A very blustry crossing of the bay, lots of rain last night. We\’ve move here to check into a hire car (It\’s the Capitol!)
Generator oil pressure switch may have gone out, I\’ll change it later when the engine cools off. Standby, internet seems good
so we may get some more blogs and some photos up while here.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki
We departed Chateaubelair, the northern most anchorage of St. Vincent for the VERY BLUSTERY 25 mile sail to St. Lucia. We actually had two reefs up for the first half of our very close reach. The Caribbean continues to be a bit of a boaters freeway as we counted well over twenty boats going either too or from between the islands.
St. Lucia is a very geologically dramatic island when approaching from the south. The two prominent peaks are the Petite and Grand Pitons.
Behind these are the \”soufriere\”,(yet another soufriere – and there will be more), where a bubbling mud vent from the dormant volcano resides.
We took a mooring just north of the Petite Piton and the view was spectacular. We checked in at Soufriere Bay, did a little wifi and had an afternoon
glass of wine. The waterfront buildings were a Creole style and we found a marker at the church grounds in town where the French has set up a Guillotine.
Colonization back in the day was not necessarily a pretty site.
Despite the beauty, we wanted to move on (but would include this spot as part of our hire car tour). We departed Soufriere and headed the short trip up the coast to Marigot Bay which is a lovely narrow cul-de-sac at the innermost side. We again picked up a mooring, did a bit of a beach tour and restaurant stop.
James Michener spoke of this bay as one of the most lovely in the Caribbean. We could see where he was coming from, but today, it\’s a bit \”touristy\”. Jacko came by in his small dinghy selling lovely fruits and vegetables. We also bought a lovely palm frond woven basket to keep them in. The entire bay was essentially a mangrove and mossies\’ were a bit of an issue. We again had a bit of a \”been there, done that feel\” after one night and moved on again to the major yachting center of Rodney Bay at the top end of the island. This would be our base for touring, etc. We took a dock here to get the batteries fully charged, the air conditioning on and to have good access to hire cars and the shopping. We could actually dinghy about 1/2 mile inside the harbor to the shopping area which was nice.
Our second day, we hired a car and drove back down to the Piton\’s. Their was a great deal of traffic, especially around Castries, the Capitol. Nikki and I had flown in here en route to Florida last August and we recognized the runway as we entered Castries. It\’s parallel and right along the shore in the Capitol city. Often, landing fields in the Caribbean are a bit of an odd puzzle as the constraints of getting a long enough, flat enough strip that is NOT mountain adjacent, can be challenging.
We did a bit of local marketeering in Castries and caught it on an \”off cruise ship day\”. This was nice as the crowds weren\’t bad, but the locals are indeed a bit jaded over haggling with tourists over their wares. We continued down the coast and the very windy road back to Soufriere passing Marigot Bay along the way. This time, we drove through town and up to the actually mud vents of the \”Soufriere\”. Soufriere means a place of sulfur in French. We did indeed get the smelly sulfur and were a bit surprised by how popular coming here just to see a smelly mud vent was!..:-) The \”tour\” (really a talk), takes 10 minutes. That\’s it…back to your cruise ship and next. We did enjoy the view…and the smell. On our way back to town, we decided to stop at the \”Sugar Beach Resort\”. This is located between the Grand and Petite Pitons off the town of Soufriere. The setting is spectacular and it\’s very up-market. We had lunch at the lovely beach restaurant and I found Nikki\’s Valentine\’s present in the gift shop. A lovely sheer chiffon blouse. We were taken around the resort from the guest parking by golf cart. It was the highlight of the day. We made the 2 hour drive back to Rodney Bay and did a grocery shop as we had the car.
The next day, we\’d made arrangements to be picked up at the marina to go on the rain forest tram and zip line tour. We drove up with a group, were suited up in our gear including helmets and instructed on \”how to\” by our guides. First, we took the 20 minute trip thorough the rainforest on the tram. The views were fabulous and we could see both the east and west sides of the island. Our guide told us much of the history of St. Lucia and much about the local plants and endemic animals. This was another of the Caribbean islands that had gone from French to British and back again before obtaining their independence. Nominally, the locals speak a Creole patois, but really they speak English.
