Colombia continue

Jan 31 - February 4 - Mompox on Magdalena river

For our 12 anniversary we decided to visit second oldest town in Colombia - Mompox (or Mompos). It was not easy trip to this town, we took a bus leaving Santa Marta (puerto-to-puerto) at 3 am and arrived in Mompox at about 10 am. Just the trip itself was worth the effort: we drove through a lot of different little towns and when arrived at Magdalena river we took a ferry, which is just an old, not looking reliable flat wooden structure which is moved across the river by a small skiff motorboat. After surviving that experience the bus dropped us off at the Amarillo Casa Hotel - grand looking colonial building. The hotel is situated on the the main waterfront avenue and is a very beautiful building. The time seemed just stopped at least 300 years ago in Mompox. All the buildings in this city were of colonial period and we have not seen any new recent structure. Most of the buildings are beautifully restored, and it was a lot of fun just to walk on the streets and peruse each building with the old court yards, old hispanic style antechambers, little flower gardens and hinging bird cages. This town was a very prosperous river port until Magdalena river changed it's course and the big cargo ships and passenger cruises could not navigate here any more. At this time Mompox turned into another old sleepy town in the middle of Colombia. The heat in the place is unbearable, there are no sane person would walk on the streets between 10 am and 5 pm - the city looks dead at this time because of the heat.

The ferry across Magdalena river to Mompox 

February 14 - 15 - Baranquilla Carnaval
We visited Bogota again for 2 times - Kevin needed two skin surgeries done there. At the first visit we bought a new 110v motor for our not yet working watermaker. Second time was fruitful too - we bought some new t-shirts and some of the Sunbrela fabric. We were planning to stay in Santa Marta marina no longer than beginning of February, but those plans were long gone and here we are, driving in the bus on Saturday to the carnaval in Baranqilla. Prices of the hotels were tripled at this time, but we still managed to get a clean room not too far from the downtown. While looking for the starting place of the Parade of the Flowers, we met Elias, a colombian architect who kindly took us to the parade. Next day we went to the parade again and this time we bought seats in the covered area along the Ave. 40 where was a parade. That was much comfortable to watch carnaval. There we met other local family, who shared with us their rum, told stories and taught me traditional colombian dance moves. We spent afternoon with Elias again and he was very kind to take us to the bus station where we caught a bus to Santa Marta. We really enjoyed the Carnaval, but mostly we were so happy to make new friends.

After returning back to Santa Marta we finally found a Spanish teacher, Victoria, with who we had unforgettable two weeks of Spanish classes.
There were three of us students - Kevin, Denise (from Alero) and I. With a great teacher we showed a great progress too. Too bad we did not get this opportunity earlier. However, we tried - we even almost got student visas to get a 30 hours course at the University del Norte in Santa Marta.

Bogota

Bogota
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Bogota,  January 15-18
Took us some time to figure out the bus system, and on the first day we found our way from airport to hotel Ambra, which is located in the old historical part of Bogota, La Candelaria. This city is huge, with the old downtown situated close to the mountains, and barrios around in the vales. Mass transportation is very convenient and cheap, the busses go everywhere and some of them are express busses which use a separate lane on the main roads. First we visited the museum del oro. Very impressive gold, silver, copper and platinum jewelry and toys were made by indigenous people starting 4000 years ago! Emeralds collection was impressive too. Next day, Friday, we spent all day on practical things like, getting more empty pages for Kevin's passport at the U.S. Embassy (which was impressively quick) and trying to find a water pressure valve for our not yet functioning watermaker (no luck here, but got to learn a lot of new Spanish words). On the same day we went up to the Monserrat mountain - right in the city - on funicular. It's 3200 meters high and it's chilly on the top. The view from the mountain top on Bogota is spectacular, even in the rainy day. For dinner we decided to splurge and visited higher end barrio in Zone G - the gastronomical center of Bogota. Funny, but we ate at the French restaurant La Table Michel because we could not find any authentic Colombian cousin around there. We enjoined our food and good vine for just $70. Not bad...Third day of our trip we spent in Zipaquira, a little pretty town in the salt mines about hour from Bogota. Here we visited Catedral del Sal - a church built right in the salt mine, this place under the ground is huge, having multiple smaller caves with crosses and one main big space with a very tall cross. It's definitely different from any other cathedrals we saw before.
Next morning before our flight to Leticia we explored historical downtown of Bogota. It was Sunday and the crazy busy streets of the city were empty and quiet, all the governmental buildings on the Plaza de Bolovar and beyond were secured by presidential guards in full military equipment with guns - feels very safe.  We noticed presence of some type of security, either private or national police and military in full armory everywhere in the capital city, I guess, it's the way to keep everybody safe...

