3 years aboard our beloved Meggie was an unforgettable experience. An adventure we'll never forget. A life we hope to return to. A love found for the sea, distant shores and the endless possibilites.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
A lesson from Mother
Hi folks. This blog is in a different format. Mike has written this blog after a reality check from the cyclone that devastated Bangladesh.
The past month has been a bit of a blur. I was away working on the mega yacht for 3 weeks while Mike single handed through the Grenadines and up to St. Lucia enjoying some close hauled sails some of which in 20-25 knots of wind. He has been having a blast in my absence, but insists that he would hate to be a solo cruiser as he missed me..hmmm! I on the other hand was busy.My new favorite phrase is “Mike…someone has to work so you can enjoy this type of lifestyle”…it’s a good one, huh! We took the big boat from St. Lucia to Fort Lauderdale, having a 2 day charter for Thanksgiving in Eleuthra, Bahamas. I am now preparing to leave tomorrow for another 3 weeks in Abacos, Bahamas for another charter. Mike will keep busy as well while I’m gone, being skipper on a catamaran visiting the Grenadines for 6 days and a couple of other odd jobs. Life is busy at the moment, but we’re enjoying being busy in St. Lucia.
Once I return we’ll be on the go getting Meggie ready for Antigua and hopefully visiting with some friends. Anyway…here is Mike with his first blog and we’ll be in touch after the new year. We want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and all the best in the new year.
On Friday November 15th, 2007 a tropical cyclone slammed into Bangladesh. Storm surge of 16 feet tall pushed along by 130 knots (250 km/hour) winds swept the streets, which are only 15 feet above sea level. I need not describe the aftermath, other than some 30 thousand people lost all that was dear to them if not their lives. Events such as this one hit close to home for me as all we have apart from each other, friends and family is our little boat Meggie, which at times like this makes us very aware of the forces of mother nature.
In addition to Kylie’s entry about our brush with hurricane season, we will always remember Felix reaching Category 1 status. This was just one more lesson we have learned and overcome out here. That is of course when mother nature or respectfully mother ocean wants to show her fury, her power or to prove who is really master out here. No man, woman, army or government can stop her.
Now…for the most part, life aboard Meggie for us has been absolute bliss. At times magical and at times stressful. These islands and waters are a privilege to spend time in, however it wasn’t for free. Against headwinds and seas we earned every mile to get here. And once again in doing so gained a real respect for the ocean along with ourselves and our boat. Certainly living and cruising for nearly a year and a half has changed the way we view life and what is important in the world and also the people within it. We have met so many beautiful and interesting people, I have lost count. Not just cruisers but people who live life completely different from how we live in the western world. During our 4 months in Grenada we learned how money, cars and houses just don’t mean much. Time spent with friends and family, peace and respect mean the most. My good friend Davis age 24, talented carpenter for instance, buys all the food for his family, works eight hours a day, has a 1 hour bus ride to and from work and also raises pigs and crops at home. He, always has a smile on his face! All of the friends we made in Grenada tell us the stories about the devastation of hurricanes Ivan and Emily and how they effectedtheir lives. All the leaves off trees gone, trees down, houses blown away and no power, an entire yard of cruising boats destroyed, most of whom had little or no insurance. But, the people came together in a time of devastation to help one another and to rebuild their beautiful country.
In Grenada the look on an old mans face is not one of old age, but of a slow paced lifestyle with simple pleasures and few daily stresses. I believe that in the great quest for progression and development in parts of the world, a lot can be said for simplicity and quality in one’s life. Slow down or speed up…enjoy it, be healthy and don’t let life slip by.
As for us we intend to keep on sailing. We want to see the western Caribbean after the Antigua classic regatta in April…of course Meggie will be looking her best for this event, as will her crew of Kylie, myself accompanied by Paul and Leanne Sandiford. Good times, no doubt. End of April, beginning of May, we intend to do a longer passage from Antigua to somewhere on the southern shore, perhaps Venezuela, Bonaire or Curacao stopping briefly and then carry on to Columbia or Panama where we intend to spend next hurricane season. Two things are for sure…great sailing and a whole new adventure. We are very well prepared both for sailing and for hard core anchoring for a major blow. The Caribbean is not without its risks, but is it worth it? Absolutely!
So until next time,
Mike and Kylie
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
The Wonderful Spice Island
Ok...I'm going to keep this one short. I can't believe it's almost time to leave our wonderful Grenada. It's been almost 4 months since we first checked into customs in the beautiful island of Carriacou, the northern sister island of Grenada. We spent most of our time anchored in St. David's on the south eastern coast of Grenada. Mike kept busy helping the shipwright in St. David's and I kept busy keeping up with our boat and then flying off to stewardess on the 106 foot motor yacht up in St. Lucia.. While Mike was helping at the shipwrights, he was fortunate enough to help along side some great local guys, which allowed him to learn about the local life and about Grenada in general. We both kept busy including some engine work. We repainted our engine and Mike rebuilt the starter, but more importantly than keeping busy we were able to be part of a community in St. David's and ended up forming friendships that will last a life time.Let me briefly run you through our time in Grenada.
Mike had the opportunity to help deliver a 68 foot wooden schooner to Trinidad....he was in heaven! They had a lovely trip and aside from a 40 knot squall which healed the old girl over, they had a successful trip. Now, I won't bore you with the excitement we experienced with the hurricanes, but for those of you that don't know, 65 knots of wind is 120 km/hr winds. So enough about that. Another exciting thing we took part in, in Grenada was the hashing.
We were first introduced to hashing one Saturday afternoon after our friends on Adventure Bound raved about how great it was. Our first hash found us exhausted, covered in mud and super excited for the next one. We meet at the local rum shop of the location and then run a trail that has been laid out by one of the hashers that takes you through jungles, rivers, fields, up mountains, down valleys...everywhere you could imagine. Then and the end once your completely exhausted everyone meets for a beer and some bbq chicken. The interesting thing with the hash is that when you come to a circle on the trail this means there is 3 possible options for the correct trail and if you take the wrong one you have to turn around and head back to the circle and try another route...this of course makes things interesting! We travelled to Carriacou for one of the hashes along with 2 other boats and our friend Stokley from the local rum shop in St. Davids.Stokley had never been sailing before and unfortunately the motion of the ocean got to him!! However we arrived in Carriacou after a great sail and soon we were in the water for a quick snorkel and then we were off with our running shoes on and were scrambling up a steep incline in the race. After a 2 hour hash we all finished at the local rum shop which just happened to be on the beach and had a big beach bbq...great great day! So speaking of Stokley, we were fortunate enough to meet a fantastic couple in Grenada.
Ironically they own the local rum shop which also sold bread so we were there more often for the fresh bread, despite what you must think! Mary and Stokley were great...they introduced us to oil down (a local dish), salt fish sauté (another local dish), sugar cane, sugar apple, green bananas and also entertained us with great conversation and interesting stories of Grenada. The hardest part of cruising is saying goodbye! With sadness and promises of visiting each other in Canada and Grenada, we said our goodbyes only days ago.
