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Larry's LogI spent most of the late morning and early afternoon organizing the pictures and picking the best ones out of the hundreds that I took. In all, I put about 140 shots on the CDs that I made and I thought that some were really pretty good. The camera is a basic Olympus digital with a 3:1 zoom, that is OK for most situations but for action shots, like these races, it was hit or miss. There are more expensive ones that take the interchangeable lenses made by Nikon and Canon, but those are in the 2-3 thousand dollar range. After I made up the CDs, we went for a swim and then went to shore and walked to the Plantation House Resort where the awards ceremony was to be held. Diane saw the regatta organizer from the Bequia Sailing Club and gave the CD of pictures to her. She was obviously very busy and when Diane asked about a cap, she said that they had some but they were selling them for 100 EC (about $37 US) to benefit the Optimist Dinghy Races on the island. That's a bit high, even though the proceeds were for a good cause so we passed. We waited around so we could see Alvin and give him his CD. We talked with Gensing and Trinity, who had also come into the party. They were also leaving the day after the regatta. After a while, we could see the crowd gathering so we walked over to the spot where the awards were being presented. We finally saw Alvin, Kingsley and Junior a little before the awards started. They were giving prizes for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of each race in each class first and then the overall winners after that, so with all the preliminary speeches, thanks and such it took quite a while for them to finally get to Tornado's class. Tornado had won every race and so naturally the overall for his class. The prizes for the yacht classes were very nice but the local boats got money and a trophy. I guess the organizers realize that the yachts, even the ones from nearby islands like Barbados, would like a prize rather than a trophy since they would have to bring it back with them. The cruisers, naturally, prefer the prizes since a trophy really has no place to stay. We cheered as Alvin went up to get his trophy, presented by the Minister of Tourism of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. His "sponsor" had gone up to receive the envelopes of cash that were the prizes for each race. We also knew some cruisers from Avalon that had raced and we cheered for them too. After the awards were all given out, we went to get some drinks. Diane just happened to be near the tent (the only tent) where they were giving them out and she luckily got some beers before the crush. Good thing - I was thirsty! After a bit, we were talking to Alvin, found Kingsley and Junior, when Alvin took the Mount Gay hat he had gotten as owner of the boat, off his head and put it on Diane. He had said he would try to get us a cap but when he spoke to the race organizer, she again said they were selling them. So he gave us his. We didn't want to take it but he insisted. We thanked him, again, and when he walked off to talk with some other friends, we discussed what we could give him. We would have to see when we got back to the boat. We finally left the party around 8 and Junior walked back with us to the dinghy dock and saw us off. We wished him well and said that maybe we would be back this way again next year. We had told Alvin an the crew that we were heading to Trinidad and then to Venezuela before heading to the States. Back at the boat, we talked about what we could give Alvin and I dug out the spare caps we had on board. I came across a Blue Water Sailing cap that we thought would be good. It was a nice cap, made of nylon that would be cool and we felt that it would be good. We were going to go into shore the next day to get dinghy gas, do some last minute shopping for fresh food, check email, and buy another Patrick O'Brian book. So, Diane would go up to see Alvin's mother, say goodbye to her and drop off the cap. Tuesday morning we went in early to clear out; it was a very easy and quick process, unexpectedly, since I thought there would be a line of people clearing out after the regatta. After that, Diane went off to see Oril and Dalton, Alvin's parents, while I went to get my book, check email and buy gas. I was successful on most counts but it seemed that Bequia was "out of gas." The gas station said they were out and that there wasn't any on the island. A tanker was due in (should have been in already) and they expected it "any minute." When Diane came back, she did a little food shopping and we went back to the boat. The problem now was that we really didn't have enough gas for the dinghy to last until Trinidad. We decided to wait for the gas to arrive since we would need to use the dinghy in the Cays especially. That was the only problem with the new outboard - it really sucked down the juice. So we waited and tried calling in to see if the tanker had arrived. We waited until about 5pm and figured that if it didn't arrive tomorrow morning, we would leave anyway and just use the old, smaller engine. I didn't want to do that since the dinghy ride to the reef was pretty long, but we had done it before with the slower engine and could do it now. We went in to shore around 9am the next morning, Wednesday, and found that there was