Steve's Trip 12/22/2001

Steve's Trip 12/22/2001 - 01/05/2002: Sail trip through the Grenadines

12/22/2001 Flight starts Frankfurt Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle, then transfer to Paris Orly to start off to Fort de France / Martinique. So far to the plan. Unfortunately we didn't make our calculation with Air France, which added one hour delay from Frankfurt. In Paris CDG we found relatively quick the Bus to Orly, but already in the Bus, we had the feeling, that it would be a tough schedule. Too tough: at 6 pm our flight to Fort de France was scheduled, we arrived at 5:50, the check in counter was already closed - although the plane left Orly over one hour later!!! Oh, I think I forgot to introduce the crew so far: at the airpor we, Katja and I (Steve), met Anke, a sailing cumpain, so that we've been a trio on the road since then.
For what... we had a beautiful night in a airport hotel in Paris, sponsered by Air France, yet what a comparison to the Caribian Sea...

12/23/2001 After a opulent breakfast in the Grand Mercure, Paris Orly, we started our second trial to get to Martinique. This let to a more and less succes, we had over six hours delay, so that we started not at 1pm but at 7pm. The flight was horrible - at least when you are six feet four. After 8 hours flight, I knew every of my bones personally.
On the plane we met Monika, another crew member.
We arrived at Fort de France at 10pm (GMT-6) and had the luck to recover all our luggage! Now a short trip with a taxi to our starting port "Le Marin" and it was done. Svend, Jutta, Uwe, Anette and Gunter were already waiting for us.

12/24/2001 As we didn't like to spend the christmas evening at the charter port, we immediately started off on the next day to St.Lucia in the famous Marigot Bay. But now I should tell something about the ship. It was a Feeling 486, a 49 feet long sailing vessel with five cabins. The ship was quite acceptable, but in comparison to other ships I have been on so far, not suitable for all cabins fully booked. We were nine members on board (maximum for this boar is 10).

But as the combination of the crew was ok - as it is so normally, when Svend does the organization - we could live peaceful together. Cruise sailing is from the social aspect quite interesting. On one hand, you live together in a very small space for quite some time, on the other hand just half an hour on the foredeck in a clear night gives you more lonelyness you could image than the hole year in your hometown.

Marigot Bay on St.Lucia is one of the Caribian bays which look like in the travel catalogue. A small entry, tall palm trees on white beaches, "flying" traders in their small motor boats. Hmm... and like everything which looks like paradise, there are too many people who like to be there. We got one of the last places at the pier, which gave us the possibility to take a shower and make ourselves pretty for the christmas evening. For dinner we had tradition duck legs (imported from Germany) with red cabbage. And this could have been a nice meal, when the oven had worked in the right manner and got up to a reasonable temperature. So the duck legs where more dried than fried and we hat to chew real hard. We even had christmas illumination on the boat. But - let's be honest - you can'T get the real christmas feeling under palm trees with 35 degrees Celsius.
Svend, the skipper, had a small present for everyone of us. For the girls a Pareo out of the southern sea - very praticable for the next days on board, for the boys real Hinano baseball caps. Hinano is a brewery on Tahiti. I've never tasted a beer from them, but thanks to Svend I've seen almost all marketing material they have :-)

12/25/2001 We made a few miles to "La Soufriere", to anchor in another very nice bay, but relatively open to the sea. Near the beach, there is a sulfidus water cascade with warm water which we've visited. The way up went partly through rain forest and we had the possibility to get in first touch with the local vegetation - you wouldn't believe what sort of fruits you haven't seen in your live. The water cascade was beautiful, especially when you are not use to warm water cascades (the few which I've visited in Europe where cold like hell). So we spend quite some time there. From live on board, there is very often not so much to tell, it is not as ever changing as you might think, but provides enough time and place to concern with yourself or - if you are not in the mood - to write trip reports ;-) Because of the reason that such a ship is relatively small and it is swinging all day long, you need more time for every action than you would need in your every day life. And all of us had to get along with the heat. But it was not only hot, also the air humidity took its respect.
On this evening, Svend prepared his almost legendary rabbit stifado. For that we brought five kilo of rabbit around half of the world (it did even reside one night in a hotel fridge in Orly). And it was enough to have another dinner of it the next evening. All the recipies I will describe on a spearate page in the future.

