Gallows Bay,
Christiansted,
St. Croix, USVI
17.44.911N
64.41.908W

The wind remained constant during Dale’s watch and had started moving from astern of us to abeam of us. When I came on watch at 2am, the seas had moderated to a comfortable level and the wind was holding steady at 10-13 kts abeam to slightly astern. Feeling lucky, I unfurled the main sail and away we went. I’ve made up my mind that our boat sails much faster and more comfortably than it motors. At one point after the winds rose more, I saw 7.8 on the knot meter. Wahoo, we were making up for lost time!!

By the end of Dale’s watch at 8 am, St. Croix was well within sight and in spite of the conditions of our transit, we were right on time. I took over at 8am and brought the Palace around Udall Point, the eastern most point of the U.S. and then around between St. Croix and Buck Island. A couple of dolphins welcomed us to the area. by playing on our bow wake.

Dale came up early and we rolled in the sails to enter into Gallows Bay in Christiansted, St. Croix. Dale insists that I look up at the wind index instead of the wind gauges when we’re turning into the wind to bring in the sails and it was when I had done a 90 degree turn that we realized the wind index was stuck. I guess all of those high winds took their toll. I brought the Palace back until the sails started flapping and figured we were close enough. I noticed a little later that the arrow had straightened itself out so maybe its just a little bent and gets stuck in certain directions.

We wiggled our way through the reefs protecting the island and tied up at St. Croix Marine around 11:30am. This is not a place you would want to enter after dark; talk about switch back and hairpin turns.

Dale is still not happy with the outboard, so as soon as we cleared customs, we immediately started looking for a Mercury repair shop to haul the outboard to for servicing. We found one about two doors down (probably why Dale wanted to come here) and made arrangements to meet with Bruce, the service guy, tomorrow to watch over his shoulder so that Dale can fix it in the future.

We signed up for internet service and sent out a couple of e-mails telling those who were following us that we had arrived safely. We also requested that our regular mail be forwarded to us as we haven’t checked it since leaving Trinidad. We straightened up the Palace then fell into bed for naps and ended the evening with dinner in the marina restaurant.
We plan on staying here for a few days waiting for our mail and renting a car to tour the island. Although we were stationed in Puerto Rico for three years, we never took the opportunity to visit St. Croix in all of that time. We hope to make up for that now.

Caribbean Sea

Dale had no sooner taken over watch from me in the wee hours of the morning when he turned on the engine. I assumed that it was because the winds were coming further and further astern of us and progressively lighter in strength as the evening wore on. Lying in my bunk, I was trying to find a way to sleep and hang on at the same time; the swells were making our ride really uncomfortable. Within minutes, I heard the wind pick up and intensify to the point where they were howling, the Palace picked up speed but would list dramatically then round up. I hung on tighter. I didn’t release my purchase on the mattress until I heard what sounded like a bucket of water landing on the salon floor.

I stepped out of the stateroom onto a wet floor. A glance up told me the companionway door was still closed. A flashlight that was normally stored in the well by the nav table was lying at my feet. A further search showed that one of the small hatches on the overhead was wide open and clearly we had taken a wave over the top. I turned on a light. Pillows, books and papers were on the floor but where had they come from? The salon looked as secure as when I had left it. A potato rolled by. I keep potatoes in a bin all the way forward in another stateroom.

I opened the companionway to check on Dale. One look told me all I needed to know. He was hand steering and trying to adjust one of the sails at the same time. I grabbed my lifejacket and harness and gingerly worked my way up the stairs, hanging onto the rails for dear life, trying not to slip on the saltwater that covered everything.

He told me that he had seen the straight line that the leading edge of clouds sometimes take that contain high winds. The radar had not shown rain but he turned on the engine just in case. Sure enough the wind went from 8kts to over 25 kts.

We had rigged a preventer to the boom to keep it stationary in the light winds from astern and rolling seas. When the high winds hit, the jib sheet let go (we really don’t know how that happened) and the preventer rig wrapped itself around it. While Dale controlled the boat, I grabbed the jib sheet (we keep the end tied off inside the cockpit) and wrapped it back around the winch to bring the jib back under control. The problem now was that part of the jib sheet and the preventer line were tangled in a giant knot outside of the cockpit. We couldn’t bring in either sail the way things stood and the wind wasn’t going to die down for a while. Dale did a great job keeping the boat under control with full sails in winds averaging 25 kts and in confused seas.

A while later the winds fell below 20 kts and I was able to crawl out onto the deck to untangle the knot. During my watch, it was Dale’s turn to hook on and make his way to the bow to untangle the roller furling line that had slipped between the spokes on the roller furling drum and refused to straighten when I tried to bring the sail in. While he was out on a pitching deck, lightening would flash blinding both of us and the jib would flap over his head when the Palace would round up. Each of us met the challenges presented but it was not fun.

The sun rose to another day but unfortunately, the conditions didn’t improve so we continued to motor. I was glad that Dale had decided to fill up in St. Lucia because we eventually motored over 24 hours; I like to sail everywhere but today it was one of those rides where you can only hang on as best as you can.

With daylight I was able to see that the forward stateroom bunk had started to slip and everything wedged on or around it gave with it. Even the bicycles that have always been secure before, started to slide off. The forward head where we keep our wet gear, hammocks, sunshades, etc, looked like it had been tipped upside down.

By evening the swells and waves started to lie down but unlike last night, the moon was obscured by thick clouds. Once the wind rose over 10 kts and remained consistent, I let out the jib and turned off the engine hoping Dale could sleep better. We were once again sailing at 4-5 kts but the ride felt better. I turned on the radar about once every hour to make sure I wasn’t sending us into showers but other than that, just tried to aim between the clouds that held lightening.

Caribbean Sea
15.12.687N
61.52.173W
9:50PM

Our big transit started today. It looked to be a great day for a sail. The skies were only slightly cloudy and the winds were hardly more than a breeze but we were still being protected by the harbor in St. Anne, Martinique.

