«Ten, nine, eight…..one! Happy New Year! Welcome 2023!»
A new year, a new life, a new island. We celebrate the turn of the year on SV Take 5 of Suzi and Emmanuel, together with our Dutch-Indian friends.
Finally, the real Caribbean again! That’s my first thought as we drop anchor in Prince Rupert Bay in the northwest of Dominica. We are immediately greeted by local fishermen offering buoys, fish, vegetables and everything else.
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Martinique surprises us. Not because the island offers special nature experiences or a particularly interesting history, but because it is a kind of mini-Southern France in the Caribbean. Already on the first evening, after we wearily anchored in Sainte Anne on November 25 and cleaned up the boat, we make a short shore leave. Behind the dinghy dock of Sainte Anne is a small park, behind it a church, in between a post office, a few restaurants and a Carrefour Express.
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The time has come, our first night sail is coming up and we are both a bit nervous. What will await us? Will we be able to see enough to avoid possible dangers? Will the stars light our way? All week we have been waiting for the right weather window, but either too much or too little wind or too high waves were announced, now our app “PredictWind” predicts constant wind from the east and waves up to two meters. We are ready to go!
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Bequia’s Admirality Bay has been considered one of the safest and quietest natural harbors in the Caribbean for centuries. The water is calm and clear, the green forested hills surround the bay in a safe embrace and fine sandy beach wraps around the turquoise waters like a belt. No wonder pirates and pop stars alike have chosen this bay to anchor their ships and we don’t want to leave either.
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Only a few nautical miles separate Carriacou from Union Island, somewhere in between, in the middle of the sea, lies the national border of Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Early in the morning of November 9, we set sail on a beam reach course directly to Union.
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From Carriacou to the south of Grenada and back again, then further north. That’s about the plan as we set off. We have to return to Grenada to pick up some boat parts that friends have kindly flown in from the UK, plus we can pick up five sacrificial anodes for our problem prop from another sailor.
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The announced storm is here! Winds sweep across Tyrell Bay with up to 60 knots and make everything in and around the boat rattle and shake. So we batten down the hatches and retreat to the cabin. The morning after the first stormy night we are woken up by excited shouts.
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After a busy few weeks, Mabul is in top form. Even the last big “thing” for the time being, the propeller, should be able to do its work again without vibration. So we can finally set off slowly towards the north in good spirits.
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When we bought Mabul a few months ago, we knew of some damage and problems, some we had already fixed, but one major repair was still pending….the propeller had to be taken off – under water.
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