Re-cap pt1;

We recharged in Antigua after crossing the Atlantic Ocean, sailed past the active volcano above Portsmouth the abandoned capitol of Montserrat, past the Island of Redonda to St Kitts and Nevis, up to St Marten passing St Barthelemy on the way, on to the British Virgin Islands where Sarah found another yacht to sail back to Europe on. The BVI's is where Annie got back on board and my son and his partner joined us for a few weeks and we had just sailed down through some of the Islands to the Isles de Saintes.

We had just weighed anchor to leave the Islas de Saintes and Sue and Mal on Kool Kat also started the short twenty nautical mile passage to Dominica, we had a pleasant sail alongside them and the only difference was that we had a pod of dolphin riding our bow as we approached yet another Portsmouth and it turns out there are a number of places called Portsmouth in this world, we joked with Sue and Mal that the dolphin only loved a mono hull as the two hulls on a catamaran only confused them. We look back on making this landfall and have a grin as we were met just off the Island by Laurence, he is one of the P.A.Y.S. (Portsmouth Associated Yacht Services) members, we had contracted Martin Providence from P.A.Y.S to be our guide but we found out that all the P.A.Y.S. guys work together.

It was here on shore that we first met Izzy and Jeff of the trawler Izzy R, we were wondering who this pushy lady was that was making everyone get up and dance at the P.A.Y.S. BBQ, little did we know that we would be spending a lot more time cruising with this lovely couple.

We were amazed as each time that Annie was cooking her famous lasagna, out of the blue the same young Australian couple would turn up and drop their anchor close by, yes Elayna and Riley off La Vagabonde seemed to be able to smell Annie's lasagna from fifty nautical miles away, at the time it was a running joke between us all. While we were anchored here in Portsmouth we went on a guided land tour with Martin Providence along with several other cruisers. Martin took us to a traditional fishing village, we played domino's, he took us for a hike through the rain forest to a beautiful water fall where we could jump off the cliff into the deep pool below the falls, to a local chocolate factory and finally a hike down into an active volcano, a great day was had by all. A few days later we were picked up by Martin to do the amazing Indian River tour. The Indian River runs right through the centre of Portsmouth, this river was the location where some of the scenes of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie was made, once again a great time was had by all.

Anybody for a game of cricket. We took the island bus to the capitol city Roseau to watch the first day of the first cricket test between the West Indies and our home land Australia. The atmosphere at the cricket was something that had to be experienced to be believed, it was one huge party with whole groups of drummers and colour everywhere, the locals love having a good time.

It was also here in Portsmouth that our dear friend Fiona joined us for a few weeks. After sixteen days in Dominica we sailed to Fort de France, Martinique with Fiona to pick up Susie another friend who sailed with us in the Mediterranean with one of her sons Blair, this time Susie had another one of her sons Isaac with her. Even though we only spent eight days on Martinique we managed to drop our anchor in Fort de France, Grand Anse, Le Marin and St Anne. I was having a bit of fun with a couple of the waitresses at a WIFI café in Fort de France as they told me that they could speak English and not just French and I said that I only spoke Australian. They asked me to say something in Australian so I gave them a few of our pet sayings like "G'day Mate" and "You call that a knife" in true Crocodile Dundee style, my little bit of fun was bought undone when I took Fiona and Annie in a little later in the day and the same waitress asked them to say something Australian and Fiona said that she thought she was. We celebrated Annie's birthday at Grand Anse in a cute little beach restaurant owned and run by a Frenchman Jean Claud, we quickly nicknamed him Jean Claud Van Damn but not to his face, he always seemed to be in a super hurry almost like he had no time at all to spare, we were amazed by how fast our drinks and meals were delivered to our table after ordering.

Next stop, Rodney Bay, St Lucia. It was here that all our guests left us as Susie and Isaac had some mountains to climb in South America before they flew back to Australia and Fiona had a plane to catch in Grenada. We did get to several of the twenty/twenty cricket matches before Fiona left. Fiona managed to go on a personal guided land tour of St Lucia where her guide asked her if she had ever had a black man and something along the lines that God had told him to spread his seed, we all had a good laugh when Fiona told us the story of her day out.

