Heading to Wally World – Portsmouth, Dominica, March 9, 2024

Posted on March 8, 2024 by Sally

Heading to Wally World – Portsmouth, Dominica, March 9, 2024

Our last tour had gone so well we decided the next day to take a guided day tour of several of the waterfalls. Maybe we are organized tour kind of people? The tour included our tour guide (Omar), an older French couple (Davey and Marie), and a solo Sailor (Jay). The tour started by us being picked up at our boat at 9:00am, and we all loaded into a little van to head to the north end of the island to visit our first highlight, Titou Gorge. It was another site used in the “Pirates of the Caribbean 2.0” movie, so we were anxious to see it.

However as usual, nothing goes as planned when Ron and I go anywhere together. This little trip was no exception and our first issues started after about 30 minutes into the car ride. Steam/smoke starts to come out of the engine and the van starts to smell very hot. So, we pulled over…. Keep in mind, Dominica is the most mountainous of the Caribbean Island and the elevation here go to about 4,000+ feet. Good thing is, Omar didn’t realize he had brought the engine whisperer with him. That name was given to Ron by a fellow cruiser a few years back. Ron did a quick diagnosis, and the suspicion was a radiator leak. Between all of us we were able to gather enough water to refill the radiator and continue. At this point we were about halfway there.

We were fortunate to only stop a couple more times to get water and let the engine cool off a bit. We made it to the first attraction, Titou Gorge. Ronnie was the name of our next guide who took us to see the Gorge. You must swim through this large gorge to get to the waterfall itself. It was a gorge/waterfall that was fed from a 6-acre freshwater lake at the top of the volcano. Ron and I agreed it reminded us very much of “The Narrows” in Zion National Park, which we had gotten to hike through on our motorcycle trip out west 2 years ago. It was smaller but simply stunning!

Our next stop was the highest waterfall in Dominics, Trafalgar Falls, which meant more uphill driving in our wounded jalopy. With our water reserves refilled, we headed on and without incident, managed to make it to the next stop which was a short 15-minute drive. While we were heading to the waterfall, Omar confirmed our radiator leak and had the van switched. Now we had one issue off the list.

Omar had sold all of us on the idea of hiking to the top of the waterfall. He said it was challenging but only took about 20 minutes, so we signed on. I feel like Ron and I have hiked a lot, seen a lot, and let me tell you, this was not a “moderate” hike. It took us about an hour to hike us and then back down, was past noon and no one had eaten, and about 80+ degrees. Our new French friends only made it about halfway up and he was very tired so they waited for the rest of us to make us up and back down. We did make it to the top but wow, it was more what I consider “bouldering” than hiking and on top of that, we did it in bare feet. It definitely goes on the top 5 stupid things we have done this year including the Barbuda, St. John 5-mile dinghy ride. While beautiful, I was happy it did seem easier to get down than up.

That was when calamity #2 struck. The older French gentleman had a hypoglycemic incident, was overheated, and started passing out. While Omar was sympathetic, Ron was the only one with any kind of first aid training. All his years of being a dive instructor and having a type one diabetic daughter gave him enough background to know what Davey needed right away. All our bags were in the car, and we were about a 10-minute walk from the van or the office, so Ron took off running back to the car to get him a Coke and some cookies. The poor man continued to get worse. So, I took off running back to the office to see if anyone there had any kind of medical background to assist but sadly, no one did. I passed Ron on the way back with the goods and by the time I had turned around and gotten back time to him, the Coke had kicked in and Davey was MUCH better and able to walk back. It was all a bit scary. Omar took us all the lunch after this before stop #3 and by then of was about 2:30.

Our last stop was about halfway back to Portsmouth. It was a natural spa called “Screw,” and run by a local Rastafarian, who strongly reminded me of Prince. He welcomed us by offering us a toke of his joint(which Ron did), and then proceeded to describe how he had built this place with his bare hands. It was a beautiful waterfall with hot springs and a mud bath. Ron and I were the only ones who had enough energy after the last hike to get in the water again. The hot water spring felt wonderful and the mud bath with sulfur water rise really did make my skin feel very smooth and lovely. The whole spa was a trip, but the vibe there was cool and had it not been the last stop, I would have stayed longer. For the sake of the rest of the group, we made our dip short and by the time we made it back to the dock…it was dark. The whole day felt a bit like the movie “Vacation” with its calamity of errors, but we did make it home and as always, it was an adventure, and nothing ever goes to plan. The beer tasted very good at the end of this day.

Dominica 3.0 – Portsmouth, Dominica, March 8, 2024

Posted on March 8, 2024 by Sally

Dominica 3.0 – Portsmouth, Dominica, March 8, 2024

Ron and I enjoyed a couple of low-key days snorkeling, Ilse Des Saintes, which is a small set of islands just south of the main island of Guadeloupe. We redid a couple of hikes we did last year, one called “Le Pain” which ended up being about 6.5 miles. It was an elevation of about 1,200 feet but once we got to the top the view was stunning!

Amazing view once you make it to the top

The next day we took it a bit easy the next day and kept our hike to 3.5 miles up to Napolean’s Fort.

The fort was closed so we explored the moat.

After that we decided to give Dominica another try. We had stopped here twice before and had always felt a bit uneasy. We aren’t really organized tour kind of people and typically prefer to explore an island by ourselves (which we did last time). Many of our cruiser friends simply loved Dominica and we decided to give her another try. This time, however, we would hire a guide. The first tour we did was the “Indian River Tour” which is where our guide actually rows us up the river explaining local flora, fauna, and wildlife. It also so happens that the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean 2” was filmed here in that river, so we got to see some of the movie set as well. It was relaxing and we met a few new sailors but unfortunately, they were heading north.

Made specifically for the Pirates of Caribbean

Decision Fatigue – Jolly Harbour, Antigua, February 23, 2024

Posted on March 1, 2024 by Sally

Decision Fatigue – Jolly Harbour, Antigua, February 23, 2024

We have been moving pretty quickly lately and you may be wondering why we are suddenly heading south again after all the talk of going to Brunswick, Georgia for the off season. Since our guest left, we have been spending a lot of time discussing our off season plan and what we are going to do for that 6 month period. After kicking around ideas we think we have made one of the necessary choices. We considered:

#1 – spending a month in each place we wanted to visit including Georgia, Ohio, and a couple of other states

#2 – Getting an apartment again in Ohio

#3 – Spending the off season in Georgia at a marina on the boat

#4 – Turning around, hauling out again on Grenada, and buying an RV to travel in for the next few years.

