Wednesday, 28th February.
Improbable as it sounds, this is the second time I have spent my birthday in the Caribbean! Ali had brought a severely unflattering card with her; I had bought my own surprise - a very compact fishing rod; but it is the freshwater version. Oh well, I really wanted it for our canoe trips so that'll be fabulous!
Ali went ashore first with Chris to hand over the car - and to buy cakes for my birthday! Chris and I headed off to the emigration shack at the end of the pontoon to sign us all out - and to register us on the boat's manifest. And then we were away. Linda helmed us out to sea and then we headed south.
First day at sea; the trip down from Martinique to St Lucia.
There is a constant current East to West which made / makes for rather lumpy seas around the ends of the islands; much rolling of the boat which calmed once Chris set some sail. Blue sky, sea breezes - how good is that?
On St Lucia we berthed in Marigot bay, a deep, sheltered inlet, home to some really, really big boats!We were too late, we thought, for immigration that evening but hey! So we dressed up a bit and headed to a great, informal, delicious restaurant right on the water's edge. Daiquiri (again!), fish balls (again - they are really yummy!) Ceviche of Dauphin fish, followed by a very tasty creole fish dish for me. I have had to ask Ali to "remind me" (erroneously) that I do NOT like Daiquris........
If you look carefully at the darkest picture, you can make out the tail rotor of a helicopter on one of the "yachts"! $140m - without the helicopter!
Thursday, 1st March
I "won" the "pinch, punch" competition - again.....
Eventually, I went and took over his place in the queue; but the Immigration woman didn't come, and didn't come and eventually, massively encouraged by the chief customs officer who told us that we had not in fact missed her the previous evening but that she had not been there all day, and that we should just go - it happens all the time - we just went!
So we left; headed for St Vincent.
This was a long day's sailing, very open water but still a light breeze and motor-sailing.
Past the "pitons" at the southern end of St Lucia and on, on and on..... All the way down the Western, smoother-sea coast of St Vincent to Young Island and its moorings. There was a magnificent sunset - but no green flash.
A & J had been due to meet us here this evening - but their already tortuous journey plan was made worse by a massive snow fall in the UK and two technical faults on their aircraft. Maddeningly, the second fault was on St Lucia - which we had only left earlier in the day - and where passengers and their luggage in fact disembarked after the agent and British Airways both had vowed that this was not a possibility! So they were very late to Trinidad which meant they had to overnight there, and then .......
Friday, 2nd March
.....had a deathly early arrival with us on the boat! Poor souls, they were pretty tired!
This was a poorer island we thought; but we were welcomed in the market most graciously.
Saturday, 3rd March - and the agonies of arranging our return journey took hold in earnest. The plan was now to head further south to Tobago Cays, which made our homeward flight from Guadeloupe even more distant!
In the end, and bless him for this, Chris rang an agent in the Pilot's guide and fixed it for us to be collected in Union on Monday to begin the trip home from there.
So, onward to Mustique. Yes, that's right, the private island home for many years of the late Princess Margaret - and many other celebs..... A chance for some to catch up with much-needed sleep. But a sandy anchorage (flies for the first time in any quantity, but even so, not huge in numbers), a turtle inspecting us on arrival and an uproarious trip ashore.
Chris, A and I had unshipped the tender from its dock within the stern of the boat and we decided to take all 6 of us ashore in one go. Landing was a bit precarious with a large-ish surf. Two very nice locals offered us (paid for) lifts up the hill to "The View", a seemingly very local restaurant with the eponymous view over the mooring - Amadou II is the two-master with white rigging lights in the middle of the picture.
The meal was good, the drink was good (I was on a water day but everyone else said that the "Planter's" was good), the lift down the hill again was great but the sea had got up a bit, had come in anyway and the stern of the rib was both full of water and full of sand. We bailed most of this out but Chris was deeply worried that the water had got in to the engine and or the fuel tank - but the motor started first time!
The women folk got in to the rib - dryish for the most part; Chris was on the motor; A and I struggled to hold the boat square to the waves, and then to get in. I had taken the precaution to strip to my undies; my camera was waterproof anyway and had a lanyard. And the inevitable happened, struggling to hold the boat - I fell in. Readers of previous editions of this missive will know that this is not the first time that this has happened.
But the water was warm; based upon my "upward belly flops" of the canoe trip last September I managed to get into the rib, Adrian somehow managed the same - and we were off; into the pitch black moorings, dodging buoys and boats and safely home!
SUCH a buzz! We all (the lads that is, the women folk were STILL virtually dry) stripped off at the back of the boat and hosed ourselves off with fresh water! It's amazing where sand gets to!