Once we arrived at the top, we took a short hike to begin the 1 hours series of zip lines that essentially led in a big circle. I think there were 12 or so of them and it was quite fun. Nikki really enjoyed looking straight DOWN to observe the rain forest. We were also lucky that we weren\’t rained on in the rain forest! Our highest elevated platform was at least 150 feet high. We again did a short hike back to the tram and this time, the views were even better on the way down (no neck craning!). We returned to the boat to relax and cool off. The next day was a bit of fuel toping, boat chores and maintenance.
We took a taxi out to Pidgeon Island park, but we arrived to late to do a tour of the old fort. The French history here dates back to the 1500\’s where they used it as a base to attack the Spanish. British Admiral George Rodney, fortified Pidgeon island to monitor the French. This would be the staging area for the final decisive battle of \”Les Saintes\” (Guadeloupe) in 1782 which precipitated most of the final definitions of who owned what in the Caribbean between the European colonial empires; ending with the Treaty of Versailles.
On the 17th, we were off to Martinique, our first full fledged French Island in the Caribbean!
Stand by, more soon!
Scott and Nikki
YOTREPS: YES
TIME: 2014/02/11 17:28
LATITUDE: 14-04.58N
LONGITUDE: 060-56.91W
MARINE: NO
WIND_SPEED: 10
WIND_DIR: ENE
CLOUDS: 90%
VISIBILITY: 10
BARO: 1012.8
AIR_TEMP: 28.3C
COMMENT: Beach House – DOCKED – Rodney Bay, St. Lucia
Marigot Bay was nice for a day and a night, but we decided to move to the north end of the island at the bustling
Rodney Bay Marina. It\’s \”mega yacht\” and smaller yacht heaven in here. US Prices, etc. Looks nice so far and we can turn the
A/C on here at the dock with US 220V/50amp power. Nice as it\’s raining quite a bit. I think the Southern Caribbean is getting more
rain this time of year than usual due to the very cold temperatures in the Mid West and Eastern Seaboards.
We\’ll be here for a few days and try and update the blog and maybe even get some photos in if the internet allows!
May do some touring from here as well.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki from windy and rainy St. Lucia
YOTREPS: YES
TIME: 2014/02/09 17:54
LATITUDE: 13-50.83N
LONGITUDE: 061-03.83W
MARINE: NO
WIND_SPEED: 14
WIND_DIR: ENE
CLOUDS: 85%
VISIBILITY: 15
BARO: 1011.6
AIR_TEMP: 29.4C
COMMENT: Beach House – MOORED – Soufriere Bay, Petite Piton – St. Lucia
We left at 0830 this morning and with several other boats made the blustery sail from St. Vincent to St. Lucia.
It was 35 miles, took about 4 hours and overall was our nicest sail this season. A bit bumpy at first, but it settled down a few
miles north of the top of St. Vincent. 2 reefs and a staysail to start; we shook the second reef out mid channel.
This is a very dramatic and lovely spot between the main bay and the Petite Piton. \”Tres Dramatique\” …as the French might say…:-)
Everyone so far speaks English.
We\’ll update the blog soon!
KIT,
Scott and Nikki
YOTREPS: YES
TIME: 2014/02/07 18:48
LATITUDE: 13-14.68N
LONGITUDE: 061-16.52W
MARINE: NO
WIND_SPEED: 8
WIND_DIR: ENE
CLOUDS: 70%
VISIBILITY: 15
BARO: 1012.4
AIR_TEMP: 29.4C
COMMENT: Beach House – MOORED – Kearton\’s Bay(Indian Gallows), just south of Walliabou. St. Vincent
We went on the Volcano hike yesterday from Langley Park near Georgetown. It was quite difficult and 4 hours round trip. My
shoes literally disintegrated and I ended up doing the last part essentially barefoot! Photos soon.
We went for breakfast in Kingston and have now moved the boat to Kearton\’s Bay where we are moored bow and stern.
