Day 7 March 9, 2015 St. Lucia

    Well I have learned a lot while on our trip. Like learning anything new, it is always so much fun.  I love learning. Our language/history professor is enthralled with language and its development. I think a lot of English professors would strongly disagree with him, as he loves a diversity of languages and cares little about the lack of grammar. However one wants to look at language, it is interesting.

    Here are a few examples from his talk. He said that children really change our languages whether we want them to or not. He gave the example that his daughter when quite young said, “Daddy I ‘swimmed’ today.” He said, “No, you ‘swam’.” She said louder and more emphatically, “No, Daddy, I ‘swimmed’!” He then added that in English there used to be 120 such conjugations like (swim, swam, swum or sing, sang, sung) but now there are only 60 left. Can you imagine what texting will do to our language?

   This morning was supposed to be the day we were able to get out on zodiacs and photograph the ship under full sail. Yesterday was very nice, and we had all of the sails up. The problem was the wind was strong enough that we were traveling about 6.5 knots. Too fast to lower zodiacs. They were hoping that today while we were in the lee of the Pitons, we could heist all of the sails; but, no, we had squalls come through with heavy rain and wind. Then the sun would come out, and it would be amazingly calm.

    During the middle of the professor’s speech a squall came through and the boat started to really list to the starboard. Everyone thought we were going over.  No problem, our captain turned the boat to spill the wind out of the sails; and after a few minutes, we were back upright. I told you I was learning a lot, not only about language but sailing as well. I have learned that the workers always go up on the windward side, so if the ship did tip, they would be on top of it and not trapped underneath. So I guess there is a whole lot more to learn than just the names of the ropes. I think I will leave it all to the sailors, but the next time I see a movie or read a book about sailing, I will have a greater appreciation for the task. No wonder our neighbors sold their sailboat!

    This afternoon we visited the village of Soufriere, St. Lucia. Soufriere means ‘sulfur air’ because it sits on the coast under an active, drive-in-volcano where bubbling fumaroles are constant reminders of the potential of eruption. The water in the pools below bellows out steam from the boiling water within them. They dropped us off at the top of the volcano where there is a visitor center, but we were able to walk down next to the bubbling pools. Since this is a tall enough island to catch the rain, we walked down through the lush green rainforest on one side and bubbling pools of sulfur water on the other. Very unique!

   Our guide was most colorful and has lived on Soufriere her entire life. She knew every flower, fruit, vegetable, and nut on the island. She knew how to fix them and which one cured which ailment. Everything from hangovers to stomach aches! This plus fish is all she has ever eaten. She was most spy and at the end of the tour learned she was in her seventies.

   Tonight we will have a barbeque on deck as the sun sets. The Piton Mountains will serve as a backdrop.

“Blessed are the curious for they shall have adventures.” – Lovelle Drachman

More to follow from the Sea Cloud

Tom & Holly