Sailing Reel Riddim

Wow, a full on few weeks and definitely need recovery time but we’ve had an absolute class time island hopping with Chantal Samba-Gray Mark Samba-Gray and Lucia Samba-Gray.
Sooo much covered in a small amount of time. Lots of firsts, lots of laughs and not to mention lots of rum, around 16 bottles to be exact 🤕😆🙈. I think every brand from every island has been sampled, especially by Mark! 😵‍💫
Sad to see them go but we really have had an epic little adventure sailing in storms ⚡️🌪️, snorkelling, kiting, wakeboarding (Lucia was better than mark), up the top of the mast, lobster bbqs, sun rises 5am never missed, fishing, turtles 🐢, sharks 🦈 stingrays. Too much to mention. Awaiting their pics when then get home later on.
Excellent to have you all on board RR for a different kind of adventure holiday!

Back at it Reel soon! Excited to be back on board, especially the kite board 🤪

It’s been a while since there was any Reel Riddim posts. Had a lot going on with family and time back in the U.K but super stoked to be heading back to her in a few weeks!
Like always, a serious amount of boat work needs to be done before she gets launched from Grenada Marine which I highly recommend as a safe and cool place to store your boat ashore in Grenada 🇬🇩. I’m sure she’s been looked after too. 2nd hurricane season there now.

Some big plans for adventure this year.. let’s see where the wind takes her!

So tonight Reel Riddim has her own cocktail 🤣👌🏽🍸👍🏼

Long day yesterday.. after a month or so in Martinique we left for St Lucia where we were joined by Paul and Rach our friends from the U.K.
We left St Lucia yesterday with our buddy boat SV Ilanda on a long sail down to Bequia passing St Vincent. Our plan is to explore the Grenadines for a few weeks stopping in Union Island, Mayreau, Tobago Cays, Canuan and Bequia before heading back north to St Lucia for their flight back home.
Passing St Vincent was amazing, such a rugged mountainous green island covered in volcanos 🌋, one which erupted only last year. It’s a shame the island is not really somewhere you’d stop as it’s full of wrong-uns who seem to love murder and robbery, one of the highest murder rates per 100,000 people in the world, you wouldn’t think looking at it, such a shame.
We arrived in Admiralty Bay Bequia in pitch black last night and dropped anchor ready for check in this morning. Next stop Union Island and Tobago Cays, the Kite boarding capital of the Caribbean!
Reel Riddim back on the move ⛵️🌊💨☀️ 🏝

Just some random pics of Martinique. We had to hire a car to get some jobs done and incorporated a little road trip round the island. Visited the HSE rum distillery and a few french shops like Decathlon etc on the way back.
My thoughts on Martinique... although it’s completely green, lush and beautiful, the island in terms of the Caribbean is quite flavourless and doesn’t have that Caribbean charm like other islands. It’s great for boat parts and getting food stocks from the french supermarkets but I don’t have much else to say about the place other than good french bread 🥖 and over crowded anchorages ⛵️.
Looking forward to moving on soon to St Lucia where we will be joined by Paul Naldrett and Rachel Williams Was Hellen to explore the Grenadines!

Headed north up to Fort De France Martinique with friends Dave and Mary on their lovely Nijad yacht “Dragonly of Dart”. We left Royal Clarence Marina Gosport with them 2 years ago on the same voyage to the Caribbean.
Cat vs Monohull age old race.. yes we left them downwind but trying to get upwind they sailed whilst we motored. They were having fun healed over in 20+ knots of wind whilst we enjoyed the shallows and cut throughs enjoying the scenery with a coffee.

We’re sad to have left Barbados and our good friends Shauny and Michelle but we had to move on and we’ve got some jobs to do. Gonna miss them loads but we hope to catch up again soon. The Bajan people are some of the best we’ve ever met across the world and Barbados will always be close to our hearts, as it was the first time we went 20 years ago.
We left Barbados at noon yesterday on a 20 hour overnight sail to Martinique, French West Indies.
We had a rough time through the night with huge squalls every 15 minutes. We were soaked off the heavy rain in the night and actually was a bit cold. (Probably 20-23 degrees but that’s Baltic to us now!)
We arrived in Martinique this morning after passing by St Lucia and got a shock at the amount of cruisers here! Bare in mind, we were the only boat at anchor in Port St Charles Barbados for weeks and weeks!
Martinique is in the EU’s outer most regions of France. Good news is I can get pain au chocolates, nice coffee’s, french bread and cheese 🧀 and everything else you’d expect to get in france, but in the Caribbean Superb!

We’ve met back up with Dave and Mary here on their boat Draginfly of Dart. We left the U.K with them 2 years ago from the same marina in Gosport. They are anchored right next to us now and was nice to see them again with a cold beer at sundown.
There’s guys out on their kites now so you know what I’ll be doing soon as I can! I’ve not been kitesurfing for a while, I’m sure I’ll be well rusty..

Here’s some pics of our last night in Barbados and arrival to Martinique...

So this happened just after we left Barbados yesterday! Caught my first Sailfish and man it was a big one! Yeahhhhhh boi!!! 😃😃😃
It ripped off my line totally unexpected and disappeared over a mile behind the boat whilst the reel was smokin! I couldn’t stop him, It took 2 hours to get in and I was completely knackered with burning arms from the fight.
I’ll estimate this one at around 80-90lb. Big game Fishing in the tropics.. man it’s awesome!
Antony Paijmans and Ralf Meyer have a bit of this! They call me Big game G round these waters now! 😂😂😂