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American Spirit II - Day 446; We Arrive in Union Island in St. Vincent & the Grenadines; Saturday, March 28, 2015



One year ago today:

"Day 84; Hike to 2,000 Foot Waterfall, Another Green Flash and Dinner at II Audeacious; Friday, March 28. 2014. Up at 6:00 AM. Breakfast at 7:00 AM. In the dingy at 7:50 AM to start our three three hour round trip hike to the 2,000 foot waterfall on Fatu Hiva. The 'landing spot' for our dingy was around a jetty that had a concrete pier and a ramp for motor boats to be put into and pulled out of the water. We elected to pull up to the concrete ramp, then lift our dingy with its motor out of the water and onto dry land, high enough to be in no danger of a rising tide. A few minutes later the crew of Follie a Deux arrived, and after disembarking 3 of the 4, Brian dropped a stern anchor, tied up at the pier and climbed up onto terra firma."

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Up at 7:00 AM. Mostly cloudy. Breakfast at 7:45 AM: eggs, cut up potato with sausage, and chilled pears. Heavy rain at 8:45 AM. At 8:56 AM I type one log.

Folie a Deux arrived in Tyrrel Bay at 10:10 AM. We chat on the radio after they tie up to a mooring ball. Alpheratz called my on channel 72 and asked me to pay Paul for their last night on one of his mooring balls. I said I would. Before leaving they couldn't get Paul on the phone or VHF radio. Nice to know there are people like Tommy who honor their (financial) commitments. Tommy, you represent the USA well!

We dingy over to Folie a Deux at 10:35 AM, and I give Brian the Louis L'Amour novel I just read (The First Fast Draw). He's never read a book by this author, who wrote 120 books and had 45 of them made into movies. He's king of the cowboy novel. After a nice chat on Folie we head into the Gallery restaurant for some internet so Joel can Skype Canon to order another underwater camera. His 'blew up' yesterday when we were snorkeling. Water tight to 32 feet...not!

At 12:05 PM we departed Tyrrel Bay on Carriacou Island and headed to Union Island in St. Vincent & the Grenadines. Shortly after leaving blue sky appeared. The wind is 21 knots and we're motor sailing at 2,000 RPM's with a 2nd reef in the mainsail at 7.1 knots thru the water and 6.6 knots over the land. The waves are 3-5 feet. Water is splashing onto the foredeck and the dodger windows. Not a pleasant motor trip.

We enter the Union Island anchorage at 2:15 PM and anchor next to Avocet. We're the second farthest boat from the dingy dock. Bummer. The anchorage is small and very crowded. As we enter a motor boat approaches us and the guy driving it wants 20 EC to help us find a spot to anchor. We decline, but see later that he appears to be quite successful in earning a living this way. We drop anchor, let out chain; then take the anchor up, get closer to the reef, then anchor again. Joel then gets in the water and checks to make sure that the anchor is set good. It is. No chance of it dragging.

St. Vincent & the Grenadines is the 16th country we've visited in our circumnavigation. We will visit 2 more: St. Lucia and the BVI (British Virgin Islands).

At 3:15 PM after inflating the dingy with air I head in to clear into the country. Passing by NDS Darwin, Nuno hitches a ride with me as he's clearing in, also. We tie up at the Anchorage Yacht Club/Restaurant and walk to the airport. We're there in 10 minutes. We clear in to Customs, Immigration and one other official. Not sure which government agency he represented. Could be police, port authority, health. Not sure. Silvano from Festina Lente also clears in at this time. At 4:45 PM I'm back on the boat.

Joel naps from 5:05 PM to 6:20 PM. Sigi from Avocet swims over and we chat for a while and watch the sun set at 5:58 PM. Its a very nice sunset, with the sun setting on a mountain top. I got some good photos.

At 7:00 PM Joel and I dingy to the Anchorage Yacht Club for dinner. We join the crew from Alpheratz; Tommy, Bradley and Bradley's dad, Jesse. James is still on their boat recovering from a fall the other evening. He looks like he lost a fight to Mike Tyson, the ex American heavy weight champion boxer of the world. I order a Caesar Salad and Seafood Pasta; and Joel orders Chicken Jerky. Or is it 'Jerk Chicken?' Its a good meal. Despite our request, the bill comes as one instead of two, and apparently the staff find it too difficult to split it into two bills. So we just divide the bill into equal shares and we pay 2/5'ths.

We head back to the boat at 9:50 PM. Its windy, still blowing 20 knots. I'm glad I brought my foul weather jacket, because we're getting really wet.

Joel goes to bed before me. I'm sitting in the cockpit relaxing; the boat is facing east; the wind is still strong; and I'm looking at the Southern Cross off the starboard beam and the Big Dipper off the port beam. North of Cuba you can't see the Southern Cross; which means no one in North America will ever see it from their home. We anchored in a horseshoe type anchorage with mountains to ringing the anchorage to the south and west. There are some lights on the small mountains, but not a lot. Most of the boats in the anchorage have their white masthead anchor lights on; but some boats don't and have a flashing red light on just above their cockpits. That would be illegal in the US. The moon is out and a little larger than half full; white trade wind clouds are racing by; and stars are everywhere. Life is good!

Brian Fox




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