31 January 2006/Tuesday/Canouan

We woke up this morning to big rain squally screaming through the anchorage at Bequia. Once they passed through, the winds went down, the sun came out, and it was a beautiful, if windy, day. We decided to go for it! We pulled up the anchor at 0930 and it did take quite a pull to get the anchor up. We had been sitting here for 19 days, so the anchor was set hard. We were ready to move on, so we headed out with 22-28 knots of wind blowing from the east and 4-5 meter seas. Since we were on pretty much a beam reach or taking seas on the stern quarter (back corner), we moved along quite well heading south toward Canouan Island. This is a distance of roughly 20 miles.

Sailing along, we could look around us and see many small islands...Mustique, Canouan, Mayreau, Union, Tobago Cays, plus islets smaller than these small islands. EXIT ONLY sailed along under foresail moving downwind easily. We watched in amazement at charter boats passing us going upwind, beating into the seas with their full sails up, flapping noisily and dangerously. One huge mega-yacht passed us going upwind, pounding into the big swells with giant splashes. We felt sure the people who paid multiple thousands of dollars to charter the mega-yacht must have been asking themselves seriously why they didn't charter an airplane instead. It is one thing to be out in those seas with a proven boat you trust and a crew whose judgement you trust, but we wonder how many of those charter boats have a captain and crew that have faced this kind of wind and sea situations before. The Grenadines are one of the most famous and popular charter boat destinations in the world because so many islands are in close proximity to each other, the weather is good, and the aqua blue water is beautiful...just like the postcards and posters we have all seen.

We arrived and anchored at Canouan Island about 1355. There were about 27 boats either on mooring balls or anchored in Charles Town Bay. It turned out that only 5-6 of the boats had anyone on them. Canouan is the newest base for Moorings Charter Boats and 20 of the anchored boats belonged to them. The "high" winter season from December to January is over now, so many of the charter boats are not being used. The next "high" period of time will be in April for Easter/spring break

Canouan (prounced "cahn-oo-ahn") is a small island, 3.5 miles long by 1.25 miles wide. In the 1990's, the people of Canouan sold the northern half of the island to an Italian development company. The company wanted to build an exclusive resort. In fact, they wanted to make it so exclusive that the local Canouans could not use the beaches or come on the property without permission. The guide book says the Italians hired Israeli mercenaries to guard the mega-resort and there was a lot of friction with the locals. Evidently, Raffles bought the property from the Italians and in 2004 opened a mega-resort called Raffles Resort Canouan Island with private beaches, an 18-hole golf course, 52 luxury villas, 180 rooms, fancy restaurants (we read in the SSCA Bulletin that you should plan to spend $100 US per person per meal to eat there), and a Trump casino on the property.

We were anchored off the southern end of the island where the 1,250 locals live. There is a big ferry dock where local freighters and ocean-going ferries come with supplies for the island. Tradewinds Hotel is located on the shore next to the buildings for the Moorings Charter Base. Moorings allows cruisers to tie up their dinghies to their dock. David and I went in to have a look around. The swell was quite big coming in, so we put out a stern anchor from the dinghy when we tied up to their dock.

We walked on the cement road that followed the line of the bay to the south. Most of the island is hilly, but we could see the flat area at the south end where the airport is located. We read in the guide that the resort wants to extend the runway to allow bigger airplanes to land, so they are going to pay for knocking down a huge hill/small mountain called Glossy Hill at the end of the runway. The debris will be used for landfill as the hill disappears. I took photos of the village school, small shops, and the boats anchored in the harbor. We saw a bank and a small grocery store that usually sells food to charterers and bought two loaves of bread there on the way back to the dinghy. We will be going to the Tobago Cays from here and they are uninhabited.

30 January 2006/Monday/Bequia

To go or not to go, that was today's question. The swells were still rolling in this morning, but not nearly as strong as yesterday. The rain squalls came through off and on all night last night and into the morning. We had more wonderful bright rainbows this morning. Dave got photos of more boats sitting at the "end of the rainbow". We decided we would not leave today, because it kept raining and blowing hard...gusting 30+ knots. We have been listening to Eric from Trinidad on the LSB ham band in the mornings. Today he reported it is raining all the way from Trinidad to Puerto Rico due to a tropical depression being pushed by hi pressure areas.

The big entertainment for the day was go into the Gingerbread Cafe and do internet. When we weren't doing that, we watched the tourists moving along the shore walk trying to miss getting washed down by the huge waves coming into shore. The dinghies at the dinghy dock were doing a lot of dancing. The biggest swells would actually put some of the dinghies up on the dock because the painter was too short to let the dinghy float very far away from the dock. Dave dropped David and I off this morning and took our dinghy back out to the boat, so we didn't have to worry about it getting pushed under the dock or lifted up on top of the dock.

When it came time to eat lunch, we ordered a pizza from Mac's to take out to the boat. I stayed with the packed-up computer gear at the Gingerbread, while David walked on the grass and climbed two stone walls to pick up the pizza. Dave came in and picked us up to take everything back to the boat.

The afternoon brought more rain...and more rainbows. Dave has beautiful shots of rainbows in Bequia. We are still hoping to leave tomorrow morning and have everything ready to go.

29 January 2006/Sunday/Bequia

We really expected to be leaving this morning, but sometime in the night the wind went more northerly the big swells started coming straight into the anchorage...again. We are anchored in a good place for not being too bothered by the swells, but the 10-15 boats anchored between us and the shore were experiencing varying degrees of discomfort. The huge swells were moving in and crashing on the shore, throwing water and foam up on the walkway built along the shoreline, as well as the raised grassy areas belonging to the shops and hotels. Easy to decide not to leave Bequia today. The anchorage at Canouan would be as bad as this one or worse, we were told.

Rain squalls came through early in the morning, with rain pouring down. Once that was done, the sun came out and lit up the blue sky. Dave got some more amazing rainbow pictures when the squalls were moving through. We missed rainbows when we lived in the desert, so we are making up for all of them we missed now. We have gotten some lovely rainbow shots that actually show the strong colors bending in high arcs, low, flat arcs, etc.

After the sun came out, Dave and David decided to do some photos and video from the dinghy along the shoreline. Next, they hired a truck taxi to take them to high vantage points on the island, so they could get a good overview of both the windward and leeward sides of the island. Their driver turned out to be a good guide, too, and told them many things about the island and the people who live there. By chance, they saw two wooden boat loads of locals racing miniature (well, 5-foot long model boats with 6-foot high masts and 3-4-foot deep keels) sailboats. There were four men in each large wooden boat supporting a miniature racing boat. They would set the sails on their boats, then chase after the boats as they raced off being pushed by the wind. There were no engines on these mini-boats. When they had to tack, one of the men would jump in the water and change the set of the sail to make it go on a different tack. The man who jumped in the water would be left behind as the others in the boat chased after the racing mini boat. The next time they needed to tack the mini-boat, another man would jump in the water, tack the sail, then, off the other two men in the boat would go. This would go on until three men from each boat were in the water. They turn around and start racing their boats back, picking up the men in the water as they go. I wish I had seen all of this myself. Maybe when we are heading north to Florida, we will stop at Bequia again and can see another race. The taxi driver also showed Dave and David a 65-man life raft anchored along the shore. It showed up in perfect condition a few weeks ago. We are wondering whether ships or oil rigs use life rafts that large?

While they were off shooting pictures of the island, I was using internet. When they returned, we ordered a pizza from Mac's Pizzaria. We headed over to Mac's, usually about a five-minute walk from the Gingerbread Cafe. Today, with the swells pounding the shore, we could not walk on the shore walkway. We had to walk across the grassy areas and climb two rock fences. Some of the day trippers off the cruise ships were trying to walk on the walkway, running to avoid the rushing waves. Some made...and some ended up getting soaked from head to toe.

We are ready to head south, but we won't be leaving until the swells go down.

28 January 2006/Saturday/Bequia

We decided we are going to get ready to leave on Monday. This means we have to take care of "business" in the village on Saturday before noon. Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday everything is closed. I took the turn of using the internet, so I was sitting in the Gingerbread Cafe most of the morning. Dave and David went to get petrol for the dinghy engine, tomatoes and cucumbers from the vegetable and fruit lady under the big shade tree, and fresh bread from the bakery. We also got more Diet Coke because we are headed for islands smaller than Bequia, so we reckon groceries are going to cost even more than they do here because they have to be carried farther.

