Our anchorage at St. George’s Grenada at night with a full moon:
We are continuing to explore Grenada by car and boat. We visited some new places and went back to some of our favorites. It is a beautiful and unique island with a variety of things to see and do, inland and by the coast. One of our favorites was West Indies Brewery. During one visit, we got a tour. They bottle the beer 6 at a time, unless it is a special batch and then it is one at a time.
We spent July 4th (which is not celebrated in Grenada) with friends at Grand Anse Beach. Some friends brought their mini-cat over to the beach for us all to enjoy.
We really enjoy the food and the view at 61 West on Grande Anse Beach.
We went snorkeling at the underwater sculpture park one day:
Video of snorkeling the Sculpture Park in Grenada:
So many fun times with friends!
Addie left our mark on BB’s!
It was time to move anchor and check out the southern coast of Grenada.
Caper and Chance waiting to go to the beach. They are always the first in the dinghy!
We found the St. Georges’ University Club and Dodgy Dock!
A debate at the brewery – whose hair is longer???
Caper and Chance chilling out at the brewery:
Late July brought our first little hurricane scare. Gonzalo was headed our way, so we prepared. It was early in the season and we were only familiar with a small area of the island, so we headed back to the safety of Port Louis Marina. It turned out to be a non-event with winds less than 30mph and barely an inch of rain. That night we had an amazing sunset.
The landscape of Grenada really is breathtaking.
This little hilltop restaurant has a great view of St. Georges.
“Good friends don’t let you do stupid things alone”
If you look way over Addie’s left shoulder, you can barely see Aventis anchored out in the bay.
We are off to our next great adventure – sailing north to the islands of Ronde and Carriacou. It feels good to be out sailing!
Coming up next month: Exploring Ronde and Carriacou
June is the start to another new adventure for us!
June is the month we left the USVI and made our way to Grenada.
On May 30th we sailed from St. Thomas to St. Croix. We went ashore and found a brewery tap room of course!
That night, at a tiki bar, we met with the four other boats sailing down to Grenada with us to finalize plans and have a toast. They had the coolest tiki drinks!
We left St. Croix, USVI on May 31st at 7:30am and arrived to the beautiful island of Grenada early on the morning of June 3rd. During our three day passage we covered 395 NM, sailing about 90% of the way, traveling at an average speed of 5.3 knots. We had good wind, which made the seas a little rolly, but made for good sailing.
We traveled with four other sailboats on our passage. On our chart plotter, the screen is divided – on the left is the chart view and on the right is the radar view. At night the radar is important for picking up storms and other boats out on the ocean.
The weather was beautiful most of the passage.
There wasn’t much to do but hangout…
rest, relax…
and hard core daytime napping!
Until Shannon yells, “Dolphins”!
We had a few bad hair days along the way…
Overall, we had a wonderful and safe sail to Grenada!
Once we got to Grenada we did a quick check-in with the ministry of health and made our way to the quarantine anchorage for 14 days.
We liked the front row where the sand provided excellent holding for our anchor!
We had great plans for getting lots of boat chores completed while we were stuck on the boat for two weeks. But somehow we found ourselves being pretty lazy!
Caper did a lot of swimming off the boat too! Chance doesn’t like jumping off the boat into water so he just watches. Our friends on Bella took this great video of Caper jumping off the boat:
Some local fisherman came to the boat and sold us some yummy red snapper that we made tacos with.
The same guys brought us bananas and cashew fruit which is the red fleshy part that grows above the cashew nut.
We also enjoyed plenty of mangoes and passion fruit.
They even brought us the local beer to try. It was a wonderful welcome to Grenada.
The town of St. Georges’ is home to 20,000 people.
A rain forest sits in the middle of the island gets a good amount of rain. The mountain is covered with clouds most of the time.
We are not the only ones who are running from hurricanes. Each week the country lets 40 more boats in. We all had to register and were assigned a week we could come in.
The only outing we could take during the quarantine was to the dock to drop off trash…
and pick up some provisions, like pastries and bread from a local bakery:
We are thankful for our health and many beautiful days and sunsets in Grenada!
So on Day 14 of quarantine we dinghied to the dock to be tested with the other 40 boats that came in the week we did. If we are COVID free, we get to stay in Grenada.
Important note, Grenada is completely COVID free and they are working hard to keep it that way. The only air travel is for Grenada citizens, and once they arrive here there is a 14 day quarantine as well as the COVID test for them.
Yay! We all tested negative! We are free to explore Grenada!
It was time to start exploring and enjoying all the wonderful and unique features of Grenada!
First stop, the marina pool with our good friends Kent and Kathy (Wind Ensemble) who we have not seen since February and our new friends Mary and Kevin (Pisces) . Our last fresh water dip was in FL last November.
We enjoyed eating at a restaurant for the first time in weeks also!
A group of 13 of us took off for an Island Tour. What we encountered was not the typical tour. Everywhere we went, we were the only ones there. The usual cruise ship tourists are not here. At some of the places, we were the first tourists to visit since March, when the island shut down for COVID.
We made our way toward the center of the island into the rain forest.
Our first stop was to learn about the spices grown here including nutmeg and cocoa.
