If I could just see over the steering column, maybe they'd let me take the helm...
October 24th - we had our second Moment of Abject Terror today....it's blowing like crazy out of the East. Hmmm, yes , it is still hurricane season and it is not escaping us that last year Hurricane Thomas blew through the Grenadines on October 31. Oooooohhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmm. We bounced our way from the Tobago Cays to Union Island in a rough-ish sea. Not all that many swells, really, just a lot of rough water, maybe 3 to 4 feet. Enough to make a seasick person (my sailing partner, Helene, is seasick any time we go out) feel like crap. However, here in Clifton Bay Bob and I are sitting in a bar (I happen to be drenched, myself, but that is a different story) having a beer, and we're currently safe and sound.
Here is the prequel to today's report:
5 Days at Sea
Sailing - moments of abject terror interspersed with hours of boredom.
Yup, that pretty much sums it up so far. We picked up the boat on the 14th and stayed overnight in the marina, leaving on the 15th after visiting the Rasta Market in Kingstown, St Vincent. We had a blast at the market – people stopped us to tell us “welcome to St Vincent” (well, we were the only white people we saw anywhere)…we bought fresh grouper and a bunch of fruits and veggies to take on the boat. (My new favorite veggie: plantain! Yum)
We spent the second night in Cumberland Bay, on the leeward side of St Vincent island. Nice, quiet anchorage….the boat boy (more about boat boys later) who came out to meet us told us his name was “Rasta Joseph”. I have never seen dreadlocks like his. Wow. They came to his waist, were a good 3 inches in diameter….amazing. For a mere $15 EC (about $6.50 US) he took our stern line and tied it to a coconut palm on shore.
Next morning we went south to Wallilabou Bay. This is where “Pirates of the
Caribbean” was filmed. The sets are still there, but the Black Pearl lies on the bottom of the bay. (Too expensive to maintain, so they broke her up and sank her.) I’ll be Netflixing that movie as soon as we get home.
Anything to watch Jack Sparrow again!
When we left Wallilabou, we had winds of about 10 knots – nice and calm, so we put up both a jib and the mainsail….this was fine until we got out from the coverage of St Vincent Island. Ummm, this is definitely BLUE WATER CRUISING. All of a sudden we were hit with 30 kt winds (that’s KNOTS, folks, not mph) and we heeled up like crazy. Our starboard side was in the water…..this was the “abject terror” I talked about…..we were all hanging on for dear life. With these winds, there is no way we could take down the jib – yet we had ‘way too much sail out. At one point we actually tore the jib – the wind was too much for us. After 2 hours of terror, we rounded the corner and entered the bay (which we assumed would be without wind – we were wrong). We got anchored okay in about 17’ in nice sand, got all sail put away, and had happy hour. It was a rough day!
We stayed in Bequia 2 nights. I am still not sure why this was Trina’s favorite island when she was here 18 years ago. Not much to recommend it that we could see….of course, we are here before the season begins. Anchorages are pretty empty, since we are still in hurricane season.
Today, the 19th, we left Bequia for Canouan Island….Canouan is the northernmost island of the Southern Grenadines. Ahhh, we like this place! Today’s cruising made us aware that we are actually blue water cruising. We were in open ocean the whole way here. Unlike the BVI, where you see islands all around you, the Grenadines are each several miles away (today’s was an 18 mile reach).
We’ve been told that sailing in the Windward Islands is considered “Level 3” sailing. My guess is that it’s because of all that open ocean. Today, on our way to Canouan there were a couple of hours when we saw nothing but water in any direction….and all those swells were coming all the way from Africa.
We walked through town tonight. A little girl was standing with her mom on the side of the road. As we passed by, she smiled and said, “Hello, white people.” She was really, really cute. I’ve never been called “white people” before. ;)
After 2 nights in Canouan (so far my favorite place – friendliest people ever – we bought lobster from a fisherman for dinner…10 pounds for $150 EC – about $65 US. Umm, $6.50 a pound for fresh lobster totally floats MY boat! They were wonderful. The lobster guy then took me and Helene to town to the fruit market. He told us that the reason people on Bequia weren’t friendly is that they “are racists over there, mon.” But nothing like that happening on Canouan.
Today we sailed to Mayreau. There really isn’t anything here except the most beautiful beach we’ve seen so far. The water is so clear that when you look off the boat you get a little concerned, because it looks like you could just step off and on to the bottom, yet it’s about 14’ here. Okay, laugh a lot – we would probably not anchor in 14’ of water at home, but here the tidal change is about 6”, so no worries, mon. I love the names of the Rasta guys out here – we’ve met Rasta Joseph, Mr. Wonderful, Black Boy (no, I am not making that up) and more that I can’t remember. They all name their boats, too. Righteous (that’s his name) has pictures of Bob Marley all over his boat. I’m kind of hoping that he’ll turn up the cd’s tonight.
We’ve never come sailing for 3 weeks before. This is definitely the way to do it, though. We’ve done a week and none of us is remotely ready to leave. Paradise was hard to get to, but it sure is worth it.
We left Mayreau two days ago (today is Oct 23)….we are in Tobago Cays Marine Park. We liked Canuoan, and we liked Mayreau ( but it turned out to be buggy at night)….but this? This is the best of all. This is a marine park made up of 5 islands and all the water in between. It is crystal clear. This is a fish and turtle conservatory, so you must not go faster than 6mph and you cannot fish or swim in certain areas. We snorkeled in the turtle area today – but we didn’t need to, we saw turtles off our boat this morning. They aren’t as huge as the ones in Hawaii – these are about 2’ across at the most. The water is so clear that Helene got off the dinghy, thinking she’d just stand up and promptly went in over her head. Oops. Bob and Stuart went snorkeling along the coral reef but it’s a bit rough to snorkel out there. We will leave here tomorrow for Union Island and some provisioning, but we’re thinking we will come back for another day or two – it’s just so peaceful here. I did get sunburned yesterday while creating a “play yard” with Helene while Bob and Stu went off in the dinghy....if you take a nice long line, say 25’ or so, tie a fender to the end of it, then pass the line between your legs and let it wrap around your foot once, you can lean back on the fender and lie down on the top of the water. And that is how my face, legs and the front of my arms got sunburned. Sigh. The water washed off my sunscreen.
Pictures:
Wallalibou Bay, where Pirates Of The Caribbean was filmed....go, Cap'n Jack Sparrow!
Nicky getting our jib fixed....
SuperFrogman, getting ready to check the anchor.
