Caribbean Compass Yachting Magazine October 2017

JOY, NIGHTMARE, AND SWEETNESS:
Our Sail North from Grenada
by Mahala Bishop
OCTOBER 2017 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 20
returned from my shop at 8:00PM. Huskies hate water!
But Don didn’t relish life as a realtor, selling off his
beloved Cape Cod. No wonder he wanted to retire — so
we did, took our beautiful Aquilon to Buck’s Harbor,
Maine, and began to plan the trip.
Don gathered a seasoned sailor and two enthusiastic
nephews for the May journey to Grenada. As on
most extended passages, the atmosphere was not
always harmonious. One of my nephews, after being
lambasted mercilessly by the sailor for a week — they
had unfortunately been sharing watches — got his
revenge when his tormentor spilled an entire can of
pasta sauce all over himself. After that, the trip proceeded
smoothly, especially in Marigot, St. Martin,
where our nephews endlessly pursued the beautiful
but elusive Delphines.
In October, we found Aquilon at Hog Island, Grenada,
a gorgeous anchorage, patiently awaiting our arrival.
After basking in the then pristine and undeveloped
waters around Hog Island until our insurance kicked
in, we began to sail north, visiting other lovely harbors
on the way.
A huge glitch in our plans occurred when we were
happily anchored in Martinique — Hurricane Lenny.
At the time, alerts were non-existent and Lenny came
unheralded, oddly from the west, catching all the
affected islands by surprise. The devastation of all the
islands was hideous — garbage strewn over the villages,
homes without roofs, animals drowned, businesses
destroyed. It was indescribable. Our favorite
beach in Terre de Haut, Iles des Saintes, had disappeared
under mounds of rocks. All the other islands’
western beaches followed suit. We spent a disconsolate
Thanksgiving in Trois Ilets, Martinique, a sad
vision of its former self.
The Joy
The brightest event in our trip northward had to be
New Year’s Eve in St. Barts, the famous “Y2K” welcoming
the 21st century. The large harbor at Gustavia was
packed, so we anchored outside. The variety of the
hundreds of boats gathering was extreme — from
homemade tiny old wooden dinghies, to fancy cruising
sloops, yawls and ketches, to cruise ships and even
freighters. The largest ships hovered grandly, almost
too far out to see. We spent much of our limited budget
on smoked salmon and New Zealand lamb to feast on
as we waited for midnight.
—Continued on next page
Left: ‘Our new life began — Aquilon with her lovely lines
had vanquished any thoughts of turning back’
Below: ‘The brightest event in our trip northward had to
be New Year’s Eve in St. Barts’
THE
seven-month trip in 1999 was my
husband, Don’s, dream: sailing
our 45-foot sloop from Grenada, at
the southern end of the Eastern Caribbean island
chain, to Vineyard Haven on the East Coast of the US,
where she essentially had been re-built by Gannon &
Benjamin, supreme boatbuilders, renovators and
designers of wooden boats of all sizes. Aquilon was
built in 195l in a yard on the southwestern coast of
France, heavy and strong for ocean sailing. There was
a well-substantiated rumor that she was designed to
smuggle diamonds.
Three years earlier, we were lolling on the beach in
Trellis Bay, Tortola and I went into the bar to buy
Don a Foster’s. I was smitten by a photo of a gorgeous
canoe-stern sloop, multi-colored flags flying.
Our fate was sealed, as Aquilon was on a mooring
within a few hundred yards of us. Notwithstanding
our efficient Sabre at home, we lost our hearts to her.
The Sabre was sold and our new life began — Aquilon
with her lovely lines had vanquished any thoughts of
turning back.
Our love for her was reinforced every day. For a few
years, except for her re-build (which to my horror got
more and more complicated and expensive), we lived on
her in Chatham, Massachusetts, using her as a hotel in
summers as I threw pots for my shop and Don, a former
teacher, did his job as a realtor. I reveled in our
floating home, enjoying my cockpit coffee at 5:00AM as
fishing boats with lovely diesel engine noises made their
way out of Stage Harbor. Our only problem was hoisting
our large Husky dog on board each night when I
CHRIS DOYLE