Here we are on Christmas day at the BBQ held at the Yacht Club. On the right is Denis and Arlene from s/v Tiger Lily and also seated with us is Jenny and Steve from s/v Hidden Falls.
Laurie here. A part of me, likely the part managed by personal guilt, is telling me that it is time we started writing something more substantial here for this season. We’ve been hampered by time, social calendar, and internet connection; but finally, many of these petty excuses are being eroded.
Let’s start with the travel. Our trip up to Bequia was interesting. We got up at 3:30 a.m. the Tuesday before Christmas, and quickly said where is the full moon we were promised? A search of the sky found the subdued golden orb in the western sky, in full eclipse. Although it left us picking our way out of Admiralty Bay between the boats in just about total darkness, it was most interesting to watch the transition back from full eclipse to full moon over the next two hours. Those hours took us to the far side of St. Vincent, where I concluded the wind was so light that I should remove the last reef in the main. We were able to sail much of the trip up the side of St. Vincent, primarily because we kept around 2 miles off. That also got us out of the wild rip-tide that is often experienced around the base of the giant volcano that makes up northern St. Vincent.
The 5 or so hours in the open water between St. Vincent and St. Lucia was pretty nice, and even included some wind direction that had us aimed right at the Pitons. However, the wind died, we began to motor, and then the wind came directly from our direction of travel, making it slow going for the rest of the trip. The rain it brought with it every 30 minutes also became a problem. Indeed, we have been plagued with northerly and often wet winds most of this sailing season. Cat Tales has burned more than half the fuel that we burned all last year, and we’ve barely been out a month, with much travel to go.
Seeing the Piton area of St. Lucia for the first time, from about a mile off, was quite a shock. When we left last year, the area was in a terrible drought, and the Petit Piton had burned for weeks, leaving a giant, steep charred monolith. Just a few short months ago, Hurricane Tomas came through and made a real mess of the area. We could see about a dozen major landslides through the outrageously steep terrain in between the Pitons and in the hills above the little town of Souffriere. It seems obvious which slide killed the nine Lucians, and probably was responsible for the homelessness as well. A major slide came down the hill close to the Grand Piton, just south of the Dasheen Ledera Resort that resides on the high ridge. The scar goes by the Jalousie Plantation Resort, and on into the sea. We saw boulders as big as houses, among the trees, and among the broken coloured concrete that used to be houses in that steep terrain.
The smaller landslides throughout the area looked like cat scratches among the almost vertical hills. Still, these scratches were enough to take out roads, and probably some homes as well. We know things are far from normal.
We carried on until dark, but decided to pull in to a little, steep-walled cleft called Canaries, where we dropped the hook, had a drink and a simple meal, and went to bed. We awoke at 6, hoping to take advantage of the daylight and possibly lighter winds to continue our motor to Rodney Bay. Well, the winds were not light, and it rained so hard that we had to turn the radar on. Between cloudbursts, we would see boats right beside us that we had not been able to see. It was a bit nerve-racking. We had announced our pending arrival on the Rodney Bay morning cruisers net, and then when the sky cleared for a second, and we began to sail past anchored boats, one of them, “Silk Pyjamas”, gave us a conch-horn welcome as we motored by. No small thing.
We had the hook down in Rodney Bay at a little after 9, but waited until 11 for a break in the weather. The break was a trick, and we went through a heck of a rainstorm during the one mile dinghy ride to the marina to clear Customs, and to see John Fallon at “The Bread Basket”.
Since arriving, we have been caught in a whirlwind of activities. Most daylight hours have us working on small problems on Cat Tales; with the rest of the time fulfilling social obligations. Thursday night, we went to a place called Jamb-de-Bois, which means “Wooden Leg”, where we joined old friends to have a great supper and see a one-man presentation that played Broadway only last week. The man is the son-in-law of one of the cruising families here in the harbour, and put the show on free as a gift to us all. It consisted of two super long, funny, Christmas poems that reminded me of the educational, biting sarcasm of Tom Robbins (I think) who wrote “Skinny Legs and All” and “Even Cowgirls get the Blues” among many others. It was quite fun.
Christmas Eve, there was a cocktail party with snacks at the yacht club on Reduit Beach, Christmas Day brought a barbecue on the beach in front of the yacht club, Boxing Day brought a “leftover party at John Fallon’s apartment, about a 25 minute walk from the marina. We needed that walk, by this time. We have been happy to be reacquainted to this crowd of people, as well as to meet some new cruiser friends at the events. Tonight, we are having sundowners on Silk Pyjamas, some people we have tried hard to spend time with for over 3 years. We have been like ships passing in the night, but tonight we collide. The weather has been steadily improving since our arrival; and we can dare hope for a beautiful sunset to view from their cockpit.
The boat troubles I mentioned are primarily the watermaker, although the “to do” list has made it up to 15 items of late. The watermaker motor, since the factory changes, requires 40 amperes, and the wiring to it just is not up to it. I have checked for voltage drops at every location along the circuit, and have started to run larger wire. As it draws from the big wires to the windlass, I thought it could not be a problem, but my work has resulted in finding that the windlass wires are too small, and we may be doing damage to the windlass. As that is a $5k item, it is worth the $3-400 it may cost to put larger wire to it. Tomorrow, that project gets started.
Well, enough for today. Stay tuned for more on the people we are getting to know, our time with John, and our short-term plans.
