Bequia Easter Regatta Begins

Yesterday before the Races started the Luxury Cruise ship Sea Cloud came in and took a spot behind us.  We see  the Sea Cloud and her sister ship Sea Cloud2 , beautiful barques, out here every season.  Accommodations are supposed to be excellent aboard and they were certainly well situated for the start of the races.

As the morning progressed the races got underway starting about 10:00AM with the last start about 2:00PM.  There are more racers here this year than there were last and the bay is certainly more crowded that we have ever seen it.  We even had a Canadian Cat come in and talk about taking our "mooring ball" - actually our anchor float - but I'm sure we could have gotten $30.00 US per night for it!

I talked with a fellow at the town dock yesterday, Adrian, who as it turns out in now running a new restaurant in the old Daffodil building on the North shore of the Bay.  The restaurant is The Deck House Waterside Bar and Grill  We went ashore today for lunch and it was superb.  They change the menu often and have different lunch and dinner menu's, and it is definitely worth a visit.

Regatta?

Out training for the upcoming Regatta. 

Gybe ho!

Bequia

We've been here in Bequia since Saturday afternoon and are now starting to notice an increase in boats arriving for the annual Heineken Easter Regatta.  We still haven't seen the contingent from Grenada yet but expect that they will arrive later today.

We've been taking it easy and finishing up some projects getting the boat ready for summer storage for the last time.  I just finished the teak but still need to apply two more coats of clear Cetol to the starboard aft caprail.  Lesley has finished detailing the diamond plate and it really looks great.

We had homemade sweet and sour pork and steamed sticky rice last night.  Tonight we will have grilled NY Strip Steaks, baked potatoes with french butter and sour cream, steamed cauliflower with jalapeno cheese sauce, and a loaf of hot from the oven multigrain bread that was just delivered by Daffodil Marine Services.  One of the last projects on the boat for the season is to make sure we eat all of the food that we have in the freezer!

This mornings task was to run the water maker - 42 gallons in the tank and time to sit back and take it easy now.

Winter!

We left St Lucia yesterday morning at 4:30, well before sunrise, heading for Bequia.  It was warm and humid and for the first several hours I did not even have a shirt on.  As we approached St Vincent the winds dropped and we were very warm, so we opened the windshield on the dodger and that helped some.  

We anchored in Admiralty Bay about 3:30 and after hosing the salt spray off the boat and wiping her down good I headed into town to clear in.

I noticed that the Immigration inspector seemed to be having problems making change so when it was my turn I asked him what the charge was and he replied, "35 EC".  All I had was fiftys and hundreds so I asked him if the bar next door was open.  He said yes and I told him that I would be right back so I went over, bought two bottles of Hairoun, and headed back to the office.  I finished my first beer as he was finishing up my paper work so I paid him and headed back to the boat for a swim and to check the anchor.

For all of you enjoying (?) winter weather still, I hope spring comes, soon!

Planning

We've spent the past several days planning for our return to the boat next year. 

One of the high priority items, as we plan for our return to Florida next year, is to set up a temporary holding tank that we can use before we replace the old one.  We plan to use a 14 gallon Nauta flexible tank installed under the existing holding tank.  Just enough capacity to get us thru the Potty Patrol in the Florida Keys and back to Burnt Store Marina.  Once we get the new fiberglass tank in I plan to reconnect and configure our Raritan Lectrasan system for use in areas where there are no potty patrols.

Since we have to cut the sole anyway to replace the holding tank we are looking at a good quality teak and holly tongue and grove hardwood sole.   The laminate sole is just so soft that just about anything will dent it.  So we are patterning now and trying to get an estimate on the materials required.

We are also making a list of charts and guides that we will need as we head North out of the USVI and planning a few stops along the way to visit friends.

Also contemplating changes in insurance due to changes in cruising grounds.  Our current insurer will not insure the boat if it is in Florida June - Nov so we are considering storage next summer out of the area.  We've had such good luck with the current insurer that we want to keep them if possible.

That's all for now - change in menu - stuffed brined pork chops and squash casserole tonight.

Rodney Bay

We've been stationary now for several days in Rodney Bay Marina.  Washed the boat thoroughly and have hit Island Water World and several hardware stores as well as several grocery stores in near the mall.  We went in to one of our favorite pizza places (Key Largo) for pizza and salad one night and have also been cooking up a storm - Japanese tonkatsu and steamed rice last night.  Tonight we are having chicken fricassee with tarragon and a nice chardonnay.

We are making some preliminary plans now on the return of our boat to Florida next season.  The most difficult parts are planning for the necessary insurance and also how to make the boat temporarily legal ahead of replacing the holding tank next summer.  Plan now is to use one of our Nauta 14 gallon fuel bladders installed under the old holding tank along with new tank fittings to get us through the potty police picket line in the Florida Keys then we should be home free.

We have a nice weather window coming up later in the week for out next hop to Bequia where I plan to work on a new WiFi hotspot and enjoy the Easter Regatta.  We will leave here and move to Marigot Bay for one night then start out early the following morning for Bequia.

We've had the company of 4 Islands Packets at one time here and again the folks in the area were asking if there was some sort of IP convention in town.  One of the IP's was also home ported out of Rock Hall and we plan to hook up with them in a year or two when we base out of the Chesapeake Bay again.  

