Catching Up

It is easy to get behind - at least for me - so it is time for a catch-up blog.

We last blogged from St Maarten just prior to leaving for BVI. It was a Sunday and we were able to catch the 5:30 evening bridge opening and were off for an overnight. Again the winds had been forecast to give us a broad reach - from the side and back. This is normally a good wind for us although Mystic Journey likes the wind from the side/front. Again - as usual - the winds were more a following wind than from the side.

For those uninitiated, although it seems to make sense that wind from the back will push the boat better, in fact (unless you sail wing on wing or with a spinnaker - more about that in a moment) it doesn't. For one thing, if you put the main sail out to catch the full wind, you very effectively block the foresail - the speed sail - and the staysail, which also adds umph to the speed. Sailing wing on wing or with a spinnaker at night in waters where you might unexpectedly get wind shifts is not my cup of tea. Taking down either set of sails at night with seas of 8-9 feet from the side is not a pleasant job and even if the winds cooperate and you are able to leave the wing on wing up, with the seas that high from the side and heavy poles stuck out opposite sides of the boat (the whisker pole for the foresail and the boom for the main sail), the boat rolls to the extreme.

Enough of that stuff - bottom line is that the seas were as I said and we had a following wind most of the way so again we spent a lot of time looking for a "sailing wind". Overall, though, it was a good night with the moon about 1/3 towards full so we had some light when the storm clouds didn't block it. Oh, didn't I mention that we sailed through a couple of storms?? Not to worry though, they didn't have squall winds along with them, just lots of moisture.

We got to Virgin Gorda about 7:30 AM and temporarily hooked up to a mooring ball outside the marina at Spanish Town, the capital of Virgin Gorda. We went in and cleared customs and when we got back out we moved and dropped the hook (the anchor).

We had forgotten how many charter boats there are here in BVI and as a result of the chartering business, the majority of the anchoring spots have been invaded by Moor Secure, a company that puts mooring balls down in all these places and then charges $25 US a night to use them. If you are careful you can still sneak in and use the anchor so that is what we did.

As I said, the last time we were here there were a lot of chartered boats out and about. Well, this time it seems to be about 3 times worse. One morning, before coffee break, Cheryl counted over 30 boats sailing between us and Tortola and out of the 12 mooring balls at the anchorage we were at, I would estimate that on the average, 10 had charter boats on them. We saw the result of that one afternoon. I had just gone below for something and heard a loud bang. Went on deck and saw a guy who appeared to have started his motor, probably to charge the batteries and he had just run full tilt into the (non-charter) boat that was on the mooring ball in front of him. There was no one aboard the other boat but he waited around and eventually the people came back and ended up going in to the marina, probably to get the damage assessed.

Something else that was of interest - fuel is fairly expensive on most of the islands, probably because of the shipping costs, among other things. Well, for Virgin Gorda they have another problem - access for the tankers.

One morning we noticed that some friends we had met who were from Whitby, ON had moved their boat from where they were, out towards the channel, to up beside us. The reason soon became evident. A fuel tanker came up beside the anchorage and anchored parallel to the channel that the ferry uses to get into Spanish Town. It then proceeded to put a fuel line overboard where it was picked up by one of their tenders. The tender then took the fuel line, which they fed out from the tanker, into the fuel depot which was beside the ferry dock. The fuel line, as it was fed off the ship, had orange float balls attached about every 100 ft so the whole thing floated on top of the water. In spite of the brightly coloured floats, it was surprising (or not) how many people in boats or dinghies tried to pass over the fuel line to go into the marina. There was a guy on the tanker who manned the air horn and every time someone started that way he would blow and the crew would yell until whoever it was got the idea and went around back.

We did some walking on Virgin Gorda and some snorkelling and some grocery shopping and some laundry and that kept us occupied until we left for Fat Hog Bay.

Here are a few snorkelling pictures. Our 'waterproof' camera quit working again after we took these pictures. We had found an old shipwreck about 100 feet off our port bow. There were a lot of fish and coral making their homes there.

Stay tuned - same bat time, same bat channel.

