{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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One day we went to an island called Delos. It’s known as the birthplace of Apollo and Artimis. We had to take a ferry; it was a very long ride. Then we finally got there. We looked around the ruins. I drew a picture of a mosaic of an anchor.

We also climb on the walls. It was a lot of fun. We went to the ruins of an outdoor theater. Paloma and went up really high on the stairs and sat down, Daddy could talk to us with out yelling or a microphone.

Then we looked for a beach. It was a bit prickly on the way. We found a fender we named it booey. We swam and walked the rest of the way to the beach.

When we got to the beach we had lunch and swam. We all splashed each other but we slashed Daddy the most. Paloma and I       laughed a lot at the beach.

It was almost time for the ferry to leave, so we rushed back. Luckily it was still there. I had a good day at Delos.  :)

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Today we visited Delos, I haven’t been since I was a kid, but I am pleased to say that it is still as I remember it: probably the best, most-intact set of ancient Greek ruins in the world.  Delos is a VERY special place.   I had five things I wanted to do with the family on the trip, based on my fuzzy memory.  Would we achieve them all?

1. Visit a (specifc) ancient temple that I remember
2. See a bathtub.  Yep, go to Delos to see a bathtub
3. Have lunch on a beautiful beach with a marble pillar in the middle
4. See the Delos Lions.
5. Go to the museum

Here’s our trip along with some graphical aids:

We left early on a Ferry from Mykonos.  Kinda nice to be on someone elses’ boat.

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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This week on board:

*Ronan cut off all his hair! He looks super cute in a very british post war way.  But part of me will always miss Ziggy.

*We sailed to Sardinia, Italy.  We have  been eating lots of gelato in celebration.

*We said good bye to our fabulous beleaguered  guest Grant.  but not before sending him up the mast, twice.

*We had our best dinner ever at  Trattoria Lillicu.  Where the amazing GIAN PAOLO was our singing waiter.

* New victims guests; Manuel, Alison, Claudia and Jimmy joined us.

* We saw whales!

* We stopped Ondine in the middle of the ocean and went for a swim.

* We arrived in Ustica. The loveliest island you will never go to unless you live on a boat.

What did you do this week? Please share in the comments. We love hearing from you!

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We went out to see the monkeys in Gibraltar.   First we went to this other exhibit to eat lunch.

And we got to see animals: a butterfly, fish, and a turtle.  When we were walking to the cable car, we saw a Fire Truck and Fire House.  When we got to the cable car, it took 10 minutes then finally we got to the top.

We saw a little monkey sitting on the wall.

We were so tempted to touch it, but we didn’t because they told us, well the machine told us, not to because it would bite us.  There was this other monkey that was behind the bars so that no one could really take his picture.  So he leapt from the bars to the monkey who was getting his picture taken and pushed him off the edge.  Luckily the monkey was all right.  We wanted to go up the steps, but we couldn’t because there was this grumpy monkey sitting on the steps.   He was grumpy because he made the step his territory and lots of people would go up it.  Which made him very grumpy and he would sit there and sit there and sit there.  But luckily, my sister had a water bottle and he spotted it can came down but we went up the steps before he could snatch it.  But we didn’t really know, because he might have just felt bored and wanted his picture taken.  Then we saw baby monkeys eating some food.

And one jumped right up – I wish I took a picture of it, but I didn’t have the camera.

We saw a Mother monkey cleaning a baby monkey and the Mother taught the child how to clean itself, so it was cleaning itself.

When we were walking down, we saw a monkey that had escaped from the top of the Rock of Gibraltar.  It was in town.  Well even though the monkey was wild, they put food up there so that the monkeys will stay at the top of the Rock of Gibraltar so they don’t come down when you are having dinner and steal your food and eat it.

It was fun seeing the monkeys and I like telling it to you!

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This week on board:

*We sailed a night and day from St Martin to St Thomas. Ondine was back in USA for first time in five months.

*We picked up the Bricault family; Paul Cicek, Melise & Destin.

*We sail to St. John in a squall and moored at night. Note to self, maybe not the best way introduce guests to life on board.

*We hung out in St Francis Bay, St John.

*The kids taught each other every card game they know.

*Ronan & Melise spent five hours straight in a friends pool.

*We sailed to the Bitter end yacht club in BVI. Thanks to our lovely friends, we stayed on a dock  (1^st time in 5 months), while they stayed at the resort. We felt a little like the hick cousins staying on the lawn in our RV, a 55 Ft floating RV.