You can guess where we ended up since we have turned around. It turns out that when we consider insurance, haul out prices, storage prices for the boat, flights, and the time we have left, Grenada won out. It was cheaper there, we had flights with points, buying an RV was cheaper than rent, we could still travel (which we both wanted to do), we could easily see family more often, we only have 2 more months of sailing season, and lastly it was a La Nina year. This means hurricane season was supposed to be terrible and we didn’t want to chance leaving the boat in the water. We were only one-third of the way to Brunswick and realistically needed more time to choose the right weather to make it back to the states.

Whew! It was a lot of analyzing but we now officially have a plan and after taking the last available window to go east back to Antigua (for at least the next month), we are in a place to pull this off and set ourselves up to have some fun in the process. Neither of us loved the southern islands but we have decided to give them another try. We didn’t dislike everywhere but would be a bit more choosey about where we decided to stay and frankly slow down a bit in those better places.

We left St. John where the winds had clocked around to the south and it was so bad neither of us got any sleep but got up and left for Antigua anyway. It was the only day the weather would let us leave and we couldn’t miss it. Our weather service (Chris Parker) assured us there would not be another chance for potentially another month or more and there was no time to waste.

So, we start again in Jolly Harbor, where the best Mexican food is the southern Caribbean is! Not a bad place to be. After a few days of rest recovering from our last overnight sail this season we filled up on our required Mexican and made the small hop down to Guadeloupe and then Iles Des Saintes. We were very lucky on our sail down we saw a baby whale and he was about 5 feet from the boat! He was incredible!

Our first stop was Deshaies, Guadeloupe where they have the most beautiful botanical garden. It was home to the flamingos! We felt very lucky and have gotten to see some amazing things this week!

The Lone Seahorse – St. Croix, USVI, February 16, 2024

Posted on February 23, 2024 by Sally

The Lone Seahorse – St. Croix, USVI, February 16, 2024

This was our first time to St. Croix Island. We missed this heading to Grenada due to not having a weather window to come over. St. Croix is not a very protected island and is known for it’s terrible swell, so we were thrilled to get a chance to come over directly from Puerto Rico! You see, there are seahorses here and I have only ever seen one at the zoo. We jumped on the opportunity and took the salty 6-hour sail to drop anchor near Frederiksted Pier. I had a good feeling since on our sail over we saw dolphins! It was the first time this whole season and there were about 20 fishing and jumping out of the water right next to us. Perhaps Buddy and Biscuit had not forgotten about me after all 😊. I was too excited to take any photos.

Of course, we had something break which is typical and Ron took the necessary time to trouble shoot the starter on one of the engines and he took apart the switch in hopes this would fix it. Luckily, we had a spare on board, and he was able to replace it.

This is a cruise ship stop and I was thrilled to learn they have very good vegetarian taco’s here! It must be the luck of the dolphins, so we had to see seahorses right? Well, we ended up snorkeling the pier 4 separate times and we saw only one. Seriously? The first time we swam to the pier by simply jumping off the boat, however we both got stung so much by the jellyfish that even after showering with vinegar we had to wait a while for all the feeling to come back. We did get smarter about it as we went and took the dinghy the next 3 times.

You see seahorses are masters of camouflage amongst some of the most beautiful soft coral either of us had ever seen. Not only that but they only like very calm water and are about the size of a Q-Tip. This makes them terribly difficult to see so we only saw the one on our first dive. However we did see a lot of other cool sea life including octopus, rays, turtles, and even the first spotted eagle rays we have seen this year. This was right up there with Blue Tang Reef except the coral and sea life was very different and certainly more colorful.

Frederiksted itself is a sleepy little town and unless there is a cruise ship in town you would think no one lived there since very little was open. We stuck around on cruises ship day just to see what the town was like when it was open, and I will say it livened up quite a bit. Suddenly, the beaches were packed, there were trinket stands open all along the shore way to buy souvenirs, and all the shops and restaurants were open.

However, we only needed to see that once and as always, weather forced us to take the trip back over to St. John USVI the next morning. Remember I said St. Croix has no protection? Well, the winds were picking up and the anchorage had gotten quite full of swell. It was only another day sail until we got to a very nice, protected anchorage just in time for happy hour! It would be an early night since we planned a nice challenging hike the next morning.

We took the chance to head out early the next morning before it got too hot to do the Petroglyph Trail. This was a 3.5 mile out and back trail (7 miles total) which was rated as “difficult” in the all-trails app. It didn’t turn out to be half as hard as many of the other trails we had done and well worth seeing the spring fed waterfall and petroglyphs at the end!

We were both exhausted after the hike when Ron did a double check of the weather and it appeared we would have an opportunity to leave the next morning for St. Marten, no wait, it was directly to Antigua. It’s nice to literally go where the wind blows. There was one issue…Antigua required an exit certificate which we did not have and were not in the right place to get. This will require us to go over to Cruz Bay to customs via the dinghy which was 5 miles of open water. This is a VERY long dinghy ride, but we could not take over Mariposa or we would lose our mooring ball and we were lucky to snag in the first place.

This was not one of the stupidest things Ron and I have ever done (that would be in Barbuda) but it was close. At least we realized it before Customs closed and we ended up with all the necessary paperwork. I guess we are heading to Antigua in the morning for our 24-hour sail.

Our First Guests – Vieques, Puerto Rico, February 13, 2023

Posted on February 14, 2024 by Sally

Our First Guest – Vieques, Puerto Rico, February 13, 2023

It has been a busy couple of weeks since we just found out in late January that we are expecting our first guests! My sister and her husband are both coming to spend a week with us. Upon learning this Ron and I made a plan to leave the fun hiking and snorkeling we were doing in St. John’s and head over to Puerto Rico early to get ready. We rented a car in addition to a dock at the “The Yacht Club” in Palmas Del Mar (a beautifully gated community on the south side of the island). We had hoped to go to St. Croix first but when we tried to head over there it was too rough and honestly It worked out better for us to head directly to Puerto Rico since they were flying into San Jaun, and we also had quite a bit of reprovisioning to do.

Our first order of business was to get access to some laundry since all my spare sheets etc. had been packed up for three years and needed a good washing. Ron had also been busy picking out a new grill since Puerto Rico is a place where we can have anything from Amazon sent to the marina (dangerous!). Our old marine grill didn’t work very well and with the burnt asparagus as proof it will be nice when he can have something that has settings beyond on or off. When he got it and tried it out, we made fajitas and they turned out so well, I think he now loves his new grill more than me.

In between loads of laundry, trips to Walmart to reprovision, we cleaned up the boat and got everything in order for my sister to come. The day we picked them up from the airport we jumped in the car to head back, made an epically short trip to Walmart, got them on the boat, and took the afternoon to sail over to Vieques (a small island off the south coast of Puerto Rico). According to the weather it was the only time we were going to be able to take them out on the boat overnight, so we didn’t want to miss our chance. It was an easy sail, we dropped anchor in a nice protected little anchorage and waited for night fall so we could see the bioluminescent bay. We relaxed had dinner & a couple of beers then took off for the bay when dark hit. It was very bright since there was no moon, and I am so glad we got to take them there.

