My Birthday

We had a brilliant sail up to Petite Martinique. We were right into the wind so we had to tack a few times but it was 20 odd knots so we were making good speed at about 6 .5 knots. We arrived at the island and decided that the island next door Petite St Vincent looks far more luxurious so we decided to anchor there instead. So we ended up having to motor all of three three/ four minutes to get to the next island. It was beautiful. We went swimming in the clearest waters I have ever been in and anchored in 3.5 metres off the golden sandy beach. We spent the afternoon snorkelling and went for a walk on the beach





The whole of Petite St Vincent is a private holiday resort which cost mega bucks. So We were intrigued to know how much it would cost to stay in one of the cottages so when we googled it the results showed over 4000 quid each for the week not including the flights – this was just the resort. Ummm a bit cheap – we realised again how lucky we are to visit these islands for free!!!
After getting all dressed up we got on the tender and ripped over to the next island, which looked quite built up from a distance but we managed to find one small shack which was a menu of chicken or fish. We decided to give it a miss – Im bloody fed up to the eyeballs of chicken and fish so we decided we would go for a meal when we got down to grendada. We went back to the boat and My beautiful hubby knocked up a feast of crab cakes for starters followed by pasta.. yum yum

The Grenada Grenadines

After checking out with customs in Union Island we sailed down to the Grenada Grenadines to the island of Carriacou. It was only 7 odd miles so did not take long.
We stopped off at Hillside anchorage to sign in with customs, but the anchorage was terrible. The wind was coming from the north that day and the swell coming in made the anchorage shit! I stayed on Quartermoon ( from fear of dragging and being swept onto the beach onto the leeshore, while Sym went to check in with the customs.
After a horrible 40 minutes we left to head further south to Tyrell Bay where we met back up with our friends Alissa again.




Tyrell bay is great. The anchorage was quite rolly down the south, but we hid ourselves to the north close to the mangroves and it was fine. It was a lot more windy there , but that was great for us because it kept us in power, so I got to use the internet all day.

We decided to go out for pizza one evening which Alissa recommended and it was delicious. We had a great night and the food was reasonable and beautiful, nicest pizza we had in ages. We spent a few nights on Alissa and Quartermoon taking in turns to cook dinner, which as always is great fun. I actually scored a 58 pointer in scrabble and won so that made my night cos Sym always is gutted when I beat him. We have had to resort to having a three minute timer on when we play, otherwise he takes forever.

Alissa were heading south for Grenada the next day, but we decided to head back up north ( only 6 odd miles ) to a little island called Petite St Vincent to celebrate my birthday

Pic of Wolverine and Shackles for Julia:

Canouan and Union Island

After Bequia we sailed down to Canouan for a day. The anchorage was quite rolly but we had free wifi there and sym was intent on making me a sailing dingy from our tender for my birthday…. Check this out!!



Well my back was still quite bad, so I gave it a miss, but when finished Sym ( of course ) could not wait so went off to test it out. Three hours later he arrives back- sunburnt. The boat did sail , but as you can imagine not very well to windward, so sym used the oar as a keel / dagger board to come back. Even so it did the trick – not bad for using a old oar for a mast though!! haha

After a few days we sailed on down to Union Island. The sailing around this part of the Caribbean is definitely the best because the islands are amazingly lush and they are only about 7 miles apart. We anchored at the roundabout which is completely open to the Atlantic but is surrounded by a barrier reef. It was the first time we did this , but was brilliant. It was quite windy and you could see how choppy it was outside , yet our anchorage was flat as a pancake. We spend a few hours snorkelling , where I got to see my first ray.

Here is a picture of ‘Happy Bar’ which is build out in the reef

More Bequia

The following evening I was respectable and well behaved. Oh Yes!! we had some drinks on Tallulah. Everyone else had already had a skin full by the time Sym and I arrived and he caught up quickly, while I surprisingly enough paced myself.

