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| Aya entertains in the cockpit |
December 25th Aya came to visit Queen Emma! She brought along a whole retinue of attendants: Karl, Yuki and DJ. They changed her when needed, fed her when she was hungry and put her to sleep when she was tired. Grandma and Grandpa were in charge of playtime. Lots of water play naturally and the ever-popular throw-stuff-from-the-cockpit-to-the-salon. Attendants may retrieve and replace indefinitely. Major progress on walking (seemingly oblivious to the rocking of the boat). Really expert at waving and shouting "Bye-Bye" (particularly when object is just out of sight).
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| DJ hooks a big one |
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| Aya sailing |
We started our journey in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia and inspected the fort. We took a quick run up to Ste. Anne, Martinique where they inexplicably set off fireworks on Dec 30 at the very civilized hour of 9:00pm. Fully provisioned, we ran back down to catch the fireworks a second time in St. Lucia, where they stick to the traditional date. DJ hooked a huge Mahi Mahi and fought him all the way to the boat where Grandpa lost him just as he lifted him over the rail. He has been growing in size and strength ever since his escape.
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| Aya and her attendants |
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| Aya learns the ropes |
We anchored in our usual spot farthest from the shore in nearly the middle of the bay. This spot provides unobstructed views of the sunset, a rare bit of sand and is well out of range of the other boats. The latter feature is important on New Years as there is an unfortunate tradition of firing flares at each other at midnight New Years. As I have often said: "no adult supervision".
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| Aya and her new teeth |
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| Aya and her cockpit toys |
We grilled some frozen mahi mahi steaks as kind of a consolation prize. Watched a star wars movie and tried to stay awake until midnight. Some of us napped until a large party catamaran* came over near us and anchored. Loud music. Flashing lights and rum-fueled revelry but we were up to watch fireworks anyway. There was a spectacular show fired overhead from at least 4 different resorts on shore. Yaaaaay. Oooohhh. Aaaaahhhh. But the Captain is nervous when he realizes that the cat has anchored stern to the wind only about 20 feet abaft our port quarter. Eventually the fireworks ended and the cat made ready to lift anchor. He was so close and his anchor ran right along the Queen Emma's port side, we all hung out waiting for him to pull up the anchor just in case we needed to get out of his way. He appeared to have some trouble lifting the anchor, but then started driving away.
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| Casually standing on a rocking boat |
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| Aya likes coconut water |
At this point, the Captain and Mate are stationed at the bow with fenders in hand when it dawns that we are we pointing differently from all the boats and that the little fishing boat behind us is rapidly approaching us. Since he is clearly anchored and not moving, we must be drifting. Start the engine, turn on the instruments. First mate forward to lift the anchor so we can re-anchor; the cat must have lifted our anchor with theirs. Captain unable to stem the drift rushes forward to help keep us apart from the fishing boat. First mate reports anchor is pulled taught and cannot be retrieved. All hands join in a merry melee while pushing the boats apart and our chain is dragging loudly under the hull of the fishing boat. They say stop the engine, who's driving? First mate points to the cat and say: "He is!"
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| Bye Bye from Soufriere, St. Lucia |
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| DJ snorkles Soufriere, St. Lucia |
Since we cannot win a pulling contest with the bigger cat, the only solution is to chase him. It is dark and windy so Karl is stationed mid deck as relay between Mate and Captain. Orders passed to drive right up the tail of the cat. The snubber stuck with all this rude treatment but Mate frees it with Karl's help and starts pulling up the chain which is now slack as we both drive off downwind. When we get within 10 feet of the cat the chain is high enough that one can see both anchors are tightly wedged together. At this point, the cat has sent two more guys to his stern to help retrieve their anchor. At least they've noticed the problem. Mate lets out chain so that the three guys on the cat can pull up both anchors and pull them apart. They struggle, but after 5 minutes they get them apart, and toss ours overboard. Did I mention that we are both drifting west towards a large, very expensive mega yacht during the entire drill? Oh, yeah. And the engine alarm kept going off to add to the atmosphere of chaos.
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| Karl zips |
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| DJ zips |
Off they go without a word and we are able to drive back to our spot and re anchor. By now it is after 1am and the nerves are shot but no harm, no foul. Way too exciting for aged Grandparents playing sailor.
The rest of the trip featured relatively benign adventures. Favorites included Zip lining and a wonderful plantation tour from St. Lucia Ziplining at Morne Coubaril. DJ overcame dramatic attacks from unseen crabs, snakes and fish while snorkeling. . The youngest crew enjoyed buckets of water, feeling the wind, playing with switches and eating noodles. A grand time was had by all.
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| Spirit of Carnival - beware! |
*The party cat in question is "Spirit of Carnival". More like spirits. Under no circumstances should you entrust yourself or your loved ones to these clowns. |
