Rachel's birthday on the beach
A whole month has passed and we have been busy… working and drinking mainly, and, more recently, sailing.
We returned to Trinidad to work on a yacht which needed an enormous amount of stuff fixing and so, while Jamie was busy doing the glamorous and important stuff (wiring, but with added intelligence) I was needed for much less skilled work, mainly polishing miles of stainless steel. In fact, I spent the majority of my time sat under the 76 foot yacht, sheltering from either the scorching sun or the torrential rain, in a dusty (or muddy) boat yard, polishing a variety of marine fittings whilst trying to decipher what the fast spoken Trini workers around me were talking about. It was quite amusing most of the time, the guy who was in charge of the paint spraying would spend the entire day smoking ‘ganja’ and screaming and swearing at his workers. Anyway, we earned some cash and had some hilarious drunken nights with our co-workers/friends and the time just slipped away so quickly, as it always does when you have a job.
Rachel does Nirvana Nevermind
We abandoned work, the dusty boat yard and our new found friends to set sail to meet Joe in Antigua. This (if we make it) will be the longest journey we’ve had in the Badger, a 500 nautical mile trip no less! A lot of yachts sail straight up (or down) taking only 3-4 days to do so but, with my sailing skills leaving a lot to be desired, we are island hopping up to make the journey bearable.
The longest sail, one we’ve done before, is the 80 mile crossing from Trinidad to Grenada. We prepared by spending an afternoon in Scotland Bay (north west Trini) hacking off the barnacles from the bottom of the boat and scrubbing off the green slime that had collected in the few weeks spent in the green waters of Chaguaramas. Setting sail at 02.30 we managed to anchor in Halifax Harbour, Grenada at 18.00, a vast improvement on our timing from the last time we made the journey – what a difference a half decent wind direction makes. Oh, and Jamie’s just reminded me, we saw 2 hammer head sharks this time, swimming together, really close to the surface.
Devil's Table - Bequia
From Grenada we sailed up to Union Island. We arrived before dark but couldn’t face the idea of customs and thought we’d cleverly avoid overtime rates by going the next morning… Only to find out that the Prime Minister had declared a national holiday only 2 days earlier because SVG had beat the Aussies at cricket! We got totally stitched up with overtime fees and felt pretty cheated. The highlight of the day however, and one which even customs and their ridiculous rules and regulations couldn’t spoil, was seeing a leatherback turtle the size of a Mini Cooper swimming out to sea from Grenada’s coastline, what a fantastic sighting.
Beautiful Bequia was our next port of call and we gave ourselves a much needed full day break, giving us chance to fill our gas bottle, do some jobs on the boat and have a lovely snorkel out on the Devil’s Table. From Bequia we nipped (ha, there was nothing nippy about it!) We motored – once sailing became impossible – into a fierce headwind and strong current) back to St,Vincent to pick up some of the sale documents from buying the boat. We stayed only for an hour and then headed up to Keartons Bay, just before Walliabaloo (where the Pirates of the Carribean set was based) to spend a quiet night before our sail to St. Lucia.
Soufriere - St. Vincent
The sail to St. Lucia was good, albeit a little hairy in places along the north coast of St. Vincent, however, we had been warned and had reefed accordingly. The famous Pitons (2 large conical pieces of rock strutting 2000ish feet straight from the sea) were visible many miles before we reached them and they were indeed beautiful.
Well, here we are in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia. We spent the day shopping for my birthday present and I am now the proud owner of 2 pairs of lovely new flip flops (amongst other things) and Jamie bought clothes in which he will no longer be mistaken for a tramp in. It’s bed time. I’m sipping red wine and Jamie’s fast asleep on the couch. We’re setting off to Martinique at daybreak (well, that’s the plan) and I’m looking forward to some decent bread!
The Pitons - St. Lucia
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