Sailing the coast of Colombia

Oh, Samana

Samana is a 150 nautical mile sail from Luperon (taking upwind tacks into account).  Seems doable but this  trip along a coast with several windy capes and high cliffs sailing directly into the strong and steady trade winds is a task that requires some planning and patience.  Going was slow requiring frequent short tacks along the coast to minimize the currents and play the lees along the shore.   We kept our eyes peeled for whales as we rounded the Cabo Cabron and sailed around into the Bahia Samana and were rewarded by some great breeching action in the distance.  This is their mating ground and apparently they are incredibly active and playful during their visit here.  

Feeling in need of a little extra comfort and some water and provisions we checked into newly opened Puerto Bahia marina with a gentle sigh of relief.   What fabulous luxury!  The marina is part of a huge (but very tasteful) resort with all of the amenities.  Six swimming pools, fast internet and a beautiful lobby with a bar right in front of our boat.   Fortunately the place had only been open for a month and their prices for boats were under  1$US per foot.   

The hotel has a very chic travel agency whom we approached to help us to rent a car.  On the first occasion we were told to meet in the lobby of the hotel at 0900 to pick up the car.  We showed up promptly at 0900 with our hair in a braid (well Emma’s anyway) only to be told that the car was no longer available.  And we had already paid! They offered to compensate us with a chauffeured taxi for the day (a much more expensive option which they offered for the same price) and couldn’t understand that we were not entirely happy.  The taxi chauffeur took us to the major sites in the areas and we found ourselves back on the beaten path.  This path involved (among other things) riding an emaciated donkey for 45 minutes to a beautiful waterfall.  Unfortunately, we were swimming in the waterfall with several hundred cruise ship passengers.  Aaaah, we have become spoiled.  

 

Our second car rental from Samana was also slightly ridiculous.  They brought us an extremely old jeep with no seatbelts in the back and no window coverings.  Fortunately, we had some big adjustable sail ties that we able to rig to fix Emma and Macsen’s car seats safely in place.  Having personal control of the car was more enjoyable as it gave us the opportunity to stop where we wanted and visit small villages along the way.  Once again we were visiting a country with extremely lavish luxurious possibilities on one side of the resort gates and extreme poverty and necessary self sufficiency on the other.  Once again, more than a little disturbing.  

 On February 3^rd we took the boat 12 nautical miles across the bay to anchor in the Park de Los Haitises. Stunning! This park is said to rival Bora Bora in natural beauty and although I cannot tell from experience I can well imagine this to be so.  Gentle hills surround the anchorage and there are beautiful walks through the humid subtropical park  forest.  There is little road access and the number of tourists per year is strictly limited.  The hills are pocketed by caves created by water erosion and there are miles of dinghy exploration possible through the mangroves.  The Native American Taínos adorned several of these caves with pictographs and petro glyphs.  Pelicans, ibis, frigate birds among others are constantly soaring overhead.  And to top it off there is a beautiful ecolodge with a cascade of natural fresh water pools to swim through.  Ahhhh!  

After a few days of pure beautiful nature we returned to the Puerto Bahia resort to watch the US football Super Bowl  2011.  There were six other boats (s/v I Don’t Neaux, s/v Eclipse, s/v R Sea Cat, s/v Yolo, s/v Hajera, s/v At Last) with a lovely group of people and together we made up quite a lively party.  Emma and Macsen still sometimes shout a random “Go Packers!”  for the winning team so they obviously learned something from this experience as well. 

The Experiences of Others

The sail to Luperon, Dominican Republic was as long and unpleasant as expected.  We were motor sailing for 3 days into 15 knot winds with 2 meter seas and a little current against us.  A slow and incredibly frustrating process taking us down to under 4 knots over ground for hours on end at full throttle with the engine gulping through our diesel. Ugh!  

