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Island hopping away from the hurricanes
The Leeward Islands are the closest match of what we thought cruising around the Caribbean would be like. Lush green islands inhabited by Rastafarians and big mommas, speaking a Jamaican-style English that we have a hard time understanding. It’s a great cruising area as the next island is never far away. So far we have visited the Dutch “Bovenwindse Eilanden” (St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius and a number of English Antilles (St. Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat). Next up is Guadeloupe, still an official French Departement and supposedly even part of the European Union.
Hurricane season has officially opened on the 1st June, which means we are in the wrong place for this time of year. Hurricanes occur between June and November north of the 12th parallel, and we are still near the 17th. That means we have to sail another 300 Nautical Miles (+/- 600 km) south asap. Luckily hurricanes are extremely rare in June, so we figure we have about another month or so to make it to Grenada or Venezuela.
The Leewards are turning out to be a little family reunion for Adriaan, as my parents joined the crew in St Maarten. Together we will sail to Dominica (a whole other country than the Dominican Republic), where we’ll meet sister Lieke for a couple of days. I’m so lucky to have such a mobile family!