Oh and of course we have Carnival! Now, Carnival isn't just one day it starts about a month in advance. The music starts pumping on the radio, and the locals begin dancing and singing and preparing for the famous Jouvier! All day long we listen to the beats of soca and calypso blaring from the radio and soon we were singing along with it.The actual parade of Carnival was full of color and music and sunshine and sweat and beer and dancing. It was great. The costumes and the dancing and the energy was outstanding. You can help but move your hips to the soca beat. One of the best parts was the steel drum band that won the Carnival competition…they were amazing. They looked like they couldn’t be having anymore fun…the whole thing was a fantastic experience.
So….I promised to keep this short, so I will keep to that and plus we’re in a beautiful anchorage in Carriacou with good friends and have a pizza coming…so I gotta go! I’m off on another charter from November 9th to around the 29th and then again from Dec. 20th to about Jan. 4th. Yes, I know….Mike and I won’t be together for Christmas or New Years, but I can assure you that Mike will be well looked after by the other cruisers…that’s just the way it is. I on the other hand will be serving Christmas dinner this year!
Ok guys…the heat has finally lessened (either that or were getting used to it) and life is good.
Adios for now and Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes.
Kylie and Mike
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Meggie and the gang in print
Well guys...apparently my article is on stands now! It is in the November 2007 issue of Cruising World. It's been changed some, but I hope you enjoy it.
I'll be in touch soon!
Cheers
Kylie and Mike
I'll be in touch soon!
Cheers
Kylie and Mike
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Trying to reason with Hurricane season
Well we’ve almost been in Grenada for 3 months now which is hard to believe as time is flying by. Being hurricane season I have to admit that I don’t mind the time flying by as it only means that it will soon be over. First lets start with the not so good part of Grenada.
Hurricane season began on June 1st as you all know. June and July were quiet months but our attention was always captured by the weather. Early on in August we got word that there was something out there that had just come off of Africa that had potential to develop into a LO. The stages of a hurricane are as follows: weather system comes off Africa, develops into LO, then tropical depression, tropical storm and finally cat 1 hurricane up to a cat 5. We are currently located at 12 degrees north and 62 degrees west, so we are always listening for the tropical features to go north. Dean who wasn’t yet Dean, was sitting at 11 degrees north for way too long. Finally the feature was upgraded into a cat 1 hurricane and only once it was named did it start to move north, but not north enough to miss the Caribbean. We prepared as best we could. We took all the loose canvas off the boat, strapped down the sail covers, set another anchor and then waited. We knew we wouldn’t get a direct hit, but we didn’t know what to expect. Dean passed through the St. Lucia channel (between St. Lucia and Martinique) on August 18th, not 160 miles north of us. We, in Grenada, felt nothing but the lightest of winds as Dean passed from the Atlantic into the Caribbean waters, that is until the next day. As Dean passed it was upgraded to a cat 2 hurricane and as it was marching along the Caribbean sea the last remnants of Dean slapped Grenada in the face…just to wake us up. The next night we still had everything strapped down, just being lazy, but thank god we did. The wind picked up in the anchorage and Mike got up to have a look outside…seeing a distinct line in the sky and thinking it was the end of the little squall we were already in, I came out and had a look. I turned to Mike and said “That’s not the end…that’s the worst”. I threw his foul weather gear at him and put mine on and no sooner had we started the engine did the 60 knots of wind hit. Horizontal rain pelted down and the wind howled through the rigging. We turned our lights on and got on the radio and informed the others in the anchorage to do so as well so we could see where everyone was. Everyone was alert and took care of any dragging that was occurring and soon the wind was down to a steady 40 knots, then 30 and then 20 and then nothing. Very scary, but Meggie was a champ and held into the wind and waves without much strain.Well now that that was over….I prayed that would be the only one. Remember September…remember September had been running through my mind since hurricane season had started. September is notoriously known as the worst month for hurricanes. Remember September. So around the end of August we got word that something had come off Africa with potential to develop. Not again! My stress level since Dean had been high and I became addicted to the weather, watching and listening to every detail. We listened and check the satellite almost every couple of hours near the end of August. We went to bed on August 31st after checking the satellite imagery and feeling somewhat confident that the tropical feature and dissipated somewhat. We listened to weather guru, Chris Parker at 7pm that night and he wasn’t on the air. If he isn’t on the air, this is good news, it means there is no danger in the near future. That put our minds and ease and although things looked good for no further development, we still prepared as best we could, 2 anchors, strapped the sails down etc…
I didn’t sleep well that night. Not a ripple in the water and not a breath of air, but I still had an anxious feeling, almost like the calm before the storm. At about 3 am on September 1st, after dozing off I got up instinctively. Mike asked what I was doing and I said I thought we should get up. The wind had begun to blow slightly and I knew something was to follow. I got the foulies out and got mine on, I got out into the cockpit and waited. I didn’t have to wait very long. By the time Mike came out the wind had increased considerably. We turned the engine and our light on and I took the helm, just in case. The wind gusted violently, gusting up to 65 knots with sustained winds at around 55-58 knots. This time it didn’t ease so quickly. Unfortunately for us, the wind was coming straight out of the south (the only direction we weren’t protected from, except for 2 reefs). So not only did we have to deal with the wind, the waves in the anchorage were way too big for any anchorage. We heard our boat being called on the vhf, and learned that another boat was dragging and it was headed in our direction. We couldn’t see a thing even though boats were only about 100 yards away. The rain was so strong we couldn’t look out, so we hailed back and asked it D and Don could keep us posted on the location of the loose boat. The wind screamed for what seemed like forever and as day broke we began to feel a bit more comfortable as the wind finally began to subside. The boat that had dragged had snagged another anchor and was hooked up on it, but only after smashing into 2 other boats in the anchorage. Meanwhile a trimaran had dragged onto the beach and Nicoli in his little motor boat was trying to help get him off. A wave came over his transom and swamped his boat, and down it went along with him. Mike jumped our dinghy and began his way over but we finally saw his head come up and knew he was safe. While Mike was in the dinghy, I was on the radio to another boat who’s dinghy was sinking fast….So Mike went over to help them with their dinghy….
I tuned in to the 7 am weather report and Chris (weather guru) informed us that the tropical feature had strengthened in the over night hours (no shit!!) and had been upgraded into a tropical storm (almost skipping the tropical depression part completely) and had now been named Felix. The eye had passed only 10-20 miles south of south Grenada! There were reports that as Felix was passing Grenada it was upgraded to a Cat 1 hurricane. Hurricane force winds start at 64 knots and someone in the boat yard on shore where we are clocked 65 knots, so who knows for sure.
It was a crazy morning and by 9 am the wind had relaxed to about 30 knots and we felt comfortable heading to shore. The feeling on shore was one of relief. Everyone’s adrenaline was still pumping from the mornings adventures and instead of ordering coffee from the restaurant the majority of people ordered a beer.
Felix was a scary event, but again Meggie kept us safe and sound, however I feel it was too close for comfort. We’ve decided that if there is anything at all that looks remotely threatening we will seek a better harbour.. We went away for the weekend 2 weeks ago and before departing we hauled up the second BIG anchor that had held us during Felix.
It took Mike, myself and our friend Scotty 3 hours to get this sucker up! Mike had to dive down 25 feet about 8-10 times to rig up several systems to get the beast off the bottom. We now trust our anchor even more.
So now I’m wondering if I should leave it there for now.
We still have carnival to talk about as well as the hash (no…not drugs…hashing is known as drinkers with a running problem and we run all over the island…in jungles, rivers, mountains, fields you name it) and also delivery of schooners, and all the other things we’ve been doing in this wonderful country.
