Hello Eastern Caribbean!

It’s been a while since my last blog and so much has happened since I last wrote in June 2025. Last time I wrote about frantically travelling home from the BVI to get treatment for a detached retina, and now it is almost one year later.  After three surgeries, two to repair the retina and one for the cataract the previous surgeries caused, my vision is crappy. I have permanent depth perception issues and distortion – straight lines look wavy. I’m fortunate that the other eye’s vision is pretty good and my brain is getting better at meshing the mixed vision and I’m navigating through my new normal world fairly well. I still stumble when I don’t see small obstacles on the sidewalk or a sudden change in elevation, like an unexpected step or slope, but I am counting my blessings that I can still move around independently and won’t let poor vision get in the way of living life.

This year Allen and I started off the season in different directions. Meshuggana 2 spent hurricane season in the yard at a marina in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. Hurricane season officially ends on December 1 so we usually fly down mid November to spend a couple weeks cleaning, rigging, provisioning and prepping so she is ready to go into the water in December. This involves many hours of hard labour in the blazing heat, sweating gallons and being eaten alive by fire ants and no-see-ums….not my thing. Last year I gave Allen fair warning– I’m not signing-up for this again.  And Allen agreed.

In November Allen flew to Puerto Rico to work on the boat, while I jetted off to Europe, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, with an incredible group of eight women, to experience Baltic Christmas markets. After having my fill of incredible festive markets, as well as a little snow & freezing rain, I flew back home and about 30 hours later boarded a flight to the US Virgin Islands, with our cat Ziggy, to begin our sailing season together.

What seemed to be an incredible start to our season was marred by tragedy. Allen greeted Ziggy and me at the airport, brought us to the marina, and before getting into the dinghy to take us to Meshuggana2, I strapped Ziggy into his harness & leash, to let him stretch his legs in the grass after being cooped up 10+ hours in his carrier.  Just a few minutes later, something spooked Ziggy and he was out of his harness and gone! We walked the marina and surrounding roads, put up posters, staked out dumpsters and parking lots, industrial areas, befriended security guards and a man living in an abandoned building …. for 3 weeks we searched literally every day & night. Ziggy was never seen again. With heavy hearts we had to move on and accept Ziggy was gone.  But we don’t think he perished. There are no land predators in the islands that can take a cat, no venomous snakes or insects, there are no garages where he can get locked-in, and “roadkill” would have been obvious as we walked every single road every single day. However, the area where he disappeared was surrounded by docked mega-yachts, and a mega-yacht would have hundreds of places for a small cat to hide and not be discovered for days. We believe Ziggy traded up and is now sailing the high seas feasting on cream and caviar.  Fair winds, sweet boy.

Though my heart ached for my funny little orange cat, I was excited to begin this season’s adventures. Last year we sailed to the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and spent the entire season there. I was ready so see more and this year has delivered in spades.

Since early January we have been island hopping. Each island has its own character and vibe as well as some common threads – perhaps the most interesting is many are volcanic!

• St Martin & Sint Maarten, French and Dutch sides – not volcanic
• St Barts – not volcanic
• St Kitts  – dormant, last verified eruption was 1800 years ago  
• Nevis – classified dormant, but has signs of heat and low activity
• Montserrat – the most active! In 1997 it buried the capital city of Plymouth!
• Antigua & Barbuda – was volcanic millions of years ago
• Guadeloupe  – actively volcanic
• Dominica – actively volcanic
• Martinique – actively volcanic – 1902 eruption claimed over 28,000 lives as the capital, St Pierre was buried in less than two minutes

Phew!!  And we’re not done yet!  Before our season ends and we haul the boat out in April in Grenada, we will have also visited volcanos in St Lucia, St Vincent and Grenada!

I love volcanos, the way they rise over the island, imposing, powerful, breathtakingly beautiful! Thanks to science, seismic activity is closely monitored and eruptions are now far more predictable and preventing tragedies like the 1902 death toll in St Pierre.

Here are summaries of some of our island adventures and perhaps in a future blog I’ll go deeper, as each has its own culture and idiosyncrasies and deserves it’s own page.

