11/11/2009 St. Barts to St. Martin

10/24/2009 Today I checked into St Barts with Immigration and Customs. It is very relaxed here for checking. I was not even asked for my passport and I only had to fill out one paged. I was given a blank piece of paper with an official stamp on it that I paid my fees for anchoring in the harbor. This is the most expensive place I ever anchored. They charged by the square foot of the boat. It cost 11 Euros or close to US$20 a day to just anchor in the remote harbor. That did not include a mooring buoy.
After clearing in I found Tommy, Mariane and her father Roger. We went for a quick ride and they took me to their home and I met Mariane’s mother, Yolande. Roger and Yolande Berry are both from the island of St Barts and have a rich family life there. During their working and family raising years Roger and Yolande lived in Florida. Mariane has a brother and sister that still reside in the US.
Roger and Yolande have built a beautiful home on top of the hill that overlooks the Caribbean to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. It is a well laid out home that has a nice breeze blowing through it all the time and a wrap-around porch for dining and napping in the hammocks. Roger cooked up delicious yellow-fin tuna that he had caught earlier. I am thankful for them offering the hospitality that they have. It is great hanging with old friends and new friends.

10/25/2009 Today Tommy and Mariane picked me up at the harbor and along with Yolande went to Flamands to park the car and walk the path to Columbier Beach. This is the exact opposite I had done in May when Jim and Alecia had visited. We met a cousin of Mariane’s there and hiked the trail.
We swam in the early morning and sat around the beach. A little later Yolande’s sister arrived, along with her daughter and family. The kids had a boogie board that they took down the beach to a sand dune and we all tested out the board, using it like a snow sled, and rode it down the dune.
We then proceeded to have another great lunch of leftover fish from the day before and another siesta on the back deck.

10/26/2009 Today I took Roger, Yolande, Mariane and Tommy for a sail around the island. We took off from Gustavia and did a counter-clockwise trip around St Barts.
We stopped at Grand Saline Beach for a swim and lunch. There is technically no nude beaches on St Barts, but the officials eyes are turned away on this beach. Just as on all of the French Islands, topless is not an issue. Roger brought some ham and cheese sandwiches and the fantastic French bread you find on this island.
After our swim we took off again to finish our trip. The southeast corner of the island was taking a pounding from the weather blowing in from the southeast. The seas were very confused, along with steep and choppy. Unfortunately all of my passengers did not fair to well on this part of the trip. I don’t blame them as when I did get off of the boat to take them ashore after we arrived back in Gustavia, I felt it also. I usually don’t feel anything from sea movement. After we cleared the northeast point, we were in the protection of the shore and all calmed down. It was pleasant the rest of the way in.
I had a great day sharing my little bit of the world with new friends. Roger was at home on the boat and had the joy of a little boy in a candy store. Mariane is a fish at heart and has earned some of the ASA sailing credentials and it was fun to see her and her dad interact in different duties on the boat.

10/27/2009 Today I stayed around the boat for the better part of the day until I went into town looking for some wi-fi (or on a French Island, wee-fee). I found an internet shop and caught up on my email. I then walked over to Shell Beach. There was a photo shoot going on for swim suits. St Barts is a beautiful place for photo shoots and the local French magazines bring out the best of the island.

10/28/2009 Today we had lunch with Roger and Yolande again at the house. Today was goat. There are many wild goats on the island and it is alright to hunt the goats. Most of the time they are caught by trap, but once in awhile they will need to shoot the goat. The meal was fantastic and very flavorful.

10/29/2009 It is time to leave St Barts. I am taking Tommy and Mariane to St Martin on No Rush so they can fly back to life in Colorado. We had a fun downwind sail with the spinnaker the whole way to St Martin. After getting settled into the anchorage at Simpson’s Bay, we checked in with Customs and Immigration and headed off for dinner.

