Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou
12.27.355N
61.29.317W


We continued on our projects list with Dale digging out the hooka and slipping over the side to wipe down the Palace’s hull. We used ablative bottom paint last year, so you don’t scrub it, just wipe it down to freshen its properties. I continued with the stainless, climbing into the dink to polish those hard to reach places on the far side of the deck.

By late morning, Dale was done and on his way over to give Gerry & Nicky a hand. I stayed back and studied the cruising guides to the outer islands of Venezuela and Bonaire and got on the internet to check the Safety & Security Net for problem areas. Although we have no intention of going to mainland Venezuela, we’ll still have to be very careful in the outer islands until we get to Bonaire.

We finished the day at the chalet where we consumed every morsel of Nicky’s beef burgundy she had slow cooked all day (it was delicious). I brought a Greek salad and an appetizer of cream cheese covered with pepper jelly for crackers, then stopped and picked up a couple of ice cream bars for dessert. Nicky surprised us when she told us that she had made dessert too. Since it was mostly chocolate and we all know how much Gerry loves chocolate, we decided to save the ice cream for another day.

We ended the evening early again, as we were all dog tired and Dale & I still had to run the genset when we got back to the Palace.

Tomorrow is Gerry’s birthday, so we’ve decided that we’ll search for a restaurant to celebrate. The pizza place serves chocolate cake, so maybe we’ll end up there. I’ll have to hit the books again to see if there is somewhere else we might go instead.

Photo from the camera of Orpailleur.

Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou
12.27.355N
61.29.317W


Today we settled into our boat projects routine. Still no definitive answer on our water leak. In fact, I’m rather pleased that the bilge is staying fairly dry which means that the water is leaking in when we’re underway and most likely, taking water over the bow or putting the rail in the water.

When Dale & Gerry made their trip to Hillsborough yesterday, Dale spied a tiny sail loft in town that had a sign that said they made dodgers. Can’t have a dodger without plexiglass, we figured. So today, we unzipped the panel that had been shredded (we’d used clear duck tape to make a temporary fix) and took it in to see if the plastic could be replaced. They could do it and even at a reasonable price but the quality and thickness of the plastic was different. Still it was better than having duck tape on your windshield, so we left it there.

On our way back, we checked on Gerry & Nicky’s progress and were surprised to find them both the color of Smurfs scraping the bottom. It seems the reason the new manager of the haul out facility was a little hesitant when we arrived, was because he didn’t have enough personnel to do the job but he never told them that. There was only one person assigned to work on their boat today. Towards the end of the day, as other projects were completed and the boats put back in the water, 3 more workers spent a couple of hours helping in the scraping and got as much done in that little time as Gerry & Nicky did the first part of the day. I feel bad that we advised them this was a great place to get their work done. This is not what they signed up for. Since they didn’t want to spend the next month here waiting for the work to be completed, better to pitch in and get it done.

Tonight was my turn to cook, so I called Nicky and made arrangements to use their chalet to serve dinner. I made Jerk chicken and potatoes, wrapped it up and threw in a couple of bags of popcorn for appetizers, then carted it all over to the chalet in the dink. We shooed the cattle away that were nibbling on the trees and made our way up the path to the chalet. Nicky had made a salad, so we spread everything on the counter, formed a buffet line to serve ourselves, sat in real chairs and had a real dinner. After dinner, we retired to their “living room” 2 feet away and sat in more comfortable patio chairs to eat our ice cream bars and solve all the problems in the world. Life is good.

Photo from the camera of Orpailleur.

Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou
12.27.355N
61.29.317W

At 6:30am, Dale and I started the genset to run the refrigerator and do another load of laundry (compliments of Nicky’s machine) before heading over to Orpailleur to help in whatever way we could in their move from sea to “on the hard.”

I dropped Dale off on Orpailleur at 7:30 and tied their yellow duck to our dinghy to ferry it into the dinghy dock. I brought my camera and took a stance at the end of the haul out slip. As boats or dinghies approached, I’d wave them off or ask permission to move them to clear a path for Orpailleur should the need arise.

I watched as Orpailleur hoisted her anchor and made her way through the anchorage. Two line handlers came out just as she approached the haul out slip and grabbed her lines when Nicky and Dale tossed them ashore. They expertly pivoted her around her bow and then secured her stern to the lift. Everyone climbed off and the lift was moved into place. Edmund, the man who had done most of the work on our boat last year was operating the lift this year. It’s nice to see that he’s advanced in the yard as he was a hard worker.

Orpailleur was hoisted out of the water and over the materials left at the water’s edge to be pressure cleaned. Then she was moved to her resting spot for the next few days.
Dale and I said our farewells and returned to the Palace so that he could retrieve our boat papers and bum a ride into town to get our mail.

I stayed back and hung out my nickers, then started my own boat projects. I had decided that the bright work needed a bit of polishing and began at the pulpit. By the time that I was ready for a break, Nicky called to say that Dale had returned from his trip into town and to come collect him.

I took advantage of being at “the wheel” and got the dink on plane on my trip in to pick him up. Lots of fun when we’re the last boat out.

The rest of the afternoon was spent dividing my time between polishing the stainless and going through the mail. Once again, that x-ray bill lurked unpaid. I didn’t know whether to swear like a sailor or cry. I’m so frustrated, I can’t see straight. So I’d go back to polishing the stainless to put it aside. When I’d get too hot, I’d return to the mail and try to organize it into piles that made sense.

Dale, spent his day upside down in the bilge trying to locate the water leak we’ve seen. So far none of the seacocks are leaking and all of the water hose connections are tight. He did find that one of the sump pumps isn’t working but that wouldn’t contribute to a salt water leak, just another something to be repaired.

By 5:30 or 6:00, Gerry called to see if Dale wanted to come over to the chalet for a cold beer. No hesitation was in that answer. A half hour later we joined them in their comfortable but sparse chalet. We were all dog tired. The consensus was to head into town and pick up a pizza but no one was moving very quickly towards the door. No matter how much we all deny it, old age is creeping in and our tired bones were crying for mercy. We hobbled back to the dinghy and managed to climb in without falling in and found a little restaurant that served pasta, pizza and rum punch.

We ate to our fill and then returned Gerry & Nicky to the dock in front of their chalet and then returned to our own Palace. We haven’t been successful in logging into the internet today but I’ll give it another try before heading to bed. Dale is becoming desperate to update his driving license and we do need to re-register all of our vehicles/vessels.

Tomorrow, we’ll continue with our projects and maybe take a break to take a dinghy ride in to look at the mangrove swamps.

Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou
12.27.355N
61.29.317W

What should have been a quiet night ended up being anything but! The wind was blowing a hooley. I woke up Dale at one point to help me take down the front sunshade as part of it had come untied and another part was starting to tear at its seams and the whole thing was making a racket.

This morning when we got up, Dale stared at his weather report and proclaimed that it wasn’t supposed to be this windy. Guess its going to be one of those days.

We learned that we had free WiFi though the haul out facility, so Dale signed us in. Later when I tried to connect, we had to go through the same sign in procedures again because someone (who shall remain nameless) couldn’t spell, or type, or both.

The rest of the day I tried to upload photos to my blog posts. As you can see, I wasn’t successful.
Dale was stressed when the sat phone suddenly went dead. We had a spare battery which resuscitated its little heart but the old one was only 3 months old, what’s up?

