See the comments on our
cruising log at the start of Chapter 14
My comments to this letter
were made in June 2003.
LETTER 4
May 24, 1992
"Down Time"
Lat. 12o38'N Lon. 60o22'W
Dear Family and Friends,
Since you last heard from us (January 7, 1992) we have been
to many islands and many countries.
Here's the list: Anguilla; Saba and Statia (part of the Netherlands Antilles); St. Kitts and
Nevis; Monserrat; Antigua; Guadeloupe and Isles des Saintes (part of France); Dominica; Martinique (part of
France); St. Lucia; St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Our currency has changed from US dollars to
French francs to Eastern Caribbean dollars and back several times.
When last you heard we were in the St. Martin/St. Barths area. We had
several sets of visitors there and actually made six trips between St. Martin
and St. Barths.
Although the distance is only 12 miles, these varied in conditions from
flat calm with no wind to one with 32 kts. in which
we broke a shackle on the main outhaul (part of the mainsail for you
non-sailors).
We discovered a new resort in St. Martin (Port de Plaisance) which had moorings for $6 per night. With this you got to use all the resort
facilities (swimming pools, health spa, tennis, showers) including the
limo! We used the limo to pick up Diane
at the airport (she made a quick trip back to the States in February), to go
grocery shopping and even to take our propane tanks to be refilled.
Speaking of the propane tanks, here's a story you will
enjoy: While in St. Thomas Jim had painted both 20 lb. propane bottles bright
red as they were beginning to rust. When
we took them to be filled in St. Martin we were told that they could not be
filled because they were red! After much
discussion we learned that some other propane outfit on the island had rental
bottles which were red and the place we were at assumed our bottles were from
that other place. Jim asked the manager
what kind of car he drove and what color it was. We were told it was a white Honda. Jim then asked the manager if the car were
painted red would it become a Toyota.
This logic seemed to get through to him and he filled our bottles.
Our $6 mooring at Port de Plaisance
also got us a trip on their launch over to Anguilla. This island used to be part of St. Kitts and
Nevis but they had a mild revolt in the 70's and are now an independent
country. This is all recorded in a
hilarious book, The Mouse that Roared, for you literary types.
On March 1 we left St. Martin and sailed to Saba. Saba is a volcano which rises straight out of
the sea. We spent five days there on
moorings put down by the Saba Marine Park.
We made several dives and explored the island.
The Saba story is even
better than that. The water even close
to the shore is very deep. It was 70
feet deep where our mooring was. We made
contact on the VHF with a dive shop on the island and made arrangements for
them to bring out fresh air tanks each morning as they took the first group of
tourists diving. They picked up the
empty tanks from the day before. Each
day the park warden would come by to collect our mooring fee and take our
garbage ashore.
From Saba we sailed to Statia. Dutch pirates are supposed to have hidden in
a cave a million pieces of eight here in 1717.
A subsequent earthquake sealed the cave and it has never been
found. This is a really sleepy place for
any of you that want to "get away from it all". It is so sleepy that in two days we could not
even find the customs and immigration official to check in. It is also one of the rolliest
anchorages we have ever seen.
Boy was it
ever rolly!
The problem was that we had waves coming from two directions at
once. We finally got a stern anchor out
to hold the bow into the worst of the waves.
Several years ago, they built a breakwater to solve this problem.
Next we went to St. Kitts and Nevis (two islands, one
country). Here we rented a car with
Robert and Lynda Rankin from "Adrilyn" with
whom we had been sailing since St Martin.
We had lunch at one of the old plantations and had such delicacies as
flying fish. Nevis has one of the
prettiest beaches we have seen on the trip and a brand new Four Seasons Hotel
right on it.
Now I see in
the latest SSCA Bulletin that there is a marina on
Nevis and the economy has switched so much from agriculture to tourism that
they are saying that 2003 may be the last sugar cane harvest.
Montserrat was completely destroyed in Hurricane Hugo and
much has not been rebuilt. The island
was settled by Irish and many of the islanders still speak with an Irish
accent. As we were there just before St.
Patrick's day, the place was hopping. We
only stayed two days as there are really no good anchorages.
Now of course
you know that what Hugo didn’t get, the volcano did.
Between St.