10/30/2009 While I had some muscle on the boat, I had Tommy hoist me to the top of the mast. This is my first time all the way to the top of the mast. In fact, it is my first time to the top of any mast since going up on a Catalina 25 many, many years ago. I needed to replace the anchor light bulb on top. You can say this was a little high stress. I did not take any pictures from the top as I did not want to let go of the mast and dig around my bag for the camera. I did stop at the top spreader and took some pictures from there.
Afterwards we cleaned up and took off for lunch. We went to the west end of the runway at the international airport and had hamburgers and watched the planes land. If you are there at the right time, you can watch people do the tumbleweed act and blow down the beach from the jet exhaust during take-off.
Then it was time for Tommy and Mariane to jet back to the US. I want to thank them so much for allowing me into their lives while visiting family and a special thanks to Roger and Yolande Berry for making my visit to St Barts a special treat.

10/31/2009 Bequai to St. Barts

10/17/2009 Today I worked on getting the boat ready to move. That included fueling up at the local gas station with jerry cans. Fuel prices are up about 25% since I was here in June. It is good to be back in Bequai. I do really enjoy it here and I have fond memories of my last trip here.
This evening I went ashore as I saw that Tommy’s Cantina was open for business. When I was here in June, Pam thought she would have the restaurant closed until the beginning of November. They had their fish special going again tonight as always. The catch of the day was yellow-fin tuna or barracuda. I went for the barracuda. It was delicious. Pam was there working the bar so I sat on talked with her until about 9:00. There was a group of younger people sitting around a table having a good time. I started to talk with on the people. He is Bob. Bob is from Sweden. I never met anyone named Bob from Sweden. We started talking and I did my best at international diplomacy and introduced him to the Tequila Shooter. After that we became fast friends. A little bit later I was invited over to the table. They were on a short break from an institute they are attending in St. Vincents. There was Bob from Sweden, two from Mexico, one American, and four from Brazil. They are part of a small group that will train for six months at the institute on St. Vincents and then spend six months in Africa doing different types of mission work, depending on their background.
After we closed the restaurant we headed over to meet the rest of the group at another bar. That group had a couple of Korean woman, a woman from Liberia and more from Brazil. We started sharing about our adventures, which in the end is what I believe tied us together. Some suggested that I could take them out for sail on Sunday, and I obliged as I always do if someone wants to go for a sail.

10/18/2009 Today came around real early after hanging out with the group until the early hours of Sunday morning. A small group of them met me at the dock as I indicated at 10:00 this morning. Bob showed up with Sara, Monica, and Miran.
The winds were blowing real good today. I took them out for about a three hour sail out of the bay and they had a great time as the waves were crashing through the nets and they loved having the water splash around them. Sara was the only one that had been sailing before. So this was all pretty new for most of them.
After that we sailed back into the bay and anchored off of Lower Bay Beach. There are two reefs on this beach, one at each end. We cooked up some lunch that included kielbasi, fried potatoes and some beans.
Then it got real exciting. Miran had only been in the water once before, only a couple of days earlier. She asked for a life jacket and I provided an inflatable type used for snorkeling and diving. She was still very hesitant. We took the dinghy into the beach and got into the water. Everyone had snorkels and masks and we set off for the first reef. Sara took off as she has diving experience and Bob took off. I was helping Miran and Monica. Miran did not take to it, and Monica had never done any snorkeling before.
Monica had a great time swimming along and seeing the different smaller fish. I saw my first sea snake. (After looking through my reef book, it may have been a Tiger Tail Se Cucumber.) The fish we did see were of the smaller type, but there were plenty of different colors. When we made it back to the beach, Miran was having a ball feeling much more comfortable with the life jacket. She would not get out of the water. She was really enjoying herself. These are the kinds of experiences that live with you forever. I was able to share a little bit of my adventure with four other people that never experienced anything like it.
Later in the evening I made it back to Tommy’s for more barracuda and Pam introduced me to her husband Tom. We sat and chatted for quite some time and had a good time together. I still highly recommend that if you make it to Bequai, make sure you stop in Tommy’s for dinner and drinks.

