In Pursuit of Paradise

The Caribbean is a long way to come in pursuit of the perfect beach, especially when you come from New Zealand, one of the most picturesque places there is.  So far we have seen rain forests, rustic french villages, brightly coloured towns in pinks and blues, markets bursting with produce, waterfalls, hot pools, and many many beaches.  But I still feel like I'm looking for "the one". 


We are nearing the end of the Caribbean chain of islands, and have been told that the Grenadines are right at the top of the list of idyllic islands in the Caribbean.   Tobago Cays just about ticks of the list of paradise: turtles, turquoise water, coral and deserted beaches. 

Worlds End Island

The only thing letting it down is the rolling swell (despite the fringing reef), the boat boys hitting the boat multiple times, and the beaches that look great from a far but just not quite as good up close.  


The search continues...

Tobago Cays Turtle Sanctuary

This blog is not meant to be an elegant literary masterpiece, that is Kates job.  I do better at explaining with pictures. Oooh aaah more turtles (now at Tobago cays).

On my first swim i gave up counting turtles.  On numerous occasions you could see at least three turtles at once, good job this is a marine reserve or someone would have them for dinner.

Hungry Turtle - chomp chomp

Wait, thats not a turtle

Ahh thats better, turtles again

Turtle Sanctuary on Bequia (a gary blog)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has many traditions,  including traditional whaling and also eating turtle, even the endangered hawksbill turtle.  However we met one local who is doing his bit to buck the trend, educate people about turtle conservation and also give baby turtles a bit better odds than 1 in 500 of survival.

We took a ride with Terrance to the Old Hegg turtle sanctuary (run by or on the eastern side of the island.  The first thing Kate manages to find is a bunch of furry friends.  It seems that wherever we end up she will always manage to find them even if there are none to be seen.  Maybe we should name her dr dolittle.

Wherever we go Kate seems to find the animals 

At Old Hegg you get to wander around his pools of little turtles, and we managed to arrive at feeding time which was great.  His has managed to increase the odds from 1 in 500 (some other sources suggest 1 in 3000) to around 1 in 7 to the age of 5.

They start off just a bit bigger than your thumb 

Aren't they cute!

I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts....

Domestic Goddess in Bequia

While in Bequia I have been a Domestic Goddess, to the heights that even my friend Anneke would be proud.

I have discovered a little shop called Doris' that stocks all the hard to find things such as pine nuts.  I have also been frequenting the market here, following the guidebooks advice and going in the afternoon once the Rasta vendors have had a chance to "mellow out".  

So far I have made my own pesto, mayonnaise and mango chutney.  I have been cooking up the Tuna Gary caught with spices, garlic butter or accompanied with the mango chutney and a slice of my homemade Focaccia bread - YUM. 

Tonight we are off to our Texas cruiser friend's boat for a lesson on dominos then out for pizza.  We hear that dominos is the game of choice for cruisers during hurricane season at Grenada, so we thought we would get a head start!

Diving in Bequia - A Gary Blog

After a difficult sail from St Lucia with 2.5knots of counter current we arrived in Bequia (pronounced Beck-way) with a fish in the chilli bin and a new top speed of 13knots. Bequia is renowned for its diving so the following day I went for a wee paddle at the Devil's Table.  This is a reef area at the entrance to the bay.  It was like diving in an aquarium.  Although a lot of the photos turned out blurred, here are just a few to wet the appetite.

Smooth trunkfish

Spotted Drum

Banded Butterflyfish

Aquarium

when i grow up...

French Angelfish

Goldspotted snake eel

Bitter Sweet St Lucia

As we make our way further down the chain of islands, we are moving away from the riches of the US, French and British.  With the increasing natural beauty of the places, so does the level of vigilance required. 

Within minutes of arriving in any bay in St Lucia (except Rodney Bay that is), you are approached by Boat One.  Boat One may be one or two boats, but this boat is the one that wants to help you pick up a mooring, or tell you where and how to anchor your boat.  We don’t need help picking up a mooring, the charts show where there is depth to anchor and I’m sure we know a bunch more than these youths about anchoring our particular boat!  They aren’t just being friendly or helpful.  They want you to allow them to help you and then force you to pay an exhorbatant “fee” for the privilege.  And they don’t necessarily know anything about boats or anchoring.  The guidebook talks of numerous occasions when such “guides” assist the boat aground on a reef.