The next morning, we snorkeled the bay which was pretty good, we saw a lot of fish, a ray and some very pretty coral. Then after lunch we had to head back to hid from the weather. Since it was whale season here, we hoped we would see one on the sail back but with no luck. Sadly, the weather didn’t really cooperate much all week as it rained every day but we still managed to hike the El Yunque National Forest, the Pterocarpus Forest, and one other trail on the south side of the island. We also spent a rainy day in Old San Juan which is always very cool seeing the old forts, cemetery, and just walking the oldest city in the U.S.

The week flew by and rain or not I think everyone had fun. It did highlight about how unusual Ron and my life is and how it can be a bit for any person to get used to. Everything from the bathroom experience on a boat to just getting used to riding in the dinghy. I guess I take a bit of this for granted since we are a couple of years into it. I just want to thank my sister and her husband for being brave enough to not let their comfort get in their way and to try something new like this at the drop of a hat. We loved having you.

Ron and I took a couple of days after they headed back to the mainland to continue utilization of the laundry, finish up the last of our provisioning, return the car and then headed out to do a bit more snorkeling in Vieques now that the wind and seas have calmed a bit. We went back to Blue Tang Reef (one of our favorites last year), and just relaxed for a few days. Now it is off to St. Croix!

The Biggest of the Big – St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, January 22, 2024

Posted on January 22, 2024 by Sally

The Biggest of the Big – St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, January 22, 2024

We spent our week in St. Martin by eating all the good French Food and drinking $1 happy hour beers at Soggy Dollar. Added to this we also met a nice Canadian Sailor and hung out with him for a few days before his girlfriend came into town and we headed out. We did some provisioning and Ron got a new lure to try and catch some fish on our way over to the Virgin Islands. There was a small break in the weather and after a week, we took it and did an 18-hour overnight sail to the US Virgin Islands. We have been to BVI many times and since the customs folks are not all that nice and it’s very expensive, we decided to skip it this round and head directly over to St. John’s Leinster Bay. Ron even caught a couple of fish on our way so the new lure must be working!

Mariposa was on a mooring ball a couple of days while we hiked the beautiful natural island. The first two days we did the Johnny Horn Leinster trail and while it wasn’t long, it was a lot of uphill. There were cool ruins and an old sugar mill where salves used to process the sugar cane into sugar and molasses.

Slave housing for those who harvested sugar cane

Word soon came from our weather service that there was another major blow in weather coming straight for us and would last another week. So, in that case we headed over to St. Thomas for a few days of civilization before jumping back over here for the upcoming weather forecast. St. Thomas was very busy, and they had 3 huge cruise ships in port while we were there, and everyone thought we were tourists on vacation. Kinda funny.

Once of the cool things we did happen to see was the largest, most luxurious sailboat ever made. It’s 400 feet owned by Jeff Bezos of Amazon. The crazy part if there are 38 crew members for 18 guests and while it cost $500M to build, it costs $50M to keep it running every year. It was just delivered last year, and it is gorgeous!

Kora’s support ship complete with helo pad.

Now we are back at St. John’s for the next few days to see how the weather picks up. We started out by doing some snorkeling and we swam with turtles, rays, a little shark, octopus, and tons of fish. It was pretty cool. More to come on that I’m sure since we will be here a week.

Land of the Mega Yachts – Barbuda Island, Antigua, January 5, 2024

Posted on January 9, 2024 by Sally

Land of the Mega Yachts – Barbuda Island, Antigua, January 5, 2024

We have a great time in the states and the reset was definitely needed. We were happy to be back and spent the first couple of days back watching fireworks and doing more work on the boat while we were still in Jolly Harbor Marina. We were able to get our friend Disco back to help with out wind sensor and he went up the mast again. Now we had our depth replaced, wind sensor fixed, and reprovisioned a nice hunk of Red Stripe to last us another little while. It was time to move on again.

Since we were in no hurry to head north and had a nice spell of very, very unusually calm weather, we decided to head over to Barbuda. It was roughly 30 miles directly east and due to this fact, very few people ever see this island. It will be a first time for us. I understand now why it is so desirable. It was stunningly beautiful! The beaches were miles long, the water was blue and clear, and it was to closest we have had to the beauty of the Bahamas since the Exumas.

We spent a couple of days snorkeling which was nice but not the best. We couldn’t help but notice how many mega yachts there are here. Somewhere in the range of 5 at all times. I have to assume it is mostly based on the proximity to St. Barts (the richest island in the Caribbean). But hey, we have never had any issues hanging out with the rich before and it was very safe.

Same view but much cheaper from Mariposa

After a nice lazy couple of days, we had made a new plan to check out hear and head to St. Barts. This required us to head to shore and visit the customs office which was located in Codrington (the only settlement on the island). We moved north about an hour and started to take the dinghy in.

Now Ron and I have done some stupid things on our sails but this one tops the charts. We knew how hard hit Barbuda was from Hurricane Irma in 2017 and that there had been a cut created in the lagoon where we could get the dingy to shore and dock. What we didn’t know is there are breaking waves across this little break and how treacherous it was to cross here to get into this lagoon which was only 3 feet deep and the largest bird sanctuary in the world. We chickened out the first time and this was only after $200EC literally blew out of Ron’s pocket. Well great hope customs doesn’t charge us to get out! When we saw another boat go and give it a try, we hoped in our dinghy to try and follow them. They ended us chickening out but we decided to give it a go and made it! Sure hope we can make it back out!

Marching to our death. No closer photos we were to scared to not hold on.

We walked around Codrington a little but honestly, there wasn’t must there and it was obvious what a total loss had happened in 2017. We successfully found the customs office and checked out. Now it was time to try and get back through the cut…uh oh.

The poverty on the islands all look the same.

The good news the trip home was uneventful and not nearly as bad as our ride to get into the dock. We were right on schedule to leave in the morning for St. Bart’s. We had a 3:00am departure and due to the unusually calm weather we had, were avoided all the shallow coral of Barbuda and were able to have a very nice downwind sail which were not used to having after beating into the wind all of last year to get to Grenada. It was going so well that we had changed our plans pretty early in the sail to keep going all the way to St. Martin. We strolled in just before sunset and just before it started to rain, picked up our mooring in Marigot Bay. It seems as if we were back in civilization here and we were a bit excited with all the good restaurants. The weather is going to keep us here for about the next week so we will settle in and enjoy!

