Notes from the Grenadines

We're beginning to debrief. It's nice to (kind of) be on land again. We spent last night on the boat and will stay here until this afternoon, when we'll fly to Barbados. Then, it's back to Chicago tomorrow. Becky and the kids will pick us up at O'Hare - we can't wait to see them!

We enjoyed this trip - we spent time with local folks as much as we could, and ate at local spots (okay, the food wasn't what we're used to, in terms of quality, but we hadn't cooked it, so it was great). It isn't what most cruisers down here do, so we raised a lot of eyebrows, but we feel as though we understand more about these islands.

Here's a picture of yesterday's fishermen: (I'd like to see any of us handle these nets without winches or windlass!)

We had some company while we were in Saline Bay on Mayreau island:

The Tobago Cays. I tried to get a picture that would show all the colors of the water. The very dark line is the outermost coral reef. The guys snorkeled out there until the 5' shark kind of chased them back into the dinghy. Then there are some shallows and another, inner, reef. The clearest water is in the foreground. While it looks really shallow, it's about 20' deep here....this may well be my new screen saver! It honestly did look just like this.


And that's it from St Vincent and the Grenadines..We had a fabulous trip, and now we're ready for home. (We just wish our tans would hang on long enough to show off in Oak Harbor!)

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

"mangoes and Marley, y'know, fit me like a glove....."

We pulled into the Sunsail base here on St. Vincent today around 2:00pm. Our three weeks of total barefoot/swimsuit days are over. Got to say, we're all ready for that. Helene and I are looking forward to eating something that we didn't cook tonight! We are proud of our provisioning - we ended up this afternoon with 6 crackers, half a box of orange juice and 1 orange. That's it.

Wish I could describe what we watched this morning, but it would take pages and pages....a group of fishermen in two little wooden skiffs came into the little bay we were in and proceeded to put out a seine net. Ummm, we were in the middle of the net.....we pointed out to the head guy, who spent the entire 2 hours of this operation swimming, that the net would not go under our anchor. He kept nodding and smiling and saying "No worries, mon. I take care of it." Uh huh.... well, they started pulling in the net, and it got closer and closer until it was pretty much hung up on our keel....a guy rowed out, singlehandedly pulled up our 120 feet of chain and the 45 pound anchor, towed it out, over the net, then put it out for us and backed down on it. Then, the head guy came over, dived under the boat, pulled the net under the keel and rudder, and, hey presto - we were on the outside of the seine ring. No Northwest native would have ever done that - and never with a big smile on his face. We watched them pull that huge net out by hand - just incredible. I have pictures, but there is a cold beverage with my name on it up on dock....

I will be walking with a list for a few days, I'm sure. 19 knot winds will do that to you. On the plus side, Bob and I have gotten quite good at the jib (that was our job - I did the jib, Bob took care of the mainsail)....Team Cyprus (our boat's hame is Sunny Cyprus....

Virginia, get better soon!
Everyone else, I'll see you all in a couple of weeks.

Happy 6th Birthday to our Philip!! We wished we could have called on your big day.