Good Limes, Good Times

We're leaving tomorrow! The original plan for the end of 2020 was to work our way up the islands until we reached BVI or St. Martin, then fly home for the holidays, then make our way down to Panama. This would have been possible because a group of countries are in what's called the CARICOM bubble and used to allow free travel in between countries without quarantine. Unfortunately, COVID got a little more rampant, and entries got a little more strict (two-week quarantines). So we are going straight to Panama. It will be a 1-2 week sail, for which I am very excited because it entails night sailing, during which there is no sun and consequently no boiling heat. We spent this week in St. Vincent meeting old friends, stocking up on supplies, and being rained on. (Seen here is the rain bowl that I use when we are in a place with no showers.)

It was Tuesday morning, and Jem and I were in the mood for a cappuccino. We went to the cafe on the docks that had a sign for cappuccinos, and were giving weird looks and told that they didn't serve coffee there. At least they didn't commit cappuccino fraud like they did in Bequia. We found our desired beverage in the upscale restaurant upstairs, which was where we later had brunch with Damian and another two pilots. I am naming them the Pilot Posse. The pilot posse ponders about planes, and little else. Also present was a lady, who upon learning that I taught sailing, asked if I did yoga, because I "teach fitness." She was right, but the logic was decidedly strange. During brunch we saw a big Lagoon catamaran being docked in a decidedly cool way; the skipper set her up and let the wind drift her in. We gave him a round of applause after that.

After brunch, I went to the Blue Lagoon pool. This is the most beautiful pool I've seen in my life. Lovely water, an excellent size for quick laps, comfy deck chairs, surrounded by greenery. 10/10. Later that evening we heard reggae Christmas music coming from a bar. Not 10/10.

Wednesday I took an introduction to diving course. After learning the basics in the pool, we went diving behind Young Island in an area called Critters' Corner because of the abundant wildlife. I wish I had brought my camera with me! We saw tall skinny yellow sponges, big barrel sponges as wide as I am tall, anemones, beautifully colourful corral, trapezoid-shaped cowfish, pufferfish, a barracuda, an enormous shoal of small-mouthed grunts (their name would make for a good insult), long lanky trumpetfish, a big goldfish-looking soldierfish, Christmas tree worms that disappear when they feel the water moving, and many, many sea urchins. The diving instructor made cool-looking air rings underwater that unfortunately I could not imitate. 

Wednesday night was party night on Heaven's Door. A few of the Pilot Posse turned up, including Damian, with whom I discussed the merits of various martial arts (I do judo, Damian does taekwondo, and we both know some basics in wing chun). Also present was Damian's friend, a lovely Danish man called Carl-Peter. He told amazing dad jokes such as "why do the french eat only one egg? Because one egg is un-oeuf," and "there was a man who had a huge ham. He hung it from a nice string. The string broke and the ham fell and hurt his leg. It was a ham-string injury." He was also a retired head chef of a Michelin-starred restaurant and brought an excellent salad. I liked Carl-Peter.

Thursday was an understandably late morning, and was mostly spent cleaning up and napping. Thursday afternoon, Harry brought over a case of Sunset rum for Jem. Sunset is a local distillery whose #1 seller is 84.5% rum, named "very strong." (There is an "extra-strong" rum at 96%, but you need to ask for that specially at the distillery.) When Jem was last in St. Vincent, he bought several gallons of extra-strong rum. Four years and a circumnavigation later, all that was left was an inch at the bottom of a bottle that Jem autographed and gave back to the distillery. 

The new bottles that Harry bought were decanted into various plastic containers (glass is kept to a minimum on a moving boat), including a water jug.

Harry left and returned after I had taken another swim at the extremely lovely pool. Over a few beers, he told us most of his life story. He only got through 2/3 of it, but it included living in four different countries, being in the air force, driving buses and drinking a lot, bartending and drinking nothing, and starting two different companies, one involving punch-card computers, and the other involving a great number of Russian helicopters bought at a heavily discounted price through dubious means. He currently has an IT-related graduate degree, manages two companies, and spends his free time feeding the local cats. He also got us a great quantity of vegetable, freshly picked from farms.

Friday was a day of seeing people. Harry took us grocery shopping (and for an expresso at a small resort) and we met his wife Sharon who invited me to her Saturday yoga class, Jake took us for lunch at a place called Tree Bar & Grill (great burgers, great scenery, a few too many flies), we had a drink with Damian, during which we met Damian's friend Mitch from Ottawa who had a hyperactive dog, and we went to Kelly's for dinner. 

Kelly owns several marinas, hotels, and restaurants. His house is a reflection of that, the outside being decorated entirely of stone tiles that extend to a patio and form a crevasse for an infinity pool but with a stone interior overlooking the mountainside and the sea beyond. There's a bar protruding from the wall. There's a long exterior dining table and a long interior dining table. The house is one story, but it wraps so far around the mountain that you can't see the ends of it in the dark. Kelly's wife went to show me where the bathroom was and said, "this is Josh's side of the house." Josh is a 13-year-old boy. His "side of the house" extended down a hallway where it was difficult to see the end. There was also an amazingly cute small dog to whom Jake and Damian spoke in falsetto baby voices. I unfortunately have no video or audio recordings of that moment.

We had a great time. Kelly has a work hard-party hard mentality, and there were enormous quantities of Trinidadian-Indian food (Kelly's wife is from there). Kelly's wife gave us some lentils to take home. I spent most of my time with Jem, Damian, and Damian's friend whose name I forgot and who unfortunately turned out to be a covid-hoax believer and explained to me his reasoning very loudly and in great detail. He also seemed to consider his support for women in STEM to be a very "woke" achievement. Apart from that, he seemed okay. Due to the enormous quantity of food (and pecan pie afterwards!) Damian and I overate. Jem did not. I think that Jem has too much self-control over his appetite to be completely human.

(I'm hurrying now because we have an hour till launch and I haven't showered yet.) Today we met Damian for breakfast, I went to Sharon's yoga class, moved to the fuel dock, refueled, and now we shower and then use the last of our Eastern Caribbean Dollars to pay the marina fees, and we're off! I'll miss St. Vincent and its people, but I intend to come back eventually and say hello to everyone again. But before that, we have a crossing to make. I'll catch you in a week or two, and if you don't hear from me in a month, give my cat poetry collection to Juno. Byee