Time for a Reset – Jolly Harbor, Antigua, December 15, 2023

Posted on December 24, 2023 by Sally

Time for a Reset – Jolly Harbor, Antigua, December 15, 2023

So lately all Ron has done is work on the boat since it seems as if everything is broken. Here’s one example, we paid someone to climb the mast for us only to find out that the spare wind sensor we had…was also broken. Well, now we get to buy a new one of those, in addition to a depth gage since ours is already 14+ years old and replace both of those…again. Not to mention the laundry list of other projects Ron has been constantly working on. At least we got the streaming light successfully replaced.

We had both been missing being home for Christmas and originally didn’t commit to being home. Well, we were going to attempt to make it to St. Marten to fly out but based on the huge north swell we have going on with 12ft seas, we decided to change our tickets and fly out directly from Jolly Harbor. This means we had two very tight layovers and went through security & Immigration 3 times but made all three flights to get home in one day. On the last leg, everyone was loaded on the plane when the captain came on and announced there was a mystery error code that they needed to fix and sadly they were not able to, so we all offloaded the plane and loaded everyone on a new one (at least they had one!). We made it to my sister’s where we were crashing for the next couple of weeks about 2:00am.

She was heading down to see my parents and we were cat sitting for the first week! The kitties were good and easy, so it was a non-event for us to manage them. They were gone the first week and then all the kids were spending Christmas together. We made a big turkey again, made a big hunt for their Christmas gifts, and a good time was had by all. We also had a chance to see all of them individually throughout the two weeks, so we got a good fill of family life again. The only downside is Ron and I both got a nice chest cold I can only assume from the airplane but at least that wasn’t COVID. We have one more week, post-Christmas, to enjoy the cold and cloudy Ohio before heading back and deciding what our continued sailing journey looks like. One suitcase full of spare parts is also going to accompany us down to the islands to help with our updates.

Finding Nemo – Bequia & St. Lucia, The Grenadines, December 5, 2023

Posted on December 8, 2023 by Sally

Finding Nemo – Bequia & St. Lucia, The Grenadines, December 5, 2023

After Union Island Ron and I decided to head to Bequia for a few days to take advantage of a nice safe anchorage and some good snorkeling. The Devil’s Table Reef here in Admirality Bay was sadly fairly bleached but the reefs were the best we had seen since Blue Tang in Puerto Rico and every bit as nice as Tobago Cays. The reef has some good wildlife and we also decided to snorkel the Strathman Tug which was very cool and oddly Titanic looking. It was purposefully sunk here in 2023 and sits upright with a mooring ball to a attached your dinghy. Check out our photos.

Since we had decided to head home for Christmas this also gave us some time to work with the weather and make some progress Northbound. We started with two reservations but initially thought we would make it at least as far as St. Lucia and perhaps to St. Martin. After a couple of cool days snorkeling, we headed north directly to St. Lucia. We had read quite a bit about a rash of boarding that has been happening in the southern islands and due to this decided to skip St. Vincent again and go direct to St. Lucia and this had some interesting surprises. We stopped here last year but stayed on the north side of the island in Rodney Bay. This year the ARC, which is a group of several hundred boats coming over from Europe happened to arrive before we could make it north which means Rodney Bay was completely booked this year. So we went again with plan B and decided to check out Marigot Bay and it was very ritzy but nice.

After checking into customs, we went and got a beer at the restaurant “The Hurricane Hole” and boy this place was shady as shit. I watch the bartender take about three shots of top shelf liquor for free and the wait staff put any cash paid for drinks go directly into their pocket! Note to self. We were on a mooring ball which was pretty heavy on the no-see-ums too. But since we were here and had a couple of days before we could move north again, we decided to check out the snorkeling at the mouth of the bay. It was actually pretty nice and we saw turtle, sea snakes, lobster, and about a dozen lion fish. If the jelly fish weren’t so bad and we had not gotten stung about a dozen times we would have considered going back.

Lately between the weather, actually having a schedule to get north, and wrestling with the schedule issues the ARC creates, we were struggling. We had only one reasonable choice (which wasn’t even that great) but we decided to take it and head north since there was little after this to move. Once again, based on the boardings we decided to skip both Martinique and Dominica (which was pretty scary last year when we went so neither of us were interested in heading back). We initially planned to go to Guadeloupe since the weather was not as bad as predicted we kept going and made the 28 hour, 200 mile jump to Jolly Harbor in Antigua which is where we sit now. It was a long trip but we made it, even with the 5-7 foot seas, making for a salty ride. The upside it Jolly Harbor has the best Mexican food we had had all through the Caribbean all of last year at La Cantina. Yeah!

It seemed we didn’t have any further good weather opportunities to move from here to St. Martin, which was what our original plans and reservations were based around. This means once again, our plans are changing. The good news Jolly Harbor Marina is very nice, secure, and a good choice to leave the boat to go home for Christmas so after securing our reservations here, we changed our flights and are now headed back to Columbus to see the kids a week early. Here we go!

Bye, Bye Grenada! – Clifton Bay, Union Island, The Grenadines, November 25, 2023

Posted on November 28, 2023 by Sally

Bye, Bye Grenada! – Clifton Bay, Union Island, The Grenadines, November 25, 2023

And that’s all she wrote! We have officially left Grenada and have headed into the Grenadines. We had to hit Clifton Bay in order to get customs so we walked a bit around town.

And before you know it, we were parked at the Tipsy Turtle for a beer and met a huge group of British Guys on a charter boat for the next three weeks. They were pretty funny.

The next morning, we found ourselves the calmest anchorage we have had yet this season and decided to hang out for a few days and snorkel and Ron had his running list of boat projects. Sadly, on the way over to Union Island, our wind instrument started to go on the fritz and now only work about 50% of the time. This will require Ron to climb the mast (his least favorite task) in order to fix so for now…it’s on hold and he took to waxing the boat instead.

After a quiet couple of days, we headed over to Tobago Cay (my 2^nd favorite snorkeling place in the Caribbean). We swam at horseshoe reef with rays, turtles, starfish, and even the guy below! If it wasn’t for the boat boys trying to sell you a ticket to their barbeque or a t-shirt, it would have been perfect. But hey, I guess everyone is trying to make a living.

Cool little creatures

All in all, Ron and I had spent nearly 6 weeks in Grenada and here is what surprised me:

Even though they speak English, they are still very difficult to understand here.
- The poverty – Grenada is the poorest of the Caribbean Islands and it shows.
How awful the driving and road are. They are downright scary!
How bad the food is – from a vegetarian’s perspective there is always very little on the menu no matter where we go and lately, we have taken to eating on the boat instead.
How poor off most of the coral reef are. We snorkeled a bunch of the reef here and in Carriacou (which is supposed to be the best in Grenada) and all of the brain coral is dead and much of the other coral is currently undergoing a 90% bleaching event.
The heat is unlike anything Ron and I have experienced anywhere else before and also how warm the water is. It is truly like bath water.
We had our brush with fame with the Youtubers – SV NAHOA

But at the end of the day, we decided Grenada didn’t have too much to offer, other that a spot to haul the boat out, and I doubt we come back.

