Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Chevy meets Blue Pearl

We have been idling in Five Islands, doing chores, reading books, having drinks, swimming and exploring. But mostly, we've been killing time until Chevy gets here... with "My Mommy!"

And so, we arrived at the airport to meet them about 2 hours before they were to arrive... just in case, you know. A flat tire, a traffic jam, who knows.

The flight was early and before too long, we spotted our visitors. So cool!!! Eight weeks without family is too long. Pam was a little teary. Not me, though!

Pre visit - Pam is "Noodling" with buddy boats

Greeting company
We spent our first day with our new crew resting up, acclimatizing, and getting wet. There is a great shell beach right near our anchorage and the recent surge has brought up huge collections of shells. Chevy collected enough shells on her first day to warrant an extra luggage allotment.

Chevy at home on Blue Pearl

Calling dolphins

Looking in on a boaters' evening flotilla
Pam has been "noodling" with folks from the other boats in the harbour. They do an hour of exercise with pool noodles - good for the body and it keeps you nice and cool while you are working out. She skipped out on noodling after Carrie and Chev arrived. We also chose not to get involved in the "dinghy drift" - hooking boat dinghies together along with sundowners and appies in the late afternoon. But we did drive by to have a look and wave our hellos.

Chevy exploring different expressions

Oh, are there any shells here?
Gran supervising shell collecting

Bobbin'

The most amazing thing happened on Wednesday. We had just landed on another shell beach when Chevy found a conch shell... WITH A TREASURE MAP INSIDE!!!


Treasure Beach

What? A treasure map???
Hurry!

Wow! Digging up treasure in Five Islands!!!
We followed the map and Chevy dug up a real treasure with coins, jewellery, marbles and keys. We're not sure what the keys might open.

What a great day!!!

Thursday wasn't as great. Chevy was determined to find another treasure but we couldn't find any. Devastating! Dang!

We sailed up to Deep Bay and anchored for the afternoon. Scrambled up to Fort Barrington... but there are no gift shops or ice-cream stores so our time up there was limited.

On the way back, "My Mommy" said she would like to swim out to Blue Pearl and so, of course, Chevy wanted to engage in that adventure with "My Mommy." So they did! Swam all the way out to the boat. Pam and I had a gin and tonic while we waited for them.

Girl Power

Captain Chevy

Sailin' down the coast of Antigua
Had a couple of fun days in Carlisle Bay. We found a fruit lady on the road and bought papayas and bananas. "Goat Water" for Papa at another place. You can buy a kid's bathing suit at the Carlisle Bay Boutique for $120 US... or you can go to the lady just off the property. So, Chevy ("My Mommy" and Gran) made the lady's day and bought all kinds of treasures for everyone in Chevy's life!

Fixing a broken palm tree in Carlisle Bay
Art Shot
Tubin'

Tubing in Carlisle
We spent our last day in Falmouth Harbour where the mega-yachts live. It was fun to watch them coming and going. And to have lunch in some of the same spots where they spend their time. Hah, what am I saying?! Why would you buy a $10 burger when you could go to another place where it costs $50. Their loss. We had a great time at our restaurant.

Just a 10 dollar burger

Lunching with the yachty crowd in famous Falmouth

Turtle Watch

Going to lunch in English Harbour

Ladies' afternoon

A modest yacht passes our anchorage
We are going home in two weeks so there weren't many tears when we put them on their taxi to the airport. We will be spending lots of time together over the next 8 months before we head south again.

So cool to have our family come visit Blue Pearl while we are down here.

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Limin' and Varnishin'


We are weather morons. We sat in Deshaies - a lovely place in which to sit - waiting for an opportune time to head north. We were in NO HURRY. Loads of time before Carrie and Chevy arrive.

Deshaies

So we spotted a weather window  - one day only - and decide to go. Ominously, as we left, another Canadian boat waved goodbye, and said, "See you in Antigua. We are going tomorrow when the weather is better." We scratched our heads a bit. We thought we had done our research. Well of course, the forecast had changed over night and the next day would have been much better. 

We had a bit of a thrash heading up. We were a bit tight on the wind, making 4.5 knots and our trip would have taken about 10 hours at that speed. So we motor sailed. Made it in 8 hours. 

So now we are here... need to varnish... and that's what we are doing.

New beach pail for Chevy

Varnish Queen

Carlisle Bay Resort

"Flag" owned by Tommy Hilfiger. See the toys?

View from the kitchen window
There is a massive north swell, related to the horrible east coast storm that is taking place so we have hidden out in Carlisle Bay - protected from the waves from the north and most importantly, we have great internet. Even though we aren't getting the brunt of the 3 m waves, we are getting 'induced' waves here in Carlisle. So every now and then we get thrown around a bit.


Shows the big swell from the north
Here we are!
In Jolly Harbour, their anchor dragged got swept ashore in the swell. 
So we are catching up on our reading, doing cross-word puzzles, sudokus and... varnishing!

Ciao!

Friday, March 2, 2018

Basse Terre

I'm behind... bad internet. This should have been posted a week ago.

We had a good ride from Dominca to Basse Terre, Guadeloupe. We were in Basse Terre in 1998 when we chartered a boat out of Point a Pitre but have not been there since.

Basse Terre is the capital of Guadeloupe, and it's second largest city. Point a Pitre is larger and funkier. Basse Terre is functional and business focused. Not to say that it isn't without it's fun attractions. There is a nice - hurricane battered - beach front walkway full of food trucks, benches and trees... tree stumps in many cases. There is an open air market, surrounded by restaurants and bars. A couple of big grocery stores and pharmacies.

It was kind of fun. We walked into town and had a look around, trying to fit our 20 year old memories into the current reality of Basse Terre.

Saw a crazy-ass Rasta Man at the market with no shoes. I've got an old pair of sandals that I was going to throw out so we decided that the next time we came into town we would bring M. Homme de Rasta my old shoes.

We shared a Big Mac at the MacDonalds so we could use their internet and then went out in search of a beer. It has been raining a lot so we were constantly looking for cover.

A boat next to us suffered a medical emergency so we helped a bit speaking to the French (because, of course, I am fluent in French) and helping Brian move the boat into the marina where the ambulance could get involved. A terrible way to meet someone but once Nadi was released from the hospital we enjoyed their company for a couple of visits. She's German, he's English but they were married in LadySmith in Canada, just down the road from where my sister, Donna lives. Small world.

Avoiding a Basse Terre downpour

Bologne Rum sugar cane

Bologne Rum boutique

What else? Bologne Rum

Oh No!!! Broken dinghy davits. Break out the wallet.
When we left I put my worn-out sandals back into the closet. Never saw M. Le Rasta again.

In the wind-shadow of Guadeloupe, we headed up to Deshaies to stage for our last leg to Antigua.

Deshaies, where they film "Death in Paradise," is one of my favorite spots and we had a lovely time shopping at the French groceries and eating baguettes stuffed with ham and cheese.

Busy boat harbour, all staging to go north

Honoré Police Station
It is very blowy... so we are looking for a weather window to head north to Antigua... along with a fleet of other boats.

Later!