Home From the Carribean Part 1

The West Indies

Our Crew: Mark (Skipper) Jaques (Cabin Boy- hee hee hee-actually also a skipper) Karin, Joan, Scott, Elizabeth, Zoe, Cliff, Alissa, Michael & James. So nine adults. When we left Jaques' family came aboard and they had a total of 14!

Our Route: (To the best of my recollection!)Flew into St. Vincent where we picked up the boat, got provisions ( Veggies and fruits from the crazy local market where we were glad we had a guide who knew what things were and what they should cost!) From St. Vincent we island hopped all the way down to Grenada-

St.Vincent, 1 night- near Kingstown

Bequia, 3 nights- 2 at Admiralty Bay, 1 at Friendship Bay
Mustique, 1 night- This is a private island developed for the rich and famous- rather a strange place to visit because of this.

Canouan, 1 night- Where we found our geocache

Mayreau, 1 night- Salt Whistle Bay
Tabago Cays, 2 nights- Fabulous snorkeling
Petite St.Vincent, 1 night- had a great breakfast on Petite Martinique. The restaurant sent a boat taxi to our anchorage by Petite St. Vincent.
Carriacou, 2 nights-Hillsborough
Sandy Island, 1 (rolly wavy)night

Grenada, 3 nights- Prickly Bay

We had a great trip to the West Indies. This is part 1 because Michael will be posting some of his photos once he gets them scanned. He had a great time shooting with his medium format camera and got some neat black and whites. I on the other hand had my little digital which suits me just fine. We discover (thankfully) that neither of us seems too prone to sea sickness, and that sailing puts James to sleep. One of the highlights was the Tabago Cays where Alissa got to go snorkeling with Sea Turtles, and we saw Iguanas on one of the islands! On the island of Carriacou we went on a tour with a guide who was very knowledgeable about the plants and animals on the island. He told us their native cure for Asthma: Pour coconut milk into a glass. Catch a lizard from a tree (not the ground, as they will be too small) Drop the lizard into the cup and let it struggle for its life for about 10 minutes. Remove the lizard and let it go. Drink the Coconut milk. He says the lizard releases adrenaline into the milk. We dubbed this the lizard torture cure. On Grenada the people were friendly and we got to see a waterfall, a crater lake, and a rum distillery where they rum is made much the same way it was made 300 years ago- very neat.

PHOTOS Here are a few, if you'd like to see more click here.

James dries off with his aunt Zo Zo after his first time going swimming in his life jacket. This is Admiralty Bay off of Bequia- we could swim to the beach from our boat.

Mark and Karin in the Double Down's cockpit. This catamaran's owners live in Nevada, so on the back of the boat they had painted their home port as Las Vegas, NV- not sure how the Cat sailed here from the sandy deserts.

James and Michael on Jamesby Island in the Tabago Cays. The island you see in the background is the one where they filmed the deserted island scene in Pirates of the Carribean. We got to go explore it too, and found a ton of hermit crabs feasting on coconuts.

Alissa on Jamesby island- this was just a tiny island that we took our dinghy to from the boat. We saw Iguanas lounging in the rocks here, and hiked to the top for a great view of the surrounding islands and reefs. On our tour of Canouan we visited the Hospital for this view. The cannons were put there in the '40s simply for decoration, though there was at one point a fort on a different part of the island. The Hospital is way up here because it was originally built during a Malaria out break and this way the patients could be easily quaratined.

Beach bum bum!

Going home- I think we were all as tired as James, just didn't have laps to crash on.