2001 CRUISING REPORTS:   Los Testigos beachwalk   Art shot On to Venezuela December 2001                                               (see also our weekly log at BoatUS) We are in Margarita, Venezuela.  This duty free port is the playground of the Venezuelan rich.  Designer clothing stores abound.  We definitely look a little tatty relative to the locals.  You're more likely to find cruisers replenishing their liquor cabinets than their wardrobes here. We left Trinidad on a comfortable night sail to Los Testigos (The Witnesses).  It's always a relief to discover that the boat still knows how to sail after we've been stationary for a while.  In Los Testigos we shared a beach with no one but the goats. We were lucky to be in this remote and dark setting when the Leonid meteor shower peaked on November 18th.  The star show was worth climbing out of the bunk at 4 am. We made it to Margarita in time to participate in a major feed at an American Thanksgiving potluck.  Mountains of all the traditional fixings. I've played a couple of times at a bar named Jak's run by cruisers who serve cold beer and hot Thai food.  Although Venezuela is a major energy producer (oil and hydroelectric), that doesn't mean that the power is reliable.  The first time I played at Jak's the power would be on for one song and off for the next.  A minor obstacle for a bunch of cruisers - the crowd just sang along a little louder!  That's a fine example of the nature of the cruising community: we'll just make it work, dammit, and we'll have a great time while we're at it. We'll leave here in a few more days and head for Blanquilla, a quiet and little visted island 54 nautical miles northwest of Margarita.  After that we'll make a straight shot up to the Virgins - hope to do that before the Christmas winds fill in later this month. See you out there, Eileen   The mermaid emerges to play on Halloween   David's "throwing out the yard clothes ceremony"   Getting a little fan support in performance At Work And Play In Trinidad November 2001                                               (see also our weekly log at BoatUS) We are gearing up to leave Trinidad.  After a couple of weeks of solid boatyard work and then a couple more afloat, Little Gidding has new bottom paint, waxed topsides, new cockpit canvas and reupholstered interior cushions.  We look really good as long as you observe the 20 foot rule (don't come any closer - on second thought, make that the 50 foot rule).  Since we launched a couple of weeks ago, I've been playing and provisioning.  Music and food - is there more to life?  Provisioning in Trinidad is a little unusual because of the organized shopping runs sponsored by the major food chains.  It couldn't be more convenient but it does feel a little like summer camp for adults or possibly a sheltered workshop for the shopping-impaired when you see all the cruisers reboarding the buses at the mall. We've managed to sneak away from the boat herd and escape to the island of Chacachacare a couple of times.  Nature is reclaiming the ruins of the leper colony that was once housed here.   David has been doing tons of writing for the sailing press down here, including All At Sea, The Caribbean Compass and The Boca. Our vague plans have us in the Virgins for Christmas, the Bahamas by February, Florida in June and then north to the Chesapeake or possibly even Maine. Take care, Eileen In the sound booth - can I sing without sand between my toes? Being goofy in the studio How I spent my summer vacation September 2001                                                 (see also our weekly log at BoatUS) Two months off the boat!   Two months of hot showers, newspapers on the doorstep, sidewalk cafes.  Heaven.  Okay, so there was also smog, congestion, getting caught up in the go go go vortex of city life.  We're ready for the simpler life the boat offers us. My big project this summer was the making of Mean Low Water.  We returned to the studio where I recorded Degrees Of Deviation a couple of years ago.   It's a little odd being so removed from what I'm singing about.  Next time I'm going to sing with a conch shell held to one ear. We are on our way back to Trinidad.  We'll do a boatyard stint there for a couple of weeks and then hang about until hurricane season ends.  We plan to sail up to the Bahamas by February and then up to the Chesapeake or possibly even Maine for the summer. Hope to see you out there, Eileen Hanging the laundry a life of endless glamour   Beach potluck in Grenada:  as much fun as it looks Sweating in Paradise: Trinidad Ser 2001                                                        (see also our weekly log at BoatUS) There is much to love about Trinidad:  food, music, congenial people, magnificent bird and sea life, a well organized yacht services industry.   But every paradise needs its serpent.  Here, the serpent is the weather.   We are scrubbing green mold off the boat and ourselves.  Cruising boats flock here for hurricane season because, as locals will tell you, God is a Trini and he never sends hurricanes this way.  That doesn't mean the winds never blow; squalls frequently punctuate the humid, airless heat.  