Nicky was hosting dinner this evening, so I volunteered to bring dessert. I made a chocolate cheesecake with strawberry topping. After a couple of hours in the refrigerator and not setting up, I moved it to the freezer. When it was finally pulled out for dinner and it still hadn’t set up properly, we tasted it, decided that it was foul and threw it out. I didn’t know that powdered milk could go bad. I’m not having a very good day. I offered chocolate covered pecans as a substitute.

Nicky told me that Mike, the pirate, a slip mate from our home port had sent them pictures of his new boat and the commissioning party. We didn’t get any. Guess, we’ve been gone too long. Out of sight, out of mind.

Tomorrow Orpailleur is hauled first thing in the morning. My job is to take the dinghies over and catch lines when they pull into the slip. Hopefully, it will be a better day.

Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou
12.27.355N
61.29.317W

I got up early today thinking I could squeeze in one more snorkel but the weather wouldn’t cooperate. It was once again overcast and windy. So at a reasonable time to call, we let the others know that we were ready to leave when they were.

MTNest elected to stay for another day in the Cays and visit some of the other islands in the Grenadines while we planned on joining Orpailleur in Carriacou for their haul out and bottom job. We e-mailed our mail forwarding service to let them know that we’d be in one spot for more than a day and to forward our mail to us in Carriacou. It’s time to renew all of our vehicle and vessel registrations and hopefully, this year we’ll be able to do it via the internet without a problem.

We hoisted anchors and made our way through the southern channel leading out of the Tobago Cays and south towards Union Island where we needed to clear out of the Grenadines. Once we cleared all of the reefs protecting the Cays, we unfurled our sails and made a quick transit.
We rounded the reefs protecting Clifton Harbor on Union Island and followed the buoys marking the entrance into the anchorage which is divided into two areas with a reef in the middle. Only the perimeter has anchoring depths with a bottom of sand over maurl; which means iffy holding at best.

Dale & I eased close to one side and dropped our anchor in what little sand there was and gratefully accepted that we had found a good spot. Orpailleur wasn’t as lucky and dragged anchor on their first try. With hand signals we suggested that they move up and try again in the same spot. This time it dug in although Gerry felt that it was still inching its way back. In any event, we dropped our dinghy and Dale picked up Gerry for the trip into town to the customs office and the hike to the airport for the immigration office. Nicky and I stayed aboard to make sure the boats didn’t move. Luckily, we didn’t have to do anything.

When the guys came back, we once again hoisted anchor and tried to make our way out of the anchorage around a huge catamaran that wasn’t having any luck finding a spot that would hold. They took position directly behind Orpailleur and us waiting to take our spots but didn’t leave a whole lot of room to maneuver in. With help from the wind and current, I was able to pivot the Palace around and get out but they really put the squeeze play on Orpailleur. Since we were making our own way out between the reefs, I wasn’t able to see how Gerry & Nicky were able to get out with the cat in the way.

We cleared the reefs, unfurled our sails and were making great speeds towards Carriacou when Dale suddenly shouted “Right! Right! Turn Right” He had caught sight of another boat coming at us from beneath our sail. I turned a little right, thinking that a fishing boat was coming at us. “Hard right!” was the next command. Boy was I surprised when I spun the wheel to its full potential to see that we narrowly missed another huge cat passing a boat length or two from us.
Rules of the Road dictated that they had the right of way. Still, they had seen us because I heard them blowing a whistle when we passed by. In close calls, the tendency is to figure out what we did wrong and make adjustments. I’m not sure what we could have done differently. Both boats were blanketed by each other’s sails. Both Dale & I were top side and keeping watch. Neither one of us saw the boat approaching. Now what? No harm, no foul, but still its unnerving.

We continued on shaken but unscathed and rounded around Carriacou to enter into Hillsborough Harbor to clear into a new country. Once again we did the anchor dance and Nicky and I were left to guard home and hearth while the guys dinghied in. This time though, we had cut it too close to the lunch hour and the doors were shut in their face. As luck would have it, the cricket match was playing nearby in a café across from the bank and the hour they had to wait was gone in a heartbeat.

Once the paperwork was completed, they returned to the harbor, we hoisted anchors and motored around the corner to Tyrrel Bay where Orpailleur has an appointment for sanding and new bottom paint.

For the final time, we did the anchor dance but this time, the anchors bit into deep sand and snapped the boats back into alignment indicating that they had dug themselves into a home for the next week or so.

The guys dinghied into the haul out yard and confirmed the scheduled maintenance with the yard manager over a couple of cold brews. Gerry was able to book a little 2 bedroom chalet with kitchenette and living area next door for the time they will be on the hard and things appear to be on right on schedule for a haul out on Thursday.

In the meantime, I put up the front and back awnings. Since we’re going to be here awhile, might as well get comfortable. Hummm, I wonder where I put that hammock?

Tobago Cays,
The Grenadines
12.37.764N
61.21.422W

For the first time in months, the day was overcast the whole day. Still, we managed to sneak in a snorkel. I supposed we should have checked the tide tables first because as soon as we tied our dinghy to the mooring ball in the reefs, donned our gear and jumped in, the current quickly carried us downstream. Still we swam against it for as long as we could before deciding we would be better off snorkeling around the reefs until the tide slackened. After that, we could go outside to the wall.

We chased the fish with our camera for about an hour then headed back to the boat. By this time, we saw Gerry & Nicky in their yellow duck coming towards us. They had already found a spot to snorkel and came to tell us that although they had seen lots of fish, they hadn’t seen the turtles they were hoping to see. That’s alright, Dale & I happen to know where the turtles are. In the turtle grass, of course!

We dinked around to the little island where the turtles hang out and beached the dinks, tying them off to a couple of coconut trees. We donned our gear and duck walked into the water churning with sand and seaweed. We swam out a few feet and took off all of our gear which was now filled with sand and bits of seaweed and rinsed them off before putting them on again. Now we were ready to swim with the turtles.

Nicky spotted one right away and I started snapping pictures. I found a couple of star fish and started snapping photos of them too when Nicky found some more turtles. I tried to get photos of everyone swimming with the turtles, but alas, I can’t hold my breath long enough to swim down, line up the photo and snap the picture before either the turtle, the swimmers or I move. You’ll just have to trust that we were all there.

I think Nicky and I could have played in the water for the rest of the afternoon but the guys were cold and had already left us to stand on the beach and try to warm up. We swam back to them and tried to get out of the water as dignified as possible but ended up being deposited at their feet, giggling like schoolgirls, with the incoming tide completely covered in sand and seaweed. We untied the dinks, turned them around and pushed them back into the water. It’s always a challenge to hop in the dink before you’re in too deep of water and keep the dang thing headed in the right direction while you’re starting the motor. Somehow we all managed and returned to our respective boats to shower off, warm up and take a couple of naps. I was surprised to see that we had been in the water for 3.5 hours and in spite of our showers, I’m still dusting the sand off.

Dinner was on MTNest tonight and the fare was “picnic”. Terri made barbeque sandwiches and coleslaw, I made pineapple casserole and Nicky made loaded baked potato skins. We finished with Rice Krispy treats. Now I ask you, what better menu could you ask for in paradise?