* Saying goodbye to friends again was hard, especially for Ronan.

* We crossed wakes again with Paloma’s resucers from SV Life Part Two. We are about to set sail with them for Tortola.

What did you do this week? Please share your week in the comments. We love hearing from you.

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This week on board:

*We fixed Ondine and she was ready to sail again. YAY!

*We sailed to Bequia. It was an unpleasant ride for me. The trip back the other way is said to be way worse, I’m braking out the patches for that.

*We anchored in the dark. Something we used to avoid at all costs. It’s still scary, but now we do it.

*We sailed to the beautiful Tabago Cays.

*We swam with turtles and rays.

*We had lobster on the beach made by Mr Wonderful. Mr wonderful turned out to be not so wonderful, he promised to do bunch of stuff for us then completely disappeared.

*I got a trim boat style.

*We watched all the Star Wars episodes in episode order. The Empire Strikes Back is still my favorite. We keep quoting Yoda to the poor kids “ No. Try not. Do… or do not. There is no try.”

What did you do this week?  Leave your week in the comments. We love hearing from you.

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This week on board;

*We have been enjoying all the reading material James brought back.

*We had a really good time at The Cruises Net* birthday party. Everyone had “Then things went wrong” stories. It became very clear that it’s not us, it’s boats.  It made us feel better about everything, of course it could have also been the rum punch.

* I got to meet Ann Vanderhoof, author of my favorite books about cruising/cooking in the caribbean.

*Paloma started baking bread.

*We won the saturday morning cruises net quiz!  We won by correctly identifying an Oscar Wild quote.  James & I got to have a lovely dinner here. Thank you Mr Wild  and also SV Esprit de mer for watching Ronan & Paloma.

*James spent a lot of time with the Chinaman. We now have a straight propeller shaft ( there is a very Benny hill joke in there somewhere) and hope to have to engines running by the end of the day.

*Lots of new friends came and went. Its part of the rhythm of cruising life, not sure that it will ever be easy. (We miss you SV Ouma & Juno)

* The kids spent a lot of time on a big purple foot.

What did you do this week? Please share your week in the comments.

* The Rodney Bay Cruise’s Net is an informal show broadcast on the VHS @ 830 am Mon-Sat.  Les, the rummey english gentleman who runs the show gives the weather, some BBC news items and then cruises call in with information, taxi shares, requests for help. I have been very thankful for it.

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This week on board:

*It was very windy (Not much sleep for me)

*I found a lentil recipe I really like. ( The Spice Necklace again)

* Paloma did very well selling her brownies at the Yacht club yard sale and is planing her expansion into bread.

*Ronan got to hold a boa constrictor. He smiled from ear to ear for hours.

*We saw the Pitons ( They’re on Oprah’s list of things to see before you die. That’s crossed off, phew)

*We bathed in volcanic mud

* I fixed my first my first ever leak. ( With help. Thank You SV Juno &  SV Ouma )

* James came home.  Yay, yay, yay!

* Ronan finally got his longed for corn rows.( Courtesy off  Emma, our NYC babysitters Lisa’s sister in law, and our Digicell rep. We love Emma.)

What did you do this week? Please share in the comments. We love hearing from you.

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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This week on board:

*We hosted a kids book swap. Ronan scored Anakin Skywalker’s Journals .

*We broke our propeller.

*James left for Canada.

* We hung out at Pigeon Island

* I ran out of fuel on the dinghy.

*We spent a lot of time at the pool at H2O cafe

* We discovered joys of fresh cocoa pods

What did you do this week? Please share your week in the comments.

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One day we were just coming back from St. Anne to Marin in Martinique,  then we bumped in to a boat  named DAY DREAMER. We realized it had kids on it!  And they were waving to us so we waved back and we waved for a long time we were so excited Then we found a place to anchor.  And then we went to town and we found a place to get an ice cream.  And we bumped into them again!  And we started to talk.  We were so excited to meet some kids!  There were three girls, Emma who is 11, Anna who is 9 Sarah who is 7. We arranged to see them the next day and they came over. We made my cabin into a Haunted House.  My sister and Emma wouldn’t go with it, so they made brownies instead.  They wouldn’t tell us what they were making. They said it was cookies! I played with Anna and Sarah.  I was the scariest one in the haunted house.

