2009 Caribbean Cruise 2/12 February 12th, today my wife Lale and I leave for St. Lucia and 10 days of sailing in the Grenadines. We are taking a late flight out of LAX so don't actually arrive in St. Lucia until the 13th at 3:00 PM. Since we sold Mezza Luna, our beloved Swan 53, we've been looking for the right boat but simply haven't found it yet. So, we chartered a beautiful blue-hulled Swan 60 called Extraordinary. Our first night we will nestle in between the famous Pitons. We've been here many times before and our first dinner ashore will be with our good friend Benny who owns and runs the Harmony House restaurant. We haven't seen him in three years, so it will be great fun to catch up. We are going to some pretty remote places, but we will update the log daily, or as often as we find the Internet. Stay tuned, more to come, photos to follow. Click on the title for each day and the website will allow you to follow our journey.

2009 Caribbean Cruise 2/14 Woke up this morning at the foot of the Piton's - - just spectacular; will upload photographs to "My Photos" tomorrow. Anyway we're off to Wallilabou Bay on St. Vincent where we will stop for lunch and then sail on down to Young Island Cut where we will anchor for the night. For those who don't know, Wallilabou Bay is where they filmed all three of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and the movie sets are still there. It's very cool to walk around the sets and dive off the wall into beautiful, clear and warm Caribbean water. Will also upload photos of Wallilabou tomorrow. We just bought a 13 pound Dorado (Mahi Mahi) from a local - - it was still thrashing about so it doesn't get fresher than that; going to be great tonight. We will be in Bequia tomorrow where there is a strong wireless Internet and I can upload the photos, until then stay tuned, more to come. Randy

2009 Caribbean Cruise 2/14 #2 We had fun on the set of Pirates of the Caribben, then sailed down to Young Island Cut. Young Island is a hidden gem of cruising, it is very near the St. Vincent airport, so easy in/out and only 12 miles from Bequia where we are headed tomorrow morning. Plus, the wind angles or should I say SailAngles is perfect for the trade winds - - beam reach all the way. I know we will have a stronger Internet signal on Beqia and I will upload photos tomorrow night. Meanwhile, another spectacular Caribbean sunset. More to come. Randy

Full-screen 2009 Caribbean Cruise 2/15 We sailed over to Bequia this morning in 25 knots of wind, one reef with a sail angle of 135 degrees hitting 9.25 knots. We took a mooring for the night and as soon as we washed the boat down, the go to local "Flex" came by with 4-5 pound fresh lobsters for $8.00 US a pound - - we bought three. Then we hopped a taxi over to the other side of the island and the Turtle Sanctuary founded and run by Angus King. Angus rescues sea turtle hatchlings and raises them by hand until they are old enough to have a fighting chance in the open ocean. Today only 1 in 3,000 survive, but Angus has raised that to 20 in 100 when he releases them at age 2-3 years. Facinating place and you can pet them and scratch their backs - - they love it. Then back to the boat to update our log. The Internet speed is really slow - - the hurracane that blew through here last year damaged the cell tower and it hasn't been repaired yet, so way too slow to upload photos (we have lots of them). Tomorrow we head to Mustique, our favorite island in the Caribbean. It's only 20 miles so we will leave around 9:30 AM and be settled in for lunch at Basils by noon. Another beautiful day in paradise - - temperature low eighties, winds at night 10-12, and day 20-22, couldn't be better. More to come, Randy

2009 Caribbean Cruise 2/15 #2 We just learned that the same folks who own the Firefly Restaurant on Mustique have now opened a Firefly Restaurant on Bequia. It is about a ten minute taxi ride from town and up on a bluff. We didn't eat there, but heard that it was very good. Next time maybe, but the original for sure tomorrow. Cheers, Randy

2009 Caribbean Cruise 2/16 We spent the day and night on mooring at Mustique. First wen ashore to Basil's and had lunch, then took a tour of the island in a mule (golf cart) - - saw Mick Jagger's home and Tommy Hilfiger's estate and Pierce Brosnan's home. Fun day then went to the beach for the afternoon. Later that day we went to dinner at the Cotton House, the only hotel on the island and it was terrific - - highly recommended - - great setting and fantastic service. We finished the night at the Firefly and had an altogether GREAT time. Tomorrow we sail to the Tobago Cays and we will be out of Internet range for a couple of days. We uploaded some pictures of the first couple of days of our trip, we have more that I will try and upload when we get back to the Internet. I've moved my market to the Tobago Cays. Cheers, Randy