We stored and secured everything as we have done in all of our other transits, laid out the jacklines, brought up the lifejackets and harnesses and the proceeded to unfurl our main sail and hoist the anchor. We were a bit surprised when we had to slide ourselves between two boats on either side of our anchor. With the wind changing everyone’s direction, boats coming and going, and us letting out enough scope to withstand the substantial winds that were associated with the rains that passed through, the new boats were closer to our anchor than we had previously thought. No problem really, we usually lift our anchor slowly; we just had to edge a little closer to them than we normally like to do and keep going as soon as the anchor was off the bottom.

By 8:45 am, the anchor was secured in its locker and we pointed our bow in the direction of St. Croix. As I mentioned before, the winds were light as we were on the lee side of Martinique and since the island is relatively large, we were in the lee the remainder of the day. This also protected us from the 10’ sea swell that we knew was out beyond the protection of the island. Unfortunately, it was almost noon when we were able to cut the engine, unfurl our jib to sail unaided, even if it was only at 4-4.5 kts. Mentally, I was already recalculating how long it was going to take us to cross. As long as we arrived in daylight, I didn’t care how many days it was going to take.

We continued at the 4-4.5 kts for the remainder of the day. The 10’ swells gradually made their appearance out of the northeast but with a good 10 seconds between each, they were only noticeable when we were in a trough looking up at one of them. They silently lifted us up, moved along their path beneath us and then gently lowered us back. If they had been the only swells, they would have been disregarded. However, there was another set of swells about half their size coming in from the southeast. At first we thought that these were waves wrapping around the island but the farther away from Martinique the more it became obvious that they were probably the result of the tropical wave that was supposed to have dissipated farther to the south of us. So in addition to the up and down, we now had a rock, rock thrown in for good measure. As the day progressed into the evening, this motion became more and more severe as the southeast swells grew in intensity.

With the nightfall came the full moon we considered ourselves blessed to have for a long transit. However, nightfall also revealed the lightening in the clouds around us we had previously been unaware of.

St. Anne, Martinique
14.26.186N
60.53.141W

The forecast is still good for a departure on Monday, so we made our way in to Le Marin where Dale picked up the o-ring gasket that he had previously ordered for the outboard and replaced the one that Oliver had fashioned for a temporary fix. Then we walked over to a chandlery to see if we could replace our broken dinghy seat. We were lucky and found a used one for a reasonable price. We dinghied over to another dock and walked to the grocery store for our last minute provisions. Then headed back to the Palace.

The rest of the day I baked brownies since we’ve been invited over to Summer Breeze for dinner and I finished the book I was reading. In fact, I’ve been reading a book a day for the last few days. What else can you do when its raining all of the time . . . That you can write about?
Tomorrow when we make our trip in, I’ll drag along my computer and try to get all of these posts uploaded before we check out.

St. Anne, Martinique
14.26.186N
60.53.141W

Today was another wet and windy day but the forecast is still looking good for a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday transit from here to St. Croix and . . . We’ll have a full moon.

Since we had promised to meet up with Chez Freddie, Dream Weaver & Rainbowrider for lunch in Le Marin, we braved the rain and 2-3’ choppy waves to make our way into Le Marin. In fact, we were bouncing so much over the waves, one of the seats broke in the dinghy. It took a great deal longer than we had hoped but we finally made it in and joined the others for lunch at Ti Toques. The food was very French, very pretty and very tasty. Freddie, a French teacher in her previous life, translated everything for us. Just about everyone had something different; Dale had a marinated marlin and I had stewed pork but it was all good.

As we all waddled back to the dock, we ran into John off Panacia. John was right across from us in Trini. When he first saw us and then everyone else, he commented that it was like old home week from Trini. We chatted until the next rain shower broke up the reunion.

We dropped by Chez Freddie on our way back to the Palace and checked out the ‘radials’ he told us about. They were simply wires but he gave us the formula to calculate how long to make them and he and Dale discussed how to attach them and how they were supposed to help in transmitting. Dale definitely has wire, so I’m sure he’ll be adding that little task to his list when the boat stops bobbing and weaving in the winds.

Once again, we spent the rest of the day curled up with a book, computer or simply napped waiting for the weather to clear up.

St. Anne, Martinique
14.26.186N
60.53.141W

This morning we could hear Chris Parker, the weather guru, but he couldn’t hear us and Chez Freddie had to relay for us. It sounds like we might be getting a break at the beginning of next week. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. Today however, the weather is closing in and it rained off and on all day with the wind blowing like crazy. We tried to time our trip in to Le Marin between the showers and for the most part made it; just a few sprinkles. We had more of a challenge with the choppy waves in the inner harbor; they have a tendency to build up pretty quick.

We bumped into Jim & Freddie off of Chez Freddie & Gary & Linda off Rainbowrider at the internet café. Jim, a ham operator, suggested that we add radials to our antenna to help in transmitting our messages. He and Dale spoke at length about them and we asked to see his arrangement tomorrow after we all get together for lunch in town.

Once we made it back to the Palace, slightly damper than we started out, we spent the rest of the day reading and watching DVD movies. At one point while sitting in the cockpit just before sundown, we heard a saxophone playing. We looked all around for MT Nest. We even dug out our binoculars and checked out all of the surrounding catamarans looking for them; it certainly sounded like him. We never did find him and we figure the music must have come from ClubMed but I wonder, is Mike around?

St. Anne, Martinique
14.26.186N
60.53.141W

We’ll be listening to the weather each morning from now until we leave trying to find our weather window to make the jump to St. Croix. We figure it will take us between 45-50 hours to make the transit but we don’t want to get caught in anything so we’ll wait for a 3 day window. This morning’s forecast sounds like we might be here for a week or more waiting. Unfortunately, it sounds like Gerry & Nicky, the friends we’re meeting in Puerto Rico, have it much worse since we figure that they are in the northern Exumas where the winds are howling and the seas are in the 10-15’ range. We’d rather they take their time and be careful rather than rush and beat up their boat or get hurt.

