St. Vincent-St. Maarten 2011
There are many ways we could start the story of our December 2011 sailing trip in the Caribbean – each provides a very different lens:
The patches of
bougainvillea coloring the lush spires of the Pitons of Saint Lucia leave no
question about the source of inspiration for Gauguin’s palette in his impressionist
paintings of neighboring Martinique…
The sun shone
down through 30 feet of clear turquoise water leaving shimmering rays of light
and shadow that momentarily hid the silhouette of the sting ray as she nestled
into the sandy bottom below…
A legitimate question. We don't know where to find fresh fish and we are willing to pay...
This season’s
sail from the Grenadines along most of the Lesser Antilles chain to Sint Maartin
was all of the above and countless more intensely colored moments that are
still jockeying in my memory for their position as the “snapshot” of our 9 days
on the 49’ monohull Miss Boucan II (Miss Boucan I, which we sailed 2 years ago,
apparently sank, but we were left to speculate on the details).
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| Miss Boucan II (second from the right) |
This trip fell solidly in the adventure genre, not the leisure cruise, and a fairly intensive sailing lesson was gained indeed. Our stated goal (aside from soaking up
as much sun and saltwater as our pale Seattle bodies could tolerate) was to end
this trip with some confidence in rigging and moving our floating home using
not much more than the power of the wind.
In doing so, we covered over 300 miles, 7 countries/colonies, 12
different islands, and something close to 50 hours under sail. St Vincent,
Canouan, Tabago Cay, Mayreau, Bequia, St Lucia, Martinique, Guadalupe, Pigeon
Island, St Barths, Il Fouchet, and St Martin/Maartin.
Of course we were not entirely alone while under sail. We shared the sea with porpoises on several occasions – once treated to the show of their playful leaps and spins, turtles, flying fish that travel hundreds of feet before diving back into the sea (sometimes to be snatched up by a bird tailing right behind like a plane with its target locked in its sightlines).
Most amazingly, a whale surfaced mere feet from the stern! No kidding! She crossed under the boat and continued shallow breeches along her perpendicular course completely unphased by the presence of the fiberglass creature that we were.
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| Can you see the whale? |
We snorkeled in many places, seeing dozens if not hundreds of unique species of coral and fish. The reefs seem to be healthy and perhaps returning as there were regions with fairly young colonies of coral rich in diversity and color; staghorns, brain coral, sea plume, and many others waved gently in the current and hid the myriad crustaceans, snails/shells, fish, and anemones that live within the coral.
On land, we experienced an entirely different diversity of color and species of the human variety. While we visited 7 different countries/colonies, we only spent a few hours ashore at each. These ranged from the rough and authentic sand-floored bar in Salt Whistle Bay in Mayreau to the rows of mega-yachts (that’s the technical term) harbored in St Barths.
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| Mayreau, The Grenadines |
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| Mayreau, The Grenadines |
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| St Barts = MEGA yachts |
In many of the bays in which we moored, entrepreneurial locals would come out in their brightly painted motorboats or kayaks to offer us fresh fish, help with the mooring balls, to take away our trash, or any number of other services. In general, these fellows were friendly and casual, some remembering Noah from previous moorings and some others a little too high-pressure sales for our style-
so we started offering to sell them fruit and fish!
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| Entrepreneurial locals |
Yet some of them offered merchandise no sane person could refuse: we purchased 3 live lobsters one evening that provided a dinner feast we prepared on the boat and an amazing lobster frittata the next morning (kudos to Ryan for waking early to crack the claws and make this incredible breakfast!)
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| Lobster frittata |
Another evening, we purchased fresh baguettes that were delivered by boat the next morning still warm! Gotta love the French!
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| St. Barts = French |
The best parts
of sailing are the simple details- like that the computers never left
the suitcase.
Or that you have nothing better to do than take pictures of life preservers.
Or take an impromptu shower.
Or that we saw
both sunrise and sunset (willingly!) many, many days in a row.
We are
inspired and want to share the experience of connecting with nature through playing on the sea.
We have planned a wellness-at-sea sailing retreat next winter and we want to
invite others (you!) to share in the vitalizing, invigorating, inspiring
experience we just cannot get enough of.
Of course, this trip will all about comfort, relaxation and time for yoga on the beach!
You should come with us!
