Coming to an end... and FAST!

We have less than a week left in this leg of our adventure and are saddened to see it wrapping up. We came across to Grenada, our last open water passage this season in record time, making a new speed record for s/v Allergic to Cities. We had perfect conditions with medium to strong winds at 15-20 kts steady, with a following sea and light swells (2-4 ft). We did see a couple of bigger gusts (up to 25 kts) but they were short lived and didn't cause us to put a reef in our main (shorten our sails). We were sailing for much of the time at over 8 kts and for sustained times at speeds over 10 kts, with a new speed record for us at 10.7kts (not from surfing down waves!).

As mentioned in the last blog, we greatly enjoyed the island of Bequia and found it to be a pleasant region with a quiet anchorage. We spent time ashore wandering about the small town and perusing the many model boat building shops. This area is renowned for model boat building and we soon found out why. As a woodworker, I was duly impressed with the details these builders were able to include in their models. Most of their boats were of the sailing variety but some represented larger cruising mega-yachts. All of these boat models sell for more than $1000 each and are quite beautiful. At Bequia we found an active farmer's vegetable market run by Rastafarians. These Rasta guys were noticeably aggressive in their sales tactics and the negotiations involved heavy bargaining and equally aggressive refusal of a purchase. Vicky found their tactics so intolerable she refused to return after her initial visit. They did have a good variety of fresh produce, however and once one figured out the routine, negotiations were made much simpler. Basically it went like this: When one walks into the market, several sellers rush to approach and try to sell various products. All speaking at once and confusing one thoroughly. If the buyer doesn't immediately "take charge" of the situation, chaos ensues and a purchase decision is made very difficult. If however, the buyers says quickly, "OK, I'll deal with this guy first then I'll see if I need anything else, so everyone else just wait!" then all goes well. Otherwise, pandemonium continues until they either confuse you into buying something or you leave without your intended purchase. It's really quite comical.

After a few days, we left Bequia with Nebula for the little island of Mayreau in the Tobago Cay area. We had hoped to stop off at Mustique, home of many of the "rich and famous" crowd. Several celebrities (for example: Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Rachael Welch) and famous monarchs (the late Princess Margaret) have vacation homes on this private island and one never know when they might bump shoulders with someone famous here. But the winds were coming from the wrong direction and short of making a rather circuitous sailing route to get there, we decided to leave the rich and famous alone for this trip and we headed directly to Canauan, the next island in the chain. Windfreak decided to stay in Bequia for a couple of more days so we parted, thinking our traveling with them was over. It was a sad goodbye as we have become fast friends over the past many months of traveling together. Hugs all around, we pulled anchor and headed off.

Arriving at Canouan, we decided we could skip this island as a layover and continued on to the next island destination, Mayreau. Pulling into this pristine, white beach bay, we noticed a group of people in the water near the beach obviously having a party. One guy was in a dingy, acting as the bartender, while the others stood around the dingy conversing and drinking and generally having a good time. Since we have a shallow draft in our catamaran, we pulled up close to the beach as usual for a more wave less anchorage, and realized the guy in the dingy was our friend Jake from Offline. After anchoring and doing our boat anchoring chores, we joined in the festivities. The drinks were strong so the night was short and we crashed into bed early on. The next day we hiked along the Atlantic side of the island and saw some beautiful sights along the way. We came back to the small resort near the anchorage and all ordered cheeseburgers, hoping for the "real thing" as most times the product is less than ideal. We were again disappointed as the meat seemed to be a soy product and was overcooked, to boot! We laid about for the rest of the day, after completing some additional, obligatory, never-ending boat chores.

Most all of the group, including our other buddy boat friends Offline and Nebula, left with us the next morning for the Tabago Cays. This area has to be the most beautiful area of our entire trip. The waters around the cays is the clear blue of post cards and the sandy beaches are unequalled anywhere we've been. The Tobago Cays are a National Park of the Grenadines and rightly so are a protected area. No fishing, unattended scuba diving, anchoring on coral beds, etc. are the rule. The coral formations abound and are spectacular in size, colors and abundance of fish and sea creatures. We spent a lot of time with our snorkels on and swam with sea turtles regularly and really enjoyed this area to the max. It goes at the top of our list of recommended places to visit. Certainly we could have stayed here for many more days but felt pressed to get closer to Grenada due to anticipated upcoming weather conditions which might make our passage across difficult.

