When we went to Frigate Island we thought we would be anchored there only a night or two waiting out the weather to move to the Tobago Cays. A week and a day later we finally left. It did wind up being a good place to wait, even though there were still some rough and wet rides to shore from here. One of the nice things about staying here instead of in Clifton (the other major anchorage) is that we were at a more laid back area of the island of Union. When we traveled south we were in Clifton so this gave us a chance to explore a new part of the island. Frigate Island is marked by the stopped development of a marina and condo complex. We understand that they had hoped to build ... read more

When we were traveling south we moved quickly through many of the islands as we needed to get below 12 degrees latitude for the hurricane season. One of the islands we did stop at was Carriacou. This 13 square mile island with approximately 7,000 people is the southern-most island in the Grenadines. The Grenadines are a group of small islands found between St. Vincent and Grenada. The northern portion of the Grenadines are part of St. Vincent and the southern portion of the islands are part of Grenada. We had been told it was a good anchorage on the way south and it enabled us to check into Grenada so if we wanted to stop anywhere along the coast of Grenada we could legally. We took their advice – it was an easy check in process... read more

The whole time we lived in Africa and every time we travel and we find ourselves some place uniquely interesting we refer to it as a “National Geographic moment”. This trip down the Manamo River was a continuous National Geographic moment. Every time we turned around there was another incredible view, amazing sound or unexpected moment. Whether it was waking up at sunrise having our coffee in the cockpit while we listen to howler monkeys howling out to each other while hundreds of green parrots fly overhead or the vision of the incredibly brilliant red scarlet ibis flying off their perches this is one of those places that truly takes your breath away. And just when you think things couldn't become more amazing a pod of river dolphin start snorting and breaching all around the boat. ... read more

Just a very quick update to let you all know that we had a fabulous trip on the Manamo River in Venezuela. We were gone for 17 days and they were fabulous ones! We enjoyed traveling with 2 other boats - 1 from Holland and 1 from Scotland. The experience was one that we will remember for a very long time. It was wonderful to have some interactions with the Wareo Indians that live on the river as well as to see a beautiful area of the country. It was a very relaxing trip but with lots to talk about so will take some time to provide you all of the details of the trip. We promise to get the full story up soon with lots of photos but it will be difficult to sort through ... read more

It was a very busy week. Wednesday, Oct 26th we went to the village of Felicity to participate in the Hindu Festival of Lights (Divali). Friday we went to the Queens Hall in the capital city of Port of Spain to listen to 7 steel pan bands compete for a 150,000 TT prize (6TT= $1). Queens Hall is an excellent auditorium with great acoustics that opened in 1969. The audience was dressed to the nines with their elegant evening wear for this evening of music. The cruisers that attended stood out a little because as you might imagine we don’t carry evening wear on our boats – some did better than others, but luckily that didn’t make a difference. The evening was filled with talented musicians of all ages. It was great to see many of ... read more