St Kitts and back to the British Virgins

March 3 2016 St Kitts

A mere 8 miles sail took us from Nevis to its sister island, St. Kitts. Like many siblings, the two have a colorful history but are now at peace with each other. We anchored in the southern peninsula at South Friars Bay, first with the tall ship Mandalay of Zanzibar, then in splendid isolation.

The town of Basseterre (originally in the French Quarter) is pleasant

Basseterre central square

but was somewhat overrun when we visited the next day by two immense and identical cruise ships from Costa and Carnival. So much for brand differentiation. We beat the crowds to a quiet breakfast at Ballahoo.

Bastion of Brimstone Hill Fortress

We decided to take the bus to visit the Brimstone Hill Fortress. St Kitts was the first English colony in the Caribbean, and accordingly a major military strongpoint.

We had planned to walk up the 600 foot hill, but a friendly taxi driver took us up a few minutes from the bus stop. On the way down, a friendly Puerto Rican couple from said Carnival ship picked us up...well, exercise another time.

The site is very impressive, with an interesting museum on garrison life in the 17th and 18th century.

The historical museum in Basseterre gives a fascinating, if somewhat depressing, idea of the history and living conditions in St Kitts, both before and after the abolition of slavery.

The island reputedly has a plague of monkeys who eat all the mangoes - we did not see any until our last evening, before having dinner at the elegant Carambola restaurant in our anchorage. They are not really timid:

March 5 2016 en route to Virgin Gorda

Statia dock

With a cold front coming, we shortened our St Kitts visit and set forth to the North in the early afternoon for a 130 miles run to Virgin Gorda.
We passed in the lee of St Eustatia (Statia) at sundown, but the charm of it was a bit lost on us

Pirates of the Swiss Lakes

with dozens of tankers and tugs plying the anchorage. We had to dodge under sail a Swiss tanker, "Matterhorn" (!) who had quietly raised anchor behind another tanker. Once more, we let the the rule of tonnage apply over the rules of the road. 

We passed Saba island in the night, and gradually lost our wind approaching Virgin Gorda, finishing with a 50 mile motorsail. After 5 years we were back in the land of charters and super-yachts, in the Bitter End anchorage. 

A different vessel we met is the Hawaiian sailing canoe Hōkūle'a, on a 4-year nearly completed extended circumnavigation - open deck, steering oar, no cabin, not a screw or nail in her and of course no engine. 

A very brave crew of 10, including a Hawaiian master navigator who steers by the stars... the GPS is strictly for the blogging.

The wind is blowing hard after the cold front and we will resume our travels to the American and Spanish Virgins in a few days.

Sainte-Anne and first visit to Nevis

The day after Leigh's departure, after a last sunset,

we moved to Ste Anne to visit our Swiss friends René and Ginette on Opus. We had a nice week together, visiting Le Marin to chase arcane or unobtainium spare parts, enjoying dinners on board and on shore. 

The weekly couscous fiesta is a great dancing opportunity. The restaurant owner takes the mike for everything from French oldies to American standards and Latino music.

We also enjoyed walking part of the trail that rounds the Ste Anne peninsula – beautiful beaches and utter calm 5 minutes from town.

Ste Anne Anchorage

Anse Caritan Ste Anne

When the next weather window opened, it was time to make way North towards our end-March Puerto Rico appointment. We decided to go to Nevis, with a quick overnight in Deshaies, Guadeloupe.

The crossing along Martinique, Dominica, Les Saintes and Guadeloupe was a mix of fast sailing between islands and slogging along the coasts; in Deshaies we caught the last free mooring ball and were able to avoid the anchoring demo-derby taking place daily in this small bay where wind and current have their own minds and squalls are frequent.

We restarted the following morning in the dark, in light airs, towards Montserrat, Redonda and Nevis.

The Kingdom of Redonda

The going was slow enough that we deployed the spinnaker, which immediately caused a squall to descend upon us upwind of Montserrat. We weathered it, but ten minutes later, as we were doing a brisk 9 knots, we saw the spinnaker fall like a tree next to the boat – ripped head. After 30 minutes we had recovered the whole soaking mess from the ocean, never stopping on our way to Redonda. JP had not blown a spinnaker since his regatta days, a few decades ago…

Spi aftermath

We made Nevis just for the sunset, 12 hours for 70 miles and picked a mooring close to the only town, Charlestown. At Customs and in town, people were universally friendly and helpful.

Restored building at Golden Rock

The next day we undertook an island tour – the main attractions are big plantation houses converted to high-end hotels, some very tastefully. 

Montpelier Hall

Verandah at Hermitage

We were particularly impressed by Golden Rock (great landscaping and use of nature), Montpelier (beautiful hall) and Hermitage (fully restored colonial wooden house). 

We also stopped at old churches with tombstones from the 1600’s and hot sulphur springs.

Wild donkeys run free in the hills.

Talk to our agent!

Orchids - so hard to photograph

Lunch was at the delightful botanical garden, overlooking the south coast and featuring a Thai restaurant and flower extract drinks.

Did you say purple flower?

An excellent fish dinner at Double Deuce, a beach restaurant concluded our visit to Nevis.

Squall and rainbow on Nevis peak

The ship's mechanic

Saint Lucia Redux

Leigh flew down from Baltimore (around 25 degrees Fahrenheit) through Miami (around 51F) on the 11th, arriving at Rodney Bay to a welcoming squall but temperatures well into the 80's.  Hooray.  After a lovely late afternoon swim and dinner on board (goat curry and a long overdue callaloo soup), we spent another night and day and overnight in Rodney, and then took a short (three hour) sail to Anse Chastenet, where we made a lunch stop at the resort restaurant, had a snorkel, and had a walk between their two "private" beaches.  We decided to try our luck at finding a mooring around the corner near the bat caves to the south of Soufriere, and we did indeed get lucky, though the nature of the luck may be in the eye of the beholder.  The roll was (ahem) a bit intense and the wind died so we spent the night being alternately turned on our heads, being banged into by the mooring ball, and alternating between too warm and too cold.  No matter - it's still a lovely spot, in the shadow of the always awesome Pitons.

