Ava's Tropical Dreams

  A SURFER'S PARADISE! 🌴 Hi! Get ready to read my next blog... about surfing! SURFING RESEARCH ( by Thea for home school): The history of surfing stared in the 12th century in Polynesia (the Polynesians found a cave carving of people riding waves.) The Polynesians spread the word to Hawaii and the sport became very popular. Then they started making boards in different shapes and sizes to try new things. The first surfboards that the Polynesians used were made out of wood, especially from the local trees such as koa and wiliwili.  Today, we have lightweight foam, carbon fiber surfboards. Surfing has become a high performance, global sport with Olympic level competition. LEARNING TO SURF!🏄 In Guadeloupe, we arrived at a bay with incredible surf swell! Already there, were our friends who were surfing on the big waves! When we went to the beach, in the evening, our friends offered me a try on one of their surfboards, of course I said I would give it a go. As I paddled into the b...

Guadeloupe  ANNOUNCEMENT!- We have officially been living on our boat for 6 whole months! Time has flown by so quickly! I love this life, as I have settled in so well and made so many new friends (including dolphins)! I hope we continue this incredible lifestyle as we explore our earth's ocean wonders!   Guadeloupe is a beautiful, luscious island north of Dominica. However, unlike Dominica, it is a French Caribbean island. Many of the tourists who seek the amazing features of Guadeloupe come from France as Guadeloupe is a French-speaking island. From trying out a new sport to swimming with dolphins, read on to hear about our great experience in Guadeloupe!   Les Saints! Off of the south coast of Guadeloupe, there are a group of islands called Les Saints. We did a 4 hour sail to Les Saints to see our friends who were already there. Les Saints is a group of small islands 5 nautical miles south of the most southern tip of Guadeloupe. On one of the i...

  Welcome to Dominica! Dominica is a small, fertile island in the eastern Caribbean Sea . Its closest neighbours are the French islands of Guadeloupe and Marie-Galante, to the north, and Martinique, to the south. It has a population of 66,205 people , of which about 14,500 live in the capital city, Roseau, which is located on the south-west coast. Dominica is rich of luscious rivers, waterfalls and hot springs which attracts tourists and crew ships. The native language is English but some French creole is also spoken because of its French colonized neighbours. This island has a unique personality for sure! Martinique to Dominica: We have been in Dominica for around a week now, we had a nice 6 hour sail from Martinique. While sailing, we saw our first sighting of a whale, it was resting in the water probably after a deep dive. It watched us for a moment and then disappeared under the surface. We then decided to put the sails down and turn around af...

  New Friends, New Toy The last week or so, we have had so much fun! A few days ago, we moved up to St Pierre (a bay on the west coast of Martinique). While being there with some of our old friends, we also made lots of new friends. I love living on a boat as every bay we go to we find it so easy to make new friends as everyone is experiencing the same amazing journey.  ZOO DAY! One day, lots of families went to a nearby zoo! There must have been around 10 children and 10 adults! We all had so much fun looking at raccoons, monkeys, flamingos and more. It was really cool to see the difference between zoos in the Caribbean and zoos in Europe- there were no giraffes or elephants as they can not get them out to the islands very easily. Amazingly, the zoo has been built inside the ancient ruins of the town of St Pierre. The whole town was destroyed when the volcano, Mount Pelee, erupted in 1902 burning every building to the ground.The eruption killed 29,000 people with only 3 survi...

 Martinique! Last week, we sailed from St Lucia to Martinique. For a few days we were in Sainte Anne bay exploring the towns and beaches. One day, our family and all of our friends met in the town square for dinner and fun! The beaches there were lovely with nice sand and turquoise water. My dad had lots of fun kite surfing as it was very windy. I tried to wing foil but was not very successful! One time, we decided to go into a craft store... it was heaven as we got lots of supplies for crafts on the boat!      Fun facts about Martinique: It is a french Island! The locals speak French and not much English 💬 Everything is in Euros not EC (Eastern Caribbean Dollars)€💶 It is rainier than some of the other Caribbean Islands ☔💧 Martinique is a popular tourist destination ✈🛄   After exploring some of Sainte Anne we sailed to a bay around the corner. While sailing, we got out the boatswain chair (pronounced bow🎀-son👦 as I found out from my grandad) and tied it to...

St Lucia and the Pitons! St Lucia Flag Over the past week or so, we have been exploring the island of St Lucia! Last Friday, we did something really challenging but fun... We hiked the big Piton!!! We started at 600ft and hiked/climbed 2000ft. It was around 2-3 hours up and 2-3 hours down. We did it with our friends so there was 7 of us+ two tour guides.    Fun facts about Gros Piton: Only 70% of people make it to the top- most give up halfway or even 3/4 of the way! This mountain is a volcanic plug not a volcano itself-the volcano imploded and erupted elsewhere (the pitons). The full height of the Piton (from sea level) is 2619ft! That is more than double the height of the Eiffel Tower! There is 27 bird species 🐦 as well as many bats, opossoms, rodents 🐀, frogs 🐸 and hummingbirds.  It is millions of years old! There is a beer named 'piton' after the pitons! Here is a short, descriptive paragraph my sister wrote for home school:  As the Piton towers above the wate...