Luperon is a beautiful  harbor surrounded by lush green hills and absolutely full of cruising boats, many with huge beards underwater indicating that they have been sitting there for a while.  We had received many many warnings about the time consuming check-in process in Luperon involving corrupt officials coming on board and asking aggressively for ‘presents’ .  Several people gave us advice on how to protect ourselves from this threat and respond to these horrible and forceful requests.  Upon arrival, we hoisted the quarantine flag and Seb proactively jumped in the dingy to hunt down the numerous  officials that needed to be informed of our arrival.  Within 1 ½ hours (relatively short for this kind of thing) he came back to the dingy with two men, one from agriculture and another from customs.   They opened a couple of cupboards and peeked with a giggle at Emma and Macsen while we chatted in Spanglish to the best of our collective abilities and they left with a smile after about 15 minutes.  Their only request was for a cold drink.  

Sadly our knowledge of Luperon remains  limited to a quick glimpse of the busy village streets as the relatively good weather and our schedule forced us pull up the anchor the following morning.  It looked like a lovely place to explore.  Our plan was to spend a couple of hours in the morning getting diesel and picking up our despacho (departure documents required to for any movement in DR) and then leave around 1000ish.  We were startled awake by loud knocking (rather shocking) on the boat before 0700! Two overzealous but very friendly customs and immigration agents had taken it upon themselves to bring us our despacho in person.  They had ridden out in the dinghy of another departing cruiser and Seb rowed them back to the dock once the document changed hands.   For this special delivery service we thanked them and offered a cold drink.  They gave absolutely no indication that they wanted or expected anything more.      

Georgetown, Williamstown and Barraterre

After a quick provisioning stop in the chic Emerald Bay marina we headed off to Georgetown.  Georgetown in located on Great Exuma Island and is absolutely full of cruising boats.  Georgetown offers everything a cruisers wishes with yoga classes, chart and equipment swaps, beach volleyball tournaments, Trivia nights, poker games,  medical lectures, weather courses and much more all advertised every morning on the VHF net. Many people head to Georgetown at the beginning of the season, drop their anchor, and do not pull it up until the end of the season. Seb and I were both feeling a little wary and planned to stay for just 2 days before sailing south.  Weather prevented us from a timely trip and we ended up staying in Georgetown for 6 days.  And it was fun.  First was the cruisers welcome reception where we met up with (among others) two crews that Seb met during his solo sail in Nova Scotia, then Seb fixed the dinghy propeller with much help from Pat from the S/V The Artful Dodger, we played volleyball games, had good walks, Emma had play dates with a 5 year old girl from Vancouver, and there was a fabulous windy beach and much more to keep us busy.
  

We also spent a day touring Great and Little Exuma with a rental car.  There is one highway that runs up and down the two cays connected by a small bridge.  The narrow roads are flanked by trees and broken only by stunning sea vistas or the occasional small groups of houses in a town. 

As you drive through tiny Williamstown you can’t miss the huge Doric column up on the hill. This column was used to let passing boats know that salt was available for sale on the island.  There is an enormous shallow salt flat where you can see the remains of the sorting walls.  Information boards remind us of the torturous conditions of the slaves working the salt flats to reap 300,000 bushels of salt per year.  Raking salt was terrible work.  It meant standing in brine with the hot sun reflected off the white sand and salt.  The result was often blindness and ulcerated cuts that would not heal.  

Williamstown also has the ruins of the Hermitage plantation.  This site is virtually unmarked and you can wander among the overgrown ruins of the houses and tombs but there is no information to indicate what was where.  I guess that this is something that nobody really wants to remember or glorify in any way. 

From Williamstown we drove up to Barraterre, at the top of the island.  This was the sight of the Barraterre sloop regatta.  This is an incredibly competitive local sailboat race on traditional Bahamian wooden dinghies.  The Barraterrre children’s orchestra came out to cheer the boats on and the entire town had a festive air.  

