Onwards south we go
Catacaos
Graham Shaw
Sun 23 Jan 2011 13:39
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Well Mummy arrived safely, and the wind was good so
we thought we'd make a quick exit down to Guadeloupe. We ended up with
another passenger, Philippe from the boat next to us in the anchorage, who
was going to fly down there, but as we were going that way he jumped
aboard . Little did we know he had been a chef for 28 years
and also is a very good fisherman. Put to the test, he came up trumps: he
caught us a Rainbow Runner which he turned into some very tasty sushi for pre
lunch, followed by fillets for lunch, which were both yummy, and a first
for sushi for my Mummy. She just hasn't lived eh? The idea not scare my
mum to death sailing in the big blue water, was not to go out in more than
20 knots of wind. Now all those who sailed in the Caribbean last year
would say this was a easy task, but this year it seems the forcasters have
forgot to add 10 knots to their estimate. The first sail started out
nicely, with up to about 18 knots, but by the time we reached Deshaies
in Guadeloupe it was over 30 knots. It's a good thing my mum took it in her
stride and took a Stugeron (anti-seasickness pill) just in case. We then
followed the coast down to Les Saintes, but had to do a slight detour at
the end, as we could not hold the course, and ended up coming up from
the bottom of The Saints, again with the wind around the 30 knot mark. (forecast
20 knots).
We spent a number of days in The Saints, with a bit
of hiking mixed in with lunch and a few refreshing beers, all the while waiting
for the weather to calm down, and of course a bit of shopping.
We arrived into Martinique with a little better
weather, but no fish - clearly not watching Philippe closely enough.
We stopped in St Pierre, then Grand Anse d'Arlets, Le Marin and St Anne.
We hired (rented, for all our US readers) a car, as we need to pick up some
stuff for the boat, of course, so we managed a little tour up to Le Jardin de
Balata, which was very pretty. We also did a big stock up, in anticipation
of our Pacific crossing, as this is the cheapest and easiest place to get
tinned food for example.
We then sailed down to St Lucia to fly my Mum
back to Antigua. We missed Dominca out which I think is such a lovely place but
you just get hassled too much, it puts you off going back there.
Lucas was was very sad to leave his friend
Marlin when we left Antigua, but loved having his Grandma here to
twist around his finger when he could get away with it. He's still growing
up too fast.
After Mum flew out we headed to Bequia in the
country of St.Vincent and the Grenadines, but because customs would not clear us
out the previous day we had a late start, so ended up arriving in Bequia in the
dark. Thinking no boat boys would annoy us by that time, I lived in hope,
but no, they were there, and one would not take no for answer - I almost got
cross with one of them. We left the next morning to dash to The Tobago
Cays, which are always lovely, nice to have my last fix of swmimming with
the turtles, maybe? Tomorrow off to meet up with Yves and Dominique on Rusee de
Jersey, then a dash to Grenada for the next guest. I am hoping we will pop
back up to Tobago Cays and Mustique for the music festival in the next week or
so, depending on the weather.
My first Moonbow sighting in Martinique it was
aweome. There has been a lot of rain, so not unusual to get one with
a big full moon. What has happened to the Caribbean weather this
year?
One thing which was missed from previous blog was
one night after too many beers in the BVI, we stopped off at Dragonfly on the
way home but when we came to leave our dinghy had disapearred, some one not tied
it on properly. Thankfully and very very lucky the wind just blew it onto
the nearest sandy beach, if we had been facing the other way, we would be still
searching for it. It also had the shinny new engine on it. The
person who did not tie the boat up, will remain unamed but he is not allowed to
tie up anymore!!!
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