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| Halfway down the steps |
Our next stop was Marigot Bay, just 9 miles south on St. Lucia, where we settled in for another week on a mooring in the inner harbor. With a new generator that works flawlessly, life at anchor or on a mooring is much more pleasant for us. Whenever it gets really hot, we can fire up the gen set and get a few hours of a/c while charging up the batteries.
As previously mentioned, Marigot Bay is truly one of the prettiest spots in the Caribbean and is one of our favorites. Renting a mooring from the marina gives us rights to use the resort facilities, including several nice pools and restaurants.
Various excursion boats from cruise ships run through the harbor, and there are always megayachts coming and going. People watching in this environment is highly entertaining. When we Google the names of the megayachts, we generally can see their owners, sizes and statistics and the crazy rental rates, often more than $100,000 a week, plus food and plus fuel.
One day we decided to rent a car and driver for the day and drove south to the Soufriere area, near the Pitons. As with all island travel, the roads are narrow, potholed and twist back and forth up and down the steep volcanic hillsides, then drop precipitously down into sleepy coastal fishing villages. The scenery, however, was magnificent. As a relatively "new" island (less than 2 million years old), the hills of St. Lucia are particularly steep and its mountains are still craggy.
Our first stop on this trip was the unique Ladera Resort, strung out on a saddle ridge between the two Pitons. We had a delicious lunch in some of the most magnificent scenery on earth. This truly is a mountain top rain forest, as the regular winds pushed brief rain shower after shower over us and off to the west as we sat and ate. This location gets hundreds of inches of rain a year, most all of it in these tiny 5 minute showers, followed by 15 minutes of sun, then another short shower.
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| Rain showers at Ladera |
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| 5 minutes later |
The views, the trees and flowers were breathtaking. The resort has 40 cabins, each with its own private pool, and the weather is so regular and temperate there that none of the cabins have a west wall, with each being completely open to the sunset and the view. This place is a huge WOW, and someday I would like to come back and spend a night or two.
After our Ladera visit, our driver took us to the volcanic park, where there is a good museum and various outdoor geothermal sites, mostly bubbling mud pits and all smelling of sulphur. In one area we slathered volcanic mud on ourselves and then sat in a 100 degree mineral bath fed by the hot springs.
On February 25, we departed St. Lucia very early and had a long but comparatively easy motor sail back to the jewel of the southern Caribbean, Bequia. We just love this little island, which feels more like home each time we visit.
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| Sunset in Admiralty Bay. We saw the green flash 3 different times! |
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| Princess Margaret Beach |
This time we visited in high season, so the moorings and the anchorage were full. In places like Bequia, the moorings are built and owned by locals, who generically are called the "boat boys". They come out and meet you on your way into the harbor in their little island-built wooden motorboats and motion to see if you want to rent a mooring from them, generally $15-20 US per night. These guys are in the middle of a whole ecosystem of boat-borne service providers to visiting cruisers, including folks who sell bread, fish, ice, jewelry, varnishing and painting, diesel and fresh water. They are not pushy and are friendly and respectful. Most operate under catchy trade names like "Younger Flex", "Blessings", "Phat Shag", "Blue Horizons", and the like. Our mooring provider was a jolly fellow known as "African" and he put us on a great mooring in deeper water and close in, because we planned to be his guest for two weeks and he knew this would be a better mooring for us with the big northerly swell which was due to move in over the next week. More on that later, but African's care for us was much appreciated when the historic swell hit Bequia!
A small side story about our approach to Bequia. Several miles out while we still had our sails up, we were met by a fast boat with a single fellow who zoomed about us several times taking pictures with what appeared to be a large and expensive camera. His camera made a loud "beep" at each shot, which prompted us to turn and smile for the pictures. His boat handling skills in 5 foot seas were impressive, all while standing in a small runabout, handling the outboard tiller with one hand and taking photos with the other. An hour after we were secure on our mooring, Kenmore appeared in his boat at our side, professionally dressed in a polo shirt and khakis (you don't see that anywhere down in these islands). He had a beautiful mounted 8" x 10" photo of Avventura in a plastic bag with his rate sheets and a thumb drive with some 50 really great pics of our boat under full sail. Always being on our boat while sailing, we have never seen her "fully dressed" and underway, so these are very precious photos to us. Kenmore's ultra smooth pitch: "Take your time, look over what is on the thumb drive and if you like it, I will be back tomorrow to take your order, but no pressure whatsoever." Well of course we loved it all and paid his fee to get all of the pics. I told him he had a surefire business concept and hoped he did very well with it.
