Writing this Nancy Lu blog update has been especially daunting because I don’t think I can adequately relate what a wonderful time we had with our daughter and her family during their visit to Nancy Lu! Having a mild case of post special-visitors melancholy doesn’t help! (I was self-diagnosed with this very real condition.) As usual, pictures help to get the message across, and this time, thanks to many  photos taken from the unique, fun-loving, and appreciative perspective of our guests, I had a treasure trove from which to choose so there are a lot!

Our guests were the housemates/family of their Brooklyn, NYC townhouse…

Amy, our daughter,

Marie, our daughter-in-law/love,

Casey, Amy’s roommate of at least 14 years,

and Ben, Casey’s loving husband and all the girls’ biggest champion.

They were all such a joy to have aboard Nancy Lu, and they adapted to boat life amazingly well. YAY for being excellent water conservers!

Of course, both Mark and I had been anticipating their arrival for weeks, planning, preparing, and even doing a little cooking ahead… Finally, the evening arrived!

But before I get too far ahead of myself, I want to go back to February when we were still nestled behind the little reef in front of the University Club where we continued boat-life in Grenada which included…

 

my daily afternoon iced coffee concoction that Mark makes for me every day! It’s like a coffee flavored ICEE. The recipe is proprietary! Trust me; I look forward to it daily!

We got to spend time with our friends, Lee and Sharon on s/v Allegro both on their beautiful boat for “sundowners” and at Le Phare Bleu Marina for pool-time and lunch thanks to the free shopping bus offered every Wednesday by Meat and Meet Fresh Market.

On a typical laundry day, while I was reading and sipping a club soda at the lounging area of the One Love restaurant while waiting for the dryers to finish, I saw these creatures in my peripheral vision. For a few seconds, I assumed they were cats (I don’t know why cats), but I was made aware of my mistake when I glanced over. I couldn’t resist texting a picture to Amy and her crew to give them a taste of what their visit to Nancy Lu might hold in store! The iguanas wandered through the restaurant and out of my sight, and I went back to my reading. My attention was suddenly grabbed when I heard a dog ferociously barking from across the restaurant. Just as I looked up in the direction of the barking, I saw the biggest of the two iguanas awkwardly running for his life right towards me as I sat on the couch. I jerked my feet up under me, bracing myself for impact because he looked like he was about to jump right into my lap for safety!! He stopped short as I made eye contact, and he diverted direction to find safety elsewhere, WHEW!

The time came to sail north up the west side of Grenada for an overnight “layover” in Tyrell Bay, Carriacou where we checked out of the country at the immigration office there.

The next day it was on to beautiful Bequia!

I should mention that I spent a significant amount of time during our last few days in Grenada and the first few days in Bequia with wedding planning…Claire’s getting married in September, and we are so happy about it! I’m not sure if wedding planning from a boat floating in the ocean is much of a different experience than wedding planning on dry land, probably not with cell phones and the internet. I suspect it would be equally daunting for me either place, but I’m happy that Claire and her fiancé, John, are including me in the planning! My hope is to help them plan a wedding that they and their guests will enjoy as a beautiful start to a beautiful marriage!

Back to the main event:

Amy and her crew had flown from NYC very early the morning of March 2nd to St. Vincent and arrived in the afternoon. Through a Vincentian company we had used years ago, HAZECO, we arranged to have them met at the airport by a taxi driver.

He took them somewhere to get a late lunch/early dinner for their first taste of quintessential Caribbean cuisine and on to the ferry dock to catch the 5:00 p.m. ferry to Bequia. (I had homemade pimento cheese waiting for them for a late snack-dinner after they boarded Nancy Lu).

We kept an eye out for the ferry, and as soon as we saw it in Admiralty Bay,

Mark hopped in the dinghy to meet them at the town dock!

To busy myself as I excitedly waited for them to make their way to Nancy Lu, I took last minute photos of some of the preparations I had made!

Mark and I were so happy to see our guests! This was our first sight of Mama-to-be, Amy’s, baby bump! She looks so cute!

The week we enjoyed with “the kids” went way too fast, but was packed with adventures and memories made.

MONDAY:

Our first morning in Bequia,…

we enjoyed a visit to the Bequia Heritage Museum where we learned a lot from our passionate and knowledgeable docent, Nicola. She was grateful for our attentive group, relating to us that not all visitors are that interested.

After devouring some Bequia knowledge, we devoured a nice lunch at The Port Hole, which we learned from The Heritage Museum was once a school. Casey and Ben taught us a new game that we played while we waited, Age Of War! Always a fun time with this crew!

