St. Lucia

It seemed as if our time in Saint Anne, Martinique, was short and busy.  We picked up necessary parts and fixed some things, spent a good time with Lorna and Brian and also visited more with Steve and Maria of s/v Aspen.  Al and Michele of Tarentela arrived and we were able to help them replace their forestay and jib furler.  My, what a giant/tall rig they have!!  It was quite interesting.  

However, Denis, our weather guru told us that there was a partial weather window forming for Tuesday, a subtle reprieve from the 20 to 25 knot winds. Although Steve and Maria said it was too rough for them, we decided to take it since it looked like the next opportunity was a long way off.  Lorna and Brian on Peace and Plenty decided to travel with us.  We waited until 11:00 am to get the lowest winds and all in all, the 3.5 hours weren't that bad.  We had the third reef in the main and very little jib out and although the waves were 2 metres tall, there were 8 seconds between each peak and because they were coming a little from the north, they really didn't bother us too much.  We did have one squall with winds over 30 knots but we put even more jjib away and the boat sailed along quite safely.  We had trouble finding good holding for the anchor, but we were settled, mopped up salt water in the cockpit and were celebrating a successful crossing by 5:30 pm.

Wednesday morning we dinghied into the marina through the returning high winds (25 knots) and cleared in with the health department, customs and immigration, picked up parts for the watermaker that were fedexed from Trinidad and had lunch.  I, Laurie, lunched with Brian (Peace and Plenty), John Fallon (Stopp Knot),  Al (Tarentela), and other men who had all dropped their wives off at the ladies luncheon that is held every Wednesday at an upscale hotel with a pool and hot tub!  The ladies discuss no amps, volts or boat parts!!  The men, on the other hand, talked amps, volts and boat parts!!

Yesterday afternoon, we along with Lorna and Brian, paid a visit to our dear friend and long time mentor, John Fallon on Stopp Knott anchored near us.  We were happily  amazed at his efforts to reconstruct Stopp Knott since the fire several years ago.  The boat looks very good and he recently took company from NB to Grenada and back!  Later that evening, we dinghied to Jamb de Bois restaurant inside the national park and were lucky enough to spend more time with John and to have a meal with his friend Edgar with whom we had enjoyed the Bequia Easter Regatta in 2010.

But now we find ourselves on Saturday evening, readying the boat to cross the channel between St. Lucia and St. Vincent.  The short reprieve from the high winds is expected to happen from 8:00 am to later in the afternoon (Sunday) and as we type this we are sailing the boat to a little fishing port 2 thirds of the way down the island.  We'll up anchor at 5:30 am and head south.  The biggest problem will be the winds around the volcano at the north end of St. Vincent.  We'll go 5 miles out to sea to decrease the effects.  We hope to make Bequia tomorrow (Sunday) just before dark.

This morning, feeling we needed some exercise, we joined Lorna and Brian on a 2 hour hike across the island to a little bay called Cas-en-bas.  back at the marina, we celebrated the hike with rotis and beers.  The Bread Basket makes the best rotis in the Caribbean!

I have included a few pictures today of our hike to Case en Bas.

This last shot is of the Rodney Bay police boat tied to us for a routine check just before we were ready to lift anchor to sail south. They filled out form after form until they got a call and apologized saying they couldn't finish with us today!  Oh well!! 

Windy in St. Anne, Martinique

We are still plagued by sparse internet; decreasing our ability to communicate here and elsewhere.  As previously discussed, the changes in technology are the problem.  Not only have Wifi devices made it easier to provide the services, they have made it very easy for the owner to block the services to those who are not the targetted customer.  We have tried to catch up: paying when we could for poor service, using our devices in bars and restaurants where the conversation and socializing make it difficult, and even acquiring a smartphone to use telephone internet.  The problem with the latter is that the branches of the company: Digicel; will not work together.   We have followed their advice, but every time we change islands, Digicel empties the telephone account and leaves us to go to a bar or restaurant and send an email to attempt to get the money or credit back.  Specifically, this occurs each time we enter French territory, and has occurred three times!  We have given up, and will not activate the telephone again until we arrive in St. Lucia.