12/26/2001 Wallilabou, St.Vincent. I dont't remember nothing. We still had rabbit. The skipper did the clearance with the douanes and every minute there came new boatpeople to sell us something. Perhaps it's therefore that I keep this port out of my mind.

12/27/2001 The trip took us to Bequia ("Beckway" spoken) in the Admirality Bay / Port Elisabeht. This town was so as you might see a town in the Caribian sea. A small market stand with fruits and vegetables (who are asking for incredible prices, but that's how it is in the Caribian...), some small bars, food stores, a bank (we had to get EC, East Carribian Dollar), a post office and for the people with lonely hearts or the blues some payphones. Our mobiles were not working since St.Lucia, the Grenadines are not roaming with the rest of the world. Strange feeling not to be on the net anymore, I haven't had that since a long time...
On the evening we went to Frangipani's to take a drink - oh, did I mention, that in the Carbian you are rarely tied with your ship to a pier but normally tied to a mooring which is fixed in the bay. A mooring is a rope which is tied to the ground and you fix your boat on that. Let's say like a cemented anchor. (perhaps it was an anchor, but it knew too much, and then "The Don" gave him his last order :-) When you now arrive with your ship in a bay where there are moorings, you tie yourself or normally there are people in small motorboats who help yo and then you pay some royalties for the night (somewhere between 40 to 75 EC, 20 to 35 US$)

So, in every case you like to get from board, you have to take the Dinghi, normally a small Zodiac equipped with an outboard engine and normally you get a wet bump, when you use it.
So we took the Dinghi to the Frangipani and had there one for the other cocktail - recommandation for the Caribian beside from really tasteful Coconutmilk cocktails: Yellow Bird - with orange juice, I think some lemon juice, Gallaino and Wodka...
Some people say, that even strong marine man were lost on the way back from a Bar with a Dinghi. After that I wouldn't deny it... So when you are in a crowded bay, you should alway try to remember some not changeable details of your boat (ours was that with all the drying clothes on the deck).
Oh, I'd like to mention our dinner: roti de porc in bacon with red wine and raisin sauce. The original recipe is made with dried prunes, but we haven't found them anywhere and with the raisins it was also very tasteful. I've dried the porc first for two hours in our oven (see above). Then I had enough and gave him the rest in the steam cooker. I have the feeling, you can't do anything wrong with this recipe, it was still very very juicy...

12/28/2001-12/29/2001 Mustique is a kind of Disneyland under palm trees for the super rich people. The island is a complete enterprise, that means it is owned by a coorperation, which has complete control. It gives water to the plants, cleans the beaches and sells ground to people like Mick Jagger, Giorgio Armani and Tommy Hilfiger, who have than lying their small motor vessels in the bay.
But anyhow, this makes the island still very nice and it does represent a kind of dimmed luxury. The beach is beautiful, the water warm and clear. The port master was very pleasant and helped ous with our smaller and bigger needs.
In the shops there where quite huge amounts of champagne to buy, of course for immense prices, but they also sold fresh bread and ice (for our fridge on board).
At the evening we had our sundowner at Basil's Bar. Everybody who knows Mustique knows Basil's - there is no other bar on the island ;-)
On Mustique we had lamb for two evenings. For the first evening a very tasty and very juicy lamb leg, on the second evening, we had lamb ragout with Ratatouille.

