03/16/2010, Admiralty Bay, Bequia
From the Pitons of St. Lucia to Bequia what a sail. Winds were ESE at 16 knots, seas were 5 - 6 feet and, with a slight reef in our repaired, batten-less main and a reef in the jib we flew along only occasionally dropping below 8 knots. Waves were flying over the boat and we were laughing at the waves as we read and observed tucked snugly in our cockpit enclosure. A couple of biggies went right over the top of the enclosure, wow. I can't image how wet we would have been without it. It would have been a foul-weather gear trip. Instead with the autopilot steering, we read, watched for porpuses, whales, birds, turtles and other boats. A really great sail. Lucky Bird's bottom is clean, the prop works, the watermaker is putting out 8 gallons per hour and the wind generator and solar panels are helping run the fridg. Ah, back to normal.
Today we'll check-in with customs and immigration and begin touring. My sense is we will stay hear at least through the week end. The forecast is for very strong easterly trade winds, 20 to 25 with higher gusts. Just might be a good time to beach it, do some more touring and do a few small boat projects, you know, varnishing, polishing, cleaning, stuff like that.
Bequia is part of the Grenadines, a collection of small islands between St. Vincent and Grenada. We plan to touch them all and then continue south to Grenada and then over to the ABC islands. That's Aruba, Curicao and Bonaire. But that's still a month or so away so for the here and now it's time to get in the dink and go explor'in.
By the way, IT RAINED YESTERDAY!!!! hurray. Believe it or not Alice woke up around 04:00 to the sound of gentle rain. We did the hatch drill and both us were thrilled to hear the sound of rain once again. Its been since Antigua since we've had any rain. It washed off the dirt from St. Lucia, some of the remaining ash from Montseratt and the caked on salt. Oh for just a little more; maybe with this upcoming weather change we'll see some Atlantic moisture come in across the Grenadines, I hope, I hope.
Meanwhile the water is beautifully clear and so, so warm. Yup life's still good aboard the s/v Lucky Bird.
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03/13/2010, St. Lucia
We finally pulled out of Rodney Bay this morning after clearing out of customs. Our main sail is back, our prop is back and our charge controller is doing its thing. All is well on Lucky Bird.
We are happy to be leaving St. Lucia, honestly, the place and the people really were getting to us. It is expensive, car rentals are the highest we've seen, laundry is costs are atrocious, people have their hands in your wallet everywhere you turn. And, buyer beware. I made the mistake of not arriving at a price before agreeing to have a diver pull and then replace our prop. Well let me tell you I nearly dropped my pants on the rear deck of Lucky Bird when he told me what he wanted. I was flaborgasted. He did the work and did a good job, not loosing or breaking anything, he even scrapped barnacles from our keel, so I gulped and headed in to the ATM for more EC. We've worn a path to the ATM. And then yesterday, I had to pay a customs broker an outlandish price to get our main sail out of customs in Casteries and delivered to Rodney Bay. This time I stood my ground and told the broker no way. I would have the customs guys hold the sail and I wouldn't pay him anything, I would work it out Monday. He thought about it and we talked some more. He came down a little and then I asked how much he was charging to transport the package. Yikes!! Again no way Jose, I told him I could take a bus to town and back for $4 EC and he wanted 25 times that. So that was negotiated down as well. We needed the sail so we could Get-out-of-St.Lucia, so I gave him my final offer and he accepted it. Live and learn.
We sailed south along the island to the Pitons. Twin volvcanic columns rising right out of the sea. Incredibly beautiful and this afternoon and tonight we'll be staying right between them, awesome.
Tomorrow we'll sail to Bequia, skipping St. Vincent. it seems the crime rate is alarmingly high and most cruisers like us are just bypassing the island. It's too bad for I'm sure there are decent people living there and equally,I suspect there is lots to see on the island, but better judgment says skip it so we'll be off to the Grenadines.
Alice cooked up a bread fruit the other evening, tasted and looked like our potatoes but man that one fruit would have fed a crew of six. She's getting pretty good with her tamrind tea. With our 44% rum it makes for some pretty tasty afternoon libations. Right now while I'm typing she's cooking up a storm making us some banana bread, umm, can you smell the bread baking?
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03/10/2010, Rodney Bay, St. Lucia
Our first mate is always looking for something different, something local, something she can talk about back home. Here she is with:
Tamarinds
Breadfruit, and
the always easily recognizable, Pineapple.
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03/06/2010, Rodney Bay, St. Lucia
This island hasn't seen measurable rain in months and the prospects are for future rain are glum. On our rental car travels we toured the entire island and man is it arid. The leaves look as ours do in the fall. They've lost their strong green coloration and now look yellow, a pale green and even brown. The grass is brown, even in the mountains it's dry. The water falls are suffering, unable to show their grandeur leaving tourists to only imagine. Again it is dry so very dry.