Los Roques to Colombia

Venezuela - exploring Los Roques islands.
Nov.7- Nov.15
Early evening on November 7th we left Grenada with tears in our eyes while saying "goodbyes" to our dearest friends from Del Max (Dariah and Oren, and their three adorable children). The passage from Grenada to Los Roques was a bit longer than we have done before - 60 hours (which is 3 nights and 2 days). We left together with our friends on Bendecida which made our trip more fun since it's always nice to know that there is somebody else sailing close to you in the ocean. The weather was some sort of vaforable for the trip, promissing just couple squals on the way.
We were warned that we might to encounter pirats on the way to Venezuela, but I guess, we got very lucky and did not see any ships except of the cruize ship on our way.
We also had couple new things installed on our boat and were eager to test them out on the way: the manual autopilot windvane and a whisker pole for our jib. The windvane did very well, and we did not have to use our electronic autopilot (saved us some amps!) and the whisker pole gave us possibility to sail in very light winds with a good speed 5-6 nm. The first night was a very nice a bit rolly sailing under a full moon, but we got a first casuality. During one of the sudden squals the whisker pole broke in a half and it took some time to take it down on the seriously rolling boat. By Kevin's assessment of the damage we could not use anymore our newly bought whisker pool, and that was very sad news... $750 served us only half of the night. Oh well, next time we should be much more quicker in reefing the sails and never give a second guess. The rest of the trip went very well, not counting continues rolling and high waves.
And, we did not encounter any problems with promissed venezuelan pirates either, I guess, we got lucky.
On early morning we pulled in the bay of Grande Roque, the main island of Los Roques, and anchored at night without any problems. After a short sleep we were ready on shore to report to Venezuelan autorities about our arrival. Many times we have done these procedures on different islands, and usually it takes visiting just one or two govermental places - customs and immigration, and in couple hours you are done.
Well, not so easy here... we spent all day checking in, while making 6 long walks along the island back and force in order to visit all necessary offices. We visited immigration, then only bank to deposit our fees, then back to immigration, then to customs, then to some little trailer with 3 overweight women and AC, who send us first to the park autorities on other end of the island, waited there for the siesta to finish, checked in, got the map, stopped on the way at national guard office, then back to the trailer with 3 overweight ladies (they were still talking), where we finally got our last stamp on the oficial document of arrival, and the flag to put on our boat. Uhhh, that was a very hot and humid day, but we managed to walk on all available streets on the island and get familiar with the local venezuelan life.
This place is much different than we got used in Grenada, and the landscape itself is totally opposite - the islands are corral reefs and not much vegetation (very similar to Bahamas). There are no any paved roads on the island, just sand. The houses are little and with courtyard, which is occupied usually by one or many dogs. The dogs! There are way too many dogs in town and in the wild on the hills, but seems that local autorities do not have time to deal with this problem. The island is very clean, and locals constantly cleanning the streets and around their houses. Trash cans are everywhere!!! There are no cars on the island except of two waste management tracks and one tractor. And, of course, people are speaking Spanish. As much as we thought we are ready to have some meanningful conversations with locals and autorities (while we took Spanish classes in Grenada), we did not perform well, and it seems we have to have way much more time to spend on learning Spanish. But, oh well, we managed everywhere, and there are couple people who spoke good English.
Next days we spent exploring other smaller and uninhabited islands around. We stopped overnight at Francisqui Isla where Kevin finally had chance to try Kiteboarding. We met Elias, the venezuelan who taught Kevin the basics on how to manage the kite in the wind. He lives alone with two huge dogs in only house on the whole island, using generator for electricity and bringing water from the main island.
Each little island in the Los Roques Archipelago is a "picture perfect" scenery - amazing clear water of all imaginable hues of blue and the white long sandy beaches. However, from 5 pm to 7 am a huge army of mosquitos tries to eat you alive, even DEET protection is not helping. But even so, we are really happy we visited beatiful Los Roques archipelago.
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Nov.16-Nov.28 - Bonaire
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Just a day sail from Los Roques to the first ABC island, Bonaire. Trip was very comfortable thought we had to use some engine to keep us going, and then we got amazing fun sail near the cost of Bonaire. There is no anchorage allowed, but when we arrived late afternoon there were still couple moorings available. We took one which is the closest to the dinhgy dock, huge cruiseships docking and waterfront restaurants. The checkin procedure was very easy and FREE! People are nice and happy, speaking at least four languages and, some even more: Dutch, Spanish, Papiamentu, English. This island is the mecca for divers and snorklers, because there are so much different sea life that it's hard to describe. Also, no need to take trips to special bays or reefs for diving - you can enjoy the same marine life right under the keel of your boat. The water is so clear that it's hard to estimate the depth. This island is truly a treasure of Caribbean. We enjoed snorkling every day and Kevin dived with our frinds, saw a lot of already familiar fish but of enormous size, squids, turtles and, our favorite discovery - octopus! At the Kiteboarding school on Kevin's birthday we bought another "useless" toy - kiteboard package, and so far, did not have chance yet to practice. Here, in Bonaire, we cought up with a lot of our friends from Grenada and other islands. We were so surprised to see again Songbird crew which we thought never would see again.
We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner on Mezaluna with Somewhere, the Katy's turkey was a nice surprise.
We loved Bonaire a lot - very clean little island with amazing marine life and dry land nature with cactuses jungle, great food in restaurants, the best food stores in Caribben after St.Marteen with delisious and fresh european food, great little cafes on waterfront, and of course, very friendly locals.
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Nov.28-Dec.19 Curacao
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Another day's sail and we made it to Curacao. Also one of the Dutch islands. We anchored in Spanish Waters - a huge lagoon with very calm waters and a lot of sailboats. Customs and immigration checkin was free, but not very easy, this procedure requires a lot of walking in the capital city Willemstad. This city is huge and very industrial, with endless crowds of tourists from the cruiseships. The old part of town is very beautiful, like a little Amsterdam, but without bicicles. We loved the Floating Market in downtown where venezuelians sell their fresh produce and live right on the boats. We noticed that more locals were speaking Spanish, however, pretty much everybody speaks English. After couple days after arrival I got infected with Chikungunya virus via mosqitoe bite. And, following two weeks I spent exclusiely on the boat fighting the acute phase of this nasty virus. Still not completely recovered, we decided to leave at the first weather opportunity.
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Dec.20-21 Los Monjes Sud Isla - Venezuela
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Dec.22 - Dec.31, Santa Marta, Colombia
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All the way from Los Monjes we had very enjoable sail with very low seas and just 8kt wind, but that was enough to move our boat with speed 4.5kt. With the boat not rocking at all we were able to sleep, cook food, take showers in the cockpit and read for all 30 hours sail. Just around Santa Marta area wind and seas got higher, but still very managable. All the trip we followed the boat Saphira which we saw in yet in Grenada, and finally at the marina we met with Saphira's crew, Katya and Andreas. The Santa Marta marina is not very big, but very nice and clean, great service and relatively cheap ($0.70 per foot, but in 2015 they increased the price for 30%). Setup is great - you can see the waterfront restaurants and beach nearby, very short walk to the downtown and all the shops, taxi is cheap - just 5000 COP ($2.5 per ride in the city). City busses can take you anywhere as well for just $0.70. We fell in love with Santa Marta with the first sight! A lot of our buddies from Grenada stayed here at the same time. And we had a lot of fun spending time together (Emmaluise, Bendecida, Mezaluna, NellyRose). It was so much fun to have Christmas celebration together with friends.
And finally, we got a chance to really practice our Spanish! Pretty much nobody speaks English, a bit challanging.
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Dec.31 - Jan.8 Colombia
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On Dec.30 we took an express bus (Berliner) to Cartagena. The ride was just 4.5 hours and we had a chance to see the life outside Santa Marta. Cartagena is a very old and beautiful city, with 600 years old colonial forts and buildings. We rented a huge room at Marco Polo Bed & Breakefast for 4 night for 4 people in just newly restored old house in San Diego area of city. Our daughters came to visit us for holidays and brought us a lot of stuff we needed for a boat: sunbrella and mosquito netting fabrics, new credit cards, some docs, buckwheat and walnuts! Yes, walnuts were on my special order - there are no walnuts are sold anywhere around here and we really love them! On New Years Eve we met with NellyRose and Capish crews for celebration at one of the downtown restaurant. The tickets for the evening were a bit pricy, but it worth it. Downtown most of the streets were closed and all restaurants took out tables outside on the streets, covered with white tablecloths and flower arrangments. Looked very festive! Following the old tradition most locals were dressed up in white, but we did not get a "message", so.. we dressed up as best as we could by the cruisers standards. At midnight we had a drink for 2015 and went out to the main plaza to see amazing fireworks and a lot of people dancing and celebrating. This was very fun New Years Eve! In couple next days we explored Cartagena while visiting museums, forts, and just wandering around the old beuatiful streets stopping at the cute restaurants and eating outstanding helados. We also managed to visit Cartagena's best beach - Blanco Playa, and the whole trip there and back was very memorable. Marco, our host, first took us to the water "bus" station where we got our tickets to the playa. After waiting for about 40 min 32 people loaded in the motorboat, citing very very tight together (by standards in our country that would on be allowed), and then we went... Since we did not research on the procedure of this trip, everything happening was unexpected. We stopped at some little island first, not sure why, then after short lecture from one of our drivers about this place, we drove a bit more, and then stopped at another very small island where Aquarium was located. There were already a lot of boats similar to ours and it was amazing how this little islands could hold hundreds of people. That was already a lunch time and we were happy to find plentiful snack and drink stands around. Ceciche and mojitos filled us a bit. In one hour our boat departed to the final destination - Blanco Playa. The drive there could be comapred with the Shilderban water rides, but in the real ocean water. Our guide made sure everybody wears a life jacket for such "entertaiment" - the waves were big and everything got wet. Couple times we found ourselves suspended in the air and then dropped hard to the benches - not a great feeling. And finally we made it to the Blanco Playa! Unfortunately, we got only one hour to stay on the beach, because it was getting late. The beach was full of people that we did not have a space to put our towel anywhere. The beach was ok, but very dirty, plenty of little restaurants and snack stands. We almost missed our "bus", and had to run along the beach to ask our boat to return, which he did. Happy and tired we embraced ourselves again in the "Shliderban" fun on the way back to Cartagena.
Back in Santa Marta we took a bus to Taganga - a nearby little beach town, but again, we were not impressed by that beach either. I guess, we are very spoiled by Caribbean islands.