It was fascinating to learn how they use all parts of the nutmeg. The outer shell is used in the open fire when cooking. The red is peeled off, dried and ground to become the spice known as mace. Under the red is a hard shell that is broken off and used as ground cover. Inside is the nutmeg, which you grate onto your pain killer.
Next we visited Annandale Waterfall.
The foliage and fauna here is incredible.
Time for a quick rest at Mark’s to hydrate with the owner.
Next we were off to look for monkeys. None to be found. Addie is bummed! The locals think they have gone to lower ground to find food since no tourist have come to feed them.
On to the center of the island, Etang Lake where the island gets it’s fresh water.
View of the whole lake, which is the crater of the volcano:
On to the original airport, which is now a park.
On the northern tip of the island, we visited Leaper’s Hill where the Carib Indians jumped to their death to avoid capture by the English settlers.
It was a great day!
A few days later we went with a smaller group to 7 Sisters Waterfalls.
The hike in was about 1.5 miles.
All of us swam under the waterfall. The water was clear, cold and the current was very strong. It was super fun.
It was a great adventure.
Grenada has a national dish known as Oil Down. It includes salt fish and/or goat, breadfruit, coconut milk, dumplings, veggies and spices. It was yucky!
Our taxi driver Raymond recommended we try Oil Down from this beach side establishment, because it was the best on island. Hope that’s not true, because it wasn’t good! We had a great time, though!
We needed a swim after that truly unique dish.
Of course, we went to the West Indies Brewing Company a few times after getting out of quarantine… 🙂
We are grateful to be in this amazing place with friends and safe from tropical storms!
Coming up next month: Exploring Grenada and a hurricane down here!?!
Recently, we went to one of the restaurants/bars at the Spice Market at Grand Anse Beach called Beach Bum with Patrick and Rita (Bella), Kevin and Mary (Pisces), Stewart and Sandra (White Wings), Chris and Jan (Sapphire), David and Eilene (Raven), as well as Kent and Kathy (Wind Ensemble). The Spice Market didn’t really have anything because of the lack of tourists on Grenada. Everyone but me had the “Oil Down” which is the national dish of Grenada. I had french fries. The Oil Down has breadfruit, which is a species of flowering seeds that the British and French brought over during the Colonial Era. It is called a breadfruit because when you cook it it is like a simple fresh baked bread but has a potato-like taste. Oil Down also has a variety of meats, vegetables and spices. What is in the stew varies by area of Grenada and family recipe. The version we ate had saffron, salt fish, goat, pork, callaloo, coconut milk and breadfruit. It is called Oil Down because it has coconut oil in it. Most people liked it, but Dad not so much. He got a burger after trying it.
This is the Oil down dish.
This is Breadfruit which was one of the ingredients in the oildown.
On Thursday we went to the West Indies Brewery. We went with a group of people from the marina. We went on a tour of the brewery and learned about the beer and cider making process. The cider making process is simple. They use apple juice concentrate and then put the yeast in to make it have alcohol since the apple juice concentrate already has sugar in it. The yeast eats the sugar and then once the process is done, they put it in the tank. They cheat with the other flavors by using special flavor packets like watermelon and pomegranate. The beer making process has five steps. The first step is they take malted barley and soak it in hot water to release the sugars. The second step is they boil the malt sugar with hops for seasoning. The third step is they cool the malt sugar and then add the yeast to begin fermentation. The fourth step is the yeast ferments the malt sugars and releases CO2 and Ethyl Alcohol. The fifth and final step is after the fermentation is complete, they bottle the beer with a little bit of added sugar to provide carbonation. Dad says the sixth step is to drink it.
I ran into my good friend Ben from Zenobia at the brewery. We hung out and played Harry Potter UNO, which is like UNO but with special rules. I also played Pool with Ben. He had to show me how to play because I haven’t played since I was at Grandad and Nana’s apartment in Charlotte two Christmas’ ago. I was a bit rusty at it. I did not try the beer or the cider, but I tried Ting and I really liked it.
This was our tour guide, Bob.
Dad loves the brewery. Dad is always smiling when he has a beer in his hand.
4th of July! Yay!!
We celebrated the fourth of July by having a gathering at Grand Anse Beach with a group of people, some from the marina and some who were on anchor. Renee’ and Gene from Texas Crewed put together and brought their mini-cat which is basically a mini catamaran. Ben from Zenobia helped them put it together and sail it to the beach from the marina. Ben’s Dad Johannes came to the beach as well. I went on the mini-cat once with Ben, Dad and Patrick from Bella. I went again with Ben, Mom and Mary from Pisces. It was fun going on the mini-cat. I got to help with the lines. I helped roll up the jib. What was exciting about going on the mini-cat is that it went really fast. It reminded me of being on a speed boat at Watauga Lake which is a lake in North Carolina.
This is a picture of the mini-cat that I went on with Dad, Patrick, and Ben.
This is me reading Harry Potter at the beach.
Mom is enjoying the beach with her friends.
Dad is enjoying the beach with his friends.
We ate lunch at a restaurant called Umbrellas which is a bar and restaurant on the beach. There were food trucks as well, but I wanted to go to a restaurant with french fries and shade.
This is me on the mini-cat with Ben and Gene from Texas Crewed after we had just sailed it back from the beach to Gene’s boat.
Our dog Caper celebrated his 8th birthday today (July 4th). Happy Birthday Caper!
