The Islands of St Vincent, Parts 1 and 2 of 3

Part 1: Union Island

This one's for you Jonathan!

Last year, on our way down to Trinidad we stopped for one night at Union Island. Apparently Union Island is one of the meccas for a relatively new extreme sport known as Kiteboarding. As soon as Jeff saw it he was hooked. 

Come on now… wind, speed and equipment. How much more up Jeff’s alley can you get! Actually it is quite a beautiful sport to watch and we had front row seats from our boat.

Check out the red kite jump in this video.  

So surprise, surprise Jeffey vowed to try it on our way back north. And try it he did! (note: the following photos were taken from our boat quite a distance away. Jeff is in a white shirt and hat)

He tried

 And he tried

 And he tried some more...

You have to give the guy credit. He was the only one over the age of 30 out there. There was an audience on the beach cheering him on! Finally his perseverance paid off!

To a resounding cheer from the beach crowd! YES!!!!

In the meantime, in between taking photos of Jeff’s heroic venture, I completed my first painting (that I didn’t want to throw overboard) on the boat. When at home my preference is to paint on rather large canvases using mostly acrylic paint. I have plenty of space to move around, check out various angles, get a good perspective. Painting on a boat is a whole other ball of wax. 1) there is limited space  and 2) the boat is rocking most of the time. How do I get a decent perspective and how do I keep the boat clean? Miraculously, Jeff had found a tiny abandoned table easel that was left at a marina and I purchased some watercolor crayons and 8x8 inch watercolor panels. My thinking was that watercolors clean up easily and the smaller the canvas, the better the perspective in such tight quarters. And voila (after much experimentation with a new medium), we have my little boat-rendered watercolor.  

Part Two: Tabago Cays

From Union Island we decided to spend a quiet Christmas holiday in Tabago Cays which is known for its beautiful crystal clear water,

and snorkeling

OOPS!!!!!  Apparently every holiday vacationer in the enitre Grenadines had the same idea!

Oh well, not that quiet, but being that these boats displayed country flags from all over the world, it made for quite an interesting and festive atmosphere. We were the only U.S. boat around.

We managed to snorkel and capture these turtle videos. (Here's to you Landon!)

    Two Turtles

Jeff and Turtle

And for Christmas dinner we bought fresh lobster from a local fisherman/master chef who grilled the lobster for us in a garlic butter sauce over an open fire and delivered it to our boat

Best lobster flavor EVER! And to top that off, all the anchor lights lit up at night looked like Christmas lights… making for a very special Global Christmas eve.

A wondrous journey to all,

Pam and Jeff