We\’ll have dinner at the Rock Side Cafe tonight with Rosie and Olin? as our hosts. We\’ll most likely check out of St. Vincent from here
as there is a customs office. We\’ll wait for a bit less wind for the close reach to St. Lucia.
KIT, Scott and Nikki
IF YOU ARE ON THE DIRECT VERSION OF THIS POSITION REPORT AND DO NOT WISH TO BE, PLEASE LET ME KNOW AND I\’LL DROP YOU OFF IT.
YOTREPS: YES
TIME: 2014/02/04 17:31
LATITUDE: 13-07.59N
LONGITUDE: 061-11.52W
MARINE: NO
WIND_SPEED: 17
WIND_DIR: NE
CLOUDS: 40%
VISIBILITY: 15
BARO: 1011
AIR_TEMP: 30.6C
COMMENT: Beach House – MOORED – Blue Lagoon, St. Vincent Island
We enjoyed the Super Bowl in Bequia at Papa\’s Bar with lots of ex-pat locals.
A bit of fuel and stock up yesterday and this morning in preparation for the 7.5 mile
motor slog to St. Vincent. Now anchored in the Blue Lagoon. We\’ll slowly work up the leeside
over the next many days before heading off to St. Lucia.
The Grenadines are a part of the nation of St. Vincent and The Grenadines. The Grenadines are a group of 23 islands which run north and south. They are as a group, north of Grenada by only 15 miles or so with Union Island as the main southern island stretching to Bequia about 30 miles to the north. North of Bequia is the largest island, St. Vincent. 7 of the southern islands are actually politically part of Grenada.
Last we left you, we were enjoying the Bequia Blues and Jazz fest. Despite being a bit over marketed, we still had a lovely time. The thousands we expected turned into a few hundred and a good time. Thank goodness there weren\’t more of us! Alas, all good things must move on and we wanted to get to the exotic Isle of Mustique (only about 10 miles away). It seems a bit silly, but there is lots to see in the Caribbean and we do have to keep some eye on our travel time to get to Florida before Hurricane Season in June/July.
We waited an extra day to leave Bequia as the winds were up in the channel and our pick was a good one. We sailed past the \”Moon Hole\” homes as we began our backtrack through the Grenadines. An American architect, Tom Johnson designed this unique community which attempted to use the natural rock setting incorporated into the homes. You can google it here! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonhole
Right next to it is an ominous small cargo ship, wrecked on the point as you depart Admiralty Bay. I\’ll post a photo of this soon.
We arrived in Britannia Bay, Mustique after only a 2 1/2 hour trip. It was a bit bumpy, but we\’re learning this is normal for the Caribbean. After all, the windward side of all the islands is the open Atlantic; trade winds, swells and all it\’s glory. About 30 of us on the moorings and a few mega yachts anchored out.
The open bay had moorings which were 75.00 USD for three days. The famous \”Basil\’s Bar\” was on the beach next to the dinghy dock and would become a nice hangout while ashore. The music fest was more or less coming to Mustique along with us and it was a much nicer venue and more relaxing at Basil\’s.
95% of the island was currently off limits as Prince William, Dutchess Kate and future King George were here. No, we did not see them. Mick Jagger, David Bowie and Sheryl Crow amongst others of the \”R&F\” (rich and famous) have homes here. There are only 90 or so homes on the islands and being a multi millionaire is essential.
Upon going to shore a few days ago, we discovered our dinghy battery was dead so hand starting techniques were perfected. The guys ashore at the harbor office tried to trickle charge it for us over our first night, but no joy, we\’ll need to find a new one soon.
We had a lovely but extremely pricey lunch at Firefly\’s 1/2 way up the valley overlooking the bay. Five rooms and a restaurant and very exclusive.
We then toured town (takes about 20 minutes) as much as we were allowed to and explored a few lovely boutiques with the upmarket prices to go with them.
We bought a souvenir pencil for 1 USD!..:-) There was also a lovely bakery/coffee stop where we enjoyed first breakfast the next morning.