Camp Grenada, WI

"Camp Grenada, WI"

On August 8th, 2014 we made it to a year long planed destination of our adventures - Grenada, WI. We found this beautiful island the most interesting, amazing and friendliest from all other Caribbean islands, so far at least...

There are no many nice sandy beaches around here, but the mountains with dense jungles and plentiful waterfalls are very beautiful. From the tour of the island we learned that every little wild plant in the forest is actually a spice, or some kind of herb which could be used in cooking and as a natural remedy from any pains and aches. Nobody here ever could be hungry, for there are a lot of fruits and veggies growing here in different seasons. Just amazing! And the main market in St.George is full of vivid colors of the crop growing around here, and yes, there is a great Fish market which is supplied by the local fishermen every day with plenty of seafood.
Grenada has a great public transportation system - multiple lines of the little buses are running around the island and it's very cheap, starting at EC$2.50 per person one way. We found the Grenadian buses as the best entertainment and attraction of this island: the 12-14 seats buses are packed up to 17 people, have to seat literally on each other laps, the music (Soca and hip-hop) is so loud than cannot talk, buses are running on the highest speed on the hilly and windy roads - and there are NO seat belts! The bus is operated by two people - the driver and a conductor "bus boy" who's job is to get and pack as many people as they can soliciting people on the board walks. This is Kevin's dream job - once he even managed to work as a "bus boy" and he got decent amount of people on the bus: "Come, come. Bus! St.George!" using specific for this job hand gestures. That was funny, locals were laughing getting on the bus because nobody was expecting a gringo working as a conductor!
Our first anchorage in Grenada was in St.George - very pretty neat and pretty city. Just a short dinghy ride to the Carnage and you are in the middle of the town. We arrived on August 8th - right in time for yearly Carnival. And we managed actually participate in this madness! We asked the locals in the market to help us to find a place in one of the 12 Carnival's teams, and after couple hours we found still available places in Andre Agave Associates Carnival team. The costumes were pricey, but totally worth for this unique opportunity. Kevin got a place in Hip-Hop team and I was a Show girl. Costumes were very pretty, and I had to wear that beautiful feathery head peace which I was very proud of!

Amazing experience at Carnival - August 12-14 - dancing non-stop for two days! Luckily we were adviced to wear tennis shoes to prolong our ability to dance for hours without break. Each team had a huge track with huge stereo amplifiers, running very-very loud Soca music by the band of particular team and periodically you were given some alcohol and beer to wind you up for more dancing! Seems that very easy job - just dance and drink, but we were absolutely exhausted by the night of the second day. And our team won the "Best Band" contest! I got a friend from Trinidad, Cloudette, who taught me crazy dancing moves (twerking?) under sounds of loud Soca. Kevin was popular among local older female population and once I had to protect him from some aggressive lady from audience. We had so much crazy fun and just Carnival itself made it worth to travel from far Texas to Grenada.
The opening of the Carnival was on Monday night at 2am - which is called "J'Overt" - the night when people get soacked in the used machine oil and then marching on Carnage under loud sounds of Soca. The hard core participants are walking almost naked and periodically pouring the machine oil all over themselves, holding the row fish and dead rats in their mouths while blood is dripping all over. Most of the locals get very drank and sexual, the site is definitely not for the children, and in the morning all Carnage streets are black and slippery from oil (hard to walk!). By 10am that madness is done and somehow streets got cleaned for the Carnival teams competitions.

We spent couple days just relaxing after such party, and in couple days moved to Spice Island Marina - where we got hulled out and put on the hard for next 6 weeks.
At this marina we met a sailboat with two Ukrainian guys from Mikolaev - the city near my hometown! I was so happy to meat my co-patriots and speak my native language! Right away we became good friends and helped each other for next couple weeks working on our boats. That was fun, I felt like I was back into a close family. While staying in the Marina we rented a very nice apartment at "Kiki's Apartments", which was very decent price ($200 per week) with free laundry, huge living room, huge kitchen, cleaning service every week, free water, AC in each room and free wifi. We loved to stay at this apartment. It was very nice after hard work on the boat on the boatyard where is very humid and crazy hot to come back "home" and turn on AC, take very long showers, watch TV and wash dirty cloths for free!
The best part of the apartment was a bed - wide and long, and not moving (I guess, it's a standard for any land living conditions - but we have not been in such bed for 9 months).

  We were almost done with our work on the boat when Kevin broke a finger on his right hand while trying to start a generator. Then our new adventures started. We had unique opportunity to learn Grenada's life from the healthcare prospective.

Day 1: first we went to the main hospital. Emergency room was full of people and they were there for already 6 hours, there is no receptionist to take your name and nobody knows when the doctor will show up. In couple hours we lost our hope to be seen by doctor and visited a private physician (just $40 per visit) who sent us for X-ray ($75), the results we got right away in our hands, which is very convenient.