Kitts and Montserrat is the “Kingdom of Redondo”. This is really just a big rock of an island
(maybe a few acres) that no country seems to claim. It’s apparently a big deal for amateur radio
folks to go ashore and broadcast from there.
We did have
a sailing event between Kitts and Montserrat.
The seas were quite rough and the shackle on the main halyard
broke. Well, of course that had to be
fixed and the only way to fix it was for Jim to go to the top of the mast in
the bosuns chair to retrieve the halyard. With no main sail to stabilize the boat, the
top of the mast was swinging in an arc of about 16 feet to each side. So up Jim went and fixed the problem. To this day he does not remember anything
about the event! Must have been really
scary on top of that mast!
Next on our agenda was Antigua or "Disneyland for
Sailors". It was here that Admiral
Nelson had the headquarters for his Caribbean fleet in English and Falmouth
Harbors. (They are side-by-side,
separated by an isthmus). All the old
dockyard buildings have been converted into shops, restaurants, bars, etc. and
the entire area is a national park. It seems some bar in the Dockyard has a
happy hour every night so there is always a party. We traveled to St. Johns (the capitol)
several times by native bus. We took the
opportunity to get our Venezuelan visa here since they are required before we arrive
in that country. Jim's daughter, Lauren,
came to visit us on her Spring Holidays.
The biggest deal of the year here is Antigua Race Week (last week in
April) when yachts from all over the world come here to race. We didn't stay for it but it looked like it
was going to be some party.
If you ever
get to Antigua, be sure to go to the pan (that’s steel drum)concert on Sunday
afternoon at Shirley Heights. Shirley
Heights is a fort named for a Major Shirley that overlooks English Harbor. We heard the best pan music there of the
whole trip (and that includes Trinidad).
The happy
hours nearly did us in. By now Jim had
the full beard and pony tail you see in the pictures and at one of the happy
hours a free sample of the local ganja was slipped into his hand. Rum and gin
were the drinks of choice (remember the British navy?) and you got about six
ounces of either for $.70. We left
Antigua because our livers couldn’t take any more.
Our next stop was Guadeloupe and we were actually able to
sail the entire 40 miles! All our other
passages since leaving the States have been hard on the wind and motor sailing
was the best we could do. We spent very
little time in Guadeloupe and would like to return there sometime. Our passage from Guadeloupe to Isles des Saintes was very rough.
We encountered a water spout and winds to 35 kts. We were disappointed in "the Saintes". We
had heard so much about them that we were expecting something spectacular. We've seen many nicer places and the Saintes are mobbed with day tourists from Guadeloupe every
day. Our dinghy decided to spring a leak
here. We patched it at the next island.
Dominica was next on our travels. This is an independent member of the British
Commonwealth. Here was the first place
we ran into "boat boys". These
are much maligned people in the sailing lore and publications. These "boys" are supposed to be
little short of thieves. They are
supposed to damage the topsides of your boat with their boats. They are supposed to pester you
constantly. We have decided to set the
record straight at least as far as our experiences go. In the first place, these are not
"boys". They are mostly 20 -35
years old. They exist (as far as we have
discovered) in Dominica, St. Lucia,
St. Vincent and the Grenadines. As you approach an anchorage one of them will
approach you in his native-built wooden boat powered by a large outboard. He identifies himself by name and says he
will stop by after you are anchored.
After you are anchored, he comes back and offers all sorts of services
(ice, fruits and vegetables, bread, trips, etc.) Each day you are there he will come back and
see if you need anything. A single
"no thank you" is enough to send him away.
In Dominica we had a "boat boy" take us on a trip
up the Indian River. The river is so shallow the "boy" cannot use his
engine and must row his heavy wooden boat up stream with 2 to 6 tourists
aboard. In places he must get out and
push or pull the boat over shallows. All
this for $8 per person!
We also encountered the US Army in Dominica. It seems some Missouri Reserve unit was spending
their two weeks of camp building a sports facility for the locals. Apparently this happens in all the islands
down here.
