Month: March 2017

FIELD TRIP!!!!

It was also on Bequia that we went on our first “field trip” while homeschooling.  Until that day, school consisted of textbooks, work sheets and journals.  Math and Language Arts was all pretty straight forward from work books and just about all I could manage as I tried to figure out this home schooling thing.  Teaching two grades, three levels apart with two kids, one who can barely read (and so is extremely dependent) is difficult!  What makes it even more confusing is the change to the BC curriculum which switched topics from one grade level to another so I’m not sure what the kids have covered and what they haven’t.  What I do know is that they still have to do Math, grammar, spelling, vocabulary, journal, reading and comprehension, every day.  So, basically, I would pile all seven of those books up for each kid and every day, with me explaining each lesson before they started, they would have to get through the pile…BORING!!!

So, when we went to shore and this truck pulled up and we told the kids that an island tour from the back of a pick up truck was going to be school for the day, the kids got pretty excited.

Our first stop was a history lesson – an old fort.  It was here that we first learned about the unsettled past of the English and French in the Caribbean.  What was particularly interesting about this fort was that most of the cannons had the English coat of arms on them but one of the cannons had a fleur de lys on it demonstrating the fort had been held at least once by the English and once by the French.

Our next stop was a social sciences lesson.  There is a lovely beach on the windward side of Bequia where the landscape is largely shaped by wind and waves.  This fit nicely into the Grade 4 curriculum on landforms and erosion (not to mention the bonus lessons on boat building, fishing and whaling).

Our last stop was for a lesson in environmental biology – The Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary.  http://turtles.bequia.net. The kids learned about the endangered hawksbill turtle and how human behaviours threaten their existence.

This one day, which could hardly be considered ‘school’ is exactly the kind of learning we had hoped this adventure would bring for the kids.  Bring on the next field trip!

Thank you beautiful Bequia for such a memorable visit!

All of our sails to date had been relatively short – eight hours or less, and most of the rest of the sails that we are going to do are also going to be about the same.  This makes it easy enough to haul up anchor at 7:00 a.m. and be at our next “port of call” before dark and actually dropping anchor while there is still enough light to find the nice sandy patches (which our anchor likes).  This next jump from Bequia to St. Lucia, however, was going to be a biggie for us – seventeen hours and two channels of open ocean.  That meant leaving at night…into open ocean…in the dark…which we had never done before.  We had been anticipating this particular sail for months.

If I had have written this post while the feelings were raw, you would probably have seen my salty tears on the screen.  There won’t be any photos in this post!

So, apparently in the Caribbean there is something called the “Christmas winds”.  These are high-pressure systems which often build to the northeast of the Caribbean.  If these systems become strong, they can generate brisk sustained winds of 20-25 or even 25-30 knots (up to 54 km/hr with gusts even higher) and they can last for weeks.

Christmas winds are no problem if you are in an anchorage with good holding and you aren’t in a rush to get anywhere.  The problem was that we were already feeling like we were at the back of the pack since most of our buddy boats had left Grenada to go north a month before we did.  Also, we wanted to get to Martinique (two good sailing days away) before Christmas so we could do a little Christmas shopping for the kids (we really needed those Christmas pyjamas!!).  Also, my brother and family were supposed to visit us January 2nd (less than a month away) in either St. Lucia or Martinique and we couldn’t even tell them where to book flights to.

We arrived in Bequia on December 1st with plenty of time to get to Martinique for Christmas.  Originally, we had wanted to be in lovely Marigot Bay, St. Lucia on a mooring ball enjoying all of the lovely amenities of the Capella Marigot Bay Resort and Marina (www.capellamarigotbay.com)  on December 5th, my Dad’s birthday.  Well, that date came and went with no break in the weather so we scratched that idea.  Instead, we ended up going out for dinner with Higgins and Neverland and we raised a glass to Dad in the company of good friends – equally special.   As we were enjoying our time with our boat buddies, we were all checking weather forecasts daily to see when these winds would let up.  Since we were fairly comfortable with our anchor holding, for the first week we endured these Christmas winds and all was fine.  As time went on, for various reasons, one by one these boats started leaving even though the wind was still strong and squally (but maybe slightly more favourable).  We found out later that everyone who left before us had not very comfortable sails.  Regardless, by now we were approaching mid-December and every time one of those boats left, Neil and I started second guessing ourselves, “Should we have gone too?  Is this the last weather window we will have to get to Martinique before Christmas?!!  How long are these winds going to last?  Are we going to be stuck in Bequia until Christmas or later?  Where should we tell my brother to book his flight?!!”.