As a side note, the day we arrived from Mayreau, Windfreak called us on the VHF and said they were approaching the Tabago Cays and asked if we were there. "Of course, we said, so another reunion gathering was had beachside with the entire traveling group at the cays. Then, after just two days at this paradise, we said goodbye, once again, to Windfreak, and pulled out for Union Island to clear customs for our next country. Union Island was noted to all of us as a "don't go" place, due to various crime-related reasons, but Offline had been there recently and found it to be an acceptable stop for clearing customs. So, along with Nebula, we cleared in and out the same day and headed off to the next island of Petit Martinique, checked in and bought a few essentials (beer!) and headed across the bay to another cute island called Petit St.Vincent.

Petit St. Vincent is a private island with a posh resort on shore, which allows cruisers to come ashore if their guest list is not too full. So that afternoon, we dingied ashore to walk the long sand beach which surrounds the island. As we walked along, we came across some of the resorts fine guest amenities. About every 100 yards or so, right next to the water's edge would be a small thatch-roof cabana with a rope hammock underneath, and two chaise lounge style chairs and a small side table with a small cooler of ice water and two glasses. We stopped at one such hut and enjoyed the hammock for a bit before continuing on around the island, imagining what a place like this would cost for a vacation retreat. Returning to the main dock area, we went up to the restaurant for our evening cocktail hour and found a charming bartender at a beautiful empty bar area, delighted to serve us our beers. We sat on the deck and enjoyed the views for a while before returning to the boat for dinner and the rest of the evening. Their restaurant was beautiful and the menu looked very inviting except for the prices. So back to the good ship Allergic to Cities we went for some good ol' home cookin'.

The next morning we decided to continue south and, along with Nebula, headed to Carriacou where we had heard provisioning was good at the main harbor. We stopped there and went ashore to find not-so-well-stocked markets so away we went, down the coast and around the tip to a nice spot called Tyrell Bay. Here we again rendezvoused with Offline and a couple of other boats we've bumped into all the way south from Florida. We stayed one night and since the weather looked good to us for the pass to Grenada, we took off in the morning, leaving the others still at anchor at Tyrell. We imagine we will see them once and finally, over in Grenada once all arrive from that passage, whenever they make it.

So now we are in Grenada, our haul-out country. We are slowly moving south around the island toward St. David's Harbor where we need to be ready to haul on Monday morning at 10:30am. We plan on being tied to a dock for Saturday and Sunday for some major boat wash up with plenty of fresh water. We traveled to the storage yard today with a local delivery lady from one of the boat chandleries, Island Water World. She was very talkative and gave us a nice overview of Grenadian life and showed us around the lower part of the island as we drove along the steep winding roads. The haul out yard seems well equipped and safe so we feel good about storing the boat there for the summer. They have all sorts of trades people on hand to do whatever repairs or installations requested or required, so we intend on taking advantage of a few of those services being done on the boat while we're back in Colorado. Nothing major, as the boat has done extremely well throughout this 4000 mile trip. We had no major breakdowns, mostly menial fixes which I was able to do, some with help from new friend David. Things like loose wiring, blown fuses, hatch hinges breaking, and the like, made up the bulk of our "problems".
This leg of our adventure is entering its final chapter, now that we are at Grenada. As I write this we are sitting at anchor, in a tropical rainstorm. Hard rain comes down in sheets on our boat, nicely washing the salt water off of everything. We will move around the southern tip of the island toward our haul out facility later today. The plan is to tie up to a nearby marina dock for Saturday and Sunday, where fresh water will be abundant so we can give the boat a complete wash down in preparation of hauling. We will also do oil changes on all three engines including the generator. Once we are up "on the hard" at St. David's Bay, we will have electricity and more fresh water available for final clean up but we know our time will be very limited then as we fly out early on Wednesday morning. There will be a list of things we will have the marina technicians do while we are gone, but the more we can do, the cheaper this lay up will be. We have a hotel booked for Monday and Tuesday nights, near the marina, so long hot showers and motionless sleeping will be in order then.

So off we go, only one or two more stops and we will be back in Colorado. We are sure we will feel odd stepping off the boat with suitcases in hand. We sure hope that this separation will be short and that come next Halloween-time, we will again be back aboard s/v Allergic to Cities, ready for the next chapter of the sailing/traveling adventure to begin. I will post just one mire blog, once we get back to Steamboat Springs with our final thoughts and then this site will set dormant until we return next fall. Stay tuned...