Day 2: brought results of X-ray to our physician, who send Kevin to orthopedic specialist. Doctor Douglas Noel starts his work day at 10am but at 9am there were 9 people in line waiting already. We spent very lovely day in his office and Kevin got apointement for the surgery on his finger the next day, Saturday.

Day 3: back to the public hospital, this time to another building - surgery rooms. It's Saturday and the hospital is empty (toilet is outside the building, no paper). We got lucky that there is no any emergency at that time and doctor was free to perform a surgery on Kevin (there are only 2 orthopedic doctors on the island, so, they are very busy). Kevin showed up with the huge cast covering hand and forearm. And it's crazy hot outside. But we are happy, he got a wire in his finger and it will heal in 6 weeks.

  Next day we got a flight to Dominican Republic, where we spent couple days enjoying Santo Domingo's coffee and pastries. Then a flight home - to Austin! We have not seen our daughters for 8 months and were so happy to meet with our friends again (ha, we were surprised they did not forget about us!!!).

We had a very short stay at home, just 6 days, but at the end we were already missing our boat life. I guess, somehow somewhere we lost our ability to live in a big city where everything is so efficient and life is crazy fast.

  Back in Grenada, back to work on the boat - and we had very interesting project: insulate our refrigerator with the new NASA space something.. state of the art insulation, which we carried all the way from Austin. This project took us about 4 days from start to finish, thanks to our friends from Del Max who helped Kevin (setup with his cast would not allow much) to operate saws while disassembling our fridge, and for the moral support too, because I was shocked to see my kitchen being totally destroyed.

But, as Oren says: "Do not fear!" and, in couple days we put everything in order.
 
The bottom of the boat was painted, fridge fixed, water tanks welded and second was sealed, rudder is fixed, wind vane got missing parts, bimini is extended, sail cover is patched - and we are ready to splash back in the water.

  The rest of the time in Grenada we spent in Prickley Bay with Del Max and Bendecida, and dozen of other boats. This is where you start feeling that you are a part of a big cruising community-family, make close and good friends, participate in different activities which are organized by your fellows cruisers, and just having fun while sitting at Tiki bar at the wi-fi tables like a student in the library.
We call it "Camp Grenada" which reminds us a summer camp in the youth, and it was very sad to leave behind all that fun and many friends we made there.
  The day of the "Camp Grenada" starts with the net at 7:30am every day, except of Sunday. The weather, arrivals and departures are announced, reminders of every day activities and specialities of the local businesses, the "bildge treasures" and the "shopping buses", "Umi Do" (PierIve) and volunteering in local schools, "Secret smile" calling "Endorphin II" and "High Heels" calling "Boots". We had yoga twice a week and Thi Chi led by PierIve, domino and chess competitions twice a week, Trivia game on Tuesday, Spanish conversation class with Sandra on Thursday and then latino dance, Bingo on Wednesday (you can win a cow, two goats, a rabbit, but we did not win anything), walked Hash (runners with drinking problem) on Saturdays, and by Sunday you are so exhausted that just wanted to stay on the boat and do some chores.

"Camp Grenada" is the best place to practice any major language and learn culture from different countries: cruisers here are from USA, Canada, Israel, Brazil, England, New Zeland, Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Sweden, Holland, Italy, Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria, Columbia, Argentina, any other I missed? Bunch of us cruisers were taking evening Spanish classes at the Cultural center of Venezuelian Consulate - twice or more times a week, and they were FREE. Then we would practice a bit Spanish with Sandra on Thursdays, and I would practice my forgotten German and Ukrainian, and native Russian with Nataly, the girl from Ukraine while excercising Thi Chi.

 
But the hurricane season is over, and it's time to move on to other destinations and see other places. So far Grenada island is our most favorite from all Caribbean islands and we will keep our memories from "Camp Grenada" for long time.

Caribbean Islands Hopping in Spring - Summer 2014

April 13  - Ponce, Puerto Rico
Kevin fixed the prop problem - we hit the crab pot on the way, but we discovered another problem - little amount of diesel in the oil pan in the engine. We took all of our injectors to the diesel shop in Ponce - to check if they are licking, and sure enough the mechanic found 4 licking injectors in our collection, luckily, he is going to fix them before we move on. But the suspicion is that the main problem is in the injection pump not the injectors. On Friday, 04/18 Kevin spent some "cozy" time with our iron horse and we decided not to get the pump out but just change injectors and see if our "diesel in oil" problem will disappear...will see. Kevin found dissent dentist in Ponce to finally make a crown for his implant. Too bad we don't have insurance and have to pay full cost ~ $1000. Oh well, he needs the tooth and we will get it! Puerto Rico is a huge island and the public transportation really sucks here. So, we rented a car to drive around and check places. The best attraction so far is the long drive in the mountains - it's amazing scinery on the oceans (both sides) and the drive in the jungle, especially at night! It's creepy. Amazing to see little settlements in the mountains - the houses on the very tall sticks nobody knows how they were built, and the way puerto ricans drive here - most of the cars don't turn on the head lights, and it's very hard to see them from the sharp corners on the turns, the blood is freezing on such turns. Visited Salinas - the gastronomy place in Puerto Rico, Arecibo - not much there, but it's Juan's birth town. On our trips we saw some bizarre things: a lot of young guys are riding the horses without any sadle or padding, these animals are so miniature, that some of riders have thier feet almost on the ground; then they park their horses near houses (do they have garages for them too?) and wash them using the yard hose - in the way we washed our cars in Austin - that is just very funny!

April 14 - May 4
Still in Puerto Rico! We had an amazing day trip into the jungle with a guide - did a lot of hiking, walking in the waterfalls, repelling the water fall, ziplining. It was fun. We spent a weekend with our friend Juan at his parent's house on the north shore. Finally had to use spanish to talk with parents. The food Norma (Juan's mom) made was very delisious and filling, and coffee is the best - the same way my mom prepares the coffee in the small pot with hot milk. Juan showed us his favorite places from the childhood and we met with his best friend - Karlos. Checked out beatiful beaches on the west-north shore of PR - beatiful beaches on the Atlantic side. May 1 - we made it to Salinas, staying on the anchorage - finally saving some money! The bay is very nice and quite, but the wind blows all the day staring 8:30am, and this is every day!

May 5 - May 12
One afternoon we were so surprised to see one of our "buddy boat" from Bahamas - Fidelis! Jenn and Eric finally caught up with us from the south part of Puerto Rico. The last time we saw them in Dominican Republic at Boca Chica. We spent some very nice time together sharing out recent stories and it felt so wonderfull to have somebody else to share a "sunset" drinks. We rented a car for our trip to the El Yunkey jungle in the mountains. It was fun to swimm in the huge waterfalls and hike up and down in the jungle. In Salinas we hanged out every day at the Sal Pa Dentro cruisers bar, the owners, John and Ana, are former sailors and he gave us very valuable advices on the weather and sailing on the south-east coast of Puerto Rico. Soon we left this beautiful peaceful and following his advices were sailing "hugging the coast" to get through these crasy winds and waves near puerto rico. We made it relatively fast to Veaques island, spend a night in the secluded anchorage and next day SAILED!! (no motor finally!) to Culebra island. The island is very beatiful, we enjoyed all the beaches available around, snorkled, swam but, still did not see any turtles. Since most of the places are closed for vacation in May, we mostly hang out at the Dinghy Dock Restaurant. Oh boy, drinks are not cheap in paradise!