The morning's activities were accomplished, so we are ready to move on from Bequia. Maybe we will leave tomorrow morning, heading south in the Grenadines. We want to stop and see as many places as we can, yet still get moving and keep moving south to Trinidad. The next island south of Bequia, in the Grenadines, is Mustique. We won't be stopping there because you have to pay $75 US to pick up a mooring. That is for three nights whether you want to use it for three nights or not. We hear the anchorage is very rolly and few yachts end up staying their prepaid three nights. Next in line is Canouan. We plan to go there and anchor in the main anchorage off the village.

After lunch on the boat, David went in to take his turn at internet and Dave and I stayed on the boat to work on some of our own projects. We have been keeping someone on board the boat most of the time because the wind gusts moving through the anchorage make some of the boats drag. Our anchor is dug in very well, but too many of the charger boats have light ground tackle that isn't suitable for strong winds and gusts.

27 January 2006/Friday/Port Elizabeth, Bequia

We are still having strong winds gusting through the anchorage, but the steady winds were lower, 12-18 this morning. We decided we are going to get ready to leave on the next "window" of light winds that comes. The weather forecast says maybe Monday, 30 January.

Dave took the laundry into shore today. He found a bright, shiny, new laundromat to the left of the town dock. You can do the laundry yourself or pay a little more to have it done for you. He took a book and did one load of laundry. Since the wind was blowing so hard, he decided to dry the laundry, too, instead of bringing it back to the boat and hanging it out. The clothes, linens, etc. were in the dryer for a long time and not getting dry. The manager of the laundry took a look and saw the propane tank was empty. He changed the propane tank and the heat came on in the dryer. Because of the propane problem, it took a lot longer to do the laundry, but when it was done, everything was clean, dry, and folded.

David was at internet finishing up the last of the upload for the website. He and Dave have worked so hard to have everything changed and added to the website while we are here using wireless internet. We paid one fee and it was good for one week of unlimited wireless internet use. We are now in the Caribbean where we hear $8-$12 US/hour for using internet at a cafe is not uncommon. Paying by the week for unlimited connection has been a real bargain for us.

I took Elvin and went shopping for UHT milk and cereal, and a few paper goods. I bought some tomatoes from the lady who is located under the big shade tree next to the main road in town. It was late in the day for her customers to be buying, so she was packing up to go home. She gave me a romaine lettuce to go with my tomatoes. I told her I would be back tomorrow for cucumbers. I will buy some bread tomorrow and that will be all we need for provisions before we leave. I think all of these islands have food available for the locals and the charter boats that come through regularly.

We thought we had seen a lot of things as we sailed around the world, but this evening we added one more experience to our list. About 1730 Dave and I were sitting in the salon. We heard a very loud "boom" that was fairly close by. What was that? We went out into the cockpit. We looked over at the huge wind jammer-type tourist boat anchored off our port side. This boat was painted to look like an old-style pirate ship. Coming into port at that exact minute was a sister-ship to this one, also painted like a pirate ship. The second boat anchored. The first ship "fired" a cannon at the second ship. The second ship returned "fire". They "fired" at each other a few times. The tourists/"crew" on board each ship were yelling and cheering when the guns went off. Dave and I could hardly believe our eyes. We felt like we were anchored in the middle of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" exhibit at Disney World!

26 January 2006/Thursday/Port Elizabeth, Bequia

We listen to Eric from Trinidad on a ham radio station weekday mornings. He comes on at 0630 local time (Atlantic Time) and talks with ham radio operators all over the Caribbean. These people report the weather conditions where they are located. At 0700, Eric gives the weather forecast for the Caribbean. He divides the Caribbean into north, south east and west sectors. Eric also gives an overall summary of the weather in the States. Today, he was telling how Trinidad has been receiving huge amounts of rain. They recently received as much rain in one night as they usually average for the whole month of January. The low clouds have been hanging down over the Trinidad mountains and one of his friends drove off a cliff yesterday. They think he was driving in clouds and could not see the road. We certainly are glad we are not there in all that rain. We thought it was raining a lot here, but this is nothing compared to the rain Trinidad is receiving now.

All of the radio nets report missing yachts or yachts in trouble as a service to ships and yachts. Today Eric announced the sailing yacht INCA had lost its rudder off Barbados and the single-hander had been picked up by fisherman after being adrift for four days. This is the second cruising yacht in the past month that we have heard has lost its rudder. FIRST LIGHT, Jill and Andy, are safe and sound in Barbados after they were picked up by a British cruising trawler mid-Atlantic. FIRST LIGHT was a J44 racing design cruising yacht that lost its rudder mid-Atlantic.

We are all ready to move on from Bequia, but the winds are continuing to blow in the 20's all day long, with higher gusts. The seas are stirred up and the only people moving about from island to island seem to be the charterers who paid lots of money to be here for a limited time, so they are going to sail...no matter what. They sure are getting their money's worth out there. We would like to get moving south, but the people we talk to say this is the best protected anchorage for miles around.

With little I want to do off the boat here, it seemed like the perfect time to continue going through bins and storage to see what we need to use and what we still have on board. We discovered we certainly are a healthy crew. I went through all of the medicines on board. Most of them are still good (not expired), but I did destroy the medicines that were out of date. We have quite a collection of medicines for routine problems, and I am happy to say, we haven't used many of the medicines except the basic Tylenol, Claratyne, and Sudafed. Now that we are in the Caribbean, getting supplies is not a problem and we are not going to carry supplies like we did when we were crossing oceans.

25 January 2006/Wednesday/Port Elizabeth, Bequia

Another day of high winds (20-25 knots), higher wind gusts, but there was no rain. I wished we had done laundry and hung it out to dry, but it was too late for that when we thought of it. Also, it is hard to find enough clothes pegs to hold the clothes in the gusty winds. Maybe it was just as well not to do laundry today.

We ate lunch on the boat, then Dave and David went into internet to work on the website. I stayed on the boat and worked on sussing out the cruising guides we have covering the islands in the Caribbean. We have heard people talk about bays and anchorages, but since we are not familiar with the names, it takes awhile to figure out which places are good ones where we can anchor. The first time I go through the guide, I look for the names of the anchorages and try to figure out which anchorages would suit us the best. I go through the book and match the maps to the text, so when it comes time to use the maps, we will know exactly where to find the correlating information. I went through all the maps and tried to come up with a logical plan for moving through the islands from here to Trinidad, then from Trinidad to Florida. Although this process takes a lot of time, basically, I enjoy reading about the islands and discovering what is special about each one, so time does fly when I work on these guides.

LEGEND, a Canadian boat anchored near us, came by today with a bag of Trinidad and Tobago Dollars. They want to trade for US Dollars, because they are headed north. That is fine with us, because we will be needing the Trinidad and Tobago Dollars (TT) when we arrive in Trinidad. This big bag of TT didn't amount to too many US dollars, as $6 TT = $1.00 US. There was a lot of change (coins) in the bag, so it was very heavy, too. We will be spending those coins first to get rid of them. They are too heavy to carry around!

24 January 2006/Tuesday/Port Elizabeth, Bequia

Another day of high winds, rain squalls, and then the sun shines through for awhile. David and I went in to use the internet this morning while Dave stayed on the boat. We used and the time to catch up on e-mails. David was still working on uploading new info on the website. We decided to order a pizza and take it back to the boat for lunch. Mac's Pizzaria does a good pepperoni pizza!

After lunch, the winds were higher as rain squalls came through. I stayed on the boat while Dave and David went in to the internet. I had the VHF radio on and suddenly someone shouted over the radio, "Switch catamaran dragging through the anchorage!". Of course, everyone who was aboard a boat in the anchorage, ran outside to see if the dragging catamaran was near them. We were located in the area of the catamaran, but there were at least two yachts it would hit first before we were endangered. Yachties in dinghies and boat boys in wooden motor boats hurried to the catamaran. Some of these people tied their dinghies to the stern and got aboard, while others tried to push the hull, using their wooden boats like a tugboat. Now, the catamaran was dragging all of these boats through the anchorage. Finally, the "tugboats" began to get control of the catamaran and they succeeded in moving the cat away from other boats to another mooring. Switch is the name of a French charter boat company. This Switch catamaran was tied to a mooring ball and the mooring broke. The rescuers succeeded in tying the boat up to another mooring, so the threat was neutralized. The excitement was over...until the next boat drags.

