Wifi was connected, in Salt Whistle bay.  Christine checked her Facebook and holy crap, other Austin natives were in the neighborhood.  So Facebook messages were sent, and we heard our name over the VHF radio.  Tho our handheld, we tried but couldn’t get back in touch with them, we hung out. We had no real plans / destination.  They were coming to Salt Whistle for lunch.. We waited.

SV Tranquility www.charterbrochure.com/tranquility rolled around the corner, and at first they didn’t spot us, but then worked their way right up behind us.  We shouted, just raft up, like Lake Austin.  .. They dropped anchor behind us,   Awesome.  So.. rafting up like we would do on Lake Austin, probably wouldn’t work, they are almost 2x our size, tho also a catamaran, only draws 5 feet, but sleeps 12 in immaculate luxury.   We had talked with Matt and Catherine when they were putting that boat together, plus all the other boat shows and Austin parties where our paths crossed.   

Perfect lazy day, woke up late, hung out, didn’t do much, heard our name on the radio, chilled out, had an awesome lunch aboard nice boat, great conversation.   They had to go north, a charter boat came in next to us, we decided to go see the turtles at the keys.    

We came out here, got anchored, was a bit bouncy so decided to hide behind the island, boat load of kiteboarder took the mooring we tried to be too close to.  But they might keep it down?!?!

Chicken / Rice and Spinach salad for dinner.

Watching the neighbors chase a turtle in the water at night.. they might end up at the next island..

So its Tuesday.  I’ve been here for over a week, working remote and actually making it mostly work.   A decent internet connection and I’m good.    Got into a routine, up early when the sun isn’t blazing and do a couple of boat chores, then change into some fresh clothes and sit down and the computer to take calls and do some work for the next several hours.  Used google hangouts to make calls and join.me to hold meetings all voice over IP.  Did have to close the hatches to stop the wind noise on the microphone.

A week went by fast.  I put all the sails up, replaced the windlass, washed the boat no less than 3 times, the dust coming across from the sahara was making everything quite dirty.  Replaced the joker valves in the toilets, still some jobs in the boat list, but knocked out quite a few of them.

Crew showed up on Saturday, we checked out of St Lucia on Sunday for a Monday departure.  Sunday we stocked up on more beer and food for our couple week adventure.  Got everything packed away and headed down to the Pitons and the south of St. Lucia and grabbed a ball from a boat boy.  Seems the helper fee goes up with the size of the engine, they wanted 40ec for hooking us on the ball.  Negociated it down to a 20ec and 2 beers.  We only ran the jib on that sail as we were in the lee of the island and made some good time, all systems running smoothly.  Chicken and rice and a few cold beverages.

Up early as we had along sail to go from St Lucia down to Bequia, to clear into the Grenadines.  Drug the fishing lines all day but only caught the sea weed.  Lots of sea weed.   At first we weren’t going very fast, was showing 5knots or less, that would make it a 10 hr sail, but eventually we got the sails full and managed with the engines too make decent time and make the customs office by 2pm.  Crew went swimming while I cleared us in.  Someone might have had a few too many beverages to cook dinner, so we went ashore and found something to eat and some adult beverages.  Was a challenge to find the mothership as we had forgotten our lights, but found it without too much trouble.  Thinking ahead Christine put the dominos and cards away so that the boys wouldn’t stay up late making racket.   Slept in.  Lazy start, we had but 25 miles on the agenda, with Salt Whistle or the Keys as a destination.

Started with one reef in the main, but eventually shook it out, and had full sails coming into Bequia, perfect as the photographer was there.  Got some good shots of the crew on deck and the boat under full sail.  Lazy bag was not falling down.

Presently in Salt Whistle bay, awesome sail down from Bequia today.  No engines full sail, smooth water, could not have asked for a better day.  Pulled into Salt Whistle and snuck up to the very front and dropped the anchor on the beach and backed down.  Perfect spot with wind and a view.  Went swimming, stopped at bar, swam some more, grilled some pork chops and played cards against humanity.  Perfect day.

   I Today?  Keys?  Relax?