These small boats generally sail with a skipper and 3 crew members.  The crews’ main role is to balance the tippy boat against its huge sail.  They do this by perching precariously out on shifting 2”x8” boards about 2 metres over the water.  Each race begins rather chaotically with the dinghies starting at anchor and pulling up anchor and hoisting sails simultaneously just after the race boat shoots off a huge rifle. 

Seb was incredibly lucky to be the only non-local to crew on one of the boats for the final race.  His dinghy was skippered by Huey Lloyd, who is over 70 and a legendary wooden sloop builder and racer in the region.   Their boat was named Hog Tusk and while Macsen and I enthusiastically cheered him on to win Emma supported the more elegantly named Golden Girl.  Hog Tusk returned victorious adding the icing to Seb’s already incredible exciting cake.

 

Thunderball Grotto

Staniel Cay is the home of  the Thunderball Grotto.  The James Bond film Thunderball was filmed there in the 70s.  It started as a puddle on a big rock.  Over time the puddle got deeper and deeper and the waves wore out the underside of the rock. They eventually met and formed Thunderball Cave.  Seb and I took turns snorekeling through this incredible cave.  The fish in and around the grotto are abundant, huge and incredibly colourful.  The cave itself is like something out of a movie...yeah, really.  We were hoping to take Emma and Macsen into the cave on our second visit at slack tide but Emma was unwilling.  I took Macsen in swimming with him on my back.  He stayed and looked around for about 10 sconds.  My exclamations of awe were met with a very short “OK, but can we get out now.”

Shroud Cay, Hawksbill Cay and Warderick Wells

Shroud Cay is at the Northern border of the Exuma Land and Seas Park.  We arrived and dropped anchor in the still waters next to Shroud Cay in the late afternoon and settled in for dinner.  Just as it was getting dark a boat rowed by and invited us to a gathering on the beach.  We bundled into the Spikkle and rowed in to the dark beach.  Three boats had gathered on the beach (White Seal who had extended the invitation, Curiosity and Sisu) and had built a nice fire in the pit and were busy toasting marshmallows and making s’mores. Seb, Emma and Macsen ate their first s’mores on that beach at Shroud Cay and thus shared yet another North American family tradition.  Super gezellig.

Meg, Charlie and Mary from the White Seal took us in hand again the next day with an invitation for a dinghy safari through the mangrove creeks on Shroud Cay.   They were rowing and so were we so the crew of the S/V Curiosity kindly towed both boats.  We picked up the crew from Sisu on the way and headed for the mouth of the creek.  Rowing on a tiny creek with crystal clear shallow water over bright white sand was a real treat.  The creek twisted through the mangroves and then came out on the Exuma Sound side of the cays where we found crashing waves, a wonderful beach and some great snorkelling.  The conchs lying on the bottom were the largest I have ever seen.  There were several in the group drooling at the size of the conch and dreaming of conch salad and fritters but we respected the park rules and left them to grow some more. From the beach we walked up to Camp Driftwood and enjoyed the incredible views from this promontory. Amazing.  After a lovely drift/ sail back down the creek we stopped for a swim.  Emma and Macsen had a wonderful time playing with the kids from the other boats.  Their ages ranged from 9 to 16 and they were all really great kids who played rambunctious and creative games with the monkeys who in turn shrieked and laughed and enjoyed all of the big kid attention.

 Hawksbill Cay was a day stop on the way to Warderick Wells.  We were the only boat in the bay and were joined on arrival by a 1,5 meter long barracuda whom we affectionately named Barry.  We decided to admire Barry from afar rather than join him in the water as he was eyeing us with a territorial stare.  The Spikkle was called immediately into action and we dinghied in through tiny channels of mangroves before hiking up the hill to enjoy some stunning Exuma views.  Macsen was the self designated leader of our expedition and ran ahead of us calling out “Here I am!” every few steps to guide us through the dense underbrush. 