The next day we went to their house – oops I mean boat.  We all live on boats!  We played war on our boogie boards and we had anchor meetings. We pretended  the bouys were cows and horses.  And we played farmer robbers. Anna, Sarah, and I were the farmers. We kept on singing  “oh no I’ll never let go” when Emma and Paloma  tried to take our cows and horses. Now we’re in Saint Lucia we sailed with them here. We anchored next to them and when we went to their boat we played on the rope swing, I was having so much fun : ) But a couple days later they left We had so much fun.

We were all sad to say good bye.

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This week on board:

*We mourned the loss of Grandpa Green.

*We sailed to Saint Lucia. Paloma and Ronan sent out messages in bottles on the way.

*I cooked octopus and it was delicious. (I used a recipe from The Spice Necklace)

*Paloma and her new friend Emma, sold brownies from Sea leaf.

*Ronan has christened me Mama paparazzi

* The kids cooked us dinner.

*I went to my first ever ladies luncheon.

What did you do this week?  Tell me in the comments or post a link.

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Yesterday was a strange day for the crew of Ondine. James’ father passed away the night before. It was very difficult and discombobulating for James to go through such a dark passage of adulthood in such a bright and sunny place, so far from Vancouver.  He wrote a very moving post about his father’s death,  you should read it, if you haven’t. Yesterday was also the 14th anniversary of the day James and I met ( that’s right we met on Valentine’s Day). So our Valentine’s Day become an odd but true celebration of life and love in all its bitter and sweet, light and dark, joy and pain. There was some craftiness, lots of words of love, some tears and, chocolate and champagne.

The kids opened a restaurant and made us dinner. All those Top Chef episodes are paying off. Paloma was the head chef and front of house, Ronan was sou chef  ( I didn’t know those terms until I started working in a restaurant ) The staff meals were served in the kitchen, although the meal was so good, we invited the staff to have dessert with us. It was a lovely little celebration, sitting on a boat eating chocolate mousse with the ones you love.  Even with it’s sadness and difficult bits, life is good.

How was your Valentine’s Day?

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This week on board:

* we were rocked every few minutes by water skiers from Club Med.

* someone got a new French bikini.

* a script was printed and revisions done.

* lots of things were cooked and eaten

*James fixed stuff.

* a lot of lego was played and a little crochet was done.

* We all enjoyed this book.

* There was snorkeling.

What happen at your place this week?

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Since our visitors left and I am free to experiment on my family, I have made a concerted effort to use local ingredients and cook Caribbean style.

With the encouragement of this book and the help of the internet, (especially this site) I dove in. I learned about browning sauce, green seasoning and made my own jerk marinade.  I discovered that you need scotch bonnets, fresh thyme, and chive (green onions) to cook anything.

I went on a bit of a pulse bender, I made Caribbean kidney beans, Caribbean lentils and a dish called rice and peas, which has no peas but is made with black eyed beans (called pigeon peas in a lot of the islands). This is a super traditional island dish and you can find lots of different versions of it. Strangely enough, I ended up using Stephanie Alexander’s (famous Australian chef) recipe.  Hey her books basically taught me how to cook and The Cook’s Companion is one of the three cookbooks we have on board. Ronan loved the peas and rice so much that he said he wanted to marry them. Although this is from a boy who’s great culinary discovery of the trip has been saltfish and bake sandwiches, made on a BBQ, at the divest bar you can find in Roseau, Dominica.

When I decided to give everyone a brake from beans, Ronan complained, “ Where’s the beans and rice?” He told me he could eat them everyday. I say be careful what you wish for.

I realized I had taken the cooking local thing to heart when we first got to Martinique, everyone ran to buy cheese and bread, I  ran to buy  local Colombo powder. (The Creole version of curry) A lot of local restaurants claim to have the best Callaloo soup in the Caribbean (It’s like having the best bouillabaisse in the Rivera or The best chesse cake in New York) Before I came to Caribbean I had never herd of this green leafy vegetable (and I am bit of green leafy vegetable freak). When I saw the distinctive green leaves on sale at the saturday market in Saint Pierre, I knew I had to try.  I asked my interpreter (James) to confirm that’s what they were. The market lady said it was Callaloo and was very good for making soup. If I had recipe then I could buy it. I said I did know what it was and I knew how to cook it. Something must have got lost in translation, because she showed me in great detail how to peel the stalks (actually very helpful) and got her friends to run around the market making sure I had the right ingredients for the soup (the only thing I was missing was okra, phew) She finally let me buy the leaves. When I got back to Ondine I thought right well now I have to prove the market lady, who I will never see again, wrong and make the best Callaloo soup ever.  All I could find on line were recipes that used a lot of salted meat and I wanted to make a veggie version. So I had to improvise. I don’t know about the best soup ever, but it turned out pretty well. Paloma ate four bowls. I can’t get a much better review than that.  Here is the recipe, in case you want a taste of cruising the Caribbean.