So now you are anchored.  Boat Two approaches.  This boat wants to sell you fruit.  Again, this boat is more like four boats, all banging against your boat causing scratches and gouges.  They will come not once, but five times to your boat in a two day stop over, including at 8pm at night.  They will use a range of tactics, the best being humour, the worst threatening, but mostly just insistence.  The Insistence boats will hang by your boat for between 10 minutes and ½ an hour, either hanging onto the railing or waiting just off, hoping you will change your mind.

Boat Three waits until you have stopped being pestered by the other boats.  Boat Three is the best equipped of all the boats with a brand new 20hp outboard.  This boat is trying to sell you Ganja (or marujuana for you non-Caribbean speakers).   Although after Boats One and Two, you might need some help relaxing, we chose not to take up the offer.  This boat is the least invasive, asks pleasantly and is on their way quickly when you say no. 

From our discussions with the boat guys, all have been out of prison for between 1 and 3 months.

So you want to go ashore?  If it is a Soufriere, you will have the choice of tying your dinghy up at the gated dock, complete with razor wire, or the dock with a number of youths by it that will insist you pay them to look after your dinghy.  If your journey by foot is just to the customs office, 10 strides from the gated dock, you will be approached by at least three people.  All will ask if you would like a tour (none of them are official tour guides), two will attempt to force a shell necklace on you for twice it’s worth, and one will try to sell you a basket.  If you decide to take a walk in town after checking in or out, how many people approach you will be a calculation of how many strides you take.  We walked two streets (maybe 50 strides) and were approached by 15 people, all offering tours, and their other wares varying as much as their level of threatening behaviour. 

The cruising guide book recommends if you want to leave your boat at night to go for dinner, you call one of the yacht service people to come guard your yacht.

While this all sounds pretty bad, most places we have stayed in St Lucia we have felt pretty safe.  Rodney Bay we felt very safe and Marigot Bay mostly safe but hassled.

We have also met some really lovely people.  We had dinner at Benny’s Horizon Restaurant right at the foot of the Pitons.  Benny’s wife Marcelene does a home cooked dinner for you that is absolutely delicious, with so many sides you will burst your pants.  Action Adventure Divers will pick you up from your boat and take you for an amazing dive.  Chester was really friendly and promised, without prompting, to get Gary home safe in just over an hour. 

The coastline of St Lucia is breathtaking. Particularly the Pitons, a world heritage site.

Marigot Bay

The oil silos off Castries

The Pitons

Piton.  Horizon Restaurant at the base.

We are off to Bequia tomorrow, missing out the island of St Vincent completely - too dangerous we are told.  Bequia promises beauty and safety.  I’m looking forward to not having to lock ourselves in at night.

Clothing Optional

Now that we have some friends here in the Caribbean, we have encountered a hazard.  One of the most serious kind.

While living on a boat, just the two of us alone, with neighbours at least 50 metres away, it is easy to let your guard down.  Privacy is assumed.  Perhaps we  have spent too long in the French islands, perhaps the countless French charter yachts with 6 guests all stark naked has reduced our sense of decency.  But we are not always...how to put it nicely...fully clothed.

In this heat, clothing is restrictive.  Everything clings, particularly after a dip in the salt water.  My sensibilities have been reduced to the point that I find it normal to polish the deck in my bikini, or hang my washing in just an oversized t-shirt.

The problem comes when Gary and I are spending siesta in the afternoon playing scrabble down below, out of the sun.  "Was that a knock?" I will ask Gary.  "No, it was nothing" he will tell me.  Then it will come again knock knock knock followed by a "Hello, Hello?" from our guests who are attempting to peer into the boat.  Gary and I jump to attention, scrambling to fit through the door into our cabin, to the safety of a closed door and clothing.  We pull on anything in sight as fast as possible, banging elbows and scraping knees.  We hurtle up the companion way to greet our guests who have just stopped by for an impromptu hello, our t-shirts usually inside out.  Sometimes we are too slow in changing and must endure the embarrassment of saying "we must have been out" when the guests later enquire about our whereabouts on said afternoon when our dinghy was still tied to the stern.

We are beginning to come up with action plans, placing covering garments within arms reach and deciding who will dash to the cabin first to prevent battles at the doorway.

My only remaining concern regards how we will manage with Gary's parents aboard when they visit in October.  But I note, Nigel, this passage does not in anyway contradict the "No Speedo" boat rule, and I swear that I was truthful when I said that Speedos have been banned in the Caribbean, it's just against the law.