gasoline. We were told it had come in around 8pm the night before, and the station hadn't stopped pumping since they opened that mornong. There were people getting 55 gallon drums filled as well as local boats getting 10 and 20 gallon tanks filled. That was in addition to the cars. We got our 5 gallons, dropped off more garbage (which would also be a problem in the Cays) and went back to the boat to get ready to leave. We stopped at Great White Wonder to say goodbye and let them know we would probably see them in Trinidad in a few weeks. They were staying a day longer to finish some articles they were writing and then heading down. The couple that had looked at the boat the night before was interested, but Ken didn't seem very optimistic that they could raise the money. Well, their broker was bringing a client to Trinidad around the 15th to look at the boat. Good luck guys. We went back to Destiny, got everything ready (hoisted the engine, dinghy, stowed everything, etc.) ate lunch and left for Canouan at around 1pm and arrived at about 5pm. The trip down was a motorsail with a double-reefed main because I needed to fully charge the batteries anyway and the wind was about 18-20 knots with some lumpy 5 to 7 foot seas. Not as bad as the trip to Bequia from St. Lucia, but not exactly comfortable either. We dropped the hook in Charlestown Bay, Canouan, and just relaxed from the tiring day. The bay was really empty with just 3 cruisers and 2 charter boats. Not many yachts go into Canouan because there aren't many services there for them, but we heard that the views on the windward side were very nice and since we hadn't been there before (and we might not get back this way again) we decided to stop. We only wanted to stay one day to do a walk and then we would leave for Mayreau. During the night, the wind gusted very strongly several times. It also rained a little, which was nice since it washed the deck down from the salt spray we had gotten the day before. I hadn't launched the dinghy, so it was still upside down on the foredeck although I did raise the bow on a halyard so we could open the forward hatch. In the early morning though, a particularly strong gust woke me up and I saw that the dinghy had shifted its position. I got up and tied the stern down to the deck so it wouldn't fly up again. Fortunately, the small cushions I use as pads under the stern hadn't flown away. Once we got up and had breakfast, we launched the dinghy put the engine on and went into shore. The Tamarind Beach Resort, right on the beach at Charlestown Bay, has a dock that they let cruisers use so we went in and tied up there. It was a beautiful resort and the dock was in excellent shape. We went in to ask directions how to get to the windward side and the staff was very nice. They said the walk was about 20 minutes up a "moderate" hill, so we started. Well, a slight hill to the locals isn't a slight hill to us so we took our time going up. I guess it wasn't too bad but the views at the top were very nice. Canouan has a reef almost the full length of the windward side and it gave the water beautiful colors. We saw the casino that was built on a hilltop on the north side of the island but we certainly weren't going to walk the 2-3 miles (up and down more hills) to see it close up. Instead, we walked to the south side of the hill we were on and got a great view of Mayreau, Union, Carriacou and the Tobago Cays. We also met a little girl who ran out as we past her "house." The house was really a one-room shack but she was very cute and walked with us to the view overlooking the south side. Diane talked with her more than I did since I was busy taking pictures. Diane noticed that she was clean but had some kind of rash and was coughing a little. There wasn't much we could do for her and the symptoms were reminiscent of Dengue Fever, endemic to many of the Eastern Caribbean islands. As we started back, she went back into her house and we continued on the road. On the way back, we met a German couple (spoke English well) and we talked with them for a bit. They were new to the Caribbean and were planning to go to Trinidad to haul the boat. We gave them some information and advice on Trinidad and then went back to the resort to just sit and relax. There were only 6 guests in the entire resort so the place was almost empty and nobody minded if we just sat under a palapa and enjoyed the view. It was very pleasant just sitting there, pretending to be a "regular" tourist. Diane asked one of the staff if we could get some bread, and they did sell us a loaf for 8EC. She also asked about water. They said we could fill our jugs from the hose near the restaurant. We relaxed a bit more and then went out to the boat to get our jerry jugs and empty Coke bottles. We filled everything we could since we wouldn't be able to find water (forcing the use of the watermaker) until Grenada. It was really very nice of them to allow us to do that since they depend on either rainwater collection or desalinization plants. After we got back to the boat and I put the jug contents into our tanks, we got ready to leave, ate lunch and went over to Mayreau. That lengthy trip took about 90 minutes. We were both glad we went to Canouan, it was a nice break from the crowds we found in the rest of the Grenadines and the lack of the typical tourist shops and vendors was also welcome. |