The holding is poor but the camaraderie is rich and you can count on someone rescuing your dragging vessel if you don't happen to be aboard. Although cricket is the national sport, most visiting cruisers engage instead in competitive boat maintenance.  In a frenzy of boat improvement, cushions are reupholstered, sails stitched, canvas crafted, topsides painted, teak lovingly refinished ...  During rainy season, these latter two are the endeavors of the eternally hopeful. Six years have past since our last visit to Trinidad.   In spite of my whining, I'm thrilled to be back.  Lots of old friends to catch up with.  Great venues for playing music.  Since our last update in Bequia, we've spent time in Martinique, St. Lucia and Grenada.  St. Anne, at the south end of Martinique, has some particularly wonderful seaside trails.  In St. Lucia we hit as much of the jazz festival as we could manage.  In Grenada we hiked up at Grand Etang.  Just a few nights ago we saw giant leatherback turtles nesting on the beach here in Trinidad.  They lumber out of the sea, excavate a deep nest and lay 80 to 120 eggs.  Quite remarkable. We'll be back in Toronto for a couple of months from mid July to mid September while I'm recording my third CD.  I'll keep you posted about it's progress. Eileen If you're looking for more info about Trinidad, check out boatersenterprise.com. mowing the lawn   5 PM most any day touring Nevis If it's Easter in Bequia, we must be racing Okay, so some of us are just socializing.  Gotta Regatta!  That's the imperative.  This is our second regatta of the year.  We left  Sint Maarten shortly after the mammoth Heineken Regatta where David crewed on Mistral, who won their class.  We're now a couple of hundred miles further south in Bequia, part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.  Here they host a much more intimate sailing event that involves virtually everyone who lives on the island as well as visiting yachts.  Bequia is one of those islands that manages to make everyone feel like they belong. From Bequia we'll backtrack north to Martinique for a fix of baguettes and wine.  Then it's south possibly to the Tobago Cays for the snorkelling. I've been preparing to record again this coming summer.  Working title for the next CD is "Mean Low Water".  I'll probably record in Toronto.  We'll leave the boat on the hard in Trinidad and fly back.  We thoroughly enjoyed Trinidad when we were there in 1995 but can't say we're longing to languish in the tropical summer heat.  If you're preparing to cruise south, here's a hurricane season tip: you cannot have too much shade or too many fans aboard your boat.  Stay cool! Eileen Happy 2001 from Sint Maarten! After a lumpy twelve day passage from Beaufort, North Carolina, we arrived in Sint Maarten in the Eastern Caribbean a week before Christmas.  It wasn't quite "The Three Days Out, Forty Five Knot Wind Blues", but it wasn't too far off the mark.  We flew our storm sails more often than not.  We decided to make easting while we could and headed to Sint Maarten instead of the Virgin Islands.  Sint Maarten is half Dutch, half French and entirely cosmopolitan.  It's a mixture of the broke and aimless (cruisers replenishing their kitties) and the rich and famous (the megayachts are unbelievable).  The best local entertainment consists of watching these sleek creatures squeeze through the bridge opening into the lagoon.   (Is it wrong to wish misfortune on those who seem so fortunate?)  The bread is wonderful here and the boat parts are duty free.  A "Tarpit Harbour" if ever there was one. I had a great time playing at the Annapolis United States Sailboat Show in October.  The boatyard projects that followed weren't quite as much fun.  We got underway in early November and spent a couple of weeks waiting for weather in Beaufort before we hopped out for our passage. I'll be playing a little music as we move down the island chain.  Take care, Eileen a fall 2000 note from Eileen We spent last year cruising the Bahamas, Cuba, Mexico and the eastern seaboard of the U.S.  Had a blast playing for lots of cruisers on Bahamian beaches.  Won the coconut harvest in George Town.  Cuba was one of the most wonderful and one of the most frustrating places we've ever cruised.  Definitely an adventure.  Brush up your spanish and go now! Our summer included a great land visit in Canada, checking in with family and friends while playing at some Canadian yacht clubs.  Little Gidding slept through the height of the hurricane season in a boatyard at the mouth of the Potomac River in Chesapeake Bay.  We managed to slip in a ten day visit at anchor in Washington before we hauled.  Made us think we should weave a little more urban cruising into our plans. We'll be spending early October doing boat projects and playing at a few events associated with the United States Sailboat Show in Annapolis.  Then it looks like a November passage straight to the British Virgins.  If the boat projects get the better of us (would I be a real cruiser if I didn't whine about boat projects?), then we'll find our way to the Bahamas instead. Hope to see you out there! Eileen more cruising reports: 2003 more cruising reports: 2002

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