Monday, January 10, 2011

Week in Union and Mayreau

We arrived in St Lucia, after a 3 day sail from Venezuela on the 30th of december with 2 days to spare before our first grenadines trip of the season with Jeremy and Judy from New York,
Getting away from the dock on the evening of the 1st we had rolly motor down island and were greeted with a couple of very light wind days .... the surf gods did however throw some nice waves our way, with a small N ground swell hitting a bunch of nice reefs around the islands we managed to get out there (some of us with the catcus and urchin in feet) and snag a few good ones.
After a few days the wind has filled in and we got settled in one of my favourite empty bays, with glassy flat water ... the kind that the only ripple is your own wake when you ride through it!!!! 3 days of cranking (especially in the mornings)

East to South East winds made for some great riding, a buddy pete sailed over for a morning session and we were joined in the bay by some other boats with kiters each day ... until last year i very very rarely saw other boats with kiters in this bay.
The second to last night we sailed around the corner for some of Seckie and Vanessa's world famous lobster BBQ in their restaurant right on the beach in Chatham Bay on union, always a great time with the best tasting freshest lobster in the world and some punchy rum punch to mellow the sore muscles from days of kiting.

Our last day the forecast did not dissapoint and we had perfect SE 20-24 knots firing in.
Carl on the boat was pulling some massive air with his 13m Diabolo, attached by his harness to a 400' fixed line anchored to a piling on shore ..... something you really gotta see, not too keen for a whirl myself though having rescued his kite the day before after his chicken loop snapped in half from the massive forces. check out the pic of his air over the land!
Was hard to pack up and leave the bay for a sail overnight to st lucia where J and J were flying out from.
Now i am back on the dock catching up on varnish and maintenance before the next trip south on Jan. 23rd..