Knee deep in the water somewhere

Underway to Tobago Cays

I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand ... Life is good today

Chris and I are enjoying the sights and sounds of the island of Bequia (say it like Beck-way). To see where this is and where we've anchored click on Chris's beer on the sidebar. This season we opted to stay in the Grenadines because Chris has an opportunity to build up our cruising kitty by teaching newbies how to sail. When he had a break we took some time to visit some of the Grenadine islands.
 

Beachside, Petite Martinique

Knee deep in the water somewhere
Got the blue sky breeze blowing wind through my hair
Only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair
Sunrise there's a fire in the sky
Never been so happy
Never felt so high
And I think I might have found me my own kind of paradise

We've dropped hour hook in Chatham Bay on Union Island, Petite St. Vincent, Petite Martinique, Mayreau, the Tobago Cays and I've toured St. Vincent (by ferry).

Petite St. Vincent

Wrote a note said be back in a minute
Bought a boat and I sailed off in it
Don't think anybody gonna miss me anyway
 

The Christmas winds in December and January brought northerly swells that sometimes made Admiralty Bay a bit rolly. But with the arrival of February and March we have been enjoying some absolutely gorgeous weather. Temperatures have been in the mid to high 70's, the winds have been averaging 14 - 18 knots, and most days the bay is calm. We can easily swim to shore for a walk on the beach or snorkel to the reef near Lower Bay.

 

Hope Beach, Atlantic side, Bequia



Black sand beach, Atlantic side, St. Vincent

 

Come on in the water it's nice
Find yourself a little slice
Grab a backpack of life
You never know until you try
When you lose yourself
You find the key to paradise

It's hard to believe we moved away from Wisconsin to live on Troubadour over five years ago. Our lives have been blessed with many new friends and experiences.

Fishing boats, Paget Farm, Bequia

Beautiful architecture on a hilly island, Paget Farm, Bequia

Friends aboard Troubadour, Hans & Hazel, Roberta & Mike, Steve & Eva  

Ma Peggy's Rock, Bequia (I've made this hike four times!)

Local fare, chicken and chips

St. Vincent in background as viewed from Ma Peggy's Rock, Bequia

Mind on a permanent vacation
The ocean is my only medication
Wishing my condition ain't ever gonna go away

Flower from the Cannon Ball Tree - Couroupita guianensis - St.Vincent Botanical Gardens
 (These gardens are a must see if you go there!)

Sunset over Union Island as viewed from Saline Bay, Mayreau



From a hike on Petite Martinique

This champagne shore washing over me
It's a sweet sweet life living by the salty sea
One day you could be as lost as me
Change you're geography
Maybe you might be

Knee deep in the water somewhere

Our companion way is always open for your visit to the islands! Just let us know when you'd like to come and we'll let you know how to find us!

Cheers!

(I'm not the poet, the song lyrics are from "Toes" and "Knee Deep" by Zac Brown Band)

Bobbing in Bequia

As Linda pointed out last blog entry, we made it to Bequia and inertia has taken over. It has been so long since we’ve been able to follow our preferred schedule of a few boat chores followed by swimming, reading, or hiking, that we decided to just stay put.




Light sandy areas to anchor in, dark reefy areas to snorkel over. What's not to love?

Admiralty Bay, off Port Elizabeth, has been quite nice. Based on our experience last time, we anchored near Princess Margaret beach where the holding is good and the wind is not quite as gusty as if you get farther up into the harbor, between the hills, which seems to funnel the gusts down in blasts. It seems to get rolly sometimes, but I think it is a wind against tide phenomenon, as it always seems to go away within hours and I can’t correlate it with the predicted seas from WindGuru. The snorkeling is close by, and it’s a quick dinghy ride to the secure town dock to drop off garbage, pick up supplies, or sit down to a roti and fries when we don’t feel like cooking.

So as we are talking to Cheryl, who runs the Fig Tree, while there using the WiFi, we ask if there is a music jam on the island. She decided on the spot to add it to the Fish Friday dinner special they run, and we announced it on the cruiser’s net she hosts on the VHF radio at 8 AM. We’ve been to several of the jams now. The first one I was the only one to show up, so it was a small acoustic show with guitar and ukulele. Last week Gavin (Secret Smile) and Andy (Manureva) also showed up so I didn’t have to do all the heavy lifting, although I’m still the only vocalist - well, with some occasional help from Linda, Cheryl, or the audience.



One man jam at the Fig Tree

We did a hike along the road to Hope before returning for lunch and also did a rugged off-road hike to Peggy’s Rock. Glenn and Dalynn on Amoray had been wanting to do this hike for a while, so we tagged along and after a few false starts, finally found the correct goat trail up to where we needed to start climbing over rocks, finally resulting in a ridge line walk for a hundred yards or so until we emerged from the vegetation onto the rock and a stunning view.


The trip down from Peggy's Rock was a lot quicker than the hike up!

During one of our trips to town, a couple in one of the chandleries recognized us from our blog, and we met Richard and Jan from Morpheus of London. Exchanged sundowners, dominoes, and some bobbing (bobbing in the waves like a cork while drinking) ensued. As they’ve also headed south, we expect to run into them again.