"For Lack of a Nail"....The Alternator Saga

Well, there we were in St Maarten to get something for the boat that we couldn't reasonably get anywhere else. The reason we were in there and the resulting non-affordable outflow of our hard earned money is why I titled this blog the way I did. We told you that the alternator went bad in Nevis - so - here are the connections to the expenditures

Go to St Kitts Marina to get an expert to look things over (no cost) - result - the dock boys pulled Mystic Journey's prow into the cement dock making a major boo-boo - cost of the St Kitts marina

Go to St Maarten (we hadn't intended to go there at all but it was the only place we could get the expertise for a very, very puzzling problem) - extremely expensive entry into Simpson Bay Lagoon. (The gov't is taking over the Lagoon because the present caretakers - through fiscal mismanagement - have driven away all but the super yachts.)

Cost of bench testing the 2 alternators we had - the one that went bad and the spare. The spare was good but the system was still bad - hence the one that went bad.

Cost of moving into the marina for 3 days so the prow of the boat could be repaired (boat boys in St Kitts!).

Having an expert electrician come in the troubleshoot the charging system

Purchase of a new alternator to replace the one that went bad PLUS, purchase of an automatic charging relay to change the design of the system - not directly related to the system problem but a much better end result system.

Purchase of a new improved external regulator for the alternator - necessary to avoid overheating due to high current.

Cost of having the prow of the boat repaired and repainted

So, all of the above highlighted stuffies were the result of the charging system frying an alternator. Oh, and as Cheryl just mentioned, we suffered a goodly number of sleepless nights trying to troubleshoot the original problem - which incidentally was inherent in the initial installation back in BVI in 2007 - it just never popped it's ugly head up. Don't know why I decided to tell you all this except when Cheryl and I talked about it and realized how it all tied together - "for lack of a nail"!!!!

St Maarten is actually a neat island. As we had probably said before, half belongs to the Netherlands and half to France but there is no border per se on land. If you are yachting you can come into the Lagoon either through the French side or the Dutch side. All of the boat repair facilities are on the Dutch side and since the Lagoon is about 12 sq miles, if we had come in the French side we would have had a long dinghy ride just to get the stuff done.



The island has a very European flavour to it. The main road that runs by the Lagoon has 3-4 casinos and many, many restaurants as well as lots of French pastry shops. Lots of resorts on the island and most countries have direct flights to and from, including Canada with West Jet.


The people are friendly for the most part and in spite of all the resorts and the fact that the main currency is the US$ (they use guilders too on the Dutch side and Euros on the French side), prices are quite reasonable. There was a 8 theatre cineplex just up the road. We almost walked up to see "2012" but figured we could get it on DVD when we get back!!

Lots of dogs running loose, even though there is a very active Animal Shelter organization. When we walked over to look at the cineplex we saw a bunch keeping cool in the shade of the parking lot. You could really hear them at night also.

And while I am on the subject of animals, when we were in St Kitts we noticed a pet store that advertised Exotic Tropical Fish - ""Fresh Water Aquarium Fish"" we thought that was quite strange.

So, after having solved our problems in St Maartens, we decided to continue our journey to the BVI's and leave for Virgin Gorda on Sunday night. Next blog will talk about that. One thing we were really happy to discover - fixing the charging problem the way we did has resulted in a vast improvement in all aspects of our charging and battery system. It is finally working like I thought it should but had been told it wouldn't and that "that was okay" In other words - the system is optimized - hurrah for our side!!!

Simpson Bay Bridge SNAFU

You may remember from our last visit to Sint Maarten that there is a lift bridge that we have to go through in order to get into the lagoon. Friends of ours had told us that the schedule for the bridge now was opening only at 6AM and 6PM instead of three times a day because they were doing bridge maintenance. We arrived in Simpson Bay midday Sunday so we knew we wouldn't be able to go in until 6PM and we weren't to keen on anchoring after dark so resigned ourselves to staying in the bay overnight and going through the bridge the next morning. However, when we went to Customs and Immigration the lady at the Port Authority said the bridge was back to regular operating hours - 930AM, 1130AM and 530PM. We decided to still remain overnight in the bay and go through the bridge at 0930 the next morning, which was a Monday. At 530PM that evening we watched other boats go in and because it was already getting dark were glad that we had decided on the morning entrance.