10/19-20/2009 This morning I cleared out with Customs and Immigration. I then stopped to pick up a couple of provisions and sailed away. I had another great time in Bequai and The Grenadines and look forward to my next visit there in the future.
The winds were good, and checking with the weather service the winds would start to die the next few days. I was planning on stopping at a bay on the north end of St. Vincents, but decided against it for three reasons. One being that I was traveling faster tan I expected and I was there in the early afternoon, too early to stop. The second was that the shore was very steep and not good holding according to the cruising guide and the third was that the cruising guide talked about possible theft in the area. This seemed to be a common story that I heard from several people about St. Vincents.
I decided that I would sail through the night and try to make it to Guadeloupe. During the evening I sailed past St Lucia towards Martinique. I had a clear night as the moon was waning and the winds were good until about 2:00AM. Then the winds died and I was in the lee of Martinique. I fired up the motors and took off for what would be two more days of motoring.
I did not want to stop in Dominica. I still have bad memories of being boarded there and the attempted robbery. I was not going to be able to make any decent anchorages on Guadeloupe before sunset so I decided to shoot for the Les Saintes. They are a small group of islands just south of Guadeloupe. As the morning went on I knew I would not be able to make it to even Les Saintes before sunset. With reluctance I headed for Portsmouth on the north end of Dominica. I did not have problems there, but I had read in a cruisers newspaper about a couple that had been boarded there and robbed. They did catch the thieves and were in the process of arraigning them. This does not make me feel any more secure. I motored into the bay at 2:30PM. If I thought the bay was empty when I came through at the end of May, it was deserted now. There were three other boats in this huge bay. The locals must have had it real hard this off-season.

10/21/2009 I took off real early this morning around 3:30AM. I was motoring again as the wind did not pick up at all during the evening, except when one rain storm came through. It was an uneventful day as I motored past Guadeloupe towards Antigua. I set for Jolly Harbor on the northwest coast of Antigua. I spent a couple of days there when I came through. It is very protected, with fuel, water and groceries. It would be just after sunset when I arrived, but I had been in here before and knew that the channel was well marked.
When I was half way between Guadeloupe and Antigua, I was buzzed by another private airplane. This is the second time on three days after never having this happen in the past. I made it safely into Jolly Harbor on schedule and set the anchor. I would stay here for about 36 hours getting ready for my week in St Barts.

10/23/2009 I readied for an early morning sail for St Barts. When I motored into the bay on the 21st in the dark I noticed glows in the water. It was the fish swimming away from the boat and the bioluminescence glowing. The next evening when I went ashore for dinner I saw the same thing. The bioluminescence was the brightest I had seen since I was in Viequez. When I went to raise the anchor, it glowed as deep as I could see into the water. I would have to say this is the brightest I ever saw. I was kind of surprised when I talked with the locals that nobody knew anything about it. It might have been a rare occurrence. There was a whole business built around it at Viequez.
I got a little later start than anticipated when I left at 5:00AM. I had some winds, except it was dead down wind. It is probably the slowest point of sail on the boat and the hardest for the autopilot to keep up with. For the first time since the BVIs I sailed the spinnaker. I tried it for a while, but the course I would need to set was so far off that it just wasn’t worth it. I motored again to St Barts as I did not want to come into the harbor at night again. I mad einto the harbor just as the sun set. That was 334 nautical miles in four days. It gives me an idea of how fast (or slow) I can travel if I need to hide for cover from a hurricane.