After we got our morning chores done, we lowered the dink, and headed over to meet Gary & Linda on Rainbowrider when we met up Jerry & Linda from Summer Breeze. They had been our neighbors on the same dock as us in Trini, so we spent a few minutes drifting in the current catching up with them and promised to get together later in the week.

Eventually, we met up with Rainbowrider and motored our way over to Le Marin to clear customs into Martinique; they‘re only open in the morning and we arrived too late yesterday. We showed Gary & Linda around a bit as they haven’t been here before. Linda is planning a trip back home to be with her father when he has some surgery and Gary will be left here until she returns. They have a French made boat so he’s hoping to be able to find a lot of the pieces and parts he’s been looking for here. He absolutely loves the fresh baguettes in the French islands and has already found where they make them in St. Anne each morning.

When we came back we toyed with the idea of moving the Palace over to Le Marin since we’ll be making daily trips but since we have a good hold and it appears that the anchorage we’re in now is calmer that the inner one, we decided to stay put. The remainder of our afternoon was spent quietly, reading, people watching and catching up on my blog posts.

St. Anne, Martinique
14.26.186N
60.53.141W

We hoisted anchor at 8 am after a good night’s rest. I say that because the inner harbor of Rodney Bay is so protected, there’s hardly a ripple unless someone is zinging through in their dinghy to the grocery store on the far side. So we might as well have been sleeping in a bed on the hard.

We unfurled our main sail and motored from the inner harbor, to the main harbor, out the cut and finally through to the outside harbor. I guess you could say these harbors are like a lopsided snow man connected by narrow cuts between each one. We turned north, unfurled our jib, turned off the engine and sailed the rest of the way to Martinique.

It was a great sail! In fact, it was such a good direction to the wind that we were able to sail all the way to Martinique and into the anchorage at St. Anne on a single tack. As compared to when we were here in the spring, the anchorage is relatively empty. So we scooted up as close as we could to the shore without violating the ClubMed water space and dropped our hook. It took two attempts because this close to shore, we missed the sandy patches further out and were into the gravel, shell and broken coral area. No matter, once the hook caught, we let out plenty of chain as the forecast for the next few days is for high winds and choppy seas.

We lowered the dinghy, mounted the outboard and headed into Le Marin the town further in. Like Rodney Bay that had 3 harbors connected by two narrow channels, St. Anne and Marin are two harbors connected by a channel. We were in search of a Mercury Outboard dealer or repair facility to see if we could find someone to take a look at the outboard. Dale still wasn’t satisfied with it. The outboard doesn’t sound right. If it were a car, you’d say that it needed a tune up.

We asked around and as luck would have it, the person we were directed to was in the same store ordering parts but he only spoke French. The person who had suggested him, translated what we needed and what the problem was; oui, he would take a look at it and asked us to meet him where he worked in 20 minutes. We were directed to continue further around the harbor to the main boatyard. So we motored our little dinghy over to the main boatyard and tied it to a barge that was anchored next to the maintenance building.

Oliver, our outboard ‘professional’, the one part we did understand went to work. Dale stopped him, how much? Oliver didn’t understand. I rubbed my fingers together in the universal sign for money, he nodded and wrote out 50 Eruo. OK. Oliver took off the engine cover and proceeded to clean everything with a cloth. He took off the carburetor that Dale had rebuilt a week ago and pointed to some bubbles. Then he proceeded to tear it apart piece by piece and clean it with his cloth. Periodically, he show us and everyone walking by all of the water that was in the carburetor. He wasn’t very impressed with the gasket that Dale had fabricated from gasket making material in the reserve bowl and took Dale over to a store to purchase the correct o-ring type of gasket. Of course, they didn’t have one in stock but would order it to be delivered on Saturday. Back they came. Oliver went into his shop and took two smaller o-rings to fabricate a larger one to use until the new one came in.

Then Oliver and Dale proceeded to dump out the gasoline we had filled the tank with after Dale rebuilt the carburetor. Sure enough, there was probably a cup of water in the bottom of the can. Oliver put the outboard back together and directed us to take the dinghy over to the gas station. Thank heavens it was only on the other side of the barge. We rowed the dink over and Oliver met us there. I climbed out and Oliver climbed back in. They filled the tank with a generous amount of 2-stroke oil and fresh gasoline, then fired her up. Clouds of blue smoke billowed out. Oliver took the cover off again and adjusted a couple of screws. He put the outboard in gear; it strained at the painter and small rope we had secured the dink to the fuel dock with; more blue clouds billowed out . He tinkered with the screws some more. Then he put the top back on and off he and Dale went around the harbor.I’d see them stop every once in a while and Oliver would take the top off and tinker with the screws again.

After about a dozen of these stops and starts with much tinkering of screws in between, Oliver gave us back the dink and we handed over the 50 Euro. It had taken him a little over 2 hours but at least the outboard sounded better, not great, but definitely better.

We made a bee line for the Palace so that we would be home before dark. Dale immediately started pulling out his gasket material again because tomorrow, he says, he’s fabricating another gasket to make dang sure water isn’t leaking into the tank around the fill valve.
But what happens if the gasoline came with the water?

Rodney Bay, St. Lucia
14.04.278N
60.57.148S

At 8am this morning, we slipped our mooring lines and along with Rainbowrider, slowly motored out of the harbor in the “cleavage” of the Pitons out into the Caribbean Sea. As with the scenario yesterday, there was no wind. Eventually they did pick up and we were happy to unfurl the sails having already motored about 10 of the 35 miles to Rodney Bay further north on the western side of St. Lucia.

