11/15/2006, Bequia Island, The Grenadines
The beautiful island of Bequia was as charming and enjoyable during our second visit as it had been when were there last June. We had friends on several boats and greatly enjoyed their company, especially Thanksgiving dinner in a local restaurant complete with roast turkey and accompanied by side dishes with local seasonings (the sweet potatoes were especially good). Arriving at Thanksgiving dinner in a dinghy wearing a sundress and sandals felt unusual, having a special occassion seemed appropriate; most of the American cruisers had a celebration either at a restaurant or at a potluck on one of the boats. I am still not sure how anyone managed to cook a turkey in the small boat oven; in fact, I'm a little amazed they could find a turkey at all. But you must remember that full time cruisers become experts at finding things; so I guess skills learned when finding the needed fan belt work just as well when locating a frozen turkey.
Tour of Moonhole We missed seeing this really unique place during our first stop here and were glad when a tour was organized. Moonhole is very hard to describe; basically, it is a group of about 30 houses literally dug into the cliffs and rocks. From the water it looks like a lot of large caverns dug into cliff and you can't really see that there is anything inside these holes in the rock, which are actually various rooms. The first house was built during the 1960's and located mostly under the "Moonhole", which is actually a large arch in the rock cliff. Most of the rooms are open to the elements; electricity comes from a generator and rain water is collected in a cistern. The shower has no roof. A total of about 30 houses were built in this area. It is very private and difficult to get to. A few of the homes are occupied and a few are rented as vacation places. Our guide book describes it as "a special kind of vacation home for the right people." I found the rooms kind of forbidding because the walls, ceiling, and floor are all rock which didn't really look inviting to me even with lots of pillows, throw rugs, etc. The sofa was a stone ledge covered with lots of large pillows. However, I liked the outside areas (terraces and patios) very much because of their terrific views. There are a few pictures in our gallery. Although I took our camera, I left the card in the computer! I copied a few pictures from another cruiser, Jeff on Dragonfly; however, his batteries were low so picture taking at Moonhole was kind of doomed.
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11/09/2006, Tobago Cays, St. Vincent and the Grenadines
The Tobago Cays are one of my favorite places. In addition to the great shorkeling and good company here, our visit was memorable because I succeeded in taking some underwater pictures that were in focus! A few even included fish!
Our daughters had given us a new camera with a very fancy case for taking underwater pictures. The case even has an instruction booklet which includes such helpful information as warning that the camera case shouldn't be used as a personal flotation device! Honest. It's there in black and white. I really wonder who writes up this stuff.
After learning the basics of the new camera and case, I was eager to take some underwater pictures in the Tobago Cays. I immediately encountered an unanticipated problem in that I wasn't able to wear my bifocal glasses under my shorkeling mask and therefore, I couldn't focus on the image in the view finder. I had to simply snap pictures and hope for the best. I would see someting I wanted to film, aim the camera in the general direction, press the button half way down, wait about 10 seconds and click. The camera has a feature that tells you when the area in the small box visible in the middle of the viewfinder is in focus. It turned out to not be too useful because I couldn't focus on the small square. In spite of all that about 30% of the pictures were in focus and several actually had fish in them. What an ironic problem. So far I haven't come up with a good way to fix this problem. If anyone has any ideas, I would really appreciate them.
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11/08/2006, Petite St=2E Vincent/Petite Martinique
This picture is almost a caractiture of a Caribbean island scene. It is an actual island (very small) just off Petite St. Vincent, a small island with a resort that includes the entire island.
We anchored off Petite St. Vincent (PSV) and had a very nice dinner at the resort restaurant. The beaches that surround most of this small island are dotted with vacation cottages, each with its own private beach complete with chairs and umbrellas. The snorkeling was good, and I saw a lobster hiding under a rock. This would be the place to really get away from everything!
Petite Martinique is very close to PSV, although in a different country. Petite Martinique is part of Grenada, while PSV is part of St. Vincent. Evidently, locals with criminal intentions take advantage of this situation by fleeing to the other jurisdiction. Petite Martinique has several small stores and restaurants along the beach which doubles as the main walkway through town. It reminded me a lot of the smaller islands in the Bahamas. We were pleasantly surprised to find a store which sold fresh lettuce. In fact when we asked about it, the proprieter went out to the garden and picked it! You never know what you will find in these small stores. The same place with the lettuce had a polyglot assortment of various food and fishing items in addition to some hardware.
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11/07/2006, Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou Island, Grenada
In the large anchorage at Tyrrel Bay, we ran into some boats we had traveled with earlier. We had just set our anchor when Jill and Dean on Delilah dinghied over to say hi. As you can imagine an impromptu party got started when Una and Jeff on Dragonfly also came by. Everyone ended up going back to their boats for something to cook on the grill. Even though the evening was completely unplanned, it was a lot of fun (and I didn't need to even think about cleaning up the boat, which I might have gotten involved with if I had actually planned to ask folks over). We've enjoyed having other folks visit out boat because we have room for a good size group and we have a grill.
We headed out the next morning because the weather was good and Paul was still in moving mode after our weeks stuck in Trinidad.
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11/04/2006, Prickly Bay, Grenada
Prickly Bay is a very large and popular anchorage in Southern Grenada. It's not hard to see why because there is everything right here -- beautiful beaches, enough civilization (but not too much) and easy access to the rest of Grenada via the public busses, which are actually large vans which run on specific routes for a very reasonable fare.
We spent Sunday afternoon at Jenny's, a restaurant on the beach at Grand Anse which offered jazz and brunch from noon until three. As usual they were running on island time because the music went on until about 4:30 and the food kept coming. About every 45 minutes something else appeared. We were served sushi by Jenny herself, a very charming, beautiful woman who was crowned Miss World in 1972! I think this counts as meeting a real celebrity. It was a glorious afternoon listening to good music (a trio with a great singer, a saxaphone, and, of course, a steel drum) in the comfort of the ocean breeze. Since the beach was right there, some patrons took beach chairs out on the sand and even took a quick swim. Since there were attractive young ladies enjlying a cool dip, Paul decided to take a swim also. He stated that the young ladies had NO influence on his decision (right!).
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11/02/2006, Scotland Bay, Trinidad
Although we only went a few miles from our marina in Chaguaramas, anchoring in Scotland Bay was like being on another planet. This beautiful, isolated bay on the northwest corner of Tinindad was the perfect antidote to the heat and activity in Chaguaramas. Apparently our govenment took over all the land around this bay during World War II and has never given it back. Ruins of docks and other structures are still visible among the trees. The area is home to a number of Howler monkeys, and their call truly sounds like something from outer space, or some machinery going completely wacky.
We spent two peaceful nights here getting everything ready to actually travel 60 miles in the boat. We had to stow an amazing amount of stuff that we had dragged out during our three months in Trinidad. Although we think we don't have a lot of stuff on board, it really mushrooms when you start opening all the various lockers and compartments.
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