(Sorry about the out of order pics but using the iPad for this blog is something yet to figure out. The pics are from a hike along the beach today in St.Anne, Martinique with Al and Michele, Lorna and Brian and Steve and Maria.)

As far as we can tell, our last contact by weblog was February 14th, in Prince Rupert Bay, Dominica, with pictures of a sundowner party (which would have been a supper-party if they had not lost their running water), turtle pics from Guadeloupe, and carnival pictures from Isles des Saintes.  I'm not sure if we told you that our next objective was to meet Lorna (Dawn's sister) and Brian, s/v "Peace and Plenty" in Dominica.  As followers of their weblog know, they have arranged to have their rigging replaced, and have had terrible trouble getting it done: spending much of the season mastless (no-mast-eh) in Rodney Bay.  We got word that they had the spar up and were underway, so the plan was gelling.

Since that posting, we enjoyed a fun barbecue with the Dominicans, and took a tour of the island with Peter and Catherine of s/v "Charlotte D" and 2 other couples.  It  was fun to spend time with them, and that was the primary value of the day; as it was our third tour of Dominica, and easily the least exciting or informative.  However, with news that Peace and Plenty would be staying in St. Anne, Martinique while they waited for parts, we made plans to leave, and said our temporary goodbyes to the many people we know in the bay.

We left the next day, Wednesday the 18th, and once again spent way too much time with the motor running as we attempted to get to a safe anchorage in Martinique before dark.  Denis said it was only a fair weather window, but high winds would fill in afterwards and if we didn't go, we'd have to stay another week.  He suggested that we might get gusts over 30 knots in the opening between the two islands, so after attempting to sail all down the west side of Dominica in low and contrary winds, I decreased sail to the minimum for main and jib just before hitting open water.  I also angled 5 miles out from land to get out of the "acceleration zones" that typically exist along the edges of these tall islands.  We certainly did get up to 33 knots at times, and between times the boat had to trudge along in 15-18 knots in the outrageous seas and with little canvas up.  Denis had warned that 8 foot high waves would be greeting us - and they were - but it was the sharp four-footers that tended to cause the hard feelings as they slapped us around and filled the cockpit with salt.  Still, with properly shortened sail the stronger winds were actually interesting and enjoyable - a sign that we are getting used to these wildly varying conditions in the Caribbean.

However, our plans for a speedy sail were dashed by the variable conditions, and we dropped anchor off the Town of St. Pierre, the first real opportunity for good shelter in Martinique, and had a nice evening watching the shore and open streets while the town had their final Carnival night, with the final parades, drumming, and a gathering on the beach to burn some symbolic figure.

We checked in again with Denis, while we were under way down the west coast of Martinique, and he and others with internet access provided some evidence on how to approach the weather.  We again enjoyed high winds as we sailed past the opening of the great bay of Fort de France; but with the seas quite low it just made for enjoyable boating.  However, rather than carry on to Diamond Rock and round up for the 2+ hours of effort to St. Anne, we dropped into Grande Anse D'Arlet to await an expected 4-6 knot drop in the wind.  Hilariously, s/v "Tarentella" were in there, and Al ran out with his dinghy to assist in connecting us up to one of the remaining moorings.  Dawn suggested we should tip this Canadian boat boy with a Trinidad dollar (aboout 20 cents Canadian)!

We believe waiting until 2pm did result in a lowering of the wind, but still, the strong current against the wind at the corner resulted in monsterous waves that really banged at us as we pushed around.  The wind was still fresh as we turned the corner, and it took us about 3 hours to motor-sail in tight tacks upwind to St. Anne.

Since here, we've been welcomed into a large community of "expat" Rodney Bay cruisers, gotten parts from the chandlers and fixed key pieces of gear, hiked to the super beaches of the south coast, and enjoyed lots of French cuisine.

