Tag Archives: Union Island

Back into relaxation mode.

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Left Chatham after a bacon filled breakfast, cooked the whole package with the idea of using more on a sammich for lunch. Everyone knows thats a lie. MMMmmmmm Bacon. Quick trip into Clifton to clear out and some choice necessities and we stopped by Palm Island, another of the private islands in these parts. Palm island is one we have passed several times now, so we tried it out. The surge and the surf, made anchoring a little wierd, but all was good. Anything below high tide is public, the rest is private so we could really only walk the sandy parts. Pretty nice place, but the thought that one beer here was what 15 would have cost at a ‘normal place’ we just walked the beach. Of course we had lunch onboard before hand, so as not to be tempted to stay. Been there done that.. would take a special reason to stop again.

Our plan had us heading to the petites anyway, so it was into the wind, we were low on electricity, and the reef was between us and there, so a slow motor it was. Several hundred RPM slower than we normally run the engines at, only making 6 knots and enjoying the way.

There were 6 boats out a Mapion, an small spit of sand in the reef with nothing more than a palapa. Great photo spot, and famous in these parts, we kept going as we stopped there once already, and took our photos on the deserted island with nothing more than a palm tree. Dropped the hook and loved our view…. for a while. We know better, but haven’t learned, that as dusk approaches the view will change. Last time we were here a Sunsail group of boats camped right in front of us and stole the view, this time it was a couple of crewed charter boats that ended up coasting down on our anchor. No big deal, but its a big spot..

The crewed yachts had fun, they wakeboarded for all of 10mins before the rain came. We buttoned up, 20 mins later the normally windy area, we could see all the way to the bottom of the 30 foot water as clear as day. We could see the poor starfish that was about to get upset on our next anchor swing. Sure enough he was moved without his permission, but landed the right side up, so we hope he quickly choose a new dwelling.

The vacation is getting near the end, the cooking gets crazy. Threw down on a polish dish we normally eat at christmas figuring we’d throw at least 1/2 of it overboard as it very rich in buttery goodness. Damn if we didn’t finish it all. Needed more fresh mushrooms, but did we could with what we had.

Lovely day….

The Petites

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New discovery, it is a boat (break out another thousand), as we are pulling up anchor we discover that our trusty anchor rode is getting old will needs to be replaced sooner than we thought. The thought of buying new chain is not terribly daunting, but the thought of getting it delivered to our boat is scary – several hundred pounds being shipped to the islands. Of course the boys were telling me the many different types of rode to get-stainless which looks pretty but is not as strong, our current rode which is strong and has lasted 12 years, and high tinsel which is a bit stronger, but runs in different sizes which may cause us to get a new gypsy. Always something. Either way, we will need to deal with it as is until we get to Grenada and then price out something new. As it is now, the front 60′ is strong and holds us well at anchor. We headed toward Clifton and were approached by a boat boy (nothing new), but the startling thing was that he lied to us stating that there was no good hold, nothing but rocks at this anchorage. Matt so rarely loses he temper or raises his voice, shouted back, we have anchored here a half dozen times with no problem and if you look around, all other boats are at anchor. I get that he needs to make a living and that he will make nothing if we do not pick up a mooring ball – but we have rarely had a boat boy flat out lie to us. Either way, we dropped anchor, Wayne stayed on the boat to ensure that the boat stayed where it should while Matt and I headed to shore. Matt cleared customs as I played footsies with the sharks, got the wifi code, and chatted with the locals. We then headed in for provisions (2 cases of beer, water, avocado, mushrooms, bread–the staples). Back to the boat and off to explore Palm island. We had never visited here before and it is a nice little island with a private resort so not much to explore here except the pretty sandy beaches and a giant crab. We picked up anchor and headed to Petite St Vincent where we will hang out for a few nights.

