Ogling the Caribbean from the "Eyes Of The World" by a Chain Flaker in Training

Jim's Comment: Another guest blog from my Uncle Steve

VHF Radio: "Eyes of the World, Eyes of the World switch 14"

My first adventure in the Lesser Antilles began when my America Eagle ATR72 TURBOPROP (travelling panache to give the illusion of experience) flight from San Juan landed in front of a solitary building that looked very much like Aunt Pearl’s cinder block house in the mountains of south central Pennsylvania. So this is Melville Hall (the name of the airport in Dominica) I thought.

I then arranged with Fred (I dunno, short for Freddo?) my taxi driver to take me to the police station in Portsmouth explaining to Fred that I wasn’t a parole violator or otherwise wanted but instead my nephew had instructed me to meet him there as the easiest destination in Portsmouth that could be described without a chance of confusion.

This trip of an hour that required crossing the mountainous northern neck of Dominica from west to east allowed me to view the beautiful natural beauty of Dominica

The Sisserou Parrot, probably the oldest species of Amazon parrot in the world, is protected and it is found only in Dominica.

The plant honored as the National Flower is a wild one known scientifically as Sabina Carinalis, commonly known as Carib Wood or Bois Caribe, it was legislated as the National Flower in 1978.

and at the same time the devastation wrought by hurricane Dean, the third most intense Atlantic hurricane (tropical cyclone in the Caribbean) ever to make landfall.

It also gave me a perspective of the poverty of the island that does not have the beaches that are so necessary to develop the beach resorts that attract so many tourists’ dollars to the Caribbean.

Interestingly in spite of its poverty the Dominicans (the people of Dominica not the Republic nor the order) have an excellent longevity.

"To us, she is the oldest person in the World, Elizabeth "Pampo" Israel, Born: January 27, 1875!"

Arriving in Portsmouth my expectations based on the many different Portsmouths I have visited in the English speaking world were let down to find a very third world looking town. (But then again Dominica is Creole French speaking.) Fred pulled up to the police station, which as far as I was concerned could have just as well been a bar, and there was Jim sitting outside.

Jim’s timing introduced one of the many skills of Jim and Rick had honed on the sea and on the land in the Caribbean, i.e. being able to calculate the timing of a series of events which could easily be interrupted by all kinds of variables, such as the weather, inefficiency, animals on the road etc.

Jim then with a fluidity of motion (which also became typical of so many series of actions that Jim and Rick performed from sailing to cooking to cleaning out the plumbing [the most fluid of all], gave me a hug, took my bags, pointed me in a direction to walk with him to the dingy, lowered himself in the dingy, positioned the dingy so I could lower my bags and then myself into the dingy (at the best angle to prevent me from falling in the water in despite my clumsiness), start the outboard, head for the Eyes, position the dingy so that I could step onto the Eyes and lift my bags to me. All of the above actions involving the dingy introduced me to a very important dimension of the sailing life, that being the “dingy.” As a result I am contemplating making my fame and fortune by writing (after more dingy research) the definitive book on dingydom,

especially since I have been told that my idiosyncrasies are well suited for such a topic. For intellectual property protection reasons I am putting Jim, Rick, Margit and Chris on notice of my intentions to also cover “dogs in dingydom.” (Margit and Chris are the extremely talented and charming friends of Jim and Rick who are sailing their own single-aluminum- hull [sailing penache to give the illusion of experience])

Once on Eyes my trip in Dominica paced that of Sue’s as she has described it in her blog and picks up again in Martinique.

Sue’s and Sam’s last day on the Eyes was spent in St. Pierre which was destroyed by Mont Pelée’s infamous eruption in 1902 in the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th Century when the eruption caused about 26,000 to 36,000 casualties in St Pierre including people from neighboring villages who had taken refuge in the supposedly safe city, except for one man, a prisoner by the name of Louis-Auguste Sylbaris who was protected by the walls of his solitary confinement (how’s that for irony or maybe masonry), who survived. He later toured the world with the Barnum and Bailey Circus.

