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Guadeloupe, Leeward Islands, West
Indies
Sailing, sailing, sailing! Hands
Across the Sea, our 46-foot
Dolphin 460 catamaran,
has been speeding across the ocean miles as we make our way
north from Brazil to
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Harriet
steering Hands Across the Sea along some of the
3,000 miles north from Brazil through the islands of
the Caribbean
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the East Coast of the United States.
First working our way up the Brazilian coast from Salvador,
Brazil, against the prevailing breezes, we headed out to the
island of Fernando de Noronha, a marine reserve 250 miles off
the northeast corner of Brazil. From there Hands
made a 10.5 day, 2,000-mile passage to Trinidad and Tobago.
It was the first ocean passage that we'd made in 16 years, and
we (re)learned a lot, including how demanding sailing 'round
the clock, grabbing sleep in three-hour shifts, can be. We also
rediscovered how rewarding ocean sailing can be — the beauty
of sailing along in the company of flying fish, dolphins, and
seabirds, and the achievement of safely reaching landfall.
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TL
collecting rainwater from the mainsail in the tradewinds
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After adding some equipment to our
boat in Chauguramas, Trinidad, and sampling the steel-pan
band and masquerade competitions of Trinidad's famous Carnival,
we began sailing north through the Caribbean's smorgasbord
of islands: Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia,
Dominica, Martinique, Antigua, Barbuda and Guadeloupe, thus
far. We are finding similiarities among the islands: beautiful
blue water, lush greenery, always a warm and windy breeze.
But we are just as struck by the contrasts — the expensive
resorts that share a beach with the simple, tin-roofed homes
of local people, the lineup of million-dollar megayachts moored
alongside the battered boats of the
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School
kids head for recess at the Newtown Primary School in
Roseau, on the island of Dominica
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fishermen. On each island, we looked for
the real Caribbean that lay beyond
the manufactured-for-tourism facade of "Caribbean paradise."
The majority of Caribbean people make
a modest living through farming, fishing, or service jobs
connected to the tourism industry. On many islands, government
money for infrastructure, such as roads and schools, is meager.
Digging deeper, we visited a number of primary schools (Harriet
is a former teacher) and received a warm welcome from school
staff, followed by a here's-our-school tour. What we found
were classrooms packed with bright-faced, energetic kids and
schoolteachers and administrators doing a great job with a
bare minimum of resources. We began asking school principals
what their
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Thanks
for visiting our school! Wherever we went, the enthusiasm
of Caribbean students was awesome
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school most needed, from books for the
library to dictionaries, pens, pencils, chalk, and grammar-teaching
software. Meanwhile, we were calculating how we could procure
the needed school materials once we reach the East Coast this
summer and deliver them via Hands upon our November,
2009, return to the Caribbean (or arrange to have them shipped
directly to the schools).
So where we are now is right where we
aimed to be with Hands Across the Sea, our not-for-profit charitable
organization: We are sailing among islands of paradise, and
we are able to lend a hand to local kids and teachers.
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Hands
anchored off the island of Barbuda, Antigua, Leeward
Islands
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Ahead of us we have a bevy of islands — Montserrat, Saint Kitts
and Nevis, St. Martin, Anguilla, the U.S. and British Virgin
Islands, Turks and Caicos, and the Bahamas — and many more
schools to visit. If you have ideas or contacts that will help
Hands Across the Sea provide needed materials for primary schools
in the Caribbean, please do not hesitate to e-mail
us or call us (telephone: 617-320-3601). We look forward to
hearing from you...and we look forward to our next Caribbean
island! — T.L. and Harriet |
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