Tomorrow morning, I hope to squeeze in one more swim before we head out but the forecast is for more rain, so we’ll see.

Tobago Cays,
The Grenadines
12.37.764N
61.21.422W

This morning at 8 am, Orpailleur slipped her mooring lines and we on the Palace hoisted our anchor and fell in behind her. Orpailleur turned into the wind to hoist her main sail, then returned to course just as we turned into the wind to unfurl our main sail and did likewise. It looked like a well choreographed dance. MTNest was attending Mass and would join us later.

We motorsailed to the end of Bequia, then turned south, unfurled our jibs, turned off the engines and streaked to the Tobago Cays. The 25 miles, from anchor to anchor, only took us 4.5 hours. MTNest, which is a catamaran, made the same trip in 3.5 hours when they joined us later.

One of the highlights was when Orpailleur spotted a pod of pilot whales off to our right. Dale figured that there were about 20 of them. I caught a couple of good glimpses of them but wasn’t quick enough with the camera.

Our only mishap occurred at the end of the trip when we turned into the wind to furl away the jib. The winds were gusting to 27kts which whipped our lines about the deck dangerously. Our starboard jib line whipped against one of the panels of isinglass and tore it to ribbons in a matter of seconds. Dale had a difficult time trying to bring the jib back in but was able to wrestle it under control with much grunting, groaning and nashing of teeth. There wasn’t much we could have done differently as we were keeping tension on the line to prevent it from knotting itself. Turning further into the wind would have just whipped the lines even more. So now we either live with it for the next couple of months or try to find some isinglass in Grenada. We’d kicked around the idea of making a direct transit to the Los Testigos islands from Carriacou, so one possibility is taking the ferry to Grenada while Orpailleur in on the hard.

We hosted dinner on our boat this evening and when we were discussing the situation, Gerry mentioned that he might try to locate a sail loft to have some additional chafing protection added to his sails. If that’s the case, we may try to replace the panel if they have the isinglass in stock. If not, I’m inclined to wait until we get back home to have it replaced.

The newly adopted park fees were in full force and effect on this visit and the new park rangers met us shortly after we anchored to collect them. We asked how the fees were going to be used and got a pretty pat answer about protecting the environment. We’re hoping that the dinghy moorings will be better cared for. In just the year we’ve been here, we seen about a third of them disappear. Either too large of a boat is being moored on them or the ropes are in disrepair. A little care and monitoring would do wonders I think.

We didn’t go snorkeling today as we had hoped due to the continued high winds but we’re hoping that they die down as forecast and we’ll have a good day tomorrow. I’m looking forward to swimming with the turtles and visiting the wall again.

Admiralty Bay
Port Elizabeth, Bequia,
The Grenadines
13.00.687N
61.14.506W

To do something different today, Mike & Terri invited us to join them riding the dollar bus around the island. We’ve taken the bus before on different islands when we had somewhere specifically to go but have never gotten on just to ride. It turned out to be a great little ride. With Mike teasing the driver and his daughter, who collected the fares for her dad, the driver got into the role and played guide for his less than conventional passengers.

He told us that this was a special day on the little island. Yesterday one of their fishing boats had caught a whale. Since it has been a tradition for over a hundred years, the government allows the islanders two whales a year. Sail boats about 28’ long with a crew of 6 men, tack back and forth under sail looking for whales. When one is spotted, the alert is given to the other boats to converge on the area and help with the kill. Harpoons are used much the same way as they have for generations. The first in plunged deep into the whale by hand and a thick rope flaked in a basket unravels to its end. That’s when the “Nantucket sleigh ride” begins. When the opportunity arises, a second and third harpoon are also thrown by hand. When the whale tires, a man transfers from the boat to the whale and plunges another harpoon through the mouth of the whale and then bends it to hold its jaws shut to keep it from taking on water and sinking.

Yesterday’s kill didn’t fare as well. After the first harpoon was thrown and the sleigh ride began, the rope gave way and they had to call in a boat with a motor to catch the rope in the water and transfer it back to the original boat. Guess it has something to do with the rules that allow them to continue to take whales.

After the whale is killed, it is then hauled through the water to a little island off the coast where it is carved up and sold to the islanders. It sells for about $5.00 EC/lb. The boat crew who made the kill reaped the benefits. It looked like the whole island turned out to get their share.

Our bus driver continued by telling us that you need not only the meat of the whale but the blubber to cook it in. He said that people nowadays like to use a regular cooking stoves but he thought that it tasted better cooked over a wood fire the way they did it when he was younger.

He said that the meat tasted like beef and indeed, when we got a look at some of it in a bucket, it looked like beef. The lady sitting behind me offered to take us over to watch as they carved up the giant but I gave an emphatic no thank you. I can’t stand the smell of Dale filleting a fish on the back deck, I certainly don’t want to get a whiff of something being carved up that’s as big as a boat.

We finished our ride and when we were deposited back at the dock, we met Gerry & Nicky who were shopping for fruits and veggies. We told them all about our trip and walked down to the market to pick up some fresh bananas, pineapple, star fruit, green onions and broccoli for ourselves.

We all retired to our respective boats and made plans to meet up again for dinner at a local restaurant that featured a jazz pianist. Mike plays several instruments and often sits in with the bands we find. He had played before with Uncle Louie, who, from his accent, is from Scotland. Uncle Louie invited Mike to join him again and after our dinner, we were serenaded in grand style. When Uncle Louie took a break, Mike played a couple of tunes on the piano.

It was a great evening and punctuated with good humor when a gentleman from the table next to us, mistook Mike for someone he had met earlier in the day. Of course, this opened the door for Mike to run with the idea and was made even more crazy when the man Mike was mistaken for, actually showed up and sat at the next table down.

I think Gerry & Nicky weren’t quite sure what to think when they first met Mike and he immediately started teasing with them but considering how quick witted they are, they’ve made up for lost time. We always have so much fun.

Tomorrow, we’ll all point our bows south towards the Tobago Cays. Since these are uninhabited islands, it will be a few days before I’m able to make my blog posts again. Until then . . .

Admiralty Bay
Port Elizabeth, Bequia,
The Grenadines
13.00.687N
61.14.506W


After a great night’s sleep, we awoke early and checked to see if we got a decent internet connection from where we were. Yep! We connected immediately (although it had a tendency to drop from time to time.) Kind of glad I picked up that month long subscription now.

Dale saw a cruise ship arrive, so he took off to pick up Mike and Gerry and continued in to Port Elizabeth, the town associated with Admiralty Bay to check us into customs before they were inundated with people coming ashore. Unfortunately, the immigration people had already left for the cruise ship, so they were forced to return later in the day for that aspect of our clearing in process.

We he came back, he had news that we were going on the turtle farm tour later in the morning. A quick check of the depth gauge showed 7.5’ of water so at 10 am, we all made our way back and climbed into the back of a pick up truck customized with seats along the sidewalls and a roof over the back. Actually, it was a great little ride.

We arrived at the turtle farm and learned that their newest arrivals are hawksbill turtles and were discovered just as they were coming out of their nest. As a result, a pretty good number of the little tykes were scooped up and brought to the farm for rearing over the next year.

