June 25–July 5 Canuan When we arrived in Canouan we had no intention of staying more than a few days, just long enough to snorkel at a few of the places mentioned in the guide book. When we left 10 days later we had many new friends and had had one of the best cultural experiences of our trip.

It all started when Jim approached two guys, Cornel (aka Chicken) and Maxwell (aka Baybay), who where working with their model sail boats getting ready for a race. The boats are called "gum" boats because they are made out of the wood of a gum tree. The only specicifaction for these boats to race is that they must be 3 feet long on deck. There are no specs for height of mast, size of sail, depth of keel, etc., so you can have a real tricked out boat if you want to. Here's the kicker. These are not remote controlled boats, so all adjustments for sail trim and tacking during a race have to be done manually and from the water! The captain of the model boat has to follow it in a dinghy or even on a surf board and jump in the water to make adjustments. The agility of the captain is a big factor as well as the skill of the guy driving the dinghy. Jim showed enough interest in the gum boats that Baybay asked Jim if he would use our dinghy as the chase boat for Baybay's model boat. Now if you want a laugh, imagine out little tippy dinghy, the 'Ivory Soap Bar', with Baybay jumping off the bow and climbing back in dozens of times. It was amazing. Too bad we didn't get it on video. There never was an official race that day, just practice races and Baybay won them all with Jim as the chase boat. Linda and Jennifer got to ride in Chicken's chase boat (much bigger and more stable) along with Mick, a Brit visiting the island for 6 weeks, and Mannox, Chicken's buddy who was driving. Besides being a good racer, Baybay's the craftsman who makes a lot of the gum boats on the island. There's a 5' class of gum boats too, but none of them were racing that day.

The race would have been enough for one day, but there was a party going on in town - rescheduled from a rained out Father's Day event. There was a music tent with a DJ and a beer tent. They had dance contests, Soca music contests, treasure hunts, musical chairs (that seems to be big down here) and plenty of music and dancing. Young John Steel took the children's dance contest as well as the Soca contest hands down. He seems to be a favorite son of the island and everyone agrees he's going to make it big some day. Chicken, Baybay and Mick all introduced us to many of their friends and family so no doubt most people knew who we were by the end of the evening. We felt quite safe in town and on the boat after that as now we weren't just cruisers from a sail boat, we were Chicken's and Baybay's friends. We ended the big day of gum boat races and partying with a meal of creole chicken, rice, steamed pumpkin and goat stew on Serenity IV, the boat that Chicken takes care of.

We wanted to repay Chicken and Baybay for their hospitality, so we invited them to Opus for pork chops and rice one evening. That only got us talking more about food and their local dishes. It turns out Chicken is a good cook and even has a restaurant that he inherited from his mother, The Hilltop Bar and Restaurant. During the course of the week we were treated to many good meals. One outstanding meal was salt fish in a creole sauce served with steamed dasheen, small green bananas and pumpkin. Shawn from the dive boat had caught the tuna about 6 weeks earlier and Chicken had salted it to preserve it. We also had fried fish, caught fresh with a spear gun and hour earlier, steamed lobster and conch stew.

In addition to the many meals, Chicken treated us to a tour of the island. The whole N side of the island has been leased to an Italian company that turned it into a high class resort called Raffles - not the kind of place scruffy cruisers would be allowed. That was no problem for Chicken. He just greeted the security guard and they lifted the gate for him. He had previously worked at Raffles and his current boss, the woman who owns the sport fisher that he takes care of, lives there. He drove us to his boss's house and we switched from his car to a golf cart so he'd be able to take us all over the resort including the golf course. This is a beautiful island to start with, but it's amazing to see how people try to enhance it with money. The golf course alone was worth a look, a Trump International course. It was divided into the lower 9 and upper 9 based on elevation. Many tees, fairways and greens were terraced or on different levels. A lot of water from their desalinization plant goes into just maintaining the golf course. It's off season and we didn't even see anyone using it. They won't see many tourists again until November. We also visited the casino up on a hill with a fabulous view of the Atlantic looking out over a coral reef. Of course, it was closed.