The weather forecast keeps saying to expect high winds and rain squalls. Everyone keeps saying we are in the best-protected harbor around, so we have decided to sit here until the winds go down. Our Next stops in the Grenadines are beautiful, but don't have the protection we have found here.

23 January 2006/Monday/Port Elizabeth, Bequia

The strong winds of 20-25 knots, gusting to 30 and a little higher, kept blowing all through last night and into today. This morning the winds may have been down to 18-20 knots, and that felt like the wind was lighter than yesterday. Quite a few of the charter boats put up their sails and headed out into it this morning. I guess when you pay all that money to charter, you want to go as many places as you possibly can go in the time you have aboard the boat. I remember how it was when we chartered one year for one week in the Abacos, Bahamas. It rained night and day for the whole time we were there. We kept moving between islands because we only had one week.

A dinghy came over to our boat with Peter and Shirley Austin from New Zealand aboard. Dave and I saw them at their boat, a 38' Admiral (built in South Africa) catamaran named JADE a couple of days ago. We stopped by their boat on our way to shore. Their transom said, "New Zealand" and we asked them if they knew our DUETTO friends, Geoff and Pat. Peter said he was the commodore of the yacht club in Whangaparoa, New Zealand, which is home port to DUETTO, and of course they know Geoff and Pat. Peter and Shirley said they knew exactly who we were and asked if we remembered them. It turns out, we met them in 2002 when we were all in Noumea, New Caledonia. They were there on their monohull, SAIL AWAY. They came by EXIT ONLY on the dock and asked us about our catamaran and how we liked it. We gave them a boat card and they still had it in their file. We were some of the people who encouraged them to buy a catamaran if they thought they would like one. They bought JADE in Trinidad one year ago and have been sailing in the Caribbean since then. They are headed north from here, so maybe we will cross paths with them when they get to Florida.

We decided to celebrate having such a good morning by ordering pizza for lunch. Of course, it is always easy for us to think of a reason to order pizza! David and I took the dinghy into shore. I had to drop something off at another boat and we did that on the way in to the dock. I stayed in the dinghy(we didn't bring the cable lock with us, so I was "guarding" the dinghy) while David picked up the pizza and spoke to the man who runs the internet place about no internet service yesterday. The man found the problem and fixed something in the system on his computer. Then, he gave us extra time on our card because we did not have service yesterday. The pizza restaurant made a smaller pizza than we ordered, so they gave us a second pizza to go with the first one and we ended up with extra pizza. Our day continued to be full of good surprises.

After the sun went down, we watched as more yachts predictably continued to arrive at the anchorage. We are trying to figure out where they are coming from. The islands in this area are really close together, so moving between islands takes very little time. Too often a chartered boat drops its anchor in front of us after dark (sundown is around 1830), then ten minutes later the crew jumps in the dinghy heading for dinner in a restaurant on shore. They don't wait and see if their anchor is set well. No problem...we are watching to see if their anchor is set well. There were a few boats dragging anchor again tonight. We hear about it on the VHF radio or see it happening as we are watching the area immediately around our boat. This cruising in the Caribbean is bit of an adjustment for us. We have been anchoring around people who own their yachts and feel about them the same way we feel about our yacht. Now, we are surrounded by members of the charter fleet. Even if they are good mariners (some are, some are not), they don't have the same investment of money, time, and emotional attachment that we have in our yachts. They seem to be a tad more cavalier about how and where they anchor. So, every evening, for our entertainment, we play the anchor dance. So far, so good.

22 January 2006/Sunday/Port Elizabeth, Bequia

We had strong winds of 20-25-30 knots all last night and all day today. David says he is sure there are at least 150 yachts of all sizes and descriptions anchored or on moorings in this bay. Dave stayed up until 0100 this morning checking to see that no one was dragging down on us. We are also checking to see that we are not dragging, but we don't really think that is going to be a problem. We are anchored exactly where we were the first day we came here and put the beugel anchor down. The VHF is quiet for awhile, then suddenly the air waves come alive with someone calling out the name of a boat that is dragging. Sometimes the crew is on another boat and will hear the radio call. All of us anchored here want to know what part of the bay the dragging boat is located in, so we know if we are in the possible path or destruction or not. We had one boat drag down on us a few days ago, but no collision occurred. We have not had a problem since then, but that may be due to the fact Dave goes out on our bow when anyone looks like they are going to anchor too close in front of us. He stands there and watches the other boat anchor. The people who came in last night put out a second anchor after we told them we were afraid they were going to drag down on us in the strong gusting winds that were blowing through the anchorage. Most of the boats in the anchorage kept someone on board all day because of the gusting winds. Of course, most of the boats that were dragging had no one on board.

These "reinforced" winds are supposed to get a little lighter by Wednesday of this week. We will probably stay here at Bequia until the winds lighten up, then we will be headed south to check out the rest of the Grenadines...Canouan, Mayreau, Tobago Cays, and Union Island. All of these islands are smaller than Bequia.

21 January 2006/Saturday/Port Elizabeth, Bequia

Dave and I went into town this morning to run some errands. I wanted to get more sliced smoked turkey and some vegetables. I also needed to find a certain taxi driver whose taxi is named "Cream Skin" (it is a tan truck). The people at Moonhole told me he would be bringing a group out for the tour this afternoon. I wanted to join that group in the taxi. Dave wanted to check out a couple of the small boat chandleries at the north end of town. We agreed to meet later in town.

I went to Doris' Fresh Foods and bought the sliced turkey out of the freezer. It is already cryo-packed. I bought tomatoes from a lady selling vegetables from a small wooden booth set up by the road. She was sitting there eating chicken when I walked up. She asked me to come around the back of the booth to get a plastic bag from her to hold the tomatoes. I chose the tomatoes I wanted and carried them back to where she was sitting. She weighed them and I paid her.

I popped in to one of the grocery stores for a couple of items, then started looking for Dave. There he was, sitting on the steps of the corner grocery store on the street by the beach. No matter where you are going in Port Elizabeth, you will eventually walk past this corner. Dave knew this, so he sat on the step drinking a Diet Coke, waiting for me to come by.

We went back to the boat for lunch. Dave and David decided a pepperoni pizza sounded really good for lunch. David got on the VHF radio and called "Mac's Pizza". Mac's came back and took our order. David went in to pick up the pizza in 30 minutes. Meanwhile, I made a fresh salad with the good fresh things I had bought a few hours earlier.

At 1345 Dave took me into shore to meet the taxi that is taking a group to Moonhole. There were five Norwegians and three Americans in our taxi, all of us off cruising yachts. Moonhole is an isolated community of houses, founded by the late American Tom Johnson in 1969. Tom and Mary Johnson's son, Jim, and his wife Sheena, live at Moonhole now and manage the rental properties. Tom and Mary Johnson were running Sunny Caribbee Hotel on Bequia in the 1960's. They used to go to the southeast part of Bequia to a small cove where a natural arch was formed in the rock for picnics on their day off. Eventually, they built overnight protection, then this expanded to purchasing 35 acres of land and building natural houses using stones, wood, and whale bones from the whaling factory at Bequia. There are no straight lines or angles in the buildings. The houses are built to include the contours of the land and rocks as well as the trees and plants. The rooms have at least one side that is open to the world around them. Tables and sitting areas are built out of stones and mortar. The beds have huge mosquito nets surrounding them. There is no electricity. They use solar panels for power, kerosene lanterns for light at night. Stoves and refrigerators are run on propane. People own the 19 houses on the site. Four of the houses have the owners living there year-round. The other 15 houses are used part-time by their owners and the rest of the time, Moonhole Company rents the houses out to people seeking somewhere "out of the ordinary" for their holiday.

When someone rents a house for their holiday, the staff of Moonhole goes in and sweeps out all the sand and leaves. They dust every surface. They put crockery and utensils in the kitchen, turn on the refrigerator, and put fresh linens on the bed and towels in the bathroom. Large woven hammocks are hung up on the patio. All of the houses have steps and paths going to the ocean and beach.