Off To Safer Pastures – St. George Bay, Grenada, November 19, 2023

Posted on November 19, 2023 by Sally

Off To Safer Pastures – St. George Bay, Grenada, November 19, 2023

After spending the last two weeks in a marina, we had an appointment to move down to Spice Island Marina to get some of our rigging replaced. Majority of it has been replaced in the last 2 years but we still had to redo our shrouds on the side. According to the riggers it was a good thing we did since even though they had updated and fixed pieces on the bottom, they never did the top and if it had broken on the bottom, it would likely break on the top. I am glad we are all set and we may have it tuned once we get to St. Martin since they guys here didn’t use any instrumentation to do the tuning just “by feel.” Good news is this only took us a couple of days. Ron also knocked off one of the last projects on the list and restrung the trampoline as long as we were stuck at the boatyard for the next couple of days.

The wind was expected to pick up so Sailing Hubby decided we needed to be on the other side of the island and we headed over to St. George Bay. Being in Le Phare Bleu was nice for a while since we had a chance to catch up with a few friends from last year but the swell was so bad it had actually ripped the cleat off the side of our boat. We were tied to one of their stationary docks and it was about a 3-5ft swell at times. This puts a ton of stress on the boat. Because of the stress we also decided to try out some snubbers for the lines and this made a huge difference but I am glad we were off and after an uneventful sail around we were hitched up to a mooring ball and plan to snorkel and relax the next several days.

We headed over to the Underwater Sculpture Park just north of our anchorage. Wow it was pretty cool but the visibility wasn’t that great. The park was created in 2006 and in all there are 75 statues scattered around the area. The sculptures were put in as an effort to help protect the reef since it was a national park and was protected but sadly some damage has already been done. One of the highlights we saw was “the vicissitudes” which is a circular set of statues – 26 children – holding hands. The meaning is debated and some say they represent slaved thrown off the ships years ago while other say it is a symbol of peace.

There were many others as well including “Christ of the Deep”, “Lady on the Park Bench”, “The Turtle”, and many more! Apparently, they are created on land by a British sculptor and transferred to the ocean site by crane. His message was if we don’t start to take care of the ocean, we should. He has many sculptures under the sea around the world and some of his other are off the coast of Spain.

We had such a successful day snorkeling the sculpture park we took the chance on Ron’s birthday to snorkel just north Flamingo Bay Reef which was some of the best we have seen since we have gotten to Grenada. Finally, we saw some fish, a fairly health reef, and even a lobster but since it a no take zone, we just let him rest. Happy Birthday Hubby 😊.

Today we are off to go to Sandy Island, just off Carriacou, where we can snorkel a day or two and then check out of customs before continuing our voyage north to the Grenadines. This brings me to say we have decided this year to head back north to Georgia for hurricane season and tick off the remaining projects on our list to get Mariposa in tip top shape. We both felt like we still have plenty to see and plan to hit some of the places we missed on the way down last year. Not only that, but after a month in Grenada (I can’t believe it has been that long but it has!) doing little else but boat work, we both feel like we need a reset. We have planned a trip back home the end of December to Ohio to see our daughter’s and are looking forward to the break and restart come January.

It’s Been Nice Knowing You – Le Phare Bleu Marina, Grenada – November 6, 2023

Posted on November 6, 2023 by Sally

It’s Been Nice Knowing You – Le Phare Bleu Marina, Grenada – November 6, 2023

As with every trip, it never starts out as planned. We had looked into buying a new life raft and needed to head over to the other side of the island to the store to look at them. Ron had been chatting with the store owner and we had an appointment at 10:00am for him to review with up so we had planned to pick up our rented car for the day at 9:00am. Well, of course there was an issue and the rental car didn’t show up til about 9:55am so we were inevitably late in getting there. After a rather terrifying drive over, to our surprise, the owner stood us up and wasn’t even there. I think I have lost count of the number of near-death experiences We have encountered as this place is one of the worst places we had tried to drive (worse the Costa Rica and St. Lucia) and on top of it all…it was raining. This led us to the decision to keep our existing life raft and now we had rented a car for nothing.

Traffic is crazy. This is a traffic circle

The poverty here is surprisingly high as the average salary here is only about $1000 per month (average not minimum).

What is worse then driving in traffic? Driving through a kids running race.

In order to make it worthwhile, we changed course and decided to do some provisioning. Ron has been working to fix our fridge and in addition to replacing the fan he also had been adding Freon so it would stay cold. It appears to be working and we headed over to Spice Island Mall where there was an IGA that actually had my veggie burgers and the ONLY place I have seen them. $400 later we had a cart full of food with finger crossed the fridge was fixed once and for all as it seemed to be holding it’s charge now.

After this we had heard you can buy beer directly from the Carib Distributor and it is not only cheaper but also available in cans which is important since the bottles are far too much weight and trash. Once we actually found the place, we waited about an hour and a half to get in but I think it was a successful field trip.

First stop was the beer factory. No beer sold here.

After many days of boat work, the boat was mostly put back together and we decided to take off for some fun and snorkel nearby. We were sadly disappointed since the visibility was poor and nearly all the coral was dead. It’s not surprising based on how warm the water is and we really saw was a few reef fish. Based on what we had heard from our surveyor Grenada has been highly overfished and there is little left here based on what there was in the 80’s & 90’s.

Splash Day Again! – Carricou, Grenada, October 30, 2023

Posted on November 1, 2023 by Sally

It’s Splash Day Again here in Grenada and boy are we glad! Ron sweet talked the marina office and got our launch date moved up from November 3^rd to today and I don’t know how but I think a few other boats didn’t get their work completed and we just got plain old lucky! This is good for reason #2 which is our Airbnb runs out today as well and if we couldn’t get launch…we were staying on the boat, on the hard, without air conditioning which I was less than interested in doing.

It’s been a busy day since last minute we also found out we needed a survey for insurance! Sailing hubby found the only surveyor on the island and somehow got him scheduled to do our survey the morning of our launch so we didn’t have to pay to get hauled out again. Once again…lucky! Even better is that our survey went great, our boat is valued $80K more than we bought it for with all the upgrades and improvements, and it is completely dry inside and out. He also did a moisture measurement on the hull which is 100% dry and that is pretty rare. Anyhoo…by late afternoon we were surveyed, launched and docked for the night! Whew!

