Daily Archives: June 28, 2013

Back in September a woman on a Canadian boat we were anchored next to in Atlantic City yelled over to Jack, “I know that boat! That’s Chocobo!” At the same time we got an email from the previous owners of our boat — ex-Chocobo — telling us we were anchored right next to their friends on La Jeannoise. A few days later La Jeannoise anchored next to us in Back Creek, Annapolis, and when the boat show ended and everyone left that’s the last we saw of them. Until yesterday. After we got the anchor down securely we looked around to get our bearings and who should we be anchored alongside? Yup. La Jeannoise.

We like to think we’re forging our own path but truth be told we’re part of a community of long-distance cruisers and we recognize more and more boats as time goes on. There are definitely waypoints that change the mix here and there. Many boats sail to the Bahamas for the winter then go back to the states. Some go as far as the Virgins or St Martin then head back. We’re now in the group spending hurricane season in Grenada or Trinidad. And when November comes many of the boats here will migrate back up island for the winter months while we plan to continue toward Panama and the Pacific. That will put us into a whole new subgroup and we’ll lose the lose contact with the boats we’ve become friendly with. It’s a strange life. We make friends, we miss friends, and we’re always enriched by the experience.

Tuesday Field Trip left the anchorage and sailed to Grenada. We joined up with Flying Cloud for a tour of Carriacou which our guide Simon promised would take us to a sugar plantation and show us the agriculture and history of the island. It turned out to be a couple of hours squeezed into a jeep bouncing along deeply rutted roads during which Simon barely spoke except when prompted by our questions. We asked about the sugar plantation and he told us it was gone but pointed to where it once was. What th–?

Ah well, as Jack says, they can’t all be lotus buds.

Carriacou is a very small, very quiet island. I imagine in season there’s more activity, and we may actually go back there for a regatta in late July, depending on weather, but for the few days we were there it was pretty much fast asleep. We were anchored in Tyrrel Bay around the corner from the capital of Hillsborough because the holding was reportedly better. We looked at the map and decided since there wasn’t much going on in Tyrrel Bay we would walk into town. It looked to be about a half mile across a sandy peninsula.

It ended up being several miles in brutal heat during which we saw few people, a lot of goats, and many businesses shuttered for the season. We finally got to Hillsborough and a little more action, relatively speaking, but by that time we were so drained from the heat that we could barely appreciate it.

We found the bus stop and gladly waited in the shade for a ride back to Tyrrel Bay.

That night we celebrated Walter’s birthday at the Lazy Turtle along with the crew of Field Trip, who created a beautiful card and poem to commemorate Walter’s big day, read here by Elizabeth, who also painted the picture of Flying Cloud.