We climbed up and down stone steps and walked on stone paths to the Moon Hole arch. The moon actually shines through this arch/moon hole during the spring and fall equinoxes. Tom Johnson built the original Moonhole rock house for his family under the arch in 1969. Four years later, one of the rocks fell from the bottom of the arch and crushed a bed in one of the bedrooms during the day when no one was there. They moved out of that house into a new house that was built near-by, but not located under the arch. Back in the 1960's, 1970's, and into the 1980's, the only way to get to Moonhole was by boat. Now, you can drive to Moonhole on a paved road that becomes a sand track that becomes a boggy track and peters out at the gate. It takes a half hour to drive there from Port Elizabeth.

After the tour, everyone gathered on a large patio and had cold drinks while Jim reminisced about growing up at Moonhole. The group asked a lot of questions and he seemed to enjoy answering every one. Walking around the patio were three land tortoises. These tortoises were each about 10 years old, so they were quite large. They came up to us as we were sitting on the stone seats and walked on our feet trying to get close. These tortoises wanted us to rub their shell. Two days in a row of petting turtles and tortoises! Amazing!

I really did enjoy the trip out to Moonhole and the tour. Back in 1974-75 Dave and I fell in love with the Tropics when we lived in Panama for a year. We moved back to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1975. That year we ordered a book from National Geographic entitled "Caribbean". This book was full of pictures of islands in the Caribbean. One of the pictures I remember seeing was of rock houses without walls at Bequia. I remember wondering where Bequia was and I also remember marveling that someone would live in open houses by the ocean. It was a real treat to take a tour through these houses.

Back in town, I met Dave and David at the internet. We went back to EXIT ONLY and arrived with the first sprinkles of the evening. The wind is still blowing fairly hard and we are still having to watch out for boats dragging near us. Our anchor is holding well, but many other boats are having problems. We hear them talking on the VHF radio. The weather forecast says these winds will start going down after Tuesday next week.

20 January 2006/Friday/Port Elizabeth, Bequia

We woke up to a very hard rain first thing this morning. Our rigging and decks are looking bright and clean. After all those months in the Red Sea without rain, we don't mind a free rinse off. This morning after we thought the rain clouds had passed by, we all got in the dinghy with the cameras to go into shore and find a taxi to take us to the Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary on Park Bay, Bequia. This is on the windward side of the island. We got to the dinghy dock in front of the taxi area and it started raining fairly hard. We decided to return to EXIT ONLY. The camera gear was enclosed in waterproof bags, so none of it got wet. We, however, got soaked!

I called Moonhole on the VHF radio to make a reservation to go on their weekly tour tomorrow afternoon. I will tell more about Moonhole tomorrow.

We ate lunch on the boat and decided we would try to go see the turtles in the afternoon if the weather cleared. About 1330, the sky was clear and the sun was shining. We took the cameras and went in to shore again. We made an agreement about how much to pay the taxi driver to take us to the other side of the island to the see the turtles, the driver would wait with us there one hour, then we would get a return trip to Port Elizabeth. Taxis here are pick-up trucks with wooden benches covered with removable cushions in the bed of the truck.

Any thoughts of walking to the turtle sanctuary and back disappeared when the truck started laboring up the steep hill on a very narrow road. The road goes straight up a the ridge in the middle of the island, then straight down the other side to the coastal beach areas on the windward side. Inland, we saw many coconut palms planted for harvesting.

The Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary was started by Brother King, a retired Bequian skin diving fisherman in August 1995. He catches Hawksbill sea turtles after they hatch on the Bequia beaches and takes the hatchlings to his sanctuary. When we pulled up to the sanctuary, we were parked next to the house where Brother King lives. The area around the house was filled with chickens, goats, and small tan dogs. Our driver stood by the truck peeling an orange, and all of the animals came over to see what he was doing and to search for any tidbits that might come their way. We entered the turtle sanctuary building. Here, the turtles live and grow for 4-5 years until they are big enough to have a good chance at survival in the ocean when they are released. He has over 200 turtles in the sanctuary at any one time. We saw 4-month-old turtles and 4-year-old turtles. What a difference in size! There was one tank with a huge 9-year-old turtle who is a special pet. This turtle likes to have its back (shell) scratched and rubbed. When you rub one side of her shell, she leans into your hand and pushes against the pressure. I would never have believed a turtle would respond to people like that unless I saw it myself. We certainly enjoyed the hour we spent watching the sea turtles and taking photos and video shots of them.

The taxi took us back to the dinghy dock in town. We put our gear into the dinghy, then hopped in. We made it back to EXIT ONLY just as the gray clouds moved in and it started raining hard again. We were so glad we went to the sea turtle sanctuary and we relived the experience as we sat down and went through the photos we took while we were there. Dave was already choosing which shots would go up on the website.

19 January 2006/Thursday/Port Elizabeth, Bequia

There were five cruise ships anchored in Port Elizabeth today. Two of the ships were very large and three of them were small wind jammer-type boats. There had to be more people on all five of those ships than there are living on Bequia. Many of the people get off the tender onto the dock and head straight for a taxi to take them to a beach. Some of the people head for the grocery stores for a cold drink. Others fill the small cafes and snack bars and can be seen eating snacks and enjoying cold drinks or hot tea and coffee. Then, there are the people who walk through all the small boutiques and souvenir shops.

We all went into shore this morning. Dave and David went to internet and I went to find some lettuce and onions. I saw all of these people off the cruise ships walking through the clothing shops, so I thought it would be a good time for me to take a peek. I haven't gone in the clothing and souvenir shops, because I didn't want to go in and be the only person in there "just looking". I was shocked when I saw the prices on the clothing for sale. I happened to be wearing a simple cotton tropical print- sundress I bought in Malaysia or Thailand for $5 or $6 US. I found myself looking at a similar dress hanging in one of the shops. The price here was $45 US. Next to the tropical-print dress was another dress of the same style with a hand-painted fish design on it. The lady who owns the shop does batik and painting on fabric. The hand-painted fish dress was $82 US. I wanted to ask the sales clerk "Is anyone buying these dresses at these prices?". Obviously, they must get that much money sometime, because they are asking that price for more dresses. On the other hand, I started looking harder at the cruise ship people I saw on the street. I did not see many of them carrying packages filled with purchases.

We went back to the boat for lunch. After lunch, Dave and David went into shore to do internet. I stayed with the boat. The wind continues to blow and the tropical squalls continue to come and go. The big gray clouds come over the mountain pushed by the northeast winds, so we can tell when it is going to sprinkle or rain. Within minutes the rain is usually over and the sun pops out again. Typical January Caribbean weather, but the "enhanced" Trades are hanging on longer than usual this year is what we are hearing. Everyday, we say we are so grateful we have a big beugel anchor holding us in place. It is terrific.

18 January 2006/Wednesday/Port Elizabeth, Bequia

These days are flying by, but we really haven't been doing much that is new and different to talk about. I have gotten behind writing my journal, because David has been using this computer to work on the web site and to hook up to wireless internet on shore. Dave has been using another computer to work on the photo gallery for the web site. The web site has taken priority so we can maximize the wireless internet time we paid for while we are in Bequia.

We ate lunch on the boat, then all of us made a quick trip into town. Once again Dave and David hit the internet place while I walked through the shops. I bought freshly baked wheat bread at the bakery and "The Leeward Islands Cruising Guide" at the Bequia Bookstore. The cruising guide sold for $3.00 US more than the price it sells for in the States before you add state sales tax. If we order the book from Blue Water Books in Ft. Lauderdale, we don't pay sales tax, but we have to pay shipping. We reckon they charge a fair price here. I was really glad to get the Leeward Islands book. I brought the Windward Islands book back from the States with me to Gibraltar, book shop in Ft. Lauderdale did not have the Leeward Islands book at the same time. I have heard the names of most of these islands for years and generally know where they are, but now we have to make a plan that takes in the individual islands in a logical sequence. I realized I knew which island was next to which island, but I had no idea which one we should go to first without looking at a chart. There are many people cruising in the Caribbean who have been here for several seasons. They speak casually about this anchorage and that bay and sometimes I find myself grabbing the cruising guides to figure out where the bay they referred to is located. I have spent literally hours in the past few days going through the information we have about the Windward and Leeward Islands trying to get an overall view of what choices are available and which islands would appeal to us the most.

I joined Dave and David at the internet place and did some work with out Hotmail inbox and address book. David was working on his website, toomanydrummers.com, now that he has finished updating the maxingout.com website as far as Bequia. He and Dave have been re-working some of the features on the website and adding some new information. We will be doing a couple of activities on Bequia and adding those pages before we leave here.

