" A LADY " TRIP AROUND THE WORLD (at present, the Grenadines, Carribbean )

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Mon 28 Dec 2009 14:44
FRIDAY 25th DECEMBER 2009  ----  CHRISTMAS DAY
 
Another beautifull sunny day, No mad rush as we all went to 19.00hrs Mass last night in the local church in Bequia, Mass took a solid 2 hours
with all the music , singing and drum playing.   this was followed by dinner in the " Devils table" and a very ,very , late night was had by the young crew,
who met Clieve and Alice deasey ashore and went on a total tear.  This resulted in little sleep for the senior members of the ship..
Ahhhh well, great to be young....
 
Christmas Day,,   no need to mention that a very slow start was had by all,
Following a slow breckfast, and a swim, the skipper set about preparing the Christmas Dinner,  The stuffing first, and then got the turkey ready for cooking,
A Lady has an electric cooker and oven, The main advantage of this is ,it works off the batteries and generator, and we never have to worry abuot looking for GAS, ( this would be an even bigger problem in the Pacific )
The boat has 11 batteries under the floor,  ( 3no 12volt batteries and 8no 24volt batteries) and these drive all the yacht's electronic's, navigational equipment, and of course the cooker, the microwave, the kettle, the T.V.,  and all the other systems on board.
 
Aileen, and the kids went ashore to scout around while the dinner was cooking,
Its not often ( if ever) we were about to have the christmas dinner in such glorious weather,
16.00 the gang returned to the boat and dinner was served at 16.30.   
                                 Starters:-    Prawns and Avacado, with all the trimmings,
                                 Dinner  :-     Roast turkey and stuffing, Roast Spuds, Creamed potatoes,and veg, plus gravey ( as the effort to make bread sauce
                                                   failed miserably )
 
We had christmas music playing all the while, and then when finished with the food, we exchanged gift's and all that stuff,
Aileen usually looks after all that end of thing's and does a great job.
Then we had to call all those close family members at home and wish them all  " HAPPY CHRISTMAS "
Later we watched D.V.D's and had an early night,
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
 
 
SATURDAY 26th December 2009
 
We all got up early to another glorious day in the sun, the younger models feeling a lot fresher today,
Following a light breckfast and a long swim, we raised the anchor and set sail for  " CANOUAN " an Island approx 24 miles
south of Bequia.  Again , this Island was visited by S. & A around 10 years ago ,when they chartered a 40foot yacht and did the West Indie's...
( this was the time they thought they were going to the " British Vergin Island's " ) but the Skipper was never very good at the geography
so we wound up in the West India's  ... A great trip, but the skip has never been let forget the gaff....
 
We arrieved approx 2pm , and all went for an immidiate swim as soon as we dropped anchor.  Ohhhhh wonderfull,  we were anchored inside a reef
and the water was a lovely pale blue colour, ( the kind of thing one sees in the travel mag's )
Later the skipper went ashore for a walk , a feeble effort at controlling the expanding waste line,
 
Funny thing,,,,,,, as we get gracefully older, we have a tendancy to grow " down and out "
All this was followed by more swimming and then ashore for a "pizza" dinner.in the waterside restaurant, a real tropical thatched roof structure.
 
Later ,on our return to the ship, we watched more d.v.d.'s  including " Star Treck"  and followed by " the sentinel"
 
Bunk zzzzzzzzzzzz  actually, sleeping on board is very poor , as the heat makes for difficult continious sleep,
 
 
SUNDAY  27th DECEMBER 2009   Stephen's birthday
 
Up early, and Stephen & Aileen went to 9am Mass in the local church.
This will make you laugh, After Mass the first thing of a long list the priest is about to read out, and say's :-  WHO HAS A BIRTHDAY TODAY
OF COURSE, the Skipper was dispached to the alter to be sacrificed to the god's . and the choir sang  "   Happy Birthday Stephen "  wonderfull stuff.
 
Following Mass we all went for a long walk to the northern end of the Island in very warm conditions, where we explored some of " RAFFEL's "
holiday complex, which has its own beautifull Beach ( appearently in the top ten beach's of the world )   its own golf course and church.
The round trip was 5 miles and on our return to the marina /beach bar we  ( as in the 4 alcholics on board ) had a " PINA COLADA " each.
Now this was made with a RUM of a difference,  84% alcahol.. It had a kick like a MULE  ....  yum yum
 
Following this we set off for " TABAGO CAY's " ( approx 4miles away ) and arrieved at 14.20,
we dropped anchor here in what could only be described as paradise on earth.
Of course we all went for the constitutional swim and made arrangments to go ashore later to a beach B.B.Q. of LOBSTER
This was arranged with Mr Faboulus,   A local black man ,who actually lived in Wexford for a while.
Mr Fabulous (34) more or less set up this Lobster Beach B.B.Q. thing and we shared drinks and smokes with him at the end of the night.
Again there was a great " HAPPY BIRTHDAY " sing song for the skipper during the night , on this deserted , protected beach island.
just Fabulous.
 
However , despite all the mosquito spray, we still got fecken bitten , which made the sleeping all the more difficult later.
Bunk was welcome after we took the rib out of the water,,zzzzzzzzzzzz