Happy New Year!

We wish everyone a very Happy and blessed New Year. We are having a quiet New Year's Day on Peace and Plenty after our tradional eggs Benedict for breakfast. Decided to skip the champagne and save it for another day. We had a great party of 12 on Cat Tales last night and actually made it to real midnight not cruisers midnight which is about 9:00. There were fire works from the the resort and lots of Chinese lanterns and as always a few foolish cruisers who feel they must dispose of their expired flares in the anchorage. Now dinner for 8 tonight on Terentella. Both boats are decorated for the occasions. 

Cat Tales decked out with the New Brunswick flag.

 Terentella decked out with the Nova Scotia flag. 

We arrived here in St Anne Martinque after a brief stop in Bequia and a few days stop in Rodney BayWhile in Bequia at anchor one blustery afternoon, I stood up and looked out and noticed a boat drifting very close to our bow. Brian jumped in the dinghy and went to the boat and I wentto the  bow with the boat pole. No one was on board. I got to the VHF radio and put out a call for help and three boats came to help in an instant. Could not believe how fast it was moving. With Brian back on board we lifted our anchor to get out of its way. The other dinghys acted as fenders and then they got on board the drifting boat and got it reanchored. As it is our custom wihen we get anchored we take coordinates and have an anchor down beer and make sure we are set well. We invited all our helpers on board and had our beer. By then another dinghy came by slowly with looks of puzzlement. Like where did our boat go. We called out to them and they were the culprits. Dawn called out we were having an anchor down beer and it was their anchor. They very sheepishly apologized. Got to their boat ...lifted anchor and reanchored as far as they could from us. Funny I didn't have time to get any pictures of this event. 

We have had lots of rain in our time here this month. More than usual it seems. Enough to put a curb on our hiking. We have taken a couple road hikes with no mud or slipping. We have taken a lovely city bus to do shopping in the nearest city Marin. They have a great big grocery store for stocking up with French wines and cheeses. As always the French islands always present a problem in buying Internet data. Both the language and the systems. But we think after three tripson the bus we have it worked out. 

Certainly the social life is very busy here with Christmas and New Years. We had a lovely Christmas dinner at a beach restaurant. Then some beach time afterwards.

Photo bombed by Al.

We are in no hurry to leave here. 

Again all the best for 2018. 

Start of the trek north

We have had a busy but a relaxing month in Prickley Bay. There is so much to do here. Activities are well planned and you can do as much or as little as you want. Dominoes are twice a week and we really enjoy that. Last week a ten year old playing for her first time beat three tables of well seasoned adults! We walked to a cooking demonstration at a beautiful resort on American Thanksgiving and enjoyed a complete turkey dinner....minus pumpkin pie Brian reminded them. We have enjoyed great music from cruisers at the Brew Pub.  

We were invited to a BBQ on the beach where Time after Time (Al and Francine) carried in a charcoal BBQ and we cooked our own meat and shared salads. A fun change. 

A bus trip was planned to a Jab Jab camp up in the mountains. The bus trip took 45 mins and when I asked the distance he laughed and said 9 miles of mountain climbing and switch backs. Jab Jab is a native cultural art of dance,music,applying blackening makeup in preparation for Carnival and parades. At the camp we learned to make Oil Down a big pot of stew with lots of vegetables, salt fish, chicken,pigs feet and other things I didn't want to know. It was fun to watch the preparation and be involved with the chopping and chatting with other cruisers. It took about 3 hours to cook and really was pretty good. In the morning I found my fingernails well stained with the amount of turmeric added. You really had to pick through for the bones. A fun evening for sure. 

Up high in the mountains. 

 Doing the  prep work.

Getting the seasonings on. 

A rustic cooking pot.

The finished product. 

Laurie really wanted us to try this hike up in the mountains at Grand Etang. So we packed our lunches and extra water and headed off on two buses. Unfortunately it has been raining for the past few days .....never good for a hike! We got started but the mud was deep and very slippery. A couple was heading out and said they were giving up and going back. I was the only one to have a small fall (not hurt but muddy). We took a stairway to a lookout and had to call it a day. The views were lovely and sad to not finish. Bit hard to tell but that's the mud in trails with Al marching on. 

 The lake at Grand Etang 

 The ocean from a lookout.

 Some happy hikers.

Happier hikers finding cold beer and a cheap lunch. Al and Michelle introduced us to a great restaurant in St Georges so not a bust for sure. 

 Al is trying negotiate a price on tuna with this fellow. 

 Street corner in St Georges. 

 St Georges harbour. 

 Seas as we left Prickley Bay. On and off showers but nothing too intense at all. 

 The happy captain.

