Guadeloupe, Jan. 12th

We left Dominica January 10^th, leaving Heidi behind. She loved the Island so much, she decided to stay for a couple of weeks and maybe months. Dominica is indeed a fantastic place!

The day after we came into Ruperts Bay, we did the Indian River tour with Spaghetti as our guide.

He's one of the guys of the Portsmouth Association of Yachts Security and is actually named in the cruising guide.

The Indian River is one of the places where they shot the Pirates of the Caribbean. The tour was magnificent and at the end there's a bush bar where you can have a drink. There's one guy actually living there and he showed us his place. The place is amazing and we stayed there way longer then just for a drink.

That night we went to the Sunday nights barbeque which this PAYS club organizes specially for the yachts that are in the bay. The food was indeed very good, so was the music and the rum punch :-)

During the party, the Dominican minister of tourism came over and gave a speech to compliment all the PAYS guys. This was not part of the regular program and they were very pleased with his attendance. He stayed for a while and danced with us :-)

We also met 4 Israeli and we teamed up with them to explore the Island some more. Next day we first had coffee at there boat and went ashore. Cobra, one of the PAYS guides was waiting for us. We thought of going by ourselves but eventually decided to go with him. That turned out to be a great decision!!

He took us to the Chadiere Pool, a place we would never found ourselves. The road was actually off road and the path down to the pool was very steep and slippery. The pool was amazing. You could jump in from the rocks or slide in by the waterfall. Unfortunately my waterproof camera turned out to be not waterproof and it died :-(

When we came back to the car, it turned out that the battery of the car had also died so we had to push it uphill to jump start it. Luckily that worked :-)

This Cobra guy was a great guide who enjoyed showing us around. Every now and then he stopped to get us all kinds of fresh fruit, or a bush rum or a pastry. After the pool he drove us through Carib Country. Dominica is the only Island where the original Caribs still live. They have their own land and community and no Dominicans are allowed to live there.

After that he drove us to the Emerald pool, the place we wanted to go to by ourselves. He told us not to because all the people of the cruise ship would go there and it would be packed. He drove us there as a bonus on the tour and by the time we got there, they were all gone.

When we came back to Portsmouth we had dinner with the Israeli and went back to the boat. By that time Heidi had decided to stay and during the ride back she talked with Cobra. He's not only a guide but a very serious entrepreneur with a serious business. He started the Indian River bar, was a real estate broker and he was planning to open a souvenir shop so Heidi could come and help him to set it up if she wanted.

He picked Heidi and me up next morning and drove us to customs and immigration to settle the paperwork.

After that we left and sailed to Iles des Saintes. A group of small island just South of Guadeloupe.

Again the difference with the other Islands was striking. You're in the South of France instead of the Caribbean...

We stayed there for the day. Next morning we snorkeled and left for Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe. The plan was to sail through the river that divides Guadeloupe in two and sail to Antigua next morning. However, there is this bridge and it opens only once a day at 05:00 in the morning. We left at 04:30 but missed the only bridge in the Caribbean by 2 minutes ….. :-(

So we went back to the marina and will try again tomorrow. There's no point in sailing around the island, that would double the trip to 85 nm. So now I have some time to update my blog and add some foto's, ….from Monique's camera.... :-o

That is... later maybe, the wifi connection over here really sucks, too bad to add foto's :-(

Dominica, Jan. 7th

Monique arrived spot on and we all went out for dinner. She was glad to be back again and so were we :-) Next day we chilled on the beach, picked up the sails from the sailmaker and then we went over to the anchorage where we had a nice barbeque.

Heidi, the French girl joined us the day after and we had a great sail to Martinique.

Martinique is different. It is a Caribbean Island but has nothing to do with the Caribbean so it seems. No Walters to help you with a mooring buoy, no ice man, no lobster man no nothing. Ashore no 'ya mann', but bonsoir monsieur.... no music except for the hotel trio...

Checking in was on a computer at the marina. That sounds very sophisticated, however, the form I had to fill in was in French.... also the keyboard was French, not the normal qwerty keyboard.

It's so not welcoming for all the yachts that come in. It feels more that you're being allowed to anchor as long as you comply with all the French crap.

