Advanced Open Water

Well this year we have three months in Carriacou and Devin decided it was time to complete an AOW dive course with Lumbadive which is a PADI instructor school. it will allow Devin to go deeper and be safer so it seems like a great time to get the additional education.

Devin did the online course reviews and they were all pretty easy multiple choice exams at the end. So with those under his belt and the required book knowledge it was time ot get the practical part in.

Richard was my instructor for the 5 disciplines we had to do. It was all great fun and very educational. Devin knew a lot about Mountaineering and Navigation on Land and on te Sea surface but quite lot changes once you go underwater. For a start GPS is not available, so you do it the hard way.

An artificial reef project

Richard my Instructor

It was also very enjoyable and Devin especially loved the wreck diving part and the underwater search and recovery which could prove necessary in our cruising.

Our wreck dive

Wreck inhabitants

At the end of the course Devin even had a chance to help Richard relocate some moorings in the bay, after finding them first of course.

My badge of completion

Thanks Richard for all the experience it was awesome.

Carriacou Regatta

The regatta week starts for us with the Carriacou Children's Fund annual Auction. A lot of cruisers donate items as well as locals and businesses to support keeping children in schools by supplying meals, tuition fees or uniforms. We also volunteer at the auction to sell items from the tables, its a few days work in set-up, selling and tear down, but all in a great cause.

After the hard work, it's time to play. Our good friends Russ and Lisa have entered Uproar for another regatta and as a past crew member I was honored to be invited again to crew on Uproar. Well the Carriacou regatta is not as competitive as Antigua but just as hard fought by those that attend. We had great starts as usual and Russ took the lead in every race again! We had a really tight finish with the first race a a much larger ketch caught us near the line, they don't point as high as Uproar and Russ steered a beautiful battle to the line get us over the line first even though they owed us time on handicap. These were truly wonderful races and a lot of fun.

Of course the steering should work before a race!

A lot of looking back

A relaxed helms woman and her dog

Rail Meat

Champagne to celebrate

A winning Crew

A very happy post race party

Uproar, Russ and Lisa first in every race.

Carriacou

We love Carriacou and you could almost say it is our summer home. We have a lot of regularly scheduled events like: Noodling, Children's Swimming Lessons, Dominoes, Mrs Lucky's Saturday BBQ and many diving opportunities. It seems to feel very friendly in Carriacou so we enjoy running the VHF net as well to let visitors know all about activities in the bay.

Noodling classes run by us in the bay

Warrior, on of a few boat boy's offering services in the bay

We have several walks normally and know a lot of great trails on the island. One of our first was with Bruce, Anna and David. We walked the valley behind Tyrell bay and were invited to a local lady's house to enjoy the views. She wanted some good quality photos of the view to help sell the vacant building lots they have and Bruce gladly obliged.

Kiss a frog anyone?

He was pretty big and one of many.

Anna, David, Liz and Devin

Great views from a local garden

Island Rocks thanks to Lori

Our walking group

We had a few more walks in August with fellow cruisers but somehow it seems this year less walkers are in the bay and we have not gone out quiet as much.

Well the races and the Carriacou Children's fund auction are coming up so time is getting busy.

The Grenadines

We left Dominica and our next stop was Bequia in the Grenadines, one of favorite anchorages for lots of reasons, not the least of which is going south at the end of the season there are lots of mangoes on the trees.

Passing the Pitons in St Lucia

Some places just had no winds

Sailing into Bequia

Along the boardwalk in Bequia

We love this place

We collected so many mangoes from the trees by the beach that it was quite a challenge to figure out what to do with all of them. Suffice to say we have mango jam and mango chutney for several months now. We also mad mango crisp and mango crumble for deserts for several nights.

The place to gather mangoes

Mayreau is another favorite stop for us, we love the few simple walks around the island and we manged to almost circumnavigate the island in 2 walks. We are pretty much on our own now as we decided to spend an extra month in the Grenadines when our insurance limits us to 12.8 degrees north latitude. We will enjoy these few extra islands this year with our new policy limits.

The cruise ship beach at Mayreau

The other end of it

A little resort we walked past later

Saltwhistle bay anchorage seen as we sailed past

We enjoyed the snorkeling in the bay at Saline but unfortunately never found the wreck that is on the guide book chart. We eventually noticed a bouy much further out and figured we were just in the wrong place, but it is way out there and quite deep.

Next stop is the Tabago Cays park which has excellent snorkeling and wonderful beaches. We love to swim with the turtles here as there are just so many of them eating the sea grass by the islands.

Arriving at the park

With such clear water during our visit we did a lot of snorkeling, so we were in the water almost all the time we were here, after all there is not much else to do anyway. Fortunately all this time in the water rewarded us with good shorts of the marine life.

Liz with our first turtle

Large snapper

A rare chained eel

Some large fish too

Up close turtle

It was very photogenic

Lots of Juvenile fish too

Devin swimming with the turtles

A turtle eating sea grass

Spotted ray

This one had a very long tail

A rare spotted lobster

A Doctor Fish

The elusive grouper

Lots of rays in the park too

 Petite St Vincent and Petite Martinique are just a short sail away from Union island and the Cays so we decided this year we have to go visit them. They are upwind so its a motor sail across in light winds and care must be taken to avoid the reefs that surround the two islands.

PSV and PM

These are just stunning beaches on the Petite St Vincent side, we went ashore to the resort on hte island for drinks at sunset. They do let you walk a short section of the beach but ask you respect the guests privacy by not walking any further than the dock area. Still its a lovely island and a nice place for dinner and drinks if you have the budget.

PSV has stunning white sand beaches, a lot is private though.

We also visited Petite Martinique for a walk to the top of the island. We were misguided a little by a local to the actual ascent, but we manged to bush wack through the small trees to find the summit. There are stunning views from the top and its not really that hard to get to. We found the actual path on the way down and it was much easier to follow.

Petite Martinique

We had a dinghy ride to Mopion as well, a lovely coral island with just a sun shelter on it for day visitors. The snorkeling here is very good too and we spent a few hours visiting with charter boats here.

A lovely spot to escape the sun.

The perfect coral island

We spent a few days on Union Island at Frigate Island and in Chatham bay, we also avoid the second tropical storm of the season in Chatham bay. It seems the storms are low and early this year so we are off to Carriacou to shelter for the hurricane season and enjoy time with friends.

Relaxing in the cockpit

We hope everyone has a wonderful summer.