Warmest of Caribbean Wishes

Here we are.  Well into our second week in Sint Maarten, thanks mostly to even more wily winds; today they are gusting, at worst over, 30kts.  Still, there could be worse places to be even though a few nights ago there was an attempted robbery aboard a nearby catamaran.  The lagoon is filling fast as it stretches to fit yet more superyachts.  Others too big to pass through Simpson Bay bridge, cluster in nearby Great Bay, rubbing shoulders with enormous cruise ships visiting Philipsburg, daily offloading passengers to duty-free shops and entertainments like the “pee-pee**” lagoon cruise. ; )  St Bart’s too, is awash with huge hot-water boats.  And NO, the Cap’n is not thinking of upgrading…  Too many things to go wrong!

Christmas is nearly upon us and we are not quite sure exactly where we will be; although it will at least be warm and at this stage, still in the lagoon.  It is hard to move with daily reports of snow storms in the northern US and rather icy temperatures, even in the Chesapeake.  Not encouraging for our ICW leg!  Our plan was not to skate along rivers of ice...  Despite that, we’re sure Santa will manage to find us as we keep jogging along.  He at least, knows just where to find our map & tracker…

Wishing you all the merriest of Christmases, a wonderful fireworks-filled start to the New Year and an opportunity to wave the flag, wave the tongs over a fabulous lamb BBQ and celebrate Australia Day. 

(**We're anchored near the lagoon cruise point where loud announcements are made regarding restroom breaks. "Time for a pee-pee break" in a lilting Caribbean accent!  It's a giggle, every time.)

Bless those Christmas Winds...

Blood Moon & a Jump Up - all a bit spooky in St Lucia

Our last night in Rodney Bay was celebrated toasting a spectacular rise of the Blood Moon and listening to the sizzling Caribbean vibes of the jump-up held every Friday night at Gros Islet.  Just far enough from our anchorage.  We had it all!  Wafts of BBQ (plenty of smoke & tantalizing aromas) all served up with a side of very loud soca & dancehall beats.  About 5.30-ish next morning, those still standing, go home.  So, having given St Lucia our best, it was time to point WJ3’s nose northwards towards Guadeloupe and the Windwards. 

We had especially good weather as we moved up the island chain but wondered if our luck would hold thereafter.  The easterlies met up out of Deshaies, on our first big crossing to Antigua.  We surfed into Falmouth Harbour and settled for an anchorage far from the madding crowd…  Falmouth is now kitted out for superyachts and elite racing; next door, English Harbour for charter boats (mostly catamarans now).  Facilities for simple cruisers are sparse.  Even our Cap’n (never the fashionista) remarked on the change!

HMS Diamond Rock, once dressed as a ship with sails and cannon

In 1804, Diamond Rock, Martinique, was dressed as a ship, manned by 20 English sailors with 4 cannon causing much damage to the French fleet.  It is said though, that the French easily evened the score and took the island back.  Simply by "wrecking" boats on shore laden with casks of rum. "Know your enemy!"

Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe.  The busiest port in the Caribbean
& an early start for our daily "Shipping News" watch! 

A complete rainbow arc to mark our leaving Deep Bay,
Antigua for the 83 mile sail to St Bart's.

The easterlies remained and GS “pilled” up for the next long leg to St Bart's then on to St Martin.  All went well as we find ourselves in Simpson Bay Lagoon (on the Dutch side) yet again.  Close enough to regularly access takeaways from all nations – Indian curries, Korean spicy soups and French pastries.  Will we ever leave?

Not just yet.  It seems that huge sweeping systems called “Christmas Winds” are now regularly belting across vast swathes of the US, the Bahamas, Turks Caicos and northern Caribbean islands.  Doing their worst by removing our favourable Trades with winds from the north.  Better sit this out...  Pass round those chocolate croissants before they go stale then!!

Photos to follow...baby steps as we're learning the ropes now with Starlink and a brand spanking new (much larger) inverter to power it.  

Mixin' with the really big boys (lots of them) in Simpson Bay Lagoon.
No swell, just chop.  Lots of sleek go-fast boats & jet skis with
too much engine power (and not enough brain power). 

Eating Humble Pie

Rodney Bay Marina (still), St Lucia

Dear Friends,

Specifically, those who have commented on our blogs and never been answered, we send to you our most humble apologies.  Having managed our blogs for some 17 years now, the Galley Slave/Blog Manager has only just stumbled upon the Comments section.  Here lie many missives, that until now, have mostly sat forlorn and unnoticed.  This apology also extends to you too Alexandra, one of our most loyal readers.  Oh dear!  

