44' Luxury Catamaran Mustang Sally

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2010-07-28T13:07:00.001-07:00

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SHOTSKI ANNOUNCEMENT

2009-09-27T16:17:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon to the captain and crew of Mustang Sally! I msut comment after having recieved your email. The shotski looks to be a useful tool to ensure boredom on the high seas won't take hold. However, I have sailed on this fine ship and never once did I feel the party needed a kick-start to get going. From what I recall, which is not much it, started at the dock and never stopped. The shotski, I believe, will have a multitude of uses; it could be used to welcome your guest upon boarding, or as a morning kiss to shake off the festivities from the previous night, could also be used for the removal of swim wear, could be used not just to get things started but could be used to ensure things continue, or if over used, could insure things could end, could be used as a gesture of kindness or a peace offering.

Let me just say "Welcome to the Shotski!! and let the games begin!" Woo Hoo!

Chris Leader

very sastisfied past (and future) guest.

THE WILLIAM THORNTON Floating Bar

2009-09-21T12:54:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have been here you know exactly what I am talking about. This bar is the best party bar I have ever been to. I don't know why exactly, perhaps a combination of things.

People are on holidays when they come here and so are ready to let their hair down (or tops/shorts, as they case maybe), maybe that's why. Or perhaps it is because the Willy-T (as it is affectionately known) is on Norman Island and so you can only get there by private boat (there is no ferry). Or maybe it is because of the great music pumping out of the speakers. You can't help but dance to it. Also, the bartenders are the best. Todd, Zeus, Simon, Al .... So charming, fun and extremely helpful when applying temporary tatoos in all manner of places, especially on pretty ladies. (Guys you put on your own tatoos!).

I know the food is outstanding, I have eaten there many times and have always been impressed. Lots of fresh fish, great french fries, and outstanding specials. Maybe that's why....hmmm ....what about the shotski? That has to be it....right? That old ski that has been modified to hold 4 shot glasses usually filled with some horridly strong concotion that you must shoot down your gullet. If you don't time it perfectly to "shoot" at the same time as the other 3 on the shotski with you, or, you are much shorter than your compatriots you will wear the drink instead of drinking it. (Another good reason to take your sticky t-shirt off and get a tatoo! I did!)

The last but certainly not the least important reason the Willy T is the best party bar I have ever been too.... me! Whenever we go a party seems to erupt. I wonder if it has to due with me enjoying all of the above to the max?

So, maybe next time you are there you will find the crew of Mustang Sally kickin' it up a notch... and don't worry what happens on the Willy-T stays on the Willy-T...... most of the time.

P.S. check out the photo album behind the bar.... see if you can spot me.

For the history and other info on the Willy T check out http://www.williamthornton.com/

Interesting Character - Barefoot Davis

2009-08-28T10:27:00.000-07:00

One character that we have gotten to know well here in the Virgins is "Barefoot Davis".

Barefoot Davis Murray, is from Massachusetts but has been in the islands for about 20 years. He is well known in the Virgin Islands as the long-standing fleet captain for the Caribbean 1500 Cruising Rally. He's logged over 100,000 ocean miles between the rally and six transatlantic crossings.

We first met Davis back in October '06 in Hampton, Virginia when we were getting ready for our offshore leg with the Caribbean 1500 Rally. He's one of those guys that seems to know everything about anything and can fix almost anything. This proved to be quite handy for us a couple of times that Doug needed a hand. Davis volunteers in the rally to help prepare the sailors, some first timers, like us back then, for their first offshore adventure.

He is sought after by many in the boating world from commercial vessels to pleasure boats for a number of marine talents (boat builder, rigger, rudder replacer, single side band pro,boat delivery captain, etc) but also because he is one of the only professional commercial compass swingers (intrigued?) in the islands and the U.S.East Coast. He sailed in the Worrel 1000, which is an arduous 1000 mile offshore sailing race from Miami Beach to Virginia aboard a 20' beach cat (yikes!). He can join people in matrimony. Add to this long list, Davis is a real bonafide treasure hunter! One of very few people down island that has the authority from the governments to search land for archaeological treasures (read pirate loot). You can check out his finds at The Pirate's Bight restaurant in The Bight at Norman Island, B.V.I.

During the training for the Worrel 1000 Davis picked up a second-hand guitar for $200 and learned two cords, then three cords, and soon a whole song. Davis started writing his own songs and soon his reputation as a musician was known up and down the east coast. "I call my music 'Island Country'," he says. "The lyrics for all of the songs I've written have come from a particular experience, or something that was special to me, or about someone I met".

Davis says, "the Caribbean is an atmosphere conducive to music. No propane heaters. No frozen fingers. No TV news. No stateside politics. I'm in my element and I like the comfortable sound of life here." We totally agree!

Whenever we are in St.Thomas or close by at Christmas Cove we call "Splinter Beach" on the vhf to see if he can join us for a coldie and some storytelling or to find out where the Barefoot Davis Band is playing next so we can catch the show.

If you play an instrument you can join the band as they are always happy to have visiting musicians join them on stage. Davis and the gang play every Monday nite at Latitude 18 in Red Hook on St. Thomas. Last year the band was also playing on the beach at The Elysian (also located in Red Hook) every Sunday afternoon....hopefully he will be there this upcoming season again. Nothing better than sitting in the warm Caribbean sun on the beach listening to great island tunes sipping on a coldie!

To down load his great island tunes and to see where he is playing check out http://www.barefootdavis.com/

Change in the B(LOG)

2009-06-09T09:47:00.000-07:00

For 2009/2010 we have decided to change the blog. Since we are no longer cruising the islands of the Caribbean and will be staying in the US/British and Spanish Virgin Islands the blog will have a new use we are very excited about. From now on the blog will feature funky local characters, and there are lots of them, hot spots and hidden treasures that we find, and links and other good sailing and travel info.We hope you will find this new blog interesting and usefull. The first few features will be out in the next few weeks.

LOS ROQUES, VENEZUELA - SINT MAARTEN

2008-12-13T11:58:00.000-08:00

September 20th, 2008 Los Roques, Venezuela – Sint Maarten, November 6th, 2008

I left off the last log in Carenero, Venezuela where we had hauled Mustang Sally and anti-fouled for another year and did some other general maintenance etc. Once we splashed and had received our renewed passports we made tracks for Los Roques, the beautiful out islands of Venezuela that Doug has wanted to see for years. I must admit I was pretty curious to see them as well as this is where the rich Venezuelans head to for their weekends in their large sport fisherman’s, yachts or to stay for an entire week in the beautiful posadas (guest houses). Los Roques is considered to be very safe as it is 200 nautical miles north of the mainland of Venezuela. The islands are an atoll (reef islands, not volcanic) consisting of 15 or so small islands with long white sand beaches and lots of great reefs to snorkel with fish seemingly on steroids. Make sure you take everything you will need for your stay as there are no stores to buy much with the exception of a small store on Gran Roque.
We motored all nite to arrive in the morning. Unfortunately there isn’t much wind in the summer so we seemed to motor pretty much everywhere. We watched numerous electrical storms in the nite sky that gave us quite a light show to watch, the moon was close to full and also illuminated the nite sky and the water was very calm reflecting all of it. We enjoyed all of this while we took our turn on watch and listened to some great music.
Once we arrived at Los Roques we hooked up with what seemed to be a Canadian convoy of boats. Gypsy Blues, Meggie, Tyee III, Spyglass and our one token American boat, Sunrise were all anchored close to each other. Altho we were tired from our nite travel we were more than happy to get together for a potluck aboard Tyee III that evening to catch up with everyone and find out what their next travel plans were. Los Roques seemed to be the point for some boats to continue westward, and some to head back east.
We spent the next week enjoying the company of our friends, snorkeling and having lots of potluck cocktail parties and dinners. The weather was very hot and sunny with the occasional squall and reverse winds which always made the nites very interesting. These squalls never hit thru the day when you can see your point of references on land, only at nite, of course.
We said good bye to our friends who were all headed in different directions while we had the pleasure of enjoying the islands for 3-4 weeks before we had to start out trek back to Isla Margarita and then north. Meggie was headed further west to Bonaire, then Jamaica and further westward again to spend Christmas in Guatemala, while Gypsy Blues and Spyglass were heading into mainland Venezuela to have their boats hauled for antifouling and miscellaneous other tasks.
Our water pump broke on one of our engines and we did not have a spare. Altho we had two engines and therefore no biggie, it was a bad place for this to happen as there are no part/repair stores out here and we still had a long way to go to before we could replace it. Doug got on the single side band and asked for help. In a few days we learned of a boat, Mystic Journey, headed to Bonaire from Grenada who would be able to obtain the part and bring it to us on their way thru less than a week later. Very kewl.
While that was going on we worked hard polishing the cat and getting ready for the upcoming season. I would jog on the beautiful beaches early in the mornings, while the pelicans would dive into the water from high in the sky in pursuit of breakfast. We would also work on the cat in the morning and then call it quits in the afternoon as it was simply too hot. We spent the afternoons reading or snoozing in the hammock. Temperatures were well above 50* Celsius without a breath of wind and the days were spectacular with sunshine all day, no rain and beautiful starry nites. We enjoyed dinner out a few times on Gran Roque enjoying the quaint, high end boutiques and restaurants on sand streets where no cars are allowed (or needed).
After four lovely, leisurely weeks it was near time to start our trip back to Margarita but tropical waves had begun moving thru the islands one after another. Every morning we were up early to listen to Chris Parker give the weather reports over the single side band radio so we could determine when we would have a good weather window. Unfortunately, for many days, there was nothing but low pressure systems and tropical waves and the weather just deteriorated from bad to worse. Squalls would roll thru nite after nite with winds of anywhere between 30-50 knots. We had moved to a well protected anchorage which would keep us safe from the large swells produced by the storms and some of the wind and we put out a second anchor, a Danforth, in addition to our 60 lb “Brucie baby” which brought the total of our anchor weight up to 100 lbs. Those 100 lbs. did not count our all chain rode we had paid out at 10-1 ratio which brought the grand total on the seabed to approximately 800 lbs. We felt we were as secure as we could be. The bad weather was becoming rather tiresome tho and we were tired from sitting anchor watch most nites. After a few days and nites of this we learned tropical storm Omar was headed our way before tracking north east with 50 knot winds plus. Of course, this was the beginning of Hurricane Omar who would become a category 3 hurricane which would head north and cause a great deal of damage to St Martin and numerous other islands. We weathered the storm quite well and MS didn’t budge although at times it was quite hairy. We listened to the weather report the next morning we realized that Omar who was now well north of us had called all of the low pressure systems in the Caribbean to him like a dog on a leash and so now it was clear for us to head to Isla Margarita 160 NM to our east. Heading east from Los Roques to Isla Margarita means that like many easterly routes, we would have the prevailing winds and equatorial current against us until we hit the lee of the Windward Islands. Of course it meant a motor the entire way but at least there wasn’t much wind on our nose as there was no wind at all. The trip was uneventful and we managed to duck a few local squalls. We did have a visitor on board, a very large land bird who had been blown off land during the big winds. We determined to the best of our ornithology abilities that he must be some type of hawk. He was desperate for a place to rest and so hung on to MS enough time to get some much needed rest before heading off again, hopefully to land.
We arrived back in Porlamar, Isla Margarita after dark and managed to find a good spot to anchor in the busy anchorage, ate a bit of din din and crashed after 36 hours of motoring. The next nite we hooked up with our good friends Alex and Maria for dinner and got caught up with them. We enjoyed being back in some form of civilization and went grocery shopping and had a few dinners out while waiting for Doug’s Mom, Kathie to fly in from Canada to sail north to St Martin with us and visit for 10 days. We also continued to keep a sharp eye on the weather in preparation for our 400 NM trip north east, which we estimated would take us 3-4 days with winds predominately out of the northeast, of course.
I spent an entire day cooking hearty one pot dinners and casseroles and freezing them so that we could pop dinner in the oven while underway, making our lives as easy as possible. Doug spent that same day going thru his engine checks and changing belts, oil, etc. so that the girls were in top form when it was time to go.
We determined we had a good weather window the day after Mom (Kathie) arrived which was perfect. It would give her a chance to recover from her long flight and we could also enjoy some very fresh octopus and cervesas, Venezuelan style, for lunch and a delicious dinner of beef medallions and wine aboard MS before leaving early next morning. We said a teary good bye to Alex and Maria who had handmade us beautiful wind chimes of sea shells as a going away present.
Our first day out was beautiful and sunny with head seas running about 7-8 feet and head winds anywhere between 10-15 knots. A bit bouncy but all in all not bad and MS had no trouble keeping us comfy while we enjoyed good sailing. We had the pleasure of having dolphins joins us for awhile which we consider a good omen. That nite we encountered one squall after another but managed to dodge most of them with the exception of one that came upon us very quickly while I was on watch and brought big gusty winds from all directions and lots of sleeting rain. I hollered for Doug to help me as the wind continued to build and the sails backed. Thank goodness for the double reef that we always put in right before daylight disappears. We did a little 360 pirouette to get the sails set right again and as soon as the squall showed up it left. I was drenched but after a hot cup of tea and a light breeze I dried out in no time. Whew! What fun!
Second day was another beauty of a day with gorgeous sunshine and nothing but water everywhere. We were 150 NM offshore directly west of St Lucia making good time. Had the pleasure again of visiting dolphins thru the day and saw three freighters in the nite. We had hoped the head seas and headwinds would have lightened a bit but we were pointing well and averaging 7 knots so we were happy.
Third day was another treat and we were still making very good time averaging 150-160 NM per day. We had planned on anchoring over nite at Nevis but just at dark the winds switched to the beam so we decided to take advantage of this good point of sail and keep her going, headed for St Barth’s. The head seas diminished considerably and it was perfect sailing on flat water with a fresh breeze. Woohoo!
Mom was amazed at this passage making experience never having done anything like this before. She was a real trooper as it can be a little overwhelming when you realize that there is no one to help you if something bad happens and you can’t get “off” if you want. A couple of times she asked thru the trip “Where are the other boats?” Not sure if it is something she is eager to do again anytime soon but she told us it was an adventure she will never forget and one she is glad she experienced. Now she can envision our travels clearly in her mind.
We arrived at Ile de Forchue, St Barth’s at 10 a.m. on another beautiful day. We were very happy to be there but a wee bit tired so we all enjoyed a lovely, silky swim, and a nap. Then of course we celebrated with Caesar’s all around (Bloody Marys with slight Canadian adjustment for you Americans!)! We lolled about the remainder of the day; BBQ’d a delicious and well deserved dinner and had a solid nite of sleep.
We had a leisurely downwind morning sail next day to St Martin and headed into the lagoon so we could be ready for the work that we were about to start the next day. Over the next week we had the mast stepped for some work, had our favourite mechanic, Pedro, trouble shoot some issues and give both of the girls a tune up and installed top of the line refrigeration that now means we can keep ICE CREAM in the freezer!! The week was a jumble of work, work, work. Provisioning, cleaning, fixing, breaking, installing, blah, blah, blah. We did manage to enjoy a fun Halloween nite at a few different costume parties (Mom was a ghost while we were lame-ass pirates) and a couple of fabulous dinners with Mom during this frustrating, crazy time before she had to fly back home and thank goodness for those few quiet times as the rest of the week couldn’t have been much fun for her. Big thanks to her for her patience and understanding. Hey!! You’re hired Mom! You’re good crew!!
I will sign off for now … next log is out trip back to the beloved Virgins Islands and the start of our visiting guests. Partee!!
Fair winds …..