Martinique. This is
the first of the Windward Islands. Our
first stop here was in St. Pierre which was the capitol until it was destroyed
by a volcanic eruption in 1902. Van Gogh
spent some time in Martinique on his way to the South Pacific, and for you
Humphrey Bogart/Lauren Bacall fans, it is the setting
for “To Have and To Have Not”. After a
few days in the sleepy fishing village of St. Pierre we moved down the coast to
Fort de France. A trip to the US
Consulate was necessary here to get more pages in Jim's passport!
On the sail
down the west coast of Martinique we found ourselves surrounded by a school of
dolphins. There must have been hundreds
of them.
We had a very calm day when we left Martinique for St. Lucia
and had to motor the whole way. Not a
whitecap in sight! Our first stop was
Rodney Bay where we spent the first night at a dock since leaving St. Martin over
two months before. We spent two solid
days cleaning the boat. Next we moved
down the coast to Marigot, a very pretty protected
bay. Next came the Pitons. These are two mountains rising over half a
mile right on the edge of the island.
The anchorage is spectacular since you anchor right under the
mountains. Here the "boat
boys" are invaluable as you must anchor in 70 feet of water. The
"boat boys" take a stern line ashore and tie it to a palm tree. Ours
then came back and sold us 2 1/2 lbs. of dolphin (not Flipper, mahi-mahi) for
$6! The next morning (Sunday) he was
there at 0700 as requested to untie the stern line.
Marigot was the location setting for the movie “Dr. Doolittle”. As usual,
a “boat boy” came out as we motored into the bay and Jim told him to wait until
we anchored. The holding was not very
good and we tried several times to get the anchor down. All this time our “boat boy” is patiently
waiting for us to finish. Finally, he
has had enough and paddles over to a spot. looks at Jim and says, “Drop it
here, Captain”. We did and he was
right. The anchor stuck like glue. We bought a woven basket from him which we
use to this day to hold fruit on our kitchen counter.
Our trip to St. Vincent was quite boisterous with winds to
38 kts., the highest we have ever seen while
sailing. The St. Vincent "boat
boys" have no engines and must row their boats in the ocean. Here one rowed Jim ashore to clear customs
and then back to the boat. St. Vincent
is the northern most island of the country of St. Vincent and the
Grenadines. From here south to Union
Island (get your atlas) all the islands are part of one country. We spent no time here but moved on to ...
Bequia. Pronounced bek-way. Here is the last place in the world where
they still hunt whales from rowed boats using a hand harpoon! The sailors from
here are legendary and you see them all over the world. They are also known for their model
boats. Up until now the only way to get
to Bequia was by boat. We were actually there for the opening of the
airport. For those of you looking for a
funky place to stay try the Moonhole. These are several houses built as caves in a
hillside. No running water, no
electricity and no glass in the windows.
We sailed past them on the way to...
Mustique. This is a completely private island with
houses owned by the "rich and famous". Mick Jagger,
Princess Margaret, David Bowie and Raquel Welch all have houses here. All are for rent. Book early!!
We had dinner at Basil's Bar and the sailed to ..
The Tobago Cays (to-bay-go-keys). Here is the cruising guides description:
"The Tobago Cays are a group of small deserted islands
protected from the sea by Horseshoe Reef.
The reef colors are a kaleidoscope of gold, brown, blue, turquoise and
green. There are small sand beaches and
clean water. On clear nights the stars
are cast across the sky like wedding confetti thrown in an excessive gesture of
bonhomie."
We couldn't agree more.
We have been here five days now.
That's where we are writing this letter.
The next post office we find will probably be on Union Island and we
will try to mail it from there.
From here we have a few more stops in the Grenadines and
then its on to Grenada. We plan to
return to the States for a visit this Summer and should be there most if not
all of July. We will leave the boat in
either Grenada or Trinidad, returning in late Summer to continue our cruise to
Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.
Once again we reiterate our offer to come and visit us. The method of contacting us remains the same
as in the last letter. Cards are
enclosed for those of you who lost them.
You can contact us via VI Radio as described in the last letter. The VI Radio people are not as professional
as AT&T High Seas so you may have to call more than once.
Their toll free number is 1-800-LEEWARD.
Your next letter will be postmarked "Venezuela" !!
Jim & Diane
P.S. If we are not
sending these letters to the correct address, please drop us a note at the
Mississippi address and give us the correct one.
Jim & Diane
Send comments to: jkbarrentine@earthlink.net
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