We're Reviewing the Situation
01 December 2013 | The Pitons, St. Lucia
Lynn
So, what does a hydration bag, coffee beans, roti, spice bread and a cooler bag have in common? On 'Silverheels III', it generally means we are getting ready to head out to do that "cruiser thing".
Ken and I have an, umm, aversion to spending a lot of time down below when underway, unless sleep is necessary. I definitely get seasick, and Ken doesn't have an absolute cast iron stomach, either, plus the boat movement makes him more prone to ramming his foot into something solid. That is where some of the above items come into play.
We keep a cooler bag (actually 2, one nested in the other) in the cockpit when underway. In the most insulated area, we put one of the water bladders from a hydration bag that has been well refrigerated (possibly even partially frozen). This provides a mess-free way to conveniently get cold water into us when underway. We also tuck lunch, or dinner, in with the water bag to keep it refrigerated. For longer trips, a backup is in the fridge for quick replacement. In the outer, less insulated bag, we keep some snacks (peanuts and raisins, jujubes and raisins when we have them, and sometimes M&M's with coffee beans). Fruit may also be tucked in as well. It is whatever tickles our fancy and is available. My home made spice bread is always welcome on a long trip, either as a breakfast thing or a good snack
For lunch, we have found that a roti (a Trini thing that is found almost everywhere in the Eastern Caribbean now), Indian flat bread folded around a curry filling, makes a very convenient on-the-go lunch or dinner. They are great cold, and less messy to eat that way, too. We picked up two at the Foodland grocery store before leaving (their veggie with tofu one is fantastic).
Last year we went straight from Grenada to Rodney Bay, St. Lucia. This year we figured the weather looked amenable to doing the same trip. Our fees for Customs for the boat were paid up to until November 30, so that seemed like the logical day to go, and the weather forecast that we had looked good for it. As tempting as it was to stay a little longer, with interesting offers and a very cool sounding Hash at the Sulphur Mud Baths, we were not to be distracted.
Friday was a day of last minute errands, baking spice bread, making sure the boat was ready to go (i.e. making sure things were well secured) and dinner with friends on their boat. The inflatable lifejackets had been tested, as well as everything else we could think of. The boat was ship shape.
Saturday morning we were up before the sun, and even the alarm! At 0600 we cast off the dock lines and headed up the west coast of Grenada. When we got north of the island, we realized that the wind was maybe just a little too hard on the nose, and the sea state was not particularly conducive to us wanting to do an overnighter in it. We considered going into Union Island to anchor for the night and do the trip in jumps, but motoring dead into the wind with the seas the way they were wasn't going to be good either. We decided to slog on.
When we got closer to the protection of St. Vincent, we angled towards the coast to get a better angle on St. Lucia and to get a break from the wave action. We also got close enough to get cell coverage, which gave me a chance to get email, including the weather email. The weather email spoke about a Tropical wave coming in late in the night with some decent squalls and wave action. Ick. That did not sound like weather we wanted to cross the channel from St. Vincent to St. Lucia in the dark in. Okay, we will duck into Chateaubelair for the night and sleep on it. We had been there before, and knew that the anchoring was easy and solid, plus the entrance in the bay was straight forward. We anchored without incident at 2330h.
In the morning Little George came by to say "hi" and see if there was anything he could do for us. We chatted for a bit, and then realized that a float from a fish trap had drifted under our boat. We untangled it and decided to re-anchor. When we had the anchor up, we looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and said "let's go, next stop St. Lucia". So, 12 hours later, we were off again. Any potential squalls would at least be seen before they hit. The conditions started out a little rough, but then things were smoother than we had expected, and we made great time to the Pitons in St. Lucia.
We picked up a mooring at 1710, without any entertainment factor for our Danish/Norwegian neighbours. Tomorrow we will head up to Rodney Bay to get checked in and settled in for a bit. If a mooring hadn't been available, we would have gone to Rodney Bay and anchored in the dark. Not something we ever like to do, but in a wide open anchorage, we are much less concerned about it. However, today it was a non-issue.
So, after a few Plan A's and Plan B's, and reviewing the situation as needed, we are back "on the road". And the spice bread was excellent.