As you all know, after a brief return visit to Saint Lucia we arrived back in Bequia on May 12. Our visit started off with a bit of a bang when we returned to our dinghy after dinner to find that our dinghy lock and cable had slid down the piling the cable was wrapped around and was submerged under 5 feet of water. Fortunately, a well-know local named Eric, who hangs around that particular dock, came to the rescue and retrieved our lock after diving in the water in his birthday suit. (There were some protests as he stripped completely down but they were not heeded.) It seems like the misadventure of that first night was an omen of the kind of return visit we were going to have in the Grenadines. Oh there was lots of fun — which we will write about — but there was definitely a concentration of mishaps during our visit that certainly kept things interesting.
But, aside from the lock and cable incident, the visit actually started off on a high note. Our Kiwi friends on Seamogs, Matt and Jo, were still in Bequia when we arrived and invited us over for dinner our second night on the island. We arrived on their boat at 5:30 PM with pre-made Old Fashion Rum punches in hand and, several rum punches, 2 bottles of wine and a great dinner later, we departed their boat just shy of 11:30 PM. Though we didn’t quite solve world hunger, we covered everything from politics, to our careers (former and current), to COVID, to family and world travels (past and future). We had such a great time learning about their life on a sheep farm as well as their business organizing itineraries for licensed pilots who want to have a flying holiday in New Zealand. We cannot wait to visit them in New Zealand when Che Figata sails to that part of the world in 2023. (The third time WILL be the charm!)
Overall, we spent a few really nice days in Bequia. In addition to our meal on Seamogs, Jill prepared a couple of great dinners for just the 2 of us on Che Figata, we picked up our new dinghy chaps (they came our great!), and enjoyed some swimming off the boat and walks around the town. Our strolls included a repeat of the great walk from Admiralty Bay to Low Bay that takes you across beautiful white sandy beaches, up and over the hillside that connects the bays and along a board walk that snakes around the cliffs between the beaches. It really is a magnificent walk — we got great exercise while enjoying this slice of heaven.
After a few days on Bequia it was time for our hike up the Soufriere Volcano on Saint Vincent. We had heard about this hike from a German couple we first met in Rodney Bay and met up with again in the Tobago Cays. Though the hike itself is only about 8 miles long (roundtrip), it is a difficult hike that takes you to elevations of up to nearly 4,000 feet over increasingly steep and rocky terrain. (Walking sticks and good hiking boots are a must! ) For the average hiker (that would include us!) it takes about 2.5 hours to reach the summit and another 2 hours to get back down. With a stop at the summit to explore the crater, the hike, alone, is a good 5 hours. We were traveling to there from Bequia which meant catching the 6:30 AM ferry to Saint Vincent and then meeting our tour guide at the ferry terminal upon arrival at 7:30 AM for the 1 hour and 15 minute drive to the trail head. Total travel time to the hike: 2 hours and 15 minutes (just to make sure you are following). The goal was to start the hike by 9 AM, finish by 2 PM and return to the ferry around 3:30 PM in time to catch the 4 PM return ferry to Bequia.
The hike to and from the crater lived up to its billing. The trail took you through the rain forest and across extremely narrow (single file only!) ridges separating the valleys below. The sheer drops on either side of the narrow trail definitely got your attention. It was fascinating to see the impact of the last volcanic eruption in 1979. The forest looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book with the tree tops flattened from the hot gas and debris. Yet with the nitrogen rich ash the forest was already lush again with lots of thick low growth. As you increased your elevation and emerged from the rain forest you hike up and over solid rock requiring some big stretches as you climbed over boulders. As you reached the summit the wind started to howl around you and a windbreaker became a must. It was a great day filled with wonderful exercise surrounded by diverse terrain and weather conditions.
Unfortunately, though, the crater itself was a bust. The day we scheduled our hike it was particularly and uncharacteristically foggy. While it looked like it might clear up by the time we reached the crater the opposite actually happened and we were socked in with none of the spectacular views down into the crater or across to the other islands. We waited at the top of the summit, wrapped in our windbreakers and sitting low to the ground, wind whipping around us and coating us with water from the heavy mist, for about 30 minutes. (It was very pleasant. NOT!) We finally left the summit when it was clear that the weather was not going to change and we reminded our guide that we had to catch the 4 PM ferry back to Bequia.
