Limbo – Paradise, Michigan, USA, July 30, 2024

Posted on August 1, 2024 by Sally

It has been nearly a month since Hurricane Beryl hit (July 3^rd to be exact). We still have heard nothing from insurance and have no direction. Usually, we are good at wandering aimless but this time, it’s different. During the last month we have managed to make another trip to Georgia to visit with my parents and spend two weeks in Columbus visiting the girls. Having the RV has made our time back in the states easier but we both still miss the boat.

Ron spent 5 days travelling to Grenada to secure the boat as soon as the island opened, and the ferries were running. He said it was a miserable trip and the devastation on Carriacou is immense at best. We also found a lot more wrong with Mariposa than just the mast which was another fear we had. There is a huge crack in the roof of the super-structure and there was water running down the walls when he got there. It was initially hidden by the boom but when he actually got on board the damage to the hulls and roof were obvious. I am glad he made it back just before the major tech outage became an issue. And still, we wait on insurance so we can have a direction.

We are heading to Columbus mid-September, so we need to stay somewhat close which changes our initial plans of heading out west for the moment. Landing on the idea to visit the upper peninsula of Michigan we thought it would be a good distraction to be some place neither of us had visited before. Our first stop was hiking the old growth forest, Hartwick Pines, near Grayling, Michigan where we stopped at the logging museum and ended up at the chapel.

Taking off to Tahquamenon Falls a couple of days later we had finally arrived in the Upper Peninsula.

All I can say is my love affair with Michigan is over. The natural beauty is splendid but there are few gas stations that carry diesel (count that as nearly running out once on our way here), lots of bugs, and way more people that I expected. I am not sure what it is about the Michigan campsites, but they are packed and could not be closer together. We saw the falls yesterday and it was one of the more spectacular ones we have seen. Not sure where we are headed next but it will likely be the west side of Lake Michigan or the southern coast of Lake Superior.

Michigan camp sites suck. Too many people too close together!

Stupid Activity of the Week – Admirality Bay, Bequia, May 21, 2023

Posted on May 21, 2023 by Sally

Stupid Activity of the Week – Admirality Bay, Bequia, May 21, 2023

We spent a long 12 hour day sailing, or should I say surfing down some pretty sporty waves, 71 miles to Bequia. It’s an island I have never heard of but is part of the Grenadines and their “claim to fame” is that whaling is still legal here. It’s pronounced “Beckway,” and used to be a British Colonial Island. It’s pretty cool here (despite the whaling laws), and it’s the best anchorage we have had for several weeks. We have spent the last few days here snorkeling and relaxing. We had decided to skip St. Vincent since there have been a rash of cruisers being boarded, held at gun or knife point, and robbed. This has been a great alternative as it feels very safe, they have good food and some interesting hiking.

The first cool thing we saw when snorkeling was “Moonhole.” It’s another old hotel which was built by a couple back in the 60’s and is still partially used today. It‘s supposedly a very close to nature type experience but since it’s private, we were not able to go and see for ourselves. Normally this would not stop us from taking a peek, however, this looked a bit too unstable for us to just jump ashore and poke around.

Moonhole is now a protected area and the elkhorn coral here was stunning. We spent a bit of time cutting fishing trash off of some of the mature ones so they could continue to grow. Then after a few days of snorkeling, we decided to try the hike which goes from here over the volcano to Friendship Bay – 5.5 miles. Well, this is where the stupid activity comes in. First off, we got a bit lost as the path wasn’t terribly well marked. Then, we knew it was rated as hard on All Trails app and how much the last moderately difficult hike had kicked our butts. Lastly, it had rained the night before and it was still muddy.

By the time we were done, we had walked over 15,000 steps, climbed the equivalent of 52 flights of stairs, an elevation of 1200 feet, and over just 6 miles.

To make matters worse, after finally making it to the top, it started to rain making our decent just that much more challenging than it otherwise may have been. The decent was basically an old riverbed and we could not make it down without touching the trees. This is something we try not to do after learning what poisonwood and manchineel trees are. Half of the climb down we had to do going backwards much like climbing down a ladder since it was so steep. I figured this would fulfill our stupid activity requirement of the week.

Muddy wet and slipped leaves made the decent interesting

If it wasn’t for this little guy, I would say it wasn’t worth it.

Sally petting the turtles seemed like a good idea.

We spent the rest of the post shower, doing absolutely nothing!!! It’s a good thing beer got delivered to the boat and we enjoyed the local taste of the island.

Feel the Burn – Rodney Bay, St. Lucia, May 12, 2023

Posted on May 12, 2023 by Sally

Feel the Burn – Rodney Bay, St. Lucia, May 12, 2023

We had moved to Roseau anchorage off the south coast of Dominica in hopes of getting some relief from our rolly northern anchorage in Portsmith but sadly…it was worse. Ever heard of a “Jump Up?” Let me explain…this is a party on shore where they play very offensive extremely loud music til 6:00am. So, with no sleep whatsoever, we decided to get an early start and make the jump to Martinique. It must be better there, right?

