jambe de Bois”..En plus de quelques Pitons, nous y dégustons nos premiers “rotis” aux légumes et au poisson (spécialités d’origine indienne)...avant de retourner au voilier...pour nous reposer!







Visite du parc de la forêt tropicale Barre de l’Isle

Nous devons nous rendre au parc par minibus...mais cela fait partie du plaisir de voyager! Nous prenons donc 2 minibus, de Rodney Bay à Castries et de Castries direction Soufrière. Le
chauffeur nous laissera sur la route à l’entrée du parc. On nous avertit que la partie la plus élevée du sentier est encore couverte de troncs d’arbres arrachés par les vents des récents ouragans. C’est un sentier facile, à l’ombre évidemment et




qui nous fait découvrir différentes espèces d’arbres et de fleurs ...l’altitude et le type de luminosité déterminant la location de chaque espèce!

Certains spécimens semblent cependant s’y être implantés pour les seuls besoins de la photo!!!







Il y a des points de vue splendides sur la côte atlantique de l’île telle la baie de Dennery !
Tout au cours de notre exploration, nous observons plusieurs colibris mais le célèbre perroquet de l’île, le jacquot, ne se montre malheureusement pas...

A la fin de toute bonne excursion, surtout si on a mangé et by, il y a une halte obligatoire ...ici, cet endroit était bien pittoresque, “fé soufè deriè” comme on dit en créole!

A la voile vers la baie de Marigot

Elle a la réputation d’être la plus jolie baie des Caraïbes...seulement à 10 milles de notre mouillage. C’est par une brise d’est de 15 noeuds que nous descendons vers le sud et que nous arrivons à cette baie où les navires britanniques y avaient déjoué la marine française en cachant leurs vaisseaux avec des palmes...bon, c’est vrai que la baie est profonde mais avec l’achalandage qu’il y a maintenant, cette baie ne passerait pas inaperçue! Nous préférons mouiller à l’entrée pour avoir du vent...et être plus tranquille. Au delà du complexe de la marina et de plusieurs restos sur ses rives, c’est en grimpant vers les hauteurs que nous lui avons trouvé le plus de charme!


Soufrière et les Pitons

Le lendemain, nous levons l’ancre et faisons encore une dizaine de milles vers le sud de l’île avec l’intention de mouiller dans la réserve naturelle des Pitons. A près de 5 milles de là, il y a déjà Captain Bob qui vient racoler pour avoir le plaisir d’aller nous chercher une bouée. En effet, à cause de la profondeur des fonds et de la fragilité des récifs, il est obligatoire de prendre une bouée. Captain Bob est sympa, nous jase pendant une bonne dizaine de minutes en faisant bien attention de ne pas toucher Aquataurus...il nous rattrape au mouillage où nous lui désignons la bouée que nous voulons. Ca vaut bien une Heineken! Il y aura d’autre “boat boys” qui viendront nous offrir leurs services mais nous leur signalons que Captain Bob fut le premier et il respecte l’ordre du “premier arrivé, premier servi”...

L’endroit est magique .
Partout il y a des coups d’oeil superbes...voyez cette plage avec le soleil qui fais luire les palmes









et que dire de cette villa perchée en flanc de montagne?

Les coraux sont beaucoup moins en santé et donc moins colorés qu’aux Bahamas mais il y a quand même de jolis poissons bleus et jaunes, et même une tortue géante cachée dans un des rochers!!!

Le 24, nous décidons de faire une excursions aux Pitons Falls près du village Malgretoute...Ah! On les a méritées ces chutes! Apres avoir amarré notre annexe au quai du domaine des Plantations Jalousie nous faisons une longue montée très à pic à travers cet extraordinaire domaine, un vrai paradis Arrivés au sommet du val, nous avons à redescendre de l’autre côté vers les chutes en question.

Oh!mamma! Juste l’idée d’aller se baigner dans les eaux - chaudes - du volcan ne m’emballait pas trop!Ce spa naturel offrait un bassin où l’eau était a 40C ! et plusieurs chutes sur fonds de roches ocres - colorées par les dépôts de souffre - plus agréables et fraîches .
Nous restons dans ce petit Eden une bonne heure..pendant laquelle nous y sommes seuls !

Et c’est vrai qu’après cette cure, nous nous sentons ragaillardis et prêts à célébrer la veille de Noël!!!

Et quel coucher de soleil.... de Noel!

Retour vers Rodney Bay...