So naturally Jim, Rick, Sue, Sam, Margit, Chris and I decided to risk the wrath of the volcanic god of Mont Pelée by climbing the last 1,000 feet of altitude of the Mont. Even though such risk may have been satiated by his emotional outburst of over ninety years ago, the risk may have been exacerbated by Chris, Margit, Sue and Sam picking carrots growing from its slopes which could have been considered by said god tantamount to pulling ear hair out of his ear. (It’s this ear hair thing which tipped the scale in favor of my designating the deity as male rather than a female). By the way, the carrots ended up into the best carrot soup I have ever had and was prepared by Margit.

However after about climbing about 400 feet of altitude towards the peak we ran into a somewhat bedraggled French speaking hiker coming down the Mont who gesticulated that he had tried to get to the peak but was frustrated by a “you can’t see your hand in front of your face” and “it was very cold up there” gestures, so we turned around so as to eat carrots another day.

The next day after visiting Fort de France, Martinique’s largest city and capital- Jim, Margit and I drove Sue and Sam to the airport outside of St. Pierre for their return to the U.S. Driving to and from the environs of Fort de France (as well as St. Pierre) I was impressed that if I didn’t know better I could have easily been outside any small prosperous city in many countries (you could tell by the Costco store).

The contrast between the third world of culture Dominica and the first world culture of Martinique presented the familiar tension between the close to the earth simplicity of the third world and the modernity of the first world. The contrast was heightened by the fact that Dominica and Martinique and neighboring islands no more than twenty-six miles apart.

The modernity and wealth of Martinique was exemplified by the trip to the Galleria in Le Lamentin outside of St. Pierre by Jim, Rick and I for a typical upscale experience of grocery shopping (exemplified by fashionably dressed customers, e.g. women shopping in high heels),

compared to the open market buy what’s available experience in Dominica and a breadth of selection in the Martinique grocery store from foie gras to designer clothes.

Back on the Eyes I encountered trouble with my head (not as in headache but as in my bowl runneth over).

Sue mentioned that I love telling the story thereby co-opting me from telling it here but also saving you from the scatological details.

Suffice it to say that I was on one hand admiring of Jim’s and Rick’s efforts, as they each took turns of forty-five minutes to an hour in the water at night with a flashlight in their mouth trying to snake out the plumbing blow out valves at the water line of the Eyes as they treaded water with their legs with nothing to hold on to and with the best prospect of their labors being a shower of black water. But on the other hand I was trepidacious that my turn was coming next. Finally Rick decided to take the plumbing in the head apart and clean up the mess afterwards.

So you think sailing is romantic. It should be noted that it seemed that either Jim or Rick or both were involved in an arduous or complex job of maintenance every day I was on the Eyes. In performing such maintenance each seemed to be fully knowledgeable and competent to take the Eyes completely apart and put it together again. All of this in addition to their sailing and cooking skills while participating in their state-side businesses and being excellent hosts at the same time. For me of all the wonder I beheld on the trip, this was the most memorable.

This sentiment brings me prematurely to end my description of my wonderful, beautiful and adventurous sailing trip on the Eyes because of all the beauty, adventure and good times that occurred until the trip ended, the above sentiment is the salient note to end with.

I departed the Eyes leaving something behind (which evidently is yet to be found) so as to have an excuse to return to the “world of the Eyes.”

VHF Radio: "Switching back to Channel 16"

“Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world,
The heart has its beaches, its homeland and thoughts of its own.
Wake now, discover that you are the song that the mornin brings,
But the heart has its seasons, its evenins and songs of its own.“
(Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter - 1973)

You Put Da Lime In the Coconut

Jim's Comment: This is the promised blog from my Aunt with whom we had an incredibly good time in November. Thanks, Sue!

The two weeks I spent in November 2007 aboard Eyes of the World in the company of the skippers, Jim and Rick, my dear sister-in-law Sam, and my husband Steve, are deeply etched in my consciousness.

How’s that for an intro?


I’d like to make this a pitch for anyone who has the chance to visit them – do it! In my many years of life (64, to be precise), I’ve very rarely experienced such a welcoming, attentive and considerate pair of hosts. It takes a lot to make me totally comfortable and able to let loose – it happened on Eyes for those wonderful fourteen days.


