March 2019 - Eastern Caribbean - Windward Islands

March 1 -2, 2019

We had another fun sail 15nm to Bequia from St. Vincent. We went to lunch at Max's Pizzeria and had a tasty tuna and king fish lunch! We had a great walk over to Firefly Plantation. Ezra gave us a nice tour of the plantation. He taught us the names of various plant, shrubs and trees while we sampled the fruit they produced. Chinese wax apples, guava, coconut milk and meat, sugar cane, sea salt, lemon grass, bay leaf and more... After the plantation tour we walked to the Sugar Reef Restaurant on the beach. Half had an amazing mahi on focaccia bread/grilled tomato and carmelized onions. Half had a fish roti with chutney and mango/black bean salsa. We shared wonderful food and great presentation. Of course we couldn't pass up the Lime chiffon pie. Good thing we put in 14,000 steps today.

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| St. Vincent| Bequia Island | Max's Pizzeria

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| St. Vincent| Bequia Island | Firefly Plantation

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| St. Vincent| Bequia Island | Industry Spring Bay

March 3-7, 2019

We had another pleasant sail from Bequia to the Tobago Cays. This is such a pretty spot and has fantastic snorkeing on the reefs surrounding the little islands. Unfortunately Spring Tides and strong winds caused higher water and stronger currents on the reefs. So we settled for snorkeing around and off the turtle island. We decided to move on to Mayreau and snorkel in Saline Bay. The snorkeing here was lovely. Lots of fish and little current. We walked across the island to see the new restaurant. Connie and I hiked up to the church while the boys opted to rest on the beach. We bought a nice big mahi-mahi from a fisherman and had a couple of yummy meals out of it. We sailed back to Bequia for Al's birthday. We enjoyed his birthday dinner at Jacks Restaurant.

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| St. Vincent| Tobago Cays

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| St. Vincent| Mayreau Island|Tuna from fisherman

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| St. Vincent| Mayreau Island|anchorage

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| St. Vincent| Mayreau Island|snorkeling

March 8-09, 2019

We cleared customs in Bequia and had a short sail to Chateaubelair. We had lots of help from boat boys to set anchor in the sand out of the rocks. Great snorkeling on huge boulders right off the boat. It was a rough sail from St. Vincent to St. Lucia. It's always a bit wilder heading north with winds and currents. We hired a taxi and guide and had a beautiful day tour on St. Lucia. We visited the volcano, mud baths, hot springs, waterfalls and a botanical garden. We finished up with another great lunch at Belle Vue and ice cream at the shop by immigration. We bought a 7# Mahi-mahi from a fisherman then sailed up to Marigot Bay for the night. The anchorage was crowded so we went into the lagoon and picked up a mooring. Beautiful sunset...

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| St. Lucia | Soufriere road trip

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| St. Lucia | Soufriere road trip| Hot Springs

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| St. Lucia | Soufriere road trip| Hot Springs waterfall

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| St. Lucia |Soufriere | Belle Vue Restaurant

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| St. Lucia | Soufriere | 7# Mahi-Mahi bought from fisherman

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| St. Lucia | Soufriere | Mahi-mahi

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| St. Lucia | Marigot Bay | lagoon sunset

March 10-11, 2019

We had a tough 6 hour slog sail to St. Anne anchorage on Martinique. We toured St. Anne with Steve and Connie. We took them to the excelled fruit and vegetable market, bought our favorite baguette sandwiches from the bakery and bought another mahi at the fish market to grill.

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| Martinique | St. Anne | fish market -mahi-mahi

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| Martinique | St. Anne | market

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| Martinique | St. Anne | Eglise Notre Dame de Sainte Anne

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| Martinique | St. Anne | Ice cream with a view of anchorage

March 12-13, 2019

We rented a car for a tour of the island. It was a gorgeous day. We first drove through the banana plantations and up the east coast of Martinique. Then we veered off to hit the winding narrow roads that took us up into the mountains and the lush rainforest. It was a fun hike in the rainforest down to Cascade de Saut Gendarme. We didn't swim as we weren't dressed for the occasion. We drove to St. Pierre for lunch and took the scenic highway to Jardin Balata down to Fort de France and back to St. Anne. The gardens were beautiful and we braved the suspension bridges in the canopy for marvelous views of the valley. It was our last night aboard with Connie and Steve. We drove them to the airport and sadly departed as they headed back to Minnesota. It was a great 3 weeks. How time flies when you're busy touristing with fun crew aboard.

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| Martinique | road trip in rainforest

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| Martinique | road trip in rainforest|Cascade de Saut Gendarme

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| Martinique | road trip in rainforest

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| Martinique | road trip in rainforest | St. Pierre village

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| Martinique | Jardin Balata view

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| Martinique | Jardin Balata gorgeous flowers and grounds

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| Martinique | Jardin Balata flowers

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| Martinique | Jardin Balata suspention bridges in canopy

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| Martinique | Jardin Balata suspention bridges view

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| Martinique | Fort de France

Eastern Caribbean |Windward Islands| Martinique | St. Anne anchorage sunset

March 14-31, 2019

Time to rest up after two weeks touristing. "NOT"... It's time to catch up on boat jobs. Let's see first the 15hp dingy motor, then a fraying lower shroud on the main mast, the flag halyard frayed and whole works disappeared into the abyss, then the genset decided to take on water again! We had Chris from Little Ship Chandlery replace the components of the powerhead using an old engine he had. That went well but parts missing in the carburator kit kept it from a continuous gas supply. Too expensive in Caribbean so we'll get it in USA. Meanwhile our mighty 2.2 will have to get us where we want to go. Next we tracked down a rigger in Le Marin and had a new stay made. We will do the rest of the rigging in USA and have it shipped to Grenada. We have an old set of rigging at home to use for measuring and it's twice as expensive in Caribbean to have it done. The genset even after all the preventative alarms to turn on/off seacocks found a new way to take on water. Fortunately it only got to the engine. We took the oil out of it pulled the engine apart to clean it up and wash salt water away. We'll have to finish putting it together when we get a new gasket in Grenada. It's a good thing Al is capeable of fixing and maintaining most things on board. Can't believe all the bad luck we've had onboard lately. We did find time to take a few great hikes out of St. Anne. We went a couple of times with a group of cruisers 8 miles one day and 11 the next. Two other times Al and I hiked to Saline Beach for lunch about 7 miles round trip. Also enjoyed some traditional dancing after mass one Sunday.