Photo shows Bequia sunset!

Current Position: 14 26.20N, 60 53.06W Anchored at Sainte Anne, Martinique

View more pics at https://picasaweb.google.com/yacht.quilcene/---

We spent a few weeks on Grenada getting Quilcene all smart and ready to go. We enjoyed a Jazz Jam night with friends Madeline and Roy off 'Mithril', and sampled local rum at a rum shack afterward. Several evenings were spent in the Tiki Bar, Prickly Bay sipping sundowners and listening to the whistling tree frogs. Whilst on Grenada we invested in a new tender - Quill III; despite a good repair to the burst tube we didn't have much confidence in Quill II anymore, so decided to replace it with a newer model, a small RIB. It's great so far giving us a faster, drier ride to shore.

We finally left on November 13th to head up to the small island of Carriacou, still part of Grenada. Initially we had a little sunshine but it turned into a dismal passage with 35 knot squalls and driving rain, not a good time to find out that our waterproofs aren't! ...and the rainy season was supposed to be over!
Tyrrell Bay on Carriacou is a nice sheltered anchorage, not much ashore but a lovely sandy beach and couple of small supermarkets and bars. We'd enjoyed it there earlier in the year so decided to hang around and wait for the squally weather to abate. Don and Glenys on 'Aguatherapy' soon arrived so we were in good company - sundowners and seafood at the 'Lambi Queen' helped us all to put up with the tropical rainstorms, as did one of Kit's famous curries aboard Quilcene - on a Friday night of course! The squalls and cloudy skies often made for spectacular sunsets so every cloud does have the proverbial 'silver lining'(see Picasa pics).

Our favourite 'boat boy' Warrior came around most evenings. 'Boat boys' is the term for locals who come out to the yachts selling goods or services; they are usually not boys at all and can be a little intimidating and pushy sometimes. However Warrior is an exception, he rows out through the Tyrrel Bay anchorage in his little beat-up boat and always calls out to say he's near. He offers oysters first, then asks if we have any garbage to dispose of, if we say 'no' he asks if we have rubbish! We always chat to him for a while and pay a little for rubbish disposal. He had a little mongrel dog called 'Doberman' when we were here last but sadly Doberman is no more. It's sad to see people with so little and reminds us how fortunate we are.

Sea Food?? A fair amount of growth had appeared on Quilcene's bottom so I was swimming around giving it a once-over with the paper-scraper when I felt a bump on my head; I looked round to see an orange bobbing around so I lobbed it on board and kept scraping. Lo and behold if more oranges didn't appear , so I rescued them too - four altogether! Manna from the sea? Local oranges don't look so great but are lovely and juicy; we had freshly squeezed orange juice with breakfast next day and thanked whoever had discarded them!

It wasn't long before things settled and the forecast was showing several days of light winds with just a few showers. Exactly what we needed to visit Tobago Cays! The Cays is a series of shallow reefs enclosing a few sandy islands, a proper Caribbean paradise! We had a great sail from Carriacou, picked our way through the reefs and dropped anchor between the islands of Petit Rameau and Petit Bateau. From Quilcene we could see between the islands straight out to the Atlantic Ocean with the waves crashing over the protective reef. Snorkelling from the boat I spotted a large Barracuda and watched an (unidentified) Ray glide silently by ....a special place.

Another dinghy rescue; Leaving the Cays we saw a yacht ahead of us lose the dinghy he'd been towing and continue unaware. It was a Sunsail boat and we tried to call him up on Channel 16 (international hailing channel) but without success. The dinghy was drifting quite close to a reef but we edged over until Kit could hook its painter and dragged it away (our dinghy was stowed on deck). The rescued dinghy was half full of water so quite a pull on our stern as we towed it, we kept hoping the Sunsail yacht would realise and turn back so we could be free of it or we'd have a slow haul to Bequia! Eventually the dinghy-less yacht turned around, no doubt alarmed to realise they'd lost their tender. As we closed with them Kit set our burden adrift and shouted that they should monitor Ch 16 - and bale out the dinghy too! We left them to cries of 'thankyou' and were pleased to see someone in the dinghy baling as we sailed away! We have quite a track record of rescuing dinghies, at least six over as many years!

Bequia boat; On our last visit to Bequia Kit had looked longingly at the 'Bequia Boats', perfect hand-made models of locally built ones. He was determined to get one this time and after much deliberation chose a beautiful brightly painted replica (see Picasa pics).

During our stay on Bequia we started to make 'chaps' for the new tender; although it's made from Hypalon and shouldn't 'melt' (get sticky in the sun) as Quill 1st did, the strong Caribbean sunshine degrades everything so we're taking no chances. The sewing machine we bought in a Sicily supermarket has become a vital piece of equipment, regularly utilised for repairing and replacing various canvas coverings and awnings. Dinghy chaps from the chandler cost around US $600 so the effort of making them is well worth it! ..a work in progress.

Although tempted to linger on Bequia with it's clear blue waters and scenic bay, we needed to move on so set off for Martinique 90 miles to the northeast. It was to be a full moon and with light winds we thought an overnight passage would be lovely. ...and it was, except there was NO wind. We tried the sails a few times but eventually gave up and motored all the way, although the passage had it bright moments; a school of pilot whales basked in the evening sun about half a mile away as we crossed the channel to St Vincent, then dolphins escorted us for several miles, even appearing after dark. The full moon was amazing and gave us good visibility all night.

We're currently anchored in Sainte Annes anchorage in the south of Martinique, the most northerly island in the Windward chain. It's a French island and it seems odd to keep hearing a foreign language after so many English speaking islands. We had to quickly brush up on our French, as we last used it on Corsica in 2012. There is good shopping here, including a Carrefour supermarket so we can buy all the nice little treats that we've missed.

Observations on food and shopping; Overall we've found that most foods are available in the Caribbean so far; we had stocked up with so much before we crossed the Atlantic that our lockers are still quite full even now. Much of it was unnecessary! There are often street markets with a selection of fresh local fruit and veg, they are not always cheap and we're not sure if it's 'tourist' price we pay! There's not a great choice either but we are used to managing with local foods. However it always seems to be mango season so fresh mangos are very cheap - and very tasty. You can even pick them up as you walk around!

On the smaller islands there are mini-markets and small shops in wooden huts that sell a bit of everything. Some of the shops are very old-fashioned; just like Arkwrights in 'Open All Hours'! Actually it's odd that several food items are available here that we couldn't even find in the Mediterranean countries ie Marmite! On the larger islands like Grenada and Martinique there is a choice of bigger supermarkets with a fair selection of foods including many imports - at a price!

It's hard to think that Christmas is almost upon us whilst we spend our days in the sunshine, despite the fact that even in early November there were Xmas decorations strung around the shops!

No doubt we'll get into the swing of it soon as our next passage will be south to Rodney Bay, St Lucia, around 22 miles away. We're currently on plan 'C', which is to meet my son Marcus who is flying out to St Lucia for Xmas and will spend a couple of weeks aboard Quilcene. This may be on St Lucia or we may return to Martinique, it's best not to have a plan....