Grenada has treated us well. With its kind people and beautiful country, we will be sad to leave this place that has become home for the last few months.
So, I think I’ll leave it there and will not be too long with another entry.
This is Kylie in hot, hot, extremely hot Grenada signing off.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. And No…we won’t be having turkey….its too friggin hot!
Be cool (literally…I wish I was)
Kylie and Mike
PS...more exciting pictures next time...I promise.
Hurricane season began on June 1st as you all know. June and July were quiet months but our attention was always captured by the weather. Early on in August we got word that there was something out there that had just come off of Africa that had potential to develop into a LO. The stages of a hurricane are as follows: weather system comes off Africa, develops into LO, then tropical depression, tropical storm and finally cat 1 hurricane up to a cat 5. We are currently located at 12 degrees north and 62 degrees west, so we are always listening for the tropical features to go north. Dean who wasn’t yet Dean, was sitting at 11 degrees north for way too long. Finally the feature was upgraded into a cat 1 hurricane and only once it was named did it start to move north, but not north enough to miss the Caribbean. We prepared as best we could. We took all the loose canvas off the boat, strapped down the sail covers, set another anchor and then waited. We knew we wouldn’t get a direct hit, but we didn’t know what to expect. Dean passed through the St. Lucia channel (between St. Lucia and Martinique) on August 18th, not 160 miles north of us. We, in Grenada, felt nothing but the lightest of winds as Dean passed from the Atlantic into the Caribbean waters, that is until the next day. As Dean passed it was upgraded to a cat 2 hurricane and as it was marching along the Caribbean sea the last remnants of Dean slapped Grenada in the face…just to wake us up. The next night we still had everything strapped down, just being lazy, but thank god we did. The wind picked up in the anchorage and Mike got up to have a look outside…seeing a distinct line in the sky and thinking it was the end of the little squall we were already in, I came out and had a look. I turned to Mike and said “That’s not the end…that’s the worst”. I threw his foul weather gear at him and put mine on and no sooner had we started the engine did the 60 knots of wind hit. Horizontal rain pelted down and the wind howled through the rigging. We turned our lights on and got on the radio and informed the others in the anchorage to do so as well so we could see where everyone was. Everyone was alert and took care of any dragging that was occurring and soon the wind was down to a steady 40 knots, then 30 and then 20 and then nothing. Very scary, but Meggie was a champ and held into the wind and waves without much strain.Well now that that was over….I prayed that would be the only one. Remember September…remember September had been running through my mind since hurricane season had started. September is notoriously known as the worst month for hurricanes. Remember September. So around the end of August we got word that something had come off Africa with potential to develop. Not again! My stress level since Dean had been high and I became addicted to the weather, watching and listening to every detail. We listened and check the satellite almost every couple of hours near the end of August. We went to bed on August 31st after checking the satellite imagery and feeling somewhat confident that the tropical feature and dissipated somewhat. We listened to weather guru, Chris Parker at 7pm that night and he wasn’t on the air. If he isn’t on the air, this is good news, it means there is no danger in the near future. That put our minds and ease and although things looked good for no further development, we still prepared as best we could, 2 anchors, strapped the sails down etc…
I didn’t sleep well that night. Not a ripple in the water and not a breath of air, but I still had an anxious feeling, almost like the calm before the storm. At about 3 am on September 1st, after dozing off I got up instinctively. Mike asked what I was doing and I said I thought we should get up. The wind had begun to blow slightly and I knew something was to follow. I got the foulies out and got mine on, I got out into the cockpit and waited. I didn’t have to wait very long. By the time Mike came out the wind had increased considerably. We turned the engine and our light on and I took the helm, just in case. The wind gusted violently, gusting up to 65 knots with sustained winds at around 55-58 knots. This time it didn’t ease so quickly. Unfortunately for us, the wind was coming straight out of the south (the only direction we weren’t protected from, except for 2 reefs). So not only did we have to deal with the wind, the waves in the anchorage were way too big for any anchorage. We heard our boat being called on the vhf, and learned that another boat was dragging and it was headed in our direction. We couldn’t see a thing even though boats were only about 100 yards away. The rain was so strong we couldn’t look out, so we hailed back and asked it D and Don could keep us posted on the location of the loose boat. The wind screamed for what seemed like forever and as day broke we began to feel a bit more comfortable as the wind finally began to subside. The boat that had dragged had snagged another anchor and was hooked up on it, but only after smashing into 2 other boats in the anchorage. Meanwhile a trimaran had dragged onto the beach and Nicoli in his little motor boat was trying to help get him off. A wave came over his transom and swamped his boat, and down it went along with him. Mike jumped our dinghy and began his way over but we finally saw his head come up and knew he was safe. While Mike was in the dinghy, I was on the radio to another boat who’s dinghy was sinking fast….So Mike went over to help them with their dinghy….
I tuned in to the 7 am weather report and Chris (weather guru) informed us that the tropical feature had strengthened in the over night hours (no shit!!) and had been upgraded into a tropical storm (almost skipping the tropical depression part completely) and had now been named Felix. The eye had passed only 10-20 miles south of south Grenada! There were reports that as Felix was passing Grenada it was upgraded to a Cat 1 hurricane. Hurricane force winds start at 64 knots and someone in the boat yard on shore where we are clocked 65 knots, so who knows for sure.
It was a crazy morning and by 9 am the wind had relaxed to about 30 knots and we felt comfortable heading to shore. The feeling on shore was one of relief. Everyone’s adrenaline was still pumping from the mornings adventures and instead of ordering coffee from the restaurant the majority of people ordered a beer.
Felix was a scary event, but again Meggie kept us safe and sound, however I feel it was too close for comfort. We’ve decided that if there is anything at all that looks remotely threatening we will seek a better harbour.. We went away for the weekend 2 weeks ago and before departing we hauled up the second BIG anchor that had held us during Felix.
It took Mike, myself and our friend Scotty 3 hours to get this sucker up! Mike had to dive down 25 feet about 8-10 times to rig up several systems to get the beast off the bottom. We now trust our anchor even more.
So now I’m wondering if I should leave it there for now.
We still have carnival to talk about as well as the hash (no…not drugs…hashing is known as drinkers with a running problem and we run all over the island…in jungles, rivers, mountains, fields you name it) and also delivery of schooners, and all the other things we’ve been doing in this wonderful country.
Grenada has treated us well. With its kind people and beautiful country, we will be sad to leave this place that has become home for the last few months.
So, I think I’ll leave it there and will not be too long with another entry.
This is Kylie in hot, hot, extremely hot Grenada signing off.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. And No…we won’t be having turkey….its too friggin hot!
Be cool (literally…I wish I was)
Kylie and Mike
PS...more exciting pictures next time...I promise.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Lots more to come
I am apologizing! No news for quite some time, however I have good reasons. 1-we've been extremely busy, 2-we've had some technical difficulties (computers...ahhhh) and 3-did I mention the computer thing!
Stay tuned folks, don't give up on us...I've got a real doozie coming.
As always
Kylie and Mike
Stay tuned folks, don't give up on us...I've got a real doozie coming.
