Yacht Larus

It's not as in sequence as I'd like, but I'm starting to get confused with all this to'ing and fro'ing we've been doing.

We are sneaking up on the present, are not quite there yet, but will be there by the end of this blog. *phew*



So after the fire training and time visiting our respective family and friends, we dashed up to St Martin to do our shore based training, training charter. We'd taken Larus to St Vincent and left her there on a mooring in the Blue Lagoon. This was August and the peak of the hurricane season, so as soon as our charter was done, we hopped on a couple of planes to get us back to St Vincent.

We quickly moved the boat to Bequia and had a couple of days there cleaning the bottom and just enjoying having Admiralty Bay very nearly to ourselves.



View of Bequia waterfront. I was so glad we had this time in Bequia; it was the first time Tim felt 'Wow' about it. I'm very fond of Bequia myself.

One of the jobs we had to do before heading back down to Trinidad was clean the bottom of Larus. After 5 weeks in the very warm waters of The Blue Lagoon, St Vincent, she was hosting whole eco-systems. I was particularly taken with the tiny red crabs, some of which managed to hang on all the way to Trinidad.

There was enough growth on the bottom, that Tim decided to buy a couple of paint scrapers from the local hardware shop.



I was much taken with their display of solvents.



Ice Cream at Gingerbread after a hard days scraping.



Sunset Bequia. We left the next morning for and overnight sail to Trinidad.

On the whole it was a good trip. The weather was a little different than we've experienced before much squallier.



Sunrise over Trinidad. Special effects compliments of the squall clouds.

So we were back in Coral Cove, Chauguarmas where we spent a small amount of time doing stuff.



Like giving the anchor chain a fresh water rinse and just getting Larus ready to be left again while we went BACK up to St Martin for the yearly company re-launch.

We were flown to Pointe a Pitre, Guadeloupe to deliver Unity, a 50' catamaran to St Martin.



Captain Tim on Unity. We left Guadeloupe for the St Martin at 5 in the evening for and overnight sail to St Martin.

We motored all the way but I was well entertained the next morning by dolphins.

Click here to see video of Dolphins

The launch was great. It was a week-long mix of meeting people, lectures and hands on training.

As we weren't needed to work for a couple of weeks, we decided head back down to Trinidad and bring Larus back up to St Martin before our upcoming charters in the BVI.

So we flew back down to Trinidad got Larus ship shape and headed north, back up to St Martin.

One of the things I really enjoyed during my time in Coral Cove was the sense of community.



Bethany and Willi. Six days a week Willi led a 'Noodling' exercise class in the tiny Coral Cove pool.

We met so many people who we really hope to see again.

We broke the journey down into 24 to 36 hour passages. We overnighted to Bequia and sent out the next morning from Deshaies, Guadeloupe.



The south coast of St Vincent struck me as particularly stunning on this trip. It was so lush and green and I love the dramatic landscape of a volcanic island.

Cooling hard-boiled eggs uses a lot of water, so I thought I'd try cooling them like this - dragged behind the back of the back of the boat in a net bag.



One of the eggs had split while cooking and Tim wondered if that would be a problem. After about 10 minutes of the eggs water skiing behind boat, we hauled them in to find ...



..five partially peeled eggs. Fantastic! Only I'd put in six. I think as long as the membrane under the shell was intact the egg would be okay, but the spit egg had totally vanished. We still had plenty for egg salad sandwiches for lunch.



Nancy, me, putting a reef in. The wind is very fluky behind the islands. It comes and goes until it arrives with gusto as you come out from behind the island. We passed Martinique at night and it was early morning as we passed Isle de Saints and headed for Guadeloupe.



The channel between Isle de Saints and the south coast of Guadeloupe seemed to act like a conduit for west bound squalls. They just trundled along, passing in front of us, behind us but not once over us in a major way. A few sprinkles but not the downpours we could see in the distance.



It can get quite hot when sailing and the coolest place is right there, with the sun at your back and the wind in your face.



We arrived at Deshaies, Guadeloupe in the late afternoon, and anchored for the night. We left the next morning for a short and normally quite hard sail up to Antigua. Antigua is a bit east of Guadeloupe so it's often a beat into the easterly winds.

But not this time! We had the most pleasant sail as the winds were moderate with more than a touch of south in them.

We spent a week in Antigua - Falmouth Harbour, English Harbour, Manora Bay and Jolly Harbour, meeting up with Skipper Tim from Stormbird and Roland and Vanessa who work for the same charter company we do.



There goes the neighbourhood. The first super yacht to arrive in Falmouth Harbour.



This is a photo of the interior of that little food shop on the dock in Falmouth Harbour. It's where I bought our bread. I was surprised to see birds eating sugar from a saucer on the shelf above the loaves of bread. The woman at the till explained that they put out the saucer of sugar to stop the birds pecking the loaves of bread.

We left from Jolly Harbour heading to St Martin. There was little wind but we were surrounded by squalls from start to finish.



Only one got us and it was left to the Captain to sit in the rain while it passed. We arrived at St Bart's just as the sun was setting so anchored up for a very rolly night.



Sunset off St Bart's. One of the most striking sunsets we've seen, thanks to the squall clouds.

After a very rolly night at anchor we finished off the last leg of our journey to St Martin's.



Larus and friends, Porte de Plaisance, St Martin.

And here Larus will stay until we're back from working in the British Virgin Islands. We fly tomorrow, Thursday the 24th of October and the first our three charters starts on Saturday.

*pauses for breath* :)