A Close Encounter

Lionfish

are beautiful in aquariums but are spreading like a Colorado wildfire through the Caribbean waters. It is thought that a few escaped when aquariums were flooded out during hurricane Andrew and have been working their way through the islands ever since.

Despite some well publicized attempts to eradicate them the hungry and randy critters are outbreeding the hunters, but you gotta try. So when a guest diver thought he spotted a lionfish the locals rounded up a posse, me included, and we set off to the 'secret' dive site and went hunting lions.

Well I saw no lions but my heart rate went up when this guy put in an appearance. He was fairly persistent and although not very large, really got my attention. I suspect that one of the dive operations may have been feeding him. I thought he was a blue reef shark but not so as they are not seen in this area so another mystery. Anyway nobody saw any lionfish but it was a nice day out on and in the water for us all.

Somebody else having a nice day out on the water were these kids sailing the snot out of one of the local double ended boats that have been acquired by the Bequia sail training operation. With no keel weight and no ballast these things are tippy but the kids were dealing really well with the gusty and strong winds in the harbour. The second pic taken through my dodger shows them out on the trapeze and playing the main sheet.

Shoestring Cruising on a Catamaran

Not all cruisers go the deluxe route. Here is a catamaran with most of the necessities, sail, auxiliiary motor with spare, water, compass, tender, dual helm positions, PFDs doing dual duty as fenders. I am still not sure where it came from or is going to.

A Caribbean customs momemnt.

Hurricane Tomas had barely left its trail of devastation and destruction on the island on October 31, 2010, when the St Lucia Association of Georgia in the USA sprung into action. A 20 ft. container of nonperishable items estimated at US$7000.00 was organized . St Lucia Express Freight Services Inc based in Miami, agreed to ship the container from Atlanta to St Lucia But you can guess what happened next. Some Jobsworth refused to clear it through customs. Lionfish

are beautiful in aquariums but are spreading like a Colorado wildfire through the Caribbean waters. It is thought that a few escaped when aquariums were flooded out during hurricane Andrew and have been working their way through the islands ever since. Despite some well publicized attempts to eradicate them the randy critters are outbreeding the hunters, but you gotta try. So when a guest diver thought he spotted a lionfish the locals rounded up a posse, me included, and we set off to the 'secret' dive site and went hunting lions.

Well I saw no lions but my heart rate went up when this guy put in an appearance. He was fairly persistent and although not very large, really got my attention. I suspect that one of the dive operations may have been feeding him. I thought he was a blue reef shark but not so as they are not seen in this area so another mystery. Anyway nobody saw any lionfish but it was a nice day out on and in the water for us all.

Somebody else having a nice day out on the water were these kids sailing the snot out of one of the local double ended boats that have been acquired by the Bequia sail training operation. With no keel weight and no ballast these things are tippy but the kids were dealing really well with the gusty and strong winds in the harbour. The second pic taken through my dodger shows them out on the trapeze and playing the main sheet.



Not all cruisers go the deluxe route. Here is a catamaran with most of the necessities, sail, auxiliiary motor with spare, water, compass, tender, dual helm positions, PFDs doing dual duty as fenders. I am still not sure where it came from or is going to.

A Caribbean customs momemnt.

Hurricane Tomas had barely left its trail of devastation and destruction on the island on October 31, 2010, when the St Lucia Association of Georgia in the USA sprung into action. A 20 ft. container of nonperishable items estimated at US$7000.00 was organized . St Lucia Express Freight Services Inc based in Miami, agreed to ship the container from Atlanta to St Lucia But you can guess what happened next. Some Jobsworth refused to clear it through customs. After a year in detention the container was released to its owner and the donated items never reached their intended target, St Lucians who were in need after a major hurricane.Lionfish

are beautiful in aquariums but are spreading like a Colorado wildfire through the Caribbean waters. It is thought that a few escaped when aquariums were flooded out during hurricane Andrew and have been working their way through the islands ever since. Despite some well publicized attempts to eradicate them the randy critters are outbreeding the hunters, but you gotta try. So when a guest diver thought he spotted a lionfish the locals rounded up a posse, me included, and we set off to the 'secret' dive site and went hunting lions.