May 12 - May 14
Last time we visited Spanish Virgin Islands we skipped this little uninhabited island Culebrita, which is only 7 nm from Culebra, but.. of course, east direction - no sailing. We were so glad that we decided to stop at this beautiful place this time. There are a lot of fun things to do (even though the only inhabitans are wild goats! many of them!) here - we practically did not get out of the water which is very accessable just via jumping from the boat. Snorkled twice a day - saw a lot of fish, sting ray and finally, Marina's dream came true - saw a lot of turtels! They would just swim around your boat starting in the early morning until dark. Hiking is also amazing in Culebrita - up on the mountain top is very old lighthouse, half broken but still accessable to the very top. The view from the very top of this building is absolutelly stunning - you see near islands, like Culebra, Veaques, St. Thomas and St.John; also you can see every corral heads in the water near the shores - amazing. Finally we saw more cruisers vs. charters here - spanish and english couples which are on their way back home to Europe. Met with intersting couple (Andriana and Spencer on Adverse Conditions) who made it twice around the world sailing everywhere for 15 years. Very impressive! As the weather conditions got better we had to leave this enchanted place... how many of such places we could find again?

May 15 - May 16
At last we made it to St.Thomas - it was not so bad, even though we motored agains the wind. The island is beatiful but it's very very turisty... a lot of cruisers and charters, bays are packed with the boats. We got some provision for our trip to BVIs and left early morning next day for Tortola island.

May 17 - May 19
We made it to BVIs finally! ( by our plans we supposed to be here a month ago...) First stop is in Tortola, customs check in. Even thought we have been to this island before, both of us could not remember anything from the first visit. Probably because we were well guided by Alen - our capitan on charter catamaran, so we even forgot what islands in BVIs we visited with him. There are so many charter boats here! We barely could identify couple cruisers around. It's a meka for charters!

May 20 - June 25
Wooho! Have not updated my dairy for about month and a half! Time flies so crazy fast! We made it through BVIs... Spent there about 3 weeks. A lot of swimming, hiking, spearfishing lobsters (got 3 little once) and just relaxing. The islands are so close to each other that there is no any problems to get from one to another in short comfortable sail. The most we liked Virgin Gorda - Savana Bay and Bitter End. BVIs were VERY expensive - moorings $30, food twice than in US, drinks are outragious... and yes, we had to fix our engine multiple times. First it was engine mounts - fixed in Nanny Cay Marina - $1600 for fixing by specialiast mechanic (luckily they had the mounts in the stock). Then we stack for a weeks in the Village Cay Marina fixing our fresh water pump - again, luckily they had a pump in stock, that was unbelievable luck! Changed fuel ingectors, drained antifriz for indefinite times.... And, of course, missed all the opportunities of the good weather to travel sourth-east to Leeward islands - St.Martin and further down. We met a lot of interesting and nice people: Carrol and Patric on Songbird, Tom - 72 years old sailor, Mark and Noel on Cavu, Kathryn and Jorge on Picaro. But they all went ahead of us and we cought up with most of them later. I don't remember what date we finally left BVIs, but we finally made it to St.Martin sometime in June. We had to motorsail again - even though weather forcast called for NE winds, we did not get it. So.. it was exhausting long overnight motorsail. We were so surprised when, after we finally dropped our anchore in Samson Bay waiting for the swing bridge to open, we heard Patric's message on VHF "Lucky Seven, welcome to St.Martin"! So, we met with our Songbird friends and spent very good time together exploring (actually, we were exploring and Carrol and Patric were showing us everything around) this beautiful island. I liked the French side more than Dutch. I could not get enough of the french island city life in the little Marigold town. The fresh amazing pastries and bread every day, delishous coffee in the cafes with sitting outside, the most beatifuly and fashionable dressed women, oh, I enjoyed there every minute! There are so many cute botiques with last fashions - I could not resist to buy one short dress, and while trying it on, I commented to myself - ohh it's too short, on what the french owner answered - hey, it's not short at all! Ok, it's a bit short for my standards, but I really love it! And, oh, those french stinky cheeses and pates, how I miss civilization! The Sint Marteen - Dutch side - is not so upscale, but it's more useful for yachters and provision is much more cheaper there. But there is a time again to depart from my new favorite place to move on to the next islands. We sailed to St.Bart - it was very beatiful and comfortable sail. We anchored in Anse Colombier - that place is very very beautiful. To bad our friends Songbird did not make it with us on the same day... Next day we moved to Augusta - capital of St.Bart, it was very rolly mooring parking, but next early morning we left St.Kitts, tried to sail, but had to use engine again, and.. our engine decided to misbehave and overheat at the end of ths trip. Kevin had to park the boat in the marina with entering on the highest RPMs because slowing down ment to overheat the engine even more - it's the same as with the speed of the car 60 m/h try to make sharp corners and stop abruptly without using your breaks (the boats don't have breaks, so stopping the boat is actually hard and requires advance skills). But we made it to the dock and did not break anything on the way. St.Kitts, then new islans and, of course, we have to fix the engine again! Seems that we are busy with our old iron horse on each stop! This time Kevin changed impeller - because we thought it's the problem. While Kevin was working I sanded our wood outside and wewhile waiting for the NE wind again to go to Dominca, we varnished outside of our boat - this time we layed 7 coats, just 2 less than it should be, but, oh well, we hope to work on it somewhere later. St.Kitts is a nice island, very friendly people, everything is very cheap. We excessively used public busses for our excursions around the island. Very pretty mountanious island. Locals are good, but they like VERY loud music which starts at 9am untill at least 2am. I guess, we are in Caribbean, and have to get used to that.