Next morning while listening to the Cruisers' Net at 0730, mention was made that the bridge was not back on regular hours. Griff hopped in the dinghy and headed over to the Port Authority where he was assured the bridge was back on regular hours. That was about 0800. By 0830 we were getting ready to lift anchor in preparation for the opening at 0930. At 0855 Griff heard someone in the lagoon calling the Bridge Operator to see if the bridge would be up for him to leave the lagoon at 0900. Boats in the lagoon go out through the bridge before boats can come in. He was informed that the bridge was not on normal operating hours, but would be open again at 6PM that night. Once again we had to change our plans because of external circumstances beyond our control.

We went by dinghy into the lagoon and organized the repairs we would be needing. Since the bay was very rolly and we had spent a poor night we decided to go through the bridge at 6PM even though it meant anchoring in the dark.

530PM arrived and we started raising the anchor. Sometimes when we raise the anchor the chain gets caught and Griff needs to use a large screwdriver to release it. Today was one of those times. To top it off he dropped the screwdriver into the bay. Anyway he got the anchor up and we got into position to enter the lagoon. Everything was going well until the boat in front of us was just entering the bridge opening. The Bridge Operator announced that incoming boats were to stop. The light had turned red and we realized that there were blue flashing lights and sirens at the bridge. We were still moving forward at about 4.5 kts so Griff put the boat in reverse which stopped forward movement, but when in reverse our prop walk turns the stern of the boat to port especially when the rpm's are high like they were then because we were trying to stop quickly. We ended up cross ways in the channel. Remember this is after 6PM and dark. There are lights from land, but they don't really light up the channel that well. Griff deftly turned Mystic Journey and again we were facing the bridge. We watched as the bridge came down, an ambulance headed across and the bridge went up again. We were given the green light and proceeded into the lagoon.

This picture shows the open bridge from the lagoon side. (It's actually from when we left the lagoon last time. That's Mystic Journey's side deck in the foreground.) The position of the red boat is approximately where we were when we were turned sideways in the channel.

By now it was quite dark, no moon and very little light from shore. Fortunately one of the sailboats that went through the bridge before us still had their navigation lights on and we were able to use those as a guide for where we could drop anchor. We did this and managed to get it to grab the first time. We set the anchor alarm, had supper, watched our usual evening DVD's and went to bed hoping the alarm would not go off. We were able to sleep until 6AM when the alarm went off. Fortunately it was because we had swung around on the anchor and not because our anchor was dragging. Our position in relation to the other boats was unchanged.

A new day arrived and we could now concentrate on getting the boat repaired.

Side Trip to Isle Forchue and Another Fish Story

Half way up the windward coast of St. Kitts we decided that the wind was not cooperating again - it was from behind us. If we continued on our planned route to Marigot Bay, St. Martin (the French side) it would take until after dark to get there; if we changed our plans and took a side trip to St. Bart's we would arrive there about 2PM. Needless to say we opted for the side trip to St. Bart's, 'yellow flagging' it at Isle Forchue one of St. Bart's marine parks. The sail was still not ideal, but at least the wind was more favourable and the seas remained flat. We were still using the AC generator to charge the batteries.

Griff decided to try fishing yet again. Another fish story about the one that got away. Griff was using the hand held fishing reel that we had bought on Union Island as a souvenir of the Grenadines. As usual he was relaxed behind the wheel when suddenly he felt a large tug on the line. He gave a huge pull to set the hook and said "this time I got him". Next thing he knew, the fish grabbed back - in spades!!! He grabbed for the line, which was whizzing off the reel, but before he could get a good grip on the reel it got yanked right out of his hands, went flying across and out of the cockpit and hit the lifeline and stanchion on the side of the boat. The only thing that saved it was the fact that the handle broke and the remaining piece got hung up on the lifeline. Needless to say that was one big fish that got away. (Griff here - it must have been absolutely huge - honest!!)

The other thing that happened on this trip as well as the trip from Dominica was that two large cargo ships/tankers came very close to us. The one from Dominica passed behind us, went along our starboard side, crossed our bow and then headed back the way it came along our port side. The one this trip came up on our starboard side, meaning she had the right of way except we were sailing therefore we should have had the right of way. However, since she was much bigger than us and moving faster we gave way so that she would pass in front of our bow with room to spare.