MEDREGAL, CUMANA, TORTUGA & CARENERO, VENEZUELA

2008-10-20T08:26:00.000-07:00

Log # 15 – Medregal, Cumana, Tortuga & Caranero, Venezuela

July 31 to September 20, 2008

Hola amigos!
After all of the excitement at Porlamar we were more than happy to get to a quieter locale; one without gun shoot outs for starters. Both of our nerves were a little raw, mine more that Doug’s, I am sure. We staged at Coche to get ready for an early morning departure (4.30 am!) to Medregal Village which is at the easterly end of the Golfo de Cariaco and 50 NM from Coche. Medregal Village is a small resort/boatyard located in a very remote area. There is only one road to the resort and it is a dirt road with numerous ruts and floods and it is a full day bus ride to anywhere of consequence. A few cruisers we knew were planning on hauling out there to perform the annual ritual of cleaning the bottom of their boats and applying numerous coats of antifouling in the hopeless assumption that this antifouling will keep the barnacles off. We had originally planned on hauling MS there but we found out in Porlamar that the new catamaran lift that was to be ready for our arrival was still months away from being ready (manana, manana, we’re in Venezuela, whaddya expect!). So we had to find somewhere else to haul but until that time we thought Medregal would be a good place to hang out for awhile with some fellow cruisers we knew and do the potluck/drink thing a few times. We had heard that it is an easy going, small resort where boats could rents rooms with air conditioning while working on their boats and escape the whole living aboard while “on the hard”. Believe me, we can speak from experience, that is no fun. Medregal also had laundry facilities, clean showers, an “on your honour” bar system (kewl) AND it was complete with an in-ground pool (yay!), which would be perfect to tackle that incredible afternoon heat. Sounded like heaven to us.
Our trip there was pretty uneventful. There was not a breath of wind and so it was a motor the entire way. Because there wasn’t any wind the water was like glass and we could see hundreds of jellyfish near the surface. Once we rounded the point headed east into the Golfo we were joined by hundreds of dolphins (not kidding). There were so many dolphins we were surrounded by them for a mile or so and they jumped and frolicked at the bow of the cat for a long time. We took many pics and we were lucky enough to actually see them in the pics and not just the surface of the water as is usually the case. We arrived at Medregal in the mid afternoon and noticed that there were dead fish that looked like large sardines floating all over the anchorage. I made up my mind pretty quick that I would not be swimming in that mess. Thankfully there was a pool.
We did our grand tour of the resort and saw the laundry facilities which consisted of one sorry looking washing machine that worked only occasionally. Then we eagerly went to check out the pool. What a letdown. The pool hadn’t been cleaned for months and it was full of green sludge. Not swimming there either. Hopefully the showers were half decent….thank God, they were okay. The “on your honour” bar was okay too but it only stocked small bottles of cervesa or very cheap rum. Oh well. We would make the best of it. The lift was not working, and Meggie, who had hauled out a month ago, had been waiting for over two weeks to be put back in the water when we arrived. Mike and Kylie were a bit frustrated, to say the least and the level of frustration continued to grow for them and other boats waiting to get hauled. It was another four weeks before the lift was repaired for a total of 8 weeks inoperable. Cruisers learn real quick to be patient in Venezuela.
After a few days we also quickly learned that Medregal and the eastern end of the Golfo have their own unique weather system. Every day, without fail, the heat would build and build until it became unbearable and then huge thunderheads would accumulate until, finally, around 3 p.m., reverse winds out of the west (not the prevailing easterly wind) would put all of the boats on a lee shore. The wind speed was anywhere between 20-40 knots accompanied by large breaking waves traveling the length of the Golfo, some 20 miles. These squalls tended to last ½ hour to an hour and, although short, were vicious. Not fun but after awhile you saw the clouds starting to form and you got prepared. There were lots of flies and other bugs here as well. This place was not what we thought it was going to be but there wasn’t any crime and considered very safe so that was a big plus to us after what we had experienced in Margarita, for a time.
Every Saturday (supposedly) there was a “bus” that took any of the cruisers that wanted to go to the Cariaco market where we could buy provisions. We all stuffed ourselves into the back of some rickety truck that had been outfitted with hard benches in the bed and hung on tight for the bumpy, dusty hour long ride thru floods from the previous afternoons deluge and huge ruts left by large trucks trying to transit the dirt roads bringing necessary product to the remote villages. The market is very colourful with fresh produce, fresh fish complete with heads attached (we had no idea what kind of fish some of them were) and all sorts of hanging slabs of meat dripping blood on the concrete floor. Not exactly your gourmet neighborhood grocery store. The market is also noisy and confusing with the Venezuelan farmers yelling back and forth and loud traditional Venezuelan music blasting out of huge speakers. One elderly woman wearing an apron spattered in blood, holding a large meat cleaver and missing all of her teeth, sang a little Venezuelan ditty while standing beside a pen of live chickens (who seemed quite frantic), and holding a large meat cleaver. Kewl.
Of course, there isn’t any refrigeration at the market, so flies are having a field day all over the meat and fish and you have no idea how long it has been unrefrigerated for. Yum. With that in mind we bought a large amount of pork ribs for next to nothing (see pic, I look really confident in my purchases. LOL!). We did manage to find one store that had refrigeration and bought ground beef there. It’s difficult when you’re in a strange place and you don’t speak much of the language but it certainly was interesting. I got to practice my broken Spanish and between that and my ridiculous hand signals they seemed to understand what I was saying. Hey, how ‘bout that?
We hung out at Medregal for four weeks (your probably wondering why) as we were waiting for mail from Canada to reach us before we left. It took the full 4 weeks to arrive and once the mail showed up we hightailed it outta there. (To be fair the pool was cleaned the second week we were there and we did en joy it most afternoons.) We headed for Cumana for a short provisioning and diesel stop and then to Tortuga, one of the legendary out islands we had read and heard so much about.
We were in Cumana for two short days working as fast possible to get out of there as it is unsafe, and there were large rats and flying cockroaches at the marina where we MS was docked. Yuk. We made sure to keep MS locked up tight, which made it hot, but better that than the invasion of these nasty critters. We couldn’t wait to get out of the stifling heat of the Golfo and get out where the wind blows thru the cat and you can jump into clear turquoise water whenever you like. We had arranged to have MS hauled on the following Tuesday, in Carenero, which was further west down the coast of Vennie. That gave us 5 days to enjoy and hang at Isla Tortuga before the dirty, hot work would begin.
Again, we motored the entire 60 nautical miles to Tortuga, which laid to the north west of Cumana, as there was not a breath of wind. We arrived in the dark. This is a no no, but we were delayed getting diesel in Cumana that morning and couldn’t leave as early as we would have liked. Thankfully, Tortuga is a very straightforward approach. We couldn’t see anything of our surroundings when we arrived so we hit the hay and the next morning we were exhilarated to find ourselves in spectacular surroundings. An incredibly long white sand beach, azure waters, turtles poking their heads up to say hello and a very much-appreciated breeze. The first thing we did was jump in the water starkers. Woohoo! After the dark, murky waters of the Golfo and the stifling heat with no wind (except for the violent storms!) this was like heaven on earth.
For the next handful of days, we relished the beautiful scenery, snorkeled, kayaked, and generally just lolled about on noodles in the water or snoozed in the hammock. While we were snorkeling, we would poke our heads into all of nooks and crannies looking for lobster. Lobster are out of season in the summer months and so off limits but it still fun to spot their antenna sticking out of a hidey hole. We did notice the French boats were also snorkeling for lobster but they were taking them and enjoying lobster for lunch and dinner. That seems to be the French way from what we have seen in our travels as cruisers. The rules are in place for a reason to give the lobsters a chance to grow and become plentiful.
Sadly, it was time to leave this lovely place and sail southwest to Carenero to have MS hauled and commence the dirty hot job of antifouling the bottom. I won’t go into much detail about it except to say that we both worked very hard for 3 days to get back into the water as quickly as possible and we crashed every nite. The boatyard, Astillero de Higuerote was more than satisfactory, clean and professional and we were very happy with some gel coat work we had done (the price was excellent) and with the staff overall. If you ever find yourself in Vennie needing to haul your boat this place is worth checking out. As soon as we were finished we made tracks for Los Roques!
I will leave off here but stay tuned for log #i 16, Los Roques, out very shortly.
Ciao!

LOS TESTIGOS, ISLA MARGARITA & ISLA COCHE

2008-10-20T07:40:00.000-07:00

Log #14
Los Testigos, July 2, 2008 – Porlamar, Isla Margarita & Isla Coche, July 29, 2008
While still in Grenada we spent the last day provisioning for our sail to Los Testigos (The Witnesses), a small group of Venezuela’s out islands. Los Testigos is a stopping off point for boats headed to Isla Margarita, another island belonging to Venezuela, or traveling further east to Bonaire or Aruba. The cat was ready to rock and after a nap around dinner time we weighed anchor and hauled ”Bruce” out of the water at 8 p.m. for another over nite sail or, should I say, motorsail. Los Testigos is 80 miles south west of Grenada and is generally a light dead downwind sail and a westerly current helps to pick up our speed by a knot or so. We’re grateful for the bit of a current as downwind is not MS’s best point of sail and the wind is very light. Never the less, we hit a few squalls which gave us some wind and we could see the beautiful islands of Los Testigos on the horizon around 7 a.m. the next morning.
Even tho we take turns on watch every 3 hours we still spent our first day in Los Testigos catching up on sleep and generally taking it easy while watching the fishing boats go back and forth. Doug loves these colorful and sturdy pineros made of wood and he began to start mulling over ways to have one or two shipped home. Los Testigos has a small fishing village on the beach consisting of open air shanties which the locals live in. You don’t need a traditional home with walls here as the weather is quite hot and dry for most of the time. In any case, there certainly isn’t any air conditioning and walls would only block any breeze. You can see the hammocks blowing gently in the breeze under the roofs and the hammocks are the traditional “bed” and what everybody sleeps in. There’s a good reason for the hammocks; because the hammocks keep you suspended in air, you’re safe from scorpions, cockroaches (except flying cockroaches, eeek!), rats and potentially hungry dogs. (We learned the most comfortable way to sleep in a hammock is to sleep “kitty korner” instead of sleeping in a straight line. Sleeping in the hammock in a straight line would mean that you’re hanging with your spine like a banana, which as you can imagine can become uncomfortable.) Fishing is the main source of food and livelihood and the fish are quite plentiful. (I saw a couple of big shark heads on the beach in the sand! Surprised that they didn’t make a soup out of the head or some variation).We noticed the water here was beginning to become quite a bit cooler even tho we were getting closer to the equator at 10 degrees of latitude. The fresh water Orinoco River flows from the mainland of South America into the ocean, causing cooler water temps which in turn produce more plant life and fish. It was very refreshing and reminded us of our home waters on Georgian Bay, Lake Huron as the temp was about the same. Go figure.
We loved Los Testigos for its beauty and isolation and could have stayed there for weeks on end; however, yachts are usually only granted 3 days. We had checked in with the Guarda Costa (the Coast Guard has a small station here), as there isn’t a customs office due to the remoteness of the islands. The Guarda Costa felt inclined to give us 4 days and we were more than happy to enjoy the full 4 days of this little piece of heaven.
We hiked up a large hill (small mountain?) to the light which guides mariners in the nite and on our approach to the head of the trail we noticed a green parrot flying from tree branch to tree branch following us up the trail. He was quite curious about us and was getting closer and closer so I offered him some of my granola bar while he sat on the tree branch and he was more than happy to take it from me with his very strong looking beak. I needn’t have worried as before we knew it this friendly little creature was sitting on my head while we hiked up the trail. I maneuvered him quite easily from my head (didn’t want any little messes in my hair!) so that he sat on my wrist for the rest of the hike. We became quite fond of him and he stayed with us all the way to the top, even gently taking water from the cap of my water bottle. We thot that this pretty parrot was going to follow us back to the boat and we would have a new pet on board, much to Doug’s chagrin, but he flew away after we reached the very top never to be seen again. What a wonderful experience.
That same nite we hiked again over to the windward side of the island to the sand dunes. It is a beach as well but more of a very large sand dune at water’s edge and you feel a little like you’re on Mars. We were hoping to see some more turtles land on the beach to lay their eggs like we had in Grenada but we saw none. It was still a very kewl feeling being on this sand dune listening to the wave’s crash on shore in the dead of nite and being completely disoriented trying to find our way back to the path in the pitch dark.
Our 4 days had expired and it was time to leave this wonderful place and sail to Isla Margarita where we had some chores to accomplish, such as renewing our passports, which was one of the items on the list. Ugh. We could only imagine how much fun that would be, dealing with bureaucrats in Venezuela. Isla Margarita is a very popular vacation destination for wealthy Venezuelans from the mainland and people on holiday from all over the world as well. It would be interesting to see this place for apparently there were high rises, big malls and grocery stores. So, once again Bruce came out of the water early in the morning and we raised our sails among a small convoy of boats who wished to travel together for safety reasons. Piracy is a real problem in Venezuela, mostly off the coast of the mainland and around Isla Margarita, so it is recommended that boats travel together for safety in numbers and keep a sharp look out for any speeding pineros approaching the boats.
We got lucky and had a beautiful beam reach with winds of 14-16 knots on our sail to Isla Margarita. It was perfect conditions to get the fishing gear out. Doug had two lines off the scoops on the back and in no time he had a 30” Kingfish on the line. Kingfish are part of the Mackerel family and are great tasting white fish. This was the perfect size, as the bigger this type of fish gets the less flavourful it is. We got 12 nice size steaks from it and after we got anchored we enjoyed Kingfish for dinner and Kingfish cakes for lunch the next day too. And we shared some with the other boats in our convoy. That was nice of us.
We arrived in Porlamar, the capital of Margarita Island, on a Sunday and customs does not work weekends so we waited until Monday to check in. Many of the boats we had traveled with were going to use an agent to check in but we warned them against this. The agent tells people they must check in AND out of Margarita Island and charges for BOTH of these transactions. In fact, once you have checked in to Venezuela you are checked into the enitre country and there is no need to check out and then have to check in again at your next port. This is a big scam that has been going on for a long time and the official just pockets the dough. This was a fairly simple transaction that we had no problem completing ourselves. Venezuela is full of corrupt officials and you need to be informed before you go. Many of the yachties were being ripped off by this agent but some still did it anyway even tho they knew better.
We knew before we arrived that there had been a few dinghy thefts and “petty” piracy in Porlamar as we were able to read all about these on numerous cruisers websites that keep cruisers informed of crime against yachts, etc. We learned on our arrival, after talking with some of the boats that had been in the anchorage for awhile, that one boat with an older gentleman onboard had anchored in a no anchor zone (due to being piracy prone area) and woke up to several guns to his head and the pirates ransacked the boat and took everything electronic (laptop, vhf, etc.) and all of his cash, but not before pistol whipping him. Poor guy, he didn’t have any money to replace anything and we felt terrible for him. Another boater got off a little easier, minus the pistol whipping, although he said later he still feared for his life because the robber’s thot he must have had more money hidden somewhere and he wasn’t telling them where it was. They finally left. Even still, another boat had gone in to shore for happy hour (famous time for theft is the cocktail hour)and came back to find that although they had locked their boat up tight (good for them)and the thieves could not get in they still took anything that was loose on deck, fenders, lines, life raft etc. Life rafts are very expensive to replace. Outside of all these instances, there were many dinghy thefts every nite. These thefts were so common place that they weren’t being reported anymore. If you didn’t lift AND lock your dinghy with a sturdy steel chain you were sure to find it missing in the morn as we learned that the thieves had hydraulic (!!) bolt cutters. You can see in the pic how we lifted and locked our dinghy.
The next day we were able to check in ourselves minus the “agent” and without any fuss, while many of the other boats we traveled with encountered problems and had their passports held hostage until they coughed up more money for “fees”.
We needed to exchange our US dollars for Bolivars Fuente, the new Venezuelan currency that replaced the old Bolivar. You could exchange your money with a bank and get an exchange rate of 2 Bsf - $1 USD or you could change your money on the black market and get a much better rate, 3, 3.1 maybe even 3.5 Bsf - $1 USD. (before we left Venezuela we were getting 4.2 BsF -1 USD).The rich Venezuelans are trying to get their money out of Venezuela because of Chavez’s dictatorship and his penchant for taking over companies he wants against the owners/shareholders wishes. So, the wealthy Venezuelans are very willing to give better rate of exchange than the banks to have American currency. We had been referred to Alex to get the best exchange rate and once this transaction was completed, we decided to see the sites of Porlamar and get a feel for where everything is. Porlamar is a big, bustling city with high rises and lots of crazy hi speed traffic. The city has huge malls and busy streets with restaurants and bars, high fashion stores and low end stores. However, when you head to the outskirts of the city it becomes more like “Escape from New York” (I’m dating myself when I mention that movie). There are abandoned high rises everywhere you look, apparently the result of drug laundering, so we were told. Between the abandoned high rises, there was large overgrown construction sites littered with garbage which people were living amongst. We were told to avoid these areas at all costs as people often went missing when near these sites. Friends of ours had walked into the city and on their way a police car turned around to pick them and give them a drive to their destination rather than have them walk, as they were in a very unsafe area near one of these sites and the policia said “It was very dangerous place”.
If you are a regular reader of our logs you will know that I like to get off the boat everyday and go for a power walk/slow jog for some exercise. I was afraid to continue with my daily ritual here as we had been warned to never travel anywhere alone, particularly a female. I was able to find a safe area to walk after talking to many other cruisers but getting there was pretty dodgy and I walked often with Maria, Alex’s better half, and not alone. Crazee!
We got to know Alex very well and found out that he also offered other services such as translation, taxi service, laundry and basically whatever you need. We used his services to take us to the grocery store, help us get a SIM card for our world phone, and help us get our passport stuff organized. Alex and Maria were both born in Caracas (the capital of Venezuela) but Alex grew up in Fort Lauderdale so his English was perfect. Alex and his fiancé Maria became good friends or ours while in Porlamar and we will miss them.
After our day spent grocery shopping and running around we enjoyed a lovely dinner out and headed back to the cat for a night cap, then off to bed. For safety reasons all of the boats in the anchorage all monitor a channel on the VHF other than the main calling channel 16 radio at nite in case they need assistance of any sort. Shortly after we had drifted off to sleep we both woke up to woman’s voice on the radio calling for assistance as their catamaran had been boarded. The skipper and his wife were in shore having dinner and drinks while the lone, young, nanny was on board minding the babe who was asleep. The nanny was tied up with duct tape and tossed into the head while the assailant ransacked the boat looking for cash. He made off with quite a bit of money but thank God no one was hurt. This catamaran was anchored right beside us! There was very little we could do to help but we made sure that everyone was okay, offered our support and encouraged the people aboard to file a report with the officials in the morning.
We spent the next week or so tidying up some paperwork and numerous other tedious items that seemed to pop up during our stay. Doug went to see a dermatologist to have a couple of spots checked and the doc removed them, this cost $100 USD and there was no wait at all. Medical here is very cheap and young girls are getting breast implants for the sweet sixteen birthdays, a gift from their family, for a cost of $600US. Even the mannequins at the mall had breast implants it seemed! We couldn’t believe it when we went to the mall and saw the mannequins in the store front windows. It was a hoot or should I say hooters?! Let’s just say that Cap’n Doug sure enjoyed window shopping. (If the North American shops had these mannequins on display I am positive more men would be happy to go shopping with their wives!)
Doug was off the cat one morning running some more errands on shore while a large, strangely not forecasted, tropical wave piped up out of the south. Tropical waves are low pressure formations formed off the coast of Africa which are not yet organized but could become a tropical depression progressing into a hurricane. The anchorage in Porlamar is quite large and there were approximately 100 boats on anchor all surprised by the wave when it hit. Winds of 40 knots with gusts of 50 knots came ripping thru with heavy rain and, of course, as is often the case many boats started to drag. It’s a little nerve racking ensuring that your own boat doesn’t drag but there is a very little you can do about the boat anchored directly in front of you with no one aboard. Our Bruce held firm and so did the boat in front of us but boats on both sides of us dragged and many others I watched went sailing thru the anchorage smacking off boats as they went. One blue French flagged (go figure) mono hull in particular dragged right passed Andromeda (the cat which was boarded & ransacked previously) and, unbelievably, as the blue boat’s anchor dragged along the ocean floor it found Andromeda’s anchor chain. The weight of the boat being dragged caused it’s anchor to ride up not only Andromeda’s anchor chain but also the bridle and finally came to rest on the aluminum cross bar up near the trampoline of the cat. Now the weight of two boats in 40 knot winds with even stronger gusts was being held by only one anchor. I watched as, Michael, the skipper of Andromeda, tried in vain to get the anchor off of the cross bar using only his bare hands. Incredibly, he was able to get the anchor off but it had badly damaged the fiberglass on the bridge deck and the aluminum cross bar. Of course, no one was on board the mono hull and when the owners came back in the dinghy to where their boat had been they did not believe what had happened with their anchor riding up on Andromeda when they were told. They came to us and asked if in fact something like that did happen because it seemed so implausible but I told them I had seen it with my own eyes. And, lo and behold, the owners of the blue mono hull had no money and could not pay of the cost of the repairs to the cat. Nice….did I mention they were French? Andromeda had been thru so much already.
A few boats decided to sail to Isla Coche and hang out there for a week. Alex and Michael were hoping to get some kite surfing in and Coche is the perfect location and it’s just a short downwind sail from Porlamar. We enjoyed the lovely long white sand beach, resorts and the colourful wild parrots flitting to and fro. This is where we noticed the skimpy bikinis that the Vennie women wear. it didn't matter what your size big or small they all wore the g string bottoms.(see pic) We had dinner with Michael and Mary onboard Andromeda one nite, dinner onboard Amandla one nite with Fabio, and entertained on MS a couple of nites. One afternoon while at Coche, another tropical wave blew thru with winds out of the west this time leaving all of us on a lee shore. We all re-anchored to get a little further out while watching a Venezuelan power boat which not only dragged but their anchor broke off and they then became a serious problem for all of the boats but fortunately came to no real harm. These storms are quite powerful and reminded me of the large cells that hit in the hot afternoons in the summertime back home in Ontario. The heat and humidity builds all day and finally explodes. The storms are not long lasting but extremely violent in their intensity and these storms could also turn into tornados on the Venezuelan mainland or water spouts out on the water. Fun.
Meanwhile, Doug and I were going thru a very thoughtful period while in Coche where we had many lengthy discussions. We were very concerned about the level of crime in Venezuela and as we had only just arrived and already had been exposed to so much of it in Porlamar, we really felt uncomfortable continuing to stay in Venezuela until November, this being July. What’s the point of going to explore somewhere new if the entire time you are anxious and tense about being boarded and robbed, perhaps pistol whipped or worse? We seriously discussed sailing back north to the Virgins Islands (our home base) but in the end we decided that we would stand a better chance dealing with pirates with our alarms, locks and defensive strategies than trying to deal with the forces of Mother Nature and her hurricanes up north. We discussed this with Fabio on Amandla and he strongly encouraged us to stay, as he explained that once we got to the out islands of Venezuela (Tortuga, Blanquilla, Los Roques and Aves) it would be very safe, as they are 200 miles off the coast of mainland Venezuela, therefore seemingly out of reach of the bad guys, and extremely beautiful. Also, we felt it would be a terrible shame to miss them for Doug had spoken often of his desire to see Los Roques, and so, in the end we stayed. It was a wise choice, but we were still not completely happy with our final decision and discussed our strategies again, just like a fire drill, in the event of an attempted boarding so that we were as prepared as we possibly could be.
After our decision was made we sailed back to Porlamar to finish up with a few items before carrying on to the Golfo de Cariaco. We had arrived back to Porlamar on a Friday and it was the next day, Saturday, when the Captain from the vessel Stargazer was killed by a speeding pinero. Peter and his wife, Frederika, were dinghying back to their sailboat from the main dock, after provisioning for their trip to Tortuga the next morning. A 17 year old local boy talking on his cell phone while speeding thru the anchorage at 20 knots in his pinero ran over the dinghy and Peter suffered fatal head injuries from the propeller of the pinero and died at the hospital. Frederika was miraculously unhurt. Everyone in the anchorage was, naturally, very upset by this tragic accident and offered their help and support to the widow who was now alone with her sailboat in Venezuela. Our good friends, Hank and Joke on Zeevonk, took good care of Frederika until her two children flew in from Holland to be with her while they sorted everything out with the Venezuelan authorities and arranged to ship Peter’s body home. The young boy driving the pinero was being held in jail but for the charges against him to stick Frederika needed to remain in the country until the case was eventually heard. This could take many months and, understandably, Frederika wanted to fly home to be with her family and friends and to lay Peter to rest, besides it wouldn’t bring Peter back. She and her children made plans to store the boat and fly home but before they left, the majority of the boats in the anchorage, us included, wished to show their respect to the Captain by way of a dinghy parade around Stargazer while the family was on board, which is a traditional way to pay respects to Captain who has died. Afterward there was a small reception onshore.
It was terrible timing but the very day after Peter was killed by the speeding pinero, it was a local holiday honouring the fishermen, in which all of the fisherman in pineros covered with balloons and streamers motored thru the anchorage in a parade to the beach where they spent the day drinking, barbequing and listening to very loud music. At sundown, while very drunk they got back into their pineros and raced at very hi speeds thru the anchorage almost hitting anchored boats and came very close to hitting couple in another dinghy but instead swamping them. Last we had heard the “officials” had done nothing about the speeding pineros.
We spent another week in Porlarmar doing odd jobs and wrapping up some more paperwork. I couldn’t wait to leave Porlamar for not only was it nerve wracking due to the crime but Margarita is very hot and humid. It feels like a hot shower thru out the day and nite but at nite due to the cooler water temps very heavy dew would form all over the cat, heavy enough that it seemed as if it had rained. As result I was discovering mildew on everything. Every day I would go on the hunt for mildew and I found it. Where ever I spotted mold I would wipe it down with a heavy concentration of bleach, but even still I would discover it was in the hanging lockers, on our clothes, accent pillows, and all over the interior walls. What a nuisance.
We had everything on our list of things to do complete and we had plans to head to Golfo de Caricao on Wednesday but the Monday proved to be another interesting day in Porlamar with 6 gunshots fired on the docks. We learned that the policia had found 4 bad guys that they had been looking for at the marina and there was a “cops and robbers” shoot out while many people were eating their lunch at the restaurants located right near the docks. Everyone hit the decks…..so much for civilian safety. One of the bad guys was shot, one guy jumped in the water (not sure what became of him) and one guy was taken into custody and the fourth guy who was the driver got away. It was time to get out Dodge.
Well, that’s it for this log…..until next time….the next log will be more upbeat…..I promise…… fair winds.

