January 2004
Beer of the moment : Hairoun (St Vincent), Piton (St Lucia), Carib (Trinidad),
Kubuli (Dominica)
   
Cocktails : Pina Colada, Banana Daiquiri
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Thursday 1st
January
Happy Hogmany
!
The wind and waves still make it too dangerous to try to get ashore in Canouan.
So we are “forced” to take it easy, eat, drink and enjoy the view.
Friday 2nd
The Northerley swell has subsided somewhat so we decide to take a trip ashore
in the dinghy. The beach in Canouan is lovely and we have the chance to fly
Callum’s helicopter, go snorkelling and build sandcastles on the beach.
The Tamarind Beach Hotel is famous for its Pizza, cooked in a wood fired oven
so we sit down for a great lunch there. Pizza is the one dish James never
seems to have a problem finishing off !
Our happiness at being ashore was somewhat marred when we returned to the
dinghy. The swell had pushed it up under the dock and smashed the engine
cowling and left big scratches along both sides. It could have been worse but
it was still a lesson for us about the power of the swell, no wonder they keep
having their docks smashed by hurricanes in this part of the world.
Saturday 3rd
– 7th
Its time to do some sailing again. The plan was to call in at Salt Whistle Bay
in Mayreu, or perhaps Tobago Cays or Mustique. The weather just didn’t want to
let us though, so we decided on the slightly longer slog up to Admiralty Bay,
Bequia. The Bay was packed and instead of our preferred anchorage close to the
restaurants, we ended up at the entrance to the bay near Princess Margaret
beach.
We do like Bequia though, so its no disappointment being back again and we
decide to stay for a few days. Some good friends are in the bays too – Matt &
Mel on Meander, David & Sue on Suerte and Ray & Ed on Seren
Wen.
The boys are happy too, because on the beach we meet some more good friends
Pascal and Pascale and their two boys Romain and Bastion from Imagine.
As usual Bill can be found helping the boys to dig deep and build a big
sandcastle.
Back on the boat many hours of fun are had jumping off the front and swimming
to the back.
Allan put the idea into Callums head that he could save his Christmas money
and buy a sailing dinghy. He has quite taken to this and has spent hours
trying to persuade James to join in this venture.
It’s also time to decide what to do about our guests flights back to the UK
from St Lucia. The pilot book paints a picture of a pretty nasty sail back
between St Vincent and St Lucia, all the worse because we are running out of
time. In the end Allan discovered we could get them a relatively cheap flight
from St Vincent to Castries in St Lucia then a taxi to the International
airport. Pressure off we could enjoy the rest of our time together and take
the relatively short 10 mile sail to St Vincent at our leisure, or even get a
ferry for them if the weather didn’t suit.
The other nice thing about being back in Bequia is that it gives us another
chance to eat in the Gingerbread and listen to a local band – this time one of
their fabulous curries. We also go to a great Pizza restaurant – Macs – right
on the waterfront. Another excellent night.
Everything in Bequia is geared to yachts. They will come out to you boat to
deliver diesel, water, ice or to take your laundry. Of course you can also get
the usual selection of bread, fruit and lobster all delivered too.
Wednesday 7th
Time is getting short so we make the dash across to the Blue Lagoon marina on
St Vincent. The passage was a little rough with a full 35 knots of wind, but
the boat coped well with the conditions. Back in the UK most sailors would
stay at home with a forecast like that. Given Joyce doesn’t like water she has
coped amazingly well with some pretty rough journeys.
Blue Lagoon is the same place we chartered the Venezia catamaran Inordinate,
two years ago. This time we picked up a TMM owned buoy inside the lagoon as
the marina was full of Sunsail charter boats.
The marina has a small swimming pool with a slide which brought Callum and
James an hour or more of entertainment.
Thursday 8th
We needed to go into Georgetown, the capital, to try to get James a birthday
Present. In most of the places we’ve been since leaving Europe the shops have
mostly been full of tourist tat and nothing that would impress a 10 year old.
Georgetown turns out to be a nice little place, with a few of the older
buildings still in tact. We are also in luck to find a shop selling one of the
new Gameboy units. He has had every Gameboy model made so this will go down
well with him; we also got him the latest Harry Potter game for it.
On the way back from Georgestown we asked the taxi to drop us off at Young
Island cut. It’s a popular strip of restaurants on the beach just along from
the marina. It seemed deserted but we had lunch in the Lime ‘n Pub. The
setting was gorgeous but the food fairly average.
Friday 9th
It’s going away day for the Bill, Joyce, Callum and James. For the latter
three its been a three week trip but Bill has been with us for 8 weeks in
total. We took a taxi the short distance to the airport and waited to see them
off, they were just about the only passengers on the flight. The boat will
certainly be quieter when they have gone and it is very sad to see them all
go.
