Pass Maker travels Quentralla
By Peter Quintrell Published: 25/01/2010
Hi there,
Well we have just finished sailing through one of the most beautiful parts of the world…. the Grenadines …… a series of islands between St.Vincent and Grenada. So let me share with you the last couple of weeks when Passagemaker sailed proudly from Trinidad to Grenada and then onto Carriacou, Union Island, the Tobago Cays, Bequia and finally Young Island of the south coast of St. Vincent.
Last time I write I mentioned I was fortunate to have a crazy 33 year old scientist with me to help me sail Passagemaker. Well she proved to be very good at navigation (we will overlook the headland I was called on to sail straight through to get to Prickly Bay in Grenada. A minor error she assured me) She insisted I sit quietly in the Captain’s corner of the wheelhouse while she plied me with good food and rum as she hoisted anchors, ran generators, plotted our course, adjusted the GPS and set the auto pilot.
We also had two marvelous guests for this leg of Passagemaker’s adventures, Marina and Danielle, Trinidad’s answer to the US series “The Odd Couple”. Marina was quite proper, spoke beautiful English and generally was the “Lady” in residence. Danielle was completely the opposite, flamboyant, bouncy, talking a mile a minute and keeping us in stitches with her stories.
Our first glimpse of our “guests” was when we saw Marina frantically waiving at us from a dock surround by luggage that was almost as talk as herself! We were about to “pass her straight” as our guest were only coming for a week not six months but she was adamant she was the Marina who was looking for Passagemaker. Now notice I only mentioned Marina in the context of luggage. Once we realised that Marina was our “Marina” she took us to meet Danielle who looked more like she was moving house than taking a one week cruise. Poor “dingy” our well patched dinghy. Have you ever tried to steer a dinghy with 12 feet of luggage on it? Well we made it but no one knows how.
So your boy found himself with three ladies calling him “Captain” but who had evil designs on his face. You probably think I have lost it at this point but I assure you stories of a tall white guy with Chinese eyes and a fixed grin, walking through the aforementioned island with three giggling ladies in tow, are completely true. The reason? “Mud Packs”!!! They insisted I
would look twenty years younger if I would only let them apply a “tiny” layer of special mud from the River Nile to my wrinkled face. Now what man doesn’t want to look twenty years younger? So I let them have their way with me. The result? Two inches of TCL concrete over every part of countenance. When finally they chiseled it off I was left with a permanent grin and eyes I could hardly see out of. But they insisted I really looked much younger. Anyway, the effect has more or less worn off. I can see again and hopefully my eye brows will grow back soon.
But back to the incredible scenery. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to “float” in water as clear as glass, so clear you can see turtles feeding on the ocean floor twenty feet below you? That describes the waters of the Tobago Cays, a group of island on the Atlantic side of Mayreau. We spent three nights and days there just at anchor totally relaxed and soaking up one of the great wonders of the world.
Mornings were spent snorkeling or just lazing, afternoon were dedicated to snoozing and in the evenings we all dressed up for some amazing dinners cooked by Marina and Danielle. I had no idea lobster could taste so good.
Of course you can’t cook lobster without all the right herbs and spices. So a curious ritual took place at every port we called at where Danielle would disappear and return about an hour later at the dinghy dock with half of the town in tow, all trying to convince her that their produce was the best and cheapest. The fact that everywhere she went she announced with a flamboyant wave of her one of her many hats that she was thinking of making a film of the “real” people may have had something to do with it.
Now dinners with Marina and Danielle were no ordinary affairs. Apart from showering and putting on our best “dan dans” we had some very stimulating conversations, most of which centered around crazy ideas for making money. The best one was the packaging and marketing of “Babwandei”, something that Trini’s claim makes Viagra look like Aspirin! Packaging was a challenge but a great idea emerged of making the bottle resemble a certain part of the male anatomy with the following slogan on the label… “If the contents don’t help your man, you could always use the bottle!!” Well when this idea was floated, Marina blushed furiously, nearly broke her fan in half while Danielle almost slipped off her seat with laughter. Then the subject of handing complaints came up. Danielle suggested Marina conduct personal interviews at which point Marina’s fan reached almost blew us all off our chairs! And so the evenings went.
Sadly we eventually had to leave the Tobago Cays and head for Bequia, a really quaint little island just off the south coast of St. Vincent. With only one road and taxis that are jitneys driven by driver who are very fair skinned locals (if that the politically correct way to refer to white people) Bequia is very relaxed and we had our farewell dinner at The Frangi Pani, an evening which was made perfect by the owner, none other than the ex Prime Minster of St. Vincent, coming and chatting with us. Of course our intrepid duo spent half their time on Bequia trying to find out who was the owner of an abandoned hotel at the southern end of the beach while all the while telling everyone they were making a film!
Then it was the last leg to St. Vincent where we sadly said farewell to our super guests. But not before they had rented a car, driven us up almost vertical roads to a radio station mast and taken us to the Botanical Gardens. These gardens have a breadfruit tree that is a direct descendant of the one planted by Captain Blyth of Mutiny on the Bounty fame. Now us mere mortals would be more than happy to have our photos taken in front of such a famous tree. But not our Danielle. Next thing we knew we were all sampling a roasted breadfruit from the said tree. She had not only thief the people fruit but she got them to cook it for us!!
As I write this we are at anchor in Chatueabelair, a lovely village on the North West corner of St. Vincent, a village made famous by the fact that the mother of Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Patrick Manning, comes from here. We have cleared customs and immigration and were invited by them to stay the night before sailing for St. Lucia in the morning.
They say laughter is good for the soul and we have had laughter a plenty over the last two weeks.
Next week…. The lizards of St. Lucia