The transit itself was uneventful and we were able to set the auto pilot on a course and let it go. A few rain showers passed overhead to break up the routine but all in all it was a nice morning sail.

As luck would have it, a rain shower passed overhead just as we approached the tiny channel that leads to the Rodney Bay Yacht Club. We elected to wait outside the channel until the shower passed by to make sure no sudden wind gusts surprised us while we were in a channel with no maneuvering room. We called ahead to make sure the fuel dock was empty and lined up to enter into the channel. From our starboard side another sailboat raced to beat us to the channel. Being the conservative sailors that we are, we let him. To our chagrin, he too was headed for the fuel dock. It was somewhat satisfying to see a powerboat on the other side of the channel cut in front of him just before he made it to the fuel dock but still that left us back 3 boats as there was a boat on the dock waiting to back off.

Now picture this if you can: as you enter the harbor from the narrow channel, the fuel dock is on the port (left) side and straight ahead. Beyond it is a commercial dock (commercial as in dive boats and day-sail square-riggers (pirate boats)) with several boats tied to it. To the starboard (right) side, there is a turning basin between the commercial docks and the Yacht Club and associated slips there. So in order to fuel up, you have to slowly enter, port side to and when you’re finished, you have to back out far enough to swing to starboard to clear the commercial vessels before having the room to use the turning basin to pivot around to head towards the anchorage and yacht area even further to the right. Add to this 4 boats in the turning basin waiting to be fueled, a small current heading back out the cut and of course, here comes another shower and its associated winds. Nothing we couldn’t handle but it certainly made the day more challenging. Dale ran around readying the dock lines and hanging fenders while I did my back and forth thing trying to keep the bow into the wind and not drift too far in the direction of the shore or back out into the channel or into anyone else. Occasionally, I’d do a pirouette just to line things back up again.

Once we were refueled, we headed to our favorite spot in what is called the ‘inner harbor’ which is past the main anchorage, through another narrow channel which opens up into a small but very well protected harbor surrounded by town homes and expensive mansions. We anchored next to Rainbowrider who wanted to know what in the world took us so long.

We dropped our hook in 9’ of water into sticky mud and scurried about getting ready to not only clear into St. Lucia but also to clear out, since we are leaving tomorrow morning. We spoke briefly with Scott & Heather on Scott Free who were on the dinghy dock when we arrived and were advised that the rules had changed somewhat in that not only Dale had to go to customs but I had to go as well. Good thing I put on shoes and brushed my hair. We made our way to the customs office and Dale proceeded to fill out the forms while I sat off to the side. No ever said anything to me and we were cleared in and out of customs as usual except for the fact that I was officially there in person.

We ended the day by spending a nice evening in the swing in cockpit watching the sunset and planning our trip to Martinique tomorrow. Since we’ll be leaving out of Martinique straight for St. Croix, we’ll be spending a lot more time listening to the weather to make sure we have a 3 day window for our 50 hour trip. At this point, it looks like we might be in Martinique longer than we had anticipated.

Pitons, St. Lucia
13.49.600N
61.03.789W

In spite of our 6 am start, we were delayed getting out of the harbor by about 15 minutes when a shower passed overhead. There is no sense in trying to maneuver through an anchorage when you really can’t see that far in front of you and you never know what the winds are going to do to you in the process. When it let up, we motored our way out.

Sometimes after a shower passes through, it seems to suck all of the breezes away and that’s exactly what happened this morning. We motored our way out of the anchorage and out past the mountains protecting the harbor but still no wind. We eventually motored past the island of Bequia and past the island of St. Vincent before we ever found any wind. We had no sooner found some breezes worth unfurling our sails for when they really piped up. They climbed steadily from nothing to 30 kts. We rounded up just past St. Vincent to put a reef in but ended up just rolling the entire jib back in until the gusts died back down. It appears today was going to be an all or nothing type of sailing day.

Soon enough we were past the island effects and rains passing over the islands and, at last, where the trade winds settled into their normal routine. The rest of the transit was in perfect conditions; 14-18 kts of wind, 2-3 foot seas. We were even greeted and entertained by several pods of dolphins who came by to play on our bow wake.

We arrived at the anchorage set between the two Pitons about 3 pm and selected a mooring ball right in front of the Jalousie Hilton Resort. The water here is 200’ deep almost to the shore. Dale says that this is one of his favorite anchorages. The scenic beauty is breathtaking. We kept thinking of Kenny, Dale’s brother in law, the artist. He’d go nuts trying to capture all of the colors and contrasts this area has to offer. The whole area is a marine preserve extending out about a half mile from the end of the Pitons, with the two Pitons extending high above our heads. Two mega yachts were anchored in the harbor along with a handful of normal sized yachts. The sunset is perfectly framed by these natural wonders as it drops into the water at the horizon beyond the harbor.

Rainbow Rider, Chez Freddie, and Exit Strategy are also here. Tom and Doris from Exit Strategy came over for a little while to say hi and catch up. They planned on staying a few days to snorkel in the marine preserve.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent just enjoying the sights. We watched as people arrived at the resort by helicopter at one of the tiniest landing pads I’ve ever seen. It looked like they just stopped traffic at an intersection of two one-lane roads to let the helicopter land.

Tonight’s sunset was incredible. The ever changing colors against the clouds were magnificent, even the clouds themselves seemed to have a variety of textures. Although I tried, photos don’t begin to depict the true intensity of the view. We blew our conch horn, listened to Mike’s (MT Nest) CD “Late Night Sax” and enjoyed a perfect evening. It doesn’t get any better than this.

Bequia, Grenadines
13.00.610N
61.14.523W

Last night after dinner, I connected to the internet and proceeded to upload my blog posts, catch up on all of our personal e-mails, our weather e-mails, paid a few bills and updated some of our computer software. By 1 am I was trying to access some information regarding our chart plotter when I lost my connection. Not only did I lose it, I couldn’t get it back. How aggravating ! I had been on a roll. But it was late, so I figured that I would finish in the morning; after all, it was a 24 hour connection. However, the morning didn’t bring any better results. So our quest today was to find out what the problem was.