April and May were fairly quiet months for us. We stayed around St. Thomas and St. John’s in the USVI bouncing around our favorite anchorages. Restaurants and bars were all closed by order of the governor until mid April when the restaurants opened for take out only. Luckily we got to spend some extra time with Makenzie and Ella because travel in and out of the USVI was still possible. Makenzie stayed with us for three weeks in early April. Then both girls came down in May. Mak stayed for one week and Ella stayed for 2 weeks.
But first, our boat played an April fool’s joke on us with a little electrical fire! Apparently at some point, tucked deep inside the wiring, someone spliced some wires that corroded over the past couple of years and eventually caused a small fire and a couple of days of time re-wiring everything that melted.
Why are there splices on such a new boat??? Uhggg! Look at that corrosion!
Notice all the wires that Shannon had to label to ensure they were replaced and put back on the control panel correctly.
After spending the day fixing the wiring, and running into town to get wires, connectors, etc at the hardware store which involves a dinghy ride to the beach, a 1/2 mile walk to the bus stop, and then a 15 min bus ride – then repeat backwards to get back to the boat from the hardware store (which Shannon had to do TWICE that day!) everything was back together and working.
The next day, Makenzie flew into town!
The girls had lots of fun swimming to the beach and then taking a rest on the boards.
We all enjoyed lots of water time.
Mak loves her pups.
And the pups love her.
There were daily paddle-board rides to the beach for morning walks.
We ran into Addie’s friend Ben (from Zenubia). They met in FL at Harbour Town Marina in November 2019.
Mak learned to drive the dinghy. And she was really good at it.
We stayed about a week here at Ditlef Beach on St. John’s. Very quiet anchorage with great snorkeling.
The Beach Bar is open! Pets welcome.
We shared Ditlef with a handful of other boats.
The dogs got to go for a real walk.
We went over to Maho Bay on St. John’s but only stayed one night because the internet was not good and we had to keep Mak connected for school work.
Our next stop was Magen’s Bay on the north side of St. Thomas. The beach here is one mile long of beautiful white sand. You must have good timing for entering and exiting this bay, as the north swells can make the process very uncomfortable if not. The bay was very empty of other boats and the beach deserted. We got excited thinking we had our own private beach.
As it turns out, the governor closed all beaches from April 6 to April 20. And they were serious. The National Guard was out patrolling the beach everyday from sunup to sundown. This may not seem like a big deal except you could not even walk across the beach to get to the road to go for a walk. We were essentially stuck on the boat or swimming around the boat.
We did find this small spit of sand that we could swim over to. As long as we stayed in the water they let us be there. We were able to have Chance play fetch and Caper could swim and eat bubbles.
Dolphins came into Megans Bay to visit one day…
We all found plenty to do during this no land time…
The girls did schoolwork and drank root beer together while Chance supervised (napped).
Ashley crafted things with treasures from the sea.
Addie relaxed with her iPad watching YouTube and listening to show-tunes.
Mak enjoyed downtime listening to music.
The dogs made sure to keep a close watch on Shannon.
Addie practiced her modeling skills.
We even found Kenny Chesney’s house on St. John’s.
We had a simple Easter.
We missed Ella!! Looks cold in Boone. We think it actually snowed.
It was a great visit with Mak!
One last kiss…
See you soon Mak!
We spent two nights at the dock in Charlotte Amelia doing laundry and re-provisioning. This was our first dock time since early January.
An added benefit was we got to eat take-out food from Tickles Pub, so we did, breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was a nice treat!
We went to the local grocery to provision the boat for the next couple of weeks. Look what we found here in St. Thomas, USVI!
Then it was back to the anchor and back on the hunt for more treasures from the sea. The beaches are even back open now!
This starfish has a diameter of 12 inches. He does not look the same once he dies. so we left him to enjoy his life.
I bet this sand dollar was amazing to look at when it was alive.
These starfish were dead when we found them.
Caper and Chance have their own sea treasures (fish) they like to hunt for.
Shannon stayed busy fixing things.
And making us yummy dinners of homemade french fries with chili cheese sauce and of course an order of plain fries. Can you guess which one is Addie’s?
The first week of May, Ella and Makenzie returned for another visit. Mak was only going to be on the boat for a week and we had lots to celebrate since we did not know when we will see the girls again. We are headed to Grenada at the end of the month and they are still pretty shut down. No air travel expected into the island until July or even August.
We started our celebration week with Mother’s Day which was actually on the day. Very Cool! Who knows when that will ever happen again!! Super special!!
Next we celebrated Mak’s 20th birthday which is actually on May 26th.
Then we celebrated Ella’s 18th birthday which is on June 21st.
Then mom and dad needed a break for a minute but don’t worry boys we are coming home.
And we celebrated Father’s Day which is actually on June 21st (same day as Ella’s birthday) with a great sail!
Then we had to say bye to Mak. She needed to get back to Boone and start training for her life-guarding job at Grandfather Country Club.
We rented a car and drove around St. Thomas to show Ella some of the sights. This is Magens Bay where we were anchored just a week or so ago.
What an amazing view up here from Sir France Drake’s Lookout. He would stand here and watch for enemy ships. We then went down for a swim and some beach time.
