Category: Dora

Position: 18° 08’N 63° 11’W
Wind E10-15 knots

Today, the 16th May, we set off from Simpson Bay Marina, St Maarten for Bermuda. In the morning there wasn’t enough wind to sail but at the moment we are sailing along as happy as Larry. I have made a massive achievement I haven’t been sea sick! This is the first passage including day sails when I haven’t felt awful. My advice if you get sea sick ,like me, is to have something like gum to distract you and plenty of coke. The reason I’ve started using gum is because it gives my mouth something to do and if there is something in your mouth you are much less likely to be sick. I’m enjoying this sail much more than the first days of the Atlantic crossing as I am determined not to be sick. The sail to Bermuda is 1 week and then after we arrive, we cross the Atlantic again and we’re on our way home! I hope all is well we will keep you updated.

Dora

What to do in a hurricane.

What to always have in your house

If you live in a country or on an island which are hit by hurricanes here is a list if the things that you might need:

A portable radio. This will be useful to find out the force and damage of the hurricane.

Stay inside at all times and keep away from windows, outside doors etc.

Never go outside the protection of your home or shelter until the storm has passed.

Make sure you always have a torch with fully charged batteries, safe drinking water in case your water supply is cut off and lots of food that doesn’t need cooking also don’t use your phone you never know if you are going to need to call the emergency services also have a card if all the important phone numbers in case of an emergency.

If you have a house made out of strong concrete your house will probably be alright but if your house is made of wood or tin you might have a few things to repair. The main thing is make sure your house is sturdy and keep checking the force of the storm on the radio. Make sure you also have a medical kit with things like sterilising cream, bandages, plasters etc. This will all come in helpful if some one gets ill to stop the germs spreading.

What you don’t want to happen

The most important thing to do if you’re an adult is to stay calm so that, if you have children, they will be calm and won’t be so scared. You should also make sure everyone is eating enough so they will calm down. Play games like 20 questions and story games to distract and stop people thinking about what’s happening. If no one is speaking it will scare people and make them panic just relax and read a story book for every one to enjoy. 

Building houses to survive hurricanes

If you are buying a house in a country that can have hurricanes you should buy a house with a square, hexagonal or even octagonal floor plan and a roof with multiple slopes.

Make sure your house is built in a flat surface and that there aren’t any overhangs underneath your house because if there was an overhang your house might be blown down if the overhang shifts from the wind. Concrete and brick are the most trustworthy resources for building a house make sure that you get a house with storm shutters so the windows won’t smash when the wind is blowing. Make sure you live on high ground so your not to close to the beach and won’t be swept away by a tidal surge.

Prickly pear🍐

On the 7th of May we went to an island off the coast of Anguilla called Prickly Pear this island is beautiful with gorgeous white sandy beaches and crystal clear water.

To get to Prickly Pear we had to sail there in the morning with some friends of ours on their boat. As we were anchoring, I saw a lovely green sea turtle poke his head up then dive back down. Prickly Pear is a deserted island off the coast of Anguilla. You are only allowed to stay there during the day as it is a marine park. It was rather funny because the people at customs said we had to pick up a mooring ball but when we arrived there weren’t any mooring balls! It was such a lovely little island in the morning there were 2 party boats but in the afternoon we were the only boat and people on the whole island and I had a lovely snorkel with our friend Edi. If you want to here more about the snorkels read on…

I did two snorkels on Prickly Pear, one was amazing I was swimming quite far out on a reef and the fish were amazing there were parrot fish, french grunts and many more small tropical fish. The water was lovely so refreshing and just to watch the fish and be so close to them was incredible. My dad and I spent a while just snorkeling next to the coral just observing the lovely fish. That was my first snorkel. My second snorkel I saw less fish but we had a few little snack crumbs so I gave them to the french grunt who seemed to really enjoy eating them. We went out for less time and the water was much colder but shockingly there was much more french grunts than the first time I guess they enjoy the cold weather. We’ve been having a lovely time and are enjoying St Maarten before we have our next passage up to Bermuda.

Polly note: Pics will follow! This was the most incredible place and we would have missed it if it wasn’t for our lovely friends on Honalee who invited us to go along with them. Their kindness and hospitality was beyond wonderful, What a perfect end to our two months in the Caribbean.

