Cat Tales and Crew Have Been Busy!

There is so much to cover since our January 2nd weblog. We were contacted by hiking friends Louise and Joseph, s/v Tangaroa, about attempting a guided hike of the Soufriere Volcano on northern St. Vincent. Steve (Aspen), Joanna (Cloud Street), some other boaters, Dawn, and I took the bait and signed up. The attempt was made on the 6th of January, starting with us all getting to the ferry dock at 5:45 am. In Kingston, we boarded a private bus with our guide Fraser, and his driver, and a large contingent of younger hikers from a cruise ship and the southern vacation area. It took an hour to get to base camp, and the hike to the top was to be 4 hours of hiking and climbing.

While we were driving up the west side, Fraser enlightened us on the recent volcanic history (2001 eruption), and the difficulties it created for the island. That is best reviewed by you here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_eruption_of_La_Soufrière Base camp itself had recovered from the eruption, with just the odd tree with tops totally removed, and new vegetation taking over the new piles of dense ash and small rocks. It was a lush tropical forest we stepped into, albeit the path was newly made with shovels and log steps. The hiking was brisk, but with Fraser stopping regularly to explain the sights. As expected, the hike became steeper and the devastation more obvious. An almost constant rain and fog limited our vision, but kept us rather cool. Soon, we were climbing and scrambling along the tops of the newly formed crevasses through the ash, with very sparse vegetation. We covered some amazing landscapes, including steep rivers with volcanic riverbeds at outrageous angles – regular sluices for rainwater and pyroclastic flows. Sadly, we were stopped at one point by Fraser, who said we’d done the worst of it, proven we could get to the top, but with the fog, we’d see no more than what we were looking at. If we turned around, we’d be able to catch the early ferry. The younger, faster hikers and a different guide made it to the top and admitted it was true – nothing to see. Steve and I blamed Fraser and his regular stops for explanations, but other hikers said our progress was at just the right speed. Oh well, now we know how and can return. I think it was when he referred to our group as the ‘senior citizens’ group that we felt the most pain! The wind did not let up after New Years, and we couldn’t have left Bequia anyway, but on the 7th, our good friends Charlie and Anina (s/v Prism) arrived by air (and ferry) for a land vacation. Charlie had suffered a stroke in the early fall, was recovering remarkably, and they had chosen to travel to see us, some of their floating friends. We met them for lunches, and also booked a cruise to the Tobago Cays with them aboard the Friendship Rose, an old wooden schooner that was originally the region’s mail boat and ferry.

The January 10th sailing was wonderful, with two scrumptious meals served onboard, some great sailing, complimentary drinks of punch, wine, and beer, and an opportunity for snorkelling in the park. Another full day with great people. Although our second time on this adventure, we’d do it again. During the high winds, Dawn and I were involved in saving boats and dinghies and arguing with people in front of us who refused to put out more chain with their anchor. However, the winds finally relented, and we took off for St. Lucia with Steve and Maria (Aspen) and Fred and Sandy (Dakota Dream). Steve, who prefers to motorsail, got across to St. Lucia in fairly good weather, while the rest of us were involved in a heavy squall that took almost three hours of our time and at one point caused us to put our fragile mainsail away. Although we made it with nothing broken, I was so tired I was a zombie. We met our long-time friend John Fallon (Stopp Knot) a few times for lunches and happy hours, usually with a crowd.

We made our way to Ste. Anne, Martinique on a lovely sail on the 17th, and are hiking around with Steve and Maria, sitting amid over 200 other boats, while waiting for news of our new sail. When it is on its way to Rodney Bay, St. Lucia, we will be as well.

For some reason, Blogger wouldn't allow me (Dawn) to add text to the photos today. Looks like we had a blogger.com update! Anyway, you can put it all together. The last couple shots were taken at the Sextant restaurant in Marin, Martinique. Amazing duck confit and very cold and very large Lorraine beers! Alls well!

TECHNICAL Beyond the usual boat chores and working with the specifications for a new sail with North Sails Antigua, there isn’t much going on. I’m working on the designs for improved wiring, as a result of comments by our insurance surveyor. Much of what I need (besides room for the new system) is not on the islands, so not much can be done until the fall. One thing I just finished was the combination of small wires to decrease all the connections to the batteries. I installed a 2-way switch from the auxiliary 2 ampere output from the Blue Sky Solar controller so I can switch it between the two start batteries, then combined these wires with alternator sensors and voltage meter wires into a terminal strip. From the terminal strip, I took two wires to the output of the diode block connecting them to the two start batteries that way. Both wires are fused near the block as that is the new requirement. A little tidier, a little safer, a little better organized.