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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


Caribbean Sailing