It was nice to see other people behaving in such a drunk and disorderly manner (he he Brendon) I have some brilliant video footage of you on Tallulah which I threatened to put on her for pay back for videoing me the night before – but after much thought I have come to the conclusion that there is far too much bad behaviour and swearing coming from your vile mouth and I have too many younglings and oldies who read the blog - and they would be mortified, so you are very lucky! Ha Ha!!



Anyways the next day Tallulah head back up north to St Lucia and we say our goodbyes!! It’s been brilliant catching up again. The next day me and Sym take the dingy away from the anchorage round the headland to a divers spot and do some snorkelling. We saw some brilliant fish; we spend the rest of the afternoon playing bat and ball on the beach!! Until….
I fell over and did my back in. Jesus Christ its hurt so bad. I lay on the beach in pain for about half and hour while sym was trying to get me up. I was quite surprised how many people are such uncaring shits!!!! Can you believe the beach was full of people and they walked past and did not even offer any help. Only one American lady did and she and Sym helped me into the tender and back to the boat. Thank you dear and piss off the rest of you bums!! It really upset me actually.

Anyway not much else to catch up on really. The last four days I have been lying down in the boat in pain. Got really frustrated and bored, but it is getting better. By day four I climbed in the water and went for a swim which made me feel loads better. We decided to move on down the coast 20 miles to Canouan - so Sym got his chance for a bit of solo sailing!!

Bequia - The Grenadines

After arriving at the anchorage we radioed Tallulah a couple of times and no answer. The anchorage were so packed with boats that we could not find them. We have a quite night on our boat chilling , nout worth really mentioning. The following morning we go and check in and Jewels and Brendon pop over on the dingy. They had arrived yesterday, but they had been ashore in the bar( surprise surprise) and Tallulah was tucked with the other million cats where we could not spot her. Clearing in was pretty straight forward, no stamping of the passports and it cost around 20 US dollars for a months permit. We also paid some extras for a permit to Tobago Keys which looks amazing - cos they have turned in into a national park.( Anything that is a national park you have to bloody pay) But it was only pittance and the place looks well worth it!1 Cant Wait!!



We decided to re anchor close to the beach and Tallulah after checking in and after we dived in the sea and swam to the beach bar to meet them. The rum punches were to die for made with crushed up real passion fruits and mangos, with a really good local band playing some tunes. A couple of those in the sun and everyone were merry. We decided to have a bbq on Tallulah late afternoon so we went to the supermarket and picks up some steaks and burgers. After a few more bars on the way home it ended up being dark before we even lit the bbq and everyone was messy.
Don’t really remember much after that- it was not until the following day that Sym said I sounded more and more like Nessa from Gavin and Stacey as the night went on and that I had not realised they had a video recorder on the whole evening. GITS!! Don’t you hate it when people do that! I was obviously to embarrassed to watch it and put the thought to the back of my head! I thought everyone was as drunk as me , but it was not till the following day everyone revealed they were ok and I was by far the most out of control!
As usual the next day Talluah had been up and site seeing round the island all morning and had lunch before me and Sym even got out of bet. We are complete
lightweights.

St Lucia the Pitons

The following day we had a really wicked sail down to St Lucia. We decided to skip Rodney bay and head to the south of the island where the Pitons are. It was about 35 odd miles so we left as soon as we woke up so we could spend the afternoon in St Lucia. Whilst in the channel we saw dolphins for the first time since we left main land Europe. They were brilliant and as usual were playing and swimming in front of the bow while sailing along. We also spend about half an hour bringing in a tuna fish we caught. It was quite small, about 5 kg but plenty for the two of us.
The pitons were beautiful, apart from the fact that because it was a nature reserve you were not allowed to anchor there so we had to get a buoy. Sym was not at all happy as apart from costing 30ec dollars he did not trust it as the rope attached to the buoy was all frayed and torn. Anyway it lasted us the day and nout bad happened. We spend the afternoon snorkelling and cooking our tuna fish ( skip Jack – according to our fish book ) on the bbq for dinner. It was absolutely delicious. I filleted it as usual ( as it makes Sym feel queasy) and there was enough to last us 3 days as well as feed the cats. We spend the evening looking at the stars and learning some of the constellations and planets off a program on the computer that Simon had copied for us. Nice One!

