En Route to Grenadines 6-26

Friday 6-26 After settling our accounts, checking out of the country and fueling up, we leave Rodney Bay around 2pm. We have a nice sail back down to the Pitons. Instead of stopping in Soufriere, we pull around the corner into Piton Bay which is nestled right between the peaks. All systems are working great. We are pleased and can relax.

Leaving Rodney Bay, St Lucia











“Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you a yacht big enough to pull up right alongside it.” David Lee Roth, courtesy of David Damm.
Which is exactly what we did:












The Pitons at dawn:











Saturday 6-27 Anchors up at 0600 for the trip to Bequia (Beck-way) in the Grenadines. We bypass St Vincent due to recent reports of unsavory characters coming down from the hills to harass cruisers. As we pass by, though, we are sad to see that the Port Royal set, which is the whole reason we were going back there, is falling into disrepair. The wind is relatively steady and we make quick time to Admiralty Bay, Bequia around 2pm with plenty of daylight to get the boat situated and run into town to check in with customs.


Blowing by St Vincent:

A photo for Ross and Fran. It' the bee's knees!!! Where are you????

I see these two things and just have to laugh. I see this hospital and wonder how much they pay nurses. My immediate thought is not enough. Then I wonder if ever a process redesign/software design proposal has included a new roof. An idle mind....

Next, we come upon a barber shop. Clive's. Neither Craig nor I are impressed with my hair cutting skills, not to mention the fact that I accidentally dropped the #2 guard overboard in Puerto Rico. We stop. Then we see a picture on the wall, and there you have it, Craig' new "do". My man be stylin':

We are at anchor in Canuoan tonight, awaiting the 11AM arrival of sister Candy.

Hanging out in Rodney Bay Marina, St Lucia 6-25

We pulled into the marina on Monday to sort out our electrical/power issues and effect a resolution before passages south. As Jack Sparrow says: "complications arose, ensued and were overcome". It seems the inverter is the source of all evil, pulling too much power or backfeeding current. Talking out of my left ear now. Long story short: inverter dumped and replaced with a triple throw-down battery charger. Shore power inlet and cords replaced. Alternator replaced. Once again at the mercy of FedEx, since "overnight" clearly has a different meaning down here than in the US, (uuuggghhhh, idiots!) we anticipate arrival of a new temperature safety switch for the generator which will be installed when we get it in hand. Following that, we are getting out of here and heading for St Vincent and the Grenadines. Sister Candy arrives in Canuoan on Monday. We gotta go!

While Craig has been busy with these repairs, I have been giving the boat some much needed love and affection...polishing stainless, washing down the deck and hull with oxalic acid to remove stains, cleaning the cockpit cushions and enclosure and getting after a bit of laundry. The slip is inexpensive ($26US/night) but the laundry is crazy, $18US per load! S/V Hakuna Matata is so very bright and shiney! The marina here is really nice and has a pool which we have enjoyed. We also have cable TV. Movies aside, we have not watched TV since we left Florida in March. We tried to catch up on news of the world only to learn that some governor cheated on his wife and that Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died.

Some shots from our slip:

We are hoping to leave here tomorrow, Friday, around noon. We will spend the night further down the coast of St Lucia and then cross over to St Vincent on Saturday.

St Lucia 6/20-?

We left Dominica at first light 0530 for the passage to St Lucia. We arrived in Soufriere about 0100 on Friday night. Lucky for us, a boat boy (Daniel) is still awake and coherent enough to drive his boat to meet us and guide us to his personal mooring ball. We doubt it is screwed into the sea bed as per our normal requirement, but after so many hours at sea, we decide not to quibble over details, especially since we are still in 40 feet of water and only 10 yards or so from the rocky coastline. After relaxing for a bit, albeit on mooring watch, we catch a few hours of shut-eye. We wake up at 0800 and check out our surroundings. On one side is full frontal ghetto assault, on the other is the majesty of the Pitons. Daniel shows up promptly to take us to town for check-in to the country. The town has a creepy feel to it. After finishing up check-in and immigration, we send Dave on his way to the airport. It has been great fun to have him help us with passages. THANKS DAVE!!!
After Dave leaves, we feel like we gotta get out of here. Soufriere is just too weird and much to our dismay (read: extreme piss-off) we discover that we are not quite out of the grip of generator/alternator/inverter issues. "Buggers" does not even approach adequate description. Something is not right in Denmark or our engine room. The captain needs a break. We scoot over to Rodney Bay, St Lucia, a cruiser port with robust marine resources. Evil forces conspiring in our power sources WILL be overcome. Rodney Bay is absolutely beautiful. Bait fish swarm our boat, the coast line is upscale and the anchorage is comfortable and quiet. It's all good!