Bequia in high season is quite a social scene for the cruisers. In the middle of that scene are our old friends Sabrina and Tom Nichols of Kansas City on S/V Honey Ryder.. We loved getting together with them, and also some new friends we met, including a number of Hylas owners who immediately invited us into their social circle. There were cocktails on Steve and Angela's Hylas 56 Stelina, followed by martini and game night on Ronna and Michael's Hylas 49 Exodus, followed by a day trip with the Hylas crowd to the other side of the island to visit the turtle sanctuary and have lunch at Sugar Reef..
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| Babies are collected on the beach as soon as they hatch and brought to the sanctuary. |
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| This guy was 17 yrs old and loved to have his shell scratched! |
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| The beach lounge outside the Sugar Reef |
Sabrina also invited us on a "rum tour" of various small "rum shack" bars organized by a couple of American expats who have been living on the island for several years. They rented a bus and lead the tour, which ended with a full moon beach barbeque. We met interesting folks and the barbecued pig was delicious!
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| This woman grew her own ginger and made delicious ginger rum drinks! We loved the 45's! |
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| This was really a shack and had no rum, only beer |
On another day, we took a long dinghy ride out with a group to enjoy excellent snorkeling at the "Moonhole" cove. Cindy volunteered for the Saturday afternoon reading program at The Fig Tree as she had last fall, and we delivered a suitcase full of donated books.
One of the things that helps to create a cruising "community" is a daily radio net. The Bequia net comes up at 8 AM on VHF radio channel 68, and is usually hosted by Cheryl, who owns the Fig Tree Restaurant. She is warm and inviting on the radio. All boats that have just arrived on the island are urged to introduce themselves, and all folks who are departing are urged to say their goodbyes. Then local weather and events are covered, such as where yoga will happen that morning or what bands are playing that evening in the various bars. Service providers are urged to give a quick "commercial", and cruisers who want to sell or buy items can tell what they have during the "treasures of the bilge" segment.. The whole thing takes about 15 minutes, but you get to know a lot of boats and folks this way. Cheryl always ends with a heartfelt "One Love" to all.
As African had predicted, in the following week a very strong N Atlantic storm pushed a large set of waves ("swell") into the Caribbean from the north. This northerly swell was very unusual down here, so much so that the locals called it among the worst of the past 40 years. We experienced it as a pronounced rolling for a few days, not particularly comfortable but not horrible. We were moored in 40 feet of water, however. Many in the harbor were moored or anchored in much shallower areas. They suffered, as the waves built to much bigger height in the shallows and then crashed into the N facing beaches and walkways along the harbor. Boats dragged their anchors into other boats or were threatened with destruction on the beach. The crashing waves were quite impressive, sending spray up that often topped the houses and businesses along the waterfront. Several of our favorite restaurants were closed for days as they had to clean sand and water out of their establishments. Big chunks of a new wooden walkway over to Princess Margaret Beach were destroyed in the surf.
One day I made a haircut appointment and climbed partway up the hill behind town to the house where Jillian keeps her hair salon. I arrived a bit early, so I decided to take a look in the sports stadium near her house, where several thousand can enjoy a covered grandstand to watch soccer and cricket. The view from the stadium was lovely and here is a picture of the grounds crew hard at work:
We loved our two weeks in Bequia, but by the end we were starting to feel a little stir-crazy, so it is a good thing we had guests coming! Late on March 8, our old friends John and Shawn Keller flew in from Kansas City. John helped us sail Avventura from Ft. Lauderdale to St. Thomas last year, and both are experienced sailors and very good sports. For the next two days, winds and seas were running high so we stayed put and enjoyed Bequia, visiting the beach and local restaurants, including Tantie Pearl's high up the hill..
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| At the end of Princess Margaret Beach |
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| The grocery store in Bequia |
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| One of the many colorful local boats in Bequia |
On March 11, with the promise of steadily improving conditions, we left Bequia early for the 21 mile trip south to Canouan, one of the Grenadine islands. The trip was uncomfortable, with winds often gusting to 30 knots and seas were lumpy, but we all survived.
Canouan is a sleepy little island with 1600 inhabitants but we were glad that it has a brand new and very impressive marina, Glossy Point, developed and owned by a wealthy Irishman.
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| Beautiful, wide docks at Glossy Point marina. The columned building is the palacial shower house. |
This place has the most impressive sea walls, planting, lighting, showers, office, fuel docks, beach club, etc. that I have ever seen! There is a long line of shops, restaurants and offices that are nearing completion, and a beach club with a beautiful pool and great restaurant is right across the lagoon..