We decided to walk to the local supermarket then get one of the “local buses”
back to the boat. These buses are usually Toyota/Mitsubishi/Mazda minibuses
with well worn interiors and suspension and twice as many passengers as they
were designed to carry. We had avoided them to date but decided to give one a
go now that we were trying to reduce our expenses.
The first buses pulled over, but we waved them on as the were clearly full.
The bus didn’t move on though. The “conductor” slid open the side door, pushed
a couple of passengers further inside and invited us to squeeze in. After he
had gone to this trouble we felt obliged to get in. It was packed. The women
sitting next to us was holding a baby in her arms, not much more that a few
weeks old. The drivers of these buses all think they are on the Grand Prix
circuit, but somehow the buses just take it. Still we got there intact and the
fee, for whatever journey length, seems to be $1EC (20p). The taxi in the
opposite direction had cost us $25EC.
Saturday 10th
In the afternoon we took the dinghy over to the Barefoot charter dock, and had
a few drinks in their bar overlooking the lagoon. We got chatting to the
charter skippers and base manager. They had some great stories to tell. We
asked for a recommendation of where to eat and they were quick to discount the
Lime n Pub, where we had been the previous day…. They also told us some of
their amusing charter stories. The one that got us was that the going rate for
getting pulled off a reef is $5000 US in daytime and $7000 US at night, and
these are negotiated rates that they have secured. We had been unlucky to have
grounded on a reef at Union Island two years before thanks to the unscrupulous
actions of a local water taxi driver, but mercifully we had gotten off under
our own steam as we had been motoring slowly at the time.
Sunday 11th
Time to move on again, so we sail up the coast to Wallilabou. A great days
sailing, what a shame the family had gone home.
A couple of “boat boys” approached us two miles out of the harbour wanting to
assist us with our mooring. We declined their help several times but they
rowed in furiously ahead of us anyway. The guide book had warned that the boat
boys in Wallilabou made it the closest thing to Calcutta in the Caribbean. As
we went into the bay, We couldn’t see the hotel in the pilot book, but there
seemed to be a fabulously well preserved collection of early Georgian
buildings and an interesting looking fort and dock facility. We couldn’t
believe our eyes.
We spotted a free anchoring buoy and enlisted the help of a boat boy to take
our stern line ashore and tie it to a palm tree. What followed was a huge row
and lots of swearing from the earlier boat boys that we had declined.
Eventually after about 30 mins of this, Allan had enough of them and had to
tell them, in no uncertain terms, to get lost.
There seemed to be hundreds of boat boys in such a tiny bay, and unlike other
places we had been they all seemed to have rowing boats, or surfboards, rather
than water taxis with an outboard motor.
Eventually it dawned on us that this perfect little town was in fact a movie
set, the one where they filmed Pirates of the
Caribbean.
When we got ashore you could see that practically everything was made of
plywood and plaster. Looked good from a distance though. We will have to get
the film out on DVD to see how it all looked. While waiting for customs we
bumped into Steve and Karen from Trade Secret. They had a friend from
London with them on the boat. We had a bit of a chat then arranged to have
dinner and a few beers in the now disguised Anchorage hotel.
We had been ferried ashore by a boat boy and despite their assurances that
they would be there to take us back – they weren’t. It was lucky Steve and
Karen had their dingy with them and could take us back to the boat at the end
of the night otherwise we would have had to have swam!
Monday 12th
One day in Wallilabou is about enough. So we set sail for the famous Pitons at
the bottom of St Lucia in the company of Trade Secret. It was quite a
long sail so we were very pleased to finally get there and find a free mooring
buoy right between the two pitons in about 20 ft of crystal clear water. The
whole area of the pitons is a national park so you are obliged to take a buoy
and not anchor in case you damage the coral. On the shore is the famous and
quite exclusive Jalousie hotel and high up on the hillside the Dasheene
restaurant with breathtaking views of the Pitons.
Allan took a water taxi to Soufriere to clear customs, immigration and pay for
the park permit. It was a wild and exciting trip flat out in the taxi with a
wild and crazy Rasta at the helm. Soufriere was not the most picturesque of
towns, they have some nice buildings but it has a run down feel to it. We were
pleased to be in the Pitons instead.
We took a trip over to the Jalousie to see what they had to offer for a
dinner. An exquisite waterfront dining room with an extensive buffet (and
extensive price!) was the answer. The trouble is that buffets remind us too
much of dinner at work. Now if we go out for dinner, which is a treat, we like
the food to be brought to us.