As always
Kylie and Mike
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Well folks…it’s been 1 year today since we left our little town of Thornbury to commence a voyage of uncertainty. Our 1 year anniversary finds us tucked away in the little anchorage at St. David’s, Grenada. We’ve been here now for about 1 month and unfortunately have been too busy to even explore the island.
I suppose the last I left you we had just arrived in Dominica, which seems like forever ago. Dominica is a beautiful relatively untouched island, but we were met by “boat boys” before we even had the chance to anchor. The boat boys are harmless guys who are just trying to make a buck by offering tours of the island etc, but because there are so many of them, they become a bit harassing and annoying in their competition. Thankfully for us we have a small boat and for some reason they don’t hassle us as much as the new 50 foot Beneteau next to us!!!
We didn’t spend much time in Dominica, as we were getting more and more anxious to get to Grenada. From Dominica we made our way to Martinique and had the most exhilarating sail while doing so. We left the anchorage under sail and rounded the bottom of Dominica where we were met by 18-25 knots of wind and about 9-11 foot seas.Everything, however was finally on the beam and Meggie rose up over every wave even when we were prepared to get swamped and kept us comfortable and flew along. We averaged over 6.5 knots that day and saw 7 knots consistently on our gps. It was one of the most exhilarating sails we’ve had….finally!!!! We realized that day that 11 foot seas on the beam are FUN, just as long as we don’t have bash into them!
We arrived in a beautiful little French town called St. Pierre. Although this anchorage was the most rolly anchorage we’ve ever been in, the town was great and very French!
While cruising along the streets I could swear I was in France (in Europe). The cobblestone streets were lined with little markets of fresh fruit and vegetables, and as the sun set and we drank the local beer at a local bar, and we couldn’t help but smile at the perfect day we had had!
With no time to waste, we made our way south and after another brief stop in Martinique it was off to St. Lucia. We pulled into Rodney Bay, St. Lucia after another great sail between the islands. We sailed right into the anchorage tacking our way across the bay and were met by a huge schooner leaving the anchorage.
We thought it looked familiar and joked that it must by the Black Pearl....and it was!!!! We later found it moored at the dock in Rodney Bay and the real name was Unicorn and also found out it was the schooner used in the first Pirates of the Caribbean. It was pretty cool. We decided the take a stay at a dock…unbelievable I know. We hadn’t been at a dock in about 6 months so we figured we were allowed, there was a special deal as it was slow season and we paid for a week long stay for a whopping $45.00. We had fresh water to wash the boat with and real showers for the first time in a LONG time!!! After 4 days we were sick of dock life and had to move back out to the anchorage to enjoy our privacy, I guess some things you just get used to!
We soon moved down to an area of St. Lucia called The Pitons, which are two sister mountains that plunge deep into the ocean on the Westward side of St. Lucia. We took a mooring as the whole area is a national park and were anxious to check the town and surrounding area out. We noticed there were a couple of tourists boats at the docks while we were dinghying into town. We were met by a mass of locals harassing us. First we were met by young boys wanting to tie our dinghy, then people who wanted to give us a tour, the taxi upon taxi, it just wouldn’t stop. We decided to take a hike out of town on our own to get away from the harassment. We had a beautiful walk outside the town up towards the Pitons. We came across an easy hike that led the way to natural hot springs and spent the afternoon soaking our harassing worries away. We stopped for a drink on the way back overlooking the Pitons and ocean and soon began to forget all about the harassments we were having.
As we approached the town we were ready for the mass, but nobody came near us. We were greeted with smiles and “Hey mon” everywhere. What’s going on, we thought. Then we noticed all the tourist boats were gone and it dawned on us that they now knew we weren’t the type that blast in take a few photos, buy a quick souvenir and then board the boat to head back to the hotel or cruise ship they came in on. We strolled the streets and meandered through the stores at our own leisure without any hassle. The difference was night and day! As we made our way back to the dinghy we were greeted by the young boy that wanted to tie our dinghy. He came up to us and said “When you locked your dinghy the lock didn’t clasp, so I moved it over here and made sure the lock was tight.” I felt awful for the way I had felt when we arrived at the dock. I said to him that I wanted to give him some coins but that I had to go back to the boat first to get them. Then I asked him if he would like something other than coins and he looked at me and said “I would like a coca cola”. That was it…a coca cola. So Mike and I brought him back 2 bottles of coke and a big bag of chips and he was a happy camper. It amazed me that all this 13-14 year old boy wanted was a coke, something all of us take for granted.
We left St. Lucia for a 50 mile run to Bequia part of the Grenadines. While on this sail we past the island of St. Vincent and saw the area where they filmed the 1st Pirates of the Caribbean. We didn’t stop in St. Vincent, but we both decided it was a must if we ever came back up. We arrived in Bequia well before sunset after another brilliant sail.
The weather gods were working in our favour and we had another beautiful weather window to head to Carriacou, an island just north of the main land of Grenada. We sailed all through the Grenadines, past the Tobago keys (which was a mistake and we’ve been kicking ourselves ever since for not stopping) and made our way to Carriacou after once again a brilliant sail. We didn’t want to stop, the sailing was so good. As a matter of fact we have only used 6 gallons of diesel in the last 600 miles or so (nautical miles that is)!
As we were passing Union Island we finally heard the line go taught. Mike started pulling in the line to reveal the perfect sized black fin tuna. Because we weren’t catching any fish, Mike began rigging up the lures with 2 hooks, thinking the 1 hook was too hidden. Lets just say a 2 hook lure works, but be ready for one hell of a mess. The lure was so imbedded in the tuna that Mike couldn’t retrieve it until he had filleted it. I said that I thought we should bring the other line in as I didn’t think we needed anymore fish and just as we started pulling it in, the line went taught again. Yup…another tuna. We again had so much fish we had to give some away twice once we got to the anchorage.
We spent about a week in Carriacou enjoying the slow pace of this beautiful island. Everynight we were met by Robert who would row by our boat and ask if we needed some oysters and although we didn't need oysters we bought limes and oranges from him. One night we had a left over burrito and asked him if he would like it. He looked at us with genuine gratiutude and said "Thank you so much for the wonderful supper". We watched him float away while he slowly enjoyed his burrito and realized that something so small could make someone so happy. It was a humbling experience. We continued to buy Robert's oranges and limes all week.
We circumnavigated the island by walking one afternoon (just to give you an idea of the size) and spent our days swimming, walking, exploring and researching information to haul Meggie.
We had another weather window and decided to finally make our way to Grenada via the windward side of the island as we heard the fishing was good. We didn’t catch anything but we had a nice settled sail to our destination of St. David’s in Grenada. While in Carriacou we did some emailing and found the prices reasonable to haul us in St. David’s and the fact that they could haul right away worked for us tremendously. Due to our lengthy stay in Luperon and the massive marine organisms in the water there, our antifouling on the bottom of our boat was basically gone. Sailing the boat didn’t help either, so we needed to haul immediately to get some paint on.
We were able to haul Meggie out after about a week and were able to get straight to work. In 8 days we sanded the topsides and bottom, prepped them for paint and applied 2 coats of antifouling to the bottom and 2 coats of paint to the topsides as well as interior cleaning including the bilge and Mike was able to pull the prop shaft and fix our stuffing box as well as a sea cock that needed to be fixed. We were also able to get one coat of varnish on the transom. Again not too bad for 8 days! So now Meggie is back in the water and she is a MUCH happier boat.