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| Shops, restaurants and luxury apartments under construction |
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| Sheananigans Beach Club. We thought it was a stupid name for such an elegant place! |
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| Rob enjoying the pool. Cindy is the ghost photographer. |
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| Fantastic Marlin with passionfruit sauce for dinner |
I would not be surprised if tens of millions have been spent here. The problem with the place, however, is that it is almost entirely empty. Apparently the owner will not advertise until he thinks everything is perfect and ready to go. Although they had a "quiet" open over a year ago, the only folks visiting now are those who, like us, hear by word of mouth. Built for over 120 vessels, there were only 4 megayachts and one older sailboat in the entire facility when we entered, and when we left 2 days later, I think we were the only paying customer.
Although beautiful, the empty opulence of this place was kind of creepy. As things turned out, however, it was good that we were in the marina because Shawn fell ill with a stomach bug, and then 12 hours later Rob also succumbed. It took about 36 hours for each of us to feel good enough to leave the marina. Whether this was a virus or something we ate, we will never know, but it sure was unpleasant. Open water is no place to be when you are nauseated. The well ones of us did rent a golf cart and drove around the island one afternoon, it appeared prosperous compared to some others we have visited, although not much developed for tourism. We enjoyed the relaxed vibe and watching the uniformed school children mosey their way home.
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| John and Rob in our luxurious ride, Cindy rode in the back |
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| Canouan goat parade |
Another great spot for people watching as around us were groups from the UK, a crew of dancing Frenchmen, and 40 MBA students from Columbia Univ. in NYC.
We had a good laugh getting soaked on the dinghy ride back to the boat that night in very windy and dark conditions. Next time we take a water taxi!
The next day we made a short 5 mile trip west to Saltwhistle Bay on Mayreau. Mayreau is another charming Grenadine island, population 350. We anchored in the bay and took the taxi up to the ancient Catholic Church, then walked into the town for lunch.
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| John and Shawn got Catholic points for visiting this remote church |
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| Market on Mayreau |
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| It's a SUPER market! |
But first we had to have a drink at Robert's Nice Life, an atmospheric rum bar completely decorated by flotsam and jetsam that Robert has found on the beach. There we ran into our friends Ronna and Micheal from Exodus who we had met in Bequia. It is so much fun running into cruisers that you already know! We walked off lunch with a hike back to Saltwhistle.
After a somewhat rolly night, everyone was ready to head back to Bequia. Again, the winds were gusty and the sailing was less than comfortable, but we arrived safe early in the afternoon. Our guests packed up and I delivered them to the town dinghy dock to take a taxi to the Bequia Beach Hotel, where they would stay for the last 2 nights of their vacation. John and Shawn are great sports and perfect boat guests and we loved having them on board for a week with us!
After a day of cleaning, laundry, reprovisioning, and checking out of the country at the Customs Office, we were up early on March 18 to sail south 40 miles to Tyrell Bay, Carriacou. Our recent sailing had all been fairly miserable, but this trip in moderate winds and seas was delightful. The sky was blue, with puffy little clouds, and the islands of the Grenadines were beautiful on that Sunday morning. Flying fish regularly took flight as our bow disturbed them, and occasionally a seabird would dive for one of the little flyers.
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| On the way to Carriacou |
Looking at the weather we decided to leave Tyrell Bay after only one night and we had another pleasant and easy day sailing to the capital city of Grenada on the southwest end of the island. There is an underwater volcano just north of Grenada called "Kick 'em Jenny". Jenny has been somewhat active for years, and Grenada has a standard 1.5 mile "exclusion zone" around the underwater cone that they ask boats to avoid. When the volcano starts to rumble, however, they expand the zone to a 5 mile radius. Just a few days before, Grenadian authorities had announced that seismic activity had prompted them to expand the zone and that all boats should be on the lookout for activity. As I neared the zone just off Diamond Rock and the small island of Ronde, I must admit that I was a bit nervous. Our route actually took us just inside the expanded zone, but we were upwind. We did not see or smell any volcanic stuff, however, and were perfectly safe as we passed by.
We arrived at Port Louis Marina by early afternoon and settled into this familiar and comfortable place, but not without one big scare. Upon shutting down the engine, we suddenly could hear that the bilge pump was regularly turning on and off. This immediately gets the captain's attention because it means somewhere water is running into the bilge. I immediately grabbed a flashlight and started poking around in the engine compartment. I could hear water running into the boat in impressive amounts but could not see where it was coming from. Cindy ran and found quick help in the marina, a young man from a company we had hired before. He immediately found the problem in the seal on our drive shaft which had come loose and backed off from its normal position, allowing gushing water to enter. He fixed it quickly and I got an important lesson in how this part can fail and what I would need to do to fix it.
We have a final week in Grenada of cleaning and prepping, then Avventura will be hauled out and placed in a yard for the spring and summer.