Our Galley Slave has just finished revitalising the now ageing blogs.  A perfect job indeed when on hurricane watch sitting in a marina for a few months.  Low season maintenance tasks!  We have six blogs to manage, with only two connected to our regularly accessed, email accounts.  These are the busiest blogs, although I hasten to add that none of them are appearing in any top ten popularity lists (just yet!).  That’s fine with us; we’re not in it for glory, money or bow-bunny pix.  We started our blogs as an easy way of keeping contact with family and friends as we moved about and to have journals to remind us, in our dotage, of “our wilful youth.”  They are also a way for us to participate in and share with our communities.  The Cap’n writes of his boat maintenance efforts and GS, her travel, textile and other arty stuff finds.  Our Cap’n is also a big fan of the Cruiser net community.  Many a problem has been thus solved.  

Thank you all for your efforts to engage us.  We shall endeavour to be more attentive and prompt in the future.  Always learning!  And a big thank you to everyone who reads and enjoys our adventures.

Saturday, 9th November, is nearly upon us.  WJ3's nose will then be pointed north, after a couple of days acclimating in Rodney Bay, to the hardship of wind, swell and waves.  We heard it was snowing in the US already... Just whose idea was this?  

Shellfish grow at an alarming rate in our sea-water plumbing

Hunter Moon over Rodney Bay

Rodney Bay Marina, St Lucia

Well, we just can’t seem to get those dock lines loosened from WJ3’s cleats right now!  Here in the Rodney Bay Marina, under the Hunter moon, we’re having a real-life “Hotel California” moment.  That involves watching the weather daily, with fingers crossed; hoping weather systems, still rocketing off the African coast, don’t develop into something nasty.  Unfortunately, USA’s south eastern states, particularly Florida, have been really copping it.  Also, we’ve heard little on how Grenada & St Vincent and the Grenadines are doing with their recovery from Beryl.  There’s not been much traffic passing through the marina since we’ve been here.  Everything takes time and life in this part of the world seems to have reached a low-season standstill.

Here in the North, this is known as the Hunter Moon.
Bright enough for the last night hunt before winter sets in.

November is thankfully, the last month of Hurricane season.  However, we are counting days down to the end of October and monitoring...  That said, there can be the odd December ’cane spin up.  So, if all settles down, our plan (which changes daily!!) is to make the leap north to Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe in mid-November.  Here, we’ll take a short break to catch our breath, seek out all those delicious French foods (and champagne), and once we’ve seen what’s predicted for Nov/Dec, begin the slow, slog north. 

Life in the marina has been a life of idyll – happy, peaceful, and simple.  We’ve kept ourselves busy doing stuff, as long as it’s mostly in air-conditioned comfort.  One of the joys of being dockside!  We have hardly ever made use of the aircon but it’s been a real blessing in this humid, tropical weather.  Lately, temperatures daily reach the low 30’s (in Celsius).  Meanwhile, the Cap’n has been researching and then fixing stuff – always a challenge.  His current task is to set up a new furling system for the spinnaker, designed to make life easier.  And of course, finally make use of that sail ordered in 2010!  As always, check his Hunter460 blog for our technical ups & downs.  The Galley Slave has soldiered on with refreshing the WJ3 blogs, doing some family history research and digging out the Walmart $70 special sewing machine to make up some quilt blocks.  With thanks to Mr Lozza who serviced it for her last year, it worked a treat!  Yeah!  Happy campers all round!!

Doing the weekly shop, without fail, attracts those on the hum.
This time though, GS wanted to enlist a new crew member!

Of course, October is anniversary month – married 45 yrs & sailing WJ3 17 years (2007 BVI purchase), so the Cap’n made a special effort in buying an expensive ring.  To celebrate his years of togetherness for the Other Woman, naturally!  GS will bide her time…  

WJ3's expensive custom new stainless ring
(for the furling spinnaker fitting)

Windjammer's Holiday

Innocent looking cumulus clouds just looking for some very warm Caribbean water to grow into something nasty!!