Terrific turtles🐢

Today,before school, my mum and I went snorkeling with turtles! At the moment we are staying on an island called St Barts we are in a lovely calm anchorage which is also a marine park. You can’t actually anchor in this anchorage as it is a marine park. So yesterday, 29th of April, we picked up a mooring the reason we are not allowed to anchor is because the sea bed here is covered in sea grass instead of sand. Do you know which marine reptile eats sea grass, jellyfish and urchins? TURTLES🐢. So this morning I got out of bed and my mum and I jumped into the cool water with our snorkeling masks on. We swam about 20 metres then right underneath us were 2 gorgeous turtles munching away on the sea grass. It was a lovely sight we ended up seeing 9 different turtles. As you can guess, the thought of being next to such a calm mellow creature in the wild was amazing. We saw 3 baby turtles which were only about 30 cm long and we saw 6 older turtles which were about 60 cm long. My first actual close encounter with one if these turtles was when I was swimming along with my head out of the water when about 2 metres in front of me a turtle just popped it’s head up and stared at me before diving back under the surface. My favorite part of swimming with the turtles is watching them dive they are so graceful and elegant.

Here is an interesting fact about turtles: when turtles are about 15 years old some of the turtles grow a tail but others don’t due to global warming less turtles are growing tails. Turtles with tails are male and turtles without tales are female so the female population of turtles is a lot larger than the population of male turtles. I hope you have enjoyed this blog post about turtles. Thank you for reading. Dora

On my birthday (16 of April), we decided to rent an air bnb for a few days. The house had a lovely, cool breeze from the air conditioning which was not unwanted after being inside a hot, stuffy boat for months.

The next day, we went on the most amazing high ropes course. We zoomed through the sky it felt like we were flying. It was one of the most exhilarating feelings. The view from the zip-lines were amazing sea on one side, volcano on the other side and forest underneath. They saved the best zip-line for last. It was a racing line. I went against Daisy. We scrambled into our harnesses waiting for guide to push us. In my head, I was thinking 3,2,1 GO! We zoomed through the air, Daisy in the lead then BOING! We hit the end platform and were flung backwards. The guide on the end platform called…

….“ First one back here wins!” As soon as I had registered these words, I launched my self forwards, Daisy hot on my heels, trying to catch up then, with a big jolt, I hit the end just seconds before Daisy. Victory was mine.

As I have said in some of my blog posts we have been doing a lot of snorkelling. Today my dad and I went on our best snorkelling trip yet. As soon as we plunged into the beautiful blue water we came face to face with a massive shoal of needle fish. Now, I’m absolutely terrified of needle fish. I just can’t stand their needles (if you haven’t guessed I have a phobia of needles). After that traumatic experience, we stumbled upon a stunning coral reef with angel fish and parrot fish. Parrot fish don’t have your typical fish mouth they have beaks! We explored round there for about ten minutes until I found something strange further out. Being me, I swam to get a closer look. Little did I know I was about become face to face with one of my BIGGEST fears. A BARRACUDA. I’m telling you now once you’ve finished reading this blog post look up a barracuda and then you will understand my fears. I swam away as fast as I could, powered by adrenaline.

Eventually, we started swimming back to the boat and then we met our little friends,The Needlefish, again. After my encounter with the barracuda I decided to go into panic mode so what do I do? I swim for my life scramble up the ladder dry off and get in to my warm dry clothes.

No pictures of Dora snorkelling but here she is collecting conch shells on Marie Galante.

Sunday afternoon chores. Dora, rocking the Mamma Mia island hippy look whilst hoovering a melon!

Patrick, I think you should go for pirates of the Caribbean because they are really good films and I can play the pirates of the Caribbean on the piano and we’ve seen Calypso’s hut

Cara, I have been listening to lots of music but without WiFi i cant get new music so when I next have WiFi i will download it.

Molly, my favourite things in the Caribbean is snorkelling I love finding starfish and other crustaceans.

Katie, I don’t have half term but to be honest school is only 3 hours and I don’t really do the same lessons I’ve recently started marine biology and I am keeping a chart of the animals we’ve seen. (Editorial from Dora’s mum! Dora is working hard at lessons but she finds me a less inspiring teacher than Mr G and Mrs B. Both girls find it tough learning without classmates to discuss their work with or to distract!)