We lowered the dinghy to not only seek out the brick and mortar internet store but to also check out of customs and find a trash can (remember the seasick tomatoes - Yuk!). The trash can was a quick find, the customs even quicker, the Internet store, well the store was easy but the employees didn’t show. We asked some people next door who weren’t very much help and then decided to check out a model boat maker’s work shop. We watched the Sergeant brothers work their magic for a while and talked with them extensively.

Apparently this has been a family business for some time now. There was even a letter from the HMS Britainnia from when the Queen visited here in 1985 and their cousin presented to her a replica of the HMS Britainnia. Anyway, it was pretty cool.

After visiting with them for a while, we returned to the internet store, still no joy. So we headed off to a local establishment for lunch. Dale had curried fish and I had curried chicken. What a great meal. Still, there was no one at the internet store when we left.

Rainbowrider had gotten a late start and wouldn’t be arriving until after 2pm but when they did arrive, they were able to anchor right next to us. About that time, a quick peek through the binoculars showed that the internet store door was ajar, just a little. We took this as a good omen, so we hopped into the dink and raced over.

Sure enough there was someone there. Unfortunately, no one who could help us but he did know of the one who could. He made a quick call and said that she could be there in half an hour. We went across the street for a soda to kill the time. When she finally arrived, we described the problem and she went to work. Sure enough she wasn’t able to get the connection to work either. So she rebooted the whole system. Just before she did, she said “I hope no one out there is on the line now”. Both Dale and I thought of our last conversation with Gary & Linda. He was going to check out of customs but she was remaining back at the boat to work on the internet. Well, we’d drop by and apologize on our way back.

The long and short of it was that after a few long distance calls and rebooting the system, they still couldn’t get our connection back up. So they issued us another 24 hour pass. She confirmed that it worked before we left the shop.

Right now I’m trying to finish my post for today so that I can get it uploaded and finish what I started working on last night. In case you’re keeping track, yes, we did have to apologize to Gary for knocking him off line.

Tomorrow at dawn we’ll up-anchor and head for St. Lucia. Its about 50 miles away, so it will be a full day of sailing. We know that we’ll have great weather but wish us luck anyway. Its always good to have as many blessing as you can get.

Bequia, Grenadines
13.00.610N
61.14.523W

What a beautiful day! We hoisted anchor about 7am this morning, raised our main sail, waved good-bye to Rainbowrider, who thought that they would be following shortly, and motored our way out of the northern entrance to the Tobago Cays. Hardly anyone appeared to be up and the water was still. We did see a couple of early risers on the beach preparing to snorkel around the island we had explored a few days earlier. Probably a good idea to beat the rush.

After we cleared all of the coral heads surrounding the islands forming the Tobago Cays, we turned to get the best angle we could to the winds to sail north to Bequia and unfurled our jib. The Palace responded by listing to the port side, so we turned off the engine and sailed almost the rest of the way to Bequia about 35 miles away. I say almost, as the wind was just a bit north of east, so we had to pinch into the wind all the way. When the winds picked up, we pinched a bit higher.

It was a great transit. We would speed along at 6 knots at times and then drop to 2.5kts at others; it didn‘t matter, it was a gorgeous day and we were in no hurry. A bit of rain did pass over us but surprisingly, the high winds normally associated with passing rain was on the back side of the cloud instead of the leading edge. At the highest point, we saw 23 kts. The Palace took it in stride with simply easing the sails out a bit to control the list but not enough to jeopardize the pinch we needed to make good on our course. As a result, we made it on one tack but then had to turn on the engine to actually enter Admiralty Bay and make our way into Port Elizabeth.

On our way into the bay, Linda & Jerry on Summer Breeze hailed us on the radio to welcome us in. They suggested that the turtle preserve was well worth seeing. We decided to save it until we meet up with Gerry & Nicky so that we could all see it together. Unfortunately, Summer Breeze was preparing to leave for St. Vincent so we wouldn’t be able to catch up with them tonight but promised to try to meet up with them later up-island.

We found a nice patch of sand to bury our anchor in on the north side of the harbor and Dale jumped in to check the anchor and all of the flying gurnards. While he was doing that, I dove below deck to fetch the computer to make sure we had found a spot with good internet connection possibilities. Eureka! There were four in the area. Unfortunately, the best price I could find was $10 a day. Boy, they really know they’ve got you if you’re addicted to the internet.

Rainbowrider radioed later that they wouldn’t be making it up today but that they were able to borrow a prop from their friend and had to go to another island to purchase a used one for themselves and to return the one that they had borrowed. We’d be seeing them tomorrow probably by noon.

The rest of the afternoon was consumed with the normal after transit routine; eating, sleeping and fixing anything that hadn’t made it. It was at this time that Dale fixed the dinghy engine. Apparently the throttle body was stuck in the open position. After applying copious amounts of silicone spray on anything that moved, after drenching the throttle body, and a little tweaking of the idle speed, we were back in business. I, on the other hand, found a can of seasick tomatoes in the very back of my storage locker that had decided that it wanted off this boat and leaked a black sticky substance all over the cabinet in protest. I complied with its wishes and dumped it in the trash then spent an inordinate amount of time in very ungraceful positions trying to sanitize the area. We ended our evening at sun down by bellowing on the conch horn, eating our Thanksgiving leftovers and listening to island style Christmas music coming from the shore. Tis the season!