June 26 - June 30
Had a very long exhausting 23 hours trip from St.Kitts to Dominca. We had to skip Guadalupe because we are late to get to Grenada already. Actually, the first 13 hours we sailed with 6-7 m/h speed, a bit uncomfortably healing, but still good. However, near Guadalupe we had to start engine and ran it to the end of the trip to the Portmouth in Dominica. When passing the islands, we noticed that the wind start doing weird things - either dying to 7 m/h, or pick up over 30 m/h, which makes it very hard to setup sails properly. The waves in the channel between Guadalupe and Dominica were not less than 8 feet, plus the high wind... cannot use the autopilot in these conditions, so had to steer the boat all the time.. I am so glad this trip is over! Dominican island so far my favorite - it's absolutely stunning nature, there is no a picture which can catch this beauty, have to see it for yourself. We hiked a lot, saw huge waterfalls, hot sulfur springs/baths, very cold lake - swam there too, it was so cold to swim! Took a trip in the Indian river, which fairy tell beauty was used for the screening Pirates of Caribbean 2 - episod with Calypso witch. Went throught the farm of the tropical plants: banans (all kinds), mangoes, avocados, papayas, bread fruits, gooseberries, different citrus plant, cashews, cocao and coffee trees. Dominica is called a "Bread Busket" of the Caribbes, and it's so true. Currently they are building the new power plant which will use the heat from the dormant vulcano - so cool! This island has the cleanest natural water of all caribbean islands - from the mountains. We finally met here with other boats who we met in BVIs: Picaro and Cavu. But again, they left two days earlier to Martinique. We hope to catch up with them again.

July 1 - July 24
Have not had to log our trip adventures for almost a month! Time is going soo fast! We liked Martinique island, first staed at St.Pierre bay which is very old nice french town which was totally covered by lava in 1902 while erruption of the vulcano. The town was rebuilt soon after and every building in the town is using at least one wall from the old constructions covered by lava. Very beuatiful and pieceful place. We took public busses to explore the island, spent one day in Fort de France - big industrial and not very pretty city. But it has nice backeries and restaurants serve very delicious french food. We rented a car to drive to Marin - the area of the big marina and all sailing needs. Interesting that we met there (in the disel shop) the french girl who delivered our charter boat to St.Lucia 5 years ago! That was interesting meeting. The last night we spent in Rosseau, where we met our new friends - Del Max - young family from Israel with three young children, leaving in Boston now. Next stop was St.Lucia! We stayed at St.Lucia for more than a week, first in Rodney Bay - on the mooring in marina because of the high winds, then we moved to Pitons bay. That anchorage between Pitons was very very rolly, but it worth suffering because of the stunning view of the island at this place. We climbed to the top of Pettite Piton (about 4600 feet) with the Lee (our tour guy). We made accent in 1.5 hours and descent in 40 min. We showed very good time, better than avarage. It was very hard climbing, using every muscle of your body to pull up on ropes and crawl in the "rabit holes", but we did it! Next day we went to see active vulcano, with boiling water in the multiple little craters and took a mud bath at the sulfur springs - that was a lot of fun! While staying in the Rodney Bay - the most civilized place on the island with nice shopping malls and great supermarkets - we took busses to ride to Castries (capital) and Marigold Bay (very pretty and quiet anchorage). In Castries we spent most of the time exploring huge city market: tried a lot of different fruits, bought locally made wooden sting ray, got the spices for making a spice rum, set of spices for the cocao tee, and watermellon! We had nice cheap and delisious lunch right at the market (hopefully, we did not get any parasites at those places, because everything seems very dirty and stinky). We did not like much town Soufriere - a lot of locals beg for money and don't leave you alone, very annoying. The town is dirty and food is not great. We decided to skip St.Vincent because lately there were reported some assaults on the cruisers and next stop was Bequia. It was such a disappointment for us in Bequia! We did not find it so much cute, clean, fun and friendly as we remembered it from our first caribbean trip. Everything seemed so rundown and gray this time... a lot of beggers at any place.. so we were glad to leave this place and sailed to Mustique island. Mustique could be called "Disney World" for the white rich people. It's a private island and of course, it's absolutely crazy expansive. The anchorage was very rolly as well, however, snorkling and water are amazing. On the first night we had barbeque at some local place and after that Kevin and I went bar hopping in this little village. Kevin even got chance to play pool (and he lost), and I finally danced a lot! We had a bit uncomfortable return home: I had to drive our dinghy and Kevin fall down in the water while trying to get on the boat from dinghy, and his phone was in his pocket. In the morning he found his wet phone in the pocket and even drying it in the bag of rice did not help to bring it alive. Oh well, it's just a phone. But we had very good time, met almost all the locals in the village, who were very kind to forgiving to us, and our introduction to Grenadines life was consume "Iron Jack" - very strong homemade rum, with a glass of water after a shot. That was very painful experience! Next stop was Canouan island, and again, the anchorage was VERY rolly! While walking around a village we discovered that we actually have been in this place 5 years ago! That was surprise to us. We still cannot find a place we ate before on one of the Grenadines islands with "One Love" writing on the wall. Hmmm, we are not dreaming about that, because we still have a picture of that! After two nights we left this rolly place (after we finally got water for our boat), and went to straight to Mayreau little island, while skipping Tobago Cays (the weather did not promisse anything good, so we had to find better protected and NOT rolly anchorage). First night was a disaster - very rolly again - at the Salt Whistle Bay. It was so packed that was very hard to find any anchorage, besides the moorings were all taken. We were only US boat there, the rest were French, Dutch, Swiden, etc. But the bay is very pretty, even though the bottom of the bay is full with the trash from the charter boats. Next day we moved to Saline Bay, that was much better anchorage, less rolling and very very clean and pretty, with white sand beach and starfish on the bottom. So far, this is my favorite stop in Grenadines. We spent there couple days swimming, snorkeling, hiking and then moved to the next - Union island. Not much excitement at the Union island - we anchored in the Clifton Bay, interesting place with huge reefs around. It seems like not much protection, but the reefs are breaking any waves and it was not much rolly. We had a tropical wave while staying there - a lot of heavy winds, and Kevin did not get much sleep, every though we dropped two anchores just in case. Clifton bay is a home of the Kitesurfing school and Kevin desperately wanted to get a class, which is pricy - $200 per person for 3 hours. Even though we were here in the low season, all the classes were completely booked, so, we did not have opportunity to try kitesurfing. After weather got better we sailed to Carrriacou, Grenada.

August 1, Carriacou, Grenada
We almost made it to Grenada! Amazing how fast time is passing while hopping islands. We are staying here, in Carriacou for couple nights already. It's a neet place. Local people are very friendly and not mailcious. No need to lock your boat, shut your hatches and pull up your dinghy overnight. So far, seems very safe. Locals seem like living in the lazy mood, not caring much about cruisers. We had hard time to find place to eat at night, because locals kind of even don't care if they get some customers. We explored the island on the local bus, went to Windward village where locals build their wooden sailboats from white cedar found planty in the woods. Spent some time in Hillsborough town, the provision is not the best at this place and kind of expencive. We got here in the right time, because this week is annual 49th Regatta in Carriacou. Kevin got a place on one of the boats to help a skipper in the race.

