Break out the bug spray

Due to the heavy rains of November, the Leeward Islands are facing a bumper
crop of mosquitoes. All that extra rain made for lots of standing water,
prime breeding grounds for mosquitoes. So for travel to Anguilla, Puerto
Rico, St. Martin, the USVI and BVI, etc., make sure you bring plenty of bug
spray, the strongest you can find.

Da Parrot-chick wrote:

> the Leeward Islands are facing a bumper crop of mosquitoes.

Does this include the north coast of Nevis?

Or other parts of Nevis (if so - which parts? Interior?)

"Da Parrot-chick" <just@sk.me> wrote in message
news:tBqQb.24609$1e.5534@newsread2.news.pas.earthl ink.net...
> Due to the heavy rains of November, the Leeward Islands are facing a
bumper

Please excuse my cluelessness. I see the expression "Leeward Islands" a
lot. What's it mean? What makes an island "leeward"? Thanks.

tim

"tim" <rotamit@oohay.moc> wrote in news:IOFQb.14941$U%5.99836@attbi_s03:

> "Da Parrot-chick" <just@sk.me> wrote in message
> news:tBqQb.24609$1e.5534@newsread2.news.pas.earthl ink.net...
>> Due to the heavy rains of November, the Leeward Islands are facing a
> bumper
>
> Please excuse my cluelessness. I see the expression "Leeward Islands" a
> lot. What's it mean? What makes an island "leeward"? Thanks.
>
> tim
>
>
>
>

An island is leeward if it is on the lee or away from the prevailing wind
side.

In article <IOFQb.14941$U%5.99836@attbi_s03>, tim <rotamit@oohay.moc>
wrote:

> Please excuse my cluelessness. I see the expression "Leeward Islands" a
> lot. What's it mean? What makes an island "leeward"? Thanks.

Leeward means away from the wind but in this case it is the name of a
group of islands in the eastern Caribbean. St. Martin, Anguilla, St.
Barts, Dominica, Guadalupe, etc.

--
Charles

Charles <fort@his.com.remove.invalid> wrote in news:240120042144135364%
fort@his.com.remove.invalid:

> In article <IOFQb.14941$U%5.99836@attbi_s03>, tim <rotamit@oohay.moc>
> wrote:
>
>> Please excuse my cluelessness. I see the expression "Leeward Islands" a
>> lot. What's it mean? What makes an island "leeward"? Thanks.
>
> Leeward means away from the wind but in this case it is the name of a
> group of islands in the eastern Caribbean. St. Martin, Anguilla, St.
> Barts, Dominica, Guadalupe, etc.
>

In this case islands who best side is the leeward or inward to the
Caribbean side.

A Netscape search found:

The West Indies are composed of the islands of the Caribbean Sea and can
be divided into the Greater Antilles and the Lesser Antilles.

The Greater Antilles are the four largest islands in the northwestern
portion of the Caribbean Sea and include Cuba, Hispaniola (Haiti and the
Dominican Republic), Jamaica, and Puerto Rico.

The Lesser Antilles include the smaller islands of the Caribbean - the
Virgin Islands and the Windward Islands and Leeward Islands.

The Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands are part of the Lesser
Antilles of the Caribbean Sea.

The Windward Islands are southeastern islands of the Caribbean and
include Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, the Grenadines, and Grenada.
They're called the Windward Islands because they're exposed to the wind
("windward") of the northeast trade winds (northeasterlies).

The Leeward Islands include the Virgin Islands, Dominica, Guadeloupe,
Montserrat, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis, and Anguilla. They're
called the Leeward Islands because they're away from the wind ("lee").

Candy <-- always confuses wind/lee/greater/lesser


>> Please excuse my cluelessness. I see the expression "Leeward
>> Islands" a lot. What's it mean? What makes an island "leeward"?
>> Thanks.
>>
>> tim

"Ronald Olsson" <ronald.olsson@chello.se> wrote

> The Lesser Antilles were also further divided into the Winward Islands and
> Leeward Islands, names referring to the position of the islands relative to
> the trade winds that blow steadily from the northeast. The Spanish
> originally called most of the small eastern islands the Windward Islands and
> reserved the name leeward, meaning "away from the wind," for the islands
> close to the northern coast of South America.
>
> The British reversed these names and called the eastern group the Leeward
> Islands and the southern group the Windward Islands. This British
> terminology is generally accepted today.

The reason for the reversal (IMO) in the use of the sailing terminology
is probably (again IMO) related to where the ships were coming from
when they headed for the caribbean. Aside from cotton in continental
US, the slave trade was primarily a triangle, from africa->caribbean
(carrying slaves), then from carib->europe (carrying sugar, rum, cotton &
others), then from europe->africa (carrying manufactured goods to use in
trading for slaves). The spanish didn't do slaves in the caribbean but
primarily headed there from europe en-route to s.america where their
interests were. That meant the northerly islands were the first islands
they hit and were thus "windward" to them. For the british sailing the
trade winds from africa, the first islands you reach are the windwards
(the southerly ones).

Anyone care to confirm or reject this hypothesis? Enough history,
take out your music books children....

--
Ken Tough