Way down island

My brother tom at the Helm as we depart Charlote Amalie St Thomas

I recieved a call from my brother a few weeks ago asking if I wanted to deliver the Lady B Good a 57 Bertram from St Thomas to Barbados. I checked with my boss and he said no problem so I excepted. I had never been through those islands and looked forward to it with great antisipation.


The Lady B Good in Barbados with our Basian friend on back deck

 Last monday I flew to Ft Lauderdale where I met with my brother and together we flew to St Thomas. We arrived late afternoon so we were not able to fuel or clear out of customs for an early leave in the morning. So with a few hours free, we taxied around from Crown harbor to Red hook and had dinner.There were only two American boats there. The Therapy and the Patriot. The main season for sportfishes to fish in St Thomas is summer till early fall. Knowing we had a big day ahead of us we got back to the boat early and hit the bunks.

The Island of Montserrat Right side of pic is old lava field that destroyed city

Chucky the dock master  and ladies man in St Kitts.

When ever I travel port to port we normally try to leave early in  the morning so that we can arrive early enough in th afternoon to be able to fuel up and clear customs if nessecary. If you dont do this, you hardly ever leave the dock till after 9 or 10 am. So Tuesday morning While Tom took care of Dockage and cleared out of Customs, I fueled the boat. We left St Thomas around 9:30 am. Our trip as a straight shot would have taken us across roughly 470 miles of open water. The Easterly Trade winds would have made that trip misurable. So from St Thomas we headed east towards St Kitts. Our course favored the Lee or downwind calm side of the islands we passed. We went past Saba then St Eustatious before coming upon St Kitts.The crossing was relatively calm and uneventful. As we passed each island, I was amazed at the heights. Some of the islands soar up to 7000 or 8000 feet. All of the islands have steep rocky cliffs lining the coast which quickly turn to a lush dark green tropical landscape. The dark green crawls all the way up to the peaks of the mountains ( all of which were formed over thousands of years by valcanos.) The tops of all the mountains were obscured by a heavy vail of clouds which is there nearly year round creating rain forests at the tops of the islands. As we aprouched St Kitts and the seas glassed off in the lee, I could imeadiatly make out vast areas of agriculture. The landscape was also punctuated by dozens of old brick smoke stacks. These old smoke stacks are relics from a hundred years ago were where the sugar cane was rendered to make rum. I like these islands. As we entered the Harbour area of Basseterre St Kitts We found the  Zante's marina nestled into a port area. My brother called on the radio and the dock master answered back in english.... well kinda. My brother looked at me and asked with a chuckle ..." did you catch that". We finally were able to get through the heavy accent and made our way to our slip. The fun begins here. The dock Master " Chucky" met us and helped us secure the lines and shore power. He was a smallish man and Very Rastafarian. His dredlocks were bundled up under the typical knit hat and when he spoke you realllllly had to pay attention. His Island accent was VERY thick. But after a few minutes we caught on. He told my brother where to go clear customs and asked me to ride with him to the place where we had to pay for the fuel. It was like Mr Toads wild ride. Chucky was very animated in the way he talked as well. He had to use his hands to say everything. He would fly down the narrow streets and suddenly come to a stop each and every time he saw a lady. Chucky is apearently quite the ladies man. ( See Picture) He definatly loves the ladies. At one point I asked where Tom and I should go for dinner. Chucky promptly reached down and whipped out a folded up tourist map of the area. He promtly opened it and spead it out across the steering wheel and all of the drivers side of the car.  With the wind blowing around the cabin of the car at slightly under the 100 mph we were speeding along, the map flew right into his face. With the car vearing into oncoming traffic, I reach over and grabbed the wheel. He never lost his cool. He said " Eh Mon, No problem I got dis. " then he slammed on the brakes to skid up to the next lady friend of his on the side of the road. I asked if all these women were his girlfriends. He said" naw mon, Me jus likes da ladies. beside it be a small island an ery one no ery one". We got to the gas station which was a convienient store and I made the fuel araingment. The man there said that the fuel truck would show up in a half  hour  ( island time). Chucky and I took the white knuckle ride back to the boat and I finished rinsing the boat while Tom finished clearing customs. Two hours later ( half an hour in Island time) the 400 gallons of fuel we ordered showed up. The fuel truck was a toyota pick up with 50 gallon drums in the back of it. long story short, it took 1 1/2 hours to fuel the boat.  Afterwards Tom and I walked into town for dinner, It had an old colonial feel to it. Some of the buildings were quite old but some were just a facade to apeal to the cruiseship tourist that roam the streets daily. Wednesday morning we headed south down the lesser Antillies. We were running down the west side of each island that we passed  so we were protected from the North east breeze and the seas. Each island is 15 to 25 miles long. We made great time in slick calm seas. then between each island the seas would pick up and slow us a bit but not to bad. We came up on the Island of Monserate around mid morning, Montserrat is an active volcano that blew it top I think around 14 years ago. The ensuing lava flow destroyed the town below it. We pulled up close to the shore and took a short video and a few picks. It was very impressive yet sad to see all the ruins of the town. As we started running again, we came downwind from the volcano and you could see and smell the gasses still blowing downwind. The sulfer smell was real bad.