The highlight was Basil\’s Bar – Mustique Music Fest night. The music was not quite as screaming loud and a nice dinner show was put on. We enjoyed it.
As we were ready to go into shore for the music, our neighbor charter cat with no one aboard swung around and bumped us. We dropped our mooring and re-located. No harm, no foul.
January 30th
Off to Canuoan. This is a little \”C\” shaped island about 12 miles south of Mustique. It appeared to be an up and comer in the tourist world as they are extending it\’s airport runway and it has a few high end beach resorts. We heard the hike to the top of the island would take a few hours and had great views. We were not all that enthralled and were anxious to move on to the famous Tobago Cays, so we only stayed one night in Charlestown Bay, Canuoan.
We found a lovely specialty food shop where we got sandwiches and ate on the deck at the Tamarind Resort. There appeared to be few guests, but it was a lovely spot.
January 31st
We motored off to Tobago Cays (note: all spellings of Cay, Quay, Key are pronounced \”Key\”). This is a lovely group of low islets surrounded by classic atoll type reefs. They are exotically named \”horseshoe reef\” and \”The Reef at the End of the World\”. The later is a reference to the fact that seaward of it there is no land for about 2000 miles! Despite it\’s being gorgeous with all the blues and greens of the spectrum, it\’s pretty windy and more annoyingly, quite crowded. There were about 40 boats in an area that would have seemed crowded with 10. The moorings are in a protected reserve and they prefer you use them though you can anchor if they are full. They were full! Our 4 neighbors were all close enough to have a conversation with. We took a dinghy tour and grabbed the snorkel gear, but it was just either too windy or too many people on the nice areas. We decided on our second day to try Salt Whistle Bay on the very nearby island of Mayreau.
February 1st
About mid-day we motored through the reef system to Mayreau, Salt Whistle Bay. A very pretty spot, lovely views and crowds! The moorings were almost full when we arrived. The nice one was too close to other neighbors for my comfort and the back row mooring upon inspection had 2 of the three lines of \”three strand\” cut though. Of course the locals don\’t care if your boat breaks loose, tough luck. They just want their mooring fee! We anchored near the entrance and it was on coral rubble plate. I dove the anchor and realized the holding was marginal at best. The next morning we had slipped about 100 feet. I don\’t think any anchor in the world wouldn\’t have and our \”Rocna\” is (as far as I\’m concerned), the best anchor ever designed!
The other thing of note here is that it\’s a local day trip spot that does a lot of cooking on the beach. The flies were legendary! I\’ve never seen so many.
February 2nd
We left early the next morning with intention of staying the night at Clifton Bay on Union Island. The trip was another very short motor and we did a grand tour of the bay. It was again, way too crowded, bouncy and frankly, town looked more than a little bit run down. As such, we decided to sail all the way back to Bequia which as it turned out, was our favorite Grenadine.
The wind was a bit close, so we motor sailed some of the way, arriving back at the same mooring we were on off the \”Gingerbread Hotel\”. We went ashore that night to Papa\’s Bar which had a big crowd watching the Super Bowl. We spent a leisurely day including a dinghy ride to \”Jack\’s Bar\” on Princess Margaret Beach for lunch. We enjoyed our time in the Grenadines (despite the crowds) but were anxious to head to St. Vincent, about a 12 mile trip to the north.
Next, our arrival in St. Vincent, touring and our hike up the Soufriere Volcano.
YOTREPS: YES
TIME: 2014/02/01 18:29
LATITUDE: 12-38.88N
LONGITUDE: 061-23.48W
MARINE: NO
WIND_SPEED: 17
WIND_DIR: ENE
CLOUDS: 50%
VISIBILITY: 25
BARO: 1011.1
AIR_TEMP: 30.6C
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – Salt Whistle Bay, Mayreax Island, The Grenadines
It was quite crowded at Tobago Cays and indeed is just as much so here. We tried two different moorings.
One was too close to another boat and one had 2 of the 3 strands of nylon worn through! Note to cruisers.
Check the mooring. We\’re anchored at the back of the pack. Quite the tour boat with music soon to fortunately depart!