CARRIACOU - GRENADA

2008-09-01T16:06:00.000-07:00

Carriacou, June 12, 2008 - Grenada, July 1, 2008

We had an uneventful trip to Carriacou (CARRY – a –koo), checked in at Hillsborough, the capital, and motored around to Tyrell Bay. Our Doyle guide book says “Carriacou is the only place where I have ever seen a pelican sitting on a buoy with a seagull on his head, both appearing quite content in the afternoon sun.”This really sums up the laid back pace of the island. Carriacou is renowned thru out the Caribbean for its boat building. The colourful Carriacou sloops with their long booms extending out over the stern are seen competing often in inter-island regattas.

We hooked up with our friends Mike and Kylie on “Meggie” once again as they were waiting for parts to arrive before they sailed to Venezuela. We enjoyed catching up with them again and I got to try some new-to-me traditional West Indian food on them; Stuffed Christophene au Gratin and fried plantains (credit for both of these recipes go to “Embarrassment of Mangoes” written by Ann Vanderhoof). It was delish and everyone loved it.

We enjoyed a couple of days in Tyrell Bay relaxing and doing odd jobs and practicing Spanish (for Venezuela) before sailing to Grenada. We had a great sail down the windward side of Grenada. It was blowing 22-25 knots, and we were on a broad reach to a run all the way averaging 8.5 knots and we saw 10 knots. We might have gone even faster if it wasn’t for all of the beer, wine and canned good stuffed into our lockers. We are pretty heavy right now as we continue to stock up for our trip to Venezuela as we have been told there are a few thing s that we might not be able to buy such as eggs, milk, flour, peanut butter (I know it’s hard to believe but PB is really only a North American phenomena), toilet paper, etc.

After our exhilarating sail we arrived at Prickly Bay where about 50 boats were anchored. We gave MS a good fresh water bath and then headed in just in time for Happy Hour. Beer; $3EC = $1US. WooHoo!

Next morning I went for my usual jog/walk combo and fell in love with Grenada, known as the “Spice Isle”. Grenada is a fairly well to do, pretty island that has a medical university that is well respected, a good infrastructure, and has become a favourite second home for the English who build large, elaborate homes here. Before Hurricane Ivan in 2004, Grenada also relied heavily on their spice exports, primarily nutmeg. Unfortunately, Ivan wiped out the nutmeg industry and Grenada lost its status as the world’s number one producer of nutmeg. This is slowly being rebuilt but it takes a very long time (12 years, I think) for a tree to mature enough to start producing the nutmeg again. I quickly noticed on my walk that the streets are very clean and I did not see garbage strewn around as I have seen in many other largely populated islands in the Caribbean.

We took the very inexpensive and frequent bus to a real mall (!!) the next day. We ate lunch in the food court! At home we would never dream of having lunch in a food court of a mall but we loved it here! There was even a KFC here. We hadn’t seen or ate fast food in so long it was a real treat. We went to an I.G.A. (!!) grocery store. I was so excited I wanted to buy everything that I hadn’t seen for so long but we had to take the bus back to the boat and we couldn’t carry very much…..but I would be back with a BIG list before we left. We hit the St. Georges fish market too. We had never seen fish so big and the ladies that hawked the fish were also very impressive. They could have won arm wrestling contests with the biggest, strongest guys we know but they were all real sweeties.

The next day we arranged to do an island tour with Cuddy’s Taxi & Tours. Cuddy is a local fellow who is very proud of his island. He picked us up and 6 others at 8 a.m. and he spent a very full day showing all of us around in his very well cared for recent model van. As we drove around the island to each destination Cuddy would tells us the history of the island and its people. Grenada does not get hit by hurricanes very often, every 50 years or so it seems, and the island was once considered to be out of the hurricane belt by insurance companies but that is no longer the case since Ivan in 2004. Cuddy told of us of the devastation Ivan left behind and we took pics of many buildings (churches, schools, etc.) that were demolished. Cuddy also explained which buildings the different countries donated money and supplies to help rebuild. As we are Canadian he thoughtfully pointed out each building in particular that we financed or our volunteers helped to rebuild which made us very proud of our country (turns out it’s true! Everyone really does love and respect the Canadian people). Our tour was reminiscent of Dominica in that Cuddy would pull over and grab fruit or spice from a bush or tree by the road side and share with everyone in the van. Pretty much every spice you can think of grows wild here; cinnamon, nutmeg & mace, cloves, turmeric, saffron, cilantro/coriander, lemon grass, cocoa, etc. I am sure to have forgotten some.

Cuddy took us first to Annandale Waterfalls which are not very high but they are breath taking to see. The foliage is incredibly beautiful (we took lots of pics) and because of this beauty it feels magical which was made even more so by the South American nuns who were visiting at the same time (kewl!). We met the longtime resident, a Mona monkey, who loved attention and getting her fur stroked. She was beautiful and very friendly and I could have hung out with her all day. All of the cute, well mannered, primary school children, wearing their uniforms loved to touch and pet her also.

On our drive around the island Cuddy pointed out small houses of no more than 150 square feet made of clapboard and explained to us that some were called “Janet Houses” and newer ones were called “Ivan Houses”. These houses were built as temporary shelter for people who were left homeless after Hurricane Janet went thru in the ‘50’s and then Hurricane Ivan in ‘04. However temporary they might have been people still live in them today. Cuddy told us how he grew up in a Janet house with 15 other siblings!! Thank goodness for a tropical climate as they would not all have fit into the house at one time as there is room only for a small cooking area and perhaps one cot.

Cuddy drove us thru the rainforest to Grenville, Grenada’s second largest town, where we enjoyed a traditional West Indian lunch of roti, lambie (conch), and jerk chicken with Carib beer. After lunch we walked thru the town of Grenville past many colourful fruit stands and fish roti stands to a nutmeg processing plant. We learned how the nutmeg is processed by removing the mace from the nutmeg and drying the mace and nutmeg separately. The plant used to employ 140 island locals but since Ivan only 12 people still work there. It was fascinating to see but we left feeling a little saddened. You could hear the pride in our guide’s voice when he showed us around the plant. We could also see how saddened he was that Grenada no longer holds the title of the largest producer of nutmeg in the world. Number one now is Thailand and it will take Grenada a long time to regain their title.

After the nutmeg plant Cuddy took us to River Rum Distillery, one of the only rum distilleries that still operate the old fashioned, traditional way. It was interesting to see the sugar cane get pressed using the ancient water wheel and seeing the juice be extracted via this method. Then the juice is boiled in large vats and then left to ferment until it turns into rum. River Rum Distillery produces a number of types of rum, very strong alcohol content (probably tastes close to white lightning!), and a sweet rum punch not to mention a few others in between.
On the way back to our drop off point Cuddy stopped at a volcano lake atop of a mountain (old volcano actually). The lake looked serene and it was hard to imagine how it would have boiled with heat. Needless to say after all of our adventures of the day we were happy to get back to the cat and put our feet up after an especially rewarding day of learning about this wonderful island and its people.

Grenada was in the middle of an election during our stay there with the Election Day falling on July 8th. It seemed everybody had a strong opinion on who should win the election. The ruling party had been in power for 15 years and it seemed the bulk of the population was ready for a change. Cuddy explained to us that the existing Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Mitchell, had just been indicted in an international court in New York City for a number of illegal transactions. Also, apparently, there were many other events that had angered the Grenadians; such as stealing money from the country’s coffers to make side deals, for which he had been caught red handed, and also to pay for fancy Escalades and trips to Europe. In fact, if the ruling Prime Minister did not win this election there was talk that he would leave the country and hide as he would have to answer the charges against him in the international court. After 15 years of this corruption people were ready for the “yellow party” to replace the “green party”. It was interesting to listen to the different views and to see all of the BBQ’s and festivities people attended almost daily to support their party. Cuddy’s favourite phrase was “You can’t enjoy a green banana until it turns yellow!” People were also replacing “Hello” with “Yellow” everywhere we went. It was quite humorous.

After a couple of days at Prickly Bay we decided to move over to Hog island anchorage which is a favourite of many cruisers. It is not necessarily beautiful but it is very safe in bad weather due to the reefs that surround the island and the mangroves that boats can tie to if necessary. There is also a real feeling of community. Roger is a local fellow who has a beach bar and hosts many parties, including every Sunday a beach BBQ for all of the cruisers. On Wednesday’s its BBQ hamburger nite at Clarks Court Marina which is just a short dinghy ride away. Plus Clarkes Court Marina hosts the ever important Happy Hour every day, which is always very well attended. LOL!

We had just arrived at Hog Island and got ourselves settled when we overheard a Mayday call on the radio. The female voice sounded very close to us and when we looked out the cockpit we could see a large, dark hulled boat up on the reef just outside of the anchorage. In short order we were in our dinghy and headed out to the boat along with about 10 other dinghies who had also heard the Mayday call. Once we got there we could see that there was very little we could do to help. The boat need to be towed off the reef and none of the dinghies had the engine power to tackle it, plus the breaking waves were dangerous for all of us as well. All of the dinghies hung around the boat in case we needed to rescue the people from the boat. It was very upsetting to see this beautiful yacht being pounded on the reef. “Bontekoning” is a 70’ Dutch flagged, dark hulled, replica boat that had 4 people on board wearing life jackets and the two women were hanging on for dear life while the two men were scrambling around the deck trying to throw lines to the dinghies to try and tow the yacht off. Finally, a large inflatable from one of nearby marinas arrived with towing capability and between the inflatable towing and Bontekoning raising her sails they were finally, after 30 minutes or so, able to pull her off the reef to deeper water. She no longer had steering but was not taking on water. This was a real testament to the tough hull of that yacht and the boat builder. After many, many calls to the Grenadian Coast Guard they finally arrived and towed the yacht to Prickly Bay where she could be hauled out to for repairs. (See pics of boat on reef)

After all that excitement we were all ready for a cold drink and it was Sunday so that meant Roger was hosting his Sunday Beach BBQ. It was nice to meet all of the people who had come out to help Bontekoning and we were proud of the response of all of these people who dropped everything to try and help Bontekoning. What goes around comes around. Someday we may be in need of help and we hope people will help the way all of these people had. So we toasted ourselves and talked about how wonderful we were for the rest of the evening. LOL!
We had been told that while we were in Grenada we must see the leather back turtles come to nest and lay their eggs. The best place to do this was Levera Beach on the north eastern shore of the island. It is best to see the turtle at nite as this is the turtle’s favourite time to come out of the crashing surf (they seem to always prefer the windward beaches) and haul their great bulks up the beach until they find “the spot” and begin to dig in the sand with their back flippers. Our turtle was the size of our 12 foot dinghy and we estimated that she weighed 800-900 pounds. Her head was the size of basket ball. We all quietly watched, careful not to make any noise as she dug her nest. This is truly amazing as if you have ever tried to dig a hole in the sand as it always caves in on itself but she scoops out the sand very carefully and it never caves in. She digs until she can no longer feel the sand to move it out of the hole. This hole is about as long as your arm and quite narrow. When she is done the hole she begins to lay her eggs. The first 40 eggs or so look like ping pong balls but in reality they are not fertilized eggs at all. They are meant to cushion the fertilized eggs that are laid next. She will then lay as many as 145 fertilized eggs at one time! The turtle will come to shore three times during the season to lay her eggs and she will not lay all of her eggs at once. You know the old adage, “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket”, in this case, nest. After she has laid her eggs she will put more of the “ping pong eggs” on top again to cushion the real eggs and then she commences to cover up her handiwork with sand. This whole process can take many hours. We were not allowed to take photos as the light would distract her and cause her to go back into the ocean without laying her eggs. The eggs would then never be hatched as she would not try again to lay them again. We were very excited to see two teeny tiny hatchlings (no bigger than a half dollar) struggling to make their way to the ocean surf. It is hard to believe that these tiny little creatures can become the size of a Big Momma. Unfortunately, they don’t stand much of a chance of survival. The birds eat them and the fish eat them. They’re lucky if they even get that far as the locals eat them before they are even hatched. Turtle eggs are considered to be a delicacy even tho the turtles are nearing extinction. An animal that has survived 65 million years (since the dinosaurs) is almost extinct. It is hard to believe. It takes 2500 hatchlings for one to survive. That’s not very good odds, is it?

While we were at Hog Island it just so happened that my birthday was fast approaching (as it does every year!).I was turning 40 (eek! where did all of the time go?) and it turned out that John from “Sea Witch”, who was turning 65, shared the same birthday. What a great excuse for the anchorage to have a party. We held a big potluck party on the beach complete with karaoke and birthday cake. What more could you ask for?

The next day after the birthday party we had another party we planned to attend at the Friday nite Fish Fry in Gouyave. Every Friday nite Grenada celebrates the fishermen by hosting a street party with street vendors filling the streets selling fried fish, boiled fish, steamed fish, fish soup, fish pizza, (many different types of fish, cooked every which way you can think of), callaloo soup, land crabs (!!) in many different recipes, shrimp stir fry, coo coo (Caribbean style polenta made with corn meal and fried), and of course, lots of rum. It was a fun party and we ate a little bit from each vendor trying all kinds of interesting food. We weren’t too sure about the land crab pasta with the callalloo sauce, however. The meat from the body of the crab is removed and used in the recipe as well as the little crabby legs which were quite crunchy and a bit finicky to get the meat out of.

We had been in Grenada for one month and tho we would have liked to have stayed longer in this beautiful, friendly island it was time to move on to Venezuela.

We had made sure we had loaded the cat with items that we were told we could not purchase in Venezuela and we made plans for an over nite passage to Los Testigos (The Witnesses).