According to our guide, as long as the babies aren’t imprinted with the sights, sounds and smells of their birth beach, they can be released on any beach and imprinted later. They are brought to the farm and kept in pools with circulating water which is changed daily. Generally, they are kept together when they are tiny but if they are injured or don’t play well with others (biting seems to be the most common problem) they are kept in isolation tanks until they are healed. After a year, they are released back into the ocean from any number of beaches in The Grenadines.

Any nest can have up to 250 eggs and they are able to return half that number to the wild after a year. Our guide told us that although these turtles are endangered, some of the local island governments still allow hunting seasons on the creatures. Seems rather odd to me.

We hopped back into our “taxi” and started making our way back to the bay when we learned that there was a pottery store along the way. One quick stop to look through the inventory and we were back in the truck and on our way. It was picturesque and pricey.

When we got back to Port Elizabeth, Dale sent me to pick up some cash while he returned to the boat to get the immigration forms he hadn’t brought with him. Big mistake. I haven’t been to an ATM in about 18 months. I put the card in, punched in the numbers, started talking with the security guard sitting nearby, pulled out the cash, and the receipt but didn’t get the card. I told the guard, she went and got a bank manager, who asked for an ID, then went in and tore the machine apart looking for the card. It wasn’t there. He came back and asked if I had left the area and returned; no, of course not. He asked again how it happened, I told him I got the cash, I got the receipt, I just didn’t get the card back. He asked me to please check because the machine isn’t supposed to dispense the money before the card is retrieved. You can imagine my surprise when I found the card in my purse with the money. To this moment, I do not remember pulling it out and putting it in my purse. In fact, I specifically remember reminding myself repeatedly not to forget the card. These senior moments are getting scary. Needless to say, I spent the next few minutes apologizing to the bank manager and the security guard. Then I had to go out and tell all of our friends and Dale why it took me so long. We all had a good laugh but you know, it really is kind of scary.

Mike & Terri and Dale & I continued to show Gerry & Nicky around the little town. We walked through the straw market and the Rasta vegetable market. We walked through a couple of the model boat shops, then eventually had lunch at a place called the “Salty Dog” where the guys could watch the cricket matches some more.

We made it back to our respective boats and once we climbed aboard, Dale immediately donned his swim trunks to check the water level again. This time our depth gauge was indicating 6.5 - 7’ of water; we draw 5.5+ feet. With the wind starting to pick up, Dale wanted to check. He came back saying that he wasn’t happy. There was only about 6” of water under the keel and he could see where it had left an imprint on the soft sand below, lightly brushing along the most shallow areas.

So once again, we upped the anchor and did the anchor dance eventually dropping into 10-11’ of water. I stayed in the cockpit to watch us settle into our anchoring swing while Dale descended below to check for eyelid light leaks.

We ended the day along with MTNest on Orpailleur watching the sunset and eating the various hors d’oeuvers we each brought for the occasion. Good food and good friends; hopefully I won’t forget the fun I’m having.




Photo 1: The crew: Dale, me, Nicky, Terri, Mike & Gerry
Photo 2: Nicky getting a closer look.
Photo 3: 1 month old Hawksbill turtle.
Photo 4: Mike talking with proprietor of pottery shop.

Admiralty Bay
Port Elizabeth, Bequia,
The Grenadines
13.00.687N
61.14.506W


We raised our main and dropped our mooring ball at 7am and together with Orpailleur, MTNest and 2 more boats from the anchorage, motored out, unfurled our jib and raced to St. Vincent. Along the way, more and more boats either joined us or were coming towards us. We felt as if we were on an invisible super highway.

The first half of the trip, Dale drove while I sat with my sail handbook and tweaked the sails, trying to get every inch of performance out of them. I’d ease the sheets, adjust the blocks, play with the twist in the sail and look for where the wind was positioned in the sail. I think it was working since we were streaking along with speeds between 7-8 kts and well over 8 kts on occasion.

Once we got to St. Vincent, we switched. I drove and Dale tweaked. When he turned the wheel over to me, he cautioned me that it had been a work out, so not to over do it. It was about this time, we came into the lee of St. Vincent and the winds died completely. I ended up sitting down, and driving with my feet. Shortly after that, we turned on the engine and motored most of the way down the island. We noted a few boats anchored in some of St. Vincent’s bays. In the past, it was well known that visitors were not welcomed. Perhaps things have changed since last year, but we weren’t stopping to find out today. As soon as we rounded the southern tip of St. Vincent on our way to Bequia, I was on my feet again and got my work out for the rest of the day.

MTNest and Orpailleur had taken a more direct route to Bequia but had run into a couple of nasty squalls. Dale had tried to side step a west setting current which ended up keeping us out of the squalls but also took us closer into the lee of St. Vincent and the long way to Bequia. Terri radioed back to ask if we were OK and promised to save some lasagna for us when we eventually showed up.

About 5:15pm, we moseyed in and dropped our anchor in about 8’ of water to the side of MTNest; we noted that Orpailleur had elected to take a mooring ball. We backed down and settled very near the anchor of another boat. Dale says he’s not comfortable with that, particularly after the other morning, so we lifted the anchor and moved further forward, dropping in about 7-8’ of water. Just to be on the safe side, Dale agreed to jump in and check things out. The anchor looked good on a sandy bottom and yes, there were some shallow spots but we appeared to have plenty of room and depth to swing in.

We took a couple of quick showers and headed over to MTNest where Terri had prepared a wonderful lasagna dinner for the 3 boats. It was especially delicious when we were all tired, hungry and didn’t have to cook it ourselves. Gerry made positively obscene sounds when she produced a cake with chocolate frosting. He is a bona fide chocoholic. We all eagerly devoured everything she placed in front of us and announced that we’d sleep well tonight after all the exercise and good food.



Photo 1: Orpailleur & MTNest heading off into the rainbow.
Photo 2: Gypsy Palace heading into Admiralty Bay, Bequia (taken by Kenmore).

Jalousie,
St. Lucia
13.49.352N
61.03.897W


At 6:00am this morning, Dale started scurrying around to start the engine to move us forward so our neighbor could retrieve his anchor and leave. This wouldn’t have been so bad except that his wife would raise the anchor 6” at a time to scrub the chain. It ended up taking quite a long time. I told Dale that we were being punished for not being here yesterday.

If you recall, the day we arrived and first dropped our anchor, we had promised to move when they were ready. The next day, I was up and ready to move the boat when they came up but they had changed their minds saying that they were heading north and wouldn‘t leave with the way the winds were blowing. Yesterday when we took our island tour, they said they had wanted to leave and we were no where to be found after 9am. We apologized but this morning, we paid for our transgressions.

At 8 am, Gerry and Dale dinked in to clear us out of customs. Customs wasn’t opened, so they wandered on down and talked with Scott & Heather on Scott Free for a while. About 8:30 they checked again, customs still wasn’t opened, so they wandered over to the local chandlery for a look see. Customs was open when they returned shortly before 9 am. Island time, man! Nothing like it.

They made their way back to the boats and we secured the dinks before heading out of the inner anchorage to the outer one. MTNest’s dink wasn’t behind their boat and they didn’t answer when we hailed them on the radio, so we headed out beyond the anchored boats, turned into the wind and unfurled our sails. We turned back out and cut the engines.

