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West Indies Island News
Mollymawk Caribbean Newsletter: 4th April
On Easter Sunday, Alastair and I set sail for Trinidad
from St. John. We had spent a couple of days in St.
John and had a good hike to the petroglyphs. It's
somewhat like a rain forest, but there is cacti there
that resemble the pipe organ cactus of southern
Arizona. And the cactus, which may be 20 feet high,
have bromelaids living in them. A very peculiar site
that I haven't seen before. Desert and rain forest on
the same plant.
The trip back was supposed to be 3 legs(600 miles
total), with stops in Guadaloupe(225 miles) and
Bequia. However, the winds were horrible getting into
Guadaloupe, pushing us southward the first night, then
stopping totally the next day(we had to motor 9
hours), then hitting us right on the nose thereafter.
It was supposed to be a nice broad reach but the
weather and the winds have evidently decided to change
for now. We were going to have to tack to Guadaloupe
but the first tack was directly at Bequia, so we just
kept going. The winds seemed right so we took
advantage of it. Bequia was 185 miles away.
Wednesday, we hit winds to 29 knots. Quite an
interesting day, but the wind vane performed
excellently for us. I don't think we could have held
the helm all day without it. And with only two people
on board, we did 3 hour night shifts so hopefully we
could sleep better. It doesn't work though. It's just
hard to sleep when the boat is bouncing and rolling in
weather like that until about the 3rd day. That's when
you're getting very tired and can sleep through
anything.
From Sunday morning till Thursday morning, we
covered 440 miles from St. Johns to Bequia in the
Grenadines nonstop. We're in Bequia now, resting up,
and will begin the last leg Saturday morning, a 30
hour sail reaching Trinidad Sunday.
On the way back, we could see a lot of the islands on
the horizon that we had visited earlier. Nevis on
Monday, St. Lucia on Wednesday, Dominica Tuesday
night. It did bring back some memories for me.
It's been a long trip and a great adventure, but I'm
really looking forward to getting back to the US of A.
I haven't read a newspaper or watched TV since I left,
so it will be interesting to see what has changed. Has
Afganistan been bombed into a parking lot?? Have they
caught the guy yet?? Is the Nasdaq back to 5000(we can
all dream, can't we??)? Probably not. I'm sure I would
have heard that news if it happened.
So that's the news that's fit to print from the
Eastern Caribbean. And for Al who's been shoveling
snow while I've been down here, I hope it's snowed 20
feet!
Mollymawk News Editor
Dave |
NEWSLETTERS |
Trinidad to Grenada, plugged loo, Pappy's: Monday 4th February
Grenada, Carraicou to St. Vincent and the Grenadines: Thursday Feb 7th
Union Island, Castella's, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Tobago Cays
Wallilabou, Bequia, Vieux Fort, a typical day, run over while in the dingy
St. Lucia, Marigot Bay, Soufriere, Rodney Bay, mooring knot comes loose
Martinique, St. Pierre, Mount Pelee
Dominica, Emerald Pool, Trafalgar Falls, Bay Leaf Oil extraction, Granny Jemima
The River Sallee, Guadaloupe to Antigua, Nelsons Dockyard
Antigua, Shirly Heights, St. Johns
St. James Club on Antigua, Nevis, Killer Bee's at Sunny's, Satia
St. Barts....aaaaah St. Barts, and Anguilla
British Virgin Isles, Foxy's on Jost Van Dyke, Tortolla, Virgin Gorda, Deadman's Cove, snokling on Sea Dog Island, Billy Bones on Norman Island
The showers of the Carribean!!!
Final Edition - St. John's and then back to Trinidad
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Caribbean Sailing
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