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