Although we were in the lee of St. Lucia, we had a great sail most of the way down to the Pitons. Occasionally, a steep mountain would hinder our air flow but generally it was a brisk ride. Orpailleur, once again left us in their wake. This time I dug out our book on sail trim and started studying. I’d ease the sheets, then pull them back in, ease them back out, so on and so forth until I got frustrated and closed the book, convinced that the sails were exactly as they were when we first started.

We finally made contact with MTNest who told us that their watermaker had been repaired but that they wanted to run it for a couple of hours to make sure that everything was working as it should. They didn’t think that they would be able to join us today but would catch up tomorrow.

We had discussed stopping for a quick snorkel at Soufriere but when we arrived, there were no moorings available. As the water dropped to over a 1000’ a few yards beyond the mooring balls, we elected to forego the snorkeling and continue over to the anchorage outside of Jalousie between the Pitons.

With the “assistance” of the local boat boy, we snagged a couple of mooring balls and proceeded to settle in. I wasn’t comfortable with what appeared to be the local spot to take a break around the rocks on the beach and smoke a joint which was very close to our mooring field. We hadn’t heard of any boardings or robberies but I wasn’t crazy about leaving the boat unattended while a few of the locals got high nearby. As it turned out, once it was quitting time at a nearby construction site and all of the workers went home, so did the activity on the shoreline. Maybe it was my imagination but Gerry noticed them too and didn’t seem to be in a great hurry to go snorkeling either.

What Gerry did do, was scope out some information about a dinner and show that occurred on Wednesday nights at the restaurant down the beach. What do you know? Today is Wednesday!

Another surprise was MTNest calling us on the radio to say they were rounding the corner and to save them a mooring ball. As luck would have it, one had just become available. Dale and Gerry dinghied over to it and held it long enough for Mike & Terri to grab it.

Mike & Terri decided not to join us this evening, so the crews of Orpailleur and the Palace dinghied to the dock and walked over to a restaurant called Bang. It was previously owned by the English Lord Glenconner but recently purchased by its very close neighbor, the Hilton Resort.

Bang had a set dinner menu with 3 selections for the main entrée and the Wednesday night show consisted of local talent. We had acrobat/fire eating brothers and students from a local dance school. We had a great time and even participated in the limbo challenge. Lord Glenconner even showed up for the entertainment after dinner and sat at a table nearby. I guess even though he doesn’t technically own the establishment any more, he’s still very much a part of it.

We knew we had an early morning, so we snuck out a little early to get back to the boats and secure the dink. After doing the limbo, crawling back into a rainy wet dink was easy.

Photo 1: Dale doing the limbo?

Photo 3: Gerry, Dale and a blonde caught in the act!

Photo4: Gerry trying not to fall.

Rodney Bay,
St. Lucia
14.04.473N
60.56.990W


We scheduled an island tour today, so I got up early and finished the recovering of the dinghy seat project that I had started yesterday. Dale sent an e-mail message to Orpailleur regarding the fire last night and discovered that they had not seen it.

When it came time to dinghy in, we swung wide and got a better look at what was left. It had been a trimaran and even the little houseboat that was anchored behind it had damage to its roof.

Gerry & Nicky picked us up at our boat and we dinghied in and met Mike & Terri at the docks. When Chris, our guide, picked us up, he already had the local scoop on the fire. Arson basically. The trimaran was used as a lunch and dinner cruise operation; successful from what I could tell. Someone had approached the owner of the trimaran asking to purchase the establishment but they had been refused. Next thing you know, the boat is destroyed. Chris called it jealousy. Dale figured it was a propane leak considering how quickly it engulfed the entire boat and how hot it appeared to be burning. At least no one was on it at the time.

We began our tour to Castries, the capital of St. Lucia. We continued our southern trek with stops at banana plantations, a casava bread operation, a waterfall (and small botanical garden), a sunken volcano that spews sulfuric steam, a fishing village, a restaurant at the top of the mountains with a view between the Pitons, but we actually ate lunch at a local establishment which was tasty and cheap, then the rest of the island that we simply circumnavigated.

We learned that the old prime minister is out and a new one is in and at this point, doing a much better job of managing the island’s budget so that the people are seeing some benefit from their tax dollars. Most of the roads we traveled on were recently repaved, the people have work if they want it, the farmers have been encouraged to return to their farms to provide a more diverse economic base, and the island just seemed to be growing and improving.

One item of concern though, we were told the last prime minister encouraged everyone to buy, build and basically go into incredible amounts of debt based on the tourist dollar expected to come with the World Cup matches in cricket being played here. However, now that the matches are being played, hotels are not completely booked, bed & breakfast rooms that were built onto people’s homes are not booked, and the extra taxi cabs that were purchased are not being fully utilized to pay the debt. I fear that once the games are over, the islanders will quickly fall into economic ruin and the huge changes that we’ve seen in one year will backslide over the next.

Cricket, naturally, was our lunchtime conversation. Gerry & Nicky tried to teach the Yanks the basics of cricket. Since its about the 3rd time that Dale has listened and asked questions, he seems to be grasping more of the game. Listening to the conversation reminded me of an old Andy Griffith skit I saw a long time ago about a country bumpkin describing the first time he ever saw a football game.

It was pretty late when we got back and even though Terri had offered to cook lasagna for everyone, we didn’t want her to go to all of the trouble after such a long day, so we dropped by Scuttlebutts and picked up a couple of salads or burgers. We told them about Google Earth and they were fascinated. There was an internet connection in the restaurant but a couple of guys were using it to surf for the latest female crew photos (we hope), so I suggested that everyone return with us to our boat and we’d pull it up for them.

Unfortunately, until quite late at night, our WiFi is usually slower than molasses in January but they at least got the idea. If you haven’t seen it, go to http://www.googleearth.com/, download the software, and then travel the world. It’s best to start out with a state or country, then start narrowing it down to city, before you go for the street and house number. It’s not real time, but it’s pretty cool to see where we are. Of course, you can just enter our coordinates as another type of address.

Tomorrow, we’ll point our bows south again and make our way to Dale’s favorite anchorage between the two Pitons. Hopefully, Mike & Terri will be able to go with us but if not, they’ll catch up to us on down the road. At some point, we need to touch base with Scott & Heather on Scott Free who are in a slip right in front of us. They are on the same time table as Orpailleur as far as making Panama by May, so maybe they can buddy boat part of the way.

In any event, I need to get these posts uploaded while I still have an internet connection. Even if it takes me all night.

Rodney Bay,
St. Lucia
14.04.473N
60.56.990W

First thing this morning, Dale & Gerry went and stood in line for the customs office to open in order to check us into the country. Once again, it was 8am ‘island time’, which means it was closer to 9am by the time the doors were actually opened.

I had stayed on the boat to run the genset, try to upload my blog posts and to be prepared to move us forward in case the boat behind us wanted to get underway before Dale returned. As it turned out, I ran topside when I saw the couple on their deck but he shouted over that they had changed their minds due to the winds being unfavorable for the northern transit they had wanted to make. That and it was raining.

Dale & Gerry came back saying they had run into Mike & Terri at the marina, who had agreed to join us for our island tour. What a treat, they are really great people.

We had the Indian fast food called a roti (curried chicken & potatoes in a burrito bundle) for lunch, then the guys took off to “work” on Mike’s watermaker. Nicky and I dug out our sewing machines and did our own work. Mine consisted of trying to recover our dinghy seat cushion which is taking a beating considering how well Dale secures the dinghy with cross ropes. The job is easier said than done. I’ve got it almost finished but with the tour tomorrow, I’m not sure when I’ll actually get it done.