It was awesome having Ella with us for an extra week. We were very sad to see her go. Wish she could have stayed longer.
Addie shared a lot of info in her posts about the new friends we made this spring, but I had to include this photo here too. Getting to visit and dine with Bob, Louis, Mimi, Fabio, Rita and Patrick at the restored Fortuna Mill Plantation was a very unique experience. Bob is so kind to open his home to all of us.
He has an amazing view from the top of the windmill of Brewer’s Bay where our boat is.
We hope to see our new boat friends again too!
Maybe we will visit Fabio and Mimi (on Endless Summer) in Italy this fall!
We are excited that we get to see Jake and Stephanie (and Daisy and Roscoe) from Dream Catcher in Grenada later this summer.
The month of May had one more celebration for us…
We celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary on May 19th. We are so fortunate to have each other, our amazing daughters and to be on this incredible adventure!
May 26th we got to sit down and dine inside at the Green House restaurant on St. Thomas. This was the first day for dining inside. It was momentous because we ate here on the last day before they closed everything for Covid on March 20. Hoping it is a sign that things will get back to normal before long.
We are thankful everyday to be on this awesome adventure!
On May 6th I got to have a real treat for dinner because ever since the restaurants closed, Dad has been cooking dinner. Dad’s cooking is really good, but it’s nice to have someone else cook our food. Mimi and Fabio (from Endless Summer) came over to our boat and Fabio cooked Carbonara. Dad made focaccia and salad. Fabio is Italian, he is from Rome. Mimi is from San Francisco. Fabio and Mimi go every year to his mom’s house in Italy for the olive harvest. Mom and Dad warned me there might be meat in the pasta (prosciutto) and thought I would not like it, but the truth is I have not met a pasta or french fries I did not like. Pasta and french fries are my favorite foods. French fries are my first favorite and pasta is my second favorite. I enjoyed the carbonara so much, I had seconds. It was really exciting to have dinner cooked by a true Italian.
Mimi and Fabio sharing the paddle board with Caper until he was ready to swim more. Look at him jump!
Mimi and Fabio cooked for me again a few nights later. This time he cooked saffron risotto and Mimi cooked tiramisu. Turns out, I was up most of the night because my body is not used to caffeine (in the tiramisu); I could hardly fall asleep. It was hard figuring out how to fall asleep since the melatonin I usually take did not work. I finally figured out a way to fall asleep. I read a book on my kindle and then I put a lavender scented eye wrap over my eyes. I woke up in the morning and I was tired.
Caper was helping me do my schoolwork.
A few dayes ago I had a new experience for me. I got to do something I have never done before. I got to go lobster hunting with Mimi, Makenzie, Ella and Mom. The lobster that we tried to find is called the Caribbean Spiny Lobster. The Caribbean Spiny Lobster hides in caves and crevices during the day. They come out at twilight and dinner hours to hunt for crabs and small snails. The lobster will eat most anything it finds. The lobster’s shell looks like a skeleton. The skeleton does not expand because the exoskeleton does not expand. The lobster goes through this process called molting creating another exoskeleton in the process. The lobster population is declining. Scientists do not know if the lobsters are vulnerable to extinction or not. The lobsters are vulnerable to over fishing. People usually catch them with gloved hands because if they do not wear gloves the spine will cut their hand or they catch them with baited fishing traps. Dad tried to catch them with the speargun but he could not get any.
Caribbean Spiny Lobster
One of our last nights in St. Thomas, Mom, Dad, Patrick, Rita, Cara,(our friends from Bella), Mimi, Fabio (Endless Summer) and I went to Bob Apfel’s house for dinner and a hangout. Bob’s house is a restored sugar plantation on St Thomas which is where they would make sugar and rum in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Bob gave us a tour of the Fortuna Plantation. The plantation is like a very nice series of cabins with many kitchens, dens, and bedrooms. It would make a good bed and breakfast. One of the outdoor rooms was a screening room which is where we watched the movie called, Where the Boys Are. This movie came out in 1960. I liked the movie. For dinner dad made steaks and Fabio made pasta with peas and mushrooms and I had a side of carrots. It was delicious but there was so much of it, that I was full. I was so full that I almost fell asleep when Bob was reading and telling about the history of his house. A famous author named John Patrick once lived there. After dinner we hiked up to Bob’s friend Louie’s house. His house was originally owned by Eleanor Heckert whose 1968 novel, Muscovado, tells the history of Bob’s house. Robert Ludlum owned Louie’s house for a long time and wrote the Born Identity books while there. It was cool getting to see both houses and learning about the history of each house. Another thing that was fun was getting to meet Louie and meeting Louie’s dogs.
Us on top of the sugar cane wind mill with Bob. Aventis is in the bay behind us.
A statue in front of the fountain at Bob’s house. These statues were put here when the movie, Weekend at Bernies 2, was filmed there. Nice kitty!
We are leaving the USVI this weekend and heading to Grenada! Talk to you next time from Grenada!
It is March and time to have some fun with friends, and Mak and Ella celebrating their college spring break! The Coronavirus is starting to cause some concerns and travel is being discouraged. However, this did not stop Makenzie, Ella, plus their friends, Anna, and Lily, from coming to spend a week with us on the boat.
It takes an early morning flight and a stopover in FL, but they do not mind.