The day we launched Meggie I was radioed by a fellow cruiser who knew someone who needed some help on a boat. Before I knew it, I was meeting an Aussie couple who are captain and chef on a 110 foot motor yacht who needed some help.
The next day I was aboard this incredibly big boat preparing it for the owners to arrive for their charter. I spent 10 days aboard the boat as we travelled north to the Tobago keys and the Grenadines. It was definitely a different experience aboard this 110 foot yacht, but one that was good. I will be accompanying the yacht again beginning this Thursday for another 10-12 days travelling up to St. Lucia for the next charter. Don’t worry Mike is being looked after quite nicely by fellow cruisers who feel sorry for him, and have been feeding him in my absence. He too has been kept quite busy!!
So…lots going on. We haven’t even had a chance to really check out this incredible island, but the longer we’re here the more we like it, but I’ll write about Grenada next time.
Oh…here is a picture of our almost new crew member. We discussed seriously about bringing her aboard, but we found out she had an owner, whom I had a word with about the responsibilities of having a pet and to keep them treated for fleas and ticks(after removing about 15)!!! We even named her Mango! It’s probably for the best.
Ok well until next time….
Peace
Kylie
Saturday, June 16, 2007
2 for 1 special
It’s June 2nd today and hurricane season has officially started. We are currently in the BVI’s planning to head south to St. Martin or if the weather holds we’ll head straight to Guadeloupe or Dominica. It’s time to get south to Grenada and out of the hurricane belt. There has already been 2 tropical storms which doesn’t sit well with us as this is very early for them to start. However…we feel confident about our position and are still enjoying the wonderful places we’ve been.
The last I left you all we were just arriving in Puerto Rico. The western coast of PR is great…it feels somewhat like what I thought Puerto Rico would be like. Our travel mates, Double Bruyn and us rented a car to hit a Walmart if you can believe it and I was shocked when we arrived in Ponce (the second largest city in PR). After driving through some really amazing scenery and large ascents we descended into AMERICA….Walmarts, Walgreens, Kmarts, Publics, Burger King, McDonalds…seriously you name it, it was there. I guess I was really not expecting that at all. I found it difficult to feel the culture in Puerto Rico as it is so Americanized, that is not to say that there isn’t culture here, it’s just harder to feel as a visitor. The one thing I noticed about the Puerto Ricans is they LOVE their music and dancing. Everyone knows how to salsa and man, are they good. Us gringos step off the dance floor when a popular Latin song comes on and all the Puerto Ricans head to the dance floor. We try, but to save ourselves from absolute embarrassment we watch in amazement instead.Puerto Rico has some beautiful places to visit. When we rented the car we made our way to El Yuncae, a national rainforest park and also headed to Old San Juan. The five of us hiked through the rainforest and all took a moment to appreciate and enjoy land. There is nothing like the smell, the feel and the beauty of a thick forest. We then made our way to Old San Juan and wandered the cobble stoned streets.
Our route south took us along the southern coast of PR., and again straight into the winds and the only way to avoid bashing into it we had to use the morning lee before the trade winds would pick up.
So our sailing of the southern coast would consist of the following: waking at 4 am, hailing Double Bruyn on the radio making sure everyone was awake, pulling anchor in the dark, sailing with the land breeze arriving at our destination before 11am covering only short distances. This worked for the first few days as we were able to enjoy the day as our travelling was done early and the trades were a regular 20 knots so to bash it was out of the question. The last portion of the southern coast was a lot easier as the trades had moderated considerably and we were able to put more miles down.
While in a little town called Salinas, we decided to have new rigging put on the main mast. Nothing to severe, we just wanted to “beef” Meggie up a bit and we felt she was safer if we did the rigging. So with the rigging done and the boat provisioned again (thank you Walmart), we were ready for the next 500 miles or so to Grenada.
We left Salinas after a few days of work on Maggie (meanwhile our buddy brothers on Double Bryun were outfitting her and getting her ready to cross the Atlantic to Spain via the Azores). Once ready we headed on a short over night hop to the Spanish Virgin Island of Culebra. During our little overnighter I was awakened by Mike at about 1 am (just as I had fallen fast asleep after my watch). “Kylie, Kylie get up….there is someone beside us”. I looked out the hatch and there not 50 feet off our beam was a black speed boat with absolutely no lights who apparently had been tailing us for quite awhile and then sped up to us and slowed to our speed for what seemed like forever. Mike told me to get on the radio but I didn’t know who to call, so we just waited to see what would happen. A spot light accompanied the slow speed of the boat beside us so neither one of us could see anything and finally they sped away. Holy freaked out! I called Jon and Paul on Double Bryun right away to put it on the radio and to let them know. Navy, pirates, coast guard, drug runners???? We didn’t know. So we continued on and I did my watch and off again I went to sleep. “Kylie…they’re back!” I popped my head out again and sure enough 4 in the morning there is another black speed boat, no lights shining a spot light on us. They didn’t stick around too long, but long enough to freak us out again. So again on the radio I get. We later found out from some locals that it was the government. They see boats transiting at night and because they have such a problem with drug running they send boats to check it out. They must have looked at us looking like stunned deer in head lights and figured we weren’t druggies! An exciting night.
We arrived in Culebra just before noon the next day and were amazed once again at how beautiful these islands are. We pulled in and tucked behind a reef in pretty blue water once again. The island of Culebra only has 2000 people on it, but is a popular spot for Puerto Ricans on weekends and holidays (which happened to be Memorial Day weekend when we were there). I didn’t know that you could actually raft 15 power boats together in a very small anchorage, but apparently you can. It was crazy, but we had a good time.
We went out on the town Saturday night to celebrate Double Bruyn’s last night on land and to wish them well. We had been with them everyday for a month and we were going to miss them terribly (which we do). So Jon, Paul, Kim, Scott, Mike and I hit the hot spots. This is when we realized just how much we all needed some Latin dance lessons, and Jon and Paul assured me that they would learn by the time they reached Spain. So the 2 brothers will be Latin dancing somewhere on the decks of their boat in the middle of the ocean…quite the sight.
So from Culebra we’ve started our way east again via the USVI’s and BVI’s. We are now anchored in a place called Cane Garden Bay which is on the northwest corner of Tortola and has a palm fringed white sand beach, a protected anchorage and a beautiful reef to snorkel. The protected anchorage (with moorings which almost everyone is on except us as it is $25 US for a night). We’re really glad everyone is on a mooring because while we were visiting Jost Van Dyke island in the BVI’s we were introduced to charter catamarans. This is when a charter company hands the keys of a 47 foot catamaran over to anyone and everyone no matter if they have sailed or anchored. I know….scary huh. Well picture this….Meggie, a couple of other monohulls, a few chartered monohulls, and 27 chartered catamarans (all captained by college students), in a tiny tiny anchorage. The attraction to this anchorage is the famous Foxy’s restaurant and bar. Anyway….so around 4 or 5 in the evening just as your winding down with your rum, 27 chartered catamarans fly into the anchorage, drop the hook and start partying. I know….I may be sounding very old and cranky here. So 2 cats in particular anchored pretty close and as we watched from the bow of our boat they knew our concern but we gave them the benefit of the doubt. 4am arrives and a little bit of lightening starts so up we get as we know that a squall is soon to follow. Mike approached the cat that was hovering about 15 feet off our bow and politely asks if they are sober enough to deal with a squall…they assured us that yes they were. So the “squall” hits (which was more like a puff) and the 2 cats we were concerned about start dragging towards Meggie. Now…the one has people awake and aware, the other…not a soul around and it’s comin down on us fast. Mike hops in the dinghy and starts banging on the boat….nothing. He hops aboard and starts banging on the doors….nothing. Finally he opens the door and screams for someone to get the hell up and drive this (a bit of swearing here) boat outta here. So with about a dinghy’s length to spare the groggy drunk youngster (I know…sounding old) drives the boat away. Meanwhile the other cat we were concerned about dragged so much they were fending off another boat. About half of the cats dragged that morning n the so called squall. A bit scary, but mostly very entertaining. We’ve become anchor natzies and have been referred to as such by friends, but you have to protect your home. I wanted to add this next picture as it is a typical scene in an anchorage for us. I keep telling you that Meggie is always the smallest.