Here we sit, in an often bouncy lagoon (even though WJ3 is still very securely tied to our berth, D21), daily watching towering cumulus clouds drift overhead.  This means yet another tropical wave is gliding over us; some offering more kick than others.  The end of August approaches, and this season’s outlook is expected to heat up until November-ish.  Fortunately for us in the Windwards, Atlantic conditions have changed a wee bit and these waves, with little to feed off (to develop into tropical storms or worse, hurricanes), are mostly drifting north-west of us – a bit of a reprieve, for now! 

So, tucked up in our little berth, we are pretending we’re on holiday.  A white sandy beach on a green tropical island somewhere...  Oh, wait – we are!

Looking oh so innocent, but we all know that means trouble ahead!!

Now that our second month here in St Lucia draws to a close, we tell ourselves we really have put time to good use.  The Cap’n continues to update his Hunter 460 Blog.  Exciting reading if you’re into mechanical & electrical mayhem and the many other wild and wacky delights of ongoing sailboat maintenance!  He’s also spending time doing heaps of research to help solve all those incidents that might just crop up one day – as they often do.  At present, we are still at a loss to explain why the main sail continues to get stuck in our mast.  Is it a bid for freedom?  Or why the cabin roof continues to leak every time it rains.  It is the tropics and rain it often does.  All this angst despite a fortunes-worth of sealants squeezed into every possible nook & cranny.    

An early evening gathering of our quietest neighbours, roosting egrets?

Meanwhile, the Galley Slave has prepped-up a handy to-do list of boat chores for herself and will one day get round to thinking about doing them.  Her current area of domestic expertise is fishing out little squidgies that find themselves sucked up in through the bathroom salt water inlet pump.  Meanwhile, last year’s troublesome laptop has become this year’s troublesome laptop, so uploading photos for WJ3 and the H460 blogs may have to wait until the nearest Walmart.  Meanwhile, there’s always a basket of stitching or a book to read…

So stressed out we are not; the aircon is working beautifully!  We check the weather daily, have an escape plan in mind and intend to stay in St Lucia rather than back-track south.  Anyhoo, it’s been lovely chatting but it’s almost beer time.  And a chilly, blue can of Piton definitely has our name on it. 

Looking right (south) from our comfy seats in the cockpit. Can you find the egrets?

And looking left (north)...it's a big marina for sure and a long walk to the bathrooms.
We are at the top end of the island and its flattest part.

J’ouvert or Not to J’ouvert

We find ourselves in St Lucia for Carnival.  Wiser, much wiser, following our experiences in Grenada, we’ve listened to the goings-on and gatherings from afar.  (Well, from our marina berth, actually!)  The resort opposite has had rather lively fire dancers performing over the last couple of Saturday nights and there’s been some local bands playing loudly, outsde the marina compound.  Mr L approves the music.  He assured me they were playing the Banana Boat song last night!  Interestingly, there’s been no sightings of steel pans.  Mind you, the weather has been consistently inconsistent and tropical waves, bringing humidity, frequent showers and the odd storm, still regularly blow over us.  A real tropical experience.

We booked in to stay here for a month - a bit of a luxury with restaurants, a large grocery store, laundry, tap water and…electricity!  Also, the island boasts an international airport, so Mr Lozza can make his escape at the end of July.  The hurricane knocked out those airports south of us (not Trinidad) and we’re a bit wary of heading too far north until the end of the hurricane season.  So, here we sit, taking it easy.  

Sunset over Rodney Bay Marina (Photo by L.A.)

That’s not to say, there hasn’t been any repairs or maintenance to do.  We just get the chance to space those chores out, interspersed with dingy rides to Pidgeon Point (off Rodney Bay) for some snorkelling, a game of golf and dinners/breakfasts out.  The Cap’n managed, with help from the crew, to get the main sail out of the mast and leaks in the cabin have been located and sealed.  We are watertight again!  Now there’s just some canvas work to do.

The Cap'n trying hard on this beautiful green but it was Mr Lozza,
game, set & match!  (Evidence provided by Mr L.)

There’s also been time to do even more planning!  At last report, the Cap’n had booked us in to Power Boats, Trinidad for an early September haul then fly home.  Our latest thoughts though, are to stay in St Lucia for another month, then move south to anchor in Grenada for September & October (peak months).  If another Beryl blows by, we can make an easier run south for Trinidad from there.  

