Terry
Shuster and I have been corresponding for about a year over the
Internet. He is interested in charter boat ownership with Barefoot, and just like I did before taking the plunge, chartered
a boat from them to try it and them out. When he returned from his adventure,
he sent me the following note. Wish I were there! -
(Rob C.)
* * *
Hi Robert;
I thought I would send a note
regarding our charters last month, just to let you know how they
went. We were scheduled to take Barefoot’s Beneteau
38 out for 10 days, followed by the Jeanneau 42 for another 10 days.
Both
of these boats were on the “For Sale” list so we were very
interested in their shape and whether we thought we could enjoy
using them. Unfortunately, we never got to sail the Jeanneau
42 since it had mechanical problems. Anyway, I’ll give you
a run-down on our trip.
Getting to SVG was
interesting. We had to go through JFK and were pretty late
getting out so we spent the night in Barbados at a great
hotel. Unfortunately, we stayed at the airport too long, trying
to get on a LIAT flight out of Barbados. We didn’t give up
until about 9 at night, so we were unable to take full advantage of
Sam Lord’s Castle as we might have. Next time, if
we have the same circumstances, we will accept the delay and go to
the hotel early and have a couple of Rummers.
We did make it to SVG
the next morning, and Phyllis was there to meet us (we recognized
her immediately thanks to your website!). After stashing our
provisions, sitting through a chart briefing and boat
check-out, we went up to see Utan (the bartender), hoping to have just a quick
Rummer before heading over to Bequia. Well, you can probably
figure out where that went. About 2 nuclear Rummers into it,
we asked Barefoot to move our boat to a mooring, and after a
couple of more Rummers, we were just barely able to find our way
to the mooring. That guy sure knows how to start your
charter, as I recall.
The next morning we were off to
Bequia. We wanted to spend one night. We called African
Pride who came out to give us a mooring, but our boat
wouldn’t shift out of forward. Fortunately, we approach
moorings very slowly, but when Kristin tried to go into reverse,
the boat shot forward almost taking out the mooring ball and African
Pride himself. I’m sure AP was convinced at this point
that we had no idea what we were doing. After several
attempts to get the boat into neutral, with the AP moorings man
continuing to tell us (from a distance) that the propeller
was still going forward, we shut down the engine and called Barefoot.
They called Fixman in
Admiralty Bay and a great guy named Cheyenne came out, took the
whole shift mechanism apart, and found out that the piece holding
the cable in place had broken/rusted off. Therefore, the
outer portion of the cable was free to move and did so whenever we
moved the shift. We had no ability to move the inner portion
of the cable independent of the outer portion, and the boat
wouldn’t shift out of gear. Cheyenne spent the day
fixing it, and that involved welding a new piece on.
After, we went in for a drink at Mac’s.
What a great place. In fact, we loved Bequia so much that we
ended up staying 3 nights. We went to the turtle sanctuary,
had rotis at the Green Boley, went to Hope Beach and met
Jacob Scott (the artist), luckily stumbled upon the annual
Fisherman’s Festival (or contest), characterized by lots of loud
music and happy people, and generally hung around the bay.
Evenings were spent at Mac’s or the Gingerbread, or
with a bottle of wine in the cockpit. Kristin is convinced that
the bottles of wine in SVG are much smaller than at home since
they disappear so much quicker. I recall having the same
problem in the BVI. We did have a fair bit of rain and wind
but we were tied to 3 engine blocks so we didn’t get too
nervous.
We finally headed toward Mayreau.
After a pretty bouncy sail down with a double reefed main and a
fair bit too much wind, we decide to go to Saline Bay because it
looked easy, and at that point we wanted easy. Besides, Salt
Whistle looked crowded. Anyway, we loved Saline Bay. A
great offshore wind and open all the way to Union. However,
we got in so late we didn’t make it to the village (we did come
back later). We planned to go to Tobago Cays the next
morning and when we woke up, it was windy. We started
calling that early breeze our “early morning wake-up
howl.”
We thrashed and bashed the hour and a half around the
corner and over to the Cays. It was spectacularly beautiful.
The sun was out and the color of the water was marvelous.
We didn’t leave for 3
days. We had lots of wind and some rain, but it felt like
paradise. Snorkeling was as you said it would be, better to
the NE, but we enjoyed the whole thing. The Boat Boys
were fun. Sydney seemed a really great guy. John, on Mr.
