Thursday, April 4, 2019 Mayreau to Canouan

Breakfast was continental with homemade banana bread. The dive company came to pick us up at 9:00 for our paid Tobago Keys dive. We motored to the Mayreau Gardens dive site. Tim was our dive master and Dennis drove the boat. Jim, a diver staying on Union Island, join us. The site was beautiful with lots of vegetation. This dive was a drift dive. We saw trunk fish, three large lobsters, nurse sharks, stingrays, lion fish, an underwater hot springs with bubbles. The lion fish was hanging out there. After the dive we moved the boat to Canouan at Rameau Bay

After our dive, we had time for some water fun. Kem never saw it us coming!

Wednesday, April 3, 2019 Petite Remeau Island

CRUISING DAY 4 - WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3

Today’s breakfast was Eggs Benedict with bacon, mushrooms, fresh fruit and cheese. We swam over to the little island where the turtles live and took lots of pictures of the turtles feeding on the grassy bottom. 

We returned to find Mr. Quality at our boat with his skiff full of tee shirts for sale. The ladies lined up on the port side and looked down at his wares. We all bought the same tee shirt! Very clever way to make a living. He said he has been doing this for 30 years.

Mr. Quality has a great idea for selling his goods!

For lunch we had a delicious Nicoise salad homemade beer bread. The salad had delicious grilled tuna topping it. Dessert was individual merengues topped with ameretto cream and crab mangos,

Captain AJ moved the boat around the corner of Petite Rameau Island to a pretty little bay. We could snorkel, play with the water toys or hike on the island. I chose to hang out on the boat since we are diving at 2:30 at Tobago Keys. Well, they forgot to pick us up! The dive was cancelled after waiting for an hour for them. Instead we snorkeled around the boat. It was surprisingly clear with lots of coral and fish. 

Captions Cocktails was set upon the other side of Petite Rameau where there is a small gazebo. We had champagne to celebrate the Bolduc and the Knapp’s purchase of TWE Plus Points. They also had BBCs - Baileys, Banana and Coconut mixed in an icy concoction. Maor and Tamar along with Neil, the captain of Inspiration, played the saxophone, and guitar for us. What a special Tradewinds Happy Hour!

Such a beautiful little beach.

Our boat along with our Our partner boat, Inspiration.

Captain Brian, Tamar and Maor entertaining us.

Our crazy group!

This was a double rainbow, but one is not showing well here.

Tuesday, April 2, 2019 Union Island

CRUISING DAY 3 - TUESDAY, APRIL 2

We began the day with a continental breakfast, after which we prepared for our dive to Hannah’s Happy Place on Union Island. It was a gorgeous dive with lots of fish. We saw a flamingo tongue mollusk right off the bat. A large barracuda was patrolling the area. There was much to see in this pretty, sunlite area.

Lunch followed. We had a green salad with corn, marinated tomatoes, Cucumbers with mint and yogurt And three types of quiche; Lobster, vegetarian, and goat cheese with spinach. All were delicious. Sorbet was the desert for today. Rick was able to kill Barb Knapp at lunch by passing her napkin back to her.

After a relaxing morning on the boat, we moved to Clifton Harbor after lunch. The rain kept us on the boat hiding out undercover. Captain’s  cocktails at 4:45.

We then headed into Clifton for dinner at Sparrows. We tried to shop some but most shops were closed. We sat in the little park and watched the local kids playing tag. The Sparrow van finally picked us up and we were off to the other side of the mountain. Sparrows is a quaint little beachfront restaurant. We all had meals way too large. Should have spilt a pizza!

Getting to Clifton. We took the dinghy under the little bridge in the background.

Helping us for a tip.

When I asked him what grade he was in, he said, "I don't do schools."
 Made me sad.

Love her!

You cant get lost!

We are not sure what this tree is, but is unusual.

Upon our return, the crew had the boat all cleaned and reprovisioned. They put all of the alcohol out in a nice display, so we had an after dinner drink before turning in.

Monday, April 1, 2019 Canouon/Mayreau/Union Island

CRUISING DAY 2 - MONDAY, APRIL 1

Happy April Fool’s Day - We have no jokes...oh wait...maybe one!

Breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit and mimosas. After our meal, AJ and Maor took up the anchor and we sailed to Canouan and then to Mayreau. Captain AJ made a special arrangement that we could have a visit with Emma and Ashley, our spectacular crew in St Martin for NYE 2016. He dropped us off and we had a great visit. We all recalled our dance night to Red Solo Cup.

On our way to the Mayreau dock.

There they are!

Ashley & Emma

Our crew from St. Martin minus Pat and Tom Wands.

Ever silly Emma!

After our visit, we came back to a lunch of grilled salmon on penne pasta with a vodka tomato sauce and a Waldorf salad minus the walnuts, which are in short supply on the islands. Dessert were rum balls hand made by Rachael.