Welcome to Spring Break 2020!!
The girls took a taxi to Brewers Bay on St. Thomas where we were anchored. We picked them up on the beach in the dinghy.
We are very excited to have them on board!
Our first stop was Maho Bay on St. John’s.
We did lots of relaxing in the water:
And paddle boarding:
Anna, Makenzie, and Chance. Mak sure does miss Chance when she is away!
Lily and Ella hanging out on the beach:
Anna, Makenzie, Ella, and Lily walking on Maho beach.
Anna and Mak modeling on the beach:
Addie practicing her modeling skills on Maho Beach:
Makenzie and Anna chilling with the dogs on the boat:
Ella and Lily in the Safari Bus on the way to hit the town (Cruze Bay):
We snorkeled around Maho Bay and saw a bunch of turtles and fish. Caper always wanted to come with us!
On one of the days, even the sun had a corona!
We made our way from St. John’s over to the island of Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. It is a short sail, taking just over an hour.
The girls were so excited to get to Jost, they swam to shore:
And headed straight to get Painkillers at the famous Soggy Dollar Bar!
Of course, this is also a good place to hang out at the boat, enjoy a cold one, and be kept company by Caper swimming around.
The next day we dinghy’d over to the next bay to check out Foxy’s Bar. Foxy’s on Jost Van Dyke is always a good place to enjoy a cold beverage.
We try hard to keep guests happy and hydrated!
And ourselves of course 😉
Lily, Mak, and Anna at Foxy’s:
After Foxy’s, we all headed over to Soggy Dollar and Hendo’s Hideout.
We were all trying to make sense of Corona, not really knowing what was about to come.
After lunch and hanging out, we decided to get ice cream:
After a couple of days at Jost Van Dyke, we had to head back to St. Thomas so the girls could fly home. We took a family picture on the boat at St. Thomas:
We then went to lunch at a cool restaurant (Stone House Cafe) in downtown St. Thomas before putting them in a taxi to the airport.
The girls at St. Thomas airport:
Ella and Lily on the plane getting ready to fly home:
While the girls were waiting at the airport, we sailed the boat back to Brewers Bay, which is next to the airport runway. We took a video of the girl’s plane taking off:
We are grateful for this week with all of our girls and their friends! While they were here, the university extended spring break, closed all dorms and buildings, and moved all classes online. The girls are headed back to a new world and they weren’t excited to what was coming up for them.
With a few days on our own, we headed over to Norman’s Cay in the BVIs and tried to teach the dogs a new trick.
A dog ramp attached to the back of the boat is supposed to give easy access in and out of the water. Caper used it just fine. Chance really was not having any part of it! We even tried to get him to fetch a stick – his favorite game on the beach. Unfortunately, he really only likes getting into the water from the beach.
Resting on the trampoline after play time:
Our friends, Don and Melissa Marlett, came to visit us in late March and stayed for a week. We took them to some of our favorite spots. On their first night we decided to go out to eat in Charlotte Amalie because we knew that eating out would be limited for the rest of the week with beach bars and most restaurants starting to close. It was a wet and bumpy dinghy ride, going against the current and into the wind. We were all soaked by the time we got to shore. Turned out to be well worth it; the food and drinks were yummy at the Green House. The USVI’s closed all restaurants for sit down dining the very next day.
The next morning before sailing out, we took the dogs to the beach on Hassel Island. There is a swing on Hassel, so we all took some time to just hang out.
Don and Melissa on their first sail aboard Aventis:
We spent the next few nights at Ditliff Bay on St. John’s. We love this bay because the beach is dog friendly, it is an easy swim or paddle boat ride from the boat to the shore, and there is good snorkeling. It is usually pretty quiet too, with only a handful of boats. The dogs love to paddle board to the beach.
Rainbow after a quick morning shower:
Our next stop was Maho Bay on St. John’s. Sadly, the Paddle Up Tiki Bar was closed, but we had no problem finding drinks at the Aventis floating bar. Plus, all old salty dogs are welcome!
Addie and Mel did some paddle boarding at Maho.
We all also had fun jumping in the water and hanging out by the boat.
We saw lots of turtles at Maho:
And beautiful sunsets:
We spent the Marlett’s last two nights at Waterlemon Cay on St. John’s. We hiked around the water’s edge and then went a short distance up the hill to Annaberg Sugar Plantation. Addie did a great job teaching everyone how the plantation worked.
Here is Aventis in Watermelon Cay:
Shannon and Don hiked another area of Waterlemon Cay and found the old plantation owner’s house.
And local wildlife…
It was a relaxing and fun week with the Marletts!
After dropping Don and Melissa off in Charlotte Amalie, we sailed back over to Brewers Bay. After a great month with all of our guests, the boys were depressed to be alone. They had been spoiled with so much attention!!
Brewers Bay sunset:
So, living on a boat is pretty much an isolated way of life already. In normal times, other than going to the grocery store and going on hikes, we may leave the boat a couple of times per week to eat lunch out. This month, with the restaurants and bars serving take-out only, not being able to eat out was the only thing that really changed for us. There were really no known cases of the virus in the USVI during March, so we felt pretty safe. At this point, our plan is to head over to the BVI for a week or so, and then start sailing through the Caribbean toward Grenada, where we are going to live on Aventis during hurricane season (July-October).
