Moorglade's Voyage - Another week, another blog

Another week, another blog

Moorglade's Voyage

Ted Wilson

Sat 15 Jan 2011 13:47

Our position is 13:49.55N 61:03.82W

It doesn't seem a week since our last blog. Time flies when there are grand children to entertain. We stayed another day on Pigeon Island and went snorkelling. Ted was able to make use of his Christmas present from the children when he and Guy went snorkelling off the dinghy (the water was too cloudy off the beach after a day of being stirred up by a cruise ship party). Guy and Kelly went ashore for a romantic dinner at an interesting waterside restaurant leaving Ted and me in charge of a sleeping Elsie - a first for them since she had been born. Ted spent a lot of time worrying that the anchor was dragging , however when the time came to leave, even the mighty Moo on hauling duty was unable to shift it for a while but after some motoring forward and backward it came clear and we returned to Rodney Bay Marina to replenish the water, recharge the batteries, get the laundry done, visit the supermarket, eat ice cream and visit the chandlers.

Having completed all the tasks we set off for a brisk sail down to Soufriere and the Pitons - a trip of c 20Nm - and Kelly and Elsie's first real sail. The wind was quite strong and at one point there was a very strong squall with gusts of 37kn and very heavy rain - Elsie went below and Kelly was asleep - but Ted and I braved it out and rolled the jib, giving our waterproofs their first airing for some time. On our arrival at Soufriere we tackled anchoring and taking a line ashore to a palm tree for the first time, fortunately with the help of Shane, a friendly local, who had greeted us some way out and then followed us in, not put off by our indecision about our ultimate mooring method. (Presumably he knew there were no buoys left!)

The next day we had a look round the town, dodging the itinerant hard luck stories, bought more fruit from yet another boat vendor, and Guy and Kelly, encouraged by the success of their previous dinner ashore, went to the Hummingbird restaurant for dinner and live music, once more entrusting Elsie to grand-parental care. Just before it got dark there was a lot of shouting near the transom (where the rope tied us to the shore) and local fishermen were trying to avoid being garotted while setting a net, which when pulled to the shore revealed a mighty haul of sardines.

Off early the next morning - Guy was entrusted with detaching us from the tree - for a 30 minute motor round to Anse de Pitons. This proved a lot more exciting than anticipated as we left the sunshade up and once round the headland the wind was funnelling down the valley with gusts of up to 40kn. Guy and I were hanging onto the sunshade to stop it carrying away! Just after arriving there was a loud noise and the flag end of the dan buoy had detached itself from the backstay and was being shredded by the wind generator as it fed 16amps into the batteries during the gusts! We had picked up a buoy with the help of Alvin and agreed to have him arrange for a trip to see a waterfall in the afternoon. This proved to start with a high speed pirogue trip, inches from the rocks on the headland, back to the town we had just come from, but you have to make like a tourist sometimes. Spencer, our driver, took us to the botanic gardens, the volcano crater and sulphur springs and the famed waterfall, where you can bathe in the pools filled by the surprisingly warm water. However one look at the murky nature of the pools was enough for the whole party to decide they would pass on this one, so it was back down to the town for another high speed boat trip back to Moorglade.

The following day was spent on the beach at the Jalousie resort, swimming and snorkelling, and enjoying a very up-market lunch. Tomorrow we will sail North again to Marigot bay.