So we stepped next door to the independent Bang restaurant. Owned by
the eccentric Lord Glenconner, who used to own the private island of Mustique
and was big mates with all the stars and, of course, Princess Margaret. The
restaurant was pretty quiet, their big jump up night is apparently Wednesdays.
We had a lovely meal and Allan had, what he thinks is the best “Old Fashioned”
Chocolate cake desert he has every tasted. We also had the pleasure of meeting
Glenconner. He stopped by each table to meet all his guests and have a chat.
He lived up to his eccentric billing as he was wearing what looked like a
dressing gown, pyjamas, shades and a hat – it was 9 o’clock at night. He
seemed like a nice chap and was obviously enjoying himself !
Tuesday 13th
The pitons were just so fantastic we had to stay for another day.
Wednesday 14th
Time to move on. This time it’s a short hop up to Marigot bay. A picture
perfect “hurricane hole” where yachts shelter from bad weather and where they
filmed Dr Doolittle. We managed to squeeze right up inside the inner lagoon
but there was hardly room to swing a cat(amaran) and so little breeze the
weather was stifling.
We took a trip ashore to find some provisions, but found none. On the way back
to the boat we stopped in the Chateau Mygo cocktail bar by the shore and
sampled some of their 2 for 1 rum cocktails. Allan was persuaded by the bar
owner to ferry some tourists back to shore from the bars rented sailboat in
return for some more free drinks and before we knew it we very quite
plastered.
It was in the bar that we met Daniell, Edward and Jamie. Three charter
skippers working for Moorings. They had just delivered a boat to Marigot. We
ended up have dinner and a good laugh with them at the “Chateau”.
Thursday 15th
- Sunday 25th
Sailing again. Well motoring as there was very little wind. We had
volunteered to give Edward and Jamie a lift up to Rodney Bay. This meant a
little extra pressure on Allan to make sure we didn’t make any horrible
mistakes on the boat handling front. Everything went smoothly though and we
were soon secured in the heavenly Rodney Bay marina.
Our main priority for the return to Rodney Bay was to catch up on some boat
maintenance and we did a reasonable job in the end. Allan washed down the
exterior of the boat and polished much of the stainless, Bev cleaned the
interior up and sorted out a pile of washing. A myriad of little jobs were
also completed, including an oil change and new fuel filters on the engines.
We did manage to enjoy ourselves too. On Friday we went to the famous Gros
Islet street party. A main road in the town is blocked off and people dance to
a DJ in the middle of the street. Vendors sell food and drinks at very cheap
prices all along the road. We had been warned to watch our money and sure
enough several people seemed to try and pick our pockets while we stood in the
crowd. Another disturbing feature was that three different people approached
us and offered us drugs
L
Jamie, who was a bit of a music fan was in his element boogying around to the
local sounds, if only it wasn’t other men who wanted to dance with him all the
time…..
We also introduced Jamie and Edward to Razzmataz, the great Indian restaurant
in Rodney Bay and we had another fantastic meal there. Jamie and Edward later
made their way down to Soufriere by bus. Jamie had to get back to the UK
because of a death in his family; Edward was going back to the BVIs via
Antigua and was looking for some more delivery jobs. We will look out for him
when we get to Tortola.
We finally also had the chance to try the Chinese restaurant. The meal was
fabulous. Great crispy duck and we managed to clear everything – quite a feat
given the amount we had ordered.
Warren and Judy from La Contenta came back to their boat after a skiing
holiday in the rockies. We had dinner with them, and another ARC skipper
Richard, in Bosuns and they told us their plan was to head for Ecuador via
Grenada. It may be some time before we bump into them again.
Allan also spotted a TV celebrity on the pontoons – Les Dennis, one time host
of “Family Fortunes”. They always look shorter in real life.
We had a couple of evenings with Steve & Karen of Trade Secret. They
invited us along to a drink with the crew of Drake who were celebrating
a birthday at the very nice Charterhouse steak house. We retired to a local
karaoke bar where the beer was exceptionally cheap, the singing terrible, and
we all had a good laugh at a 60 something guy trying to get off with a 25 year
old 6ft tall “woman” that we were all convinced was a transvestite.
Our time in Rodney Bay was also ‘enhanced’ by several parties on board a large
motor cruiser called Emerald Seas next door but one from us. They had hired a
local guy to sing to their guests and play guitar. It was like having our own
private band. Started off great but by about the 6th night we knew
his repertoire better than he did!