Our arrival in Warderick Wells was later than expected due to an uncharted sandbar.  We ran lightly aground and decided to wait until high tide to proceed.  We left our anchorage at 2000 and arrived in the harbour at 2300. The crew of the White Seal had kindly left their VHF on for the night in case we needed assistance.  Fortunately we did not, but it does feel nice to know that people are looking out for you.

Warderick Wells houses the headquarters of the Exuma Land and Sea Park.  The island is covered with rough paths running either through the brush or along the cliffs  offering absolutely stunning views.   We took a long walk from the north mooring field down to the ruins of an old 1700s loyalist plantation.  This took us the better part of the day and the path led us through some tricky wobbly rocky sections with caves.  Emma walked the entire time and Macsen only needed to be carried for a short time.  Super troopers!  In addition to the beautiful scenery, we lost the path at one point and happened upon a family of hutias sleeping in a shady glade.  These animals are round, rabbit sized rodents that are both endangered and nocturnal so we felt pretty lucky to see them in such close quarters.  

Blow holes were the next great attraction of Warderick Wells.  These holes are located at the top of Boo Boo hill  above caves that become almost submerged at high tide. When the swell rushes into the caves the air is pushed up through the holes with tremendous pressure, enough to make your hair stand on end!  

Big Major’ s Spot

Big Major’s spot is an anchorage with another lovely Exuma beach.  This beach has a special and extremely unexpected attraction in the form of...feral pigs.  Nobody seems entirely sure how these pigs came to be on the island. The most common theory is that a farmer from nearby Staniel Cay abandoned them there or left them for tourists to fatten with their treats.  We watched the pigs from the Pjotter for a while and saw them playing with other cruisers.  They were bold enough to climb into one dinghy and to swim out with another. Pigs are actually very good swimmers! We dinghied in to the beach and were having a cosy chat with Jean-Pierre and Michelle from the Bleau Marie II when a lovely brown and black spotted pig wandered up and begged for some vittles.  He hung around with us for a while, much to the delight of Emma and Macsen who took to following him around, and then he wandered back into the palm trees.  Just as we were getting into our dinghies a motor boat roared up with a visibly tipsy group aboard.  They tooted their fog horn and a huge sow came barrelling out of the brush followed by two little ones.  She charged towards us and then ran up to the motor boat and started chomping on the contents of a bag of food that they dumped in the water.  Her rather sudden entrance startled us into slightly more rapid dinghy action.  An extremely large man, who greatly resembled the sow in fact, leered at us from the comfort of his boat.  “Didn’t y’all know there was pigs on this island?” he grunted. We answered in the affirmative.  “Then why y’all haulin’ ass like that?” Unfortunately, we were all too amused by these comments to think of a good comeback in time so we just rowed away chuckling a little.

Luperon it is!

Time: 01:23EST
Position: 20.44.60N/071.34.693W
Heading: 144 degrees
SOG: 5.5 knots
Trip: 311nm
DTG: 63nm
Sky: clear sky, lots of stars, no moon
Cabin temperature: 27.6C
Wind: light and variable 3-4 knots
Sea state: calm

Day 2 started with the 0630 weather update from weather guru Chris Parker on SSB. We have never been Chris Parker users before but most of the extensive American and Canadian yachting communities swear by him.. We have been sailing close to S/Y Livin' the Dream, also headed for Samana, and have been exchanging notes with them along the way. Livin' the Dream is a sponsor of Chris Parker and they get personalized weather and routing information which they kindly share with us. We are also traveling with another vessel, Cindy a Lee. Cindy A Lee is the home of a very nice dog named Marly and his owners have decided to make a brief stopover in Mayaguana so Marly can have a run. They will then continue on to Luperon so will not be far from us. Our progress is adequate but unfortunately entails much motoring due to light, variable winds.