Dave and I decided to walk farther down the beach walkway from the Gingerbread Cafe where they are doing internet to Mac's Pizza Place. We ordered a 15" pepperoni pizza to go for $48 EC/$18.46 US. Not cheap, but as prices go around here, it turned out to be one of the more reasonable prices because the pizza was delicious! While we waiting on the open raised porch that is Mac's eating area, over-looking the sea, we noticed small green lizards were running along the wooden railing around the porch. We watched the lizards and talked about bringing a camera to photograph them because we could easily get good close-up photos. Then, we noticed another lizard on the vines growing up the side of the porch...then another, then another. There were literally lizards everywhere on those vines. Once we started looking, we could see them sticking their long tongues into the centers of the flowers and sucking out the liquid they found there. We took the pizza to a picnic table down by the beach. David came over from the Gingerbread. The three of us sat and ate while the sea waves rolled below our feet. It was good pizza. We gave it good ratings...cheese and topping 10/10, sauce 10/10, and crust 7/10.

17 January 2005/Tuesday/Port Elizabeth, Bequia

We keep listening to the radio nets we know about, but so far propagation has been poor to fair. We have heard boats in the British Virgin Islands and boats in Venezuela, but the boats here in the Windward Islands have been hard to hear. There is one weather net from Trinidad and another weather net from north of here (maybe the British Virgin Islands) that come through clearly so we are receiving weather every morning. Dave has not been downloading weather because we have not been moving, but that is always available to us, too.

The winds have continued to blow strongly in a steady 15-20 range with higher gusts. The swell wasn't so bad today, so we all went into town in the morning. Dave and David was working on the website. Dave sent out a letter asking for estimates on repairing our port bow pulpit. He attached pictures and measurements to the e-mail. We want to see how much the repair is going to cost before we see the captain from MV/Harmony. We also have to find someone who is willing to take on the job. With all of these boats here in the Caribbean high season, it seems like most of the repair facilities have jobs already lined up. Dave sent letters to places advertising in the cruising guides we have on board. He wrote to Carriacou, Grenada, Trinidad, US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, etc.

While they were at internet, I went into the shops in town. I bought a few tomatoes from the lady in the yellow baseball hat who stands at a wooden table under a large almond tree beside the main road in town across from the beach. She is always friendly and doesn't hassle you to buy more. I walked through the grocery store looking again at what is on the shelves. I don't need much yet, but I always enjoy looking.

I tried the TV today to see if it is going to work here. We have not watched TV for months, but we want to be able to watch some of the Olympics. I got a perfect picture, but no sound. This TV is from New Zealand. We don't know what kind of TV format they have here. It will either be PAL or NTSC. I will ask someone when I am in town.

Back at the boat for lunch, we decided the wind was up again and we would keep someone on the boat during the afternoon. There is a large open area in front of us and most of the boats that anchor there seem to drag. We don't know if the holding isn't good or if these boats have anchors that are too small for these windy conditions. Poor Dave has been on the bow of our boat almost every night after sunset (about 1845) watching another boat that comes in, puts down its anchor, then drags back toward us. There are a lot of boats in this bay and it seems like every night some boat somewhere is dragging. So far, the boats in front of us that dragged, have moved far, far away.

16 January 2006/Monday/Port Elizabeth, Bequia

Dave and David were very busy this morning. They cleaned the water line all the way around both hulls. That is 160 feet of waterline. We still had an oil residue on the hull from the oil spill in the harbor at Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. Dave was in the dinghy. He tied the dinghy fore and aft to the boat and worked with a small brush on the areas he could reach. David was in the water. He had a plastic handle with two huge suction cups to attach the handle to the side of the boat. He was hanging on to the handle with one hand and using a small brush with the other hand. The hulls look so much better now that they removed the oil and dirt from the waterline.

While they were doing that, I cleaned out the locker in the cockpit that contains all of our cleaning products, brushes, clothes pins, etc. We are finding that we have been gathering products that we like to have handy and storing them away like squirrels with nuts for the winter. We have been carrying two or three bottles of each of our favorite cleaning products. When we were "out in the middle of nowhere", that seemed like a good idea, because we usually had what we needed on board. Now, we are having to re-adjust our thinking. We have to realize we are back in civilization, or at least on the edges of it. If we need something, we will probably be able to find it fairly easily. We are presently in the middle of one of the most famous charter boat areas in the world. They have everything for boats around here.

Dave and David met Neil and Kerry from Minnesota at the dinghy dock. They keep a Privilege 39' just like EXIT ONLY here in this bay and run 1-14 day charters in the Grenadines on the boat. They gave us the name of a man on the island of Carriacou (near Grenada, south of here) who does excellent stainless steel work. Once we get money from Captain McKay, we will contact this man and see if he is available to work on our boat. Neil and Kerry named their present boat LOST OUR MARBLES. I don't think they lost their marbles, but they did lose their last boat, also a Privilege 39', when hurricane Ivan went through Grenada. They were not on the boat. The boat was anchored out and did fine until the wind blew so hard, it lifted the boat up out of the water. The anchor held and the boat was literally flying until it turned over and was dropped back into the water. The hull floated, but everything was soaked with sea water and damaged from being tossed around.

15 January 2006/Sunday/Port Elizabeth, Bequia

After lunch Dave and David went into shore with the computers. The wireless internet connection was up and running again. Dave did some online work while David worked on the second computer editing a song that he recorded a few days ago. The cafe doesn't mind if we plug the computers into the wall to work as long as we leave the cafe area by 1800...before the dinner customers arrive. We buy a Pepsi everyday when we are sitting in their cafe. At 1800 we can still use the computers, running on battery power, when we are seated at tables set up near the water in front of the cafe. The wireless connection is good there, too.

The weather continues to be sunny with intermittent rain squalls passing overhead. We open the hatches and ports, then shut them, then open them, etc. umpteen times a day. The "enhanced trades" seem to be late this year (this is what we keep hearing people say), so we have light winds, then we have a blast that comes through the anchorage pushing all of the boats to the end of their anchor rode. All of the boats react differently to the wind pushing them around. Some boats immediately change their angle and face into the wind. Others move their bows into the wind at a much slower pace. There are a lot of boats anchored here right now, but the bay is large enough to hold all of the boats that are here and more. Most importantly, our anchor is holding and we haven't moved a centimeter since we put the anchor down. Every boat in our area seems to be anchored securely, too. We are anchored on the far right side of the bay. Some of the boats on the far left side of the bay did drag, so they relocated to this side.

14 January 2005/Saturday/Port Elizabeth, Bequia

Most shops were only open the first half of the day today, because it is Saturday. Dito and I went in to the shore about 0900. Dito took the computer to the internet cafe to do some internet work while I walked through the south end of the village to check out two more grocery stores I read about in the tourist brochure. I walked up the hill to Euroshopper. I already didn't like having to walk on the edge of the road as the truck taxis (trucks with benches in the back) whooshed by, so I was glad to arrive at the shop after a few minutes of hiking. The shop was pretty much like the others I had already seen, so I was glad I didn't find a lot of new and different things I would have to carry back down the hill. They did have tins of Diet Dr. Pepper, and the one I bought was easy to carry! It was empty by the time I got to the bottom of the hill.

I stopped by Knight's, a second grocery store in the town that I had not seen before. I wanted to fix chicken today and needed apricot jam. I couldn't find apricot jam, but they had peach jam from Spain, so I bought that. I often find myself thinking, "What in this store is almost like the item and want and can't find?" In this case, I decided peach jam was sort of like apricot jam.

Back at the bakery we shopped at the other day, I bought freshly baked bread in a sliced loaf, some buns, and a banana bread. The man told me they sold 68 loaves of banana bread last week. When we tried the banana bread later, we decided it was good, but mine is better. Maybe I can sell banana bread off the stern of our boat! We have been reading that St. Vincent is famous for the bananas it exports around the world. We have also been reading that the whole eastern Caribbean is upset because the World Trade Organization made a ruling that stopped the European countries from giving preference to bananas from the Windward Islands. The Caribbean Compass, a monthly maritime publication, held a banana recipe contest and published the three winners this month. One was a daiquiri recipe, one was a parmesan and banana fish recipe, and the third was a banana bread recipe. The bread recipe says the ingredients are the same as most recipes, but the method of creating the batter for the bread is different. First, the directions tell you to mash 4-5 mashed ripe bananas, 1 oz. rum, 1t vanilla, 2t cinnamon, and 3/4 whole nutmeg, freshly ground. Stir all of the ingredients together, cover, and let this container set for a day or two. The recipe says to check the container often, because fermentation may knock the top off the container.

