Pirate in the Caribbean

Home Maintenance and Martinique Bound! Just like your own home, maintenance on a boat is constant.  Sometimes systems break down and need repair, or you decide to upgrade some systems to make life easier. As we came into Bequia all of our instruments stopped working.  We use Navionics on our iPad for navigation so we were still able to get from A to B without our GPS.  However, the AIS functionality which allows you to see where other boats are.  This would become important as we were planning a long sail from the Grenadines to Martinique and the early part of the sail would be in darkness.  The other thing you realize you miss is the depth gauge (sounder), especially when you are anchoring.   Fortunately, Navionics indicates the charted depth, and you can often see the bottom because of the crystal clear water.  We also did not have our wind indicator for angle and strength of the wind.   I am very lucky that our boat comes with its own handyman,...

Chillin' in the Grenadines - Chatham Bay After spending 4 days in the Tobago Cays, our plan was to head to Mustique for New Year's. Mustique is an island of the rich and famous whose local cast includes Mick Jagger, Shania Twain and Bryan Adams.  Our plan was to dine for NYE at Basil's Bar a famous oceanside watering hole. We pulled up anchor and set sail, pointing the bow north. While sailing out of the Cays we passed close astern of several mega yachts complete with helicopters. Unfortunately for them, they are too large to enter the lagoon so are stuck out in much rougher waters making it difficult for their guests to get ashore.  As we sailed upwind towards Mustique the strong trade winds were against us and the waves were building. The boat was slamming into it and we were working harder than we needed to. We had no firm agenda, so Roger and I looked at each other and said, why bother?  Thus we turned around and headed in exactly the opposite direction heading for a ...

  Chillin' in the Grenadines - The Tobago Cays We headed south from Bequia to the Tobago Cays.  It was a solid upwind sail with the warm trades blowing 18 knots.  With a boat there is always something to fix and some things are more urgent than others. A few days previous, when we entered Bequia, our instruments started to fail. This was frustrating as everything, including the radar, was new last year. There were no electricians available in Bequia and although Roger spent a full day working on the instruments, trying all the suggestions the internet provided, he could not resuscitate them. Luckily we have two iPads with a charting application on them. Before GPS and electronic charting, we only had a paper chart and a compass. With just those basic tools, Roger and I navigated much of Georgian Bay for many summers. Roger's sea-faring father, old Johnny Walker, scoffed at all the fancy electronics Roger loaded on our racing boats. He would say; "A chart, parallel rules, ...

Merry Christmas from Bequia in the Grenadines 🎄 We decided to spend Christmas in Bequia (pronounced Bekway), which is just south of St Vincent and north of Mustique.  End to end, Bequia is about 5 miles long and only 1/2 mile wide, with about 5000 inhabitants.  Bequia has a beautiful anchorage called Admiralty Bay.  After an eventful 10 days of prepping the boat and sailing northbound, we were happy to land in Bequia for some down time, and peace and quiet.  Or so we thought .... The people of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) celebrate Nine Mornings, a festival associated with the Christmas season.  Nine Mornings before Christmas, the islanders wake at 3 in the morning and partake in various activities many of which include musical concerts and dancing.  Celebrations continue for several hours and then they head to work and during this time, it is perfectly acceptable to be quite late for your morning shift.  On our first night in th...