|
January 31, 2005
Prickly Bay, Grenada, West Indies
Shortly after New Year's we left Rodney Bay on St. Lucia and spent a few days in Soufriere, at the foot of one of the
twin Pitons. Here we finally found both ends of the rainbow, one of our lives' quests:
We visited the botanical gardens at the Diamond Estate, which include a waterfall carrying sulphuric water from a volcanic
crater.
From St. Lucia we sailed to St. Vincent and The Grenadines, visiting Bequia first. One trip took us to Friendship Bay
and a fish market:
We also visited the tiny islands of Petit St. Vincent and Petit Martinique:
And now we are in lovely Grenada, devastated by Hurricane Ivan but beautiful nevertheless. Here are Mike and our tour
guide on the way to Concord Waterfall:
We will start our northward return trek tomorrow, revisiting The Grenadines and St. Lucia before exploring the islands
to the north on our way to the Virgin Islands.
|
| Mike and Merrie get ready for Christmas |
Dec. 22, 2004
St. Lucia, West Indies
After spending two weeks in the British and US Virgin Islands, we set out for Trinidad on Dec. 6. The coupling
connecting our motor exhaust to the muffler developed a leak that night, causing not only exhaust but salt water to escape
into the engine compartment! So we diverted to St. Croix, where we spent a week waiting for a replacement coupling.
The repair work was completed on Dec. 14, and at noon we departed again for Trinidad. That night we detected a
burning kind of smell, which we hoped was just the new coupling being warmed up for the first time, but we turned off the
motor anyway. In the morning, the motor wouldn't start! We needed to divert again. The closest large island
was Antigua, but it was directly upwind. So we decided to head to St. Lucia, turning off refrigeration and other "non"essentials
in order to conserve the little power we had for navigation and communications equipment. We arrived in St. Lucia on
the 18th, and learned that salt water we had taken in on the passage from Hampton along with the salt water from the exhaust
leak had shorted wiring and burned our starter and starter solenoid. More repairs -- and the work was finally completed
yesterday, on the 21st.
So we are unexpectedly spending Christmas on St. Lucia. It is a beautiful island, mountainous and lush, and
we hope that now that all of that work (and passage-making) is behind us we will have time to enjoy the island and its friendly
inhabitants. It is truly the West Indies here: magnificent trade winds and "sail fast, live slow".
Rodney Bay Harbor, inner lagoon
Merry Christmas
and Happy New Year!
Nov. 24, 2004
Tortola, British Virgin Islands
We made landfall on Tortola on Nov. 20, after a 10-day passage with the Caribbean 1500 Rally. Here are the crew
(Cathy Monaghan and Bruce Halley, Mike and Merrie) all ready to set out from Hampton, VA on Nov. 10:
(Yes, it was cold when we left!)
We motorsailed in light wind the first few days, including an easy Gulf Stream crossing.
Then came some heavy weather: 20-25 knot winds (Northerlies, thank goodness) with gusts to 35. The seas built
to maybe 15 feet over the first 24 hours.
It's hard to do justice to the waves we saw, but here's Mike in the cockpit with a following wave that's actually much
taller than it appears to be in the photo. Nevertheless, Mike isn't frightened.
The seas and gusts made for some uncomfortable knocking about belowdecks, but it wasn't anything like we'd seen last
year during our passage to Bermuda. After a few days of gale force winds, the weather settled into a Trade Wind pattern
and we had fine sailing weather for the rest of the trip.
We saw a bit of sea life along the way. One day, it was dolphins riding the bow waves, dropping behind, and then
racing the boat back to the bow. They were much smaller than the dolphins we see while sailing New England waters.
Another day, a real treat:
|
| Photo by Bruce Halley |
This is a small (~12 feet) whale that joined us for a short while. It would swim around the boat, then turn belly
up (that's what you see through the water) and dive under us! We believe the belly is white; you can see how clear and
blue the water has become as we move down the latitudes.
Mike was the first to sight land on the morning of the 20th. It's a wonderful sight after 10 days at sea.
|
| Photo by Bruce Halley |
Merrie has been awake since her 3am - 6am watch, too excited to head belowdecks to nap. You can see Tortola and
some of the other Virgin Islands in the background.
Cathy and Bruce will fly home on Thanksgiving. Merrie and Mike will head to Virgin Gorda with some of the
other Caribben 1500 boats for a potluck Thanksgiving dinner. We'll spend another week or so in the Virgin Islands, then
take off for Trinidad and Tobago. We expect this to be a 4-5 day passage. We'll update this site shortly
after we arrive inTrinidad.
Nov. 7, 2004
We are in Hampton, Virginia, waiting for the start date for the Caribbean Rally. Our crew Cathy Monaghan and Bruce
Halley have joined us here.
|
| Mike and Merrie |
Originally we were scheduled to leave on Sunday, Nov. 7, but the date has been moved to midweek owing to some weather
that is due to hit the Gulf Stream about the time that we would have been crossing. We aren't interested in encountering
the same weather we had when we sailed to Bermuda on Journey's End last year, so although we are eager to get underway
we don't mind waiting.
|
| Cathy and Bruce |
While we are offshore, our latitude and longitude will be posted daily on the Caribbean 1500 website (click the name to get there). Now, many of you may not find the coordinates particularly meaningful, so here
is how to get the picture. Go to the page we've linked to on MapQuest.com and enter the latitude and longitude (a positive number for the latitude means North and a negative number for the longitude
means West.). You will then get a map. It will probably show you that we are somewhere in the water (good).
But you knew that anyway. So zoom out and eventually you'll get some land in the picture to orient you.
Then zoom back in -- real close -- and maybe you'll see us waving to you from Adagio!
(If you want to practice the lat/long lookup, go to the MapQuest site and try entering 37 degrees, 04 minutes N and 76
degrees, 29 minutes West. That will be: 37 04 00 for the latitude and -76 29 00 for the longitude. If you
did this correctly, you will get a map for the area around Hampton, VA -- which is where we are right now. Congratulations!)
Merrie and Mike chat with our friend Allen Evans (s/v Whisper, CDSOA member) at the Caribbean 1500 sendoff party...
All photos in this entry courtesy of Bruce Halley (except, of course, the photo of Bruce and
Cathy)
|