Images: the strong helping hands offered to the landlubber, boarding and alighting from various vessels; the excitement of casting off and setting sail for the next destination – with Jim and Rick totally in charge of our fate (my job was to secure the wine bottles and hold onto the dogs); the absolute freedom and exhilaration of sailing silently and peacefully over the bounding main ( I have a new appreciation for that term, by the way, but scopolamine patches took care of it); the cozy and comfortable accommodations with framed photographs of family so appropriately placed in our cabins, and even in the head; snorkeling with guys who have their knowledge and appreciation of the reefs and sea floor honed to perfection – and can dive 20’ down without a thought, to bring to the surface a wonderful critter we surface-snorkelers would never otherwise see; climbing a trail on Goat Island in Les Saintes with Chris and Margit, sweating all the way but marveling in the sights and the history; the market in Dominica and “Big Man” who found his match in Steve; the joy of spontaneous hugs and laughter (encouraged by mysterious rum drinks) and tropical rainstorms on the Indian River cruise; sleeping on the nets with Sam, with or without rain showers, [batten the hatches!], watching the passage of Orion and the incredible swath of the Milky Way; exploring Martinique on our own – our brave hosts driving, finding an abandoned carrot patch halfway up cloudy Mount Pelee, followed by a wonderful lunch in a restaurant by the sea; the history of the Caribbean! Oh my – “concise” the book was not, but for a totally left-brained person such as me, learning of the tragedies of these islands was essential. The monument of the shackled hands said it all. I could go on and on with the images – the photos don’t begin to tell the tale.

And there are a very few regrets:

(1) Despite our careful use of toilet paper (OK: two women, two weeks, only ½
roll!!!), we apparently left Eyes with a clogged holding tank. Steve witnessed
the amazing clearing of the same after Sam and I left, and loves telling the
story. Into the briny deep went our heroes, in the dark, checking valves,
disconnecting pipes, shoving hands into tanks…ok, maybe no more detail is
needed. They fixed it, of course – as they kept all of the complex systems on
Eyes going (see Rick’s previous blow-by-blow accounts on this blog).

(2) Wish I’d learned how to sail – oops, just remembered the instruction I received from the guys – how tightly I held onto the wheel and watched the compass and GPS – then came back up from a trip to the head to find autopilot doing a much more competent job than I had, thank you very much.

(3) Wish I’d conveyed more emphatically to Jim and Rick how much I enjoyed those 14 days.
Summary: the ease of daily life on Eyes with Jim & Rick. Let me repeat that: the EASE. So rare, so wonderful. Thank you, my dears. As our Governator says, “We’ll be back!”

Love, Sue (Jim’s aunt)(She married them)(and is very proud of that)


Comment from Jim: The "Coconut" song became a nightly even during which everyone sang and raised their hands in the air.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who are US citizens.

As requested, let me take a moment to show you where we are. If you don't have Google Earth on your machine, you should certainly download and install it. It is great. The picture below is of the Caribbean. The sailboats "mark the spots" we've been over the past month; we're currently on the island of Martinique.

"Martinique?!?!" you say? "How did you get over 100 miles from your last blog entry?" Yes, we've been quite busy over the past few weeks, and there's a lot to tell. We've seen Guadeloupe, Dominica and Martinique AND we'll be leaving for St. Lucia in the next week. Additionally, we had our first visitors – my step mother, aunt and uncle.

I’ve started this blog several times, but just couldn’t seem to get the ball rolling. Those who know me might be able to see how my tendency toward perfectionism seems to fuel my tendency toward procrastination. With that said, I’m forging on in spite of all the details I may miss. Additionally, I’m going to ask our recent visitors to submit a blog entry to cover their time on Eyes of the World. I figure asking for that in a public forum really puts the pressure on.

As I was saying, we’re on the southern tip of Martinique in a little village called Le Marin. We've had family visiting for the past three weeks, so we decided to dock the boat at a marina so we can take advantage of unlimited electricity and water to prepare for our next round of visitors.

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner with our very good friends Margit and Chris whom we met while in Guadeloupe. Margit is from Austria and Chris is from Australia. They were still very happy to help us celebrate. As they say, any excuse for a bottle of Champagne is a good excuse. For now, let’s step back to where we left off nearly two months ago. Just relax and think back…..