Stay tuned for the next log all about Los Testigos and Margarita Island, Venezuela. Till that time, fair winds.

Just a quick note, while we were in Grenada Doug thought he would convert all of the heads over to electric from manual. What great news for all of our guests who could never quite master the manual pump toilets. Good news for Doug too as he would not have to unplug heads anymore!

MAYREAU - UNION ISLAND

2008-08-16T05:06:00.000-07:00

June 6, 2008 Mayreau – June 11, 2008 Union Island

After a breezy, short sail from Canouan we arrived at Salt Whistle Bay, Mayreau. This was one of the prettiest anchorages we had seen as yet. Unfortunately, other boats thot the anchorage was nice as well, as the little bay was pretty full, but we managed to find a good spot. Salt Whistle Bay is a half moon shaped bay lined with palm trees around the white sandy beach. Behind the beach we could just barely make out thatch roofs that belonged to Salt Whistle Bay Club, a private resort that was not very busy as June is off season. A short path thru the towering palm trees brought us to the windward side of the island with a long beach that collects driftwood that wash ashore and is great for shelling.
Mayreau does not have running water (similar to many of the smaller Caribbean islands) and so they collect rain water in large drums visible beside the house or in back. This also means that any sewage runs downhill in the gutters lining the streets headed for the ocean. The island only got electricity in 2005 and so those who can afford appliances are making good use of it. The main source of employment is tourism due to Salt Whistle Bay Club resort but this sector is growing as the locals are beginning to cater to the cruisers who show up. The locals also fish for their dinner and will sell their catch as well. The guide book had warned us against giving our garbage to any locals who come around in pinieros/pirogues to collect yachties garbage as they do not have any means of disposing the garbage and they will just dump it in the bush. We saw this in many places on the island. What a shame.
We heard that the little village was worth seeing to so we started hiking up a very steep road to the other side of the island and we noticed a cemetery were all of the locals who died on the island were buried. We could see very clearly the families that could afford to bury their family member in a certain fashion or those who could not, and simply dug a shallow grave and covered the body with stones without a marker. There are no grave diggers or groundskeepers in the islands and so the families and their friends all help to dig the grave and build the tombstone or encasement. We walked on a little further and found a very simple but pretty Catholic church, the religious hub of the island, that had a spectacular view of the Tobago Cays, where we were going next.
The locals live in very simple homes, and there were goats and islands dogs everywhere. I just happened to have a bagful of dog treats with me (this is where Doug rolls his eyes) and the island dogs enjoyed them, so did the goats (no surprise there as goats eat everything) but the birds were eating them as well. We came across a very colourful restaurant, like the guide book says the building is “much like an ongoing art form of construction” and the restaurant is a fave hangout for cruisers and locals alike. We thot “Righteous and the Youths” was a perfect place to grab a cold beer and hopefully shoot the breeze with the popular Rastafarian, “Robert the Righteous”, who owns the restaurant. Robert is known as welcoming, friendly and someone with whom you can have a serious discussion on just about any topic. He proved to be all of these things and we enjoyed meeting him very much and could easily see how he influences the local youths to stay out of trouble and make a good life for themselves.
Each evening at Salt Whistle Bay “Walter the Bread Man” comes around in his colourful wooden piniero (pin-yer-o) to each boat taking orders for the next morning’s delivery of fresh baked baguettes which are delivered just in time for morning pots of hot coffee and the baguettes are warm enough that the butter still melts on each slice. Walter’s wife works hard very early every morning to fill the orders and put a little bit of money into the kitty at home. We gladly tried to help out. After our baguette, Rene on Gypsy Blues offered to show us how to crack coconuts. This was a great chance for Doug to try out his never before used machete. Should I be concerned? Rene, Cheryl, Doug & I all traipsed back thru the tall palm trees and started selecting our coconuts for cracking, that is, until the groundskeeper for the Salt Whistle Bay Club very sternly told us we were on private property and should not be there. In short order and after a little schmoozing, “Nicholas”, was showing us just how to crack the perfect coconut and sharing all kinds of great coconut recipes with us. We also had a chance to enjoy an very good impromptu kite surfing show on the beach by some other cruisers before we lifted the anchor and headed to Tobago Cays which are only 3 miles away.
The Tobago Cays are a small group of deserted islands protected by a large reef in the shape of a Horseshoe, hence called Horseshoe Reef. The islands are perfect for windsurfers, kite surfers, hobie cats, pretty much any wind propelled vessel as there are is very little wave action. The reef also protects against any large swells which make for comfortable anchoring, especially for mono hulls, but boats still receive a lovely breeze. On every small island there is a pretty white sand beach with palm trees. When you stick your head outside of your cabin hatch in the morning all there is to see is wide open ocean. The Cays also make for some pretty spectacular star watching at nite as there is no light pollution. One of our favourite things to do after dinner is lay up on the trampolines on the front of the cat and watch for falling stars, of which there are always a few.
The Tobago Cays are a national park and hopefully will remain as they are now, which is undeveloped. It would be terrible shame to see these islands become resorts. The water is so clear and aquamarine here you can’t wait to jump in. The reef is mostly dead but it is still an incredible area to swim, snorkel and relax. Snorkeling for coral and all of the fish that live amongst the coral is not the best, but there are still lots of turtles and rays (both my personal faves). We enjoyed swimming with the turtles in a buoyed off swim area that the turtles just love. There were quite a few there and we got some great underwater pics.
After spending a few leisurely days in the cays we reluctantly lifted “Bruce” up and set sail for Clifton, the capital of Union Island. We entered Clifton Harbour, which is surrounded by another reef, to load up on fresh fruit and veggies as we heard this was the place to do this with the local ladies and their colourful stands all competing for your Eastern Caribbean dollar. The selection of produce was just as good as it had been in Bequia at the Rasta Market and the women were almost as aggressive so I did the same thing I did in the Rasta market. I bought a little bit from each vendor and that seemed to make everyone happy.
We had noticed what was left of a large boat that was in small pieces on the shoreline in the harbor and we learned from the locals that it had been washed up on a reef and this was all that was left of her. All of the other cruisers had also seen the “boat” on the shore and everyone was picking thru the pile looking for boat parts and spare bits of hardware. Typical cruisers. LOL! Everyone is finding all of the little pieces that would cost a pretty penny at the marine stores and there is my Doug doing the same. He wants lifelines off the boat so that we can make some stainless steel locks for our kayaks, that way, no one can steal them off the deck of the cat. This was important as we would be in Venezuela soon where boat crime is pretty bad. One of the locals decided that Doug is “stealing” and should be hauled off to the police. All of the other cruisers are slinking away with their goodies while my guy might end up in a Caribbean jail….great….just great. After some heated discussion with numerous locals and lots of apologizing on Doug’s behalf, he dinghied back to the boat perturbed that he never got those lifelines and a little more perturbed that the other cruisers took off like kids caught in a candy store leaving him to hold the bag of candy. We were both happy that was all that happened.
After that little bit of fun, we both noticed a very kewl island out in the middle of the reef just outside of Clifton Harbour with palm trees and we could see thru our binoculars a big sign that said “Happy Island”. That was just what the doctor ordered right then. We dinghied on over for a little look see and were happy to discover a local Rasta named Janti is operating a bar and restaurant here on the island he created from conch shells, sand and palm trees. This is the perfect place to take your dinghy to, snorkel around the reef surrounding the bar and then enjoy sundowners. If you let Janti know in advance he will have lobster dinner ready for you too! What a difference people can make in your life as we limed with Janti and enjoyed a few rum punches. It was hard to leave Happy Island and we can’t wait to get back there and lime with Janti again.
We took Bruce out of the water again and motor sailed to Chatham Bay were we planned on hangin’ out for a few days before making way to Tyrell Bay on Carriacou. Around the southwestern tip of Union to Chatham Bay we go. Chatham Bay is on the lee side of Union and is a very large protected anchorage surrounded by a lovely sand beach where no one lives except a few locals on the beach in open air huts. One of the local guys we met right away was Bobby, as he paddled out to the cat on his surf board, a really nice young local fellow. He offered to put together a beach BBQ for all of the yachts in the bay and if we needed anything else he made himself available to us.
We decided to poke our heads in on the locals living on the beach and see if anything was happening with them. We met Bobby again and he introduced us to few of his friends. One of these fellows was named “Pleasure the Guitar Man”. We both thot this was quite funny and thot perhaps we should come up with similar names for ourselves. It turned out the Pleasure should really have been called “Wood Man the Carver” as he carved lovely images out of the local trees. One of them in particular caught my eye and we couldn’t help ask about it and its “unusualness”. Pleasure (we learned his real name is Darius) told us this was a carving of his grandfather who has now gone to meet his maker but has never been forgotten as for his virility and popularity with the ladies and as a result fathered many, many children all by different women. This gave Darius a great deal of pride having descended from such great stock.LOL! This unfortunately is how most of the local males think on the islands we have been to. They father many children by many different women who ensure their masculinity and then they go live on a beach somewhere and never see their kids, help to raise them or give any money….but I digress. Doug and I both felt that this carving would be great conversational piece on Mustang Sally as well as a good representation of the local Caribbean male culture. We asked what the carving of his Grandfather might be called and we learned that it has two names. First being “Grandfather” which of course made a lot of sense and actually the second name also made a lot of sense once you gazed upon the carving…..”Tird Leg Man”. The locals had dropped the “H” in third and we in our juvenile minds thot it was quite comical. see pic. Anyway, now Tird Leg Man has a place of honour on MS. We hosted a potluck appetizer party on MS that same nite so that everyone could admire Tird Leg Man and there was a few smart quips smattered thru out the nite about our new acquisition. Tom and Sharon from “Sojourn”, Dave and Donna from “Magic”, Dave and Michelle from “Daniel’s Story” and last but not least, Rene and Cheryl from “Gypsy Blues” all attended the premiere gala event.
The next morning we had plans to sail to Tyrell Bay, Carriacou which is actually part of Grenada, the most northerly island. Before we left, tho, Doug went on a dive with Dave the Diving Dude from Magic. Dave and his wife Donna have been diving for 30 years all over the world…..the Red Sea in the Med was their favourite place. Doug very enjoyed his dive with Dave who likes to poke at eels and other disgusting creatures but was mainly on the hunt for a really big grouper he had spotted the afternoon before but, alas, the big fat grouper failed to make an appearance and the boys came back empty handed. Once Doug was back on board we checked out of The Grenadines and headed for Carriacou where our friends on Meggie were hanging out.
Till next time…fair winds.

ST. LUCIA TO MUSTIQUE

2008-07-24T12:49:00.000-07:00

St. Lucia, May 26, 2008 – Mustique, June 3, 2008
After Martinique we had a great sail to St. Lucia and we were very close hulled and saw 10.2 knots. Woo Hoo!! Mustang Sally had salt water all over her when we arrived in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia. St. Lucia is known for being mountainous and lush, with many beautiful white sand beaches. The large island has rainforests at the highest peaks and then gives way to agricultural land. St. Lucia is a famous for the Pitons which are sheer rock faces which seemed to have shot straight out of the ocean depths in a violent volcanic reaction. Petit Piton is 2600’ high while the Gros Piton tops her smaller sister at 2600’. We would be anchoring amongst the Pitons in a few days after we had provisioned (again!) in Rodney Bay.
We purchased lots of beer and wine and some food too!! Enuf to see us thru for awhile as St. Lucia is the last place to provision until St. Vincent, which we would be skipping due to the crime there. So we would not be provisioning again until we arrived in Grenada, a few weeks away. Lucky for me I did not have to buy much in the way fo fruits and veggies as Gregory “The Fruit Man” motored over to us in his boat of many colours, covered in colouful flags of many different nations but other than that the boat was pretty rickety and we could not believe he travels around the island in it. We both realized that Gregory was more expensive than buying at the store but this was an “experience” and part of the thrill of our adventures.
We got MS loaded up and then off we went the next morning to beautiful Marigot Bay, a short 9 nautical mile motor sail. Doug had been to Marigot Bay many years ago (something like 20 yrs) and he had told me how beautiful it had been back then and he was curious to see if it still looked the same. Marigot Bay is truly gorgeous, however, it is a Moorings charter base now and therefore this once fairly undeveloped spot is now a busy hub with “Discovery Harbour” developments which consists of high end restaurants, shops and villas which are quite nice (hey! I like to shop and eat out as much as the next gal) but ruin the natural beauty of this place. Locals certainly can’t afford to eat at the restaurants or shop at the boutiques. At least it provides employment. One after another day charter boats sail in and out of the anchorage as well, so we found it a little too busy for us to stay any more than one day. We prefer secluded anchorages but this was getting increasingly harder and harder to find the further south we went. I must say, however, that we were more than happy that evening to enjoy Happy Hour 2 for 1 drinks (wish they would bring Happy Hour back at home in Canada!). We went to a couple of different establishments and the last one we sampled “J.J.’s Love”, a very strong rum concoction. Let’s just say at the end of that drink I didn’t know who J.J. was but I sure did love him!
Next morning we were on our way to the famous Piton’s located at the southern end of the island, to anchor over nite before sailing to Bequia in The Grenadines where our friends, Meggie and Gypsy Blues, were anxiously awaiting our arrival. We could see the Pitons well before we arrived at them. They are ginormous, monolithic, awe inspiring spectacles. We took a mooring between the Pitons as there is no anchoring as the depth is too great. You can imagine if these rocks shoot straight up from the ocean floor at these heights that the water depth would not be too shallow. We soon learned, however, that there is another very important reason to take a mooring and not to anchor (that is, if you trust the mooring that you are on). The Chris Doyle guidebook said something about wind gusts and current here but they do not go into much detail. Well, a gentle breeze would be caressing MS and then out of nowhere wind gusts on the range of 40-50 knots would hit the cat tugging on her mooring and making the rig shriek. Everything that was not tied down had to be put inside before it blew off the cat. I was sure that we would break free from the mooring and be thrown on to the rocks at the base of the Pitons. In addition to these powerful blasts of wind, an opposing current would push MS on to her mooring ball. It was very worrisome but we soon realized we were safe and so began to enjoy the spectacular scenery and to some extent the wind gusts. It made for a tough nite of sleep tho as every wind gust felt as tho we were coming free of the mooring and we would get up to double check our lines occasionally thru the nite.
Early the next morning (6 a.m. eeek!) we said good bye to the beautiful Pitons and freed MS from her mooring. We kept looking back amazed at the Pitons size and I got a great shot of Lady Katherine, a fellow cat, leaving the Pitons shortly after we did. The pic shows how enormous they are and how teeny lady Katherine looks by comparison.
We pointed MS into the wind, Doug raised our huge mainsail (he is getting big muscles!), we returned MS to our course setting and let the jib out and off we went. We sailed the windward side of St. Vincent with no plans to stop there for the crime is too great. Far too many boat boarding’s, dinghy thefts and troubles on land as well. The island looked great, however, from 2 miles off shore. We had a good romp down the coast line and sailed into the islands again near the south shore of St. Vincent rounding the northern tip of Bequia. Once in the lee of the island the wind dropped to nothing. No worries, a short motor and we would be there, and we were! We arrived at 2 p.m. in the afternoon. Enough time to check in with customs, have a swim and then sundowners with our buds. As soon as we got our anchor set, Gypsy Blues called on the VHF and invited us for a Cheryl’s birthday dinner… how did beef tenderloin sound? We have great friends!
Next morning I went for an exploratory power walk….whew! It was tough. Lots of steep hills but many beautiful cottages with flowers everywhere, lots of big smiles and hellos from the locals and I detected a real laid back vibe. The British love Bequia, with good reason, and they owned many charming cottages dotted all over the island. I was happy to be here.
We headed into the famous Bequia Rasta Market that we had heard so much about. Some cruisers had told us they would not shop there as the Rasta’s were far too pushy and they felt intimidated but my good friend Kylie on Meggie said they were awesome and had the best produce going. Doug and I thot we would check it out for ourselves. Wow! What a riot of colour! I hadn’t seen this much fruit and veggies in ages. Each Rasta had his own table full of colour. And the quality was great. Huge avocados, green oranges (yes, green but they taste just like oranges at home! kewl), lots of fresh herbs, (yippee, it had been a while since I had had fresh basil), big, beautiful, red tomatoes without any blemishes, christophene (looks like a green pepper on the outside but tastes & looks like a cucumber on the inside), bananas, the sweetest pineapple we’ve ever had, etc. All of this produce is grown in St. Vincent and shipped by ferry every day. The Rasta’s were fun to deal with. Yes, a wee bit intimidating, but we bought a little from each vendor (one was named Mr. President cuz he looked like a black Abe Lincoln!) and when we caught flak for not buying from a particular vendor I promised him we would be back again and we would buy from him. I told them we were “spreading our love” around. The Rasta’s all seemed happy with that. I am sure we overpaid for our purchases but they seemed very reasonable in comparison with prices at home and it was a wonderful, fun experience.
That nite we had a little reunion party on MS that went on well into the nite and I must say I wasn’t feeling my best the next day. We went for a lovely hike with Mike and Kylie over to Industry Bay on the windward side of the island. I don’t know why they call it Industry Bay as there isn’t anything like industry there at all. Just palm trees, wind, waves and one very kewl, relaxing place to get a cold beer. We watched some local guys climb up the palm trees and cut the coconuts off and crack them open offering us all some of the tasty coconut water inside. You have to be careful with coconut water as it is a natural diuretic and we still had a long walk back! That would not be fun.
After a few more days of the idyllic lifestyle in Bequia we said good bye to Meggie who was on their way to Carriacou, which is part of Grenada but an island just north of it. We sailed along with Gypsy Blues to Mustique, home of the very rich and very private. It was a beautiful 12 mile sail where we took a mooring ball and headed in straight away to the world famous Basil’s Bar for cocktails. Mustique is truly beautiful but unfortunately for us paupers it is also very expensive so one drink at Basil’s for us and back to Gypsy Blues for dinner and drinks.
Next day we had arranged for a waiter named Ozzie from Basil’s Bar to give us a “real” island tour not one of the canned tours everyone else was getting. Ozzie drove us around the island in a “mechanical mule” which is a cross between a tractor and a golf cart and this was the de riguer way to travel on the island. We learned from Ozzie as he drove that Mustique is privately owned by “Mustique Group”, which we assumed the wealthy land owners on the island own large shares of and have all of the say in how the island looks and is managed. Any locals who live on the island have homes provided for them by the company and all of the houses are very nice. They have many staff that keep the island beautiful, free of garbage, with flowers and palm trees all well manicured. The beaches are even raked! The locals all have jobs working for the company with the exception of the fishermen but all of their catch is bought by the fancy restaurants every morning. The island locals have the very best health care provided for by the company. There is a school for the local island children who receive a wonderful education. This is a real gift to these island’s locals as many of the other islands can only afford to send their children to school until grade 6 or sometimes less. The founder of Maxim magazine, who lives on the island, donated the public library. The Mustique Company has hired the best of the best to run and operate the island, for instance they have telecommunications experts, engineering experts, security experts, etc. to keep the island running ship shape. Mustique is definitely in its own beautiful little world.
Ozzie drove us past mansions and told us how Mustique gained notoriety in the ‘50’s when the late Princess Margaret vacationed here. As he drove us past mansions Ozzie would stop the “mule” and tell us who lived there or some local gossip about the people. It was fascinating to be a voyeur but we never went on any private property. We drove past Mick Jagger’s residence, Tommy Hilfiger’s beautiful home; the founder of AOL’s huge mansion, Magic Johnson has a multi level house overlooking the ocean under construction, Lance Armstrong rides his bike on the pretty island roads, Bryan Adams has property here and so does fellow Canadian Shania Twain who rides horses at the equestrian centre. There are far too many rich and wealthy people to list. Just know this…. when Ozzie was driving us back from beautiful Macaroni Beach Tommy Hilfiger and his daughter drove past us not more than 3 feet away! How kewl is that! Apparently, according to Ozzie, Tommy’s daughter has just finished a rehab program….again. Who knew? LOL! This place is too much….wish we had some.
Next day we had plans to sail to Canaoun….tell you all about that next log. Till next time fair winds…..