Despite the gentle reminder we missed the 4 PM ferry. A multitude of occurrences contributed to the delay. Our guide expanded the group which meant more pick ups on the way to the trail head, with the expanded group the guide wanted an additional guide along who was late arriving at the trail, our guide slowed down the hike to give the weather a chance to clear, we then waited too long at the top even though there were no signs of the fog clearing and, after the hike, we lingered in the parking lot to enjoy some cold drinks.
While this may sound like a minor inconvenience, it was actually pretty problematic. Because we were planning on catching that 4 PM ferry which would have had us back to Bequia at 5 PM we didn’t bring lights for our dinghy or turn on Che Figata’s anchor light. It just didn’t seem possible that we would be returning in the dark. The next ferry back to Bequia was 6 PM which had us arriving back to Bequia at 7 PM when it was already very dark. (The sun sets at around 6:00 PM in the evening all year round in the Caribbean with the last light about 6:30 PM.) So we had no lights — other than the light on our cell phones — to help us navigate from the dinghy dock back to our boat and, importantly, make sure that others on dinghies could see us. Many people speed through mooring fields and anchorages on their dinghies much faster than they should so it is critical that our dinghy is well lit at night and can be seen by these reckless dinghy drivers! Perhaps equally as bad, our black boat with its black mast was unlit making it very difficult to see. Thankfully, we have some torches on the back of our boat that flicker at night so at least there was some sign that a big sailboat might be in the water if you were viewing the boat from a certain angle. Still, if one of those speeding dinghies crashed into our Che Figata, damaging our boat or, worse yet, injuring the dinghy occupants it would have been our fault. Needless to say, we were beyond relieved when we got back to Che Figata safely after big adrenaline rush!
Of course, thinking that we would arrive back in Bequia at around 5 PM and get to our boat by about 5:30 PM we planned dinner out. We knew Jill would be too tired to cook and we’d have time to shower and get to one of our favorite restaurants, The Fig Tree, by 7 PM. We thought about cancelling our reservation but, after the stress of the return trip to Bequia and the dark dinghy ride to our boat — not to mention a day of strenuous hiking — we thought we deserved a relaxing dinner even if it was 8 PM. So we let The Fig Tree know we’d be a bit late and took quick showers before heading back out for dinner. As we approached the dinghy dock we were greeted by our friend Eric. After his heroic efforts to retrieve our dinghy lock and cable we knew that we would be retaining him to guard our dinghy while we dined. Of course, as always, we would be locking our dinghy with the cable, negating the need for his protective services but, of course, that was not really the point. Unfortunately, and no you can’t make this stuff up, as Zack reached into our boat bag and pulled out Jill’s jacket to find his wallet so we could pay Eric, the keys to our dinghy lock flew out of the bag, through the slots on the dinghy dock and onto the sandy bottom below. This was almost the exact spot where our lock and cable had settled on our first night on Bequia. We turned on our flash light (this time we had our usual complement of dinghy lights and other light sources) we could see exactly where our keys landed.
The sight of us laying on the dock using a flash light to search for the keys on the bottom clearly attracted attention because before we knew it several of Eric’s friends had joined him on the dock and were anxious to help us retrieve our keys. So anxious that at one point one of the guys grabbed Jill’s ankles (remember, she was laying on the dock) and started to lift her up. We are not quite sure what he was thinking but we surmise that he thought he could hold Jill by her ankles while she went face first into the water to get the keys. We had to politely ask the gentlemen to please let go of Jill’s legs. Following that, Zack decided he simply had to go in so he stripped down to his underwear (he kept that important article of clothing on!) and entered the water. Using his toes he was able to feel around for the keys and, in no time at all, he found them, grabbed them with his toes and ultimately got them into his hands and up to the surface. Of course, Zack was now soaking wet with salt water — not a pleasant way to eat dinner. But, where there is a will there is a way! There’s a dive shop next to The Fig Tree and Zack had seen customers using the water that sprayed from the spigot of an oversized water jug perched high on a rock wall as a shower so he showered off using this make shift arrangement. He was still wet but at least he wasn’t covered in saltwater so we proceeded to dinner. The rest of the evening was uneventful (yay!) and we both collapsed when we returned back to Che Figata after a delicious meal — this time with all the appropriate lights adorning our beloved dinghy and Che Figata — at around 9:30 PM.
