Monthly Archives: July 1999

Bequia, Mayreau, Tobago Cays

Getting There

Leave a comment

Hello again.
In our last episode we planned to site-see in St. Lucia before continuing south, and we did. We did an all day touristy bus-tour of the island, seeing banana Ma'alahiBequiaplantations, fishing villages, rain forests, the famed Pitons and many other breath-taking scenes. We were impressed by the beauty of the country and the friendliness of its people.

From there we had a wonderful day sail to the island of Bequia, just south of and a part of St. Vincent, yet another beautiful tropical island with sparkling waters and friendly people. Here we visited Athneal Olivierre’s whaling museum. Athneal is 78 and with special international permission AthnealOlivierre_Museum_4still hunts whales in open boats with harpoons (he’s allowed 2 per year). He is actually quite famous for killing a 48-foot humpback with a single harpoon thrust several years back; a most interesting man to talk to.

On the 23rd of July we left Bequia and sailed (we’re getting quite accustomed to sailing the boat without running the engine now) to the small island of Mayreau, still part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. SaltWhistleBay_Maalahi_1Another couple of days soaking in the tropical beauty there and we sailed the 4 miles over to the Tobago Cays, arguably the premier spot in the entire Caribbean. Four tiny, uninhabited islands behind the protection of the huge Horseshoe Reef make up this national park. The water is clear, the beaches are white and the snorkeling is superb. We’ll be back!

We left the Tobago Cays this morning after 3 much-too-short days, cleared out of St. Vincent at Union Island and cleared into Grenada at Hillsboro, Carriacou. We’re currently at anchor behind a little spit of sand named, interestingly, Sandy Island. We sail in the morning for the south coast of Grenada, just short of 40 miles away. That will put us safely out of the path of hurricanes. Although we’ve been blessed with an unusually quiet July, as tropical weather is concerned, we are quite relieved, and thankful, to be this far south at this time.

We’ll send another update once we’ve gathered some data in Grenada (that’s kinda poetic, huh, “data in Grenada”?)

David and Claudia

Guadeloupe, Iles des Saintes, Martinique, St. Lucia

Down Island Update

Leave a comment

Sourfriere_Pitons_4bThis greeting comes from Rodney Bay, St. Lucia. We arrived today after the best sailing day we’ve ever had, east winds 15-18 knots (our direction of travel just west of south) and 2-4 ft seas under clear blue sky. Sure wish they could all be like that!

I forgot to mention last time that we spotted our first whale the morning of our arrival to St. Martin. We left St. Martin July 3rd when we finally turned the corner and got to start heading south. We anchored overnight at St. Barts without clearing in and left the next morning for an overnight passage to Guadeloupe. We ended up passing by the island of Guadeloupe because the anchorage didn’t look much protected and we continued on another 10 miles to anchor at Iles des Saintes, a small group of tiny islands that are a part of Guadeloupe. This got us far enough south to be within our insurance coverage area, below 16 degrees north. Here we weathered a couple of tropical waves (wind and squalls) before heading out the evening of July 9th for an overnight sail to Martinique.

The next morning our arrival (to our 4th French island in a row) was greeted by a huge pod of dolphins, I mean hundreds of them, leaping way out of the water. A few of them spotted us and must have said something like “hey, there’s a sailboat, let’s go play with it” because they left the herd and raced over to us, swimming at our bow for quite awhile.

At Martinique, we caught back up with our friends Bob and Susan on “Sunrise”. They had been in vacation mode for the past week or so with a large group of their Texas friends who had come down on a group sailboat charter. So many of them brought “care” packages of corn tortillas that “Sunrise” had a lot more than they could use and we now have 3 large packs in the freezer!

We hope to get a little sightseeing done while here in St. Lucia before heading on down to Bequia and The Grenadines. We’re planning on being in Grenada by the end of July and hanging out there for awhile before making for Trinidad.

Hope to hear from you soon.