So time for another excursion in the life on a sailing vessel? On board of a sail cruiser, there are some factors which have to be accounted for long trips: Electricity, Water, Fuel. The first correlates with the last, when you have the diesel running every day for one or two hours, you could activate the fridge for this time and the batteries are recharged so you get once again some power for light and (of course for me!) the notebook computer. The fuel needs for this are not so heavy - unless you will pass the Atlantic Ocean. But in this hour the engine noise really gets on your nerves... Sweet water is crucial on board. When you stay overnight in bays, you won't find external showers, but you will be amazed how clean you could get with salt water, at the end you just let rinse a little bit of sweet water over you to get rid of the salt. It is very funny to shampoo your whole body and then jump into the sea...
But that's life on board. Easy and simple :-)

12/30/2001 The last night of 2001 we were on the anchor at the Horseshoe Reef in the Tobago Cays. The reef has it's name from its form the the closed side goes to the west, which made us experience another beautiful sundown. The way from Mustique to the Horseshoe Reef was rather short, so we arrived relative earky and had time to go snorkeling or enjoy the afternoon sunbathing on deck. It is rather amazing. Nobody got a real sunburn. I suppose, the sunshine is so brutal that noone was underlying the illusion that he could get along without using sunscream (even not me although I have traumatic experiences of my childhood having my mother trying to catch me the whole day for applying sunscream on me...)
While snorkeling in the Horseshoe Reef you see some nice fish, but not as many as I've seen while diving in the Red Sea. Perhaps you have to go deeper here. Let's see I think I'll have a few dives here in the next weeks.
At the evening we had a simple dinner. Spaghetti con Pesto. I won't discuss here, that you should mix the Pesto with some of the water you've cooked the spaghettti in or not, it just tasted marvellous. Especially because Uwe fried some chopped pistaches and some chopped garlic over the meal, which made an incredible aroma.

12/30/2001 Years end party we liked to have at Lambies on Union Island / Clifton Harbour. Therefore we navigated to Union Island, which is just a glimpse of an eye away from the Horseshoe Reef, but there are manny shallow water areas on the way, and became even a place on Lambies peer. Oh, what's that Lambies? It looks like an institution on Union Island: a combination of a restaurant, water station, peer, hotel...
Ok, we got a little place on Lambies peer and tied our boat there. One hour later we were able to watch - and even take part - in a more ore less disasterous scene: a 25 meter luxus vessel named "Unplugged" tried to go on our left side and positioned his anchor completely wrong. As a result, the "Unplugged" pressed against our boat and we had all hands to use to place our fenders on the right positions. Then the "Unplugged" raised it's anchor again, which stuck in our anchor chain. The anchor winsch of a ship on our right was even ripped out of the boat because of the forces woking on their chain.

Ok, at the end some parts on our deck were destroyed. Big adventure! Somehow the "Unplugged" came free again and took place in the outer harbour. Half an hour later there arrived a man on our boat who introduced himself as the only police officer on the Grenadines. He asked us to bring him with our dinghi to the "Unplugged" to tell the skipper of the boat that he shouldn't give any money to the boat people who helped pushing away the "Unplugged" from our boat. Ok, so I drove him to the "Unplugged" and took part in the talk with the skipper. It is always interesting to listen to such talks...
Later, Alex, the skipper of the "Unplugged" came on our boat and paid cash for the damage we had on our boat. I should mention that the "Unplugged" looked like a ship were money doesn't really matter. If the boat people got money from him and how much, I was not able to find out.

The party at Lambies was quite ok, but we did not dance on the tables, this could have also been personal reasons. 2001 was a very exciting year for me and so I had time for some melancholical views on this year (and to be honest: it is not as easy as it looks, to leave all friends and business to travel abroad for a few months).
But anyhow, the food was ok, especially the fresh grilled lobster. I won't talk about the wine, this item should be meeted in a better manner while being back on Martinique :-) At midnight we visited "Jutta from Berlin" a woman who left Germany nobody knows when who has on Union Island a kind of a mini botanic garden with a galery with her own pictures, a little bar and the selling of her selfpainted T-shirts. Everything was indeed quit smaller than it sounds. So we trank some of Jutta's rumpunch on the new year. And comtemplated.
Back on the pier, Katja and I spit into the water to be togehter in mind with our beloved's who where on the same time in Germany, spitting too in the Eastern Sea. That's not ridicoulous, that is a kind of a homoeopathic spitbrothership.:-)
The night went on and we had some more beers and some Planters (Planters Punch, the famous cocktail in the Caribs). Although everybody managed to get back on board.