We finally got to St. Bart's which is a French island. As with other French islands if you don't go into the major centres they don't seem to mind if you 'yellow flag' your stay. We sailed past Pain de Sucre (Sugar Loaf), an island just off the main harbour of Gustavia and went to Isle Forchue. This is a privately owned island that is also a marine park. They have mooring balls in place and when we arrived we were all alone in the bay. Later two other boats came and moored as well. We went snorkelling to check the state of the mooring and also just to snorkel. The mooring was good - large rope in good shape attached to a large cement block. Although there wasn't a reef to swim around the shore had lots of boulders with corals and fish. Maybe not as spectacular as the Tobago Cays, but there seemed to be a larger variety of fish and we didn't have to fight the surge of the surf.

We spent a quiet night and headed to St. Maarten the next morning. We decided to go the Dutch side since that was where all the businesses were that we needed to access. Next blog is on St. Maarten. We haven't had any recent comments so if anyone is still reading our blogs stay tuned!

Alternators and Other Woes

Well the storm was over and the deck was clean. It was now time to start the engine so we could recharge the batteries. Turned the engine on and no rpm's registering on the tachometer. This is usually an indication that the alternator belt has stretched or broken so Griff heads downstairs to check. The belt was tight and nothing was charging so we turned the engine off and started the AC generator to charge the batteries. Thank God we had bought that generator in Grenada last year.

Griff then started to trouble shoot. We checked voltages in the wiring, he pulled out the alternator and replaced it with our spare. The problem with that process was first he had to pull the alternators apart. When we had the alternator installed in BVI in February 2008 the electrician had removed the internal regulator and used an external regulator. Now Griff had to modify our back-up in the same way. Once he had that done he installed the back-up and started the engine. This time the tachometer was registering rpm's and the batteries were charging, but in less than a minute the smoke detector went off - the alternator was overheating and the batteries were overcharging. Back to square one.

Griff again pulled the alternators apart and reinstalled the back-up. Again things worked, but the system was overcharging. By this time it was supper time and Griff decided to sleep on the problem and try again in the morning.

Morning arrived and the problem hadn't changed. Griff phoned a fellow on St. Kitts who was listed in our Doyle's Guide as being able to help with yacht mechanical problems. David of Indigo Yachts told Griff that it would be best if we went to St. Kitts so he could have a look at things. He said it would be safe to run the engine with the field disconnected so that we could get movement from the engine, but would not do any charging. So we headed over to St. Kitts, a 11nm trip. Poor wind again so it was a good thing we did have the engine for power.

We decided to go into the marina in Basseterre to make it easier for David to access the boat. Now comes the Other Woes. The marina is only a few years old, but it is not really cruiser friendly. Most of the slips are taken up with either local fishing boats or local tour/sightseeing catamarans. They have short finger docks with pelican poles similar to the marina we stayed in in Trinidad, but the finger docks are much shorter. There were two men on the dock to assist and we felt everything would be good. However, that was not to be. I passed the bowline to the dock master and he wrapped it around the cleat at the end of the finger dock - about midships. Griff had stopped the boat's forward motion by briefly putting it in reverse. He then left the cockpit to get the stern line around the pelican pole. For some reason after I threw the second bowline to the second man on the dock the dock master moved the first bowline from midships to the bow. They both started pulling forward. Because Griff had not secured the pelican line yet Mystic Journey started moving forward. Before I could get into the cockpit and put her in reverse the bow made contact with the cement dock. OUCH!!!!! We now have a boo-boo on the prow of the boat. Another one of those things not planned for but requiring money to fix. Fortunately it is just cosmetic, not structural.

Back to the alternator. David came and looked at the alternators and Griff explained what was happening. He felt the alternators were probably okay, but he would access the company's website and try to find some schematics for us. He also said that we would be better off heading to St. Maarten because the testing equipment and technicians we would require would be best accessed there. We considered staying in St. Kitts for a couple of days to do a little bit on the island, but then decided we would head out the next day for St. Maarten, a 51nm trip.

Because we would need to charge batteries during the trip, Griff set up the AC generator on deck so we could use it for charging underway. Fortunately the seas are fairly low right now, although when Griff went to start the generator the starter cord failed and there he was at sea fixing the AC generator in the cockpit. It always amazes me how he takes things in stride and does what needs to be done.

