Still northwards in small steps

Day Six Canouan to Bequia - Jan 20
Leaving the nice, broad anchorage of Canouan, we wondered if some Santa Ana effect from the island's hills was going on - conditions were supposed to be moderate but we were registering 25-30k gusts. Turning the corner of the island, there was no doubt - the winter trades were at full force, feeling like a wall and the seas like a washing machine, including some respectable 12 footers. We followed two Swedish vessels motorsailing in the same direction and conditions gradually improved as we neared Bequia. In Admiralty Bay, we grabbed one of the much maligned moorings, this being the place where you can (and will) drag anchor with 5 scope chain 3 days down. 


Day Seven Bequia to Chateaubelair, St Vincent - Jan 21
The next morning, a visit to the jewel (or is it jewelry?) of the Caribbean food stores, Doris, was in order before checking out of St Vincent. We set off from Bequia and had a dreamlike experience crossing to StVincy - BEAM REACH. Who remembered this existed? Flying on a magic carpet at 8+ knots to the main island, then a slow 6-7 kt reach to our destination, with time to chat, polish metal and see the little villages of the coast go by. 
A couple of showers refreshed us as we neared Chateaubelair.

The local anchoring advisor, George Small, was again on hand to provide information on the best spots on the narrow shelf and we put the hook down with only one other boat in the bay (Cumberland Bay had about 10 yachts).

After the disastrous torrential rains of end December we were happy to contribute a little bit in the form of clothes, food and money.

A serene evening on board, with tiny fishes jumping all around the boat.

Northwards in small steps

Just as we left Prickly Bay in Grenada, our venerable Raymarine multi-function more or less gave up the ghost, leaving us without charting and radar. Since we use Navionics on IPad / IPhone for electronic charts, it was not a disaster, but we recalibrated our itinerary to day sailing only to account for the missing radar.

Baby Step Day One Jan 15 2014
We moved just a few miles in Grenada from Prickly Bay to the anchorage in front of Port Louis. The lovely dinner at BB's Crabback was somewhat offset by an extremely rolly night.

Day Two Jan 16 2014

An upwind passage to Carriacou's Tyrrel Bay, where we enjoyed two long and busy breakfasts at the newly opened Gallery Cafe, a comfortable, cheery place with nice food and a great internet connection. We cleared out of Grenada at the recently added Tyrrel Bay Customs. We cooked a lobster two ways (queue de langouste sautée au pernod -- and lobster water). We ate a great burger and vegetarian pasta at the Slipway restaurant. We also bought a giant, fresh ciabatta! Tyrrel Bay has definitely come up in the world.

Day Four Jan 18 2014
A short and fairly brutish upwind passage to Clifton Harbour, Union Island, where we proudly performed  "french style" anchoring in the crowded anchorage in 25kt wind. Clifton Harbour is still beautiful, and Happy Island is still -- happy!

We went ashore to visit the fruit and vegetable ladies and to clear into St. Vincent, and cooked a vegetarian meal of eggplant and onion curry.


Day Five Jan 19 2014
A quick hop from Union Island to Charleston Bay, Canouan. We had skipped Canouan in the last few seasons, finding it a bit less friendly than other islands, but this time we had a nice walk, nice chats with locals and tried the excellent local restaurant Mangrove -- the Tamarind Beach has been bought by the casino/resort corporation that owns half the island. 

We walked to the windward side and saw a fishing complex built by the Japanese a few years back. Obviously, the Queen Conch is still abundant.  In the background, you can see Mayreau with Union behind it.


 

Back in the water - finding our stride

Final bottom paint touchup

We splashed on Friday without  problem but with the usual last minute flurry of activities like re-tensioning the rigging. We anchored a short distance away in Prickly Bay, as we had doubts about our outboard engine (there had been no mechanic available to service it). Though running, it was spewing gas at a great rate- time for rowing, not a problem with our little Walker Bay dinghy. On Saturday we rowed to customs, dropped the engine for repair, provisioned the boat, then rowed back for some pizza and rum punch in the evening.
Sunday the weather turned nicer, still blustery but no more rain squalls, and we had our first swim in tropical waters, delightful as always from the stern. Susan restarted cooking our Caribbean repertoire, with a Callaloo Soup.
We are still sorting, cleaning, and getting adjusted to the permanent roll of Prickly Bay - the landlubber will be out of us in a few bruises.

Stumped?