Monday 26th
We left early to get a good start for Martinique. Unfortunately the wind
conspired against us. As we left the pontoon the boat was blown onto a
concrete post and we picked up some scratches on the starboard side. The air
was blue too
J
The sail up to Martinique was uneventful but we had to tack and eventually
motor so it took longer than we would have liked. We arrived just before
sunset at Marin and anchored well out from the marina beside an old ferry and
tugboat.
We had a few beers and indulged in some episodes of Men Behaving Badly
and Cold Feet from our DVD collection to celebrate a safe arrival.
Tuesday 27th
We landed at Marin marina to clear customs and look around. Allan was finally
able to buy Bev the Christmas present he had wanted for her – a very trendy
Pink Divers watch !
We had a look round the Marina chandleries, easily the best we have seen since
leaving France. It was also nice to be able to buy metric nuts and bolts
again. The things that make you happy ….
It was a shock to the system to see decent roads and street lighting again.
After a tramp round the village we sat down to sample a couple of cocktails at
a waterside bar. They were simply the most vile Pina Coladas we have ever
tasted. Bev told the waiter this, who claimed the problem was the bar man had
made Pina Colatas which have no rum in them. We wanted some beers but
the waiter insisted on us having another Colada. They were not as bad as the
first ones but still awful. It was also an unpleasant shock to be charged over
5 euros (£3.90) for them rather that the $12EC (£2.40) for the exceptional
examples at Bosuns bar in St Lucia.
Wednesday 28th
Lovely sail up to Anse Mitan, a small tourist resort across the bay from Fort
de France. On the way we passed close to Pigeon Island. It is essentiality a
large rock. Famously the British commissioned the island as a ship and mounted
cannons on it to attack French ships. Napoleon dispatched his fleet to
liberate the rock, as Pigeon Island was part of Martinique, Josephines
homeland. On the way the French managed to dodge Nelson but he eventually
caught up with them at Trafalgar…
We felt immediately at home in Anse Mitan. It has a large protected bay and a
good anchorage, although we got a bit of swell from passing ferries. The town
itself has a lovely little marina with a disneyfied street full of pretty
boutiques and restaurants. We saw a hummingbird buzzing round some of the
flowers by the marina.
Thursday 29th
We took the ferry across to Fort de France. As far as Caribbean towns go it
was fairly civilised. There were lots of cars on the roads, mostly European
models and shops selling all kinds of designer gear.
We tried to get into the Fort from which the town gets its name but it was
closed.
That evening Trade Secret showed up next to us and we went over there
for a few beers. It turned out to be a lot of beers and wine….(well for Allan
anyway!)
Friday 30th
We got up, not as early as we would have liked, for the trip up the coast of
Martinique to St Pierre. But first we had to clear out for customs and
immigration. Trade Secret had already left. We decided it would be less
hassle for Allan to take his bike over to Fort de France on the ferry to do
the paperwork. It probably would have been less hassle if the the brakes on
the bike hadn’t turned out to be seized on…
St Pierre is an interesting town. It was completely devastated in 1902 when
the volcano Mt Pelee literally exploded, releasing more energy than an Atomic
bomb. It is one of the worst such tragedies in recorded history with 30,000
people killed. The only survivors were a cobbler who was in his cellar and a
murderer called Cyparis who was in a jail cell. They subsequently pardoned
Cyparis. Twelve ships at anchor in the bay were also sunk – makes you think.
Around the town there are some burned out ruins from the disaster and a small
museum contains some pictures and a crushed church bell from the time.
They are doing up the sea front and the town has a nice dock. We both liked
the place.
That evening we were to discover the downside of the bay. The wind kept
changing directions and all the boats anchored on the narrow shelf along the
bay spun all over the place. We were forced to stay up all night doing anchor
watches, so by the time morning came we were very tired.
Saturday 31st
A new day a new country – Dominica. Back to English and the $EC. We sailed up
to the capital Roseau on the south of the Island. It was a little lumpy in the
channel but we did see a huge pod of dolphins and also a turtle.
On the way in we met Roots in his water taxi. We arranged to take a buoy, at a
cost of $20 US for two nights, to allow us to get some decent sleep. Another
$15 US was asked to run us into Customs the next day but they were not there.
There was a cruise ship in town, “Ocean Village” and lots of pale British
people mulling around. Roseau has some nice traditional style buildings with
both French and English colonial influences. On cruise ships days we’ve found
it best to avoid many Caribbean towns because you get hassled constantly by
vendors. The vendors are just trying to make a living but they cannot tell the
difference between flush tourists and budget conscious yotties like us.
Dominica is known for its rain forests (it seems to rain a lot), 8 volcanoes,
beautiful mountains and stunning waterfalls. We decide to do our first real
excursion of the cruise to check out some of the interior the next day.
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