Sailing in the Caribbean

Let me introduce you to the crew.  We'll the crew and the other passengers.   Cat, our Canadian tour leader, Jose the fabulous cook, and crazy Captain Pedro.   They sail us around  (mostly motor), make us cocktails, catch our dinner (dish and lobster),  make our meals, and do our dishes.  I am never coming home.

We have an Irish couple, a Swiss - German couple ,  two German - Swiss doctors, three German lads, a Brit, and us.  We're all currently singing along to Free Fallin after a hard day swimming, kayaking, snorkeling,  walking along white sandy beaches, and a visit to the mangroves.  Apart from the mangroves,  this pretty much sums up the past few days.

It was a six hour stint to get from Cienfuegos to Cayo Guano del Este via a tiny island with some quite good snorkeling.   Guano has a manned lighthouse which needs something wound up every four hours.  All except Jose piled into the zodiac and tried to get ashore.   Willie the dog and Fran, a young lad who works there, were waiting to help us ashore.  The waves were too rough so Fran jumped in and we towed him along behind with the painter.  Willie barked for a while, then jumped in too. 

We nearly drowned Fran, but soon were on the small beach and walking over the mostly rocky island to the lighthouse.  They have a few solar panels, three weedy palm trees, cable TV,  and 234 steps to the top of the lighthouse to see the sunset.

It was a stinking hot day and a stinking hot night.  Our cabin is the "luxury" suite.  It's a bit claustrophobic but I'm told it's much better than some of the others.  With the heat, it was not an easy sleep.