We are now in Tyrell Bay in Carricou. We are at the back of the pack looking into open ocean not someone else's boat. Laurie calls us the Walmart greeters we are so far out.  We will remain here until Thursday or Friday before heading to Bequai for an overnight before St Lucia. 

Take care all. 

Back in Prickely Bay,Grenada

We arrived back in Grenada on Oct 23, a week earlier than usual but when a seat sale pops up I have to grab it. It was a long day with a 2:30 am start with Robert Q ( ground transportation) from London to Toronto. Air Canada Rouge direct flight to Grenada. The plane was full and on time. We had an easy time at Customs and caught a taxi to our hotel/apartment. The taxi driver made a quick stop at a roadside "grocery store" for bread and eggs and beer so we were set for the night. The boat was in good shape when we arrived the following morning with only a light haze of mould inside and quickly cleaned up. The engine started on the first try ...always good. We had both picked up bad colds before leaving Canada and Brian is now better and I am still with a cough and totally plugged ears. It has been almost three weeks so I started an antibiotic last Sat. I think I do feel better. 

The launch went well on Thursday and great to be back in the water with the breeze. It has been very hot. The island has had a lot of rain over the summer and everything is very lush. They are all grateful to not have had the hurricanes that devastated so many other islands. The islands support each other and relief efforts are still going on here. 

The hull needed to be polished and buffed and with the help of our neighbours kayak the job was made easier. Looking nice and shiny. It's another time I'm glad for one hull and only 38 ft. 

We have decided to put Peace and Plenty up for sale. Happy day / sad day for sure. We are thinking six months is too long to be away and miss family and Christmas. Maybe a little land yacht ( trailer) and three months in the warmer states would be our next adventure. We would like to sell down here. So we will list on online sites and see what happens. We are prepared to stay and see what comes of it. If anyone knows of anyone interested email us we have an ad and lots of pictures to share. Trying to declutter and make her spiffy. 

We have no concrete plans for travel. Probably Martinque for Christmas and Dominica in Feb. 

Take care and keep warm. 

Lorna  & Brian

Lots of travelling

When we got our weather window to Bequia we grabbed it and ran. The weather has been more unsettled all winter and good weather windows are short. So we try to be prepared to cut a visit to an island short in favour of a good day to sail south as time is getting short. We had some lovely days in Bequia with good snorkelling off the boat and no shortage of good places to eat. I managed to stretch my birthday week a bit farther with the BLT....being bacon,lobster and tomato at a favourite restaurant. From there we moved south to Frigate Rock. It is a small island off Union Island part of St Vincent and the Grenadines. We were two of 8 boats in the little bay. It was a lovely calm bay and good snorkelling there too. We dinghyed into town and made our way to this mountain to climb for some promised spectacular views. Although it was a mighty climb and we got off the path more than once and the bramble bushes were crazy we were not disappointed. All of us were minimally scratched and bleeding at the end. 

 The start of the climb. 

The mountain.

 Our anchorage by Frigate rock. 

 A marina had been started but abandoned in 1999. The amount of dredging required would have been wild. 

 Yes I made it with a smile on my face. 

 We both did. 

 The village of Ashton. Our dinghy is at that dock. A hawk took flight just below us and soared away. So this is a hawk's eye view.

 A sweet specimen at the dock. 

 A crazy snorkelled by. ....me.

After a couple nights there we sailed just a few miles south to Petite Martinique ( part of Grenada) and Petite St Vincent (part of St Vincent). The two islands are very close with a large channel separating them with a large reef closing the gap. Our GPS is dying a slow death as the screen becomes smaller and darker and we had to rely on our iPad with its charts. Thank goodness for redundancy. The reefs in this area are really amazing and new places for us to explore. 

Here we are between the islands in about 12 feet of water. But the current was very strong and not much to see except white sand. Brian did see a ray swim by as we were ready to anchor. 

 And of course another hike. We pretty much walked all around Petite Martinique. We found a great lunch spot and pre-ordered and when we finished the hike lunch was ready for us with cold beers. 

 The kind of grass you see is actually kind of slick and a bit slippery. No accidents though!

 Almost to the top. 

 View from part way up. 

 Coming down on a good road. 

 You can see our boats from here! 

We have moved onto Carricou another small island of Grenada. We will stay here until Monday probably and then make the last sail south and begin our work list in earnest. We are half heartedly doing a few things. We haul out on April 18 and fly on the 20th. So most of our work will be done in the water.  I have managed to find a cold this week and broke out a bag of throat lozenges from our first season's provisioning. A bit out of date but still work. 