Day 3. After a night of horribly slow slogging into the equatorial current and light winds at an average speed of 3,5 knots we welcomed the morning with some frustration. Once again we listened to the 0630 weather update from Chris Parker and he still gave a positive go ahead to passages from the Turks and Caicos to DR. Despite this, our sailing companions Livin' the Dream decided to trade in their slow progress for a stop over in the Turks and Caicos. We have decided to cash in our Luperon option, rather than continuing on to Samana, and will head south from Bush Cay in the Turks and Caicos. Things are speeding up a little (4,5-5 knots) and we expect to arrive sometime tomorrow afternoon. By all reports the officials in DR are particularly officious so it make take some time before we can go ashore and explore.

For our most up to date position check http://breehorn.blogspot.com/p/location.html

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Headed to DR

Time: 1600 EST
Position: 23.37.60N/075.27.680W
Heading: 062 degrees
Trip: 20nm
Distance to go (DTG): 465nm
Sky: sunny with some clouds
Cabin temperature: 31C
Wind: light south 9-11 knots
Sea state: calm with light (4ft) long swell from NE
Sails: genoa, cutter and main

After a great time in the Bahamas we left Georgetown at exactly noon today. We are currently underway to the Dominican Republic aiming for Samana. The option to stop a day earlier in Luperon remains open in case the weather deteriorates. It looks like we will be rounding Long Island around dinner time tonight. We will then head to the NE tip of Acklins Island. We caught the first fish two minutes after casting the line! However, we thew it back to its friends as we have had our fill of tuna recently. What a luxury. Tomorrow we will try another lure to see if we can catch a different type of fish. The monkeys are having their nap at the moment. Pasta is on the menu for dinner tonight. Check under position to see our most up to date location.

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Allan’s Cay

From Nassua we embarked on an overnight trip to Allan’s Cay in the Exuma Cays.  The Exuma Cays are an almost unbroken chain of approximately 365 cays that span about 100 nautical miles. They are sparsely populated and a significant portion of the cays are included in the Exuma Cays Land and Seas Park, a area set aside 60 years ago for replenishment and nursery.  

Arrived in the later afternoon in Allan’s Cay, dropped our anchor, and immediately pumped up the Spikkle and headed in to shore.  As soon as we arrived on the beach creatures slowly started appearing out of the undergrowth and heading towards us. They were large and lizard-like and moved their chainmail legs with amazing grace giving their bodies a low swaying motion. The Allan’s Cay group has one of the  remaining habitats of rock iguanas in the Bahamas. Although there are several signs that instruct visitors not to feed the iguanas most people seem to ignore the signs and therefore the iguanas are not afraid of people and come very close.  On our best visit we were surrounded by 15 of them.  Each one of them with a unique and interesting face reflecting a great deal (we thought) of their personality. 

A dinghy safari (rowing) the next day took us to Flat Rock Reef where Seb and I had a great snorkel.  Neither Emma of Macsen were interested in swimming or snorkelling at the reef but the water was clear enough to allow them to see some of the coral and fish from the dinghy.  We rowed (2 nautical miles) around the cay and settled for a nice lunch on our own private beach. Macsen, Emma and I wandered back across the cay amongst the iguanas while Seb rowed around alone.  I decided to swim back to the boat in the company of a huge ray with Seb and the monkeys paddling along beside in the dinghy.  Emma and Macsen finally decided to enter the water as we approached the boat and the three of us swam the final lap to the Pjotter together.  It was great to be back in warm weather and exploring nature again. So far the Exumas is a great success!

Nassau

In Nassau we met up with Andrya and Chris Shulte, friends of my parents (and now of ours) who have a summer house in St. Andrew’s.  We spent a lovely day with them learning about the island, enjoying their view, swimming in the pool (Emma and Macsen) and lazing about on the beach at their club, chatting and generally having a very nice time.  It was a lovely day and they took very good care of us.