We headed back south after JP and Susan took another quick snorkel

and came down to an outside morning at Marigot Bay.  We came ashore for a light lunch and so Leigh could download some files (one out of two accomplished - oh well); we'll head back to Rodney early tomorrow as there is a big blow coming.

Here some additional photos from my first few days back.

That water color!

The other kind of cruising

Our neighbors in Marigot

T 

The ever obedient Scheherazade

Our lunch spot in Anse Chastenet

I forgot to take the Tungsten filter off the camera!

How the other ?% lives - Jade Mountain Resort

Waiting for the Admiral in Rodney Bay

Groundhog Day

We had an early start from St. Vincent and expected a long motoring trip to St. Lucia, but the trades had held at a steady 17-18 knots, and we had another fast passage between St. Vincent and St. Lucia, fast enough that we could get all the way to Rodney Bay on the north of the island.

We are enjoying the bay and the alternance of a rare calm with a good blow, the anchor firmly in the sand and the sunset (and sundowners) regular as clockwork. We have developed a new method of discouraging anybody from anchoring too close to our boat (see picture).

El Kabong!

Leigh should join us in a few days for new adventures - stay tuned.

A quick visit to the Grenadines

January 28, 2016

Before leaving Carriacou, we went to see the ongoing build of a traditional wooden tuna fishing boat. Very impressive, considering it is all hand done.

We had decided to enter Saint Vincent in Union's Chatham Bay rather than the busy harbor of Clifton, and to enjoy the calm and the small beach shacks' lobster dinners.

Chatham Bay

Of course, this means a cross island trek to go and clear in customs in Clifton.

The views are well worth it, however, and we got to talk with the mail lady and with Araline, a one-time and still occasional yacht cook selling break goodies to schoolchildren in Ashton.








Susan also found the perfect source for (island) fashion.
















January 31 2016

After only a few days we had a favorable wind window, and decided to move to Saint Vincent, bypassing Bequia. A brisk 6 hours took us to Young Island Cut on the south coast, finishing on a reach at 9-10 knots. We moored at Charlie Tango's and betook us to the French Verandah for some fine french dining and red wine to wash down the salt.

West approach to Young Island Cut

Meanwhile Susan is perfecting the stovetop focaccia recipe - the last one is a rosemary, thyme and sea salt combo.

Truth in advertising section

Old Sparky, or where to start your engine when turing the key does nothing

What comes up when you raise anchor - hook line and sinker

A New Raconteur Season Begins

A new Raconteur season begins

We had routed our flights to Grenada through Trinidad, which gave us the bonus of some pleasant hours with our friends Kenneth and Indra in Arima. We enjoyed pepper chicken, roti, homemade rum punch and an impromptu calypso guitar session by Kenneth. Thank you for your hospitality and kindness, it really made the (long) trip a pleasant event.

We had assigned three workdays between arriving at the boatyard and "splashing" - putting the boat in the water. This was wildly optimistic given the fact that we had made major systems modifications during the summer that were not complete. The new wind generator turbine still needed electrical connections, and some of the standing rigging needed modifications. However, through sheer doggedness and with great help of the teams at SIMS and Turbulence, the boat was ready on time - then a leak developed in the plumbing. 

An emergency team came onboard, we rerouted the plumbing, and we were hanging from the slings on the appointed Friday - now the last boat of the day near closing time. But OH NO - the engine will not start and a big leak is streaming through the propeller axle. Another emergency team comes onboard and these problems are fixed by 16:10. 

We stayed at the dock on Saturday to put the boat back together and go half a mile Sunday to anchor in Prickly Bay, to wait Monday for our watermaker specialist, Raymond McTear, to complete the installation and testing of the system. 

The connector parts brought from the US luckily fit, and by end morning, we were producing our first glass of pure water from the ocean WOW! Raymond was as usual super efficient and extremely informative, and helped us get over new systems fear. Thank you Ray!

Now we are waiting for a weather window to start our trip North, en route to hopefully meet Leigh in Saint Lucia early February. 

We spend the time cooking and freezing some goodies such as callaloo soup, pumpkin soup, goat curry and catching up on pizza and rum punches.

On Saturday we pre-position ourselves in Grande Anse, looking forward to our crossing to Carriacou.

Here's a note from Leigh - I was in the middle of a giant snowstorm over the weekend, and JP sent me this picture on Saturday night. This is Raconteur at anchor near Port Louis marina on the west coast of Grenada, before they headed out the next day.

And this was our sundial in the front yard in Chester (on Sunday)

Tyrell Bay Jan 24

The winds turned southeast as expected on Sunday, giving us a good angle in brisk conditions. We started at 7:00 and were anchoring by 13:00 in Tyrell, after going between London Bridge and Caille Island. 

Tyrell anchorage is very busy and new bars and mini markets have opened - the yachting economy is growing in an island where the traditional boat building activity is slowly disappearing - wooden boats cannot be insured anymore.

 We are expecting a good blow and plan to stay a few days before going to Union or Bequia. 

A trip to Hillsboro, the main "city" to find a post office reveals a very nice new juice bar and restaurant, Kayak. The city is decorated for the upcoming Independence Day festivities, and fairly animated.