Caribbean

I've been to too many small islands in the Caribbean to do a photo-page for each one. So I'm just gonna put a photo or 2 from a few selected islands on this page and that will be that!

Turks & Caicos Islands. Almost every island in the Caribbean has decent diving, but some places are more decent than others. Turks & Caicos is one of the better dive destinations because they've taken better care of their reefs than many other islands. They also have a lot of good dive-charter facilities and there's plenty to do on land.

Ile a Vache, Haiti. The "rich" part of a very poor country. This small island off the south coast of Haiti is a layover spot for transiting sailors, like us.

Anguilla. An overseas British territory, Anguilla has pubs, cricket, and driving on the wrong side of the road. And great beaches.

Cayo Guillermo, Cuba. This is the Cuba of Ernest Hemingway, not Fidel Castro. Cayo Guillermo was one of the places Hemingway came to fish back in the old days. Like most places he visited it has turned to gold - what was once a sleepy fishing village is now a high-end resort town.

British Virgin Islands. The BVI's are compact enough that you can take a powerboat around the entire island chain in a day, like we did on this trip. There are many great stops along the way, like sunbathing here at the Baths on Virgin Gorda.

Bonaire. Sunbathing isn't just for humans. This iguana catches a few rays while checking out the great water colors around Bonaire. This is yet another island known mainly for its outstanding diving. Bonaire's claim to fame is that the reef is so close to shore you don't need a boat - just gear up on the beach and swim out to the edge, where the reef drops down into deep water. In this photo you can see the drop-off: right where the water changes from light to dark blue.

Martinique. This was my "post-retirement" trip. We spent 10 days here and covered the island well. And there's a lot to see - take your pick of nice beaches, then go climb around the crater rim of Mt Pelee, a semi-dormant volcano. Mt Pelee killed 30,000 people in the early 1900's, the worst natural disaster in France's history. To avoid being # 30,001, watch your step - it's a straight drop into the crater just off the path, in the photo to the right. And at 4,600 ft of altitude, it's cold up there!

Trinidad & Tobago. TT is located on the north/south America flyway, and gets a lot of thru-traffic from migrating birds. These and many other bird photos were taken at the Asa Wright Nature Preserve. A full photo-page from Trinidad can be found under the "South America" tab.

St Maarten. I'd seen photos like this one before I came here and would've sworn it was a Photoshop job. Nope. Totally real, and it happens several times a day. In fact it's one of the main tourist attractions on the island. The beachside bar where I'm standing posts the arrival times of all inbound flights, and even has air traffic control playing over the sound system so you can hear the radio chatter as they land.

St Barthelemy. Being very European in all ways, nudity is not much of an issue here. All beaches are topless and a few, such as this one at Grande Saline, are full-on nude.

Saba. Most of the islands in this neighborhood are low and flat, a few have some rolling hills. But this tiny speck of an island rises straight up out of the Caribbean like the Matterhorn. No surprise there - the entire island is a dormant volcano and it looks like one. With the pleasant name "Mt. Scenery".

Isla Aves, Venezuela. Isla Aves means "Bird Island" in Spanish. From these photos you can see that it's well named. This is just a speck of land way out in the middle of the Caribbean, far from any other island. It's only about 500 yards long by maybe 50 yards wide and the only thing here is a small Venezuelan army outpost. I'd never even heard of this place before but it was close to our route sailing diagonally across the Caribbean, so we radio'd the outpost for permission to visit. After getting the once-over from a boatload of armed Venezuelan soldiers (and donating to their party-fund) we were allowed to anchor for the night and to visit the island. It's a major nesting site for birds and sea turtles, and I suspect it's where Venezuelan soldiers get sent if they're bad. The elevated building is the outpost - in a strange twist of fate our skipper was involved in the design of this structure in the 1970's. His detailed knowledge of the place must have had some of the soldiers thinking he was some kind of spy.

St Lucia. The harbor at Soufriere, with the iconic peak of Gros Piton in the background.

Puerto Rico : Part history, part great surf.

Dominican Republic. DR is a big island with many great sights. One of them is the huge waterfall in the jungle at El Salto del Limon.

Grenada. The pretty little harbor at St. Georges, the capitol of this island.

Bahamas. My first-ever international surf trip, to Eleuthera in the Bahamas. If I only knew what I was starting...

Barbados. Every island has a great sunset-watching place. In Barbados it's "any west-facing beach".