We headed out to Major's Bay at the south end of St. Kitts for the night and left for St. Maarten at daybreak from there so we could go up the windward side of the island. Don't want to sound like "whine, whine, whine", but the winds were still low and from the rear so it was one of those find the wind if you can trips. That was the main reason we decided to stop at Isle Fourchou - which will be talked about in the next blog. (Griff here - Cheryl is a literal blog machine the last few days!!!!!)

Be Careful of What You Wish For

In the last blog Griff talked about the way the wind did not cooperate with us. When we are planning to sail there are three websites we check for weather forecasts - National Hurricane Centre, Passage Weather and Carib WX. We also listen to Chris Parker on the SSB. He is the weather forecaster for Carib WX and broadcasts every morning at 0700 on the SSB. He had been mentioning squalls with winds up to 30 - 40 knots for the NW Leeward islands and Griff was wondering which islands he included in that designation. We had experienced a thunderstorm as we were coming up the west side of Nevis - lots of rain but no wind. That was why he was wondering.

The morning after we arrived in Nevis we were on the Coconut Net and happened to mention the lack of winds on our trip and that we would like a bit more wind. Now the reason for the title of this blog.

Approximately 10 minutes after the net was over it sounded like the wind was picking up. I turned on the instruments and sure enough the wind was increasing. I watched the rise steadily and rather quickly. Within minutes it was at 25 knots and still rising. The skies had been overcast and black to the south. Soon we could see the rain coming. The rain came down in sheets, visibility decreased and the wind continued to rise. The highest Griff noticed was 55 knots. Visibility was such that the fishing piroque mooring about 100 feet away was invisible and the boat anchored about 150 feet away was barely visible and looked like it may have been dragging. We spent about 15 minutes worried about if the mooring would hold or if the other boats would drift into us. It was all over in 30 minutes.

When the winds had dropped and the seas sort of settled but it was still raining, Griff did one of the things we try to do when we get a good downpour - 'swab the decks'.

We hope we never experience a storm like that again and definitely not when we are at sea.

Enjoy the videos.

Oh how it rained!

What Griff does when it rains!

Dominica to St Kitts - New but not necessarily Nice Stuff!!

Well, looking at the trip we had to make and figuring that we would average 5 kts (this is the figure we use to try to get to our next anchorage in good daylight - we always hope for a 6-7 kt average but 5 is the "safe" number to use) we decided to leave mid-morning to head for Nevis/St Kitts.

Since the only wifi site in Portsmouth was down for repairs (again!!), we couldn't look at PassageWeather, which is a very useful site to figure out the wind and seas. We instead had to rely on the NOAA which is the National Hurricane site out of Florida. They are okay but very general. They forecast for an area bounded by latitudes and longitudes but don't give very detailed specifics. Anyway, they were forecasting fairly light winds but from the N or NE which would be a good sailing wind. We make plans and God laughs.

We were good from Dominica to about halfway up Guadaloupe and then the wind started doing strange things. Without going into a lot of detail about the rest of the sail, suffice to say that we had south winds, southeast winds, southwest winds and west winds - all around 4-8 kts. Mystic Journey doesn't particularly like following winds but if they are strong enough, she will respond. 4-8 kts is NOT strong enough. Two funny things (funny strange, not funny ha ha) We had decided that rather than have the wind coming from directly behind us - thus causing both the main and the foresail to flail in the weak winds (we weren't going to sail wing on wing with the shifts the winds were doing) we would change our direction enough to catch wind and then later tack back to our course.

Not to be - at one point we actually changed course over 50 degrees and the wind changed with us and stayed in exactly the same place in relation to the boat.

Smoke over Montserrat

Second strange thing - the volcano on the island of Montserrat had erupted - which it does every not and then - about 3 weeks before our sail. Of course when this happens the normal trade winds from the east blow the ash to the west so unless you want your boat covered with volcanic ash, you sail up the east side - which we did. Well, remember I mentioned we encountered west winds - guess where??? Yup, in the middle of the night was we were sailing up the east side of Montserrat. Do you have any idea how "untasty" volcanic ash is when you are breathing it in. And do you have any idea how sticky it is when you mix it with water the next day when you are trying to get it off your boat??

Enough of the voyage - we made it to Nevis about 11:30 the following morning, picked up a mooring ball, set up a bridle (there was a bit of a swell and this brings the boat into line so that you rock but you don't roll) and went into Nevis to clear customs. Nevis folk are very friendly and helpful so we were looking forward to spending a couple of days there and a couple of days in St Kitts. We had acquired wifi and found out that the weather pattern was very unfavourable for sailing for the next while so we were ready to relax.

