I'd start out with a brief synopsis of the weather, but I hate to hear the sound of knashing teeth, so I'll just move right along.
Bequia is about two weeks behind us, then a week in Carriacou, and we've been in Prickly Bay, Grenada for about a week.
We did get to the Sunday afternoon bit of the music fest in Bequia, and found ourselves parked on the sand at a picnic table listening to a Dixieland band from Barbados. There were several groups featuring "senior" musicians, lots of jazz, and some great bluesy-Caribbean twists on familiar tunes. Belinda and Chris (on Nahanni, from Whitehorse!) came with us, and we drank a bucket of Hairoun, and I won a fabulous prize on a scratch and win: A Blue Plastic Thing With A Yellow Straw! I'll be re-gifting this item for sure.
Bequia is one of those anchorages where boats dragging is a regular occurance. The holding isn't great - on the north side of the harbour, it's mostly beer bottles and coral rubble - and even where the holding isn't bad, the "Bequia Blast" can up and shift a lot of boats that thought they were well stuck. And then there's the charter boats. We watched one come in, drop the hook, and somehow end up steaming back the way they came, dragging their anchor with them and fouling the anchor of the Dutch boat behind them. They just barely avoided a collision by following instructions from the very upset Dutch lady. We'd just watch the fella from the Dutch boat take a bunch of kids to the beach, so when another boat zoomed over to assist his wife, we zoomed over to the beach to alert him.
As soon as we found him and told him what was going on, he hauled his dinghy back into the water - we'll watch the kids, I yelled, and off he zoomed. As he left I yelled "HOW MANY KIDS?"
FIVE!!!
Five blonde kids, between about 5 and 10. Randy and I spent the next half hour swivelling our heads around, counting "one...two...three, four......five, one........two, three......four......five,one, two,.........three...........four.....(panic, panic),..............five!" as they played around in the water.
Did I mention that they didn't speak English? Their dad was back as soon as they got the boat reanchored, but I felt bad for their poor mum - she was probably looking forward to a couple of hours of quiet and instead, she's madly hanging fenders and trying to fend off twits.
We really like Bequia - food, people, surroundings, all pretty wonderful. Saw a grey-bearded cruiser on the street wearing an "Old Navy" tshirt, modified to read "Very Old Navy." Rasta guys at the market are still pretty insistent, but the veg is gorgeous. Shopping accomplished, we picked up two slices of pizza and a hot baguette, 19EC, and were well pleased, but then had water delivered to the boat - 40 cents US a gallon. A bit of a shock, but we were empty, so it had to be done. Then, off to Carriacou.
Another great sail (I'm worried that our sailing on the way back up will be crap - payback for all this great beam-reaching on the way down) and in the next few days we took de bus to Hillsborough (cheapest wine is at Kim's Grocery) and saw Christine at Patti's Deli, still one of the prettiest women in the Caribbean, and JB from the Lazy Turtle was there too, so we caught up a bit. Had a visit with Clare at Lumbadive. She and I started our dive certification together two years ago, and while I've done nothing but float around with my snorkel, she's gone on to get her Dive Master. GO Clare. I'm so impressed. (She's young.)
Another great sail from Carriacou to Prickly Bay, Grenada. Unbelievable. And no barfing. First foray into town, and we were hailed seven times in a half-mile: "take de bus! You want de bus! take de bus!" some of the drivers were even going the other way.
Francis from F&G Metal Fabrication is putting together an estimate for the metal work to repair the bowsprit. After 40 years, the stainless is shot, and we've been putting it off. We're chewing away at the list of other clean/polish/paint/varnish items, and the boat is looking pretty good when it's not littered with bits of sandpaper and painty rags, filthy toothbrushes caked with metal polish, and pretty blue tape on most of the varnish.
Rowing daily. Meeting new people, seeing some old friends. Finally connected with Ann and Steve on Receta, very briefly - they left yesterday for Trinidad, but we hope to see them later in the season. Also Tony and Rosie on Norumbega, a most beautiful turquoise Hinkley, and I had a chat with Lorraine and Graham on Lorriegray and heard about their new grandson.
There, I didn't mention anything about sunshine or temperature.