Coming Up Next Month: Another fire on the boat!, Makenzie social distances on the boat with us, and the impact of covid-19 shutting the world down
Spring Break 2020 Yay! We had my sisters Makenzie and Ella, and their friends Lily and Anna, come visit us on the boat for spring break. Which means I got to skip school while the girls were here! We got the girls at Brewers Bay in St. Thomas US Virgin Islands. The next day we went sailing from St. Thomas to Maho Bay on St. John’s. We went to the beach at Maho and just hung out. I went walking down the beach with Makenzie and Anna and saw a lot of people. I then went with Makenzie and Anna to follow a cute boy. We ended up at the beach bar, where they got drinks and got me a diet coke. Makenzie stepped on a bee and it’s stinger got in her foot. She was limping and whining like crazy when Mom and Dad put a needle in her foot to get the stinger out. We then ate at the beach bar. The seats were like pods or domes with cushions in them, except they were made of tree bark instead of glass.
We went to the town of Cruz Bay on St. John’s a couple of days later and explored. We passed by one of the restaurants where I had a drink last month with Dad and Kent Meredith that had pesky flies in it. Mom, Dad and I got a drink at a bar while the girls went shopping. We then had lunch at a restaurant called the Tap’n’Still, that was a “Come Back Shack” and “Five Guys” all in one. They had Five Guy’s seating area and hotdogs and Come Back Shack’s ordering system and french fries. Later I went shopping with the girls and got salt water taffy while they got stickers and t-shirts.
Taxi ride going to Cruz Bay on a rainy day.
Tap’n’Still – yum!
We then sailed from St John’s to Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. We anchored in White Bay where Soggy Dollar Beach Bar and Hendo’s Hideout are. Our first stop was to Foxy’s for a drink. The dinghy ride to get there was a wet one since it was one bay over and windy. Next we went to Soggy Dollar for a drink and then to Hendo’s to get food. We hung out on the beach, swam and watched boats come in. There were different kinds of boats; there was not just one type of boat. I saw mono-hulls, catamarans, speed boats and even a spa boat, where you could get massages. We then got ice cream. I got cherry vanilla. It was good. It was really good but not as good as the cookies and cream last week. The girl’s last day before leaving for the airport we took them to a restaurant called, Stone House Cafe. After we ate we said goodbye to the girls; Mom and Dad had tears in their eyes.
The girls had fun at Foxy’s.
Tears in their eyes!
In late March, we had our friends Don and Melissa Marlett down on the boat for a visit. We went to pick them up from St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. I stayed home and watched the dogs while Mom and Dad went to pick up Don and Mel in the dinghy.
The dogs were very happy to see the Marletts.
We hung out on the boat with Don and Mel and played fibbage a couple of nights. On their second day we sailed to Ditliff Bay in St. John’s. The water was rough with big waves, which made Mel and I get a bit seasick on the way over. We spent a couple of nights at Ditliff Bay swimming and snorkeling. We saw a starfish! Mom really wanted to have a starfish on the boat for a long time, so she went and killed the starfish. That is how she got nicknamed Savage.
We sailed over to Maho Bay in St. John’s, no one got seasick, thank goodness! We just chilled at Maho Bay. The next day Mel and I went kayaking on the paddle board over to the beach. We swam off the beach and saw four turtles, a sting ray, plus lots of fish.
After a couple of nights at Maho Bay, we sailed over to Waterlemon Cay and spent a couple of nights there. We took Don and Mel to the Annaberg Sugar Mill Plantation. We hiked up to the plantation by walking near the water from our boat.
Nobody got seasick today.
Dad and Don hiked up to the top of this hill overlooking Aventis.
Early the next morning we went to Hassel Bay on St.Thomas to take Don and Mel to the airport. When Don and Mel left we moved back to our favorite spot at Brewer’s Bay and watched their plane fly out.
It is real now. It is just the three of us and the dogs enjoying boat life. Sadly, we put Mak and Ella on a plane in George Town, Bahamas on December 30th with the thought that we would stay and explore the area for a few days and then start sailing south. A few days turned into a few weeks. The winds became unsettled, blowing 25-35mph and we just had to wait it out.
Sunsets in George Town were pretty nice though!
Caper and Chance learned to paddle board with Shannon.
Long walks on the beach. The beaches in the Exumas are about the best in the world.
Cruisers built a cool beach shack on Sand Dollar Beach where we anchored most of the time.
Stocking Island, Chat n Chill bay area.
Loved just hanging out on Sand Dollar Beach.
Chance enjoying a cold one after a beach walk.
We went back to the Chat n Chill a few times.
Enjoying the Junkanoo party one night in George Town.
It isn’t always fun and games. We had an electrical fire one night due to a loose screw. It took us a couple of days to find new wire and make the repairs.
After three weeks anchored just off Stocking Island, Exuma (George Town), we began to make our way southeast. We spent 4 days in Thompson’s Bay Long Island, Bahamas Jan 15-19. We got to see an amazing natural wonder, Dean’s Blue Hole. You are just walking along the edge in knee deep water and then it drops straight down. It is 633 feet at the deepest spot. Something you really have to see to understand its beauty.