I went to the cafe where Dito was connected to internet. He went back to the boat to have a sandwich for lunch, while I sat and did some catch up with our hotmail files. I need to do a lot of updating with addresses, etc., so I worked for quite awhile. Dito has opened a Skype account, so we can make phone calls on our computer when we are connected to internet.

13 January 2006/Friday/Port Elizabeth, Bequia

About 0925 I was going to start writing e-mails but thought I would go to the head first. I was in the head, Dave and David were in the salon when we heard a “BANG!” A mega yacht anchored dangerously close to us yesterday. Dave went out and indicated to them he thought they were too close for the windy conditions we are having in here. They stayed where they were. At 0930 this morning, the mega yacht began to take up its anchor. A gust of 25-knot wind blew while they were pulling up their anchor, and the bow of the mega yacht was out of control. Their bow hit our port bow and crushed our stainless steel pulpit. The stainless will all have to be redone and replaced. The navigation light will need to be replaced. The stainless steel bale we use for our storm parachute will have to be replaced. Lifelines may need attention. It appears there is no hull damage, but we will have to have the boat surveyed to be sure. The roller furling headsail seems to be fine. Two crew from the mega yacht came over with their ship's details. They gave us the details of their yacht (a chartered mega yacht with a professional crew) and we gave them the details of our yacht. They said they would be in touch with us via e-mail later today. The first issue is their insurance paying for repairing the damage. The second issue is where and when we will have this done. This is going to impact our Caribbean cruising.

We are very upset and sorry this happened, but we also are very grateful the damage is not worse than it is. There are many other things that could have happened when the yacht hit us that would be much worse and we realize that. Everyone on board is fine. EXIT ONLY does not seem to have permanent damage. We can still sail. We are thankful.

12 January 2006/Thursday/Admiralty Bay, Port Elizabeth, Bequia

We listened to Eric from Trinidad on the radio net he runs Monday through Saturday at 0630 local Atlantic time (-4 UTC) to hear the weather that is happening now as well as the weather forecast. There wasn't much that was new or different...more wind and more rain. Again, we are glad to be anchored in a protected anchorage with good holding. We are very comfortable here.

About 0800 someone knocked on our hull. It was a local man in a wooden boat filled with groceries. He moves through the anchorage selling groceries and scheduling boat work jobs. Obviously, he could see our boat desperately needs the hull cleaned and polished. We still have oil residue at the waterline from the oil spills in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. Our decorative stripes that Dito and Sarah worked so hard to put on when we hauled out in Turkey, have started coming off and we are not sure why. EXIT ONLY is showing how hard the trip across the Med and the Atlantic really were. Dave has done preventative maintenance and done the jobs that had to be done, so the boat is in good shape. It just doesn't look so polished and shiny right now. We particularly noticed how shiny and clean all the charter boats are and the cruising boats that stay in the Caribbean look good, too. We are going to start working on cleaning up our hulls when the wind stops blowing so hard.

We put up our St. Vincent and Grenadines flag today. We found we have a flag for Bequia that is one of the most "fun" flags we have ever seen. The flag is white with the cutout of a smiling black whale in the middle of it. We asked the lady at the bookstore about this smiling whale flag. She said it is, indeed, the flag of Bequia Island, but it must be flown with the St. Vincent and Grenadines flag. We are flying both flags.

Dito stayed on the boat to do some song recording this morning, while Dave and I went in to the small town. We "did" the shops on the first street running parallel to the shore. We found a tourist information office with island maps and information, a couple of small, but basic grocery stores, a book shop, and a bakery. We bought some freshly baked bread at the bakery...two baguettes... and immediately ate half of one of them! Fortified, we went to check out the grocery stores. One shop was full of items I recognized as usually being sold at Sam's. There must be a Sam's somewhere in the Caribbean. I will have to look into that! The charterers stop here at Bequia and buy food. All of the meat is cooked, frozen, and cryopacked into servings for four. I bought frozen Tyson chicken breasts and paid by the pound. There is an amazing choice of foods available...for a price..in the shops. I guess they have stocked everything someone has come in and asked for.

The winds blew strong all day long, but there was less rain today. The weather forecast says this weather pattern will stay around for a few more days. We feel sorry for the people who paid a lot of money to charter a boat this week.

11 January 2006/Wednesday/Admiralty Bay, Port Elizabeth, Bequia

We had squalls and strong winds off and on all night long, but the boat kept moving downwind easily. We all took our watch, then slept well as the boat moved along at a good speed. There are cruise ships moving in large circles between the islands at night to avoid paying dock charges and freighters moving goods from island to island, so we had plenty of things to watch out for as we moved through the night.

We could see St Vincent Island and Bequia Island (9 miles apart) from about 0800. We went through the passage between the two islands, then into Port Elizabeth/Admiralty Bay from the north. Wow! There must be 80 cruising and charter boats anchored in this bay. It is a big bay, so there is plenty of room, but we haven't seen that many cruising boats anchored out in a long time. It was blowing 20-30 knots as we came into the bay because a huge squall just started dumping rain as we let down our anchor at 1200.

After a hot lunch, we prioritized what needed to be done. Everyone was a little tired, but first of all we had to check in to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. We talked to AHQUABI on the VHF radio and found out where we needed to go to check in. Dave and Dito took the empty propane bottles in the dinghy and went into the small town of Port Elizabeth at the end of the bay. I stayed on the boat to make sure our anchor was holding as the gusts of wind and rain squalls kept coming all afternoon.

When Dave and David returned from shore, we were checked in. They had dropped off the propane tanks for filling and were told to come back for them tomorrow afternoon. They found out there is wireless internet at the Gingerbread Cafe, but you have to take your laptop to the cafe and sit there and work. The wireless internet cannot be used on board boats anchored in the bay. They do have a good deal where we pay one fee and can use wireless as much as we want to use it for one week. There is water available for purchase from a boat that comes around carrying diesel, gasoline, and water. The small boat pulls up next to your boat and you fill from their tanks into yours. Dave asked about where the water comes from and the man on shore told him the water is collected in cisterns and put in tanks. Then, they put small fish in the tanks to eat all the algae out of the water. Once that is done, the fish are removed (I hope!) and the water is carried around for sale. We decided we would make more water with our watermaker.

Bequia (pronounced "beck-way") is a small island, roughly 5 miles long and 2 miles wide. The population numbers 5,000. Admiralty Bay is a popular stop for the myriad of charter boats based in the Windward Islands. I am just now getting these islands fixed in my mind as where they are located and how they relate to each other. St. Vincent is west of Barbados. Going south from St. Vincent, the islands are the Grenadine Islands: Bequia, Mustique, Canouan, Mayreau, Tobago Cays (5 small uninhabited islands), Union Island, Palm Island, Petit St. Vincent. Next comes Petit Martinique (belongs to Grenada), and Grenada. We will check out of St. Vincent and the Grenadines at Union Island, then check in to Grenada, a different country.

10 January 2006/Tuesday/Sail from Bridgetown, Barbados to Port Elizabeth, Bequia

This morning we were anchored in Bridgetown, Barbados (13.05 N, 59.37 W). The "Christmas winds" or "enhanced trades" have come in late this year (everyone is saying), and we found ourselves bouncing around in the anchorage as the wind pushed the waves around the southwest corner of the island. The boat was moving like it does when we are on a passage with moderate winds blowing. The weather forecast is for these winds to blow for the next week or so. A huge high is sitting over the area, bringing the winds and rain squalls. We were wishing we had already left Barbados and we were anchored somewhere else.

Paul and Sandra from QUARTERDECK came by in the morning to ask Dito if he would go into shore with Paul and help him lay out a large sail and fold it up properly. Of course, Dito was glad to help with that job. When Dito returned from helping Paul, we all got ready to go into town. We ate lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken, then parted ways. Dave went to Customs and Immigration at the cruise ship terminal to check out. Dito went to internet. I went for one last walk through the Trimart Supermarket. My goal was to spend the last of our Barbados dollars, because the money is only good on Barbados. I spent all of the Barbados dollars, then gave the cashier a few U.S. dollars to finish paying for what I bought. I loaded Elvin with my purchases and walked back to the boardwalk where the dinghy was tied. I read the newspaper and drank a cold pop while I waited for Dave and Dito to return.