We arrived in Guadeloupe on September 8th. What's that you say? Why were you there for such a long time?! Well, there are a couple of reasons. We'd like to say the primary reason was to wait out hurricane season on an island with a good place to weather a storm. However, the French culture, wine, food, wine, language, wine... You get the picture.

Rick's prior blog Eyes of the World: Puff the Magic Dragon, Lived by the Sea... he told you a bit about what we've done since we were on Guadeloupe. Well, my job is to fill in some of the details, because there are many, as we've seen quite a lot while in this "Department" (read: state) and we absolutely love this group of islands.

We arrived in Deshaies after a very nice (and uneventful sail) from Antigua. Deshaies is on the island of Basse Terre. Guadeloupe is comprised of many islands with the two largest being Basse Terre and Grand Terre. They are what make people think Guadeloupe looks like a butterfly.

It was a Sunday when we arrived and as a result didn't have to worry about clearing into customs, so it was straight to town with two little dogs crossing their legs. Now, Rick and I have been to Paris quite a bit over the past 11 years and we (Rick) knows how to get by in the native tongue, French. In Paris, most of the people we’ve run across know how to speak English. And once we've done our due diligence by attempting to speak their language, they are more than happy to show-off their multi-language skills.

In Deshaies, this was not the case. And having not been in France for a few months - our (Rick's) French was rusty. We were successful in getting ourselves a bottle of wine and dinner, but it was not without its struggles and Rick was even successful in getting permission for the dogs to sit by our table while we ate.

Deshaies is a fishing village and it's beautiful. It is very small and has two main streets each running in one direction. You can walk from one end of the town to the other in about 10 minutes. Each evening, a million (ok, maybe 25) fishing boats go out to get the fish from the traps (again, see Rick's blog about the fish traps) and you can see their lights all night.

While in Deshaies, we rented a car and drove down to the capital city of Basse Terre. We had several agenda items for our trip. First, we wanted to hike in the rain forest. But we also wanted to investigate the marina there. Remember that we're still in hurricane season and so we have to be prepared in case we have to ride out a storm.

The hike to the rain forest was fantastic. We saw all kinds of lush forests and wildlife. We had the dogs with us, because we felt guilty about leaving them behind. We climbed about half way to the top of the volcano on the southern part of the island when we saw a sign indicating that dogs were not allowed. Additionally, there were indications that sulfur gas could cause breathing problems along with skin rashes. Needless to say, we elected to go back down the mountain to the safety of our French rental car.

We left Deshaies on the 13th bound for Pointe-a-Pitre. There are two ways to get there from where we were. One involved going north and then navigating the Riviére Salée which divides the two main islands. There are two draw bridges on this river and they open at 5:00am and 5:30am. I'm not kidding.

The other option was to go south around the southern coast of Basse Terre and then turning north to go back about the same distance north to Pointe-a-Pitre. If you can imagine, we chose that option. Getting Rick out of bed for a 5am departure would be quite a feat.

Upon leaving Deshaies, we chose to make the trip to Point-A-Pitre in three days. That would give us enough time to stop at Pigeon Island. This island is about half way down the west coast of Guadeloupe on the way to the capital of Basse Terre (yes, it's the same name as the island). At Pigeon Island there's the Cousteau National Park. You all know how much Rick and I like diving, so we had to stop there for a dive or two.

Anyway, I'll let Rick regale you with the story of how I dropped the boat hook while going up to a mooring ball. In case he doesn't, I'll give you the short story. In most of our sailing, all the mooring balls that we've happened upon have had a pennant (aka line) hanging off of them. This allows us to motor up on them and pick the up out of the water and hook them to the boat. We attach the pennant to the boat using a shackle and a bridle. The bridle is a line that runs from the bow of one hull to the other with a shackle in the middle. Bridles make the stay at anchor or mooring ball more stable.

Anyway, here we are motoring up on the mooring ball when I realize that there wasn't a pennant for me to grab. This means, I have to reach down about 5 feet and grab the mooring ball with one hand while using the other hand to attach the shackle to the ring on the top of the ball. I, like most of us, only have two hands which leaves me with no hands to hang onto the boat.

