Sailing, Sailing................

Griff's last blog left us heading to sea again. Since then we have sailed to Martinique and back. No WiFi on the boat there and the keyboards ashore were French so we decided to wait until we were back here in Rodney Bay to do the blog. French keyboards are different. You have to shift to get numbers and some of our common punctuation marks. As well the letters are arranged differently. For those of you that we did send emails to that explains the qnd's and the e;qils.

A little about the anchorage. We were anchored off St. Anne next to Don and Heather on ASSEANCE a boat from Canada that we had met in Dominica. St. Anne is a quiet little village. One noticable thing about it is the church and shrine on the hill above the village. The church is the first thing you see as you walk up from the dock and the shrine is at the end of a zig-zag path that is very noticable from the boat because it has a white wall that follows both sides of the path with what looked like a shrine at each point of the zig-zag. What little I know about the Catholic religion I figure the path must have been a walk along the Stations of the Cross. We did not walk up the path. We spent an afternoon exploring the rest of the village and walking along the beach. On one end of the beach is a Club Med which of coarse does not allow non-guests onto its premises. At the other end of the village is a series of beaches that are connected by a hiking trail. We walked along part of the trail passing a 'water park' one of the hotels has in place. It consisted of trampolines, slides and water volleyball court. It was easy to picture the grandkids having fun there.

The other area we spent time in was Le Marin. This is another village/marina area about a 1/2 dinghy ride away. It is a huge marina, anchorage, and mooring field. We have not run across so many boats in one area before. Martinique is a province of France and the atmosphere there is more European than Caribbean. You can still get the island tourist gifts and vegetables, but you can also buy delicious French bread, cheeses and wine.

Now about the sailing. It was great to be on the move again. We had good winds both days and were able to sail with the motor turned off. Griff was in his glory! I am still getting over my uneasiness with being heeled over, but it is getting better. The sail from St. Lucia to Martinique was uneventful - winds around 15 knots and seas about 6 feet over the starboard bow. We averaged around 6.5 knots most of the way. When we were about an hour away we realized that the waypoint we were headed to was west of St. Anne, the harbour we wanted to anchor in. That meant we had to turn more into the wind and lost speed so that last hour we had the motor on. I will admit it was my error in not letting Griff know earlier where the waypoint was in relation to the harbour and not realizing that we would have been better turning earlier so we would not lose the wind. Oh well!!! Next time I'll know better. We got anchored with no incidents.

Our sail from Martinique was not quite as uneventful. At 0830 we lifted anchor and started the voyage back to St. Lucia. The first event occurred as Griff was hoisting the mainsail. He was having a difficult time, as if the sail was caught on something. We finally realized that the halyard, the rope used to pull up the sail, was tangled around the lazy jacks, the lines that run up from the boom to the top of the mast and keep the mainsail in line when it is being lowered. So we lowered the main and started all over, this time with no problems. So out of the harbour we sailed with one boat slightly ahead of us off our port bow.

Next event - When we left the anchorage the wind was about 10 knots and the seas we less than 3 feet. As we passed the end of the island the wind and seas increased. We were expecting that because it is a normal occurrance when you come to the end of an island and enter 'open' water. However, to compound things, we also had a squall hit us. This also causes an increase in wind speed as well as rain. The wind picked up to 25 knots and the seas were now 8 - 9 feet. Both were coming from the east which, because we were travelling SSE, meant they were coming over our port side. Mystic Journey was rocking and rolling and I headed for the Gravol. We both put on our lifejackets and tethers.

Next event - As the wind, seas, and rain were diminishing I happened to notice that our boat hook, which we have tied to the toerail at the bow, had worked its way over the toerail and was now hanging outside the boat - a sure way to lose the boat hook. Off Griff went to remedy the situation by bringing the boat hook into the cockpit. Even though the seas had settled a bit, Griff still was a 'little' on the wetside when he got back to the cockpit (Griff here - while I was up there a large wave came up over the bow and hit me. I lost my footing and both my legs went over the side - luckily my body was on the right side of the lifeline - don't tell Cheryl!!).

The rest of the trip was uneventful except for briefly altering course to make way for a couple of boats heading in the opposite direction. Finally we could see Rodney Bay and were on course according to the GPS and chartplotter. Both of us were looking at the landmarks and chose which point in the distance we should be heading towards. Things didn't quite look like I remembered the entrance to Rodney Bay. Down to look at the chart plotter and change the setting to closer in. Sure enough the point we had chosen was the backside of Pigeon Island not the point of land on the other side of the bay. Slight adjustment in course and we were headed the right way again. It was interesting to see Pigeon Island from the other side. That was the side of the park that we had looked out from when we visited it with Jason, Amelia and Alex. Anchoring in the bay was uneventful and we were settled in by 1330.

We had been going to go in to fill up with water as it had not been available when we left for Martinique but decided with the wind about 18 kts when we arrived, that we would wait for a calmer time - it can be awkward pulling up to a dock with the wind blowing hard like that. So here we are, waiting for our next crew members, Judy and Ivor, to come in on Sunday. Maybe one more blog before then - if we do anything besides clean the boat (Griff here - and fix things - have to pick up a foot pump for the saltwater galley pump - never ends!!!)

Ramblings and Musings

Well, it has been a week and 2 days since Jason left St Lucia and one week since we left the Perry's in the Pitons to come to Rodney Bay. When Cheryl blogged last, she related the problems we had when we arrived here and noted that we enjoyed the sleep that night. Onward, ever onward.