When everyone was back, we loaded the groceries into the dinghy and headed back to EXIT ONLY. They dropped the groceries and me off at the boat, then Dave and David took the cockpit water jugs and made a water run over to the yacht club spicate. Just as they were returning with the water, a huge rain squall came through and poured on the town and anchorage. The guys got soaked! After the water jugs were secured, we all had a rinse off in ocean, then fresh water from the Sunshower. We were ready to leave.

We brought the anchor up at 1600, then swung by to say "See you later" to QUARTERDECK and ZEPHYRUS. QUARTERDECK is headed to St. Lucia, so I don't know when we will cross paths with them again. ZEPHYRUS is going to Trinidad for Carnival, so we will see them there.

We had 15-25 knots of wind, with higher gusts when it rained all through the night. There was a full moon, so we could see the waves and squall clouds easily. Since we were going downwind all the way, the winds pushed us along quite nicely. We only had our foresail out and Dave would roll it in or let it out as the winds and rains came and went. EXIT ONLY moves best downwind, so we had a very good ride. We will be in Bequia tomorrow. We have done so many long passages, that it was funny to talk about going to Bequia. Every conversation included, "It is only an overnight sail". We are glad it is "only an overnight sail" and we will be anchored there tomorrow.

9 January 2006/Monday/Bridgetown, Barbados

We were thinking we would leave Barbados and head for Bequia today, but the wind came up...a lot...and we decided we would stay one more day to see what the tropical wave on the weather forecast is doing.

We went over in the dinghy to see ZEPHYRUS and welcome them to Barbados...Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Congratulations on crossing the Atlantic. They will complete their circum-navigation in Trinidad.

Dito did some last minute revisions to the update for the website, then put the new version on the memory stick.

After lunch we all went into town. The internet place Dito and Sarah had been to before wasn't open for use because their server was down. We went to have ice cream at Chefette while the guys decided what to do next. We found another internet cafe in the Broad Street Mall. The lady at the desk told us the prices for using the computer. We ask if we could have the "crew discount" we saw advertised on posters on the wall. She looked at the three of us and asked, "You all work on a cruise ship?" I told her, "We are a cruise ship...a small cruising yacht." She started laughing and said we could have the discount. It took about 37 minutes to upload the new website online with the good internet connection.

We decided not to sign out today and see how the weather is tomorrow. Bequia is 100 miles away, so when we leave, we will go about 1400 in the afternoon. A downwind overnight sail will take roughly 20 hours.

8 January 2006/Sunday/Bridgetown, Barbados

Today was "catch up" day for me. I took part of the day to catch up on some boat jobs and I took part of the day to read a book. I have hardly read anything since we anchored here and I was missing enjoying a book.

Dave and Dito worked almost all day on updating the maxingout.com website offline. They have the website on our computers, so Dito can make additions and changes on our computers, then he downloads the new version of the website onto a memory stick. The plan is to take the memory stick in to an internet place Monday morning to do the actual upload of the new version of the website on line. All of us have contributed new material to the website, but Dito is the one who pulls it all together and makes it work. He puts my Daily Log entries on the site after he adds photos to go with what I have written about. Dave wrote quite a few articles while we were on passage crossing the Atlantic and all of that had to be put in where it belongs. Dito put up new photos in the photo gallery and that takes a long time to select photos, then actually put them in.It is quite a big job and very time consuming. It took most of the day to get everything set up the way they wanted it to be.

ZEPHYRUS came in about 2300 tonight from the Cape Verde Islands.

7 January 2006/Saturday/Bridgetown, Barbados

Dito and Sarah went snorkeling first thing this morning. Sarah is going to fly back to Kentucky today, so they wanted to get in "one more snorkel" before she left. Dito found the old 110 underwater camera we have owned for years. There was still a roll of film in it with a few pictures left to take. He checked the "O" ring and found it was good. They took the camera with them and shot the rest of the roll underwater. The camera is old and the film is old, so no one knows if the film is good or not.

Dave and I were busy getting the things we were sending to Kentucky with Sarah ready to go. We wrote several business letters and addressed envelopes so Sarah could mail them in the States. We just found out US postage has gone up to $0.39 for letters.

We ate lunch on the boat, then Dito and Sarah dived in the water behind the boat for one last swim before it was time to head for the airport. Dave took them into the dock and they caught a public bus going out to the airport. When Dito returned, he said the airport was very crowded and all the planes were full. Guess many of the tourists were returning home after the holidays.

QUARTERDECK (Canadian boat) arrived here in Carlisle Bay from the Cape Verde Islands this afternoon. QUARTERDECK is one of the first boats we met in Panama at the yacht club in Colon in 1995. They had already been in the Caribbean for three years before they went through the canal to start their circumnavigation. We think it is remarkable that one of the first boats we met on our circum-navigation is now anchored right beside us as we both return to the Caribbean. We both have been many of the same places and many different places over the last 10-11 years, but here we are now.

I baked some cookies to share with QUARTERDECK today and ZEPHYRUS when they arrive here from the Cape Verde Islands tomorrow. I put candy canes (Sarah brought some from the States) in with the cookies to say "Merry Christmas", "Happy New Year", and "Congratulations on successfully crossing the Atlantic".

6 January 2006/Friday/Bridgetown, Barbados

This morning Dito, Sarah, and I went to the Cheapside Market for fruit and vegetables. Friday and Saturday are the biggest market days. I like to go there to shop because at least half of the stalls have signs with prices written on them. I don't like to buy at stalls where there are no posted prices, because I know there is one price for locals and a different, higher price for me. They sell things per pound here and I find myself wishing it was per kilo because things are expensive here. We bought some beautiful tomatoes, onions, potatoes, cucumbers, and we bought three christophenes to try. The lady told us they are like cucumbers and you peel them, then chop them up in salad. We did that later and they tasted just like cucumbers. I also bought some fresh basil with long stems this time. I am going to try to root these stems so I can keep a pot of basil going. This basil has the smallest leaves I have ever seen on a basil plant and is very tasty in salads.

From Cheapside, I went to Trimart supermarket to shop for groceries while Sarah and Dito went to an internet place. I did a small amount of shopping, then sat in one of the chairs provided at the store for waiting until they came with Elvin (the grocery cart) to help carry groceries back to the dinghy. Sarah had received e-mails concerning papers for her new job in Lexington, so she had to write e-mails and call the States. She is planning to start her new job 10 January. I didn't mind waiting at the grocery store. I drank a Diet Coke and watched the people as they checked out with their groceries. The older Bajan ladies wear nice dresses and wear hats. The younger ladies are very neatly dressed in denim and mostly conservative tops. They all have nice leather sandals and many of the younger ladies are wearing high heels.

After we put the groceries away on the boat and had lunch, we all went in the dinghy with the video camera to the snorkel area where the sunken boats are located. We had the video camera and the big orange underwater viewer with us. Dave and Dito call it "snorkel cam". Dave holds the viewer in the water and Dito puts the video camera where you normally put your face to look under water. Sarah did some swimming among the schools of fish for the video. I was sort of the lookout to make sure we did not get in anyone's way. We tied our dinghy to one of the buoys provided for snorkelers, then let out rope until we were positioned over the shallowest sunken boat. Dito was able to get good underwater footage, so this endeavor was a success.

We had a light supper and then ate popcorn while we watched the documentary movie "Endurance" about Shackelton's attempt to explore Antarctica around 1916. Their ship, the ENDURANCE, became frozen in the ice pack, so the real adventure changed from exploration to survival. It was a fascinating story and the movie was well-done. We felt very cold watching those men struggle in the snow and ice. When the movie was over, we were glad to be sitting in the Caribbean where we don't have to be watching for ice bergs.

5 January 2006/Thursday/Bridgetown, Barbados

The strong winds died during the night and we woke up this morning floating on a flat pond. A light wind came up about 0830, but the water was still fairly calm compared to what we have had in the past few days. We all decided we would go snorkeling over on the sunken tug boat again while the sun was shining.

First, David and Sarah took the water jugs over to the spigot at the yacht club to fill them. We used all the jug water we had when we did laundry yesterday. This time they took the hose and water filter with them. We didn't drink the water we got from the spigot, but we still didn't like having particles of something in the water. We had gotten out of the habit of using the filter, but now we are going to start using it all of the time in the Caribbean. We are using our watermaker to desalinate water for our tanks. That is the water we drink.

