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Diane's Diary4/3 Wed Well, the gas tanker came in to Bequia last night around 8pm but since it was dark we didn't see it. We thought we saw a tanker at 9am but I guess that wasn't the gas tanker. Anyway, we went in about 9:45am & they got gas! Of course, there was a huge line & we only have a little 2 gal tank to fill up. It's much to heavy to try & lug 6 gallons by hand as it becomes very heavy. So, we had to do it 2 gallon at a time. Larry waited in the dinghy as we used the closest dinghy dock, which is not in very good shape. I asked if I could pay at the end, as I wasn't sure exactly how much gas we would use. I was lucky people let me cut the line as I only needed a few gallons & had to make 3 trips. We took 5.1 imperial gallons, which is over 6US gallons. This took approximately one hour to do. So, we left the gas station & went to say goodbye to GWW. We took the engine, oars & gas tank off the dinghy & hauled the dinghy up on deck. We finally left Bequia with the mainsail up about 1:15pm. Unfortunately, since the batteries were low we had to motor sail to Canouan to charge the batteries. We had a nice passage though - the winds were from the east- northeast with 15-20 knots & seas about 6 - 8 feet. We arrived in Canouan harbor about 4:45pm so the passage took about 3.5 hours. By the time we took down the sail, & motored into the harbor it was 5:15pm. We anchored & just relaxed. There were only about 10 boats total in the harbor so it was very nice. Our cruising guide said the winds funnel down the mountains here. Also, a local we met in Bequia told us the same thing so even though the wind was hardly blowing, Larry put out 125 feet of chain. Well, it's a good thing he did because in the middle of the night (why does it always happen in the middle of the night?) the wind picked up & started gusting down the mountain in huge gusts. One of the charter boats near us dragged considerably. But we held fine. I made chicken cutlet Parmesan & spaghetti with the ementhal Swiss cheese from Martinique, which tasted good. We have enough leftover for tomorrow night. 4/4 Thursday In between the huge gusts, we managed to get the dinghy down this morning. All the other boats in the anchorage except us & another boat left. Canouan is definitely not the place people go to for several days! After all the wind last night & this morning, we both didn't get a good night's sleep. After listening to the various nets on the SSB, eating breakfast & taking down the dinghy, we left about 9:45am for a walk into town to see the view. We walked up a steep hill for about 10minutes & then got a beautiful view of the windward side of the island. The sun was shining so it was beautiful for pictures. We also walked to the southern part of the island about another 10-minute hike & got some beautiful views of the Tobago Cays. Canouan is an extremely poor island & it's difficult to see all that poverty. A local girl followed us & we asked how old she was. She told us 11 & we couldn't believe it - she was very small for her age. But Larry commented that when you are undernourished your entire life, you are not going to grow. Sad, but true I guess. Anyway, the views were really great but the island itself is not much. We walked back to the Tamarind Beach Resort where we left the dinghy. It's hard to see this beautiful resort on this poverty stricken island. The resort was truly pretty & I asked to see one of the rooms, which I did. Even though the resort was so pretty I can't imagine staying here for a few days or even a week. It would be very boring as there is not much to do & not any of restaurants to go too. The resort only had 6 guests while we were there. We bought bread at $8EC or about $3USD for a very big homemade loaf of white bread at the resort. We asked if we could get water someplace. The guy in the marina office said we could buy it from a boat that comes around. But we didn't want to buy it. So, I asked the resort when I bought the bread & they said OK. So, we went back to the boat & returned with our jerry jugs & 20 2-liter coke bottles we put drinking water in. Funny, I was going to throw all the coke bottles out in Bequia, but something told me to save them & now I'm glad I did. We went back to the boat & had lunch & left around 3:15pm. Just before we left, an English boat came in & anchored right near us. We were both annoyed as there were only about 3 other boats in the harbor & they came right next to us to anchor. We were upset they didn't anchor further away from us. However, since we were leaving, we didn't say anything. We motored to Mayreau since we needed to charge the battery & it's only about an hour away. We had winds from the east- northeast about 15-18 knots & seas about 5-7 with swells from the east. We arrived in Saline Bay around 4:45pm. We would have liked to anchor in Salt Whistle Bay as it's much prettier but it's very small & full of charter boats. So, we went to Saline Bay, which is where we anchored last year. There was about a dozen boats in the harbor. We came here specifically to do the hike that had fantastic views of the Tobago Cays. Since we were only going for a short sail, we trailed the dinghy but did take off the engine, gas tank & oars in case it overturned. It's much easier to trail the dinghy but you risk the chance of the line breaking. If we do trail it, we always have 2 lines on it & usually only trail it down the lee of an island or short distances. We had a friend on S/V