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| Oyster's - beautiful yachts |
Our next scheduled charter was 1 February, a private charter
out of St Vincent. We were to crew a rental catamaran as buddy boat to a
beautiful 82ft Oyster yacht, it can only accommodate 6 guests so the extra 4
guests of the charter would be accommodated by us, they would sleep and eat
breakfast on the catamaran with us then sail and do the rest of their meals on
the Oyster.
So I thought I had the month of January to catch up on long
overdue items, such as the blog, making a new cover for the cockpit side that
blew away, etc.
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| Jolly Harbour - beach resort |
but Tradewinds had other ideas and suddenly on 2 January we
were off on an epic days’ travel to Antigua – ferry to St Vincent, flight to
Barbados, flight to Antigua via St Kitts, taxi all over the island – it was the
last taxi leaving the airport and the kind driver took everyone to their door -
arriving at our accommodation at 23:15, food was over but fortunately the bar
was still open.
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| We had time to take pics before being whisked off to work |
Next morning we arrived at the Tradewinds base in Jolly
Harbour, where we met our new yacht for the week, the 60ft Karma. Fortunately
the crews are always so helpful and friendly, a real team and Antigua was no
exception.
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| So many beautiful super yachts, so much money... |
Our guests arrived 4 super couples and what fun we had with them,
following the other boats around as we learned the bays and anchorages of
Antigua,
experiencing the snorkelling and diving, the seemingly endless number
of luxury yachts in Falmouth harbour and
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| Nelsons Dock yard |
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| View from Shirley heights |
New England bay and to top it all off
a restaurant called Flatties (a flattie is South African for a spatchcock chicken)
managed by South African Wayne and which served chicken and chicken livers just
like back home.
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| This was little June |
We had a couple of free days after the charter so we did an
Island tour which took us past St John (the capital), Viv Richards
International Cricket Stadium, Green Island,
the Donkey sanctuary where we
found and adopted a donkey called Pumpkin,
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| Lunch & a walk on the beach |
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| Just north of Green Island |
Nelsons Dock, English Harbour,
Falmouth Harbour, up Shirley Heights and lunch at Turners beach – Great day out
and about.
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| A gift from our guests - clothes pegs |
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| On the ferry to St Vincent I found these 2 little pups taped up in a small cardboard box, they slept on my lap for the entire ferry trip |
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| Breakfasts are fun |
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| Sweet Escape our home for a week |
What was supposed to be a relaxed easy charter turned out to
be a demanding, complicated, unprofessional, cringeworthy affair that saw
personality and work ethic issues between the crew of the Oyster result in the
chef being removed from the yacht ¾ of the way through the charter. We came off
this one utterly exhausted and ready for a few weeks of relaxing and getting
ourselves back together.
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| The start of Blues Festival in Bequia at Frangi Pani with friends |
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| The 2nd last day of the Mustique Blues Festival |
After much soul searching we think chartering for ourselves might
be a better option, so we are trying really hard,
via Air BnB, to do charter
work on our own MaXScene, offering the same experience as the bigger companies
but on a smaller scale for much less.
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| The kettle drums were the first performers of 5 days of festival |
Kevin has patiently – and this requires
much patience to get right – listed our catamaran on Air BnB and as it is not
possible to create a listing for the general Caribbean, we have begun our
adventures in Bequia as this is such a beautiful area to explore, incorporating
the Islands of Mustique, Union, Canouan, Mayreau and Tobago Cays.
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| Not sure what was in that rum punch but it was good - beginning of rum tour at the top of the hill in Hamilton |
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| Rum tour = pub crawl to bar's with great views |
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| Or bar's with great rum punch |
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| Such an interesting home/individual |
We caught up with most of the back log communications and
personal stuff that has been ignored, slotted in a Rum tour with our friend Rob
and seeing that Rod, Kim and Claudia are coming to visit us in Antigua in April,
we have decided to take some time to make our way there and try our hand at Air
BnB in and around Antigua, provided Kevin’s overstretched sense of humour can
cope with generating another listing – it’s really not very user friendly this
site.
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| Rob won the home made spiced rum |
We bade a very early farewell to Bequia and followed on the
heels of Golightly and Matangi who had left the day before as they were
anchoring off St Vincent for the night. We made such good time to St Lucia that
we passed the Pitons, our intended anchorage for the night, carrying on a
further 7Nm to Anse La Rey where Richard and Rowena on Gailene were anchored
with a braai and sundowners at the ready.
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| Our escort, photo courtesy of Rowena |
We were escorted into the bay by a
charter boat blaring loud music and accompanied by 2 guys in small fishing
boats with very fast motors zooting around and narrowly avoiding crashing into
the anchored yachts, part of the entertainment. Wonderful evening then the next
day off we both went in different directions, us to Rodney Bay and them to
Bequia. We anchored and did the obligatory Customs and Immigration and
interestingly this time had to report to the “Harbour Health” office to fill in
a form stating that no one on board was sick nor had died – the Corona virus panic
begining here too, not surprising considering the number of cruise ships
around.
