Just another Day in Paradise

I don't even know what day it is, what time it is, or what planet we are on, BUT.......I do know that we are in Paradise!  We've been enjoying & experiencing so much of the Cruising Lifestyle here with Our great friends, Brian & Lorna, aboard Peace & Plenty.

We set sail Monday from Rodney Bay, St. Lucia to St. Anne, Martinique. It was the shake down sail & we had an East wind of 17-20 knots with speeds of 5.5 - 7.2 knots, waves were close to 10 feet & we sailed along really great. The new Mr. Auto got a great workout & performed flawlessly. 

We saw flying fish, booby birds & the Customs helicopter, which took our picture & hovered off, we waved & I took their picture as well. We practiced our heaving too & enjoyed a cold Piton beer.

Carried on & arrived, anchored in Martinique by 4pm, what a wonderful day.

While we were anchoring, we saw the biggest sea turtle we've ever seen, just gorgeous.

Back to our experiences, we saw the Green Flash, actually (I, Vicki, saw it twice, once onboard & once while I was swimming in the water! Great to experience that)!!

We all sat on the foredeck with a glass of vin rouge & watched the stars, what could be better than that, lights on the hills, peaceful, anchoring lights coming on, oh, just beautiful!

We awoke Tuesday morning to the aroma of Brian's coffee.....Nectar of the Gods, I must say!

We ventured into Town with the Mothership to get some provisions, copious amounts of vin, Biere & Fromage.  The prices were fairer here than in St Lucia. Had a French lunch at The Sextaint, Doug ordered kangaroo, & we are not even in Australia, which we all tried a bit & it tasted similar to Roast beef, we all enjoyed our lunch. 

Than it was back to the anchorage in St Anne, where we swam, snorkelled & had a delicious steak dinner aboard Peace & Plenty. THE HELL HERE NEVER ENDS!

Tomorrow morning we are dingying over to Town to have a coffe & croissant to have Internet to post this blog. After that, we are going on a hike along with Tarentala, Al & Michelle, to Saline Ponds.

We have met so many Friends of Brian & Lorna, which only emphasizes the fact that Cruisers are great, friendly, helpful people.

Stay tuned....Peace & Plenty back to 68....

Doug & Vicki

Company has arrived

I went to the airport on Thursday afternoon with Trevor to meet Doug and Vicki MacDonald from London Ont. They  arrived a bit early and had a great flight on a brand new West Jet plane from Toronto. Doug is over 6 ft and said he had leg room. 

We stayed a board at the marina on the first night, had a light supper a few drinks and caught up. On Friday we took the dinghy into the lagoon shopped for provisions. Sticker shock hit them as our dollar is equal to 2 EC dollars and prices are very high here. A 6 roll pack of paper towels was over $30.00 EC and Vicki just about flipped. We had lunch at the mall at the food court. One of our favourite spots. We bought a large chicken dinner for two and shared and still had too big of a lunch, $28.00 EC for a lunch for two with two beers. It was so hot. And still that we allowed them to aclimatize by sitting around the pool and drinking appropriate beverages! Nearby in Gros Islet is a famous Jump Up (street party) with food and drinks and music LOUD music! We walked to that early and had a fun dinner at a beach BBQ fish bar (we had marlin, D&V had snapper, all soooo good). We met a few friends there and had a lot of laughs. Doug and Vicki are loving the life so far. We took a dock for two nights when they arrived and made it easier for settling in and getting to the jump up. On Sat morning the skies opened and it rained hard all day. We chased leaks ....ones that didn't show up in the first heavy rain. We had done a bit of laundry early in the day when we had access to lots of water on the dock and waited to hang it on the life lines. Vicki laughed at the whole procedure with the extra rinse cycle we called it. The showers just kept on going all day long. We moved out into the anchorage about noon and it just kept on raining. We spent a lovely afternoon playing dominoes. This morning we have everything on the life lines trying to dry out. 

Today's plans are to walk Pidgeon Island and do some snorkelling. Tomorrow Monday we will head off to Martinique. 

Breezy days in the bay.

It has been lovely and breezy since coming out into the anchorage and not crowded yet. The large rental catamarans with 10-12 people come in to anchor and swim then leave before sunset. Then we are all alone again. The boats will start to arrive by the first part of Dec. we have been working on our individual lists and tasks and doing well. Lists are getting shorter. Today Brian has the big winches apart and cleaning and greasing. 

