Ile de la Gonave, Haiti

Wednesday January 10 2007

Ile de la Gonave, Haiti

It has been, believe it or not, five weeks since we arrived in Haiti. We are still adjusting to the daily life and the culture here, a true challenge in itself. Many here say that you never get used to this country… you just accept and adapt to how things are. We are starting to believe that this is true. Most times, we feel as if we are missionary’s here. There is a huge mixture of emotions for us and we are making the best of our time here in order to understand and learn about what Haiti is about. We have seen so much here that it would take pages and pages to share all, so it is better discussed over a great bottle of wine the next time we see each other. One thing we have been up to is learning how to respect the local people here and, in respect, we have been learning the local language, Creole, which at most times is totally confusing, mixing French, Spanish, and English with a majority of made up words, still unknown to us, all mish-mashed together to form a language, VERY confusing to say the least!. So let me tell you that our discussions with the local Haitians look more like a game of charades than a conversation, in the sence that we act out most of our conversation with a bunch of hand and body movements, adding the little Creole we know to communicate to each other. In the end, we eventually end up understanding each other, and have a bunch of laughs doing it.

Communications are not too bad here as far a cell phones go, but the internet is very sporadic, making our updates a challenge, but we are finding ways as you can see.

Since the very busy Christmas holidays here, we have not really been traveling. We have done many local outings and have done many trips back and forth to Port au Prince (via automobile). We are getting more and more eager to get some nautical miles under our keel, in order to see some new places. We are planning to set sail shortly for the North and South sides of Haiti. Our first sailing destination should be for the south, heading for Ile a Vache, Island of the cow!! We have no idea who came up with the name but from seeing pictures of the island, it looks to be quite beautiful. We will share more with you once we have been there and experienced it through our own eyes….promise!

During the last weeks, we have been to Ile de la Gonave, which is an Island, located within the heart of the Haitian gulf, kindly name the Gulf de la Gonave. The island of the Gonave, we are told, is larger than la Martinique and Guadalupe, and after comparing it on the navigation charts, it’s true!. The island is mostly populated by fishing villages and many charcoal farmers, bearing a population of about 80,000 people. It is not a flat island as the tallest peak is of 2500 feet in altitude, making all quite picturesque.

During the winter period in Haiti, the weather here is a classic text book case. The weather is heavily influenced by mountains with altitudes ranging from 4000 to 9000 feet, surrounding the gulf and trade winds coming from the equatorial currents, making the winds continuously switch like a iguanas tail between northeast and southeast during the winter months. The night breeze is comprised of nocturnal winds (katabatic), winds blowing off shore. During the morning hours the winds are of a sea breeze (blowing towards the shore). So every morning, the wind blows us on shore and, at night, the wind blows us off shore. Amazingly the highest wind we recorded so far has been of only 18 knots, but the seas do get on the choppy side. Sunny every day with so little rain to talk of, and light winds (not so good for high speed sailing, but who is in a rush here), so all in all, not bad for the weather part!

Take a look at Annie’s recipe of the month posed on our web site www.WeBeSailing.com, Annie always has something to make your mouth water, and to make you stomach growl!!! Enjoy!! Sorry about last month, we where not able to get things updated! But within the next 24hrs, the website should show our updates. We are also updating our travel photo album. Check out the many fantastic pictures we have taken.

Please keep posting your great comments; it is very encouraging for us to see.

Cheers and best wishes to all for a great 2007!!! May the wind and waves be at your stern.

Annie & Eric, In Haiti
Aboard s/v My Love III
Web: www.WeBeSailing.com
E-mail: WeBeSailing@yahoo.com
If you wish to contact us you can, either by dropping us an e-mail or calling us on our Haiti Cellular Phone number (509) 728-3112 (sorry if you have been calling us on our Florida number as we have not been able to pick up the messages from Haiti, the number is still good but we can’t use it for the moment, we will keep you posted when its working again).

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