Fabulous was also fun to visit with, and Walton Bob would
make our day with fresh bread in the morning and words of wisdom
about Caribbean women. These three were charming, entertaining
and made us feel at home. We also met and bought some
jewelry from Tyrone Sam. The rest of the guys left us
alone if we just said “no thank you.” The advice from your
site and your descriptions of the Boat Boys was right on. We
were having such a good time in the Cays that when our
refrigeration went out and Barefoot asked us to go to
Union to get it fixed, we suggested instead that we would just buy
ice for the next few days and then get reimbursed. It worked
well having John or Walton Bob bring ice and bread, and of
course, we now have too many T-shirts from Sydney.
Normal trade winds had returned,
so we headed upwind and up-current to Mustique. Not very
smart. I think our VMG was about 3 knots at best, but we got
there and had a great dinner at Basil’s, preceded and
followed by Rummers. It was a beautiful evening. Since
we often anchor in our Channel Islands Park out here, we didn’t
find the anchorage at Mustique to be especially rolly. Maybe
we just got lucky.
We hiked to Lagoon Bay the next
morning, shopped at the village, went to the bakery, and Kristin
and I had a special lunch up at the Firefly. It was
our anniversary and we got the best table overlooking the Bay. After a couple of
Rummers (it’s amazing how you can
get to like those Rummers), we had a great lunch, a couple more
Rummers, lots of laughs, chatted with the staff, and then
wobbled back down the hill to the beach. Later that night, we
made another visit to Basil’s, and the next morning we
went ashore very early and got in line for bakery goods.
What can I say? Mustique was a complete success.
We were now about 9 days into a 10-day charter, so we headed back to Bequia. Just after we entered the
Bay and started lunch, Kristin thought she lost a filling since
there was something hard and shiny in her mouth with the
lunch. We decided to head over to St. Vincent since we still
planned to be in SVG about 12 more days, and it was about 2 PM
Friday, so we thought there might still be a chance of finding a
dentist open. We called Barefoot and Jasmine arranged
for Phyllis to take Kristin to a dentist as soon as we entered the
Blue Lagoon. The dentist turned out to be excellent.
While I was waiting, Utan nearly killed me with Rummers. I ended up immobilized in the corner by the parrots, chatting
with them and anyone else who happened by. When Kristin got
back, we had dinner at Barefoot with one of the staff
(Manfred) and spent another great night in the Blue Lagoon.
I understand why you think the Blue Lagoon should be a destination
in itself. The view is great and Young Island Cut is an
adventure readily available by dinghy.
It was Saturday and time for
our switch to the next boat, the Jeanneau 42. We were
excited because we were really interested in this particular
boat. Kristin likes a Jeanneau - I wouldn’t even have
to talk her into it if we bought a Jeanneau. This one also
had the added advantage of having a great V-berth. After all of our provisions and gear were piled on, one of the
guys at Barefoot noticed a pinhole leak in the oil pan,
apparently from a salt water drip. This boat wasn’t going
anywhere because a pinhole can become a crater pretty
quickly. Barefoot shifted us to the other Beneteau
405 Long Reach (should have been Long Beach in our honor)
and we spent a considerable amount of time moving provisions from
one to the other. Long Reach also had a battery problem so
we were stuck for the day while they fixed it.
It was off to Lime N’ Pub for a
Rummer, a roti, and another night in the Blue Lagoon. We didn’t
mind another night in the BL because on Sunday, Kristin’s father
and her two teenage daughters were flying in, so we couldn’t go
too far anyway. We spent the next day kicking around the cut
and Kristin’s relatives actually arrived early in the afternoon
on Sunday. They had a trouble free ride down and were able
to catch an earlier flight from Barbados. We had dinner at
the Beachcombers, they spent the night there, and we prepared for
an early start the next day. The next morning we left in
spite of a short in the ignition switch that nobody seemed to
think was serious. “Just jiggle it
Mon.” We did and it
worked, more or less, for the rest of the trip.
The next morning the weather was
great and after a bit of debate regarding our destination, the
Tobago Cays won. Off we went and had a nice, peaceful
sail/motorsail down to the Cays. Perfect when three of your crew
have jet lag. The trip down was uneventful, the destination
of course, beautiful. We spent three more nights in the Tobago Cays.