But now we are submissive to the weather again and it says our only weather window to go south to Grenada is tomorrow morning so there will be no moss growing under our feet. After a bumpy maiden voyage to kick off season #4, we had tested her out, and are moving along once again. The end of the day brought is to a very nice marina (Le Phare Bleu), with air conditioning once again to more thoughtfully clean and organize the boat. Only one snag along the way, (because there is always something to fix), was the fridge stopped working. Good thing I have a very crafty husband who diagnosed the issue – a dead fan – and he was able to get it fixed so we didn’t loose any food to spoilage.

We are now sitting enjoying a bucket of Stag beers with real vegetarian food at the lovely marina restaurant! Yeah – finally! Oh, and it now Halloween. Trick or treat from the tropics 😊.

So far, it’s been a bust – Carricou, Grenada, October 24, 2023

Posted on October 24, 2023 by Sally

So far, it’s been a bust – Carricou, Grenada, October 24, 2023

We were excited to get here. We made it here without much ado. That is where the good news ended. To say things have gone smoothly would be a severe understatement. Allow me to expand on this thought if for no other reason than to use this post as a reminder not to do this ever again. Let the elaboration start here…

What has gone wrong:

The heat here is indescribable. While it says ~88 degrees, with the humidity it feels like 102+ degrees everyday without change. On top of that, we have a hurricane (Tammy) to the north which has taken all of the Tradewinds, so the breeze is 1 knot – no lie. Remember in the cartoons where bugs bunny could cut a donut out of smoke? It’s kinda like that.
I have been spoiled being back in the states and Ron and I have gone out to eat nearly every night the last few months so to come here and there be one restaurant with anything vegetarian on the menu was a bit of a shock. You can only have pizza so many times in a row. The other restaurant with anything potential vegetarian is an Indian restaurant and Ron won’t eat there. On top of it, not one of them actually has air-conditioning so you sweat just sitting there having a beer.
Our Airbnb is right behind a bar (owned by the same bar owner who is very nice) and they play music till 5 in the morning 2 nights a week. Ugh.
The groceries are at least on par with the Bahamas if not more expensive and there is a very limited selection. I expected the limited selection but the price was something I didn’t quite remember being so bad. So, we are eating ramen noodles, peanut butter sandwiches, and bologna. Not as glamourous as you thought right?
Ron has spent the last week sanding and prepping the bottom of the boat which is a horrible and very toxic job. The bottom paint has copper in it and he comes home with not only heat stroke every day but he also looks like a Smurf (blue from bottom paint even though he is wearing a bunny suit and respirator), not to mention he got some on his face on day 1 which has burned nonstop ever since. It will be a miracle if he lives through this portion.
We found out after sanding down to the gel cost that we now have to prime the bottom in addition to painting in order for the MicronCSC to stick. They no longer make Micron66 so I guess we are switching.
There was a French-Canadian lady 3 boats over who got all worked up because she got sanding dust on her boat. It’s a boat yard!?! After she finished bitching out the boat yard staff (yeah, they love her), she wanted us to pay to have her boat cleaned. Seriously? Fine – just go away! Then we agreed to pay for her water so she could clean here boat herself (even though we offered to power wash it for her). Then…we find out she has used ~1,000 gallons of water! She had to have left it on or something but they are very frugal here with their water since the only source they have or rain catchment. Can’t wait to get the bill for this deal. To top it off, they are sanding the bottom of their boat too. I kid you not! The yard was overjoyed to launch her boat and frankly we were too!
Our launch date has been moved back to November 3^rd since the yard has had difficulty with their folks not showing up to work and it is their busiest season.
There is one hurricane north of us now and another “disturbance” brewing so even if we do launch, we can’t go north to get out of the heat.
We had hoped to get launched and go south to the main island of Grenada to get some of our rigging replaced. Our rigger is now 3 weeks out and can’t get to us until mid-November at the earliest. Ron has already started on plan B with one of the other local companies to see if they can fit us in.

The upside:

Our Airbnb is clean, has air conditioning, and hot water. Surprisingly, hot water is not standard down here and the sea temperature is 86…bath water. Sadly, though it has no insulation and doesn’t stay cool during the day but we freeze at night. No idea how to fix that.
They have cold beer. There are small godsends.
At least we were able to track down enough bottom paint to finish our bottom job since the first quote we got was “it’s going to take 3 weeks to get here.”
The locals here are incredibly nice and have been very friendly and accommodating. Not to mention this little town is very safe and we have not felt at risk at all.
I have gotten the kitchen, our bedroom, and one other room completely cleaned and vinegared in and around Ron being able to sand so if we can launch early, we can function on the boat if needed.

To say our comfort is getting in our would be a lie. This is the only time I have heard Ron mutter something about selling the boat and never coming back to Grenada on account of the heat being unbearable. We have one more week, a paint job to finish although the sanding is now done, and we can’t wait to get out of here.

Touchdown in Grenada – Grand Anse Beach, Grenada, October 15, 2023

Posted on October 15, 2023 by Sally

We are nearly back! The first few days will be spent in Grenada proper since we padded our transition to ensure we (and all our boat parts) not only made it here but also made it through customs. The good news it went off without a hitch and I must say putting an air tag in that check bag was very comforting to track the fact that is made it on the plane. The ferry isn’t available to Tyrell Bay (where the boat is) until Monday so we are just enjoying Grenada we best we can til then. We have a nice, air-conditioned hotel, are checking out the provisioning prices at the local grocery and enjoying happy hour on the beach. It’s a rough life.

What I have noticed about coming back to the islands and transitioning back into this culture is yes, we need to be more patient and island time is real. The sidewalks have holes, and, in the tropics, drainage is a priority.

Also, just how nice everyone is here. I feel like after walking around here that Grenada is safe, clean, and everyone says hello. The last obvious thing, which we were expecting but underestimated, was just how truly hot it is. Boy, have we become unacclimatized! It is 84 degrees at 7:00am and feels like 96 degrees with 100% humidity. You can’t help but sweat anytime you are outside. Right now, we have planned to do all our boat work ourselves which includes a new bottom job, simply putting the boat back together, and Ron has some engine work. Once we get to the boat, we will see how a test sand goes and if we are truly able to stand the heat. Due to the nature of the bottom paint (and the fact that it is copper based), Sailing Hubby will need to wear a respirator and technically should wear a “bunny suit,” although with the heat and I am unsure this will be doable. There is no plan B yet and with luck we won’t need one.

Grand Anse Beach is two miles of uninterrupted which sand beach and crystal-clear blue water. It is supposedly one of the top 5 beaches in the world. We will enjoy our Carib’s tonight (beer is always on the lose weight diet) and the work will start tomorrow once we get off the ferry in Carricou.

