Friends and family
Starcharger
Sun 26 Oct 2014 16:21
Gill has had Chikungunya a horrid disease that is spread by mosquito. It appears to have taken the Caribbean by storm! The symptoms include making you feel 100 with bad arthritis, a very itchy rash and exhausted. Now some six weeks later her feet don't work properly in the morning....one can spot sufferers from the 'Gunya walk.
Gill was just recovering when Josh and Becky joined us in Grenada at the end of September. We kidnapped Jester and set off to do the Seven Sisters again, sadly without Gill who wasn't well enough to come. It was great fun and we met some friends Keith and Ida there. We then said good bye to the dogs and cat and set off for Carriacou to take part in the annual Hash there. On the Sunday Josh's friend Neil flew in to join us.
From there we sailed down to Tyrrel Bay to meet our friends Francis, Sandrine and Valentin had a lovely evening with them and the following day set off to the Grenadines.
We had a fantastic time sailing to Petite Martinique, Union Island and Tobago Cays. The lobster barbecue on the beach at sunset was just perfect.... The kids went snorkelling with turtles and over the reef. We then took the dinghy out to the aptly named reef 'Worlds End' and walked round Petite Tabac. A charming small uninhabited Island in the Atlantic. Apparently it is where Captain Jack drank rum for three days in Pirates of the Caribbean, so Gill was happy.
Then on to Bequia for some diving and Clearing Customs.
The journey to St Lucia was to have been an overnight passage....but at 3am just North of St Vincent we were being hit by severe squalls. When the wind got up to 50 knots I took the decision to turn back. We headed into Cumberland Bay for a few hours while most of the crew slept and we regrouped. The sail up to St Lucia during the day was great but still quite windy!
Friday night saw us in our favourite Caribbean bar...Jambe de Bois. Now with a new member of staff, Oscar a tiny ginger kitten who entertained guests all night!
The pace of life changed then when the kids flew home and Mother and Sam came out. Since then we have remained in St Lucia, only sailing from Rodney Bay to Windjammer Landings.
We are staying in the villa with a washing machine....such excitement. We were very pleased to find not one but two mooring buoys, perfect.
It was lovely to spend two weeks with Mother, we didn't do too much but had a great time. A lovely drive round the island, a trip to Castries and a sail to Pigeon Island for jazz at Jambe de Bois. We stayed overnight, sailing back the following day.
The boat is now in Rodney Bay having the bright work redone. Sadly, having locked the boat for only the second time since arriving in the Caribbean we were broken into.....
Not sure exactly what has gone but at least
18 bottles of wine
2 bottles of whisky
A handheld compass
A handheld VHF
Money (£, $ & €)
A sextant
Loads of tools
Two tins of varnish
Etc etc....
But no one hurt and no damage done!
Mother has now gone home and the pace of life has changed again, the Manleys have arrived but more of that later
Have fun
Love Alasdair and Gill
Sent from Alasdair's iPad