Our intentions in coming to Rodney Bay were to re-provision, clean up the boat a little and move up to Martinique to spend a week or so exploring until it was time to come back to St Lucia to meet our next guests, Judy and Ivor. Well, I thought that I would make a list of little things we could do on/for the boat for a day or so while prepping for Martinique. Of course there is no such thing as a small list when you are talking about things to do on a boat so the list grew and grew until we ended up deciding that we would stay the weekend and go to Martinique this week.

Of course the weather (wind and seas) picked up beginning Monday and since we are feeling particularly lazy (like why fight the weather Gods), we decided on delaying until Friday, when we go regardless.

There is a trade off for this laziness, however. Whenever we stay in one place too long, I find myself feeling very restless, irritable and out of sorts. I believe I start to think too much and try to live too much in the future. I have been able over the last 20 years to learn how to not live in the past. The Serenity Prayer says accept the things you cannot change and of course the past is one of the two things that I keep reminding myself I can't change. The other thing is other people and I am working on that - honest.

Back to staying in one spot too long - a friend of ours, Chris, that we met through the Perry's said that the worst thing you can do down here is to turn into a sailing bum - moving very little, hanging out in marinas or marina bars and just generally not taking advantage of the opportunities available down here to see and learn new things. I think when I stay in one spot I become concerned that this is what is happening. In truth I don't believe it is because if it was, I wouldn't be concerned would I??? Would I??

Something else that has been bothering me and I think this may relate back to something Cheryl said in a blog long ago and far away. She said it feels sometimes like we are not contributing to........anything I guess..... as we sit in these anchorages. I think this has been in the back of my mind for a while now and two places we have visited since the new year started kind of reinforced the concept of it. The first place was Falmouth/English Harbour in Antigua and the second was actually in the Pitons earlier this month. It was sparked by the vista of millions and millions of dollars of floating fibreglass of the super yacht class sitting in marinas with maybe 20 people aboard doing mostly nothing. We mentioned Maltese Falcon in Falmouth in a previous blog, 289 feet of very expensive ego, built so they could say they had the largest sailboat in the world - when it was built. It has of course been surpassed since then by others with more money and bigger egos. Then in the Pitons a super yacht called White Cloud showed up. We googled it just for information and found out it is the 62nd biggest super yacht in the world. WHY? In case you are thinking this is just sour grapes because our boat is only 49 feet of constant repairs(well, not really, it just seems like that sometimes!!!), it is not. Cheryl and I talked about this and discussed whether we would ever buy something like that if we had the money. Emphatically NO! I think about the money that is afloat aboard these boats and then walk through one of the "less desirable" areas of some of the towns in the island, where kids leave school at 11 or 12 to help support the family or they can't go to school because they can't afford the mandatory uniforms (I think uniforms are a great idea but not the idea of no uniform, no school) and I wonder where priorities lie for a large number of people in the world

I guess some of this ties into what I said earlier about us feeling like we are not contributing. I think in some way, I feel a little guilt. I always thought when I retired that I would then sit back and do nothing except play- and be extremely happy doing it. I guess even when I began thinking about just sailing - nothing else - it sounded idyllic and something I could do until I was old. I am beginning to realize, however, that as lucky, or as fortunate (difference between lucky and fortunate is that lucky is dropped in my lap, fortunate is being able to manage my life well enough to seem lucky) as I am, and as grateful as I am for the gifts I have been given by my Creator that enabled me to get where I am, that there needs to be more to our lives than hedonistic pleasure - more than self-gratification as a goal.

This is not to say that people who sail or just retire and do nothing are to be faulted. When I speak of these things I speak strictly for me and maybe somewhat for Cheryl. At times I envy these people and wonder if I mentally self-examine too much (no - I guess I know I do that!). It is difficult to translate what I am feeling into words. When I think about our sailing experiences so far I don't consider it a waste of time or as hedonistic - well, most of the time anyway - but I think the times I enjoy the most are when we have a goal i.e do 3 overnights to reach the ABC's, sail for the first time in unknown (to us) waters, sail across the Venezuela basin in 7 days. This feeling of goal orientation/achievement can apply to sailing for 4 hours in new waters or the circumnavigation of the globe. It can even apply to living back on the acreage when we are done our nautical life. We can set goals and do our best in working towards them.

So how does this apply to anything and what sparked this long diatribe. Having re-read what I have written after leaving it overnight I think it relates back to sitting in one spot too long.

Or maybe I just get bored. If that is so, why didn't I just say that in the first place. I could have avoided boring you!!!!

Cheryl and I have tentatively laid out our plans for the rest of this year. After we visit Martinique and then have Judy and Ivor crew for us for a week, we are going to start heading south with the goal of getting to Grenada by end July or early August - unless a hurricane chases us down there sooner

In the middle of August we put Mystic Journey on the hard in Grenada to get some anti-fouling work done (Painting the boat bottom so barnacles etc. don't attach themselves to the boat. Hence the term anti-fouling.) and while that is going on we are returning to Canada to visit family, particularly the latest addition (by that time) - Leila and Ryan's first child. Cheryl is also going to attend her 40th Nurses Reunion in BC.

October 3 we are back in Grenada to pick up our boat and are hoping that sister Deb will visit in mid-October so we can sail her down to Tobago and back. Then we continue our journey north to do some exploring in BVI and USVI and maybe a short visit to the Spanish Virgin Islands. This overall period might be a really good time for those of you who have not yet visited to take the plunge. There are some really neat things to see and do up there. This agenda will take us into the new year and then it is a whole new ball game.

I hope that my "ramblings and musings" haven't put you to sleep. I do tend to run on. Will blog from Martinique if we have a WiFi connection or as we heard it pronounced by one Frenchman, a WeeFee connection.