We took the dinghy over to the area where the dive/tour boats were tied up to let their customers snorkel and dive the wreck. We tied up to what we thought was the same white ball buoy we used the other day. It turned out to be a different buoy...and it turned out there are three wrecks down there! That was a surprise. The tug boat is in the shallowest water. It has the most fish swarming around it because the guys on the boats feed the fish when they arrive. This means the bright splashes of colorful fish are literally right in your face because they think you have food, too. We haven't snorkeled with schools of fish like this since the Pacific. There were fish everywhere. The wrecked boats become an artificial reef and coral was growing all around. The two other boats were larger than the tug boat and in a little deeper water. The sun was shining, so it was still possible to see all the fish on these wrecks, too. Beginner scuba divers were swimming around at a level beneath the snorkelers and above the wreck.

After lunch on the boat, Dave took the rest of the crew into town and dropped us off at the Careenage boardwalk. David and Sarah went to the bus station and caught a bus that went north along the west coast of the island. The went to Speightstown and Port Charles. They rode the yellow mini-bus with the blaring hip hop music, so they got the full island bus "experience". They said there are lots of hotels with lots of tourists broiling themselves on the beaches up there.

I walked around town and checked out a couple of shops I had noticed. First, I went into Woolworth's. It turned out to be Woolworth's like I remember it when I was young. They sell a little bit of everything at a cheaper price than other places in town. I walked through two souvenir shops and wondered who buys all this stuff at those outrageous prices. I stopped in the Trimart grocery store to pick up some bread and guava jam. All the guide books said to try the guava jam. I did and we liked it, so I wanted to get more. I bought a local newspaper. The lead story was about the house exploding yesterday. The article did say one man died in the explosion, but there were no details about what exploded and where the man was (in the house or outside). I ended my walk through town with a stop at the Chefette for ice cream.

In the evening, I made up frosting and we decorated the sugar cookies I made a few days ago. All of the cookies are frosted and sitting out overnight on the table so the frosting can set. It was a lot of work, but everyone is quite pleased to see the finished product. One of the shapes is a fish and we ended up with some creative colorful fish cookies. No doubt the snorkeling this morning inspired these works of art.

4 January 2005/Wednesday/Bridgetown, Barbados

Today can be summed up in one word..."laundry". We finally got our sunny, clear day with no rain showers (just the briefest of sprinkles that were no count), so it officially became "Laundry Day" first thing in the morning. Dave brought out four buckets and had whites soaking in bleach water, another pile of laundry went into the wash bucket, some laundry was in the rinse bucket, etc. We had not done laundry since we left the Canary Islands, so we had a lot of catching up to do. The wind was blowing steadily and the sun was shining, so everything we hung out dried fairly quickly. Still, there was so much to wash and hang out that it took us three separate times of filling the lifelines and extra lines we strung on the foredeck to get everything up and dry. The wind was blowing so hard, we had to use extra pegs on each piece we hung out. Basically, the laundry project took all day to complete, but by the end of the day the boat was smelling like a rose!

Sarah and I were on the foredeck hanging out clothes at 1230 when we heard a huge "BOOM", then a couple smaller "booms" went off. We looked over at the town on shore and saw a white mushroom cloud made of smoke rising swiftly up into the air on the east side of town. Everything went very quiet for a couple of minutes, then sirens started screaming all over town. Once the white smoke cleared, we could see black smoke rising beyond the trees. We had no idea what was over there, but we did know this area was not the airport and it was not downtown. Quickly, we turned on the local radio station. There was a regular talk show going on, but about 20 minutes later, at news time, they said a house had exploded on the east side of town. They identified the area by street and address, but it didn't mean anything to us.

The reporter said they did not know if anyone was in the house when it exploded. The house was destroyed. Of course we were sorry to hear anything so awful happened, but we were all relieved it wasn't a terrorist event, because that was the first thing we thought of.

3 January 2006/Tuesday/Bridgetown, Barbados

Yesterday I was hoping we could get the laundry done today. No way it was possible with all the gray clouds filled with rain showers passing over us. We opened the boat when it wasn't raining, then closed the boat when it started raining. We must have done that 7 or 8 times.

David and Sarah went into town and did a little grocery shopping for us while I made lunch on the boat. They took the thermal bag in with them and brought back a bag of ice. That was a nice treat. We all enjoyed having ice-cold drinks with our meal. Between rain showers, they took the water jugs over to the Barbados Yacht Club and filled the jugs with free water provided by the club. The spicate is located out in the water at a buoy. We now have plenty of wash water to do the laundry...when we have a bright, sunny day.

In the afternoon, Dave, David, and Sarah decided to go snorkeling over by the buoy where they noticed several tour/dive boats gather each day. These boats are filled with tourists off the cruise ships and from the hotels on the island. I rode over to the other side of Carlisle Bay in the dinghy with them, but I asked to be let off near the beach. I wanted to walk on the white sand and see what was at the edge of the water. After I heard about the snorkeling, I wished I would have gone with them. They went out and tied the dinghy to one of the buoys marking the snorkel area. They saw the sunken tug boat, BERWYN, lying in 7 meters of water. The water was very clear and there were brightly colored fish swimming everywhere. They decided they would like to go back and see if they can get some video footage through the large viewer we have that is used for looking in the water from the dinghy.

2 January 2006/Monday/Bridgetown, Barbados

Today is another holiday in Bridgetown, so almost everything was closed. David and Sarah went into town and found the Chefette was open, so they had ice cream. Dave and I stayed on the boat and worked on some projects. I am trying to get a holiday letter together in time to send envelopes back to the States with Sarah. She is going to put some letters in the mail to friends of ours who don't have e-mail addresses.

The tropical trough was continuing through this area today, so we had sunny times, showers with huge rainbows over the cruise ship terminal, then more sunny times. I don't mind the showers, but we can't get our laundry done and the pile grows bigger as the days go by.

Sarah brought a few recently released DVD movies with her, so we popped popcorn and ate left-over pizza while we watched a movie tonight. After the movie was finished, about 2100 we heard one of the Dutch sailboats calling the Barbados Coast Guard on the VHF radio. They were reporting theft on their boat. A computer and camera were missing. We don't know the details...whether they were on or off the boat, if the boat was locked or not, etc. This boat just arrived here today and they anchored as close as they safely could to the beach. It is possible someone swam out to their boat or paddled a windsurf board out that short distance. We are anchored much farther out. We immediately went to the stern of our boat to make sure our dinghy was still there. We pull the dinghy up every night, but hadn't done it yet tonight. No problem. The dinghy was right there where it was supposed to be.

Mary from KITTYWAKE brought a bag of paperback books to swap when they came over last night. Today, Bruce from AHQUABI came over with books from their boat. He looked at Mary's bag of books and the bag of books I had ready to swap and chose some new-to-him books. We made up a bag of new-to-her books for Mary and Bruce took the bag of books over to her. There is a book swap at the local cruising club that cruisers are permitted to trade books with and that is what I had planned to do after the holidays. I realized today that I now had all "new" books without leaving our boat!

1 January 2006/Sunday/Bridgetown, Barbados

A tropical wave went by Barbados today and we got the winds and squalls off the clouds in the overcast sky. The swell came around the southwest corner of the island and we had more bouncing around than we have had since we arrived here. The squalls came and went all day...open the hatches, close the hatches, open the hatches, close the hatches...We really can't complain because we have had good weather most of the time we have been here.

I spent the morning fixing food for this evening. We invited Pam and Bruce on AQUABI and Mary and John on KITTYWAKE to come over for a small party at 1700. All of us were on passage Christmas Day and all of us successfully crossed the Atlantic, so we were ready to celebrate that. AQUABI and EXIT ONLY are finishing circum-navigations in the Caribbean. KITTYWAKE was purchased in France and sailed in the Med. The Atlantic was their first ocean crossing.

Dave and Dito went into the beach to one of the reataurant/bars and bought a bag of ice cubes, so we had ice-cold Diet Pepsi! There was left-over ice, so I am going to make a big pitcher of iced tea tomorrow. Now that we are in the Caribbean, we are planning on adding a small 12-volt freezer to the boat, but I am not sure where we are going to find exactly what Dave wants. We should have brought the one we had in the truck in Australia, but at the time, it seemed like a good idea to leave it in the truck.