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Fishermen entering Cumberland Bay in the early morning
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We're very slowly moving south now that it is wet season. The hotter it gets, the slower we go. The temperature is probably only a few degrees higher than in the dry season. But - it's humid. Relief is just off the transom however and we are not suffering. The winds have been way down and the water is so clear it induces vertigo when sitting on the deck. I've been trying to salvage the teak deck for a few more years and keep getting distracted by a flying gunnard crawling along the bottom 20 feet below me. Deck work involves an hour or two of chiseling caulk or sanding teak and kneeling at the edge feels like cleaning the gutters on the roof.
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Queen Emma in the clear waters of Frigate Island, SVG
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We are learning about a whole different weather pattern in the off-season tropics. Instead of watching cold fronts coming off the Eastern US, we watch "tropical waves" coming off of Africa. These lows are born in the Saharan desert and march westward at between 10 and 15 knots. If the higher level winds don't blow them apart and the waters are hot, circulation develops and they get promoted to tropical depressions. If conditions remain favorable, the get a name and the attention of everyone in the Caribbean. Fortunately, if they start to really spin, they tend to go Northwest or even north. We just sent Colin wandering up around Bermuda and a potential Danielle is following. These are all comfortably far away and we remain ready to weigh anchor and run south should anything threaten. Just the little tropical depressions or local squalls are more than enough for me. I was looking out the port when it was blowing 39 knots with sheets of rain. A tern was flying hard into the wind not two yards off the port side makeing no progress. Suddenly, a gust caught him and he went tumbling backwards like he'd been hit with a baseball bat. Pretty comical if its not you. Last night we were treated to a spectacular lightning show and Susie and I watched "The Kite Runner" while counting off seconds between flashes and rumble. Actually rumble doesn't quite capture it. More like lying on the woofer tower of a heavy metal band. Its very comfortable and dry aboard Queen Emma but we have absolutely no desire to test her in heavy weather. First sign of trouble and we're outta here.
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Queen Emma at Cumberland Bay, SVG
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The upside of wet season is that we get plenty of free water and most places we go are deserted. This means we get the good parking spaces and everyone is very, very glad to see our $EC. Our trip since St. Lucia has been leisurely. We were greeted in the St. Lucia/St. Vincent passage by a whole pod of frolicking dolphins playing in the bow wave and jumping in the air. Our stop in Cumberland bay on St. Vincent and the Grenadines was a first for us and we did our best to stimulate the otherwise moribund SVG economy. All the Vincies we met were complaining about the economy, lack of tourists and the death of the banana trade. We vigorously overpaid for tying a stern line to a palm, for a couple of tuna and for passion fruit and avocados.
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Deserted bar in Cumberland Bay, SVG
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Fruits and Vegetable stand in Bequia, SVG
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Dolphin Greetings
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Saturday Reading Club, Bequia, SVG
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We hung out quite a while in Bequia where we visited Queen Emma's former owner to see progress on the "tropical hideaway" he is building. 8 years into it, you can see the outlines of a real shangri-la. We also had a great time helping with a Saturday reading program run by Cheryl of the Bequia Bookstore. World's cutest kids managing to be quite well behaved as they took turns reading aloud and explaining what they read. As a reward, they got to paint rocks and had banana bread and fruit juice.
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Tobago Cays, SVG
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We stopped a while in the Tobago Cays, where it was blowing hard but was relatively deserted. The Tobago Cays are on every charterer's must do list so it was very pleasant with only 10 to 15 boats. We swam with the turtles and climbed one of the Cays. Amazing variety and number of butterflies moving just a little too fast to capture on film. Nice views which were willing to hold still while I focused.
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Intercom in Mayreau Restaurant
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Mayreau, gateway to the Cays, provided us with a nice lunch. We stopped into the deserted room and were joined by the waitress after about 10 minutes. She assured us they were open and phoned the Chef on her cell phone to get him to come in to work. The kitchen is below, so the ordering didn't require the use of minutes on the cell phone and we were eventually brought delicious snapper sandwiches. It was a warm and steep walk up the hill so we didn't mind sitting in the breezy restaurant chatting with one of the 300 residents of the island. An English couple of hitchhikers looking for a ride out to the Cays were the rest of the lunch rush.
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Map of the area in Mayreau church
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After an overnight at Frigate Island to check out of SVG, we sailed over to Carriacou to be there for the Carricacou regatta. In part, this was to help out some friends with their pet project, the "Carriacou Children's Educational Fund" We entered the domino tournament and won all the brownies (which we shared with the rest of the players). We attended the potluck BBQ and ended up on the last day manning (and womaning?) the book and chart table at the charity auction and jumble sale. Quite a few boats came up from Grenada for the event and the organizers seemed pleased with the results. We've been sitting here ever since. Its been very still which is nice for the sanding and chiseling portion of our day and we've gotten the kayak out for the shopping and visiting portion of the day. The birds and fish are dancing, there are plenty of fruits and vegetables in the stands in "town". Good internet to watch for weather and for reading the Times. Unless something blows up, we may just stay. Or not.
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