En ce jour de Noël, nous décidons de retourner vers Rodney Bay puisque Soufrière, en ce jour férié, serait sans vie et sans grand intérêt. Aquataurus a quelques petits troubles mécaniques - et c’est avec plaisir que Heiner se contente de regarder comment Peter s’acquitte de cette difficile opération dans la cale à moteur!!!

En une demi-heure, notre ami, très habile mécanicien , a tout arrangé et nous allons faire de la belle voile avec un vent du Nord-Est qui souffle jusqu’à 22 noeuds dépendemment des montagnes que nous longeons!!! il aurait été facile de continuer jusqu’à Fort de France en Martinique - qui n’est qu’à 30 milles de là! - En fin d’après-midi, nous sommes de retour au mouillage de Pigeon Island

pour enfin prendre l’apéro ...quoi de mieux qu’une bonne concoction avec le rhum local!



en regardant les gens de la place s'amuser sur la plage!!!










Bye bye SteLucie..............(si vous voulez avoir une idee de l’experience de voile ...a bord d’un tres tres grand voilier, visionnez ce clip http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3jsp5_depart-club-med-2-st-lucie_travel)

Our sailing season is over - in case you missed the location of the boat (on the hard) and me with a "Mütze" - a sure sign that winter is upon us!

Haul out went well - and the rain waited until we had been lifted and secured. The next boat - and the last for the day, the lift-out crew was running well behind schedeule - was a 44' catamaran with a beam of 22 feet. There is a flag pole just to the left of our boat. With only 4" to spare, they managed to move the boat into its spot, with me holding a fender to our port side to fight off this monster. But we did not mind .... Sally and Arti are very nice neighbours, and we look forward to work side by side with them.

We celebrated this event with a nice meal and a bottle of Retsina in the evening.

Have a good rest ... La Buena Vida!

We are getting to the end of this summer - we had a slow start, buth then a long one, a really long one, considering that we were swimming in October!

And making use of our bicycles driving around the islands and up-and-down some hills (until our bums said: NO MORE!!!!).

And enjoying the last glass of cidre at our favoured place, up on the hill, overlooking the anchorage and Lake Ontario (no more as well ... they were closing the same weekend).

The fall colours are wonderfull - they are all out there, if not the temperature.

Some friends left south with their boat, and we waved good bye with a sad smile.

Others wanted, and had to stay, and we hugged them, feeling sad. Mireille, you have our best wishes, life sucks at times, or as you said ... "shit happens". Perhaps 2007 was not such a great year after all.

And one weekend without sailing ....so that we could visit my sister and her family in St-Vincent de Paul, north of Montreal. The idea was, in addition to visit them, to "inaugurate their new deck with a super outdoors fiesta...

Well, while their patio was beautiful, as expected, the weather was not! Coolllllllllldddddddd and Windy....so the fiesta on the deck was really shortlived! Even the neighbouring dog, Poppy, was in need of a cover up!
Nevertheless, we had some drinks and enjoyed ourselves...my sister Liette was disappointed! I kept telling her that summer was not over yet, but she, a hot weather lover, was not really convinced!

To cheer her up a little, we went downtown Montreal on Saturday for a little shopping expedition!

Thanks Liette!

As for Heiner, he had something exciting in store!!! Pierre invited him to ride with him on his motorcycle - and they did!

All of Montreal, up the mountain, then downtown, through old-Montreal, and finally onto some rural roads!

Hey, this was fun - and they had earned their Heineken at the end of the day, cooling down their wind-burnt faces!

Thanks Pierre!

Every year we have a ¨boating holiday¨ on Lake Ontario. this year was no exception: we set off on Friday July 13th for a 2 weeks sailing vacation.

Is that clever?

Must be .... because we met our friends Mireille and Christian on Nomad in Brackey Bay (off Wolfe Island) who kindly invited us to have the apero on their boat. We had not seen them in a while as they are super (!!!) busy (!!!!) preparing the boat for a trip south.

We continued next day by a visit to Cape Vincent, USA. The winds were southwest 15-18 knots (that is ... on the nose!) and we had quite a sportive sail all the way from Brackey's to Cape Vincent. We enjoy that village very much and like to stock on wine and beer and other wonderful beverages before touring the rest of the lake http://www.visit1000islands.com/capevincent.asp. La Buena Vida is always quietly anchored in the basin...rather than at the free docks ... because the night breeze is so refreshing and there is no banging against the dock in case of boat traffic.