Liquor Inventory: 4 Bottles of rum, 2 bottles of vodka, 1 bottle of Malibu Rum, 5 cases of beer and 50 batches of Jell-O shots (of course the above alcohol was used to make these)

Some place like home

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No place feels so nice as Chatham Bay, where people remember you (or at least say they do) but always makes you feel welcome. From dinner with Vanessa and Seki, still struggling with how you spell Sooki’s name, or King down at the fancy future resort, Chatham bay is so relaxing.

Now its not a perfect anchorage, as 2 Christmas ago, that Lagoon Catamaran got washed up on shore during the howling winds. The swirly winds that come over the mountain tops keep you on your toes, making sure everything is secure and won’t blow into the drink. We have probably circled our anchor no less than 30 times, giving us a 360 degree view without even leaving the lounge location de jour.

Even tho we have been here 6 or 7 times, which probably only adds up to 20+ days, this place is sure nice. We had been swimming many times, but yesterday decided to go snorkeling on the far end of bay, but instead of taking the dingy as there wasn’t much swell or wave action, just jumped off the boat and swam to the north end of the bay. The bay is always teaming with fish jumping and all around the boat, but the school of fish over there was amazing. Several thousand fish school, not sure what they were learning but there must have been a teacher in there somewhere as they expertly parted when we swam through them. We also saw schools of squid, squid of all sizes fro a couple inches to more than a foot long, just hovering in the water, effortlessly. Countless feather dusters that are always fun to scare back in to their tubes, and one very odd looking one. The odd guy had wings and there normally closed but as I dove down to get a closer look they spread into a 2 foot blue wing span, so I backed off. Chatting with King, its some sort of lion fish with no enemies and is a nuisance to the other fish, except when we spotted him he was just patting the ground and looked like stirring up the sea bed for dinner. Then Christine spotted an Eel, I dove on in many times, but couldn’t find a hole where I could see its head, just the long slender body. Great place for creature viewing, getting a little chilled we swam back to the beach.

Walked the entire length of the beach, and stopped in to chat with King and of course the kitty with a cold beverage, then we swam back to the boat. So we swam the length of the bay and walked the length all in one day, catching up on some exercise or making the cold beverage mush more deserved.

Back onboard after finding many sand dollars and an old straw hat on the bottom on the way back we lounged on the lido deck and enjoyed the cool breezes and warm swirlies and snacks.

As we were sitting at the Aqua Paradise bar chatting with King where they had hawaiian pork on the menu dinner inspiration hit. We had already started the pork chops thawing, and we had a pinapple that needed to be carved, and on a previous trip, i had picked up hawaiian seasoning, we were in business and at like kings on grilled pork-chops, grilled pineapple, gouda garlic smashed pototoes and some peas for good green stuff.

A couple heated games of dominos, and all was right with the universe.

The freezer is working perfectly, everything is frozen – The gauge is still on the fritz but thats a problem for some other time, its probably just using more electricity than it really needs and staying on 100% of the time. Still having some issues with the port starting battery, its either not staying charged or getting charged the battery reads a 5volts it should read 12volts – attempted to diagnose it, but the little multimeter only does 10amp, and the alternators are somewhere in the 60-100amp range. Its not a big issue as we can always use the house bank to start the engine. The new development or thing to get fixed in Grenada is when we were getting off anchor in the Keys the other day the hook was stuck and we were blown back pretty good which when everything tightened up broke the chain guide in the chain locker. It was fixed before by the previous owner, and hopefully grenada marine will do a much better job. I think a piece of wood that supported the guide just snapped, it should not be an issue, we just need to make sure we don’t use the windless to pull the boat forward and all will still line up.

When we arrived we were making water and a boat anchored a bit close to us, so instead of running with engines for electricity, opted for the honda generator to fully charge the house battery and make water and then we left the boat, we came back to a full port tank, so swapping to starboard we were almost topped off on all our resources.

Plan for today is to clear out of customs, stop by palm island walk those beaches, never been there before, and then head to the Petites, and stage for our long day on thursday as the boat gets hauled out on friday. If all goes well, wind cooperates we will head down the Atlantic side of Grenada and clear into customs in St Davids bay, where Grenada Marine is. And the sad decommissioning will start, but thats several cold beverages away.