Two blissful weeks with Louise
09 February 2011
Karen
Jan 13th
Hello all, Sorry we have been out of touch for so long. The past few weeks have been pretty wonderful, with many interesting things happening in our world. High winds, satellites & shooting stars, Louise, more wind, Kayaking, ICE CREAM, Louise, and new islands. Here is a snapshot of all we have done!
Louise arrived late in the day Jan 13th. We spent Friday provisioning and clearing customs, then headed out Saturday, Jan 15th for Union Island. The weather was iffy, and storms were prevalent all the way up the coast of Grenada. The ride was very bumpy after leaving Port Louis in the rain suffice it to say it was an uncomfortable trip North. Louise wasn't feeling too great, and I was concerned that she wouldn't feel better until we got to shore, however, in her indomitable fashion, all of a sudden, she stood up...started walking around and pronounced herself 100%! I said, 'gee, I'm sorry ... if I thought it would be that rough I would have told you to take a Bonine this morning...she looked at me and said..I DID take one! ' Just one of a hundred laughs we shared this trip! Finally we arrived in Union Island and dropped anchor then headed ashore to clear customs. While in Port Louis, we again met up with 'Wilhelm', Rob & Natalie, who were heading North Saturday as well. As we were heading to Customs we saw them anchoring with us in the bay, and shared a few hellos on our way in and back.
Sunday, Jan 16th
We headed over to the Tobago Cays and passed Wilhelm who had just anchored close to the turtle sanctuary. We found our anchorage and as usual spotted multiple Turtles before getting the anchor set. Since the Wind was still high, and forecasted to get even higher, we dropped some extra chain and made sure we were well set. Within a few minutes, our friend Walter stopped by to visit and see what we needed for the next day - A lovely service and a fun one as well. Wilhelm stopped by in their dingy, and invited us for Rum Punch over on their boat tonight - great, now we have a plan! We got the dingy down and headed over to the turtle beach for a snorkel where we ran into Wilhelm again who had friends visiting from the day charter boat. The current was strong...and the water was very stirred up near the beach so we had to go quite a ways from the beach before we got clear water to see the local inhabitants...but see them we did and I can truly say that swimming with the turtles never gets old.
After a fun evening aboard Wilhelm, Rob built the boat himself and she is roomy and sound, we attempted to watch the stars, but the wind pushed us off the foredeck early.
Monday Jan 17
The wind picked up in the night and between that and the tidal set the early morning was pretty bumpy, even in the anchorage. Louise and Jim were checking the wind speed and clocked a gust at 36.8 knts...holy cow! FYI - that is about ½ of a category 1 hurricane...but let me tell you it is noisy and enough to make you feel you are soon to be blown away! But the day dawns beautifully and we are happy to sit here in the beautiful spot. Walter brought us breakfast, and a little later came back so we could shop for souvenirs, he has t-shirts, hats, wraps, whatever you might need or want for a trip to the Caribbean...we found a few things that we needed, of course.
So here we are, relaxing and watching the boats come and go and we see a boat coming in to anchor just behind us - wait...we know that boat - it is Joost on Outer limits with his friends Peter and Monique. After they anchor, he swims over for a visit and we make cocktail plans for Pina Coladas aboard...another fun evening, while the winds blow. Tonight is clear, and as tomorrow is the full moon, the moon tonight is big and bright and shines over the anchorage like the sun. The water is so clear that the moonlight clearly illuminates the sandy bottom, and we see a ray swimming beside the boat. Really , really beautiful!
Tuesday, Jan 18th dawns stormy, and we spend the day watching the squalls blow across the water....some hit us, some give us a miss, but the sky show is incredible to watch anyway. Unfortunately, it is not clear enough to see the moonrise from the sea...maybe tomorrow?
Wednesday, Jan 19th
The weather persists, and we decide to head for Canoaun, which we haven't been to before, just north of the Cays about an hour. After waving goodbye to Joost and crew who left heading for Union Island, and points south, we headed out into bumpy seas for a rollercoaster ride into Canoaun. After anchoring there we decide not to go ashore and so swim clock the wind gusts that funnel out of the hills. This is a phenomenon often found here they say and you can see the wind gusts coming over the water at you.