David and Claudia

Anegada Passage, BVI, St. Martin

Big Ocean, Small World

Leave a comment

Back in the summer of 1986, in the days of bigger house and smaller boat, we sailed our Catalina 27 from Houston to Port Isabelle (South Padre Island area) where we kept it as our floating condo for a year, traveling the 500 one way miles every chance we got; vacation weeks, long weekends, short weekends. We met a couple there that lived on their boat and cruised the islands whenever they got the chance. They were the first people we ever met who actually lived on their boat and, therefore, they quickly developed “hero” status with us and we became fast friends. The next summer when we had decided to sell the boat and the house in order to get a bigger boat and live on it, Doug and LuAnn gave us a wonderful sendoff with a grilled tuna dinner across the dock at their place. The next day when we sailed out of the marina for the brokerage docks back in Houston was the last time we saw them, although we’ve kept in touch over the years by infrequent mail.

While we were in the Virgin Islands, we became a “sponsoring vessel” by subscribing to David Jones’ Caribbean Weather Net based in Tortola. For $100 per year, we can check in with David Jones (the “Caribbean Weather Man”) via SSB radio to get weather information and forecasts for whatever area we happen to be in at the time. Since we’re well into hurricane season, trying to make our way south, we figured it was well worth it for the personal weather routing service.

Randy and Cheryl flew out of St. Thomas last Saturday morning. By noon we were heading back to Virgin Gorda where we would wait for weather to cross the Anegada Passage to St. Martin. We only made it to Peter Island due to the very strong easterly trade winds. The next day we made it on in to Virgin Gorda. I noticed that the alternator bracket that had broken and been welded together back in Apalachicola had broken again. Luckily, our friends Keith and Cindy on “Imua Kai”, who went to work for the shipyard on Virgin Gorda, were able to help me get it re-welded right away. Tuesday, we took the ferry over to Road Town, Tortola, to try to find, or have made, a new alternator bracket (the re-welded one would serve as a backup) and to meet David Jones and visit his Weather Center. We didn’t find a new bracket and the machine shop couldn’t make a new one right away, but we did visit the Weather Center, talked with David Jones and got a good weather window for St. Martin overnight.

We cleared out of the BVI, caught the last ferry back to Virgin Gorda, quickly got the boat ready to sail and had the anchor up by 1800, heading for St. Martin some 85 nautical miles away. David’s forecast of 15-20 knot easterlies and “bumpy” seas was right on. The sky was mostly clear and the full moon made for a delightful, although a little rough, crossing.

The next morning around 0730 and about 35 miles from St. Martin, the radio was calling our name.
“Ma’alahi Ma’alahi, Whisper.”
I glanced at Claudia and grabbed the mike.
“Whisper Whisper, Ma’alahi.”
“Ma’alahi, go to 6224.”
“Switching to 6224.”
“Ma’alahi, this is Whisper. Are you David and Claudia?”
“Are you LuAnn and Doug?”

Luann_DougSure enough, Doug and LuAnn Grant, aboard their recently acquired schooner “Whisper”, had heard us talking to David Jones a couple of days before and thought it might be us. I guaranteed them that we are definitely the only “Ma’alahi” on the high seas. Interestingly, they’ve been at St. Croix, USVI; the only Virgin Island we didn’t visit. But, they’re heading south, too, and we’ll surely meet up with one another somewhere down the line. Can’t wait.

By the way, we made it to Saint Martin. We’re currently anchored at Marigot on the French side. We took a bus over to Philipsburg, Sint Maarten, on the Dutch side of the island today. We survived another passing tropical wave and its associated strong winds and heavy rain last night. The next few days promise settled weather and we’ll leave in the morning (Saturday) for St. Barts. From there we’ll overnight to Guadeloupe where we’ll finally be below 16 degrees latitude and be within the requirements of our insurance once again.

Still lovin’ it,

David and Claudia