Waiting for a weather window

We had a lovely sail from Dominica to St Pierre in Martinique except for some really confused seas off the northern end of Martinique and streaks of some kind of muck on the surface of the water. We speculate that it might have been a spore bloom from the sea moss or whale diahrea! Not very pleasant. Once we were anchored there was a swell that lifted the back of our boat and slapped it down with regularity. Because of the design of the 38 C&C the stern is flat and waves from the stern slap and actually at times will spray into the cockpit. That's what was happening that evening. We had planned to stay a day or two before Cat Tales company came but when this was happening there was no rest for the crew as the whole boat shudders each time. We wanted to have Dawn and Laurie over for a BBQ but it would not have difficult so we packed up food and our BBQ and Laurie transported us over to Cat Tales to have them for dinner but not on P&P. We cooked and took home the dirty dishes.

 First thing in the morning we moved down the island to our favourite St Anne anchorage. If you're going to sit out bad weather this is the place to be. It looks like Tues March 13 will be our time to travel south. We have had high winds and a lot of rain for the past couple weeks. Checking the anchor is always a priority and Brian bought a new float device to swim with to be seen. Here in this anchorage there is not a lot of fishing boat traffic or water taxis as there are in many other anchorages. I usually go out on the bow with a red towel and watch for dinghies and alert them that a swimmer is near. This should make that exercise a little safer. 

  

 

The anchor seems to be well dug in. 

 Got to love our Manson Supreme.

We have had lots of fun while being here.....dominoes with friends on a Sunday afternoon,a couple bus trips into Marin for some shopping, many fun sun downers on neighbouring boats. A pizza boat is a new addition to the bay this season. It a big catamaran with a pizza oven at the back. You make your order and they deliver to the boat....how fun ! We also have found a great vegetable and a chicken BBQ stand. We take a big container and for 10 euros you bring home a three meal chicken. We have had fun with Sitatunga ...Dan and Cindy ....who have been cruising for 9 years but never to St Anne. We have been their tour guides.  

The down side to a French island is the propane (cooking gas) is not available and we are running very low. Hopefully we have enough to last until St Lucia. We are also running very low on fresh water. They have a water delivery boat but he has been unable to deliver water in the high winds lately. We might have to hand carry some jerry jugs. 

Peace and Plenty on a calm day. 

Moved on to Dominica

We had wonderful few days in St Pierre Martinique. We found a new spot to anchor and made for a much more pleasant stay. St Pierre is a very deep anchorage and holding a little tough. But we had a perfect spot and quite calm waters making it a great place to swim to a reef for some good snorkelling. We saw many interesting things and some large fish for a small spot. We took all our gear to shore and had a picnic and beach day which is always pleasant with a big shady tree. We were next to busy roadway and a tunnel. Why does everyone have to blow the horn while going through a tunnel? 

There were some interesting "art work" sort of totem poles with eyes on top at the tunnel. Not sure of the significance if any but cool. 

Our boat is only one you see. 

These eyes kept a good watch out for us. 

We crossed over to Dominica on Sunday Feb 12. We had more wind and waves than we bargained for and got pretty beat up. Including a squall with winds to 36 knots. But arrived safe and sound in the day light and reunited with Cat Tales. We re were welcomed with a meal of Dorado. It was delicious and great to see them again. 

Look at the water on the floor. 

But a beautiful sight were the Dolphins that followed us for a good 10 mins and at that time it was so calm Brian walked to the bow and took pictures. There were about a dozen in all. 

This week in Portsmouth has been Yatchie Appreciation Week and lots of BBQs and special events all week. We have taken in many events and have done a couple hikes on our own. This is a wonderful to hike and the trails are well laid out. Some hikes are much more challenging than I would wish for such as the one we did on Friday. It was wild! We left at 9:30 and walked on the road for about an hour to get to the trail start. Then It was straight up and down mountains and some points I was scared to death. But with the help of 7 other hikers I managed. Brian must have had some inside knowledge as he was up most of the night before with a gastro thing and couldn't join in. At one point there was a rope with knots dangling down the side of the hill and I really thought I couldn't do that but actually it was easy. I wished there had been more ropes. At least three of us fell on more than one occasion. Swinging from a tree hand hold was a good safety tool. Near the end was a suspension bridge to cross a small river. I am not good with heights either. But I just kept my head down and barrelled across it. I knew if I looked around or thought about it too much I would have been a goner!  Needless to say when it was over I was done! Mentally and physically! I can scratch that off my to do list! They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger I am stronger. 

 You can see the others down below. 

A view from a lookout of Prince Rupert Bay.

It was very busy here with about 150 or so boats at the peak of the festivities. 

Dominica is a very beautiful island with lots of quick showers and lots of rainbows. 

 This is a view of the bay today from Fort Shirley and more than half the boats have moved on. 

Today's hikers ....we really weren't into it and cut short after about an hour and a half and made our way to a nice road side Roti place for lunch. 

We will leave towards the end of this week starting a slow trek south. Dawn and Laurie have company coming next week and we will probably have some fun with them.