Anyway…lots of exciting stuff, but lots of beautiful places and people. We said our goodbyes to the brothers and hope they’re doing ok out there. Our plan is to just get south. We have a window to head to St. Martin early next week so that’s the plan for now.
As always, keep the posts coming…we love to read them and it gives us incentive to write the blog.
Ciao for now.
Kylie and Mike
KEEP READING.....2 FOR 1 SPECIAL!!!!!!!
Leeward Islands
Let me start this out by telling you some news that I am very excited about. Some of you know that I had written an article and sent it to Cruising World for consideration. Well, I found out in St. Martin that they want to publish it along with pictures that I had sent as well. Cruising World is an international sailing magazine and I am honoured that they have chosen to publish what I have written. I am not sure when the issue will be out, but once I know I will let you all know. I believe it will be within the next 6 months.
Well…I’ve decided to do a two for one special!!! I had intended to send the above blog a long time ago, but time and lack of internet was the culprit for no blogging. So, I left you in the BVI’s, a beautiful place with excellent sailing, but the charter boats….what can I say.We left Cane Garden Bay and were determined to sail to Lee Bay (without motor) and to beat the charter cat that was on our tail. As we rounded the north west corner of Tortola we were met with 20+ knots of wind on the nose, gusting stronger. We short tacked all the way to Lee Bay via monkey point channel, a narrow cut between Tortola and monkey point. We debated whether we could get through the narrow cut, but with the cat hot on our tail we sheeted in tight and made it in 3 tacks. A very exciting sail and we beat the cat to the anchorage.
Lee Bay is a beautiful little anchorage that isn’t very popular so Meggie got to anchor with only 2 other boats for the night. We snorkelled the surrounding reefs and played on the beach while retiring early for much needed sleep. The next day we made our way to Virgin Gorda sound to stage for the weather window that would take us across the Anaganda passage (also known as “Oh my God” passage). Before we could leave the BVI’s, we had to check out. The customs office was only in Spanish town and funny us thought we would just grad a cab. Well…a taxi to Spanish town from Virgin Gorda sound was $50.00 US there and back!!!!! Crazy!!!! So…we told the taxi driver we would just walk as that was way too expensive for us young cruisers. He sort of gave a funny laugh and then shook his head at us. So we started walking…..uphill. It was extremely hot and for some reason we just kept going up. We thought we had better think about hitching a ride because the road just kept getting steeper, it was never ending. Even though we were drenched in sweat and out of breath, we encountered a beautiful view of the sound.A taxi truck stopped us part way up an ascent and asked us where we were going. We told him Spanish town and he laughed and told us to get in. “No, no we can’t afford you”. “ Just get in, you can’t walk. I won’t charge you”. Thank the lord. So we got in the canopy covered bed of the truck, owned by a 25 year old local, who we believe thought he thought he was some sort of rally race car driver. Well…the truck continued up and up and up. We would have never made it. We would have first collapsed from dehydration if not from exhaustion. This truck was a little Mazda, manual about 20 years old and the gears and brakes sounded very worn and odd. After all the ups we had to go down and the brakes made very funny noises. I kept gripping the canopy and muttered “Oh my god….Oh my god” the whole ride. When we finally arrived in Spanish town I wanted to kiss the ground, but thought I would insult our driver. On the way back…we were picked up by a Jamaican woman named Jackie who insisted on showing us the “back road route”. A lovely woman who spent part of her day off showing a couple of Canadians the beauty of the island.
So with our head sail changed, our water tanks and diesel tank full, we headed out of the sound at around noon to cross the “Oh my God” passage. The passage started out OK. We were to have a current against us the whole way so our strategy was not yet decided. We started heading on our course and luckily we were able to hold a decent speed and the current was not noticeable. So the day started out not too bad, but as the sun began to set, the winds began to build. Because of the current and wind direction the seas were confused. It felt a bit like a washing machine, but we pressed on. We encountered 3 squalls, 2 not so bad and 1 with higher gusts. We were close hauled the whole way (something we are very used to now), and neither one of us got much sleep and I stayed down below too long in the confused seas and felt ill the whole trip. Meggie pounded into the waves, but performed great. She has been beating into the wind and waves so much on a port tack that the paint on Meggie’s starboard side is gone in places. A haul out in Grenada will be a welcome sight.
We had planned to stay in St. Martin for about 5-7 days to take a break and stock up on booze (as this is the best place to do so as it is cheap cheap cheap and duty free). The next morning after arriving in St. Martin we planned to check in and explore the island, but after listening to the weather guru via ssb, my decision was made. I told Mike we had to prepare and leave that evening by 7pm for a 130 mile sail to Guadaloupe. He was a bit shocked, but we have to move with the weather. It is very important at this point to take whatever window is available to get further south, even if you don’t want to. So we checked in, got some much needed items from the marine stores, stocked the boat with booze, cleaned and stowed Meggie, and had anchors up by 7pm. We had another close hauled sail to Guadaloupe and Meggie once again pounded into the seas and wind, but we were fast. We arrived much earlier than we had expected and anchored around 2am in Guadaloupe.
Guadaloupe is a French island and my French was tested right from our arrival. When I say it is a French island, I mean very French. Little English is spoken, but it is amazing how quickly all those French classes come rushing back. We spent about a week in Guadaloupe and while there we rented a car with Scott and Kim from Anthyllide. We had an amazing stay in Guadaloupe.
We first went to the Souffriere (the volcano). There is a hike that takes you up through the mountains to the top of a volcano. The hike is awesome. The higher you get, the more difficult the trail becomes, but an absolutely great hike. The visablitly at the top was very foggy and misty and very very windy. We got to the summit where the wind was so strong you could litterally lean your whole body into it.
While at the top we could hear what sounded like a plane, so I asked another hiker what the noise was and he told us to follow. He told us that if the wind switched that we had to get out of there fast. So we ducked behind the fenced off area and to our amazement we were approaching a live volcano. We didn’t even know it was there. The plane noise was the volcano spewing sulphuric gases into the air. Because of the wind direction we were able to sneak right up to the edge of the volcano.. It was lined with bright yellow rock and hot hot gas spewing out the top. The hiker that brought us here (who was a local) signalled that we should go as the wind was changing…and it changes fast. We ran back to the trail with mouths covered and eyes squinted as the gas was so strong. We couldn’t believe what we had just seen. It was sooo cool, we were ecstatic.