Next stop, and the first of several: Maranne’s for ice cream!

Casey looks natural riding a dinghy!

The first day is a good day to learn how to cleat…

A+ for Marie!

The first day is a good day to get fitted with snorkeling gear and taking a little practice snorkel near Princess Margaret Beach.

The first day is a good day for a GOOD day!!

TUESDAY:

After breakfast, our guests were off to relax under the almond tree in Port Elizabeth and take in the beautiful colors of the harbor in the morning.

Mark dinghied them ashore.

Not only did our guests use their time ashore alone to relax and take in the view, they also picked up a thoughtful thank you gift for Mark and me—yummy Betty’s banana bread, Betty’s passion fruit jam, along with Betty’s cashew preserves. The cashew preserves were meant mostly as an inside joke since we had engaged in lengthy conversations, taking place at multiple venues and involving multiple Google searches about raw cashews and cashew fruit!  We enjoyed it all over a couple of breakfasts on Nancy Lu!   

Although I was not present when one of “our kids” photographed this kid, I’m sure the moment was accompanied by plenty of awwws and other cuteness inspired sounds!

Mark and I met back up with “the kids” for lunch at Mac’s Pizzeria, Ben’s treat, where we may or may not have discussed the compelling subject of raw cashews…

Then it was on to Maranne’s for more Ice cream!

The snorkeling we’ve done so far this year has been a sad testament to the state of coral reefs in the Caribbean, but I’m glad that our gang got to see some interesting fish and enjoyed coming back to the boat to look up what they’d seen in my one of my awesome resource books by Paul Humann and Ned Deloach, REEF FISH Identification, Florida Caribbean Bahamas.

Unlike the sad state of the coral reefs, my snorkeling partners this year have been healthy, robust, and colorful (including my sister, Jenny Rebecca, from my previous blog post)

Ben is snorkeling at Devil’s Table, Bequia!!!

Hello!

I wanna hold your hand!

WHEEEEE!

Oooops! That graceful dive ended in a head crash!

LOOK!

Mama and Mommy holding baby on her second snorkeling expedition!

Everyone made it back on the boat safe and sound to wait their turns for post snorkeling showers…

Most evenings on Nancy Lu are good for relaxing in the cockpit and enjoying the sunset, but…

with Casey onboard, we were also treated to the glow of her nightly light therapy treatments

Our second full day drew to an early close as do most nights on Nancy Lu, with a flexible plan for more adventures the next day …

WEDNESDAY:

Mama-Amy and I stayed on Nancy Lu while the others went for a hike up to Peggy’s Rock, where Peggy used to keep a look out for whales back in the day…

A thumbs up was given by Ben; Captain Mark was feeling something else!

The plan was for Mark to call me from Peggy’s Rock so I could see if we could see them from the boat. We could see them with binoculars, and they could barely see me when I waved bright yellow fins from the stern of Nancy Lu!

Captain Mark came to fetch Amy and Me to meet the rest of our crew for a yummy lunch at Jack’s Beach Bar. After lunch, we left “the kids” on shore where  they could enjoy a bit of a beach day and Amy’s traditional ocean-float, but that did not last long as there were stinging critters lurking below the surface.

Back on Nancy Lu, the two moms posed for a photo in their matching swimsuits…

Ever the planner, Captain Mark thought it was prudent to use Miranda’s handy service to fill the fresh water tanks before we set sail to the Tobago Cays in the morning. That is when we calculated that our crew was doing really well with water conservation.  That’s also when I decided to start washing their wash cloths every morning, realizing they were petrified of wasting water in order to rinse them out thoroughly!

Another eventful day came to a peaceful close before we were off on our first sailing adventure early the next morning. We were headed to the Tobago Cays where I guaranteed our four guests would swim with turtles at the sea turtle sanctuary there! I know the peacefulness of the evening was accompanied by a certain level of anxiety associated with the upcoming sail for some, but they all handled it beautifully, and I hope we were able to minimize the stress with our attentiveness to safety and our assurances…I don’t know; we may have created it with our safety assurances!

THURSDAY:

Anxiousness aside, our bright and early sail was a success!  It was on the sporty side, requiring those in the cockpit on the “high side” to brace themselves, but they were good sports, and thankfully, no one suffered from seasickness!

We sailed into the beautiful, clear waters of the Tobago Cays around lunch time.