We had a fair amount of rain and wind, squalls at almost anytime,
but we snorkeled in between and I don’t have to tell you how
beautiful those squalls can be when they are coming at you from
the east (as long as it’s not a direct hit). Much
of the time the sky was gray and at one point, the easterly winds
went all the way around to the west. Fortunately, that
particular squall went over Canouan to the North, so we got to
watch it, not live it.
We had lots of visits with the
boat Boys and got to know Sydney better. During one of the
particularly rainy sessions, Sydney came over again and
jumped on the boat, so we went below and had a great discussion
about Rastafarians, religion, drugs, women’s power, etc.
He also told us there may be an attempt to centralize the mooring
balls in Clifton to reduce the amount of Boat Boy hassles.
Sydney says Union is changing very much, especially since the last
election and he is very positive about the future.
Kristin’s father and kids enjoyed the Boat Boys almost as much
as we did. Maybe during the high season they can get a
bit overwhelming, but for us, it was just right.
The weather stayed windy and
rainy but eventually we needed to move. So, off to Mayreau
we went. Again, we went to Saline Bay since we wanted the shortest walk up
that steep hill.
When we got there, the whole crew got off the boat and went to the
village. I joined them after I was sure the next squall was
going to miss us. I headed for the village and found my
crew, slightly Rummered, at Righteous and de Youths.
Robert was there visiting with them and none of my crew were
interested in going anyplace. We spent the afternoon at that
one table, then went back to the boat to barbecue. We had
great provisioning from Barefoot, so we were required to
actually eat on the boat sometimes, even when great restaurants
loomed on the hill. We had a great night at Saline Bay and a
great view of Union to watch as the sun set.
Time was moving and we also
had to move again. We headed over to Clifton and ran through
the harbor, but decided not to stay. That was probably the
only decision I would do differently. I wanted to go to
Petite Martinique for lunch and then Mopion for some
snorkeling. We got to PM and filled up with water, but
the Palm Beach no longer had a mooring ball and everything seemed
pretty slow so we headed over to Petit St. Vincent. We
anchored on the shallow spot in hopes of seeing your light show at
night, but it wasn’t to be. All of the squalls that missed
us over past few days, well, the weather made up for it over the
next few hours. It rained and rained and, well you get
it.
The next day, in spite of my need
to see Mopion, we headed out in the morning and threaded our way
between squalls as we headed to Bequia. It took us about 8
hours. Kristin’s family had not seen Bequia yet, so we
thought they could use a couple of days there. After a long
day, with relatively great sailing but bumpy conditions, we made
it to Port Elizabeth.
Bequia was just as charming the
second time through. Although we had some rain and lots of
lightening at night, we enjoyed it again. Dinner at Mac’s,
drinks at the Gingerbread (live music), some hiking, fresh
laundry from Daffodil and generally a great time. We hiked
along the beach trying to get down to Lower Bay but the rain
stopped us. We talked with some cruisers, ran into a taxi
driver we got to know, and hung around the bay. Bequia is a
great way to end or start a charter. After a couple of days,
it was sail back to the Blue Lagoon, check off of the boat and
into Beachcombers for a restful final night, dinner in
SVG, then off to the airport bright and early the next day.
Our flight home wasn’t as fun as
the charter. Mechanical problems forced us to fly very slow
and to land in Puerto Rico instead of Miami. The airport in
San Juan was open after having being closed by the volcanic dust
from Montserrat the day before. Thus, they had two days
worth of travelers to deal with. There wasn’t a hotel room
available in San Juan so we got off to Miami late and stayed there
for the night. I guess it’s all part of going to the
Caribbean.
The trip was a huge success.
We loved SVG and will go back again, probably next year.
There is a lot there we didn’t get to do, and a lot we want to do
again. We had rain and wind about half the time, but it
really didn’t alter our plans very much. The people were
great. Every shop or restaurant we went into seemed to be
staffed with friendly people more than willing to discuss their
island. The whole place felt good to us. There was
also the charm of the off-season, the feeling that we had the
whole place to ourselves. We didn’t get to go scuba diving
and we didn’t spend as much time snorkeling as we wanted, but
that’s what next time is for. We are already talking
about our next visit.
This note turned out to be
much longer than planned. I guess when I start writing about
time in the islands, it’s hard to quit. The advice on your
website was a great help to us, and your assessment of people,
places, and things was just as we found it. I hope you enjoy
your next trip down as much as we enjoyed this one.
All the best,
Terry Shuster