We'll be here until the next weather window, expected next Tuesday at which time we'll head south to Rodney Bay, St. Lucia.

photos!!!

Check of the remora hanging on the underside of this huge turtle!

Laurie diving near a wreck in Les Saintes

Parrots at the Botanical Gardens in Deshaies, Guadeloupe

Maria & Steve and Laurie and Dawn

Carnival in Les Saintes

Bird's eye view of Les Saintes on an uphill hike!

Maria and Steve enjoying the view!

Cute little iguana we met on our walk to the beach!

Les Saintes

Hi everyone! Once again, no pictures will be posted today because of my limited Internet connection! I will email this blog from my phone when we go to the restaurant tonight. Pics will follow next week when we get to Dominica.

We are in Les Saintes with Aspen (Maria and Steve) and now Tarentela (Al and Michele). Al and Michele were enjoying company up in the USVI and BVI and have now joined up with us as we travel south.

We did a nice hike up to Le Chameau Lookout tower yesterday. It took us a couple of hours in the heat and reward was a spectacular view! I have to say though, that Steve, the runner, has run to the top every day since we arrived! So, enough about bragging about getting to the top of that mountain!

We have been warned by our friend and weather guru that we can expect winds from the west by Thursday. This may not sound unusual to you, but typically the trade-winds blow from the east and northeast, and usually quite briskly during the winter months. We all anchor on the west sides of islands to get out of the rough seas and winds. This prediction for Thursday means that the winds will blow directly into the anchorages with fetch from a long ways off! We have decided that since we're holding tight to a mooring ball in The Saintes, that we will stay put until after the winds straighten out and then we'll head off for Dominica, a 4 hour sail from here. The winds have been peculiar down in the Caribbean all season. We haven't had such light and unpredictable winds for all the years we've been sailing here.
as well, there has been no North component to the wind making it difficult to move in a south or east direction to return to our regular chain of islands. We have motored, rather than sailed to most of the destinations.

Laurie might have explained earlier that while up in the BVI, we had a major failure with our wind generator. When we arrived in St. Martin, we had a company look at it, diagnose it and replace the motherboard on it. The mechanic said that he tested it and it was producing electricity, however, when Laurie and I get it put back up on the pole (no small feat), the darn thing DIDN'T work! It had a complete dead short! Off it came again, and we had to head south to our next destination. Laurie spent several hours reading the instruction sheets supplied with the new motherboard and finally gathered up enough nerve to tear the thing apart. He found that the mechanic had bent the insulator sheet in half so that much of the back of the motherboard was touching where it shouldn't be. (Laurie would have described this in much more detail!) He put it all back together, and voila, it is back up and humming along making electricity to keep the batteries topped up between fridge demands and electronics! He has yet to email the mechanic, but it was sloppy work that might have cost us 1400.00 US for a replacement wind generator. The 500.00 US we spent for the new parts and labour were enough to endure!

I was swimming the other day at the Pigeon Island anchorage in Guadeloupe when I ran across a lovely, huge turtle. He had a remora stuck to his back and was coming toward me, which is unusual, but made sense when I saw that he had a few swimmers following him. I took a quick dive and got a great frontal shot of him with my underwater camera. By then the hitch-hiking remora had moved from the turtle's back to his belly. One of my best shots for sure! By the time I got back to the boat, I discovered 3 more of these beastly remoras under the boat looking for their next hitching host! Laurie had already seen them and was long gone from the water! I was quick to follow! By the way, these remoras are about 4 feet long, look like a shark and have a big oval on the back of their head that can suction onto you for a quick ride from here to there! We saw many of them up in the BVI and USVI's but were certain that they were an 'up north' thing because we hadn't seen any in our travels in the southern part of the island chain. The sighting the other day makes us think that they've moved here too!

Off to our favourite French Pizza joint for dinner tonight where you can get Poulet Columbo (curried chicken) pizza, our favourite! Of course, here in the French Islands, wine goes with everything!