The refrigeration compressor had been running longer than usual, and a quick look at the sight gage revealed that the system didn’t quite get topped off with refrigerant when it was filled. I sort of expected this, as I did not pay for the refrigeration guys to stick around for hours until the system got nice and cold and that's when you need to top it off. The only complication was that several of the hoses for my gage set were in poor shape and were thrown away several years ago. I always figured I’d get new ones when I needed them, and now was the time. On a hunch, I stopped by Joana and, as expected, Wade had a gage set also, so I was able to borrow a hose and top off the system, which is getting nice and frosty in about forty five minutes now. Other than that, it’s been cleaning sea water filters and a few odds and ends. The head and the generator will need some work when we get to Grenada, but that’s mañana.

Sounds of Silence - Back at Sea

We realize we owe you, our faithful blog followers, an update before you give up on us, but we've been enjoying the freedom of living back on the water again! It had been since August 20th, 2012, that Troubadour and her crew were "grounded".  Being back aboard took only a little adjustment, such as me not being able to remember where or how I stowed items, figuring out our technique for raising and lowering the dinghy with our new davit arch, and adjusting to the movement of the boat (especially in Prickly Bay).

The timing of our visas expiring and our move aboard was perfect. We cleared out of Grenada on April 24th with plans to clear into the Grenadines on April 25th and stay as long they would have us (our visa is for 30 days). Some of you will recall that we talked about going to St. Lucia for Jazz Festival, but I wasn't up for the long overnight sail from Grenada, and we weren't sure we were up for the stylings of island jazz. Land living is noisy enough, as most cruisers will tell you, and we were both looking forward to the quieter sounds of the being on the sea.

In pictures, here's a little of what we've been up to since we left Grenada, and proof that we sailed!

  

Conditions when we left Grenada started out great, but then the wind died and shifted in all directions, so we motor sailed for a bit; then we put the sails up again, but then we saw a dark squall line, so we took the sails down and turned on the Perkins and plowed through choppy seas, heavy rain and strong winds.

Leaving Grenada in the morning.

 

Eventually it all calmed down and we arrived in Tyrell Bay, Carriacou for the night, to what seemed, at first, like a calm anchorage. But just as I was looking forward to a good night's sleep a swell began rollying the boat side to side. So much for that. Thankfully, we only planned to stay one night (Carriacou is part of Grenada and we had already cleared out of the country).

After hearing from our friends Pam and Glenn on Blue Pearl that they enjoyed a lovely calm anchorage at Frigate Island on Union Island (Frigate Island is actually an isthmus, linked to the main island by a narrow strip of sand and mangroves) we headed there. And loved it very much. We took the dinghy to shore and tied off to a rickety pier and walked into Clifton to clear in. Clearing in at Union Island is ... hmmm worthy of a few beers. You get your exercise in minor frustrations. We were able to clear customs in town, but the immigration office - in another building in town - was closed, so we needed to walk to the airport to clear immigration. So on the way back we stopped for a beer to quench our thirst.

Our anchorage at Frigate Island. The dinghy pier is a bit rickety and may not be worth tying up to if it is low tide.

 

We enjoyed several days at Frigate, snorkeling and just enjoying our boat. Lobster season was ending so we cheated and purchased lobster from Bushman, a local fisherman.

Just around the corner to the west and north of Frigate is one of our favorite places, Chatham Bay. We like this bay for its laid back style. A long sand beach is dotted with only a handful of local bars and restaurants where you will get the catch of the day. These are the types of places where you don't need shoes (or even shirts, I guess). We got reacquainted with King (who we met last year at Pleasure's bar) and now works at Aqua. Aqua is an enchanting place. I love that the deck is right on the beach, that it has  an infinity pool and the bar has wicker chairs, couches and chaise lounge chairs. King used to work in the cruise ship industry, he told us, and he is friendly and attentive. If he comes out to your boat and invites you to come to the restaurant, go and enjoy this piece of paradise.

We took time to visit Pleasure again, too. If you want really low key island style relaxing, this is the place. Pleasure brought out his guitar and sang some of his own songs; Chris played, too. We promised Pleasure we would be back for lunch and the next day, Chris swam ashore to make our reservation. Pleasure made us a family style feast from land and sea that gave a whole new meaning to surf n' turf that included land crab, slipper lobster, shark and couvalli. This was the best price and more food than we could eat. Please visit Pleasure - you'll recognize his sign, it's the one with the rasta man and guitar. Pleasure is looking for a tape recorder for recording his songs, if you have one he'd really appreciate the gesture.

Chatham Bay, Union Island

 After several days at Chatham (don't ask me how many, I don't remember) we headed to Mayreau Island (say it like "my-row"). We didn't plan to, but we arrived in Saline Bay during the Mayreau Regatta 2013. The beach was full of the local sailing boats getting ready to race. On the beach were very loud speakers pumping out soca music. Even with our ears in the water while snorkeling the anchor and a nearby reef we could hear the pulsating beats of the music. We plan to go back to Mayreau to check out the beach another time. It was fun watching the regatta from the boat.

Sailboats in the Mayreau Regatta 2013



The captain practices the ukulele in Chatham Bay.
He doesn't realize it yet, but his big debut is coming up in Bequia!

More to come on our stay in Bequia later. We dropped off our laundry and have spent the day at the Fig Tree where there is free Wi-Fi, updating our blogs, checking the internet and sharing a fresh fish burger & fries.

Life is figure licking* good!

 

*Stolen from a sign in Chatham Bay advertising the barbecued chicken.