Stay tuned.

A QUICK TIME THROUGH THREE ISLANDS

(ST. LUCIA, MARTINIQUE AND DOMINICA)

When last we published a blog we had experienced the ‘perfect storm’ in the Pitons. From there we headed north to Rodney Bay, still on St. Lucia. We were awoken Sunday morning at 0630 by LOUD music from the beach in front of us. This lasted until 1030. It was some kind of benefit for someone or something but we thought they could have started 2 hours later and finished at noon. Well we had a couple of quiet hours and then at 1400 the music started again. This time louder, but it was coming from an area about 1.5 miles farther down the beach. It lasted well into Monday morning (0600). This music was so loud we figured there was no sense in getting off the boat in an effort to get away from it because wherever we would walk to we would probably be able to hear it even better. We spent the day on the boat.

The rest of the stay in Rodney Bay was spent doing maintenance on the boat – housekeeping, exchanging books at the book exchange, changing the oil, checking hoses etc. We did get off the boat to walk a bit through Gros Islet. This is a fishing village across the lagoon from the marina. The guide books warn not to walk there at night, but during the day it was quite peaceful. This was probably the area where the music came from on Sunday. We walked over to the north side of Pigeon Island Park to see if we could see the 10 ft swells that were forcast. We couldn't tell how high they were from the shore, but they looked high enough that we were glad we weren't sailing and there were people out surfing.

Finally November 4th arrived and the weather finally looked like it was going to be settled enough to head north again. We took on water and diesel at the marina and headed north for Martinique.

We planned on stopping at Grand Anse d’Arlet, a small village on the south east coast. We had stopped at Anse d’Arlet with the Wards, but Griff didn’t have a chance to see much that stop because he was fixing the ‘head’. We thought we could check in at Grand Anse d’Arlet, spend the night and then walk over to Anse d’Arlet the next day, spend another night and then head up to the north end of Martinique. This was not to be. As we were starting to take our dinghy down a Customs boat came alongside and when we asked if we could check in here they said no we either had to go to Le Marin or Fort de France. They later came back to tell us that yes we could check in at one of the restaurants in Grand Anse. We got the dinghy down and headed to shore. Of course the restaurant wasn’t open so we still couldn’t check in. We decided to “yellow flag” it and leave in the morning. What “yellow flag” means is that you don’t check in, don’t put up the country’s courtesy flag, leave the yellow quarantine flag up and don’t go ashore.

The next morning we headed north to Saint Pierre. We had stopped there in 2007 on our initial sail down island. The town was unchanged, still very French. We did some provisioning there, took a short walk and then headed for Dominica the next morning.

Beautiful sailing until we got about a third of the way up the coast of Dominica. We then got to experience what people have been referring to as a lee wind. If you remember back to your elementary school science land and water heat at different rates. During the day land heats faster and the wind blows from cold to hot so you get the wind blowing onshore. That is called a lee wind in sailing because the island is then downwind of your boat. Normally the winds here blow off the islands towards the sea.

We were going to Portsmouth in the north end. While passing the capital of Roseau we saw two motor launches on our portside. As we watched them we realized that they were watching something in the water. Sure enough we saw some whales. There seemed to be two swimming beside each of the launches. We watched for a while, but then had to crank up the motor again so we could get to Portsmouth before dark.

We were looking forward to visiting Dominica again. We had enjoyed both of our previous visits. As we were coming into the bay we called Martin, the tour guide we have used on previous trips. He met us at the boat after we had anchored. I went over to customs with him while Griff ‘pulled the boat together’. We arranged for him to take our laundry and bring some fruit the next day. It is obvious that the cruising season has not yet started fully. Very few boats were in the anchorage when we arrived – maybe 10. Not all of the ‘boat boys’ were out and about. Martin was using a borrowed boat because he was just finishing painting his own.

We spent the next day on the boat just doing odd jobs because again we were ‘serenaded’ with music from the beach until 0600. We had forgotten how long lasting and loud the beach music can be. In Grenada we didn’t have that problem. Martin brought us the fruit we ordered and then some. He brought 5 oranges, 6 grapefruit, a hand of bananas, 1 avocado, 2 papayas and a bag of lettuce plus a bouquet of flowers and a bunch of rosemary. For all this he charged $12EC ($1US=$2.68EC).