We are doing our best to meet up with Brian and my sister Lorna in Dominica (s/v Peace and Plenty), but you should go to their weblog to catch up on their rigging troubles! You will find the link to their blog on this blog page!

Cheers, Dawn (and Laurie)


Sent from my iPhone

Photos of the BVI

We are sitting in Crocus Bay in Anguilla and have discovered a beach bar with a terrific wifi signal, so voila, photos for you today!  We are over here while we wait for an electrical company to take a look and hopefully fix our failed windmill.  With Silk Pajamas, we're investigating the snorkeling, hikes and beach bars!  Some of the places are just vaguely familiar to us as we were here in the 90's with Jeanne Beltrandi and Ken Ward on a rental boat.

A view of Great Harbour where the famous "Foxy's" is located.

Also from Jost van Dyke here is Little Bay.

Up, up, and up we climb.  At least some was in the shade before we ran out of road!

The goats having a look at Cane Garden Bay over on Tortolla from Jost van Dyke.

Stad Amsterdam sailing by us in the Sir Francis Drake channel.  We see this one often sailing the islands.

The Lady B came sneaking up behind us doing 16 knots while we did our usual 5!

At around 6:00 am the sun came up while we did our 14 hour crossing between the BVI and St. Martin.  There was never any more wind than you see in the photo, so it was a day of motoring!

This is one of our 3 mahi mahi caught on the crossing.  (Actually caught 4, but one got away!)  Small, but very tasty!  We still have some left in the freezer.

Laurie is becoming quite skilled at filleting our catch!

The colour of the mahi mahi is quite extraordinary when they're first caught.  They go from brilliant blue, through bright yellow and then dull down as they die.  They swim in partners, thus catching 2 at a time is quite common.

Better a sand drift, than a snow drift.

St. Martin

We apologise for sketchy news from Cat Tales.  Advances in technology are not always good news for everybody.  We've gone through layers of technology since starting to write in 2004:  Ham radio through Pactor, internet cafes, weblogs with and without pictures, numerous special antennas, and now smart phones.  The last has caused people to be rather uncaring about the internet cafes, and if the equipment does not work you just get a shrug of the shoulders.  Most signals to the boat besides by telephone are blocked by passwords.  So, we, like our waiters and waitresses are left here shrugging our shoulders.  We''ll write this up today, and try to find a spot to send it.  Sorry also, no pictures.  We have some nice ones, but they will wait until we can send them.

We are anchored today in Grande Case, St. Martin (French territory), having crossed from the BVI just 3 days ago, the 19th of January.

We left our friends in the USVI on the 8th to try to get moving along on our trip south.  Our first stop was back in Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke, to clear customs and to enjoy a nice meal.  After enjoying our first roti of the season in a neat little bar called Ali Babba's, Dawn and I went looking for trails for a hike for the next day.  By the time we found a trail, we had done a hike just about to the tallest peak on the island.  It was steep, but a great afternoon.  We had been adopted by a nice dog who accompanied us for all of the hike - although he did disappear from time to time to give the local goats some exercise (he would not be discouraged!).  The  views of the both the British and US Virgins were fantastic; as they were the next day, when, after moving the boat to Little Bay, we hiked again to the top of the hills to walk the Mountain Trail road almost back to the previous day's hike.  We finished that day with a run into Sydney's Love and Peace Bar, where you mix your own fancy drinks from special mixtures and the booze of your choice.  A very dangerous bar; and although we found a fantastically interesting couple to chat with, we had to cancel supper and get back to the boat and get to bed.  We are not mature enough to mix our own drinks without a jigger/measusre!

We left for Norman Island the next day, and the sail helped us straighten out a lot.  Norman's Bight was chosen as our anchorage to wait out a period of high wind.  During the 5 days we were waiting, we enjoyed meeting a couple with a Fountaine Pajot Mahe 36: same make as Cat Tales, only a foot longer and 10 years younger.  They are Henry and Catherine of s/v Mowzer.  At the same time, we got reacquainted with two Canadians, Dawn and Gerry, of s/v Chinook Arch; who we had not seen since Trinidad in 2005.