Unlike Martinique where there were major three-lane highways running north and south, the main drag here is a two laner that winds though and around the mountains. More switch backs and I commented to Alice that the guy who sold road-curves must have made a ton of money. And, just as we've found elsewhere, the locals and the taxi drivers drive very fast. Remember this is a British island so cars have right hand drivers seats and left side driving. I'm constantly telling myself, keep left, keep left. The round-a-bouts are a bit confusing at first, just keep saying keep left.
It's time for some major maintenance. Our main sail has been causing us some grief so our sail maker has had it shipped to Barbados for an overhaul. I hope it's under warranty. Our charge controller for the wind generator and solar panels quit so I've ordered another from the states and finally we experienced a bit of a problem with our prop. I went down to look and discovered the "o" ring on one of the blades had come out and was binding the blade making it function irradically. So, I've ordered a parts kit again from a US supplier and now we are waiting for our main sail to return, and the two parts packages so we can get on with the repairs. Rather than hauling the boat to fix the prop, we're going to see if we can hire a diver to remove it. If that works that will save us the cost of a haul out. If not, well, the next communication may be from Lucky Bird on the hard. Let's hope once the parts arrive, the diver will succeed.
I've uploaded some pictures from our car ride to give you some sense of St. Lucia.
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03/01/2010, Rodney Bay
I know I'm beginning to sound like a broken record constantly praising these islands, or some hiped up marketing guy for the Caribbean Islands but let me tell you folks last night was special. Cocktails on Lucky Bird; behind us anchored was the five masted sailing vessel the Royal Clipper; then all of a sudden the crew started unfurling her sails, I mean there are a ton of sails on this ship and one by one they opened up right before our eyes. What a marvelous experience to be able to see a ship as majestic as a five master setting sail right before you. Alice and I sat mesmerized for a half hour as she slowly pulled away from the harbor. The ship was inspired by the Tall Ship, Preussen, she is the largest and only five masted ship built in the last century. With 42 sails, let me tell you it was awesome to watch. In days of old, crew would have to go up the mastes to the yards and unfurl each sail, now this ship is all automated, each sail unfurled with a rhythum, with a pace that was fun to watch. Finally, after at least one more round of rhum drinks for me and my gal, all sails were set and as the sun set they turned on their lights; believe me there were lights on every yard arm and she was incredibly beautiful. I know the people on board felt so,for I could see their flash bulbs going off everywhere as the ship prepared for sea.
So enough of last night and thank you very much for the show. Today was an exploration day ashore and a day to conquer the "mountain" of Pigeon Island.
This place has everything even filters for our watermaker, painters tape, WD-40, you know all the staples. Lunch with some killer burgers, visting with some Caribbean 1500 sailors and there were no more excuses, it was time to climb!!
Pigeon Island is no longer an island. Some industious people with time on their hands filled in the gap and guess what?? Somehow Sandals resorts has landed on the causeway big time. But we aren't interested in Sandals, we are conquerers!! First the French, then the British, the French, then the British. Fourteen times these countries traded ownership and now it was our turn.
Bob and Alice, representing the United States are climbing the mountain to claim it for the USA, hurray!! Ough gee, we can't do that and we are just two more tourists, allbeit older tourists, that have hiked to the top. It was fun, we did it and now as we sit here savoring our very special rhum we are proud and pleased.
This was very special and as I've said before we feel blessed to be able to experience this and share it with you.
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02/27/2010, Rodney Bay
We said good bye to Martinique this morning after really getting to know the island and some of it's cultures and people. We rented a car yesterday to do the distillery tours and see some of the island's southern and western beaches. 60% alchol rhum from the Clement Distillary. Wooow is that stuff potent, Yikes! Alice and I mixed a round of cocktails after beach'in it and we were feeling no pain after round one, no need for round two, ha ha!
So good by Martinique and hello St. Lucia.
The sail over this morning was as expected. I had checked my weather sources and determined that either Friday or Saturday would be the best days for the 23 mile trip between the islands. The forecasted winds for Saturday were a little more easterly so we waited another day. Good choice; the sea was calm, winds 10 to 12 true from 090 degrees translating into a loose beam reach at 6 to 7 knots. Autopilot steering; I finished my book; took in the whole of everything and just chilled. Tuna fish sandwiches, chips and we were boggying along just fine. We'll do the customs thing Monday morning and start our touring of this island. I'd like to do some more hiking and visit the rain forest.
We'll also try and set up a location to receive some mail and a package, so we're on to another island adventure.
Pretty nice spread set up on our cockpit table don'tcha know? Fresh zucchini, tomatoes, steaks, red wine and my lady, um um good!!
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