Tobago Cays, Grenadines
12.37.791N
61.21.393W

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We awoke to a beautiful clear blue morning and a radio call from Rainbowrider that they had lost one of their two props sometime between yesterday and today. Today was the first that he confirmed the fact but upon recollection, he said that he had signs of it as they were anchoring yesterday over on Union Island; he just hadn’t associated the problems with keeping his boat into the wind with the lost prop. Since Rainbowrider is a catamaran, they still had their second engine and those big, white floppy things, so they continued on their way but were concerned with the threatening skies to the east of us. We assured them that the black clouds were still a long way off and it was too soon to tell if they would skirt to the south of us as nearly everything else had. Rainbowrider continued on in and eventually anchored in front of us.

They were well settled when it became obvious that the rain would not keep tracking south as we had hoped but instead, drifted right over us. I suppose I should have known that today, of all days, it would dawn beautifully but end up blustery all day. No matter, Jill, Linda and I had baking to do. We immediately changed the plans of commandeering the picnic table on the beach and voted Linda’s boat as being the sight of our Thanksgiving dinner. It didn’t have to go anywhere, just float, with the least amount of rocking.

Linda had the turkey, mashed potatoes and green beans. Jill had the rice pilaf, squash and gingerbread cake and I had the candied yams, yeast rolls, deviled eggs, dressing, gravy and pumpkin pie. (You’ll be happy to know, Mom, that even though there is no Cool Whip to be found down island, I whipped up heavy cream without making butter.) We decided that 1 pm was our target and away we went. Believe it or not, we made it; sort of.

Dale & I had packed up our dishes and were in the process of transferring everything to the dinghy when the first big drops of rain started. Jill & Dean (Delilah) were doing the same. Both dinghies were heading for Rainbowrider at the same time but ours suddenly started to race and Dale yelled that he couldn’t get the engine out of gear. We tried circling to the right to avoid hitting Rainbowrider and approached the stern again. Still Dale couldn’t get it out of gear. It was either full throttle forward or full throttle backward; there was no neutral. We were heading for the area between the two hulls where Dale tried to control our speed by throwing it into reverse, this didn’t work and we almost knocked Dean out of his dinghy as he was stepping onto the transom of Rainbowrider. In the meantime, the skies have let loose; it’s pouring rain, the wind is howling and the waves are picking up in the anchorage. After another attempt at scooting up the side of Rainbowrider to catch the side and cut the engine, we eventually threw our dinghy painter (the long line we use to tie it up) to Gary and then cut the engine. Gary hauled us in and helped us out. Boy am I glad I put Saran Wrap on the gravy! Gary just said “you should have seen your face”.

By this time, 5 of the 6 of us were soaked to the bone. Two of us were wishing we had kept our bathing suits on. Jill was glad that she had changed her mind about wearing a skirt opting for shorts instead. Dale figured that the accelerator cable came off and that he can repair it.

In spite of our rather inauspicious beginning, we enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. Linda sang Happy Birthday to me and gave me a gift that she and Gary made from a seashell, a tiny sand dollar, a sea bean and a tiny piece of coral, it will make a wonderful keepsake ornament for Christmas. Dale told everyone that he’s taking me back to Liberty Jewelers soon. After a delightful afternoon of food, fun, friends, and a promise of shiny things in my future, we rowed back to the Palace.

Tomorrow, we head for Bequia, unless the weather doesn’t clear up tonight. Rainbowrider will wait for a couple of hours to see if a friend of theirs comes through with a spare prop. Gary says its not just the prop that they need. They need the prop, the shaft and the nut that holds it all on. Remember: Cruising is fixing your boat in exotic places.

Note to Self: Cruising is fixing your boat AND your dinghy in exotic places.

Tobago Cays, Grenadines
12.37.791N
61.21.393W

Another bumpy night with 30 kt gusts. The morning dawned rather gray but definitely less blustery and the sun would peek out from time to time. We got our morning chores done, then hopped in the dink and headed over to Baradel, the tiny island to our left, to go snorkeling; figuring that the horseshoe reef would be too churned up for any good visibility. We met Jill & Dean (Delilah) on the beach who had the same idea. So we secured our dinghies and headed into the turtle grass in search of turtles.

Even behind the island, the sand was churned up making the visibility less than desirable but we did spot a couple of turtles and followed them around for awhile. Although there were quite a few fish, with the visibility being so murky, I was inclined to call it a day and head back when Jill & Dean did. Dale suggested that we try swimming around the island with the understanding that if the visibility got any worse, we’d head back.

As it turned out, the visibility did get better even though it was the side the waves were crashing into and the schools of reef fish definitely improved. Besides the fish I’ve mentioned previously, we also saw a queen angel fish and a lobster condo. Perhaps a lobster nursery is more accurate. We saw about 10 of the spiny dinners in the shell hiding beneath a couple of rocks. I hope they survive to adulthood. This area is a marine preserve but locals and visitors alike poach the little critters the second they reach a pound. The ones we saw hardly had tails longer than 3”.

We continued our journey around the island and saw an area loaded with West Indian Sea Eggs, a type of sea urchin. Linda had told us that she had seen a couple of men harvesting them a few days ago. We finished our circumnavigation of the island and headed back to the boat.

The rest of the day I pulled together recipes for a Thanksgiving dinner; made sure I had all of the ingredients I needed for the recipes and dishes to actually put the food into. Then I created a timeline so that I could cook everything I needed to on a 3 burner stove and a small oven. Since its calm right now, I’ve decided to make the pumpkin pie tonight. Dale and I were trying to remember the last time I made a pie crust from scratch. It’s been a while; I have gravitated over the years to those pre-made ones that you just fold out into the pie plate. So far, so good; at least it looks right. I’ll let you know tomorrow.

Tobago Cays, Grenadines
12.37.791N
61.21.393W

Another night of 30 kt gusts. Generally its just the leading edge of rain cells coming through but it gets a bit unnerving with the wind howling through the rigging, the waves slapping against the hull and having to pop up every couple of hours to open or close the hatches. Plus you never know when a neighbor might drag by to say hi. So far, bless their little anchors, everyone’s stayed put.

