Wildcat Sailorgirl

People are People - Venezuela Fishermen

Venezuela fishing boats

Oct 1st 2017
Thursday we planned a little lime at the pool in our marina. Sv Tango and Sv Kelly Nicole. I got up there just before the sky opened up dumping massive amounts of rain. It also blew. The others including Tom decided to wait it out on their boats. However, I was not alone. A group of four locals took refuge under the covered area, along with two Venezuelan fisherman. I shared some channa (snacky food) with everyone. The locals knew a little Spanish and began chatting with the fishermen.

The rain eased so the locals departed. The fishermen knew very little English. My Spanish is non-existent. *Silly me....I took French in school despite growing up in a very Hispanic town. Sigh. However, soon we were trying to converse with much gesturing. One of the first things we discussed was our presidents. They said "President Maduro.....he loco." I quickly countered "President Trump....he mucho loco." We all three shook our heads sadly in agreement to both statements. That out of the way, we continued to talk on a limited basis - person to person.

They work on one of the larger Trinidad fishing boats. They started in January 2017. Each time they leave Trinidad, they head up to St Vincent to take on bait fish and then out into the Atlantic. They are usually gone for 25 days before returning to port. The turn around is short before they head out again. They are in port now a tad longer as the boat needs painting. They will stay with the boat and fish through November. Then they will return to Venezuela for the month of December. Come January, they will start over again fishing.

They are both married, with two kids each. Remember......very little English and near non-existent Spanish and yet.....we were communicating, sharing, learning. Tom arrived as well as Stephan and Annika off sv Tango. We offered the fishermen some cold beers and more channa to snack on. Stephan and Annika had spent several months in Brazil when they crossed the Atlantic. They knew a little Portuguese and started communicating with the fisherman via a combination of Portuguese and Spanish. We all had another round of coldies.

After a bit, they disappeared to their boat, saying they would return soon. When they came back, they had a HUGE bag filled with big, frozen fillets of cleaned fish - tuna and Mahi mahi! It was at least 15 lbs of frozen fish. We were blown away at this generous gift. They just smiled. Tom took it to sv Honey Ryder to put in the freezer, pulling out half for our Swedish friends. When he returned, he brought a 4 page English to Spanish translation guide I bought this past summer. The youngest of the fisherman was very interested in this. He used it to ask additional questions, as did we. The gesturing continued as well along with head nods, smiles and laughs. Did we understand everything they said? No. Did they understand everything we said? No. It didn't matter. We simply enjoyed what we could understand as well as the process and effort.

We have seen them since a couple of times since - "Hola" we say. "Hello" they say.

Note - The above picture is of Venezuela owned fishing boats. These are very different in design than the regular fishing boats we are used to seeing. These are wooden, low waterline and usually carrying a crew of 8 or more. They often dock near sv Honey Ryder, rafting up side by side by side. As we sit in our cockpit, we can't help but observe a little bit of life onboard these vessels. It is fascinating. It should be noted that the fishermen I mentioned above are not on vessels like this but instead a traditional, steel type fishing boat. They are rare. Generally those crews are Asian with American captains.

On The Front Lines Of Climate Change

Picture via FB Gallery Cafe in Carriacou

Sept 29th 2017
I am going to be political. If you don't want or like that, don't read. I am only going to publish limited comments if I receive any, and I will pick and chose comments I do publish. This is my/our blog and I get to do that. If you don't like it, write your own blog.

So much debate, truths, lies, controversy, and emotion surrounding climate change. We are not going to talk specifics. I just want to say that if you don't believe in climate change and you visit the Caribbean, keep that opinion to yourself. These people are living climate change every day! A few island elders have shared this first hand knowledge with us personally. If you do visit and it comes up, perhaps instead of debating and trying to express YOUR side, maybe just listen. Ask questions, gain another perspective based on experience.

The Prime Minister of Dominica flew out of hurricane ravaged Dominica - where his own roof was ripped off during the storm - to address the United Nations on climate change. His speech was articulate, passionate and from first hand experience aka the front lines. You can read it HERE. I hope you do.

Finally, I saw what I think is a brilliant response to most climate change debates. I am only sorry I don't remember where or who posted this. It went something like this....."Regardless of whether you think/believe climate change is real or not, shouldn't we want and strive towards clean air and water?" Yes, yes we should. End of debate.

Cat 5 Hurricane Marina - Weeping for Dominica and Others

Toni and Jeff - see the framed pic on the counter?

Sept 29^th 2017

This is Toni and her husband Jeff. We met them in May 2017 in Dominica. She is from Trinidad, he is from Dominica. They met in Hawaii. They came back to Dominica to start their life together. They have two small children. They built a lovely three story house. Out in front of their house is a small roti/doubles/snack shop. The land is family land on Jeff’s side. He father grew up in a tiny 2 room house on that very land. There is a framed picture on the counter of the snack shop of his father as a child at that house. Their plan is to live in the middle floor and make the top floor two separate apartments to rent out. The bottom floor would be a market/wholesale place catering to visiting cruisers.

