Flying Fish, Falling Iguanas and Ashes to Ashes

Articles from Boomer Magazine in Richmond, VA

Flying Fish, Falling Iguanas and Ashes to Ashes

Monday, 12 April 2010 15:28

Captain’s Log: 257 Nautical Miles. St. Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, Les Saintes and Monserrat — every island has its own romance and flavor greeting you at the dock with its sweet perfume. You’re treated differently when you disembark from a mammoth cruise ship as a faceless number rather than showing up at a dingy dock or beach where the fishermen are dressed more like me. I’m often asked for directions. I ride $.50 buses to hear the local gossip and find out what’s for lunch — “Tell my cousin Marie to give you the callalou soup!” Everyone has a cousin you must meet and they’re all glad to meet me.

Dominica offered a hidden bat cave on the shore and farther up the mountain, hot sulphur springs, just like home. A park ranger waited with me for the iguanas to start falling from the trees around midday in the heat — Chicken Little look out! The beautiful little french islands of Les Saintes were so delightful after the iguana incident. Breakfast croissants for the crew and a toes-in-the-water-bum-in-the-sand lunch. Balconies overhanging blue or red doors of gingerbread-trimmed cottages lining narrow streets. Church bells calling their faithful to mass…We sail at sunset and as a final salute, two humpbacks raise their flukes!

Kicking Ash in Monserrat: I found a fearless man who survived the big 2005 eruption and earthquake who was willing to take us to the recent activity site (two weeks prior). We drive over rivers of hardened lava and ash at times on two wheels, grating the oil pan, tenaciously pawing our way through choking ash, chasing five-foot iguanas out of our path, arriving to find three-story houses covered to their rooftops in hardened ash and mud. The devastation is so complete and contrasts the beauty I’ve witnessed on our way that it freezes my brain. Before 2005 there were 11,000 people here; now less than 4,500 souls remain, definant, yet hopeful. The volcano won’t quit.

We sail away, both Paradise and crew covered with ash.

Sharon Heggie, a Canadian, has been everything from a successful innkeeper to a chiropractic assistant to a TV producer/host and the list now includes sailor! When not traveling, she cheerfully bakes cookies for her family in Midlothian, VA where she can also be found at frequent food and wine events.