The next day, fully rested, we left for a 2 night/1 day stay on Mustique. We just love that island and were excited to walk along the beaches and through the trail that cuts through the mangrove forest that exists between the beach and a lagoon. We had another delightful stay, enjoying our walk, some swimming and dinners at Basil’s Bar. In a flash it was time to leave for Mayreau where we planned to visit The Ranch Escapade and the Mayreau Beach Club one last time this season. It was also time for some chores — a few planned and a few, unwelcome, unplanned chores.
As we have said many times, just because we live on our boat it doesn’t mean we get a pass from life’s daily activities like doing laundry and cleaning our “home”. And, unlike when we live on land and were working full time, we don’t have a cleaning person come to our home twice a week to do these things for us. Alas, it was time for cleaning and laundry. We were headed to Mayreau for 2 days and figured we’d do laundry/cleaning one day and play at the lovely resort we found during our last stay on the island the next. BTW, laundry is not the simple affair it is when you live in a house with a washer and dryer. We have a small combined washer/dryer unit with very limited capacity. In addition, the dryer is very inefficient so it takes a long time to dry clothing and, if you let the dry cycle continue until the clothes are completely dry, they are totally wrinkled when you remove them — no wrinkle guard on these units. Through trial and error we have learned to do very small loads of laundry and set the dryer for 20 minutes — the shortest dryer setting. That is enough to get rid most of the moisture but leave the clothes still damp. After taking the clothes out of the dryer we remove any wrinkles by hand using the dining table in our salon and then hang our cloths around the inside of the boat (the hand rails conveniently located in our salon are great places for hangers!), on the outside rails and the stainless tubes holding up the bimini. All in all, it’s almost a full afternoon affair that we usually combine with cleaning. This week though we had other plans . . .
The day before our planned laundry/cleaning activity, Jill discovered that someone tried to use her debit card to buy pizza online in Eastchester, NY. Fortunately, she had our account set up to require a code to authorize the purchase so it didn’t go through but it was odd. We don’t use our debit card for anything other than withdrawing cash and Zack is the one who usually does that. She has only used her debit card a handful of times in the last 2 years. Clearly either she or MasterCard was somehow hacked. Out of abundance of caution, in addition to cancelling her debit card and requesting a new one, she decided to change all of our online passwords. This was an all afternoon affair! Life happens even when you are in the middle of the Grenadines. So Jill combined laundry with password updates and we figured we would clean the next day — with two of us on the task it would take us only a few hours and we could get to the resort early and enjoy the day. But the liveaboard gods again had other plans for us.
We had been noticing an increased number of weevils on the boat. This is actually a common problem because you store food in places that are not easily accessible or often checked. (Our primary storage location is under our salon settee. To retrieve our food we have to remove the long cushions which takes a lot of muscle so this is something we do only when we need to put new food away or retrieve something to replenish our pantry supplies.). As a result it is highly recommended that when you purchase food you remove anything that is in a cardboard box and place the contents in ziplock freezer bags before you put it away. That way, if some of the food does have weevil eggs, the larvae and growing insects can’t escape and get in other food. We have been pretty good but not perfect in following this best practice. Well, with the precipitous increase in weevil sightings we decided that Zack should inspect the food under the settee to see what’s going on. Long story short, a bag of flour we had for a long time and was weevil free was now weevil infested. The ziplock bag we had placed it in had come open — probably due to the pounding our boat takes in heavy seas heading into the wind — and we believe that weevils from boxed pasta that we had not placed in ziplock bags took advantage of the opportunity. Needless to say, while Jill cleaned Zack had fun sorting through our stored food, throwing away the many food items now part of a weevil feeding frenzy, and vacuuming up the weevils who had quite successfully proliferated in the bowels of our boat. What was supposed to be a quick morning chore was not complete until early afternoon. We left Saline Bay (the home of The Ranch Escapade) for the quick trip “around the corner” to Twassannte Bay, home of the Mayreau Beach Club around 1:00 PM and were successfully anchored just 30 minutes later. After 2 days of laundry, cleaning, changing passwords and remediating a weevil infestation we looked forward to enjoying the late afternoon lounging at the pool at the resort and then, after returning to Che Figata for a quick shower, returning for a lovely dinner. It was a great — and much deserved — afternoon and evening.