The next morning we left at first light and headed for Bequia in the Grenadines to meet Tallulah which was about 70 odd miles away. The sea state was brilliant, quite flat seas and about 15 knots of wind on the beam and we made good headway through the channel at about 8 knots. We arrived at Port Elizabeth about 4 pm and dropped the hook.

More Martinique

After a really fast sail we anchored up south of the island in La Marine which was a big port with hundreds of boats ( mostly local French boats that lived there).
We went and checked in the following morning which once again was the easiest check in ever. It took two minutes to fill in their form on the computer and they did not even stamp your passport and it was free!! Job Done. Although the strike was still on the chandlery was open and so we finally got hold of the materials needed to fix Doris.

Well what a nightmare it turned out to be. We ended up spending six days there altogether cos the windows ended up being a complete head ache - instead of being able to smash out the old one and replace the acrylic the old ones were being re used and so getting them out with little damage sucked. Sym and Simon worked really hard all day outside in the heat so me and Kat decided to look after them by cooking in the evenings.

We had a few really good evening aboard our boat as well as Doris, but unfortunately most of the meals we cooked ended up being minging. We spend 3 hours all in all queing for this supermarket to open. Everyone was going nuts and pushing in and when we finally got in the shelves were half empty. We got our hands on some Turkey for a BBQ. Great!! It ended up being Turkey Wings which resulted in the foulest food I have ever tried in my life. It was like biting into a muscle. We also cooked some rock hard scones and some croquettes which defrosted the time we got home and so when fried completely dis intergrated into the fat. Yum Yum!! Whenever I try cooking for people I always mess up. Im leaving it to Sym from now on.

Still Martinique

The following day we woke up to Doris shouting at us!! Our anchor had dragged and we were a couple of feet away from smashing into Doris. We shot up out of bed, what a nightmare. It was the first time ever we had dragged and could not really figure out why.It was only gusting 25 knots and our anchor had bitten fine like always the following day. Weve been in 50 knots before and she has not budged. Anyways a French guy tried to drop anchor the following day right on top of ours and we shouted to him to let him know he was dropping it right on where our anchor was. He got really pissed off with us and said something sarcastic and left. Maybe he caught our anchor - who knows, but it made me paranoid for a few days that we were going to drag again. I kept waking up every hour and sticking my head through the hatch to make sure we had not dragged!
That afternoon Sym went ashore to find that Leader Price the massive supermarket was open. Great!! Its been ages since we have had wine cos its so bloody expensive over here so we’ve been on the rum for months now.We spent a good few hundred quid and re stocked Quartermoon’s aft cabin with all the wine and beer we could fit in. Really chuffed.

Anyway, with the windows finally complete we decided to sail round to the anchorage called St Anns .It was beautiful, the water was so clear unlike where we just spend the last five days. So we spend the afternoon snorkelling and having a BBQ. That was the last evening we would see Doris as they were heading north for Antigua and we were heading back south to meet up with Talluah in the Grenadines. Bye guys and good luck with the crossing back to England!!! Keep in touch!!

Back in Martinique

We tried for a few days to get hold of the materials needed for the job on Doris but we were completely out of luck and the order would take a few weeks for them to come in. Simon and Kat have limited time as they needed to be in Antigua for March 18th so worst case scenario we would have to sail back up to do the job up there.
After a few days Sym tried some chanderley in Martinique and low and behold they had some. Great news, it was only a days sail and so we both left the following morning to sail 25 miles back up to Martinique to pick.
The sail was brilliant, windy but the sea state was by far the calmest so far . We both took some close up pics on the way of each others boat which was wicked cos we have not got any pictures of Quartermoon actually sailing.
Well done Kat, check these out!







Heres a good one that Sym took of Doris..