Report from the Appalachian Trail

OK, we are not aboard the Charlotte D at this time. Sorry if you came here to read about cruising in the Caribbean.

Instead, we are CLODs (Cruisers Living on Dirt) now that the Charlotte D is laid up for the approaching hurricane season. And, we are gradually making our way back to Nova Scotia.

We report here on a few days in the Shenandoah Mountains of Virginia.

The focus of these few days was hiking on the Appalachian Trail.

Click on the video below to relish the South River Falls.

This is late spring/early summer here in the mountains.

 

The earliest wildflowers are in profusion.

Snakes are making their first forays to sun-warmed rocks.

Bear are active.

The trail huts of the Appalachian Trail are scenic, and surely welcome on a rainy night. 





However, the log book entries of hikers in transit tell the story of the discomforts and limitations of hut living. Imagine such tight overnight quarters with 5 or 6 fellow hikers sans showers for a week or more.

The rustic cabins (below) of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) are far more luxurious.

We enjoyed several day hikes along segments of the AT, and, being softies, spent evenings on mattresses in fully-equipped cabins.

We certainly agree with John Muir!

Peter and Catherine, CLODs

Report from S/V Charlotte D enroute to Grenada

This is our ninth posting about the 2011-2012 winter cruising season.

There will be one more posting to follow; focused on fishing.

On March 13 we departed Martinique to begin our return trip to Grenada for haul out and summer storage. The return to Grenada consisted of a series of day sails with short layovers.


Our first leg was from Martinique across to the windward side of St. Lucia. This was a magnificent close to beam reach with near idea conditions of 15-18 knots of east wind and 1.5 to 2 m seas.


Click on the video clip below to get an impression of the sailing conditions.





Peter played with his new fishing toy. 

And, when exhausted from that effort, had a short nap in the cockpit. 



This day sail took us to the south side of St. Lucia where we anchored for the night behind Maria Island. This is a scenic, fair weather anchorage.

The next morning we continued south on the windward side of the island chain; crossed the channel from St. Lucia to St. Vincent and passed to windward of Bequia on a gorgeous beam reach.




We stayed 4 days secured in the mooring field of Mustique and enjoyed it very much.











We rented an ATV, locally known as “mules”, for an exploration of the island.






They charge per driver and Catherine won the toss to drive.  Check out this video clip for a sample of the Mustique roads.

 

Mustique has lovely beaches, nearly deserted.   We need to come back to give them each the time they deserve.

The interior is also quite attractive; mostly dry forest but also some mangrove and ponds.

 On March 18 we departed Mustique for a delightful broad reach through the Grenadines to Union Island. Check out the video clip below.

 

In Chatham Bay we were pleased to be greeted and entertained by Vanessa and Seckie at their “Sun, Beach and Eat”.


As expected, they served us a delicious meal of grilled lobster, breadfruit salad, washed down with beer and rum punch.








We  brought them a windsock with Maple Leaf to further decorate their eatery.



The final sail for this season was from Union Island down the windward coast of Grenada to the anchorage at St. David's.


At St. David's we began the decommissioning of the Charlotte D, and rewarded our labours with daily Happy Hours at the Marina Bar where we made some new acquaintances among the cruising community there.

After several days we moved a few miles along the coast of Grenada to anchor in Prickly Bay and completed the in-water parts of the annual decommissioning before our haul out for the summer on March 26.   Before we flew away from Grenada on April 2, much additional maintenance was done ashore to prepare for next winter's cruising season.

Book of the week, “The Ursula Franklin Reader, Pacifism as a Map”, Ursula M. Franklin.

Peter and Catherine, aboard S/V Charlotte D.

Report from Martinique

This is our eighth posting about our winter cruising season 2011-2012. We hope you enjoy it.