2009 Caribbean Cruise 2/17 We're leaving for the Tobago Cays this morning, I moved my marker but there is no Internet in the Cays, which is probably a good thing, because we will simply relax and enjoy the anchorage. Wait until you see the photos I will post in the Cays - - THIS is a place to unwind - - nothing to do except snorkel the reef and relax. More to follow, Randy

2009 Caribbean Cruise 2/18 We left the Tobago Cays and sailed down to Union Island about 12 miles. First we anchored in Clifton, the main town. Not much in town, but a great reef for snorkeling and there is one jewelry shop in town with a French woman who makes very nice hand-made jewelry. Then we motored around to Chatham Bay on the back side of the island for evening. There are three bars and one restaurant dotted around the bay. The restaurant is Shark Attack (not very good). The best Bar is the one on the far left when facing the beach - - the name is simply The Bar. They have very good bars service (Rum Punch is excellent) and the chef there used to work at Shark Attack and so now the food at The Bar is excellent. We did a pub crawl down the beach and without question The Bar is the best - - not the best looking, but the owner is interested in his guests. The anchorage was very quiet and still and we went back to the boat for a dinner of lamb chops and fresh grilled vegetables. Nicki, the chef on Extraordinary is in fact extraordinary. Early to bed as we are going to sail 38 miles tomorrow back to Bequia. Best, Randy

2009 Caribbean Cruise 2/19 We began our slow journey back north to St. Lucia today. The winds have picked up again blowing a steady 22-24 knots at 100 degrees true so we had a one-reef/full-jib broad reach for the 28 mile sail back to Bequia. "Tony the boat boy" found us another great mooring and we went ashore and decided to try Tommy's Mexican Cantina - - DON'T the food was terrible, 1-star at best - - Mexican food in the Caribbean, what were we thinking? Anyway, the owners of the Firefly on Mustique have now opened a Firefly-Bequia. It's a short 10-minute taxi ride from the dingy dock, so we tried it for dinner. It's an absolutely beautiful setting, furnished similar to the Firefly on Mustique same colors and even a similar Grey house cat, but it's brand new and hasn't quite found it's legs yet. The food is OK, but not at the prices they were charging ($60 EC per entree and $15 EC for appetizers). Nicki, Ian, Lale and I each had something different for three courses and none of us thought the food was what it should have been. The service was excellent, the staff attentive and the ambiance terrific, but because of the food we rated it 3-stars out of 5. Still it's the Caribbean and we're on VACATION!

2009 Caribbean Cruise 2/20 Ian, the captain of Extraordinary, is from Cornwall, England and he taught me a brand new expression today when he said, "Man it's blowing dogs off chains!" I laughed until my sides hurt. But he was right, we had a full on Force 8 Gale with sustained wind of 35 knots and gusts to 40. Ian broke out the storm staysail that he had never used and we put a third reef in the main and ventured out on our 60 mile sail back to St. Lucia. Airplane schedules and sailing never mix very well and if we weren't leaving from St. Lucia, prudence might have won the day and we would have stayed in Bequia. Nonetheless, off we went. We stayed in the wind shadow of Bequia for as long as we could, but then we were in it. Breaking seas built to 10-12 feet as we picked our way through the troughs. Lale and Nicki stayed dry under the cockpit dodger while Ian and I traded 20 minute shifts at the helm - - that's all we could take before the saltwater in our eyes had to be rinsed out with fresh water. Now I know it may not sound fun but it was - - I loved it - - with just the small handkerchief headsail and a triple-reefed main we were hitting 9.8-10.5 knots of boat speed and we had a 1 knot current with us (against the wind which is what piled up the waves) so our speed over ground was near 11 knots most of the trip. We started out on a beam reach, but as we cleared the cut between St. Vincent and St. Lucia the wind clocked around putting us close hauled at 10-11 knots. Until we finally hit the wind shadow from the Pitons. We had planned on anchoring at the Pitons, but remember I told you the north swell predominates and it was blowing dogs off chains in the anchorage, so we kept on sailing up to Marigot Bay about 12 miles further. Marigot Bay is a great hurricane hole and we went on dock at the Discovery Resort Marina - - great facility by the way, highly recommended. They had moorings available, but with Force 8 winds I knew we would sleep better on dock. Sure enough in the middle of the night, one of the boats on anchor dragged into another boat - - it was far away from us so we didn't hear the commotion, but heard about it in the morning. Another reason for going on to Marigot Bay was that Ian's sister, Sarah, had just completed an Atlantic crossing with her boyfriend Richard Bentley on a Rival 34 called EUGE, and they were waiting for us at Marigot Bay. We celebrated their crossing with champagne and supper at the Discovery Bay Resort. This is the only 5-star rating we gave out of all the restaurants we sampled. The staff was alert and responsive, beautiful setting, and the food excellent and well presented.