Noah, my favourite land animal I’ve seen (which is wild) is a goat. My favourite flying animal I’ve seen is a pelican and my favourite marine animal was the sperm whales we saw off the coast of Dominica.

Maybelle, the best thing about staying on a boat is the gentle rocking which rocks you to sleep and the sound of water lapping around you.

Bobbie, I have done a lot of swimming. I haven’t swam with dolphins but I’ve seen hundreds of them.

Evie, I know this sounds really sad but I really miss school because I miss sitting next to you in English and talking about bone shakers and I really miss seeing my friends.

Taylor, I haven’t seen any sharks but if I were to see a shark then it would be a nurse shark as they are the only sharks that live in the Caribbean.

This is Dora learning about the Triangular slave trade – we’ve enjoyed adapting our lessons!

We arrived in Dominica yesterday(28th march). The currency is eastern Caribbean dollars. They speak English.We haven’t done loads but we did an amazing river tour up the Indian river. It is fantastically beautiful. In the river you have to row as you are not allowed to use outboards to protect the marine life. Our tour guide,Antony, explained everything is such detail. If you have watched the second pirates of the Caribbean film you might remember Callipso’s hut on the river bank. This hut was actually built on the Indian river! Sadly, last year there was a terrible hurricane called hurricane Maria. It destroyed the hut but you could still see were the hut had been. We saw crabs and mullets. We walked to a fruit farm on the river tour and we saw: pineapples,oranges,sugar-cane,avacadoes,grapefruit and passion fruit. Do you know pineapples actually grow out of a tree near the ground so they don’t hang from trees like most people think. They attach to their tree by their base not their leaves. After that we went to a little bar and me and Daisy had a delicious drink which tasted like cranberries and ginger. I will post pics of the fruits.

Dora:)

That is a pineapple growing. Very strange and very beautiful.

This is the Indian River.

Ps to 6GB. Dora will happily take your questions on tropical fruits, hurricanes, Pirates of the Caribbean sets and all other Dominica related topics!

So we have arrived in Martinique and have just been overnight to a hotel in the north of Martinique. If you didn’t know in 1902 there was a massive volcano eruption which wiped out the old capital St Pierre. 30,000 people died within 3 minutes only one person survived he was a prisoner during the eruption. He was imprisoned for murder. But it is said he survived because of the extremely thick walls of his cell. We visited the ruins of the theatre which stands next to the old prison we could see his cell it looked untouched. We also went to magnificent zoo. And when we’ve not been on excursions we have been on the boat relaxing. That’s all from me!

Dora 🙂

Dora in Martinique zoo

Flamingoes in Martinique zoo. They’d been eating a lot of shrimps to make them extra pink!

Reply to questions from year6kyson and the journey:

First in this post I’m going to answer the questions from year6kyson:

Joel, I have tried a new drink in Lanzerote we were in the fruit market and me and my sister were getting smoothies and I decided to go for the magenta coloured smoothie turns out this smoothie was cactus flavoured. It tasted like a strawberry and a raspberry mashed together. It was delicious!

Cara, I’m pulling through without WiFi but I miss watching Netflix and being able to text all my friends 24/7 but I’m just pulling through.

Maia, we left to start the Atlantic crossing on the 27th of February and we arrived this morning (19 of March) so it has been a 20 day crossing which is 1 day less than we were expecting.:)

Giacomo, I have 3 lessons a day all 1 hour lessons they tend to be very boring as I can’t talk to Maia or Evie just to clarify the talking is about the work.

Maybelle, I do Maths, English, French, History, Science and Geography the topics I have done are the slave trade and volcanoes.

Poppy, this is a list of animals I’ve seen:

Lizards

Camels

Pilot whales

Dolphins

Turtles

Sea horse

The Atlantic crossing is sooooooooo tiring and because we don’t have much food when you get to land every food seems HUGE to you. And you stagger round looking like you’re drunk. Thank you for your questions I really enjoyed answering them. Year6kyson did Mr Gunson do a good job of playing Cinderella?