"Lucky Seven" and our ICW adventures - Fall of 2013

We visited places which probably never would make it to the TripAdviser and other travel recommendations... But hey, this is our country and I am so glad I had an opportunity to explore more than I imagined. On Oct.10 we finally left Clear Lake Marina, near Kemah, where we stayed from July 2d 2013 up to October. It was hot, humid, no AC on the board, cockroaches, rats and dirty. Most of the people who stayed here, never take their boats further than sailing in Clear Lake and our talk about sailing to exotic places was laughed at loud. But one day, Saturday, we finally decided to get rid of both our cars at the Car Max, then got a free ride from their sails person back to the marina. Since living in Texas without a car is not possible, the next morning we sailed to Galveston and then our first big trip started. While living Galveston early morning to Lake Victoria I got sick, so don't remember much, but here are some notes I found from my diary - just 20 days of driving on ICW, but you can get a picture...

Day 9 - Sun, Oct.20 - Lake Charles, Texas
We parked at only marina (not sure about the name), at the fuel dock since there are not designated docks for sailboats in this area. We docked next to the Coast Guards, which was very convenient for us. Marina was clean, an owner was nice. The only inconvenience was the Section 8 housing right next to the marina and to walk to the buses and the main roads we would need to walk a "green mile" as we called it. The marina owners said it's not so dangerous as used to be, there are no murders and assaults with guns around here are not very common anymore. That was a bit relieve for us... During one night Marina heard a woman's screams in Section 8, was not sure if needed to call for help our neighboring Coast Guards (Lake Charles Coast Guard station is the next dock to our boat), or to load our gun. Screams stopped but Marina could not sleep all night. Night was very cold - 46F, uhh, Kevin finally asked for a blanket!! Next morning we found "lost" women's panties on our "green mile" walk. No questions asked... Since we are trapped in Lake Charles waiting for the engine parts, we continued discovering this little town via walking with our backpacks. Ended up in Starbucks for free wifi catching up with our blog and other stuff. As strange it's sound we are really enjoying walking - nice exercise and can see more around than just driving.

Day 10 - Mon, Oct.21, Lake Charles, TX
This is a big day for us - we might get alternator fixed today. We walked caring in our backpacks both original and replacement alternator to Auto Electric and Magnito Shop and it was a miracle that an owner happened to have our missing part! We got lucky. He also checked our original alternator and verified that yes, it was broken. We rushed back to the boat to try new alternator, Kevin put it all together, we started our engine, and .. there is no exhaust water coming out! Piece by piece we checked all the cooling system of engine, looked through manuals and diesel engine books trying to troubleshoot a problem, until we disconnected and connected back the last unchecked hose - water finally ran from exhaust. We were so happy! However, seems Monday is not our very lucky day... and Kevin yelled "stop engine" - he noticed a crack in the exhaust housing filter. Well, now we need to find a replacement for our cracked piece, or otherwise we cannot go anywhere. Unfortunately, cannot get this piece earlier than Thursday. At the evening we finally decided to use our dinghy to drive around and made it to "Jag's Bistro" - it's only place in Lake Charles on the waterfront, no cleats on the docks, but can tie your dinghy around poles. We got some seafood and couple drinks, it's so nice to be back in civilization!

Day 11 - Tu, Oct.22,Lake Charles, TX
Another idle day spent in Lake Charles...Kevin might get a little job today working on network setup at apartment complex. To get there we decided to ride our dinghy instead of walking. The water way to McNeese University from BowTie is very nice - a lot of huge beautiful houses on both sides of the river, but the water is very dirty with litter - we even saw a dead squirrel, would not want to end up in this water. There was not any "parking" suitable places for our dinghy, so we returned back. Later we took dinghy to Casino De Lauberginue (????) and spent wonderful time there - however, seems luck is not on our side lately, gambling did not go well and after losing $10 we returned back home. At this point seems that we exhausted all the attractions in Lake Charles! But we still have to be here until our engine part will show up - hopefully on Thursday.

Day 12 - Wed, Oct.23, Lake Charles, TX
We rented a car today, yea, it's kind of cheating, but we really wanted to visit Tabasco factory. It's a bit off the way from ICW and we planned to go there, but because we are late on our original schedule to make it to New Orleans, we decided to drive to Avery Island (where Tabasco factory is). Drive was boring, about 2 hours from Lake Charles. Even driving a boat on ICW is more exciting that this drive. Along I-10 HW we saw a lot of Casinos situated right in the gas stations! And a lot of eateries with typical south Louisiana food: boudins and cracklings. The Avery Island looked like oasis: very green and well kept. Kevin was excited to try all varieties of the Tabasco sauce currently produced. We even tried tabasco ice cream at the Country Store - interesting taste... Then we drove/walked through Jungle Gardens created by the founder and owner of the Tabasco factory. In our quest of finding alligators we perused every marked "Marsh trail" on the map of this island. They should be somewhere! It's been 6th day in Louisiana and we still did not find any alligators, we were determined to find one! While carefully walking marsh trails we finally spotted an alligator, what excitement it was for us! The poor little creature (about 4 feet long) was scared of us more than we were scared of him, and hid immediately under the tree. Then we realized that this environment is not a zoo! and we might stamped on another bigger one.. Very carefully we traced our steps back to the main road and Kevin wanted me to walk ahead (my husband is such a gentleman!). Further on the little lake we spotted more alligators, they were backing on the sun and not separated from public by the fence! The nearby sing "Alligators are dangerous" finally took us back to reality and scared we ran back to the car and closed doors - we decided not to take chances with nature. After Avery Island trip we went straight to the laundromat - we had a lot of laundry to do for past week, spent there $20 on the "state of the art" washing and drying machines. Then we found wifi in Starbucks and plotted our further trip to New Orleans, this time was well spent, we are finally learning to plan ahead for possible stops, bridges, locks, etc. on the way. Shopped for groceries for the next week, ate dinner at Mexican restaurant, and went far beyond our budget again... On the way home we drove through our "green mile" (as we call our section 8 neighborhood)! It feels good driving vs. walking through there.

Day 13 - Thu, Oct.24, Lake Charles, TX
Well, it's time to say "goodbye" to civilization - took our rented car back. We are back to walking with heavy backpacks! Nice workout opportunity (we keep saying that to ourselves to feel better). In BigK Kevin bought a toilet sit - he wants to make "patio toilet" on our boat, so we would not need to use our compost bucket. Will see how that will go... In the afternoon we received engine part we awaited for since Tuesday. And, we are back to work on our engine. While fixing first problem, we found another one, then another one, and finally figured out why our heater is not working. To fix it would take very long time and we decided that we can go on without a water heater, at least until the next big stop. Alright, we are back in business and leaving tomorrow!