Ingredients:

1-tablespoon olive oil

1 bunch of Callaloo

1 small slice of pumpkin

6 cups vegetable stock ( good stock or broth makes all the difference)

1 onion chopped

2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

1 scotch bonnet. (I made this with my kids in mind, so I added the pepper whole then remove it, if you a want a spicy soup, chop and seed the pepper and leave it in)

2 chive (green onions) finely chopped.

2 fresh thyme stalks

1 teaspoon black pepper

Salt and pepper to tatse.

1 1/2 cups okra cut into ½ inch rounds.

1 cup coconut milk.

Juice of ½ a lime

Directions

1. Remove the bottom of the stems of the callaloo leaves, then peel of the first layer of the stem, then chop roughly. In a large saucepan fry the onion until clear, then add garlic, chive, thyme, pepper, and scotch bonnet. Fry for a few moments more. Add the Callaloo and pumpkin, and then add the stock. Cover, and simmer until vegetables are soft, about 25 minutes.
2. Add okra, coconut milk, and lime. Simmer for 10 more minutes. Remove scotch bonnet and thyme stalk. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3. Let know what you think.

In the Islands a good cook is said to have sweet hands. I am far from having my own sweet hands but it’s something to inspire to. My next challenge, saltfish!   If you have any Caribbean recipes you love, please send them my way.

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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The ocean is tough on everything.   When we bought Ondine, my good friend David Puchkoff had me buy a New American Flag to go with Ondine as the existing one was a little worn – nothing terrible, just needed an upgrade.  And although (despite valiant efforts) I’m not yet American one must fly the flag of the country the vessel is registered in off the stern (back) of the boat.  Hell, I love living in the US of A so that’s another reason to fly the flag.  But take a look at it now.   It is now COMPLETELY worn out after 7 months at sea.  Here’s Ronan doing his best Vanna White impression to compare the old with the new.

As we were buying a flag anyway, we decided to go whole hog and buy one for every nationality on the boat.  That’s American (Paloma & Ronan), Canadian (Paloma, Ronan and me), Australian (Paloma, Ronan & Emma-Kate) and English (all four of us).  According to maritime etiquette you can fly the flag of any guests on board off your port spreader (basically on the left side of the boat).  Here they are.  Personally, I think they look GREAT.

The red one with the Union Jack in the corner is the British Ensign or British Maritime Flag.  Trust the Brits to change the flag based on whether it’s on a boat or a palace.  In fact, the red is for us commoners.  I believe The British Admiralty can fly a blue one with the Union Jack in the corner and the Navy has a white one or some such nonsense.  More here if you care.

Anyway, the starboard spreader (right side of the boat) is reserved for the flag of whatever country you are currently in.  So we are currently flying the French Flag as we are in Martinique.  Here’s a picture of all the flags together on the spreaders.

With the US Flag off the stern we’re a veritable UN and I love it!

Here are a few photos that Emma-Kate took of Ronan as we were changing the flags.  Maybe he’ll become a ROCK STAR!  Certainly no matter what our nationality is, we are raising American Children.

Emma-Kate is using the best image (not included here) for her pic of the week.

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One of many things that has not gone the way we thought it would (Does anything, ever!) is connecting with other cruising families. There will be lots of families doing the same thing as us, kids naturally make friends easily, making new friends will be easy peasy lemon squeezy, we thought. (ha) By the time we got to Dominica Paloma was getting pretty desperate for playmates, she was not related to. In Portsmouth, when ever a new boat came in, Paloma would race on to the deck with the binoculars checking for signs of anyone under 14, and then checking the flag to see if they speak English. She has gotten very good at identifying country flags. She roped Ronan in and had him on VHS asking if anyone wanted to play Uno. We totally struck out.  The only thing standing between us and mutiny is that Paloma is able to skype her friend Marlon in NY on the weekends

When we arrived in Martinique we noticed two boys fishing off their yacht, they looked about the right ages. When we dinghied by and waved, they waved back, (a good sign. The French do not wave), then we saw the Australian flag on the boat. Eureka! This could totally work. We bumped into them the next day at the tourist office. After  the clumsy opening line of “ Are you the Australians?”,  we learned that they’re the Dunstans, Matt, Rachel, Alexander aged 9 and Nicholas aged 8. They have been living aboard their vessel, Orchid, since August. (You can read about their adventures here) They’re heading north as we head south. We were ships passing in ST. Pierre. We made plans to meet up the next day to celebrate Australia day/ my birthday.

