Island hopping

I'm currently on Union Island, just arrived. It's the first place with a net cafe in some time. Unfortunately the keyboard sucks so this will be short. And it's a mac....

Anyhow, I've been snorkeling, and it was really cool. Loads of fish, and they weren't scared either. We've also seen turtles, and a stingray. No sharks as of yet (although there was one somewhere near where we anchored apparently). 

We've been to Tobago Cays where we ran into some friends of Tim and Sam that we were meant to meet on St Vincent. 

I'm being distracted by people on msn so I'll have to finish this some other time.

Bequai

I'm now in Bequai. It's a rather small island down below St Vincent which is below St Lucia which is where I started. We skipped St Vincent as the charts listed theft as a problem when it came to yachts. We will be heading there eventually because Tim and Sam aim to meet some friends there. Anyhow, been a while since last post so a few things have happened:

After leaving Marigot bay we ended up heading down the island looking for somewhere to anchor for the night, as we passed one bay a fellow in his boat came out to meet us and offer the use of a mooring boy for the night, we passed on this bay as the navigation system was telling us there was a good anchorage nearby. It was lying to us (first time, and we should have learnt from this as you will see later)! Anyhow, upon finding out about this we headed back to the bay and met the same man. Captain Bob (as he called himself) set us up with a mooring boy, and realised that some kid had come up alongside us in another boat and was trying to get me to look at what he was selling. Now, this is a common thing out here, but normally you can see what they are supplying, this kid didn't seem to have anything, Captain Bob became enraged and chased the boy about the bay yelling at him. Later he explained to us, but I'm not quite sure what he was telling us, it seems that the kid had either been trying to sell me drugs or offer me a job...

Captain Bob set us up with a tour guide and we got to visit various waterfalls, a botanical garden (where we tried coconut and a golden apple) and a volcano. Not much else happened and we sailed on down the coast to another bay which looked good, the charts indicated it would be safe to sail in. Wrong! We ran aground! So there we were, the keel stuck, being lifted ever so slightly on the waves and hearing the crunching sound everytime we went down the waves. Now luckily for us there was a French yacht in this bay, the captain of this yacht was on the beach, and he jumped into his dingy and headed out our way to help us get unstuck. A lot of reversing and being pushed by him helped us get back out and then we were guided inwards by him to a safe area. The navigation system and it's electronic charts had been wrong again. Anyhow, the Captain and the three guys who came out with him invited us to a small party that was on the beach, so we headed that way. The French boat was apparently not French at all (flag was up because it was beneficial for some reason), which saved us poor English people the indignity of being rescued by the French. We got an explenation for why the charts failed us, things change in the span of 50 years. The navigation computer is based off of charts from 50 years back.. time to update methinks.

We had another tour the following day. The three fellows who had been with the Captain (Yarde, Lincon and Jessie), showed us around the area, we went ziplining, and at the end of the day we headed down to Vieux Fort where I came aboard to clear customs and head out the next day. Customs.. to sum it up in one word.. well.. it would be an ugly word at that. I'm sure the woman there was only following the rules but she really did do her best to be annoying. She couldn't clear us unless the boat was at the docks in Vieux Fort, we had the boat still at anchor in Labori. She didn't want to see the boat, she really didn't care, she just kept saying it had to be there. So after going back to immigration at the airport and getting everything cleared there, we had a nights sleep and headed down with the boat to Vieux Fort. Having got there, my uncle wasn't allowed to enter the customs office to finally clear it due to not having a shirt, leaving me to do it. Again the woman acted more annoying than was needed. Kept asking if the boat was there, and I kept telling her that it was. Ended with her not even bothering to come and look, she just decided to take my word for it. If she had checked I'd feel less annoyed, but she didn't, even after pestering me about it. We got out of there as quickly as possible.

The sailing down to Bequai was pleasant, and ended with some night time navigation into a bay which we are in now. It's lovely here, and calm too meaning we get to sleep undisturbed. Customs here are nice people, and efficient too (unlike Vieux Fort, St lucia, they had customs and immigration in one place). We're getting a few repairs and enjoying the calm. I've survived a week out here, and it's been fun. I'm currently waiting for Tim and Sam to come back from shopping.

Now would the rest of you (not you Margrethe, you're doing good already) write something in your blogs, I'm looking at you Philip and Sandrine! Anyhow, I'm off, I'm adding a few pictures below.

