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| Queen Emma dressed for a parade |
Today is overcast, pleasantly windy, not too hot here in Rodney Bay St. Lucia. It is the first day where it seemed like a nice cup of tea was in order. We returned here a few days ago so we are getting the laundry done and stocking up with food, and fixing things before Karl and Yuki's arrival on Christmas day. We took a “vacation” down in the Grenadines for a few weeks, meeting up with some friends who came north from Grenada – they have family coming to Grenada right after Christmas so after spending a couple of weeks together, we both returned from whence we came.
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| View from the after deck |
Sailing in the Eastern Caribbean is so wonderful. The water is a beautiful deep blue, the sky is generally blue with lovely puffy white clouds. The islands are full of beautiful green hills, white sand beaches, interesting cliffs and formations. And there you are, sailing along when some dolphins come to visit. They like to swim up to the bow and swim with the boat, so we of course, hand the steering over to Ray the autopilot and run up to watch. They are very smart so as soon as you get out the camera, they dive down just when you press the button and then disappear if you persist. We had several dolphin encounters, always fun.
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| dolphins: crafty critters |
We sailed down to a beautiful protected spot to hang out during the high winds, big seas as forecast. Tiger Lily II arrived to hang with us and we swam and hiked and took the bus to town and had lovely adventures. Denis overpaid the guy who brought bread in the morning, so instead of coming back with change, he told the fisherman to give them some fish. Denis offered them some new shorts that didn't fit, so they threw in a lobster. Then we swam over to see what they got and ended up making a fisherman's soup together. It was delicious. When the winds finally let up, we sailed over to Petit St. Vincent, a big 5 miles away. We arranged for the Palm Beach Restaurant to pick us all up and take us over to Petit Martinique (technically another country, Grenada, but nobody minds). We had a lovely walk before dinner and then a lovely dinner right on the beach including the Palm Beach special cocktail: mango, lime and rum. Yummmm.
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| Horta, our neighbor at Frigate Island, Union, SVG |
The next day we sailed up to the Tobago Cays, which is a marine protected area. Arleen and I went snorkeling in the turtle area where we were disappointed by only finding one turtle. We swam to another area and saw two more, and then headed back to the dinghy where three more swam by, so it was fine after all. We were anchored over on the other side of the anchorage, where several very large turtles hung out and glanced at us regularly. The next day we went snorkeling on the reef, nothing else between us and Africa and it was a little exciting swimming back to the dinghy, but we saw lots of our old friends, blue tang, sergeant majors, etc.
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| Lance at Tobago Cays |
The next day we parted, they went south, we went north. Winds were east, time to go, so we sailed to Bequia, checked out of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, got some bananas and mangoes and then sailed all the way up to Rodney Bay. The winds were turning north on us, so we kind of pounded into the seas, but it was a lovely day of sailing. Once here, we inspected for leaks, and yes, we still have some. Sigh. But we have made progress.
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| Passing Gros Piton, St. Lucia |
It was a fine night in Rodney Bay, perfectly calm and flat. Lance got up to pee in the night and felt a slight wind. Uh oh, did we leave some hatch open? Then he saw what looked like a huge moth against the night light, flying around. In the morning I found something had been munching on our mangoes and dropped bits of mango all over the place. Must have been that bat I saw, says Lance. Bats??? That's a first.
There are predictions of big swells coming in tomorrow. The ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) is just finishing up here, 230 boats crossed the Atlantic. So the marina is full and the bay is pretty full. If/when the swells arrive, the boats by the beach will start rolling and there will be lots of re-anchoring as the boats try to avoid the roll. For many, this is their first experience anchoring. Should be amusing.
Susie
PS. The swells should be over by the time Karll, Yuki & Co. get here. |
