Matt has been so good and diligent about blogging that I didn’t feel compelled to interject and ruin his flow. It has been a very restful trip, great weather, little rain, no squalls, visits to our favorite bays with some of our favorite locals, and of course good food! The trip started off fabulous as I was able to procure an entire case and a half of Shandy! For those of you who know me, you might think I am a bit of a picky drinker (some might even know my drink order by heart :). I do have several bottles of vodka on board, but mixers are hard to come by and a girl cannot drink vodka all day. Shandy is a pseudo beer made by Carib that has all of 1.2% alcohol and lots of fun flavors. In addition, the local IGA in Grenada (it’s like a real U.S. supermarket) had diet ginger-ale and diet sprite–SCORE! Not only can I have a cool refresher with Matt, I have mixers for my vodka. I think this was the first trip that we bought more liquid for me than for the boys.

Without our dear friend Wayne, I have had the opportunity (or duty) to help on deck a lot more. So far, not so bad (with the exception of putting on the main sail – that sort of sucked at 600lbs). Well, cleaning the bilges weren’t much fun either. Matt and I have found a comfortable pattern for setting/dousing sails, anchoring, and sailing. To be honest, the boat is so awesome it is not hard to handle with 2 people, just easier when you have a bartender and an extra set of muscles.

I know its a boat (Break Out Another Thousand or Bend Over Another Time), but this trip seems to be challenging all of Matt’s Tool Time Tim skills. So far he has already fixed or “jimmied” the port light switch, the gas stove burner, grill stand, auto pilot, kitchen faucet, latch on the starboard engine hatch, port side battery (had to buy a new one in Grenada as our trusty one from St. Lucia decided it did not want to play anymore), and two of my bikini tops!

Of course there are always boat projects on the pending list…install rear speakers, install latches on bow compartments, clean out engine rooms, fix interior ceiling, re-teak all the exterior wood, stain interior wood, and replace belts on port engine–these are just top of mind. Of course this is in between sailing, reading, chilaxing, going ashore, and enjoying the Caribbean sun. We will most likely have St. Lucia rebuild our windlass (poor thing just isn’t right), rebuild our port large wench, replace our large zincs, rebuild the outboard motor and look at our port sail drive seal.

The only truly frustrating aspect has been the lack of internet and inability to communicate with my family. But they are in good hands and I trust in God to protect them while I am away. So, for this first week, I’ve learned a lot, got a little suntan, read some good books, learned that I cannot limbo as far as I used to, but I can hold my breath long enough to retrieve some sea treasures, and met many new friends! Great way to end the year!

In the islands you but sugar, flour, etc… In baggies

Up with the sun, Put on the Sunday Best. In my case actual shorts not board shorts, and a clean-ish t-Shirt and flips of course and Christine in a new sundress and off to Xmas morning mass at the little church on top of Mayreau. Nice and cool, so slow trip up the hill so as NOT to break a sweat. The over achievers were the first to arrive so we peaked over the hills to see the boats out at Tobago Keys and all the boats crammed into Salt Whistle bay.

Great little service, crowded, a few baptisms, blessing of the kids, birthdays, anniversaries, and even a blessing of the visistors. Gave up my seat to the same lady from a couple of years ago. Some of the other ‘visitors’ finally started to give up their seats as the church got crowded, with visitors coming from the Windjammer cruise ship. Turns out they were planning a beach party on Saline bay.

Christine had brought me some new tools, a ratchets set, for the boat. So promptly put them to use, took the carburetor off the dingy and did what I could to clean it out. Doesn’t seem to have made a difference, it runs, but only fast, doesn’t like slow speeds, so at slow speeds, I have to pull the choke out a bit, we get there, better than paddling a dingy.

The beach party was complete with a Steel drums, so we lazed the day away listening to them, before getting motivated to sail over to Chatham bay, where we’ll anchor for a couple of days. With all the cruise passengers playing with paddle boards and hobbie cats and getting too close to us it was time to skedaddle on out of there. That sail is downwind and only about 4 miles. Windlass was doing good, up to the point it needed a break, and the poor guy swimming in the water with us bearing down on him thought we were setting the anchor, but finally we picked up all the chain and set the jib, turned off the engines and made a slow sail over to Chatham bay.

We dropped the fishing lines in, we weren’t going but 5knots, but it was peaceful easy sail and we were in no particular hurry. Sailed all the way up into the bay before furling the jib, and reeling in the lines.

Our normal spot was open, but there were lots of boats, almost 20 in our bay. How dare they. As we are doing our anchor dance, I spot a boat boy in waiting, I yell, whats up Suki. You see we always visit with em, he yelled back welcome back Sugar Shack, Merry Christmas. He is polite and waited till we had set the hook and started putting things away to come over for hugs and salutations. We told him we’d be here for a few days and at that time they hadn’t had any takers for dinner yet. I said, if you get some some, we’ll come eat, just don’t go cooking for JUST us, we can always do tomorrow, next day etc.