After a peaceful night, and yes, sleeping on the boat offers such a deep sleep!, we sailed towards Chaumont for an overnight visit. In Chaumont, life is quiet, very quite ... with signs of "Ducks Crossing" at roads intersection!

Next day, we set sail for Henderson Harbor which we had not visited in a long time. Since the very first European explorers, Henderson Harbor has provided safe harbor and recreation to travelers by land and by water. Samuel de Champlain first witnessed Henderson’s beauty in 1615 (!). It was the same tranquil harbor that we anchored in for 2 days. In additon, this little bay on the east side offered quite a bit of wild life with beaver and muskats crisscrossing the waters around our boat. And the water was a bit warmer than in Canada with a torrid 24C ... so we enjoyed the swimming so much more. And we also enjoyed "surfing around" with our new outboarder Yamaha 8HP which enabled us to visit the whole bay in a record time. With our portable GPS we measured a top speed of 13knots ...which is way faster than our big boat can do !!!!

After a day of strong north west winds, we left Henderson Harbour and ventured westwards towards Fairhaven in little Sodus Bay. We have been in Fairhaven on several occasions, always enjoying the change of scenery with the reddish bluffs of the southern shore announcing the entrance to little Sodus Bay.

It is amazing how this part of lake Ontario differs from the northern shores...and we thoroughly enjoyed exploring the whole bay with our folding bikes. Departing from one of the numerous public docks, we first went eastwards towards the Fairhaven State park, riding through quiet cottages lined lanes before getting to the vast sandy beaches of the State Park.

On our way back to the village of Fairhaven, we absolutely needed an ice cream! and went to the ice cream shop to buy enormous cones that we slowly ate in a shady area of the park. We were nicely exhausted of our 20 km ride and returned to our quiet anchorage for the rest of the afternoon.

Marleyne had brought her water colours and enjoyed sketching and painting the endless variations of lights on the trees lined shores.

On the next day, we rode our bikes again, but this time on the west shore of the bay; which we did not find as attractive as the eastern one. May be we were a bit more tired ... we nevertheless enjoyed having lunch on a shaded area of the beach near the long breakwater.

The ice cream ritual was, of course, part of the deal before returning to our boat. After the ice cream, we purchased another case of red dog beer for a smashing price of $9.99!!!!!!!!! We had first tasted this American beer in Annapolis 2001. On this day, we had had an exiting day in Washington D.C and celebrated July 4th with the Red Dogs' ale on board La Buena Vida. So, if the taste is not the strongest, the memories are... Cheers!!!!

As we were almost halfways into our holidays and we had thought of crossing to Brighton, we inched slowly westwards and arrived in Big Sodus Bay on a Sunday. It reminded us of Florida's inlets on Sunday's: boats, boats and more boats...wake and more wake! Wow, is fuel in-expensive here or are people very rich ???????????? As we made our way through the bay, our jaws dropped at the sight of the power boaters "wading around" the tepid waters of the bay...with their drinks on one hand and "blond babes" on the other!

We did anchor behind an island besides a couple of Toronto boats ... while winds were very light, the incessant motor boat traffic - including that of our Torontonian neighbours who drove their dinghies at max speed from one boat to another (that is 100 feet) - made the water very troubled ... a bit like the Hudson river on a busy afternoon!!!!

Big Sodus Bay has a very lively town, with bands playing in restaurants, heavy motorcycles everywhere, and a lot of gifts and souvenirs shops ... a mecca for tourists on Lake Ontario, no doubt. However, we were very happy to leave it behind as soon as the northerly winds gave way to the usual southerlies.

The idea was to sail over to Brighton, a 56 mile run heading NW. Unfortunately, we were not able to make Bighton, as the winds moved to the northwesterly side and created a "no fun to sail" into 6 feet waves. After 15 miles into the lake we changed course to Waupoos and Prince Edwards Bay which we reached at the beginning of the afternoon.

Ah! Prince Edward County...we spent a lmost a week there, taking out our bikes again and exploring the area from the Waupoos Marina Public Wharf heading for the Black River Cheese factory. Great ice cream and great cheese, indeed, but the landscape: we were amazed at the breathtaking beauty of this trip. So much beauty !

After tasting the cheese and buying a piece of Mozzarella and Jalapeno cheese, we rode back and continued on to the Cider Company. Overlooking the lake, we sat there on the wonderful terrasse and enjoyed a pint of their cider with a wood fired pizza. Pure delight! This was such a nice experience for us that we repeated it a day later after a ride eastwards. Our bodies were tired and the bicycle ride was a bit shorter that day: we nevertheless stopped again at the Cider Company on our way home to repeat our gastronomic experience of the preceding day. This was marking the last couple of days of our holidays wich ended with the usual anchoring at Pryniers Cove before heading back home in Kingston.