The local fruit/vegetable vendor in Rodney Bay. Flags. Style. I dig it.

Dominica 6/17-19

We had an excellent passage and are excited to finally be heading on a southernly course where the trade winds fall off to 60dgrees and allow us to sail. Up until this point, we have been heading mostly east, into the eastern trades, and having to motor most of the way. We arrived in Portsmouth, Dominica at 0600 on Wednesday, 6-17. A guide approaches the boat upon our arrival (the “boat boys” get business on a first come/first serve basis), and we make arrangements for an afternoon adventure. Dominica (Dom-min-neek-a) is known as more of an eco-tour destination than anything else, and to protect its resources, the government requires that most activities be led by guides. We are pleased that Charlie Love is a full resource provider. Skip: Charlie got his last name after a trip to Boca Chica, DR. Go figure.
Charlie picks us up that afternoon and he takes us on a tour of the Indian River. As some of you may know, when Craig and I chartered in the Grenadines a few years ago, we specifically went to the bay where the Port Royal film set for Pirates of the Caribbean remains. We were excited to discover that this river was the location for filming the river scenes in Pirates 2…where they went to find the witch. The following day, Charlie took us to a dive spot at the edge of the bay. It was nice to get into some deep water, about 65 feet, pristine and undisturbed. We relaxed Thursday evening for an early morning wake up and departure for St Lucia. The boys mutinied over the cheese I bought in Sint Maarten…the refrigerator smelled like a chunk of Camembert so unfortunately, after afternoon snacks, it had to go…

Heading the right direction; I decide on pressure cooker magic underway..What was I thinking??

Night cometh; passing Saba; distant shot of Monserrat...

Rainbows at sea...cameras do them no justice.

Sunset in Dominica; Charlie Love

The land is so lush that coconuts sprout where they fall, except for the one the guide found and cracked open for us to drink...

A bird nest made from palm leaves and coconut husk. A bird that eats land crabs. Daddy: Toe in the hole may have been fun when we were kids but these beast crabs could take off a foot...too fast for pictures.

"Black water Hattie lived back in the swamp where strange green reptiles crawl. Snakes hang thick from the cypress trees like sausage on a smoke-house wall."

Name the artist and complete the verse in a comment if you know it!

St Martin 6/10-14

French wine and cheeses, soft summer breezes…
We spent Wednesday 6-10 through Sunday 6-14 in St Martin at the marina. The generator took two days and fired up on Saturday. Craig spent most of his time with Roger in the engine room. I explored the French side one afternoon with Kitty from S/V Falcon. This place is a shopping mecca since the entire island is duty-free. Fun shops abound…heavy on jewelry and European clothes. I wanted to hang around the La Perla lingerie store just to see what kind of idiot pays $350 for a bra made from $0.58 worth of fabric but we moved on to other adventures such as sampling French beer and buying fresh produce. The next day, Dave and I went dinghy riding across the lagoon and found ourselves in Sint Marteen, the Dutch side of the island. Excellent grocery stores and marine chandleries. Following that, Dave and Craig went for a day of boy adventures. Since I did not reveal the location of La Perla, they went to explore boat wrecks and a fort instead. We were prepared to sail on Sunday but found that we could not check out of the country because everything, and I mean everything, was closed. We prepared the boat for the upcoming passage and woke up early Monday morning so we could make it out through the draw bridge opening at 0830. After settling surprisingly low tabs with the marina and generator shop and checking out of St Martin, we took off around 1pm for the 180 mile run to Dominica.

Not sure I'd squeeze my half-mil catamaran through this skinny bridge....I was puckered and it's not even my boat....

The fort....why do the guns point into town????

The man, the myth (with security guard Ruby), the legend, the tourist.....

A perfect burial situation....

Roger getting down and dirty, on my cutting board; grocery shopping, French style....

Hakuna Matata at Mediterranean moor; the other side of a French marina...