So, instead of staying another day, we left next morning after breakfast. Breakfast was the only good thing about Martinique. The fresh croissants that were indeed the best we had so far. Only Rutger and Heidi nearly got arrested for trespassing. It turned out that the dinghy dock was private and the had to climb the fence to get out. On their way back security at first had no clue on what a dinghy was :-o and then told them to walk all the way round the bay and over the beach. Which they didn't of course....

After breakfast we sailed to Dominica. Another great day of sailing. Underway we explained a bit on celestial navigation to Monique and Heidi and took a sight. Ru tger almost caught a fish but when it saw Rutger's face, it took off again...

We made it just after sunset and found a mooring buoy at Roseau bay and I cooked my tuna pasta with no fresh tuna unfortunately...

This morning after I checked in, we went to the market and bought some nice fruits and a big tuna steak to put on the barbeque tonight. After that we sailed to Rupert's bay where we were welcomed by Spaghetti and the fruit man that also did ice and bread since we got the fruit on the market....

The plan is to stay her for at least one other day to explore the Island a bit. There's a nice tour up the Indian river and Sunday there's a big beach barbeque we might wanna go to. Both we can do with Spaghetti :-)

Also there's Big Pappa's... according to the cruising guide, they have loud music on Wednesdays and very loud music on Saturdays.... :-) a nice place to have a drink later...

Monique's return

St Lucia, Jan. 3^rd

Today we'll have another crew change. Monique is flying in from Amsterdam.

Knowing she'd come and join us again made her depart at Lagos much easier :-)

The same goes for Marc and Clare by the way. They'll gonna return in February with the kids. Actually Marc had a meeting at the office yesterday and had lunch with Monique so it's more like a hand over and change places :-)

We might even have a fourth crew member. When I came back to the boat yesterday, Rutger was having a chat with a French girl and it turned out she had to leave the boat which she's on. She's hitchhiking around the world. So we had dinner together last night and discussed our plans. She does want to join us but she's on a very low budget and offered to work for the trip. I can understand that and I know a lot of young people are trying to get around that way, but there's no real work to do and I don't want her to do all the cooking and cleaning for us. So. she might just sail with us to Martinique to find a temporary job and move on from there. That's just a short trip from St Lucia and that's more like giving her a lift. Well we'll see what will happen.

Anyway, Monique sounded very exited to come over when I called her last night and she's definitely gonna stay for the next 3 weeks :-)

St Lucia, Jan. 1st

The 65 nm sail from Bequia to Rodney Bay, St Lucia took a bit longer than planned. We left around 6 am, but the wind was just a bit too much in the North to make it in a single tack. Also it was kind of blowing, about 30 – 35 kts and since the St. Vincent street between St Vincent and St Lucia is kind of shallow. That makes the waves steep and short and high too. At one point a huge wave rolled all the way over the deck and we got some serious water down the hatch :-o.

With only a couple of hours more to go, the genoa got torn for 20 cm and we had to furl it in to save it. Luckily in Rodney Bay they have a very good sailmaker. We motorsailed the last part and around 9 pm we got into the marina and found a nice place.

Next day Marc and Clare were gonna leave but first we went to 'Spinnakers', a special place for Marc and Clare … :-) This place has real funny waves, they actually roll back from the beach. I had never seen this before...We had lunch and a nice swim and chilled until it was time to go back to the boat and get ready to say goodby..

Too bad they had to miss the party, and some party it was. Together with Collin, whom we had met several times since Puerto Calero, Lanzarote, and his Canadian/Finnis crew, Rob, Kristin and Tanja and a Dutch couple we met on the dock together with their kids, we shared a cab to the 'strip'. Actually we only got halve way when the taxi got stuck in the crowd and we walked the rest. At 'Delirious' we had a couple of drinks and close to midnight we all went back to Spinnakers at the beach to watch the fireworks. By that time it got really, really packed and the whole place was vibrating on the music that came from everywhere. It was impossible to get another drink there so we all went back to Delirious and had a real great time :-)

We managed to make it back to the marina by taxi where we had a nightcap until it started to get light again :-o

This was some new years eve! I hope Marc and Clare had a nice flight.... :-o

Bequia, Dec. 29th

The sail from Mustique to Bequia was short and exciting. Starting with a gentle breeze, we were overtaken by a squall that gave us up to 30 kts and a lot of rain too. An hour later we took out the reef and unfurled the genoa again and by 1:30 pm we entered Admiralty Bay.