Their house and business

We got to know them a little bit while we were in Dominica. Lovely, warm people. She and I have communicated via email a few times since. She wrote to me in June to asking if we had safely arrived in Trinidad. I wrote back saying we had and gave her a short update. Mid summer I emailed her asking how they were doing. She responded that they had gotten the market/wholesale area open on the first floor and they were excited for the coming cruising season. Then hurricane Maria took aim on Dominica. I emailed her right before. I didn't really know what to say other than something like "We are thinking of you,. Be safe. Good luck and please try to let us know you are ok after." It felt like a weak and empty thing to say but it was all I had. She emailed right back thanking me for my concern and letting me know that they were prepped and waiting. Ugh!

Our hiking guide Ian. He lived right on a river in Portsmouth. I hope he is ok. We don't know.

Maria decimated Dominica. She also went on to ravage St Croix and Puerto Rico. Report began to trickle out but very slowly. Very few came out of Dominica. Eventually, more reports and then pictures started surfacing. Our worst fears, near total destruction. I think something like 95% of all structures have sustained some sort of damage. I need to remind you now, that Dominica was hit by tropical storm Erika two years ago. That storm brought record rains that in turn caused massive flooding and numerous mudslides that took out over half the roads and hundreds of homes. 33 people died in TS Erika. The country had only just recovered.

Taken in 2016 from TS Erika in 2015

It is also important to remember that Dominica is it's own sovereign country with no strong motherland behind her. Additionally, Dominica is one of the poorest countries in the eastern Caribbean. Without a large, international airport, the tourist trade that most of these islands depend on doesn't happen on the same level in Dominica. Despite that challenge, they have come a long way in developing not only a small tourist trade but ecotourism. A perfect fit for all the natural beauty that is Dominica with 7 extinct volcanoes, 360+ rivers, hiking trails, the boiling lake, whales and so much more.

Middleham falls 2016

The cruising community LOVES Dominica. Nearly everyone stops there while sailing north and south each season. While several islands got hard hit this hurricane season and many are suffering, this fondness and the above facts are the reason that much of the cruiser related efforts at hurricane relief is focused on Dominica. Martinique cruisers, Grenada cruisers and Trinidad cruisers have all mobilized with locals on each island to collect needed items and money. Yachts and a tug have been loaded and have sailed for Dominica. Additional will be following. At great risk to themselves and their vessels, I might add.

sv Endorfin II on the way to the Boiling Lake 2016

As cruisers, sometimes we get lucky and come to know locals on a personal level. That is one of the magical things about this life, the wonderful people we meet. This gives us a personal connection to a place and let's us get a glimpse into another culture. When a natural tragedy or other strikes in that far off place.... like the Caribbean, we can no longer say "Oh, how sad for those people." Instead we are invested, we know that place personally, we have a connection. Our acquaintances/friends are there. They may/are affected. It pains and worries us. Often we are called to response action somehow. These connections and understanding of another place and people make this world a better place. Especially during the bad times. One race = the human race.

Greg our boat guy in Roseau 2016. I hope he is ok. We don't know.

There are also additional cruiser efforts for other islands and individual causes and individual families. We all know someone that was affected this hurricane season, some worse than others. I just thought I might explain why it may seem like the cruising community is so focused on Dominica and to a lesser extent, Barbuda. That tiny island is part of the sovereign nation of Antigua and Barbuda. Again, hit head on by cat 5 Irma and again, no strong motherland behind her. All 1800 inhabitants of Barbuda were forced to leave their island. Did you get that.....they had to completely leave the island because the destruction was SO complete! It is the first time in 300 years that the island had been without people.

Famous guide Seacat making lunch at Boiling Lake in 2016. I hope he is ok. We don't know. His house is right on the water.

Back to Toni and Jeff - We waited and waited to hear from her. I scoured the internet for information on the damage in Portsmouth where Toni and Jeff live, hoping for some sort of update. As I mentioned above, communication out of Dominica was very slow in coming with many, many areas completely cut off from the outside world or even from the government of Dominica itself. Finally, this week on Wednesday Sept 27th I emailed Toni asking "Are you all alive? Are you ok?" I let her know that relief efforts had started in Trinidad, Grenada and Martinique...."Help is on the way. Hang on" She responded back late in the day they were alive and ok! *I am tearing up now as I write this. So emotional. It seems they are US citizens (probably when they lived in Hawaii) and therefore were able to evacuate on Monday Sept 25th to Trinidad, several days after the hurricane hit. She said their house and business was damaged but not nearly as bad as many others. She added that Dominica is in real trouble. "They need food and medical supplies now! People are or have run out of food. The main hospital in Portsmouth was damaged and needs supplies." We were SO relieved and yet heartbroken at her report of the conditions. She said they will stay in Trinidad for two weeks and then head to Texas to stay with family there for a while. She didn't say when they would return to Dominica. Think of all the thousands of people that were not able to evacuate.

Young guide on our Boiling Lake hike 2016. I hope he is ok. We don't know.

I mentioned above how it felt weak and empty saying "Thinking of you. Be safe. Good luck and please let us know you are ok when you can". It's more than that, you feel helpless to do anything - before, during and after. Social media has been filled with images, reports and stories of all the destruction. Most of us hit the cry emoji and make a comment, something along the lines of "heartbreaking" but those are the same.....weak and empty. Make no mistake - it is a horrible thing to have to send an email out with the subject line "Are you alive? Are you ok?" I think everyone was just so shocked and stunned. We didn't know what to do. But relief efforts soon fired up. Links to organizations to donate money to or specific GoFundMe. As well as the the above cruiser/local relief efforts to gather food and supplies to send.