It was here in the Rodney Bay Marina that we met up with Izzy and Jeff again plus a Canadian couple Alexandra and David. Our first impression of Alex and David was that they were a quiet almost a shy couple, as time went by we found out that they were far from shy and definitely not quiet. The fun times we shared with this great bunch of cruisers and others in the weeks and months ahead would reinforce what a great community we had stumbled into. It was here that we caught up with Venessa, Gary, Elliott and Marina off Neptune II, we had seen them in passing but we had not managed to spend any time with them since Gibraltar in 2014.

After twenty-one fun filled days in St Lucia we sailed to Admiralty Bay, Port Elizabeth on the Island of Bequia. The further south we sailed the more cruisers we met that were heading in the same direction. We all had a common goal to head down below the hurricane zone for the season, some were heading to Trinidad but most including us were heading to Grenada.

Our time at Bequia was made up of sun downers on the beach listening to music provided by some of the cruisers, swimming with turtles, catching up on laundry and purchasing expensive provisions from the many markets we found on the Island.

Bequia is part of the St Vincent and the Grenadines group of Islands, some of these Islands are safe for us as cruisers and some are not quite so safe. Crime against yachts is not a major issue but we try to avoid the trouble spots as much as possible, we did have several friends who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time as they were boarded and robbed as they slept, one of our fellow cruisers called these undesirable people cockroaches and she believed that leaving a light on in the cockpit would help keep them away.

We spent a lovely ten days swinging on our anchor in Bequia before sailing to the Tobago Cays. The Cays are also part of St Vincent and the Grenadines, we fell in love with this spot immediately, it is made up of three small Islands, Petit Rameau, Petit Bateau and Bardal all protected by a beautiful barrier reef system that keeps the Atlantic Ocean swell at bay. It was here that we got to swim with turtle, shark and the world's biggest puffer fish. We hiked one of the Islands with Izzy and her daughter Wendy, Jeff, Alex and David. This spot was the closest we found to what we would eventually cruise in, in the South Pacific.

Saline Bay on the Island of Mayearu would be our next anchorage, we anchored here alongside Neptune II and we all went for a walk on-shore together and met some of the local characters. We found the anchorage that we were in very exposed to the Atlantic swell so we moved to Chatham Bay on Union Island, it was here that we found the world's biggest starfish, as we were dropping our anchor we could see these huge starfish everywhere. A swim to check our anchor revealed just how big these things were and the colours were brilliant. With our provisions running low, fishing was the go and by the end of an evening session casting soft plastic lures in and around the reefs the score stood at Annie seven, me one and to this day Annie has not let me forget it.

The hike up to the road and the road trip to the Clifton Airport to clear out through Customs and Immigration was quite a task in itself. The trail was slippery and steep, our driver was an off-duty police officer. He was a wealth of local knowledge and a good guide as we drove across the Island and back. We made the eleven-nautical mile passage from Union Island to Carriacou as soon as we got back on board.

Carriacou is part of Grenada, we cleared in for the maximum of three months and we had to go through the process again at the end of three months to extend our stay for the duration of the hurricane season.

We only stayed in Carriacou for the one night and sailed to Halifax Bay on Grenada the next day. Our memory of this sail will stay with us forever as we left an Atlantic low-pressure system was approaching giving us winds in exes of thirty-five knots combined with a tidal race that produced very nasty confused seas but the real hazard for us was the active under-sea volcano Kick-em-Jenny. This volcano was erupting and we had to set our course around this hazard. We did not see any sign of the eruption but we still gave it a wide berth to be sure.

Halifax Bay was full of blowflies as there is a landfill rubbish tip at the head of the bay, the flies drove us out and we sailed further down the Island to anchor in Grand Mal Bay. With only the one night in Grand Mal Bay we sailed to the St Georges Anchorage.

It was now time for us to slow down, time for us to relax as we had almost sailed to our finale destination for the up-coming hurricane season, we only had a short-day sail to get around to Hartman Bay on the south side of Grenada to be safe for the rest of the season.

Writing these memories is a fun trip for us looking back at where we have been, trying to remember all the places and all the people we met along the way is always a challenge.

Next, we take shelter and watch the hurricanes pass by, we go to Carnival and meet lots of wonderful people, we sail back up through the Island chain at the start of the new cruising season stopping at some new locations along the way. Stay tuned and watch this space for more.

Photo is Annie and Martin Providence showing just how tough they are with the fresh tattoos from the silver powder on the back of the mimosa fern.

"In life, our goal is to die with memories not dreams"