Eustacia

We have had a hard time finding internet the past week.  We finally found a connection, but are having to pay for it.  We left St. Kitts and sailed 20 miles to Eustacia or “Stacia” is what everyone calls it.  We are finally sailing with the wind behind us, which makes for a smoother easier sail.  We no longer fight into the wind and waves, but have them pushing us forward.  We make better time and don’t have to adjust the sails.  Stacia is a small island that jets out of the ocean with steep cliffs.  It is a Dutch colony, but everyone speaks English.  They just recently got their very first vet on the island.  This made clearing Lucy in much more difficult.  Instead of just looking at her papers they insisted the vet do a check up.  After waiting for the vet for an hour we were told to come back at 3:00.  We explored a little of the town then returned to meet the vet.  She was a cute young girl from Holland.  She checked Lucy’s microchip and looked at her papers.  She is mostly a livestock vet and was covered in blood from the slaughter house.  After we were all cleared in we went to the store and walked around town.  Goats, chickens, and cows roam the streets in Stacia.  One boy was looking for his baby chicks and had his pet goat following him around like a puppy. 

The next day we hiked “The Quill,” which is the dormant volcano on the island.  The pictures don’t show the amazing beauty at the top of the crater.  It is unlike anything we have ever seen.  Sheer cliffs, narrow rim, and covered in rainforest, it truly was a sight to see.  After we reached the rim we hiked down into the middle of the crater.  It was more like a ropes course to get down, but once we were to the bottom we were deep in a rainforest.  The biggest trees we have ever seen and everything is green.  The rocks are green, the bark is green, the trail is green, every shade of green possible was in the center of this volcano.  This has been on of the best islands we have seen yet, even though everything we bought at the grocery store had bugs in it! 

We have noticed the quality of living is drastically different on these islands compared to the United States.  We have been filling a bag with clothes and shoes we no longer use and found some great people to share them with.  Preston almost took his shoes off after our hike and gave them to a man whose sandals were worn down to the balls of his feet.  We have a new sense of charity that has made us start thinking what small things can we do as we continue island to island to help each small community.

We are now in St. Martin waiting for the Heineken Regatta to start on Thursday.  We sailed straight here for 8 hours from Stacia and didn’t have to tack once.  We LOVE when we don’t have to sail into the wind!  Another post soon to come about St. Maarten.

 Preston yelled, "No tan lines" as he dove in on the anchor

 Jumanji