We took a hike with them the next day, up the hill and down past the Madonna and into the butterfly garden (the back way.) By the time we got to the garden everyone was to busy talking to really notice the butterflies, despite my lame cries of “look butterflies”, every few moments. The Papillion garden is a funny, eco education and culture center. We sampled their organic fruit while the kids made jewelry out of traditional seeds, like the Caribe Indians, assisted by groovy young Parisian dudes (modern life can be very culturally confusing, not that I would have it any other way. My own fair haired boy is currently torn between having his hair in dreads, like Bob or corn rows, like the Karate Kid).  The guy running the garden was worried about us walking back to town along the busy road, so he gave us a lift, to the kids delight, in back of his pick up, because it was so much (ahem) safer.

That night we celebrated with champagne, good food, chocolate catastrophe, and good company. Nicholas made me a card and gave me the necklace he had made at the butterfly garden. A sweet and generous gesture from anyone, but from a eight year old boy, you just met, it’s melt your heart through your chest stuff.

The next day Alexander was not feeling well, which I’m sure had nothing to do with the chocolate or the past one am bedtime. The kids did manage to cram in some more playing and watched The Nutty Professor on our entrainment center (the salon curtains.) We all swapped books. We gave each other the highlights to look out for and the things to skip as we head where the other has been. The next morning as Orchid pulled out into the sunrise, heading to Dominica, we had lost our naïveté about the ease of finding friends along our journey but had gained a sweet appreciation of it, when we find it.

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Let me introduce you to my blog post.  There are some things that I like about sailing.  And some things that I miss about New York City.  I like swimming and I like snorkeling.

But I also like playing in the snow.

I like gong to coral reefs to see the beautiful coral and lots of awesome fishes .

But I also like making snow men, snow forts, and having snowball fights.  I also like seeing beautiful sights.  When we were in Dominica we hiked up a very long way, and we crossed a river five times, and we saw this big waterfall.  As soon as you get so you can see all of it, all of the water just sprays at you.  It was called Victoria Falls.

But there are wonderful sights  in both places. In New York the Empire State Building is huge, you can see everything from the top. It’s like being the king of the world.

Most of all I miss my friends at PS 150.

But I also miss the candy!

I like sailing, but miss New York at the same time. As you can sea, well not exactly, but you can see that when you are happy you can be sad at the same time!

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One day I went hiking up a big hill and we saw a lot.

We got to the butterfly garden but we went up the back ! When we got there we saw lots of  bugs. They were alive but in a cage,  I mean five cages. Then we went in a little hut and saw dead bugs but they were still cool! We also saw a dead snake and a lizard ( that was alive) in the front yard, they were cool too. Then the man who worked there asked us if we would like to make necklaces. We said “Yes”.  He also gave ma a vanilla pod!:) I was happy.  He also let us make bracelets.  As I told you we hiked up the back, instead of going back up the back we were going to go back on the road  but the man at the garden said it was to busy. So he gave us an awesome ride back in his truck. I thought it was funny but cool!

We went there with other kids but that’s another story.

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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We made it to France in time for my birthday!  Which means baguettes and Nutella for the kids and good wine and champers to celebrate my 39^th year with . Yay!

But we only just made it. Dominica didn’t want to let us go.

On first day we where due to leave James had a little free driving accident and needed to chill for a day. The next day as we were preparing to leave and James cut open his leg with his own knife and had to get stitches.

Finally the next day we pulled out of Ports Mouth. We got a couple of miles past the tip of the island when the clew holding the main sail to the boom pulled loose.

Not good. We had to drop the sail and motor back to Dominica, pulling into the capital Roseau. Where we meet the delightful Poncho (Roseau’s very special boat boy) and his family. He helped us fix our sail with the help of a friend.

We also discovered the special treats Dominica still had to show us, before she would let us go.

Finally on the 24th we left the wild, natural, lovely, Dominica, one mouth and two days after we first arrived to spend a week or maybe two.

We made it finally. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing.  On the passage over the weather was rough. I got sick (no surprise) and then the boom got seriously messed up. (I will leave it up to James to give details to those that care) Again it was not good but we managed to limp into Saint Pierre.  The first thing we did was got to the supermarket to buy cheese and wine. Vivre la France.