Another season begins -- a bit late

JP and Susan arrived in Grenada January 5 to retrieve Raconteur and reassure her that she had not been permanently abandoned.  Spice Island Marine and Island Dreams had taken good care of her, so Monday morning was not much of a shock (always horrific to see her totally dismantled, even though we left her that way last May).  We both feel we became totally soft on shore and are now painfully readjusting.  In a strange pattern for the dry season, it has rained about 25 times in the first 48 hours here.  But we have surrendered once again to being dirty, sweaty and wet most of the time, so it is not too bad - just a bit of scurrying now and then.  Do we have an umbrella?  No idea!  Thanks to Da Big Fish and the Dodgy Dock, we have had our first callaloo soup, pumpkin soup, cheeseburger in Paradise and Ting already.  Photos were taken on the phone and will be posted if they are not too ugly.  As we've experienced before, there's a feeling of coming home on returning to Grenada.

Stopover in Prince Rupert Bay, Dominica

So JUST as I began typing this, the flowers you see here took a tumble right onto the cabin sole, two cups of water and all.  It is very rolly here - has been since we came in late Monday afternoon after a great sail from Guadeloupe - and though we have had the flowers since Tuesday - a gift of friend and local guide Martin - just this minute they decided to go.  Oh well - tropical flowers like these are pretty sturdy. I've put them into the galley sink for the moment.  
JP and Susan are off for a second day of hiking with Martin, so at some point I will have some good pictures of that - yesterday they did Section 11 of the Waitukubuli Trail, and today they are off to Victoria Falls.  I'm hanging out, enjoying my last few days (now down to last few hours) on the boat before I head back to the States for some contract work.  JP and Susan will take Raconteur on to Grenada, and we will haul out there for this hurricane season.  JP also has some work, and of course we have the upcoming wedding of Aude and Rus on the 22nd of June.  Meanwhile, we have a new addition to the family as well - my niece Cass and her husband Adam are the very happy parents of Reese Olivia Lawson, born on the morning of Tuesday April 30.  I can't wait to see her - one upside of leaving the boat a little early.
It's been a short sailing season for us - we arrived in Trinidad in early January, made our way to Grenada, to Saint Lucia and to Guadeloupe by early March, and then headed for what was to have been three weeks in Europe.  JP's mom landed in the hospital after we had been there a week, so we stayed to see her through that and safely back home, now with wonderful help.  So far, so good.
Since we set out on this sabbatical in October 2010, we have managed to spend about 15 months or so on board - I think we had hoped for more, but we always knew that our window probably wasn't open as far as it might have been earlier.  Still, we have had an unforgettable experience - and we are open to whatever comes next when we get back to her in the fall.  No particular plans yet - and there is still much of the Caribbean to be explored.  We STILL have not made it to Antigua for the April Classic Yacht Regatta - we were too late in 2011, too lazy in 2012 (when we sailed only as far as Dominica) and just plain away from the boat this year.  2014...???
I haven't posted a sunset picture for a while.  This is actually a rainbow picture, taken just before sunset on Wednesday the 1st of May.  Dominica remains one of our favorite places - the unspoiled landscape is something to see.  They have started doing some high-end resort properties here, though with a strong eco-tourism bent (see http://secretbay.dm/)  but so far much of the island is pristine rainforest.  I've probably mentioned this before, but this is one of the few islands in the region where there were no sugar plantations, so the forests are still more or less untouched.  They struggle economically - many of their best and brightest leave because there is no work - and we wonder every day why it is only the Japanese, the Chinese, the Venezuelans and now (of all things) Moroccans who invest here.  These islands are so close to the US - the needed investments are not enormous - it seems so foolish that we leave our Asian friends to build roads, schools, docks and other needed infrastructure.  End of political comment.  If you love nature travel - come to Dominica.