We discussed what we wanted to do on the island and decided that there wasn’t anything more we really wanted to do. We talked about how going back to a place you had enjoyed before is not necessarily a good thing. Expectations are higher and it is disappointing when not met. Last time we were here we interacted with a lot of the other cruisers and this time there weren’t other cruisers around.

We also had to decide where we were heading from here. Do we continue north up the island chain or do we head west for the Virgin Islands? We finally decided to head north to Nevis and St. Kitts. Again those were two islands that we really enjoyed and there were other things we wanted to see and do there. After that we planned to head farther north to Anguilla, an island we hadn’t seen yet.

Griff will do the next portion of the ongoing saga of Mystic Journey.

Windward of St Vincent and The Perfect Piton Storm

We left you - or rather we left us in Bequia, getting set to go to St Lucia. It is about a 70 nm trip which we could have done overnight to ensure we reached Rodney Bay in daylight but we decided to go up the windward side of St Vincent to ensure we didn't lose the wind in the lee of the island. That way we could travel in the daytime and the strong winds would let us get to Rodney Bay in daylight even though we would be in the lee of St Lucia for a while.

Well - the Gods of Wind and Weather had other plans for us. What is that saying - We make plans and God laughs.

We left about 5:45 AM and immediately challenged the Bequia channel. which was supposed to be the only slow part of the journey, at least until we got in the lee of St Lucia. We had to head from the NW side of Bequia to the SE side of St Vincent. This would point us NE but the winds were supposed to be ENE. Since Mystic Journey kind of likes a close reach, however, that wouldn't be bad, even though we were also expecting a current of 1.5 - 2.5 kts against us.

Before I get into the things that put the lie to our plans, I will tell you about a really neat thing that happened just after entering the Bequia Channel. We had noticed some frigate birds soaring around overhead and were keeping our eyes on them. They are a cool bird - I think they look like pterodactyl's with their very pronounced elbow (or wrist as Cheryl calls them) and their very wide wingspan. Anyway, we happened to look up and notice that 3 or 4 of them were trying to land on the top of our mast. Of course there is a wind indicator, a windex (another wind instrument) and a small antenna but they made some very determined tries before giving up.

So back to our windward journey.....

The North West Corner of Bequia

First problem - winds were not the forecast 10-15 kts from the east but instead were between 4 and 8 from the NE, dead on our nose. We managed to adjust our course and sail to the little wind we had, expecting that after we reached the windward side of St Vincent and the sun started to heat up the land and water, the winds would increase to the forecast, giving us a good 10-5 kts on our beam. Not to be!!


Without dragging this out any further, we did not get any wind stronger than 8 kts all the way up the windward side of the coast and things got no better when we crossed the channel between St Vincent and St Lucia. 4 - 8 kt winds and mostly on the nose!! This of course slowed us down enough so we knew we wouldn't get to Rodney Bay before dark. It also spoiled the opportunity for a very invigorating and fun sail on a beautiful day in paradise.

The Windward (East) Coast of St. Vincent

Getting into Rodney Bay after dark is not really a hazard since the bay is big and wide and fairly well lit but we decided to do something else that we thought would be easier. Stay tuned for Chapter II.

Chapter II

So, we decided that we would stop at the Pitons for what could be the last time. We have been there a number of times but it is still a beautiful place and it would then be a short hop to Rodney Bay in the morning. As I mentioned, it had been a beautiful day with sun glinting off the water and a (too) gentle breeze to keep us cool.

As we approached the entrance to the Pitons, we noticed that there were some very dark clouds hanging off the tops of the Pitons. We turned into the wind to take down the main and what a shock when we turned back. Both Pitons as well as the bay in between had disappeared into as dark a hole as I ever hope to see. It looked like the entrance to Hell or like a black hole that, if you approached too close, would pull you in with no hope of escape.