01/01/2002 On the first day of the new year, we made a short trip from Union Island to Bequia, anyhow we arrived late because we started very late - of course you need some sleep on the first morning in January. Cruising by night through the Caribian Sea is not as easy as it seems. There are many shallow water areas or reefs which are not or badly marked and in the ports the orientation lights are hard to find - we haven't seen any lights in Bequia. But in the bay there were still boatpeople around who showed as the way to a mooring we didn't discuss the price...
On the next morning we saw in the bay Svends new sailing vessel, the "Arkadi". A GibSea 472. I am looking forward to be on that boat, it looks nice.

01/02/2002 On the afternoon at 5pm we started to a night trip which should bring us back to Martinique. Over St.Vincent there was heavy rain, and we were able to see a fabulous rainbow, made by the sun which was going down the same time.
A night trip is a very nice thing, you are cruising the whole night long (and when the distance is longer, some nights more) and all the time, somebody has to take care, that the ship is on the right way and to hold the rudder. As we were 9 people on board, it wasn't really hard work. We had three shifts with three people in every shift. Every shift hat to stay up vor two and a half hour.
Somehow it got a little bit harder, as we had a good wind with about 4 Beaufort, and sometimes even to 6, and we had to sail hard on the wind and even to cross two times before we reached Martinique. Those who weren't seasick were able to get some of Anke's very good potatoe salad, a fabulous meal for the whole night.

01/03/2002 At 9am we arrived after 110 miles in the Petite Anse d'Arlet in Martinique and we put the anchor there. What a view! A small village on the Beach with a wooden church in European stile, short, we felt a little bit back at home in Europe (although we still had 35 degrees Celcius)
So wie took the dinghi to the peer and bought some french baguette and had a nice breakfast. Oh, a propos buying: To experience the change to the Euro in the Carribean sea is fun... not enough that you have to fight with EC, US$ and strange prices for strange food.. But anyhow, this will make the further yourney more convienient, because the number of currencies in your pocket will decrease dramatically. Now at the beginning it's a little complicated, you have to get used to new amounts - half the height for Germans - but after some time life will be easier in Europe.

As this was one of the last days on board, we experienced once more the fun of life on board, bathing at the heck, washing and drying at the heck, cooking on board (Uwe made a kind of Chili con Carne, very tasteful!) and we had a nice long evening in the cockpit.
Over the day we were walking around a little bit in Petite Anse d'Arlet and had a drink in a beach bar. I like this little village, small, a little bit rotten, a little bit sleepy... I think, when I have no better idea, I'll stay here for some weeks.

01/04/2002 Way back to Le Marin. We sleeped long in Petit Anse d'Arlet and then took the engine to get there. It were only two hours cruise, but as we started really late, we arrived, wenn it was getting dark. The nearer you are to the equator, the more regular are the day and night times. Here theres light from 6 to 6. You have to get used to that because your inner German clock tells you, that days are longer, when it's warm.
In Le Marin we filled up the diesel and then tied to the pier of the charter company. An that was the cruise for two weeks. We cleared up and packed our things (I have much too much luggage) and then we could take a real long shower with sweet water (last time this was in Lambies Hotel on the 31.st of December in Room 10).
On the evening we reserved a table at the Marin Mouillage, where you get very good spare ribs. Unfortunately we couldn't get a table before 9:30pm and that also only with a little bit of robust talks (the French nonchalance goes away very fast, when it comes to eating...)
On this cruise we were only two times for dinner off board which was very nice, because cooking on board is a lot of fun. And it made life much cheaper, we needed for the board purse only US$210 for 14 days!
This evening we were sitting very long in the cockpit with some glasses of wine and talking.

At the next morning, we left the boat at 10am, there was no real breakfast, just a few sandwiches while passing by the kitchen. There was no place to sit as all our bags were lying around. Anette, Anke and Svend were flying back to Germany while Katja, Jutta, Monika, Uwe, Gunter and me were staying for one week in Anse Mitan at Manfred's Domicil Tropical. More about that in the next chapter.

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