Our outboard motor also needed a little attention in Nassau. The rubber bushing in the propeller was worn and needed to be replaced.  There is, however, no Suzuki dealer in Nassau so none of the ‘mainstreet’  marine stores was willing to take on the job.  Ideally we would have replaced the prop but that would have meant waiting 10 days for one to be delivered from Florida.  So Seb took our broken prop up a dark back alley where there promised to be a shop that could fix it.  About seven guys were sitting around a rather dingy lot smoking illicit substances.  Seb approach one of them and through his missing teeth and red eyes he promised to fix it by the later afternoon.  Unfortunately he fixed it in such a way that it was impossible to install.   Seb took it back to him a couple of times but to no avail.  The propeller was ruined.  They did, very kindly, give us our money back for the job but we were without a dingy propeller and about to head for the Exumas, dingy exploration paradise. Bother!

Our final adventure in Nassau was to the underwater kingdom of Atlantis.  This is a sort of enormous glitzy hotel combined with Disneyesque park with a water theme. Tickets are sold in the casino area where people were already in position to start gambling at 0900 when we arrived.  The aquarium on site was quite beautiful  and there were hundreds of rays of every size belly-dancing through the tanks.  All in all a rather interesting day out with the family.

Christmas in The Abacos

Sailing into the azure blue Bahamian waters after the freezing cold Florida temperatures was a treat indeed.  We manoeuvred carefully through the waters leading up to Treasure Cay in the Abacos as the depths were little over (and occasionally ever so slightly under) our 1,90m draft.  

My parents rented a house called the Pink Paradise in Treasure Cay for two weeks from December 21^st.  My brother and his family arrived on the 22^nd and the 10 of us settled in for a wonderful holiday.  The house, of course, had ‘unlimited’ warm water, air conditioning, big beds and all of the other luxuries of home so we spoiled ourselves royally.  I tried to take at least one bath a day. 

For Christmas, we decorated the two palm trees in the living room.  Hanging stockings on a palm tree is a little complicated but we managed well.  On Christmas morning the kids eyes nearly popped out of their heads when they saw the full stockings and a huge pile of presents under the tree.  They spent the day ripping presents open and giggling and shrieking with glee. And we enjoyed every minute of it.  

 

Treasure Cay has one of the most beautiful beaches in the world according to the National Geographic. We managed to go to the beach every day to swim, collect shells and analyse the various sea creatures that we came across in the clear waters.  The temperature was in the mid-20s most of the time so pleasant but a little chilly.  On Booh’s birthday we rented a skiff and tootled at great speeds over to Great Guana Cay.  Just off the beach we saw two huge rays that stayed and shimmered close to us for a while.  The four kids all stripped off their clothes and splashed around in the water being adorable.  

Booh, Jenn, Seren and Rhys flew out on the 31^st much to all of our dismay.  Very sad after such a good time together.  The rest of us spent New Year’s eve drinking champagne on the balcony and watching the fireworks.  The Treasure Cay community seems to be geared towards early-to-bedders as the fireworks were held at 8pm rather than at midnight.  This was great for us as the kids could enjoy them as well.  Seb and I and my parents brought in the New Year at midnight with a jolly toast. 

On January 1^st we boarded the ferry for a short ride over to Green Turtle Cay.  Green Turtle Cay was holding its New Years day Junkanoo and the island was full of activity.  The streets were full of stands selling rib sticking Bahamian fare.  After a hearty lunch washed down with rum punch (juice for Emma and Macsen) we chose a spot along the road and waited for the parade.  Junkanoo is said to have started in the 18^th century when West African chief, John Canoe, gave his slaves New Year’s day off to celebrate.  The slaves apparently went out into the streets to make music and dance.  The Junkanoo in Turtle Cay was a short but hugely vivid parade with big bright costumes and scraping, drumming, whistling music that wouldn’t let you sit still.  

My parents left on the 3^rd and Emma sobbed on an off all morning. Very sad.  Seb and I were also feeling really down as we closed up the big empty house that had been filled with so much fun activity.  As we steered the Pjotter carefully out of Treasure Cay anchorage Emma and Macsen waved sadly and called “Goodbye Treasure Cay! Goodbye Pink Paradise! We love you!” 