Hurricane Season III – Jacksonville, FL, USA – October 14, 2023

Posted on October 15, 2023 by Sally

We took a much-needed break this year from the last three years of constant travel and significant time away from family. We had originally planned on spending a month in Columbus to see our daughters but quickly learned, we needed to stay a bit longer, so we signed onto a 4 month a short-term apartment in Columbus living with daughter #2. She was on a travel nursing contract in Columbus working nights through the beginning of October. This gave us quite a bit of time not only with her but also my sister, daughters #3 & #4. We even had the treat of having daughter #1 come back from Spain (teaching English there) for a couple of weeks. We took the opportunity to get them all together for a very nice home cooked Thanksgiving Dinner over the Labor Day holiday. We also had a blast spending the summer hanging out with my sister but quickly learned, when it comes to not travelling, drinking beer becomes our pastime and that is not necessarily a good thing.

Other things we learned while being on land for a bit and back in the states is riding the motorcycle again was awesome, but we nearly got killed everyday since most people in the states drive with their iPhone in their face and cannot do two things at once. Secondly, beer is entirely too cheap and accessible and now we both have about 20 lbs. to lose. At least in the islands we must schlep our beer a mile and a half through 150 degree heat, so we automatically drink less and burn more calories doing so. Thirdly, we planned on having a third checked suitcase to take back filled with boat parts, however, with the accessibility of Amazon delivery, we ended up carrying back 10 times the weight in boat parts than clothing. And lastly, being in one place for 4 months was too long. Our upstairs neighbors in our apartment were very loud jerks and we had several altercations with them. Missing the boat was inevitable.

Our last day in Columbus was October 2^nd and we moved out of our apartment, rented a car, and took off to West Virginia to see Ron’s sister. After that we spend a few days in Jekyll Island with my parents helping them with random household chores like painting/ electrical what not and auto repair. It feels good traveling again and we are just that much closer to our final starting destination…Grenada which is where we land today once we get through the Miami connection. Here’s to the beautiful waters of the islands and smooth flights!

Sailing Season III Wrap Up – Columbus, Ohio, June 11, 2023 (Capt. View).

Posted on June 13, 2023 by Sally

Sailing Season III Wrap Up – Columbus, Ohio, June 11, 2023 (Capt. View).

The 2023 cruising season for Mariposa has come to an end. Saying it was a year of adventure is an understatement. We first endured a direct hit from hurricane Nicole as we sat on a morning ball at Vero Beach. We then quickly dashed over to the crystal clear water of the Bahamas to explore as much of that island as we could before heading south. When it was time to head south we bashed windward into the trade winds through what is called the thorny path until we reached our final destination – Carriacou a small Island in Grenada. The thorny path reputation lives up to its name. Basically, you wait for a cold front to blow off the southern US which in turn drops the intensity of the trade winds. The best weather windows seemed to come few and far between this year so when you got one you had to take it ready or not. As in most things in life we got some right and we got some wrong.

From our starring point of St. Augustine, Florida we traveled over 2700 nautical miles, used about 380 gallons of diesel and surprisingly, broke nothing major on Mariposa. During those times we visited 13 countries, where we tried our best to integrate into the history and culture of the incredible people we met along the way. Over this trip we did several multi day passages the longest of which was 415 miles taking a little over 76 hours. During this time we dodged numerous fish traps, cruise ships, squalls, and the random charter boats here and there. The highs where insanely high and the lows where equally as low. Thankfully the lows were few and far between. To supplement our learning we taught ourselves a few French curse words, which has become very handy.

It is funny our first year in the Bahamas we were told by several cruisers we were too new at this, should not attempt this passage, perhaps join a salty dog rally. Blah blah blah. Well, we are not really rally kinds of people and it takes away the independence sailing gives you. I am not even sure we are buddy boat kind of people for many of the same reasons.

With a bit of hard work, patience for weather, and a healthy dose of being able to fix most things on the boat it is all doable. We just have to believe in ourselves and not listen to the boats that never leave the dock. It has been an Incredible voyage and cannot wait to pick up where we left off in a few months.

Now onto a few fun facts from things we learned this season:

It is very easy it is to get a driver’s license abroad and Ron has two now
Ron had lost not only his phone(threw in the water) but also his wallet (which was later found)
I have lost 4 pairs of sunglasses in the ocean…you’d think I would learn
How incredibly prevalent sexual abuse against women is in the Caribbean
You cannot substitute flour for sugar when making cookies
Many of the islands are still recovering from IRMA and MARIA
Dolphins and whales are always an event on the boat
We have not seen any snow in the last 12 months
120v hair clippers don’t work in 220v outlets very long
There are more charter boats south of BVI than we ever thought possible
You should never anchor in the middle of a mooring field – it makes you a jerk
The French, French-Canadians, and French West Indies are all pretty rude and have little self-awareness
We have earned our first swallow tattoo for sailing 5000+ miles over the last 3 years
Buddy Boating is not a thing and if you are not 100% self-reliant, you shouldn’t be out here.
9 months of time away from the family is just too long and we have been out here enough to know. Next year we plan to be home for some time around Christmas. We started to feel the burn and somehow the islands started to blur in April. The “another bloody beach” syndrome is real.
We have no idea what we are doing and where we are going next year on the boat and have discussed several ideas on this with no decision yet. It’s nice not to have a plan…yet.

It’s nice to be home…at least for a while.

We made it! – Tyrell Bay, Carriacou, Grenada, June 2, 2023

Posted on June 2, 2023 by Sally

We made it! – Tyrell Bay, Carriacou, Grenada, June 2, 2023

After 2,700 miles, 13 countries, and more than 9 months we have made it from St. Augustine, Florida to Tyrell Bay, Grenada. We have seen some amazing things, met some great people, and to say it was an easy would not be correct. At least our final leg from Union Island to Tyrell Bay was fairly easy and it was a nice close short 10-mile motor for us to wrap it up. Our plan was to pull into the marina, hook up to air conditioning, and start putting the boat to bed for the off season in comfort. That is when the shitshow started and it did not end…

We got to the marina in Tyrell Bay and little did we know, there is an island wide power outage on Carriacou, which started with a massive fire at the main generator on April 28^th. Since then they have been running on their back up generator and now that has gone caput as well. It would be at least 2 more days before they get power back and our solar alone cannot support our AC (Note to self we hope to upgrade this by adding soft start switches for next year). Well, guess we aren’t sleeping in AC. This was when we found out that there were two holidays this week which was part of the wait.