Well I saw no lions but my heart rate went up when this guy put in an appearance. He was fairly persistent and although not very large, really got my attention. I suspect that one of the dive operations may have been feeding him. I thought he was a blue reef shark but not so as they are not seen in this area so another mystery. Anyway nobody saw any lionfish but it was a nice day out on and in the water for us all.

Somebody else having a nice day out on the water were these kids sailing the snot out of one of the local double ended boats that have been acquired by the Bequia sail training operation. With no keel weight and no ballast these things are tippy but the kids were dealing really well with the gusty and strong winds in the harbour. The second pic taken through my dodger shows them out on the trapeze and playing the main sheet.



Not all cruisers go the deluxe route. Here is a catamaran with most of the necessities, sail, auxiliiary motor with spare, water, compass, tender, dual helm positions, PFDs doing dual duty as fenders. I am still not sure where it came from or is going to.

A Caribbean customs momemnt.

Hurricane Tomas had barely left its trail of devastation and destruction on the island on October 31, 2010, when the St Lucia Association of Georgia in the USA sprung into action. A 20 ft. container of nonperishable items estimated at US$7000.00 was organized . St Lucia Express Freight Services Inc based in Miami, agreed to ship the container from Atlanta to St Lucia But you can guess what happened next. Some Jobsworth refused to clear it through customs. After a year in detention the container was released to its owner and the donated items never reached their intended target, St Lucians who were in need after a major hurricane.

After a year in detention the container was eventually released but the donated items never reached their intended target, St Lucians who were in need after a major hurricane.

Swimming Sailing Diving Carnival Bugs and Breakages

The Heritage falls at Walilabou are an ideal opportunity to really get the salt out of my hair.

But Bequia gives a chance to watch the local kids sailing. Up until now I have seen them in Oppies and Lazers with the odd outing in a J24 but I was realy pleased to see that the sail training organisation has acquired 2 of the iconic ' two bow ' boats that were used for fishing and local transportation but are now raced. There is no keel and no ballast, the only thing that keeps them upright is crew weight correctly placed.

Much of the local fishing is done using live bait. This is sometimes kept in a net suspended between a couple of boats anchored in the bay. Boobies are no boobies and they know an easy lunch when they find it.

Mud dauber wasps are always on the look out for nooks and crannies for their nests, but we had a very strange build job on one of the solar panel junction boxes. The wasps somehow built a spike about 29mm long and less than 0.5mm in dia. They then constructed a ball of mud on the end. I could find nothing like this on the net.

Last but not least the Friendship Rose is out of commission with a broken main mast. They have ordered new masts of Douglas Fir from Scotland and shipwrights are working on the cross trees and other mast furniture on the beach under the shade of palms.

















It is Carnival and the Juve parade was held starting at dawn on Monday. I give this parade a miss as local ladies delight in teaching old white men to dance in particular to "wine". This consists of a couple leaning against each other, with rhythmic gyrating and grinding. Another reason for skipping Juve is the custom of throwing buckets of mud all over each other, painting everyone with big paint brushes, and generally having a wild time. Been there done that. In past years the young men would cover themselves with old engine oil and run through the crowds, having a really dirty time. The childrens Carnival has parades and costumes of sequins, feathers, and bright colors which attract an enthusiastic audience. They dance along, doing their own thing, or mimicking the adult groups they have seen. The principal of one of the local schools made headlines by insisting that in their school group, there could be chipping, or dancing, but absolutely "no wining" would be allowed.

Marigot Bay in St Lucia has changed since I visited in the 90s, then the round house was almost alone on the southern arm of the bay. Now it is only one of many impressive and doubtless expensive mansions. Also the number of bars and restaurants around the waters edge has grown, doubling at least. However when Sandy and I visited recently things were quiet and very few faces were seen even at happy hour times. The Yacht Club was shut and the Rainbow was touting hard but looking empty and forlorn with a tiny jazz band playing for their own amusement as there were no customers. But Marigot Bay was generally looking tidy, upmarket and prosperous albeit sparsely populated with paying customers.

