After the morning hike which I forgot to post, and since we are miles away from internet, will probably fill in the gaps next time we get some real wifi. This update is coming from Tabbago Keys in the Grenadines, just inside the reef/turtle sanctuary/marine park.

We only had 6 miles to go to get here, so we didn’t raise the sails, with the intention of making water and cleaning the water maker on the way. Then I read the manual and its going to take 3 hrs to complete the cleaning. Circulate the hot cleaning solution for 1 hr, then let stand for 1hr and repeat each time with the solution @ 150 degrees. I’m not exactly sure how to run a stove in the engine room to keep the cleaning solution warm. So I decided to just ‘flush’ the water maker to make some semi-clean water to bathe in as we are running under 1/2 of our water supply. The rinse process started out fine, but when it came time to take the salt out of the water, nothing came out of the water maker. Doh! So today’s project was try something then have a beverage and try again later, eventually running a warm ‘fresh’ water instead of the ‘flush’ process started things working, so we can no make water. Or course that was well after we arrived and Christine had navigated through the reefs to Tabbago Keys. We made a little water just to verify it was working and didn’t taste to bad, so we went snorkeling after all the tourist boats had left.

We had a grand snorkel in the Turtle Sanctuary, lots of turtles and a couple of stingrays, I have some pretty fun video of them, but will have to wait till later to upload. Then we went out to the reef and swam around, this time there were a whole lot more fish than last time we were here. Was fun found a few more stingrays, in fact one just jumped out of the water as I sit here on the bow typing this update. Lots of parrot fish, and even some dog faced puffers eating the sand where our anchor chain is stirring up the bottom.

Lovely sunset behind the moat, pretty close to a full moon and a nice breeze off the atlantic. And Donald drink to boot, can’t ask for much more!

Probably 40 boats out here in this big wide open area. Nice and peaceful even the seaguls love thie place.

We have found the secret to the boat boys, just tell them you landed fish on the way over, and they don’t try to sell you fish and lobster.

We had a nice dinner, some grilled Shrimp pasta, its lent after all, was quite yummy no leftovers.

Tomorrow, maybe Salt Whistle bay, its only 2 miles away so we’ll see, it is the quintessential island spot tho, so we might just have to camp there tomorrow and make water on Sunday.

After a long sail day, 72 miles we arrived in Bequia and dropped the hook. Cleared customs and are now in St Vincent and the Grenadines. EseaClear made clearing customs a lot easier, filling out the paperwork online they were able to print and file it quite quickly. Immigrations was also pretty easy, and the guy there said I could come back in the morning to sign Shawn and Sharon off the boat instead of trying to find the place over on St Vincent, so I’ll probably do that after breakfast.

We had dinner a shore @ L’Auberge des Grenadines known for the lobster dinners, and they did a stupendious job. Normally they have a band on tuesdays, but not last night. Dinner was yummy and we had a 10 minute walk back to the dingy. Christine stopped to pet a doggie and it jumped up on her breaking her brand new island special necklace.

A large sailing cruise ship the Club Med came into bay and anchored a few hundred feet behind us so we decided to dingy around it on the way back to the boat, made for a wet ride back to the boat for a game or two of dominos.

Wednesday is going to be a exploring day, and we’ll end up in St Vincent this eve.

Despite the lack of sleep, everyone was up pretty early. And we were underway before breakfast, raised the sail and headed out in the dark and gloomy weather. Nice 10knots of wind in the lee of St . Lucia, so a little motor sailing and charging the batteries.

Typical Texas Breakfast tacos with some bacon and fixens were created while sailing in the lee, shortly after clearing St Lucia we had some 15kn of wind, so we killed the engines and sailed by the wind alone, making 9kn through the water passing many monohull sail boat along the way.

We dropped the lures in the water before breakfast, and no bites till zing. Another doozie hit and took alot of line and jumping out of the water. Slowed the boat down by turning into the wind and 45 mins of fighting later the jumping fish finally figured out how to spit out the lure! Doh! At least this time the knot held and we still had the lure, unlike our rookie mistake on the cousin of jaws from yesterday!

Making great time, we are thinking about going ashore in Bequia instead of St Vincent to clear customs to get another island for Shawn and Sharon on this trip. That and its till overcast so visiting the Walibou, where they shot pirates of the carribean wouldn’t be too exciting and the customs at Walibou are only open between 4-6pm.

Still heading south bound and down.