So, off to customs we went and when we got there after a very hot walk across the bay, they were closed for their 2-hour lunch break. After a beer or two and a nice 2 hour wait, we did get checked in, but they were not pleasant. We did stay on the boat for two nights but neither of us slept since it was so very hot! After working in the heat for several days and not sleeping (~90+ degrees) we finally found and got an Airbnb with AC after the island installed their new generator from Trinidad and flipped the main switch back on. Yeah AC! It’s within walking distance of the marina but boy there sure are a lot of goats here.

By this time Ron had the engine work wrapped up and I had gotten half of the boat cleaned and vinegared. The boat was a wreck! Nothing makes you want to own less stuff than having to clean, move, and cover everything you own with vinegar to inhibit mildew.

While I was working on this, Ron worked on fixing the small leak that had been going on with our water maker. He could of fixed this a while back but the gamble of breaking it was too high. So instead wait until the end of the season so if it does break we known what parts to get. Another project off the list.

This was about the time I was working on the other side of the boat where we sleep, and we found a nice leak under our bed. There was about two inches of standing water under our bed, where our spare inverter was sitting. Oooppps! Sailing hubby immediately got to work on this and detected a leak in the pex tubing connecting to our hot water heater. He was able to quickly fix this with new tubing, but this explains the faint smell of mold we had been smelling while we were asleep.

After 4 solid days of working to get it cleaned, repaired and closed up, it was haul out day. The marina did a very thorough job and our bottom job actually held up better than we expected. It is always a bit nerve racking, but Hubby was able to back her into the dock like a champ and the whole process was drama free. This was the only thing that was drama free. As ready as we were to see family and take a break, it is always a bit sad to see her come out of the water.

Cleaning off the rest of the bottom paint.

The drama continued when our Airbnb host told us she was not able to accept credit card payment and we would need to pay cash for our stay. Normally this would not be a problem except that the only ATM in Tyrell Bay was out of order. This required us to take the bus up to the next town Hamilton Bay to get cash out there. Hamilton Bay was not a very nice part of Carriacou and we were hassled by beggars and at first try the ATM there was out of service there too. Upon our second try we did finally manage to get out enough cash to pay our host – thank goodness!

Another two days of cleaning and fixing the boat and by this time we were both exhausted, but the boat was done! Whew! The heat and humidity here is intense and the boats can reach 140+ degrees inside. We did everything we could to try and keep the sun out, the moisture down, and keep her pest free. Let’s hope this works.

We managed to catch to 5:00am ferry to Grenada the next morning and now sit at the airport with our 3:00pm flight confirmed. It’s back to the US for a few months for a much-needed break and to see the sweet faces of family!

Swimming with the Turtles – Petit Bateau, Tobago Cays, May 24, 2023

Posted on May 27, 2023 by Sally

Swimming with the Turtles – Petit Bateau, Tobago Cays, May 24, 2023

We have spent the last 6 days in Bequia relaxing, snorkeling, and overall just enjoying ourselves. It was time to move on. We had decided to take the short 10-mile sail over to the Tobago Cay Marine Park. It is a protected area and supposedly very popular. It isn’t cheap to go to the park, so we only planned to stay for a couple days. We picked up a mooring ball right next to horseshoe reef but based on the abundance of current we decided to snorkel with our dinghy in tow.

We started with the swim area roped off for the turtles and we lost count at close to 30 turtles. It was like they knew they were protected here and could have cared less that we were there just hanging out with them. We also passed over a bed of nearly 40 giant starfish, half a dozen rays and one was even a spotted eagle ray. Our first one of the season. At one point we were swimming with 6 turtles and a ray. It was amazing and the reefs were in pretty decent shape too. We snorkeled again the next day and say more turtle, and a dozen cuddlefish. The water here is like the Exumas, clear blue and beautiful. I am very glad we came here and it will be a place we come back to early next season.

On our way out of Tobago Cays, we needed to stop at Union Island to check out of the Grenadines. We had originally thought we would stay there overnight but it was all a bit sketchy there and since we didn’t get a great vibe, we decided to simply high tail it down to Grenada. The island was VERY poor (as in Dominica poor).

Our next stop would be our last for the sailing season – Carriacou, Grenada where we plan to haul the boat out of the water and store it for hurricane season.

Stupid Activity of the Week – Admirality Bay, Bequia, May 21, 2023

Posted on May 21, 2023 by Sally

Stupid Activity of the Week – Admirality Bay, Bequia, May 21, 2023

We spent a long 12 hour day sailing, or should I say surfing down some pretty sporty waves, 71 miles to Bequia. It’s an island I have never heard of but is part of the Grenadines and their “claim to fame” is that whaling is still legal here. It’s pronounced “Beckway,” and used to be a British Colonial Island. It’s pretty cool here (despite the whaling laws), and it’s the best anchorage we have had for several weeks. We have spent the last few days here snorkeling and relaxing. We had decided to skip St. Vincent since there have been a rash of cruisers being boarded, held at gun or knife point, and robbed. This has been a great alternative as it feels very safe, they have good food and some interesting hiking.

The first cool thing we saw when snorkeling was “Moonhole.” It’s another old hotel which was built by a couple back in the 60’s and is still partially used today. It‘s supposedly a very close to nature type experience but since it’s private, we were not able to go and see for ourselves. Normally this would not stop us from taking a peek, however, this looked a bit too unstable for us to just jump ashore and poke around.

Moonhole is now a protected area and the elkhorn coral here was stunning. We spent a bit of time cutting fishing trash off of some of the mature ones so they could continue to grow. Then after a few days of snorkeling, we decided to try the hike which goes from here over the volcano to Friendship Bay – 5.5 miles. Well, this is where the stupid activity comes in. First off, we got a bit lost as the path wasn’t terribly well marked. Then, we knew it was rated as hard on All Trails app and how much the last moderately difficult hike had kicked our butts. Lastly, it had rained the night before and it was still muddy.

By the time we were done, we had walked over 15,000 steps, climbed the equivalent of 52 flights of stairs, an elevation of 1200 feet, and over just 6 miles.

To make matters worse, after finally making it to the top, it started to rain making our decent just that much more challenging than it otherwise may have been. The decent was basically an old riverbed and we could not make it down without touching the trees. This is something we try not to do after learning what poisonwood and manchineel trees are. Half of the climb down we had to do going backwards much like climbing down a ladder since it was so steep. I figured this would fulfill our stupid activity requirement of the week.

Muddy wet and slipped leaves made the decent interesting

If it wasn’t for this little guy, I would say it wasn’t worth it.

Sally petting the turtles seemed like a good idea.

We spent the rest of the post shower, doing absolutely nothing!!! It’s a good thing beer got delivered to the boat and we enjoyed the local taste of the island.

Cement Donkeys

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