We were met by “Desperado” who helped us with mooring Nancy Lu very close to the protected turtle feeding grounds. Ben was impressed by the big lobster in the bottom of his boat with which he was advertising the evening beach barbeque. We decided to decline for that night, but planned to attend the next evening.  As soon as we were moored, we had turkey stuffed bell peppers that I had cooked even before our guests arrived in Bequia! For supper, I cooked spaghetti. This was the only day of our guests’ trip that I cooked all three meals of the day!

Right after lunch, we jumped into the water to meet our turtle friends!! Before the rest of us made it in, Casey and Ben saw a sting ray and a barracuda…

We took our time snorkeling with the turtles and sea stars all the way across the cordoned off feeding area to a little sandy cay.

After our time with the turtles, we dropped Amy and Marie off at Nancy Lu so Marie could attend a class over zoom. Mark, Ben, Casey and I went to another place where Mark and I remembered from a previous year there was an aquarium-like snorkeling spot.

That night we played Code Names after our spaghetti dinner, and Ben worked on Colorku. For a change, Ben and Casey slept in the cock-pit where they could see the stars and it would be a bit cooler.

FRIDAY:

Video of Marie diving

Video of Casey diving

The first half of the day brought another trip to the aquarium snorkeling spot to include Amy and Marie, diving off Nancy Lu, and swimming around the boat, and photo opportunities! I stayed home from snorkeling so I could  cook-ahead “egg roll in a bowl” for the next day’s lunch. This day’s lunch was our old stand-by fried egg sammies on flour tortillas.

The second half of the day, we decided to snorkel out to a reef beyond the turtle area where the currant was quite strong…

Ben decided to stay behind.

We didn’t see much while snorkeling the reef. Amy felt like she was over doing it with the baby, so she and Marie got back in the dinghy with Mark, but Casey and I decided to swim back to the turtle area…

Marie couldn’t resist jumping back in once we got back to turtles…

We were all enamored with the tiny baby turtle,

but the big granddaddy was pretty impressive!

That was it for our underwater adventures in the Tobago Cays and Bequia!  The turtles were a big hit with all of us!

None of us knew what to expect at the beach barbeque, but we were totally impressed! The food was delicious and the atmosphere was extremely convivial! Desperado was our water taxi to the event and from what we could tell, all the different “boat boys”, like Desperado (who was an older gentleman) and their families work together to put on this nightly event. We had such a good time! It was the perfect way to end our time in the Tobago Cays!

A little dancing on the beach video

A good time was had by all!!!

SATURDAY:

We had another early morning departure to sail back to Bequia…

By now, the crew was seasoned. Ben fulfilled the job of keeping the sailing log.

As always, Mark adeptly piloted the boat for a safe and as comfortable as possible sail!

As usual (and especially when we have guests because of limited room in the cockpit), I spent a good part of the sail below comfortably snuggled into the low side! For this return sail, Marie decided to join me for a good part of it and caught up on some sleep with a nice nap! She took her chances on being seasick and came out just fine! I couldn’t resist getting a video of her making her way to the bathroom and back to her seat! It is hard to describe what maneuvering around a sailboat, especially on a relatively salty sail is like! Marie’s trip to and from the bathroom gave me the perfect opportunity! ENJOY:

Video of traversing to the head on a heeled over sailboat

Getting back to your seat on a sailboat

After an approximately 4 hour sail, we were back in Bequia. Until then, Casey had not gotten to try her hand at cleating. She picked up the skill with no problem! I had our last day’s lunch ready for us as soon as we were moored on one of our trusted boat service providers, African’s, moorings. We decided it would be good for us to be close to the town dock since our guests needed to be on the 6:30 am ferry back to Saint Vincent.

After our crew took one last trip into town, we enjoyed our last dinner out together. Although it wasn’t our original plan (it’s always good to be flexible in boat-life), we revisited Jack’s Beach Bar! Thank you Casey and Ben for the treat!

After they were all packed and got a good night’s sleep, we were ready to send our guests on their way with plans we’d discussed for there last hours in Saint Vincent before they flew out that afternoon. At 6:00 am when we were on deck getting ready for Mark to dinghy them to the dock, African showed up at our boat with much better plans in mind…He arranged for a taxi driver he knows to pick them up at the ferry dock in Kingston and take them to Blue Lagoon Marina where they could enjoy a nice leisurely English breakfast and walks on the beach. Desmond, the taxi driver, would then pick them up from there and take them to the airport!  What a perfect plan!!

They got to experience a place where we have never been!

 

The first post special-guest melancholy lump in my throat came while I was waving  goodbye and watching as the ferry carried our daughter and her loved ones (who are also our loved ones) away from us with a rainbow hangin’ over their heads…