Sunday fun day. Well really a sad day. Last day on hook. Last day away from the dock. It has to be done. Time to get serious about cleaning and finishing the boat projects.

Up early, and by early this time I mean 4 am. The sound of a boat futzing with an anchor nearby does that to you. Peered out the bedroom window, port hole if you will. It’s 4 feet long so it’s really a window. Noticed a cat had come in. Looked like they tried to pick up the lobster trap but then decided to drop anchor. Kept a close eye on them for a while. When they were content. I went back to sleep too.

Last breakfast. Omelette of lots of various treats that needed to be consumed. In no real hurry, content on the ball. Little Internet, then got antsy. Fired up the engines. And the sky got dark. Hmmm. St. Lucia living up to her wet ways. Just a little shower. Let it pass or at least the heavy stuff. Saw a break dropped the ball and off we went. Motoring up the coast getting sprinkled on lightly a couple times.

Looking around and there were several boats with the same route and timing. So the race was on, except we were just running slowly. No fishing just hugging the coast and taking in the scenery. Till we got up to the Marigot and the tank farm. The waves picked up as they rounded the top of the island. Wind on the nose, howling along just shy of 30 knots. Kicked the engines up to 2000 rpm and motored along. It felt as we were standing still, but looking at the GPS were were actually making foreward progress at 5.5 knots. That put us there in plenty of time, it was comfortable so keep on keeping on.

Turn the corner into Rodney bay. The star clipper 5 masted cruise shim was also seeking shelter in the big bay. With a smaller sister ship already there. We cut the corner, between the dive rock and the shore. Dodged a couple out coming boats sailing downwind. Damn if the bay didn’t have waves with white caps in it. Wind was still flirting with 30 knots. It’s got to die down closer to shore. Right? They wouldn’t put a marina in a windy place?!?

We still needed to get out our docking gear. Lines, fenders, more lines so Christine asks if she should start getting them together. I say wait till we get up there. The wind would probably blown the fenders overboard. We keep trucking. It’s not letting up. Think about entering the protected waters and rendering up in there after we see what the wind is like in the channel. We get close another boat comes out and immediately anchors.

Game time change. Our windless is acting up, but so is Mother Nature. Head to the beach where the chart shows shallow ish water. Drop the hook takes some effort but its down 7/1 scope and its windy. Relax for a bit. Start the fendering process, the wind dies down to 20 knots. I can work with that. 30 mins and we are ready. Fenders ready to kick over lines on every corner, and some in between and others just in case.

Start to pull the anchor and we are back at 30 knots. And the windlass over heats at least 5 times. I end up pulling the last 10 meters up manually while Christine maneuvers the boat.

Down the channel it’s blowing. Christine calls the marina for our slip assignment. The radio was busy with lots of requests for slips to get out of the wind. Good thing we had a reservation. They said F15. I know which is F pier but not which side is odd or even. We get close. Notice the odd side is down the finger and the dock hands are motioning down that side. Didn’t see the soon enough. Took a route down the back side to turn around. The dock hands saw us and made a call that turning crosswind on the narrow channel in this wind wasn’t a good plan. They found F10 was available. Sweet. Only one turn in 28knots of wind. Turn around. Now. Should we back in or bow in. Back in our escape hatches would be facing the wrong wind direction, but the water and electricity would be right there. Bow in, put the dock finger on the same side as the engine controls. Bow in won the heated debate I had in my own mind. Stern to is also easier to load and unload. We had plenty of fenders and pulled in without a mark. Tho even after we had tossed the lines we had to throttle up to overcome the wind trying to push us back out.

Dock hands remember us and the boat. Hook up water and out electric cord is just short. Start washing. Cleaning. Eventually send Christine to the office to do the paperwork. She brought back a case of beverages. Awesome.

Washed the top and front of the boat. Covered the main sail bag with a bag. Washed the cushions. Christine wiped down the whole interior. Good busy and productive day.

Cleaned and setup for Monday mornings borage of coordinated efforts. Laundry, dingy tune up, find Egbert the Volvo guy ( helped us out on a Sunday last time ), customs to inventory the items on board, fill up some empty propane tanks so we don’t have to do that when we return

Pizza on shore for dinner.