April 6, 2009
Family and Friends,
Some of you told us that you would like to subject yourselves to our periodic babble, muses and outright fabrications about our journey. If anyone one this list would eliminate this potential periodic annoyance please reply ....We promise not to add a personal ocular flow to our salty bilge water. A little recap of our previous adventures….
Spring 2007: Left Florida to the Bahamas. Explored the Abacos; then to San Salvador (most eastern island in the Bahamas) where we launched our 6-day open water crossing to Puerto Rico.
Spring 2008: From PR to St John (US Virgin Islands), the British Virgin Islands. Across the Anegada Passage to St Martin, Anguilla and south visiting the rest of Leeward Islands (St Barts, Antigua, Gouadeloupe, Dominica); then the Windward Islands (Martinique, St Lucia, Bequia, Carriacou and Grenada). A real marathon!
This season we will only and very leisurely visit the Grenadines, St. Lucia and as far north as Martinique.
We left Grenada almost three weeks ago and we’ve been cruising the Grenadines. So far we’ve visited Union, Mayreau, Tobago Cays, Canouan, and Mustique. Other than picking up our daughter Alicia on April 15 in St. Lucia and our friend Bruce a week later we have no set schedule. We’re free to stay as long or as little in any particular spot.
Our sailing vessel Off Piste is in great shape. Captain Jim defines a sailing vessel as follows:
BOAT: 1) n. an object that creates an indentation in the water which the hapless owner attempts to fill with money. 2) an acronym for Break Out Another Thousand. Jim thinks that “aquatic” version of a ‘black-hole’ should be incorporated into the definition.
Definitions aside, our boat has been generating all our electricity using our solar panel and wind generator. We resupplied our water from an enterprising gent from Canouan with two 300 gallon tanks, 50 feet of garden hose and an electric pump on his small boat. It says something about the pace of our lives when our fresh water consumption for cooking, drinking, laundry, and showers is less than 80 gallons for three weeks. Sometimes we are rather stinky…but who cares! Yesterday morning we were scratching our heads thinking about the last time we bought liquid propane for our cook stove…maybe PR…but it didn’t seem right. We cook most of our meals in our boat…
Overall, we’re having GREAT weather: blue skies with a nice breeze. The last night we had the best rain so far; our boat was happy to rid itself of all the accumulated salt. Today, blue skies again! Last week we experienced swells from the North and have made a couple of our anchorages very rolly. These rolling anchorages are the extent of our complaints.
I can say that we’re getting the hang of the cruisers’ life: a little snorkeling, a little hike, reading books, making meals, sun-downers, talking to the locals, doing a little veggie/fruit shopping, naps on the beach, the occasional Internet, and yes, throwing up sails every few days to our new destination. I’ll throw a few other definitions from the Captain.
CRUISING: travelling to exotic locations at painfully slow speeds under relatively stressful, sometimes dangerous and uncomfortable conditions, just so you can anchor, hopefully with a good bite so you can continue working on your boat.
ANCHORING: rather than a definition you can experience this at home. Get in your car with your spouse and drive around the block 30 or 40 times and generate an oddly emotional sometimes heated discussion on where to park.
SAILING: expending considerable energy and absurd amount of upper body strength to raise a massive square feet of Dacron cloth while hurling any unaware humans and all unattached personal items around your now absurdly leaning mini ocean condo with a slight aerodynamic advantage of moving the boat forward.
It’s great, and Captain’s cynicism aside, we would not trade our two-month sailing season for anything else! So far we’ve been to:
Carriacou: In Carib it means island surrounded by reefs. This is a very easy-going island with easy-going and friendly people. As a man from Carriacou said: “We move nice wid dem as we does wid each other…all is like one”. Very Zen! This past January we visited Carriacou with Jim’s brother Mel and saw President Obama’s inauguration on TV in a small bar. Everyone was misty-eyed. The best view in this island is at the top of one of the highest hills (1000 feet) where they have located their hospital. Most Caribbean hospitals are in great locations. So are their cemeteries.
Union: Part of St Vincent and the Grenadines. This island is a favorite of the French. We anchored near the town of Clifton surrounded by a big reef. The very exclusive Palm Island was nearby. We did a two hour hike (one way) from the southeast end of the island to a bay on the west side. We had the pleasure of hanging out with some Vincentians that live on Chatham Bay. In general, they’re seeing less boats stopping by. Our friend Snagg from Grenada who works on the yard where we keep our boat also mentioned that some boats are already coming out of the water for storage, an unusual trend probably due to the economy. Our Union Island highlight was the 5 pound lobster we scored. A real beauty! We cooked it on a makeshift barbeque piled on the burners of our gas stove. The sumptuous feast lasted for two days.