I’ve always known Neil is a fair weather sailor (that’s why I could agree to come sailing with him) but it turns out I am fairer that a fair weather sailor.  Okay let’s call a spade a spade – I’m not a sailor, I’m more of a chicken.  I’m pretty sure that happened sometime after the kids were born.  Anyway, every night we would check the weather and every night we would have the discussion as to whether or not we should leave.  Then after an emotional discussion we’d try to sleep but the wind would howl and we would wonder if the anchor was dragging.  It is hard to get a good night’s sleep when there is a large wall of rocks that you may or may not get acquainted with in the middle of the night.  The wind was relentless, the pressure was building and emotions were high.

Finally, after over two weeks of waiting, a mediocre weather window presented itself and we decided to take it.  Oddly enough, when I woke up that morning at 3am in the dark of night, instead of my tummy being in a knot and the theme song for Gilligan’s Island popping into my head, which is usually the case, I was quite excited about this next passage.

Under the cover of darkness, we pulled up anchor at about 3am.  Although it was dark, the light of the full moon gave us enough light to be able to see what we were doing.  It was actually quite pretty.  I can’t remember our sail configuration but knowing us, there were probably two reefs in the main and not a full jib.  The short passage between Bequia and St. Vincent, which was supposed to have 6-8 foot seas, was surprisingly comfortable.  As dawn began to break, the new light gave us a sense of security and we shook out the reefs in the main and jib increasing our speed to 9+ knots. It was short lived however as the lee of St. Vincent was nice and flat with little wind however, so we ended up having to motor sail.  As the sun rose over the mountains of St. Vincent and we witnessed it’s stunning beauty we were saddened that we couldn’t stop because of the potential for violence against cruisers.  We wondered if this potential was real or perceived after one unfortunate incident but after even local Vincentians who we met in Bequia told us it was unsafe to visit, we decided it wasn’t worth the risk.

The next open ocean passage, between St. Vincent and St. Lucia, was a longer one but only about five hours.  It was a great sail, we ended up reaching 9.8 knots in about 6-8 foot seas, our fastest speed yet, and it was actually fun!  We had planned to overnight in the Pitons in the south of St. Lucia but we ended up making such good time and the weather was favourable that we decided to plod on to the northern tip of St. Lucia.  As many had before us, we ended up just taking photos of the Pitons as we sailed past and will plan to stop to visit on our way back down.  That made for an easy jump to Martinique.  Boy were we happy to drop anchor that night with that sail under our belts.  It was one that we had been anticipating since Grenada.

Okay, just a couple of photos…

The second reason that Bequia stands out so much in our minds and hearts is that this is where we reunited with but also said our final goodbyes to several of our good boat buddies.

Grenada wasn’t that far behind us, only a couple of weeks or so.  We had spent five whole months there getting to know many other boating families.  One of these families the kids were particularly close to – “Higgins”.  You have met them before in previous blogs.  Milly was Millie’s English twin, born only three months apart.  Together they were affectionately known around the cruising community as ‘The Millies’ and later, in the production Alice in Wonderland, as Tweedledee and Tweedledum.  They were inseparable.

Milly had a brother named Ollie who Nathan also clicked with right away.  They were tight as thieves, chit chatting about various things, enjoying Pokemon and Terreria together and doing other nine year old boy stuff.  We were all surprised and flattered when we found out that Ollie’s birthday wish was to have a sleep over on Trismic with Nathan.  How sweet.  So, Nathan had his first ever sleep over, onboard with his buddy Ollie (of course it wasn’t long before “The Millies” had to have their first ever sleep over, also aboard Trismic).  The best part was that Neil and I (and the kids) also got along well with both parents and their eldest son Will.  It isn’t often that everybody in the families click so well (although I have to say that in the cruising community it happens fairly regularly)!

