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.

After the pork chops finally thawed out, we had a pretty decent meal on the boat. Grilled up the porkchops and pineapple that we picked up from a boat boy with a side of corn is what we had for dinner. A couple of games of Domino and in bed by cruisers midnight, 9pm. Shawn and I stayed up for a while longer but not much past the witching hour.

Its now midnight in Souferier, its raining yet again. The outline of the petit Peton can barely be seen against the gray sky. The Petons are the largest mountains in Southern St. Lucia which are 1/2 a mile from where we are moored. The wind that came with this rain is crazy. Gusting to 37knots and consistently over 30kt.

So much so that it even woke Wayne up. There are 6 mooring balls along the cliff here, we are about 100 feet from the shore and the wind is blowing right down the cliff stretching and creaking the bridle with every gust. I’m sure Shawn and Sharon are wondering about all that noise thats going on just outside the forward berth.

When the wind drops below 20knots it is very peaceful, and if it can stay that way, maybe I’ll get some sleep, or at least a nap on tomorrow’s sail to St. Vincent.