Rodney"s Bay St. Lucia

We are in Rodney's Bay, St. Lucia. We checked in to St. Lucia in Marigot Bay this morning after we woke up and did a little look around. Many charter catamarans here from a company called Moorings. Prices were high for the gift shop. We did pick up some fresh bread for our tuna sandwiches we were making for lunch. We left this bay around 11:30am for Rodney's Bay. In St. Lucia many places close at 12:30 so the laundromat was closed. We will do some laundry in Martinique (next stop). We are in a bay with about 75 other boats, very big. We got some diesel for our boat, ice and went out for dinner tonight at the marina. There was an interesting local that came by in his boat with many flags a flying. He was selling lots of fruits and some vegetables. He was a hoot and we bought some cucumbers, bananas and oranges.

In St. Lucia

This morning we left St. Vincent and the Grenadines and went to a brand new country, St. Lucia. Again we made our lunches and knew in advance that for about 1 hour it would be extremely rough and yes it was. We have information booklets, with aerial photos, diagrams and advise on every island we are going to visit. I had too much sun yesterday so I wore a t-shirt and sat on the back cockpit most of the day. We charted the course right to the famous Pitons, the two mountains that are known in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean. Many boats were ahead of us and many behind us on this journey. Turns out that I estimate that 60% are like the one we are on, a Catamaran … which means two hulls, 30% are sailboats, this catamaran sails too but sailboats are monohull (one) and have a keel (under the boat to keep from tipping right over), 10% only are motor monohull boats like our Calypso at home. Now, this will change drastically as we head north out of East Caribbean. Motorboats like ours will become more common and more sailboats.

We are sitting in Marigot Bay which is a major check-in point here, our Q flag is flying and we will go to customs in the morning as it closed at 4:30pm today. We are able to check-in and out all one stop if we are leaving St. Lucia in 3 nights. This bay has a marina, stores, restaurants, etc. etc. We will head to Rodney Bay tomorrow which is bigger and better and less expensive. This is still St. Lucia and only a short jaunt compared to the last couple of day. We have locals coming up to our boat constantly wanting to sell everything from bread to fish. We are all well, we will have more to write about when we pick up James in Guadeloupe. We will slow down and do a lot more. We don't want to miss our deadline to get him next Sat. We have to go to Martinique then Dominica and then finally Guadeloupe so we are right ahead of schedule. Xxoo everyone!

Leaving Union Island

We traveled from Union Island to St. Vincent Island on my birthday (Thursday). It was an extremely long day but we traveled so far. We had great winds. Union and St. Vincent are both the same country, St. Vincent and the Grenadines (Tobago Cays). We actually saw dolphins, about 7 or 8 but were a fair distance away. Maybe they were eating all those flying fish we see everywhere. We make lunches in the morning before we head out because it is too rough to be inside the boat.... plus some of us get motion sickness but not me. I am the one who is not ever, so I am inside sometimes to get people things. Because this is the last island in this country we had to check out so we decided to head to Chateau Belair bay to the customs there on St. Vincent Island. There was only one boat there anchored. We should have know something was not right when there were no local boys coming with their small boats to help direct us in. We got ourselves anchored and comes along a local boy about age 12 on a surf board paddling with a wooden oar. The boy told us it is not safe here and to come to the beach closer to shore. We did not want to do that then locals are too close to us too. So we decided to not stay... but to check out of the country here as the other place is major backtracking. Paul went with Dave to shore and a good thing as both were very nervous, nothing like the other places we were at before. The boy, George stayed with us, he told us that he is asked to come and tell the tourists that it is not safe and not stay by the Customs office on shore. We backtracked down to a another bay with the local welcoming committee to help us anchor. This bay was full of boats and many tourists and we were welcomed! Paul and I went ashore to a Pirates of the Caribbean restaurant\bar to send emails wireless, finally after many days. St. Vincent had many sites where the movie was filmed. I am sitting here in Marigot Bay at St. Lucia (New country now, Q flag is flying right now). St. Lucia was a major movie location too for the movies.

This night we had spaghetti dinner for my birthday, I made the sauce while Paul and Dave were ashore checking us out of the country. Turns out that exactly six years ago Paul and I were in St. Lucia on a holiday for my 40th birthday.

This will be posted eventually.

Union Island

Hello from Union Island in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (Tobago Cays). We have arrived safely but could not send my last blog entry. This is a hub of boats. Union Island is the place where all boaters must “check in” at customs. Let me explain how this works, after we anchor in another country we fly a yellow “Q” flag. This means to the officials that we are new and will be checking in. The Captain of the boat, Dave, goes in with all our passports, ownership of the boat, crew list (3 copies), and other docs and usually some money. After he comes back we start flying the flag of that country up on our mast. Our big Canadian flag is always on the back of our boat. Now we are good to go to any island existing in this country. There are many islands we want to see here in Tobago. We arrived around 11am this morning to beautiful aquamarine blue waters..... spectacular. I will attach photos separately as I am always afraid I will lose connection and my stuff goes into cyberspace. There are many boats from Europe here and a couple sailboats with a Canadian flag on them.

Last night was the first night it did not rain so we pray that happens again tonight.... up so many times closing those hatches. I did some laundry today, which entails washing in salt water then rinsing with fresh water from our tanks (we ration as we have to buy at about .25 cents a gallon). We have lots of drinking water on reserve too, it was free in Grenada before we left Bernhard's house.

We went into the small village to walk around, we bought some key limes, tomatoes for our fajitas tonight, 1 orange to try and of course, we bought chocolate and pops. I bought some Tostitos chips and it cost over $6 U.S..... I checked the expiry date and they have traveled far to get here but they will be so good tonight with fresh salsa we bought in Grenada. Mmmmmm!

