Monthly Archives: December 2012

Merry Christmas from the islands again.

We came back to union island to get some internet and some hamburger buns and maybe a case of beer. The other ones we had were defective, they seemed to evaporate. Tobago keys last night and it was such a great day today. The rain shower only lasted 5 mins and we were snorkeling with the turtles so we barely noticed. Took 2 long hikes around a couple of the keys, no injuries to report so all is good.

Port side engine didn’t want to start and shutdown after we started it. We have a battery that needs to be replaced and belt that needs to be tightened. Then the gauges refused to work but after we started it it was all good. We just used the diesel kill switch to stop it and took the family ashore to check out the sharks and drop off a bunch of trash that was starting to get ripe. And send them on a search and destroy for some fresh veggies and fruit to restock the boat.

We are toying with where to go next, we had some pretty good swells on the way back south, and are a bit concerned about the trip north, but we’ll make the best of it, and make sure all the meds are topped up before heading north in a day or two.

The Anhorage Yacht club in Clifton, super friendly staff and one of the reasons we come back. Course the shark tank it cool too.

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There is a full moon party here on the 28th, and we are trying to decide if thats something we should do or not or if it’ll keep us up all night.

restocked and ready to go shortly

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Been a few days

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Had less than great internet service, haven’t bothered with the SSB ( ham radio update ) but all is good on the Shack.

Lets see. Today is Xmas so last update was when we were supposed to pick up the inlaws. We’ll start from there on the 23rd.

Holy rollers. Some serious waves were rolling in CanOwan. We gladly paid a dingy boy to watch our dingy when we finally decided to go ashore.

Christine wanted to get to the airport early, so we ended up chatting with the customs agent and trading stories about the rich an famous that come through the small island airport on private jets. Seems Michael Jordan surpassed any names we could come up with.

The in laws showed up, cleared customs, and I returned to clear them on to the boat, of which the nice custom’s agent had already hooked me up with the forms. If I had had the passport numbers I think we could have done that before they actually arrived. The downside is, we have to reverse the process in Kingstown when we drop them off. So I get to go to the airport with them on new years day. Sa’ll good.

Kids are having fun, all smiles till the very end of the day.
I need to learn to cook more food, cooking for 7 takes a bunch more food than cooking for 3 birds, I hope they aren’t starving.

First night, we ate at the moorings bar. A couple of pizzas and lots of adult beverages. Then our dingy watcher came by and said he needed to go home and wanted his tip. Christine dealt with him, his request was for more than the taxi ride to the airport??? She was appalled, and asked me my thoughts, course, I’m a a softy and it is holiday season. So I agreed that next time we see him it’ll have to be 1/2 price, and he did too. That will remain to be seen.

The swells were terrible, so loading the luggage and people was quite the challenge. First load was luggage and the adult boys. Most everything stayed dry, and we left Wayne on board with the goods and back for the rest of the crew. Believe it or not, no one fell overboard as we counted the waves in 3’s as they surged back and forth.

All was good, everyone on board, getting acquainted with the formalities of camping on the water, aka no TP in the PP as Christine would say.

The regular crew was already on island time, the new arrivals were on west coast time, but we all managed to make midnight local time before calling it done, so 8pm west coasters, and way past sailors midnight.

The next morning…. the normal crew was up at first light, the west coasters didn’t stir till 10am local time, we almost thought they might have been in a comma. Thats 3 hours after the sun comes up and things start to get warm.

We all got motivated and pulled anchor, and headed out of the bay, for a 9 mile journey to Salt Whistle bay.

Salt Whistle

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Course it was into the wind, its all good. New crew on board on the way.

Just out of the bay, there is a nice monohull sailing along, we are under power so he has right away. We are plenty ahead of him, or so I think. I’m watching, and watching originally he was in the gray rain and clouds when we first spotted him, but now he is a lot closer. He has a nice sail groove working, and I’m sure we’ll cross in front of him. (read, I should go behind him because we are under motor and he is sailing) I see that we aren’t going to be as far in front as originally planned so kicked up the engines a couple more RPMS, we are getting there. Then still not enough, so a few more RPMs and that looks better, we will be clear by 100 yards or so. Oh wait, damn it, we have fishing lines out. We cross without issue, boats are clear, but when looking back at our trusty cedar plug line, it looks as if it is about to wrap round the other sailboats keel. I yell to Christine to get a knife to cut the line and before all hell goes south the lure comes out from behind the sailboats keel and no harm no foul Not my best move.