Got all situated, and couldn’t find the normal wifi signal from Aqua Bar and Restaraunt, so decided to go over and buy a drink and check the wifi from there. Wifi was good, but it didn’t go anywhere. So that was a bust and a crazy expensive island beer. The passcode didn’t change from when we were here last, the network just wasn’t up to working.

While sitting there, we saw Vanessa swing by our boat, since we had to told em to come by if they get folks, we now know where Christmas dinner is. Christine wanted to walk, I had the laptop/ipad/itouch/iphone/gopro, and didn’t feel like carrying that so I went back to the boat and she walked the beach stopping by Vanessa’s to place our order. Turns out the english couple (Terry and Sarah) we met at the Aqua, were also going to dinner. And a few other boats too. I picked up Christine at the other end of the beach, and made a cold beverage of course.

Topped off the drinks, thought about getting ashore before sunset, but didn’t make it, so took the dingy tour of the bay. Since you have to pull the dingy up the beach arriving with a full drink is not wise, so drove around a bit, Vanessa spotted us, came by and took a photo of us.

First to dinner, chatted with the cooks, Suki and Vanessa, played the ring toss game, then a Seattle family came up (Joshua, and his wife whose name I cannot begin to spell and their kids Atticus and Vendella). Chatted for a while, I tried to burry Vendella, their 5 year daughter in the sand, she was having fun. We also met a lovely family from South Africa Godfrey, Nora and their son Noah and his friends. Super great group for Xmas dinner. Rum punches for Xmas, whats not to love. Paced myself at first, then the awesome food arrived, more than we can ever eat. EVER, but its all so good. We had Ribs/Chicken/Fish/BreadFruit/Salad/Rice.. and then even desert.

Then it happened.
A dingy raced into shore, yelling a boats name, and catamaran, its dark, I spot our anchor light, looks to be in the same spot we left it. Then he said ‘dream-yacht-charter’, okay not us, but where is it dragging to? Someone knew they were down and Tim’s in the corner, and the dingy was off. Suki came back and said it didn’t hit no one and it was under control Remember I said these winds in this bay are freaky, can be as high as 40knot gusts from random directions. We always go overboard on scope, 10-to-1 is minimum here for us.

Then it really happened.
The tables were moved and the Rum Punch took over, Reggae dance Fever. The place was a jamming. If that wasn’t enough, the limbo poles came out, now thats crazy. The best part is the kids could just walk under the bar, while the adults tried their best.. Vanessa and Suki had skills. Best place to be on the beach by far, far out lasted the rest of the beach bars.

Rum punch filled to the brim, it was time to go. They helped us launch the dingy (drag back to the water) and I had a bit of trouble getting the engine all the way back down, thought it was hitting the bottom, but it was hitting the stop. Figured that out, the wind was blowing us away from the beach so it was all good, dingy fired up and we were off to the boat, with fresh rum punches for the road. Safely aboard, dingy raised, rum punch stowed for the morning breakfast.

Xmas in Paradise. Dun’t get much better than a day in Chatham bay, just don’t come here, its getting crowded. If you do come, visit Suki and Vanessa at the blue awning beach bar in the middle of the beach, tell em Sugar Shack sent ya. Super friendly, great cooks, great people.

Cheers,
Merry Xmas.

Christmas dinner at Sun, Beach, Eat with Suki and Vanessa

Not exactly sure how to spell his name, but he is the hardest working crew member, never causing a scene. Best of all never competes for my cold beverages. See Otto is so reliable you always expect him to be there, especially with a short handed crew.

Auto, can steer the boat, perfectly, either by the course or by the wind, He takes orders and does exactly as he is told, makes managing the sail trim/sail changes and dousing the sails so much easier with an extra helping hand.

Well, when we splashed, I guess we left him on shore. The Raymarine electronics kept saying “No Pilot”, heck, I was on board, and at the helm, sorta a pilot of sorts. He wasn’t really needed on the first trip to the mooring ball, but the other effect was that the gauges at the helm station were not picking up depth, or speed. This is not a show stopper but surely makes for a more stressful trip.

We have 4 positions where auto can be commanded from either port or starboard helm, and inside from the nav, or even on the foredeck while lounging with a cocktail. Luckily we found that that the inside and foredeck, controllers worked and auto was on board, just on the front of the ship. We ran the 15 foot extension cable and it almost reached the helm, so basically all systems go for the first 2 days with a cable running out to the helm. The one gauge that is in the center of the cockpit, never really came worked. On a whim, I disconnected it and we had our pilot back onboard, now since everything is daisy chained, taking that one out stopped the signals down stream, so a little creativity and cutting up a beer cap, fashioned some jumpers and all but that center multi-view gauge works, even Otto showed up at both helms along with depth and speed.

Otto has been doing a great job on this trip, seems he just had issues with the multiview gauge, and it was him or the multiview, otto won. Push button steering is in business.