The guys returned with the news of ‘no joy’ on the watermaker. They had discovered that the filters had been put in backwards but other than that, they were only able to ascertain that it was a problem with the pressure.

I put my sewing aside early, since we had made arrangements to go into an Indian restaurant called Razmataz. Indian cuisine was the theme of the day, I guess. Gerry & Nicky guided us through the menu and we had a very tasty and spicy dinner. Curries and chilies were in almost every dish; only the mint yogurt put out the flames.

Odd choice of words, now that I re-read them. Just after I wrote that paragraph, I heard a muffled pop. Seconds later, a boat in front and to the right of us quite a bit away was fully engulfed in fire. I called to Dale, then hailed the marina on the radio. As it was a little after 11:30 pm, so I wasn’t sure anyone would answer. Thank heavens they did and I was able to tell them they had a boat on fire at the end of their dock. Fire engines arrived within minutes. There were at least 2 and possibly 3 more muffled pops after the fire engines arrived. It was a difficult fire to put out as it kept coming back and to this minute, there are a few flames that keep popping back up. Unfortunately, the boat appears to have been burned to the water line in about 30 minutes. Hard to tell from here. Hopefully no one was on board.

It’s amazing what you see when you’re a night owl trying to get a decent internet connection.

Rodney Bay,
St. Lucia
14.04.473N
60.56.990W

Dale’s tummy wasn’t feeling too well this morning, so Nicky and I decided that there was no need for the guys to come in with us to return the rental car and do our grocery shopping,. We took off in the ‘banana fender’ (as it was called today) with thoughts of doing a couple of quick errands and returning before they had time to complain.

We dropped by Foreclosure to say hello and explain that we had been running in different directions for the last couple of days, then tied the dinghy at the dock and took the car back to the rental agency where we waited for someone to return to the office. Clearly they were open as the hurricane shutters were rolled up and a folding sign was placed outside the door. After about 15 minutes we checked with the establishment next door to see if maybe they knew if the woman who worked there had a habit of heading off for a cup of coffee first thing in the morning. Nope, no information. After about 30 minutes and seeing several people walk down the street with grocery bags in their arms, we knew that a store was somewhere near, so I left Nicky in the car while I went in search of the store to pick up the bread we both needed.

Somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour after we arrived, the woman showed up with others in tow (apparently clients). At least I had been able to find some bread. We made our way back to the dinghy and our respective boats.

We hoisted anchors and slowly made our way out of the anchorage. Orpailleur was held up because of another boat resting over their anchor. Considering how they had to dance around the other (unattended) boat to retrieve theirs, they were lucky the anchors hadn’t tangled.
We made our way out to the St. Anne anchorage and unfurled our sails. By the time we reached the end of the anchorage we were doing over 5 kts and didn’t slow down until we made it to St. Lucia. We saw speeds up to 8 kts; not that we were racing or anything but Dale & I did hand steer all the way and at least stayed in the competition. At one point on the transit, there were 4 boats all vying for the same air.

We reached Rodney Bay exhausted but in good spirits. We were transiting the narrow channel that leads to the marina inside the lagoon when the approaching dinghy waved us down. It was Mike & Terri from MTNest with Brad, one of their guests they had aboard about this time last year that we had met. We made some hasty arrangements to get together later and continued on our way into the fuel dock.

I’ve gotten pretty good at holding the Palace in place while waiting in line for fuel and today was no exception. Except that it took forever. We watched as the power boat fueled and paid their bill but after that, we couldn’t figure out what was taking so long. The closest we could figure was that they were simply chit chatting with people on the dock, ignorant of the line forming behind them. Finally, the station attendant motioned for us to go ahead of the power boat on what was left of the dock.

From previous experience, we knew not to throw a bow line to anyone standing on the dock in case they tug too forcefully. Thank heavens, Dale repositioned the line from the bow to amid ship because sure as shooting, even though he told the guy to use it as a spring line to keep us from drifting down on the powerboat behind us, the attendant caught the line and secured it to the nearest cleat which didn’t keep us from smacking the powerboat’s anchor with our dinghy hanging from the davits. Of course it acted like an overgrown fender but with two kids sitting on the bow of the powerboat, I was furious; with myself and with the attendant. I should have allowed more room for the dinghy which ultimately would have forced the attendant to use the farthest cleat to secure us to. As it was, it was the powerboat’s owner that gave us a helping hand to secure the Palace to the dock more securely.

Our normal place to anchor in the tiny lagoon even further in was crowded, so we ended up anchoring to the outside of the marina. It’s busier with buzzing dinghies and sounds from the local establishments but it has free WiFi, so who can complain.

We finished our day by going over to MTNest and enjoying the sunset, the music and the company. Brad & Angie, whom we had met last year, are flying out tomorrow but it was good to see them again.

Gerry & Dale have decided that Mike needs more help on his watermaker problem and have volunteered to take a look at it tomorrow. These guys actually get a kick out of working on mechanical things. Maybe they just get a kick out of working on other people’s things. Boys and their toys.

Le Marin,
Martinique
14.27.688N
60.52.108W


Thank heavens this morning I was able to sleep in. At 8 am, Dale started the genset and took off for the town to check us into customs with Gerry. Then they were off shopping for guy things.

While they were gone I was in charge of running the refrigerator and making water, which of course I did. I was also able to take a leisurely shower and wash my hair. Then I brought out the guide books and figured out where the botanical gardens were that Nicky and I wanted to go see.

When the guys came back, they had the usual assortment of oil, wire and various metal things but Gerry came back with a bright yellow dinghy as well. It seems, he’s tired of getting wet on his dinghy rides and decided to buy another one with a higher bow. Nicky immediately dubbed it the Custard Bullet.

So we left the men behind playing with their new toys while we went in search of a rental car and map. After 3 tries, we found one that was fairly reasonable and off we went. I had asked Nicky to drive figuring that on a French island they would drive on the left hand side of the road but when we picked up the car we discovered that no, they drove on the right hand side of the road. It didn’t matter, we were off on our own and having a blast. There were several round abouts along the way and the car couldn’t get out of its own way if it had to but the hardest part was getting onto the freeway from all of the little one way roads. Once found, it was rather simple to make our way to the Jardin de Balata.

We took a leisurely stroll through the gardens, starting with the hummingbird feeders that lined the porch of the reception area. Then through the gardens filled with bromeliads, palm trees, ferns, water gardens, gingers, haliconias and orchids. We should have picked up some lunch before hand but ended up having some ice cream to tide us over until dinner time.

On our way back down the mountain, we stopped at the Eglise de Balata, the twin to the famous Basilica de Sacre Cour located in Paris. Nicky had been to the original church and said that this one was just like it only smaller. A wedding was being prepared for and we caught a glimpse of the bride before we left.

On the way back, we noticed that there was a pottery village that was just a little off our route on the way back to the boats, so . . . Of course, we sought it out. It ended up being down a dirt road but was a great find. True to it’s name, it was a collection of artisians in separate little shops all located in the same area. We wandered through each one and found a couple of little pieces that caught our eye.

