Sailing Life

Sailing in company means great photos of Moana Roa

Sailing along the east coast of Antigua to Nonsuch Bay

The First Mate at the helm...

The Skipper at the helm...

Flag girl and tactician flying the Courtesy flag and the Customs flag

On passage, Travis practicing his bowlines

On passage, Beau doing some traditional weaving

The boys about to test their cardboard sailing vessels

Travis scraping out a Calabash fruit to make a bowl

Beau retiring with a good Kindle

Eastern Caribbean Map

Our stats after 3 months on the water are:

581 nautical miles travelled
28 ports/achorages visited
7 countries


Thanks John for a reminder to put up a map... when I can figure out how to put arrows on a map they might be more informative.  You can click on the Caribbean tab in our blog to see a map of the whole Caribbean.  The Eastern Caribbean map below covers the Windward Islands (from Martinique south) and the Leeward Islands (Guadeloupe and north). The next group are the Virgin Islands west of Anguilla.


Beau and I started in St Lucia and sailed to Martinique to pick up Sonia, Travis and Kara.  We then sailed via St Vincent and the Grenadines to Bequia and Carriacou to meet Clare and Heather.  After 2 weeks we sailed north again via Tobago Cays to swim with turtles and continued back to St Lucia and Martinique.  Christine and Luke joined us in Martinique and we continued north to Dominica, Ilse de Saints (Guadeloupe), and we are now in Antigua due to sail to Barbuda in the next couple of days when we get a weather window.  We are enjoying sailing in company with a Sweedish family.

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Dominica, mountain paradise!

Awesome island with 9 active volcanoes.  Also one of the poorest countries in the Caribbean dependent on tourism (mostly cruise ships) ... a nature lover's paradise!  We enjoyed the mountains, jungle, bird walks, waterfalls, gorges and rivers.  Many scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean was also filmed here.  The Kalinago people (indigenous) with their traditional canoe making... you can imagine the effect of the arrival of Columbus' fleet around 1500 as depicted in the wall of this church.  We want to return to Dominica to hike a segment of the national Waitukubuli trail.

St Pierre, Martinique

Saint Pierre in the north of Martinique was a very interesting place not only for its spectacular sunsets!  We will definitely return as we have unfinished business.... there are a number of shipwrecks in the harbour which we would like to dive on.  Why so many shipwrecks in a safe anchorage???  ... read on....

Below is Mont Pelle, a world famous volcano.  The town of St Pierre is at its foot.

In 1902 the whole population of 30,000 was wiped out in a blast from the volcano that had as much power as a number of Hiroshima bombs. No survivors except for 1 - someone in a cell, in jail, awaiting trial for murder. He was subequently let off as there were no judges, jurors, police, people....

Very eerie looking at a whole town that was destroyed catastrophically in 3 minutes of 1 day. We saw a number of these chairs dotted around one particular set of ruins. They were chairs used to restrain patients at the mental sanatorium - or lunatic asylum. We can guarantee that at least 1 person ended their life strapped in one of these.

Today St Pierre has  a population of about 5000. Much less than at it's hey day. The town has retained the character of the period by restricting the type of construction allowed. The blast wiped out ships in the harbour also, and there are 7 diveable wrecks dotted around the harbour. Too deep for snorkelling alas. And apparently the volcano is active but currently dormant. I still breathed a sigh of relief as we sailed safely northward!

Kara's 7th Birthday

Kara turned 7 on 9th March, our first birthday onboard Moana Roa.  She chose to go snorkelling at the "Champagne Bubbles", an underwater hot water spring close to shore in the south of Dominica, near Roseau.  She said it was awesome and had a lovely morning tea with Christine and Luke, and Heather and Manu.  My special presents were a jewellery box, nail polish, a sarong, chocolates, a mug, and great books. We had a Party Fizz drink at the Champagne Bubbles!

Beau's Journal

Some of the fun things we have done and seen lately are:

1.     seeing the first iguana

2.     riding the standup paddleboard behind the dinghy

3.     swimming with turtles at Tobago Cays

In Tyrell Bay I saw the first iguana on a lime tree next to the Lazy Turtle Café.  When I saw it Kara and I were just swinging on a rope swing and I looked up and said “Iguana”.

At Sandy Island Vincent towed us behind the dinghy on the SUP and it was awesome.  One of the times when we were on a corner Kara was at the front and fell in with an “umph”, then I stated to go crazy and fell off too.

We all went swimming with turtles at the sanctuary.  We swam to one of the islands.  On the other side of the island were lots of turtles – we saw heaps.  We had a look at the island and we saw the biggest iguana we have seen.  It was one metre long with sharp spikes on its back.