After the volcano hike we made our way to another hike. Although this hike was a bit more tame the end result revealed a beautiful waterfall amongst a landscape of lush rainforest. When we got back to the car we were met by a poet, that was just hangin out. He had just had his french poetry book published and he graced us with one of his poem from his book. It was very surreal.
We got back to the boats exhausted and content.
We left Guadaloupe yesterday and had a beautiful fast sail covering 42 miles to Dominica, an independent country between Guadaloupe and Martinique. 40 miles and a world of difference, but more on that next time. Dominica is where we’ll sit until the next window to head to Martinique, which looks like it will be Monday. So the next time I write I imagine it will be when we finally arrive in Grenada where we plan to stay for awhile.
Again as always, keep the comments coming.
Au revoir,
Kylie and Mike
The last I left you all we were just arriving in Puerto Rico. The western coast of PR is great…it feels somewhat like what I thought Puerto Rico would be like. Our travel mates, Double Bruyn and us rented a car to hit a Walmart if you can believe it and I was shocked when we arrived in Ponce (the second largest city in PR). After driving through some really amazing scenery and large ascents we descended into AMERICA….Walmarts, Walgreens, Kmarts, Publics, Burger King, McDonalds…seriously you name it, it was there. I guess I was really not expecting that at all. I found it difficult to feel the culture in Puerto Rico as it is so Americanized, that is not to say that there isn’t culture here, it’s just harder to feel as a visitor. The one thing I noticed about the Puerto Ricans is they LOVE their music and dancing. Everyone knows how to salsa and man, are they good. Us gringos step off the dance floor when a popular Latin song comes on and all the Puerto Ricans head to the dance floor. We try, but to save ourselves from absolute embarrassment we watch in amazement instead.Puerto Rico has some beautiful places to visit. When we rented the car we made our way to El Yuncae, a national rainforest park and also headed to Old San Juan. The five of us hiked through the rainforest and all took a moment to appreciate and enjoy land. There is nothing like the smell, the feel and the beauty of a thick forest. We then made our way to Old San Juan and wandered the cobble stoned streets.
Our route south took us along the southern coast of PR., and again straight into the winds and the only way to avoid bashing into it we had to use the morning lee before the trade winds would pick up.
So our sailing of the southern coast would consist of the following: waking at 4 am, hailing Double Bruyn on the radio making sure everyone was awake, pulling anchor in the dark, sailing with the land breeze arriving at our destination before 11am covering only short distances. This worked for the first few days as we were able to enjoy the day as our travelling was done early and the trades were a regular 20 knots so to bash it was out of the question. The last portion of the southern coast was a lot easier as the trades had moderated considerably and we were able to put more miles down.
While in a little town called Salinas, we decided to have new rigging put on the main mast. Nothing to severe, we just wanted to “beef” Meggie up a bit and we felt she was safer if we did the rigging. So with the rigging done and the boat provisioned again (thank you Walmart), we were ready for the next 500 miles or so to Grenada.
We left Salinas after a few days of work on Maggie (meanwhile our buddy brothers on Double Bryun were outfitting her and getting her ready to cross the Atlantic to Spain via the Azores). Once ready we headed on a short over night hop to the Spanish Virgin Island of Culebra. During our little overnighter I was awakened by Mike at about 1 am (just as I had fallen fast asleep after my watch). “Kylie, Kylie get up….there is someone beside us”. I looked out the hatch and there not 50 feet off our beam was a black speed boat with absolutely no lights who apparently had been tailing us for quite awhile and then sped up to us and slowed to our speed for what seemed like forever. Mike told me to get on the radio but I didn’t know who to call, so we just waited to see what would happen. A spot light accompanied the slow speed of the boat beside us so neither one of us could see anything and finally they sped away. Holy freaked out! I called Jon and Paul on Double Bryun right away to put it on the radio and to let them know. Navy, pirates, coast guard, drug runners???? We didn’t know. So we continued on and I did my watch and off again I went to sleep. “Kylie…they’re back!” I popped my head out again and sure enough 4 in the morning there is another black speed boat, no lights shining a spot light on us. They didn’t stick around too long, but long enough to freak us out again. So again on the radio I get. We later found out from some locals that it was the government. They see boats transiting at night and because they have such a problem with drug running they send boats to check it out. They must have looked at us looking like stunned deer in head lights and figured we weren’t druggies! An exciting night.
We arrived in Culebra just before noon the next day and were amazed once again at how beautiful these islands are. We pulled in and tucked behind a reef in pretty blue water once again. The island of Culebra only has 2000 people on it, but is a popular spot for Puerto Ricans on weekends and holidays (which happened to be Memorial Day weekend when we were there). I didn’t know that you could actually raft 15 power boats together in a very small anchorage, but apparently you can. It was crazy, but we had a good time.
We went out on the town Saturday night to celebrate Double Bruyn’s last night on land and to wish them well. We had been with them everyday for a month and we were going to miss them terribly (which we do). So Jon, Paul, Kim, Scott, Mike and I hit the hot spots. This is when we realized just how much we all needed some Latin dance lessons, and Jon and Paul assured me that they would learn by the time they reached Spain. So the 2 brothers will be Latin dancing somewhere on the decks of their boat in the middle of the ocean…quite the sight.
So from Culebra we’ve started our way east again via the USVI’s and BVI’s. We are now anchored in a place called Cane Garden Bay which is on the northwest corner of Tortola and has a palm fringed white sand beach, a protected anchorage and a beautiful reef to snorkel. The protected anchorage (with moorings which almost everyone is on except us as it is $25 US for a night). We’re really glad everyone is on a mooring because while we were visiting Jost Van Dyke island in the BVI’s we were introduced to charter catamarans. This is when a charter company hands the keys of a 47 foot catamaran over to anyone and everyone no matter if they have sailed or anchored. I know….scary huh. Well picture this….Meggie, a couple of other monohulls, a few chartered monohulls, and 27 chartered catamarans (all captained by college students), in a tiny tiny anchorage. The attraction to this anchorage is the famous Foxy’s restaurant and bar. Anyway….so around 4 or 5 in the evening just as your winding down with your rum, 27 chartered catamarans fly into the anchorage, drop the hook and start partying. I know….I may be sounding very old and cranky here. So 2 cats in particular anchored pretty close and as we watched from the bow of our boat they knew our concern but we gave them the benefit of the doubt. 4am arrives and a little bit of lightening starts so up we get as we know that a squall is soon to follow. Mike approached the cat that was hovering about 15 feet off our bow and politely asks if they are sober enough to deal with a squall…they assured us that yes they were. So the “squall” hits (which was more like a puff) and the 2 cats we were concerned about start dragging towards Meggie. Now…the one has people awake and aware, the other…not a soul around and it’s comin down on us fast. Mike hops in the dinghy and starts banging on the boat….nothing. He hops aboard and starts banging on the doors….nothing. Finally he opens the door and screams for someone to get the hell up and drive this (a bit of swearing here) boat outta here. So with about a dinghy’s length to spare the groggy drunk youngster (I know…sounding old) drives the boat away. Meanwhile the other cat we were concerned about dragged so much they were fending off another boat. About half of the cats dragged that morning n the so called squall. A bit scary, but mostly very entertaining. We’ve become anchor natzies and have been referred to as such by friends, but you have to protect your home. I wanted to add this next picture as it is a typical scene in an anchorage for us. I keep telling you that Meggie is always the smallest.