The Pitons Before the Storm

We approached a little nearer and the darkness seemed to pour out into the seas around both the Pitons and Soufriere. Everything disappeared, including the coast line, and it started to pour. It rained so hard that even our bimini had water dripping right through it. Of course wind accompanied this deluge and the noise was fearsome. Luckily we had all our sails down so loss of control wasn't an issue but on the other hand, by this time we were surrounded by storm and had no idea how far, how fast or even where it was moving. We have radar and it showed that it was a huge mass but that was all we could get from there. We decided to try and wait it out and that turned out to be the right decision. Of course we have a chart plotter and we could have entered the bay using the chart plotter and hoping we would be able to see something when we got in there but that would NOT have been the right decision. So we slowly motored up and down and waited.

Our "new experiences" were not over for the day, however.

As we were wending our way in a kind of figure eight about a mile off the coast, Cheryl noticed a rainbow starting to form right in the middle of the darkest part of the storm. As it grew, the most amazing thing happened. The rainbow became a full fledged vista of colour (almost a full circle) and the whole thing began and ended at Mystic Journey. It came right down to the bow and stern along the water. Fantastic.

Not only that but even though the surroundings were so dark, all of the area under the rainbow looked as if there was light shining down on the water. The sky and the water under it were bright. Now I know there is some scientific explanation for this but I prefer to think that it was a sign. Not quite sure what of but>>>>>>>>> (Cheryl here: I always remember the first rainbow was a sign from God to the Hebrews that he would never flood the earth again. I like to think when I see one now, especially this special one, that it is a sign that we will be okay.)

As an anticlimax - the storm cleared after about 90 minutes, we were able to pick up a mooring ball for the night and the next day we were in Rodney Bay bright and early on a sunny morning. Probably won't write much about Rodney Bay We were there to replenish our food, get fuel and wait for a weather window to move north. We have been in and written about Rodney Bay, St Lucia a number of times so if you need to know - go back a few blogs and check them out!!

Sorry no pictures of the storm or rainbow, but here is a picture of the sunset that evening.

Onward ever northward.

PS These events occurred before the blog entitled "UPDATE FROM THE HIGH SEAS".

Update from the High Seas

This is being written on the 'high seas' 8 nm SW of Les Saintes, Guadaloupe. We left Dominica at 1030 today. We decided that we didn't want to do any tours of the island so there was no reason to stay in Dominica any longer. We had an interesting stay there. The 'boat boys' still are not in cruising season mode. Martin, the 'boat boy' we have used in the past, was borrowing boats so he could do errands for us. He was still in the process of repainting his boat. That didn't hamper him taking our laundry in and bringing out fruit. He brought us 5 oranges, 6 grapefruit, 1 avocado, 2 papaya, a hand of bananas, a bouquet of flowers and a bunch of rosemary. All for $12EC (1US$=2.68EC$). We gave him $20EC for the lot.
The anchorage was different from the previous times we were here. Before the wind was usually from the east and Mystic Journey faced the beach. Yesterday the wind was from the west and Mystic Journey was facing the entrance to the bay. That meant are stern was facing the anchor. We did eventually swing around again, but it was a little disconcerting for awhile because we were in shallow water, <6ft below the keel, and were afraid we would drift closer to shore and on top of the anchor. Another difference was that there are very few cruisers here, about 10 boats at any one time. Only one that we knew, Nikita - a family from the USA, who we had met in St. Lucia last week. Griff just commented to me that he just realized that even though we usually don't do a lot of socializing he was missing the contact we have had with other cruisers. Cruising season is just starting and probably won't get into high gear until starting in December. Most of the cruisers we know from last season are leaving Grenada and sailing quickly up island to the north. Just like us.
The trip today has been great so far. We have all 3 sails up and for a good two hours were able to turn the engine off. We are heading to Nevis so it will be an overnight sail.
We just had something interesting happen. We noticed a container ship off our port stern that was coming our way. Since she was behind us it was her responsibility to travel in such a way that there would be no collision. Which she did. She crossed behind us and then turned and travelled along our starboard side. However, she then turned and went across our bow. We thought she must of been heading to Guadaloupe. After getting across our bow she again turned and headed back along our port side and is now again off our port stern heading the same way we are going. Actually it looks like she isn't moving right now. We are really confused as to what she is doing or where she is going. Hopefully that is all the adventures we will have on this trip.
Hopefully when we get to Nevis we will have better internet connection and we will fill you in on what happened to Mystic Journey and her crew from Bequia to Dominica.