Strange day, ending in paradise

I'm on a somewhat limited Internet connection, and I brought my personal laptop - most of my photos are on the boat pc - so I may have a little trouble adding photos to this post.  Here's a slideshow of photos I took on a visit to Pointe a Pitre.
On Friday, we intended to navigate the Riviere Sallee, which runs between the two butterfly wings that form the island of Guadeloupe.  It is a kind of Intracoastal Waterway experience, narrow and shallow, and there are two bridges at the southern end.  The southernmost one is actually two bridges, one for pedestrians and one for motor traffic; it opens daily at 0500, and you have to be there about 15 minutes ahead.  We anchored near the bridge on Thursday night, got up between 0415 and 0430, and were in place awaiting the opening.  At 0500 - nothing.  0505 - nada.  0515 - rien.  We tried hailing them, though we had seen nothing that indicated that they monitor VHF.  We got a crackly response a couple of times, but we could not understand what they were saying, who was saying it, or even whether it was meant for us.  At 0520, knowing we couldn't get to the second bridge anyway, we headed back to our anchoring spot, dropped the hook, and went back to bed.  
I had made coffee cake batter the night before, so I popped that into the oven.  We got up for breakfast around 0800, and we called the Marina Bas du Fort.  It turns out the bridge is closed for repairs - for a year or two.  I'm sure if we had ASKED at the Marina when we stopped on Thursday for fuel and water that we could have been saved the trip and the oh-dark-thirty start to the day.  
So - on to Plan B.  We are in Guadeloupe for another week-plus, before Susan flies to the States on the 4th and JP and  to France on the 5th.  We have been to the Saintes (islands off the southern coast that are also part of Guadeloupe), so we looked to see what might be interesting in the southern part of the Grande Terre side of the island (it was already too late to head around to the west coast, which we were planning to do after exploring the Riviere Sallee and environs).  Susan found an anchorage at Ste. Anne, about 12 miles or away.  We motored, of course - heading more or less dead into the wind - and had the hook down (again) around noon or so.  We had lunch - but we were rolling so badly that it just didn't seem like the place to spend even one night.  SO - hook up (again), and on to the town of St. Francois, another eight miles or so to the east.
When we approached St. Francois, we were mildly alarmed because the anchorage looked very full - it's not reported to be very big, and it looked like a lot of masts.  BUT - after a very tricky entrance - lots of swell, a small opening (well marked) through the reef - we saw that they have put down mooring balls.  A couple of them were still free, despite the Friday afternoon timing - and we snagged one right in the front row, nothing between us and the gorgeous reef and the waters beyond.  As soon as I can, I will post pictures and a couple of videos I took of sail- and kite-boarders.
There is a marina here, surrounded by vacation villas and condos and a couple of hotels, several restaurants and cafes (lots of crepes and ice cream), and even a supermarket not far up the road.  What's not to love?
Hook up three times, and down three times, in one day - but an amazing place to be.  We may still go and visit Marie Galante (another island of Guadeloupe) but it will be hard to leave St. Francois.

The Saint Lucia Enigma

We took a taxi tour of the northern part of Saint Lucia yesterday (I posted the photos here) in an effort to get to know the island a little better.  You could say that Saint Lucia is one of the more Americanized islands; tourism is very developed, there is a lot of airlift from the States, there are several very high end resorts, Oprah says the Pitons should be on everyone's bucket list...you get the idea.  The marina here in Rodney Bay is of course staffed mainly by local folks, but we have never really felt that it was possible to get to know people in the same way we have in, say, Grenada or Trinidad.  We have spent more time on those islands, of course, but (for example) we spent less than a week in Cumberland Bay on the west coast of Saint Vincent last year and we felt much closer to the "real" island than we ever have here, and this is our third visit.  The taxi tour didn't yield much - the driver was nice and wanted to be helpful, but he (like many) has kind of a set tour that he offers, and though he knows his local fruits and vegetables (which include almost nothing that we don't find elsewhere), he didn't know enough about other Caribbean islands to help us understand what might be the same or different in Saint Lucia.  We heard one thing that is at least a partial "difference".  It seems that many residents (and this is the case elsewhere) still own family lands; some have been sold off to developers over the years, but much of the interior is still in local hands.  What we noticed, however, is much more building of new (concrete) houses - and very few stalled projects.  AND, our driver tells us (and we saw a number of billboard advertisements on the subject) that banks will loan residents money, using the land as collateral, to build these houses.  These are likely very long term loans (we don't know that, but are guessing that it's so), and of course if the family is at some point unable to pay, they stand to lose both the house and the land.  Until recently, many houses that were built on the land were built with materials from the land itself, not from the much more expensive (albeit more durable) materials for which they have to borrow.

The other oddity in Saint Lucia relates to the cruiser community itself.  This photo was taken from Rodney Heights, looking across the Lagoon that is at the back of the marina, and then on to Rodney Bay, with Pigeon Island in the background.  You can't see the marina in this photo; that's where we are at the moment, and there are a lot of boats here too.  But - with all these cruising boats here, you would think that there would be a social life and community of cruisers that would look at least a little bit like that of Grenada, or even Trinidad.  There is a morning net here - it tends to be very short, and extremely light on the kinds of regular or ad hoc social activities that we are accustomed to in the other two islands.  There are plenty of restaurants, both at the marina and off the Lagoon (in dinghy distance), but none of those establishment seem to engage with cruisers or the cruising community in the way of, say, Da Big Fish in Prickly Bay or Clarke's Court or Whisper Cove marinas in Grenada...I mean, really not at all.  I've been scratching my head over it, and I really don't get it.  It's true that no one typically stays here as long as many people (including Raconteur last season) do in Grenada - but I don't think that's the whole explanation.

Anyway, end of sociological, political and economic musings for the day.  We are planning to proceed northward to Guadeloupe in a couple of days; the Captain has a head cold, so we shall see.  We are scheduled to fly from there to Europe on the 5th of March, so we will get there one way or another in the next 17 days.