Thats a 200 foot shear drop off behind me

My brother and I at St Nicholas Abby. Rum heaven

Tom makes his way to a locals bar

We island hopped the rest of the day and made our way to St Lucia. At one point we saw a Ganit bird of some type that my brother videoed that followed the boat.( See video) It seems that these birds have figued out that if they fly alongsid boats, the wake from the boat will spook flyingfish. As the fly out of the water and glide to safety, the ganit then dives and picks them off. Amazing! They have it figured out.  Each isalnd began to look the same. Some were more developed some seemed to have more sloping landscapes coming off volcanos and some seemed to have no beach at all. The landscape just shot straight up from the waters edge. One thing they all had in common was they were all lush and dark green. We arrived in St Lucia around 3 pm.  Fueling there was much easier. the IGY marina there was Very well developed and had hundereds of slips for boats small to large. They even had a large number of big docks for mega yachts. The marina was very active and full of sailboaters. It had a bustling community feel on the docks there. After cleaning the boat Tom and I went to a recomended resturant for dinner. I had one of the most amazing steaks I ever had. Once again we went to bed early. Thursday would be the final leg of our trip. While we only had 90 miles to go, It was all unprotected water. The sun rose Thursday morning as we rounded the northern rocky bluffs of St Lucia. The breeze was fresh but not to terrible. We cheated a few degrees off the wind and it allowed us to make 15-19 knots with the sea on the port bow. We had spray come over the bow with every other wave it seemed and that lasted all the way till we were 1/4 mile off of Barbados. The worst we saw was maybe 6 foot seas and very choppy but by and large it was 3-5 feet the entire way. The marina where we were to tie the boat up at is a home development and residential marina. It was very high end and pretty. We were met at the dock by some friends of the boats owner and my brother. What nice guys they were. The dialect there is a weird cross between queens english, rasta island slang, Pirate and then put a few marbles in your mouth. If two Basians ( That is what people from Babados are called) start talking to each other, it is tough to follow the conversation. They speak very fast and run all their words together. After clearing customs one of them offered to give us a tour of the island. WOW what an afternoon. Being a fellow conosure of rum , he promised to stop at a few places to sample the fine rums of Barbados. This guy was a native Basian. The best way to describe him would be.... The Crocodile Dundee of Barbados. Maybe I am a wimp but once again we had a wild car ride. ( Keep in mind here too, they drive on the wrong side of the road) I was in the passenger seat which is the left side of the car. I nearly put my foot through the floor a number of times as our new friend whisked his way around the winding tiny roads of of his lovely Barbados. Our first stop was at St Nicholas Abby. My brother is friends with the owner of the Abby and he gave us a free tour of his rum plantation there. It was magnificent. They have an antique press and distillery there that has been refurbished from yesteryear's when it was run by steam. It is a cool production. They harvest the sugar cane and the steam powered press squeezes out the the juices. That is then collected and distilled to make rum. All of which is barreled and aged right there. The steam press and distillery are all powered by burning the dried cane as they did hundreds of years ago. After the Abby, we were in for one hell of an island tour. We saw why Barbados is one of the jewels of the British crown and the Caribbean. It is a beautiful island. We stopped at a few bars and sampled the rums. My favorites were Mount Gay X and VSOR Cockspur old Gold. They are very good rums. Our guide took us to see parts of the island that tourist would never have the pleasure of seeing. The bluffs and beaches of the east side of the island offer views that are breath taking. My brother and I got the crap scared out of us as our friend took the four wheel drive truck we were in out across cow pastures along a rocky bluff that dropped off straight to the sea. Then to really scare us he decided to cross a flooded river bed to make a short cut back to the road. At one point we WERE stuck. The back of the truck started to float and only when the bed of the truck had filled to 8 inches of water did the wheels grab and we rumbled up and out of the creek. Apparently that was not his first time doing that. as we exited the creek there were two trucks sitting there the locals that were in them cheered us on and offered some of the bottles they were drinking. So yes... there we were with Crocodile Dundee having a shot after nearly losing the truck we were in to the river. I say it all the time " I dont have to make this stuff up" what a great time. and good people

We returned to the boat with a slight glow about us from the rum and a few years off of our lives and showered for dinner. We were taken to dinner at a very nice sushi restaurant by my brothers friends. . The town where we ate was very upscale and well kept. It was a perfect end to a great trip
Or so I thought. Our flight from Barbados to the states departed at 6 am the next morning. One of my brothers friends loaned us a car to drive to the airport as we would have to leave at 4am for the 40 minute drive to the airport. Everything was going well and Tom was handling driving on the wrong side of the road from the wrong side of the car till we hit a pothole in the middle of a round about. It blew out not one but two tires. Man what a helpless feeling. There we were ... standing in a round about at 4:15 am  and all you could hear was the sound of tropical tree frogs. Finally about thirty minutes later a van drove by and in typical friendly island form, the man stopped and called us a cab. We did make our flight.  Oh well this is the stuff memories are made of.  I have to give a special thanks to the Roach brothers of Barbados for their hospitality.
I also have to thank my brother Tom for a wonderful time. There were people placing bets that he and I would kill each other after four days on a boat together. But he was a pleasure to be with. His local knowledge and professional attitude made the trip an easy one for me. I am normally the one with all the responsibility. He took the reigns and did an outstanding job.  But then again... I did teach him everything he knows.

Thanks also to my boss for letting me do this trip. I might have smuggled a bottle of rum back for you.