DOMINICA TO MARTINIQUE

2008-07-10T14:29:00.000-07:00

May 19, 2008, Dominica – May 25, 2008, Martinique

We left Iles Des Saintes after checking out with customs and had another great sail to Portsmouth, Dominica (Dom-a NEEK-ah). We both kept a sharp eye on the surface of the water scanning for water spouts as this stretch was a favourite playground for whales and although we had seen many dolphins we hadn’t seen any whales… yet.
We were excited to be heading to Dominica as we had heard many wonderful things about the island. Our guide book says that if Christopher Columbus were to come back to the Caribbean islands today, Dominica would be the only one he recognized as it still looks very much like it did when he landed. Dominica has not been developed and remains incredibly lush and tropical. The island consists of jagged mountain peaks and deep valleys, rainforests, and waterfalls, along with a boiling lake (kewl!) and numerous crater lakes. There are birds, butterflies, and lots of brightly coloured flowers in abundance. The high mountains attract clouds which mean many quick rain showers but there is also a lot of sunshine which results in many rainbows, as we soon learned. Although we were still far out from the island, we could see huge clouds that covered the mountain peaks. It was an impressive sight as the dark, ominous clouds rolled down the mountain seemingly to engulf Mustang Sally as we approached the most northern city, Portsmouth, and this island that we had heard so much about.
One of the “boat boys”, which we had heard so much about from other yachties, raced out to Mustang Sally in his colourful pirogue with big outboard engines, while we were still about 2 miles from the anchorage. We were a little nervous as we had heard that boat boys can be very aggressive in that they want you to take a mooring ball from them, use them as an agent to check in with customs, buy produce from them, use them as a water taxi, etc. all for a fee. We do these things ourselves and it doesn’t cost us anything that way. However, our travel guide had given us names of reputable boat boys and explained how these guys arrange tours, take your laundry to get washed and return it, and deliver groceries to your boat and numerous other necessities for “yachties”. Eddison was our boat boy and I checked the guide and he was listed as one of the reputable ones to deal with. We yelled at Eddison from our boat to his while still sailing that we would be dealing with him for anything we needed done and once we got anchored we could talk more to him. A little later another boat boy listed in the guide approached us but we felt that we should deal with Eddison as he was the first to approach us and he had motored all the way out to meet us.
Once we were anchored, Eddison came over to the cat and we chatted a bit with him and found him to be smart, helpful and courteous. He was happy to take the beer offered by Doug as well. We made arrangements to do a river tour with him the next morning and a land tour with his friend Boudha in the afternoon, all for a very reasonable price.
We put our dinghy in the water and motored over to customs, which was on the big commercial jetty where bananas and all sorts of other local produce get shipped to other countries by boat. The customs office was located in a pretty tough wharf area and we weren’t sure we were going the right way but we managed to find it and the officials were just that, official. After some rubberstamping we were officially in Dominica. Kewl!
We figured we might as well go for a brief walk thru the town before heading back to the cat and we were also out of beer so we were on a mission to find “Kubuli” which is Dominica’s locally made beer. We asked Eddison why they called the beer Kubuli and he told us that the Carib Indian name for Dominica was “Waitakubuli” which means “tall is her body” and was named so because Dominca is quite long.
Our walk thru town was a little shocking. I had never seen such poverty… yet. Dominica is definitely a third world country. But as we were to learn the next morning when we went on our tour, the island may be financially poor but it is very rich in fruit, produce and spice. No one will ever go hungry in Dominica. You simply have to go for a walk and you can pick fruit from every tree. After we bought our beer we made tracks to the cat for a sundowner and early dinner as we were both tired from our sail and our tour was to start early the next morning.
Eddison arrived at our boat promptly at 8 a.m. with a group of young women who were all from Martinique and were on holidays in Dominica. The girls spoke limited English and so between their English and our limited French we had a good deal of fun trying to figure what each other was saying. Fortunately, Eddison was bilingual and was able to give us the tour in both languages.
Our first tour was the Indian River tour and at the very head of the river Eddison showed us large rusted out hulks of container ships and tug boats that had been swept ashore in previous hurricanes. We also saw the bridge that spanned the river had been destroyed in Hurricane Ivan in 2004. It was only now being replaced by a new bridge and cars had continued to drive on the old, seriously destroyed bridge as they did not have the money to fix the bridge sooner.
Eddison had taken government schooling to become an Indian River guide and as a result he was able to tell us all about the foliage and wild life as we he rowed us up river in his pirogue. The river and the river banks were where several scenes of Pirates of the Caribbean were shot as the river has a spooky, eerie quality with its crazy tree trunks and tree roots sprawling everywhere. As far up the river as we were allowed to travel by boat, there appeared a very kewl outdoor bar made all from bamboo and palm fronds. The flowers here were incredible and we were able to purchase pina coladas and Kubuli’s and tamarind juice.
Once we were back at the foot of the river, Eddison handed us over to his Rasta botanist friend, Boudha. We all piled into Boudha’s van and off we went on a tour of the island, including the Carib Indian village, parts of the rainforest and a hike to Chaudiere Pool. Boudha would pull the van over to the side of the road, run up to a bush or tree, pick something off of the tree and bring back to the van where we could all eat or smell it. This happened every few minutes. We never did stop for lunch as we were all full from all of the fruit we were eating. It was truly amazing. There is so much incredible foliage in Dominica….tons of banana trees, (there are banana plantations everywhere), nutmeg trees, lemon grass, cashew trees, apricot trees, pineapple trees, coconut trees, bay leaf, cinnamon trees, (the bark is the cinnamon, you just grate it, how kewl is that?), basil, everywhere, lemon/lime trees, grapefruit….it goes on and on…..mango, sapodilla, paypaya. We were shocked by the amount of fruits and spice that one island could grow.
The last part of our day was a very steep hike into the rainforest to the Chaudiere Pool where we could all enjoy a swim and if we wanted jump off the top of the falls. The falls were not really big but they were beautiful, plus, this was fresh water. Everyone enjoyed a swim while some jumped from the top and others chickened out (that’d be me) and then we hiked back to the van. It had been a long wonderful day and we all dozed off in the van on the way back.

The next morning we had a pleasant sail to Roseau, Dominica’s capital city. We needed to load up on groceries and after a brief walk into town managed to find a decent “Americanized” (so they think) grocery store. I can’t plan meals the way I used to anymore as you never know what you will find and it is usually pig snout, or chicken claws. I try to find something vaguely familiar and then I throw it in the pressure cooker with a bunch of other things, and cook it for a long time. Surprisingly, it usually tastes pretty good.
The next day had us leaving Dominica and sailing to Martinique. We would like to have spent more time in Dominica but a lot of our friends were in Bequia and we wanted to get together with them. We also felt we were little behind the other boats in getting far enough south before tropical waves and depressions started to form. We hope to see more of Dominica when we are on our way north.
We left Roseau at 0600 and sailed to Fort-de-France, Martinique. The sail started off quite lumpy but with good winds and the first few hours we averaged 8 knots then, once we got behind the lee of the island the winds naturally dissipated and we motored the remainder of the trip. As we got closer to Fort-de France we could see a sailboat which was curiously anchored close to the very rocky lee shore. We watched him for awhile wondering if he needed assistance and sure enuf as we got closer we could see the couple on board waving madly at us. They spoke little English and we weren’t much better with our French but we were able to discern thru hand motions and broken language that their windlass had broken and as a result the older looking French man with the very young looking attractive women could not pull their anchor up. We wondered why he didn’t just pull it up as many sailors have to hand-bob their anchor if the windlass breaks. Yes, it is back breaking but you do what you must. That’s when we learned that he has “mal de couer”, a bad heart and might have a heart attack if he tried to pull it up himself. We both wondered out loud to each other “If he has such a bad heart what was he doing with this very young and very attractive woman on board?” Through our amazing powers of deductions we were able to figure it out! Imagine! We brought Mustang Sally very close, within 6‘, to the stern of the sloop that was by now dragging very near the rocky coastline. Doug jumped overboard and swam to their swim ladder and pulled himself up, while I motored out of the way with Mustang Sally but stayed relatively close and kept an eye of events. Doug and the older French man both pulled up the anchor, but I suspect Doug did most of the pulling. The couple was very grateful and I could see lots of handshaking and relieved laughter on deck. Doug couldn’t help himself and asked the young women if this man was her Father, she giggled and started to blush. You get the drift…..apparently the man was very upset as he was late getting back to his wife. I pulled Mustang Sally along the stern and Doug swam a very short distance back to the cat and climbed on board and away we went. We chuckled about the incident over rum drinks once we got anchored.
The next day was relatively innocuous as we got ourselves checked into customs (you just fill out a form on a computer in a chandlery….quick and easy), we then went shopping for a spear gun so that Doug can spear fish (this is completely legal in the French islands but not other islands) and we loaded up on inexpensive French wine. We were anchored near a few boats that we continued to see as we traveled south and we always exchanged a friendly wave with the people on board. Once back on board we motored over to a lovely little resort beach where we spent an enjoyable day ending with dinner date at a French restaurant.
The next morning while I was power walking on the beach, Doug overheard one of the boats that we were anchored near the day before calling for assistance from the Harbour Captain regarding a missing person. Soon we heard a may day call over the vhf for an overdue swimmer giving a description of the female individual who had been missing since midnite the previous nite in the anchorage we had left just the previous day. After putting two and two together we were able to figure out which women on which boat had been swimming at nite and had not returned. We felt sick. There was little we could do at that point as we were a fair distance away and the French Coast Guard had their helicopter out searching the coastline and the Search and Rescue boats were out as well. Let’s face it, after that length of time in the water without floatation device, it is extremely unlikely that she would have survived. We had just exchanged pleasantries with her the morning before.
The next day we motored to the southern tip of Martinique and anchored at St. Anne which is a very popular resort area with the French. We explored a bit in town and walked thru an incredible cemetery and then enjoyed a beer at a fancy local beach bar. We were both hoping to enjoy a really memorable French dinner but we seemed to have failed to have found a nice restaurant that served anything beside crayfish. The Caribbean French are Creole French and everything is fish or crayfish, which is great (if you like crayfish….we didn’t) but we eat a lot of fish anyway and we were both hoping for some Parisienne cuisine….didn’t happen.
St. Lucia was next and hopefully there we would find some great West Indian food….. til next time….fair winds.

ANTIGUA TO ILES DES SAINTES

2008-06-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

The Start of the Windwards

April 25, 2008 Antigua – May 18, 2008 Iles Des Saintes

Ron and Ally had left the previous day and we were sailing the west side of Antigua headed back to the south end but not before we visited a couple of spots along the way. Antigua is incredible in that every time we sailed around another point there would be another amazing expanse of white sand. Antigua has more beautiful beaches than any other island we have been to so far. In fact, the guide book tells us that there are 360 beaches to explore! Believe me, if hurricane season wasn’t coming we would have stayed the next year and investigated every single one. Maybe next time around…..
We planned on anchoring a couple of nites at Fort James (which is very close to St. John’s, the capital of Antigua) as this was where the big, world famous and expensive race boats and anyone else who wished to race in the Antigua Race Week (not to be confused with last logs Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta) would end their first nite of racing in the “Race ‘Round the Island”. There would be a huge beach party with live entertainment and we planned on being a part of the action. The first 2 nites we were anchored at Fort James there wasn’t another boat around but the afternoon of the first race, we could see hundreds of boats approaching the anchorage. Lo and behold, we were in the middle of the action as all of the race boats anchored around us and the fun and games started.
We had decided that we were going to enjoy the party as well, so we dinghyed in to the party on the beach and enjoyed a couple of rum drinks and some great music. Everyone was feeling the music and the rum and there was lots of dancing and carrying on. After a while we decided to get something to eat and we had both agreed on “local” food. We wanted to really experience what the locals ate and so we chose a little hut far away from the beautiful restaurants. We could tell it was popular among the locals as they were all lounging about gossiping and drinking the local beer, Wadadli. We reviewed the menu and after a few shudders (yech!), more rum and a few giggles we ordered goat water (goat stew) and pig’s tail (pretty self explanatory). We waited in anticipation for our gastronomic delights to arrive….we were psyched up. When the food came the goat water was a very rich, dark brown with chunks of suspicious looking meat floating about. The pig’s tail looked just like a pig’s tail should but smothered in BBQ sauce, but the bones in the tail moved about much like one of those wooden snakes that wiggles when you move it. Doug felt like Indiana Jones, or something like that, and charged ahead with spoon in hand. We both tried the”goat water” and declared it acceptable but very rich tasting, until that is Doug discovered another kind of meat as well as the goat. We couldn’t figure out what the other meat was….we had seen a few rats around….hmmmm. I lost my nerve when it came to the pig tail….I couldn’t do it. Doug persevered and dug in, shortly after tho’ he couldn’t eat any more of the pig tail. It was grossing him out too much. Needless to say, another wonderful adventure that ended with Doug not feeling so well (really?) and we went back to the cat much earlier than planned.
During all of this adventure and exploration the last couple of months, we had watched as one of our little dogs, Willis, deteriorated. We both knew what was coming but I procrastinated as long as possible, as my little guy, and his brother Rollie, had been with me for 16 years thru thick and thin. I could not imagine not having him in my life anymore. But he got rapidly worse and I could not deny it any longer. It was a very tough time but we felt that he was suffering and so we went to see a very compassionate vet and that afternoon we came back to the boat without our Willis.
That same very tough afternoon we made flight arrangements for me to fly home to Canada. While everything else was going on we had also decided after emailing back and forth with my Mom that it was time for me to come home and visit with my Dad who is ill. I flew out 1 day later to Canada to spend a week with my Dad and my Mom. I also got to get together with my girlfriends one nite and got caught up with my girl gang and strangely enough a firetruck showed up with some firefighters. Hmmm....That was awesome! It was a wonderful week seeing my Dad and my Mom that went far too fast and although I missed Doug I wish I could have stayed longer and hung out with my Pops more.
I flew back to Antigua in time for a couple of days of much needed rest before we sailed further south to Guadeloupe. Coming back, I could see that Falmouth Harbour, which was jam packed with boats when I left, was now empty, with only 1-2 boats other than Mustang Sally. Everyone was making the trek south to get out of the dreaded hurricane zone and we were slightly behind schedule. I also noticed that the boat was a lot quieter now that my little Willis was gone and I couldn’t imagine leaving Antigua without him. It was very hard.
Three days after I got back from home we sailed to Guadeloupe, the next island south of Antigua. Guadeloupe is actually comprised of two massive islands, Basse-Terre and Grand Terre which are joined by an isthmus, so the island from the sky resembles a butterfly, I am told. Guadeloupe is dominated by mountain ranges which are inactive volcanoes, most notably La Soufriere. We enjoyed a lovely sail, close hulled at first with winds blowing 12-15 knots. Mustang Sally was averaging 7.5-8 knots but then the winds died and the seas were relatively flat and it was scorching hot. We landed in Deshais (Day-hay), which is on the northwestern coast of the island. Doug washed the cat off with our new wash down hose using the fresh water from our newly installed water maker. How wonderful to be able to wash all of the salt off your boat after a wet sail. We had never been able to do this before and we were both pleased as this meant no more salt water getting inside the cat and also that Doug could rinse off the stainless steel on the deck to prevent rusting from the corrosive salt.
We both enjoyed a swim and dinghyed to shore to check in with French customs, which was a very fast, simple and pleasant experience. We walked around the lovely little French town but unfortunately, all of the restaurants and boutiques were closed. We are pretty accustomed to the French way by now, of closing thru out most of the afternoon but this was 5 p.m. and everything should have been open. Must have been a holiday. Too bad for us as it meant no French wine or baguette at a little café so we went back to the cat and enjoyed a big BBQ steak dinner with our own wine to celebrate our arrival in Gaudeloupe. Poor us…..
The next morning we awoke to the sounds of lots of beautiful birds singing and chirping. For some reason there are hardly any birds in the northeastern Caribbean (probably a shortage of fresh water as the eastern Caribbean is very arid) and I had been told that the further south that we went we would see and hear a lot more birds. I had really missed the sound of the birds and was happy to hear them sing again. I decided to go for run to stretch my legs and enjoyed the small town of Deshais with lots of colourful flowers and pretty, well kept, pastel coloured houses. I said “Bonjour” to everyone I passed and received a pleasant greeting back….huh…imagine…. French people actually being nice. I knew it couldn’t last for long so as soon as I got back to the cat we lifted anchor and slowly motored down the western coast. I enjoyed one of the best seats in the house, the port bow seat. I stared into the water which was so flat and calm I could see the rays of the sun slanting thru the water many feet down.
We had noticed in Antigua and even more so here in Guadeloupe, the proliferation of palm trees. Yes, there were palm trees in the Virgin Islands and in St Martin, but not like this. This is what we had always imagined the Caribbean to look like. We learned from other cruisers that the further south we travelled it would become even more lush, particularly Dominica (Dom-a-NEEK-ah), which was the next island after Guadeloupe and Iles des Saintes.
The next day we continued to motor close to the western coast of Guadeloupe taking our time and enjoying the scenery. We took a mooring ball in Basseterre for the nite readying for our next day’s sail to Iles Des Saintes. The sailing between islands was like a dream come true. The longest trip between any of the Windward Islands was 35 miles, which is a half sail for Mustang Sally. The sailing is the best too, sailing beam reach or broad reach all the way. No complaints here!
The sail to Iles des Saintes was leisurely and we anchored in the bay of the beautiful fishing village. It was very hot with little wind as we explored the pretty village and I got to practice my French, which although was not great, was good enough that the locals could understand me fairly well. After walking thru the lovely village we headed back to the cat for a cooling swim, nap and then a sundowner.
The next day we hiked up to Fort Napoleon. This fort was spectacular. Probably the best reconstructed and cared for fort we had ever seen. The hike was a steep walk thru the outskirts of the village and we enjoyed the gorgeous foliage… wild hibiscus, flamboyance, heliconia, etc. At the fort they had collected whalebones from a whale that had been found on one of the beaches a few years back. Apparently, the whale had been struck by a boat and come to the beach to die. Also, we learned that the French don’t think much of Christopher Columbus, I would even go so far as to say that they are anti-Columbus. One quote from one of the historical documents at the fort said that the best thing Columbus ever did was to sail back to Spain. Hmmm? Where do these people think they would be if it wasn’t for Columbus? Certainly not on that beautiful island in the Caribbean!
We had considered having dinner out at one of the French restaurants but the Euro is excessively expensive so we decided to ixne that idea and moved the cat to Pain de Sucre, which is a mini piton at 200 feet high. We had a lovely dinner aboard. We woke the next morning to a gentle breeze on our faces, and the sound of the surf on the beach. Not a bad start to a day I’d say. We kayaked, explored in the dinghy and swam. Doug also spent time hunting for lobster, but he was unsuccessful and, we had to have something besides lobster for dinner. I had gone for a hike that morning and discovered a lovely beach and while I was there very dressed up people on scooters started to arrive. On one of the scooters was an older woman, who I assume was the mother, and on the seat behind her, hanging on, was a young woman in a short white satin dress with a white veil. How kewl! Wedding on the beach and so simple. They had a BBQ planned for after as well.
We were checking out the next morning and to make tracks for Dominica. Can’t wait.
Til next time, fair winds…..