Martinique - Anse Mitan and Le Marin

Martinique is the largest windward island in the Caribbean.  It has the closest thing resembling a city - Fort de France.  The Fort de France Bay/Harbour is quite large and has many anchorages and inlets.  We choose Anse Mitan, a pretty looking bay with good shelter.  

We read the cruising guide and notice the small marina on the other side of the peninsular, a short walk away.  The shape of the marina looks familiar to us from when we came to view the other boat we nearly bought.  Gary swears it is the same marina, but I protest based on where I think our hostel was from the marina.  Alas, when we arrive at the marina I turn to Gary, I take both his hands in mine and look him in the eye.  "Gary" I say "I am about to say something very important.  This may be the only time you ever hear these words pass my lips but....you were right".  
We visit our "runner up" boat.  The  broker had threatened that if we didn't accept their final offer, that the boat would be sailed back to France and the chance to buy her would be gone.  But there she was, right where we left her, but more neglected.   We had offered on her from New Zealand and spent a good two weeks negotiating, eagerly awaiting emails across time zones, building a bit of an emotional attachment.  Gary and I had a few pangs of sadness looking her over, and wish her well.

We took a day trip to Fort de France city.  There were actually shops that I wanted to buy something in! It was amazing.  I grabbed a couple of T-shirts and shorts.   We visited the market to buy a couple of tomatoes, but are astonished by the cost compared to Dominica.  We buy two regardless, what is a baguette sandwich with mayonnaise, ham, lettuce and tomato without a tomato!  Gary's take away from our trip to Fort de France was his bitter disappointment at the McBaguette.  

Another abandoned hotel, this time at Anse Mitan

The next day we head down to Le Marin, mainly to do some provisioning and laundry.   On both counts we are surprised by the extraordinary cost, but the facilities are good.  Many bays in Cul-de-sac du Marin are beautiful.  Club Med Martinique takes up one of the points.  But we anchor right up the inlet in the most unattractive part of the bay, to be close to the town centre.  I may have said this before, but I have never seen so many boats in the same place; a new record.  The bay was packed with hundreds, maybe even thousands, of boats. Some in the marina, some on moorings and some just anchored.  Many are prepared for hurricane season, with sails and Bimini removed and everything lashed down.  


We met up with our Aussie cruiser friends and were treated to a BBQ dinner.   I am jealous of their grill and now insist that we need a gas grill, as opposed to the charcoal one we currently have, and have never used for fear of setting the Bimini of fire.  


This is the last French island in the chain (I think!).  With this in mind, I add a few extra wheels of Camembert into the trolley!

Club Med

Gary making sure there is a picture of him at the helm too.  

Martinique - St Pierre

Although we had a great time in Dominica, I was excited to once again be in a French country - the land of wine, cheese and baguettes! 


On our trip over we had our first whale sighting, a pilot whale not more than 2 boat lengths off.  Sorry, no photos, too busy being in awe and trying to avoid a collision. 


We arrive in the early evening and are given the most wonderful welcome by a family of cruisers we had met earlier.  The crew of Blue Kai, including two small children, speed around Toodles in their dinghy waving and singing our welcome.  I have not had a better arrival.


St Pierre is a particularly picturesque French town that was made famous by the 1902 Mt Pele eruption.

We decide to have dinner out, and manage to adequately converse in French to order the crayfish that is an absolute bargain.  The crayfish was part of a set menu of three courses and drinks for $25Euro each.


The next morning we wake early and go exploring.  Gary's "must do" is the rum distillery.  With the help of Susan from Blue Kai's fluent French, we gather from the tourist office (that doubles as the customs office), that the distillery is about 2km away.  What I hadn't gathered was that it was 2km from when you get to the bottom of the hill to get to the distillery on top of the hill!  Hot and bothered, we reach the distillery and do the self guided tour, including past the steam engine that powers the distillery.  Gary takes notes on the process to pass onto our  rum distillery at home, Mangrove Bay run by our good friend Adrian.

The view across the sugar cane (which is picked fresh for the rum production)

Our tour ends with a rum tasting, and we pick ourselves up a few bottles, despite it not being quite as good as Mangrove Bay Rum.

On the way back into town, we stop at the ruins from the Mt Pele eruption.  Some ruins still take up prime real estate on the waterfront, as if no one considered to rebuild and instead chose to build right next door.  Even some of the new buildings share a wall with the ruins.

My last stop of the day, as per usual, is to the market to grab a freshly baked baguette, cheese and a bottle of bordeaux wine - YUM!