Leaving Martinique

When had a great stay in Martinique and sailed on down to St Lucia yesterday.

While in Martinique we met up with friends aboard Mary Ann II and worked on a new Wifi setup.  Bullet M2HP and a neat little router (wireless only).  Getting Wifi from the marina about a mile out in our anchorage.

We moved out to St Anne on Friday so we could do laundry in the great self service laundry in the basement of an old hotel and then went in and had paninni's.  Got back to the boat and used our scuba tank and 40 ft hose and cleaned the bottom of the boat.

We plan to stay here in the Rodney Bay area for 4 days then move to Marigot Bay for one night before hopping off to Bequia in time for the Easter Regatta.

Near Marin, Martinique

We moved into our favorite spot near Cap Dusquene and took the dinghy in behind the reefs to town to do some shopping and drop off some trash.  We are still amazed that all of the boats out here seem to congregate within 2 or 3 locations leaving us as the only boat in this anchorage.

We moved over to St Anne yesterday morning so that we could do laundry.  As we got back to the boat, even though we were anchored well back from the pack, a French boat came in and anchored on top of us.  So, to make things a bit more interesting we went ahead and pulled our anchor as we watched the disdain on the Frenchman's face.  We just decided that there was no way we were going to put up with this so we came back over to our spot.

Yesterday evening there were 7 hang gliders (looked like wing parachutes with motor packs on the back) flying over the mountain behind us.  As soon as we have better WiFi service I'll try to upload some of the photos.

In the meantime, we are enjoying light winds, no rain and no one trying to crowd us out! 

Lunch with Moses (AKA Victoria Falls)

We had a great trip with SeaCat today to Victoria Falls.  We just got back to the boat and we are prepping for our move to Fort de France, Martinique in the morning and I'm to tired to download any pictures or do much typing.  So, will post a narrative and some of the photos from the trip once we are situated in Martinique.

We left Roseau about 9:00 am and took the road around the South end of the Island headed for Victoria Falls.  We stopped at a small guest house along the way and I took a picture of the scenery. 

 The South end of Dominica is stunning

 

Cashews

Eastern Side

Coffee Beans

Roasting the beans

Victoria Falls – incredible trip up the river in and out of the water till you come to the falls.  We swam up under the falls and the air pressure and current from the running water was amazing.

Ital food

Cocoa beans drying

Laundry

SeaCat cracking a coconut

Arrow root ready for processing

 

SeaCats Moorings

We normally stop in Roseau for a few days on our way to/from Martinique and take a mooring at SeaCats.

SeaCat (Octavius) has about 10 moorings in the area and we always try to take the one closest to the dock so that we can tie the stern ashore to keep our bow into the swell that normally runs.

We've been here in Roseau two days now and there has been a lot of activity placing several newly constructed moorings.

The moorings are fabricated using old tractor tires filled with concrete with bent heavy rebar imbedded as anchor points.  Here Desmond and the diver have attached a water tank for flotation and tip one of the mooring off the dock.

The mooring and tank hit the water and sink.  A diver then goes down and fills the water tank with air to lift the mooring.

Finally Desmond and Slim pull the moorings and divers along to just the right spot and the air is let out of the tank and the mooring is set into place.

This process went on nearly all day till all of the mooring had been placed and pennants and floats were attached.

WiFi

Yesterday morning I went ashore and did some maintenance on the HotHotHotSpot Roseau Access Point.  I used a spare WiFi antenna that I had on board and some spare low loss coax (LMR-400) and started trying to find the problem.  I connected the output of the router to the antenna and Lesley checked the signal strength from the boat.  So far so good, next I connected the antenna to the output of the power injector - still good, end of the cable to the amplifier - BAD.  Replaced the cable and the signal level was still bad so checked the antenna cable connector (cable from the amplifier to the antenna) and it was also bad - crimp on connector had come loose.  The antenna here has a hardwired coax pigtail about 2 feet long and I did not have another crimp on connector or a spare antenna so jury rigged a fix till a new antenna can be sent down and installed.

Syndicate Forest Preserve

We headed up to the Syndicate Forest Preserve yesterday on an interior hike and bird watching expedition.

Before we left Portsmouth I got a picture of the Magicians house.

The main attraction for the area, at least for us, is that it is a Sisserou Parrot habitat.  We stopped and purchased Park access passes and then we were off to the rainforest.

We were only a short distance up the road when we spotted our first parrot.  We stopped the van and got out and you could hear the birds up in the forest canopy.  We continued on to the parking area and once we were out of the van several more parrots flew over head.

As we continued on our hike you could hear the birds and at one point we stopped on a ledge overlooking the rainforest and pairs of birds were flying back and forth across the opening.  The coloring of the bird is amazing with the bright green feathers visible from quite some distance.

I did not get any photos of the birds but I did take a few pictures of some of the other things that we saw during the day.

Wax flower

Waterfall

Tree roots

After we got back to the boat we took it easy and were then treated with what we both think was the best all time Green Flash ever.  It lasted several seconds and started just before the sun dropped below the horizon.  Hope Glen was watching last night!