We had every intention of snorkeling the little island to the north where Freddie said she saw some flying gunnards yesterday but the wind kept the waves choppy, even in the protected area behind the reef. So we stayed on the Palace all day, opting to jump in close to home and float on the rescued inner tube we found in the Gulf Stream last year.

Both Rainbowrider and Chez Freddie left today to head back to Union Island for provisioning, so that leaves just Delilah and us keeping watch over all the newbies coming and going.

Its amazing! Everyday 20 or so charterers come in and drop their anchors and then pick up and leave the next day to be replaced by another 20 or so. Plus we have the commercial day sails that come in everyday with their load. Yet it hasn’t seemed really crowded. I think with the lack of hurricanes this year, “high” season has come early.

Tobago Cays, Grenadines
12.37.791N
61.21.393W

Poor Dale! He went over to borrow Rainbowrider’s sat phone first thing and babysat it all morning hoping that Globalstar would call us back as promised. After lunch, he couldn’t take it any longer and started the call backs. He would have to wait until he had a signal, then dial. If he got through then he went into a phone tree and had to wait until ‘the next available operator’ was ready. Sometimes he would sit for 10-15 minutes in the holding pattern, then the signal would drop and he’d have to start all over again. Sometimes he would sit for 10-15 in the holding pattern, finally get through to a human being before the signal would drop. Finally, he just started asking for a supervisor as soon as he was able to get through to a human before the signal would drop. Now keep in mind, this is with a working phone. At the moment, ours won’t even allow us to connect to the satellite.

The long and short of it is, when he finally got through to a supervisor and they were able to discuss the problem, the supervisor told him to bring the phone in and they would replace it. I think they were as frustrated with the dropped signals as he was. But let’s think about this for a second. Why would we have a sat phone if we could just pop into the nearest store? Wouldn’t it be a lot cheaper to have a cell phone if we were just coastal cruising?

In any event, our communication links are out. No phone (sorry kids and Mom, I won‘t be able to call you on Thanksgiving), no weather forecasts, or emergency e-mail until we can get to the BVI’s, which is where the nearest local store is. Our closest guess is that it will take us about 2 weeks. In the meantime, I’ll keep searching for internet connections along the way and try to Skype you (telephone via the internet) when I get a chance.

Needless to say, I grabbed a book and stayed in my hammock out of the way most of the day. This evening, though, we joined Jim & Freddie on Chez Freddie with their guests (his cousin & wife), Gary & Linda (Rainbowrider), and Dean & Jill (Delilah). We ate appetizers galore and sang along with Jim & his cousin to Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul & Mary tunes. Just like camp! Great fun!

Tobago Cays, Grenadines
12.37.791N
61.21.393W

What a night! At one point when Dale checked we had 28 kts of wind. Just a squall blowing through but enough to grab your attention. I have to admit, of the 29 boats I counted (with 21 being charterers) no one dragged that I am aware of.

After we got our normal morning routine of breakfast, dishes & genset run, we jumped into the dinghy and headed for the Wall again. Rainbowrider and a guest on Magic joined in the fun. We tied up to a dinghy mooring ball set out near the reef and jumped in. I’d like to point out at this time that Dale was so excited about the dive that he couldn’t wait for me to tie my normal ‘granny knot’ and took over securing the dinghy.

We wound our way through the coral, out through the cut and scanned the wall. I guess because of the wind and waves during the night, the visibility wasn’t as good as it had been the previous day but still good enough to enjoy the view. We headed south and followed the wall until we noticed that the current was carrying us along rather quickly. So, we turned around and headed back. At some point, I pointed out the 4’ nurse shark headed in the opposite direction. We watched it long enough to make sure that it had no interest in us then returned our attention to our progress along the wall. We saw a good sized porcupine fish hiding among the sponges and coral but nothing more unusual. We floated among the schools of fish that were as curious about us as we were about them. I checked out a keel that some misfortunate sailor left behind. We returned to where we had come out onto the wall then passed heading along the northern side. We followed in that direction until it dropped even further away and the water being churned by the waves hitting the island became too murky to really enjoy the view.

Dale gave me the signal to head back, so we slowly made our way back the way we had come, passing the nurse shark heading in the opposite direction of us again. You could say that we and the nurse shark were patrolling the wall in opposite directions. Again, we made sure that it passed beneath us and continued on its way without taking notice of us before we continued in our own direction.

We returned to the bank where we had left the dinghy and as we came up on the bank, the dinghy was exactly where we had left it. However, during the swim back, I realized that our dinghy was no longer where we had put it but was making an escape. I signaled to Dale, who in turn shot past me as if he suddenly grown his own set of gills. He was making pretty good progress but a dinghy full of young girls zipped up and snagged it for him.

You know, it could have happened to anyone. However, since we’re in a normal marriage, I was just glad that I wasn’t the one who had tied the knot on this particular occasion. I wasn’t even going to say anything. But you know Dale . . . He discussed the knot tying procedure ad nauseum trying to figure out what he had done wrong and whether it was different than the way that I tie mine. Gary got into the discussion too saying that the knot look a little loose when they tied to the same ring, so they tightened it back up. I was just happy that it had happened at the end of our trip and not the beginning. We were gone almost 2 hours with waves being sent over the reef, so most likely, it was the constant motion that simply untied it, regardless of who tied it. Still . . . I’m glad that it wasn’t me.

Tobago Cays, Grenadines
12.37.791N
61.21.393W

The highlight of today was our snorkeling trip to the reef. We began by touring through some of the reefs inspecting the new growth of elkhorn coral and watched as the little blennies, damselfish, butterfly fish, tang, parrotfish, and filefish went about their daily activities.
Eventually, we made our way out beyond the reef, following the sand ‘highways’ that marked the route. We came up over some elkhorn that looked like it had been shaped into a fence and there it was: The Wall.

