Tag Archives: tobago keys

Rhythm method

Takes longer and longer to settle in.. Am I getting older or ..

Vacation takes a while to settle in. First part is balls to the wall, then over do it, then recover, then finally settle in. Took about a week this time.

First the struggle to get out of port, wasn’t a real struggle, but we spent an extra day there. Then made it south met friends, after a long sail and too many beverages. Hooked up with friends in Mustique, that are simply awesome. Finally, the rhythm started settling.

Great sail from Mustique to Tobago Keys, even hooked up with a black fin tuna for that we have yet to break into, we finished the first one last night at the Tabaggo keys. Not sure how much if this is a repeat of other posts, but here it goes.

Leaving Mustique the wind had shifted out of the south of east, of course the direction we wanted to go. We raised full sails and beat into the wind, again a port tack, about 42 degrees to the wind. Great sail. We looked back and the 62 foot GUNBOAT had spotted us a 3 mile head start. Carbon boat, carbon or mylar sails, its fast. We watched it catch us for hours. (wink), they were pointing at around 30 degrees and thought they would clear the island to the east the we would have loved to clear. The Gunboat could have cleared South Africa with his point.

As we approached Canouan, the cedar plug hooked up. Tuna again, onboard. While we doused the gib and and headed into the wind to reel the 2 meal’er in, the Gunboat appeared on our side of the island. Huh? Oh well beat a $5M boat in a race that they weren’t aware they were in…. and scored a tuna. About 2 hrs later we found them in the Tabbago Keys, a chillin. I could look up “zenyatta’ but its charter rate is probably beyond our comprehension.

Two nights at the Tabaggo Keys, watching the Kiteboarders, and saying hello to old boat boys like Walter, its always fun. Still into the rhythm (and yes I did have to look up how to spell rhythm), a little swimming relaxing, sleeping, hiding from the sun — back into a groove.

No particular place to be, but still have a deadline.

We did the math and we have been in Chatham bay at least 6 times, and almost always stop by Vanessa’s beach bar. The first time Shookie came out to meet us, this time, I yelled Vannesa name as she came up while we anchored. Christine spouted, 3 for dinner as we are already releaving my cooking duties for dinner this eve to Vanessa. Conch and MahiMahi are on our dinner menu tonight.

Quick trip to the ‘fancy’ resort, for beverages and to get the wifi code, as they they changed it. Damn them. I had under 6 boats in ‘how many here this time of year’ and lost. Still less than a dozen, but this is a swirly place, the wind comes in all directions. We have been here 5 hrs now and have done at least 2 360s based on how many wraps are on our stern USA flag.

Right now, the biggest decision is…. Sunset on the boat, or at the beach bar.. Its not like they will feed our food to the seagulls.

Love this place, no better place to spend a birthday. Maybe sharing with some more friends, but Christine makes up for all that. Someday every one will come and enjoy this humidity and sticky feeling.

Cheers ya’ll and thx for the bDay wishes for all those emails that found me in the 12 degrees of Latitude.

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Journey to the Keys

We enjoyed fair winds from Mustique to the Tobago Keys with a nice clip of 9 knots and winds 17-20, perfect sailing weather. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we did not bother to run the water-maker or make more p’s (electricity). We had seen this beautiful Gun boat (Zenyatta) while at Mustique who later set sail a good 45-60 minutes after did. Not to our surprise, she steadily gained on us, covering more water, at a faster, easier pace. We did manage to get to Canouan before she did, but she blew past us shortly after that — my excuse is that we had to stop to catch and cure our new tuna (Charlie now has a friend in the freezer)!! At least we had a great sail, caught another tuna fish and made it safely to the keys. Much to our surprise, there were a lot more boats here than we expected (being that is is off season). We found a nice spot, dropped anchor using our new wireless remote, and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon admiring the turtles around the boat. Wayne decided to go for a swim, jumps in the cool blue water, and as he lifts his arm for a stroke, his hand skims his pocket to his horror he realized that he jumped in with our new wireless remote for the anchor–despite many attempts to revise it–she is declared DOA!

We were visited by the normal boat boys, including Walter (our favorite) who promised to bring his wife’s famous banana bread and baguette for us tomorrow. Matt made a make shift tent off the bow to give us some shade as we are “hiding from the sun”. Enjoyed a quiet afternoon on the boat, a great dinner, and early night (well at least for me). I made it to sailors midnight (9pm).

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Christmas Eve

Woke up in the Tabago Keys, such a lovely place, a conversation with our boat boy Walter revelaled that the stores would be closed for the better part of week after Christmas especially since Christmas is on a Sunday we amended our plans and made a mad dash back to Union Island to get some more provisions, specifically beer and rum cause we didn’t want to run out after all.

A quick sail and even got rained on to wash some of the salt off the boat which it sorely needed.

A quick provision run and an hour on the internet to check up with the outside world and Christine was even able to use skype from the boat to check in with family back home.

We motored back to Mayreau island and went into the winward bay where there were no boats but us, we dropped hook and chilled out there for a while, then picked it up and we went around to Saline bay just the other side of Mayreau and walked up the hill to find the church for Christmas services, its quite the hike up the hill, and found a couple of bars along the way.

We stopped in at Combination Cafe roof top deck and had a couple of beers during sunset and then back the boat for some dinner, grilled chicken breast and smashed pototes and corn. Oh and jello shots for desert.

After dinner we took off in the dingy and stopped by the other 5 boats in this anchorage and did our bet Christmas caroling, something I’m sure ya’ll are glad you didn’t get to hear, because I don’t think any of us can carry a tune or even know all the words to jingle bells anymore.

Our desination was back to the Combination Cafe since they were going to have Karoke tonight, but it was dead so we ventured in to Dennis’s Hidden Resort, and Kenta was the bartender that took great care of us, as we tried to finish on thir Hairoun, the local beer. We met some folks from Whales who were on vacation. Super nice folks that come over to Mayreau for vacation and stay at Dennis. That is dedication since only way to get here is by boat, as there is not an airport on the island.

Some how we made it back to the dingy and boat without having to set foot in the Karoke bar,

Had a great Christmas Eve, slept right through santa trying to come down the chimney since we don’t have one.