It was a spectacular 105nm passage from Marie-Galante to Martinique Febuary 22-23. The first segment was a southward beat from Marie-Galante to about half way down the east (windward) coast of Dominica. This was followed by a close reach to the south end of Dominica and a beam reach across to the west side of Martinique. “Life is a Reach!” Two mild squalls touched us and several others passed nearby.




Mostly the wind was 15-20 knots, gusting 23-27 in the squalls. We made good the first 70 nm in 11 hours, exceptionally good time for our boat!



As expected, when we entered the lee of Martinique in the afternoon, the wind more or less disappeared, so we motored south along the west coast of Martinique into the evening hours and settled at anchor off the beach at St. Anne at 0230 hr.


Martinique has many delights, with the French cuisine being high on our list. Catherine enjoyed her bouillabaisse, but gave the included Ballyhoo to Peter.



Later we shared Le Grand Asian Poisson Assiette (including egg rolls, morue, poisson fumee, chartrou, and melon kabob).




The next day Catherine was bold enough to order beouf tartare, topped with a raw egg. This was accompanied by a wonderful brown mustard and a delicious garnish (minced onions, garlic and basil). She liked it! 

Below you see the raw egg on tartare on bread ready to pop into her mouth!



Peter thought the tartare (left on the plate above) looked like the pile of raw ground beef that it was, and he preferred his fricassee chartrou (octopus). To each their own!

The island rhum was poured for every sunset ceremony.




And rhummeries were visited whenever possible.




St Anne is a picturesque small village. It has all the support facilities that we need. Check it out on Google Earth at 14-26.2'N 060-53.4'W.





One day while we were online in an internet cafe there was a raucous event in the next room. A sport event was on the big screen tele attended by a group of cruisers eating great mounds of frites (“chips” in Canada and UK, “french fries” in US). I noticed that the ball was being carried in the hands, so it must not have been football. There was a steady stream of shouted exhortations such as, “Go!, Go!, Run! Run!”, as if the players at the faraway game could hear the local fans. The climax of the event occurred when a boy on the not favoured team took the ball away from a boy on the favoured team and ran away with it! Imagine that! This elicited an enormous crescendo of curses from the audience before the big screen. Thus ended the event, and they departed in a dejected mood. Life is full of such disappointments.


Martinique has a well-developed system of hiking trails. We enjoyed a section of the Cape Trail, which winds 34 km along the shore southward from the village of St Anne.


    


The forest on this part of the island is dry with mostly small trees. There are some larger specimens that made us emotional.




After the hike, we cooled ourselves in the waters of the bay. Always ready for a swim!





The beach at St Anne is overlooked by the hilltop cemetery. .



The in-water exercise groups at the St Anne beach are well organized.




Yoles are colourful traditional island sailing vessels and are commonly seen in the harbour. They have no ballast keel, so depend upon crew weight on windward poles for stability. Be nimble, be quick, or capsize!




We rented a car for an island tour, but we only got part way up the east coast. We saw lots of banana fields! The plastic bags protect against fruit bats and other “pests”, so the bananas we find in the market are without blemish.




We chanced upon the crab wholesaler as we explored the backstreets of Le Francois.



Catherine always enjoys the spice markets. And, fortunately for us, she knows what to do with them!


On March 13 we departed Martinique for a series of day sails toward Grenada. The series of sails from Martinique, and short layovers along the way, will be described in our next posting of 2011-2012.

Meanwhile, check out this video of Catherine knitting underway, 10 miles at sea.




This sweater-to-be has quite a history! Catherine was midwife for the lambing;  raised and sheared the sheep. She washed, carded, dyed the wool with onion skins and Kool Aid, spun and plied it to make the yarn before knitting began. So, really the sweater began 30 years ago when that sheep was conceived on Catherine's farm in Ontario. Whew!


“See a lot, Learn a lot, Live a lot”


Book of the week: “Walden: Or, Life in the Woods”, Henry David Thoreau


Peter and Catherine, aboard S/V Charlotte D, somewhere in warm salt water.