You probably remember from the post regarding our last visit to the Tobago Cays, the sight of this is like being in an interactive movie. The coral is all about the same height with the depth of the water pretty constant at about 10’, then it falls away below you to about 40-50 feet. The water changes from being without color to a neon blue but is so clear, you can see the sand on the bottom. Below you lies the most spectacular vision.

The fish, even the small ones, are larger here. Schools of bright blue chromis rose up to meet us; probably looking for a handout. Other schools of reef fish floated by to welcome us to the neighborhood before moving on. We hovered there practically without breathing as two spotted eagle rays appeared to the left of us, flying parallel to the wall just below our level. They glided past in front of us, then continued on out of sight to our right. It was a magical moment, one I hope never to forget.

On our last visit, we had turned south to follow the wall and ended up getting struck in a spot where we couldn’t get back. Today we turned north to follow the wall, mesmerized by all we could see. Not too far into our adventure, we spotted a small nurse shark on the bottom headed south. Dale kept his eye on it so that we could positively identify it in our fish identification book later. By this time, we had been out for quite a while and you know how I feel about sharks, so slowly we made our way back to the cut and started to look for our dinghy. I was surprised at how far away we had gotten. Dale spotted a spotted snake eel on the way back and a couple of large queen conch.

Tomorrow, we’re going back but instead of poking around the shallow parts, we’re heading directly for the wall and spend our energies there.

On our way back to the Palace, we stopped by Rainbowrider and told them how to locate the cut. Unfortunately, when they went out a couple of hours later, the currents were stronger and they didn’t enjoy the trip as much as we had.

Dale spent more time trying to get our sat phone up and running and went through the same diagnostics as we did yesterday with another representative today but still no joy. He’ll try again on Monday.

Tobago Cays, Grenadines
12.37.791N
61.21.393W

It definitely blew a houley last night! At one point, Dale turned on the wind indicator and saw that it was blowing 30 kts steady. Probably that tropical wave we’ve been hearing about go through. Still, it was another beautiful morning that we awoke to.

I had just opened up our companion way when I saw the first mega-cat heading straight towards us; yipes! they like to pass by close. I gave my best royal wave and smiled knowing that I’d hadn’t brushed my hair yet. I didn’t hear any screams, so I guess it was OK.

A little later, I jumped in and swam out to the anchor and back, just to say that I’d exercised a bit. I noticed that the water wasn’t as clear as it had been yesterday but I hung off the back ladder and watched the school of (most likely) herring and 5 trunkfish that had taken up residency under our boat. A couple of the tiniest bright yellow damselfish were hanging around the rudder. It doesn’t take a whole lot to entertain me.

Dale decided that the sat phone wasn’t working properly so he spent the better part of the day using, Rainbowrider’s sat phone and the last of our minutes on our Trini cell phone trying to figure out why we aren’t connecting to the satellite. So far, no joy. Have you ever noticed that you need a phone to fix a phone; particularly if you’re in the middle of the ocean?

Periodically we’d jump in the water and just paddle around the boat a bit to cool off. I have to admit, it’s a lot cooler down here than I thought it would be. Generally speaking, the temperature stays in the mid 80’s all the time. It’s the humidity that goes up and down and you really need those trade winds to keep things comfortable. We watched as a broad line of black clouds passed south of us and decided to finish the rest of our sky watching from the boat.

We ended the day by gathering on Rainbowrider with Gary & Linda and Jim & Gina from MelloMoon. I started throwing out the idea that if we all got together, we could probably come up with a pretty good Thanksgiving dinner. Gina & Linda seemed interested, so we’ll see where it takes us. I remember a British couple saying that we Americans were always organizing things. What can I say? Someone has to do it and besides, I searched all over Trini for a frozen turkey breast.

Tobago Cays, Grenadines
12.37.791N
61.21.393W

The wind definitely piped up during the night and we had quite a bit of rain but none of it dampened our spirits. We awoke to a beautiful morning and were making preparations to go snorkeling the reef when it appeared as if someone had blown a whistle and mega-cats barreled in from various directions filled to capacity with tourists. Some of them didn’t even bother to stop; they would make a tour of the little islands then headed back out again. Some did anchor way out, almost on top of the reef, while others anchored near an island and unloaded their passengers for a day of snorkeling and wind surfing. None of them were very close to us and certainly the reef is big enough for all to enjoy; it was just rather humorous to see everyone arrive at the same time and pretty much leave by 3:00pm. They were as much entertainment for us as we were to them.

Dale and I went snorkeling in a different spot than we had the last time we had visited and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The only problem was that we must have picked a time when the tides were coming in as we spent a lot of time swimming upstream and not much to show for it; although I did see a peacock flounder for the first time. We decided to go perpendicular to the current and did make some headway but as soon as I saw a small reef shark, we changed course and promptly ran into a very large barracuda, one that I suspect had been watching us. On the way back to the dinghy, we spotted a good sized ray. I really enjoy seeing the colorful fish, particularly the tiny ones that are so bright. I even enjoy seeing good sized fish if they continue doing whatever fish chores they had been doing. Where I start to become intimidated, is when the fish are as big as I am and they are more interested in what I’m doing. I’m always concerned that they can tell I’ve been eating some of their kind and might decide that turn about is fair play. I probably look like a jelly filled donut with snorkel and fins to a giant grouper.

Gary & Linda were just starting their snorkeling for the day, so we told them about the strong current, shark & ‘cuda. They told us later, after they caught their breath from the uphill swim, that they had seen a 4’ nurse shark but none of the others. Of course not, they were all hiding out waiting for the jelly donut to float by again.

We finished our day by barbequing tuna steaks on the grill at sundown just to remind ourselves that we’re still bigger than the ones in the grocery store and taking turns blowing our conch horn, at times rather pathetically. Of course, that means now all of the crustaceans will be watching us too!