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Plans changed again

by steve, on April 24th, 2009 (Bequia, Canouan, Mayreau, Mustique, Tobago Cays, Union)

New itinerary for next week or two :

1. Round corner to Friendship Bay via Petit Nevis
2. Mustique
3. World’s End Reef, Tobago Cays
4. Canouan
5. Mayreau
6. Union Island


View Grenadines plan in a larger map

Category: Bequia, Canouan, Mayreau, Mustique, Tobago Cays, Union | Here is my comment

Crazy Day

by steve, on April 23rd, 2009 (Bequia)

The morning went well. Helen wasn’t up for a dive so I invited Anne and Jim to use the Hookah. In the end Anne came snorkeling and Jim came down on the Hookah with me (don’t laugh). We dove for about an hour and saw quite a few eels, lobsters and many, many fish. Great dive.

This afternoon I went ashore to get our dive tanks refilled ready for the reefs ahead. On the way back I noticed 2 of the 3 strands of our bridle holding the anchor had snapped. Turns out we hadn’t given enough slack on the chain so when the wind blew and the rope stretched the chain came up and the shackle rubbed the bridle. Good job I spotted it. In the process of switching it out for a dock line I laid my hat and sunglasses down and before long they blew in the water. I kept an eye on them while I emptied my pockets and Helen fetched my mask. Just before reaching the stern they sank and disappeared. I expected them to show off the stern but I never saw them again. I dove in and searched for a tan hat over similar coloured rocks and sand with my mask steaming up. Never found them.

So back into town to obtain a replacement bridle. This was a job I meant to do anyway as I reckon the one we had was a bit too short. Bequia is probably not the cheapest place to do this job but it was forced on us. While it was being prepared Helen and I went for a walk but the road we took was a bit naff.

Plenty of lessons learned on this one. Fortunately nothing so nasty as an adrift boat was involved but I’m a bit annoyed with myself for losing my hat and sunglasses.

Category: Bequia | Here is my comment

Playing with the Hookah

by steve, on April 22nd, 2009 (Bees Knees, Bequia)

Another ‘busy’ day today. This morning I researched options for haulout in Grenada and Trinidad as we’ll need to get Dignity’s bottom repainted at some time and summer seems the best time for it. The paints doing ok but there are a lot of whit spots from the last barnacle removal effort. Each time there are more and I suspect it’ll go exponential sometime in the next 6-9 months. Best to get the work done when we’re stuck somewhere and now is a good time to find out where to go and book things up.

We also managed to go out for a Hookah dive. This morning it was prep for Helen so we could make sure she had the right weights and felt accustomed to using the equipment. The Hookah was left on the boat while we ran the hose overboard and swam around in the water behind the boat. All went well until Helen spotted a translucent eel which made her feel all wobbly.

This afternoon we went over to a nearby dive spot with all the gear loaded in the dinghy and went out there. Helen has been suffering from nausea when snorkeling and diving and is bit by bit pushing the envelope on what she can manage. Today was a big milestone – she did well and had fun doing so (except for the weird eel).

This evening we’re eating ashore with Anne and Jim. We’re meeting up at the Green Boley which sells the cheapest drinks we could find. There we’ll decide where to go next. Right now it’s a toss up between the Mexican restaurant (with no Mexicans) and Cocos – a medium priced creole restaurant. Anne and Jim have invited another couple they met in Venezuela last year. It’s always great to meet new people. We can also learn a bit from them about our haul out options in Trinidad and Grenada.

Category: Bees Knees, Bequia | Here is my comment

Slow Day in Bequia

by steve, on April 21st, 2009 (Bees Knees, Bequia)

Most of today has been slow going – and nice it has been too. I made up a few more lures with my new leader including an ‘unbeatable’ lure with three separate pink squids on it. We’ve got to score next time.

I went out once in the morning to refuel the dinghy, buy some grease and pickup the refilled propane tank I dropped off in town yesterday.

Feeling that our internet connection was too flakey we moved the boat around noon. Our first spot proved to have poor holding with the anchor slipping about 40ft. Our second spot was better holding and much better internet reception. We are now back to downloading some of the series we’re catching up on.

This afternoon we went for a walk along the shore round to Fort Hamilton on the other side of the bay. The fort itself was almost non-existent but the view of the bay was worth the effort. We did a little window shopping along the way and on the way back were lured into the bakery cooking fresh bread. We also picked up a reasonably cheap union jack flag which we’ll hang from our port spreader when we get round to it.

Before heading back to our respective boats we had a quick beer at the Waleboner Bar where they had stools made from whale vertebrae.

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Category: Bees Knees, Bequia | Here is my comment

Turtles in Bequia

by steve, on April 20th, 2009 (Bees Knees, Bequia, Cat Tales, Windancer IV)

Dignity is now looking nice and clean after yesterday’s downpour. Yesterday evening was uneventful. We stayed on the boat and went to bed early. It’s warmer and more humid here than further north and that is making things a little uncomfortable. Perhaps this is a teaser for summer to come.

This morning I set off into ‘town’ to check in. I was the first one in at 8:30am and by the time I had completed the paperwork there were quite a few others behind me. Good thing I went in early. I picked up some fresh out of the oven bread and headed back to the boat.

Back on the boat I managed to Skype with John on Windancer IV who expects to be in Bequia by the weekend. No doubt we’ll bump into each other fairly soon. In a week or so he has to go back to Canada for 2-3 weeks and has asked us to keep in touch with his family. We’ll be delighted to help out as we’ll never be far apart.

We made plans with Bees Knees to rendezvous ashore to go for a walk. Helen and I went back into to town to wander around while we waited for Jim and Anne to sort things out, come ashore and check in too. I found a shop selling fishing tackle. I bought some multi strand leader to replace the stuff that’s been coming in without lures on the end. He thought it could easily be something like a kingfish chomping through my wire leader and thought the multi-strand was a good idea. I also bought a replacement lure to make up for my last loss.

Having wandered around some more we hadn’t heard from Bees Knees. I checked my handheld VHF and found the squelch too high. I lowered the setting and tried hailing them only to discover my battery was practically flat. I borrowed the port captain’s radio and still had no luck. Figuring they were adults and would work out what to do, Helen and I headed off to the Atlantic side of the island to find the turtle sanctuary. It was about 3 miles walk about in the heat. By now we were walking in the midday sun which is not the best of ideas. Nevertheless we got there and were able to see many turtles that were being reared from eggs til the age of five and a half and being released into the wild. The sanctuary also had some red legged tortoises for variety.

(Postnote: On our way back we passed by a party of cruisers heading out the way we came. Turned our two of these were Laurie and Dawn from Cat Tales whom we’d often heard on the morning net/VHF and got to know in May when we met them in Union Island.)

Back in town we treated ourselves to ice cream after our hot walk. We made one further trip into town to drop off our empty propane tank which we’ll pick up tomorrow. Back on the boat I have started replacing the leaders on the lures I have. In my Skype chat with John I learned all their success was on pink plastic squids and hand lines. Turns out I have some of those so I’m making one of those up too. Maybe I should get one of those things that allows you to put out two lures on one line. Hmmm.

Tonight we’re off to Bees Knees for dinner. They have bought some fresh fish and are sharing with us. Helen says we could be living of fish for weeks with all I’ve spent on the gear but that’s not the point is it?

Category: Bees Knees, Bequia, Cat Tales, Windancer IV | One reader has left a comment, here is mine
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