Antigua Classic Yacht Week

2008-05-28T14:51:00.000-07:00

March 23rd, St Martin – April 25th, Antigua

Our wonderful guests have left us and now we have until April 16th before we have other guests who will be arriving in Antigua. So, we had some time to get some tasks done on the boat, (St Martin is the perfect place to do this). But first on my list of priorities was dinner at our most favourite restaurant, Tropicana. We must go to Tropicana every time we are in St Martin. The food is very French, meaning decadent and the service is surprisingly good for a French restaurant :) and so far our favourite in all of the Caribbean.

We were able to catch up with some friends we had not seen in awhile while we were in St Martin. Seems like everyone was in the lagoon waiting for the swell to subside before heading further south, so, it was like a reunion of cruisers. There were many potlucks and cocktail parties on each other’s boat. In fact, we met up with one lady, Joanne, and met her man Dave, who was aboard her yacht “Walkabout”. We last saw Joanne on the Alligator River while transiting north thru North Carolina headed for Canada last spring on our monohull, “L’Attitude”. We waited out a gale with Joanne back then for 3 days and now we were waiting out high winds again combined with this incredible swell, which was then followed by another swell. Everyone was wearing foul weather gear everywhere they went. So much for tropical weather! Sad to say, that due to the poor weather this past winter a lot of cruisers packed it in and headed home for good.

While eating ribs one nite, one of Doug’s molars cracked. The next morning we were referred to a dentist who fixed him up. We figured that we should also get our teeth cleaned. I was first for my cleaning and the dentist was a wonderful man, although he doesn’t have the equipment I was used to at home…. we are spoiled at home and don’t know it. He kept trying to jam his big ham hock of a hand in my mouth all the while telling me that I needed to open my mouth wider (I know a lot of people would differ with me but I actually have a small mouth!) . All this was going on while I was holding the saliva sucker thingie, and choking on my own saliva because I didn’t know where the puddle in my mouth was forming. There was also a loud, sharp pinging in my ear and I couldn’t figure out what it was….I thot my ear drum would explode. I figured it out…. the dentist’s watch alarm was going off right beside my ear and he couldn’t hear it because of the dental machinery running….oh and the gagging. Oh well, my teeth got cleaned, no fluoride or polishing but just the basics. What was I expecting? Doug didn’t fare much better.

Cap’n Doug was very busy the 2 ½ weeks we stayed in St Martin, waiting for weather. He installed a water maker, which now means unlimited fresh water!! WooHoo! He also worked on numerous other projects. We had our mechanic, Pedro, fine tune our engines, took the dogs to the vet for a checkup, more dog grooming, did a big provisioning to stock the boat right up, and then fueled up. We sailed to Tintamarre which is an island at the north end of St. Martin, enjoyed a nite and day of rest and relaxation and then lifted anchor at 4 p.m. to sail overnite to Antigua. We were both excited as we had not sailed that far south yet and Antigua would be a whole new experience for the two of us and our two small dogs, Willis and Rollie.

The weather was predicted to be 6’ seas, and winds 10-12 knots beam reach. Ha! Try very rough seas, more like 10’ and winds right on the nose. Made for a very lumpy nite, motor sailing for the first half until we past St. Barths and then we were able to shut off the engines and sail her which is a much faster option for us. Mustang Sally is fast when sailing but slogs along when motoring in lumpy seas. All in all it was a good nite and we landed at Jolly Harbour, Antigua at 7 a.m. Customs didn’t open until 8 a.m. so we hovered around the harbor eating breakfast, waiting to get checked in. We both really liked the looks of Antigua, so far. The properties were cared for, with beautiful palm trees, hibiscus, flamboyance, etc., and it seemed that there was some real infrastructure here…..and no garbage everywhere like some other islands.

We had an uncomfortable bit of dealing with customs when it came to declaring our two dogs, Willis and Rollie. Even tho all of our paperwork was in order for both boys (this paperwork cost a lot of $$, ask my vet who is a wealthy man), customs informed me (which I knew already but was unable to comply) that I should have emailed them 24 hours in advance to notify the federal vet of our exact time of arrival, so the federal vet could come and “inspect” the boys and make sure they were fit to “land”. Excuse me? Did I fail to mention that we just sailed over nite from St Martin, where email and phones are out of the question? It was a Saturday and the fed vet had better things to do with her personal time than to come and inspect two dogs right then. So both boys were not able to “land” until Monday, which thanks goodness they have some experience in and we managed just fine on the cat until Monday.

Our friends on “Gypsy Blues”, Rene and Cheryl, were anchored in Jolly Harbour so we enjoyed some of their wonderful hospitality again and had dinner and drinks and lots of laughs, as always. They were heading off the next day for Falmouth Harbour, Antigua, as the Classic Yacht Race Week was about to start. Quite a few of our good friends would be there, Joel and Kathy on “Triumph”, and Mike and Kylie on “Meggie”. We hadn’t seen Mike and Kylie in over one year so we were really excited to see them and catch up. Classic Race Week means lots of after race parties, a chance to race on one of the yachts as crew (kewl) and see these beautiful historical yachts in action. In fact, we were excited that “Meggie” would be racing in the vintage division for her size. We would be joining everybody as soon as the vet had inspected the dogs.

Monday morning came, and so did the vet, she came, she took our money and she looked at the dogs and left. Off we went to join the gang in Falmouth. We had a pretty rough sail there as the seas were coming round the headland and were quite lumpy with big steep waves, but we got to Falmouth just the same. We had dinner with “Triumph” that nite which was great. Then as we were heading back to the dinghy dock we ran in to Mike and Kylie from “Meggie” on the street outside the popular local hang out “The Mad Mongoose”. There were lots hugs with everyone talking over each other as it had been so long since we had last seen each other and there was lot’s to catch up on. Paul and Leanne were friends of Mike and Kylie’s from home (Thornbury, Ontario), which was also very close to our home port, and they were down visiting and also to help as crew for race week onboard “Meggie”. Everyone loaded into our dinghy and we headed back to Mustang Sally to show her off as Mike and Kylie had not yet seen her. Needless to say, the night went quite late as we got each other caught up on everything happening in our lives and all of the adventures everyone had been on and the kewl places that they had been to.

The next nite we hosted dinner aboard “Mustang Sally” with “Gypsy Blues”, whom we owed many dinners too and were playing catch up with, and “Triumph” too. It was another great nite getting caught up with friends.

The next day Doug’s Dad, Ron, and his wife, Allyson, were flying in and we were excited to have them stay with us for 9 days, especially throughout the Classic Race Week, as Ron is a Classic Yacht nut, and also because we had not seen them since the past summer and we were really looking forward to hanging out with them two of them.

Once Ron and Ally arrived, we got them settled on the cat, enjoyed a cold drink and then headed back to the walk docks and admire all of the beautiful yachts. The historical yachts “Ranger”, “Velsheda”, “Ellinora” and “Adela” (all of varying length but 135’ and longer) were all present and shined to a high polish not to mention countless other classics in their various classes. “Meggie” lovingly restored, by Mike and Kylie (see cruising World’s article entitled “Meggie’s Youthful Makeover”, November 2007 issue) is a 30’ Bermuda Choy Lee and she was at the dock as well, looking bright and perky beside all of the big guys. The 4 of us enjoyed a wonderful meal ashore at a lovely, elegant restaurant (a real treat for Doug and me) and wrapped up the evening with night caps on board the cat.

The next day, the four of us joined Joel and Kathy aboard “Triumph” and with picnic lunch in hand we motored out to watch the races. This was fantastic as most people don’t actually get to see the whole race because it is outside the very protected harbour. Even then, if people came out on their boats to watch they would only see the start and finish. “Triumph” has two big powerful engines and we were able to motor alongside the yachts at 10-12 knots and see all of the action. Even at that speed we still could not stay caught up but it sure gave us the best seats in the house. Everyone was very excited but no one more than Ron who would intermittently shout out, “Can you believe we are here watching this? This is once in a life time stuff!” After the race there was a party with free rum drinks and had a fabulous local band, “Itchy Feet” which had everyone up dancing. What a great nite dancing amongst these beautiful boats. We went to bed pretty tired but happy that nite, replaying portions of the race thru our head.

Next day, Ally and I headed to the local grocery store which is always an interesting event. You can ever plan what you are going to buy; you just buy whatever is available and think up what to do with it all back at the boat. This makes it fun and interesting. We bought some local lamb chops and a variety of good stuff and lugged it all back to the dinghy, so that we were set for the rest of their stay with us. We spent the rest of the day hanging out, reading, sunning and resting up after our big nite and in anticipation of another party at the Antigua Yacht Club that nite. What a tough life!

Next day we were on “Triumph” again to watch the races but with a whole slew of people aboard this time as everyone realized that this was the place to be. It as another incredibly exciting day of racing and just the thrill of seeing these magnificent yachts with their crews of 45 or more running around like mad, racing against each other was overwhelming.

After the end of the races a few days later, we sailed to Green Isle for a relaxing evening at this gorgeous anchorage. This is where we saw a Wharram (James Wharram is famous for designing a certain type of catamaran, think Polynesian boat) catamaran that Doug and I had seen many times in our travels but most recently in the lagoon in St Martin. Sadly, she was hard aground on top of a reef that was on the windward side of the island and although the winds were down significantly that day it was not hard to see that she was getting damaged already, but when the winds came back up she would be broken to bits. What a sad shame.

The next day was Ron and Ally’s last full day with us so we sailed to Jumby Bay on beautiful Long Island. This anchorage was spectacular and we thoroughly enjoyed the pleasure of spending our last day there with Ron and Ally.

We were very sad to see Ron and Ally leave as we loved their easy going relaxed company and the many laughs we had over dinners.

Till next time......

The Big Swell

2008-05-28T14:26:00.000-07:00

The Big Swell

After the Barrie gang left us we had 10 days to relax and get ourselves to St. Martin where we would provision the cat again for our next guests, which would be a gang of 6 coming to enjoy beautiful St. Martin and St. Barths from various parts of north east US.

We thought we would have lots of time to get some tasks done in St Martin prior to our guest’s arrival but the weather this winter in the Caribbean has been rough. High winds (30-40 knots regularly) with lots of rain, torrential rain. As a result, we waited for a weather window to cross the Anegada passage(passage between British Virgins and St Martin, a.k.a. the “O My Godda” passage, as it can be very rough) for 6 days before we felt it would be comfortable passage to sail to St Martin from the BVI. The Anegada passage is only a 90 nautical miles crossing from the most northerly island of the British Virgin Islands, Virgin Gorda, which is usually a 12 hour trip depending on winds and how fast a boat can sail/motor. However, the prevailing winds are out of the east here in the Caribbean and we are also heading east, so the wind is right on our nose, making sailing pretty much impossible. Because the winds had been so strong for so long, the waves also out of the east were pretty sizable at 10- 12’, and to add to this, there was a large swell (8’) running out of the north. These things on their own are not so bad but together are a recipe for a miserable crossing with very confused seas….something I personally am not fond of. So we waited……finally, when we left, the seas had lied down and the winds dropped to 12-15 knots. We had an uneventful crossing but, unfortunately, it was a motor the whole way.

We arrived in Philipsburg harbor on the Dutch side and spent the next few days enjoying the fabulous shopping and the great bars. What fun to behave like a tourist! We also provisioned the boat for our guests with fresh fish, thick slabs of meat and lots and LOTS of wine and French cheeses and baguette. Yum!

Our guests came aboard Mustang Sally at noon on Saturday, tucked their bags into their cabins, got comfortable and we enjoyed a lovely lunch before we lifted the anchor and set sail (motor sail, we were heading east again!) to the beautiful Anse de Columbier (Columbier Bay)western side of the island of St Barths. After a few hours of enjoying the sail we took a mooring ball and our guests were more than happy to have a swim, take advantage of our water toys, relax, and enjoy themselves.

The next day after a big breakfast we sailed to Grande Saline beach. Just another incredibly beautiful beach, where the sand is white and the water azure blue….and some people are NAKED!! Oh the French!! LOL! Everyone took the opportunity to walk the beach, enjoy a swim and snorkel and then lunch before we had a lovely downwind sail to Gustavia Harbour, the charming little main town of St. Barths.

Next day after a quick stroll of Gustavia and the millionaire’s row of mega yachts tied stern to along the quay we sailed to Ile de Forchue, one of my favourite places. Once we were securely tied to the mooring ball everyone enjoyed a refreshing snorkel and some kayaking while Fred, the local barracuda kept an eye on us and begged for scraps from the back of the cat, just like a neighbourhood dog. Not much later 3 of our guests, the adventurous, Eric, his lovely bride, Judy and their good friend, Jobie, decided to hike to the top of one of the large hills on the island (in the hot baking sun!), while Greg, his better half, Mary Beth and Jobie’s husband Mike stayed behind to enjoy cocktails and play Scrabble. We stayed at Ile de Forchue over nite and enjoyed the isolation and “Marslike” desolation of the island, caused by goats which ate all of the vegetation and then starved to death, leaving only red rubble in their wake.

We set sail early the next morning to sail around the southern tip of St. Martin headed for the French side of island to the capital of Marigot where we checked back in to the country and then head up the northwest coast of St Martin, planning stops at Friars Bay, Grand Case, the secluded Tintamarre, Ile de Pinel and finally Orient Beach.

After checking in with customs, we anchored in Friars Bay, looking forward to a fun nite with our guests…. that is until the French coast guard pulled alongside our cat with a strong suggestion (not really a suggestion if you’re readin’ my mail) to move into the lagoon for protection due to a 20 foot swell out of the north which was to arrive that nite and would steadily build over the course of the next 3-4 days. A swell of that magnitude is similar to a small tsunami and could cause severe damage to shorelines and any buildings, boats or people near the coast. There had never been a swell this size in 42 years! Swells are caused by large storms on the eastern seaboard of the United States. Large waves form and roll unheeded to the south, getting bigger as they go. Once they reach more shallow waters, such as the coastlines of the Caribbean islands they become huge as they no longer have the depth of the water to roll in. The French bridge, which is on a schedule to open, was opened early and often to let boat traffic into the lagoon regardless of the delay to car traffic. All boats were directed to the lagoon and all water activities were banned, coastal roads were closed and buildings all along the beaches and coasts were boarded up with some low lying areas completely evacuated. We considered ourselves very lucky to have been in St. Martin when this occurred as the lagoon is considered one of the safest places to be in all of the Caribbean in severe weather.

Unfortunately tho, this meant that the remainder of our guests stay aboard Mustang Sally would be in the lagoon. Not a great place to swim due to the great number of anchored boats and certainly not a very pretty place with more of an industrial feel, as there are many rusted out hulks of work boats. For safety reasons tho, we had to make the best of situation, which we did, by listening to music, playing Scrabble, reading books, engaging in some serious discussion and some not so serious, soaking up sun on the trampolines and eating lots of good food, not to mention imbibing in some of that wine mentioned earlier. We never felt the effects of the swell in the lagoon other than murkier water than normal, but instead, heard and read about the damage. The swell peaked at 13’ in St. Martin which was significant enough to cause some damage but thankfully not as much as was feared if the swell had reached 20’. Other more northerly islands suffered more damage than St. Martin.

We felt sad to see our guests go at the end of their stay with us and although our travel plans to show them all of the beautiful sites were scuttled we still had a great time with them and hope to see them back again so we can show them more than just the lagoon or perhaps other islands.

Till next time….. fair winds.

Barrie Babe's Birthday Cruise

2008-03-29T14:22:00.000-07:00

Playing catch up again….and probably always will. Today is March 27th (all ready!) and we are in St Martin but this log will catch you up on what we were up to when the gang of 4, Mike and Christie, and Mike and Christine (I know, it’s hard to keep straight), from our home town, Barrie, Ontario who came to visit from February 24th thru to March 5th.

This cruise was called the birthday cruise as many of my gal pals from home, me included, will be hitting the big 4-0 this year and as we can’t all be together on each other’s actual birthdays so I decided to have a birthday bash while a few were here. I should clarify that Christie was not close to approaching 40 (bitch) but she was more than happy to join in the party. We did a fine job of celebrating. Way to go girls!! The guys didn’t mind at all either!