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| Tiny work space |
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| But great office view |
We got the spare head for one of the water maker pumps and a
diaphragm kit for the other (all the spares the agent in St Lucia had) and the
entire next day was dedicated to fixing it, Kevin is thankfully so adept with
these things and by the afternoon the water maker was merrily chugging along at
more than full steam ahead, big smiles all round.
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| The name of this yacht says it all |
We finally explored the two “shopping malls” and were
pleasantly surprised to find how much cheaper with greater variety things are
here compared to SVG and Grenada. Also St Lucia is definitely more modern, it
is such a pity they are not able to get their crime under control, they have a
bad rap for theft and a couple of other serious issues.
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| Castries Market |
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| Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception - Castries |
We also made a trip
into the Island’s capital city Castries with our friend Marie, she’s been
coming to the Island for over 10 years and was the perfect tour guide.
The
market, although a bit disjointed as it is under renovation, was bright and
vibrant and town was bustling.
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| Cold beer always welcome |
We happened upon Tom on Tomfoolery who we haven’t seen since
he left Cape Town almost 3 years before us, that prompted a catch up couple of
drinks at the loveliest bar/restaurant Jambe De Bois, also farewell drinks with
Marie and Gary as we were off next day, heading for Guadeloupe.
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| Mont Pelee with a little cloudy cap |
Our original
plan was to do an overnight passage, we were playing catch up with Angela and
Gary on Mystic Blue and wanted to surprise them, but change of plan and at the
top of Martinique, in the last light of day we pulled in to the little bay of
St Pierre, at the foot of the Mont Pelee volcano. St Pierre was the Capital of
Martinique until Mont Pelee erupted in 1902, the only survivor being a prisoner
called Cyparis who survived due to the thickness of the walls of his cell,
which today is a monument. Its quite amazing how much has been rebuilt and
more, so whilst you would never suspect the carnage that took place, that
“dormant” volcano still looms big and bold and would make me think twice about
building a house here.
Next stop after another long day sailing was at Portsmouth
at the top of Dominica, a stop literally to get some sleep before continuing to
Guadeloupe. The next day we scooted past Les Saintes, the small Islands at the
bottom of Guadeloupe and stopped at Basse Terre to complete the formalities of
clearing in to Guadeloupe.
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| Pigeon Island, Malendure |
A process that was a simple completion of a form on
a computer, no Immigration or Port Health check needed here but we did have to
pay 3 Euro’s for the privilege of tying our dinghy up in their marina, the only
access to the Official buildings and town!! After an emergency shop for gin and
tonic we completed the last hop to the bay of Malendure, just off Pigeon Island
in time for sundowners and dinner with Angela & Gary and another South
African couple Pat and Peter on the yacht Shoe String.
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| Incoming squall |
We had a great sail up, it was lovely to be on the ocean
once more, being amused by the flying fish, the Boobies that catch them and
then steal them from each other and the large, regal Frigate birds that end the
squabble by taking the fish from all of them. We were joined by dolphins and 2
sperm whales, these guys move really fast and we were doused by a couple of
squalls, always something to keep us amused.
When in Rome…. Well, when in Jacques Cousteau’s playground
one should snorkel, so we did. Pigeon Island, a Marine Park, is also known as
the Cousteau Marine Park, so named in remembrance of the tests Cousteau was
performing here at the end of 1959 on the diving saucer, one of the first
underwater vehicles with windows. To swim in water that deep blue at the fringe
of an Island is the most incredible experience, the fish are all curious and
colourful and whilst very busy with tourists it was lovely. 
Angela and I snorkelled
the edge of the anchorage in the afternoon too, special turtle and octopus were
the stars of that show. |
| Plant holders in parking area of Deshaies |
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| Deshaies main street |
Then we were off to Deshaies (pronounced Day Hay) at the top
of Guadeloupe, we needed to clear out and it was a shorter hop from here to
Antigua.
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| Pelican on the riverside |
What a quaint little town this turned out to be, colourful with
friendly people who speak very little English however, and our French is horrid
so Google translate and charades are used once again. We were most pleasantly
surprised while waiting our turn at the computer to clear out, to run into solo
sailor Marika, on her new catamaran Moana, we last saw her in Cape Town almost
5 years ago as she embarked on her Atlantic Ocean crossing.
We spent a day at the very beautiful Jardines Botanical
Gardens, this Island gets a lot of rain (the 
heavens opened and we got drenched
but at least it cooled us down) so the vegetation is lush, thick and green and
the flowers, especially the orchids, blooming beautifully.  |
| Loved this must be an old sign |
They had a
picturesque waterfall, a koi pond and an aviary with a couple of varieties of
parrots.
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| A nice big bus for a change, turned out to take way longer however |
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| On the streets of Point a Pietre |
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| That loves it's rum of course |
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| Lively City |