We hear about a bbq on the beach tonight. This cove is quite small and shallow. About 30 boats here.
Trinidad to Grenada and on to Bequia, The Grenadines…….
Dear F&F,
We departed Scotland Bay to the west of Chaguaramas at about 6 a.m. on the 16h. It was nice to have a short trip on the 15th from the dock to the anchorage. This gave us a chance to test out much of our gear. At least to the anchorage, everything seemed to work.
We went through the short wild ride pass, \”The Dragon\’s Mouth\”, that we\’d entered last August en route to Trinidad from Tobago. After that bit of bump, we settled in to an 85 mile sail and arrived at 4:30 p.m. At Prickly Bay, Grenada.
Along the way, the new steering seemed to work fine, but there yet may be a hydraulic leak? Hard to tell as our technician left me a bit more than a bit of hydraulic fluid to clean up. The compass was out of calibration and as such, the auto pilot was misbehaving a bit, so we used the Wind Mode and it settled down. A few more bugs will pop up I\’m sure as we shake the cobwebs off \”Miss Piggy\” for the upcoming season.
Prickly Bay was a nice, but crowded anchorage. We made friends with a neighbor boat and were invited for a Shindig aboard s/v Desiderata. Always remember to fold spindle and mutilate – place people on hold whenever possible….:-) (For those of you old enough to remember the spoof on the poem from the early 1970\’s).
We also had lunch on our first full day ashore with Dave & Kathy from s/v Sunflower who we met two seasons ago at Chagos in the middle of the Indian Ocean. We had a lovely lunch and planned for a nice dinner the next day at their hotel; “La Sagesse”. Dave & Kathy spent the Hurricane season here and had not quite re-launched while finishing up some boat projects. They were at a marina several miles to the east of us in St. David’s Bay.
On the cab ride, we met two young US Medical Students doing their first two years at St. George\’s Medical College at True Blue Bay. This was the site of the main invasion by US troops 30 years ago, to quell the coup that deposed Maurice Bishop, kick out the Cubans and \”rescued\” the medical students from potential use as hostages. Politics aside, the locals overwhelmingly were in favor of the invasion and Grenada today is one of the most corruption free and vibrant democracies in the Caribbean.
We were told by a Canadian sailing couple in Chaguaramas, Dave & Valerie, about the upcoming Bequia Music Fest for the weekend of my birthday, January 23-26. My birthday is the 25th…….no gifts please!….:-). And yes, it\’s the big 60.
As such and despite finding Grenada lovely and inviting, we departed Prickly Bay after a very nice 4 day stay. Our first stop in The Grenadines (heading north) and the last official land in Grenada; the island of Carriacou (pronounced carry-I-coo).
We made the 35 mile sail with several other boats both heading north and south. We expect this will be a common sight this season as we head up and down the Windward and Leeward Islands of the Caribbean. We checked out of Grenada at Carriacou, stayed the night in Tyrrel Bay and departed for Bequia the next morning. Carriacou has a large anchorage, well protected and quite crowded. We were able to calibrate our compass and electronically align our wind instrument in the nice flat water just before we departed at 8 a.m. These two steps got our autopilot back to operating normally and gave us better wind insight for which sails to use for the varying wind angles and speeds. We hoisted the mainsail with a single reef and set the full genoa. We were blasting along and passing or catching everyone we could see. It was again, a bit of a freeway out here as we were always in sight of 20 or more boats; either visually or on our AIS. The AIS is like a transponder on an airplane and shows us lots of boats and importantly, BIG ships so we don\’t go bump on the night (or day….:-))
We had a brilliant sail and came into Admiralty Bay, Port Elizabeth – Beqia (pronounced beck-way) at just after noon. We went past the most interesting houses in an area called \”Moon Hole\” and we\’ll write more about that when we again go by on our way out. We were quickly met by the young and entrepreneurial Ashley in his skiff. Ashley runs a group of moorings here in Port Elizabeth and with all the boat arriving, asked if we\’d like a mooring? As this music fest could be a bit wild, we thought it a good idea as it would keep us away from most of the potentially inexperienced charter boaters. This would be a bigger concern at night with many folks unfamiliar with dinghy operations, so we opted for the mooring.