After Raffles he drove us to the S end of the island. What a contrast in wealth between the two ends. There were a lot more smiling people on the south end though. Through the course of the day he gave several people rides. That's typical of what we saw here. The people seemed very kind, friendly and well manored. They helped each other where they could, sharing what they had. Maybe it's because so many of them were related, but I think it goes deeper than that as we were treated so well too.

Besides sailing the gum boats, Chicken and Baybay both play a card game called All Fouls (the "L" is silent when they say it). They and their card partners represent Canouan in tournaments with other islands in the Grenadines. They had just competed in Mayreau and Baybay and his partner had won. They taught us the game so we could understand what they did. There's a lot of concentration, memory and stategy involved. Baybay says he doesn't drink rum if he wants to play the game well (and he really likes his rum)!

Baybay and Jennifer hit it off talking about the jewelry they make. Jennifer showed Baybay the dolphins she makes out of seed pods and made him a simple necklace out of some of her special beads. He in turn made her a necklace using one of her dolphins and some of his special beads, actually they made it together. That was his gift to Jennifer. His gift to all of us was a small model sail boat. We were very honored to be given one of his boats.

By the end of our week, we were still trying to figure out some way of giving something back to our new friends. Jim thought they might enjoy a sail on Opus and he was right. Chicken loves to sail, but rarely has a chance. He had skippered charter boats in the past and was really in his element sailing Opus. Baybay knew how to sail and did quite well also. Mannox had never been on a sail boat, but seemed to have quite a good time on his 1st sailing experience. Every one took names from the 'Pirates of the Carribean' for the day and had some fun with that. We had Captain Jack, Will, Bootstap, Barbosa and Elizabeth on board. Linda was just "Moms" and was busy in the galley part of the day serving a hungy and thirsty crew. Elizabeth filmed a very heated and funny argument between Captain Jack and Will about whether we were quartering or heading. It's U tube material, bound to make you laugh, but it's too big to stick out on the website.

Canouan's a beautiful little island with good sailing and some good snorkeling, but it's the people themselves that make the island worth a stop. There's also a big Moorings base here, so those of you who like to sail, keep in mind that you can charter boats down here and get some good sailing in during hurricane season. It's also a very short sail from the Tobago Cays, our next stop. Almost forgot we found our first 6 pointed star fish here. Perhaps it's a sign of good luck like a 4 leaf clover. Jim called it a Jewish starfish.

June 12–June 25St Lucia and the Grenadines with Gink Marigot Bay, St Lucia, is just a short sail from Rodney Bay. It's so short that Jim sailed there one Saturday morning before Jennifer and Linda ever woke up. We got fuel and water at the marina and then what seemed like a weeks worth of mangos from a very persistent boat boy. We anchored in the pretty, protected harbor right next to another relatively small boat named 'Gink' with a German family on board. They invited us over for German beer the first night. After 5-6 hours of beer and wine, we were fast friends with Anke and Matthias. That was the first of many evenings spent together sharing stories and experiences. Lena, their 8 year old daughter, and Jennifer had a fun time too as Lena's english was quite good. Some of their play-dates needed no words to have a lot of fun, like being pulled behind a dinghy on Matthias's wind surf board or swinging out over the water on the rope swing at Doolittles Beach.

We traveled together to Soufriere, St Lucia, to a marine reserve where the snorkeling was great right off the boat. Soufriere is on the south end of St Lucia. Two volcanic peaks, The Pitons, tower about 2000' above the coast line. The water just off shore is about 1000' deep, so the Pitons really rise about 3000' off the ocean floor. Let's just say they stand out as a very distinct landmark, so much so that the flag of St Lucia has a Piton on it as a symbol of their country.

The next sail together was to Bequia, in the Grenadines, 56 miles. It was a longer sail than Gink was used to, but they came along anyway. We all had a good time in Bequia, but it was an especially good time for the kids. We were anchored close together and close enough to the beach that they could swim between boats and to the beach. They snorkeled along the beach looking for shells and played in the sand. They spent more time digging holes down than building sand castles up and sometimes all we could see were their heads sticking out. The girls went to a Saturday Reading Club for the local kids,sponsored by a bookshop and supported by volunteer help from the cruising community. The idea was to encourage kids to read and give them a chance to practice their reading skills. Both Jennifer and Lena came away with a better appreciation for the school systems in their own countries. Many of the local kids their ages still struggled with reading.