Dean’s Blue Hole, Long Island, Bahamas
January 18th. We had fun celebrating Addie’s 15th Birthday! It included lots of yummy food at Addie’s request – bacon, eggs, hash browns, and lemon muffins for breakfast and Shannon’s yummy fried rice and lo mein noodles for dinner.
We did our first sail into the night Jan 19-20. We traveled 110 NM from 7:00am to 2:00am. This was a test for Addie and Ashley as they had never sailed past sunset before much less into the night. We made it all the way into Abraham’s Bay at Mayaguana in the middle of the night without hitting a reef or any coral. Thank goodness for great charts.
Amazingly clear water at Mayaguana! Lots of sand dollars.
Not a lot on Mayaguana…
Still have wrecks on the beaches from past hurricanes.
The winds picked up again so we spent January 20-26 just hanging out in Abraham’s Bay, Mayaguana, Bahamas. Mayaguan is the eastern most Bahamas island. We head out east in the Atlantic ocean from here and then turn south all the way to Puerto Rico. Mayaguana is the last place we can use our Bahamas money. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything to buy!
On the morning of January 27th we lifted anchor and set sail for Puerto Rico. The distance was 470 NM. The plan was to travel at an average speed of 5NM per hour, if we were lucky maybe 6NM per hour. We were ready for 4 days and nights of non-stop traveling. Winds were light and seas were calm for most of the trip so there was not much sailing – mostly motoring.
Plenty of time for school.
And Hanging out!
Did I say Calm Seas????
We even caught a blue fin tuna.
Beautiful sunsets.
You can’t miss the cruise ships at night! This was a Disney ship about 5 miles from our location.
Our first 4-day passage from Bahamas to Puerto Rico was a success!
Land Ho! Made it to Puerto Rico!
From our anchorage we could see the Conquistador Waldorf Astoria resort. We stayed at this resort about 8 years ago with the girls. They loved riding the funicular down the mountain to go to the water park and beach.
We hung out in Puerto Rice for about 4 days stocking up on provisions from the grocery store and some needed items at West Marine. We took some time to research our best cellular options, which becomes a very big deal once you head south from the Bahamas.
Caper waited patiently on the boat while we shopped.
And checked out the sites…
But our best find in PR was Ocean Lab Brewery!
After a few days, we left Puerto Rico…
Aventis arriving in St. Thomas in the USVI where we met up with our friends Kent and Kathy Meredith on Wind Ensemble.
We spent the next few weeks exploring St. Thomas and St. John’s.
We spent lots of time looking under the water.
We checked things out from a higher perspective.
Keeping good company.
Enjoying the Paddle In Tiki Bar on Maho Beach.
Shannon was not paddling fast enough, so Caper jumped off the board and swam for the beach.
One of Addie’s favorite hikes, the Annaberg Sugar Plantation on St. John’s.
We got to celebrate Kathy’s birthday!
Magens Bay on St. Thomas really is a beautiful place.
One of the best things about living on a boat – your sunset view is different every night.
We spent the last week of February over in the British Virgin Islands. It was really neat to be there on our own boat and not have to always grab a mooring ball or feel like we were on a tight charter boat schedule. We visited some of our favorite places.
Cooper Island is Ashley’s favorite. Great snorkeling, lots of turtles, a coffee shop, ice cream shop and a super fun beach bar.
The Baths on Virgin Gorda
We shared the beach at Prickly Pear with one of the last cruise ship groups to be in the Virgin Islands before being shut down for corona virus.
At Addie’s request we went back to the Soggy Dollar Bar and Hendo’s on Jost Van Dyke. She loves the food at Hendo’s and she knows Mom and Dad love the pain killers at Soggy Dollar.
Even with all the fun exploring, we still make time for school.
So, January and February were big months for us; we went two months without seeing Makenzie and Ella, which was really hard; we had our first overnight passage and our first multi-day passage; we had our first (and hopefully last, boat fire; and we were still figuring out how to be full time cruisers with a teenager and two dogs. We are absolutely having the time of our lives!
Coming Up Next Month: Spring Breakers in the Virgin Islands (and Corona-pocalypse)
After Thanksgiving, we drove back to Hollywood, FL to move the boat to a new slip so that we could stay at Suntex Marina until it was time to leave for the Bahamas in mid-December.
It was a short, but very busy week in FL. We sold “Big Mama” (the van). We cleaned and prepared the inside of the boat to get it ready for Makenzie and Ella to visit. Shannon changed the oil in the engines.
We bought the last of the needed provisions and got them stored.
Never leave home without the Bojangles seasoning and twizzlers.
Hope we have enough beer and paper towels. Our provisions are taking over Addie’s room!
Re-purposed Addie’s shower as storage.
Most important, the wine! 150 bottles stashed across the boat (these are in the floor).
We then drove back to Blowing Rock to move the last of our things out of the house and into a storage unit. December 11 was the big day – we closed on our house!
Goodbye 335 Cool Springs! Thanks for all the amazing memories!!
Makenzie and Ella finished their exams on the 11th. We said goodbye to Julie (Grandma) and Jack and drove to Charlotte to say goodbye to Max and Julia (Grandad and Nana).
Have a great Christmas Grandma! We will be in the Bahamas…
We made it to the boat on December 12th with the plan to head for the Bahamas in just 36 hours.