To top it all, a bat joined us, flitting in and out of the cabins. Great! It was a very hot night; we had the cabin windows shut just in case we didn't hear any rain if it came. A "no sheets night".
Sunday, 4th March.
To Tobago Cays.
A bit later than we might have hoped since we had to hose out the rib before stowing it back in its locker..... But the Cays were all that we could have wished for. A busy mooring but quiet. As we arrived, this huge vessel - a part of the Club Med fleet - waas moored off shore. We feared the worst but in fact it sailed before sunset and there weren't too many folks around.
Once anchored we were recruited by Achim - one of the boat-boys - for supper ashore later that evening and to taxi us around to the protected part of the channel where we might hope to see turtles.
This spot was a sand bar, with quite a drag on the waves, but with myriad tiny fish in the water and later with terns plunging in after them. Some of us saw turtles, the water was warm but there were only so many fins to go around so my swimming was a bit more restrained. But this was a lovely place. I shall not object if Ali wants to return to the Caribbean.......
Last night aboard; gently rocked asleep by the gentle waves; the air-con on in the cabin - bliss!
Monday, 5th March.
A had shopping to do - it has been very good to see Ali and her brothers together. Thanks so very much all for making this a most memorable trip!
We dropped Chris and A at Amadou II, and then we and Tiger and our chaperon headed off, very fast, across virtually smooth water to the neighbouring Island of Carriacou - a part of Grenada......
Where we had to immigrate again - and be taken off the manifest of Tiger's boat! The sea landing at the ancient, concrete jetty was pretty rough. We almost had to jump ashore - with our luggage!
If you've seen the television series "Death in Paradise", this could have been an episode of that show! We didn't take any pictures of the Police and Customs station - which is a pity - but the police staff were all in formal uniform with the female officers in skirts and knee socks. We arrived at lunch time but were permitted to pay the immigration officer's overtime so she kept on our case instead! The Commissioner from the series (or his real-life equivalent, anyway!) strolled past. Wonderful.
We loved our time here; we were lead to buy our ferry tickets at the office and then our guide left us and headed back to Union. We had a delicious, simple "roti" for lunch in a spotless but very unprepossessing cafe on the main street. We tried to get money from the ATM - to find that we hadn't registered our planned coming to Grenada - since it wasn't planned. 15 minutes later in a beach side cafe, the bank's security rang to to check whether it was us! Impressive!
And what a cafe; hanging over the sea, the veranda gushed spray as the waves rushed ashore. This improbably dressed but delightful man found coffee (Nescafe instant) for Ali and we sat, dealt with the bank and sipped our way to ferry time. We booked our accommodation for later on Grenada on the internet! Technology, eh?!
The jetty was thronged with formally uniformed school-kids; "lime'in" apparently; just hanging around for want of anything else to do! And the run across and down to St George's, Grenada was fast and fun - although we didn't leave the cabin. The heavy swell persisted right into the harbour; the ferry staff had to help folks ashore and time the unloading of the bags to match the rise of the boat!
But the hotel was fine, the next-door restaurant was welcoming, they re-opened the kitchen I think and laid on perfectly pleasant grub for us. And then bed, lights out at about 22.00 and apart from the barking dogs and the cockerels, that was "it" until 4.30 a.m.
Tuesday, 6th March. The early flight to Barbados - and a 6 hour layover there! We did some holiday shopping, struggled with the payment since the bank wasn't expecting us there, either, and booked our resort for the night on Guadeloupe!
And Guadeloupe had another traffic jam! This time our driver took us through real countryside to get us to our resort. Which was just fine - both the countryside and the resort.
Hotel Canella Beach was, as the blurb says, "Colorful, casual beach-front getaway with 2 restaurants & a bar, plus a pool & free breakfast." I mean, what more could you ask for? Supper was a help yourself buffet, breakfast the same. The room was clean, the shower and the air-conditioning worked well; the little beach was fun and the beach ankle-biting bugs out in force. Lovely!
We spent a leisurely morning around the apartment - there was a veranda equipped as a kitchenette where we could sit and read - and then it was off to the airport for the flight home to Montreal. Off New England, we caught up with the edge of the weather system that had brought a huge snow dump to the US east coast; but it didn't bother us.....
And so - as I'd previously written - "We left Guadeloupe on Wednesday afternoon, 7th March at 29 degrees Celsius; it's now nearly 1.00 am on Thursday. (Now back at the cottage; It's minus 6 and it's snowing. Amazing!)"
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