Anyway…lots of exciting stuff, but lots of beautiful places and people. We said our goodbyes to the brothers and hope they’re doing ok out there. Our plan is to just get south. We have a window to head to St. Martin early next week so that’s the plan for now.
As always, keep the posts coming…we love to read them and it gives us incentive to write the blog.
Ciao for now.
Kylie and Mike
KEEP READING.....2 FOR 1 SPECIAL!!!!!!!
Leeward Islands
Let me start this out by telling you some news that I am very excited about. Some of you know that I had written an article and sent it to Cruising World for consideration. Well, I found out in St. Martin that they want to publish it along with pictures that I had sent as well. Cruising World is an international sailing magazine and I am honoured that they have chosen to publish what I have written. I am not sure when the issue will be out, but once I know I will let you all know. I believe it will be within the next 6 months.
Well…I’ve decided to do a two for one special!!! I had intended to send the above blog a long time ago, but time and lack of internet was the culprit for no blogging. So, I left you in the BVI’s, a beautiful place with excellent sailing, but the charter boats….what can I say.We left Cane Garden Bay and were determined to sail to Lee Bay (without motor) and to beat the charter cat that was on our tail. As we rounded the north west corner of Tortola we were met with 20+ knots of wind on the nose, gusting stronger. We short tacked all the way to Lee Bay via monkey point channel, a narrow cut between Tortola and monkey point. We debated whether we could get through the narrow cut, but with the cat hot on our tail we sheeted in tight and made it in 3 tacks. A very exciting sail and we beat the cat to the anchorage.
Lee Bay is a beautiful little anchorage that isn’t very popular so Meggie got to anchor with only 2 other boats for the night. We snorkelled the surrounding reefs and played on the beach while retiring early for much needed sleep. The next day we made our way to Virgin Gorda sound to stage for the weather window that would take us across the Anaganda passage (also known as “Oh my God” passage). Before we could leave the BVI’s, we had to check out. The customs office was only in Spanish town and funny us thought we would just grad a cab. Well…a taxi to Spanish town from Virgin Gorda sound was $50.00 US there and back!!!!! Crazy!!!! So…we told the taxi driver we would just walk as that was way too expensive for us young cruisers. He sort of gave a funny laugh and then shook his head at us. So we started walking…..uphill. It was extremely hot and for some reason we just kept going up. We thought we had better think about hitching a ride because the road just kept getting steeper, it was never ending. Even though we were drenched in sweat and out of breath, we encountered a beautiful view of the sound.A taxi truck stopped us part way up an ascent and asked us where we were going. We told him Spanish town and he laughed and told us to get in. “No, no we can’t afford you”. “ Just get in, you can’t walk. I won’t charge you”. Thank the lord. So we got in the canopy covered bed of the truck, owned by a 25 year old local, who we believe thought he thought he was some sort of rally race car driver. Well…the truck continued up and up and up. We would have never made it. We would have first collapsed from dehydration if not from exhaustion. This truck was a little Mazda, manual about 20 years old and the gears and brakes sounded very worn and odd. After all the ups we had to go down and the brakes made very funny noises. I kept gripping the canopy and muttered “Oh my god….Oh my god” the whole ride. When we finally arrived in Spanish town I wanted to kiss the ground, but thought I would insult our driver. On the way back…we were picked up by a Jamaican woman named Jackie who insisted on showing us the “back road route”. A lovely woman who spent part of her day off showing a couple of Canadians the beauty of the island.
So with our head sail changed, our water tanks and diesel tank full, we headed out of the sound at around noon to cross the “Oh my God” passage. The passage started out OK. We were to have a current against us the whole way so our strategy was not yet decided. We started heading on our course and luckily we were able to hold a decent speed and the current was not noticeable. So the day started out not too bad, but as the sun began to set, the winds began to build. Because of the current and wind direction the seas were confused. It felt a bit like a washing machine, but we pressed on. We encountered 3 squalls, 2 not so bad and 1 with higher gusts. We were close hauled the whole way (something we are very used to now), and neither one of us got much sleep and I stayed down below too long in the confused seas and felt ill the whole trip. Meggie pounded into the waves, but performed great. She has been beating into the wind and waves so much on a port tack that the paint on Meggie’s starboard side is gone in places. A haul out in Grenada will be a welcome sight.
We had planned to stay in St. Martin for about 5-7 days to take a break and stock up on booze (as this is the best place to do so as it is cheap cheap cheap and duty free). The next morning after arriving in St. Martin we planned to check in and explore the island, but after listening to the weather guru via ssb, my decision was made. I told Mike we had to prepare and leave that evening by 7pm for a 130 mile sail to Guadaloupe. He was a bit shocked, but we have to move with the weather. It is very important at this point to take whatever window is available to get further south, even if you don’t want to. So we checked in, got some much needed items from the marine stores, stocked the boat with booze, cleaned and stowed Meggie, and had anchors up by 7pm. We had another close hauled sail to Guadaloupe and Meggie once again pounded into the seas and wind, but we were fast. We arrived much earlier than we had expected and anchored around 2am in Guadaloupe.
Guadaloupe is a French island and my French was tested right from our arrival. When I say it is a French island, I mean very French. Little English is spoken, but it is amazing how quickly all those French classes come rushing back. We spent about a week in Guadaloupe and while there we rented a car with Scott and Kim from Anthyllide. We had an amazing stay in Guadaloupe.
We first went to the Souffriere (the volcano). There is a hike that takes you up through the mountains to the top of a volcano. The hike is awesome. The higher you get, the more difficult the trail becomes, but an absolutely great hike. The visablitly at the top was very foggy and misty and very very windy. We got to the summit where the wind was so strong you could litterally lean your whole body into it.
While at the top we could hear what sounded like a plane, so I asked another hiker what the noise was and he told us to follow. He told us that if the wind switched that we had to get out of there fast. So we ducked behind the fenced off area and to our amazement we were approaching a live volcano. We didn’t even know it was there. The plane noise was the volcano spewing sulphuric gases into the air. Because of the wind direction we were able to sneak right up to the edge of the volcano.. It was lined with bright yellow rock and hot hot gas spewing out the top. The hiker that brought us here (who was a local) signalled that we should go as the wind was changing…and it changes fast. We ran back to the trail with mouths covered and eyes squinted as the gas was so strong. We couldn’t believe what we had just seen. It was sooo cool, we were ecstatic.
After the volcano hike we made our way to another hike. Although this hike was a bit more tame the end result revealed a beautiful waterfall amongst a landscape of lush rainforest. When we got back to the car we were met by a poet, that was just hangin out. He had just had his french poetry book published and he graced us with one of his poem from his book. It was very surreal.
We got back to the boats exhausted and content.
We left Guadaloupe yesterday and had a beautiful fast sail covering 42 miles to Dominica, an independent country between Guadaloupe and Martinique. 40 miles and a world of difference, but more on that next time. Dominica is where we’ll sit until the next window to head to Martinique, which looks like it will be Monday. So the next time I write I imagine it will be when we finally arrive in Grenada where we plan to stay for awhile.
Again as always, keep the comments coming.
Au revoir,
Kylie and Mike
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