Have just returned back to St Lucia after a trip down to the Grenadines where we spent Christmas Day in the Tobago Cays with bubbly on the beach and lots of swimming with the sea turtles. Managed to buy a 10lb Turkey in the local supermarket in Bequia which we roasted for dinner. Peter has now worked out the correct heat settings for the BBQ as he cooked them perfectly then turned the heat down (or so he thought) and proceeded to cremate the turkey legs! Fortunately the breast was oven cooked so that was OK. So after imagining we would have turkey leftovers for days we actually polished it all off on boxing day.
Stayed overnight in Admiralty Bay Bequia on Monday and set off as early as we could yesterday for a long sail c102 miles back to St Lucia but as Customs did not open until 9am that was not as early as we had hoped!! Eventually lifted the anchor at 10.30am and arrived in Rodney Bay 11pm last night so anchored in the dark! Dinner was on the run in the dog bowls as we were quite well heeled over although the seas were reasonably flat at 3-5 feet. Wind dropped later after dinner so had to motorsail for the last part of the journey.
Will be having a day here in St Lucia before leaving tomorrow to visit Martinique for some French shopping!
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Holiday time before the big trip!
Have been joined on board by Dave & Alison who flew in from England last Tuesday. The following 3 days we were on the dock in Rodney Bay Marina getting yet more jobs done on the boat. Now we are almost ready we decided to go off to explore the islands and spent last night at anchor off Pigeon Island where D&A went ashore and climbed to the top of the hill and saw all the old cannons and other relics from when this was a fort protecting the Island from invaders. We stayed on the boat and swam and sunbathed. Peter intended to swim under the boat to check everything looks OK but he could not get his mask to stop letting in water due to several days beard growth!! He has now shaved so next time should be better!!
The plan at the moment is to sail to Marigot Bay today which is where they filmed Dr Doolittle and is also the local Moorings base so D&A want to see old friends as they used to work from this base on a 62' crewed catamaran. We also need to buy a courtesy flag for the Grnadines as we want to sail to Bequia tomorrow.
We hope to spend Christmas in Bequia if we can find a good place to anchor as it is very popular with maybe 200 boats in the anchorage who come to see the fireworks!
The plan at the moment is to sail to Marigot Bay today which is where they filmed Dr Doolittle and is also the local Moorings base so D&A want to see old friends as they used to work from this base on a 62' crewed catamaran. We also need to buy a courtesy flag for the Grnadines as we want to sail to Bequia tomorrow.
We hope to spend Christmas in Bequia if we can find a good place to anchor as it is very popular with maybe 200 boats in the anchorage who come to see the fireworks!
Monday, December 12, 2011
St Lucia at last!
Just arrived in the anchorage outside Rodney Bay Marina and Peter has gone ashore in our new dinghy to do Customs and immigration.
Quite an eventful journey from the BVI!! We left the BVI very early Friday morning as soon as there was enough light to see and 10 miles after leaving hit a severe squall with winds of nearly 40 knots and lashings of heavy rain! This is when we discovered we have a leak in the foreward hatch as we took on loads of water over the bow. Oh well add it to the list of jobs to do in St Lucia!!
Saturday was a much calmer day with lots of hot sun to dry the boat again.Sunbathing on the deck in the early afternoon we were circled three times by a French Air Force plane obviously looking to see who and what we were!! There was a ship not under command nearby so we assume this was something to do with it and we heard on the VHF that an EPIRB had been activated so someone was obviously in trouble!
There was enough wind to sail until night and we had to use the engine from midnight until 9am on Sunday as there was not enough wind to sail at least in the right direction!!
Arrived here in the anchorage outside Rodney Bay Marina early this morning so now installed and await the arrival of our crew David and Alison who fly in tomorrow!
Quite an eventful journey from the BVI!! We left the BVI very early Friday morning as soon as there was enough light to see and 10 miles after leaving hit a severe squall with winds of nearly 40 knots and lashings of heavy rain! This is when we discovered we have a leak in the foreward hatch as we took on loads of water over the bow. Oh well add it to the list of jobs to do in St Lucia!!
Saturday was a much calmer day with lots of hot sun to dry the boat again.Sunbathing on the deck in the early afternoon we were circled three times by a French Air Force plane obviously looking to see who and what we were!! There was a ship not under command nearby so we assume this was something to do with it and we heard on the VHF that an EPIRB had been activated so someone was obviously in trouble!
There was enough wind to sail until night and we had to use the engine from midnight until 9am on Sunday as there was not enough wind to sail at least in the right direction!!
Arrived here in the anchorage outside Rodney Bay Marina early this morning so now installed and await the arrival of our crew David and Alison who fly in tomorrow!
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Time to leave the BVI
We have finally completed all the jobs we had to do on the boat so are now ready to leave the BVI. Fuel tank has been filled along with 9 spare Jerry cans giving us a total of 600 litres of fuel which is enough to motor for around 800+ miles. The plan is to leave at first light tomorrow morning before the sun is really up around 5.30/6am and head off down to Guadeloupe first for an overnight stop on Saturday then on to St Lucia to be there by Tuesday which is when David & Alison fly in from England to join us.
The new Bimini arrived today after several attempts by the sailmaker to get it fitting correctly!! We even had time to varnish the outside Chart Table areas so the boat is looking very smart now.
We have a berth booked in Rodney Bay Marina for 14/15 & 16 Dec and hopefully there will be WiFi so I can update the blog! It will also be easier for the crew to join us in the Marina rather than trying to ferry people and luggage by dinghy from the boat at anchor. No danger of getting too wet! (we hope).
Getting excited about the World ARC now and Peter just wants to 'get on with it!!' as he is fed up of doing jobs on the boat.