Travis' Journal

Recently we sailed from Rodney Bay to the Pitons and had a good sail and only Kara got seasick.  It is also Australia Day!  I tried fishing with our new fishing rod but caught nothing.  I was inside most of the time listening to music and playing truth and dare.  Kara got sick as soon as we got to the Pitons but luckily mum brought her a bucket (but it was still disgusting).  Some boat boys helped us hook onto a mooring and took our rubbish but 5 minutes later we saw it floating in the water!

Willilabou - Pirates of the Caribbean

We then sailed from the Pitons, St Lucia to Willilabou , St Vincent.  This is where the Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed.  It was a pretty rough journey and we all got seasick except Mum and Dad.  Beau was the first one to chuck and then Kara because she saw Beau spewing, but I didn’t barf, I had a massive headache though.  So it was a pretty bad and long ride but when we arrived at Willilabou we were all excited to see the set of Pirates of the Caribbean.  We had some church time because it was Sunday and then went ashore.  There was a shed with coffins near it (but there were no bodies in them) so Mum took a photo of us standing in them!  We found a track

that led to some chooks in cages and fruit trees. 

But as soon as we tried going over to pick up some fruit five dogs approached us.  Luckily they were friendly.. Dad took some photos of the view from the hill while we found the movie running from the back of the pub.

We also sailed from Bequia to Carriacou.  The journey wasn’t that bad but I had a headache for a bit of the time.  We put a line in and while in the channel we caught a little barracuda. It was the first fish caught with our new rod.  We put the line in again and caught a little tuna.  Dad must have hit them in the wrong spot because there was heaps of blood.  When we got to shore Dad went ashore and cleared customs and then we went to another beach around the corner.  We all then went for a swim and Kara showed how far she could swim under water (which is pretty far for a 6 year old).  Then Beau showed us how big his bombies are.  Then we had fish and chips for dinner.

We moved spots in the bay of Tyrell in Carriacou.  Dad said we were too close to another boat called “True Blue” for comfort.  Beau made a pretty cool cubby house that he slept in last night.  Then we went for our first swim of the day to find my rashie that blew off the boat railing but we had no luck.  When we were coming back from snorkeling Kara and I saw some pretty big fish all swimming around trying to eat the bait fish.  Kara claimed that they were trumpet fish but I didn’t have a clue what they were.  In the afternoon Mum and I went ashore for a walk.  We went a long way and saw heaps of goats.  Mum asked an old lady what the goats were doing and the lady said they were sheep! We didn’t know what to call them so we made up the name “shoats”, a cross between sheep and goats!

We met some new friends from South Africa. Their names are Oscar and Finn.  Oscar is 7 and Finn is 9.  They have a cat onboard which can swim.  They said that it had even swum to shore and back.  They have a really thick black rope out the back of their boat for the cat to climb up if it swims to shore.  They invited us to swing off their boat because they have a swing going from their mast.  We then went to shore and Finn and Oscar showed us how to skim on bodyboards.  Beau knew how to do it but I couldn’t get it.  Clare, Heather and Kara came along and then we had even more fun.  Then after some fun we said goodbye to the boys and we took a very long time to get back to the yacht on the SUP.

Carriacou (Grenada) and back to Martinique

It has been a few weeks since we last wrote on the blog.  Adjusting to the sailing life has taken time and we have had boat-school, visitors, numerous maintenance issues, and internet problems (we still do!).  First Clare and Heather in Carriacou and now Luke and Christine in Martinique have joined us.  

We enjoyed Carriacou, a small island of a few thousand with a feel a bit like Christmas Island, quiet, relaxed, and friendly.  The annual Carnivale was on so we stayed a week longer than expected and the girls got right into the spirit!  Here is a photo of the street parade which included acrobats and stilt walkers, beautifully crafted costumes, old and young, accompanied by massive ghetto blasters on trucks providing the beat.  Caribbean people sure have the music and dance gene!

Clare and Heather (both accomplished backpackers) quickly met some locals and it was great to have Vincent and Matt onboard introducing some teamwork to the crew.  Here we are raising the mainsail ready to sail to a beautiful bay in the north of Carriacou.

Tyrrell Bay, Carriacou.... a great anchorage!

Sadly, we left Carriacou to sail north again to Martinique via Tobago Cays, Bequia and St Lucia.  Weather conditions were a little challenging with 30 knot gusts and 3m swell across the channels, and very strong bullets of wind from various directions coming off the volcano in the north of St Vincent kept is on our toes.  With a few squalls forecast it got a little cold and wet and we had to don the wet weather gear!  Here we are arriving in Marigot Bay, St Lucia after a 10 hour passage.  All the kids have their sea legs now so although they look a bit weary they weren't sick at all.

Kara's big smile after snorkelling with lots of turtles at Tobago Cays.

Clare and Heather departed in Le Marin, Martinique... Clare back to Perth to study and Heather jumped ship onto Pantagruel, a classic wooden ketch, to continue her journey north.

