06/27/2008, Ste. Pierre, Martinique
Dugouts! I have been seeing many dugout canoes. I had thought they were extinct, but they are using them around here quite a bit. They are not considered anything special, just boats in daily use. In Dominica they are made by the Carib Indians from the 'Gommier" tree. They hollow out a large, long trunk with a machete, called a cutlass around here. Then they cut long planks with a chain saw from similar logs. They attach the planks to the tops of the dugout to increase the freeboard and caulk it up with tar from the same tree mixed with ashes. The finished boat is long and narrow, about 17-24' and 36" to 42" wide. And monstrously heavy! I cannot even lift one end of these craft. The locals like them because they are easier to row than the wide, plank built-boats, and are seaworthy.
I have not seen them taking the dugouts far out into the sea though. Mostly I have seen them near shore casting nets. Three people in the dugout cast a long net in a semi circle a few hundred yards around. One rows like mad, one hands the net to the man at the stern, and the man at the stern sets the net into the water. They have long ropes attached to them that are left in the hands of about 5 people at each end on shore. After the net is completely out, the 2 men who were not rowing don masks, snorkels, and fins and jump into the water to guide the net over any snags on the bottom. Then the people on shore start hauling the nets ashore. The frigate-birds circle and wheel overhead scooping up the surface fish as they congregate. The men use a coordinated heaving motion to haul. and they will let anyone join in. After all is done it takes about an hour or more. Sometimes they get a magnificent haul of snapper, grouper and other reef fish. I have also seen them bring up just a handful of ballyhoo for their efforts. (Ballyhoo are a small beaked surface fish mostly used as bait for dorado.)
This is boating and fishing at the most traditional. Now we are in Martinique and it is more prosperous. Many of the boats are fiberglass, though we see some more traditional crafts. There are fewer wooden boats here. It is amazing to see the old style still in use.
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06/22/2008, Dominica
Kids! Time to swim home for dinner!
When we anchor in a harbor or lagoon, we try to anchor near our friends. This is especially true if there are other "kid boats" present. This facilitates communication and greatly reduces dinghy dependence. They can swim back and forth between eachother's homes -- boats -- and visit without needing a ride. Of course, it makes it hard to bring the Nintendo DS or a DVD, or even a game of Battleship when one goes visiting, but they manage.
Lobster again?! Can't we have chicken?
Bill has found an almost foolproof lobster hunting technique. He takes his pole spear (a hand held spear with a rubber-band like attached that allows him to shoot the spear but still hold on to it) and hunts at sundown. The lobsters come out at night. On Nevis, he found a reef that was teeming with them, and would come back with five or six one-pound lobsters every night. Once, after we had eaten lobster three nights in a row, he came back with 19 of them. We gave them all to a friend with a freezer, and I asked him to hunt me up a boneless skinless chicken breast.
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06/20/2008, Portsmouth, Dominica West Indies
Well this is the end of school year 2008. We have been on our voyage for 9 months today. Overall it has been a big success. We have sailed the course that we have set out. The boat is still afloat. Our family is still intact, and we have had many interesting experiences.
We have also had many challenges. School has been a bigger burden in some ways than we thought. It has also been easier in some ways. We purchased a curriculum (program) from Trent School. The lessons were fairly varied, but not enough depth. We have supplemented the courses with materials of our own. Our children have not always been cooperative with supplemental sources. We had originally hoped to be able to use the areas that we traveled in as a basis for our teaching. We are seeing an area of the world with an interesting and important history. It is the first region that the European explorers settled in the "New World", and has had a major impact on the course of almost every European and American Nation to this day. There are also the mathematics and graphing of navigation. Of course they have learned much simply by being out in the world. Seeing new places and meeting new people have broadened their horizons greatly.
Alice and Noah have been fairly good about doing school on their own without needing too much assistance. Once they get started they can do it on their own. Now that we are near the time they will go to Chicago for the summer they are working hard to finish up. Benjamin has needed much more attention. He is doing a 3rd grade course and we must work closely with him. He needs our help along each step of the way. He has learned much outside of school on his own though. He has a computer. He has become so good with it that we go to him first with any questions about usage.
Sailing the boat is the easy part. Unfortunately we rarely get to sail. Since we have left the U.S. we have traveled mostly upwind. This means that we have a very slow and uncomfortable sailing experience, or we motor sail. We have motor sailed much of the way. Now with only 300 miles to go to Trinidad, our summer goal, we can sail the rest of the way. 300 miles out of the 4000 or so that we have traveled. We have moved about one day in 5, traveling about 500 miles a month. Our boat is mostly at anchor. On the anchor we still have to be vigilant not to drag and hit other boats, or let other boats hit us. I have described it like being a prey animal, a 'deer in the headlights'.
The boat has been a challenge. We are 5 people living on it and she has had a lot of wear and tear. Yesterday I had to repair a macerator pump. That is a pump that 'chews' up toilet outflow to pump it overboard in deep water. Yuck! That meant that I had to ignore the zillion other repairs and projects that I have scheduled. Like repairing the broken leach cord and reef line on the mainsail, sewing the main cover, installing a rod holder for the many poles that we have on deck, solving the oil leak and the raw water leak on the engine, and more. I have shipped the chartplotter to the manufacturer because it failed. These are just the ones that come to mind quickly. I know that there are many more.
The places we have seen have been beautiful and varied. More so that we had expected. The Bahamas were all flat but the water was amazing. The reefs were brilliant and the water was clear and the most amazing color of blue. The world's greatest supermarket was just below our hull there for the taking. We ate like kings. Lobster and conch and fish to our hearts content, and then some. The Dominican Republic was mountainous and an agricultural paradise with fertile valleys and rich produce and dairy. The sea was not so important there. As we have gone down the island chain we have seen some that are volcanic, and some that are just rocky. Some have wonderful plant growth and wildlife.
As travelers we have always been interested in the people of the area. Since we are on a sailboat we are limited in the places that we can get access to an island. We are always in the same place as many other boats and the boats that have come before us. We are not really a novelty to the people that we meet and our relationships with the local people are mostly with the merchants and tour operators. There have been some notable exceptions, but we have had a more difficult time meeting people than we had expected. On the other hand, our real community is the group of cruisers with whom we travel. We have met and become friends with sailors on other boats. We have shared some very special experiences with some wonderful people and we hope to be in touch with them for the rest of our lives.
Being together with one's family as much as we are has presented some challenges too. We are all in one small space all the time. So much 'family togetherness' has been challenging as we have nowhere to go for a change, but overall has made us stronger and closer as a family.
In general we have been out long enough to get a real sense of what a 'cruising lifestyle' is. It is not just sailing off into the sunset like a retirement brochure. It is a lot of work. There are many challenges, and relaxation comes in short intervals, just like a shore side vacation. We have yet to spend a day just hanging out on the beach. The constant challenge of being in a new place and meeting new people is tiring and demanding. The good part is that we have new challenges all the time and life is never boring or routine. We experience new people and experiences everyday. I can easily understand why many people say that they would like to do this, but never go. Still we love it and wouldn't trade a chance for an experience like this for anything.
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