A beautiful and wide bay with as much as 75 yachts and cats already anchored... Still there was enough room and it didn't take too long before another 'Walter' helped us with a mooring buoy.

Next came the bread man, the ice man, the water and diesel guy and the lobster guy :-)

Port Elisabeth is the main village and not too big. It's picturesque and totally ready for all the yachties. I managed to have the gas canisters filled and get the laundry done. Bequia is also famous for it'scraftsman for all kind of woodwork. So I went to Caribbean wood to get a new teak handrail that was broken. However, Caribbean Wood was closed for the holiday... :-(

Another yachty told me to go to Parish Workshop, Jim would be able to help me. It took me some time to find him and indeed it was only a workshop. But Jim was very friendly man and did help me out. He made me a new handrail, by hand and did it right away. He was a real craftsman but it still took him over an hour to fix it. I was watching him all the time and I must say that I was impressed by his skills. When he was done he asked me if he could ask $ 60 EC, that is about € 20..... I told him that that was perfectly okay and thanked him very much. Back home that peace of wood would have cost me at least 5 times as much and it would definitely not be better or nicer!

This morning we went for a dive. That was amazing, not only because of the fish but far more because of the scenery. Rock formations with numerous kinds of coral in beautiful colors. Too bad my camera doesn't go that deep...

After the dive we checked out at customs and immigration and did some shopping. Tomorrow morning at daybreak we'll leave for St Lucia and have dinner in Rodney Bay. That will be Marc's and Clare's last night... They'll leave Saturday.... :-(

Mustique, a different world

Mustique really is a different world, especially compared to the other Islands.

We took a small tour by taxi and the driver showed us some if the estates on the Island. That is from a distance and only those that were at all visible. He dropped us of at the lagoon beach, a very nice beach indeed but aren't they all.. :-)

Later the taxi driver picked us up again and took us back to Basil's Bar where we had lunch.

Just in front of us another super yacht got into the bay. This one had a helicopter on deck...

Well whatever, I can't say it's a nice boat especially not compared to the super sailing yacht that came in yesterday. But then again, you can't just sail her, you need at least 20 crew...

Tobago Cays, Canouan

Tobago Cays is probably one of the most famous places in the Caribbean and, for a reason.

The only way to get there is by boat. The Cays is a group of 3 tiny islands surrounded by reefs. The whole place is a nature reserve with a turtle sanctuary and it is indeed fabulous!

Once you managed to pass the reefs and found a spot to drop the anchor, at least one boat will come by to make sure you're okay.... whatever you might need, Walter in our case will bring it to you. We ordered some croissants and banana bread for the next morning :-) We skipped the beach barbeque with lobster and stuff but as we went to the beach we bought a T-shirt.

We took the dinghy to snorkel. I had seen a turtle before but this was amazing. Numerous turtles gently swam around, obviously used to snorkelers :-) I also saw some stingrays but you don't want to get too close to them...

The reef was great too but so was the current. You could hardly stay were you were, let alone swim into it. So it didn't take too long to get tired and head back for the dinghy...

Next morning Walter brought our stuff and after breakfast we sailed to Canouan. Union Island, Tobago Cays, Canouan, Mustique, Bequia are all part of the Grenadines and the Grenadines belongs to St Vincent, not to Grenada.

Canouan is a beautiful little Island with Charleston as the main and only village. As soon as we entered the bay another Walter showed up in a boat to help us with a mooring buoy. There were some other yachts but the resort seemed to have only 2 or 3 guests. We went ashore and walked around a bit. As we passed the 'supermarket' annex bar, I was called over to meet and sit with some guys and have a drink, the local rum mixed with some kind of juice. The people are indeed very friendly. I could only get away after I promised I'd come back later to buy a bottle of their rum :-)

I don't think they can legally brew that kind of stuff in Europe, it's 87.5%. If you'd drop the bottle, it'll explode!

Next morning we sailed over to Mustique. Mustique is a very exclusive Island where all kinds of celebrities and royalties own a place. The whole place is run by a private company but you can rent a one room cottage for $ 15.000 a week...

We had booked a table at Basil's Bar to have a delicious Xmas dinner. Luckily the price of that was more normal :-). We didn't see any celebrities, at least no one I know... :-o but watching the people there was fun. You indeed enter a different world at Mustique :-)