We are heading toward St. Vincent tomorrow, a big day of traveling. We are not sure if we will make it all the way, but no worries, lots of bays to spend the night. All the islands are close together in Tobago. Ciao for now and we are thinking of all our friends.

Left Grenada

Hi everyone it is Tuesday afternoon as I type this. Monday was our big day of leaving the main island of Grenada and traveling to a neighbouring island named Carriacou. We left at 8:30am and did not arrive to our destination until 8:30pm..... yes we anchored in the dark in a strange harbour, in a strange country with many vessels there..... yes... something Paul never wanted to do! Our journey began well and we were sailing fairly well until the choppy seas made Traci sick. Paul let out his new lure on his new fishing rod hoping to catch some dinner. One time we had to tack over to the island we were going to and voila the line got caught in the motor's rudder. Dave had to dive down with his handy knife and cut that lure free and all the line free that wound around the motor. So off we go again and see some great flying fish. These fish remind me of flying squirrels... they can go a long distance with their wingspan. Traci and I didn't know if these fish are a school of fish or a flock as they looked like either. Now, of course these creatures are fast moving and no way we can get a picture. As we are sailing along to the next island one of the motors conks out and poor Dave is down in the hot engine room fixing that. We are staying on course with our mighty GPS and autopilot. To make a long story short, we got to the bay late and exhausted! Now, I may not have mentioned before but it rains here at night on and off about 6 times. We have skylights (hatches) wide open so we can breathe in this hot weather, but with the rain, we are constantly opening then closing these hatches, in our staterooms. We are sleep deprived. This is rain and not snow so we do not complain. Tuesday morning we are in our last official stop of Grenada, another beautiful bay. This is the place we “checked” out from. Dave and Traci went in with our official documents to do the proper paperwork. We do this when we check in to a new country and then when we exit that country. Tomorrow morning we officially are exiting Grenada and heading to Tobago Cays (St. Vincent). We have read there are a lot of shops and tourist stuff there so I may end up sending this via an internet cafe.

We snorkeled in the bay and saw great starfish. Dave went down to the bottom and brought one up for us to see and take a picture. Huge! I hope to attach pictures separately. We have rested today and enjoyed reading and swimming. We are safe and sound and heading to Tobago on Wed. morning.

Pictures in Grenada

Shannon Arrives Safely

I am here safe and sound from a long trip with a layover in Toronto as my 6am flight to Toronto was cancelled so unable to make my connections all the way through to Grenada,,,, stayed at the Four Points Sheridan. Had an uneventful night and made the successful journey on Friday. Traci has cleaned this boat all week and Paul and Dave have worked on all things mechanical. Hot, hot, hot, and I don't mean hot people here, I mean 100 degrees F. And the nights are bad!! I came down 5 days after the other three on purpose so they can inform me what extra things to bring. I brought down an Xtreme cooler I bought at Wal-Mart and filled it up with sheets, mattress covers, air fresheners, baking soda, snorkels and Jiff peanut butter for Dave. Traci was in heaven sleeping on 300 tread cound sheets on Friday night. Daruma smells heavenly now.

We went out for our first sail yesterday in extremely rough weather with Bernhard, the previous owner (Daruma is docked at his house). Dave and Paul learned everything while Traci and I hung on tight, with Traci with a blue bucket, that we have designated as the “barf” bucket. We enjoyed the sail as 90% of the time we will be in much calmer waters, but to be tested like that with a seasoned sailor aboard made it all worthwhile.

I did send a pic to our blog yesterday but unfortunately, the internet is not reliable and all my text was lost in cyberspace. So, I'm actually typing this in a word doc and will try to copy and paste. Today we went to the one grocery store and provisioned with food, wine and beer. We have about 2 weeks worth of food incase we don't provision again until we pick up James in Guadeloupe. We are filling up with water as I type this. We are leaving first thing in the morning for Carricou which is just a short distance away and still a part of Grenada. We are not sure on internet there so you may not get a blog entry for a few days. After Carricou we will sail/motor (we have two motors) over to St. Vincent and the Grenadines as we want to snorkel big time.

There is a boat of local men right near Daruma that go out every day to catch/dive for conch for a couple of hours, then come back and whack those shells to get the “meat” out. They must supply the local markets and restaurants. We went out for lunch today in a restaurant and Paul had conch. He loved it.

I am sitting on the back cockpit of Daruma right now and enjoying the breeze. Thanks for the emails, we do try to reply but if we don't it is because all of a sudden no internet. This is the Caribbean and everything is unpredictable.

Stay tuned to our next blog and pictures, which may come separately.

Sailing Day

Finally a Post From Sunny Grenada

Sorry to everyone for not posting sooner. We have had some difficulty with getting a wireless internet connection. Have lots to tell you but will start from the beginning in the next blog. I will be picking up Shannon tonight as one of her flights was cancelled yesterday so she spent the night in Tornoto. The temps here are high 90's and the water high 80's. We have had an extremely busy week trying to get the boat in order, but it is comming together. We plan to leave on Sunday for our maiden voyage. Hopefully tomorrow I will have time to start giving some detail and upload some pictures.
Take care all.

Daruma at her berth in Grenada

Daruma Grenada to Florida

Our good friends Dave and Traci Lockhart who recently purchased Daruma have invited us to share in their adventure of sailing Daruma from Grenada to the west coast of Florida. Dave,Traci and Paul will fly to Grenada November 14 and spend a very busy week outfitting and preparing the boat for a November 21 departure. Shannon will arrive on November 19 to take on the position of Galley Slave. We expect to pick up our son James in Guadeloupe 2 weeks later. We will continue to post as we lead up to our departure and during our adventure, hopefully you will enjoy our log and pictures.