Having dinner with Dave & Dawn on More Amore tonight and she has a bottle of champagne in the fridge for us! Have been giving bottles of wine to the Moorings staff as the Dockmaster is not charging us anything for spending time on the dock which has saved us a fortune (cUS$700).
The new Bimini arrived today after several attempts by the sailmaker to get it fitting correctly!! We even had time to varnish the outside Chart Table areas so the boat is looking very smart now.
We have a berth booked in Rodney Bay Marina for 14/15 & 16 Dec and hopefully there will be WiFi so I can update the blog! It will also be easier for the crew to join us in the Marina rather than trying to ferry people and luggage by dinghy from the boat at anchor. No danger of getting too wet! (we hope).
Getting excited about the World ARC now and Peter just wants to 'get on with it!!' as he is fed up of doing jobs on the boat.
Having dinner with Dave & Dawn on More Amore tonight and she has a bottle of champagne in the fridge for us! Have been giving bottles of wine to the Moorings staff as the Dockmaster is not charging us anything for spending time on the dock which has saved us a fortune (cUS$700).
Monday, December 5, 2011
Back at The Moorings dock
Arrived back on the dock this afternoon as James the dockmaster kindly found us a space by moving a boat out!
Had a good weekend at Anegada although the initial sail up on Saturday was very tedious as we had wind and tide against us so it was quite late when we arrived. Booked a table at The Lobster Trap restaurant and had a huge lobster dinner which was 3 halves of lobster each!! Unfortunately Peter had a sore mouth the following morning so we think he could be allergic to lobster?
Having bought a new BBQ for the boat we were anxious to try it out so last night we unwrapped the box and Peter cooked us two lovely steaks to perfection. We were anchored in Eustacia sound and were the only boat there which was lovely. Not so lovely was the rolling motion of the boat when the waves came over the reef so sleep was difficult.
Anyway now we are on the dock sleep should not be a problem tonight and dinner is being cooked for us by Dawn on More Amore as they just finished their charter on Sunday. Both Dave and Dawn have been really kind to us since we arrived back and are helping out where they can.
Peter has been to collect the new security bars he has had made for the hatches to stop unwanted visitors to the boat as crime in some parts of the world is a problem as not all islands are low crime like here in the BVI.
Should get the new bimini tomorrow fingers crossed as Greg who is making it for us assured us on Friday it would be ready. It is his day off today so we will see him tomorrow!
Apart from a bit more shopping the boat is nearly ready to leave which is just as well as we are able to stay on the dock here just until Friday. So looks like Friday will be our departure from the BVI.
Had a good weekend at Anegada although the initial sail up on Saturday was very tedious as we had wind and tide against us so it was quite late when we arrived. Booked a table at The Lobster Trap restaurant and had a huge lobster dinner which was 3 halves of lobster each!! Unfortunately Peter had a sore mouth the following morning so we think he could be allergic to lobster?
Having bought a new BBQ for the boat we were anxious to try it out so last night we unwrapped the box and Peter cooked us two lovely steaks to perfection. We were anchored in Eustacia sound and were the only boat there which was lovely. Not so lovely was the rolling motion of the boat when the waves came over the reef so sleep was difficult.
Anyway now we are on the dock sleep should not be a problem tonight and dinner is being cooked for us by Dawn on More Amore as they just finished their charter on Sunday. Both Dave and Dawn have been really kind to us since we arrived back and are helping out where they can.
Peter has been to collect the new security bars he has had made for the hatches to stop unwanted visitors to the boat as crime in some parts of the world is a problem as not all islands are low crime like here in the BVI.
Should get the new bimini tomorrow fingers crossed as Greg who is making it for us assured us on Friday it would be ready. It is his day off today so we will see him tomorrow!
Apart from a bit more shopping the boat is nearly ready to leave which is just as well as we are able to stay on the dock here just until Friday. So looks like Friday will be our departure from the BVI.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Anegada this weekend!
Have nearly completed all the work we wanted to do on the boat here in the BVI so we are giving ourselves the weekend off and going to sail up to Anegada which is our favourite island here and is famous for their lobster.
It will be interesting to see if we can get into the anchorage as it is quite shallow and we draw 6' 6'' so not much room under the keel when we enter!! Have not filled up with fuel deliberately so it makes us a little lighter and higher in the water. Just hope we can sail and do not have to motor or use the generator.
Expect to be back on the dock Monday night as the dock staff have said it will be OK to stay then. Have been invited for cocktails on Tuesday on Sea Leopard by Darcy & Peter as they want to give us some information about our sail down to St Lucia next weekend.
It has been really useful having good internet access here and Peter has ordered some more elctronic charts for our world cruise. Have stocked up the boat with food and drinks and just fresh stuff to get when we are ready to leave.
The weather here is VERY hot and muggy with not much breeze especially when we were on the Garden Dock getting the boat polished! It will be good to get out and get some sea breezes whilst we sail.
It will be interesting to see if we can get into the anchorage as it is quite shallow and we draw 6' 6'' so not much room under the keel when we enter!! Have not filled up with fuel deliberately so it makes us a little lighter and higher in the water. Just hope we can sail and do not have to motor or use the generator.
Expect to be back on the dock Monday night as the dock staff have said it will be OK to stay then. Have been invited for cocktails on Tuesday on Sea Leopard by Darcy & Peter as they want to give us some information about our sail down to St Lucia next weekend.
It has been really useful having good internet access here and Peter has ordered some more elctronic charts for our world cruise. Have stocked up the boat with food and drinks and just fresh stuff to get when we are ready to leave.
The weather here is VERY hot and muggy with not much breeze especially when we were on the Garden Dock getting the boat polished! It will be good to get out and get some sea breezes whilst we sail.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)