Martinique was a 53 mile sail (so ALLLLL day) and when we got there, it was packed. We Stayed in Grande Anse D’Arlets which is a small bay just south of Fort De France. Fort De France is the main harbor but doesn’t have a great reputation for crime so we had hoped to avoid this by going south. The good news is it was a lovely tourist area with lots of restaurants, dive shops, day tours, and an easy walk to customs to get checked it. It was still rolly but at least they didn’t have the all night parties we had just experienced. Since it was Saturday we knew customs would be closed and we would have to wait til Monday so we grabbed dinner and crashed.

The next morning, we had decided to do another death march up to the top of the volcano to see the bay next door and scout out where the customs office was located. This hike was beautiful and only slightly easier than our last major hike since it was a mile shorter at 4.2 miles.

Every hike is either straight up or down.

Monday morning with paperwork in hand, we decided to take the road and walk to the bay next door instead of another volcano climb which was only about a 40-minute walk. Unbeknownst to us…it is another holiday…Victory Day and customs office was closed. So, home we went, and we took advantage of the day by jumping off the boat and snorkeling at our anchorage which had a lot of current but some nice coral. Then on Tuesday morning…back to customs we went. The check in was easy and the staff was nice so we had a chance to do some more snorkeling for the next couple of days.

Sadly at this point we have been travelling pretty much non-stop for the last 3 years. I guess that is what happens when you sell your house. Anyway, we are starting to really feel the burn of the constantness of all of it all and these islands are really starting to look and feel the same. It was time for a long overdue break.

We checked out and went south again to St. Lucia yesterday and headed to Rodney Bay Marina for a chance to not have a rolly anchorage and sleep in some air conditioning! Woo Hoo! The last time we had this was in Fort Pierce during Hurricane Nicole when we had to get a hotel room. Let me tell you that the islands are really starting to get hot and humid now and this was a very welcome change. My comfort is not getting in my way, that is for sure.

We accidentally found out we are here during their Jazz & Arts Festival taking place this weekend and we hope to check this out in addition to renting a car to see a bit of this island. Once again, we are waiting for the weather which means our next travel day isn’t until Tuesday. I am sure we can entertain ourselves here with the nice marina, restaurants, and sightseeing. More to come…

The Credit Card Debacle – Great Lameshure Bay, USVI – March 19, 2023

Posted on March 19, 2023 by Sally

The Credit Card Debacle – Great Lameshure Bay, USVI – March 19, 2023

The trade winds are going to start to kick up again starting Wednesday night and we needed to get to the Virgin Islands before then. Culebra ended up being a bit of a bust anyway. We were there on a Sunday and the grocery store closes at 1:30 (which we didn’t know) so no fresh bread for us. Then, all the restaurants were closed as well since the town had no water. We ended up finding one small place to stop and grab a quick beer and headed back to the boat. We had an uncomfortable moment and didn’t want to leave the dinghy too long anyway. There was a group of teenagers hanging at the dinghy dock and one of them asked if ‘he and his friend’ could take our dinghy out and drive it around the bay…uh no! What? Best we got back and prep to head out Monday morning to USVI.

Our trip over to USVI was uneventful and it was a good day to get over here since the winds were now predicted to start picking up on Tuesday to 15 knots and then by Thursday gusting to 35 knots. We originally planned to stop at Christmas Cove but the only moorings there were private and there was no room to anchor so we stopped over to Rendezvous Bay, which was a bit rolly but much better. Sailing Hubby had some work to do and the next morning we settled into Princess Bay. We needed to scrap the bottom of the boat, so we set up shop for a few days. Since we had a few days, we drug out the paddleboards and both of us learned to paddleboard!

One of the days we headed into Coral Harbor to check out the town. It was as fancy as I expected it to be but still a couple nice restaurants. We had lunch at “Skinny Legs” which actually had a veggie Reuben and this made be very happy! The next day we tried out the swim up bar…Lime Out. That’s when it happened…our credit card was stolen. It started with a text alert from chase. Then since we track all of our finances through personal capital we could see the day that someone charged three flights on Allegiant Air. Chase caught one of the charges but missed the other two. Our credit card company removed the charges and we now have a new card being mailed. The problem is, it’s being mailed to our land address which means we won’t get it til we get back to the states. Oh well – good thing we have a backup. So, instead we decided to take advantage of the USVI national park on St. John and take this nice long 5-mile hike with friends. Hopefully today we get to snorkel around here before heading to the British Virgin Islands in the next few days.

Cement Donkeys

Tag Archives: Hiking

Limbo – Paradise, Michigan, USA, July 30, 2024

Stupid Activity of the Week – Admirality Bay, Bequia, May 21, 2023

Feel the Burn – Rodney Bay, St. Lucia, May 12, 2023

The Credit Card Debacle – Great Lameshure Bay, USVI – March 19, 2023