Socony... The Musician

Well, I was wrong in my spelling of Socony's name - this is the correct spelling. Socony was the musician that came aboard Camille on Union Island to entertain us with his music, song and trivia!

Turns out, Socony has many YouTube hits!

Here is one of them... SOCONY - I CAN'T STAND YOUR SILENCE ANYMORE

Socony is an expert at trivia - both U.S. Presidential trivia, as well as other trivia. Here is one question!

Name five State Capitals that are also names of U.S. Presidents. (Don't cheat and use Google!)

Good luck!

Sailing the Grenadines! Final day on the boat...

Friday, 6/26/09
It was time to explore Chatham Bay – gorgeous beach with no people (but us). We wandered, hunted for sea glass and shells, and enjoyed the last peaceful morning on the boat. Our trip was about to wind down… time to set sail for Bequia.




After a long sail and late lunch, we were able to explore Bequia a bit. We went to Coco’s for dinner – wonderful dinner and the last one for our motley sailing group to experience together. There was supposed to be music, but for some reason the band did not appear - low season in the Caribbean, things are quite casual - even music engagements. We took some leftovers with us to try to feed the fish at the boat. We got strong flashlights, and thought we would have good luck getting fish to come over with our tasty leftovers. But, alas - they were either not hungry, or did not like what we had to offer as we did not do well finding fish to look at. By the time we finished our fish feeding experiment, everyone crashed.

Saturday, 6/27/09
Jackie and Neal had to leave first as they were flying out on SVG to Barbados for a night at the Crane. The rest of us went back to Sugarapple Inn where we spent a quiet day exploring Friendship Beach, and being lazy in the pool. We enjoyed a great lunch at the Bequia Beach Hotel.



For dinner on our last night on the island, we met Paul and Jan at Mac’s Pizza. We had to get in our Mac’s Pizza fix, it is a tradition for us to go to Mac’s. I had a lovely lasagna! They have many other things – not just pizza, although their pizza is wonderful. The evening was delightful. We had to say our goodbyes to Jan and Paul – the crew that had become good friends over the week!

Truly, this was “the” best vacation, relaxing and fun. We loved it so much, we are signed up for another week next June, British Virgin Islands this time! Can’t wait…

Sailing the Grenadines! A deserted island....

Thursday, 6/25/09

The plan for Thursday at 6am was to get up early and swim with the turtles as they were feeding. However, the weather was not really cooperating for that plan so we slept in and waited out the wind/rain. After breakfast, we did venture over to snorkel the area as I said earlier.

After our snorkel, we moved the boat over to another Cay (yes, another deserted island) where we could go ashore and climb up a hill for a great view of those turquoise waters. Larry actually walked around the entire island. Beautiful!








We stayed here until after lunchtime at which point we set sail for Union Island – Chatham Bay.

Chatham Bay is a beautiful, quiet bay that we have been to before. The weather made it “interesting” – huge winds flipping our dinghy (and other dinghy’s in the area as well). We were all drenched by the time we were all squared away (anchored). I’m not sure there were any dry towels left! Once we were all dried off, we moved our usual game activities in to the saloon – cribbage night.


After an hour or two, the rain cleared and everything dried. The next day the sunshine was beautiful… storms pass quickly in the Caribbean!

Sailing the Grenadines! The fun keeps on coming...

Tuesday: 6/23

This morning after breakfast four of our group went diving in Mayreau Gardens. They all expressed their gratitude for being able to dive that particular site and stated it was absolutely fantastic diving. Notice the squid in the picture to the left? Pretty cool huh?

Kathi and I spent the morning reading on the trampoline under a shade tarp. Who could ask for more. Once we got a little warm, we decided it was time to float (a favored pastime by all). The boat has noodles aboard and we figured out if you use two noodles, you can fashion a chair of sorts – most comfie! This may be stretching it, but I looked at it as a CORE Workout... balance and focus were key to successful chair floating.

The other pastime of the day was to watch the excitement of one of the Switch charter boats. It came in later in the day on Monday and they decided to beach the catamaran, tying it to a tree. Huh, we thought. None of the other boats were doing that we noticed. Well, the tide (yes there is tide) went out over night, and the catamaran was firmly beached. Some locals throughout the day would come, try to assist, but to no avail. By the time we left after lunch, the boat was still firmly beached. I’m sure they had to wait it out until late in the day when they re-floated.