St Martin (French) & Sint Maarten (Dutch)– two countries sharing one island in perfect harmony!

This island is big on tourism and everything that goes with it – resorts, hotels, restaurants shops, tours…it has it all. Moving between the Dutch and French sides is seamless, you may not even notice you’ve changed countries if you are walking, driving or riding in a dinghy through the lagoon. But NOT in your sailboat – that requires a whole pile of paperwork, fees, Customs office visits….so if you sail there, pick a side and stay here.

This island has every type of yacht service imaginable, boat yards, sailmakers, chandleries – anything and everything boat. And it’s duty free, so it’s no wonder it has become a major sailing destination. Large, well-stocked stores make it the best place in the Eastern Caribbean to fill your freezer and pantry for reasonable cost. On the French side English is very much a second language, but service is good and most establishments make an effort to communicate in “Franglais”. On the Dutch side it seems to be English only.

St Barts is a playground for the rich and famous. We learned that over 300 mega yachts were docked there for New Year’s Eve (maybe Ziggy joined the celebrations). Just behind the Customs office are several blocks of luxury shops – Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Dior…all there.  However, a bit outside the main city is a nature reserve with a pristine beach and lovely coastal hike and home to a sea turtle sanctuary – quite a nice change from the city.

St Kitts & Nevis are one country on two separate islands. Historically it bounced between French and English occupation, so the language you hear the locals speak is an interesting Patois, but now as a British territory, English is the official language. Customs & Immigration is very formal, detailed, and honestly a pain in the butt with forms, and documents and fees.

The St Kitts capital, Basse Terre, has seen better days, except for a few blocks of the cruise ship shopping district. This area is a strange, artificial world with endless jewelry stores selling diamonds and watches next door to tourist junk stores selling t-shirts and fridge magnets, interspersed with tacky bars selling expensive sugary cocktails. This place is teeming with tourists until about 5pm when the ship leaves, then it becomes a ghost town.

But just one block outside the cruise ship terminal, Basse Terre feels more like a third world country with shells of buildings damaged by hurricanes long ago, crumbling streets, and residents who don’t seem to appreciate strangers wandering their neighborhoods. As Allen and I walked the around looking for a laundromat, we got the distinct feeling we were intruding. At no time did we feel threatened, but we did not feel welcome either. 

Then there is Nevis, just a two-hour sail away. A much smaller island that does not attract giant cruise ships. The main city of Charleston is compact and walkable. More businesses are open, lovely cafes and restaurants and EVERY SINGLE person we met greeted us with smiles and a ‘good day’, ‘welcome to our island’.  It’s clear they are investing in tourism, and residents appreciate visitors and make them feel welcome.

In St Kitts we were joined by friends & fellow sailors, Colleen and Gerald from Toronto. We promised them sailing adventures, and we delivered with some super ‘sporty” ocean conditions, but first we dragged them up a volcano! Well, they were actually very willing to join us on the advertised “hike through a rain forest to Mt Liamuiga volcano”.  A five-hour trip…we assumed we’ll need to wear sensible shoes, bring water, bug spray & sunscreen. It will be good to get some exercise!

Our first clue should have been our guide changing out of his shoes and putting on mud boots. He also told us there are no bugs and we won’t be in the sun (he was right). Great! Then he told us the summit is over 3700’ vertical. That didn’t really sink in until it was too late and we were ankle deep in mud, my not-quite-appropriate for jungle hiking outfit was glued to my body with sweat, and realizing peanut butter toast may not have been the best breakfast choice for this level of physical exertion.  We hiked, climbed over rocks, used tree roots as ladders and after three exhausting hours, it was 3pm and we all noticed the change in the bits of daylight penetrating the thick foliage. The sun was making its descent and we had to begin ours despite not reaching the summit – we still had nearly 1000 feet to climb and the last part was the most difficult with more vertical climbing than the bottom.  Our 25-year-old guide seemed a bit disappointed, but we convinced him he’d have a heck of time getting us down the mountain in the dark.  Two and a half hours later we were back in the truck, a little bloodied, definitely dehydrated, covered in mud, but happy that we took on the challenge.

I’m going to leave it here and save my favorite volcano for my next blog: Montserrat.