Gregory delivering fruits and vegetables
Dolphins!
The Pitons
Moored at the Pitons
Our special meal at Harmony Beach Restaurant, PitonsOur sail to St. Lucia from Martinique was so much fun. It was one of those “perfect day for a sail” kinds of day. We cruised along at about 5 knots the entire way until we approached St. Lucia, then all of a sudden the wind picked up and our speed kept climbing. The sails on Aldebaran were perfectly trimmed and we were flying along…for us, anyway! When we approached 6 knots we started to get pretty excited, then 6.5 knots, then 7 knots!!! We were high-fiving as we got up to 7.6 knots. Unheard of in our boat!! Wow, what fun.
As we got anchored in Rodney Bay and started to settle in we saw out the back of our boat a pirogue approaching with a thatched roof and flags of all types flying, and the driver honking his horn to get our attention. Gregory introduced himself and offered every kind of fruit and vegetable we could imagine finding. We bought bananas, grapefruit, oranges, limes, mangoes, cucumbers, and sour sop (which he called sweetsop). He was so “happy for our purchase” that he threw in an extra mango and some limes. He promised he would be back on Monday with something special. It turns out he came back every day with “something special for us”. Gregory kept us well supplied.
The next day we watched as more and more boats sailed into Rodney Bay. One particular boat caught our attention….it was “Receta”. Even though we had never met the people aboard Receta, we knew the boat’s name because the woman aboard, Ann Vanderhoof, is the author of “An Embarrassment of Mangoes” (listed on our book list). Both of us read and loved her book, we even make her recipes, so when we saw them arrive we were quite excited at the possibility of meeting her. Later, when we decided to go exploring we stopped in the Marina to check out the restaurants and stores and get some cold water. We spotted Receta in the Marina and decided to go introduce ourselves. It was so fun to meet Ann (Steve was below doing some work), and of course we got her to sign our book!
Rodney Bay is a good place to get some work done on the boat, so we took the opportunity to have our SSB radio reception sorted out. With that completed, and our water and fuel tanks full we decided to move south towards the Grenadines…….but not so fast! The morning we were to leave Jon came down with the most dreadful symptoms I have ever seen. Oh my gosh…Dengue Fever. It was horrible. He had a high fever and the most excruciating pain in his back and legs. He had no sense of taste and he was so sensitive to light. I did a lot of research online and discovered that there is nothing I could do for him other than keep him hydrated and comfortable and to watch him carefully. No aspirin, no Ibuprofen, only Tylenol. After two days of this, his fever finally broke in the night. I knew that if it was really Dengue Fever the fever would return with a rash on his torso. Sure enough a day later it started again. Finally after a week he started to get a bit better. But it took at least 3 weeks to be back in full swing.
One week after Jon became ill; the marina threw a BBQ party with 2 nights free in the marina, so we took them up on it. It turned out to be quite a party and we had the opportunity to meet so many great people. Then the morning after the party while listening to the morning cruiser’s net on the VHF radio we heard the announcer tell us that it was trivia day! The questions that day were…..1) what did 100,000 self-conscious women purchase 200,000 of in 1980? Well, of course Jon knew that one….breast implants! So we called in and got it right along with one other boat. Now, to see who wins….2) Who sang the song “Puff the Magic Dragon”? The other boat did not call in and we called in with the answer….Peter, Paul and Mary! Right! Aldebaran wins!!! So we got a night out at H2O restaurant with dinner and desserts free!
Finally, the time came when Jon was strong enough for us to head south. As we left Rodney Bay it was pouring down rain. We took our time leaving and as we headed down the coast of St. Lucia it began to clear up. Just about that time we spotted some dolphins! Oh my gosh, we have been waiting all year to see dolphins and they were EVERYWHERE!! They would swim alongside the boat and then surf our wake. They would jump out of the water and criss-cross back and forth in front of our boat. We were squealing like children with glee! As we watched them they would come up next to us and turn their eyes up towards us to look at us, and then take off. We would tap on the sides of the boat and they would come up close to us again! We never wanted them to leave!
Our next stop at the south of the island was the Pitons, famous for their unusual beauty. We called Benny at Harmony Beach to see if he had any moorings available near his house and restaurant, and he told us hid did and would be waiting for us. When we arrived we were awestruck by the beauty of this area. The mountains – Pitons – jutted straight up out of the sea. When we neared Harmony Beach we saw Benny’s son waiting for us at the mooring ball. He was standing on his sea kayak. Benny Jr. helped us to secure to the mooring and then asked if there was anything we wanted to do that afternoon. We told him we were hoping to eat dinner at their restaurant (it looked closed up, but thought we would give it a try). He asked us what we wanted to eat….Creole chicken, Creole mahi mahi, or pork. I ordered chicken, Jon ordered mahi mahi.
Benny Jr. picked us up at 6:30 in his water taxi and delivered us to the restaurant. We were the only ones there and Jennealyn, the daughter, waited on us as Mom cooked the dinner. Since it was the end of the season we were the only two at the restaurant. Just the two of us. We enjoyed a rum punch as the sun set and toasted to our special night out and one year on Aldebaran II! When Jennealyn brought our dinner out to us we were shocked at the amount of food on our plates. We had our chicken and fish, and then there was rice, a salad of carrots and cabbage, sweet potato, chrystophene, fried plantain and breadfruit. To top off the evening we had ice cream and a healthy dose of mosquitoes! Jennealyn sent us off with six mangoes and a few ginger mints. Safely back at our boat, we prepared for an early, early departure to Bequia the next morning.
