Sailing on Fortitude (July 18-23)

Vanessa, Fortitude's mate (Jul 20, 2004, 10:00am) Vanessa was Jeremy's mate during the spring and summer of 2004 (she went back to the Netherlands that August). It was Vanessa's job to occasionally pull on a few ropes and clean up after meals (although I suspect that she did some other things as well). As you can see from this picture, the life of a sailboat mate is a hard one.

What's left of the vegetation on Sandy Island (Jul 20, 2004, 11:05am) Sandy Island is a small strip of sand just north of Carriacou. I was told that Sandy Island used to be covered with palm trees but a recent hurricane wiped out most of its vegetation. All that's left is one sick looking palm tree and some scrub brush.

Pelican in mid flight (Jul 20, 2004, 11:28am) During the sailing part of our trip, we saw often say three different types flying near the boat -- seagulls, frigate birds and pelicans. Pelicans were the hardest to take a picture of because they had no interest in any food scraps that might have escaped from the kitchen. This was the best picture I got of a pelican in flight. This was taken over Sandy Island, where a bunch of pelicans were feeding on the large schools of fish near the beach.