The Windward Islands of the Caribbean

Barbados was a welcome rest and the people extremely friendly and helpful. But after a few days it was time to move on as we have so much to see and do. Next stop was Grenada, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Again, the people very friendly and helpful. We rented a car, which was a thrill in itself, the roads very narrow with perilous side ditches and abrupt edges. You don't want to run off the pavement around here with barely enough room for speeding buses to pass. They're used to it, but we had a white knuckle ride for a couple of days. The terrain was stunningly beautiful. We found a waterfall area, but needed a guide as the trail was obscure, and so found "Sandy-mon" to help us out. He was a lovely chap who told us all about the local plants and critters. We felt we really were in paradise. Grenada is so pristine up in the bush, we could even drink the water straight out of the mountain streams.




 I had to find rotor brushes for the alternator, which was an adventure in itself. But the important part, even a critical situation for the crew of EQ, was finding the chocolate factory. :) We did get lost in those mountain roads a few times, but everyone we asked for directions was very helpful. Finally we found the cocao plantation where we learned how they processed the nuts just as they have for hundreds of years. All very interesting, but really, where was the chocolate? They didn't actually make it there but sent the dried nuts to another place to make the chocolate. We did finally find that too, up a small side road where got a tour and, finally, the real thing, averting a major calamity. And we also found our way back to the boat, potential crisis averted, big smiles all around, and time for a rest to calm the nerves of driving on Grenada roads, beautiful as that island is.

When we finally extracted ourselves from that lovely place we headed for Carriacou, another beautiful island we looked forward to. But this time we hopped on a bus to the other side of the island to see how they built boats in the old traditional ways. We had to check out of Grenada here and check into St. Vincent and the Grenadines on Union Island, another lovely place. From there we headed for the Tobago Cays for some swimming with turtles. And there where lots of them all around the boat! Anchored in 10' of aqua blue water, white sandy bottom, warm clear Atlantic water pouring over the reef with 15 knot cool trade winds and sunny skies ... absolutely delightful.

But we had to finaly pull the hook and get moving again, next stop was Bequia, a delightful little island, quaint and in good nick. Friendship Bay was especially tranquil and laid back. There's also a small museum with some of the old traditional whaling and fishing boats there. The island is small enough you can walk to just about anywhere, and we did stretch our legs after sitting on the boat for so long. But the best thing was we arrived (unbeknownst to us) on a Friday the day of the Blues Festival, which was staged close to where we anchored. That was absolutely fantastic with excellent musicians. We didn't get back to the boat until 2am, way past our bedtime. :) But it was a fun night since we hadn't seen any good live music for a long time. Bequia is our favorite spot so far in the Caribbean.






We checked out of SVG on Bequia but spent the night in Cumberland Bay on St. Vincent, stern tied to a palm tree as the harbour was very deep, since it was too far to get up to St. Lucia and the next day had better wind conditions anyway. So we set out at first light and zoomed across the St. Vincent channel, notorious for being rough, but we had caught the conditions right and it was an easy sail, the famous "Pitons" of St. Lucia looming on the horizon, beckoning us on. We were going to stop in the old capital of Soufriere, but decided to keep going as we made good time and could catch up with friends in Rodney Bay to go on a tour of the island (we didn't have to drive) the next day. And so we did, our tour guide stopping at many lovely places and explaining all the flora and fauna of the island, of which there is much. We also stopped at the very active bubbling volcano caldera near the Pitons. These islands are amazing places to live where the locals can easily live off the land, as you can grow most anything here, and many do.

So, that's the news from EQ, where the seas are calm in the leeward side of the islands, the trade winds fair and the crew content to not have to drive these roads.

With equanimity and Joy...

Across the Atlantic, Step Two

Coffee on 5am watch

Rockin' an Rollin' for 13 days, 8 hours, but who's counting. Well, as a matter of fact, we were, certainly towards the end of the trip. We were very glad to see Barbados rise above the horizon on the 14th day. The Atlantic was very confused, wave trains coming from every direction, for the entire trip. In fact, it started that way leaving the Gibraltar Starights. But truth be told, we did have some excellent days.

Roger was still coughing up yellow goo when we got to Cape Verde, but finished the antibiotics and could tell it was almost over, so decided to set off with the next reasonable forecast. So we set forth on 22 December ok with the idea of missing the holiday madness and having our own new years celebration, which of course was Kim finding a bottle of bubbly in the bottom of the frig, which was a fine Limon soda. :)

The trip started with blustery winds/seas, but settled down in a couple of days so we could fly the spinnaker. That beast makes for a gentle ride if the winds are fair. But it didn't last and we had to motor for a couple of days to get through a period of light winds and heavy cloud cover. It was also a new moon, so the nights were pitch black, couldn't even see your hand in front of you.

That finally cleared and the winds picked back up, setting the spinnaker on and off. At one point we got it down just in time for a bit of blusteriness, where it would have been too hard to get it down. The hardest part was the winds were mostly behind us. With confused seas, that makes it hard to steady the boat without a press in the sails from the side, so we rolled along, seriously.

The funny part was all the flying fish. Unfortunately for many, they landed on deck without us knowing in the night, so died before we could get them back on their way. One morning, I picked more than a dozen off the deck. The good news was none of them flew into the cabin or whacked us on the side of the head in the middle of the night. It was a good sign though that there are actually still fish in the sea. We had lots of Dolphins escorting us in the first part of the trip, but didn't see much on this side of the Atlantic.

So, 2060 nautical miles later we didn't fall off the end of the earth and made landfall in Barbados on 4 January 2017, early enough to check in with customs, immigrations and the harbour master. But since we couldn't get a decent anchor hold (notoriously bad there), we tied to the fuel dock for the night, but had to leave at 7:30 in the morning and headed down to Carlisle Bay, we anchored in front of the Barbados Yacht Club, they gave us a one week membership, which lets us land our dingy on the beach, use there facilties including showers. So, all is good and we are happily in flat water again, plugged back into the internet and able to stream MVY radio, Martha's Vineyard.



Landfall in Barbados

So, that's the news from EQ, where the winds are blowing steady from the east, the seas still 'sporty', but not here, and the crew content to finally get more than a few hours of sleep. We even have turtles swimming by for a visit, in water that is 28 deg (80F), so happy to be back in the tropics. :)


With Equanimity and Joy...