Working Holiday
09 December 2013
Photo - the lifestyle to which I would like to become accustomed to. Beats the heck out of flying Liat. :)
Here we are back in St Martin, on Monday the 9th of December, after a whirlwind of working charters in the BVI, St Martin and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Wifi is always limited when on charter, but finding the time to get a blog together or even an email together is the real challenge.
Charters are fun and a lot of hard work. As ‘Standby Crew’ our role is to fill in anywhere on pretty much any boat. Sometimes it’s planned in advance and sometimes it’s very short notice.
We had three weeks in the British Virgin Islands working on a Luxury Class catamaran. Even the guests were impressed with the glowing blue light that illuminated the interior of the dishwasher. Yes! We had a dishwasher onboard and air-conditioning all night long. The BVI is a wonderful cruising ground and we often made multiple stops during the day.
There are wonderful diving and snorkeling sites. At two we saw ‘bait balls’ - thousands and thousands of tiny fish swirling about together and both the avian and aquatic predators having a feast. The second time we saw them was a safer place for the wee fishies, a rocky bay with caves and grottos. The fish were in a thick layer, maybe a metre, and as you swam over them the ribbon of fish would retreat so that a safe distance was always kept between them and us.
Monkey Point is another great snorkeling site with puffers and flatfish spotted. There were loads of little yellow and black striped fish that had little fear for humans as long as they had bread to feed them. We threw breadcrumbs as the guests approached the boat at the end of the snorkel and the feeding frenzy was most entertaining.
The Baths are a fantasy location where you walk and climb over and between huge rock formations, sometimes knee deep in water.
The Soggy Dollar Beach Bar, you can anchor close enough to easily swim ashore – thus the ‘soggy dollar’ was a favourite with us and the guests as was the famous Foxy’s Bar and Restaurant.
Caribbean dining can be a but hit and miss but you’re there for location and being able to dig your toes in the sand under your table and the chance to dance with the locals more than make up for it.
As one of those amazing coincidences, we meet Skip (without Madeline) from ‘Saralane’ at the Bitter End fuel dock. He had just delivered a yacht from Annapolis. We will be meeting up with them later this month we hope.
After the BVI, we were flown back to St Martin to do a charter on one of the new Cruising Class catamarans. Air-con and a watermaker, like the Luxury Class, but no dishwasher. It’s amazing how quickly you get used to it and how much you miss it. Luxury Class also has a flat screen TV and we were able to watch dives filmed on the camera of the moment, the GoPro. It was great to see our Divemaster (Tim) and guests in action.
The St Martin charter was great fun as well. As our third charter in the area we were much more familiar with the area. We visit St Bart’s and I love the quirky islands. There are really interesting walks and very good snorkeling and diving. There is one beach we visit where you are almost guaranteed to see turtles and eagle rays. We spend a couple of days in Anguilla which is the only way Tim and I would get to see it as it’s $100 US a day for the cruising permit. A bit rich for our budget.
We arrived back at base on Saturday morning, to find that we were urgently needed in St Vincent to work a charter. As we should have been on our way to Guadeloupe to meet Tim’s brother Rupert, we were really torn, but we thought we could do the charter, get back to St Martin and have Larus there by Monday, which would have been today. Unfortunately a strong front has been moving through the Great Antilles and the wind and seas aren’t dropping until later today. Rupert and Elena themselves were stuck in Antigua for two nights because flights were cancelled due to strong winds. So they will have a day or two to themselves before we arrive. On the plus side for them, they got to meet up with our niece Izzy who is in Antigua at the moment looking for work on a yacht.
It was urgent enough for us to get to St Vincent before 1700 that we were flown there in the company’s private plane. Tim got to sit in the co-pilot’s seat and was very chuffed. We both really enjoyed it. It was such fun to see the islands that we’ve visited on Larus from above. I have photos but no time now to upload them.
We arrived about 1500 and had a couple of hours to look over the boat before the guests arrived. Her name was ‘Jo’ and she was one of the older Cruising Class boats. No air-con and no dishwasher but she was fast and a treat to sail and work on. They have character these older boats and this type a Privilege is well thought charter craft. She was wonderfully prepared for us by the Base and Ops Manager and the ‘off charter’ crew. The fridge was packed so well that the first thing you took out was nearly always just what you were looking for.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the Grenadines with Skipper Tim on Stormbird and it’s one of my favourite sailing grounds. I was so pleased that Tim got a chance to have a more in depth look around and visit Tobago Keys. We sailed in the company of ‘Camille’ another Privilege to learn the route and all the stopping and shopping places. I bought the most perfectly ripe and fragrant pineapples on Union Island. So fragrant in fact that I made sure everyone had sniff before they were turned into fruit platters and Pina Coladas.
The fruit, veg and fish in St Vincent and the Grenadines is absolutely wonderful. It’s all local and you can really tell. The menus were a little different so it was fun and challenging to try new things with different ingredients. We had a lot of very good sailing and are looking forward to getting back down there on Larus.
We were pleased and surprised to spot Lee on Jon Jon anchored off Petit St Vincent. We last saw him with Kirsty in Lanzarote back in November 2012.
We left breakfast for our guest to the crew who are taking over ‘Jo’ and were flown back to St Martin starting at 0600 via Barbados, Antigua and St Kitt’s. Not quite the same as our flight out.
The weather has greatly moderated, even as I typed this blog up and we might well go out of the lagoon on the 1500 opening. If not, we’ll leave tomorrow morning for Guadeloupe. That will give the seas a bit more time to reduce and give us a more comfortable sail.
I’ll catch up with the photos but wanted to let you know that all is well and we’re really enjoying our charter work out here. I don’t know if we’re just lucky, but all our guests have been a pleasure to look after and I’m looking forward to next Saturday when I do familiarization cruise on the 70’ Flagship Class catamaran out of Guadeloupe. I have Christmas off and then will work be back on her to work two charters. Tim will either head up to Antigua or hang out in Guadeloupe.