Back at LeMarin, we found the guys patiently waiting for us at the local pub. We teased Dale for the better part of the evening that I was having a delivery made to the marina tomorrow with all of my purchases from the pottery village. He went along with it but I don’t think that he actually believed that I’d order something that had to be delivered by a truck.

Earlier in the day Nicky had loaned me her washing machine (a diaper pail that sits on a motorized agitator) so that I could do all of my delicates. While we were gone, Dale had been kind enough to wash them for me (I think that he just wanted to play with a new machine) and they were soaking in rinse water when I got back to the boat this evening. So in the dark of the night, I hung up all of my delicates to greet the morning’s sun. Nothing like a 21 panty salute first thing in the morning.

Tomorrow we’re off for St. Lucia after we drop off the rental car and make a quick stop at the local grocery. If the Cooper factor is in effect tomorrow, we’ll have to do something drastic like offer a rum drink to King Neptune or something. These nasty transits are for the birds.

Le Marin,

Martinique
14.27.688N
60.52.108W

I am pleased to tell you that I did not break the microwave but I did learn that I can not use it continuously for half an hour. Dale believes that there is an overheat switch that shuts down the appliance until it cools and that is what happened last evening. As a result, this morning, it miraculously worked without further fiddling around with it.

About 7:45am, we lifted our anchors and made our way south again towards Cul-de-sac du Marin on the south coast of Martinique. It proved to be a really nasty transit.

We essentially motored the entire way due to the rain showers predicted in the morning hours. The rain showers did arrive, were fairly short lived and certainly nothing to write about. However the 20+ kt winds that may have been embedded within them proved to be something else. They were on the backside of the showers and continued for the remainder of the day. We had one gust to 30 kts but generally they stayed in the 23-28 kts range. Both of our boats can sail in winds such as these and at one point we did turn off the engines for a short time. However, for some crazy reason, which we have dubbed the “Cooper factor” the winds never died down and even shifted to be directly on the nose where they stayed for the rest of our journey.

Of course, after a couple of hours of 20+kt winds, the seas whipped up and ended up being our nemesis. As we rounded the southern coast, the waves were wicked. Four to six foot and close. Near HMS Diamond Rock, the depths came up from over 1000’ to about 200’, so that added to the mix and made those particular seas confused. We tried to tack to get the best possible ride but it was rough no matter what route we tried.

What seemed like forever to achieve, we finally entered the channel, made our way past the Club Med at the point and entered into the bay at Le Marin. Normally, we’ve anchored in St. Anne in the past and dinghied into Marin but Gerry & Nicky preferred not to dinghy the 2+ miles, as they would be soaked to the bone by the time they arrived.

We wiggled our way through the reefs in the anchorage, saw Foreclosure (no one was on deck) picked a couple of anchor spots, changed our mind, moved into shallower water, circled around a few times and eventually settled into about 12’ and dropped the hook. Orpailleur was aft and slightly to our port.

We sat in the cockpit for about an hour to make sure that we were secure, then lowered the dink and made our way into the marinas to show Gerry & Nicky around. Dale was excited to show Gerry the Yanmar engines dangling in a nearby window which, of course, they both oo’d and ah’d. For sure, Gerry would be able to find any parts he needed there.

We walked up the nearby hill to a restaurant that Dale & I had gone to back in December. We had a great dinner, then returned to our respective boats where Dale & I discovered that our starting battery was not holding a charge. I told Dale that this is the first time something has gone bad in a place where we could actually do something about it. Guess what we’ll be doing tomorrow. Well sort of. It was also a unanimous vote that the guys will putter around on the boat doing their thing while Nicky and I will rent a car and go see the Botanical Gardens to the north of here. Should be a fun day.

Photo: Orpailleur making their way to Le Marin

St. Pierre,

Martinique
14.45.555N
61.10.660W

Our sail started off slow but ended up rather exhilarating.

We hoisted our anchors at 7 am and made our way out of Portsmouth, Dominica. It was a long open harbor and took almost a half hour just to leave. We turned and either hoisted or unfurled our main sails and then returned to our course for leaving.

We motored out a ways and then slowed to see what the wind was doing. Then we continued our motoring for the next couple of hours. Once, before we reached the end of the island, the winds teased us and we unfurled our jib and shut off the engine. We sailed along briskly for about a half hour and then it was back to motoring as the on shore breeze was stronger than the trades and made for a stalemate where we were located.

We saw a couple of dolphins, the first for quite some time now and we had a stowaway for a short time hiding on one of our back seats protected by a fender.

Near the southern end of Dominica, we could see wind on the water. The rest of our sail was between 6-8kts all the way to Martinique. Of course, Orpailleur left us in their wake. We used the autopilot for most of the way but towards the end we each took a turn at hand steering and made some noticeable headway on Gerry/Nicky. For the briefest of times, we played who goes where with another boat approaching on a collision course with us. Dale was on the wheel but I saw the boat under our jib. The other guy was on a starboard tack, so Dale turned up wind. The other boat must not have thought that we were going to turn in time so he turned in the same direction, then we all did it again in the opposite direction. Then one more time just for the sheer terror of it. Finally, we passed starboard to starboard and with a respectable amount of space between us.

As we approached the harbor in St. Pierre, a large black cloud passed over the town and out to where we were. We slowed our speed and waited for the rain to pass. On our previous trip down island, I had placed a waypoint near where we needed to go. Today, it was easy to just turn on the autopilot and plug in the waypoint and slowly make our way into the anchorage while keeping a sharp lookout for any other boats doing the same thing.

We reached our waypoint as the rain subsided. We still had about another half mile to travel but at least the rain was gone. We entered the anchorage and remembered that you were practically on the beach before you ever reached anchoring depths. Our first attempt Dale wasn’t comfortable with. Our second left me anxious about being too close to another boat, we finally circled around and dropped a 3rd time just a little behind where our second attempt was so that we settled behind the boat I was concerned about. Gerry & Nicky anchored somewhere near where we tried the first time. They didn’t drag but Gerry said that he wasn’t real comfortable about the feel of it either and that they would stay where they were.

We finished our day with a quick dinner of stuffed baked potatoes. I had already finished cooking when the microwave just turned off. At first I thought that because I had left the door open, the light turned off automatically after a period of time. When I saw that the whole oven had turned off, I thought of a circuit breaker tripping. When that wasn’t the case, I called my handy, dandy repair man who said that he’d try to fit me into his schedule tomorrow sometime.
Our biggest concern right now is: how do we get the dang thing out so that he can look at it. It’s definitely a project that needs the light of day to shed some light on the situation.

There’s always fun in the sun.

Portsmouth,
Dominica
15.34.872N
61.27.829W

What a long day. A great day but long nevertheless.

It began at 7 am when Dale started the genset so that it could run its full course before we headed out for an island tour. We had not toured Dominica on our first trip down, so we were anxious to see what we had missed.

Jeffrey, our boat boy, had arranged for Andrew to pick us up at 8 am but when we arrived at the docks, he made his apologies and said that he had hired Michael “Budda” to be our guide for the day. This turned out to be to our advantage as Budda is a botonist and was very knowledgeable about the plants and flowers that Nicky and I were interested in.

We headed north around the island and Budda would stop periodically to pick a few leaves of bay, lemon grass, citronella, anise or point to custard apples, bread fruit, bread nuts, nutmeg, cocoa, apricots, bananas, red bananas, grapefruit, pineapple and a host of various trees or flowers. I think I snapped 200 photos today.