The wind calmed down, but not before it messed up something in our windmill, causing it to quit altogether.  With lower winds and a call from s/v Aspen for us to join them, we sailed up to North Sound, Virgin Gorda on the 16th.  While waiting in the Sound for a proper weather window, we got fuel, some laundry done, and a nice meal ashore.  We also went snorkeling, and saw our first and second Queen Helmet Conch.  Stunning creatures.  Hopefully you will see the pictures shortly.

We finally had to give up waiting for a north or northeast wind, and with s/v Silk Pajamas and Aspen, we motored over to St. Martin just this Monday.  It was a long day of motoring, starting at 5 a.m. and ending at dusk at 6:30 p.m.  Still it was fun, with constant chatter on the radio amoung our  3 boats, and real excitement as Cat Tales caught 3 Mahi Mahi.   These, and the one that got away, ravaged our equipment; including the sea rod that Doug Chown gave us a decade ago.  Again, pictures are coming, hopefully.

We are waiting for word on our windmill, which we removed and ran into a repair shop here in St. Marrtin.  With only apologies so far for inactivity, we hope for a better effort from them next week.  So with our weekend free, we will check out for a few days, and head for Anguilla tomorrow.

Brewer's Bay, St. Thomas, USVI

We're being subjected to gusts of wind over 25 knots, as we sit here in Brewer's Bay.  We came over to this secluded bay, beside the St. Thomas airport to escape the dirty water and swells of Long Bay, off Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas.  It is a bit of a treck down wind, but the winds are expected to be up for over 5 days, so we might as well be comfortable.  We're here with Silk Pajamas and Aspen, and expect Tarentela later today.  Another couple, aboard s/v Aviva, are holed up closer to town with company.

Since returning from St. Croix, we've done a lot, and done little:  With others and alone, we've hiked many trails of St. John and Hassell Island; we've gone to a few restaurants, a few bars, and have enjoyed the season with numerous friends.  We also got one great sail upwind in, from Francis Bay to Coral Bay.  Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment.

This is the 79 metre yacht, Venus.  She was commissioned by Steve Jobs but completed a year after his death, at a cost of ~ 100 million Euros.

This is a bench that is part of the sign that welcomes cars to Coral Bay.  Can't say the reason for the shoes, but it does seem right for the eclectic bunch who live in Coral Bay ashore and afloat.

This is the group who hiked the Ram Head Trail on Salt Pond Bay with us:  Fred and Dorothy of s/v Aviva and Al and Michelle of s/v Tarentela.  This is Al's second hike, and he is not sure he likes hiking yet.  Dawn is the photographer.

 

  

These two pictures show the coral people that tourists assemble on the rocks at Drunk Bay.  I suppose if we found this stuff in a cave, attributed it to ancient peoples, we'd make up some spiritual meaning and motivation for it.

Dawn is standing between what may be two silk cotton trees or one silk cotton tree, as the buttressed roots sure seem to make it one plant.  This is half way up the Reef Bay trail, one of the more challenging hikes recently.

This little critter was on the other side of a tree Dawn used to steady herself as we started up a steep portion of the Reef Bay Trail.  It is a common species of millipede often seen down here.  It hunts other insects, and has some venom that immobilizes their prey.  It would need it, as I doubt it moves too fast.  A little icky to some, but not particularly dangerous.

 

We are at a restaurant in the Grand Haven resort on New Year's Eve, after being hosted for cocktails on s/v Tarentela.  This is Maria, Steve, Fred, and Dorothy.  Terry, Michelle and Kristin join us on the other side.

We can also report that we have renovated an article on our website called "Tobago 35 - our perspective", updated with pictures to answer many of the questions we receive by email.   You can go directly there from here: Cat Tales' Tobago 35 Perspective