Visitors!!!!

Mid June we had visitors from .... ? Jeanine and Andreas, alias Cocotte and Mathias ...

We had met them a few years back on their boat ("Chabu") in Annapolis, and after a short chat, our ways parted.

But then we saw them again at a boatyard in Deltaville, VA, and enjoying their company, we decided to do some needed boat work there as well, and worked side by side for more than a week on our respective "Bottoms".

And we spent other times together, the last one in Georgetown, Bahamas.

Eventually, and after having cruised the Caribbean for a few years, they sold their boat. Originally from Hamburg (Northern Germany) they decided against rainy and somewhat cold weather and settled in Palma (Mallorca).

Now we had them here for a few days and had promised them that we would go sailing in the 1000 Islands. And so we did.

It was just a bit on the cool (if not cold) side! You cannot miss the sweaters! Nor the gloves, but Jeanine managed a swim. It was great having them here - we miss you guys!

Back in Canada ...

we stayed one more night in Delaware, another nice and warm evening ... but a boring stretch of Highway to drive on the Eastern Shore, and then took off for Canada.

There was a sense of comfort an relieve when we arrived in Canada. Not only was the weather nice when we arrived, and were comparable to the conditions we had left behind in Virginia, but also less police controls, no guns carried openly, more politeness and more smiles and much, much lower prices for vegetables and food.

Canada is like the Italy of North America - and that is the reason we like to come back to our "Italy".

Our gardens are in full bloom, the emails full of urgent messages, and our sailing vessel is awaiting us. And our Spanish/German friends are coming soon!

Ok, our one week of holidays is coming to an end.

We have to take down our "luxury" tent, and head North again. We decided to take the tunnel from Norfolk to the Eastern shore - a $12 detour.

There are some places where you can stop, and this is exciting. As sailors, we always like to look at "openings", "passages", "buoys" ... just in case we will pass through here one time in the future.

The connection to the Eastern Shore consists of 2 tunnels and a couple of bridges.

When we arrived at the fist "parking", just before the first tunnel, we saw an Aircraft Carrier passing through, doing tests with an Hovercraft, leaving and entering the carrier. Marleyne thought that her nephew might like the two following pictures:

Yes, the shrimps were great and juicy!!!! We would have loved to have seafood every day - but this was not easy to do. Our place was not in the middle of a large shopping area, and it was weekend. So, sometimes, we had sausages (awful!), othe times pork (not bad), but not enough seafood to our taste.

But the weather was great!

Being on a planation, we wanted to see the grounds. We took a nice walk to the still functional farm and to the Plantation House (followed by 100-s of deer flies!), and enjoyed the view over the fields, the river, enjoying the smells, and the sounds.




View of the James River to Jamestown across the river on the right.

We had a great and enthusiastic tour guide of the plantation house, and at the time we arrived, we were the only ones in her "group". We had fun and spent a lot of time looking at old photographs, books, furniture and listend to her well researched stories.

It was a very relaxing morning, and th smells of the grass still lingers with me.

We then took the car across the James River to see Williamsburg.

On the way to the ferry dock, we passed Jamestown Settlement, a museum and recreation of the initial settlement, and given its 400th years anniversary, a lot of tourists were there - we gave it a pass.

Williamsburg - well, we had not done our homework on the old town .... and had a hard time to find a parking spot, and to find the Tourist Information Centre - we seemed to have gone in circles for a while.

Williamsburg is something like Rotenburg o. T. in Germany ... but you will have to pay for entering some sections of the town. Initially, it was confusing, everybody seemd to have a knowledge about this town and its attractions ... and what we could see without a U $ 79 family ticket!!!!

Whow!!!! That is expensive!

Essentially, the town is divided into 2 sections: the old town with its stores and renovated houses - free admission - and the old town with its stores and renovated houses ... plus re-enactments (i.e soldiers marching on the street ...). We enjoyed the first part of the town, and the ice-cream!!!!!

Indeed, it was a lovely setting, and we quite enjoyed ourselves there.

And I had to think of my Uncle Heinz in Dresden when we saw this defencive "fence" - here we come, Karl May!!!!

And Marleyne could not resist to work in the garden ... and get thing going ...

