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.

The Grenadines are a m a z i n g.......

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.

Miles has the moves...

This was taken at my great niece's wedding.....Miles and Gracie were a big hit - they danced every single dance. Without a doubt, the best part of the wedding for all of us. Miles said that the dancing was his favorite thing of the weekend.

I'm Loud and Proud

This weekend, Ross biked 101 miles to raise money for cancer with the Patrick Dempsey Challenge. Evidently, Dempsey rides, too, and stops to take pictures with the participants, etc. At any rate, along with his 2 best friends, Ross finished the miles. Way to ride, Ross!

And in other family news, Naomi walked all by herself, without holding on, last weekend! We went to the car museum in Volo, Illinois (yes, Virginia, there IS a Volo, Illinois) and the kids had a great time. When I was four, I would have hated this place! Cars? I don't know the difference between a Bentley and a Rolls Royce - and until I went to Volo, Il, I don't think I'd ever actually seen either one up close. Point is, I don't honestly care much about cars - or know anything about them. (If it doesn't start when I turn the key, it must be broken. That's what I know about cars.) Anyway, this place has 4 big warehouses FULL of cars. Mostly from the 50's and 60's, but also from movies and tv shows. They have the DeLorean from "Back to the Future" and some other stuff. Anyway, the kids loved it....they liked 'driving' the Flintsone's car:

And shortly after this next picture was taken, Naomi just stood up and walked about 5 feet, shocking the heck out of all of us:

She's WALKING

You've gotta love the pink canes! She's not quite upright, but getting there. Today she stood up for a few seconds without holding on. A big day for a brave little girl.

Thursday, Sept 22 (already)

We have been here now for 7 weeks. Time seems to have changed…instead of the usual 60 minutes per hour, I think it’s changed to about 20. Every day I seem to lose the hours between 9:00am and 4:00pm. I’m not sure what’s happening to those hours, but they certainly go by fast!

Yesterday we stopped at Hot Doug’s for lunch. It was written up as the best hot dog in Chicago. (I have now been to 2 of the top 3 places, and I haven’t gotten an actual hot dog yet. Maybe if I liked hot dogs…..) We had a grilled bratwurst with carmelized onions – a good brat. We weren’t adventurous enough to try the daily specials – one was a truffle dog, made with duck sausage, white truffles, etc., for $7.50, which isn’t bad, when you consider that truffles sell for about $120 a pound. Somehow, making a hot dog out of a truffle seems wrong to me. Douglas (my son, not the owner of Hot Doug’s) tells me, though, that Hot Doug’s duck fat French fries are wonderful…..they are sold only on Fridays and Saturdays, so maybe tomorrow I’ll walk up and give them a try.

I’ve been thinking about driving in the big city, especially as I learn how to navigate Chicago (as long as I stay out of the Loop – downtown). Generally, this is a pretty easy place to get around, as it’s laid out in an east-west, north-south grid (except for a few streets – more on that later). You just have to remember which direction you’re heading. It isn’t as easy as it is at home, where you know you’re heading east if the Cascade mountains are in front of you, or north if Puget Sound is on your left. Those are pretty big land(or water) marks. Here, of course, you have Lake Michigan, but you can’t see it unless you’re next to it, due to the size of the buildings….and, if you are facing all those tall buildings you should be headed east, but the city is huge, so those tall buildings MIGHT actually be south or north, not east. Makes it hard for us out-of-towners.

There are exceptions to the street grid thing, though. (This is something that Chicagoans downplay a lot. They like to think that their city is as easy a place to find your way around as a two-street town in Nebraska. They’re wrong.) There are some streets that do not follow the grid (Elston, Clybourn, Milwaukee, Lincoln) – instead, they are diagonal, heading northwest-southeast, parallel to highway 90 (aka The Kennedy Expressway). Three of those – Elston, Clybourn and Milwaukee – are major streets. This means that they intersect with two other streets at all large intersections. For example, Elston meets Diversey (a few blocks from Becky’s) at the same place that Western Avenue meets Diversey, making a 6-point intersection. Remember, they do not have many left-turn arrows in this city (I have no idea why that is). So, if you are on Elston and you need to turn left on to Diversey (which we do almost daily), you have to be careful, because if you turn left a little too soon, you will be on Western, NOT Diversey…..so we have taken to giving directions as “take a “soft” left as opposed to a “hard” left…Again, keeping in mind that there are no turn arrows, this means that everyone and their brother turns left on red lights here. So, while the urge to GO as soon as the light turns green (especially if you are a little late picking up a kid from school), you don’t dare – because there are at least 2 cars and a truck that are still in the intersection, turning left. It makes things very confused. Also, you need to factor in all the bicyclists. They abound here, where cars and parking cost a LOT. Now, at home, in oh-so-proper Seattle (my tongue is firmly in my cheek), bicyclists follow the same rules of the road as cars. Here, there’s a very laissez-faire view of biking – they go through red lights, ride on the wrong side of the road, head straight into the intersection on a red light and then ride like hell as soon as they get a chance…..and don’t even get me started about their tendency to pass cars on the left while the car is in the left-turn lane. I’m getting better at driving around but by the time I get confident on any roads other than Elston and Clybourn (I know those 2 roads) we’ll be leaving to come home, and I’ll forget it all before I come back. C’est la vie.