this also includes Mustique and sail to Dominica...
New Years Resolution #1-Finish November Trip Report
OK, I know I left you all hanging with the last one and I promised to get to the good part so here goes….grab a beer it’s long… it’s 12 days of adventure on Jeannius crammed into a couple of pages. I'm still doing it in a couple of parts.
Those wonderful five days on Tortola were like a mini vacation before the big trip. By Friday, we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of our fearless captain Mike and his wife Jean from the UK and fellow adventure seekers Kit and Nolan from Baltimore.
We met Kit and Nolan at the RT ferry dock Friday Nov. 4th and proceeded directly to The Dove for Happy Hour and then on to a fabulous dinner at Bananakeet. The next day Mike and Jean arrived at the TMM base late after an exhausting trip and delay coming in from SXM and went straight to Jeannius to get some rest, we all met up Sunday morning and finished up last minute boat stuff before leaving out for a shakedown sail to Cooper Island where we would spend our first night. We left Cooper Island Monday morning Nov. 7th at 7am for the big sail!
Monday Nov 7th...The long leg straight to Bequia, also known as the “Barf Cruise”
About 30 minutes into the trip just below Cooper, I started having the feeling that I may be revisited by my breakfast and took a Dramamine and stared at the horizon. The seas weren’t anything unusual, as a matter of fact the last big trip they were much more “choppy” and we were all fine…go figure. I looked at Rex and he wasn’t looking so great either (one of those “never been seasick” people) and felt a little better that I wasn’t the only one…misery loves company. Well, right about that time, while I was doing my best at talking my stomach back down, I noticed poor Jean moving quickly to the starboard aft, more importantly, downwind. She had never been seasick either but this would be where she would spend a good portion of the next 48 or so hours…only to be shared occasionally with Nolan.
I never did actually “get sick” I guess it was the desperate concoction of Dramamine, alternated with Qwells, and ginger beer (thank god for the Dark & Stormy mixers!), none of which worked for Nolan or Jean. Actually the ginger beer did make Jean feel a little better, but not back to normal. By the time we did reach land even Kit and Malcolm were feeling queasy, but I think it was from having to listen to us talk about it the whole way. And Mike, who has been seasick before, was totally fine! All in all though, everyone was a very good sport about it, knowing that sometimes it just comes with the territory and of course, we were on a Grand Adventure so who cared anyway?! (well maybe except for Jean who really had the worst of it)
It was a long two days, but we were determined to reach Bequia in the first leg so we could island hop back. Despite the tummy problems we really did have a great time! I’d trade this 20 degree weather here for being nauseous in the Caribbean anyday! And once we reached Bequia, no one felt sick again for the rest of the trip!
Wednesday Nov. 9th…land ho!
We pulled into Bequia, Admiralty Bay in the late afternoon, I don’t quite remember exactly how many hours we were on the boat now, I’m sure Mike can fill in some of the specifics. I want to say 56 but can’t recall for sure. It was nice to use the head and shower in the calm of the harbor. We got cleaned up and headed to shore for a nice dinner (Frangipani?) and hung out on the boat that evening and just relaxed, everyone was back to normal and we were in the Grenadines!
Thursday Nov. 10th…a quick sail to Mustique
The local mobile service station came by that morning and we filled up on diesel and water. We had breakfast and I took a quick snorkel while Mal and Rex went on their own beer hunt adventure on land. Once we were all back on the boat we headed South East to Mustique, vacation home destination of the rich and famous! We anchored and went ashore for dinner at Basil’s Beach Bar. No sign of any celebrities yet.
Friday Nov. 11th…day on Mustique
Mike, Jean, Mal, Kit and Nolan opted for an island tour and saw some of the great vacation homes of people like Mick Jagger, Shania Twain, David Bowie, The Caterpillar people, Tommy Hilfiger, and Princess Margaret…of course none of them were on island at the time, especially Princess Margaret. They ended their tour at The Firefly for drinks and then Basil’s for lunch. Rex and I did a little walking tour and found a “locals” bar on the side of the road where we met the chef from the Firefly who had some great stories. Then we went back and jumped in the dinghy and headed over to the Cottonwood resort for some snorkeling. We were heading back to the boat to change when we saw them waving us over at Basil’s so we climbed ashore and joined them for lunch and watching the local fishermen.
Saturday Nov 12th, and Sunday Nov.13th… we headed for the island of Dominica
We decided to save the Tobago Cays for another trip because that would have put us even further south so we sailed overnight past St Lucia up to Dominica and arrived just before sunset on Sunday night Nov 13th. We had one of the best meals of the trip that night in Roseau at La Robe Creole. Mal mentioned this in his latest Tale of the Tropics. We decided that we would definitely do an island tour the next day and went back to the boat for a good nights rest after another long sail.
OK more to come soon but check out the photos on my webshots...Laura
