Layne Bay Blog

West Indies ‘08:People –

Our last evening was spent moored in a beautiful village called Marigot north of Soufries in St. Lucia.

The seas were as rough as we had experienced the entire trip to get there. As we crossed the large channel between St. Vincent and St. Lucia. For three of the four hours of sailing, we were in a rain storm with waves to match. No soul ventured out to the deck on this particular day to face the wind and waves. The crew (Thierry and Yannick) donned full bright yellow rain gear as the crawled across the boat with great ease. Sails eventually came down , which I suppose is best to minimize the boats response to the weather. [Read more →]

Tags: Travel by Michael
2 Comments »

West Indies ‘08:Scenic –

We left the feel of miniature palm and white sand covered islands and headed north to St. Vincent Island. We had stopped for lunch days earlier, but had not spent a night here. In sharp contrast to the previous anchorage, this bay was surrounded by mountains covered in a deep, lush green.

The trip north saw some of the biggest waves of the trip so far. No where on the bow of the large catamaran was safe from waves crashing over us. A few of us spent the majority of the day in front, but were as wet as if we had been dragged from a rope on the back of the boat. [Read more →]

Tags: Travel by Michael
No Comments »

West Indies ‘08:Scenic –

It was a short trip today - only 45 minutes to the other side of Mayreau and across to Tobago Cays.

We joined perhaps 10 other boats (including the 90ft. schooner on its way to Argentina). We anchored in a bay surrounded by small islands one could cross on foot in less than 10 minutes.

We all snorkeled directly off the back of the boat and discovered several large sea turtles. We watched for a distance, then gave chase, only to be left behind without the reward of a touch unless the older, slower turtles were our pursuit. [Read more →]

Tags: Travel by Michael
No Comments »

West Indies ‘08:Scenic –

The next morning, while sill on Bequia (what a beautiful island…) We ate breakfast and our same dive group was collected at 9:00a for a drift dive at the heads of Anse [name]. “The Boulders” was the dive.

We got a chance to take the dinghy to shore and Skype home to check in with family and check on Meg.

Again, lunch was a real treat as Delphine created something between quiche and pizza (she called a tart). After lunch, we started our travel for the day and sailed south to a small island called Mayreau. It was a good 3 hour stint, but the group got their sea legs and we made it without the need for buckets (private joke…). [Read more →]

Tags: Travel by Michael
No Comments »

West Indies ‘08:People –

We headed for Bequia today along the west coast of St. Vincent Island. It was our first opportunity to hoist the sails. The crew played a nice trick on three of our group (me included)… With a sincere countenance on his face, He began pulling the ropes on the main sail and asked for our help… [Read more →]

Tags: Travel by Michael
No Comments »

West Indies ‘08:Boat –

Being able to see this boat in the daylight confirmed our initial shock when we saw the boat last night at 10:30p. It is enormous!

We had a great night’s sleep - perhaps due to the previous long day of travel. We had a nice spread of bread, jams, cereal and yogurt, along with coffee, tea, and eggs (a la Delphine).

Thierry (our captain) gathered our passports and headed over to clear customs. Then we motored south from Rodney Bay to Marigot for a non-stop (literally - we didn’t even stop…) tour of the village just to check it out in case we decided to make that stop on our return to St. Lucia. [Read more →]

Tags: Travel by Michael
No Comments »

The flight from Atlanta was delayed 2.5 hours, but no one seemed to mind as we all knew that eventually we would begin our week in the West Indies.

West Indies ‘08:Scenic –

Some select photos will accompany these posts here, but some not seen will be referenced and hopefully shared on some future ‘best of the best’ photo set posted here (or linked fro here…). The reason for this precursor is that our fearless leaderette (Kasey) brought along a “The Tin Man” doll to represent her son who was not able to make the trip. No, it’s not that he became ill at the last minute or he changed his mind about accompanying his parents to the far away destination; Ryan is six years old. And as you read on, you’ll have a clear understanding of why a six year old was not part of this gathering. [Read more →]

Tags: Travel by Michael
No Comments »