We toured a Caribe Indian village, an emerald pool at the base of a waterfall and had a lunch of local cuisine. We walked through rainforests where we saw and heard various birds and Budda would tell us stories of various politicians that had run amok or tales his grandmother had told him when he was a child.

He spoke highly of a woman who had lived to be 120+ years old and said that it was the government that had killed her. His reasoning was stretched but we got the drift. Due to her age, she came to the attention of the government. They wanted to take care of their “national treasure.” Budda never said that she was a Rasta but he said that she believed in the natural way of life and never ate anything that had chemicals added to it. At some point, medical workers trimmed her long toenails and trimmed them too short. This caused an infection that led to her loosing her feet, then her legs and eventually her life.

We felt that Budda was an excellent guide. At one point a man was walking along the path with a lighted cigarette. Budda was very polite when he told the man that smoking was not allowed in the rainforest as the trees were volatile (there were large no smoking signs everywhere). The man seemed extremely put out but did douse his cigarette until we were out of sight. Budda scooped up a small bit of sap from the tree we were standing next to and told me to smell it. It smelled almost like kerosene. He took a lighter and touched the sap, it ignited immediately and burned like a candle before he snuffed it out.

Budda also told us of his own personal experiences where his father is a black man and his mother is a Caribe Indian. Of the four children from this union, one looks Indian, the other three are black; Budda being one of them. He told us that the Caribes have a long standing hatred of blacks and that his father was not allowed to live with his mother in the Caribe village. Once the children were out of school, the 3 blacks were no longer welcome in their own village. It’s obvious that he is very hurt, to the point of being bitter, over this situation.

I was extremely impressed with our island tour and commented to Dale on a couple of occasions that once you get out of the main villages, the island was cleaner than most of them down here.
Budda dropped us off at the bank (per our request) and Andrew picked us up once again to take us back to our respective boats. As it was almost 6 pm, we made a mad dash to “Big Papa’s” to retrieve our laundry and have dinner. It has been a very long day, but not one I would have wanted to miss.

Tomorrow, we’ll hoist our anchors and point our bows south again towards Martinique.

Portsmouth,

Dominica
15.34.872N
61.27.829W

Dale & Gerry made their way into the customs dock this morning about 8, while Nicky and I stayed on our respective boats and blogged it. They came back a bit later and said that the immigration official wasn’t in and they had to return to the offices after lunch when he came back.

Until then, Gerry & Nicky went in to check out the laundry facilities and the possibility of an internet connection. As luck would have it, right about the time that they returned with news of a WiFi connection, my computer picked up the signal. Apparently, the electricity was down in town earlier in the morning and when it came back on, so did the internet possibilities.

In the meantime, Dale tried to track down a leak in our water system. When the pump is on, it cycles about once every minute. We’ve also noticed that our bilge pump cycles more often. The only problem, the water system is fresh but the bilge water seems to be salt. He’s working on the problem.

I continued to blog it. For some crazy reason, I take an inordinate amount of time to create these posts. Then I have to edit, then re-edit when the spell check uses the wrong word, and choose pictures and then wait forever and a day to upload them. Once I found out that I could upload pictures from this connection, I went back to my last posts and added the photos that I had wanted to originally. That is, after I read and answered all of our e-mail. Can I help it if it takes me all day?

At 4 pm, Andrew, one of Jeffrey’s guides, came by to pick us up from our boat. The waves coming into the harbor made it pretty confusing to say the least. I dang near went in the drink just getting into his boat. Then we went over to Orpailleur where I threatened to take their picture if they fell in, knowing full well that Nicky’s camera was poised on me during my less than graceful crossing. Once we were all aboard, off we went to the opposite side of the harbor where we were deposited for the guys to go buy our tickets at the gas station across the street for the Indian River Tour. Nicky and I checked out the local crafts. When they returned, we all crawled back into the boat and made our way up the river.

Talk about a trip back in time. I think I mentioned last year that a curve in this river was used in the 2nd Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Where the witch’s cabin was. In any event. It’s a pretty cool ride. Andrew told us that although Dominica has boa constrictors, they usually don’t attack humans but prey on the local iguanas instead. There’s no doubt in my mind that a boa constrictor would find this area a nice hunting ground. As it was, Andrew pointed out the iguanas in the trees, the various birds and bird nests, the land crabs watching us glide by, as well as the various trees, bushes and flowers.

Dale and Gerry took turns remembering the Disney ride through the jungle and kept saying that around the next corner was where the elephants would squirt us or the hippo would appear from under the water.

One thing that was different from last year, was the end of the ride where a tall, thatched roof building once stood. Inside you could buy extraordinarily strong (rum) Dynamite Punch. Seems the owners either didn’t pay their taxes or didn’t pay their rent and their building was torn down. Looks like someone else is now trying to build on their property and has started with the thatched roof and a little stand selling, you guessed it, Dynamite Punch.

Portsmouth,

Dominica
15.34.872N
61.27.829W

With clocks properly set, we all got up and lifted our anchors at 6:45 am this morning. Normally we like to leave at 7 but since we were dodging a couple of rain showers, it seemed to be in our best interests to leave when we could see. However, as sometimes is the case, there was no wind beneath the clouds. We ended up motoring off and on to the end of the island which was clouded in a fine mist that lasted until the island was out of sight.

Once we passed the southern tip of Guadeloupe, the trades filled in and we started to sail. It was a decent little romp until again, we saw a black cloud looming ahead of us. We brought in our jib to be on the safe side, turned on the radar and plunged into it. Luckily, what little winds were associated with the shower were hardly over 20 kts and soon we exited out the other side and continued to motor the last hour into Dominica.

Well before the harbor entrance and in the pouring rain, Albert, one of the many “boat boys” came roaring up to us in his boat to welcome us to Dominica. We thanked him for his greeting and told him that we had used Jeffrey on Sea Bird last year and would be using him again this year. Orpailleur got the same greeting and unfortunately for Albert, he had the same reply from them as well.

We rounded the headland that protects the northern side of the bay and entered into Portsmouth. There were certainly a lot more boats in this year than there were last but there was room for us in 20’ of water and close to where we wanted to be. I’m sure that Albert had telephoned Jeffrey because we had just dropped our anchor when he pulled up in his colorful boat to welcome us back and ask what he could do for us. We told him that we were interested in the Indian River Tour and possibly one of the tours to the rainforest. No problem mon, 4 o’clock tomorrow, he’d send a boat to pick us up for the Indian River Tour.

Since it was my turn to cook dinner, I went below to start on my lasagna when Dale called me back up. He had found a flying fish plastered to the side of the boat. Quite possibly the smallest one I’ve ever seen. I had been telling Nicky just the other day that we had seen a squadron of small ones that looked like fairies on the water with their wings glistening in the sunlight. This one was much smaller than those. When Gerry came over later, we sent the little guy’s body home with him.

At dinner later, I did my best to fill them up and I guess I must have succeeded since both Gerry & Nicky went home with left over lasagna. Either that or it wasn’t very good and they didn’t want to hurt my feelings. Nah! Nicky would tell me in a most definitive manner that it was not fit for human consumption. And she didn’t, so it must have been edible.