Sunday, September 3, 2023
Welp, you may have noticed the furry friend in the postcard isn't Bosun. Another little guy was found as a stray on a beach and needed a home. He was bottle fed by some fellow sailors until we took him in. We scooped him up in Saint Martin and he's become Bosun's best friend. Meet our newest crew member, Scupper!
For our non-nautical friends, Scupper is a hole in the side of the boat to allow water to drain overboard off the deck. The actual term had no significance in naming him other than it's fun to say and it's nautical to match Bo's name. Turns out though, Scup loves sticking his paws down the actual scuppers. Perhaps, he's hoping a fish will come up from the water below through the drain!
Let's see... We last sent out an update in Antigua... gosh, that feels like forever ago and yesterday all at the same time. Since then, we sailed up to Barbuda. The other island in the country of Antigua and Barbuda. It's a low-lying island with very little on it since sadly being completely destroyed in 2017 by Hurricane Irma. Around 90% of the properties were damaged and everyone was forced to evacuate to Antigua afterwards due to risk of disease from stagnant water and rodents, as well as an impending second hurricane. It's people were allowed back on the island 3 weeks later, but Barbuda has never been the same. The main town is still eerily quiet with abandoned and damaged buildings. It felt as if the hurricane occurred just that season. Despite the devastation, Barbuda was beautiful and will hold a special place in our hearts. We spent our days walking Bo along the pink sand beach of Princess Diana Beach and made friends with a local entrepreneur, Enoch, who owned a quaint beach bar. His rum punches and grilled lobster were phenomenal! We then sailed around the corner to a deserted beach, where we strung up a lamb leg we had in our freezer and slow cooked it over a fire. We baked fresh pitas from scratch, then whipped up some homemade hummus and tzatziki sauce. It was quite the memory!
From there, we headed over to St. Bart's, where the rich and famous play. The Bucket Regatta was taking place and all the mega-yachts were there to race. It's hard to describe sailing by these 100-300ft sailboats with our 42ft home. They were beautiful and quite a marvel. Despite the difference in luxury, we reminded ourselves that we all have the same view of the sunset at the end of the day. Like most of our time traveling, we crave new things. It's even better when the new thing is food! In St. Bart's, due to a language barrier since neither of us speak French very well (or really at all), we ended up ordering sting ray for lunch. We were half-way through the dish raving about how delicious it was before we even realized what we were eating! Highly recommend giving it a try, if you get the chance.
From St. Bart's, we stopped at a deserted island, Île Fourchue, which was a great spot for some hiking with Bo. Next, we hopped over to St. Martin, where we took in Scupper. Our days there were mostly spent enjoying some French food. If you visit the island, the restaurants in Grand Case are amazing and make a wonderful date night. Also, the street fair on Tuesdays is fun, as all the local vendors come out and sell art, beverages, or local food on the street. Aside from eating, we also replaced the backstay on the boat. We had noticed a small bend or defect on the stay and felt it was best to replace it, as a failure would be catastrophic. We had Keith's parents bring down the parts back when we were in Antigua and we successfully replaced it ourselves after talking to friends about the basic process. Otherwise, Becca held down the boat and the animals for 2 weeks while Keith flew up to Virginia to help friends sail their boat down to the Caribbean.
After St. Martin, we sailed back down the chain to Martinique to provision before hopping down to the Grenadines to play. It was so wonderful being back in the crystal clear water and soft sand of the Grenadines. We first spent time in Bequia, where Keith had family and friends fly in to surprise Becca for a wedding ceremony. While we had considered ourselves married by common law years ago, we had never formally celebrated. It was great to have everyone in one place for a week on a gorgeous island.
After bouncing around the various islands in the Grenadines, swimming with copious sea turtles, and hunkering down for Tropical Storm Brett, we eventually made our way to Grenada. We hadn't intended on sailing to Grenada this hurricane season, but formalities to get Bo imported into Tobago brought us there. It turned out to be wonderful, however, since some friends were anchored in a little perfectly protected bay we had never been to before. We sailed down to join them and slept so soundly on the flat still waters of Egmont Harbor for the last few weeks while we finished the formalities.
Somewhere along the way, Becca craved an intellectual challenge and had the opportunity to consult for a company, helping to create educational content for medical schools on an online platform. It's been an awesome fit, as the work is stimulating and she can take on as much or as little of a workload as she wishes to mesh with our lifestyle at any moment. Keith recently was approached by a fellow sailing friend with a business idea. They then co-founded Glimma.ai, a soon-to-be released app to identify and build your personal brand. We both have found it fulfilling to be engaged in professional/business activities again.
We also continued to spend time writing up the remainder of the articles in our series for the Caribbean Compass magazine. You can find those articles here on the website. Here are direct links, as well, if that's easier:
Once we had pre-approval for importing Bo and a weather window opened up a few days ago, we made the 20 hour sail to Tobago after, first, sailing up to Petit Martinique (an island north of Grenada and Carriacou - the third island in the tri-island nation). We lucked out with amazing winds, minimal waves, and a weakened current that flows against the direction we were headed. Plus, a full super moon to boot! The sail was truly glorious.
Since arriving in Tobago, we have been met with the impossible task of clearing into the country. We have been in limbo since arriving Friday morning. The process could be a post of it's own, but suffice it to say, it's been a daily visit to the customs and immigration office, as well as trying to meet with the government vet. Mostly, it seems not everyone is available despite having normal business hours. We have also learned that an appointment is only a loose agreement to meet and the other party may not show. We are embracing island time and spent the afternoon yesterday having a fantastic meal of fresh seafood and playing in the water at the beach. We will make our daily trek up to the customs and immigration office today for a potential 11am meeting. Fingers crossed, everyone!
We are excited to see more of the island and the underwater life here in Tobago. We will hopefully do better at keeping you all updated and, who knows, maybe we'll eventually put together some more videos to share. Life has just been too fun in the present to go back through our pictures and videos of the past, but it's still a goal to create videos as keepsakes for our older selves. Hopefully, we'll be able to share with you all again soon.
Much love,
Keith & Becca
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