Yesterday we has the pleasure of meeting friends at the resort Windjammer on the coast just south of us. They have a boat but a time share also and took a week off to relax! They invited us to come have lunch and enjoy the facilities. We took a taxi with another couple and met for a lovely (expensive) lunch with 9 EC beers. Normally we pay 6. But a lovely treat. We took a shuttle bus up the hill to their suite. It was beautiful perched on the side of the cliff on two floors and their own plunge pool. We stayed the rest of the afternoon and swam and had drinks on their balcony overlooking the ocean. It is a resort that the London,Ont builder EllisDon built many years ago. Quite a lovely day for sure.

Each day in the anchorage a couple small power boats go around selling fruit. We don't usually take advantage of their services as the fruit is expensive and sometimes not very good compared to town but then convience is worth something.  Today Gregory came by and as we were out of bananas I called him over. He had a mishap last week in the huge rainstorm to have his boat overturn and he lost everything. Usually his roof is adorned with tattered flags from all over. Today his fruit was wonderful and as you see the size of the mangoes and oranges well worth it. I put the tape measure of 16 inches on the top of the fridge so you could see. Bananas,mangoes,avocado,oranges,limes,a green pepper for 40 EC about 20 CA dollars. So yes expensive but really good looking. 

All for now .....until I find a spot to post. We have bought a data plan this season for our new phone and can tether the phone to the iPad but it really sucks up the data to post and to FaceTime.  

Back in St Lucia

We arrived in St Lucia on Nov 1 after a perfect flight. We were greeted by our friend and taxi driver Trevor who took us to his place to stay for three nights. The next morning we arrived at the boat to find everything in good order. There was no mould most importantly and all systems seem to be fine. The diesel engine started on the first try. We were launched on Wed am as all work was done as we had laid out. Our worse problem was our debit card would not work! We tried three banks and no money. We contacted our home branch and were assured there were no problems at their end and while at the debit machine I called the 800 number on the back of the card and she assured me they had no problems. The only one with the problem was me the person without money. Fortunately we had brought some U.S. cash with us and we were fine. The fourth bank we tried worked! But it was the one in the marina, the one that had trouble with their machine being compromised last year. But it is scary to think this could happen at other places along the way. In St Lucia there are several places to try but smaller islands might not be so easy. Time will tell. 

We have been working away on the many jobs related to launching and getting started but all seems good so far. We have a new auto pilot to install and that hasn't been started yet. We have had some wild weather. The island had a very dry summer and water was short. But since we arrived it hasn't stopped raining. Some of my family will be laughing by now as it is a joke when Brian goes on vacation in NB it always rains. I have told them here he is for hire. On Friday it rained 3.66 inches and on and off on Sat and Sun. Open the hatches close the hatches and then swelter. We went up to the marina to find everything closed and flooded and sand bags in front of the stores. The power was off for several hours. Unfortunately there were some casualties on the island. I collected 3x 5 gallon water jugs with a funnel off the canvas in no time at all. I did laundry and hung it out for a rinse. The basin water was thick with run off debris and will be for days. Tomorrow is supposed to be worse and not a good day forecasted until Friday. We will stay on the dock and try to complete the auto pilot install. Really sad for those coming for a week on a charter boat or at a resort. 

We are excited to be having Doug and Vicki MacDonald from London on Nov 19 for two weeks. At that time we will head off to Martinique for a few days. Weather will dictate! They are sailors so weather won't matter so much to them. 

We had a very busy summer at home as probably most who are also Facebook friends will know. We had two new grandsons. Dylan in Airdrie Alberta in March and Hayden in June in London. We went west in May, east in July, North to Algonquin Park in Oct. We bought a mobile home in April and finally moved in to it at the end of Sept. Buying an American made product and getting CSA approval didn't prove to be as easy as we were told. We moved out of our apartment in July and into our 21 foot travel trailer for the summer. When Heather and her boys came to visit in Aug. the trailer got pretty cramped. But being the good campers they are,we managed. When Kendra and her children came to stay our new good friends Dan and Fran in the park took us into their place. Sterilizing bottles and boiling water for formula takes up a lot of room. But a wonderful two weeks were spent by the playgrounds and the pool in our new park Silver Dove Estates. We have met so many nice people there. We have so many people to thank for so much help with deck and shed building and the skirting etc. In the midst of the last month at home Brian had cataracts removed on both eyes. The surgeries were in Windsor two hours from home. But he is so happy with the results. 

We will try to have more pictures and less wordy blogs this year as requested! But not this one.