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We almost missed the tubing.  So we had to go zooming on the dinghy.   And once we got to the dock, my Dad forgot the radio, so he went to get it.  And then he forgot the car keys.  So he had to go back to the boat twice.  It was funny.  And while we were waiting, Paloma and I played on the swing.  We found the car.  And we went driving for a little while.  And then we finally found where we should wait.  It took hooooouuurrrs for the truck to get there.  And when we got in the truck it took a long time to get to the tubing place.  And then we finally got there and we had to wait for another very long time for everybody to get there.  We were the only kids.  The rest were grandmas, grandpas, ladies and men from a cruise ship.

It was scary but fun.  I got stuck in a circle of rocks and a tour guide saved me.  We raced and my Dad never won.  Either me or my sister won.

Paloma and I decided to use magic to get towels.  But we could only make 2 appear so Daddy didn’t get one.

We had lots of fun.  And we are going to have some more fun.

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He’s back, he’s back.  Paloma baked brownies and they both made signs and gosh it’s nice to have him back on board.

He came bearing gifts.  Ronan got more of his beloved Bad Kitty and Bone books. And that’s the last we heard from him.

But most of the gifts were for me.

Dark chocolate and coffee, I’m so predictable. And almonds and Lara bars.  It’s so funny to see what you crave and miss, taking up a whole suitcase. What would be on your list?

Of course James was the best gift all ( You can start the vomit noises now.)

PS  He also brought back this very fancy clipper set. Stay tuned for the great hair shave of 2011.

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual via soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

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It finally stopped pouring rain and the sun came out, just in time for Lucy, John and Kailey to depart.  After three weeks of seven souls aboard they have left a lot of empty space. It feels oddly quiet and we keep setting too many places at the table.  When the alarm went off on the water maker at 2am last night, I really missed having John asleep at his computer in the salon (he was on call for his business in Canada).

But we are finding our rhythm as a trio. We are slowly tidying up, reclaiming the space, enjoying the sun and getting used to pleasing only ourselves.

And I totally admit it, after they left we cranked up the music and had ourselves Risky Business moment, boat style. It involved swabbing the deck and spraying each other with water and definitely no socks.

Of course these days you have to be careful what you do when you think it’s just you, because your mother just might put in on a blog

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All of the pictures below were taken on the same day.  They are an incomplete snapshots of the incredible variety of foods that can be found/grown on Dominica.

Dominica is incredibly fertile.  Most of the islanders appear to grow at least some of their own vegetables.  And many make a side living by selling what they don’t eat at the local market which in Portsmouth happens every Saturday starting at about dawn.  We’ve been told that no one is poor in Dominica because everyone can always get plenty to eat.

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Vaporean is so fun.  It is so fun that it is like a roller-coaster.  Did I say roller-coaster?  I mean the funnest roller-coaster.  Or if you don’t liker roller-coasters, it is like whatever you love.  It is also like whatever your favorite food is.  Doesn’t it seem so fun?

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Paloma and my first snorkling expedition a week ago in Antigua just of Great Bird Island found tons of these crabs in the most beautiful shells.  We all loved them especially Ronan.

But in the end, he had to be put back into the ocean with his buddies.

As you can tell, Ronan doesn’t like to get out of his PJs if he can help it.  We’ve taken to calling him Hugh (short for Hugh Heffner) which he HATES.  But he doesn’t dislike it enough to change out of his PJs.  They are just too comfortable.

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At Bermuda there are strong currents.  My Dad said I can ride on it.  Sshh don’t tell him but I think he’s crazy.  But Bermuda is a very nice place.  In fact it has a very nice restaurant because: it looked nice, the people are nice, and there is special food.  And it has very nice beaches because the water and sand is nice to play in.  We get to be here for 9 days then we are moving to Antigua by boat.

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Finally, we are able to announce our launch party.

First the important details:
Special Guests: ?uestLove on the turntables and Ondine at the dock
Location: “The Frying Pan”. Pier 66. 26th Street and the West Side Highway in Manhattan.
Date: Saturday, Nov 6th @ 6pm. (If you’ve got kids you are welcome to show up earlier.)
End: Sailors will leave the dock at 9:30pm (ish). You are welcome to stay as long as you’d like.
Tickets: $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Can be bought here: http://bit.ly/djy0jQ
Proceeds (if there is any profit) to go to one of my favorite charities: StreetSquash

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