Sailing with the Treleavens

Whales, Dorado fish, turtles, turquoise bays, everything Caribbean, we are having the perfect sail south with Pip and Geoff Lavis on board. Grenada is 350 miles away with 14 or more islands to anchor. Bay hopping, swimming, eating and drinking, island after island, is very relaxing as we cruise back where we have been before.

The sail from Antigua to the eastern end of Guadeloupe is a bit close to the wind so we ease away and sail the 45nms to the northern end of the river that separates the 2 islands of Guadeloupe. Negotiating the channel between the buoys in the reef and then meandering up the river through amazing mangroves, we anchor for the night under the 1st bridge. Once a day at 0430 hours the bridge opens so it’s an early start in the dark to negotiate the rest of the river.

After a day in Point a Pitre we set sail again for Les Saintes and then on to Dominica.
Pip can’t believe the comfort of sailing in the Caribbean with warm weather, 26 degree sea and a constant breeze from the east. The constant haze we have for the next few days turns out to be sand from the Sahara dessert. Long time in the atmosphere crossing the Atlantic and visibility at sea is poor.

Phil and Robbie on ‘Anteater Blues’ meet up with us in Prince Rupert Bay for a fun evening; they are delivering their yacht to Fort Lauderdale and then shipping her to Brisbane.

A special treat in Marin Martinique was watching the start of the Yole Regatta; traditional fishing boats all very colourful come from villages around the island. Bamboo masts and wooden poles, this was how they went to sea for up to 5 days fishing. Now used for racing, crew of 20, no harnesses and a beach start, one could compare them to the 18 footers.

Marigot Bay in St Lucia is very welcoming as we chance drinks at the newly opened Discovery Resort. The Snail Bar is named after the pink snail in the movie ‘Dr Doolittle’ which was filmed here. Carved out of the tropical hillside the resort couldn’t be in a more beautiful peaceful bay once used by pirates.

Between St Lucia and St Vincent a huge Dorado takes our trolling lure and before we get it on board 2 whales are cruising beside us. In rolling conditions and doing 9 knots it’s an urgent call to luff up and roll up the headsail as Ian struggles to land it. We are not sure of the whale’s intention and all the time I am not sure what to photograph. From the bloodied deck to the BBQ we have fresh fish with fresh pineapple curried rice for lunch.

A Princess Margaret beach swim on Bequia, cocktails at sunset on Mustique and snorkel with the turtles at beautiful blue Tobago Cays and in between we are on port tack sailing all the way between the islands.

Salt Whistle Bay on Mayreau Island is voted number 1 for its crystal clear water, perfect anchorage and half moon bay of golden sand, lined with coconut palms, what else would you expect.

The local boys are cleaning sea urchins off Palm Island and advise the men to mix the pulp with white wine and then you will spend the night “cabin jabbin”.

Checking out of the St Vincent Grenadines we sail 5 miles south to The Grenada Grenadines and the island of Carriacou and feast on the local mangrove oysters, fresh from the swamp, with a bottle or 2 of white wine as Simon the local boatman opens them for us.

We have arrived in Prickly bay Grenada to spend 2 days preparing the yacht for hauling for the hurricane season. Sitting in a one piece cradle firmly tied to the ground with strong anchor points, we pray that no hurricanes will pass through this year.

It’s been a long and exciting 10 months on our new yacht this year; and I am looking forward to getting the sand out of my shoes. Sailing from the 42nd parallel south to the 12th, from France to the tropical Caribbean, covering in excess of 6000 nms has been challenging and rewarding especially the Atlantic crossing.

We return at the beginning of November to continue our exploring of the Caribbean.

Thank you all for enjoying our experiences.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 1:52 am and is filed under 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.