In November, we’ll start heading back up the Caribbean chain, through the Turks Caicos and Bahamas, making US landfall in about Jan 2025.  We’re aiming to start in Florida from West Palm Beach.  With Mr Lozza along for the ride, we’ll follow the ICW to the Chesapeake and our “home” base in Deltaville.  It will just be a wee bit chilly at this time of year.  Indeed, a similar, speedy trip to the one we did in 2018 returning from the Med.  This will be our 5th run of the Caribbean chain, so we’re not needing to stop except for bare necessities - fuel, food and water.  So, there you have it.  We’ll hopefully be home in March giving us a whole year to tend the garden, repair the house and best of all, spend time with family and friends.

Of course, this could all change tomorrow...  

June too soon… (Oh, sure!)

Always hoping to catch sight of the green flash as the sun goes down!! 
The view from our mooring in Grenada.

Firstly, and importantly, WJ3 Cap’n & both Crew are safe and sound in St Lucia.  We are nested in a web of mooring lines, secured to a very solid concrete marina berth, and surrounded by mangroves (and the odd water-front housing estate!).  Rodney Bay Marina is also on the far north of the island.  As luck would have it for us at least, Beryl wobbled south a bit leaving us to manage with just a few intense gusts and some rain.  Not so lucky for those islands south of us!

So, why are we here?  With June too soon and July stand by ringing in our ears, we set off for a cruise of the southern Windwards.  All in aid of a dive on Tobago Cays, a chance to visit more remote islands in the chain and some sunny, clean, calm anchorages.   Our rule of thumb however, was not to be further than 2 sailing days away from Trinidad.  That made Martinique, at a stretch, our northernmost limit. 

Having left Trinidad, we set course for Grenada, arriving after a brisk sail at the moorings off St Georges Harbour.  A vast marina, set up with visions of attracting flotillas of super yachts, now occupies a section of the harbour called the Frying Pan (due to its shape).  Still, the outer mooring area was fine and we were still able, without risking life or limb, to access a small supermarket deep in the Pan, to replenish supplies.

Our skitterish hitchhikers wouldn't pose for the Cap'n

Of course, halfway across to Grenada, we attracted some rather suspect hitchhikers and soon after were nearly collected by a determined freighter.  An eventful trip this time.

From Grenada, we moved on to Carriacou, anchoring in the protection of Tyrell Bay.  Here, we became aware of a couple of tropical waves (atmospheric depressions) moving across the Atlantic from Africa.  There was potential for them to develop into tropical storms so we decided to go further north, moving on to Bequia.  Bequia must be the quintessential Caribbean harbour.  Beautiful clear turquoise water, white sandy beaches, friendly locals and a neat, tidy town.  Except the two storms were growing larger!  So, the next morning we hot-footed it to St Lucia.  Yet another rocky ride in our progress north through the Windwards!

St Vincent - a garden island

Hatches, hatches crew!!  Downpour on the way...  St Vincent

At this point (28 June), it became apparent that we now had a sizeable hurricane on our heels.  Also, best advice was that Miss Beryl could wobble further south given conditions in the Caribbean.  An escape back to Trinidad therefore seemed unrealistic, so we decided to take our chances in St Lucia. With canvas and sails stripped down, everything strapped securely to the boat, provisioning complete and water tanks filled, here we are on Monday (1 Jul) crossing everything humanly possible and waiting our fate.  

At its closest, Beryl was about 112 miles (181 km) from us.  But she did wobble south.  The eye, with predicted maximum sustained winds near 130 mph (215 km/h) made a direct hit over Carriacou and tiny Petite Martinique wreaking havoc.  Barbados to the east, Grenada on its south flank and Bequia to its north, all fell into the line of fire too.  Our thoughts are with those whose lives have been so dramatically changed as a consequence.

Beryl is certainly a gal braking records!  She’s the earliest recorded in the season, quickly gained strength, intensified from a tropical depression to a Category 3 hurricane in 42 hours then became a Category 4 hurricane in 48 hours.  Now she’s heading for Jamaica as a Category 5!

(Back in 2010, Hurricane Earl (link) met us up in Maine.  We were only 90 miles away then and well hidden thanks to Maine's amazing landscape and robust trees!)

One very smart bird...

This great lump decided that WJ3 was the perfect observation post for spotting flying fish in our wake.  Its a breakfast of champions obviously.  Despite his webbed feet, he balanced very well indeed (better than us!!) and rode with us, standing lookout, for quite a distance.  Flying off as necessary, then coming back to wait in luxury.  Better than wasting energy flying!

Sargasso weed in great clumps off the coast of St Lucia. 
 It's at the point of being a small craft hazard in some places