We put the girls to work cleaning the boat.
As a reward for all their hard work, we took them to Jaxson’s Ice Cream Shop.
Addie got a rootbeer float with black cherry ice cream:
Hopefully this will give us an ice cream fix for a few days…
In preparation for leaving in the dark on the morning of the 14th, we rafted up next to Bella (Patrick and Rita’s Cat).
Thanks so much to our Hollywood Suntex Marina Family! What an amazing year! We will miss you all!
Leaving Florida – plans are to return in 5-10 years!
We had a great 10 hour sail over to South Bimini, Bahamas (about 60NM).
Made it in time to get an early dinner at Sherry’s on the beach.
We spent the next morning exploring Bimini and hanging out by the pool at Big Game Marina where we were docked. The next day we had a great sail over to Gunn Cay for the night so we could leave easily the next morning for Chubb Cay in the Berry Islands.
Discovered a new talent of Shannon’s, Sting Ray Tamer.
Just chillin at our Gunn Cay anchorage after swimming with the rays.
The next day, December 17th, we got up at 4:00am and sailed 13 hours (80NM) to Chubb Cay. It was also Ashley’s birthday! The winds were good, the seas were calm and the whole family was on board! It was a great birthday!
Chubb Cay was just a layover for us. On the 18th we had another long, but fantastic day of sailing as we made our way to Hatchet Bay at Eleuthera, Bahamas (83NM).
This is us entering Hatchet Bay; it is a very protected bay. Can we make it through that opening?
We stayed in Hatchet Bay for 4 nights because of high winds and waves. This gave us lots of time for chilling and relaxing together as a family. We watched movies, played games, ate well, and explored the island!
One day we rented a car and explored north Eleuthera. We found an amazing road side farmer’s market with fresh arugula that Shannon got to pick, a cute little shop in town with local crafts, and a beautiful restaurant on the hilltop with yummy brick oven pizza.
Cheers! That is a cranberry Kalik Bahama beer Addie is trying!
We also visited the glass bridge. This bridge connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Exuma Sound. On one side of the bridge is the Atlantic Ocean and on the other side is the sound. Two completely different worlds colliding! Did I mention it was windy?
Ocean Side……………………………………………………………………………..Sound Side
This is the Atlantic side. Glad we are not out in that.
This is the Exuma Sound side. Our boat is anchored on this side a few miles south of here.
After leaving the glass bridge, we went to Queen’s Bath. On less windy days, it is a natural “hot tub” at lower tides. On our way to find Queen’s Bath:
This is Queen’s Bath. On a calm day people hike down to it and hang out in it. This is as close as we got.
We then stopped and checked out Hatchet Bay Cave.
Hatchet Bay Cave was just hidden in the ground down a dirt road.
After Hatchet Bay, we took advantage of a day where the wind was not 25+ and sailed 6 hours (37NM) south to Rock Sound – another protected harbor on south Eleuthera. Going to check out the town at Rock Sound:
We found this really cool natural wonder, a blue hole. Ocean water has found it’s way inland far beneath the surface and made 300 foot deep swimming pool. Hard to tell here because it is a cloudy day but the water is crystal clear.
Everyone explored Rock Sound. We also explored a cool local bar on the beach ;).
The wind direction shifted so the next day we moved to the west side of the bay to be better protected and found a great beach to play fetch.
And work on our tans…
At last it is Christmas Eve! We celebrated by opening gifts and enjoying a wonderful steak dinner.
Did I mention the we were eating well on the boat?
Merry Christmas from s/v Aventis!
Caper and Chance playing peek-a-book through an open hatch down into Ella’s cabin:
It was now time to make another jump. On Christmas day we motored 44NM across the Exuma Sound to the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park. We anchored at Hog’s Cay and had it all to ourselves.
Shannon tried out his new fishing pole on the way over. Caper was ready to help.
Caper and Chance love the boat life!
We had this little anchorage (actually a mooring ball) between Warderick Wells and Hogs Cay all to ourselves.
It does not get much prettier than this.
The place where we anchored (moored) used to be a pirate’s lair. Maybe this is why the beach was called…
Life is Good on our private beach in paradise on Christmas Day!
After just one night in the park we continued to head south down the Exumas. We traveled 38NM to Little Farmer’s Cay.
We enjoyed a delicious dinner of fried chicken and lobster at Ocean Cabin. We enjoyed an evening of private dining (we were the only ones there!) with the owner and his wife cooking for us.
Early the next morning we used the good weather window to make our last jump 45NM to get us to George Town, Exuma. It was not an ideal sailing day with waves at 4-5 feet and us heading directly into them and the wind, but we needed to get George Town so we persevered.
We made it and so did a whole bunch of other boaters.
Now it was time for some fun, exploration and beach time.
Hanging out at the Chat n Chill on Stocking Island.
We had an awesome Christmas vacation and the start of our full-time cruising adventure on Aventis with our girls. It was sad to see Makenzie and Ella leave, and we look forward to their return.
Best wishes for an amazing 2020 from Aventis and the Thompson’s. May you be filled with love, surrounded by good friends, have good health, and experience many wonderful adventures!
In January we are planning to continue sailing southeast in order to get to the virgin islands by the end of February… We’ll see!