So, on the 24th of February we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of our guests by ferry in Sopers Hole, Tortola. Mustang Sally was loaded with all kinds of thick cuts of meat and fresh fish for the BBQ, cheeses, pates and lots of fresh fruit….not to mention all the wine and beer our lockers could hold. Everyone arrived as scheduled and it was a very kewl feeling to see them on top of the ferry waving like maniacs at us, while we were waving like raving idiots from Mustang Sally back to them. I think the other ferry passengers were snickering at our displays of emotion. Too bad for them and their boring existence!! Unfortunately, Christine’s checked bag was lost. Oh well, this was to be expected if flying thru Puerto Rico and we had encouraged our guests to travel light with carry on only. Maybe they had to check the bag due to all of the goodies they were bringing from home for us? Hmmmm. Seriously tho, when travelling down for a visit on our catamaran, you really don’t need to bring much. Just a couple of bathing suits, flip flops, a sundress for the ladies and t shirts and shorts for the gents. Turned out that Christine didn’t really miss her bag at all after the week was out.

We barely got everyone on board with drinks in hand and appetizers on the table and slipped off the mooring ball headed for the Willy-T’s on Norman Island! No time to waste! WooHoo! It was Sunday nite and we knew that the Willy-T’s would be rocking. We motored as fast as Mustang Sally could go as it was already 7 p.m. and we didn’t want to miss a minute of action. I should know by now that the party doesn’t really start until we get there. Don’t get me wrong, the party is always good at the Willy-T’s but it seems to get kicked up a notch when we show up. With our posse nothing could stop us, and nothing did!!

The next morning was foggy. Not the weather tho, it was gorgeous as usual. It was our heads that were foggy from the nite before! Nothing that Eggs Benny and Mimosas couldn’t cure!! After brekkie we headed to Treasure Point (also on Norman Island) for some serious snorkeling and to further clear any lingering cobwebs. It was the first time for a few to try snorkeling (let’s face it, not much good snorkeling at home on the great lakes)and with noodles for some and a little practice session we all got underway to see the beautiful world that awaits us just below the surface.

Once we all had our fill, we were off to secluded Key Bay on Peter Island. Key Bay is a good spot to chill and relax after a nite of partying. There was only one other boat in the anchorage and so it was close to perfect. We spent the rest of the day sunning, swimming and reading, that is, until the crew on the other boat, Winsome, dinghied over to ask for a small bag of ice for their cocktails. How could we refuse? So, we invited Rolland, Cindy, Adrian and Dave aboard with their cocktails to join us for sundowners. Before you know it, we had a regular party going on. So much for a quiet nite…..

The next morning, we said good bye to the crew on Winsome and had a beautiful close reach to The Baths on Virgin Gorda. Our gang swam into to see the huge granite boulders and everyone appropriately oohed and aahed as we followed the trail that leads thru the boulders. (I would talk more about The Baths but I have written about them many times before in previous logs).
Once back on board we headed to Marina Cay to catch Michael Beans Pirate Show at the Happy Arrr Bar. We had all practiced blowing the conch horn earlier in the day and Cap’n Doug and I had tutored everyone on pirate lore in preparation for the show. We wanted to win shots of rum and maybe even the coveted bottle of Pussers Rum! Doug, Christie and me answered some of the pirate questions correctly and so at one time all three of us were up on stage doing shots together! How fun! Christie was also “volunteered” for the conch blowing contest as she had displayed the most skill at this time honored sundown tradition (?!), and although she didn’t win the contest she got an “A” for effort and many admiring looks from her fellow competitors and audience members who could hardly focus on the task at hand. Way to distract Christie!! This show never fails to send us all back to the cat half in the bag and so to make up for not winning the coveted bottle of Pussers we cracked open our liquor stores and broke out the Pussers Rum and drank some anyway in Cap’n Dougs delicious Painkillers.

We must have looked like a fun bunch on Mustang Sally as we had visitors again that nite from the boat anchored beside us. Bob (who is an acquaintance of ours) and two of his buddies that he was teaching to sail thot they would come around and say hi. Cap’n Doug swears that all the pretty girls on board bring the riff raff around! Needless to say, we had a very late dinner of BBQ shish ka bobs and off to bed quite late to see what the next day would bring us.

Turned out, the next day brought fog again, again not the weather. After a scrumptious breakfast, that not all could enjoy, as it seemed some were a little more sensitive to the gentle sway of the cat after the previous nites libations, we headed out, bound for Gorda Sound. We were happy to leave Marina Cay as the wind had piped up and there was quite a swell rolling thru the anchorage despite the protective reef. Again, we enjoyed an exhilarating close reach with the wind blowing a steady 18-20 knots, while Mustang Sally, even while loaded for bear with all of our provisions and 6 people aboard still hauled ass at 11 knots. The sun was high in the blue sky and conditions couldn’t have been more perfect for our sail. Mike and Mike enjoyed the best seats in the house for the ride of their lives. The two each chose bow seats to really feel the salt spray and enjoy the view. Unfortunately what they didn’t know was at this point of sail they would get a lot more than just salt spray. Depending on which tack we were on, each of the Mike’s received torrents of water crashing over him. Cap’n Doug, who was at the helm and the 3 ladies, who were sunning themselves on the sun pads high and dry in the cockpit, watched with tons of enthusiasm as each wave crashed over the Mike’s. With Cap’n Doug yelling “Here’s come a REALLY big one, Mike’s gonna get it!” the three girls would point, scream and laugh every time. After a few hours, I got to wondering why the guys didn’t come back to the cockpit and dry out. I mentioned that perhaps the guys didn’t feel safe enough to maneuver to the cockpit from the bow seats. Hmmmm. Sure enough when we sailed back into the lee of the island the guys came back to the cockpit, cursing us for leaving them stuck up there. Between the salt covered deck and the how fast the cat was moving, they didn’t feel it was safe enough to leave the bow seats and seek shelter. The poor Mike’s were freezing but after toweling off and sitting in the warm sun out of the wind with a bit o’ rum in their glass they were warm and happy as clams again in no time.

We anchored in the lee of Prickly Pear Island where there was a small white sandy beach surrounded by very steep rock face and we it had all to ourselves. Kudos to Cap’n Doug for spotting it! We all swam into the beach, which wasn’t far, and Mike M. got a fire ready for later on that evening. What a more perfect idea than a fire on the beach at nite! Though, after everyone helped make a delish dinner we are all too tired to head to the beach and enjoy the fire we had planned :(. All of the partying and sailing had caught up with us. Oh well! A good nites sleep would have us all feeling rested and we could party hard again the next day!
The next morning we got a mooring ball in front of the pretty and isolated Saba Rock. As everyone was feeling up to snuff after their good nites sleep, I brilliantly thot we should go for a wee hike and show them some of the posh and laid back Bitter End Yacht Club, as well as some of Biras Creek resort . It was a hot hike with the sun beating down on us and so, we felt we deserved a hearty lunch at the Bitter End Pub with some refreshments. Ahhhh! Perhaps a nap is in order now…..

That nite the gang got a bit dressed up and we dinghied into Saba Rock for their fabulous buffet of 3 different roasts to dine on (lamb, prime rib, and ham! Yum! )plus a great salad bar and all the side dishes to boot. We always receive great service from the David, the general manager, and his staff at Saba Rock and we were not disappointed again. After our bellies were full with food and wine, we enjoyed a nightcap and happily hit the hay.

Cap’n Doug and I wanted to take the gang and show them some world class snorkeling so we headed out the next morning with our waypoint set for Monkey Point on Guana Island. We made Bloody Caesars, cranked the tunes and had a fabulous downwind sail where this time it was safe for everyone to be up on the sun pads on the trampolines and the bow seats, without getting wet. Everyone kept their eyes peeled for dolphins but we didn’t see any :(. The snorkeling was pretty good tho at Monkey Point altho not as good as we have seen it before but we still enjoyed the swim, the sun and the chance to chill before we shared another delicious meal together. We managed to crank it up a notch that nite and just the 6 of us partied together without any unexpected visitors.

Another downwind sail the next morning after brekkie, this time headed for Cane Garden Bay on the north side of Tortola. After a wee bit of provisioning at Bobby’s Market, (more beer and wine) we planned on lying on the beach whilst drinking Margaritas. Mustang Sally doesn’t often moor in Cane Garden Bay due to the amount of crime. The young locals think it’s fun to untie painter lines on dinghy’s at the dinghy dock and watch them float out to the Atlantic Ocean past Jost Van Dyke. Or worse, the older local youth actually steal the dinghies with their expensive outboards. We had heard many stories to this effect on the Caribbean Safety and Security Net on our single side band radio as well as read many stories in the Caribbean Compass newspaper, so we were well aware of the dangers. We felt safe enough as we always lock our dinghy with heavy chain and a stout lock and we have an alarm system onboard Mustang Sally, but that doesn’t mean we want to visit these types of places regularly. We reasoned, however, that it might be fun for the gang to see this popular hangout and as it was Friday to see Quito and The Edge play at the popular Quito’s Bar and restaurant that nite. Sure enough while we were laying on the beach lounge chairs we heard some people who had been swimming in the water yelling at local kids who were sitting inside dinghies untying painter lines tied to the dock. The swimmers were lucky they noticed what was going on as their dinghy just happened to float past them while they swam in the bay. Mike C. ran down to the dinghy dock to deal with these kids but they seemed to be oblivious of the damage they were causing and smugly replied that the dinghies had all come free on their own because they must not have been tied properly. The local officials did little but to come and speak briefly to the boys and then back their stories up. We decided shortly after that that we didn’t need to spend our good money in a place that does nothing to protect its visitors and we made tracks for Diamond Key on Jost Van Dyke, where we would anchor over nite, which was just fine with all of us. We enjoyed a big pasta dinner and red wine and “sort of” behaved that nite.

Next morning we hiked to the Bubbly Pool. We were hoping for a good north swell as this is what really makes the Bubbly Pool so famous. The waves which travel from the north Atlantic are forced thru a small crevice which forces incredible suction and huge wave action in a relatively small pool of water. It’s a hoot and never fails to produce lots of laughter. The waves weren’t as big as we hoped but everyone got the idea and still enjoyed the medium sized waves that did come crashing thru.

After our hike back to the dinghy we were ready for a swim again. A short motor had us at the breathtaking Sandy Spit with its white sand and palm trees. Almost everyone swam ashore while the dinghy brought the cooler bag with coldies and pretzels (Hey, ya gotta have coldies, its hot here in the tropics!). We walked around the island, which doesn’t take long, and then plunked our butts in the white sand to enjoy the sun and the view and thank our lucky stars that we get to visit paradise.

After we managed to get the sand out of our shorts and everyone had their fill of the deserted island we enjoyed a short sail with jib only to Great Harbour, also on Jost Van Dyke. We then dinghied into shore and enjoyed a leisurely stroll around the “The Settlement” while fulfilling a little retail therapy request at Foxy’s store (you can’t go home empty handed!). Our gang of 6 was on a mission to find good fresh lobster for dinner that nite so, we scouted out the restaurants in Great Harbor based on price and weight and settled on Ali Baba’s for dinner where we had a delicious Caribbean dinner with lots of local colour and flavour. We had been invited over to our friend Ed’s beautiful catamaran, Shearwater, for after dinner cocktails which we were more than happy to oblige. Our gang had not yet met our friend Ed whom we had only met a few weeks prior. It’s like that here in the cruiser world, you become fast friends quite easily with people as you already have a lot in common and it’s a small world, and there was no exception with Ed. We made plans to party with Ed the next day at White Bay, which was just around the corner, to help us celebrate our “birthdays” at Soggy Dollar.

Mike and Christie and Mike and Christine were only with us for another 2 full days so we thot it would be a nice idea to hang out at the relaxing and beautiful White Bay beach for their last days. They happily agreed when they saw how beautiful it really is. We had plans to hang out and kayak and swim in the morning and then hit the Soggy Dollar for the afternoon before heading back to the cat for steak dinner and Pineapple Rum birthday cake. What a more perfect birthday I could not imagine! Ed was true to his word and joined us at the Soggy for numerous Painkillers and Carib’s. After awhile, a swim was in order so we headed back to Mustang Sally and cooled off in the water before making a big batch of margaritas. Uh- oh! That spells trouble with a capital T! And it proved to be true; as we partied well into the nite with the tunes cranked and we all thoroughly enjoyed our steak dinner and birthday cake while wearing “Happy Birthday” tiaras for the ladies. Cap’n Doug and Mike M. made sure Ed got home safely in the dinghy much, much later that nite.

The next day was the last full day and everyone wisely chose to take it easy this day as no one wanted to spend a very long travel day the next day with hangovers. We hung out at Ivan’s Stress Free Bar and had burgers for lunch and spent the after chillin’ on the beach trying hard to absorb as much of the sun and sand as possible as to take with them in their heads to remember on the cold days still to come at home.

The girls were in the galley for the last time preparing our last delicious meal together and I was feeling quite melancholy as that was what I loved and missed so much about home was just hanging with the femmes in the kitchen and gossiping and laughing while preparing appetizers or dinner and sipping wine. Over dinner everyone spent a lot of time reminiscing about the last 10 days and how much fun it was, bursting out in laughter when we remembered something especially funny.

The next morning we motored over to Sopers Hole where we would see them off on the ferry that first brought them to us. Hardly anyone was talking and it was obvious that it no one was really looking forward to the long day of travel ahead of them and getting back to the grind at home. Christine’s luggage was waiting, intact, for her at the ferry dock where it had spent the last 9 days. Sheesh! We said good bye at the ferry terminal with big hugs all around and me bawling as usual (never good at goodbyes!). When Doug and I saw that the ferry was ready to leave the dock we slipped Mustang Sally off her mooring so we could be beside the ferry as she transited out of the anchorage and we waved goodbye like idiots, again.

GREAT WHITE NORTH CRUISE - Jan 6th-13th, 2008 Provencher/Hodgins Cruise

2008-02-17T09:03:00.000-08:00

GREAT WHITE NORTH CRUISE – January 6th-13th, 2008 - Provencher/Hodgins Cruise

Today is February 4th and I am busy getting caught up on logs, as there is much to tell you. I am still writing about the first weeks of January! Then I can tell you all of the stuff we have planned for February in the next log out.