10/16/2009 The Grenadines

10/13/2009 After clearing out of Immigration and Customs at Hillsborough I had a wonderful sail up to Union Island. I had to put in a couple of tacks to make Clifton. Clifton is an entry point in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

It is really off-season down here. The customs office did not even have $3.50EC in change for me when I paid my fees. The good news was one of my favorite fruit stands was open and she had local pineapples. We talked for about thirty minutes. She was a happy lady. She had traveled to Canada for about two years and we were talking about the weather. I told her I was Colorado and that it had snowed there already this season. She was very against cold weather.
I usually don’t go swimming in working ports as the water is not the cleanest, but where I am anchored, there is a beautiful reef that protests the whole harbor. I went swimming on the reef and was amazed at the amount of fish. There weren’t many big fish, but plenty of small fish. It was like swimming in an aquarium. On the way back to the boat I spooked a spotted ray. It had about a four foot wing span. It was a pleasant surprise to see it there.
10/14/2009 Today I went for a swim again and took my camera with me. Here are some pictures of the reef. This time I spotted a small group of young squid on the reef. Later in the afternoon I toiok No Rush into the dock and topped off the water tank. I then sailed up to Tobago Cays. This may well be my favorite anchorage of all time. The anchorage is not too busy here. Again this is really off-season for the area. I talked with one of the other cruisers that has a boat in a charter program and they were told that one of the major charter programs on has 4 scheduled charters this month and only six next month. I sat and watched another great sunset.
10/15/2009 This morning I woke to an issue with the electrical system. I knew there was an issue coming up as the batteries were not getting topped up from the generator. This is an issue I have seen in the past. I just had to take all of the cables apart from the batteries and clean all of the connections. After that all is well again.
I went for a couple of snorkels and hikes today. First I went back to the turtle area to see if there were any turtles around. I was afraid they may not be in the area because of the time of season. No problem. They were there. I know I saw at least four, but I am sure there were more there.
I then took the dinghy over to one of the remote islands. I walked around a bit there. They must use this area for parties and gatherings as there was an area with tables on the other side of the island on the protected beach.
Later that afternoon I made it out to the reef and started to do some snorkeling. I tried a couple of different areas. There was plenty of current out there today. I don’t remember that from the last time I was here. It could be caused by all of the weather we have been having here just pushing the water. I leave you with these pictures. For Father’s Day I was given a digital underwater camera. I thank Carolyn and the kids for the gift.
10/16/2009 We are having plenty of stormy weather here. We had thunderstorms all evening and night last night. It did clear enough to go out for one more snorkel this morning. I decided not to sit here through all of the weather and I would move north. I did get some more pictures to go with the ones from yesterday. Unfortunately no pictures of any sharks. I did see a shark here when I was here in June.
I sailed off the anchor this morning. With the weather the winds shifted a little more to the south that made for good conditions heading north. I was watching as the squalls were rolling in. The first one was south of me and I knew it would not be a problem, but there was a good one coming in ahead of me. I was hoping it would pass before I arrived, but not this time. Just as the wind started to hit, I decided to reef the main. It is the first time I have reefed since being back on the boat. I put in the second reef and we kept sailing along with no problems. Conditions were great. I was sailing 7.5 to 8.5 knots and no problems.
A second squall blew in and as before I did not see any winds above 25 knots. With the reef in No Rush just galloped along in all her glory. I had seen a sailboat on the horizon. Of course No Rush had to go after her. We ended passing the other boat within the hour and put another 45 minutes between us by the time we turned the corner to head into the bay at Bequai.
I am going to spend the weekend here and the plan is to take off Monday morning after clearing out with Customs and Immigration first thing in the morning. From there we will head north to St Barts, moving quickly. I do expect to night stop along the way.