<-- That is White Winds while we were in Marigot bay. Those who haven't been sailing don't know how good a night of sleep at a dock such as this one is. No rocking, no listening to the anchor chain moving, no listening to the dingy bumping about, just quiet. Well, apart from the mosquitos. But I keep my hatch shut unless me have the nets over it, so I didn't get bothered.


<-- This is our flag which we are hoping to replace, we call it the union ja.. as most of it has worn away because of the wind.

<-- Isn't he cute! What do you think Sandrine?

Morning!

Well, had a good nights sleep, being in a harbour means a lot when it comes to sleep. Near to no movement. We've got rain, lots of it. It comes in short bursts, but as the saying goes "when it rains it pours".

Philip suggested I start a map, I'll try to do that, but right now I don't have much time, so could someone find me a nice plain map of the caribbean and post a link to the image so I can use my "paint skills" to add my locations on it.

Today we are going snorkling, Tim and Sam tell me that it's wonderful for snorkling out here. Lets just hope I don't get eaten by sharks, stung to death by jellyfish or- remind me why I'm going snorkling? o_O

Not much else to tell you really. Well there probably is, but my memory is failing me right now. Oh wait.. I'm stuck aboard a boat with two Mamma Mia fans and they have the DVD! Help! I Won't have internet access for a while, if I start quoting Mamma Mia next time I post you'll know I was converted.

PS: I don't have a spell checker and I'm not taking the time to correct everything. I added this just so Philip doesn't post "English, André!".

PPS: Someone pass Helén a link to this blog just in case she is interested. I got a text from her asking if I was off to be a pirat. Dear Helén, sometimes we do want to be pirates, if only to steal the boat in the berth next to ours.. it must be about 70 meters long! And no, I don't have a parrot (not yet anyway). Should I also get a fancy hat?

PPPS (can you even make a "PPPS"?): Happy Birthday Richard!

St Lucia

I'm sitting on the boat White Winds in a harbour called Marigot. I arrived yesterday with only a minor problem, not noteworthy (I would just embarrass myself). I've been on my first sailing trip, and while it was mostly pleasant, there were times when I cursed myself for ever thinking I could survive out here, after only a few hours on the the first day of sailing.. yeah, weak.

It's been nice to meet up with my aunt and uncle (they've done a great job of making me feel at home), they take care of most of the sailing (if not all) because I would have run us aground within minutes. Speaking of being in distress, there was a mayday on the radio, but we were far away. Luckily other boats were in the area, and the cost guard showed up eventually, but from listening to them on the radio, I don't think I want them to try and save me should something happen. The amount of time they spent reconfirming the name and registration of the ship while there was over 1 meter of water in the boat.. thank god that another boat was already there playing overwatch for the sinking boat and could relay messages while the two on the sinking boat did their best to pump out the water (which didn't seem to be going too well).

Anyhow, I have to go now. Off for dinner. So the last thing I want to do is wish Sandrine a happy 20th birthday, Happy Birthday my lovely (it's still the 12th here love so it's still your birthday although it might have passed in Lebanon)!

I'm in England!

I finally got here after my flight being delayed by two hours + more while we waited for our turn to go. Then we circled above Heathrow for half an hour waiting for our turn to land. But it hasn't been an unpleasant journey. I'm leaving early tomorrow morning, so I'm not going to write a whole lot, a certain person asked me about food served on the flight (*cough* Sandrine *cough*); chicken and cheese sandwiches. Oh, and pretzels.

I was met at the airport by my aunt, uncle and cousin. We had dinner (chinese food), played Ludo in which I failed miserably, Anne won by a mile as she kept stealing all the sixes (while Finn came second). I've printed my boarding pass (me and Anne just couldn't get it to work so we asked David for help who pointed out we had forgotten to connect the printer to the machine.. how embarrassing) and I'm ready to fly tomorrow. Also, just because someone wondered if I had met the cats, yes, Scarlet is next to me and Piglet is upstairs sleeping (or trying to anyhow).

For anyone who was worried about me, I'm fine. Yes, stop worrying Sandrine. I'm fine. I'll post again soon (whenever I can find an internet-cafe). Bye!

Only one more day..

..and I'm off. Well, that is when stage one begins. Travel to England, then the next day I fly to St Lucia. This is a test post really, so it's really short.