As we got anchored in Rodney Bay and started to settle in we saw out the back of our boat a pirogue approaching with a thatched roof and flags of all types flying, and the driver honking his horn to get our attention. Gregory introduced himself and offered every kind of fruit and vegetable we could imagine finding. We bought bananas, grapefruit, oranges, limes, mangoes, cucumbers, and sour sop (which he called sweetsop). He was so “happy for our purchase” that he threw in an extra mango and some limes. He promised he would be back on Monday with something special. It turns out he came back every day with “something special for us”. Gregory kept us well supplied.
The next day we watched as more and more boats sailed into Rodney Bay. One particular boat caught our attention….it was “Receta”. Even though we had never met the people aboard Receta, we knew the boat’s name because the woman aboard, Ann Vanderhoof, is the author of “An Embarrassment of Mangoes” (listed on our book list). Both of us read and loved her book, we even make her recipes, so when we saw them arrive we were quite excited at the possibility of meeting her. Later, when we decided to go exploring we stopped in the Marina to check out the restaurants and stores and get some cold water. We spotted Receta in the Marina and decided to go introduce ourselves. It was so fun to meet Ann (Steve was below doing some work), and of course we got her to sign our book!
Rodney Bay is a good place to get some work done on the boat, so we took the opportunity to have our SSB radio reception sorted out. With that completed, and our water and fuel tanks full we decided to move south towards the Grenadines…….but not so fast! The morning we were to leave Jon came down with the most dreadful symptoms I have ever seen. Oh my gosh…Dengue Fever. It was horrible. He had a high fever and the most excruciating pain in his back and legs. He had no sense of taste and he was so sensitive to light. I did a lot of research online and discovered that there is nothing I could do for him other than keep him hydrated and comfortable and to watch him carefully. No aspirin, no Ibuprofen, only Tylenol. After two days of this, his fever finally broke in the night. I knew that if it was really Dengue Fever the fever would return with a rash on his torso. Sure enough a day later it started again. Finally after a week he started to get a bit better. But it took at least 3 weeks to be back in full swing.
One week after Jon became ill; the marina threw a BBQ party with 2 nights free in the marina, so we took them up on it. It turned out to be quite a party and we had the opportunity to meet so many great people. Then the morning after the party while listening to the morning cruiser’s net on the VHF radio we heard the announcer tell us that it was trivia day! The questions that day were…..1) what did 100,000 self-conscious women purchase 200,000 of in 1980? Well, of course Jon knew that one….breast implants! So we called in and got it right along with one other boat. Now, to see who wins….2) Who sang the song “Puff the Magic Dragon”? The other boat did not call in and we called in with the answer….Peter, Paul and Mary! Right! Aldebaran wins!!! So we got a night out at H2O restaurant with dinner and desserts free!
Finally, the time came when Jon was strong enough for us to head south. As we left Rodney Bay it was pouring down rain. We took our time leaving and as we headed down the coast of St. Lucia it began to clear up. Just about that time we spotted some dolphins! Oh my gosh, we have been waiting all year to see dolphins and they were EVERYWHERE!! They would swim alongside the boat and then surf our wake. They would jump out of the water and criss-cross back and forth in front of our boat. We were squealing like children with glee! As we watched them they would come up next to us and turn their eyes up towards us to look at us, and then take off. We would tap on the sides of the boat and they would come up close to us again! We never wanted them to leave!
Our next stop at the south of the island was the Pitons, famous for their unusual beauty. We called Benny at Harmony Beach to see if he had any moorings available near his house and restaurant, and he told us hid did and would be waiting for us. When we arrived we were awestruck by the beauty of this area. The mountains – Pitons – jutted straight up out of the sea. When we neared Harmony Beach we saw Benny’s son waiting for us at the mooring ball. He was standing on his sea kayak. Benny Jr. helped us to secure to the mooring and then asked if there was anything we wanted to do that afternoon. We told him we were hoping to eat dinner at their restaurant (it looked closed up, but thought we would give it a try). He asked us what we wanted to eat….Creole chicken, Creole mahi mahi, or pork. I ordered chicken, Jon ordered mahi mahi.
Benny Jr. picked us up at 6:30 in his water taxi and delivered us to the restaurant. We were the only ones there and Jennealyn, the daughter, waited on us as Mom cooked the dinner. Since it was the end of the season we were the only two at the restaurant. Just the two of us. We enjoyed a rum punch as the sun set and toasted to our special night out and one year on Aldebaran II! When Jennealyn brought our dinner out to us we were shocked at the amount of food on our plates. We had our chicken and fish, and then there was rice, a salad of carrots and cabbage, sweet potato, chrystophene, fried plantain and breadfruit. To top off the evening we had ice cream and a healthy dose of mosquitoes! Jennealyn sent us off with six mangoes and a few ginger mints. Safely back at our boat, we prepared for an early, early departure to Bequia the next morning.
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