As much as we love Mayreau, we were anxious to get to Grenada to explore new places so the next day we left for Union Island to anchor in Chatham Bay on the Western side of the island. We spent 3 full days there during our first tour in the Grenadines and enjoyed this beautiful bay with its inviting beach and little development. We arrived around noon and wasted no time to take the short dinghy ride to a dock belonging to a small resort, Tenute Chatham Bay Resort, along the Southern end of the bay. Once on shore we enjoyed a walk to the other end of the long beach and, after returning to Che Figata, Jill took a swim off the back of our boat. The current was strong so she got great exercise by treating the ocean like a counter-current lap pool, never allowing herself to get too far from the back of the boat. All in all not a bad day! The added bonus was that, after a hiatus from running and with little training, our daughter finished the Brooklyn Half marathon and, in the words of her partner who ran with her, she “crushed it.” She was in high spirits — and, as the saying goes, you are only as happy as your unhappiest child — so that made us very happy, adding to the feeling of joy that enveloped us that first day on Union Island.
Unfortunately, our rest from the unexpected and unpleasant was short lived. We had noticed that our forward head (or toilet for those not familiar with the term) was filling with water. It would be empty when we went to bed but filled with water from the holding tank (which, as you might imagine, is not exactly clean water) by the morning. Jill had a daily job cleaning the stained toilet, a very unpleasant job. You may wonder why Jill had to do that. Well, Jill got elected for that task during a meeting of the Che Figata crew because Zack got elected for an even more unpleasant task — replacing the joker valve that keeps the waste in the holding tank from coming back up into the toilet. (Our apologies if this is too much information but this is our life and you get a glimpse of it all — the good, the bad and the really disgusting!). He decided that our second day on Union Island was the day to embrace his assignment and fix the problem. Unfortunately, what is ALWAYS a very nasty task was even more nasty than usual because the hose between the joker valve and the holding tank wasn’t flushed through sufficiently causing quite the leak when Zack removed the joker valve. We will leave you to your imagination and simply say if you are imagining a sewage backup in your own bathroom pouring out of the toilet and onto the floor you pretty much have it right. The joker valve replacement turned into an epic cleaning job that Zack took care of. Jill was like the surgical assistant handing him paper towel, cleaning liquid, plastic bags and a flash light.
Jill decided that Zack’s yeoman’s service deserved another resort dinner, inclusive of exotic cocktails, so we decided to have dinner at Tenute Chatham Bay Resort. Besides, during our first night in Chatham Bay when we ate aboard Che Figata, we noticed that there was no one there. While we tend to gravitate towards the restaurants on the beach owned by locals, Tenute Chatham Bay Resort (part of an Italian resort group) is a lovely “small footprint” kind of place — very eco friendly and the kind of place you want to survive. We ended up having a really great meal under the palm leaf covered pavilion. Jill’s pumpkin soup made with coconut cream and Zack’s conch fritters were particularly tasty! We’d go back just for those two dishes. At the end of the evening the owner, Antonio, came out to thank us — were we the only diners in the restaurant other than one resort guest dining alone. It was interesting to hear his perspective on the “local” business vs. his resort. While he chose his words somewhat carefully, he pointed out the environmentally sustainable practices he employs vs. those used by the local proprietors and how he supports a broader cross section of the local population due the the needs of running a resort, albeit a very small one. At any rate, it wasn’t a perspective we had really thought about and it made us realize that whether you support “local” or businesses owned by foreigners isn’t the black and white proposition we had really thought it was. Anyway, it was a lovely evening all around and we were glad we decided to dine with them.
Sadly, the next day it was time to say goodbye to the Grenadines so we could spend a few weeks in Grenada before heading to Trinidad. Grenada is legendary among sailors and we were anxious to experience it for ourselves. So we motored over to Clifton on Union Island to clear out of customs. The feature photo for this blog entry is the entrance to the dinghy dock in Clifton. The check out process in the Grenadines is relatively simply — though nothing compares to the French Islands (we still can’t get over that!) — and before noon we were on our way to Carriacou Island, part of the chain of islands that make up Grenada and our check in spot. It was a short hop of just 11 nautical miles so we arrive early afternoon. By 3:00 PM we had cleared customs and immigrations and after checking out the local grocery store (not much to write home about), we returned to Che Figata to enjoy an evening on the boat. We plan to head to Trinidad around June 10 so we will likely publish our next blog entry after we arrive safely in Trinidad, our final destination for this season.
1 Comment
Denis Lufkin · May 24, 2022 at 5:00 pm
Driver: Simon – Carriacou
(473) 404-3235
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