Day 14 - Fri, Oct.25
Big day today! We finally leaving Lake Charles after 7 days we spent here. We are already 6 days behind our original schedule, but that's ok, we actually enjoyed time spent in this little town, walking we learned all the places tourist would go in the little industrial oasis. Thanks to our BowTie marina - they were very friendly to us and patient. Hey, it was our home for 7 nights (the last night we got for free!). On ICW we passed the first locks and even did not have to wait for our turn. It was fast. Drove about 7 hours and dropped an anchor at Mermentaou River. We had some engine overheating problem, but Kevin added anti-freeze and engine survived the last hour of our trip. At least we know where the problem is and Kevin refitted connections, so tomorrow we should not lose any anti-freeze (as we hope!) This anchorage is nice and very beautiful... And we are still trying to spot some alligators... no luck..

Day 15 - Sat, Oct. 26
We spent nice quite night at Mermentaou River anchorage, serenity, beautiful scenery on the water in the morning. On the way to Shell Morgan Landing passed another locks, uneventfully arrived to the docks. We tried to contact Shell Morgan Landing by phone (no services) and by VHF radio (no answer), but the owner saw us approaching and helped us with docking. Kudos to Kevin: he finally figured out communications on VHF with passing bargers and tugs, switching to right channels in time and not afraid to talk with skippers (ch.11, 13, 14 - all except of ch.16! mean communication with local traffic, locks and bridges operators). However, Marina still doesn't feel comfortable talking on VHF and, doesn't understands anything what they are saying - too much slang and southern accent.

Day 16 - Sun, Oct. 27
The night at Shell Morgan Landing was very loud - it's just a stop in the industrial wharf area with big weird looking boats. But, at least it was safe and this place had restrooms and showers! Just for $20/night! It's was so nice to take warm shower after couple days of not washing. We started very early today just with sunrise (about 7:15 am), we still don't feel comfortable to travel in the dark, even though we have reliable chart plotter. The scenery of ICW is the same on the way to Morgan City - marshes and swamps with trees coverd by spanish moss, and we were still looking for alligators.. did not spot any on the busy ICW "streets". We docked at the Morgan City Pleasure Docks - parked behind a row of fisherman shrimp boats and immediatelly made friends with a drunk skipper of one of those boats. There are no any amenities at this place, but at least we thought it's safer than on anchor. The city docks are right in the middle of the old downtown, which is only about 2 blocks (Kevin related this city with Georgetown). All the businesses were closed on Sunday, so..no internet connection for us today either... We found a convinient store in the very bad poor drug area of the city, the guy at the store mentioned to us not to walk around after dark, so trip back through this drug area of the city was a bit intence. On the way back to docks we found Rita May restaurant with very authentic black south Louiana cooking. Even the restaurant was closed, the old black lady - owner - let us in and gave us "really quick whatever is left in the kitchen". We had shrimp stew and seafood gumbo - that was very HOT, but delisious food! We made it back to the boat and locked all the hatches and the entrance door, turned off the lights and I heard Keving was loading AK just in case. The night was very loud - to much work was going on in this industrial city at night, heard couple times the lift bridge going down for the trains, a lot of horns going off, car traffic.

Day 17 - Mon, Oct.28
Started early today. We were ready to leave the docks but the railroad lift bridge came down again. At about 7:30 we are back on ICW. The destination for today is Huma - and we really really need to find internet connection there. Closer to Huma we noticed more industrial traffic, locks, lift/open bridges and Kevin handled it as a professional talking with people in charge on VHF. Well, sometimes they don't answer... especially in the time you really need the answer if the lift bridge will be still open when you will be under it, or should we wait for another opening? Or, what is the hight of the fixed bridge ahead of us? is that 70" or 40"? Unfortunately this information is not on our chart plotter and we are guessing most of the time - first Kevin counts how many length of one car you can place under the bridge (one car - about 10"), so, if that's 6 then we are ok to go under the bridge! Harder is when there are only tracks with gasoline are passing on the bridge, those could be only 2 lengths, yea... the things we have to figure out from the memory of our kindergarten age. We made it to Huma Municipal City Docks - they are located right in the middle of the public park/picknic area, right off the ICW. Since Huma is seems very industrial town we did not see any downtown. The center of the city is huge Hospital - which restrooms we used extencivelly (nice to sit on the normal water flashing toilet!) The Hospital was 4 min walk from our boat. Searching for the wifi we found cafe Liberty, however, had to leave soon - closed at 3pm. Seems everything in Huma is closed at 3pm. The grocery shopping did not get well either - the South Louisiana Groseries store doesn't exist anymore even though it's still in YP and on the map's info. In the closeby gas station we asked where we can buy groceries - the answer was "do you want to buy chicken for what? to cook? we have fried chicken here for sale, do you want salad, what salad?" Anyways, our long walking trip with backpacks in 100F in sun was not very productive, but we found "Wash and wear" laundromat right near our boat. So, at least we washed our clothes and had amazing converstaion with the loisianians - some of the conversations are stretching your mind way too far and you start loving your own life very much. This docking place was just $25/night and pretty safe.

Tu, Oct.29
Restroom trip to the Hospital, coffe, breakfast and we are off again. We counted for a short day today (should be 5 hours),but it took us 9 hours to get to the mile marker 15 IGWW. Turns out that the place we wanted to anchore is taking currently by a business, so we had to look for a new place for overnight ad-hoc - and found "Jo's Landing" docking. It's a bit off the ICW, about 5 mi going in the side channel (LaFettite), but depth is about 14" and we did not have problems to dock at Jo's.

Trying to start a new blog of our travels while staying in Grenada for indefinite time

It's been already more than a year since we are living on our beautiful Valiant 40" Lucky Seven monohull. We managed to change our regular lives from the comfortable living in Austin suburb and regular paychecks to the "leave-aboard full time cruisers". On July 2d, 2013, after 1.5 years of dedicated fixing, reconstructing, breaking, investing 200% of the price into newly bought 30 year old boat, our Lucky Seven finally splashed in the waters of the Golf of Mexico, in the Clear Lake Marina. We were happy, scarred, confused of unknown and looking forward for our new life. Soon after, we elaborated ourselves from a house, our cat Johny II of 12 years, a condo, three cars, phone bills, jobs and everything else which could keep us back in Austin. Our two daughters are grown up already, living separately, visiting home once in two months, seems were ok with us to go, and somewhere excited to visit us at some exotic places sometime. Since October 4, 2013, we sailed more than 4000 miles starting from Galveston in Golf of Mexico, via ICU through Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Bahamas, Hispaniola, Leeward and Windward islands, and finally settled in Grenada, West Indies. We "lost" our old blog, and, so, we will try to start again and will try to keep up with it more regularly than we had before. Also, we will try to reconstruct some of our memories of the past year travels.