Sailing along, er motoring over to Salt Whistle bay and zing. That same cedar plug hooked a fish, this time Charlie came aboard and was quickly filleted by Wayne. Not bad, new guests onboard and landed a small tuna for dinner that eve.

We show up at Salt Whistle which is so nice. Christine loves the place, its tiny. I drive the boat up between and around 6 other boats, and my stress level is through the roof. We had spotted this open spot up near the front, we go there, but soon realize there really wasn’t enough room.
We dropped anchor once, and the guy on the boat next to us shouts that his bow wasn’t a good place to store our anchor so we picked it back up. 30 mins later, after jockeying with the engines and backing out on our path, we found a spot next to a 70 foot trawler. Wayne was in heavan. Then the wind shifted a bit, we almost bounced off the trawler. We let out more anchor line, the trawler took some in and all was good, course that all took several beers while we contemplated it.

Even though we have stayed in Salt Whistle many many times before, I have yet to have a good nights sleep here as the place is too small and too picturesque, everyone want’s to be there. We cooked up the tuna for dinner, blackened a few pieces for the faint of heart, but it was pretty yummy. Then the rum was cracked and with the freezer making ice and everything was good.

I’m proud to say that I slept all the way through the night and probably the last person who wanted to get up for church on Christmas. Kids were anxious to open presents so the gift exchange started with some gag gifts, fun gifts and santa gifts. All were happy to have experienced a little santa love. Christine’s bought some really cool gifts from her friend Emily at work which were enjoyed by all!

We all got up and went to shore for the 9:30 service that started much earlier than that. Fun hike, church was packed, we sat outside and listened in. Mayreau is very nice place with tons of friendly happy people. We choose to hike to the other side of the island after church and by now everyone was hungry. I walk a bit faster than the rest so I went back to the boat under the guise of starting breakfast. Course I just had few more minutes of quiet time, and contemplated what to make for breakfast before having to return in the dingy to pick the rest of them up in Church attire, aka boardshorts and tShirts.

Some breakfast quesadillas and all was going well, till the rain came in. Then all hell broke loose, ran forward with one of the fenders we had out ‘just in case’ we bounce off a monohaul that was on a mooring with no one on board, twice. I fired up the engines and we got the heck out of there. No marks, no issues, just a lot of excitement for Christmas day.

We know that we are going over to Tabago Keys, so its into the wind and we are in no hurry. Slow roll the RPMs and we are on our way. We had just seen them from the top of the hill at Church so how hard can it be?

In to the wind, no biggie, we are using the motors, who cares. Yeah there are reefs, but we have GPS, we can see the big sailboats, we saw all the masts before coming out here. In fact we had ordered a beach BBQ from the local boat boys with lobster and steak. Its a no brainer. Yeah its going be windy behind the reef. No sooner did we get to the turn to come into the Atlantic side, a huge thunderstorm rolled in and it was raining so hard we couldn’t see 100 yards in front of the boat, we could see a few shadows that we thought were islands or were they boats? We turned in to the keys, got close enough to find swing room and dropped the hook. I’m in foul weather gear, its 85 degrees ouside and shivering in the rain. Merry Christmas. (smile) Winds blowing out of the South? Something is very very wrong.

We make the best of it, the kids go swimming, all is good.

Then the wind hits 34knts, I get everyone back in the boat start the engines and put them in gear just in case, nothing much comes from it, but more excitement for the day.

It finally dies down about an hour later and there is lots fo snorkeling and swimming to the nearby islands and a pork chop and smashed potatoe dinner. We will go see the turtles and the reef in the morning and make a plan from there, maybe we’ll find some internet tomorrow.

Merry Christmas ya’ll

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