After our lunch, and giving up on the beached cat excitement, we set sail for Union Island. Union Island’s main town is Clifton. We docked for the night and this was our night to go out to dinner. We talked about options, and decided on the West Indies Restaurant for dinner. The six of us spent time exploring Clifton: bars, restaurants, dive shop and internet café. During this time of wandering, this is when Jan and Paul work hard to spiffy up the boat (fresh towels, fresh sheets, more water, and a good scrub for Camille). Boy, do they work hard to make everything perfect!

They also had arranged for Sivoney, a friend & musician, to come aboard during our happy hour to entertain us. Sivoney is a master trivia expert, and will absolutely stump you with his questions. He would sing, but prior to starting a song he would deliver a most difficult, multi-faceted trivia question. I don’t think we got any one of them completely correct! He was great, and we did purchase a CD from him. Very interesting and entertaining fellow.

After Sivoney left, we all wandered down to the West Indies Restaurant for a fabulous dinner. Very good food and great service as well. WEST INDIES RESTAURANT

Sailing the Grenadines! More fun to come...

Monday: 6/22/09
Another wonderful breakfast and we were off – sailing to Mayreau. Paul and Jan dropped us off in Saline Bay. We donned our shoes, took a cooler bag with provisions and headed ashore. Our task – to climb the hill over the island and end up in Salt Whistle Bay.



At the top of the hill is the Catholic Church. If you go behind the church, you will find the most magnificent view! Don’t miss it… Keep following the road (the only road, so you can’t get lost) and you will end up at a beautiful beach where the Salt Whistle Resort is located.


During our jaunt over the hill, we ended up on a goat/sheep rescue mission. Many appeared to be tangled, so we helped untangle the goats, or were they sheep? Tails up – goats. Tails down – sheep. Our last rescuee’ was very sad when we left and cried and cried for Neil, his rescuer.


Well, after our tiring goat rescue mission, we were treated to wonderful appetizers and cocktails aboard Camille – and of course another fabulous dinner. This night was probably our best sunset! Beautiful…

Sailing the Grenadines! (continued)

Mustique was about a 2-3 hour sail. One of our crewmates was not feeling very well, a bit seasick, so put on Seabands and took Bonine that I had brought along (just in case). She seemed to feel better (about the time we arrived)! We sailed into Mustique, had another fabulous meal and took the dinghy to the dock. Our group of six decided to do the island tour. Wow is all that I can say. Compared to other islands, this island was pristine.

Being in education, I always pay attention to schools. The school on Mustique was beautiful. The facilities were up to date, and the children had a gorgeous playground. In all of my travels to the Caribbean, I have never seen a school that would even come close to that one! Since our visit, I have learned the the island is owned by the Mustique Corporation. The gorgeous school is not a public school, but a school built by the Corporation. It was donated, designed and built by the late Arne Hasselqvist, the acrhitectural mastermind behind 69 of Mustique's villas, the jetty, airport, boutiques, Basil's Bar and some offices. The school opened in 1987 and is financed in part by the homeowners' annual benefit, which provides local children with the best education possible. Some of the world's leading entertainers are numbered among visiting storytellers! Apparently the education is on the same par as the facility, and considered an "employee perk" for those living on the island working for the corporation.


During our tour we visited the Cotton House Hotel grounds – beautiful! (At a hefty price I might add.)


And of course drove by some magnificent homes. OK, who wants to live here?


We ended our tour at Basil’s Bar with a drink and sunset before heading back to Camille for another wonderful dinner. What a great day!

Sailing the Grenadines!

Part three of our adventure takes us aboard a 51 ft Privilege Catamaran named Camille. This was our first time sailing with Tradewinds, and we were REALLY looking forward to it. Our sailing experience is not recent, our last bareboat charter in 2005 visiting the B.V.I. We did not feel confident enough to attempt a sailing trip on our own, very rusty skills, so the Tradewinds option worked out great for us! We can do as much sailing as we like, and do not have the responsibility of cooking, provisioning, and the boat tasks. This truly was vacation! We met Paul and Jan (our captain and first mate), and they led us to Camille. She was great – looked beautiful and welcoming complete with a welcome sign with each of our names and pitchers of cocktails and appetizers. We all enjoyed the early evening waiting for the last two boat mates to arrive – Jackie O. and Neal. Once they arrived, we unpacked, stowed suitcases in the locked Tradewinds storage area and left the dock to anchor near Princess Margaret Beach for the night. Each meal was amazing and hard to believe that Jan could produce that kind of food in such a small area. Not only was it delicious, but the presentation was fabulous as well! Kudos to Jan.










Sunday: 6/21/09
After a nice breakfast, we were off for Mustique (island of the rich and famous). We left Bequia and got the closest view of Moonhole I have ever had! What a unique place… one of these days I do want to see it up close.