We moved to Union Island after lunch where we snorkeled and I tried out the SUP. It was much more stable than the SUP in Antigua, but it still takes practice with the waves. Kathy got some beautiful pictures snorkeling during the trip.

Crab

File Fish

Sea Snake

Brain Coral

Pretty blue guy

Starfish

Mr. Turtle

Squid

Octopus

Trying to hide

Happy Hour commenced with pain killers - our favorite from the Soggy Dollar Bar in the BVIs. Dinner followed - ceviche appetizer, pork tenderloin, squash purée, cucumber spirals and a green salad. Dessert was a cheesecake dish.

Painkillers - our favorite!

A game called Assassin was introduced. It is a Clue type game where everyone draws the name of a person, a weapon and a location. From there everyone tries to kill their person by handing them the weapon in the correct location. The first person killed was Sandy on the sun lounger with a cork. She gave me her assignment which was more difficult. Bill Robinson with a cookie on the helm. I have never seen him up there, so this is going to be tough.

THE LIST OF THE DEAD

Maor was killed on the back steps with a bottle of beer. (by Tamar)

Sandy was killed on the sun lounger with a cork. (by Ruth)

Bill Knapp was killed on a beanbag with a hat. (by Kem)

Bobbi was killed in the cockpit with a napkin. (by Rick)

Rachael was killed on the trampoline with sunglasses. (by Victor)

Barb Doerr was killed in the galley with a book. (by Kathy)

Bill Robinson was killed at the helm with a cookie. (by Ruth)

Kem was killed In the dinghy with a towel. (by Rick)

Kathy was killed in the water with a pillow. (by AJ)

Tamar was killed on land with a shoe (by Ruth)

After dinner Victor and Sandy went to the bon fire on shore. The rest of us stayed on the boat and played Killer. This is the game where the killer winks and kills the others, who die a theatrical and horrible death. We had several rounds of that and laughed a lot. Kem got silly with Cathy's bra afterwards. He's a hoot!

While Sandy and Victor were at the bonfire, we played our only April Fools joke. Tamar, Rachael and I short sheeted their bed. So glad we got one joke in! The funny thing is that Sandy did not even know her bed had been short sheeted. Victor tried to act like all was normal, but she never figured it out.

Sunday, March 31, 2019 Mustique

CRUISING DAY 1 - SUNDAY, MARCH 31

We awoke after a good nights sleep, which was needed. We were served a wonderful breakfast of pancakes, cheese, hard boiled eggs, bagels and fruit. Captain AJ moved the boat to the island of Mustique, which is where the rich, famous and royalty have homes. 

Victor, Sandy, Bill and I took our first dive of the trip, which was shallow and a check out dive. The site was beautiful with very good visibility. Lots of coral, some long tendriled sea urchins and many fish. We also saw a turtle, 3 squid, trumpet 

fish, squirrel fish, parrot fish.

Lunch was served after our dive. We had grilled brochettes with chicken and vegetables with a Calypso Salad which had melon and vegetables. For dessert Rachael prepared mini key lime pies that were served in little porcelain spoons.

After lunch we split into two groups for taxi tours of Mustique. This island is quite unique. It was developed long ago as a spot for the rich to build homes by Colin Tennant, an Englishman. People came to work and settled the island. Today you can only live in Mustique if you have employment. The buildings are all immaculate painted in pastels. The islanders are very proud of their island. There is a statue of the founder.  Boom Boom, our taxi tour driver, said “God Bless Him” several times as we passed.

Colin Tennant bought Mustique and developed it from a deserted island with nothing but wild, roaming goats.

Many famous people have homes In Mustique; Shania Twain, David Bowie, Tommy Hillfigger, Ferrari, and Mick Jagger. Mick has his annual NYE party at Macaroni Beach. I asked about security and they don’t have any. The island is like family. Boom Boom said that Mick plays with his one year old son on the beach and that the boy looks just like him.Prince William and Kate honeymooned on the island. They reportedly played a volleyball match against the locals at Macaroni Beach Park.

Short runway!

This is Macroni Beach Park where Mick Jagger hosts an annual New Year's Ever party for the island. 

We returned to New Beginning for Captain’s Cocktails - Sea Breeze accompanied by a Parmesan Artichoke dip. We went back to shore to Basil’s Bar to listen to a band. We all had fun dancing to a mixture of reggae and tunes we knew.

Basil's Bar on Mustique

Lures

Great entertainment!

Captain AJ and Rachael at Basil's.

 The sunset was gorgeous, but no Green Flash, although it looked like we might get one.

Rachel had a delicious dinner waiting for us. We dined on lobster risotto with a green salad. Our interesting dessert was a poached pear filled with chocolate and covered with cardoman sauce. Yum! After dinner we had a long discussion on pranking the other boats. Captain AJ wants us to get a flamingo blow-up toy from one of the other Cruise Class boats.