Thursday, Jan 20th Louise and I launch the Kayak and are off to discover. We have seen some boats anchored about 1.5 miles north of us and the water there looks really good, so off we go to explore. The winds are still gusty, but he kayak cuts thru the water just fine...with me being right handed and Louise being left we discovered we overcompensated for each other! We managed to keep a (mostly) straight line anyway and made it over to the anchorage and little beach. The water is great here and there are several boats tucked in, however, they are all swinging at odd angles to each other, so there must be some odd currently swirling in there. However the snorkeling looks great and we see fish jumping and a turtle watching us from the water. On the way back to the boat we find the winds still pushing us around, but decide it is excellent exercise and keep paddling away. We forgot the camera, so are not able to take a picture of the boat from the water. This was an item we put on our (very busy) agenda oh, at least two days ago and haven't fulfilled yet....Hmmm!
Friday, Jan 21st
Today it is off to Bequia, another first for us and this is a little longer trip, about 20 miles or so. Of course it is North, into the NE swells (6-8 ft) and breeze (20knts E - NE) but since that doesn't look to be changing any time soon..... off we go. The ride is pretty bumpy, again...but Louise has now found her sea legs and spends nearly the whole trip on the foredeck with the sea crashing up from time to time. We raised the full mainsail outside the harbor (and realized it would be better to do it inside!) as the boat was pitching into the swells, but they steadied the motion and we fell off the wind for Bequia. As we rounded the southern point of Bequia the winds funneled quite a bit, and while we furled up the Jib we found ourselves pushing into 25knts with a full mainsail up. (you may remember we are supposed to reef {shorten sail} when the wind approaches 20knts...) oh well nothing to do now, but ride it out! YIKES!
After a few miles the winds moderate, and we are able to drop the main and approach the anchorage. Rob and Natalie discussed Bequia with us and advised that the holding was a little iffy in places, but should we head up to Princess Margaret Beach (renamed after she once dipped her toe in the water here) we should find good holding in sand. So we nosed our way in as close as we were comfortable and found a spot to drop anchor. I snorkeled on the anchor, and while it was not as dug in as in other places, she looked to be holding fine....ahh, beautiful Bequia. A lovely town with flowers evident up the cliffs, a long sweep of beach and a spot that looks like very good snorkeling just behind the boat. There are easily well over 200 boats in this anchorage with room for many, many more.
Saturday - Monday, Jan 22nd -24th (Happy Birthday Cathy!)
We head to town to see what's to see (and remember that we haven't been on land in almost a week...this hard stuff feels funny!) Bequia is BEAUTIFUL! They have about 5 nice docks you can tie too, a large market square, a large ferry dock with boats coming and going all day. Multiple shops, groceries, restaurants, etc and taxis, and people are doing business. The first order of business it to find a place to dump our garbage, winch ended up to be on the far northern edge of the town (note to self...choose the dingy dock on the OTHER side of the ferries and you won't have to drag your garbage down main street.) after exploring on foot, we decide to take a tour of the island. Dolly obliges us, and we are soon piled into the back of an open pickup truck, with bench seats and a safari canvas top overhead... open air all the way. Bequia is beautiful, (have I mentioned that already) a vibrant island, with a nice balance of tourism, regular business, and expat's living together. The windward beaches are beautiful, and while it was closed, there is a turtle sanctuary here where a guy rescues the eggs and helps the young turtles hatch then releases them when they are big and strong enough to have a fighting chance of survival in the harsh sea.
After our island tour we found the Ice Cream Shoppe (hallelujah!) and what looks like a favored cruisers hangout , the Gingerbread Coffee and cake shoppe. Another day we will sample their wares.
We ran into Rob and Natalie ashore. They just came up from the south today as well, and as we headed back to the boat we could see them anchored just inside of us. In fact there are now 4 boats deep anchored inside of us....guess there is more water there than we thought. We pulled on our snorkel gear and headed for the beach, then walked along it until we got to the rock on the south end. Gear back on we snorkeled completely around the head and spotted an eel, sea snakes, tons of fish and even a medium sized barracuda on our return trip.