Photo upload

Finally on the yacht together... 

Caribbean T20 cricket finals 

Anchored behind us at Rodney Bay, St Lucia 

The Pitons on Australia Day 

John Marley ("cousin of Bob") 

 Pirates of the Caribbean

Journal writing 

Another catch

At the helm... heading south to Carriacou

First fish... Tim would be proud!

Off to Fort Rodney

Cricket in the West Indies

The Caribbean T20 Final by Travis...

Last week we went to the cricket 20/20 finals! Trinidad and Guyana were playing . Guyana won the toss and chose to bat first. Unfortunately The Trinidadians were too good for Guyana and Guyana ran out of balls . and got an easy beating score of 116 runs. There were only a few sixes hit from Guyana before they were all out.
Trinidad's batting was exceptional as they hit their way to the easy beating score of 116 runs. Unlike Guyana there were many sixes hit from Trinidad including the massive six that finished off Guyana. There were awesome fireworks after the big win of Trinidad and we could here car alarms going off from the loud bang from the fireworks. It was really hard to get into a minibus and we waited about an hour before we finally got on a bus.

Bequia with a quaint harbour town

Here we are at a cafe with free wifi with the inter island ferry leaving in the background.  Today we sailed from Willilabou, St Vincent, where the set for The Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed. More on that later.  We started out with little wind and a jammed Gennaker furler but luckily the lack of wind meant we could rectify the problem without crazy seas.  Well it soon picked up and we pulled in the Gennaker and rolled out the Genoa.  Moana Roa sails well in 20 knots of wind and we had a great sail across the channel and into Admiralty Bay for the night.  We are heading for Carriacou to pick up Clare and Heather by the end of the week.

Adjusting to life onboard...

Just got a local SIM and data bundle, so posting from my iPhone from the yacht until I can figure out how to create a hotspot and connect the laptop (it's not wanting to play ball!). This will be a temporary measure until we get our wifi booster from USA and fit it on the masthead. Then we should get access when out of the 3G network in more remote anchorages.
Well, the wind and seas abated slightly when Beau and I set off from Rodney Bay to Martinique to pick up Sonia, Travis, and Kara. Still, we had gusts of 30 knots and 2.5m swell to contend with.  I sent Beau to the mast to bring down the St Lucia flag but had to call him back as we were pitching at 45 degrees like a rocking horse as we entered the channel and experienced the first of the Atlantic swells.  Beau slept in the cockpit as we approached Martinique and the protection of land.  Our new arrivals had stayed the night in a beachside hotel and were awaiting our landing on cue.  Their flights via KL and Paris were not without drama, Travis feeling sick on the first flight and then missing out on seeing the Eiffel Tower due to a taxi strike and crazy traffic on the roads (but they were very well looked after by some friends of Sonia's cousin Gladys). Suffice to say they were happy to be onboard Moana Roa.
We had the weekend to relax a bit in Sainte Anne, a quaint and very French beachside village before motoring to Le Marin (where we bought the yacht) for the re-rigging off the stainless steel stays. Four days of maintenance jobs while in one of the most well equipped marinas in the Caribbean and we were ready to return to St Lucia for the end of the Caribbean T20 series. Travis will report on this.
Now need to add a pre-filter to each of the engines to separate water and any other impurities. This will give piece of mind when refuelling. The plan is to start sailing south this weekend to The Pitons (volcanic plugs and the biggest features on the St Lucian landscape - also named after a famous yachtsman!! Cap'n Piton, aka Stephen Gallagher), Willilabou (where Pirates of the Caribbean was set), Bequia, and Cariacou. Here we meet Clare (our neice and cousin) and her friend Heather who are currently backpacking though Central America and the Caribbean).
Stay tuned for some updates from the boys...

It's blowing a gale!

Beau and I are still in the Rodney Bay Marina weathering the strong winds as shown on the map below with red arrows representing gales.  We are in the eastern Caribbean in the Windward Islands where the yellow arrows are emerging behind the red.  So, the wind is abating and there will be a window for us to sail to Martinique to pick up Sonia, Travis, and Kara on Friday.  They are flying to the Caribbean via Paris and will stay in La Dunette Hotel (just hoping its better than a dunny or Sonia wont let me live it down).  It's on the water front at a nice anchorage in Sainte Anne and with any luck they will watch us sail in...  In the meantime, Beau is taking himself off to the pool at will while I slave away with boat tasks.

Rodney Bay Marina, Saint Lucia

Beau and I spent 3 nights onboard in the boatyard and launched the boat on New Year's eve.  It's a relief to be on the water but we have a few jobs to do before Sonia, Travis and Kara join us next week. We watched the midnight fireworks from the dinghy and have met a few Aussies in the marina.  We set off for Martinique on the weekend but the weather is looking dodgy with 30kn headwinds!