Rejoice who lost their dinghy trailing it in the Mona Passage near Puerto Rico. Why he was trailing it for that great distance we don't know. He ordered a new dinghy in the Dominican Republic but when it arrived, they wanted to charge him 57% duty so he refused it. This was the second dinghy he bought in the islands also. So, we try not to trail it too much. 4/5 Friday We got the engine on around 9am this morning after we listened to all the nets & had breakfast. The Windjammer cruise ship the Yankee Clipper was in port. We had seen them in Bequia also. We asked the launch driver if our dinghy was in the way & helped him with their lines. I jokingly asked what time was lunch. He said 12. I asked was that an invitation & he said yes. We were delighted. But we thought they were having a bar-b-queue on shore. We met some of the passengers & walked with them up the hill. Actually, they are redoing the hill & paving it also. They took away some of the steepness in the hill by reducing the grade. That was really good as that hill was particularly steep. They are also redoing the road to Salt Whistle Bay converting it from a trail into a real road. When it rained, the roads all turned muddy & slippery so this progress is good. However, in some ways it's taking away some of the character of the island & making it easier for everyone to have access when before it was only the hardy folks who did the hike. Oh well, maybe it will improve things for the local people & that's good. We also saw them doing some new roads on Canouan. Wonder where SVG is getting all this money? Well, we walked up the hill & over to Salt Whistle Bay. The passengers told us the boat was going to leave at 1:30 for Grenada & they weren't doing lunch on the beach but rather on the boat. OK, guess we'll go there for lunch. So, we hurried for our hike so we could be back in time to have a quick lunch with them. We got back to Saline Bay around 11:20 & waited about 10 minutes for the launch to come back. When it did, the launch driver said he didn't know anything about the invitation but would have to ask the captain. He told us to wait on the dock. But when he came back at 12 he said NO. I am sure it's because they were planning to leave at 1:30. We were very disappointed as we were looking forward to seeing the ship & having lunch. So, instead, we went back to the boat & had cheese & crackers for lunch. We took off the dinghy engine, oars & gas tank. We left the anchorage around 2pm & motored straight into the wind. Last year when we went from Mayreau to the Tobago Cays, the boat really pounded heading straight into the wind & it took us about 1.5 hours. But now, the winds were very light & it was an easy motor into the winds & the trip took only 1 hour. We were anchored by 3pm. We put up all the canvas & straightened out the boat. At 4pm, we settled down for some reading & a beer. We could have gone snorkeling but it was late in the day & we know it's best from 10-3 when the sun is the highest for good visibility. So, we decided to wait until tomorrow to go snorkeling. We did go in the water, check the anchor & take a shower. We hadn't had a chance to take a shower for the past 2 days & both really needed one. 4/6 Saturday Well, we've had very light winds since we got here to the Tobago Cays. That's very unusual as the trade winds usually blow through here. It makes for great snorkeling but unfortunately is not good for the wind generator. We do have good sun though which makes the snorkeling great for picture taking. We left around 10:30 & snorkeled on the outer reef & then the inner reef. I made a crabmeat imperial casserole dish before we left. We could have gone snorkeling earlier but we were waiting for the sun to get higher in the sky so we could get good pictures. We had a great time because the wind was not strong so the water was calmer & not churned up from the wind. We came back to the boat, had lunch & went back out snorkeling from 2:30 - 4pm on the inner reef. We saw lots of fish & took some good pictures hopefully. It also isn't very crowded here so that helps things also. We were very tired in the afternoon when we got back & just relaxed & read. We went to bed at 9pm, as we were very tired from all the snorkeling. 4/7 Sunday Another gorgeous day in paradise! Again, it's a bright sunny blue day with little wind. We know we have to take advantage of all this great weather while we have it. Last year we were here for 2 weeks & had lots of Tropical Waves while we were here so the water was never this calm. It's almost as calm as a lake. We went out around 10am this morning & snorkeled both the outer & inner reef. We came back for lunch & returned to the outer reef in the afternoon. Then, we came back to the boat & I cleaned the waterline while Larry put on another zinc that had fallen off the boat. It was very calm & we had great light so he was able to do it. We finally finished everything; including taking showers & hoisting the dinghy up around 5pm. Good timing - we are just in time for happy hour! So, we relaxed for the rest of the day. 4/8 Monday Well, the weather changed today. It's cloudy & overcast so it's not good for snorkeling. The wind picked up briefly gusting to as high as 30 knots but it only lasted about an hour & then the wind calmed down again. We were disappointed we couldn't go snorkeling but we know from experience that it's not very good when it's cloudy. So, we both worked on the PC updating our logs. We had a quiet day & didn't even take our dinghy down. |