December 8-9 Admiralty Bay, Bequia, St Vincent/Grenadines

After our time in Tobago Cays, we sailed to Bequia. The pictures here are from Admiralty Bay, where we spent a day and a half relaxing and preparing for travel to St Lucia. Nice town. Nice anchorage.

We left Bequia at 6pm on December 9th for an overnight passage to St Lucia. Seas were 8-10 feet with 18-25knot winds. Hakuna Matata slipped through the water. We had planned a possible stop at the Pitons but after arriving at 0200, we pushed on to Rodney Bay and arrived around 0800. It has been a quiet day of rest here. Of special interest, though, is that the ARC (Atlantic Rally) is also arriving here in Rodney Bay. This is a "race" in which many boats passage from Europe to here...basically an opportunity to make the Atlantic crossing in a group.

There are boats everywhere....s

December 6-7Tobago Cays, St Vincent/Grenadines

Ahhh, the Tobago Cays, among our favorite destinations. Love it, love it, love it. More turtles per square mile than any other place. Here are a whole bunch of photos.

Nekkidness abounds, some right, some so very fundamentally wrong:

This is Walter, the KING of "boat boys". Walter comes around in the afternoons to take orders for early morning delivery of ice and banana bread made by his wife. We remember Walter from our own charter trip to the Tobago Cays with Jimmy several years ago. Walter remembers Craig from a charter trip when he brought sailing students to the Tobago Cays. Even better, he remembers our prior visit earlier this year when Candy was on board with us. Completely unsolicited: "You were here with your sweet sister. Please remember me to her".

Did I tell you that Craig (aka Catain Sexy) is practicing for his swimsuit modeling career??

The best ever beer-drinking "hey ya'll, watch this" example I have ever seen. Oh my. Well, all I can say is that bravery and stupidity are sometimes difficult to distinguish. I need to party with these people. There was an article several months ago in Cruising World that discribed this very new use for a spinnaker. This is a cruising spinnaker, designed to fly off the bow of the boat (with threee points attached) for downwind sails. We are sitting in the cockpit, dumbfounded, and watch this activity unfold. After the fact, radio investigation revealed that these folks, having read the article, bought a beat up spinnaker to bring with them to their charter boat for this sole purpose.

Routing kite-boarding seems tame after that....

December 5: Catham Bay, St Vincent/Grenadines

After leaving Grenada, we made a quick run to Clifton Bay, Union Island, Grenadines to check in. Business chores done, we spent a quiet night in Petit St Vincent. The follwing day, we sailed over to Chatham Bay(scene of the July 4th party and Goat Path to Hell blogs). There is a new bar in Chatham. Since these boys had paid us a visit over in Petit St Vincent to invite us to their new club, no easy feat in a open panga with 40horse outboard, we felt obliged to at least visit for happy hour.

Hooks are in the water and Skip puts on a formidable fight. No tuna nor mahi. We decide we are not hungry enough to eat barracuda so he gets a chance to see another day after this toothy grin, deckside gaff services courtesy of Captain Craig.

December 3-4 Carriacou, Grenada

We sailed from Grenada on December 3 to Tyrell Bay, Carriacou, Grenada. It was a long beat to windward but we made safe passage in good time. Carriacou is a separate island but still within Grenadian waters. We spent the night in Tyrell and then scooted around the corner to Hillsborough to check out of the country. Skip is aboard to help with travel and photography. It is great to have his photographic skill accompany our journeys. It is a professional-level sport with him. More pictures of Craig and I together. Fun!

A Magnificent Frigate Bird dive-bombing a fisherman.

Us with Hakuna Matata at anchor in the background:

The local flavor of Hillsborough. This vendor is selling freshly harvested conch. The boys bought a bag. The admiral did not eat them:

His hair be stylin....he was visiting anchored boats to invite them to a local club/restaurant.

I bought this little turtle at the dinghy dock in Hillsborough from a local craftsman. As you can see, he has only one good arm. He holds the wood with his feet and carves these with a flat-head screw driver:

AV exec or pirate. You be the judge....

December 2 Full Moon Madness

Full moon in Prickly Bay:

Today we made last minute runs to the bank, grocery store and ice-getting store, tidied up the boat and relaxed in preparation for travel to Carriacou in the morning. Carriacou is a separate island in the northernmost portion of Grenadian territory.

Skip arrived this evening. Craig and I went in for dinner at De Big Fish to wait for him. It was a nice treat as we do not eat out that often, maybe twice a month. Skip has been traveling for work and is accustomed to decorative towel work. I heard a comment about a swan. Apparently, his clients pay for better hotels than mine did. Even so, I went Martha Stewart-esque and made all due preparations for his comfort.

And now you can too!!! The first link is to an origami website. The second link takes you directly to the .pdf downloads for napkin and towel decorations:

http://www.origami-resource-center.com/fabric-folding.html

http://www.normandtia.com/HTMLFiles/napkinstowels.htm