Our first attempt and second attempt resulted in much cursing on my part - and Rick having to swing the boat around for another try. He offered to switch places, which was a good idea considering he is much taller than I, but I wouldn't hear any of it. On our third attempt, I managed to grab the mooring ball with the boat hook and pull it up a few feet. I quickly grabbed the ball with the other hand and like a pro snapped the shackle closed on the mooring ball.

I turned around, very pleased with myself, to Rick smiling. He asked "where's the boat hook?" I looked on the nets which is the place I always leave it after such a feat. To my surprise, it wasn't there. I looked back to Rick and he pointed ahead of the boat. There it was about 10 feet from the bow floating in the water. I then had to retrieve the boat hook and admit I had/have a stubborn streak.

We had two great dives while at Pigeon Island. We bought a new underwater video camera that allows us to capture the "big fish" as it swims by. We took it on this dive with us - and lo and behold, we found an Octopus. I refer you to the blog entry: "Someone’s knocking at the door; somebody’s ringing the bell…" for the details on why this is important. But Rick passed the camera to me, and I kept shooting in Hollywood style for about 15 minutes while the two of them did the octopus two-step. When we got back to the boat and downloaded the video, where we realized the camera was off when Rick handed it to me. So nothing was captured... it's the old tale of the one that got away.

We spent the night at between Pointe Malendure and Pointe Du Mont Criquet. I'd give you a name, but for the life of me I can't find it on any charts. It's basically due east of Pigeon Island for those of you on Google Earth. It was a pleasant anchorage, but the beach was black sand which didn't go well with the dogs’ feet and our white fiberglass decks. But all was well in the end.

We set sail for Basse Terre the next day and as expected, the wind was on our "nose." That's sailor speak of having to motor directly into the wind, which us sailors always seem to end up doing more than we'd like. The motor down was fine, with the exception of the fish traps. Have I mention Rick's blog about fish traps? read it!

It was a smooth day, so we decided to let Coco have the helm for a bit. Call us crazy.

We arrived in the evening and after setting anchor, went out for a quick bite at one of the local Marina joints.

The next day we were off for Pointe-A-Pitre. You’d think since the prior day we’d motored south directly into the wind, that our trip up to Point-a-Pitre would be a pleasant sail. You’d think… However, Murphy has a set of laws that apply to sailing – and I believe the first one reads: “Where ever you want to sail, you can expect the wind to be on the nose.” And so it was for our trip to Point-a-Pitre.

About 6 hours after setting out from Basse Terre, we arrived at Marina Bas du Fort. At the time, we didn’t know that it would be our home for nearly two months. It is also where we met Margit and Chris Mills.

Rick met Chris while walking Coco and Cooper. Margit and Chris have a Jack Russell named Jackie. She has several nick names including “JD”, ”Jackie Dog” and one of my favorites “Munchie.”

Chris and Rick hit it off immediately. I think that happens when two extroverts run across each other. Especially in a country that doesn’t have many English speakers! By the end of the first meeting, we’d been invited over for coffee and home cooked bread.

Margit and Chris are on an aluminum boat called “Lucky Star.” You can read their blog at http://sailluckystar.blogspot.com/. They’ve been out for over 2 years and had an abundance of valuable knowledge and accounts to share.

We decided to stay put for the remainder of hurricane season largely because we had new found friends. Margit and Chris have brought so much to our lives. We share similar interests in wine, food and travel. Margit has brought several additional pounds around my waist with her fantastic cooking. Chris has brought us nearly every tool we’ve needed. But mostly they brought us company, friendship and fun.

So on this Thanksgiving, what am I thankful for? Well, I’m very thankful for all that I have in my life including Rick, family, my business and business partner, and the best friends. But I’m also thankful for Chris and Margit for helping make the past two months even more spectacular than I could have imagined. And thankful for their willingness to travel with us over the coming months and discover the wonders we have yet to find.

Oh, and I’m thankful that Sue, Sam and Steve are going to write an account of their time with us over the past three weeks. So everyone stay tuned for what they have to offer. Until then, stay well and be happy.