Sailing in the Caribbean
S/Y KO-KO
Haakon Dyremyhr / Ellen Bjerknæs
Thu 12 Jan 2012 16:22
The crossing took 16 days and 1 hour and was 2908nm long.
We had a great crossing - good wind for 14 days and then suddenly no wind at all.
Had to use engine for the last 43 hour.
Got a nice welcoming greeting on arrival - rumpunch, fruit and hugs and hurrays!
We had 11 nice days in Rodney Bay Marina with a lot of welcoming parties, seminars, get together and social life.
On the 17th of December it was the Final Party with prize givings, speeches, food, drinks and nice music.
Great finish of 6 nice weeks.
Since then we have been sailing a bit in St. Lucia area.
Jesper and Lotta, Celine and Jens Petter arrived before Christmas and we spent Christmas Eve in Marigot Bay together with several other norwegian boats.
We had a nice evening at Chateau Mygo.
After a nice gospel service with the locals on Christmas Day we had a nice afternoon on the beach in Marigot Bay tanning under the palm trees.
On the 27th we sailed down to Bequia 60 nm south of St. Lucia. Bequia is a part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
It is a nice island, 18km long and less than 6000 inhabitans.
We had a buoy in Admirality Bay and that cost 50 EC dollars a night. It is also possible to anchor near Princess Margaret Beach.
There where several other norwegian boats here already.
We had a nice sightseeing on the Island. It has several nice beaches, aquamarine blue water and even a turtle farm.
New Years Eve we celebrated in the restaurant Jack`s on Princess Margaret Beach.
A beautiful place with excellent food. At midnight Bequia had a breathtaking fireworks.
Really a night to remember.
On the second of January we headed north again towards St. Lucia and Marigot Bay. We had a terrible 9 hours trip with big waves and strong wind on the nose.
And of course several squalls to go with it - with heavy rain.
After waving goodbye to Celine and Jesper we enjoyed our stay in Marigot Bay and the lovely facilities in The Marina Village.
They have nice swimming pools where you can sit and have drinks in the water overlooking the beautiful bay.
In the evening you can take your dinghy to Rainforest Hideaway - a lovely restaurant we warmly recommend.
Last Friday we sailed up to Martinique to meet up with some friends.
We anchored in Trois Ilets with our "Najadfriends" on Song of the Ocean and Serafina.
We had some nice days together with The Simpsons, Bert and Birgitta and Sarah and Rob.
There was a small ferry going over to Fort-de-France, the capital city of Martinique.
Here we easily checked in on a computer next to the chandler.
It was done in 10 minutes, we printed it out and had it stamped at the chandlers.
And it was free of charge.
The city was nice, had a small pedestrian zone, nice shops with european goods.
Martinique belongs to France and is therefore part of the EU. They also use Euro.
In the evening we went to have a nice meal in the Trois Ilets village.
The restaurant called Fleur de Sel can be recommended.
The next day we had a lot of wind from the east so we had to move the boats to the next bay called Anse Mitan.
It is more protected.
Monday we had to go back to Rodney Bay Marina to wave goodbye to Jesper and Lotta.
They cooked us a nice mexican meal in the boat and the next day Michael took them to the airport.
It has been lovely to have "the kids" around for a while.