10/12/2009 Grenada

10/04/2009 I took No Rush into the Grenada Yacht Club for the night. After she sat in Trinidad for three months her water tank was fouled. I put her in a slip for the night so that I could flush the tank several times and a slip is lot easier than hauling ten gallons of water at a time. I probably also spent less for a slip than all the fuel I would have used running back and forth.
10/05/2009 Today we moved over to Prickly Bay. I plan on bouncing around the south coast for the week. I want to see the Classic Cricket Match being held this Saturday. I been looking forward to seeing a match since last summer when my buddy Greg was talking about the game.
10/06/2009 There is plenty of social activities that are announced every morning on the cruisers net broad casted over the VHF radio every morning Monday through Saturday. This evening there is happy hour at D Big Fish. It is a fun bar that mixes great drinks. For entertainment tonight there was a three member band that played jazzy blues from one of the boats anchored in the bay. They were very good and it was fun to hang and listen to the music. Most of the rest of the time is cleaning or maintaining the boat. There is also time to read or watch movies.
10/07/2009 Today I took No Rush over to Clark Court Bay. I had spent an afternoon here the when I circumnavigated the island. There are four or five reefs with snorkeling available. When I was here I snorkeled the two inner reefs. The water was a little murky and wasn’t much better this time. Today I went out to the edge of the bay and went on three other reefs. The first was had a lot of wash from the waves and was murky, but I did see my first barracuda since being back on the boat. The second reef was on the opposite side of the bay and was clearer. This picture here is live white corals growing. It was like a field of them everywhere.
After I went back to the boat, there is what I thought was a sunken island. It was actually a reef also. It rose straight out of the depths of the bay to about three feet below the surface. This was not even marked on my cruising guide as a place to snorkel. It turned out to be the best snorkel in the bay. There were three large schools of fish and plenty of corals. Unfortunately I did not take my camera with me on this dive.
The other reason for coming over to Clarks Court was the happy hour scheduled there. It was hamburger night. That was ok, but it was the live music I was there for. They had a local playing the tin pan. He had a little computer that provided the background music and he played the tin pan. It was very good and what you expect of the Caribbean life.