See below for pics. (photos are too slow to post, so more when I get a better connection)
Bequia is about two weeks behind us, then a week in Carriacou, and we've been in Prickly Bay, Grenada for about a week.
We did get to the Sunday afternoon bit of the music fest in Bequia, and found ourselves parked on the sand at a picnic table listening to a Dixieland band from Barbados. There were several groups featuring "senior" musicians, lots of jazz, and some great bluesy-Caribbean twists on familiar tunes. Belinda and Chris (on Nahanni, from Whitehorse!) came with us, and we drank a bucket of Hairoun, and I won a fabulous prize on a scratch and win: A Blue Plastic Thing With A Yellow Straw! I'll be re-gifting this item for sure.
Bequia is one of those anchorages where boats dragging is a regular occurance. The holding isn't great - on the north side of the harbour, it's mostly beer bottles and coral rubble - and even where the holding isn't bad, the "Bequia Blast" can up and shift a lot of boats that thought they were well stuck. And then there's the charter boats. We watched one come in, drop the hook, and somehow end up steaming back the way they came, dragging their anchor with them and fouling the anchor of the Dutch boat behind them. They just barely avoided a collision by following instructions from the very upset Dutch lady. We'd just watch the fella from the Dutch boat take a bunch of kids to the beach, so when another boat zoomed over to assist his wife, we zoomed over to the beach to alert him.
As soon as we found him and told him what was going on, he hauled his dinghy back into the water - we'll watch the kids, I yelled, and off he zoomed. As he left I yelled "HOW MANY KIDS?"
FIVE!!!
Five blonde kids, between about 5 and 10. Randy and I spent the next half hour swivelling our heads around, counting "one...two...three, four......five, one........two, three......four......five,one, two,.........three...........four.....(panic, panic),..............five!" as they played around in the water.
Did I mention that they didn't speak English? Their dad was back as soon as they got the boat reanchored, but I felt bad for their poor mum - she was probably looking forward to a couple of hours of quiet and instead, she's madly hanging fenders and trying to fend off twits.
We really like Bequia - food, people, surroundings, all pretty wonderful. Saw a grey-bearded cruiser on the street wearing an "Old Navy" tshirt, modified to read "Very Old Navy." Rasta guys at the market are still pretty insistent, but the veg is gorgeous. Shopping accomplished, we picked up two slices of pizza and a hot baguette, 19EC, and were well pleased, but then had water delivered to the boat - 40 cents US a gallon. A bit of a shock, but we were empty, so it had to be done. Then, off to Carriacou.
Another great sail (I'm worried that our sailing on the way back up will be crap - payback for all this great beam-reaching on the way down) and in the next few days we took de bus to Hillsborough (cheapest wine is at Kim's Grocery) and saw Christine at Patti's Deli, still one of the prettiest women in the Caribbean, and JB from the Lazy Turtle was there too, so we caught up a bit. Had a visit with Clare at Lumbadive. She and I started our dive certification together two years ago, and while I've done nothing but float around with my snorkel, she's gone on to get her Dive Master. GO Clare. I'm so impressed. (She's young.)
Another great sail from Carriacou to Prickly Bay, Grenada. Unbelievable. And no barfing. First foray into town, and we were hailed seven times in a half-mile: "take de bus! You want de bus! take de bus!" some of the drivers were even going the other way.
Francis from F&G Metal Fabrication is putting together an estimate for the metal work to repair the bowsprit. After 40 years, the stainless is shot, and we've been putting it off. We're chewing away at the list of other clean/polish/paint/varnish items, and the boat is looking pretty good when it's not littered with bits of sandpaper and painty rags, filthy toothbrushes caked with metal polish, and pretty blue tape on most of the varnish.
Rowing daily. Meeting new people, seeing some old friends. Finally connected with Ann and Steve on Receta, very briefly - they left yesterday for Trinidad, but we hope to see them later in the season. Also Tony and Rosie on Norumbega, a most beautiful turquoise Hinkley, and I had a chat with Lorraine and Graham on Lorriegray and heard about their new grandson.
There, I didn't mention anything about sunshine or temperature.
See below for pics. (photos are too slow to post, so more when I get a better connection)
posted by Susan at 2:47 PM
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