Flying Kites and Playing Softball

My mom has never flown a kite and it is something she has always wanted to do.  We made it our mission to find a kite and get it in the air.  This was no easy task from the get go.  When we finally found a kite it was just the model hanging from the ceiling.  We asked where they were and we told they were upstairs in the storage room, end of sentence.  That was that.  The kites were upstairs and there was nothing we could do about it.  After getting 4 people involved we coaxed someone to go get us one from the storage room.  Now that we had our kite from china we were off to go fly it.  The first gust of wind it got ripped it.  The second made it dive bomb and break.  Preston started working on it and was eventually convinced there was enough duct tape and dowels added to get it back in the air.  Preston and my mom tried and tried to fly that kite.  After each dive bomb Preston would add some sticks, bottle caps, and more duct tape trying to get it balanced.  Finally my mom was flying a kite for approximately 60 seconds before she wrapped it up on some telephone lines.  While they were working so hard flying the kite my dad played softball with the locals in his flip flops.  He surprised them all diving after balls and getting base hits every time at bat.  After our day at the park we went back to the boat for some paddle boarding and Rummikub.  The water a a bit rough, which made paddle boarding difficult.  Everyone was able to stand for at least a few seconds before getting knocked off by a wave.

Sailing in the Double Digits

We decided to sail down to St. Kitts sister island, Nevis, on Thursday.  We put the sails up and shortly after had 20+ knots of wind and were cruising over 10 knots instantly.  We quickly reefed both sails and continued down to Nevis.  We threw out the fishing lines half the day and had no luck.  I was looking forward to making fish tacos, but they will have to wait.  After sailing to Nevis we headed back for some snorkeling in Shitten Bay on the Southwest end of St. Kitts.  As we were pulling in the current and wind swirled around the bay.  There are shallow rocks all over, but Preston maneuvered the boat perfectly and soon we were snorkeling and Preston was climbing on a shipwreck.  There were a lot of fish and colorful coral.  We also saw some squid and a big eel.  The pictures don't show how green the eel was.  He was lime green and mean looking.  Preston explored the wreck and climbed in every nook and cranny.  We sailed back to Frigate Bay hitting over 10 knots again and spent another comfortable night in a hotel, sleeping in separate beds!  We are taking advantage of the hot showers, dry bedding, and washing machine.

St. Christopher (St. Kitts)

We hopped in a taxi Wednesday morning and started our tour of St. Kitts.  With our new "selfie stick" we snapped a shot in the taxi to mark the beginning of our day.  Preston ordered a camera arm extender so we could get some more angles of the two of us together instead of the long arm extending to the camera showing mostly our faces.  Every time we pull out the "selfie stick" we look very dorky and everyone around us gets a kick out of us.  To say we look like tourists is an understatement, but we never had to ask someone to take our picture!  The day was filled with the history and botany of St. Kitts.  Terrance, our taxi driver, seemed to know a lot of facts about the island, but had a hard time answering any questions we asked.  Preston later told me he was reading off notecards as he drove!  Preston got in trouble for keeping his window open too long.  Terrance told us we could either have the A/C on or the windows open but not both.  We drove through downtown Basseterre, stopped in the rainforest botanical garden, and finished the day at the Brimstone Fortress.  The fortress was amazing.  It was built in the 1600's and took 104 years to build.  With only a few restorations most of the complex is still original.

 The "Selfie Stick"