After Jon, Adam, Simon and Manica left us on the 4th of January we headed into Village Cay Marina for an unusual nite stay (for us anyway) at a marina. We prefer to anchor out and feel the trade winds blow thru the cat at nite rather than be uncomfortably hot in a marina. Some boats stay constantly at marinas…. weird. However, Village Cay Marina has the distinction of being one of the smelliest places I have ever been, due to the fact that Road Town pumps all of the sewage into the water at the marina. The islands don’t have much in the way of infrastructure but still….. I have to cover my nose and mouth or I will gag, especially if there isn’t much of a breeze to blow the stench somewhere else. Our guests, Rob, Tina, Danielle, James and Jocelyn were due on the morning of the 6th so, it’s a necessary stinky stay at the dock to get all of the laundry done in 24hours, the provisioning for our next guests purchased and stored away, the cat cleaned, fueled and watered up. We still managed to enjoy a few coldies in between chores by pinching our noses closed while chugging. Needless to say, we were busy but excited to pick up our guests who were coming from Sudbury, Ontario, which is 4 hours north of our home town. We knew that they were kewl coming from Northern Ontario and couldn’t wait to show them the beautiful British Virgin Islands for the next 7 days.
On the 6th we were in Soper’s Hole, on the West End of Tortola, bright eyed and bushy tailed with pots of coffee, Baileys and Caesar’s (it’s a Canadian thing!) waiting. The ferry was to deliver them from St. Thomas and drop them at 9 a.m. so that we could head off on our adventure right away. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating and we were getting a lot of rain. Numerous down pours throughout the morning causing me to wipe the cat down over and over so that she looked pretty for our guests. I gave up after awhile as it was futile. Nevertheless, right on schedule, I could see the gang waiting on the dock waving. Doug was already on shore waiting for them and after bringing them and their luggage to the cat in the dinghy we got everyone settled in to their cabins and they were drinking coffee (I guess it was a little early for Caesar’s!) as another down pour hit. So it was a perfect opportunity to listen to Cap’n Doug give instructions on how to pump a marine head but more importantly how to make the contents in the said head disappear! Sometimes this can be an awkward conversation but other times it can be the greatest ice breaker! It turned out to be just that, a very hilarious conversation that would last for days, especially in the mornings.
We freed ourselves from the mooring ball and motored to The Indians. We would have sailed but there were many squalls passing thru and as it was their first day on the cat we thought we would take it easy and not totally freak our guests out. The Indian’s provide excellent snorkeling and diving. The gang was eager to get into the water and snorkel despite the rain. You see, these people had just left minus 20* Celsius (for you American’s…. that’s *$%^#$ cold!!) back home and they were lovin’ the 80*F temperature, rain or no rain! The rain let off enough that we enjoyed lunch in the cockpit and then did another short motor after their snorkel to Privateer Bay on Norman Island were, luckily for us, the weather started to clear and the sun was poking its head thru. Yay!! It wasn’t long after that when the ladies were up on the sun pads on the trampolines soaking up the rays and the guys were back in the water with their underwater cameras snorkeling and taking lots of pictures. I should mention that these weren’t just any pictures. These two, Rob and James, are professional photographers and, from what we have seen, at the top of their profession. Just check out their respective websites at www.westmountphotography.com/blog/ and http://www.hodgeblog.hodginsphotography.com/ and see what we mean. After a few coldies in Privateer Bay we lifted anchor and made way for Little Harbour, Peter Island, where we would stay the nite.
Little Harbour is a well protected overnight stop with good holding and we snugged the cat up close to the shore and the craggy rocks (but not too close!!). Once we got ourselves anchored, we had appetizers and sundowners. Cap’n Doug made a big batch of Painkiller’s, which everyone enjoyed, of course (we have yet to meet one person who doesn’t like painkiller’s!). On the aforementioned craggy rocks located in fairly close proximity to the stern of the cat we just so happened to see a white goat (a ghost goat?). He/she (must be politically correct) was perched precariously atop a jagged rock. Pretty kewl, but then I guess it’s normal for goats as he\she seemed unimpressed with us and our impressive elbow to mouth exercises. This was all followed a short while later with dinner in the cockpit and lot of laughter, all under the starry Caribbean sky. What a great first day, and lots more to come!
After a sound, restful sleep we enjoyed brekkie and weighed the anchor to leave this lovely serene anchorage and hit the road, so to speak, on to the next beautiful locale, The Baths on the Fat Virgin a.k.a. Virgin Gorda, one of the most beautiful islands in the BVI. On our way to our destination we enjoyed a lovely sail in almost perfect conditions whilst tacking up the Sir Francis Drake Channel. The prevailing winds are out of the east and guess which way we were going? East! It is the way of the sailor, whatever way you need to go the wind is on your nose! Never mind, we enjoyed the sail with some kewl tunes blasting out of the speakers and lunch underway. After a while we thought it best to get our hineys to The Baths as all of this tacking would have us there in time for dinner and we wanted to see The Baths in the daylight, as is highly recommended.
We raced another boat to the only remaining mooring ball that, seconds earlier, had been abandoned and we won!! Ha ha! Funny, the cat we were racing to the mooring ball didn’t seem happy with us after that. Oh well! Everyone hit the turquoise waters to swim in to the beach to check out The Baths, which are huge monolithic granite boulders that sit atop one another. You get the feeling that if you so much as sneeze they will come tumbling down but they have been resting like this for thousands of years, spit out of a volcano and this is where they landed and now rest.
Off we go again after The Baths headed for Gorda Sound to show off the luxurious Bitter End Yacht Club and famous Saba Rock. We passed all of the charter boats on mooring balls and headed past Saba Rock straight out into Eustatia Sound, where only the brave dare to go. Cap’n Doug was careful of the reefs strewn around the sound and he safely navigated to a lovely spot in 7’ of white sand. We were the only boat there and if you looked to the bow of the cat it seemed like the middle of the ocean and it was glorious. Before nite descended, the gangs decided to head into the Bitter End for cocktails and then take the free ferry to Saba Rock for more cocktails! Not too many tho’ as dinner was ready waiting back on the cat. BBQ Ribs! Woo Hoo!
After dinner, we all hung out on the trampolines on the front of the cat to see thousands of stars that lit up just for us. There was absolutely no light pollution out where we were behind the reef and it was a new moon too, so we all enjoyed the light show, watching for shooting stars. You won’t see a fraction of these stars when you look out your window at home, that’s for sure. Sure makes you feel small and insignificant but groovy just the same.
Next morning the gang did some kayaking and snorkeling on the reef and found a cannon and a very large ships propeller. How kewl is that? Once everyone was back on board (we generally try not to leave people behind in the water, it’s a good practice), we weighed anchor again, this time headed for the tiny island of Marina Cay which conveniently is home to the Happy ARRRRR Bar (Happy Hour Bar for those of who are not fluent in pirate speak). Everyone headed in to check out Michael Beans performance which is out of this world energetic and hilarious and gets everyone’s foot tapping, not to mention the copious amounts of Pusser’s Rum that is consumed. Daniellle entered the conch horn blowing contest as Mustang Sally’s representative and although the youngest competitor out blew ‘em all. Needless to say, everyone was in fine spirits and off to the Last Resort for dinner. Just another day in paradise.
The guys got up early the next morning to dive the world famous wreck, The Rhone. While the guys were busy getting briefed by the dive master on board the dive boat the ladies were enjoying Mimosa’s with their brekkie with Cap’n Doug. Then it was time to for the ladies to go walk about in Trellis Bay and see if there might be any neat goodies to buy plus a little retail therapy at Pusser’s Marina Cay store. The guys came back in time for lunch and they filled us in on all they saw of the wreck. They told us how the captain had locked all of the guests in their cabins for fear that they would be washed overboard in the storm when instead they all drowned in their cabins while the ship sank…. tragic. Rob and James also told us the story of cabin #26 which was the only passenger who escaped and survived so as a result of this; the divers all touch the porthole of this cabin for good luck. Kewl but sad story.
After lunch we motored a quick jaunt over to Monkey Point for world class snorkeling. We got the best spot at the point where again we were the only yacht. It was a little disappointing for Jocelyn to learn that there weren’t actually any monkeys here despite the name. We had a little fun with her when we played one of our cd’s that has monkey s in the background.
Off everyone got into the water with snorkel gear on and swam around the point to see what there was to see. All reported back excitedly about all of the schools of blue tang, a turtle that was O.K. with the gang following him around for awhile (James got some great pics of him), and a few tarpon. Tarpon can always be a little freaky as they can get real big. We hung out in the cockpit and shared a few laughs and stories while Danielle practiced blowing the conch horn which she seemed to have mastered in no time, and we encouraged her to do her best to annoy the people who had decided to camp out on “our” private little beach for the nite. Obviously, she did not annoy them enough as they did not leave, but no matter, Mother Nature fixed their wagon when it started to pour! Ha!
Next morning the boys and Danielle, the mermaid, went snorkeling again while the ladies soaked up some rays and relaxed. When they came back we heard stories of a school of tarpon that had to be 50 or more! (James got this all on film, unfortunately Rob’s camera brokeL)Some great pics!
Sadly it was time to say good bye to the turtle and tarpon head to the next spot, happily tho’, the next spot was Green Cay and Sandy Spit. When the gang saw this idyllic spot they forgot all about Monkey Point. James hopped into the water before the anchor was even set, I think, on the hunt for rays which Cap’n Doug told him would be here and sure enough he wasn’t in the water 5 minutes and he was capturing them on film. After that we dinghied into the beach to shoot a movie. You see Danielle is a budding actor/director/editor, hence, Coconut Castaways was filmed and everyone played a part in the film. Soon to be viewed on youtube.com Great fun!
Once the film was “in the can” we headed for Diamond Cay, again a very short motor, where we got settled in for the nite. In the morning we hiked to the Bubbly Pool which used to be a secret but now everyone and his brother knows all about it. Still, a lot of fun and we had timed it perfectly, as the tide was coming in and the water was crashing thru the narrow rock crevasse creating huge wave action, which is a blast. Once we all had our fill of that we hiked back out to the dinghy and then made tracks to Great Harbour to check out Foxy’s and Corsairs and all of the little shops there. The photog’s where having a field day with the quaint little village and got some great shots again. Back on board we went around the point to White Harbour where we would over nite and spend the entire next day. The next day was the gangs last day on Mustang Sally Land we wanted to make sure they had a full day on a beautiful white sandy beach and got to really chill before flying back to the Great North. We enjoyed a big steak dinner the second last nite and enjoyed the play of light on the white sandy beach and recapped all of the exciting things that happened in their week with us.
The next day was leisurely spent snorkeling the reef, tossing the Frisbee on the beach and resting our tushes on Soggy Dollars beach chairs whilst imbibing many of Mic’s cocktail infusions and watching the other yacthies get smashed. I remember that James and Jocelyn were very fond of Mic’s Banana drinks. I can’t remember the names of them…something like Bananarama or Banana Hammocks! LOL! We decided lunch on the beach was in order and we packed up a big cooler bag full of egg salad and tuna salad sandwiches and wraps with lots of coldies and chips and pretzels. Ahhhhh! Could it get any better than this?
The photogs, James and Rob, had requested that everyone dress in white for a photo shoot on the beach at sunset. The pics turned out beautifully and the lighting was perfect at that time of the day. These guys really know what they are doing. After the photo shoot we had dinner on the beach at Soggy Dollars romantic beach BBQ complete with torches stuck in the sand and everyone enjoyed huge shish-ka-bobs. Cap’n Doug’s birthday was two days after the gang was leaving us so, they thoughtfully sang Happy Birthday to him and presented him with a gift. These guys are the best!
Next morning came way too soon. We rose bright and early to sail over to Soper’s Hole for the 9.30 a.m. ferry that would whisk them away to the airport in St Thomas and their northerly flight home. After we had loaded the luggage in the dinghy and exchanged address and email address we also exchanged big hugs all around and a teary eye on my part (I’m not good at goodbyes). I know that I can speak for Doug as well as myself when I say that we were saying good bye to lifelong friends. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? We both waved like fools (or maybe that was just me?) from the cockpit as the ferry left the dock. Can’t wait to see them again.
Check out the blog sites of these amazing photographers AND view more pics of their trip with us on their blogs.
http://www.hodgeblog.hodginsphotography.com/
www.westmountphotography.com/blog

Rate and booking update Feb 2008

2008-02-02T08:25:00.000-08:00

Mustang Sally has reduced their rates, see the Rates page on www.sailmustangsally.com

Current bookings are:

February 2008

Feb 24 - Mar 5 - booked Virgin Islands

March 2008

Mar 15-23 - booked St.Martin

April 2008

Apr 15-24 - booked Antigua

Also the boat will be at Antigua Race Week acting as a floating hotel. Book 1, 2 or all 3 queen rooms with ensuite heads for $150 per night, continental breakfast and dinghy service provided.

New Years Cruise

2008-02-02T07:59:00.000-08:00

First off Birthday wishes to a few people at home and here too! Happy Birthday wishes go out to Cap’n Doug on the 15th, Doug’s Mom, Kathie, on the 18th, my girlfriend Christine who is celebrating a milestone BD on the 20th, my brother Jeff on the 23rd and big Happy Anniversary to my Mom and Dad on the 14th.

Today is another beautiful day in Christmas Cove where we are hanging out for the last week getting caught up on projects like scrubbing the hull getting barnacles off, to grooming 2 dogs whose fur seems to grow like crazy, and last but certainly not least the log.

When I left off on the last log Kathie, Doug’s Mom, was leaving us to fly back home to chilly, blizzardy Canada. The next gang of brothers, Jon, Adam, and Simon and Adam’s girlfriend, Manica were set to join us over the next two days, 27th and 28th of December. They flew all into St Thomas and took cabs over to the east end of the island to Red Hook where we had been waiting for them. Simon was the last to arrive so we hit Duffy’s Love Shack for dinner to wait for his cab to drop him there. Duffy’s had lobster on the menu but it wasn’t Caribbean lobster, it was Maine lobster just flown in! What a treat to have Maine lobster in the Caribbean! The boys love lobster of course and were more than happy to eat lobster of any sort.

After Simon had arrived, Adam, and Manica were still waiting for their luggage. Not sure what it is down here, but seems like almost everyone that comes to visit loses their luggage. But luckily it always turns up the next day.

Once we had the luggage safe and secure on Mustang Sally we weighted anchor to get the fun started. We headed straight to White Bay, Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. As soon as the anchor was set the boys and Manica jumped in for their first swim in the warm turquoise waters. All four have been stuck in bitterly, cold weather for awhile back at home so they seemed anxious to get into the water and feel the warm sun on their backs. Can’t imagine why! Everyone then swam to the Soggy Dollar for their famous Pain Killers, and to soak up some rays with lots of sun screen on. We BBQ’d kabobs for dinner the gang played Scrabble late into the nite.

We were trying to decide what to do for New Years Eve which was only 2 days away. Everyone had heard of the famous Old Year party at Foxy’s and wanted to go there but it was not going to be that easy. The gang would have to forgo a couple of days exploring other places and hang out in Great Bay on Jost, which was just around the corner from White Bay, where we currently were, for the next 2 days to get a good spot to anchor for the party or forget it and move on to other places. There were other choices for New Years although they were not near as famous as Old Year’s Night. Foxy’s New Year’s party is so famous that it is considered one of the top 10 places to be for New Years Eve, so it was a tough decision to make, whether to stay there or continue on. In addition to losing a couple of days exploring other places, anchoring at Great Harbor can be a nightmare as the holding is not good thanks to a clay bottom and boats drag there all of the time. Imagine what it would be like with thousands of people (we have heard reports of 10,000 people, hard to believe), descending on Foxy’s with their boats and getting so liquored up they don’t even realize that their boat is dragging as they are passed out or too drunk to do anything about it. That many people crammed in one place, drunk out of their minds, some throwing up, sounded very entertaining but the gang decided to forgo Foxy’s in favour of seeing more places while they were here.

Once that decision had been made we lifted anchor and set off the next morning to explore. We started by motoring over to Sandy Spit and Green Cay. Some of the most beautiful islands (if you can call them that, as Sandy Spit is really just a deserted sandy spit of an island that has palm trees on it) in the B.V.I. and reportedly some of the most photographed islands in the world, think screen saver. The gang snorkeled in search of rays and starfish then we swam to the island and walked the white sand beach and lazed about.

We weighed anchor again and had a brief upwind sail ending in a motor to Monkey Point on Guana Island. We anchored in a lovely, red, craggy, rock section with azure blue waters underneath us, and enjoyed BBQ Baby Back Ribs and a competitive game of Scrabble. At points I heard words I have never heard of before, although quite ingenious and hilarious, they were not real words!

Monkey Point has some of the finest snorkeling in the Virgin Islands and so the next morning after brekkie everyone was anxious to get into the water and see just what was under the surface. So many fish!! Especially Blue Tang, in enormously large schools that moved together as if they all shared the same brain like the “Borg” on Star Trek. And tarpon, lots of really big tarpon, averaging 4-5 feet long!! All of this in less than 15 feet of water which made for a very exciting time and a few squeals of excitement were heard from Manica’s direction.

The next day was New Years Eve so we thought we would check out Trellis’ Bay’s New Year’s festivities, just a short trip away, on the east end of Tortola. When we arrived, we saw all of the already drunk sailors trying to anchor their boats in an already cramped anchorage (just what we had tried to avoid at Foxy’s). Guess it doesn’t matter where you go on New Year’s Eve you’re going to find drunk, haphazard crowds everywhere! That’s what it all about, after all!
We decided to hit Michael Beans” Happy Arrr!!! Show” for happy hour, of course. After an interminably long wait for the ferry (island time?), to take us on a very short ride to the little island of Marina Cay we were at the bar. Doug and I always get a kick out of this show and we thought the gang might too. We think they enjoyed it but thought it was a wee bit hokey. Oh well, everyone enjoyed painkillers and rum drinks anyway! After the Happy Arrrr cocktails show we hit the Pusser’s Rum restaurant for our New Years Eve dinner on the beach, complete with a starlit sky, sound of the surf hitting the beach, good food and drink.

After dinner we caught the ferry, (no longer on island time!) and headed for the huge beach party at Trellis Bay, There were thousands of people on the beach listening to reggae tunes, drinking rum and dancing near the carved metal spheres which are rooted in 3 feet of water along the beach, which were lit and the “kokopelli” type men carved into the spheres appeared as surreal large dancing figures on the beach and the water. The centerpiece of all this was a 20’ high effigy made out of branches, which was also anchored in the water about 50’ off shore. Everyone was waiting for midnite, of course, for this is when the huge effigy would be lit aflame. His figure would become a towering inferno, so to speak (sorry), when lit. Everyone was jostling to get into a good viewing position as the seconds counted down. It’s a funny thing, but no matter how many New Years go by you can feel the anticipation of the people around you waiting for the clock to strike twelve. Sure enough, when the clock struck twelve the effigy was lit by a brave soul who waded out into the water for this purpose, and when aflame he quickly moved away. It caught and the flames grew, grew so large in fact that I was getting a little nervous. Even tho this effigy was in the water and 50 feet away, the prevailing wind was whipping up quite a bit, blowing a lot of BIG sparks into the crowd on the beach. Suddenly the scene was reminiscent of a World Cup soccer game gone awry. I could see a huge panicked crowd crushing in the making. One good spark catches on someone’s linen shirt or polyester wind jacket and whoosh! Not something I wanted to hang around for. The islands don’t exactly have the same safety standards or crowd control as in Canada. We were all ready to head back to the cat anyway, and enjoy a coldie back on board where it was quiet and comfortable and watch the action from the safety of the cockpit. It was a great New Years Eve and even tho we couldn’t decide where the best place was to spend it, it didn’t matter, as Doug had his 3 sons together and that was the best part.

The next morning dawned another beauty day and we treated ourselves to a big decadent brekkie with Mimosas to celebrate the arrival of 2008. As soon as brekkie was inhaled we headed for the Baths. Gigantic, awe inspiring boulders, spit from the belly of a volcano that lean precariously against one another and some seem to be suspended in air. It is a very kewl feeling walking the trail that leads thru this wonder of nature and you might think to yourself ” If I just push a little too hard on this rock it will all come tumbling down”, but never fear these rocks have been there for thousands if not millions of years. A very kewl thing to see.

Pressing forward from there we decided it was chillin’ time. The gang all lead very busy stressful lives in the other world and everyone thot it would be nice for down time, a chance to read in the sun, catch some rays on the sun pads on the tramps up front, and swim and snorkel at leisure . Not that we hadn’t been relaxing but we decided that instead of moving to a new location every day we head to one sweet spot and hang out for the duration of the gangs trip which was only 3 more days. We had a lovely downwind sail to Cooper Island and enjoyed another gorgeous sunset, sundowners and then dinner. Once again, the Scrabble board was brought out and things were getting pretty fierce. I think Adam was winning that nite and there was a wee bit of gloating on his part, much to the dismay of the rest of the gang, who couldn’t wait for revenge!
Waking up to another carbon copy beauty day, Doug, Simon, and I snorkeled the rock formations there and found that the fish were more like our two dogs Willis and Rollie than fish as little schools followed us around begging for rice and whatever else snorkelers were handing out. It was cute.

We had a short downwind sail to beautiful Key Bay on Peter Island and put the hook down to hang for the next few days. We almost had the anchorage to ourselves here but for 2 other boats. Everyone quickly got into the rhythm of doing whatever you felt like. Manica and I spent a lot of time reading and enjoying the view while the boys took to the water. They saw lots of rays and swam with turtles especially a big old turtle for quite awhile. We also had a big barracuda hanging underneath the boat, (maybe because we were throwing scraps overboard! duh!) and the three guys decided that they were going to be brave by getting close, real close, thinking that the ‘cuda would leave seeing these 3 big “fish” approaching . Well, this ‘cuda wasn’t havin’ any of it, held his ground and wouldn’t budge. I guess he wasn’t inclined to give his reef up to just anybody. Not exactly sure just how close the guys all got (they say REAL close) but I have a feeling they saw the baleful, challenging eyes glaring at them and they turned tail rather than getting too close and duke it out. Probably a good idea.
Our last two days were a chance to take it easy and recharge the batteries, enjoy good company, eat too much, imbibe a wee bit and play LOTS of Scrabble. This was all accomplished with great flair and everyone was getting real good at it, especially at Scrabble. The past reigning champ is no longer the champ any longer, after much fuss and kerfuffle, Adam was dethroned, and wasn’t very pleased about it, LOL!!

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end and it was very sad when we had our last dinner before heading VERY early to the ferry dock in Road Town the next morning. Doug and I watched the ferry leave from the cockpit of the cat the next morning and we were both very quiet for a long while after they left us.

Stay tuned for our next log when Rob, Tina, Danielle, James and Jocelyn came and hung out with us for a week!

Xmas pics

2008-01-20T10:22:00.000-08:00

Xmas dinner at Maho Pavilion

2008-01-20T10:20:00.000-08:00

pics- Santa and his helper

2008-01-20T10:13:00.000-08:00

pic - mom and Wendy Xmas Eve

2008-01-20T10:11:00.000-08:00

pic of Mom celebrating!!

2008-01-20T10:09:00.000-08:00

pic of Mom,Cheryl,Rene and Doug

2008-01-20T10:06:00.000-08:00