Anyway, you get the idea, it was five months of full on fun for the Higgins/Trismic crew.  By December it was time to leave Grenada but Higgins had some boat work to do so we took off before them knowing we could catch up eventually.  Well, Bequia was the place we finally caught up.  The kids (and Neil and I) had been watching every boat that entered the bay – could that be Higgins?!!  It was a happy reunion when we finally heard their voices on the VHF radio.  The sad part was that it only lasted about a week or so because they had to get to Antigua by December 21 to catch a flight home for Christmas.  So, not knowing if we would ever catch up again, we had to say goodbye.  It was so sad to see the kids saying goodbye to such close friends who live half the world away, not knowing if that was the last time they would ever see them.  Until today, we have not caught up, they are always a few islands ahead, but I have a feeling our paths will cross again somewhere, someday.

Also in Bequia, we ran into another kid boat, Neverland, who we only met briefly in Grenada.  They were new to living aboard as well so it was really fun to get to know them and share funny stories about trying to figure out how to exist on a boat.  They also left before us but we knew we could catch up to  them in Martinique.

So, one of the really tough things about cruising is that everyone is always moving around on their own schedule so you have to constantly say goodbye to people.  The flip side, though, is that every time a boat family leaves, another one shows up.  Luckily this was the cast in Bequia.  I’m pretty sure it was the same day or the day after Higgins and Neverland left, we were reunited with two other kid boats from Grenada, Keltia and Mango.  Also, right around that time we met a new kid boat, Flip Flops.   All are super fun families and provided a much needed distraction from our missing the friends who had just left.  We managed to keep up with this new group of families for a while, you’ll probably hear more about them in future posts.

For every goodbye there is a hello and for every hello there is a goodbye.    Sometimes it happens so fast we don’t even know what hit us and sometimes, if our schedules jive, we get to spend several weeks together discovering new and interesting places.  Every new family brings a new and interesting experience and we learn so much from each and every boat we meet.  We are thankful for those we have met and we look forward to meeting many other wonderful cruising families along the way.

The boys fishing (Trismic, Higgins and Neverland).  The girls are off somewhere petting kittens and the parents are having a drink at the beach bar and catching up on internet.

I dedicate four whole blog posts to this stop because emotionally it was significant for several reasons which I will get to shortly.  Bequia – Part 1 is the first.  It is hard to bring myself back there because it was so long ago, before Christmas in fact, sometime in early December.

As far as cruising grounds go, St. Vincent and the Grenadines was not a new one for Neil and me.  About twelve years ago Neil and I had chartered a boat here for a month so the islands and waters felt very familiar to us.  The last time we were here we were young(er), kid-less and carefree.  During our spare time we befriended two locals.  ‘Skipper’, a boat boy on Union Island (see photo on a previous post) and  Noel, a craftsman on Bequia.  Since we had been so lucky to have run into Skipper again, we were holding out hope that we might also find Noel, all these years later, when we reached Bequia.  But, would we recognise him?  Would he remember us?  Luckily, we had a photo with us of him, twelve years ago, chilling on our chartered boat when we gave him a ride from Bequia to St. Vincent.

On our first day on shore we set out to look for him.  Well, we weren’t on shore more than ten minutes before we saw what we thought was a familiar face and as soon as I introduced myself and saw his big genuine smile, I knew it was him.  After a few stories to jog his memory, he remember us (I don’t think it is every day that a local catches a ride to another island with ‘yachties’).  He was keen to meet our kids and we enjoyed hearing about his family as well.

Nathan and he hit it off right off the bat when they started talking about, you guessed it, fishing.  Since Noel was an avid fisherman too, he offered to take Nathan out (in our dinghy) one afternoon to where the locals catch fish.  Nathan was elated so we took him up on the offer.    We invited Noel over for dinner that night for “the catch of the day”…or chicken if there was no catch.  When they got back, they were both so excited.  With the number of fish they caught that afternoon, each trying to outdo the other, we weren’t going to be having chicken!  As we feasted on the day’s catch, Noel continued to fish off the back transom.  He pulled in two other biggies!  It was too much for us to eat so he took a nice one home to his family (who were in St. Vincent so unable join us).

Although it had been many years since our last meeting, Noel was never far from our minds because  since twelve years ago until the day we packed up our house, Noel’s wooden carved mask had been hung on our dining room wall.  Also, Neil had bought a bracelet from him all those years ago which had only fallen off about a week before our return to Bequia.  Some things must just be meant to be.

These guys are having way too much fun!!!

Fishing buddies – These guys are having way too much fun!!!