It all started about a year ago, Thanksgiving 2000 to be exact, this quest for fun, sun and rum.  The friends were assembled for dinner and there was much talk of a sailing adventure to end all sailing adventures.  After many months of arm-twisting and browbeating, the group of ten or so potential candidates was whittled down to four true adventure seekers.

Kevin, Kerrie, Michelle, and Roy - the crew of Porto Flip (don’t ask)
Check out the code flags on their crew shirts

Kevin was a veteran of many a bareboat trip and takes the term “bareboat” seriously, much to the delight of our neighbors at anchor!  Kerrie was the rookie on board but now seawater flows through her veins.  Michelle has a little Joshua Slocum in her (ooh that sounds rude) and can’t resist the call of the southern latitudes.  Finally, Roy, that’s me, well I get to come because I’m married to Michelle and I can’t stand to see her having fun without me!

I have never been so prepared for a vacation in my life.  I scoured the Internet for any and all information pertaining to St. Vincent and the Grenadines.  I even posted a desperate cry for help on the alt.rec.cruising Newsgroup and that’s where I ran into Rob, who runs this website.  Once I saw The Usual Suspects site and read of their adventures, I knew we had made the right choice and we were off to paradise.

The three weeks we spent between St. Vincent and Grenada can only be described as incredible.  In all, we sailed over 250 nautical miles and shared adventures much like the ones I’m sure you have read about already right here.  Dinner at the Firefly, dinner at the Salt Whistle Bay Resort, dinner at PSV, okay we like going out for nice dinners! 

My new best friend Mr. Plat put on one of the most fun dinners we had.  It was a beautiful starry night on Jamesby Island in the Tobago Cays.  We feasted on fish, conch, chicken and salad.   

 

 

 

 

 

We received extensive special treatment from Mr. Plat, Mousey and Boutique once they found out we knew Rob and the crew from The Usual Suspects.  This is a ploy we would use often on the trip and it always paid off.

Just a little sidebar here, but there is one thing that The Usual Suspects website ignores.  It was a very important part of life for the crew of Porto Flip.  It is known as “Hairoun”, frequently mis-pronounced as “heroine” by slightly inebriated sailors.

Note the slightly glazed-over look caused by too much Hairoun and too little sleep.  It is the homebrew from the island of St. Vincent and I found it vastly superior to all other barley-based beverages available on the trip.  We required so much of this malty delight that a dinghy would no longer suffice in it’s transport, and we were forced to pull up to Lambi’s dock on Union Island to load case upon case.  I wonder how Rob & Company missed this, as I imagine that it eats up a fair portion of the provisioning money on their trips as well.  

Another interesting character we got to meet was Robert “Righteous” Lewis.  Rastafarian Guru on the beautiful island of Mayreau, I had heard of him through this website and Chris Doyle’s Guide to the Windward Islands. I was impressed with his work with the local youth population.  I also knew of his obsession with the late, great Bob Marley (“he’s not dead, he’s just restin’ mon”).  I picked up this great CD for him here in Calgary before I left.  It is a laid-back remix of some of the original Bob Marley hits called “Dreams of Freedom.”  He seemed genuinely grateful for the gift but I never got to sit down and listen to it with him so if any of you are ever there ask him how he liked the CD and let me know via Rob.  The village on Mayreau is a magical place and must be what the Caribbean was like fifty years ago.

One rarely visited site by sailors is the cemetery just down the hill from the church towards Salt Whistle Bay.  The gravestones are simple and rustic and the place has an incredible air of charm and serenity.  I’m sure it is a wonderful place to spend eternity.

 

We arrived many days later at the most southerly point on our trip - the lush tropical island of Grenada and the stunning anchorage in Prickly Bay.  It was a nice 8-hour, 40-mile run from Tyrrel Bay on Carriacou.  As soon as the anchor was set, the local Stardust/Sunsail rep came over to let us know about the tropical storm forming to the northeast of us.  His name was Selwin Maxwell and he assured us we were safe there as the low was due to pass north of St. Vincent that night.  While he was at our boat we tried to offer him a cold Hairoun but he would not comply.  We told him we were interested in seeing the sights on land and he mentioned he ran a taxi-tour service and would be glad to show us around.  This was the best decision we made throughout the entire vacation.  Selwin was an intelligent, soft-spoken local with a vast knowledge of the island; it’s plants, animals, people, and history.  That tour wins the award for “Best Day Ever” on the trip.

We sampled overproof rum concoctions at “Pappy's Products” at 10am , swam under a waterfall at noon, visited a 300 year old spice plant at 2pm, and completed the tour in the rainforest at Grand Etang Lake.  Selwyn sent us on our way with a bevy of tropical fruit that he gathered along the way.  We returned to Porto Flip with the weirdly orange “Mommy Apples” and the largest “Paw Paw” in the world!  If you ever go to Grenada, locate Selwin at Maxwell Adventure Tours and not only will you have a great day, you will make a great new friend.  

     

Our time in Grenada had come to an end and it was time to start heading north.  We only had five days to get back to St. Vincent or the people at Stardust would come looking for their boat.  I had noticed at anchor in Prickly Bay that the traveler car was showing signs of metal fatigue so I strapped a line around to hold it secure just in case.  Well, guess what!

As soon as we pulled out of the bay a gust of wind filled the main and the mainsheet block broke away from the traveler car with a violent bang.  Luckily the line I secured held preventing the boom from flailing about wildly.  We dropped the main and continued motoring toward Point Saline while we discussed our options.  Here was our situation; we were a half-hour into a 40-mile trek to windward and all of a sudden we had no mainsail.  We rounded the point and kept heading north up the coast while Michelle and I worked on a temporary fix that would allow us to use a reefed main.  We needed to motorsail or we would never make it back to Tyrrel Bay before sundown.  With the patch in place we were able to bring our average boat speed above 5 knots and that would put us at our destination at 6:15pm with sundown at 6:32 we seemed to be okay.  Just as we approached the northern point of Grenada we hit our first squall and seven more followed it before we reached Carriacou.  The wind was so intense it carried salt water from the waves through the air.  The rain fell in horizontal waves through the cockpit.

Needless to say, when we arrived the crew cracked open four frosty Hairouns and Michelle and I each enjoyed a large tumbler of rum straight up!  We all sat in the saloon and laughed (some cried) and remembered the long day and how it had brought us together and how no one will ever really understand what we and gone through.  We had reached the epiphany, we were a team.

To say this was a trip of a lifetime lessens its impact by reducing it to a cliché.  It was so much more than that and I believe it meant something quite different to all the individuals who made up the crew of Porto Flip.  To me, travel is about experiences and people.  This trip was “experience overload” and I loved every minute of it.  Also, I met some great new people and got closer to some people I thought I knew already.  That was the best part, by far.

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Roy has set up a website at http://members.home.net/r.burley/svg/portoflip.html