Nikki hoists the St.Vincent & Grenadines Courtesy Flag!
Our first mooring put us off Bequia Dive Center and the Gingerbread Hotel. All the wifi services in the bay are awful, but we\’ve been able to get and receive emails once in awhile from the hotels open network. As such, I cannot post photos here yet, but I will keep up this year…..it\’s my New Years resolution…..:-)
This mooring put us too close to the boat on our port side, so the next morning we were able to move one mooring ahead which has calmed my \”I don\’t want to bump into another boat\” nerves.
On our first night, we stayed in for video night where Nikki and I have been marathon-ing through \”Breaking Bad\”. No, I\’m not Walt White\’s brother…..:-) (For those of you who have seen the show, you\’ll know what I mean).
Last night was the warm up for the festival at the Frangipani Restaurant where we had dinner with seat mates of a local family with 4 very small children. Nikki was entranced with young Tristan. We watched the 13 piece, \”Elite Steel Band\”. The costumes were right out of the 1970\’s, sequins and all. They started with Kate Perry\’s \”Eye of the Tiger\” while channeling their inner Michael Jackson moves. It was quite a sight to see the \”Charter\” boat crowd on vacation. It\’s a bit different than the \”Cruiser\” crowd. The Charter folks drink a lot harder, are quite a bit less inhibited and definitely pray there is no video evidence forthcoming on You Tube anytime soon.
One of the most notable differences this season is indeed the huge amount of charter boats around which is of course, in the sailing community, well known in the Caribbean. It\’s close to the US, Canada and Europe. We\’ve noticed lots of people from France, Germany the odd Russian and LOTS of Scandinavians. Swedes and Finn\’s abound. Overall, the sailing skills have been good enough, but we did hear an Aussie on the radio doing his best imitation of sailing \”road rage\” at a French Catamaran on the way past Union Island en route to Bequia. The former repeatedly announced the lack of understanding on the part of the later as to his apparent non-understanding of the nautical rules of the road.
It was a bit comical actually listening to this theater on the public VHF radio airways. The Aussie chap kept putting out \”securite\” (French pronunciation and spelling), notices for all in ear shot to be wary of the alleged offending Frenchman\’s nautical shortcomings….:-). Ah boaters and crowds!
Speaking of comical, I got into the act as well. Last night, Nikki and I took the dinghy ashore and as we arrived at the dock, the battery died. (Hey, it hasn\’t been used much in several months). Add this to the engine safety switch that is dodgy and I about ran us over the dinghy dock at the Frangipani Restaurant. While holding the errant safety switch to allow the engine to start, I pulled the starter rope. The engine looked like it was in neutral, but was in forward gear. We quickly took off and ran into the dock, both of us bodies akimbo. As I fell back, I couldn\’t get the safety switch off at first. The engine quickly found another dinghies painter and locked it up around the prop. This of course stopped the engine whereupon the local dock attendant came and helped us undo the mess and got us on our way. He was there as the local restaurateur’s were worried about inexperienced dinghy drivers. I\’m sure this chap thought I was guilty, I assure you I was not! After a bit of embarrassment, we were back aboard \”Beach House\” tout suite. His parting words were to make sure we had a light as the local Coast Guard was watching for drunken yachties in their dinghies. Disaster averted….yet again. Just another “sea story” for the file.
Tonight begins the Bequia Music Festival in full force. We have no idea of how many of the 150+ boats here will show up?
Lastly for now. The new website system is causing a bit of consternation. I really like that it automatically sends all our posts out in real time, but all our “Position Reports” are not supposed to go out to everyone as I\’m sure it\’s a bit much. So I do want you all to know that were working on how to stop it so you\’ll all get just our blog and photo updates. Those who are interested in receiving the position reports, drop me an email and I\’ll put you on the list. If you\’re following us on Facebook, you\’ll get them no matter what, sorry about that in advance. As I remote post, I don\’t think we get a choice on this one. Our web guru Ken is investigating.