We had about a week ... and still hoping that Connecticut might warm up just enough for us to set up our tent there.

But no, even down here the weather was getting cooler than forecasted.

We enjoyed places we had been before, by car, during conference meetings, but laso by boat. We had a great day to reconnect to Baltimore and Annapolis, strolling down streets we had been on before, looking at all the major changes in downtown Balitmore (should now be called Condo-City, expensive condos that is!!!!), and the unchanging character of Annapolis, with our favoured place (the ice cream shop in the harbour) still in place.

It was a good day to wind down and to distance us from the office back home.

We told the Park Ranger that we aere moving on to Virginia, to a place on the James River - and were told to ensure we had reservations!

Reservations???? At this time of the year?

We were doubtfull, but with a weekend coing up, we thought of better playing safe ... and indeed, it was a wise decision. When we booked, the place had only 4 places left, everything else was booked for the weekend. And in our first effort to book a site for three days, we were told that there was nothing left for us - but why not trying again ... just to make sure. Oh well, it worked. We got it - a very nice plantation grounds opposite of Jamestown Landing (the very first english settlement in the land of what is now called U.S.A.

And we shared the place with Boy Scouts, Legion 806, who had taken over the camping site for the weekend (50% of the available sites went to their tents). They were great, having fun, and surprisingly quite ?!

From here we took excursions - Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Williamsburg ... and other small places. We had been in Norfolg/Portsmouth before, back in 1991 with the boat, and many other times later, but then we passed through, not spending mucht time in town.

Hence, a good reason to have a new look at these locations.

Norfolk has a large Naval Museum, one which hosts the battleship USS Wisconsin. The visit was free - and security high .... as if anyone wants to steal that ship, or bomb it ...?

We were getting curious and had a closer look at the ship. The interior is not accessible by the public. Inside environmental conditions are maintained at controlled settings to ensure that the ship can be re-comissioned in a short time for another engagement. Initially built for WWII action in the Pacific, it also served in the Golf War after it was re-commissioned.

And yes, it is a large ship .... with very big guns. Marleyne is waving at me ....

On our boat, we carry a lot of heavy chain: 240 feet of 3/8" (10mm). Hard work to get the chain up, and yes, we have a (manual) windlass to help us with this.

Now this ship .... no way I could pull up these 1100' feet of chain (330m), but I tried!

... it must have been tied down ...? It never happend to me before!

We had a good time in Norfolk and Portsmouth and picked up 2 pounds of large shrimps we were going to cook tonight over our barbeque!

Spring Break!

Well, for some, it is well into Spring - for us, we are still waiting. it is May!!! More precisely, we wanted to go on a camping trip May 16, making use of our "new" tent (the one we bought last year AFTER our last camping trip !!!).

But the weather ...? With temperatures in Kingston around 14C daytime (high), and nights around 6C or less (frost warning ...), we are ready for something warmer.

We had dreams to visiting Connecticut - we never have been there, never visited Long Island Sound, and first indication was that the weather there was quite a bit warmer.

But the closer we came to our day of departure, the more the forecast changed, and was getting worse what we had in the forecast for Kingston.

Ok, change of plans, we are easy .... and looked for destinations more south: like Baltimore, or places in Virginia.

And that is what we did, leaving Wednesday early in the morning (the US border takes quite a bit of time because of my "alien" status) ... and arrieved at our destination SW of Baltimore at a decent time.

And YES, it was warm, summer like ... just perfect to wind down.

With a fresh coffee in my hand, ... I will make it into the day!

A new Sailing Season!!!!

Today, La Buena Vida was launched - for another season.

Rustwork, painting, painting, painting, polishing the hull (times 3!) ... and she was ready for another season.

At 20:00 hours, we finally got the crane to take her off the stands and into the water. This time we took a couple of pictures to show the location of the straps. When we lift her out, it is always a guessing game where exactly the straps should be located ... and if they are not in the right place (especially the rear ones), they are in the way of the pads, and we have to put her back and attempt another lift.

This time we took pictures to show the crane operator and his crew where goes what!

And we got Lift-Off!!!

We look forward to our sails! Finally, summer is here again!

Well, Spring is coming - yes coming, but not quite here yet! Not too many days ago we had a major snow storm. A week later, wonderful Spring like weather. .... and then something in-between.

But we managed to get some work done on the boat - between snow showers and warm Spring days (hey, it is almost Summer!).

A photographer of a local newspaper dropped by in the harbour and took this picture. Finally, we are famous!!!!