Grenada- Culebra

Hi,

I'm sorry about the delay in posting my last blog. Even though it's a high priority for me to WRITE it, sometimes it isn't a high priority for Mom to POST it.

We had an uneventful 62 hour passáge going from Grenada to St. Croix, including a pod of dolphins that played with us for the better part of an hour. Although casting off the docks at 6am was hard, the even harder part was saying goodbye to our friend Julia who we had been traveling with for six weeks. She was up at 6 in the morning to say bye. They are cruising up the islands and we plan to meet up with them in the Virgins.

After the passáge we picked up a mooring in St. Croix while Remi and I were down below watching a movie. Since we were below we missed the excitement, or harbor TV as we call it, when mom missed the mooring (for the first time) and dropped the boat hook in the water. We went snorkeling on Buck Island and then took the six hour run to Culebra.

Larry, I wouldn't be exaggerating about a 2,000 mile flight that took six hours. For us a 35 mile trip is usually six hours. You were probably sitting in the air conditioned jet watching a movie and had food rolling down the isle for those that were hungry.

Culebra is an island off of Puerto Rico that is really nice. We spent 3 days with the Candells (Larry, Amy, Allison, and Jeff). In those 3 days, we walked all over the island visiting different beaches. We sailed to Culebrita with them, which is a pretty, small island that has two magnificent beaches. We only went to one, but we snorkeled off the boat, played on the beach, and swam from the boat to the beach.

Today we rented a Jeep so we can go back to our favorite beaches. We love the air conditioning!

Here's another chapter of my story.

Chapter 5

We left Grenada where we dropped off crew. Now there is only Desiree, Jade (Desiree's younger sister), Captain Quinn (Desiree and Jade's dad), and me. We are now sailing to Carricou and Jade and Desiree are down below. We are tacking back and forth because we can't go directly into the wind. I was up on deck while Captain Quinn was singing Queen songs. I heard beeping and knew something was up. I checked the wind instruments but all was normal. The depth, normal. I looked at the chart plotter as an explosion rocked the boat so I couldn't get a good look at it.
"Captain!" I yelled to Quinn. "What's happening?"
"Don't bug me! I'm picking my nose hairs." was his simply answer. "Another one bites the dust..." was added from him for good measure which wasn't good enough for me. Either he was concentrating on saving us or saving his nose. I'm thinking he meant the latter. Captain Quinn can be so out of it, sometimes. I looked at the chart plotter and realized we were going over an under water volcano.
"Quinn, Desiree, Jade! Someone help!" I yelled.
"Will you please shush?" the Captain ordered. "Your breaking my concentration. I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike...."
I knew help wasn't coming so I was the one who needed to give it. I marched over to the steering wheel, or helm, and grasped it tight. I pushed the hair out of my face and turned just as another burst of lava came flowing out, this time even closer. The sharp turn made the wind push into the other sides of the sails, causing us to heal in another direction. This made stuff go flying across the room. Desiree and Jade, knowing something was up, came running.  As they we coming, I heard a big splash.
"Captain Quinn's in the water!" I yelled.
"Not again" was the groaned reply I got.

Thanks for reading! Hope you like it.


P.S. Quinn, if you are reading this then don't worry. This it just the beginning of Captain Quinn.


From,

Mia

Relaxing on the aft deck.

Some dogs from a local shelter on Culebra.

Spotting Dad (yellow fins) from the bow.