Another highlight for Jennifer and Lena was visiting the turtle sanctuary in Bequia. At the sanctuary they capture sea turtle hatchlings and raise them until they are 4-5 years old and then release them to the sea. The 20% survival rate in the sanctuary is much higher than the 0.03% survival rate in the wild. They've released over 800 turtles since they opened 15 years ago. We saw hawksbill turtles from 6 months old to 5 years old. The little ones are really cute. They also had a few green back turtles including the sanctuary owners pet turtle, Busy Body, who was 15. In another 10 years they hope to start seeing some of the turtles they released coming back to lay eggs on the beach they were released on.

It was Carnival time in Bequia while we were there. It wasn't quite the celebration we had experienced in Granada last August, but there was plenty of music and dancing. Due to a lot of rain and everything running on 'island time' we missed the parades, however you could still feel the festive mood on the island.

We left Gink in Bequia, but hope to see them again in the Grenadines. They were a good match for us all around. They had a small boat with a similar philosophy on sailing. Jim and Matthias talked about sailing and repairing boats. Linda and Anke talked homeschooling and living aboard boats with sailors. Who knows what the girls talked about, but it was good to hear them giggling and laughing.

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June 1–June 11 Dominica, Martinique and St. Lucia On June 1 we sailed from The Saintes in Guadeloupe to Rosseau, Dominica, to the same anchorage we were at in January. We snorkeled at Champagne again where gas bubbles up from the ocean floor. The sea horses were still hanging out on the same sea plume waiting for us. Jim caught a small barracuda on the way to Dominica, so we ate that along with local fruits and vegetables - steamed pumpkin is becoming a favorite. The smoothie stand near the main bus station in town has become a regular stop for us now. With an "Everything Smoothie" you get nearly a full days supply of fruit in one large drink for about $2 US.

Next stop Martinique. A long day of sailing brought us to Fort de France, Martinique. Jim said it was one of the best sailing days ever. A lot of the time we were doing over 6 knots and that's fast for us. We saw some spotted dolphins on the way. Jennifer even saw one jump completely out of the water and spin. We all agreed the only "must do" thing in Martinique this time around was to shop at Leader Price, a large low cost supermarket. We have a set list of things we buy there because they're cheap, we like them and we can't buy them in other countries. This time we added Amber Rum based on a tip from another cruiser - 3 liters of rum in a box with a spigot just like the boxes of wine you can get in the States. After our shopping trip was out of the way, we moved on to Grande Anse D'Arlet, a new anchorage for us. It's a picturesque little bay and a very popular weekend hangout. A large power boat named Opus II anchored next to us Sunday afternoon. When the captain realized we had the same boat name, he swam over to say, "Bonjour". Lucky for us he also spoke some English. He said he liked good wine and he named his boat after Opus wine. He wondered if we did too. No, we've heard of it, but at $150 a bottle in the US, it's out of our price range. Maybe it's cheaper here, but based on his boat, probably not. He didn't offer us any either. The same afternoon, Jim and Jennifer watched a 3 man band setting up at a club on the beach - one guy played a sound machine, one played an electric clarinet and a sax, the third played various drums. We all went back in the evening for 3 1/2 hours of continuous music - no breaks, not even between songs, they just flowed into one another. There was no way to sit and listen without at least tapping a hand or a foot. Linda put off getting up to dance as long as she could, because she knew Jim wouldn't let her sit down until the end of a song and there was no end of a song. So, they danced until the band quit!

Next country --> St Lucia, Harbor --> Rodney Bay We'd spent enough time here on previous visits that it felt like home. Gregorgy, the produce man who sells fruit and vegetables boat to boat, even remembered us. As usual we found some familiar faces including Tom on "Juno". He bought new Portland Pudgy sailing dinghy since we saw him last in Grenada. He and his friend Lori sailed it out to visit us in the harbor to show it off. It's an interesting boat.

Jennifer's been busy with school. She finished 7th grade grammar while we where in Rodney Bay, so we celebrated with a Whopper Meal at Burger King. She'd already finished Math, Spelling, Reading and Geography. The end is in site. There might be a summer vacation after all!

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