Wallilabou in St Vincent was our next stop, it is not too dissimilar to Marigot Bay in layout although as an anchorage it does demand a stern line ashore. Like Marigot bay the paying customers are few and far between. However the contrast ashore is great, no expensive houses, no gourmet supermarkets, no manicured plantings outside well maintained and air conditioned government offices. Here there are occasional well built and maintained houses amidst many ramshackle unpainted concrete block dwellings. There is a rum shop but little food on offer. The Anchorage Hotel does manage to sell a few beers and meals if there is a hungry charter boat crew in but you get the feeling they are hanging on by their fingertips.

All a sign of the downturn in tourism I suppose.

Still it meant that we had the waterfall to ourselves when we visited and the decaying film set for Pirates of the Caribbean was almost deserted when we looked around it. The decay has reached the point where there are calls from some who think Disney should come in and pay for repairs. If that happens “Laissez le bon temps roulez!” say the locals thinking back to the days Disney money flowed freely as Capn Jack Sparrow AKA Johnny Depp strutted along the waterfront.

Amidst this decay and almost next to the dusty hot customs office was this room.

Stored there were many dust covered bakelite telephones,

relics of a bygone telecommunications era. Now this was a building that would have seen action during the filming so what were the phones used for or where had they come from, another Caribbean mystery to think about as a savour my G&T.

It was worth waiting for the swells to subside and the wind to flick to just North of East. The sail down to Wallilabou in St Vincent from Marigot Bay is a long one and the current is against us. This makes the North end of St Vincent a bit of a tide race and wind over tide kicks up some unpleasant seas. But we broad reached down in 8 to 12 knots of wind and only had one unpleasant sea which threw a couple of buckets of water into the cockpit drenching Sandy and I. The customs coverage at Wallilabou is not 100% so I asked Joel the 'Beach Front Service Provider' and Card carrying member of the Anchorage Inn team if customs were on site that evening. He said no as one of their officers had been killed in a shootout with Venezuelan drug smugglers and they were all attending his funeral.

Information is that White and a Police Officer were on patrol off the shores of Clifton in that Grenadine Island. They are said to have encountered a fishing vessel with nine Venezuelans on board. Drama unfolded in swift fashion, and when the tension subsided, three occupants of the vessel were killed, and a fourth injured. The other five occupants were taken into custody.

Not good. “

St Lucia to St Vincent tomorrow.

We are planning an early departure on Sunday for the trip down to Wallilabou in St Vincent.

SOME CRUISING BOATS

Sandy says that the variety of cruising boats that she is seeing around here is much greater than on the West coast of the USA. Here there is fewer Hunters and Catalinas and more steel, ali. and odd ones offs. Looking around in Rodney Bay there are Amels, one Hunter, many Benes an Outremer Catamaran plus a variety of other cats and then we have ;-

Well this is steel and is an odd one off.

A couple live onboard this Wharram Tiki 26

Then you have Richard and Lannie on this beautifully restored and maintained classic Fife built schooner.

We saw this traditional Chinese Junk in Martinique

Finally is there a touch of Macgregor 26X in this?

Rodney Bay St Lucia

As planned we sailed down from Martinique to St Lucia this Sunday. However we had not planned for the "RAID" by the French which meant that we were in a group of about 40 - 50 catamarans and about a dozen mono hulls all heading for St Lucia. To begin with we assumed they were on a local round the cans race but it soon became clear that their destination was the same as ours. I have never sailed in such a big group for so long.

Grande Anse d'Arlet Marin and on to St Lucia

We spent a few days just kicking back in Grande Anse d'Arlet which is one of my all time favourite anchorages. The water is clear and the outlook is one of careful development with no high rises or ticky tacky boxes marring the view.

We had a good snorkel session with some cuttle fish visiting us all organised military fashion by size and in a well ordered line.

The next stop was Marin with it's 500 or so boats, mostly unoocupied, at anchor. Leader Price the French discount store is the attraction with it's low prices and good selection of French foods. Yum Yum.

We

This strange vessel an Aquascope pootled past with it's cargo of two tourists peering through the underwater ports.

will be off down to St Lucia on Sunday if the weather is as forecast. If not well there are worse places to hang out. .