Gulf Stream and Tainted Tuna

From Cape Canaveral we crossed over the gulf stream for a 231 nautical mile trip to Treasure Cay in the Bahamas.  We waited for a day of light winds as the gulf stream can be a mighty dangerous force particularly if northerly winds are fighting the northbound current.  We sailed down the coast to Fort Pierce and then tacked out into the gulf stream from there to ensure that we were hitting it at 90 degrees and minimizing our time in it.  This was indeed wise.  Even in the light 9-10 knot northerly winds caused an incredible chop and the 3-4 knot currents slowed us considerably. 

The fishing rod came out again for the first time in a while and it was not long before we heard the welcome zzzzzzing of a bite.  After a short fight Seb landed a beautiful 3,5 kilo tuna. Unfortunately it was within the first 24 hours of our passage and we were both still feeling pretty queasy.  But a 3,5 kilo tuna requires a lot of eating so we felt obliged to begin immediately...with sushi.  Silly idea but it seemed a crime not to eat sushi from such a lovely fresh tuna.  Seb and I sat smiling bravely at each other as we choked down bite after bite of raw fish, what normally would have been an incredible treat.  Ugh.  And the tuna steaks and tuna salad of the next day were a little tainted by this experience. 

Cape Canaveral Revisited

It took a few days to order parts and have the autopilot fixed in Cape Canaveral.  We found a great help in Zach, owner of Duys Marine Electronics, who is Raymarine certified and managed to take the whole thing apart and put it back together as good as new.  

There was little to see around the marina so we decided to rent a car and take a tour inland.  I did a little internet search and found a place call Kissimet and booked a house with a pool just next to the old town.  The house was fine and the pool warm but the old town was actually Ye Ol’ Towne and was not exactly the historically authentic place that we had in mind.  It was a completely newly built carnival type town with small rides (including a merry-go-round) and little shops and restaurants.  It was Friday night and every Friday night Ye Ol’ Towne hosts the largest weekly old automobile cruise in North America.  Well, this was quite a sight to see.  More than 200 gleaming old cars all restored to perfection promenaded slowly through the narrow streets while the audience watched in awe.  It was quite hilarious and rather impressive really.  The kids loved waving at the drivers and Seb and I had a great time trying to pick which driver most resembled his car.  Several of the seemed to share charachteristics, kind of like dogs and their owners. 

The hotel was full of flyers for various swamp boat companies, all of whom guaranteed beautiful nature and alligator sightings.  Finding little to differentiate we picked the closest one.  The weather was looking very gloomy and the wind was picking up as we arrived.  Unfortunately, we were determined at all cost to go out in a swamp boat so we picked the only one foolish enough to be offereing tours in this weather and huddled into the front row.  Macsen started screaming about ¼ second after the (extremely loud) propeller started and we started careening through the choppy swamp waters.  A kind fellow passenger handed me some earphones to help him drown out the sound, after which he huddled miserably against me.  The tour consisted of a 10 minute super fast ride to get to the swamp, a 5 minute super fast ride through the swamp (during which time I think we killed at least one poor innocent duck and terrorized about 500 other swamp birds).  The driver seemed to be trying to hunt them down.  After this we stopped and huddled in the rain for 15 minutes while the driver collected the exorbitant rates they required us to pay for this torture.  We were then driven into a dingy creek next to a highway where we remained for ½ hour while the driver explained that we wouldn’t be seeing any alligators.  Freezing (and swearing a little) we were once again raced across the wavy bay, drenched and miserable and delivered back to our car.  And the guaranteed alligator sighting? The driver’s accomplice pulled a baby alligator out of the back of his pickup and anyone stupid enough to agree could hold it and have their picture taken. The poor creatures mouth was taped closed with electrical tape and it looked more miserable that the alligator that Seb and Macsen had eaten for dinner the night before.  Horrible. Cruel. Awful.