Sunday we headed back into town and enjoyed Carrot cake, a Brownie and Chocolate cake at the Gingerbread café. The Brownie tasted EXACTLY like coco-wheats...and I REALLY enjoyed that (maybe we can take some to go!) When we returned to the boat had a charter boat anchored REALLY close to us. No one was aboard, and when they returned, we debated having a discussion with them, but they seemed to be holding ok. We hoped they would be leaving the next morning early, and as we were planning to stay another day, so we let it go. We did take pictures thought...in case of a problem.
We invited Rob and Natalie over for Drinks and had a really fun time. They are lovely people with great stories and just a pleasure to be around. After, we layed on the trampoline and watched the stars and counted 4 satellites, finally! The couple on the charter boat were sitting in their cockpit, about 30 feet from us, eyeing us all night...the next morning we found out why. They took the dingy to shore and brought back the captain who must have anchored them, then was dropped off ashore for the evening...I guess they were more nervous than we were to see how close we sat all night!
Tuesday, Jan 25th
Time to up anchor and head to St. Vincent. So off we go north around the island for another bumpy ride to the north. We make St. Vincent in good time, and after calling for a mooring assignment with TMM they send a guy out to help us tie up in the Blue Lagoon. Contrary to its name the lagoon, while nice, is not exactly the picturesque image of the Carribbean, rather it is close with mooring buoys, ringed with reefs with mostly breaking waves, with a small, slightly rickety, marina at the head. Shortly after we arrive, the squalls hit, so we sat for the remainder of the day while the weather blew through. (Mar - we are about 2.5 miles from Young Island but have a bad view of it from here!)
Wednesday, Jan 26th, we head to the TMM base to check in, and pay our fee and there meet Miranda the office manager, and John West the base manager for TMM. They were very helpful and among other things arranged a taxi for us to take a short island tour and see the botanical gardens in Kingstown and Fort Charlotte that sits above the island. St. Vincent is a little busier and more populated and has a more urban feel than the smaller islands we have been visiting so far - which has its positive and negative sides. On our way back we meet up with Ken and Joann aboard Allicat, a Privilege 46 and ended up having lunch with them. A super fun couple and we make plans for sundowners on their boat this evening. We join them about 5:30 after Rowing our dingy the 40 feet over to their boat (they ended up on a mooring right next to and slightly behind us!) and had a tons of laughs together on their gorgeous boat. It was nearly 10pm when we headed back to Regenero.
Thursday, Jan 27th Sad, sad day!
Today Louise heads home...so after a bad night's sleep we are all awake at 4:30am (her flight is at 7:15am) and getting ready to head to shore. Just as a reminder sunrise is around 6am, so it is PITCH DARK now..oh yeah, and raining! Fortunately the rain abates for a short time and we are able to drop the dingy and get the luggage and us in the dingy - after a quick wipe down with a towel to make it kind of dry. We are now heading to shore, in the dark...making our way thru the reef...which although the reef markers have both lights and solar panels to charge them...it unlit, and has no reflective tape either. We finally see the marks with the flashlight, about 20 feet ahead, and clear thru, then we have to find the dock....we overshoot it a short way, then double back inside and tie up, alone, in the dark, and haul up Louise's small luggage. 5:15am..still dark, starting to rain a little again now, but we are here on shore, awaiting Phyllis, our taxi driver to arrive at 5:30am. We head up to the parking lot only to discover the gate is shut and locked tight...hmmm - now what, scale the fence? go back to the dingy, back thru the reef and tie up at the marina? Oh, wait....the lock isn't actually secured, and the pass thru gate swings right open for us. Great - cause it is now POURING rain, and there is Phyllis there to pick us up. Into the taxi, off to the airport...Louise checks in and then we must go to customs to check her off the boat since we arrived with 3 people, and will be leaving with 2. Customs is not quite in yet, so we sit and wait for a short while, then when they arrive just after 6 we are able to take care of the necessary paperwork, and we are done. A tearful farewell for me as we leave and say goodbye.
While this is a long post it certainly does not fully convey the GREAT time and tons of laughs that we had together....Louise, come back soon!