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
