Month: November 2010

Running for Cover

bearcruzer

Oct 27&28, 2010

We arrived in Bequia at sunset on a holiday.    There are so many holidays in the Caribbean it is next to impossible to even attempt to keep track of them.   On the way up Ken on s/v Diana caught a nice Wahoo and so we enjoyed dinner with them aboard their boat.  We had planned on spending a couple of days in Bequia and reuniting with Marie and JP aboard m/v Domino but they were in Friendship Bay and we ended up in Admiralty Bay.   We spoke with them briefly and made plans to meet up the next day.    Well as they say, the best laid plans……etc.  We checked the weather and saw a BLOB…..that’s how we refer to unstable systems that form in the Atlantic.   This one was building quickly and was forecasted to move into the southern windward Islands possibly as a Tropical Storm by the end of the week.   We decided we would put some miles between us and the impending southern storm.  We called Domino and told them that thanks to the weather, we would see them up Island somewhere and headed up to St. Lucia where we were told there was a good hurricane hole in Rodney Bay.  We had a great sail up.  Both Diana and DD had hits on our fishing lines.  Ken pulled in a small Mahi and let it go.    We had a very big hit in the same area. Unfortunately, it hit on on our lighter weight line and rod and after running out the line for a ways it snapped the line and took our lure.    Ken got on the radio just after it happened and told us about his Mahi.  He uses a hand line with 200lb test and rigs it onto his boat with bungi cords.   It is obviously quite effective.   We will need to rig our reels with heavier line, 40lb test just won’t do anymore.    We swapped fishing stories and continued onto St. Lucia where we were greeted by our friends on DaniellStorey.   We exchanged ideas briefly with Dave, Michelle, Ken, and Katy, comparing notes on the impending Storm.  We agreed that if it decided to veer more northward by the next day we would all move into the protection of the Marina in Rodney Bay.  In the meantime I had better make a batch of BBQ Brownies, we may need comfort food in the coming days.

 

Friends,Fins,Fish,Fun

bearcruzer

October 21-27, 2010

After hearing the fishing stories from DaniellStorey about his great fishing day and then hearing  from Domino and Dancing Dolphin about our luck.  Ronnie just couldn’t stay tucked into Grenada another day.  Enough was enough.   He and Babbie, under the premise of meeting a friend who was supposed to be coming to Carriacou, showed up in Tyrell Bay.   Their friend never did arrive.  The Crew of Domino had moved north to Bequia and so missed the surprise reunion with Campechano.   We spent much of the weekend enjoying their company and even took their boat out to White Island for a day of fishing, snorkeling, and picnicing.   We only caught a barracuda but it was something.   Ronnie says he is due for a big fish day, just not that day.   We had a good time with them snorkeling around little White Island just south of Carriacou.   We were not too disappointed, not catching fish because we had spent the a couple of days with Ken and Katy of s/v Diana who are also here with us in Tyrell Bay, catching lobster.  We have enough seafood to last a while.  One day a small pirogue came by the boat.  We are traveling north again and so we expect to see an increase of boat vendors, etc.  The young man handed us a handwritten flyer advertising a fish fry on the beach.  It was being hosted by the families of the local ladies who run the vegetable stands on the beach.  The Crews of Diana, Campechano, and DD all got together and enjoyed some great local fair.  After the weekend Campechano returned to Grenada to meet their daughter who is flying in for a visit.   Ken, Katy, Mike and I paid for a couple of nights on the moorings next to Sand Island.  It is a picturesque narrow white sand Island with a few palm trees surrounded by a ring of coral.  We enjoyed a couple of days of great snorkeling.   It has been established as a marine reserve and so the health of the coral is improving and the fish life is becoming more abundant.  We saw larger snapper and Rock Hinds.  I watched a very cool dark brown Octopus swim by and upon seeing me, flattened himself against the rocks and changed his color to perfectly match the specked multicolored surface of his background becoming nearly invisible.  We swam through clouds of thousands of small silver fish we refer to as shiners.  There are pelicans and boobies swooping in and if you are snorkeling in the right place at the right time and find yourself in the middle of one of the large schools you might be privileged to get to see one of the birds diving into the water close by. We even found a large lobster in about 8 feet of water.   He taunted us by walking part way out of his hole to check us out.   We thought about grabbing him but there is a strict no fishing rule within the Marine Park, which must surely explain his bravado.  We had seen live lobster, his size, for sale from the fishermen in town who told us they were catching them with snares, by scuba diving in 70ft of water.   The Crews of Diana and DD, stopped for lunch and picked up some additional fishing lures before checking out of Carriacou/Grenada waters to continue our journey north.   Next stop, Bequia.

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