10/08/2009 I motored over to Westerhaven Bay. I was looking for the owners of the same make of mine, Seawind 1000. I did not find there. They must have been off with customers for a day charter. I decided to head back t Prickly Bay. I was getting ready to cook a chicken dinner I had been planning for the last few days. But the best laid plans…. A couple of local fishermen came by with fresh caught lobster. I couldn’t turn that down. I had not had lobster since my second night in the Bahamas. I cooked him up on the grill along with a potato and corn. It was a meal fit for a king.
10/10/2009 Today is the day for the Cricket Match. I caught the bus to St George’s on Saturday morning. The streets are starting fill up for the weekend and I finally found out where the fruit market is located. It is just north of town, along the street by the main bus terminal and fish market. Still no pineapples to be found and I was told they are in season. I walked from the bus station to the national stadium. It is a three level stadium I believe built specifically for Cricket. I purchased my ticket, a whole $10.00EC or $4.00US. Not bad for a double header including the Old Timers game between The West Indies and The World. I will have to say I was expecting a bigger turn out for the match. It was probably only 10% of capacity.
The first game was the Old Timers and The West Indies Team won quite handily.
They are playing a version of Cricket known as 20/20. After watching two matches I believe I have the basics down.
There is a batter and a bowler, along with 9 other fielders. A batter is the player swinging at the ball and the bowler throws the ball, sort of like a pitcher in baseball. A big difference is that the bowler runs towards the batter to throw the ball.
The field is pretty much a circle and the ball can be hit anywhere including behind the batter. There is no foul ball in cricket. The batter is trying to protect his wicket. A wicket is three little sticks behind the batter. If the bowler can hit the wicket, then the batter is out. The batter can also be put out by a fielder catching a hit ball on the fly, our baseball term of a fly out. The third way is to be caught running between the wickets. If a fielder throws the ball to another fielder who can tang the wicket before the runner can make it safely to the wicket, then he is out.
An Over is a collection of six thrown balls. So the 20/20 is 20 Overs per team. That means there will be up to 120 thrown balls per side. The team that can score the most amount of points within the 120 throws or 20 Overs wins the match. The way to score is to hit the ball and run between the two wickets or there is a perimeter around the field. If the ball bounces or rolls to the perimeter and then goes over it, that is four points. If the ball clears the perimeter on a fly, then it is six points. One side plays offense for the whole 20 Overs then the opposing team plays it’s 20 Overs or scores more than the first team. That is Cricket in a nutshell. I am sure there is more to the game, but Cricket for Beginners. By the way, if you have a few beers, you can fall asleep watching cricket just like baseball.
The second match was between Grenada and Barbados. Barbados won quite handily using only 12 Overs to win the match. It was a more competitive match vs. the Old Timers. That was more like an All Star game in the US where it is high scoring and little defense.
I did have for lunch the national dish of Oil-down. It is a mixture of vegetables and meat with a heavy dose of saffron. That is where the yellow coloring comes from and it has stained the end of my fingers.
10/11/2009 Today is probably one of those days I should have stayed in bed or at least in-port. The good news is I am safe and there is no harm to No Rush. I started early this morning to sail to Carricaou on my way leaving Grenada and heading north. It had appeared the wind did shift a little to the north while I was on anchor.
I set my course on the chartplotter and took off. After I left harbor I was sailing along and had to do some work on the boat somewhere. All of the sudden I look up and I am within 50 feet of two rocks about a quarter of a mile off-shore. I was also in 12 feet of water. This is one of those nightmares that sailor dread, running aground on some rocks. I luckily missed the rocks and kept on sailing. You may say, “why did you not check your course of obstacles”. When I set my course, I walked through the whole course that was plotted and there are no obstacles. I stayed far enough offshore to avoid any shallows and other sorts. The problem lies in that I was sailing head to wind, which meant I was tacking and not staying to the projected course. In this type of navigating, I need to keep an eye on the surrounding and the chartplotter at all times.
The next issue for the day was that the wind did shift towards ENE to about 70 degrees. This meant that I was not going to be able to reach up the eastern shore of the island like the last time I sailed there. I had to tack across the southern part of the island then tack also up the eastern shore. This added many more miles of sailing. I ended up that day sailing and motoring a total of 64 miles when my projected course was on 38 miles.
The third issue was since I had all this extra sailing to do that I was not going to be able to make my destination by sunset. So I decided to stop at a small island on the north end of Grenada known as Sandy Island. I was there with 40 minutes of day light left. I tried to set the anchor and the bottom was so hard that I could not get the anchor to set. I tried several times and could not get it to set. The anchorage was not going to be comfortable either since the wind was out of the ENE.
The next issue started after that failed attempt. I decided to motor on to Carricaou. The problem with this is moving at night. I don’t have an issue with sailing at night time in open water, but it is dreadful to sail or motor at night near land. That is when most problems can happen. There could be other boats, rocks that can’t be seen, fishnets, fish traps, garbage, etc. I did make it to Carricaou, but I was going into an unfamiliar port that had many boats in it and many of them did not have any lights on. I stayed on the outer edge of the bay and was able to set my anchor after the second try.
The upside to the trip was that I was safe and sound and so was No Rush. I also made a pot of chili earlier in the afternoon and that sat well in my stomach on the three hour motoring through the evening.
10/12/2009 This morning I got up early and left Tyrell Bay and motored over to Sandy Island. This is a different Sandy Island from the day before. I spent the night here when I circumnavigated Grenada a week before. I just enjoyed being here. I now understand how a sailor can become locked into a location for a long period of time. Grenada has been that for me and it is a bit of a struggle to move on. I met a sailor in the bar one night and he was talking about his trip from the US to Grenada. It took him also three years to do the same thing I did in six months. He pulled into Luperon, DR and did leave for a year and a half.
Later that day I motored over to Hillsborough. This is the town that has a Customs office so I can clear out of Grenada on my way to The Grenadines. I can see Union Island from here and tomorrow’s journey should be an easy one to enter the Grenadines. I sat and watched my last sunset from Grenada and had a Carricaou Sunset. I know I have talked about that drink. It was a drink made up due to the need to finish off some mangos. When you buy mangos here, you usually get a bag of them. Then you need to figure out what to do with them. I have had mango pancakes, mango oatmeal and the Carricaou Sunsets. They are a mixture of rum (of course), tonic water or ginger ale, mashed up mango and a twist of lime. I good tasting drink that is good for you also with plenty of fresh fruit.