Christmas and New Year
NORDLYS
David and Annette Ridout
Sat 3 Jan 2009 18:49
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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 |