One More Cruise

Before leaving the Caribbean, we were eager to put boat work aside and enjoy a bit more of the Windward Islands. We will miss Grenada and the weekly hashes but hope to see some of our cruising friends again.

Fortunately, Beth and David found some time in their schedules for a one week cruise from Grenada to St Lucia.  As much as we like and will miss Grenada, we were excited to push off towards the Grenadines.

I am not sure how much our guests appreciated the favorable breezes during our one week cruise. After last season’s continuously breezy upwind conditions, we were lucky to sail with the wind behind us, of course trying out every sail along the way.

At one point, we almost mutinied when Jason’s adherence to keeping the screecher up had us headed, albeit quickly, towards Nicaragua. Or maybe he was going to bear off more and start the trip to the canal?

Tobago Cays was beautiful but not the snorkeling paradise I was hoping for; while the winds were not howling, they were enough to muddy the waters.

Mustique proved to be my favorite Grenadine, yet again.

 

 

David reminded us that our best chance of catching a fish was to invite him aboard. He caught three tunas that week. Not only is he an expert fisherman but he provides sea to table cuisine; he served up delicious ceviche, bbq tacos and seared tuna.

Did I say no boat work for the week? Well, almost. We managed to squeeze in a fix to the furler, the door latch and an attempted fix to our water heater pressure relief valve.

Marigot Bay beckoned with flights home and Fed Ex’ing our chartplotter for rapid repair. It is fun to return to places we have been before and we again enjoyed the food at Masala Bay, Christmas Eve dinner at the Rainforest and daily workouts at Capella’s gym.

I wanted to try the local bakery, to see if they had any St Lucian holiday treats. I walked up the hill and couldn’t see any sign for a

bakery. I asked a shopkeeper where the bakery was and she pointed down the hill and told me it was just past the blue van, just as the blue van started pulling away. I walked down the road and asked a man who told me it was up

the road, just past the mango tree. I was too embarrassed to tell him that I had no idea what an out-of-season mango tree looked like and that my usual mango tree is in the fruit aisle at Fairway. I finally found the shop and bought some ginger cookies and coconut bread.

Now we have returned to Rodney Bay and the countdown to our departure towards the canal and points west begins.