We have put some mileage under the keel this week! Tom finished last week’s web entry with our visit to the southern portion of Dominica. We left Dominica on Sunday morning, March 18th, and currently find ourselves anchored in the Tobago Cays — 170 miles to the south, at least as the ever busy “crow” might fly!
The first day’s sail took us 45 miles to the southwest coast of Martinique. Although tempted by the thoughts of French baguettes and croissants, we did not go ashore. This allowed us to forego the often lengthy process of checking in with customs and immigration; and, since we were moving on the following morning we decided to just borrow the anchorage! So, the boys burned off some energy by using one of our spare halyards (the lines which reach to the top of the mast) for swinging off of the boat. This is very fun and mom and dad often partake in the excitement. With a good shove from a parent, the boys can fly through the air in a nice wide semi-circle along the boat before letting go and plopping into the water. It is our solution to a tree swing!
The town whose anchorage we borrowed is named “Petite Anse D’Arlet”. It looked very cute and inviting, especially at night when they turned on their lights which lit up the outlines of several prominent buildings along the shorefront. This is a picture of the waterfront of Petite Anse D’Arlet from our boat.
We left this anchorage early Monday morning after we lifted our dinghy onto our foredeck. We have heard the passages between the windward islands are sometimes rough so we thought better against towing our dinghy like we typically do. In about 3 hour’s time, we were so happy to have made this decision. It was a day of large seas and high winds and our dinghy rode very nicely perched atop our foredeck and below our jib! We will need to do this when we make the longer passages required as we head north so this was a good trial for us. We traveled roughly 75 miles along Martinique, past St. Lucia and to the central west coast of St.Vincent. We were all exhausted as we approached our chosen harbor but were revived by seeing sites which were used in the filming of the Pirates of the Caribbean! Our boys were again thrilled to see these sights first hand! Recognize this rock structure below? Think hanging skeletons which Captain Jack Sparrow saluted as he passed by! Unfortunately, the lighting was not good on this shot, but this arch is in the foreground surrounded by reef.
Think movie one, first half! This is the town/harbor called “Wallilabou” and much of the Port Royal settings of the three Pirates of the Caribbean movies were filmed here in 2003. Many of the sets are on display for eager visitors and I will display more for your viewing pleasure. We spent much of the following morning (Tuesday) exploring these sets and the docks built for the filming — after school, of course! We enjoyed lunch ashore and saw a photo display of the cast mingling with the locals. It seems that filming was very little work, and lots of laughs!
Recognize this next scene? The child is mine … fighting a haircut, if you can not tell! The scene should be recognizable, however.
Another Port Royal market or street scene …Below is part of the street scene of Port Royal. Recognize the coffins from the second movie? Better get out of there you two or you might be tossed in the deep blue!
Another Port Royal market or street scene.
This building is just a facade. Several buildings on the waterfront were given a bit of a make-over in order to fit in with the set design and seven or so buildings were built specifically for the filming and you could tell that some of these were built for multi-purpose scene creation. Several new docks were built in the harbor for the filming and parts of these were demolished. It is interesting which pieces remain and which are gone. I would love to have been a fly on the wall when this agreement was arrived at. I can hear the film producers arguing to demolish all sets in the name of liability protection while the local government pleads to leave the sets behind to attract tourism! While some of these sets are well maintained, others are crumbling away. For instance, there is a bridge made of plaster and cheap wood (the small bridge Captain Jack ran across dodging bullets as he ran through the streets of Port Royal) which sounds hallow when you step onto it. We chose to stay off, while several brave souls crossed it shortly afterward!
This next picture requires you to crop out the white resin chairs in the background and to add straw onto the ground … you guessed it, Tortuga going into the brothel!
After thoroughly exploring all things “Piratey”, we boarded our ship and set sail on a southerly course toward the island of Bequia. This is the northern most island of the collection of islands called the “Grenadines” and is part of St. Vincent. It is a very sweet place which we will explore more over the next two weeks. We celebrated Zachary’s 12th birthday here …
… and did the usual school work, provisioning, laundry, internet usage, etc. We anchored for three nights in the main harbor — Admiralty Bay and the town of Port Elizabeth had everything we needed and more! Lots of cute restaurants lined the waterfront and several artistic galleries loured me in! We even found a company to build us a new bimini — frame and canvas cover. Our old bimini gave us minimal shade in our cockpit and was beginning to wear. Labor is much cheaper in the islands than it is in the states, so we decided to upgrade our bimini frame to cover more of our cockpit and to have a new cloth cover made. This should be complete in a week and we will welcome the additional time on this nice island while the new frame is installed. For now, however, we will travel into the southern Grenadine islands and see some of the much talked about beauty they have to offer.
Shortly after noon on Friday, March 23rd, we left Bequia with a planned destination of Tobago Cays!
Prior to embarking on this adventure nearly 10 months ago, I had just one or two pleasant landscapes etched in my mind for words such as “paradise”, “stunning”, “breathtaking” or “beautiful”. I find as we see each new wonder that I am speechless and can not put an appropriate word forth which would be adequate for the experience. Quiet appreciation and contemplation prevail as of late! There is not an appropriate word to describe the Tobago Cays. Instead, I will leave you with one lovely picture and next week’s update will very likely have many more! Enjoy your week!