Mayreau: We got to hang out with the island’s 4th grade teacher. She did a census with her students last year and they counted 307 people. Mayreau just got electricity in 2003 and all their water supply is from rainfall. Their only village has no name. We spent a very rolly night on Saline Bay due to northern swells. The Capt felt the Murphy’s Law of boating ie. When things go wrong they will go all at once and usually at the worst possible time. So in the most rolly anchorage we’ve had so far (walking around inside the boat could easily pass for a thrill in an amusement park) the Windlass ( the apparatus that drags up our 150 feet of ¾ inch anchor chain) failed, a small salt water leak appeared, and a fan belt needed to be replaced. El Capitan found a lot of his adjectives consisted of only four letters.
Tobago Cays: After a minimal night of sleep and stomach knotting repairs we were glad that the Tobago Cays was only 1-hour away. Tobago Cays is a favorite with the cruisers. It’s a small group of islands (if you put them all in a giant blender and poured them into an average NFL stadium you would still have room). They are protected by a four mile Horseshoe Reef. Once inside the reef, the effects from the swells disappeared! The water here is an array of swimming pool blue, gold and green. It is a national park and it is protected from overuse and abuse: no fishing is allowed, vessels have to obey a 6-knot max speed rule, have protected snorkeling areas, mooring balls, but can also anchor in designated areas. We did some snorkeling with an abundant amount of turtles! Somebody said that a scene from the Pirates of the Caribbean was shot here in Jamesby island (where Johnny Depp was left in a deserted island). It was very relaxing to be away from the lights, cars and action of civilization.
Sailing in the Grenadines is like sailing in the BVIs; all the islands are within eyesight and there is no tricky navigation. If you can anchor and read charts, you’re pretty much good to go. There’s lots of chartering out of St. Vincent.
Canouan: Funny island. Not in a ha-ha kind of way, but in the way it’s being developed. The Canouan Consortium Assoc. owns huge tracts of land (most the north side) and has a Raffles Resort that is private and gated. Most visitors come in private jets and Raffles discourages their guests to go mingle with the hoi-poloi in the village (you know….don’t let any money get away). The local community has seen no benefit from the development. You can get a one-day pass for $130 per person and get a golf cart to visit around. The Captain and I passed on this overpriced indulgence. Instead we had a tasty lunch in the village and met Capt. Mack who now owns the gas station. We walked to “Little Tokyo” a fishing village compound built by the Japanese government for the benefit of the islands fishing community and saw the fishermen cleaning their catch of the day. The catch included two large burlap sacks of lobster that were unceremoniously dumped into the bottom of a locals’ wooden speedboat for delivery to the restaurants in Mayreau. We walked out past their new airport to a nice beach in the SW part of the island. On our return, we hitchhiked and were picked up by the first car that passed by. Caribbean friendliness!!
Mustique: The wind and a 2 knot current were on our nose so after a few hours of sailing we chose to motor the last hour to our palm lined beach and safe anchorage Other definitions from Jim..
WIND: a powerful flow of moving air inexplicably always coming from the direction you want to go inevitably causing you to motor.
MOTOR: the full effect can be accomplished in your home. Bring your lawn mower to your kitchen, fire it up and sit there for 12 hours. To add some realistic effects, have the kids periodically spray salt water thru large house fans and throw the contents of your kitchen cabinets across the floor.
Mustique is owned by the Mustique Company and is a private island geared to the well-heeled Brits (or anyone with tons of cash). There are about 100 private homes, some pretty spectacular. It is a stark contrast to Canouan. It welcomes the cruising community and respects and very adequately provides for the local workers. All the grounds are well preserved. Think Sanibel Island in Florida where there is respect for wildlife and it feels well loved and kept. We broke out our folding bikes and have been visiting beaches. On our first bike outing, by luck we stumbled into Cotton House, one of the fanciest hotels in the Caribbean and decided to have a snack at their Beach Café. Not 5 minutes after we sat down, in comes Mick Jagger and plops down on the table next to us to eat lunch with his family and friends. He is rather skinny and showing his years (but aren’t we all?). It was nice to see him be a regular guy, bantering with the kids and totally relaxed. The rock star vibe he may carry around was nonexistent. We found the best Wi-Fi at Basil’s Bar (free and fast). Basils built on stilts out over the water at our anchorage is another Mustique institution.
Definitions aside (with a little bit of truth sprinkled for good measure), every morning here in Mustique we’ve had fresh baguettes and a printout of the NY Times. We are anchored in an aqua marine bay lined with coconut palms, lulled by the lapping shore and some vocal gulls. We “may” leave tomorrow or Monday or Tuesday…. No worries mon!
Hasta la vista and stay well,
Jim (the Captain) and Kim (Admiral and sometimes galleywench (well ok all the time)
