Christmas and New Year

NORDLYS
David and Annette Ridout
Sat 3 Jan 2009 18:49
After the Party to New Year 2009
 
14:04N 60:57W
Rodney Bay Marina St. Lucia
3rd January 2009
 
My last blog, how I hate the word but cannot think of a truly suitable alternative, ended with Annette's party.  Luckily the wind down after this high point in our lives was not sudden.  Jago and family had a few more days on Bequia and then we set off south to cruise in company with 'cat 2'.  Again I will tell most of the story in photos and for those reading this hoping for sailing stories there is little to read.  This is an ashamedly family/friends webdiary.  Ah I have found a word to replace the dreaded blog. The latter always sounds like something half way between a lavatory and a piece of firewood.
 
Grandmother enjoyed her last few days with her grandchildren.
 
Early father son bonding.  In a few years they will be going to the pub together no doubt.
 
Part of the annual cycle of the Frangipani tree is to have its leaves
eaten by the aptly named Frangipani caterpillar.  These beasts are up to
five inches long and caused Arthur, who is much attracted to anything creepy crawly,
endless entertainment.
 
Domesticity in the apartment.  One of the local girls found the company of her little neighbours
much to her liking. Good practice for life in multicultural UK?
 
Thus Saturday the 13th of December saw us sailing off to the Tobago Cays.  Our young family were having a last morning on the beach before taking a lunch time flight to Barbados and then on to London.  It was an emotional moment as we waved goodbye.  Balzac had it just right when he came up with the saying 'every time I say goodbye I die a little'.  We subsequently learnt that the beach party also found it quite emotional seeing Nordlys disappear over the horizon. Grandma and Grandpa will not be seen until August.
 
Arriving in the Tobago Cays we found Cat 2 and her happy crew moored with a spare buoy kept for us near them.  A very social and enjoyable few days followed.
 
 
Most of us made it to the top of one of the local hills.
 
It would be easy to play games with Photo Shop Elements and remove all boats except
Fair Pointe (Cat 2) and Nordlys.  The truth is however that the popular anchorages in the
 Antilles are crowded these days.  Having been lucky enough to get to such anchorages with
few if any boats on our Pacific travels we find it easy to accept now we are back 'in civilisation'. 
In this picture our two boats are moored near the right of the picture.  The empty area to the right
of the island is kept free for the grass to grow on the sea bed and it has become the home for many turtles. 
The whole anchorage is now a National Park.  Some yachts grumble at paying the not expensive park fees
but we have no difficulty with this.  While we are sure that not all the fees go to the upkeep of the park a fair percentage
obviously does and one of the only reef anchorages in the Eastern Caribbean is being preserved despite its popularity. 
 
Snorkelling and generally chilling out were on the agenda.  Fair Pointe then departed for another stopover while we went directly to Chatham Bay, Union Island, one of our favourite anchorages.  Here the local colony of pelicans amused us endlessly.  Snorkelling off the northern headland we understood why this colony is so numerous.  The sea was literally a soup of small fish.  All the birds had to do was dive down with their huge beaks open to scoop up lunch, tea and supper.
 
 
 
Apparently the skeletons of these birds weighs just 8 or so ounces and the beak about the same.
Seeing them fly one would not believe this.
 
So another 'goodbye' occurred when at 0700hrs Nordlys up anchored and departed.  We had enjoyed a lovely last evening with our friends on 'Cat 2' and were impressed that some of them were up to wave us goodbye.  It will be August 2009 before we are together again and we wish everyone a very enjoyable time until we are back in Lymington to enjoy their company.
 
Arriving back in Bequia we settled down to cruising life.  Friends arrived from many points as Bequia is a favourite Christmas stop over.  In the end over ten of us arranged for the use of a local waterfront cafe site that was closed for Christmas Day.  Chris Lytle, who had a bad finger showed Annette how to bone a turkey and we then cooked it on our Cobb BBQ.  Everyone chipped in and a real feast occurred.  It was a very happy, very full, very well oiled collection of yachties that dinghied back to their homes just before darkness set in. The crews from five RCC boats and one CCA couple from San Francisco either ate or called into the party for a drink.
 
Christmas Day Lunch
 
After Christmas exercise was needed.  Walks were taken of an energetic nature, an easy thing to do on hilly Bequia.  One day was spent going on a guided walk to some of the really unspoilt and wild parts of the island.  Our guide was a lovely enthusiastic and very knowledgeable French lady. 
 
Picnic in a fisherman's hut on the deserted and hardly accessible east coast.
 
The picnic site was over the crest at sea level.
 
We descended and climbed out of two east coast coves and by the time we were back on board
most were suffering from very tired muscles.  I know I was.
 
So after a few days of strong NE winds a day of lighter ENE winds saw a mass exodus.  Nordlys lead the pack of nearly twenty boats going north.  Others went south.  I am writing this in Rodney Bay St Lucia where we are arranging for parts for our watermaker to be flown from the States.  We celebrated two New Years here.  All of us being 'not spring chickens' we decided to celebrate midnight UTC, or GMT i.e. eight o'clock local in the evening.  This we did before going out to dinner.  However when midnight local came around we were - surprise surprise - in Nordlys's cockpit drinking whisky.  Six of us had had a very amusing evening.  The head ache is almost gone.
 
Happy times to our readers and may 2009 not be as bad for you and your families as the press tells us it is going to be.
 

David and Annette