Leeward Islands 4...

St Kitts is the only island where we spent the entire day on land...touring the island. The tour guide we hired was very proud of his country and took us on a whirlwind tour which included historical sites, a botanical garden, unique geological formations, and lunch at an old sugar plantation...

Many photos I took from the van window...

Windmill remains...

Colorful houses...

The roadside stand where I bought a CD of a local reggae singer...Masud Sadiki...By the end of the week we were all in love with his music...

Masud Sadiki

Caribelle Batik factory and botanical gardens...

Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park...

Black Rocks...Hardened lava formations...

Lunch at Ottley's Plantation...

...and another beautiful sunset...

Leeward Islands 3...

The long sail from St Barts to St Kitts...

took most of the next day...

but when the motor is off and you are completely under wind power it is quiet and peaceful and relaxing...

...looking down...

..looking up...

looking right...St Eustacious...

looking left...Basseterre, St Kitts...

...where we ate our french bread from St Barts...

and docked for the night...

...within walking distance of town...and dinner...

Leeward Islands 2...

Our next stop was Gustavia, the capital of St Barts......

...a port full of fancy yachts...

 

 

            and shops...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...narrow streets...

...old buildings...

... stunning sunsets...

 

...and great French  restaurants...

 

The Leeward Islands...

I finally finished editing my photos from our sailing vacation down to about 500 pics to share...I brought my new DSLR as well as my old P&S  and pretty much alternated using them...If I thought there was a chance of getting wet I brought the older camera.  I did spend a lot of time practicing with the new camera...and even read the manual.

I am in love with the Caribbean...the islands, the sea, the weather... This is the third time Mr O and I traveled with a group of friends to charter a sailboat  for a week of cruising the islands...but the first time we visited St Martin, St Barts, St Kitts, and Nevis...I find it interesting how similar yet how different each of the islands is.

We picked up the provisioned catamaran on the French side of  St Martin but arrived too late to see much more than the road from the airport to Oyster Pond and the restaurants at the dock...

The next morning we left early

and sailed to St Barts...

where we moored at one of my favorite spots ...Anse du Grand Colombier...a rather secluded bay with a sandy beach...

... took our first dip and grilled steaks on the boat.

The next day we swam to the beach, hiked up the rocky, cactus filled hills...

 

...and swam in this great, warm, very salty water...

...back to our boat...

...and that was all before lunch.

Return From Vacation...

I've been home from vacation for a week and I finally feel nearly caught up with unpacking, washing laundry, paying bills, grocery shopping, cleaning the house, and editing pictures...Our Caribbean interlude was very restorative...Four couples chartered a 43 foot catamaran in St Maarten and sailed to St Barts, St Kitts, and Nevis...Every day was sunny and in the 80's...The food was delicious whether we cooked on board or went to a restaurant...The water was warm and clear...We swam every day...What more could I ask for in the middle of winter?

Caribbean water is just a different color and consistency than waters in New England...

Chartered boats seem to have silly names...This was at least better than the name of the last catamaran we chartered...Cat Sass...try saying that over the radio three times...

We sailed under the French flag...

I'm not a sailor but Mr O and my friends are...

I took lots of photographs...

and relaxed...

A Winter Interlude...

When you open a fortune cookie and get a fortune like this you really need to start packing...I will not have access to a computer for the next 10 days but I will be bringing two cameras, my handy-dandy iphone, a very fat novel, a month's worth of  New Yorker magazines, snorkel gear, sunscreen, floating tubes, Mr O, and 6 other friends so I shouldn't miss it...Will be back with lots of photos...

First Try...

One reason that I haven't been posting much recently is because I have been spending so much time with new toys equipment...Not only have I been experimenting with my new iPhone but since December I have received Photoshop Elements 8 and a new camera.  I don't have any basic technical knowledge so it is a very long, slow learning curve...Slow enough that many of these cold, windy days have found me in my nice warm library experimenting at the computer rather than, say, cleaning the house...

One thing I wanted to try was to enhance a photo with a texture and this is my first attempt...

The original already had an amazing sky...

  ...I cropped the picture and layered  on two free textures, FallinApart by SkeletalMess and WornLove  from CoffeeShop...It may not look it but it took me hours to do this!  I'm thinking I may prefer the original but it was fun!