Hello Swist family blog followers! This is Tracy Plourde – my family and I were guests aboard SeaSparrow for 11 days in March and I wanted to contribute to the post with some of our experiences from our perspective (i.e complete sailing novices).
We landed in Guadeloupe where we found our way by cab to the marina where Tia and Eryk met us – Eryk had requested we not bring suitcases, but soft-totes/bags given space limitation on board. This was a great idea – even for transporting from shore to catamaran in the dingy.
With 9 of us on the SeaSparrow, it was tight at times, but more spacious than I had expected, actually.
The Swists were indeed a capable and remarkable crew…from day one through to our departure, we felt comfortable in terms of safety and ensuring logistics were being managed. (Logistics over-thought is actually a pretty important component of the whole sailing thing which, as Erin has mentioned in her posts, can certainly affect what you can do and when.)
We settled in pretty well to the routine that the Swists had become accustomed to over their time sailing. Sometimes it was cooking, cleaning and dingy-securing. Other times it was an early-morning or end-of-the day swim, cocktails as the sun set, motor-sailing to Eryk’s music mix, and let’s not forget adventures-in-anchoring.
We spent a couple days sailing and many days exploring the islands of Guadeloupe, Iles les Saintes, and Dominica. Guadeloupe was a relatively populated island that also offered a network of hiking trails in a variety of levels of difficulty. Unfortunately, the trail I had picked out (medium difficulty) was closed from hurricane damage sustained – so the Swists and Gaetan were only too happy to up the challenge to difficult. My girls weren’t as keen on a muddy hike up-hill (understatement) but I know they did enjoy the waterfalls.
Eryk, Erin, Tia, Hugh and Owen are always in for adventure and exploring, we love this about them and we were not disappointed by all that we did and saw while there. Dominica was an island I will not soon forget. It’s natural beauty and impressive landscapes and views would be enough but the experience was heightened without many others around when we were exploring the amazing sites (it is not easily accessible by air or overly marketed as a tourist-destination). There was a hot spring in a water fall that we spent a lot of time enjoying – mostly by ourselves. We also visited a gorge that was one of the most unique experiences, floating down the water through a gorge to a natural whirlpool – amazing! And again – just us.
The weather was perfect, the sun was strong (a bit too strong on our first full afternoon spent on an island beach for us fair-skinned Ottawa folk), the fruit was plentiful. We learned a new game that we all played together most nights (Mexican Train), we enjoyed a couple evenings just lying on the ‘trampoline’ at the front of the cat enjoying a sky full of stars. It was a vacation we won’t soon forget and my girls were so excited to return home and tell their friends and teachers all about it.
So a huge THANK YOU to the Swists for having us as their guests. … loved it.
Tracy (Gaetan, Sarah (10 yrs), Chantal (9 yrs).
Thank you Tracy for the letting us know back home of your adventure. I am sure the Swists were thrilled to have friends come and experience the adventure with them.