11/11/2008, St Croix
The celebration for Tim's birthday started on Saturday afternoon with a cricket match on the beach at Sandy Island. Unfortunately the batsmen soon realized that whacking the ball out to sea put the fielders at something of a disadvantage, so new rules had to be introduced with regard to where the ball could be hit, and with how much force. Fortunately the rules seemed to work and the match progressed during the afternoon on more of a level playing field, literally if not in reality!
During the late afternoon we brought the food ashore. The party was a BBQ and 'pot-luck' and everyone bought a dish to share. Pot-lucks are a great favourite with cruisers and we have experienced some wonderful food as a result. This occasion was no exception, and by early evening with the bonfire going well and the wine and beer flowing, everyone was relaxed and having a wonderful time. It was late in the evening (by cruising standards anyway) when the party broke up and we all headed back to the boats.
Over the next few days we all spent lot of time on the beach, swimming, snorkelling having BBQs and generally relaxing. Dave & I, and Tim & Linda donned our diving gear and made a dive off the end of the island. The water still hadn't really cleared from the bad weather we had experienced a week or so before, but we still had a wonderful dive and were impressed with the amount of life on the small reef. Dave was particularly thrilled when he spotted and managed to catch a large lobster, but was very good about putting it back when he realized that she was 'berried', (a female with eggs). This was Dave's first lobster catch in months and only served to whet his appetite for more hunting.
But we had no more time to spend in Carriacou and on November 11th we hauled the anchor and headed to Hillsborough to check out of the country. We had all decided to spend Christmas in Antigua and needed to be moving north. We also wanted to spend some more time in the Tobago Cays on our way, so our next destination was to be Clifton Bay, Union Island where we would check into St. Vincent and The Grenadines.
| Windward Islands |
|
Comments [2]
Teresa
11/07/2008, St Croix
Back in Grenada after the wedding, we set about putting Magic back together once again. We really enjoyed our stay in Clarkes Court Bay and our time in the marina. We had watched a local regatta featuring Grenadian fishing boats, had attended all of the Wednesday 'burger nights', had jumped onto the local bus to go shopping and had snorkelled the reefs around the bay. We had celebrated Peter's (Keesje II) birthday at the local 'Little Dipper' restaurant and had made plans for Tim's (Matsu) 40th birthday party. Daniell Story had also caught up with us and we were all eager to get moving again. But we had to wait for a break in the weather. It had been blowing hard, creating large seas on the windward side of the islands which were in turn creating large swells in the passages between the islands. But finally on November 5th we left Clarkes Court Bay and motored around the south coast to St Georges where we again anchored in The Lagoon. Here we finally managed to do a tour of the island.
We have been very impressed with the guides who have accompanied us on our various tours of the islands, and Grenada was no exception. Our guide was very knowledgeable about the history, flora and fauna of the island. As in Dominica, he stopped at the side of the road and pointed out plants, trees and herbs, in many cases explaining their medicinal qualities. We stopped at the local Three Rivers Rum Distillery, the only one remaining on Grenada, and the Grenada Chocolate Factory which produces the island's dark, organic confection. Here we watched the drying cocoa pods being turned by foot, and Dave couldn't resist having a go himself. Our last stop was Leapers Hill when in 1651 the last Carib Indians on Grenada had jumped to their death rather than surrender to the French invaders of the island. Our all-day tour ended just after 7pm and we just managed to get to the grocery store for some last minute provisioning. We were up early on the morning of November 7th to head north to Carriacou.
We motor-sailed up the leeward side of the island and mid-morning picked up a mooring in Dragon Bay. We had been told about some statues that had been positioned at the bottom of the bay and we wanted to snorkel and take a look. Just after we got into the water a dive boat arrived and the guide pointed out where the main sculptures were. Because of the recent bad weather the clarity of the water wasn't good and it was disconcerting to see figures slowly appear out of the gloom as we dived down. The statues were quite something, but Dave also managed to amuse himself by snorkelling down and tapping unsuspecting scuba-divers on the shoulder to say 'Hi'. This wasn't the first time that he has scared the living daylights out of divers in this way, and I have a strong suspicion that it won't be the last!
We dropped our mooring just before lunch, and because the wind had now dropped totally, had to motor all the way to Sandy Island. We had arrived by 3.30pm and dropped the anchor in our favourite spot. The following day we had an important engagement; it was Tim's 40th birthday celebration and a party was planned on the beach.
| Windward Islands |
|
10/22/2008, St Croix
The taxi was booked to pick us up from the marina at 4am on Sunday, October 5th. But apart from the fact that it was still the middle of the night, all was well. Magic was settled in her berth, all her canvas had again been removed and was stowed below, and she was as secure as she could be. Chris and Barb on 'Moonsail' had been looking after Clarkes Court Bay Marina for about a year and were going to keep an eye on her for us. We packed our bags into the taxi and headed for the airport.
We had a long day in front of us. From Grenada we were flying to San Juan, Puerto Rico where we had a long lay-over before our flight to Miami. From Miami we would catch a flight to Baltimore and were due to finally arrive there at 11pm. We did arrive in Baltimore by 11pm and good friend Kevin was waiting to pick us up and drive us down to Annapolis.
We spent a couple of days in Annapolis running errands before we had to catch our British Airways flight to London on October 8th. We arrived at London Heathrow at 9am on Thursday morning. We had been expecting Lorna to meet us, but Amy had surprised us and was also at the airport. There was just over a week to go before the wedding and we had a long list of friends and family we wanted to catch up with during that time. Dave also had fittings to attend for his morning-suit and although he had written it some months before, we had his 'Father of the Bride' speech to touch-up. The time before the 'big day' passed in a blur but finally October 18th was upon us.
The morning of the wedding dawned sunny and bright. It turned into a beautiful day and although it was breezy the sun shone all day. The service at St. Mary's Church, Boreham was lovely. Amy looked radiant, the bridesmaids were beautiful and Scott, the best man and the ushers were all very handsome. After the service everyone dispersed to Crondon Park Golf Club for the wedding breakfast and reception. Again, all the arrangements were perfect and everyone had a wonderful time. At midnight it was time to say 'good-bye' to Amy and Scott who were leaving that night for their honeymoon in the Maldives. We were staying the night with Sue & Steve, the good friends we had seen less than a month before in Carriacou, so along with another good friend, Martin we jumped in the taxi and went home.
The next day we had a wonderful Sunday lunch with Lorna, Daniel and some very good friends with whom we exchanged stories about the previous day. We had a very quiet Sunday evening, and then on Monday we headed for Heathrow once again to fly back to Baltimore. Tuesday saw us at the airport again, and another long day to get us back to Grenada. By 10pm we were back on board. Magic was in great shape, and although hurricane 'Omar' had done its best to devastate much of the Caribbean while we were away, Clarkes Court Bay had experienced nothing more than heavy rains.
We now had to come to a final decision as to what our next destination would be. Undoubtedly we had to begin to make our way back north to the USA and work. Our allotted time (and cruising kitty) was coming to an end and we had to go back to the real world. We had originally wanted to go west to Bonaire where, we had heard, the diving was fantastic. But that would mean making our way through the Venezuelan Islands. The number of reported boardings, robberies and piracy attacks in Venezuelan waters had been increasing during the summer and as a result we finally made the decision to head back north, the way we had come. There were some islands, including Antigua, that we had not seen on the way down and this would give us the opportunity to visit those. Decision made. Now we just had to get Magic ready for the return trip.
| UK |
|
